When wines are too old and worn out, they should be fortified with young wines of the same kind, produced, if possible, from the same vineyard, one or two, or at most, three years old, and possessing great mellowness. The amount of new wine to be used will depend upon the degree of degeneracy and the length of time they are to be kept. (See [Degeneration].)
Poor, weak wines, whose keeping qualities are doubted, should be mixed with young wine of a good year, firm and full-bodied, possessing as nearly as possible the same natural flavor.
The foregoing is intended to apply to feeble, delicate wines which have a flavor and bouquet, but which are not too green. Wines which have a future should not be sacrificed by using them to fortify others which are both feeble and green, for the excess of tartaric acid contained in the latter will totally destroy the mellowness of those used to fortify them. To mix with such wines, clean-tasting wines of the south should be used.
If the wines are too green, a portion of the acid may be neutralized, as described under the head of Greenness.
Ordinary Wines should be treated in such a way as to give them as much as possible the qualities sought in fine wines, and they should be cut with suitable wines of the same age to give them bouquet, flavor, and mellowness, or at least to remove their excessive dryness—a very difficult thing to do. It may be accomplished, in part, by mixing them with wines of the same growth, but whose bouquet and flavor are very expansive, and by adding neutral, mellow wines.
Sufficient Time Must be Given to the mixture to allow the different wines employed to become intimately combined, or their different flavors may be detected, which will not be the case when thoroughly amalgamated.
When Large Quantities of wine are used, the mixture is more nearly perfect than if mingled, cask by cask; and by operating upon the whole amount at one time in a large vat, a perfect uniformity will be insured.
An Entirely New Wine should not be mixed with an old one, as there is not sufficient affinity between them.
In an old wine, says Machard, all the constituents are in a state of complete quiet; they are well combined (melted) and homogeneous. If there is mixed with it a wine whose principles are equally well combined, no ulterior action will result. But if new principles are introduced, elements of a different nature, the equilibrium will be disturbed, there will infallibly result a reciprocal action and disorganization.
Very Green Wines should not be mixed with those containing much sugar for similar reasons, for the mixture is liable to be thrown into a state of violent fermentation, which it will be difficult to arrest. The reason given is that the green wine contains a good deal of ferment; but if both the wines are produced in the south, where the ferment contained in the dry wine is not abundant, the mixture may safely be made. So that, after all, we get back to the principle, that wines of widely different natures and origins should not be mixed, but keeping this in mind, a sweetish and a dry wine may be used to correct each other.