This chapter is limited to the organic components of wines and to publications in the period 1930 to 1953. Both phases of enology have been reviewed, but it is obvious that the more significant studies have been those of a physical-chemical nature. The organic components of wines have been discussed in broad general groups-acids, carbohydrates, alcohols, etc. For each component, information on the methods of determination has been given first, followed by a review of work on the occurrence or significance of the compound. Wines are classified, taxed, and bought and sold according to alcohol content. Therefore, great attention has been given to its accurate and rapid determination. Some errors of the method and of the instruments in the ebulliometric determination of alcohol have been pointed out. Further difficulties in determining the alcohol content of sweet wines using the ebullioscope were found. Another physical method is based on the principle of extracting the alcohol with an immiscible solvent and reading the per cent alcohol from the position of the meniscus. The disagreement on the exact relation between the sugar content of the must and the resulting alcohol content of the wine was reviewed. The difficulty of determining methyl alcohol in the presence of ethyl alcohol was stressed. The mechanism of the formation of higher alcohols has been studied, which reported that higher alcohol formation coincided with the beginning of the main fermentation
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