473 
varefully and in the same position they have been lying; 
remove the cork without any jerk, preferably with a screw 
corkserew, and draw the clear wine carefully into a de- 
canter 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 un- 
soundness, 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 floceulent 
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 wine, causing 
that iridescence. 
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 -browh compounds. In 
the case of disease it can be prevented by the addition of 
alcohol and tartaric acid. 
Golden Yellow.—Very often observed. 
Greenish—Characteristic of certain varieties of grapes. 
Pinkish Yellow or Russetty Yellow—Often due to imperfectly 
cleansed wine-casks and vessels. 
Rose-coloured—White wines made from red grapes, without 
much eare, or stored in red casks improperly decolourised. 
Brown-yellow, which the French call oeil de perdrix (part- 
ridge-eye), is a sickly, dull, dark-yellow. Hither due to 
a malady of the wine caused by a mycoderm—in that case 
raise the alcoholic strength, add ten or twelve grammes 
of tannin to the hogshead of wine, let it rest for a day or 
two and fine with isinglass—or sometimes caused by the 
presence of an excess of iron in the white wines, or found 
in wine made from grapes poor in tartaric and other nat- 
ural acids, or from partially decayed grapes. 
