L'Art d'améliorer et de conserver les vins ; avec la meilleure manière de les préparer, de prévenir & de remédier aux altérations auxquelles ils sont sujets, & de reconnoître ceux qui sont frelatés. Suivi d'un recueil de 105 secrets ou recettes nécessaires à ceux qui veulent faire voyager ou garder long-temps toutes sortes de vins, tant de France que d'Espagne, de Canarie, du Rhin, de Malaga, de Gascogne, de Malvoisie, &c.[The Art of Improving and Preserving Wines; together with the best method of preparing them, of preventing and remedying the alterations to which they are liable, and of detecting those that are adulterated. Followed by a collection of 105 secrets or recipes necessary for those wishing to transport or keep for a long time all kinds of wines, whether from France or from Spain, the Canaries, the Rhine, Malaga, Gascony, Malmsey, etc.]
This work is in fact the reissue of the original edition, published under a new title: the 1772 edition was entitled "Dissertation sur les vins".
One hundred blank leaves have been bound at the end of the text.
The work saw an expanded edition in 1782, which was subsequently reprinted. (Cf. Simon BG: 510. Not recorded by Vicaire, Oberlé, or Bitting. Lacking from the Kilian Fritsch Collection.)
Contemporary half mottled tawny sheep with vellum-tipped corners, the spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments, marbled paper sides, red edges.
An important treatise on vinification by a former wine merchant’s employee who had worked in France, England, and Holland.
The volume details the methods then used to preserve and improve wines, as well as to treat those that had spoiled. One chapter is devoted to the manner of making wines in Champagne (pp. 135–179). It is also, however, a veritable compendium of “fraudulent recipes”…
An open invitation to fraud, so much so that the censor responsible for granting approval was visibly unsettled: this dissertation "contient les formules suivant lesquelles on sophistique les vins, cependant on peut le laisser imprimer, parce qu'elle n'apprend aux frelateurs de vins que ce qu'ils savent bien faire et qu'elle fait connaître au public qui et prévenu, que les vins frelatés sont dangereux et les moyens qu'on emploie pour le tromper". [D. Denis, Histoire socio-économique de la vigne et du vin.]