WINE AND THE ART OF WINE TASTING. 23 



"subdivided" by the tongue, and finally to the action of the juices 

 secreted by the various parts of the mouth. 



The taster having thoroughly examined the appearance of the wine, 

 lifts the glass to a convenient distance and inhales the odors which are 

 given off, and which fill the upper part of the glass, sometimes shaking 

 or striking the glass to aid their giving off. 



A wine may give off various odors, good or bad. I will treat of both 

 of these when I come to describe the qualities good and bad which a 

 wine may present. 



Before proceeding further with the tasting it will be interesting to 

 repeat the observations of Guyot, and of Brillat-Savarin, the " modern 

 epicure/' regarding the colors and aromas of wines. 



" The aroma, like the color," writes Guyot. " is a favorable or an un- 

 favorable, an agreeable or a disagreeable sign; but wine is above all an 

 alimentary beverage; it is well that sight and smell should be satisfied, 

 but it would be puerile and ridiculous to give undue importance to the 

 satisfaction of these two senses, and to found the pretensions of a wine 

 to superiority exclusively on its pleasing effect on one or both of them. 



" I make this remark expressly because there are many hosts who 

 have a troublesome habit of insisting that their guests shall continually 

 inhale the odors given off by their wine, and especially insist on their 

 smelling their empty glasses during a great part of the dinner, at the 

 risk of making them die of thirst.* 



" The connoisseur, like the taster, knows perfectly well the importance 

 of the color and bouquet of a wine, but he knows also that their appre- 

 ciation should be immediately followed by the introduction of the liquid 

 into the anterior portion of the mouth. 



" The color and the bouquet are two introductory notes of a gastro- 

 nomic theme. Alone they have but a relative value, and give but a 

 partial impression of the whole theme." 



Brillat-Savarin, who is an authority in matters of taste, writes, in 

 his "Physiologic du Gout:" 



" For my part I am not only persuaded that without the sense of 

 smell there is no complete tasting, but I am tempted to believe that taste 

 and smell constitute but one sense, of which the mouth is the labora- 

 tory and the nose the chimney; or to speak more literally, of which the 

 former serves to taste the tangible parts and the latter the gaseous." 



Thus, for example, when we eat a peach, the first thing that strikes us 

 is its perfume; when we place it in the mouth we experience a sensation 

 of coolness and acidity which invites us to continue; but it is only 

 when the mouthful is swallowed, when it passes beneath the nasal cavi- 

 ties, that we perceive the perfume, and the peach completes the impres- 

 sion that it should produce. This will explain why the sensations which 

 are usually accredited to the sense of taste are in reality much more 

 complicated than is supposed, and that touch and smell contribute in 

 great part to the complex effect. It may be said that without smell 

 taste would be reduced to very little and its agreeable sensations much 

 enfeebled. Taste and smell combine with and complete each other, and 

 Thomson has very justly defined them as the instruments of a unique 



* Here Guyot might safely add that these people who are so troublesomely importu- 

 nate are generally those who have recourse to the addition of artificial aromas to their 

 wines. 



