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Wines, Diseases Of

By "diseases of wines" we must understand those conditions in which wines have become so altered and unfitted for use as to have lost their distinct character. The chief disease are as follows:- 1. The Turning of Wine.--This is a disease which attacks young wine, and seems to occur under special conditions of the weather. The colour grows darker, and the taste first disappears, and if the disease continues becomes disagreeable; the wine becomes turbid and acid. This disease arises from a decomposition of tartar. 2. The Ropiness of Wine.--This disease consists in the formation of vegetable mucus from the sugar of the wine, and is known as mucous fermentation. The wines liable to this change are those which are deficient in tannic acid. 3. The Bitterness of Wine.--In this we have a disease to which Burgundy wines are specially liable. It appears to arise from a second fermentation, inasmuch as a large quantity of carbonic acid is evolved. It has been ascribed by some to the formation of citric ether, which is very bitter. The disease is caused by the sediment, and is often put a stop to by drawing the wine off into other casks. 4. The Acidifying of Wine.--This depends upon the conversion of the alcohol into acetic acid, and may be nipped in the bud by adding alkaline carbonates; which, however, destroy the colour and affect the taste of the wine. 5. The Mouldiness of Wine.--In this disease mould-plants are produced on the surface of the wine. How and under what condition the mould is formed is uncertain; all that is known is that the admission of air is favourable to the disease.