1895 The Mixicologist (First Edition) by C F Lawlor

95

THE MIXICOLOGIST.

WINE. The word “wine,” in its wildest sense, includes ail alcoholic beverages derived from sacchariferous vegetable juices by spontaneous fermentation. In tlie narrower sense of its ordinary acceptance, it désignâtes the fermented product of grape juice, witli which alone the présent article proposes to deal. Wine making is an easy art where there is a sufficient supply of perfectly ripe grapes. In Italy, Spain, Greece, and other countries of Southern Europe, nature takes care of this. In the more northern districts of France, and especially on the Rhine in Gerinany, the culture of the vine means hard work from one end of the year to the other, which only exceptionally finds its full reward. And yet it is in those naturally less favored districts that the most generous wines are produced. Southern wines excel in body and strength, but even the best of them lack the beautiful aroma or bouquet charac- teristic of high-class Rhine wine. The large propor­ tion of sugar in Southern grape juice would appear to be inimical to the development of that superior flavor. To secure the highest attainable degree of maturity in the grape, the vintage on the Rhine is postponed nutil the grapes almost begin to wither, and the white grapes on the sunny side of the