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Wines and Health
~INE,
like music, eludes complete defi–
~
nition or description; and like music,
its play upon the emotions covers
a wide range of influence. · As jazz may
cause a music-lover to wince with spiritual
pain, so may coarse wine cause the epicure to
shudder with shock. That old, mellow wine
awakens dreams of inexpressible romance in
sensitive people is common knowledge; why
it does, no man has ever understood. Leibig
claims to have discovered in certain wines a
subtle substance which he named
oenanthic
ether.
This substance in quantity is estimated
to be only about one f arty-thousandth part of
the total volume of the wine in which it ap–
pears. This ether, alone or together with a
volatile oil appearing in larger volume, may
contain the answer to the dream-inducing re–
action upon the drinker. All wines do not
react much differently from other alcoholic
beverages. The wines most noticeably produc–
tive of this quality are Hermitage, Still
Burgundy, Amontillado and Port.
Man's chemical organization attracts or re–
pels certain wines, hence no expert can with
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