Foreign Flavors.—Wines which have contracted foreign flavors, either by being kept in casks which have been used for liquors of decided flavors and odors, such as anisette, absinthe, rum, etc., or from contact with substances having good or bad odors, owe their taste to the dissolution in them of a part of the essential oil which those substances contain, and should be treated in the same manner. The chief thing is to remove the cause, by changing the cask, for if the foreign taste and smell become very marked, they cannot be completely destroyed; they can only be rendered tolerable by mixing them with sound wines.
Ropiness is the name applied to a viscous fermentation which takes place in wine, making it slimy in appearance. It is met with more particularly in white wines, which contain albuminous matters in suspension, and but little tannin. It is not a very serious difficulty, for it can be easily corrected. It is only necessary to tannify the wine by adding 12 or 15 quarts of tannified wine, well stirred in with a whip as in fining, or an ounce or two of tannin dissolved in alcohol for each 100 gallons. The tannin combines with the viscous matter and precipitates it, so that in removing the ropiness the wine is fined at the same time. It should be racked from the finings after about two weeks’ repose.
And we may add that grapes which produce wines predisposed to ropiness ought not to be stemmed, or the must should be fermented with at least a portion of the stems.
Mr. Machard says that this disease is also due sometimes to lack of tartaric acid, and that it may be cured by supplying this substance, and setting up fermentation again. For 100 gallons of wine, about a pound of tartaric acid should be dissolved in hot water, to which the same quantity of sugar is added, and when dissolved, the whole is poured warm into the cask containing the ropy wine. Then replace the bung, and give the cask a thorough rolling for six or eight minutes. A small hole is previously bored near the bung and closed with a spigot, which is removed after rolling the cask, to allow the gas to escape. After resting two or three days, the wine, which we suppose to be a white wine, should be fined with isinglass.
Ropy Wines in Bottles generally cure themselves, but they must not be disturbed until the deposit changes color and takes a brownish tinge. Then is the time to decant them for drinking.
Ropiness may also be Cured by passing the wine over the marc again. But only good, fresh pomace should be used, which is but a few days old. This is done by mixing the wine with the marc of three times the quantity of wine, and stirring from time to time till fermentation is established. After the fermentation, the press wine may be mixed with the rest.
The author does not state whether this is to be done in the case of white wine or red wine, or both, but it is apparent that it would be subjecting a white wine to a very unusual operation. Fresh lees may also be mixed with the wine instead of the marc. Sometimes it is only necessary to let the wine fall into one vessel from another at a little height, several times, or to give it a thorough agitation by stirring it, or by driving it about for a few hours in a vehicle over a rough road.
Alum has been sometimes recommended, but it is now condemned as unwholesome.
Other means have been suggested, but these will suffice; and it is agreed by all that tannin is the sovereign remedy.
It is best to avoid the use of sulphur in treating ropy wines, for fermentation is to be encouraged rather than checked.