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THE MIXICOLOGIST.
95
WINE.
The word"wiae," in its wildest sense, includes
all alcoholic beverages derived from sacchariferous
vegetable juices bj- spontaneous fermentation. In
the narrower sense of its ordinarj' acceptance, it
designates the fermented product of grape juice,
with which alone the present article proposes to
deal. Wine making is an easy art where there is a
sufficient supply of perfectly ripe grapes. In Italy,
Spain, Greece, and other countries of Southern
Europe, nature takes care of this. In the more
northern districts of France, and especially on the
Rhine in Germany, the Culture of the vine means
hard work from one end of the year to the other,
which only exceptionall}- finds its full reward. And
jet it is in those naturally less favored districts that
the most generous wines are produced. Southern
wines excel in body and strength, but even the best
of them lack the beantifnl aroma or bonqnet charac
teristic of high-class Rhine wine. The large propor
tion of sugar in southern grape juice would appear
to be inimical to the development of that superior
flavor. To secure the highest attainable degree of
maturity in the grape, the vintage on the Rhine is
postponed nutil the grapes almost begin to wither,
and the white grapes on the sunny side of the