26 WINE AND THE ART OF WINE TASTING. 



m. 



QUALITIES AND DEFECTS OP "WINES. 



The art of wine tasting, like every art or science, has a language of 

 its own, without which the taster could not properly express his criti- 

 cisms, nor compare his opinions with those of other tasters regarding the 

 same wine. 



This renders it necessary to define or explain the various terms that 

 have been adopted by tasters to express the sensations experienced by 

 their senses of sight, smell, and taste, during the examination of a wine. 



FOAM (Spuma, It.; Mousse, Fr.). When a wine is poured from one 

 vessel to another, or agitated in any way, there forms a more or less 

 abundant foam; that is, at the surface of the wine there are formed in 

 greater or less quantities collections of little gaseous bubbles. 



FINE FOAM (Spuma di gr ana fine, It.; Mousse a perles fines, Fr.). The 

 foam due to the formation of very small bubbles. 



COARSE FOAM (Spuma di grana grossa, It.; Mousse a grosses perles, 

 Fr.). When the bubbles are larger. 



EVANESCENT FOAM (Spuma evanescente, It.; Mousse evanouissante, 

 Fr.). Said of that which disappears immediately, or almost as soon 

 as formed. As the old saying has it: " Vino die brucia la spuma " (a wine 

 that consumes its foam). 



PERSISTENT FOAM (Spuma persistente, It.; Mousse persistante, Fr.). 

 When the foam lasts some time and disappears slowly. 



Persistent foam, as a rule, is characteristic of a wine poor in alcohol; 

 of a wine at a low temperature, or of a wine in need of racking, or, it 

 may be, of a wine which is undergoing a slow fermentation, which may 

 be either the normal and necessary alcoholic fermentation, or may be 

 what is known as a secondary fermentation, in which case the wine is a 

 prey to some malady tartaric fermentation, for example. 



The foam may also be persistent on account of effervescence, that is, 

 the continued giving off of carbonic acid, which is dissolved in the wine, 

 and which in escaping on the decrease of pressure forms little bubbles 

 which renew the foam. 



In the first cases cited above, the foam is usually limited to a more or 

 less imperfect crown or ring of bubbles which form around the edge of 

 the glass; or if the wine contains more than the usual amount of car- 

 bonic acid a bubble of gas will now and then be formed and rise to the 

 surface. 



When some disease is the cause of the persistent foam, especially if it 

 be that known as " subbollimento, cercone, or vino girato" (vin tourne of 

 the French), the circle formed is called "unghia" (nail), from which 

 the expression " il vino fa Vunghia nel bicchiere." [This disease of turned 

 wine is due to the filiform ferment, which destroys the tartar of the 

 wine. Trans.] 



In the last case, when the persistent foam is due to effervescence, 

 which may be of various intensities, several distinctions are made, of 

 which the following are the principal: 



