1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

24 Wines. taken in excess, it is perhaps the most mischievous of wines, and most likely to produce those per- manent derangements of the digestive organs which follow the habitual use of distilled spirits/' The sediment usually seen in an old bottle of Port is formed by the bitartrate of potash (cream of tartar), which, being slightly soluble in wine, gradually settles, and forms what is known as " the crust/' It is a good criterion of sound Port if on drawing the cork its under surface when dry presents small crystals of tartar. A dry wine is full in flavour, but not abounding in sweetness; while a full- bodied wine is generally newly made. Port wine is " blended " by the wine-merchants similar to the process observed with Sherry. There are, however, some choice vintages, well known to connoisseurs, that escape this doctoring, some of them having fetched enormous prices, as much as £35 per dozen having been given for Port wine of the year 1820. Mr. Beckwith says, with regard to the character- istics of Port, " it may be stated that a modified * fruitiness ' in it is an essential, but that it should never be sweet" Eich colour, firmness, homogene- ousness, and a tendency to dryness, with some astringency, will not fail to be among the qualities of good Port wine. When, in addition to these, it