TASTER’S FEATS

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1001, 13 May 1909, Page 22

TASTER’S FEATS

INFALLIBLE TEST OF BRANDY ADULTERATION. NEVER-FAILING PALATE. Mr. F. H. Godsell, the official taster to the War Office, who gave interesting evidence on Tuesday before the Whisky Commission, is a wholesome wine and spirit merchant in the City. He was good enough on Wednesday to give some further particulars as to his occult, science. He is “ liquor wise ” by Inherited knowledge and by a lifetime of study and application. His family have been wine and brandy merchants in the City for generations, and he himself has been in the trade for fifty-two years, succeeding to his father’s business as a boy of seventeen. “THE ONLY RELIABLE TEST.” Ti Does the palate of the expert taster give a reliable test of the quality of brandy?” he was asked. “ It is the only reliable test,” he replied. “ But cannot a chemist discover by processes of analysis the constituents of brandy?” “ To a certain extent, yes. The chemist can ascertain what a sample of brandy contains, but he cannot discover what it will taste like. Between two brandies of different class

analysis would detect differences, but between two brandies of the same class, one of which was of a better vintage, the differences would be too subtle for the chemist to detect.” “ And you would never make a mistake?” “ Never. Give me a brandy to taste, adulterated with the smallest proportion of plain spirit, and my palate will not only detect the adulteration but tell you the proportion of plain spirit which has been mixed with the pure grape product. And give me a sample of grape brandy from any other brandy-producing country than Cognac, from Spain, or from Australia, and I will tell you at once where it comes from.” “And you make your tests blindfold?” “ I am not blindfolded in the sense that my eyes are bandaged. But when a number of samples are placed before me to taste, the bottles from which they have been poured out. are covered up so that the label or any identifying mark upon the bottle shall not influence my judgment.” RELIANCE ON THE NOSE. “ And do you drink a little of each sample?” “ I drink none at all- If I take a little into my mouth I spit it out as soon as I have judged the effect upon the palate. But first, and chiefly I rely upon the nose, and it is very rarely that the nose fails.” Of the exactitude of the palate test Mr. Godsell gave a curious illustration. He was called in to make a valuation of a large wine merchant’s stock of wines and spirits of many kinds. His valuation came to between £15,000 and £16,000. He found afterwards that another eminent expert had previously made a separate examination. The two valuations varied by less than a hundred pounds.— Daily Mail.

The continuance of the Tararua vineyard in the Masterton district, owing to the carrying of No-license last November, became a matter of considerable uncertainty, and at one time Mr. W. G. Lamb, the proprietor, was of opinion that he would be unable to continue his business owing to technicalities in the law. Mr. Lamb has, however, consulted a firm of leadingsolicitors in Wellington, and it is understood that the opinion is favourable to his continuing the manufacture of wine in a No-license district. * * * + The “Northern Advocate" states that Mr. Jagger, who has for several years held the license of the Parua

Bay Hotel, and conducted a general store at the bay, is leaving there owing to the expfiy of his lease. The future lessee will be Mr. A. T. Allwood, a well-known resident in the district. Mr. Jagger, it is understood, is opening a new store at Whangarei Heads.