Smyrna times., 1902-12-03
TIE WINE EXPERT.
DIE MUST BE AS TEMPERATE AS AN
ATHLETE IN TRAINING.

orOus and Ascetic.
Many hotels and restaurants of i'm
portance as well as many wholesale
and retail liquor dealing firms employ
a wine expert. 1t is the duty of this
man to pass upon the quality of all
wines, brandies, whiskies and other
alcoholic beverages handled by his
house. He wOrks-with an empty stom-
ach, and he ,les his tests through
the three senses of sight, which tests
the spirits color and clarity; smell.
which tests its odor, and taste, the
most important sense, which tests it's
flavor. To keep these senses at once
delicate and sharp the expert must not
use tobacco, and in the use of liquors
he must be temperate to the point of
teetOtalism.
If two glasses of champagne are set
before clever wine expert, one a
champagne of the vintage of 1864, the
other Of the vintage of 1888. he will
tell readily which is which. There are
indeed half dozen vintages which he
can designate by their taste alone
without the helpful presence of the
labeled bottle.
The wine expert must also have
profound knowledge of red wines.
Among the red wines of France he
must be able to tell those of the Ca
rome from those of Burgundy and of
Dauphiny.
In the white wines also he must be
learned, and he should have no diff.
Guilty in distinguishing the champagnes
OF Sillery, of Ay, of Reims and of
Epernay and in distinguishing also
their best vinlages. Among the other
French white wines he must know
those Of Sauterne, Barsac, Preignac
and Bommes. And the Spanish white
wines or Here's, the German white
wines Of JOhannisberg, Steinberg and
Hockheim must be like old time friends.
Whiskies and brandies are divisions
OF his work that are as important as
the wines. He must tell at q glance
whether a brandy has been aged in
wood or in glass, and he must not only
separate with ease the Irish, the Scotch
and the American whiskies. but he
even must designate the districts IN
which each was distilled.
Considering his knowledge the salary
OF the wine expert is not great. II
averages $40 a week. Occasionally IL
falls as low as $25, and occasionally it
mounts to munificence.
The expert must not eat rich. heavy
1oods and pastries. He must not keep
late hours His life, in a word. must
De as temperate as that of an athlete
10 training. This is in order that his
senses of sight and taste and smell
may be at their best always. Smoking
IS bad for the smell; rich foods are bad
1or the taste; late hours or any sort of
dissipation, even the mildest, is bad
Tor the health generally and for all the
senses, sight in particular; hence the
rigorous and ascetic life Of the wine
expert.
The wine expert works with stomach
empty, for then his taste and smell are
at their keenest. He works on bright
days only in room flooded with sun
light, for then he can best weigh n
liquors color and lucidity. He uses
glasses of the oldest shapes-a differ
ent glass almost for every liduor-for
these help him to distinguish the most
delicate gradations of smell and color.
Inc brandy glass, for instance, has a
Dowl almost as big as a washbowl. |
Inc bottom of this bowl the brandy |
covers in the thinnest layer. The ex-
pert puts his face down close and. with |
MS nose inside the bowl. rolls the
brandy about, thus getting the full bod
quet Of the liquor.
he must never swallow the bever-
ages he tests. He holds them i'm his
"Outh about minute, rolling them
upon his tongue and letting them
touch his palate and that is sufficient
lor an accurate judgment. To swallow
'nem would not aid him, for there are
10 nerves of taste i'm the stomach.
10 swallow them would, on the con-
Iary, hinder him, sending him drunk
10 Oed each testing day.
1he expert of a large and fashiona-
Oie New York hotel in discussing the
Other day his business said:
What is more difficult than to de-
scribe in words the taste of anything?
how' for instance, would you say
"nat bread tastes like or meal or po-
tatoes?
But red wines have, after all, a de
unable taste. The poor red wines are
sdrthy. They have a flavor of fresh
SOIL The good ones taste like field
y, and the best ones taste
lAe trutHes. But the taste of whis-
Ales and brandies and white wines is
@ lot TO be defined in any such concrete
way as this. ]
Inc Wine science is a nice one. Few
neh know it. Few men indeed can
Ell with their eyes shut whisky from
'rdhdy or ale from beer. Few men
Ino , use liquor even know the wines
@ nat custom demands should be drunk
WIN dinner at which wine is
ierved."