WINE AND THE ART OF WINE TASTING. 49 



The fine experiments of Duboeuf and J. Bruhl on the action of sul- 

 phurous anhydride, or acid, on micro-organisms, have an important 

 bearing here. 



They have deduced from their experiments the following conclusions: 



1. Sulphurous acid gas has an evident microbicidal action on the 

 germs contained in the air. 



2. This action is especially perceptible when the air is saturated with 

 water vapor. 



3. Sulphurous acid acts particularly on the germs of bacteria. 



4. Pure sulphurous acid will destroy germs, even in the dry state, if 

 the action is sufficiently prolonged. 



Sulphurous acid, when used in excessive quantities, takes away from 

 the quality and color of the wine, and gives it a bitterish, astringent, 

 and displeasing taste. In time the sulphurous acid changes to sulphuric, 

 and then into sulphate of potassium. This is why in many wines is 

 found a certain quantity of this sulphate, which is dangerous to health, 

 and, when sufficient of it is present, would lead to the belief that the 

 wine had been plastered. 



At the end of the last century it was shown that a wine sulphured to 

 excess acquired a very disagreeable odor, and was hurtful to the health, 

 causing headache, vertigo, oppression of the stomach, nausea, etc. 



In practice it is good to remember that the more alcoholic a wine the 

 more sulphurous acid it will dissolve or absorb. 



Nessler, making a comparison of water and wine at 9 per cent of 

 alcohol, filled a barrel quickly with each, after having burned as much 

 sulphur as the air in the barrel would consume, and found that the 

 water absorbed .01035 per cent of sulphurous acid, and the wine .01346 

 per cent. 



The quantity of sulphurous acid which a wine will absorb in process 

 of keeping cannot be exactly stated, as it depends on the number of 

 sulphurings, the amount of sulphur burned, or, when the sulphur is 

 burned directly in the cask, on the amount of oxygen there. 



According to Weigert the quantity of oxygen in a cask of one hecto- 

 litre is 21 litres or 30 grammes. By burning an equal quantity of sul- 

 phur 60 grammes of sulphurous acid are formed. When the cask is 

 filled all this is not dissolved, because part is oxidized immediately, and 

 part escapes into the air as the wine enters the cask; thus, the total 

 amount absorbed by the wine is reduced to about 10 or 11 grammes. 



VARIOUS ODORS ( Violet, Rose, Mignonette, Pink, Bitter Almonds, etc.). 

 These are all odors given artificially to the wine to render it more fra- 

 grant, or to attempt to pass it off as a wine of higher quality than it 

 really is. 



Many high-class and fine wines, in aging, develop characteristic 

 bouquets; but besides bouquet these wines have seve, which artificially 

 perfumed wines lack altogether or have little of in proportion to their 

 fragrance. 



Besides the odors which we call good, which have been added artifi- 

 cially, we have also bad odors which are absorbed from the air by the 

 grapes or the wine, such as the odor of tobacco, of grass, etc. 



WOOD TASTE (Sapor di legno, Asciutto, Sa di secco, It.; Saveur de bois, 



Seche, Gout de sec, Fr.). A taste not easily defined, as it lies somewhere 



between that of wood and of mold. It is communicated to the wine by 



ill-kept casks which have become " secco, asciutto," a defect seeming to 



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