Wine (Heb. Yain; Gr. Olvoc; Lat. Vinum; Fr. Vin; Ger. Wein), originally and properly, the name of the liquor obtained by fermentation of the juice of grapes; but, in later and less strict usage, denoting also certain beverages prepared in a similar manner from the juices of many other fruits. Wine is mentioned as a familiar thing in the earliest books of the Old Testament. According to certain traditions, the vine (vitis vinifera) had its origin in India, and was thence disseminated to western Asia, to northern Africa, and to Europe. The earliest wines were doubtless obtained by mere expression and fermentation of the grape juice; but modifications in the way of increasing the saccharine element by partial drying of the grapes, and of aiding the development of alcohol by heat, began very early to be introduced. Among the Greeks and Romans certain leaves or aromatic substances were infused in the expressed grape juice, or " must," for their flavors; and additions were sometimes made of salt, and of turpentine or other resins. In other instances, in order to give body and flavor to certain wines, a portion of must concentrated by boiling was, as at the present day, added to the fermenting juice. The effect of age in maturing wines and heightening their quality was also early understood.

Homer speaks of wine in its 11th year; Athemeus and Horace commend wines of greater age; and Pliny relates that he had drunk of that which was 200 years old, and which was thick and harsh. The inferior wines were often used directly from the casks in which they were fermented; others were drawn off for keeping into earthen jars or wooden vessels; while, at least in later times among the Romans, the finest sorts were kept in flasks of glass. In the countries of the East, wine appears to have been transported chiefly in bags made of goat skins, and commonly also to have been kept in bottles of like material. Homer names two wines as highly celebrated in his time among the Greeks: the Pramnian, from grapes grown near Smyrna, and a wine from Ismarus in Thrace, which he describes as "luscious, pure, a drink for gods." At a later period, Lesbos, Chios, Cyprus, and other localities in and about Greece, but especially the slopes of Mt. Tmolus in Lydia, furnished choice wines. Of Roman wines, the earliest noted was the Caecuban, from near the site of the modern Funjdi; and next, the Setinian, from the hills of Setia, above the Pontine marshes.

The Falernian, however, so named from the district on the banks of the Volturnus in which it was produced, became the most celebrated of all the Roman wines; this was deemed fit for use only after the 10th year; its color was a very light amber, and its strength is intimated by the fact stated by Pliny, that it was the only wine known to him which upon the touch of a flame took fire. The Romans at this period regarded the wines of Italy as the finest in the world, the district most productive of them being the volcanic region of Campania, including Fundi and Sorrento. The wines of Germany and Gaul had not at this time attained to any celebrity abroad, though Gallia Narbonensis was already notorious for the manufacture of spurious compounds in imitation of wine; while to Spain Pliny credits rather abundance than choiceness of vintages, and the wines of Africa he pronounces generally acid and thin. In the reign of the Byzantine emperor Constantino VII. a compilation was made, in the "Geoponics," of all that had been written upon the vine from the 1st to the 4th century of our era. Scarcely one of the localities famous in Pliny's time for their superior wines produces at the present day a wine that is deservedly celebrated.

The grape and wine making have in some degree extended to almost every portion of the earth in which the vine will flourish, including the islands of the Atlantic, Mexico, Australia, and parts of the United States and South America. (See Grape, and, for certain subjects directly related to the production of wine, Alcohol, Brandy, Distillation, Fermentation, Tartaric Acid, and Yeast.) - The composition of grape juice varies not only with the variety of the vine, but among other circumstances also with the climate, the soil, the nature of the manures employed, the aspect and exposure of the vineyard, the character of the seasons, and the stage of partial or complete ripeness at which the gathering takes place. Besides water, which necessarily forms a large percentage of the juice, Mulder finds as its constituents sugar, gelatine or pectin, gum, fatty matter, wax, albumen, gluten, and tartaric acid, both free and combined with potash, soda, and lime; while generally, or in certain cases, small quantities also are present of racemic, malic, and perhaps citric acid, alumina, oxides of manganese and iron, sulphates of potash and soda, phosphate of lime and magnesia, and probably silica.

Among peculiar constituents present in the skins are tannic acid and coloring matters; in the seeds, a fatty oil which can be separately extracted. The entire solid matters of the juice, the larger portion being sugar, may mount up in very ripe grapes to 40 per cent.; but most commonly the proportion is much less than this. The sugar is found to range from 13 to 30 per cent, of the weight of the juice. The vinous or alcoholic fermentation, that which is always first to occur in the grape juice, requires the presence of grape sugar dissolved in the water of the juice, as it naturally is; of a ferment, or substance capable of originating molecular change in the sugar; and of oxygen. (See Fermentation.) The beginning of fermentation in the grape juice, within a short period after it has been expressed, is shown by the • rise through it of small bubbles of carbonic acid; and while the liquid becomes more turbid, as the bubbles ascend in greater quantity they form a froth upon its surface. Meanwhile the sugar of the juice diminishes, and alcohol takes its place; and the liquid gradually becomes more clear.

Often this process continues for some months, the liquid being at intervals drawn off to free it of so much sediment as has fallen; when fermentation is completed, or in some instances a little before, it is transferred to casks to be stored, or at once exported. It has been found that the amount of ferment material is nearly or quite the same in the juice of all grapes, while it is well known that the quantities of sugar and of acids vary greatly. In those varieties of the grape in which (and this is the case particularly with those grown in the warmer climates) the sugar is present in very large proportions, the supply of ferment is exhausted before the sugar is all changed; and the portion of sugar thus left in the wine renders it sweet, as in the wines commonly known as sweet or "fruity," or as tins de liqueur (not artificial). Of such wines, Tokay, Frontignan, Constantia, and Malmsey are examples. The excess of sugar in a wine also acts commonly to preserve it against the acetous fermentation; so that muscadine wine has been kept for 200 years, and Tokay at the age of a century is in its perfection.

But in grapes in which, as is common in the cooler vine-growing latitudes, the proportion of sugar is small, this may be wholly decomposed and replaced by alcohol by the time the ferment is exhausted, or even before. The wines then produced are characterized by the alcohol, acids, and flavor without sweetness, and are called "dry." Sherry is one of the best examples of this sort. In cases in which the sugar is exhausted before the ferment, the practice of adding to the fermenting must another portion which has been greatly concentrated by boiling is often resorted to for the purpose of supplying the deficiency; and a wine otherwise dry and acid may thus be converted into one that is sweet. But in the higher latitudes, and with the juices of other fruits than the grape, it has been more common to add to the must a quantity of sugar, especially of late years starch sugar; this may serve to consume all the ferment, generating of course more alcohol, and perhaps still leaving an excess of sugar; so that a wine thus treated is always stronger than otherwise, and may also be sweet.

If, after the sugar is exhausted, there is still a portion of ferment remaining in the wine, or if fermentation is purposely arrested while such is the case, then this ferment is liable, and often for a long time, to set up the acetous fermentation, or change of the alcohol to vinegar, whenever the conditions favoring this change occur; these conditions are access of air to the wine, and the rather high temperature required to cause the action of oxygen upon the alcohol. Wine which begins in this way to acetify is said to be "pricked." The addition of more sugar in such case, often resorted to with a view of arresting this change, is very apt to hasten the decomposition. The 'preferable plan is to remove the wine immediately to a very cool place, as a cellar, and to leave it at rest for some time with limited access of air. Mulder calculates that 198 parts by weight of grape sugar, no loss being supposed,, will give 92 parts of alcohol, or nearly in the proportion of one part of the latter to two of the former.

But besides the varying percentage of sugar in the must, the facts that a portion of it may continue unchanged, and that during fermentation more alcohol than water is likely to evaporate, render it impracticable to predict in given cases what proportion of alcohol the wines produced shall contain. The exciting and intoxicating qualities of wines result, of course, from the presence and amount of the alcohol developed in them. - From such causes as the mixture of the perfect fruit with more or less that is unripe or decayed, the fluctuations of temperature that may attend the fermenting process, etc, wines even from the same variety of vine, and in different years from the same vintage, may be exceedingly dissimilar; and as a rule the composition of wines, even if pure, is far less subject to precise knowledge or determination beforehand than is that of the grape juice. While alcohol is forming, some of the components of the juice entirely or nearly disappear in the froth or sediment, and others are chemically changed, resulting in the production of new compounds.

Since the juice of all grapes is colorless, it follows that when the expressed juice, separated wholly from the pulp and skins, is fermented alone, the wine will be perfectly colorless, or that known as "white," no matter what may have been the color of the grapes used. White wines will necessarily at the same time almost or wholly lack tannic acid, which is present in the skins. But if the crushed grapes and juice be left to ferment for a time together, however light the former, the liquid will acquire some color (at the least a tinge of amber); and the color will be deeper, to the very dark red of such wines as port, according as the skins of the grapes were of darker color, or as the time during which they remain in the fermenting juice is prolonged. Thus, natural color in wines is always that extracted from the skins of the grapes in the vat, and is not, as often supposed, due to the choice of purple grapes. But the presence of color will, for the like reason, always be attended with that of tannic acid, so that in some degree the colored wine will be rough or astringent; and the degree of astringency due to this cause will usually be proportional to the depth of color, a fact of which port wine also affords a marked instance.

Alumina is said to be detected chiefly in the red wines, and in some of them also a trace of iron. The other free acids are such as named in stating the composition of the juice, tartaric being generally the most abundant; in soured wines, including those that have become musty or hurt with age, acetic acid is also present. Wines bottled while the process of fermentation is going on will also contain carbonic acid gas, and will in consequence, if drunk immediately on uncorking, have the quality of " briskness;" where the quantity of the gas is considerable, such wines sparkle when agitated in the light, and they are then distinguished as "sparkling," while those which do not sparkle are distinguished as " still." Wines always contain less of tartaric acid than the grape juice they are obtained from, owing to the circumstance that during the generation of alcohol the tartrates in the juice, and mainly the tartrate of potash, become insoluble and are thrown down; the considerable masses of nearly pure tartrate of potash thus found in the bottom of the vat or cask are an important source of that salt in commerce, and pass under the name of wine stone, crude tartar, or argol; the slight further deposition that may take place after bottling is known as "crust" or "beeswing." That quality in wines which in liquids generally would be known as flavor, must depend mainly in the former on the acids, sugar, and alcohol; but the fragrance and an important part of the actual flavor of wines are due to the presence of some peculiar volatile matter, the effect of which is technically distinguished from the simple flavor, and which is known as the perfume or bovqvet of the wine.

The nature of this odoriferous principle is not satisfactorily known. According to Fauré, it is a viscid substance diffused in the liquor, which he terms oenanthine. According to Liebig and to Winckler, it appears rather to be or to contain a peculiar ether, or a volatile fragrant acid; to the former the name of oenanthic ether has been given. Water is more abundant in wines made in wet seasons, and in the wine from new vineyards or young vines; of course also in wine from any grape in which the proportion of sugar is very small. Weak wines are more prone to become sour; and it was to avoid this result that the ancients resorted to various means of thickening their wines; the modern practice of increasing the strength by adding starch sugar, and if need be yeast also, is preferable in every way, unless the increased percentage of alcohol be considered the more objectionable result. - The quantity of alcohol in different wines, and in different vintages of those of the same kind, and also the modes by which it is to be ascertained, have received considerable attention from analytical chemists; but since the specific gravity of wines depends not merely, as in brandy or dilute alcohol, on the proportions of alcohol and water, but also on the other solid matters contained in them, no means have been devised less tedious than the actual distillation of the spirit from a portion of the wine, and the determining afterward of the proportion it must have formed in the whole.

The analyses of the same winee by different chemists, naturally enough, afford considerable diversity of results; and remembering that no analysis can determine what the percentage of alcohol is to be in a wine to which brandy or spirit is added in variable quantities, or in any quantity by the importer and vender, the table furnished by Brande in 1811-13 may still with little alteration be received as affording a fair indication of the average alcoholic strength of wines most commonly known; a few of these are given in the following table:

Percentage Of Alcohol In Wines

The analyses of Christison assign lower proportions than the above for almost all wines, and especially the stronger, reckoning port, for example, at an average of about 16.2. Mulder, in summing up on the subject, says: "Port is the richest in alcohol, Madeira ranks next. Liqueur wines, as a rule, are stronger than red wines. Jurancon, Lachrymae Christi, Benicarlo, and Sauterne contain from 12 to 15 of alcohol, or more. Red French wines contain less, from 9 to 14 per cent.; good Bordeaux, 9 to 11; champagne, 10 to 11; and Rhine wine, 6 to 12, generally 9 to 10 per cent." - The geographical range of the grape is very extensive. In the eastern hemisphere, excepting perhaps the colder eastern coast and central regions of Asia, it is from about lat. 54° N. to 45° S. The eastern portion of the American continent being also colder than its western shores, the limit of successful vine culture in the former is probably about lat. 45° N. As an illustration of the effect of climate and situation, the muscat grape matures on the Rhine only so far as to be tit for the table; while in the south of France it furnishes the rich Frontignan, Rivesaltes, and other sweet wines.

So, the same variety of grape which on the Rhine yields the well known Hochheimer, near Lisbon affords the almost wholly different Butfellas, at the Cape the Cape hock, and formerly yielded at Madeira the delicious Sercial, neither of which latter bears any distinct resemblance to the true Rhenish. Meyen declares that grapes of the same variety, if cultivated at different elevations upon the side of a mountain, yield essentially different wines. It is not latitude, but the course of the isothermal lines, that so far as temperature is concerned determines the fitness of the grape for wine making; but even within the same belt of equal temperatures, the predominance of cloudiness and humidity of the air is the condition, next to cold, the most unfavorable to the perfecting of the grape, as that of a generally clear sky and dry air is the most favorable. Thus, with the same latitude and a nearly similar temperature, good wines are produced on the Rhine between Coblentz and Dusseldorf, though from the grapes of Belgium and the south of England they cannot be had. But the influence of judicious cultivation and manufacture is doubtless among the most efficient of all.

The celebrated Johannisberger wine is produced upon an elevation of 150 ft. above the Rhine and the country adjacent; but the Johannisberg estate and a few other estates near it belong to large proprietors, who bestow upon their business an amount of care and skill far exceeding that shown as a rule by the owners of the small surrounding vineyards; the result is a very great superiority in the wines produced by the former. The soils on which the best grapes grow are rather light and porous, and of the composition called calcareous. But it must not be forgotten that, as the grape contains considerable tartrate of potash, this base must be present in a more or less soluble condition. What are called feldspar soils, when of good physical character, are favorable for grape culture. Certain peculiar strong-smelling substances in the soil are likely to impart their unpleasant odor to the wine it produces, an example of which occurs in some lands in Germany in which the Stinkstein (a variety of subcarbonate of lime) is" present. The vine growers of France and Portugal are strongly averse to manuring their vines; and in the port district of the Alto Douro the practice is forbidden by law.

But the German cultivators manure very freely, with no ill effect upon the quality of the wines, which in fact are generally esteemed for their bouquet. The manuring is practised every third or fourth, or up to the tenth year; fresh cow dung is used in some instances, but oftener strips of woollen previously soaked in liquid manure and dried; and the practice is more common with the red than the white grapes. Among the best of manures are the cuttings of the vine, applied as often as they are pruned, since these restore to the soil a portion of the alkalies abstracted by the vine and so necessary to the fruit. (See American Wines, and the articles on the wines of Europe under the names of the different countries.) - Wines are obtained from the currant, gooseberry, raspberry, blackberry, and elderberry; and also from other parts of certain plants, as from the root of the parsnip and beet, the stem of the birch and cocoa palm, the leaves of the grape vine, and the spathe or sheath of the sagus vinifera and other palms. - See Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus (Paris, 1824, translated into English; new French ed., 1871); Redding, "History and Description of Modern Wines" (London, 1851), and "French Wines and Vineyards" (1860); Mulder, Chemie des Weins (Leipsic, 1856; translated by H. Bence Jones, London, 1859); Haraszthy, " Grape Culture, Wines, and Wine Making" (New York, 1862); Shaw, "The Wine and its Cellar " (London, 1864); Mohr, Der Weinstock and der Wein (Coblentz, 1864); Sheen, "Wines and other fermented Liquors, from the Earliest Ages to the present Time" (London, 1864); Husmann, " Cultivation of the Native Grape and Manufacture of American Wines " (New York, 1866); Pasteur, Le chauffage du vin (Paris, 1867); Heckler, Weinbaulehre (Frankfort, 1868); Guyot, Etudes des vignobles de France (Paris, 1868); Thudicum and Dupre, " Treatise on the Nature and Varieties of Wine" (London, 1872); Druitt, "Report on Cheap Wines " (London, 1873); and Vizetelly, " The Wines of the World Characterized and Classified" (London, 1875).