12 WINE AND THE ART OP WINE TASTING. 



is both useful and pleasing, it is different with wine where constant 

 uniformity of type is necessary. 



As in this class of wines are comprehended all qualities from the 

 finest to the most ordinary, it is easily seen that other distinctions can 

 and must be made, in order that the wines, for example, of Barolo or 

 Chianti, shall be distinguished from wines produced in some less favor- 

 able locality. 



The various wines that enter into the category under discussion can 

 be naturally and conveniently classified as follows: 



A. Superfine, or high-class wines; the "Grands Vins" of the French. 



B. Fine wines. 



C. Fine common wines. 



D. Common wines. 



E. Low-grade wines. 



This classification, as Polacci would say, has nothing imaginative 

 or strained about it, as it simply represents the wines that we really 

 have and of which we make use in commerce. 



I will now try to give, not a definition, because the name of each class 

 is of itself a definition, and should give a fair conception of the dis- 

 tinction to be made between the several classes, but an idea regarding 

 the characteristics which have served in grading the wines which we 

 actually produce in Italy. 



A. High-class Wines. These are wines which are produced in certain 

 spots, or rather which are obtained from certain varieties of grapes, grown 

 in especially favorable conditions of climate, and more particularly of 

 soil, compared with those of the circumjacent vineyards; wines which 

 also, it may be said, are the product of an almost infinite series of care- 

 ful treatments, beginning in the vineyard and continued through the 

 vintage and during the whole time, which is certainly not brief, of their 

 conservation; wines, in short, which unite in themselves all the char- 

 acteristics and qualities which should be found in a fine wine, united 

 with the greatest delicacy and fragrance of aroma and freshness on the 

 palate. An Italian wine which belongs to this class is the Chianti di 

 Brolio. Of the French wines of Bordeaux, or more precisely of the 

 Medoc, there are Chateau-Lafite and Chateau-la-Tour, the latter of 

 which is distinguished from the former by a slightly heavier body and 

 a more pronounced flavor and aroma. 



B. Fine Wines. These are wines which approach very nearly to the 

 preceding class, but are, nevertheless, somewhat inferior to them, either 

 in delicacy of aroma or in some other quality; very often they lack or 

 are deficient in the freshness which distinguishes the first class. These 

 wines are very often the product of grapes grown in the neighborhood 

 of the vineyards producing the first-class wines which have given 

 renown to the locality, but they may be made from grapes grown in 

 other localities. To this second class belong, for example, those wines 

 of Chianti which resemble greatly in character the Chianti di Brolio, 

 but do not equal it. In the same way among the French wines of the 

 Medoc, Saint-Julien and Saint-Estephe approach but are not equal to 

 Chateau-Lafite. 



It may very possibly be that some of the wines of Chianti exhibit 

 qualities which place them, so to speak, in rank with the Chianti di 

 Brolio; then from the second they must be promoted to the first class, 

 as is the case with Chateau-la-Tour, which,, though somewhat different, is 



