1857 The Bordeaux wine and liquor dealers' guide

44

A TREATISE ON

wines, abounding in tannin, a little 1;heep's or bul– lock's blood is very commonly employed. The use of blood is not, however, to be recommended, as it communicates a very trifling, but still an unpleasant flavor and odor, which is easily recognised by the palate of a professed " wine-taster ;" besides which, the practice is dirty and disgusting. Gypsum is fre– quently used to clear muddy white wines ; as also milk of lime: Some persons add about 1 oz. of sugar of lead dissolved in water to a hogshead of such wine, and after well mixing it in, further add a like quantity of bisulphate of potash (sal enixum), also dissolved in water, and rummage well. In this process the sugar of lead is decomposed and falls down as an insoluble sulphate, and hence it is argued that it is not so dangerous as has been generally re– presented by Accum, and others afflicted with the poison mania. The use of lead, however, in any shape is objectionable, and should never be adopted by the wine-dealer, however plausibk the above statements may appear. In France a person known to employ lead in wine would subject himself to,fine and imprisonment. Flatne8s.-This is best removed by the addition of a little new brisk wine of the same kind; or by rousing in two or three pounds of honey, or bruised sultana raisins, and three or four quarts of good

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