WINE TASTING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1350, 1 September 1883, Page 4

WINE TASTING.

A wine-tasteb is employed in the oldest and largest wine-vault in London who is said to be the most expert judge of beverages in the world. He is fond of exhibiting his skill for the amusement of visitors. He blindfolds himself, and four different kinds of sherry are poured into the same glass. He takes a mouthful and declares the component parts of the mixture, usually without a mistake. Then he experiments with port, and is wonderfully successful. He identifies numerous champagnes, even to the year of vintage. When a glass of an American brand was submitted, however, he hesitated, never having tasted it before, but said it was a pretty good wine, with more brandy in it than it ought to have, and probably made from some northern grown grape. A sample of apple-jack completely nonplussed him. The delicacy of palate possessed by this man is all the more remarkable in that any ordinary person is quite at a loss to distinguish between even the commonest of wines. Blindfold a man, place three or four glasses of port and sherry before him, and he will be totally at a loss to tell which is which from the taste. He may happen to hit on the right distinction, but the chances are equal that he will give his verdict wrongly.