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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.