10. Did the Ancients Use Methods to Preserve the Juices Sweet?

Did the Ancients Use Methods to Preserve the Juices Sweet?

Augustine Calmet, the learned author of the Dictionary of the Bible, born 1672, says: “The ancients possessed the secret of preserving wines sweet throughout the whole year.” If they were alcoholic, they would preserve themselves. The peculiarity was preserving them sweet. Chemistry tells us that the juice loses its sweetness when, by fermentation, the sugar is converted into alcohol. Preserving them sweet throughout the whole year meant preserving them unfermented.

Chemical science instructs us that by reason of the great sweetness of the juice and the heat of the climate at the vintage, the vinous fermentation would be precluded, and that, unless by some method prevented, the acetous would certainly and speedily commence. Four modes were known and practised by the ancients which modern chemical science confirms.