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Wines, Keeping Of

Wine is put into bottles for the sake of keeping it, and the placing these bottles in some safe and convenient place called a cellar is technically termed cellaring. Some wines are not much improved by bottling at all, and these one may drink direct from the cask. In wine countries it is common to drink the wine directly from the cask as we do beer. This is more especially done with the weaker and cheaper wines, and wine is frequently thus consumed in this country. "Wine from the wood is sold in some of our wine shops. Inferior red wines, sherries, and Marsala, are said to improve more whilst on tap in the cask than when bottled. Weak wines cannot be kept long in the cask without a danger of the oxygen of the air converting their hydrated oxide of ethyl (alcohol) into the hydrated tri-oxide of acetyl (vinegar), which is a result very much to be avoided by those who attach importance to the flavour or strength of their wines. Wine in casks gets altered by the evaporation of the water and the alcohol into the air, and also by the absorption of one or the other by the wood. These changes cannot happen when the wine is put into glass bottles. Wine can thus be kept longer in bottles without change than in wood. There is a notion that wine gets stronger by keeping, but this is erroneous. If fermentation goes on, a little more sugar will be converted into alcohol, but this is not large, even in the case of effervescing wines. It is, therefore, a false notion that wine gets stronger by keeping. Strong wines undoubtedly keep best. Wines get altered by keeping, and they get weaker by keeping. They should not be kept in hot cellars, nor cold cellars, nor cellars with a changeable temperature. It appears that a uniform temperature of between 50 deg. and 60 deg. is the best for all kinds of wine. Wines are said to ripen sooner in warm cellars than in cold ones, and it is very certain that new wines may be made to assume the flavour of old ones by exposing them to high temperatures, and letting them cool again. This, however, belongs to the art of doctoring."

The art of preserving wines is to prevent them from fretting, which is done by keeping them in the same degree of heat and careful working in a cellar where they will not be agitated by the motion of carriages passing. If persons with to preserve the fine flavour of their wines, they ought on no account to permit any bacon, cheese, onions, pork, or cider in the wine cellars; for if there be any disagreeable odour in the cellar, the wine will indubitably imbibe it; consequently, instead of being fragrant and charming to the nose and palate, it will be extremely disagreeable.