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The Use of Glycerine in Wine

Parent's Method of Preserving Wine.

This consists in the addition of a small quantity of tannin or tannic acid to the wine, which perhaps acts in a similar way, by destroying the vitality of the spores of the fungus, since a microscopic examination of wine known to contain these germs, within a few weeks after being treated with the tannin, has failed to detect the slightest trace. Indeed, wine which has already begun to change, and become turbid, can be restored to its primitive clearness, and with a great improvement in its taste. Care must be taken, however, to use only tannin which has been prepared from the constituents of the grape, since the slightest proportion of the extract of nut-gall, although accomplishing the general object of destroying the fungus, will impart a peculiar taste, which never disappears. The Use of Glycerine in Wine.

Glycerine differs from sugar in not fermenting or taking any active part in the process of fermentation. It can, therefore, be made use of after fermentation, to impart any required degree of sweetness to wine, without the risk of further fermentation, as is the case with sugar when used for this purpose; it is said that it can be added with perfect safety to even a young or new wine, as soon as it has become clear. It is absolutely necessary that the glycerine should be chemically pure. The proportion of glycerine should be from 1 to 3 gallons for 100 gallons of wine, according to the quality of the latter. If the wine is perfectly clear it will be ready for bottling at once. Mix the glycerine first with an equal quantity of the wine, and then add the mixture to the rest.