Grocers' Goods / A Family Guide to the Purchase of Flour, Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Spices, Canned Goods, Cigars, Wines, and All Other Articles Usually Found in American Grocery Stores

by Frederick B. Goddard

Composition of Wines.

Wines, as well as all varieties of malt and spirituous liquors, owe their intoxicating qualities to alcohol. But the medical and dietetic qualities of wine are not solely due to it; a mixture of water and alcohol, or whiskey of equal strength, has a very different effect on the animal economy. Pure wines contain also natural acids, sugar, ethers, albumen, phosphates, etc. Their value is, however, mainly determined by their “Bouquet” or flavor, produced by substances natural to the grapes, heightened and rendered more delicate by fermentation.