14 WINE AND THE ART OF WINE TASTING. 



exclude the possibility of producing such wines from grapes grown on 

 hills, and especially when the exposure is unfavorable, or when the 

 nature of the soil is unsuitable, or when, on account of the ignorance 

 of the grape grower, who prefers quantity to quality, he plants by pref- 

 erence those varieties which give an abundant crop of very inferior 

 grapes. Wines of this class have very poor keeping qualities, lasting 

 two years at the most, and in general in aging, with the exception of 

 those which are very rough and astringent, deteriorate instead of im- 

 proving. 



These wines are sufficiently alcoholic, but owe their conservation less 

 to their alcohol than to their acids, among which, with many of them, 

 must be included carbonic acid. To their acids, also, they owe most of 

 their hygienic value, which is to aid in the digestion of the food con- 

 sumed by the laborers who drink them food which is naturally diffi- 

 cult of digestion, and rendered more so by its ill preparation. 



These wines are more nutritious than are those of the preceding class, 

 containing, as they do, larger quantities of albuminoids, in which grapes 

 from the plains usually abound. The reason of the greater abundance 

 of nitrogenous matters in inferior grapes is the natural fertility of the 

 soil on which they have been grown, or the fact that this ground has 

 been manured with nitrogenous fertilizers, with the idea of increasing 

 the bearing of grapes or the production of wood and foliage. 



These wines are naturally very variable, differing greatly according to 

 the conditions of soil, climate, and aspect under which they have been 

 produced. To further increase this variability man does his best, seem- 

 ing to take a delight in practicing methods of wine making that are 

 apparently ingeniously calculated to spoil the wine. 



A wine of this class should be of easy digestion, and easily consumed 

 in moderate quantities, without affecting the head or the stomach. It 

 should be smooth, clean tasting, well fermented, with a certain amount 

 of flavor and acid, and should show none of the effects of secondary fer- 

 mentations to which these wines are so subject; finally, it should possess 

 a good, bright, but not deep, color. 



I have said a wine of this class "should be" all this, because only too 

 often, on account of careless making or improper handling, they are 

 anything but healthful; they are, on the contrary, 'heavy and indigesti- 

 ble, causing, even when used sparingly, disturbances of the head and 

 stomach; they are heavy-bodied wines, and so thick as to be appropri- 

 ately called by some people, "vini carnosi;" their defects are usually 

 due to the vessels in which they have been made and kept, to bad fer- 

 mentation, or to the addition of substances which have been put in with 

 the intention of preserving the wine, or of masking its defects. They 

 are often costive and overcharged with tannin and coloring matter, 

 recalling, the moment they touch the palate, the flavor of ink. Their 

 color is generally unstable and dull. 



E. Low-grade Wines. These wines occupy the lowest grade on the 

 osnological scale, that is to say, among natural wines. In drinking one 

 of these wines one asks himself if it is really a wine or not rather a 

 piquette or mixture of water and wine, with superabundance of the 

 former. Except color, these wines are deficient in all the elements 

 proper to wine. They must be consumed promptly during the winter, 

 or they cease to be wine. Generally, to render them drinkable at all, 

 they must be left for some time on their pomace, or on that of better 



