1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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Buying Netv Wine. A Tour of InspecHooi.

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DOUEO WINB-EABMEH3.

render the bare whitewashed walls of the apartment unusually conspicuous. Each sample of wine was tested as regards colour hy pouring it into a large white saucer with a high convex centre,down which it slowly trickled as it was poured out,, displaying whatever depth or brilliancy of colour—^usually a deep rich magenta—that it might possess. The saucer was after wards agitated in order thatthe wine mightform layers by which its homogeneity or the reverse could be ascertained. Colour and consistency beingfound satisfactory,the next test was the odour.. Then came the tasting—an operation only to be performed satis factorily by an expert in the case of so recently made a wine.. Merely to judge whether the wine was sweet or dry was, of course, a very simple matter. The various tests having been gone through,consultations were held; and so soon as a decision was arrived at the contents of the saucer w^ere flung out of the-