Los Angeles daily herald., 1885-12-05
professional wine rastcr..

There are no professional wine tast-
ers in this country. Here every dealer
is his own faster. In France there are
wine tasters, called brokers, who regu-
larly test the wines in the cellars there,
and classify them according to their
qualities. The dictum of these gentle.
men Is the law OF the trade.
"But although there is no class here
who have such an occupation allied to
that of the gentlemen who sit at round
tables, down town, and look at and
smell Of tea in little cups, there are good
expert judges Of wine among the deal
ers. To become an expert man must
add years of experience to naturally
fine sense Of taste aud smell. He must
also be able TO see well. There is q
certain routine through which experts
pass in tasting wines, but know ledge
OF the routine will not make q man an
expert by any means.
"When list Of wines is to be submit
ted to dealer, he will usually select
thin glass goblets to hold the samples.
II is asserted by some that the taste Of
the wine varies with the thickness Of the
glass. The glass should be perfectly
pure and the lines OF the goblets parallel.
In goblet it is impossible for the color
Of the stand on which the goblet Is
placed to affect the color Of the wine
The French use silver saucer in test.
ing the color OF wine. In using the
goblet we hold 1t before candle Ia n
dark room to determine the brightness
of the wine. Good wine Of the proper
age is candle bright. II the wine
is cloudy or druggy 1t is cut Of condi-
tion, but may be clarified. Then the
goblet Of wines is held between the eye
and the window IN daylight to detsr.
mine the degree of color. whether it is
faint or deep, and also the quality OF the
color Thus pure port wine " hen held
up to the light shows bronze red color.
II it be pink, it indicates bad grapes or
fuscine, or adulteranis of some kind If
claret show blue color or the color Of
blackberry juice. objection is made to it.
There is one kind Of grape, the Lenoir,
that makes very excellent claret, ex.
cept for this blush color.
''Having found the color all right. the
expert next smells OF the wine. 1t is
impossible to describe the peculiar
aroma Of different wines, but BY many
comparisons the nose becomes so well
educated that some experts can tell very
nearly the age of the wine submitted to
them, the kind OF grapes from which it
was made, and whether it is pure sam
pie OF one kind OF wine or one wine
blended with another.
last of all, the expert takes a sip OF
the wine, retains it moment in his
mouth to get the first taste, and then
elects ii and holds his mouth open
moment to get the after taste, or what
is technically called the farewell. The
farewell taste ia the crucial test. Wine
may be bright, ii may have the right
quantity and quality OF color, il may
have the smell desired. it may
even have rich. luscious
taste when taken in the mouth, and yet
the farewell be unpleasant. Wines may
be doctored until the ordinary purchaser
may think he has an ancient brand OF
the purest vintage, but they have never
yet been blended or drugged so nicely
that the expert cannot tell that they are
not pure, nor does IN inferior wine ex-
ist that cannot be properly classified by
an expert. ."-B. +. Clayton, formerly
editor Wine and Spirit Circular.