437 



Cloudy, Dull. The reverse of clear. Wines freshly racked 

 often turn a little cloudy for a while, owing to the 

 oxidation of some of the albuminoid matters they 

 contain, more especially wine from fleshy grapes grown 

 on rich flats, also in wines poor in acid, -and which have 

 not completely fermented. 



Turbid, Thick. When the particles in suspension are so 

 numerous and big as to be easily seen and make the 

 wine opaque. Either a perfectly new wine or wine 

 bottled too so6n, and that has left a muddy deposit on 

 the side of the bottle sometimes the result of putrid 

 fermentation. In the case of an old wine bottled too 

 soon, raise the bottles carefully and in the same position 

 they have been lying ; remove the cork without any jerk, 

 preferably with a screw corkscrew, and draw the clear 

 wine carefully into a decanter or a clear bottle, or else, 

 with a small glass syphon, made for the purpose, 

 separate the clear from the murky wine. Unless the 

 precautions are taken, the wine will, after two or three 

 glasses have been poured out, be quite turbid and very 

 unprepossessing in appearance. 



Opalescent, Iridescent. Is generally an indication of unsound- 

 ness, and not infrequently due to the disease called in 

 France la pousse, in which a tartaric fermentation takes 

 place, the colour is precipitated and a flocculent 

 growth of microscopic, rod-like baccili float about the 

 mass of the wine, which assumes a sickly brick colour, 

 and breaks up the rays of light as they penetrate the 

 the wine, causing that irridescence. 



As regards COLOUR, a wine is either : 



Colourless, discolourised. When it has almost the appear- 

 ance of pure water. This is obtained by very carefully 

 handling white grapes, or sometimes by running the new 

 wine over animal charcoal, although this is very seldom 

 done except for special purposes. 



Straw-coloured. A very common and pleasant colour. 



Yellow. Often the sign of a wine poor in alcohol, tartar, 

 and may be tannin or acid, in that case the iron com- 

 pounds in the wine are, when acted upon by the oxygen 

 of the air, turned into yellowish-brown compounds. In 

 the case of disease it can be prevented by the addition 

 of alcohol and tartaric acid. 



Golden Yelloiu. Very often observed. 



Greenish. Characteristic of certain varieties of grapes. 



Pinkish Yellow or Russetty Yelloiv. Often due to imperfectly 

 cleansed wine-casks and vessels. 



