50 WINE AND THE ART OF WINE TASTING. 



be due to the development of mold in the inside of the cask. Sometimes 

 wine will acquire this taste when left long with ullage or in imperfectly 

 closed casks. 



To remove this taste recourse is had to olive oil, lemons, or refermenta- 

 tion with a small quantity of fresh grapes. 



" Se egli sappia di secco, il vino, vi abbia odor cattivo, caccinvisi dentro 

 fiaccole acuse, e vi si spengano" Soderini. 



TASTE OF THE STEMS. This is a rude, unpleasant taste, vulgarly 

 known as a taste of u legno verde" (green wood). It is found in wines 

 which have been allowed a too prolonged contact with the stems, or 

 which have been made by a maceration of the whole bunch, or which 

 have been made from bunches not perfectly sound. The taste of stems 

 is generally accompanied by some bitterness. 



Clarifications and rackings with contact of the air will often destroy 

 or notably diminish the stem taste. 



When it is desired to prolong the contact of the wine with the 

 pomace, stemming is to be recommended. 



SMOKY TASTE. This taste resembles the smell of burning wet or green 

 wood. It is, writes Mona, somewhat acrid and bitter, recalling smoke 

 and soot. According to Mona, it is found more rarely in Italian wines 

 than in German. 



This defect may be occasioned by the smoke given off by ill-constructed 

 stoves used to heat the fermenting-room or cellar; or it may be due to 

 unfavorable climatic conditions during the vintage. 



It has been stated that musts corrected by the addition of cane sugar 

 will sometimes give wines with this taste. 



With the smoky taste a wine loses its brightness, becomes cloudy, and 

 if not cured by sulphuring, changes into a liquid not to be tolerated by 

 even the most uncritical palate. 



OAK TASTE. A taste which a wine will contract after two or three 

 rackings into new casks which have not been properly prepared, espe- 

 cially if they are made of a bad quality of wood. The wine in this case 

 acquires a peculiar, bitterish taste, according to Ottavi, almost aromatic, 

 much tannin, and often the real flavor of the wine is quite destroyed. 



TASTE OF MERCAPTAN. The repugnant taste and odor of onions or 

 garlic, which remains even after the wine has been racked into well- 

 sulphured casks. 



The same causes which tend to produce hydrogen-sulphide in the 

 wine, not excepting plastering when it is done heavily, tend also to form 

 mercaptan. So far no means have been discovered of removing this 

 taste from wine. 



Polacci was the first to observe the formation of these products, which 

 have a fetid and persistent odor, and are due to the action of sulph-hydric 

 acid and sulphur on the components of the must and wine; he believes 

 them to be simply ethylic mercaptan. Konig thinks that this reaction 

 is not very probable, as it has never been known to take place in a 

 dilute acid solution. He believes, on the contrary, that the aldehyde 

 contained in most wines combines easily and directly in a dilute acid 

 solution with sulph-hydric acid to form thio-aldehyde and trithio-alde- 

 hyde. Now these compounds are endowed with a strong, persistent, 

 and disagreeable odor, resembling closely that acquired by wines 

 containing sulph-hydric acid; it may be, therefore, that the mercaptanic 



