Drinks of the world / by James Mew and John Ashton.

  • Mew, James.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drinks of the world / by James Mew and John Ashton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/390 (page 53)
    depend on the vines, the soils, the exposure of the vineyards, the treatment of the grapes, and the mode of manufacture. The alcohol1 contained is the leading characteristic. In strong ports and sherries this varies from about 16 to 25 per cent. It is about 7 per cent, in claret, hock, and other so-called light wines. Wine containing about 13 per cent, of alcohol may be as- sumed to be fortified, as it is called, with brandy or other spirit. The varieties of wine produced are said to be “ almost endless.” This great number of wines is in some measure owing to an interesting fact mentioned by Miller in his Organic Chemistry (3rd ed. p. 187), who tells us that a particular variety of grape, when grown upon the Rhine, furnishes a species of hock ; the same grape, when raised in the valley of the Tagus, yields Bucellas, in wdiich the palate of a con- noisseur may possibly detect the flavour of hock ; whilst in the island of Madeira the same grape produces the wine known as Sercial, which, though generally allowed to be a delicious wine, has suggested, it seems, to no skilled palate the flavour either ot Bucellas or of hock. It would therefore be more logical to commence an article on wines with an article on the grapes from which they are produced, but we fear it would be far 1 From an Arabic word for antimony, applied to the eyes, the name is said to have been transferred to rectified spirits (C2 H6 O). It is a liquid formed by fermentation of aqueous sugar solutions. Spirit of Wine contains about 90 per cent, of alcohol. 55 parts of alcohol and 45 of water form proof spirit. Of alcohol, spirits contain 40-50 per cent.; wines, 7-25 ; ale and porter, 6-8; small beer, 1-2.