"In examining red must, the method should be modified as follows:—Instead of first filling the pipette with tincture of litmus, fill it with water to the line A, and transfer it into the bottle. After the quantity of must has been added, drop six-thousandths of the solution of ammonia into the mixture, constantly shaking it while dropping, then test it, and so on, until, after every further addition required with litmus paper, it is no longer reddened after having been wiped off."
Dr. Gall further gives the following directions, as a guide, to distinguish and determine the proportion of acids which a must should contain, to be still agreeable to the palate, and good:
"Chemists distinguish the acid contained in the grape as the vinous, malic, grape, citric, tannic, gelatinous and para-citric acids. Whether all these are contained in the must, or which of them, is of small moment for us to know. For the practical wine-maker, it is sufficient to know, with full certainty, that, as the grape ripens, while the proportion of sugar increases, the quantity of acids continually diminishes; and hence, by leaving the grapes on the vines as long as possible, we have a double means of improving their products—the must or wine.
"All wines, without exception, to be of good and of agreeable taste, must contain from 4½ to 7 thousandths parts of free acids, and each must containing more than seven thousandths parts of free acids may be considered as having too little water and sugar in proportion to its quantity of acids.
"In all wine-growing countries of Germany, for a number of years past, experience has proved that a corresponding addition of sugar and water is the means of converting the sourest must, not only into a good drinkable wine, but also into as good a wine as can be produced in favorable years, except in that peculiar and delicate aroma found only in the must of well-ripened grapes, and which must and will always distinguish the wines made in the best seasons from those made in poor seasons.
"The saccharometer and acidimeter, properly used, will give us the exact knowledge of what the must contains, and what it lacks; and we have the means at hand, by adding water, to reduce the acids to their proper proportion; and by adding sugar, to increase the amount of sugar the must should contain; in other words, we can change the poor must of indifferent seasons into the normal must of the best seasons in everything, except its bouquet or aroma, thereby converting an unwholesome and disagreeable drink into an agreeable and healthy one."
THE CHANGE OF THE MUST, BY FERMENTATION, INTO WINE.
Let us glance for a few moments at this wonderful, simple, and yet so complicated process, to give a clearer insight into the functions which man has to perform to assist Nature, and have her work for him, to attain the desired end. I cannot put the matter in a better light for my readers than to quote again from Dr. Gall. He says:—"To form a correct opinion of what may and can be done in the manufacture of wine, we must be thoroughly convinced that Nature, in her operations, has other objects in view than merely to serve man as his careful cook and butler. Had the highest object of the Creator, in the creation of the grape, been simply to combine in the juice of the fruit nothing but what is indispensable to the formation of that delicious beverage for the accommodation of man, it might have been still easier done for him by at once filling the berries with wine already made. But in the production of fruits, the first object of all is to provide for the propagation and preservation of the species. Each fruit contains the germ of a new plant, and a quantity of nutritious matter surrounding and developing that germ. The general belief is, that this nutritious matter, and even the peculiar combination in which it is found in the fruit, has been made directly for the immediate use of man. This, however, is a mistake. The nutritious matter of the grape, as in the apple, pear, or any similar product, is designed by Nature only to serve as the first nourishment of the future plant, the germ of which lies in it. There are thousands of fruits of no use whatever, and are even noxious to man, and there are thousands more which, before they can be used, must be divested of certain parts, necessary, indeed, to the nutrition of the future plant, but unfit, in its present state, for the use or nourishment of man. For instance, barley contains starch, mucilaginous sugar, gum, adhesive matter, vegetable albumen, phosphate of lime, oil, fibre and water. All these are necessary to the formation of roots, stalks, leaves, flowers and the new grain; but for the manufacture of beer, the brewer needs only the first three substances. The same rule applies to the grape.
"In this use of the grape, all depends upon the judgment of man to select such of its parts as he wishes, and by his skill he adapts and applies them in the best manner for his purposes. In eating the grapes, he throws away the skins and seeds; for raisins, he evaporates the water, retaining only the solid parts, from which, when he uses them, he rejects their seeds. If he manufactures must, he lets the skins remain. In making wine, he sets free the carbonic acid contained in the must, and removes the lees, gum, tartar, and, in short, everything deposited during, and immediately after fermentation, as well as when it is put into casks and bottles. He not only removes from the wine its sediments, but watches the fermentation, and checks it as soon as its vinous fermentation is over, and the formation of vinegar about to begin. He refines his wine by an addition of foreign substances if necessary; he sulphurizes it; and, by one means or another, remedies its distempers.