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Wines
and
Wine
Making
good
quality,
will
be
fit
to
drink
as
soon
as
the
sickness
(as
its
first
condition
after
bottling
is
called)
ceases,
and
will
also
improve,
but
the
cellar
must
be
kept
at
a
per-
fectly
steady
temperature,
neither
too
hot nor
too
cold,
but
about
55
or
60°,
and
absolutely
free
from
draughts
of
cold
air.
Insipidity.
—
See
Flatness.
Maturation.
—
The
natural
maturation,
or
ripening
of
wine
and
beer
by
age,
depends
upon
the
slow
conversion
of
the
sugar
which
escaped
decomposition
in
the
gyle
tun
or
fermenting
vessel
into
alcohol.
This
conversion
pro-
ceeds
most
perfectly in
vessels
which
entirely
exclude
the
air,
as
in
the
case
of
wine
in
bottles,
as
when
air
is
present
and
the
temperature
sufficiently
high
it is
accompanied
by
slow
acetification.
This
is
the
case
with
wine
in casks,
the
porosity
of
the
wood
allowing
the
very
gradual
per-
meation
of
the
air.
Hence
the
superiority
of
bottled
over
draught
wine
or
that
which
has
matured
in
wood.
Good
wine,
or
well-fermented
beer,
is
vastly
improved
by
age
when
properly
preserved,
but
inferior
liquor
or
even
su-
perior
liquor,
when
preserved
in
improper
vessels
or
situ-
ations,
becomes
acidulous
from
the
conversion
of
its
alco-
hol
into
vinegar.
Tartness
or
acidity
is
consequently
very
generally,
though
wrongly,
regarded
by
the
ignorant
as
a
sign
of
age
in
liquor.
The
peculiar
change
by
which
fermented
liquors
become
mature
or
ripe
by
age
is
termed
the
insensible
fermentation.
It
is
the
alcoholic
fermentation
impeded
by
the
presence
of
the
already
formed
spirit
in
the
liquor
and
by
the
lowness
of
the
temperature.
Mold
or
fungus
is
very
frequently
produced
by
keep-
ing
the
wine
in
too
warm
a
cellar,
or
in
a
cask
not
filled
to
the
bunghole,
or
else
in
one
from
which
the
bung
has
been
left
out.
As
it
forms
mostly
on
weak
wines
its
pres-
ence
may
be
referred
to
a
deficiency
of
alcohol.
The
best
method
for
its
removal
is
either
burning
sul-
phur
in
a
partially
filled
cask
or
drawing
off
the
wine
into
a
fresh
cask
in
which
sulphur
has
been
previously
burnt.
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