ADULTERATION OF WINE. 353 



dent of grapes the forcing carbonic acid gas into 

 sweet wines, to imitate effervescing champagne. 



One of the first adulterations which must be named 

 has won for itself a respectable name, that of blending. 

 It ought not to be called adulteration if two or three 

 wines of the same kind are mixed together in order 

 to represent a wine of a general name, without any 

 other addition; for example, to an aromatic wine a 

 second which is stronger, and a third which is weaker. 

 He who orders Bordeaux wine, and gets two or three 

 kinds mixed together, in the manner mentioned 

 above, is truly and honestly dealt by. An acquaintance 

 with the art of blending is a capital method of satisfy- 

 ing the taste of consumers, and of producing an 

 article suited to exportation and cellaring. Claret is 

 such a mixture of wines of uncertain names. 



There are plenty of wines which, though not them- 

 selves agreeable, mix very well. When wines of the 

 same kind are mixed, and no new name given them, it 

 cannot be called adulteration. But when the name 

 is altered, even supposing good wine to be used, the 

 person who does it is guilty of falsehood, and un- 

 truth is falsifying, and adulteration is cheating, and 

 he who cheats is an impostor. 



It is, indeed, no easy matter to restore its right 

 name to an adulterated wine : chemically to distin- 

 guish Cantemerle from Johannisberg, or Lafitte from 

 Madeira, cannot be required ; but what is desired is 

 to know if Cantemerle be really Cantemerle. 



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