224 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 
the condition, quality, &c., of the wines collected. With this 
object, two well-known merchants and recognised expert wine 
tasters in Melbourne, Mr. Maurice Steiner (who graduated 
as a master cellarman at the Royal Hungarian Model Wine- 
cellars, Buda-Pesth) and Mr. A. H. L. Browne (of the Chateau 
Tahbilk Prop. Ltd.), were consulted, and very kindly undertook 
to taste the 203 samples of Victorian and foreign wines. These 
gentlemen tasted the wines quite independently of and unknown 
to each other, the samples being submitted to them under num- 
bers. Their opinions, together with the marks awarded for 
colour, condition, bouquet, and flavour, were averaged (the agree- 
ment between their decisions was really excellent), and are re- 
corded side by side with the other determinations for each wine, 
in order to facilitate comparisons. It will be seen that the ex- 
pert tasters condemn eighteen out of the fifty-one wines in the 
port group as unsound, sour, or unfit for consumption, and seven- 
teen in the remaining 115 Victorian wines, or a total of thirty-five 
wines in all, equal to 21 per cent., while among the thirty-seven 
wines imported they did not succeed in detecting a single unsound 
bottle. Attention may be drawn to the fact that in most cases 
where salicylic acid was found the expert wine-tasters detected 
some fault, or suspicion of unsoundness or disease. 
In the annual official examination of wines in Austro-Hungary, 
already referred to, in 1897, the number of unsound wines sold 
was, out of over 3000 examined, only 6 per cent., and reached 
7.5 per cent. in 189835. So that even with the aid of preser- 
vatives, the Victorian wine-makers, wine merchants, and retail 
vendors are unable to place wine before the public in as sound 
and drinkable a condition as the wine-makers and retailers of 
Austro-Hungary where the use of all preservatives and other adul- 
teration is absolutely prohibited. 
In conclusion, I desire to offer sincere thanks to Messrs. Mau- 
rice Steiner and A. H. L. Browne for their kindness in judging 
at great sacrifice of time, the collection of Victorian and foreign 
wines, of which the detailed results, both chemical and organo- 
leptic, are given in the appended tables. 
[Tables omitted.—Eb. ] 
Notre.—The above paper by Mr. W. Percy Wilkinson excited 
considerable public interest, and an extended discussion on the 
subject took place in the daily press, lasting over nine months. 
Official analyses of wines, as retailed in Victoria, amply con- 
firmed Mr. Wilkinson’s statements. Finally, an Act of Parlia- 
ment was passed on the 13th October, 1900, prohibiting adultera- 
tion of any Victorian wine, the Act coming into operation on the 
first day of January, 1901.—Ep. 
35 Weinbau und Weinhandel, s. 449. Mainz. 1899. 
