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Tests to Detect Adulterated Wine (Beet root Pokeweed berries)

Beet root Pokeweed berries Indian wood Pernambuco Litmus • Orchil or Cudbear • violet, yellow, violet red, violet blue, dirty lees color.

Or pour into the wine to be tested a solution of alum and precipitate the alumina it contains, by adding potash, and the precipitates will have the same characteristic colors as above.

If the wine contains alum or sulphuric acid.

If the wine contains alum which has been added to make the red color deeper, less easily discolored, and give them an astringent taste, they must be tested by the palate. The taste is slightly sweet and astringent, the acidity is more eviden.

These wines, discolored, precipitate:

White, with volatile alkali, " 66 caustic potash.

These precipitates, which are flocculent, are soluble in excess of potash. The presence of sulphuric acid can be shown by the addition of any Barytus salt.

If the wine contains lead.

Sulphate of soda gives a white heavy precipitate, when the wine contains lead in solution :

Chromate of potash or iodide of potassium give a yellow precipitate:

Alkaline sulphides and sulphuretted hydrogen give a black precipitate.