WINE WITHOUT GRAPES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 230, 5 February 1876, Page 23

WINE WITHOUT GRAPES.

It has been long known that in certain localities of France a liquid euphemistically called "wine," but into the manufacture of which the juice of the grape does not enter, is extensively made for exportation. The practice is, to say the least of it, a disreputable one, but if the newspaper reports of the proceedings at the late session of the Intercolonial Viticultural Congress at Montpellier are to be credited, M. Saint Pierre, a professor at the famous Montpellier School of Medicine, is evidently of a different opinion. In the course of a speech before the Congress the Professor gave the following suggestive facts in regard to this " fabrication of imitated wines, a branch of business which has of late rapidly developed in Herault, especially at Cette and Meze. The product of this manufacture is mostly exported, the bulk being sent to Russia, Denmark, Holland, England, and North and South America. Cette alone makes nearly 8,000,000 gallons per annum, worth about 15,000,000 francs. Two-thirds of this are consumed in America. The only wines that can be successfully imitated are those rich in alcohol, such as the wines of Spain and Portugal. It is not true that grape juice is the only thing omitted in the composition of these wines, as that is the cheapest ingredient. Nor is coloring matter used to any extent, as the wines to be imitated are white. The Portuguese formerly colored their wines with elderberries ; but abandoned it on finding that it injured the wine. The imitation of Span-

ish wines utilises a large amount of cheap wines in the South of Prance, the production of which has been stimulated of late years. These wines show scarcely 11 per cent.. of alcohol ; but with the addition of synu> of mulberry and alcohol the strength is raised to 21 per cent. The Professor, with great frankness, pleads for the encouragement of thisindustry. The members of the Congress visited Cette and Meze, and inspected several manufactories. One of the largest at Cette had then stored over 280,000 gallons in cellars containing from 80,000 to 100,000 gallons each. The total value of the whole deposit is stated at £40,000. At Meze one establishment astonished the visitors by the vast extent of its coopers' shops, and its steam engines pumping the wine from great cisterns into the casks. Owing to the dearth of Bordeaux wine in the year 1853 and three following years, it was found practicable to make a very good imitation of common Bordeaux by the admixture of its component parts in the jn'oportions determined by a careful chemical analysis of " vin ordinaire," and this wine met with a ready demand until a plentiful vintage destroyed the trade, it then being possible to sell the real wine at a less price than the artificial compound.