Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1912 — TASTING WINE FOR LIVING [ARTICLE]

TASTING WINE FOR LIVING

Strange Calling Followed by Women Born With Delicate Palates la Very Lucrative. ' Of the list of strange callings followed by women that of wine tasting is one of the most curious and lucrative. As a matter of fact, Mlle. Collinere, whose services are in great demand In France, Germany and Italy as a wine taster, is said to make an income of about £5,000 a year, many firms employing her for regular work and frequently for special duty. Only half a dozen wine tasters have been known to history, the most renowned of these being the wife of a famous London wine merchant, Mme. Pommery, who died in Paris twelve years ago, and Signora Sousa who has a great reputation in Spain on account of her judgment and knowledge of wine. Wine tasters, it appears, are born, not made, and must possess the gift of a rare and delicate palate. To this, of course, must be added a knowledge of wines. Mlle. Colllnere’s taste Is so fine and her knowledge of wines such that she can discern from the first taste of a wine Just where the grapes grew from which It was made, whether they were raised In California or in the vineyards of France, Germany, or elsewhere. She can easily detect adulteration of any sort, or if there is a blend and of which wines, and can tell the age of a wine almost to a day. - As a matter of fact, there are no secrets that a bottle of wine can withhold from this remarkable Frenchwoman once she has had a spoonful of It in her mouth. She does not swallow the wine. In fact, she Is a teetotaller, and if she were to drink wine would lose her subtle magic of taste. Furthermore, she is obliged to take the greatest care of her health. She must be well In order to do her work, for her sense -loses its cunning when she gets out of health.—Tit-Bits.