There are undoubtedly liquors, which, though they have of themselves a tendency to fermentation, and are naturally brought to it, yet, from some defect in the proportions of their constituent parts, either do not acquire a proper transparency, or cannot maintain themselves in a sound state for a sufficient time. These disadvantages, inbred with them, can hardly ever be entirely removed; they gain very little, especially the latter, from age, and therefore are really inferior to liquors, which require the assistance of substituted ferments, to become real wines. In some artificial fermentations, the ferments are so duly and properly supplied, and so intimately blended with the liquor, that in the end they approach very near to, and even vie with, the most perfect natural wines. Were I to enter into a more minute detail, it might be shewn, that wines, when transported from a hot climate to a cold one, are often hurt and checked in the progress of the repeated frettings they require; from whence they become or remain imperfect, unless racked off from their grosser lees, or precipitated with strong menstruums; whereas beers may be so brewed, as to be adapted either to a hot or a cold region, not only without any disadvantage, but with considerable improvements. Hitherto I have considered grapes as a most pulpous fruit, sufficient to furnish the quantity of water necessary for extracting its other parts; but the natives of the countries where this fruit abounds, in order to preserve them, as near as possible in their primitive state, after they are gathered, suspend them in barns, or place them in ovens, to dry. Thus, being in great measure divested of their aqueous parts, these grapes remain almost inactive, and without juices sufficient to form wines.