Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/46

6 of alcohol; while the wines produced in colder climates, though sometimes agreeably perfumed, are characterized by their want of strength, and tendency to degenerate into the acetous fermentation.

It is, however, contended by some authors, that an excess of saccharine matter is a defect in the grape, especially if the wine be intended for the table. Thus, in Burgundy, where the sun's rays do not act so powerfully in the production of saccharine matter, the wines are distinguished by a richness and delicacy of taste and flavour, while those produced under the burning sun of Languedoc and Provence, possessing no virtues but spirituosity, are generally employed in distillation. Not that the existence of a large portion of saccharine matter is incompatible with that of flavour and perfume, but it generally happens, that the volatile principles on which these depend, are dissipated during the lengthened fermentation necessary to convert into alcohol, the excess of saccharine matter.