Grand wines, however, should never be subjected to the treatment, for if a premature development of bouquet is obtained, it is at the expense of that precious quality, mellowness. For to-day, gourmets and consumers of refined taste do not select wines which have a bouquet, if they are also dry and harsh to the palate; such wines are only too plenty. They esteem above all those wines which in aging have kept their fruity flavor, their velvety smoothness, that unctuosity which can only be preserved in keeping them in a place having a regular temperature (averaging 60°), in well closed receptacles, by bringing about the defecation of their lees and the deposit of their ferments by opportune rackings without contact with the air, and by fining them as little as possible.
If, for want of care or suitable places, the wines work, enter into fermentation, their mellowness diminishes, and when neglected they become dry.
The Wines which Gain the Most by the Aging Processes mentioned, are: 1st, Wines excessively rough and overcharged with color; 2d, fortified wines, whose minimum degree of alcohol is 18 per cent.; 3d, sweet wines fortified to 18 or 20 per cent.
Those which remain too harsh should be fined with a strong dose of gelatine; continued agitation after this will make them smoother.
Fortified wines, dry or sweet, age very quickly, if subjected to agitation and afterwards to insolation, if followed by a complete clarification; but it is important to fortify them anew, for the alcohol evaporates, and below 15 per cent. they would sour instead of acquiring bouquet. It is also sometimes necessary to add sugar to sweet wines so treated.
CHAPTER XI.
GENERAL TREATMENT—CELLARS.
Unfortified, or Table Wines.—After what has been said in the last chapter of the different effects produced by the various influences to which wine may be subjected, it remains to point out the proper care and treatment to be bestowed upon unfortified table wines, whose alcoholic strength does not exceed 15 per cent. The three essential conditions indicated by Mr. Boireau are:
1. They should be protected from the contact of the air.
2. They should be kept in a uniform temperature.
3. They should be freed from their lees, ferments, and deposits; they must become perfectly clear, and their degeneration be prevented.