Red wine

“ Bluish or violet color, accompanied by a flavor of the lees, often occurs in wines of southern countries, and is due to an abundance of coloring matter and a lack of tartaric acid. When the violet-colored wine has a good deal of color, and more than nine per cent. of alcohol, the color may be changed to red by mixing with it from one-sixth to one-fourth of green wine, which contains an excess of tartaric acid, the natural blue color of the grape being changed to red by the action of the acid ”

“ The red wine first must rise In their fair cheeks, my lord; then we shall have 'em Talk us to silence. ”

“ In this View, and in those above-mentioned, I cannot but recommend a generous red Wine as a most noble, natural sub-astringent Cordial, and perhaps Art can scarce supply a better. Of this I am confident, that sometimes at the State, and more frequently in the Decline of putrid Malignant Fevers, it is of the highest Service, especially when acidulated with Juice of Seville Orange or Lemon. It may be also impregnated with some Aromatics, as Cinnamon, Seville Orange Rhind, red Roses, or the like, as may be indicated, and a few Drops of Elix. ”

“ It is true that one method makes a red wine, a different one makes a white [Pg viii] wine, that grapes of one degree of ripeness and the corresponding practice in vinification produces a sweet wine, and another a dry wine, but the author is convinced that the method and practice which will produce the best result in a given case in one locality will also produce the best result in any other. ”

“ They are lightly crushed at first. It is something of a discovery that the earliest product of grapes of every hue is white wine. The red wine gets its hue from the coloring matter in the skins, which are utilized in a subsequent ruder squeezing. ”

“ The bunch and berry are of the same color as Norton's Virginia, but somewhat larger, and more juicy; sweeter, with not quite as much astringency, and perhaps a few days earlier. Makes an excellent dark red wine, with not as much astringency, but even more delicate aroma, and was pronounced the "best red wine on exhibition," at the last meeting of the State Horticultural Society, where it was in competition with eight samples of the Norton's Virginia. A strong grower, and productive; as difficult to propagate as the Norton. ”

“ They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright,'—say, like sparkling Champagne.—'At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange wonders, and thine heart shall utter perverse things ”

“ The red wines are sent to Bordeaux and Burgundy, to give strength and quality to the French clarets, as they are very useful for blending. The dry, white wine is rather stronger and fuller than that of France or Germany, and is much used to give additional value to the thinner qualities of Rhine wine. ”

“ But I have a Mind to hear your Opinion, who are a Man of great Skill in these Matters. Au.Our Countrymen prefer White before Red, because the Red is a little more upon the Acid, and the White a smaller Wine; but that is the milder, and in my Opinion the more wholsome. Ch.We have a pale red Wine, and a yellow Wine, and a purple Colour Wine. This is new Wine, this Year's Wine. This is two Years old, if any Body is for an old Wine. We have some four Years old, but it is grown flat and dead with Age. The Strength is gone with Age. ”

“ When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness
Now you are like morning bread,
Smooth and pleasant.
I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
But I am completely nourished. ”

“ The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; ”

“ The most popular wines are red and white clarets, the better qualities of which are excellent, but many other kinds are made. The country wine is by no means as cheap as it ought to [230] be owing to the high protection. ”

“ The following are his receipts verbatim et literatim:—
“Method of Colouring Claret.—Take as many as you please of damsons or black sloes, and strew them with some of the deepest-coloured wine you can get, and as much sugar as will make it into a syrup. A pint of this will colour a hogshead of [351] Claret. It is also good for red Port wines, and may be kept ready for use in glass bottles. ”

“ White, deserve to be preferred to Red Wines,—because the latter being harder pressed, and subjected to a stronger fermentation to extract the colouring matter from the husks of the Grape, are more loaded with feculence. ”

“ The white is in nature the thinnest, diuretic, and heating, and being digestible it inflames the head, for it is a wine that has a tendency upwards. A dark-coloured wine, which is not of a sweet nature, is very nutritious and astringent. Sweet wines, whether of a white or tawny colour, are very nutritious; for they lubricate the passage, and thickening the humours, prove less troublesome to the head. The nature of sweet wines is to remain for a time in the præcordia, and to prove expectorant, as Diocles and Praxagoras tell. ”

“ Dews and exhaling Mists greatly contribute to the Whiteness of the Wine. ’Tis customary to cover the Baskets with wet Cloths in a hot Sunshine, because the Liquor will be apt to assume a red Tincture if the Grapes should happen to be heated. These Baskets are then placed on the Backs of such Animals as are of a gentle Nature, and carry their Burdens with an easy Motion to the Cellar, where the Grapes continue covered in a cool Air. When the Warmth of the Sun proves moderate, the Labours of the Vintage are not discontinued till Eleven in the Morning ”

“ BEFORE PARTING
A month or twain to live on honeycomb
Is pleasant; but one tires of scented time,
Cold sweet recurrence of accepted rhyme,
And that strong purple under juice and foam
Where the wine's heart has burst;
Nor feel the latter kisses like the first.
Once yet, this poor one time; I will not pray
Even to change the bitterness of it,
The bitter taste ensuing on the sweet,
To make your tears fall where your soft hair lay
All blurred and heavy in some perfumed wise
Over my face and eyes.
And yet who knows what end the scythèd wheat
Makes of its foolish poppies' mouths of red? ”

“ As it has already been stated, Bordeaux and Burgundy are entirely different wines, and this fact must be well remembered. The wines of the latter comprise some of the most famous growths of France, and are distinguished by the suavity of their taste, their finesse, and spirituous aroma The red wines have a fine colour, a good deal of bouquet, and a delicious taste. They give tone to the stomach, and facilitate digestion. ”

“ The fountains and conduits in the street flowed with red and white wine instead of water; the rich citizens hung silks and cloths of the brightest colours out of their windows to increase the beauty of the show, and threw out gold and silver by whole handfuls to make scrambles for the crowd. In short, there was such eating and drinking, such music and capering, such a ringing of bells and tossing of caps, such a shouting, and singing, and revelling, as the narrow overhanging streets of old London City had not witnessed for many a long day. ”

“ an ode which seems to have been poured out of the author's soul, as from a golden pitcher,
`Filled with the wine
Of the vine
Benign,
That flames so red in Sansavine.'
He calls the Montepulciano the king of all wines." ”

“ A nutty flavour is produced by bitter almonds; fictitious Port wine is flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins, and the ingredients employed to form the bouquet of high-flavoured wines, are sweet brier, orris-root, clary, cherry-laurel-water, and elder flowers. The flavouring ingredients used by manufacturers, may all be purchased by those dealers in wine who are initiated in the mysteries of the trade. ”

“ Vine a strong, vigorous, short-jointed grower, with heart-shaped, light green, smooth leaves; very healthy, and more hardy than either the Herbemont or Cunningham. Bunch rather small, very compact, shouldered; berry small, black, without pulp, juicy sweet and delicious; not subject to rot or mildew: makes a delicious, high flavored wine, but not a great deal of it. The wine of this variety is certainly one of the most delicate and valuable ones we have yet made here and on the soil around Hermann, it will, I think, take preference over the Delaware. Ripens a few days later than Concord. ”

“ To walk amid these upright, branching casks of purple wine, which retain and diffuse a sunset glow, tasting each one with your eye, instead of counting the pipes on a London dock, what a privilege! For Nature's vintage is not confined to the vine. Our poets have sung of wine, the product of a foreign plant which commonly they never saw, as if our own plants had no juice in them more than the singers. Indeed, this has been called by some the American Grape, and, though a native of America, its juices are used in some foreign countries to improve the color of the wine ”

“ A green wine, then, is an imperfect wine, which, besides this defect, generally lacks alcohol, body, mellowness, firmness, bouquet, and color, because the incompletely matured grapes contain much tartaric and malic acid, and but little grape sugar and other mucilaginous matter, and because the matters destined to give color to the skins, as well as the aromatic principles, are not completely elaborated. ”

“ Up into the threads came the thousand stored sweetnesses of the earth, aspiring surely upward through devious, winding ways. The softness of leaves that had gone back to dust, the wine from fallen grapes that had dripped through the sand into the dark storehouse beneath, were only to be taken up again, for sap or fibre or bloom. ”

“ Let their fears be calmed by the fact, that the peasants in and about these vineyards dance and sing all day long but are never drunk. Cheap wines will surely be more effective than Total Abstinence Pledges, and, Christian though I am, I very much incline to the idea of a heathen poet, who has elegantly represented wine as a recompense given by the deities for the misery brought upon mankind by the general deluge. Fill, then, a bumper from the taper-necked bottle, and let us drink to the future vintage of the Marne. ”

“ WINE JUDGED BY THE SIGHT.—Wine pleases the eye by its clearness and colour: and be it ruby, rose, amber, or white, it ought always to have perfect clearness and freshness of colour. Neither of these latter tones will be out of harmony in a really good wine, even in extreme old age. If you will not take upon yourself to decide whether a wine is good when it is attractive to the sight, you can always say that it is not good or at least that it is not in the best condition, when its transparency and shades of colour are questionable. ”

“ The majority of the inhabitants are afoot: the feeble feminine half, baskets on arm, thread their way with the juveniles through the rows of vines planted half-way up the mountain, and all aglow with their autumnal glories of green and purple, crimson and yellow; while the sturdy masculine portion are mostly passing to and fro between the press-houses and the wine-shops. ”

“ Vintages ripened under certain skies, on certain hills, where certain waters flowed, with cellarage in certain soils, had a faculty of aging gracefully, mellowing to a smoothness and purity and desirableness that made for cheer and health without the alloy of sordid inebriety. The bouquet of wine, the perfected essence of the grape subjected to the further courses of nature, has been a theme of praise for centuries. ”

“ The process is universal in France, with the exception of the cases of the sparkling wines of the Rhone and Champagne, the grapes for which are squeezed by mechanical means, not by the human foot. Now, very venerable and decidedly picturesque as is the process of wine-treading, it is unquestionably rather a filthy one; and the spectacle of great, brown, horny feet, not a whit too clean, splashing and sprawling in the bubbling juice, conveys, at first sight, a qualmy species of feeling, which, however, seems only to be entertained by those to whom the sight is new. ”

“ We know that alcohol, water, and acids exist in all wines, in varying quantities; that some are sweet, and contain sugar, and that others are dry, thoroughly fermented, and contain none. We also know that the alcohol in different wines may vary from 4 or 5 per cent. in piquette made by washing the pomace with water, to 20 or 25 per cent. in the more strongly fortified. And we know generally how a wine is modified as to its taste and effect on the system, by such substances as water, alcohol, sugar, and acid ”

“ Substantial viands, a leathern bottle of capacious size filled with wine of superior excellence, a few rude platters, the rock our table, the sky, cloudless and blue, the canopy—while a rivulet, clear as crystal, trickled at our feet through the deep hollow of a mountain ravine, whose volume of water varied at seasons from a torrent to a thread. ”

“ The qualities of good wine in the 12th century are thus singularly set forth:—"It should be clear like the tears of a penitent, so that a man may see distinctly to the bottom of the glass; its colour should represent the greenness of a buffalo's horn; when drunk, it should descend impetuously like thunder ”