The chemical testing of wines and spirits / by John Joseph Griffin.
- John Joseph Griffin
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The chemical testing of wines and spirits / by John Joseph Griffin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
139/160 page 127
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The chemical testing of wines and spirits / by John Joseph Griffin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![and growth of different varieties of ferments, consisting of minute vegetable cells, which always exist in wines, and under special ciicum- stances of slight changes of temperature, access of oxygen, &c., suddenly become active and destructive. The high price of wines, especially of good wines, is mainly attributable to the destruction caused by these almost invisible plants. M. Pasteur finds that the best way to treat these troublesome objects is to kill them, and this he accomplishes by exposing the wines in closed vessels to a moderately high temperature. After that, these vegetable cells lose their powers of mischief, while the process itself greatly improves the wines and gives them some of the properties of old age. That is the general idea of this new procedure. The details are published in the Comptes JRendus of the French Academy of Science, of the dates of May ist and 29th, and August 14th, 1865. from which papers I give the following particulars. The bottles are to be filled quite full, and closely corked, without leaving any air in them. The cork is to be tied in with a small cord, but in such a manner that when the wine is heated, and therefore expanded, it shall have power to lift the cork a little so as to acquire space, but not be able to drive the cork out, nor even lift it so far as to permit any wine to ooze out between the cork and the bottle. The bottles so filled and corked are placed, cork uppermost, in a stove or hot-house, which is heated to [in his first paper he says from 140° to 212°; but in his last he says that his latest experiments permit him to hope that the maximum of the desired temperature may be lowered to 1130 Fahr., but not under. This circumstance is worthy of notice, because such a temperature may be obtained without the cost of fuel, by using a double glass-house exposed to the natural heat of the sun]. In this temperature the bottles remain for an hour or two. The bottles are then withdrawn, and as each cools, the cork is driven in, the string is cut and removed, and when the bottle is cold, the cork is driven fully in and waxed, which completes the operation. In a stove of proper dimensions thousands of bottles can be heated at once and at little expense. There need be no losses. The cord does not break, nor the bottle burst, during the process. Nobody would follow this process, or think of recommending it, if it did any harm to the quality of the wine ; but, so far from any mischief occurring, quite the contrary takes place. The wine has more bouquet, greater freshness in taste, and even a more beautiful colour, than it had before it was heated. It loses no force, but becomes more robust, for after undergoing the heating, it may be exposed to the air in an open bottle without suffering deterioration. The process is applicable to all wines, white or red, strong or delicate, new wines or aged wines. It qualifies wines of all kinds to suffer export without spoiling. In short, the problem of the indefinite preservation of wines is solved satisfactorily](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28126981_0139.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
