Winecraft and Chemistry in 18th-Century France: Chaptal and the Invention of Chaptalization

Technology and Culture

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 74-103

  Gough, J B ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHEMISTRY; FRANCE; HISTORY; WINE;

CHEMISTRY, PHARMACEUTICAL; FRANCE; HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; WINE;

EID: 0031615403     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3107004     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. Chaptal first published his theories of fermentation in the article "Vin" in volume 10 of the abbé François Rozier's Cours complet d'agriculture (Paris [1800]). This 118-page "article" was in fact a treatise, and Chaptal republished it in installments: see "Traité sur les vins," parts 1-5, Annales de chimie 35 (30 Messidor, An VIII [19 June 1800]): 240-99; 36 (30 vendémiaire, year IX [22 October 1800]): 3-49; 36 (30 brumaire, year IX [21 November 1800]): 113-42; 36 (30 frimaire, year IX [21 December 1800]): 225-57; 37 (30 nivôse, year IX [20January 1801): 3-37. In 1800, he published a large extract of the article in the Journal de physique, de chimie, et d'histoire naturell 51 (thermidor, year VIII [July-August 1800]): 133-49. The following year Chaptal published the entire article again, this time as a book, L'art de faire, de gouverner, et perfectionner les vins (Paris, 1801 ).
2. Chaptal first published his theories of fermentation in the article "Vin" in volume 10 of the abbé François Rozier's Cours complet d'agriculture (Paris [1800]). This 118-page "article" was in fact a treatise, and Chaptal republished it in installments: see "Traité sur les vins," parts 1-5, Annales de chimie 35 (30 Messidor, An VIII [19 June 1800]): 240-99; 36 (30 vendémiaire, year IX [22 October 1800]): 3-49; 36 (30 brumaire, year IX [21 November 1800]): 113-42; 36 (30 frimaire, year IX [21 December 1800]): 225-57; 37 (30 nivôse, year IX [20January 1801): 3-37. In 1800, he published a large extract of the article in the Journal de physique, de chimie, et d'histoire naturell 51 (thermidor, year VIII [July-August 1800]): 133-49. The following year Chaptal published the entire article again, this time as a book, L'art de faire, de gouverner, et perfectionner les vins (Paris, 1801 ).
3. Chaptal first published his theories of fermentation in the article "Vin" in volume 10 of the abbé François Rozier's Cours complet d'agriculture (Paris [1800]). This 118-page "article" was in fact a treatise, and Chaptal republished it in installments: see "Traité sur les vins," parts 1-5, Annales de chimie 35 (30 Messidor, An VIII [19 June 1800]): 240-99; 36 (30 vendémiaire, year IX [22 October 1800]): 3-49; 36 (30 brumaire, year IX [21 November 1800]): 113-42; 36 (30 frimaire, year IX [21 December 1800]): 225-57; 37 (30 nivôse, year IX [20January 1801): 3-37. In 1800, he published a large extract of the article in the Journal de physique, de chimie, et d'histoire naturell 51 (thermidor, year VIII [July-August 1800]): 133-49. The following year Chaptal published the entire article again, this time as a book, L'art de faire, de gouverner, et perfectionner les vins (Paris, 1801 ).
4. Chaptal first published his theories of fermentation in the article "Vin" in volume 10 of the abbé François Rozier's Cours complet d'agriculture (Paris [1800]). This 118-page "article" was in fact a treatise, and Chaptal republished it in installments: see "Traité sur les vins," parts 1-5, Annales de chimie 35 (30 Messidor, An VIII [19 June 1800]): 240-99; 36 (30 vendémiaire, year IX [22 October 1800]): 3-49; 36 (30 brumaire, year IX [21 November 1800]): 113-42; 36 (30 frimaire, year IX [21 December 1800]): 225-57; 37 (30 nivôse, year IX [20January 1801): 3-37. In 1800, he published a large extract of the article in the Journal de physique, de chimie, et d'histoire naturell 51 (thermidor, year VIII [July-August 1800]): 133-49. The following year Chaptal published the entire article again, this time as a book, L'art de faire, de gouverner, et perfectionner les vins (Paris, 1801 ).
5. It was published yet again in 1801 together with two other articles from Rozier's Cours complet written by the agronomists Louis d'Ussieux (1744-1805) and Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813), authors of the articles "Vigne" and "Vinaigre," respectively; Chaptal, d'Ussieux,
6. and Parmentier simply published their articles together under the title Le parfait vigneron, ou traité sur la culture de la vigne, avec l'art d'améliorer et de conserver les vins; suivi de l'art de faire les vinaigres, simples et composés.
7. In fact, this book reproduced exactly the last three hundred pages of volume 10 of Rozier's Cours complet; the first eighty pages (which had nothing to do with wine) were simply deleted, and the printer did not even bother to repaginate the work.
8. Le parfait, vigneron was published again in 1801
9. under the title Traité théorique et pratique sur la culture de la vigne, avec l'art de faire le vin, eaux-de-vie, esprit de vin, vinaigres simples et composés,
10. this time in two volumes (as one), and sold as a second edition. Finally, in 1807 Chaptal published the first edition of his L'art de faire le vin (second and third editions were published in 1819 and 1839). Although extensively rewritten, this book is, in fact, only another edition of the Traité of 1801. In this article, references to the "Traité" will signify the series of articles in the Annales de chimie, and references to the Traité will signify the book of 1801 and its clones.
11. Some of the sugar will be converted to glycerine (glycerol) during fermentation, and glycerine provides sweetness to help balance the excess acidity of the wine. The alcohol (ethanol) that is the primary product of the fermented sugar also imparts a sensation of sweetness to the tongue.
12. Alixis Lichine, for example, in his Guide to the Wines and Vineyards of France (New York, 1982), p. 286, writes: "[Chaptal] found that sugar . . . added in limited amounts to the must . . . would be transformed to alcohol . . . to bring it into better balance with the other constituents of the wine" (emphasis mine). Émile Peynaud, Knowing and Making Wine, trans. Alan Spencer (New York, 1981), p. 83, writes: "Adding sugar to the vintage is called Chaptalization. It was, in fact, Chaptal who suggested it in 1801. . . ." In André Simon, S. F. Hallgarten, and H. Arntz, "The Wines of Germany" (Wines of the World, ed. André Simon [New York, 1962], p. 274), we read: "The gap between the wines of good and bad vintages still exists, but is not quite so great today, thanks to . . . Chaptal, who taught us that sugar added to the reluctantly fermenting juice of imperfectly ripe grapes will mend matters to a certain . . . extent."
13. Alixis Lichine, for example, in his Guide to the Wines and Vineyards of France (New York, 1982), p. 286, writes: "[Chaptal] found that sugar . . . added in limited amounts to the must . . . would be transformed to alcohol . . . to bring it into better balance with the other constituents of the wine" (emphasis mine). Émile Peynaud, Knowing and Making Wine, trans. Alan Spencer (New York, 1981), p. 83, writes: "Adding sugar to the vintage is called Chaptalization. It was, in fact, Chaptal who suggested it in 1801. . . ." In André Simon, S. F. Hallgarten, and H. Arntz, "The Wines of Germany" (Wines of the World, ed. André Simon [New York, 1962], p. 274), we read: "The gap between the wines of good and bad vintages still exists, but is not quite so great today, thanks to . . . Chaptal, who taught us that sugar added to the reluctantly fermenting juice of imperfectly ripe grapes will mend matters to a certain . . . extent."
14. Alixis Lichine, for example, in his Guide to the Wines and Vineyards of France (New York, 1982), p. 286, writes: "[Chaptal] found that sugar . . . added in limited amounts to the must . . . would be transformed to alcohol . . . to bring it into better balance with the other constituents of the wine" (emphasis mine). Émile Peynaud, Knowing and Making Wine, trans. Alan Spencer (New York, 1981), p. 83, writes: "Adding sugar to the vintage is called Chaptalization. It was, in fact, Chaptal who suggested it in 1801. . . ." In André Simon, S. F. Hallgarten, and H. Arntz, "The Wines of Germany" (Wines of the World, ed. André Simon [New York, 1962], p. 274), we read: "The gap between the wines of good and bad vintages still exists, but is not quite so great today, thanks to . . . Chaptal, who taught us that sugar added to the reluctantly fermenting juice of imperfectly ripe grapes will mend matters to a certain . . . extent."
15. Tim Unwin, Wine and the Vine: An Historical Geography of the Wine Trade (London and New York, 1991), p. 50.
16. See Chaptal, "Traité," pt. 2, pp. 38-41. Chaptal also mentioned that Rozier had advocated the addition of honey to the must of underripe grapes in his prizewinning essay De la fermentation des vins, et de la meilleure manière de faire l'eau-de-vie (Lyons, 1770). For Macquer's disclaimer, see Pierre-Joseph Macquer, Dictionnaire de chimie, vol. 4 (Paris, 1778), p. 210.
17. See Chaptal, "Traité," pt. 2, pp. 38-41. Chaptal also mentioned that Rozier had advocated the addition of honey to the must of underripe grapes in his prizewinning essay De la fermentation des vins, et de la meilleure manière de faire l'eau-de-vie (Lyons, 1770). For Macquer's disclaimer, see Pierre-Joseph Macquer, Dictionnaire de chimie, vol. 4 (Paris, 1778), p. 210.
18. See Chaptal, "Traité," pt. 2, pp. 38-41. Chaptal also mentioned that Rozier had advocated the addition of honey to the must of underripe grapes in his prizewinning essay De la fermentation des vins, et de la meilleure manière de faire l'eau-de-vie (Lyons, 1770). For Macquer's disclaimer, see Pierre-Joseph Macquer, Dictionnaire de chimie, vol. 4 (Paris, 1778), p. 210.
19. After leaving Paris in 1758, Venel (1723-75) taught at the university at Montpellier and gave private courses in chemistry. The term zymotechnology derived from the great German chemist Georg Ernst Stahl, who published Zymotechnia fundamentalis, seu Fermentationis theoria generalis in 1697. For Venel's use of the term, see Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, eds., Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences et des métiers, 17 vols. (Paris, 1751-65) ( hereafter Encyclopédie), vol. 3 (Paris, 1753), s.v . "Chymie."
20. After leaving Paris in 1758, Venel (1723-75) taught at the university at Montpellier and gave private courses in chemistry. The term zymotechnology derived from the great German chemist Georg Ernst Stahl, who published Zymotechnia fundamentalis, seu Fermentationis theoria generalis in 1697. For Venel's use of the term, see Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, eds., Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences et des métiers, 17 vols. (Paris, 1751-65) ( hereafter Encyclopédie), vol. 3 (Paris, 1753), s.v . "Chymie."
21. Maurice Crosland, In the Shadow of Lavoisier: The "Annales de Chimie" (Oxford, 1994). On the importance of chemistry and ils utilitarian value, see esp. chap. 6, "The Range and Content of the Annales."
22. John Graham Smith, The Origins and Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France (Oxford, 1979); see also C. E. Perrin, "Of Theory Shifts and Industrial Innovation: the Relations of J. A. C. Chaptal and A. L. Lavoisier," Ambix 43 (1986): 511- 42, and "Chemistry and Industry," chap. 4 in Frederic Lawrence Holmes, Eighteenth- Century Chemistry as an Investigative Enterprise (Berkeley, 1989).
23. John Graham Smith, The Origins and Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France (Oxford, 1979); see also C. E. Perrin, "Of Theory Shifts and Industrial Innovation: the Relations of J. A. C. Chaptal and A. L. Lavoisier," Ambix 43 (1986): 511-42, and "Chemistry and Industry," chap. 4 in Frederic Lawrence Holmes, Eighteenth- Century Chemistry as an Investigative Enterprise (Berkeley, 1989).
24. John Graham Smith, The Origins and Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France (Oxford, 1979); see also C. E. Perrin, "Of Theory Shifts and Industrial Innovation: the Relations of J. A. C. Chaptal and A. L. Lavoisier," Ambix 43 (1986): 511- 42, and "Chemistry and Industry," chap. 4 in Frederic Lawrence Holmes, Eighteenth-Century Chemistry as an Investigative Enterprise (Berkeley, 1989).
25. Alistair Duncan, in his recent Laws and Order in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry (Oxford, 1996), p. 26, expresses this notion as follows: "In the eighteenth-century the chief reason why men with a knowledge of science were successful in industrial innovation was that they brought to technical development the rational, empirical outlook of the Enlightenment, and that they used systematic methods of experimentation, rather than that scientific theory was much help to them."
26. Chaptal wrote an autobiographical sketch to 1804, when he resigned his office of minister of the interior because of a crude joke Napoléon played involving Chaptal's mistress. See Chaptal, "La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal," in Mes souvenirs de Napoléon (Paris, 1893), pp. 9-102; Jean Pigeire, La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal (Paris, 1931); and Dictionary of Scientific Biography, s.v. "Chaptal."
27. Chaptal wrote an autobiographical sketch to 1804, when he resigned his office of minister of the interior because of a crude joke Napoléon played involving Chaptal's mistress. See Chaptal, "La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal," in Mes souvenirs de Napoléon (Paris, 1893), pp. 9-102; Jean Pigeire, La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal (Paris, 1931); and Dictionary of Scientific Biography, s.v. "Chaptal."
28. Chaptal wrote an autobiographical sketch to 1804, when he resigned his office of minister of the interior because of a crude joke Napoléon played involving Chaptal's mistress. See Chaptal, "La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal," in Mes souvenirs de Napoléon (Paris, 1893), pp. 9-102; Jean Pigeire, La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal (Paris, 1931); and Dictionary of Scientific Biography, s.v. "Chaptal."
29. See Maurice Crosland, The Society of Arceuil: A View of French Science at the Time of Napoleon (Cambridge, 1967). On the probable date of Chaptal's membership, p. 313.
30. Chaptal, "La vie et l'oeuvre," pp. 32-33.
31. Ibid., p. 33. Translations are the author's unless otherwise noted.
32. "With regard to age, wine is old or new or middle aged. For us, new wine is that which has aged two or three months, old is that which has aged a year, and wine of middle age, that which, having aged four months, has not yet aged a year." Encyclopédie, vol. 17 (Neuchâtel [Paris], 1765), s.v. "Vin (Hist. des boissons spiritueuses)."
33. According to a book published anonymously by Jean Godinot, Manière de cultiver la vigne et de faire le vin en Champagne (Reims, 1718), p. 28, bottles sold near the beginning of the 18th century for between twelve and fifteen livres per hundred. Most likely because of inflation, the price at the end of the 18th century had increased to about five sous per bottle, or twenty-five livres per hundred. See James M. Gabler, Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore, 1995), p. 186. If one accepts Lavoisier's figures (ca. 1791) for the average yearly per capita income in France (about 120 livres - see "Résultats extraits d'un ouvrage intitulé: De la richesse territoriale du royaume de France," in Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Oeuvres, vol. 6 [Paris, 1893], p. 462), then the cost of one hundred bottles near the end of the 18th century would have amounted to about 20 percent of the average per capita yearly income - far beyond the means of an ordinary Frenchman. For most ordinary wines, the cost of the bottle would have been greater than the value of the contents. Ordinary people undoubtedly possessed bottles, but to convey liquids, not to store them.
34. According to a book published anonymously by Jean Godinot, Manière de cultiver la vigne et de faire le vin en Champagne (Reims, 1718), p. 28, bottles sold near the beginning of the 18th century for between twelve and fifteen livres per hundred. Most likely because of inflation, the price at the end of the 18th century had increased to about five sous per bottle, or twenty-five livres per hundred. See James M. Gabler, Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore, 1995), p. 186. If one accepts Lavoisier's figures (ca. 1791) for the average yearly per capita income in France (about 120 livres - see "Résultats extraits d'un ouvrage intitulé: De la richesse territoriale du royaume de France," in Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Oeuvres, vol. 6 [Paris, 1893], p. 462), then the cost of one hundred bottles near the end of the 18th century would have amounted to about 20 percent of the average per capita yearly income - far beyond the means of an ordinary Frenchman. For most ordinary wines, the cost of the bottle would have been greater than the value of the contents. Ordinary people undoubtedly possessed bottles, but to convey liquids, not to store them.
35. According to a book published anonymously by Jean Godinot, Manière de cultiver la vigne et de faire le vin en Champagne (Reims, 1718), p. 28, bottles sold near the beginning of the 18th century for between twelve and fifteen livres per hundred. Most likely because of inflation, the price at the end of the 18th century had increased to about five sous per bottle, or twenty-five livres per hundred. See James M. Gabler, Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore, 1995), p. 186. If one accepts Lavoisier's figures (ca. 1791) for the average yearly per capita income in France (about 120 livres - see "Résultats extraits d'un ouvrage intitulé: De la richesse territoriale du royaume de France," in Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Oeuvres, vol. 6 [Paris, 1893], p. 462), then the cost of one hundred bottles near the end of the 18th century would have amounted to about 20 percent of the average per capita yearly income - far beyond the means of an ordinary Frenchman. For most ordinary wines, the cost of the bottle would have been greater than the value of the contents. Ordinary people undoubtedly possessed bottles, but to convey liquids, not to store them.
36. Roy Morgan, Sealed Bottles: Their History and Evolution: 1630-1930 (Burton-on-Trent, n.d.), p. 18.
37. Château bottling, the consumer's warrant of authenticity, came into general practice only in the present century.
38. The most important reason that the cultivation of European wine grapes failed in North America was probably the phylloxera, a tiny aphid native to North America that feeds off the roots of grapevines and usually kills European grape varieties. It spread to France in the second half of the 19th century and caused the greatest disaster the French wine industry had ever suffered. North America was also home to both powdery and downy mildew, diseases of the vine that may have contributed to the failure of the early American wine industry. As for the Caribbean, wine grapes will not successfully produce in tropical climates.
39. Litharge (the yellow oxide of lead, PbO) combines with the acetic acid in the vinegary wine to produce lead acetate, commonly called "sugar of lead" because of its sweet taste. The Pb++ ion does in fact produce an impression of sweetness on the tongue. In addition, since lead tartrate is nearly insoluble in water (.0025g/ ml), the addition of lead to wine precipitates the tartar and effectively removes it from the wine.
40. See Josef Eisinger, "Lead and Wine: Eberhard Gockel and the Colica Pictonum," History of Medicine 26 (1982): 279-302, and Erik Skovenborg, "Lead in Wine through the Ages," Journal of Wine Research 6 (1995): 50-64.
41. See Josef Eisinger, "Lead and Wine: Eberhard Gockel and the Colica Pictonum," History of Medicine 26 (1982): 279-302, and Erik Skovenborg, "Lead in Wine through the Ages," Journal of Wine Research 6 (1995): 50-64.
42. Encyclopédie, vol. 3, (Paris, 1753), s.v. "Colique de Poitou (Médecine) ." Jaucourt also wrote the article "Poitou, Colique de" for the twelfth volume of the Encyclopédie (Neufchâtel [Paris], 1765), to defend his friend Théodore Tronchin against an attack on a book Tronchin had written on lead poisoning.
43. Encyclopédie, vol. 3, (Paris, 1753), s.v. "Colique de Poitou (Médecine) ." Jaucourt also wrote the article "Poitou, Colique de" for the twelfth volume of the Encyclopédie (Neufchâtel [Paris], 1765), to defend his friend Théodore Tronchin against an attack on a book Tronchin had written on lead poisoning.
44. On Jaucourt and his friendship with Tronchin, see Nouvelle biographie générale, s.v. "Joucourt (Louis, Chevalier de),"" and John Lough, "Louis, Chevalier de Jaucourt (1704-1780): A Biographical Sketch," in The Encyclopédie in Eighteenth-Century England and Other Studies (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1970).
45. On Jaucourt and his friendship with Tronchin, see Nouvelle biographie générale, s.v. "Joucourt (Louis, Chevalier de),"" and John Lough, "Louis, Chevalier de Jaucourt (1704-1780): A Biographical Sketch," in The Encyclopédie in Eighteenth-Century England and Other Studies (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1970).
46. In most bibliographies this author is identified as the chevalier de Plaigne, but Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Dictionnaire des anonymes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1872-79; reprint, Hildesheim, Germany, 1963), vol. 1, p. 1086, says that the attribution to Plaigne is perhaps the result of a confusion of names, and that in the registers of the Chambre Syndicale des Livres the privilège to a later edition of this work was accorded to "Monsieur Poncelin." There was a revolutionary journalist and author named Jean-Charles Poncelin (1746-1828); I can find no evidence of his interest in wine, but he did publish a book on the history of Paris with Edrne Béguillet (ca. 1710-86), the unquestioned author of Œnologie, ou discours sur la meilleure méthode de faire le vin et de cultiver la vigne (Dijon, 1770). Another possibility is Polycarpe Poncelet, who published books on the manufacture of artificial liqueurs. It should be noted, if only in passing, that the Dissertation and its successors were plagiarized from various other works; there is almost nothing original in it. Its sources are Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above); Godinot (n. 15 above); "Vin (Hist, des boissons spiritueuses)" (Jaucourt) (n. 14 above); M. Bidet, Traité sur la culture des vignes, sur la, façon du vin, et sur la manière de le gouverner (Paris, 1752);
47. In most bibliographies this author is identified as the chevalier de Plaigne, but Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Dictionnaire des anonymes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1872-79; reprint, Hildesheim, Germany, 1963), vol. 1, p. 1086, says that the attribution to Plaigne is perhaps the result of a confusion of names, and that in the registers of the Chambre Syndicale des Livres the privilège to a later edition of this work was accorded to "Monsieur Poncelin." There was a revolutionary journalist and author named Jean-Charles Poncelin (1746-1828); I can find no evidence of his interest in wine, but he did publish a book on the history of Paris with Edrne Béguillet (ca. 1710-86), the unquestioned author of Œnologie, ou discours sur la meilleure méthode de faire le vin et de cultiver la vigne (Dijon, 1770). Another possibility is Polycarpe Poncelet, who published books on the manufacture of artificial liqueurs. It should be noted, if only in passing, that the Dissertation and its successors were plagiarized from various other works; there is almost nothing original in it. Its sources are Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above); Godinot (n. 15 above); "Vin (Hist, des boissons spiritueuses)" (Jaucourt) (n. 14 above); M. Bidet, Traité sur la culture des vignes, sur la, façon du vin, et sur la manière de le gouverner (Paris, 1752);
48. In most bibliographies this author is identified as the chevalier de Plaigne, but Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Dictionnaire des anonymes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1872-79; reprint, Hildesheim, Germany, 1963), vol. 1, p. 1086, says that the attribution to Plaigne is perhaps the result of a confusion of names, and that in the registers of the Chambre Syndicale des Livres the privilège to a later edition of this work was accorded to "Monsieur Poncelin." There was a revolutionary journalist and author named Jean-Charles Poncelin (1746-1828); I can find no evidence of his interest in wine, but he did publish a book on the history of Paris with Edrne Béguillet (ca. 1710-86), the unquestioned author of Œnologie, ou discours sur la meilleure méthode de faire le vin et de cultiver la vigne (Dijon, 1770). Another possibility is Polycarpe Poncelet, who published books on the manufacture of artificial liqueurs. It should be noted, if only in passing, that the Dissertation and its successors were plagiarized from various other works; there is almost nothing original in it. Its sources are Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above); Godinot (n. 15 above); "Vin (Hist, des boissons spiritueuses)" (Jaucourt) (n. 14 above); M. Bidet, Traité sur la culture des vignes, sur la, façon du vin, et sur la manière de le gouverner (Paris, 1752);
49. In most bibliographies this author is identified as the chevalier de Plaigne, but Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Dictionnaire des anonymes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1872-79; reprint, Hildesheim, Germany, 1963), vol. 1, p. 1086, says that the attribution to Plaigne is perhaps the result of a confusion of names, and that in the registers of the Chambre Syndicale des Livres the privilège to a later edition of this work was accorded to "Monsieur Poncelin." There was a revolutionary journalist and author named Jean-Charles Poncelin (1746-1828); I can find no evidence of his interest in wine, but he did publish a book on the history of Paris with Edrne Béguillet (ca. 1710-86), the unquestioned author of Œnologie, ou discours sur la meilleure méthode de faire le vin et de cultiver la vigne (Dijon, 1770). Another possibility is Polycarpe Poncelet, who published books on the manufacture of artificial liqueurs. It should be noted, if only in passing, that the Dissertation and its successors were plagiarized from various other works; there is almost nothing original in it. Its sources are Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above); Godinot (n. 15 above); "Vin (Hist, des boissons spiritueuses)" (Jaucourt) (n. 14 above); M. Bidet, Traité sur la culture des vignes, sur la, façon du vin, et sur la manière de le gouverner (Paris, 1752);
50. In most bibliographies this author is identified as the chevalier de Plaigne, but Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Dictionnaire des anonymes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1872-79; reprint, Hildesheim, Germany, 1963), vol. 1, p. 1086, says that the attribution to Plaigne is perhaps the result of a confusion of names, and that in the registers of the Chambre Syndicale des Livres the privilège to a later edition of this work was accorded to "Monsieur Poncelin." There was a revolutionary journalist and author named Jean-Charles Poncelin (1746-1828); I can find no evidence of his interest in wine, but he did publish a book on the history of Paris with Edrne Béguillet (ca. 1710-86), the unquestioned author of Œnologie, ou discours sur la meilleure méthode de faire le vin et de cultiver la vigne (Dijon, 1770). Another possibility is Polycarpe Poncelet, who published books on the manufacture of artificial liqueurs. It should be noted, if only in passing, that the Dissertation and its successors were plagiarized from various other works; there is almost nothing original in it. Its sources are Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above); Godinot (n. 15 above); "Vin (Hist, des boissons spiritueuses)" (Jaucourt) (n. 14 above); M. Bidet, Traité sur la culture des vignes, sur la, façon du vin, et sur la manière de le gouverner (Paris, 1752);
51. and the anonymous Art and Mystery of the Vintners (published under varying titles in London in 1682, 1700, 1703, 1734, 1748, and 1750). I should like to thank Mr. David Palmer of New York City for his help in tracking down some of the bibliographical information concerning the Dissertation that I have included here.
52. Dissertation sur les vins, p. 126. In Paris, a muid consisted of about 280 pintes. Since a pinte was equivalent to about 0.93 liter, a muid would be the equivalent of about 260 liters, and 30,000 muids would be about 78,000 hectoliters.
53. Eberhard Gockel recommended the use of sulfuric acid to test suspect wines. In the presence of lead it produces a white precipitate of lead sulfate. Various French chemists recommended "liver of sulfur" (made by heating potash and sulfur; it is a mixture of compounds of potassium and sulfur). Liver of sulfur turns black in the presence of lead. See Eisingei, 294-95.
54. See Henri Enjalbert, "Aux origines du cognac," in Eaux-de-vie et spiritueux: Colloque de Bordeaux-Cognac, Octobre, 1982, ed. A. Huetz de Lemps and P. H. Roudié (Paris, 1985), pp. 11-21.
55. René Pijassou, Un grand vignoble de qualité: le Médoc (Paris, 1980), p. 374.
56. See Peter C. Mancall, Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995), pp. 137-54. In the British colonies to the south rum was the medium of exchange with the Indians. W. J. Eccles, France in America (East Lansing, Mich., 1990), p. 128 n.
57. See Peter C. Mancall, Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995), pp. 137-54. In the British colonies to the south rum was the medium of exchange with the Indians. W. J. Eccles, France in America (East Lansing, Mich., 1990), p. 128 n.
58. An anonymous pamphlet published in Paris in 1759, Réflexions et observations sur la qualité des vins, & sur les analyses que l'on en fait, indicates that suspicion of such vinous falsification was a concern of the police. Certain suspect wines had been seized and given to two Parisian chemists, Gilles-François Boulduc and Claude-Joseph Geoffroy, for analysis. The point of the anonymous treatise was simply to demonstrate that it was impossible to determine by the means commonly employed - distillation - whether eau-de-vie had been added to the wine; too many variables in making, shipping, and storing wine affect natural alcohol levels.
59. Alain Huetz de Lemps, Le vin de Madère (Paris, 1989), pp. 40-41.
60. Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century, vol. 1, The Structures of Everyday Life, trans. from the French [by Miriam Kochan], revised by Siân Reynolds (New York, 1981), pp. 241-47. Braudel's figures (p. 244) are in hectoliters (hundreds of liters). I have reckoned each bottle-equivalent at 0.75 liter.
61. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above), p. 5. Rozier says that his figures come from the Dictionnaire de commerce (probably a reference to Jacques Savary de Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce, published in numerous revised and updated editions after Bruslons's death in 1716, and a standard reference of that era). According to Ronald Edward Zupko, French Weights and Measures before the Revolution (Bloomington, Ind., 1978), a Bordeaux tun (or tonneau) contained about 960 liters or the equivalent of about 1,280 regular-sized (i.e., 0.75-liter) bottles. The modern tonneau contains 900 liters (1,200 0.75-liter bottles, or one hundred cases of twelve bottles each).
62. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above), p. 5. Rozier says that his figures come from the Dictionnaire de commerce (probably a reference to Jacques Savary de Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce, published in numerous revised and updated editions after Bruslons's death in 1716, and a standard reference of that era). According to Ronald Edward Zupko, French Weights and Measures before the Revolution (Bloomington, Ind., 1978), a Bordeaux tun (or tonneau) contained about 960 liters or the equivalent of about 1,280 regular-sized (i.e., 0.75-liter) bottles. The modern tonneau contains 900 liters (1,200 0.75-liter bottles, or one hundred cases of twelve bottles each).
63. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above), p. 5. Rozier says that his figures come from the Dictionnaire de commerce (probably a reference to Jacques Savary de Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce, published in numerous revised and updated editions after Bruslons's death in 1716, and a standard reference of that era). According to Ronald Edward Zupko, French Weights and Measures before the Revolution (Bloomington, Ind., 1978), a Bordeaux tun (or tonneau) contained about 960 liters or the equivalent of about 1,280 regular-sized (i.e., 0.75-liter) bottles. The modern tonneau contains 900 liters (1,200 0.75-liter bottles, or one hundred cases of twelve bottles each).
64. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above), p. 5. Rozier says that his figures come from the Dictionnaire de commerce (probably a reference to Jacques Savary de Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce, published in numerous revised and updated editions after Bruslons's death in 1716, and a standard reference of that era). According to Ronald Edward Zupko, French Weights and Measures before the Revolution (Bloomington, Ind., 1978), a Bordeaux tun (or tonneau) contained about 960 liters or the equivalent of about 1,280 regular-sized (i.e., 0.75-liter) bottles. The modern tonneau contains 900 liters (1,200 0.75-liter bottles, or one hundred cases of twelve bottles each).
65. It should be noted that the best quality brandies are made from thin, acidic, low-alcohol wines. In Cognac and Armagnac the wines made from Folle Blanche and Ugni Blanc grapes often have an alcohol content of under 8 percent.
66. In addition, from 1627 to 1690 the French shared Saint-Christophe (Saint Kitts) with the British. Indeed, Saint-Chrisophe was the administrative center from which the French Caribbean empire was directed. The French also established several lesser colonies on Saint Lucia and Tobago and in French Guiana.
67. On the history of the French sugar industry, see Robert Louis Stein, The French Sugar Business in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge, La., 1988).
68. The French government discouraged the refining of sugar on the islands in order to protect and promote refining business in metropolitan France.
69. Stein, p. 102.
70. In the Annales de chimie of 1790 there appeared an anonymous review of a book titled Précis sur la canne, written by a colonial physician from Saint-Domingue named Jacques-François du Throne de la Couture (1749-1814)
71. Annales de chimie 6 [1790]: 51-63). The reviewer wrote: "The wine that is obtained [from the fermented cane] is quite good; it is made sparkling [mousseux], like champagne, by putting it immediately in bottle; it is given various agreeable flavors by adding to the must the sugar of some fruit such as pineapple, orange, lemon, guava, apricot, etc." (p. 62).
72. Jean François Férré, "Le rhum aux Antilles," in Lemps and Roudié (n. 26 above), p. 413. After 1777, the French government freely permitted the re-exportation of West Indian rum from French ports, but the sale of rum was banned in France. See Stein, p. 72.
73. Encyclopédie, vol. 17 (Neufchâtel [Paris], 1765), s.v. "Vin (Chimie.) Méthode pour faire des vins artificiels."
74. The classic treatise was one first published in London in 1682 and titled The An and Mystery of the Vintners and Wine-Coopers, containing approved directions for the conserving . . . of all manner . . . of wines. This book, perhaps written by the famous English royalist physician and scientist Walter Charleton (1620-1707), was republished in London at least five times during the 18th century (1700, 1703, 1734, 1748, and 1750) under varying titles. The edition of 1703 presented itself as "a brief discourse on the various sicknesses and corruptions of wines and their respective remedies," and the edition of 1748 promised "[o]ne hundred and fifty-eight approved receipts for the conserving and curing of all sorts of wines." In France in 1752 a Monsieur Bidet, "Officier de la Maison du Roy," published Traité sur la culture des vignes (n. 23 above), in which he included a few "remedies for the 'vices' of wine" (remèdes contre les vices du vin). Much better known is the Dissertation sur les vins of 1772 (n. 23 above). This was republished in 1781 under the title L'art d'améliorer et de conserver les vins; avec manière de les préparer & de remédier aux altérations auxquelles ils sont sujet, et de reconnoire [sic] ceux qui sont frélatés. Suivi d'un recueil de 105 secrets ou recettes . . ." and revised and republished under varying titles in 1782, 1783, and 1803.
75. The classic treatise was one first published in London in 1682 and titled The An and Mystery of the Vintners and Wine-Coopers, containing approved directions for the conserving . . . of all manner . . . of wines. This book, perhaps written by the famous English royalist physician and scientist Walter Charleton (1620-1707), was republished in London at least five times during the 18th century (1700, 1703, 1734, 1748, and 1750) under varying titles. The edition of 1703 presented itself as "a brief discourse on the various sicknesses and corruptions of wines and their respective remedies," and the edition of 1748 promised "[o]ne hundred and fifty-eight approved receipts for the conserving and curing of all sorts of wines." In France in 1752 a Monsieur Bidet, "Officier de la Maison du Roy," published Traité sur la culture des vignes (n. 23 above), in which he included a few "remedies for the 'vices' of wine" (remèdes contre les vices du vin). Much better known is the Dissertation sur les vins of 1772 (n. 23 above). This was republished in 1781 under the title L'art d'améliorer et de conserver les vins; avec manière de les préparer & de remédier aux altérations auxquelles ils sont sujet, et de reconnoire [sic] ceux qui sont frélatés. Suivi d'un recueil de 105 secrets ou recettes . . ." and revised and republished under varying titles in 1782, 1783, and 1803.
76. The classic treatise was one first published in London in 1682 and titled The An and Mystery of the Vintners and Wine-Coopers, containing approved directions for the conserving . . . of all manner . . . of wines. This book, perhaps written by the famous English royalist physician and scientist Walter Charleton (1620-1707), was republished in London at least five times during the 18th century (1700, 1703, 1734, 1748, and 1750) under varying titles. The edition of 1703 presented itself as "a brief discourse on the various sicknesses and corruptions of wines and their respective remedies," and the edition of 1748 promised "[o]ne hundred and fifty-eight approved receipts for the conserving and curing of all sorts of wines." In France in 1752 a Monsieur Bidet, "Officier de la Maison du Roy," published Traité sur la culture des vignes (n. 23 above), in which he included a few "remedies for the 'vices' of wine" (remèdes contre les vices du vin). Much better known is the Dissertation sur les vins of 1772 (n. 23 above). This was republished in 1781 under the title L'art d'améliorer et de conserver les vins; avec manière de les préparer & de remédier aux altérations auxquelles ils sont sujet, et de reconnoire [sic] ceux qui sont frélatés. Suivi d'un recueil de 105 secrets ou recettes . . ." and revised and republished under varying titles in 1782, 1783, and 1803.
77. The classic treatise was one first published in London in 1682 and titled The An and Mystery of the Vintners and Wine-Coopers, containing approved directions for the conserving . . . of all manner . . . of wines. This book, perhaps written by the famous English royalist physician and scientist Walter Charleton (1620-1707), was republished in London at least five times during the 18th century (1700, 1703, 1734, 1748, and 1750) under varying titles. The edition of 1703 presented itself as "a brief discourse on the various sicknesses and corruptions of wines and their respective remedies," and the edition of 1748 promised "[o]ne hundred and fifty-eight approved receipts for the conserving and curing of all sorts of wines." In France in 1752 a Monsieur Bidet, "Officier de la Maison du Roy," published Traité sur la culture des vignes (n. 23 above), in which he included a few "remedies for the 'vices' of wine" (remèdes contre les vices du vin). Much better known is the Dissertation sur les vins of 1772 (n. 23 above). This was republished in 1781 under the title L'art d'améliorer et de conserver les vins; avec manière de les préparer & de remédier aux altérations auxquelles ils sont sujet, et de reconnoire [sic] ceux qui sont frélatés. Suivi d'un recueil de 105 secrets ou recettes . . ." and revised and republished under varying titles in 1782, 1783, and 1803.
78. 18th-century chemists found this property useful for the making of chemical indicators - turnsole is essentially the same as litmus.
79. Jaucourt, "Vin (Chimie.) Méthode pour faire des vins artificiels," p. 294.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid. By "mixtures of grape, of syrup," Jaucourt may have had in mind grape concentrate. A well-known French agronomist, named Maupin, later suggested this method for repairing weak and acid wines.
82. Ibid. In the 19th century, Heinrich Ludwig Lampert Gall (1790-1863) suggested this method for improving German wines. His "discovery" resulted ultimately in his arrest and imprisonment by the authorities at Stuttgart. He escaped from prison in 1857 and found refuge at Trier. See Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 8 (Leipzig, 1878), pp. 316-17.
83. Ibid. In the 19th century, Heinrich Ludwig Lampert Gall (1790-1863) suggested this method for improving German wines. His "discovery" resulted ultimately in his arrest and imprisonment by the authorities at Stuttgart. He escaped from prison in 1857 and found refuge at Trier. See Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 8 (Leipzig, 1878), pp. 316-17.
84. The journal is often referred to by historians of science as "Rozier's journal." Its actual name was Observations sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle, et sur les arts. The publication of the Mémoires of the Royal Academy of Paris was usually about three years in arrears, and academicians who wanted to obtain speedier publication were well advised to employ Rozier's good offices. Later the journal took the name Journal de physique.
85. The journal is often referred to by historians of science as "Rozier's journal." Its actual name was Observations sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle, et sur les arts. The publication of the Mémoires of the Royal Academy of Paris was usually about three years in arrears, and academicians who wanted to obtain speedier publication were well advised to employ Rozier's good offices. Later the journal took the name Journal de physique.
86. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above) . This has already been noted by Hugh Johnson in his magnificent history of wine, Vintage: The Story of Wine (New York, 1989), p. 273.
87. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above) . This has already been noted by Hugh Johnson in his magnificent history of wine, Vintage: The Story of Wine (New York, 1989), p. 273.
88. See "Northern Rhône," in Oxford Companion to Wines, ed. Jancis Robinson (Oxford, 1994), p. 798.
89. Nouvelle biographie générale, s.v. "Rozier (François)."
90. See the article byjaucourt, "Vin (Hist. des boissons spiritueuses.)'" ( n. 14 above), p. 291. "The wines of Lyon that grow along the Rhône, known under the name riverfront wines, are powerful and exquisite. Those of Condrieux, above all, are praised for their excellence." Today, one of the most renowned wine estates in Condrieu is the Château du Rozay, and in the nearby Côte-Rôtie there is a vineyard that bears the name "Rosier." Perhaps one or both of these belonged to the very property whose affairs Rozier once directed.
91. Rozier, De la fermentation des vins, pp. 31-32, n. 17.
92. Ibid.; note, p. 26, says that the ânée in question is that of Paris, which was equal to eighty Paris pintes. The pinte was equal to about 0.93 liters.
93. This would amount to an increase in alcohol of under 0.3 percent. To increase the alcohol content of wine by 1 percent requires about 17 grams/liter of pure sucrose. Although the composition of honey varies, it usually contains about 80 percent sugar (fructose, 40-50 percent; glucose, 32-37 percent; sucrose about 2 percent). Most of the rest is water.
94. "By the 1780s the abbé Rozier, the most influential of the textbook writers, was advocating, where necessary, adding honey to the juice to raise the sugar, and hence the alcohol content. In 1763 the abbé Teinturier . . . accused 'foreigners' . . . of wanting their burgundy as dark and heavy as possible. They were on the road to perdition. When Chaptal, Napoleon's Minister of the Interior, recommended adding sugar to beef up the wine, the modern misconception of burgundy as a high-alcohol, dense, dark-colored wine was conceived - to be born in due time and to subvert the whole character and reputation of the region." Johnson (n. 48 above), p. 273.
95. "The wines of Burgundy are more pleasing than the wines of Orléans, which are more powerful (généreux). A sweet apple yields a cider more alcoholic (vineux) than a Rennet apple, which is more pleasing. A wine which is beginning to turn, often yields more brandy than when it made a more gratifying beverage. But here the question is one of the means of making a wine more powerful (généreux), and it would be to depart from the subject at hand, to consider the [question of the] satisfaction of taste." Rozier, De la fermentation des vins (n. 5 above), p. 30.
96. As late as 1828 there were about ninety-four thousand vignerons (grape growers) in the northerly department, Seine-et-Oise, west of Paris (it has been divided since 1964 into three departments). By 1913 their number had fallen to under five thousand. Leo A. Loubère The Red and the White: A History of Wine in France and in Italy (Albany, 1978), p. 208.
97. The dates of Maupin's birth and death and his given name(s) are not known. There is a brief biography in the Nouvelle biographie générale, s.v. "Maupin." Maupin's book is Expériences sur la bonification de tous les vins tant bon que mauvais lors de la fermentation ou l'art de faire le vin, à l'usage de tous les vignobles du royaume avec les principes les plus essentiels sur la manière de gouverner les vins (Paris, 1770).
98. The dates of Maupin's birth and death and his given name(s) are not known. There is a brief biography in the Nouvelle biographie générale, s.v. "Maupin." Maupin's book is Expériences sur la bonification de tous les vins tant bon que mauvais lors de la fermentation ou l'art de faire le vin, à l'usage de tous les vignobles du royaume avec les principes les plus essentiels sur la manière de gouverner les vins (Paris, 1770).
99. Modern experience has shown exactly the opposite to be the case. As a rule, slower, low-temperature fermentation yields higher alcohol. See Peynaud (n. 3 above), pp. 109-10.
100. Macquer (n. 5 above), vol. 4, p. 209.
101. Stein (n. 35 above), p. 164, reckons per capita consumption at Paris in the 1780s at between 15 and 25 pounds per year. The national average would have been at most 4 pounds per year in the 18th century.
102. As quoted in René Davy, "Contribution à l'étude des origines de la droguerie pharmaceutique et de l'industrie du sel ammoniac en France: L'apothicaire Antoine Baumé (1728-1804) (Cahors, 1955), p. 112.
103. "[T] he saccharine matter is essentially the same, no matter what vegetable it is derived from"; ibid., p. 209. It should be noted that although cane sugar is sucrose, it is readily hydrolyzed into the grape sugars, fructose and glucose, during the process of fermentation. For reference to Marggrafs work, see Macquer, vol. 3, p. 513. Franz Karl Achard (1753-1821), Marggraf's student and successor at the Berlin Academy, later demonstrated that one could get sugar in quantity from beets. After the loss of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) to a slave rebellion and during the British blockade of the continent in the Napoleonic wars, Chaptal would oversee the foundation of an extensive beet-sugar industry in France, one that would, however, collapse with the resumption of normal trade at the end of the wars.
104. The Pinot mentioned here was probably Pinot Blanc. The Mélier grape is virtually unknown today. In 18th-century France there were three common varieties, black, white, and green. In his article "Raisin," published in volume 13 of the Encyclopédie (Paris, 1765), Jaucourt writes: "The white Mélier is one of the best grapes to make wine from and to eat; it is loaded with good juice; it keeps well, and is excellent for drying by the fire" (p. 768).
105. This, surely, is not really raw (completely unrefined) sugar, but cassonade, a partially refined brown sugar.
106. Macquer (n. 5 above), vol. 4, p. 211.
107. The report of Macquer's reading an essay on this subject is found in a footnote on an unnumbered page between pp. 304-5 of a manuscript copy of Guillaume-François Rouelle's lectures, titled "Cours de chimie de M. Rouelle, rédigé par M. Diderot et éclairci de plusieurs notes," at the Bibliothèque de Bordeaux, MS 564-65. The anonymous editor of this document probably added the note. G.-F. Rouelle died in 1770.
108. Macquer, p. 213.
109. Béguillet, Œnologie (n. 23 above). A second edition was published in 1773 under the title Nouveau traité de la vigne avec la meilleure méthode de la cultiver.
110. Ibid., pp. 231-32.
111. Ibid., p. 231.
112. Rouelle, "Cours de chimie," p. 286. Also in the same manuscript (p. 299) there appears an illuminating insight into the practice of contemporary wine merchants with regard to the use of sugar in the fabrication of artificial champagne. Rouelle told his students how wine merchants sometimes ""reawakened" fermentation in a nonsparkling wine by adding sugar to it, and then, before this new fermentation was completed, put the wine into sealed "vessels" (he does not say of what kind). When reopened, the wine was found to be sparkling, like champagne.
113. Chymisches Wörterbuch, trans.Johann Gottfried Leonhardi, 6 vols. (Leipzig, 1781-83), vol. 5, p. 600. Because of uncertainties in the translation of Leonhardi's prose, it may be best to quote also the original German: "In der ersten Ausgabe dieses Werkes, wo der Verfasser diese Betrachlungen noch nicht angestellt hatt, erinnerte bereits Herr Pörner, daß er durch den Zusatz von Honig oder Zucker aus säuerlichen Mostarten sehr gute Produkte erhalten hat. Vielleicht gab diese Bemerkung dem Herrn Macquer Gelegenheit zu seinen nachherigen Untersuchungen." Leonhardi further stated, "It is, however, also really not so unknown. See the Collected Proceedings of the Complete Art of Vinification, vol. 1 (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1766), p. 483." Leonhardi had been Pörner's student at Leipzig. It is unclear whether Leonhardi meant the technique of sugaring grapes or the published reference.
114. Chymisches Wörterbuch, trans.Johann Gottfried Leonhardi, 6 vols. (Leipzig, 1781- 83), vol. 5, p. 600. Because of uncertainties in the translation of Leonhardi's prose, it may be best to quote also the original German: "In der ersten Ausgabe dieses Werkes, wo der Verfasser diese Betrachlungen noch nicht angestellt hatt, erinnerte bereits Herr Pörner, daß er durch den Zusatz von Honig oder Zucker aus säuerlichen Mostarten sehr gute Produkte erhalten hat. Vielleicht gab diese Bemerkung dem Herrn Macquer Gelegenheit zu seinen nachherigen Untersuchungen." Leonhardi further stated, "It is, however, also really not so unknown. See the Collected Proceedings of the Complete Art of Vinification, vol. 1 (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1766), p. 483." Leonhardi had been Pörner's student at Leipzig. It is unclear whether Leonhardi meant the technique of sugaring grapes or the published reference.
115. [Marco Antonio Lastri, ed. and trans.], Delle viti e da vini di Borgogna memoria di un monaco cisterciense. Tradotta in Italiano sur un manoscritto Francese e corredata di brevi note. D'ail autore dell'Anno rustico (Florence, 1779).
116. Dom Gentil (1725 or 1731-1800) entered the abbey of Cîteau at eighteen and, perhaps because of his interest in the application of chemistry to agriculture, was put in charge of the estates dependent upon the abbey of Clairvaux. He later became abbot of the Cistercian house at Fontenay in the Côte d'Or, near Dijon. The Cistercians owned many of the finest vineyards in Burgundy, and they were able to produce wines of incomparable value and distinction largely by means of generations of patient experimentation. Gentil represents a curious and wonderful mixture of the most technologically progressive strains of both medieval monasticism and enlightenment empiricism. There is a brief biography of Gentil in the Nouvelle biographie générale. Chaptal made frequent reference to him, and in a footnote on pp. 71-72 of the second (1819) edition of L'art de faire le vin (n. 1 above), he praised the "numerous experiments" Gentil had conducted on Burgundian wines and mentioned that Gentil had written a treatise on fermentation (not the one translated by Lastri, however), which had been wrongfully denied a first prize (and publication) offered by the Royal Society of Science at Montpellier in 1780. Gentil's book, Mémoire sur la question proposée par la Société des sciences de Montpellier: "Déterminé, par un moyen fixe, simple et portée de tout cultivateur, le moment auquel le vin en fermentation dans le cuve aura acquis toute la force et toute la qualité dont il est susceptible," was, however, published posthumously in 1802, and since the publisher was the same one that Chaptal was using at the time (Marchant) it is perhaps reasonable to suppose that Chaptal himself had a hand in bringing the book to press.
117. Dom Gentil (1725 or 1731-1800) entered the abbey of Cîteau at eighteen and, perhaps because of his interest in the application of chemistry to agriculture, was put in charge of the estates dependent upon the abbey of Clairvaux. He later became abbot of the Cistercian house at Fontenay in the Côte d'Or, near Dijon. The Cistercians owned many of the finest vineyards in Burgundy, and they were able to produce wines of incomparable value and distinction largely by means of generations of patient experimentation. Gentil represents a curious and wonderful mixture of the most technologically progressive strains of both medieval monasticism and enlightenment empiricism. There is a brief biography of Gentil in the Nouvelle biographie générale. Chaptal made frequent reference to him, and in a footnote on pp. 71-72 of the second (1819) edition of L'art de faire le vin (n. 1 above), he praised the "numerous experiments" Gentil had conducted on Burgundian wines and mentioned that Gentil had written a treatise on fermentation (not the one translated by Lastri, however), which had been wrongfully denied a first prize (and publication) offered by the Royal Society of Science at Montpellier in 1780. Gentil's book, Mémoire sur la question proposée par la Société des sciences de Montpellier: "Déterminé, par un moyen fixe, simple et portée de tout cultivateur, le moment auquel le vin en fermentation dans le cuve aura acquis toute la force et toute la qualité dont il est susceptible," was, however, published posthumously in 1802, and since the publisher was the same one that Chaptal was using at the time (Marchant) it is perhaps reasonable to suppose that Chaptal himself had a hand in bringing the book to press.
118. Dom Gentil (1725 or 1731-1800) entered the abbey of Cîteau at eighteen and, perhaps because of his interest in the application of chemistry to agriculture, was put in charge of the estates dependent upon the abbey of Clairvaux. He later became abbot of the Cistercian house at Fontenay in the Côte d'Or, near Dijon. The Cistercians owned many of the finest vineyards in Burgundy, and they were able to produce wines of incomparable value and distinction largely by means of generations of patient experimentation. Gentil represents a curious and wonderful mixture of the most technologically progressive strains of both medieval monasticism and enlightenment empiricism. There is a brief biography of Gentil in the Nouvelle biographie générale. Chaptal made frequent reference to him, and in a footnote on pp. 71-72 of the second (1819) edition of L'art de faire le vin (n. 1 above), he praised the "numerous experiments" Gentil had conducted on Burgundian wines and mentioned that Gentil had written a treatise on fermentation (not the one translated by Lastri, however), which had been wrongfully denied a first prize (and publication) offered by the Royal Society of Science at Montpellier in 1780. Gentil's book, Mémoire sur la question proposée par la Société des sciences de Montpellier: "Déterminé, par un moyen fixe, simple et portée de tout cultivateur, le moment auquel le vin en fermentation dans le cuve aura acquis toute la force et toute la qualité dont il est susceptible," was, however, published posthumously in 1802, and since the publisher was the same one that Chaptal was using at the time (Marchant) it is perhaps reasonable to suppose that Chaptal himself had a hand in bringing the book to press.
119. Lastri, Delle viti e dei vini di Borgogna, p. 47. Six pounds of honey per barrel of four hundred bottles would work out to about 9 grams of sugar per liter, a modest chaptalization that would raise the alcohol content of the wine by only a little more than 0.5 percent.
120. Claude Arnoux, Dissertation sur la situation en Bourgogne (London, 1728), pp. 47-48.
121. Gabler (n. 15 above), pp. 200-201.
122. Lastri, Delle viti e del vini di Borgogna, p. 48.
123. Chaptal, Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin, and Parmentier published Instruction sur la fabrication du sucre de raisin (Paris, 1810), a pamphlet that was, in effect, a small, simple manual of instruction for French viticulturists.
124. "One does not have to use wild fruits to color [the wine], for which employment the law punishes the unscrupulous wine merchant." A. A. Cadet-de-Vaux, L'art de faire le vin d'après la doctrine de Chaptal (Paris, 1803), p. 9.
125. Gabler, p. 227. In Paris, at any rate, brandying was apparently regarded as a species of fraud; see n. 29, above.
126. On the poor quality of ordinary brandy, see the 1819 edition of Chaptal's L'art de faire te vin (n. 1 above) p. xiii. In the Lastri translation, just after the sentence which claims that the costs of sugaring can be offset by the increased quality and quantity of the extractable brandy, the author adds that in Burgundy brandy was not produced except from the fermented pomace and lees. Lastri, Delle viti e dei vini di Bargogna (n. 74 above), p. 48.
127. "As a general rule, wines rich in alcohol are powerful and full-bodied, but they have neither that suppleness nor that fine bouquet (parfum) which distinguishes some of the others; the brandy that is derived from them is less smooth than that which is provided by more feeble wines." Chaptal, L'art de faire le vin (1819 edition), p. 358. It should be noted that the economic considerations with regard to wine are quite different from those with regard to brandy. In the case of brandy, increasing the quantity of production through chaptalization yields only a small added value to the finished product. In the case of wine, chaptalization makes a qualitative difference, often between a wine that has some value and a wine that has little or virtually none.
128. A. A. Cadet-de-Vaux (1743-1828), a pharmacist and professor of chemistry, and cofounder with Parmentier of the École de Boulangerie, was the author of this tract. As minister of the interior, Chaptal had authority over the vast administrative structure that was soon to become the French Empire.
129. At least two of the completed questionnaires were published. The one on Bordeaux, prepared by Jean-Baptiste Labadie de Lalande (1762-1829), a wealthy landowner of the Entre-deux-Mers region, appeared in two parts: "Mémoire en réponse aux divers questions proposée par le cit. Chaptal, membre de l'Institut," parts 1 and 2, Annales de chimie 30 (30 Floréal, An VII [19 May 1799]): 113-51; 30 (30 Prairial, An VII [18 June, 1799]): 225-48.
130. A second questionnaire concerning Champagne and prepared by a Monsieur Germon of Epernay appeared as "Questions et réponses sur les vignes et sur les vins de Champagne," Annales de chimie 61 (31 January 1807): 5-57. In addition, Chaptal made frequent reference to the wine making techniques of Spain, North Italy, Calabria, and Cyprus.
131. Reference to the Spanish translation is not found in the usual bibliographic sources. It was made by Francisco Carbonell y Bravo (1758-1837), who took his medical degree at Montpellier under Chaptal and studied chemistry under Louis-Joseph Proust at Madrid. His Manual de la fabrication del vino y del vinagre (Barcelona, 1830) consists of an unattributed translation of most of Chaptal's Traité with ancillary chapters written, probably, by Carbonell y Bravo himself.
132. James Busby, A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine, and the Art of Making Wine; Compiled from the Works of Chaptal and Other French Writers . . . (Australia, 1825).
133. The book is divided into two parts: part 1, chapter 1 (pp. 1-28) and all ten chapters of part 2 (pp. 124-270) appear to be little more than translations of the eleven chapters of Chaptal's treatise.
134. On Busby, see Richard Smart, "Busby, James," in Robinson (n. 49 above), pp. 166-67.
135. Chaptal, L'art de faire le vin, 2nd ed. (n. 1 above), p. xvi.
136. "The addition of sugar has the double advantage of augmenting the spirituosity of wines and of preventing the acid decay to which feeble wines are subject. . . . After treating fermentation with these procedures, they [i.e., the wines] acquire body, they keep, and they improve through aging. . . . The wines of Lucca, Naples, Saint-Villier and many other places have showed considerable improvement. In all the countries of the North the same results have been obtained; a rich Hungarian magnate assured me that by following my procedures, he had tripled his production." Ibid., pp. 125-26. A Hungarian translation of Chaptal's Traité théorique et pratique (n. 1 above) was published in two volumes in Veszprém, in 1813 and 1814.
137. "The addition of sugar has the double advantage of augmenting the spirituosity of wines and of preventing the acid decay to which feeble wines are subject. . . . After treating fermentation with these procedures, they [i.e., the wines] acquire body, they keep, and they improve through aging. . . . The wines of Lucca, Naples, Saint-Villier and many other places have showed considerable improvement. In all the countries of the North the same results have been obtained; a rich Hungarian magnate assured me that by following my procedures, he had tripled his production." Ibid., pp. 125-26. A Hungarian translation of Chaptal's Traité théorique et pratique (n. 1 above) was published in two volumes in Veszprém, in 1813 and 1814.