Doctored Wines

Abstract

THE French Government have just passed a most salutary measure, which will have for effect the diminution, if not the complete suppression, of the process known as plâtrage, now become an almost constant custom through most of the wine districts of France, and which, from having at first been performed on a very moderate scale, has lately enormously increased, till it has developed into a crying abuse. The plâtrage is carried on during the fermentation, and consists in merely sprinkling the grapes, as successive baskets of them are emptied into the fermentation vats, with plaster of Paris —calcium sulphate —(French plâtre), mineralogically knownas gypsum, or selenite, in fine powder. Now the grape-juice contains several salts of potash, among which the most abundant are the tartrate and bi-tartrate, and these decompose when placed in contact with the calcium sulphate, forming calcium tartrate—an insoluble salt—and potassium sulphate.