Port wine should be decanted very carefully into a warm decanter, keeping the chalked side of the bottle uppermost, so as not to disturb the crust or sediment. Sherry should be decanted two hours before it is used; as should all the Greek white wines.

Greek and Hungarian red wines should only be decanted just before using. The same may be said of the French red wines.

The deposit which exists in all wine (though in some it is scarcely perceptible) consists in port, of tartar and tannin, which, uniting with the albuminous matter in it, forms a crust, which becomes year by year so thin that it has obtained the name of beeswing.

The deposit from white wine is chiefly tartar, in the form of crystals.

Wines are made in this country from oranges, raisins, gooseberries, currants, elderberries, and other fruits. They contain other acids besides tartaric, which are not thrown down as insoluble salts; hence the necessity of adding to them large quantities of sugar, to cover the taste of the acid. The sugar in this case is in a readily fermentible condition, hence these wines cannot be taken in large quantities with the same impunity as wines holding less sugar in solution.

It is better, if possible, to buy foreign wines in the wood, and bottle them at home, but this is not always practicable.

Half-pint bottles are not economical and not requisite, and even a bottle of Champagne may be kept partly full after opening, by corking tightly with a silver-stoppered cork and turning the neck downwards.