The Lambertville record., 1888-08-01
WEDNESDAY, AUG. /, 1888.
ABOUT OLD WINES.
ONE OF THE DELUsIoNs OF MODERN
GAsTRoNoMlc ART.

The Mistaken Notion That Age Enriches
Wine ulimitabIy--A Test Case-wines
of the Ancients-Pompeii's Wine Jar.
Flavoring and Drugging.
There is probably no greater delusion in
the modern gastronomic art than the notion
that age enriches wine ilimitably. II a
three or five year wine is better than the
crude juice, tho process must go on forever,
and the wine of 500 years must be the verita-
BILE nectar of the gods. 1t is a myth of the
poets. Wine is an organic product, and to
every organic there isethe immutable law Of
growth and decay, life and death. There is
no exemption. Dosing with foreign sub
stance, fortification with brandies and alco-
hol, care of temperature and other devices
may stave off the fatal decline, but for only
little. An item is going the rounds Of the
press that the wines of the late king of Bava-
ria, some of them century old, have been
bought by English spectators at enormous
prices to resell to English gourmets. Upon
this remarks writer in The Paris Register;
What the item says about the wines Of tho
excellent vintages from 1922 to 1884 is doubt
less true, and possibly it may be true of the
Johannisberg of 1911, but / have no hesita
ness whatever in the vintages of 1910, 164U
and 1871.
THE REAL FACTS
Now, what are the real facts about wines
as old as the abovel After fermentation
which is process of decay, wine will deteri'
crate unless preventive measures are taken
such as keeping the wine in cool or ever
temperature, the addition Of alcohol, boiling
Nhe vinum cottum of the Romans and the
vino cotto of modern Italians and the com.
plete exclusion Of the ordinary atmosphere
by good corks, by sealing wax or by oil. The
most common method for preserving wine in
modern times is by adding alcohol and by
corking and scaling. The alcohol in wines
prepared for England is often in such pro-
portions that the wine ceases to bo anything
like tho juice Of the grape, and too often is
as strong as glass of brandy and water,
In 1871 Mr.. Rabello, the Brazilian consul
at Oporto, made me a present OF several
bottles of port wine of the vintage of 1703.
Mr.. Rabello had heard of the breaking up of
an old Portuguese family where, from father
to son, q certain number Of bottles of famous
vintages had been handed down. / sent
several of these aged wines to the late William
Cullen Bryant, remarking that the bottle Of
1893 was, according to the encyclopaedia
OF his own age; but the poet, in acknowledg
ing the reception of the wne stated that i
was his senior, and that he should look mp t,
it with reverence. When l came to open m,
bottle CT 1903, found ii (which once had tn
dark rel of port about the color of water
and the most insipid stuff. Up to the be
ginning of this century it was not the custom
in any part of Europe to put lot OF fler,
alcohol into any kind of wine, and when the,
did add spirit to port wine it was a little o
that which had been distilled from port
This 1893 wine had probably been thu
treated, but with all the sealing wax, and
once good cork, tho beverage was as un
vinons and tasteless as II il had been waite
dipped up from pond and bottled. There
fore, doubt if the Bavarian wines, S
sedulously advertised in England as those o
1910, 1640 and 1881 have any virtue in them
even if they be genuine wines of those dates
WINES OF THE ANcIENTs.
The ancients, having no distilled spirits
were wanting in one OF the great remedie
which prevent wines from decaying, or turn
ing to vinegar. Homer represents old Mes
tor, in the Odyssey" drinking ten-year-ol,
wine Athenmus incidentally mentions
wine kept sixteen years; but, in the days o
tho empire, connoisseurs considered Gree
wine perfection when six years old. Hor
ace tells his friends, when they come to sc
him, that he will give them ''three-year-o r-old
wine. But the ancients evidently did kee
wine, either by boiling, or by very tigh
corking and putting plaster upon the corks
or by burying 1t, for twenty and thirt,
years. There is one wine jar (smphora) Il
the museum in stu at Pompeii, which, If tn
label is to be believed, and il wine was in /
at tho time of the destruction, must hav
been over forty years old in the year 10 A. d.
when Pompeii was destroyed But we mus
remember that ancient wine dealers coult
cook up labels and give fictitious names
just as well as the modern descendants o.
their craft.
As to the wines of the ancients, believe
in general, they were, for the upper classes
much moro artificial than in this present ag'
of adulteration, because it was fashion foi
centuries to mix wines, and to flavor ant
drug them to such an extent that we mod
erns would never drink them, and would no
take them except as medicines Not onl,
were spices, fragrant roots, leaves and flow
ers stepped in the wine, but myrrh, cassia
nard and pepper were put in, and, as il evei
there were not enough, -four and gratet
goats milk cheese were sprinllled over th
wine just before drinking. Home Journal
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