1857 The Bordeaux wine and liquor dealers' guide

50

A TREATISE ON

rate of potash, has been proposed on theoretical grounds ; but we do not recommend their use. Souring.-This is either occasioned by the wine having been imperfectly fermented; or from its having been kept in a cellar where it has been ex– posed to too much heat or air, or to continual vibra– tions, occasioned by the passage of loaded vehicles ·through the adjoining thoroughfare. The common remedy recommended in books for this purpose, is to saturate the acid with chalk, milk of lime, or cal– cined oyster shells; but such additions, made in sufficient quantity to effect' this object, destroy the character of the wine, and render it sickly and vapid. Formerly it was a very common practice to add litharge to alleviate the acidity; but the wine was thus rendered highly injurious to health, and frequently converted into a certain and deadly poi– son. Owing to the exertions of the Council of Salu– brity, this practice has been wholly put down in France ; and this example, combined with the easy method of detecting lead in wine, which are now so generally known, has led _to its discontinuance else– where. The best and safest remedy is to mix it with a considerable portion of full-bodied new wine, adding, at the same time, a little brandy, and in two or three weeks to fine it down, and either

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