a living mass of microbes, and thus had made
it possible to begin to identify and control the
kinds of microbes that both make wine and
spoil it. But Pasteur was the first to analyze
the development of wine, to discover the
central role of oxygen, and show why both
barrel and bottle were indispensable for
making good wine, the barrel for providing
oxygen to the young wine to help mature it,
and the bottle for excluding oxygen from the
mature wine to help preserve it.
In my view, it is oxygen which makes
wine; it is by its influence that wine ages;
it is oxygen which modifies the harsh
principles of new wine and makes the bad
taste disappear...
It is necessary to aerate the wine slowly
to age it, but the oxidation must not be
pushed too far. It weakens the wine too
much, wears it out, and removes from red
wine nearly all its color. There exists a