gas owes many of the properties which it possesses. Every one can perceive, by the effect of the froth of Champagne on the organs, how much that gaseous substance is modified, and is different from pure carbonic acid gas[1]
It is not the most saccharine must which is generally employed in making brisk wines. If the fermentation of such were interrupted, by closing it in casks or bottles, to prevent the disengagement of the carbonic acid, the decomposition of the saccharine matter would also be prevented, and the wine would remain sweet, luscious, clammy, and disagreeable.
There are some wines, of which all the alcohol is dissolved in the garous principle; those of Champagne are an example.
- ↑ The word alcohol is employed above, although the substance referred to appears to differ from the alcobol extracted by distillation, as there is no term to express the vinous principle which exists in, and constitutes the character of wine; and which, dissolved in carbonic acid, as above, is a mixture of alcohol, aroma, and extractive. Although there is a strong analogy between the two substances, it is proper to notice the difference. The alcohol extracted by distillation is, in fact, the vinous principle separated from all the other principles which are united with it in the wine, and of all the elements which compose the wine, retaining only the hydrogen and the carbon. It is, with great propriety, called the spirit of wine.
