In the first place, he that aims at the bettering of any thing, must know what the thing is which he studies the amending of, and of what parts it consisteth.
Therefore, as concerning Wine, it consisteth as well as the other Vegetables of three principles, viz. of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury (that I may use the Philosophers terms). The Mercury is its insipid moisture, and the Sulphur is that burning Spirit which is extracted or drawn out thereof. You shall thus know the thing, by this following Experiment. Put a Cucurbit full of Wine in a B. and with a gentle heat draw off what will come, but yet so, that the parts which in the destillation alter or change themselves, be each of them received apart in its peculiar Receiver. For example; If there were 12 parts of wine, or 12 measures, there ascends first only one part of spirit, which is the soul and life of the wine; after it, come ten parts or measures of insipid water; the remainder in the bottom of the Glass is a thick and austere or harsh matter, which being the Tartar or Salt of the wine, is also almost one part or measure of the wine. Of these three parts all wine is compounded, but yet partakes of one or the other of the Principles, more or less, according to its being more or less mature, or its growing in such or such a place. As for example;
The Austere Wine hath alwaies more Tartar and less Spirit than the Ripe Wines; and contrarily, the ripe wine doth abound with more Spirit than Tartar, as the Spanish and other extraneous wines witness, which do alwaies abide sweet, and plainly have no Tartar in them; the reason is this, Because in those warm Countries they are brought by the Sun to meer sweetness, and so are ripe; so that the austere Tartar or Salt is throughly changed, and concocted into a sweet Sugar. Hence it comes, that the said wines do not in the afore-proposed Examen leave any austereness, as our wines in Germany do, but rather yield twice as much spirit, and scarce the half part of insipid water: Whenas austere Wine yields about a twentieth part of spirit, the ripe German wine yields almost a twelfth part, and the Spanish a sixth part of spirit, four parts of water, and one part of fæces without Tartar. So that from good German wine there comes (as I said afore) one part of spirit, ten of water, and one part of austere or sowrish matter.
He that knows these things, will easily contrive and prepare for himself by the help thereof, at all times, be it hot or cold, good and constant, or durable wine. Neither is there any room left a man here of complaining, as if God shewed greater bounty to men one year than another. The fault of this defect is not to be imputed to God, but to our own selves, who know nothing, nor are willing to know, nor study how to help Nature; for Art can bring an assistance and help to Nature when she is impeded in her work, and is unable to bring her Fruits unto a maturity, provided the Artist removes away that which the wine naturally abounds withal, and addeth thereunto what it is destitute of.
For example, Let us examin a thin wine, which being not sufficiently concocted and ripened by the Sun, is endowed with too much sharpishness and water, and contrarily has but little of spirit; if now to such a wine, when it begins to boil or ferment, some spirit shall be added, so that it may work together with it, it will be even as well ripened in the wine-vessel, by the benefit of this fiery spirit, as if it had been ripened by the Sun, as it hung upon the Vine; insomuch, that by this means there mought be made excellent wines every year, if any had but the knowledge of thus helping them.
NB. But now such a spirit must not be such an one as that common Adult or Brandy-wine is, but a grateful and pure Essence of wine; the manner of making it I have described in my Vegetable Work. Now by how much the more this Spirit shall ferment or work with such a wine, so much the stronger and more efficacious doth the wine become: Forasmuch as all the Virtues of all the whole wine consist in the Spirit only, and the Tartar or Salt doth by its muchness make it austere and sharp. But Musts being by such an Artifice made stronger and more efficacious, do keep a longer time afterwards without corrupting, and may be carried or transported whithersoever one please; whence it comes to pass, that they are never spoiled, as they are otherwise usually wont to be, when ’tis not of ripe growth.
From these things ’tis evident, that out of one Must, grown in one and the same Autumn, there may with ease be made wines of 3, 4, or more kinds, according as there is more or less of this spirit added to the Must and fermented with it.
There is also another way, by the help whereof every austere wine is easily corrected and amended, thus: In the Vintage time, let the liquor of the Must, or of the expressed juice of the Grapes, be so boiled in peculiar Vessels, that the unprofitable moisture or tasteless water do exhale by little and little, until thou hast as much as thou wouldst, or as the efficacy of the wine, or the degree thou wouldst by correcting reduce it to, shall require: For, in the exhalation of the superfluous moisture nothing goes away, save that insipid water; but the sweetness and the austereness remains in that thick and condensate juice, like to Honey; so that that boiled mash comprehends all the strength and virtues of the wine, concentrated as it were, and condensate, and will again disclose them, if it doth again work, with water thereto added in a due proportion; but the use of this condensate Must, which as yet hath not wrought or fermented, is this, That it can be at all times carried, and most profitably sold in far remote Countries, which thing could not afore be done.
For every one knows, that when there is a cold Summer, Wines become immature and acid, and are not wont to keep; for as soon as they come to be a year old, they are covered over with a filmy skin, and being mouldy, corrupt, because they have not in them spirit enough. From whence it comes to pass, that many times Vintners, or Vineyard-keepers, suffer great loss, after that they have diligently betook themselves to dress the Vineyards for an whole year, and have lived sparingly and hardly, and working hard, have sustained their lives with Bread and Water, hoping that upon selling their wine they should scrape together a little Money, to buy them some Clothes and other Necessaries for their Family’s supportation; for the expected plenty of the wine hoped for, and of the profit accruing by the store of Money for it, when sold, hath prop’d them up with this hope; but now the wine fading and deluding their hopes, and turning into an acid and austere taste, they cannot sell it, seeing ’tis scarce worth the carriage; or if it be sold, ’tis at such a mean rate, as scarcely sufficeth to discharge the Cost of dressing it; and what shall now be done for Food, Drink, Raiment, and other Necessaries to sustain the Family?
And yet the Vines must be dressed for the next year too, and more Monies laid out upon them; but from whence shall Monies come for Food and Raiment, in the mean time? Alas, what course will they take if some such-like years should follow one another together? Either the poor miserable men must, together with their Wives and Children, famish, or else turn Souldiers, and be kill’d, or be made so desperate, as to betake themselves to thieving and robbing, and so finish their daies by an Halter: For the present world is so much estrangd from Mercy, that one will not use so much Christian Charity, as to help another in his necessity.