48 WINE AND THE ART OF WINE TASTING. 



BURNT TASTE (Sa d'abbruciato, It.; Gout de brule, Fr.). When the 

 wine has a flavor of acrid fruit, together with a spurious cooked taste. 



The taste of which we speak is a consequence of the partial withering 

 of the grapes before their maturity, on account of extreme heat or of 

 great changes of temperature between night and day. 



MOUSEY TASTE (Sa di topo,-It.', Gout de souris, Fr.). A wine will 

 sometimes have a disgusting flavor and odor that recalls forcibly the 

 odor of the excrements of mice. The cause of this defect is not well 

 known. According to some authorities, it is due to lack of cleanliness 

 in the receptacles in which the wine is kept. Others believe it to be 

 caused by the action of the oxygen of the air on the extractive matter 

 of the wine, for there seems sometimes to be a distant analogy between 

 the mousey taste and the fresh bread taste so much appreciated in some 

 liquors. It is very probable that both of these causes concur to produce 

 this taste, for it is found sometimes even in wines which have been kept 

 in glass. 



The mousey taste may be more or less intense, and wines affected 

 produce a dry feeling in the mouth when they are tasted. If a wine has 

 this taste in a very slight degree it is not noticed immediately; it often 

 happens that after passing judgment on a wine, one's opinion has to be 

 modified by a mousey taste which is not perceived at first. If the defect 

 is pronounced, it is perceived immediately by the nose; the odor and 

 taste too, in this case, are so disgusting as to be sickening. 



HEATED TASTE (Sa di riscaldato, It.; Gout de rechauffe, Fr.). This 

 unpleasant flavor is hard to define, as, in fact, it is a mixture of various 

 flavors of acetic acid, of stems, of organic matter slightly decaying 

 under the influence of heat and moisture, etc. 



This taste is easily produced by allowing the cap to become overheated 

 during fermentation, or by heating grapes before crushing them. 



With time this taste tends to disappear, but when somewhat pro- 

 nounced it diminishes, leaving the wine with a somewhat acrid taste. 



SULPHUR SMELL, or better, SMELL OF SULPH-HYDRIC ACID. An odor 

 resembling rotten eggs which a wine may have, and which is due to the 

 presence of sulph-hydric acid or suphuretted hydrogen.* 



TASTE OF STALE EGGS (Sa di uova stantle, It.; Gout d'oeuf gate, Fr.). 

 This taste, which is easier to avoid than to cure, comes from the use of 

 eggs not perfectly fresh for fining. 



ODOR OF SULPHUROUS ACID, OR OF SULPHUR VAPOR. A wine often has 

 the odor characteristic of this substance when it has been recently 

 racked into an excessively sulphured cask. 



As every one knows, things that are useful when used in moderation 

 become dangerous when used in excess. This is the case with sulphur- 

 ous acid. 



* It is generally held that the cause of the formation of sulph-hydric acid in the wine is 

 the presence of sulphur in the fermenting mass, as happens when the vines have been 

 sulphured in such a way as to allow sulphur to adhere to the grapes. This is indeed the 

 principal cause, but not the only one. Nessler cites six of these causes, which are: The 

 sulphuring of the vines; the sulphuring of casks; the use of sulphur tape; the use of 

 certain fertilizers; the cultivation of the vines in certain soils; the presence of iron in 

 the vats or casks. 



To these causes, most probably, should be added another, that of the reduction of sul- 

 phates by micro-organisms, a reduction first noticed by Planchud, who attributed it to 

 vital action. This action has been found by Etard and Olivier to be due to algse of the 

 group of oscillators, called Beggiatoa (B. roseo-persicina, B. mirabilis, B. alba). Other algae 

 of the genus Ulothrix have the same property. 



Is it not possible that micro-organisms might be found in wine resembling and acting 

 in the same way as these algse found in sulphurous waters? 



