Most grapes contain juices, which, when fermented, become in time as light and pellucid as water, and are possessed of fine spiritous parts, sufficient to cherish, comfort, and even inebriate. But these properties of vinosity are observed not to be equally perfect in the fruits of all vines; some of them are found less, others not at all proper for this purpose. It is therefore necessary to examine the circumstances which attend the forming and ripening of those grapes, whose juices produce the finest liquors of the kind. All grapes, when they first bud forth, are austere and sour, therefore of a middle nature. And this can be no other than the effect of the autumnal remaining sap, mixed with the new raised vernal one, the consequence of which mixture will be found greatly to merit our inquiry. As far as our senses can judge, at first, it appears that the juice, in this state, consists of somewhat more than an acid combined with a tasteless water. When the fruit is ripe, it becomes full of a rich, sweet, and highly flavoured juice. The color, consistency, and taste of which shew, that, by the power of heat, a considerable quantity of oil has been raised, and, sheathing the salts, is the reason of its saccharine taste and saccharine properties. In England, grapes are probably produced under the least heat they can be raised by. They discover themselves in their first shape, about June, when the medium heat of the twenty-four hour’s shade is 57,60. This, with what more should be added for the effect of the sun’s beams, are the degrees of heat which first introduce the juices into this fruit. The highest degrees of heat, in the countries where grapes come to perfect maturity, have been observed to be, in various parts of Italy, Spain, and Greece 100, and at Montpelier 88, in the shade; to which, according to Dr. Lining’s observations, 20 degrees must be added for the effect of the sun’s beams. The greatest heat in Italy will then amount to 120 degrees, and in the south of France to 108. These approach nearly to the strongest heats observed in the hottest climates, which, in Astracan, Syria, Senegal, and Carolina, were from 124 to 126 degrees.