1891 Drinks à La Mode by Mrs de Salis

WINES AND SPIRITS

77

end of two years go off at five or six, while those which require ten or twelve to mature will keep forty or fifty years. White wines are generally ripe for bottling earlier than red. Rhine wines can remain in cask for many years. First-rate Burgundies should be bottled one year after the vintage, whilst the higher-coloured and more generous sorts are better retained in the wood four or five years. The light sort of French wines are seldom good when more than five years old. Madeira and Malaga may endure perhaps fifty or sixty years. Port wine can never, without the addition of a considerable quantity of brandy, be preserved in perfection for many years, as a long time is requi- site to subdue and mingle such an ardent spirit into the body of the wine to conceal its fiery potency. It is well known that wines stored in magnums preserve a much better quality than those kept in smaller bottles. Bottled wines, even if well corked, are subject to the action of external causes, and every possible care should be taken to prevent the access of air through the cork. If sealed, the glass of the bottle should be coated with wax. When bottled, it should be binned as soon as possible, and laid so that the wine may come in contact with the cork and cause the latter to swell. The wine cellar should be kept clean, dry, and at as even a temperature as possible — about 60°. A gas jet should be in every wine cellar, as by that means the temperature can be perfectly regulated.