The Chemistry of Cookery

utmost result of this effort can only be a contribution to a subject which is too profoundly mysterious to be fully grasped by any intellect that is not sufficiently clairvoyant to penetrate paving-stones, and see through them to the interiors of the closely-tiled cellars wherein the mysteries are manipulated. I will first define what I mean by the cookery of wine. Grape juice in its unfermented state may be described as ‘raw wine,’ or this name may be applied to the juice after fermentation. I apply it in the latter sense, and shall use it as describing grape juice which has been spontaneously and recently fermented without the addition of any foreign materials, or altered by keeping, or heating, or any other process beyond fermentation. All such processes and admixture which affect any chemical changes on the raw material I shall describe as cookery, and the result as cooked wine. When I refer to wine made from other juice than that of the grape it will be named specifically. At the outset a fallacy, very prevalent in this country, should be controverted. The high prices charged for the cooked material sold to Englishmen has led to absurdly exaggerated notions of the original value of wine. I am quite safe in stating that the average market value of rich wine in its raw state, in countries where the grape grows luxuriantly, and where, in consequence, the average quality of the wine is the best, does not exceed sixpence per gallon, or one penny per bottle. I speak now of the newly-made wine. Allowing another sixpence per gallon for barrelling and storage, the value of the commodity in portable form becomes twopence per bottle. I am not speaking of thin, poor wines, produced by a second or third pressing of the grapes, but of the best and richest quality, and, of course, I do not include the fancy wines—those produced in certain vineyards of celebrated châteaux—that are superstitiously venerated by those easily-deluded people who suppose themselves to be connoisseurs of choice wines. I refer to ninety-nine per cent. of the _rich_ wines