42 WINE AND THE -ART OF WINE TASTING. 



and draws up the lips and mouth. This acidity comes from immature 

 seeds or green stems, which communicate their acids, such as malic, 

 racemic, etc., to the wine; in other words, the acid is the same chem- 

 ically as that found in unripe fruit.* 



Wine produced from grapes which for some cause or other have not 

 reached their maturity, are always more or less harshly acid. 



With time this repellant acidity disappears, for the reason, according 

 to Dessaignes, that the malic acid, after eight or ten months, decomposes 

 into succinic and butyric acids, f 



MATURE WINE ( Vino maturo, It.; Vin mur, Fr.). A mature wine is 

 one which has quite developed all its characteristic qualities, and which 

 is therefore ready to be drunk, or to be placed in bottles, where, in aging, 

 it will go on improving. 



DECREPIT WINE ( Vino decrepito, passato, It.; Vin passe, affiabli, Fr.). 

 The caducity of a wine is the stage, according to Dr. Guyot, where it has 

 passed its prime maturity, and when it has already commenced to 

 deteriorate; when, in other words, it has lost some or all of the qualities 

 due to its volatile principles and other constituents. 



A decrepit wine has lost its fragrance, has become flat; it has not 

 contracted any disagreeable or repelling flavor, for the taste of age that 

 these wines have cannot be called disagreeable in the same sense as a 

 wine which is attacked by the disease called bitterness, but it has a slight 

 bitterness which recalls that of some resinous substances. 



These wines, when they find themselves in favorable conditions, as 

 when exposed to the air, decompose readily. 



"A wine which has been exposed to the cold of winter and the heat of 

 summer acquires in the month of September the taste which Italians 

 call 'settembrino,' which is exhausted and 'passe.'" M. Salvini. 



DRYJ ( Vino asciutto, It.; Vin sec, Fr.). This is said of a wine which 

 leaves in the mouth a sense of dryness. It is a characteristic of highly 

 alcoholic and somewhat astringent wines. " Pomino leaves the mouth 

 dry," say the Tuscans. A dry wine is not only without even the slightest 

 taste of glucose, but it does not contain, or only in the most minute 

 degree, the quality of smoothness due to a certain quantity of glycerine, 

 and, in the case of high-class wines, of other substances. 



ASTRINGENT (Aspretto, It.; Un peu dpre, Fr.). When the tannin is 

 somewhat noticeable. 



*This acidity must not be confounded with that due to the acetification of the wine. 

 This excessive acidity may be amended by an indirect method, which is that suggested 

 by Gall, and which aims to correct the must before fermentation. Or some may have 

 recourse to "marmorizzazione;" that is, the addition to the wine of powdered calcium 

 carbonate (marble), which is, however, a method which cannot be very highly recom- 

 mended, and when necessary, Liebig's method is much to be preferred. This method is 

 to add to the wine a concentrated solution of neutral tartrate of potash in such propor- 

 tion as to bring down the acidity to the desired degree. 



As a preliminary test, to ascertain with an approximation near enough for practical 

 purposes, several quart bottles are filled with the wine to be treated, and to each bottle 

 is added a certain quantity of the solution of neutral tartrate of potash, each bottle being 

 given a slightly greater dose than the one before. The bottles are then corked and left 

 to themselves for a few days. They are then tasted, and the one giving the desired result 

 is used as the basis of calculation for treating the whole quantity. 



t The organic acids contained in the must are the following: Tartaric, racemic, malic, 

 citric, tannic, palmitic, stearic, etc. 



The acids, on the other hand, which are produced by fermentation, the oxidation of 

 the alcohol, or the breaking up of the sugar, are: Carbonic, acetic, propionic, butyric, 

 valerianic, capronic, (jenanthilic, pelargonic, succinic, lactic, etc. 



% This is a restricted use of the term dry, somewhat different from its more general 

 meaning, which is simply not sweet, that is, containing no glucose. Trans. 



