1895 Mixed Drinks by Herbert W Green

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MIXED DRINKS.

sediment and become lighter. Old bottled wines contain odoriferous constituents—ethers of various organic acids—which are not found in new wines. The forma tion of these compounds,to which wine owes its aroma, is necessarily associated with the diminution of the free acids, which can occur only by the acids either being decomposed or combined with non-acid substances,both of which operations take place as the result of a very slow chemical process. This efiect of time and nature may, however, be imitated by art, and if bottles- not quite filled with wine are corked and placed for two hours in water at 185 degrees and after cooling are filled with wine, the flavor and aroma will cause the wine to appear several years old. Appert orginated this, but Pasteur and others have since brought the subject before the French Academy. Wines which have been long in bottle sometimes acquire a peculiar flavor which is erroneously attributed to the cork. It is due to a mould which grows from- the outside of the cork inward. Such wine is said to be "corked." Very similar to this is what is known as"the taste of the cask"—a peculiar flavor sometimes acquired by wine before bottling, and caused by an essential oil developed during the growth of "mould" on the surface of the wine. It can be removed by the addition to each pipe of about a quart of olive-oil.