UP VITICULTURE COMKISSN A ^ v ^ > * t~>j,. .. otA\^ HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION MODERN WINES. CYRUS REDDING. THIRD EDITION WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1860. ^ - TO THE READER. apart from the present undertaking, called the Author to the Continent a considerable time before the first edition appeared. He was absent three years, the greater part of which was spent in the midst of the finest vine dis- tricts in the world. His attention was first called to the subject accidentally, while he had ample opportunities of observing the modes in which the culture of the vine was conducted, its fruit collected, and the product cellared. While his own observations were not few, he omitted no means of gaining information from individuals experienced in all relating to the vineyard and the vintage. Eegarding the culture of the vine in the Peninsula, he has again to acknowledge himself under great obligations to several indi- viduals who are residents there. The Author hopes that he will not be found to have at- tached greater value to any particular class or quality of wines than the weight of evidence will sanction. He has en- iv TO THE BEADEB. deavoured to be strictly impartial, and to compress all the information available in a moderate compass, without either overloading the subject or neglecting necessary illustration. The additional observations and researches, which are con- siderable, have occasioned some little alteration of form in the arrangement of the chapters of the present edition. Time and commerce have introduced many changes, which it be- comes necessary to record. Our own colonies are sending us importations, which bid fair, at no distant period, to be worthy of very particular notice. It is hoped that the opinions here promulgated are just in the main, and that in discriminating between what is pure and genuine and what factitious, the truth is fairly sought. "We must not only endeavour to be useful, but to be so honestly; and where the benefit is universal this should operate as an additional stimulus. C. E. . u CONTENTS. PAGE To the Reader Hi Contents v Preface 1 CHAPTER I. ON ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. Introductory Remarks on Ancient Wines "Writers upon the Subject Con- flicting Statements Wine in England Prices of Wines formerly Supe- riority of France as a Wine Country 5 CHAPTER II. OF THE VINE. Origin and Varieties of the Vine The Grape Wine District of Europe Sites most congenial to Vine Culture Antiquity of Culture Methods of Train- ing Propagation Regeneration Various Modes of Treatment Annular Incision Duration of Bearing Favourite Species, and whence derived- Tears of the Vine 29 CHAPTER III. OF THE VINTAGE. Maturity of the Grape Mode of Gathering Pressing Treatment in the Vat Course of Fermentation Subsequent Operations 52 CHAPTER IV. THE VINTAGE (continued.} Accidents to the Product of the Vintage in its subsequent State Remedies Treatment and Uses of the Murk Oil of Grape-seed Boiled Wines Vins de Liqueur, de Paille, Jaune Strengthening the Produce of Weak Vintages 71 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTEB V. WINES FRANCE. PAGE General Bernarks France the first Wine Country Quantity of Land in Vineyards Amount and Value of Produce Heavy Duties to which Wine Growers are subjected Wine Exports by Sea Value of Exports High Government Duties in Paris French Wine Measures 81 CHAPTEB VI. WINES OF FRANCE (continued.') Wines of the Departments of the Marne, Haut-Marne, Ardennes, and Aube, comprehending the Ancient Province of Champagne Wines of the C6te d'Or, L'Yonne, and Seine and Loire, composing Ancient Burgundy Wines of the Drdme, Bh6ne, and Vaucluse, formerly the Lyonnais Dauphiny, Provence, Orange, and Languedoc Of the Gironde or Bordelais Of the Departments of the Dordogne, Vienne, Nievre, Lot, Lot et Garonne, Moselle, Haut Ehin, Bas Bhiu, &c 95 CHAPTEB VII. WINES OF SPAIN AND THE CANARIES. General Bemarks Wines Exported La Mancha, Val de Penas Wines of Catalonia of Valencia of Arragon and Navarre Andalusian Wines, Ma- laga, Xeres, &c. Wines of Minorca, Majorca, and the Canaries 194 CHAPTEB VIII. WINES OF GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND. Antiquity of the Vine in Germany The Bheingau Species of Soil Charac- ter of Vines Large Tuns Nature of the Wines, and PricesWines of Switzerland 215 CHAPTEB IX. WINES OF PORTUGAL AND MADEIRA. The Methuen Treaty Quantity of Wine Imported in 1700 and 1800 Mono- poly of Wine given to a Company Conduct of the Company Vineyards of the Douro of Madeira and the Azores 235 CHAPTEB X. THE WINES OF ITALY AND THE ISLANDS. General Character of Italian Wines Vine Culture Causes of Neglect in their Manufacture Variation Sicilian and Elbese Wines 26 9 CHAPTEB XI. WINES OF HUNGARY, AUSTRIA, STYRIA, AND CARYNTHIA. Hungarian Vines Calculated Produce Practice at the Vintage Different Kinds of Wine Principal Vineyards Austrian Wines Carynthian and Sclavonian 282 CHAPTEB XII. THE WINES OF GREECE. Greek Wines generally Wines of the Islands Cyprus Wine Wine of the Comrnandery Mode of Making, and Qualities Wines of the Ionian Islands of Albania, Bomania, and of the Bussian Dominions 289 COTTTESTTS. VU CHAPTER XIII. WINES OF PERSIA AND THE EAST. PAGE Persian Legend relating to Jernsheed Of the Grapes and "Wines of Persia The "Wines of Mount Libanus and Judea Of Indian and Chinese "Wines... 302 CHAPTER XTV. WINES OF AFRICA AND AMERICA. Few African Wines North of the Cape Wines of the Cape of Good Hope- Importations from South Africa into Great Britain Cultivation of the Vine in America 3fl2 CHAPTER XV. ON KEEPING WINES. Wine Countries not given to Ebriety Enormous Duties in favour of Spirit So Expensive an Article to be carefully kept The Preservation, Cellar- ing, and Mellowing of Wines 322 CHAPTER XVI. ON THE ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. Prevalence of Adulteration Of Brandy and its Uses Mixed Wines forbidden anciently Increase of Spirit Consumption Various Modes of Sophis- ticating Wine Of Making or Adulterating Port and Claret Observations 348 APPENDIX. I. Summary of Distillation from the Grape 371 II. Wines of the First Class 376 French Wines of the Second Class 378 French Wines of the Third Class 379 French Departmental Produce 380 French Exportations 382 Consumption of Wines in France ib. Importations of French Wines from 1700 to 1850 383 French and Portuguese Trade in the 17th Century ; Drawbacks, Duties on French and Portuguese Wines from 1786 to 1831, inclu- sive, per Imperial Gallon, contrasted 391 Table of Gironde Wines and Prices 392 III. Spanish Wines of the Second and Third Classes 393 IV. Importations of Spanish Wines from 1700 to 1849 395 V. Importations of Canary Wines from 1785 to 1849 396 VI. German Wines of the Second and Third Classes ib. VII. Importations of German Wines for the last 149 years 399 VIII. Portugal Wines of the Second and Third Classes 400 IX. Importations of Portugal Wines from 1700 to 1849 401 Total Export of Wines from Oporto from 1824 to 1833 inclusive 402 X. Wines of Madeira and the Azores ib. XI. Importations of Madeira Wines from 1785 to 1849 403 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE XII. Methuen Treaty 403 Natural Effect of the Monopoly 404 Table of Portuguese Vintages ib. Table showing the Mode in which the Qualities of Oporto Wine are made to meet all Circumstances 405 Modification of the Company's Charter ib. Decree presented by Jose da Silva Carvalho, declaring Lisbon and Oporto Free Ports 406 Decree of Don Pedro, abolishing the Oporto Company ib. Extract of a Letter from the Periodico dePobres } I848 407 Decree relating to Madeira Trade 408 XIII. Italian and Sicilian Wines of the Second and Third Classes 409 XIV. Miscellaneous Wine Importations 410 XV. Hungarian, Austrian, and Sclavonian Wines of the Second and Third Classes 411 XVI. Cape Wines imported from 1801 to 1849, inclusive 413 XVII. Total French, Spanish, and Portuguese Wines imported from 1700 to 1785 ib. XVIII. Wine of all kinds imported into Great Britain for Home Consump- tion from 1785 to 1849, and Revenue 414 XIX. Wine of all kinds imported into Ireland from 1789 to 1828 415 XX. Duties on Wines ib. Table showing the Fluctuations of Wine Duties at one View, both of the Customs and Excise, from 1786 to 1850 416 Consumption of Wine in England 418 Scotland ib. Bottles of Wine consumed 419 Spirits imported and Home made Returns of Consumption ib. XXI. Wine Measures used by different Nations 421 XXII. British Wine Measures adjusted with the Imperial Gallon 425 Cubic Inches in different Measures 426 Roman Measures in decimals of English Gallon ib. List of Ancient Wines ib. Standard Guage for Foreign Wines ib. XXIII. Old Wine Gallons, with their Equivalent in Imperial Gallons, from 1 to 100 ib. XXIV. Instrument referred to, page 75 427 XXV. Regulations of the Customs 428 XXVI. Alcoholic Strength of Wines and Liquors, after Mr. Brande, except those in italics ib. XXVII. List of some of the various Liquors in use among Modern Nations besides Wine 430 XXVIII. List of some of the various Liquors in use among Modern Nations beside Wine 431 Index of Wines 434 A HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF MODERN WINES, PREFACE. Two editions of this work having been required, nothing could be more decisive of a favourable reception. The present or third edition con- tains much additional matter; various corrections have been made, and the price has been reduced. The author did not intend to add anything more to his announcement in the first edition, had it not come to his knowledge that interested in- dividuals considered he had done injustice to the merits of the red wine of Portugal. He was charged with depreciating port wine in that edition, and laying upon the Oporto wine monopoly the burden of evils existing in his own imagination alone, seeing that the monopoly had been destroyed, and that, whether the monopoly existed or not, the wine of Oporto was the only proper wine for this country. The common sense of the public is insulted by an assertion, that duties to favour one nation at the expense of all others are wise, honest, or beneficial. The wines imported must be paid for by exported manu- B & PREFACE. factures of some kind, either in direct interchange, or by a more cir- cuitous operation. Wool had no claim to protection on export over iron or cotton. Such a distinction was an injustice to consumers ; it obliged them to pay a high price for what they purchased, and it encouraged monopoly. Right principles will ever finally prevail in commercial legislation, and baffle the caprice, or false views of a minister. In the present instance they have triumphed, and the country confesses its obligations to that clearer insight into the principles of trade, which made government abolish the Portuguese monopoly. It is thus of great importance to have right principles acknowledged by those who rule, retraction be- comes impossible, and the future will effect all else that is desirable. But, although the Methuen Treaty is no more, the same cannot be said of the system it organised, of its spirit, of the habits it generated, of its ill-treatment of the vinous product, its local influence, its preju- dices, and its struggles to maintain prices by capital previously invested. The preference for Port wine in England at first, not because it was the best wine, but because the duty was formerly low, had, from the invete- racy of habit, rendered a proper examination of the simple question what " qualities really constitute good wine" impossible to be consi- dered. The predilections of a century were in its favour. Time alone could alter these, and direct into another channel the capital employed in sustaining the high prices and sophistications of Port wine. The wine of Oporto is the standard by which Englishmen were once led to judge of all other kinds of wine, a good natural growth injured by bad management. The effect of the monopoly was twofold : it depreciated the good wine, blending together vintage after vintage, and burying merits and defects alike in a sea of brandy, because " quantity paid better than quality," and it raised the prices of the wines exorbitantly. Thus, imitations of Port wine were rendered worthy of study, and importa- tions from Prance were effected under that name by transhipping, while the heavier duty on French wines was evaded. I have shown that very large quantities of wine have been received into this country and drunk as Port, without the discovery of their origin; and, secondly, I have touched briefly upon the consequences which may ultimately follow this knowledge and the equalisation of the duties, for to this last measure succeeded changes in commerce as respect wine, which are very far from being apprehended in all their extent. "When long-established monopolies, and the mischiefs they generate, become prejudicial to the consumer, changes cannot be remote. The Oporto trade was too long a serious injury to the people of England. The concentration of British capital, and the unwearied activity of British merchants acting on the Company, it succeeded in raising the price of the wine enormously. It was not any fresh demand on the PREFACE. 3 part of the consumer, making the commodity scarcer, but a monopoly in the management of the market by the capitalist, that caused this increase of price. When commodities can be sold or withheld at pleasure, and be mingled and adulterated with no regard to the natural principle of the article in adherence to blind cupidity, the result will ultimately defeat expectation. The price, too, ceases to be the natural market value, which becomes in consequence forced and facti- tious. That which is morally unsound may flourish for a time, but it is liable to be destroyed on the occurrence of contingencies that seem in themselves very insignificant. The basis for all enduring transac- tions is the rock of right principle. The object of these observations is a public one. Every clear- sighted merchant must know that what benefits the public benefits himself. To uphold the cause of the public, is to support the best interest of the home merchant. The public have a right to candid and honourable dealing; and now, it must be added, when all foreign wine countries, save the Cape, are open to England at one rate of duty, it is proper that every wine should be rightly designated, that every variety should come openly into the market, and that Englishmen should be able to choose for themselves, not drinking wines of Cette, Beni Carlos, or Roussillon, or adulterated Oporto wine as genuine port, but for what they really are, whether in respect to merit or price. It has also been deemed right to show to the world, what no one can gainsay, that we have been drinking in this country for a long time the wines of other countries as port wine : such wines entering under that appellation and rate of duty. This statement has been proved in the sequel. The temptation to call wines by fraudulent names has been great, but the common sense of the public will find out the secret; a little time only being required for that purpose. The wines of the south of France are now made to suit the English taste, which values wine, not for its ripeness or vinosity, but for its heat and fruitiness. The stock of old French wine of the south has been so much in demand in Brazil, the north of Europe, and in England also, under the name of Port, that the supply was not at one time adequate to the demand although the production was abundant. The author shows that the stock of Portuguese wines, when abundant, bore an excessive cost, owing to artificial causes ; and that makers must attend to the pure growths, and descend to fair prices again, or they will be supplanted by other wines of vinous qualities more than equal to those that the British public have drunk heretofore. Such is the nature of what was deemed worthy of consideration in the former and present observations upon the wines of Portugal in this work. The author trusted that he had answered those who censured his previous remarks. He saw no necessity for making si^fc B2 4 PEEFACE. facts more prominent in his first edition, intending to give the reader his own opinions, without the data on which they were formed ; indeed, after that edition went to press, he accumulated new facts. Those opinions were stated to be wrong, the Port wine trade to have always been a most advantageous one for the public, and the wine itself as beneficial for the stomachs of Englishmen as any that nature bestows. If only nature was concerned, this might be true: the author con- demned the interference of art in the business; and it is here "issue was joined," as the lawyers say. This preface, he trusts, explains his remarks upon Oporto wines in his first edition. Continual changes occur in the modes of treating the product of the vintage, and new growths appear. There is a considerable alteration in the taste of those who take the better classes of wine since this work went first to the press. Wines artificially strengthened and skilfully adapted to the tastes of all orders of consumers with the same name and quality ascribed to all, are now rejected for natural growths, which are cooler and more exhilarating. The tendency of all refined persons of the present day is to the purer and better growths, and of such wines new varieties have been introduced by the best merchants. The long interval of peace enjoyed in Europe has made individuals of competent means better acquainted with the choice wines of Europe, and among such, less of some of the old and customary kinds have been taken. The same circumstance has probably tended to a less con- sumption of every kind at the table. People do not now sit as long as their fathers, and in both the foregoing respects lean towards an imitation of their continental neighbours. There is an increased desire peculiar to the time everywhere, in all classes, to become as much as possible acquainted with the nature of what tends to luxury or com- fort, and in regard to a very ancient contribution to living enjoyment in all ages and nations the information sought will, it is hoped, be found improved in this upon the preceding editions The author is gratified to find that some of his prognostications on the subject of changes in the public feeling in regard to wine have been fulfilled in the advance of a purer taste. The value set upon German wines in proportion to their extravagant age has died away. These wines, some of the most pure, perfect, and healthy in the world, are now drunk in perfection at a reasonable time after the vintage. There are several other circumstances which might be noticed of a similar character, which the reader will find in the body of the work. The processes pursued at the vintage are more minutely given in one or two instances than was done before. The means by which the great end of fermentation is conducted, are so varied, yet the termination is so uniform, that to burden the text with new details, which have reached the author's hands, would be superfluous. C. R. London, October 1, 1851. CHAPTER I. ON ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON ANCIENT WINES WRITERS UPON THE SUB- JECT CONFLICTING STATEMENTS WINE IN ENGLAND PRICES OF WINES FORMERLY SUPERIORITY OF FRANCE AS A WINE COUNTRY. THE separation of all knowledge which is of a useful cha- racter from pedantic terms and idle conjectures, seems ex- plained by the demand for works which convey as much as possible of fact. Man is a more active animal than he ever was before. While human life appears to have received pro- longed duration, the gift seems conferred only to stimulate activity and leaves the impress upon the mind, that years fleet with accelerated rapidity. Yet the interest connected with the present subject cannot be denied. If an equal attraction in ancient as well as modern times be a virtue, that virtue belongs eminently to wine. Sacred and profane history have alike dwelt upon it. Even the name, so similar in the more civilised nations, evinces the universality of it as a subject. In England we call it wine, not from the Latin vinea, which we have trans- ferred to the tree that produces it, but from the French vin, or Anglo-Saxon win, or Grerman wein, Dutch vinn, Danish wyn, or, as our tongue is so complex, from more ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES. southern countries, as the Latin vinum, the Italian vino, the Spanish vino, or the Portuguese vinho. The Greek oinos is clearly not of the same family origin. Among the ancients, the value for wine, expressed in many ways, was in none more strongly so than in mingling it with their mythology. Osiris, or the sun, in Egypt, was the source whence the Greeks drew their beautiful fable of " Dionysus, -or Bacchus born of Semele," " to be a joy to mortals." Egypt and Palestine had wine at a very early period. The history of Noah's drunkenness, and of Pharoah and his butler, are the oldest accounts of wine that have reached us. The Mareotic wine of Egypt was a white wine, mentioned by Horace. Merb'e was a wine country of that kingdom. There were wines grown near Alexandria. The Tseniotic is mentioned as an Egyptian wine. Phoenicia had her wines of "Byblos, and there are wines recorded as being grown in Lydia, at Tmolus. Though wine is alluded to in sacred his- tory, the names of only two kinds have come down to the present day, one of which is that of Lebanon, the other that of Helbon, near Damascus, which the Eomans called Chaly- bon, supposed to be a sweet species. Homer mentions wines which it may be presumed were of the sweet kind, from the epithets applied to their description. The wine of Maro- nea, in Thrace, is mentioned in the " Odyssey," named from Maron, a priest of Apollo, and grown on the hill of Ismarus, supposed to have been of a very potent quality. Almost all the Greek islands produced wines, many of which were vino cotto, or boiled, used either alone or to mingle with other growths. Honey and different substances were mixed with them, and sometimes drugs. Crete, Lesbos, Thasos, and Chios were noted for their wines. The Phanean wine was grown in Chios, the most celebrated of all the islands for the character of its growths. The Eoman, Lucullus, never saw more than a single cup of this wine served up at one time at the table of his father. Rhodes,, Corcyra, Zante, Cos, and other islands, are alluded to by ancient writers as having their own wines. The Mendean wine was from Thrace, and the Malmsey of the present day owes its origin in the renowned land of Greece, to the Morea, known a few hundred years since as Malvasia and Eomania. The Greeks seem to have had peculiar ideas of wine. AKC1EKT AIS'D MODEK^ WIKES. 7 They mingled sea-water with their wine before drinking it, which they thought improved its flavour. It was boiled before the mingling. The Boinans copied the example, which ori- ginated in the effort of a slave to prevent detection, who, having robbed his master's cask, filled it up with salt water. The Eomans borrowed from the Greeks, however singular the custom might be, whatever was their fashion. The substances they mingled in their wines were of opposite characters, and must have destroyed the natural qualities. Besides salt water, they infused asafoetida, tar, bitumen, pitch, myrrh, aloes, gums, pepper, spikenard, poppies, wormwood, cassia, milk, chalk, bitter almonds, and cypress. All these were steeped, each or more than one of them in the different wines drunk by both Greeks and Eomans. The ancients exposed their wines to the action of smoke, in a sort of kiln or chamber called a fwnarium, which thick- ened and matured them. It would appear that their wine was made from vines suffered to grow to the full natural ex- tent, unpruned, and, therefore, the must being weak might require some kind of preparation to prevent ascescency, though at the expense of delicacy. "Wine-mixing seems to have been an important employment, not as with the moderns, implying, for example, the mingling of Cape and other white ; wines to simulate sherry, but with some of the substances i just mentioned. This explains what was meant by " mixed wine" among the Jews, whose wine was mixed with aloes and myrrh, or wormwood. Ovid deifies a wine-mingler who had quitted life : one of giant line Who to the gods does mix immortal wine The wine thus mingled was taken in Murrhine cups; a substance about which critics are not agreed. It was said to impart a peculiar flavour to the wine. But the wines were commonly drunk out of small glasses called cyaths, of which as many were taken as there were letters in the name of the party toasted, and they were crowned or filled to an overflow. The cyath was not equal to the modern wine-glass in size. It was just the twelfth of a pint, or O469f of a cubic inch. So that a lady's name of six letters would demand only three of the middle-sized wine-glasses of the present day. The most renowned of the ancient wines among the Eomans was 8 ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES* the Ealernian, which grew upon the volcanic Campania near Naples, where also the Massic was produced. The Ealernian was the product of a hill-side. It was rough, of a dark colour, and strong. It was drunk at ten years old, when it was mellowed, softened, and had imbibed somewhat of a bitter taste. The price was high. Calenian, and Egrinian wine as well, were products of the vine^in 'the time of Augustus Caesar;* as was the Caecuban, so named from the city of Caecubum, where the vineyards were situated on the Palus, or low grounds, near Amycle. Ealernian was sometimes mingled with Chian to soften it. These wines were taken after being cooled in snow. They were brought to the table in flasks, not corked, but having a little fine oil poured into the necks to exclude the air. Sea-water boiled was de- manded, a small quantity of which was mixed with the wine. Ealernian wine was distinguished by wine of Grauranuni, of Eaustinianum, and of Ealernum, frojn growing on the top, middle, and bottom of the hill. The ancients noted the years of celebrated growths, as that of the Opimian year, or the year of Eome, 632, when Opimius was consul. It was in high esteem a century afterwards. The Romans marked their amphora, or wine vessels (containing seven gallons and a pint modern measure), with the consul's name, which in- dicated the year of the vintage. Many amphorae now exist with the legible mark of the vintage. Other famous growths among the Romans were the Setine, the favourite wine of Augustus Caesar, said to be lighter than the Ealernian, and supposed to possess medicinal virtues. It was grown near Setia, in the beautiful Campania, a town overhanging the Pontine Fields. Surrentine was a wine com- mended by the Emperor Caligula. It was made at Surren- tum, and was little inferior to Ealernian or Massic. This wine was described as a mild wine, less affecting the head, according to Pliny, than some other kinds. The Alban wine was grown on the hills of that name. Eaudine was like the * Hence Martial: Crown the deathless Falernian, my boy ! Draw the quincunx* from out the old cask Of the gods who can heighten the joy ? 'Tis for Caesar five bumpers I ask. * The quincunx is the five letters in the name of Caesar. ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES. 9 Falernian in quality, and was grown in the Campania Felix. Near Naples, the Trifoline Hill was noted for its growths, and Mount Aulon, opposite Tarentum, now called Castri Yetere. Mamertine wine was made in Sicily, near Messina. Nomentine was a light Homan red wine. Spoletine was light, sweet, and had a yellowish tinge. Signian was astringent, and recommended medicinally. The Ceretan was grown in Etruria, and is supposed to have resembled the Setine. Pol- lium was a sweet Syracusan wine. That of the Sabine Farm is immortalised by Horace more through its connexion with genius than any intrinsic excellence of its own. The vine- yard was situated where two mountains opened, and formed a secluded valley, the sides of which faced the east and west respectively. The stream from the Fount of Bandusia ran through the fields of the farm. Horace mentions having on this farm to oifer his guests some five-year old wine of Min- turnae, grown near Sinuessa. The poet had also some Mar- sian wine, the best of his stock, of the age of the Marsian war, or about the year 65 before Christ. Opimian wine could not be bought in the time of Augustus Cassar, such was the value set upon it. Thus, all that remained was probably in private cellars. Other wines of Italy, the names of which remain, are the Pucine, grown on the shore of the Adriatic, upon a stony hill-side. This wine was said to have prolonged the life of the Empress Julia Augusta to eighty-two years. The Khsetian wine was grown in the territory of Yerona. The Praetutian, Latinensian, Statonian, Palmesian, and Gra- viscan wines, are mentioned among those of the Romans. Pliny states that the number of wines in esteem in his time was fifty-four Italian and twenty-six foreign species. (See Appendix, No. XXYII.) That adulterations of wine were practised in Eome in the time of Horace, as they are at present in England, is clear, from the accounts of the entertainments of those times still extant. Greek wines were thus imitated. The age of the wine of the Sabine Farm is stated by Horace, and that it was used to cheer the ancients much in the same social domestic manner as the temperate among the moderns use it at present, when winter's chill blasts prevail : 10 ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. Heap up tlie fire, drive off the cold, Bring Sabine wine of four years old, And leave the Gods our cares !* Some of the Boman wines are mentioned as twenty-four years old, some as sixty-five. Several centuries elapsed be- 1 fore ' the Romans made their own wine. They imported it ' before that from Greece. Among the Greek wines, that of ; Clazomenae was in considerable repute in Home. The Palig- rian, from the Abruzzi, and the Massican, seem to have been /held in small esteem. The wine of Massilia,now Marseilles, I was censured for being smoky by Martial. The same writer compares the bouquet of a bottle of Falernian, upon opening it, to the sweet breath of Diadumona. The wine of Tarracon, , now Tarragona, in Spain, is said to have approached Falernian in excellence. The wines of the Rhone were not highly valued, except those of Vienne, then called Vienna. The Eomans seem to have been partial to thick wines. They boiled down their must one-third, and then mingled drugs with it, to impart the desired flavour. Pliny says that the drunkards of his day took pumice-stone before they set to at a drinking bout in honour of Bacchus. Some of them swilled amazing draughts; a gallon was a common matter. They used both skins and amphorse for holding their wine ; the former were called utres. The amphorse were made of baked clay, anointed with a proper substance to close up the pores, and prevent leakage. They held from seven or eight gallons up to several barrels. They were fixed in the ground, having a pointed termination. They have similar, but ]arger, clay vessels at Manzanares to this day. In shape, the am- phorae were conical, with a mouth and handles : a cover of clay was luted on, and waxed, to keep out the air. The date of the vintage was generally marked in red letters. The vessels out of which the wine was drunk were various, and some exceedingly rare, rich, and costly, ornamented with amber, gold, and gems. They had also bottles and cups of glass. Some were made in Egypt, some at Surrentum ; and the flasks they used were manufactured in Syria. JSTot only in libations to the gods, but on all great occasions, they seem * Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco Large reponens. Hor. ANCIENT A^D MODEEN WINES. 11 L to have been careful to adopt the most costly material. ] The Greeks mingled water with their wine at public entertain- ments, by a law of Amphytrion, revived by Solon, in order that people might return home sober. The Jews were or- dered to use pure " unmixed" wine in their sacrifices, and the same point was observed in the sacrifices of Nuina, at Rome. This plainly shows that mixing wine with drugs, as in modern times with brandy, was to render it more intoxicating, which would desecrate wine used in libations to the gods. Bumpers, or crowning the glass on drinking a toast, was a practice bor- rowed by the Eomans from the Greeks, and most probably / original with that wonderful people. When the wines were closed np in the amphorae, they were placed in the fumarium, to mellow by warmth and to thicken, \ as well as to imbibe a slight smoky flavour. This has some resemblance to the modern custom of our Indian voyage, to mellow Madeira by heat and motion. The amphorae were then placed in the ground, regularly arranged, and marked. The accounts that have reached us forbid the supposition that the Greeks had any depositories like modern wine-cellars in temperature and dampness, for they placed their wine where there were cloths, costly vessels, and brazen armour, which a damp cellar would have spoiled. The amphora being her- metically sealed, and the earthenware impervious to atmo- spheric influence the wines, too, being so thick and viscid that they were diluted with water very frequently it is probable that temperature was less a matter of moment with the ancient than the better modern wines, which are valued for freshness and delicacy. The Eomans, on the other hand, had extensive buildings, where large quantities of wine were stored up after the vintage ; and there can be little doubt that they had cellars in their houses as well. The colour of their wines was various. They perfumed them, and thus their fragrance was evidently the product of art, and not the natural bouquet of pure wine. The poets supply many passages that point to the characteristics of the ancient wines, and make continual allusion to them, in pas- sages of great beauty. Homer, Anacreon, and other Greek writers, and Horace, Martial, Persius, Virgil, Plautus, and other poets among the Eomans, make allusions which may or may not be literally correct regarding them. These, and the 12 ANCIENT AND MODEKN WINES. writers on agricultural subjects or natural history, afford the sole glimpses of all we know upon the subject among the two greatest nations of antiquity. The wines of the moderns, there is no doubt, are much more perfect than those of the ancients as far as can be dis- covered by anything carrying the stamp of authenticity, which has reached the present time. It may not be amiss to mention briefly those writers who have treated upon the sub- ject, and treated it generally with that attachment to favoured theories which renders so many men of talent agreeable en- thiagiasts in behalf of all that is old, however dubious the authority upon which they found their conclusions. What we know of the ancients in the way of fact, we may safely use ; what we guess relating to them, if always amusing, it is not always useful to communicate. The wines drunk by the Romans were mixed or adulterated wines, and were consequently not pure, in the modern sense of the term. Even in the ancient sense, as the reader will see in the account of the best wine given by Mago, quoted hereafter, the dry wines were not considered the most worthy. It was in the flourishing times of Eome, in the Augustan age, that we discover wine to have been deteriorated. Yet this was the age of the Ealernian, the taste and colour of which have been so much disputed. Some have fancied it was of the colour of Madeira. One writer thinks it was white, and many commentators declare it was black, while it was very probably neither. The poets frequently use the slight apparent colour which an object may assume for the real hue, hence the "black" of Martial, applied to Palernian, might be intense red, or purple, or violet, but was hardly white. To receive the language and allusions of poetry as direct evi- dence in such a matter, would be to change the nature of poetry itself, which professes to accommodate most things upon which it touches to a standard of ideal excellence. The historians of wine have hitherto been of the medical profession. To render it more singular, even the laureate of the vine, Redi, with his " Bacco in Toscana," was a physician, while in treating the subject he affords, by his facetiousness, a striking contrast to the solemnity of style and manner which marks the grave periods of his brethren. Bacci, a pa- tient and learned writer, wrote his history in Latin, and died ANCIENT AND MODEKN WINES. 13 at the close of the sixteenth century ; his work on wine is, in many respects, valuable, though Haller speaks of it slight- ingly. In 1775 Sir Edward Earry, having read Bacci, became " wine wise," to borrow a word from Beaumont and Fletcher, and composed his observations on the " Wines of the An- cients." Using all of Barry's treatise which was worth taking, Dr. Henderson compiled his volume on wines. He designed at first only to publish an improved edition of Barry, until he saw that making sense of so strange a jumble was impossible. Barry, in treating of Greek wines, cannot refrain from introducing Bath waters, while his implicit faith in everything mentioned by ancient writers, is carried to a ludicrous extent. He finds that Hippocrates gave his patients Thasian wine in the proportion of twenty-five parts wine to one of water, and he thence infers the potency of the wine, beyond any belonging to these " degenerate days," with the weight of the still in their favour, of which the ancients knew nothing. A brief account of the contents of Sir Edward Barry's vo- lume will explain them sufficiently. Little information of moment on the wines of the ancients is mixed with much absurdity. Much is gathered from poetical passages that have come down to us, that allude but generally to the sub- ject of wine ; and after all, with what information is left upon the subject of agriculture by one or two of the ancients, the information of that which it was most important to know, the quality and flavour of the ancient wines, amounts to little. Hippocrates first led Dr. Barry to the subject of wines, by his medical rules respecting them ; hence he was induced to inquire into their nature and principles. He thinks Hippo- crates mistaken, when he speaks of black wines, " which are., nowhere produced." Now there are the "black" wines made at Cahors, in France, at this day ; their colour is appa- rently that of ink, arising from their intense violet hue. Nor was Barry aware that Hippocrates, when he speaks of wine and its ancient use in different degrees of strength, might be treating of a remedy for fever, at this moment used in several parts of Greece. * This is a much better way of accounting for what seems " obscure," in the rules of the Greek physician, than any light Barry has been able to throw upon the subject. Old thick wine is still a remedy in Cyprus 14 ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES. for tertian and quartan agues, common in that and some other of the Greek islands, where the old wine used to burn like oil. Dr. Henderson does not seem to be aware of this circumstance, when he corrects Barry, by supposing the drink was used merely as a diluent, for even in that character, in most fevers, wine would seem oddly applied, unless the patient were in a state of convalescence ; I say this with all due deference to better Esculapian knowledge. Barry's first chapter treats of the nature and principles of wine, and gives Boerhaave's idea of fermentation, a subject now better understood. "Water, fire, terrestrial, saline, and oily parts, with ardent spirit, Barry describes as the compo- nent substances of wine. In his second chapter, he enters upon "the wines of the ancients," and introduces Galen and the Italian wines ; Dioscorides, Pliny, and Athaeneus, too, are quoted. " Inspissated" wines are touched upon ; Cato, Varro, Columella, and Bacci are introduced. The doctor then con- siders the mode adopted by the ancients in making and pre- serving their wines ; and announces the notable discovery, that they were either weak, strong, or intermediate. He laments that modern wine-coopers know nothing of fining with isinglass, eggs, and similar matters, though it has been practised across the Channel, and probably in England, time out of mind. The mixing of salt water with viscid wine is noted, and that Chian wine was adulterated into Falernian by the use of hepatic aloes, a pleasant example of the purity of ancient wines. He next alludes to the wine-measures of the ancients, quoting Dr. Arbuthnot for an authority. The " wine-cellars of the ancients" form another chapter. The custom of burying a vessel of wine on the birth of a child, common at this day in Greece, was, it appears, anciently pre- valent at Rome. Barry then treats of Eoman wines and the wines of the Campania Felix. The descriptions are drawn largely from the poets. The mixture of twenty parts of water with on of wine, is quoted from the ninth book of the Odyssey of Homer, to show how powerful the wine must have been. Such quotations prove nothing. The poet, when he extolled the strength of the wine, naturally exaggerated, ac- cording to the custom of poets at all times. Besides, the Thasian might have been in the case to which allusion is made, a mixed wine, after the sense of the term which the ANCIENT AND MODEKN WINES. 15 reader will find in the latter part of this volume. Again, in some wine countries of the South, wine is rarely drunk un- mingled with water, especially in Greece, where the resin and pitch at this day flavour it so intensely. The taking such passages as proof at all, is a fallacy throughout his work. The " entertainments and suppers of the Greeks and Romans" are treated of at length by Barry, mingled with professional remarks. The triclinia, cups, vessels, and vinous preparations of the ancients all come under review, with the medical and dietetic uses of wines. The author precedes them by his chapter on " the nature and qualities of water," which he introduces for the unanswerable reason, that as water is a constituent in wine, it should have similar con- sideration. He then wanders from the vinous subject to his own locality, giving a disquisition on Bath springs and their virtues a deviation not uncommon with physicians in fashionable watering-places. The following extract is a specimen of Sir Edward Barry's style of scientific writing : " I have long been inclined to think that there is a peculiar quality in that kind of water which constitutes the greatest part even of the strongest wines, but prevails almost entirely in the weaker kind, wJ^h are ani- mated only with a very small portion of a vinHpirit ; and, therefore, from the nature of it, must certainly possess some qualities very different from those of the common water, which is that of the soil where the vine is planted ; and which in that state is first received into the small absorbent vessels of its extended fibres ; from whence it is collected, and more di- gested in the bulbous parts of its root, and thence distributed through the trunk, into its various ramifications; where it must have been almost, if not entirely separated, from all the hete- rogeneous and terene parts which it contained, before it con- stitutes the aqueous parts of the grape ; as it is very evident, from late experiments, that the whole size and weight of the greatest tree is owing to water alone. It is likewise remark- able, that the fibres and vessels of the vine are more dry and rigid than those of any other tree, and that it chiefly delights in a sandy soil. This water, therefore, originally of the best kind, and passing through the finest strainers, must approach nearer to the unmixed, elementary qualities of water, than has yet been found in any place, even when depurated with 16 ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. the greatest art. This seems confirmed, from the specific gravity of common water being found greater than that of any pure vinous liquor ; and though this has been generally imputed to the prevailing lighter qualities of its spirituous parts, yet it seems to be more owing to those of the water." A part of Sir Edward Barry's volume is devoted to a no- tice on modern wines. His information upon this part of his subject is very imperfect. He concludes with an account of the "wines used in England," and of the attempts made to plant the vine here ; and, among others, relates an experi- ment made by Mr. Hamilton, his friend, at Painshill, proving that good wine has and can be made in England, and that such wine has been sold at seven and sixpence and ten and sixpence a bottle. Though it is not the design of the present volume to illus- trate modern wines by the imperfect and glimmering views which can be obtained of the ancient, a few remarks on the subject may be casually made. That the wines of the an- cients differed from those most in repute in the present day is clear, although it is very probable that in Cyprus and the East there are wines still made closely resembling the ancient, the most prized of which, as well as the purest, were generally of the sweet or luscious kind. The flavour of wines made in Italy from vines suffered for the most part to luxuriate and grow without pruning, would hardly please a modern palate, especially when mingled with sea-water, tainted with resin, and rendered viscid by the smoke of the fumarium. Yet, as the fumarium was used more to mellow the wines by heat than smoke, and time removed much of the taint, the flavour might not be so objectionable as it appears on the first reflection. The ancient writers on the present subject, of whom we have any knowledge, are Yarro, Cato, Pliny, Columella, and Palladius. Hanno, the Carthagenian, wrote on the sub- ject ; and Athseneus, Plutarch, and others, make allusions to it. Columella quoted Mago. The oldest account of ancient wines that can be deemed satisfactory, through its leading the reader to understand the quality by any mode of making wine pursued at present, is given in this quotation from Mago. He was a Carthaginian, who composed twenty-eight books on husbandry, and flourished about 550 years before ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. 17 Christ. Besides these, all the information by which we can gather any knowledge about ancient wines is gathered from Eoman writers, or Greeks resident in Eome. Aristotle, indeed, gives some little information respecting those of Arcadia particularly, not very consonant with our notions of what contributes to vinous excellence. The Eomans, in describing contemporary manners, give an insight into the use of wine and mode of drinking it, particularly the poets, Juvenal, Virgil, Martial, Horace, and Petronius. But of all the ancient writers Mago alone teaches us, by the mode of making the wine, that the class of sweet wines must have been in quality and flavour very much like those of the South in the present day. The directions given for making the best sort of wine, or 'possum optimum, except the use of pitched vessels, were, in the age of Cyrus of Persia and Mago of Carthage, clearly these : " Let the bunches of grapes, quite ripe, and scorched or shrivelled in the sun, when the bad and faulty ones are picked out, be spread upon a frame resting on stakes or forks, and covered with a layer of reeds. Place them in the sun, but protect them from the dew at night. "When they are dry (sufficiently shrivelled), pluck the grapes from the stalks, throw them into a cask, and make the first must. If they have well drained, put them, at the end of six days, into a vessel, and press them for the first wine. A second time let them be pounded (or trodden) and pressed, adding cold must to the pressing. This second wine is to be placed in a pitched vessel, lest it become sour. After it has remained twenty or thirty days, and fermented, rack into another vessel, and, stopping it close immediately, cover it with a skin." Now, this also was done by Columella, who lived fifty years after Christ, and between five and six hundred after Mago. He prefixes the remark, that " Mago gives directions for making the best sort of wine as I myself have done." Thus the best wine is not a dry wine, nor the best luscious wine only, but the best wine as the luscious wines are esteemed before the dry in the South at this day. Now the best wine in Car- thage, A.C. 550, and at Eome, A.D. 50, must have continued pretty much the same in kind and quality during that in- terval, notwithstanding the reign of Augustus and the poetry of Horace, or such mixtures as the fluctuations of fashion 18 ANCIENT AND MODEKN WINES. dictated. The reader will be at no loss in this volume to find wine made the same way as by Mago in more than one place in the south of Europe, during the present century. It may therefore be presumed, 'that the best wine, in the esteem of the ancients, resembled the l^grimas of Malaga, or some of the straw wines of France. As to what poets say in favour of any wine, it goes for nothing in regard to its quality : Shakspeare may extol sherry for the most exquisite, E/edi Montepulciano, Prior claret, Boileau Burgundy, Crabbe vulgar port, and Moore sparkling champagne ; but this^would decide nothing a thousand years hence about the nature or flavour of the wine, and each kind cannot be the best. Dr. Henderson, with his chemical knowledge, and laborious inves- tigation of classical authorities, saw the concentration of all excellence in the ancients ; but the knowledge of the essen- tial properties of the ancient wines is a sealed book to us for ever. The modern traveller in Greece cannot drink a small quantity of the wine there without water, for the intense headache it excites, owing to the infusion of resin, pitch, and similar ingredients ; substances of the same nature as were infused in the Augustan age, in the dry as well as other wines. But it does not appear to be prevalent in the small islands in the same degree, and not at all in Cyprus. These, it is evident, are properly " mixed wines," in the sense before mentioned among the Jews under that title. It is not wonderful that Augustus could only drink his pint at a sitting, even when mingled with honey ! What should we now think of wine that had been matured by being exposed four years to the sun ! A modern wine-drinker could hardly manage half as much of such a mixture, without sickness, any more than the emperor. These wines, from all that can be now gleaned respecting them, were little entitled to the praise of purity. There seems to have been in all ages a tendency to render the juice of the grape stimulant and injurious to the constitution. The Persians infuse pop- pies in their wines at the present day, and the English gene- rally give the preference to those which are unnaturally mixed with the largest quantity of the product of the still. Henderson seems so much aware of this in praising ancient wines, while agreeing that no wine deserves to be drunk ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES. 19 which is not the unadulterated juice of the grape, that he palliates the practice, by observing in substance, that a taste in wine varies, and is at best an acquired taste. This is hardly correct ; a taste for pure wine is natural. A child will drink pure wine, but not wine and pitch the union of the two would yield a flavour only to be relished by a gradual introduction to their usage. The difference of flavour in pure wine is not against this argument. If it were the fashion to mix saltpetre with coffee, though its becoming the fashion would immediately make the nauseous mixture habitual in what is called "fashionable life," the coffee would not, de facto, be less adulterated, or the fashionable taste be less an acquired and depraved one on that account. Every rational person must admit, that to judge the modern by the ancient wines, without knowing more of them, is only not the greatest of absurdities. Dissertations, however in- conclusive, may amuse individuals of fortune not unprofit- ably who have leisure to bestow upon speculations of a similar nature* The being carried through the pages of Cato, Varro, and Columella, as it were, into the midst of the pur- suits of the ancients, is pleasant and agreeable ; while it is true, the agricultural operations they describe we can under- stand. Of the flavour of the ancient wines, their colour, and spirituous strength, on the other hand, we can know nothing in our sense of those terms. Their merits are a secret as to the qualities we hold in esteem. An ancient, as a modern poet would do, might style the same wines soft, sweet, or luscious, in his verses, as fancy dictated ; so in colour they might be intensely red, approaching black, or purple, or violet. Barry might be of opinion that the wine given by Ulysses to Poly- phemus was Thasian, because it made the Cyclops drunk so soon, and required twenty-four parts of water to make it palatable to any one but a giant ; while some other writer, who eschewed luscious wines, might think it was of the dry class, because the disorder in his own stomach, produced by sweet wines, was somewhat slower in effect than when pro- duced by the dry, and the stomach of Polyphemus seems to have been rapidly and most effectively agitated. Barry has a statement respecting the enormous produce of ancient vineyard land, to which allusion has already been made. It is remarkable on several accounts, as well as for c 2 20 ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES. exhibiting how much, the ancient writers differ in the simplest points, and how hard it is in consequence for the moderns to obtain the truth in things apparently simple. An English acre is forty-three thousand five hundred and sixty square feet. Varro says that a jugerum (twenty-eight thousand eight hundred square feet, or two roods eighteen poles as some state) had been known to produce ten, nay, fifteen culei of wine. Prom ten to fifteen is a great step. He then adds, that Marcus Cato says a certain piece of land gave ten culei repeatedly. Yarro then states further, that the same quan- tity of land, near Faventia, usually gave three hundred am- phorae of must, and was thence called "Tricenary," a term bestowed on vines (vitis tricenarii) that produced thirty measures of wine. Columella, evidently thinking this incre- dible, remarks that such was unquestionably the case in former times ; but now, he continues, at the residence of Seneca, not fifteen, nor ten ; no, but eight culei were no un- common produce for each jugerum. He then observes on the astonishing exuberance of Spanish vines, where seven culei had been obtained from eighty stocks of two years' growth, and a single vine had produced two thousand bunches of grapes. In respect to Spanish vine-produce, it must be still very great, as the reader will see if he turns to the chapter on Spain in this volume, and observes what an abundance of grapes is gathered annually near Malaga ; but then there are three gatherings in the year, which neither Columella nor Varro state regarding the Italian vines. Now Yarro is extolling Italy, and evidently placing it in rivalry with Greece, and his statement, after all, is but ten culei ; and in the time of Columella only eight could be cited as a fact. In deter- mining similar questions, it should be always asked whether it is most likely that a writer should exaggerate or be mis- taken, or that nature should change. Common sense supplies the answer. In such cases it is ever the best course to abide by universal experience. A district may change in fertility, and sometimes the change is recorded as being caused by some public calamity; but generally man will rather be found to have neglected culture, than nature to have forsaken the soil of an entire country. It is probable that Italy and Spain are as capable of producing the fruits of the earth as they ever were. It may be questioned if the ANCIENT AND HODEKN WINES. 21 latter country does not now produce as fully for the pur- poses of commerce, when it is diligently cultivated, as it did anciently. There can be no question that the Axarquia is as rich as it was in Columella's day. Vines are now pruned, and even the buds taken off, to improve the quality of the wine, disregarding the quantity. A vine is not now suffered to run wild, and produce an exuberant quantity of fruit, and in consequence a weak must, which requires pitch, resin, and other ingredients, to prevent it from turning acid, as must from wild grapes soon does ; and as it soon will, however carefully managed, if cultivated vines are allowed to run at large, and give out fruit at random to their full bearing. Modern science has taught a lesson to its children in the better manufacture of wine, if it cannot be partaken at the enviable symphosia of Plato or Xenophon, the myrtle- wreathed suppers of Horace, or around the carved bowl of the immortal MaBonides. Barry says, a British acre, at fifteen culei the jugerum, would produce forty-five hogsheads. Henderson says, fifty- four hogsheads and a half, no trifling difference ; both cannot be correct. The latter remarks, that Columella deemed the estimate of Yarro exaggerated. Columella's experience, it is to be observed, relates to one of the most fertile spots on earth. Neither Barry nor Henderson, it is presumed, were acquainted with the returns of certain vineyards in Prance. The earth has not, as respects quantity, materially changed in what it gives out in culture. The Hampton Court vine has produced in one year two thousand two hundred bunches of grapes of a pound weight each, or two hundred more than the quantity quoted by Columella, who does not say what the grapes weighed. One branch of this vine is one hundred and four- teen feet long. At North Allerton, in 1585, there was a vine that covered one hundred and thirty-seven square yards, and was then a hundred years old. A vine at Yalentines, in Essex, produced two thousand bunches of a pound each, and covered one hundred and forty-seven square yards. At Chevening, in Sussex, a muscatel vine, reared from a cutting thirty-four years old, in 1836, extended over a space one hundred and fifty-eight feet in length, and bore that year two thousand and forty bunches of grapes, while a vine of the same species near it was of no more than the ordinary size. The average of a 22 ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. province is no scale for a particular vineyard, nor does the must of the grape increase as the South is approached. At least, this is by no means the rule. The entire department of the Seine and Oise, a part of Prance, some portion of which is north of Paris, averages 1373*480 gallons per hectare, or every two and a half English acres. But the wine is watery, and will not keep long ; the pitch or resin of the ancients might perhaps give it endurance. It appears, uniformly, that where the quantity of must given is very great, it is generally weak. In the Meurthe, where the average product is but 5O64|^ hectolitres, from a hundred and fifty to two hundred hectolitres per hectare are frequently the produce in certain spots, yielding the almost incredible quantity of two thousand one hundred and twelve, or 2112-0282 gallons each acre, according to the well-established statement of M. Thomassin, cure of Achain. Now eight culei are about one thousand seven hundred and forty-five gallons, and ten about two thousand two hundred and eighty-four per acre. The wines thus produced are the commonest and most ordinary in cha- racter, yet still they are from vines not allowed to run at random, nor give the utmost quantity of fruit. Therefore, that vines in a certain spot in Italy should produce eight culei, especially where the amount of produce was the sole object desired, though the quantity is large, does not seem, all things considered, so very wonderful. Wine appears to have been anciently cheap, for we are told that, at the vintage, one hundred and forty-three gallons were sold for two pounds eight and eightpence. This was common wine. Sir Edward Earry thinks that good wine was about eight pounds sterling per tun of two pipes. In the consulate of Opimius, A.TJ.C. 633, a remarkably fine vintage, the choice wine sold for seven pounds one and tenpence the hogshead. .Afterwards an amphora of the best Chian sold for eight pounds eleven and fivepence, being about fifty-seven pints. A.D. 303, " Conditum," a mixed wine, in temp. Dioclesian, was fixed at twenty-four denarii the sextarius, or about an English pint ; Absintham twenty denarii ; Hosatum, or with roses infused in the wine, twenty denarii. The only difficulty here is to settle the value of the denarius, which was much depreciated at that time. Both the authors above mentioned have dwelt on the ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES. 23 medical effects of wine and its dietetic qualities. These are so well known, that they need not be repeated here. It would never be thought, that before A.D. 1581 the English were noted for their sobriety. There is one distinction should be made, respecting the abuse of wine, in the character of a modern people ; this is the separation of inebriety by wine from that produced by agents not the product of vinous fer- mentation. There are few individuals comparatively, among the intemperate, who can lay the fault upon wine, in this country, if the pure juice of the grape be understood by that term. It is the produce of the still, mingled with wine, that operates the mischief, when wine is concerned at all. The northern nations have always drunk hard, and those who least approach the habits of the more civilised, have been most remarkable for this vice, while in the more civilised countries the lowest orders of the people have been most habi- tuated to it. In wine countries, people mix water with their wines, and when they drink them pure, take them in modera- tion. Their wines have no more than the natural alcohol, and wisely used, prove a blessing, as they did to old Cornaro the Venetian. In no country are the effects of ebriety more fatally visible than in our own. There can be no doubt, that in a northern climate, a moderate quantity of pure wine acts beneficially on the constitution, except in certain habits of body, where the most trifling stimulants are injurious. In all ages of the world, in sacred and profane history, the abuse, not the use of wine, has been condemned. It is painful to reflect how much this abuse has converted what is naturally so generous into an evil of no ordinary magnitude ; so diffi- cult is it to mark the limit of rational enjoyment, even in the best things. The practice of drinking largely of wine has much decreased of late years, and though " Attic taste with wine' J may be a union as rare as before in any class of society, it is certain that wine was never less abused by consumers than in the present day, nor excess more generally avoided. It would be trespassing on the ground of those who have so well described the effect of wine on the human frame, to say more on the subject here ; especially as it is generally well understood. It is safest to drink the French wines, and to take all wines pure. French wines are rated first in whole- someness. Next come the wines of the Ehine. After these, / 24 ANCIENT AND MODE UN WINES. sherry, port, and Madeira, when sound and free from the de- structive influence of unblended alcohol. The vine was once cultivated in England, and this might be done now, were it not that other productions of the soil are more lucrative. There is no doubt but a wine, equal to that of the Moselle, might easily be made, and that every two or three years a vintage sufficient to remunerate the grower might in certain places be perfected ; but the uncertainty of the climate, and the cheapness and superior excellence of foreign wines, would hardly allow a British wine, of little vinosity, the chance of competition. Dr. Barry says, some of Mr. Hamilton's wine was thought superior to the best cham- pagne. The grapes used were the Burgundy, cultivated in the French fashion. The wines used in England in former times have been traced in other works upon the subject. It would be foreign to the nature of this volume, and occupy too much room, to speak of them here ; besides, they comprised the Italian, Spanish, and even the Greek wines, as well as the French. These last came early into England. Langland in " Piers Plowman" writes, about the time of Edward II. or III. : Whit wyn of Oseye and of Gascoyne, Of the Ruele and of the Rochel wyn. Osey wine, or oseye, is a species not at present ascertained. It has been supposed French from Auxois or Alsace, of which it was the old appellation, pronounced much in the same manner. Eochelle wines were French of course. Euele is near Angouleme. Grascony and Gruienne wines, in the reign of Henry VIII., were sold at eightpence the gallon, and malmsey, romaney, sack, and sweet wines at twelvepence, and at three-halfpence the pint, under a penalty. Rhenish, sold, temp. Edward IV., by the fat of three almes at thirty shillings the alme. At this time only a limited number of places were allowed more than two taverns ; London was limited to forty. The usual feudal influence was carefully kept up where the gratification of the sense was concerned. None but those who could spend a hundred marks a year, or the son of a duke, marquis, earl, viscount, or baron were allowed to keep in the house more than ten gallons of wine, under a penalty of ten pounds. No taverns were allowed to retail wine to be drunk in the house. Merchants might use the wines they A:NT> MODERN WINES. 25 imported for themselves, but not sell them. Only high- sheriffs, magistrates of cities and towns, and the inhabitants of fortjfied towns might keep vessels of wine for their own use. S<*much for the commonalty ; yet in this very reign, the Archbishop of York consumed a hundred tuns on his enthronement. Pour pipes a month were consumed in some of our noblemen's households of that day. " Malvasia, rome- nay, osey, bastard muscadelles, and other sweet wines," were drunk in England, in 1469, according to a document relating to the royal family. There were two Greek towns, called Napoli di Malvasia, and Napoli di Eomania, from whence the wine called Malvasia, or Komaney, the modern Malmsey, was originally exported, before the Turks occupied the main- land of Greece. After that event, Candia was the place whence this wine came, even when the island fell into the hands of the barbarians. Pietro Quirino, whose shipwreck is so singular a record of the times, had eight hundred casks of Malvasia on board from Candia, when he was lost in the North Sea, in the year 1431. The "wine of Tyre," the Helbon wine of Ezekiel, made near Damascus, was imported here in the reign of Richard III. by Venetian vessels, which were bound to bring with each cask ten yews for bows : yew abounding in the Levant. Nearly down to the revolution of 1688, French wines were imported in the largest quantities, even to the extent of twenty thousand tuns a year. Heavy duties upon these, and the Methuen or woollen treaty, drove out the wines of France, and introduced Portuguese and Spanish. I may be charged by some, particularly those who from habit are advocates for spirituous wines, with too great a pre- dilection for the wines of France. I do not think I have in any case exceeded the limits of fair comparison. Wine, let it be of what quality it may, whether abounding in alcohol, or weak in spirit, if it be the pure juice of the grape alone, after due fermentation, is that to which I confine my mean- ing when I use the term "pure wine." The French wines are among the best and purest ; the G-erman and Hungarian wines, besides their truly vinous qua- lities, are among the most delicate and perfect in character. The love of brandied wine, and spirits of all kinds, is too much gaining ground in this country. Whether foreign spirit be taken mixed with water or wine, the effects are the 26 ANCIENT AND MODEKN WINES. same on the wealthy user of them, as the spirits of the British still are upon the poorer classes, and the injurious consummation will in both cases be very little protracted. Prance has supplied the want of information respecting her unequalled vinous productions by suitable details of ac- knowledged merit and accuracy. These are given in the text and appendix, nominally and according to the departments in which they are grown, when worthy of notice. As soon as other nations shall follow her example, something like an ac- curate account of the vine and its products may be written, which will contain every particular of this branch of agricul- tural science useful for all nations. There is reason to think that the dissimilarity between the mode adopted both in vine culture and in the vintage in various countries, is already as- certained prettynear the truth, and that the differences are not greater anywhere than will be found described in the following pages. It would be well if the same approximation to truth of description could be attained with respect to the quality, properties, and flavour of the products of the vintage, a thing, however desirable, it is to be feared impossible to be put in the execution. France yields the standard by which all wines ^- jaay be classed in their relation with her numerous varieties. From her weak northern products near the Moselle, to her rich, luscious, powerful wines of the south, among which, it is probable, there is no variety in the world which might not find an approximation to some one of her growths, a classification might be adopted. The roughness of port, the lusciousness of Cyprus or Syracuse, the dryness of amon- tillado, the endurance and flavour of hock, and the sweetness of lagrima, may be all found among her wines, respecting many of which, in England, little is known. In an attempt made, upon French authority, to classify its wines generally under their respective heads in the Appendix, it would have occupied too much room to carry them down to the sixth class, as it is not probable that any beyond the third will be imported into Great Britain, and the varieties are exceedingly numerous. This classification will serve as a general guide in all cases, and may be rendered more perfect, as the inter- course between the two countries, and a more liberal com- mercial exchange shall familiarise the public with those rich productions of the soil. My endeavour has been to render myself as intelligible as ANCIENT AND MODEBN WINES. 27 possible, and to refrain from useless detail. A volume might be filled with the accounts of the vine itself, its varieties, and different modes of cultivation. This part of the subject has been compressed. While the best growths of the various wine countries are given in such a manner that the gentle- man on his travels for pleasure, or the merchant during a commercial journey, may know the spots most eligible to visit, either from curiosity or business. The prices of the wines in France particularly have been annexed, drawn up from the mean of several years. It is obvious that the prices of one year, in a work like the present, would be useless ; the mean has, therefore, been fixed from returns made in the de- partment, and will still be found perhaps an approximation only to the vintage prices for any series of years. In Prance, of late, every statement relative to existing agriculture has been rendered nearly accurate by the advanced situation of the government surveys. In other countries nothing like the same accuracy of detail ; in fact, statements of a very general nature, collected from a variety of sources, and it is to be feared not usually very authentic, are all which can be ob- tained. I have avoided, as much as practicable, the use of foreign terms without explanation, because a volume of the present kind cannot be rendered too intelligible to the greatest number of readers. I cannot look back without pleasure to seasons spent in the lands of the vine, not in the towns, but in the heart of the country, amid the cheerful rural aspect and scenes which of all others, at parting, leave the deepest regret in the heart. In 1816 the grapes, in many places in the middle 'vine districts of Europe, remained ungathered from the badness of the sea- son. After shooting in vineyards, where even in November the fruit hung neglected in many places, I witnessed the disappointment of the laborious vine cultivator, and the suf- ferings of the agrarian population, of which, except in vine countries, little idea can be formed. The vintage has been a jubilee from time immemorial. When, as is rarely the case, there is no joyous celebration of the vintage, the toil of the labourer is unrewarded, the bosoms usually cheerful are oppressed, and the gripe of poverty clutches its wearied vic- tims with redoubled violence. In the present volume I have no intention of trespassing 28 ANCIENT AND MODEEN WINES. upon the ground of other writers. From some, indeed, little was to be learned. I have endeavoured to avoid that abstruse- ness, and mixture of ancient learning and scientific terms, which renders Henderson's work fit only for the scholar. The writers whom I have consulted are numerous. To Bacci, " De Natura Vinorum," Crescenzio, Serres, Eoxas Cle- mente, Herrara, Salmon, Dru, Dussieux, Cavoleau, Choiset sur 1'Appareil de G-ervais, Barry, Chaptal, Jullien, Lebat, Redi, Mariti, Labaud, Berneaud, the Cours Economique, Tavernier, Columella, Ulloa, Bright, Du Halde, Inglis, Harris's Travels, Gay Lussac, Bowditch, Maculloch, and others, I am deeply indebted. Those who are curious upon the subject of wine may read the " Conversations Malaguenas ;" " Dell' Arte di faro il Vino," by Fabbroni; " L'art de faire le Vin, Paris, 1819." The statements in the " Memorias economicas de Academia Heal," &c., in the Portuguese, are to the point. The following works also treat upon the subject : " Wein- leher, Mainz, 1817;" "Ueber Tokay's "Weinbau, Vienna, 1796;" " Eheinslandische "Weinbau ver J. Horter, Cob- lentz ;" " Notitia Historica," &c., " Zempleniensis. Autore, A. Szirmay de Szirma, Cassovise, 1798 ;" " Tableau de 1' Agri- culture Tuscane, G-eneva, 1801;" "De Protopo, apud Een- della de Vinea Videmia, et Yineo, Yenice, 1629 ;" " Euroyo sobre las Yariedades, de la Yid comun que Yegetan en An- dalusia, Madrid, 1807;" "Kempfer amsenetales Exotica;" "Macbride on the choice of "Wines, 1793 ;" and " JSTonnius de res Ciberia," &c. ; the " Enologia" of Count Dandolo, published at Milan; Demerson's "Histoire Natural de la Yigne et duVin, Paris, 1825;" "Proust on the Contents of the Grape." There are also numerous works indirectly touching upon the subject. These remarks will, it is hoped, guide the reader in the search for good wine, and tend to confirm a preference for that which is reallv excellent. [Different Modes of Training the Vine.] CHAPTEE II. OF THE VINE. ORIGIN AND VARIETIES OF THE VINE THE GRAPE WINE DISTRICT OF EUROPE SITES MOST CONGENIAL TO VINE CULTURE ANTIQUITY OF CUL- TURE METHODS OF TRAINING PROPAGATION REGENERATION VARIOUS MODES OF TREATMENT ANNULAR INCISION DURATION OF BEARING FAVOURITE SPECIES, AND WHENCE DERIVED TEARS OF THE VINE. THE varieties of the vine are very numerous. Those which flourish in the hot-houses of England give no idea of the dif- ferent species known in the countries most noted for its cultiva- tion. A thousand distinctions have been reckoned in the vines of France, though the traces of difference must be very obscure, even to the eyes of the experienced cultivator or naturalist. The garden of the Luxembourg in Paris has five hundred and seventy species. In Spain a hundred and twenty kinds have been enumerated in Andalusia alone. M. Dumont, who has attempted to classify the vines of the Jura, confirms the ttO THE TINE. fact of tho obscurity of their dillcrenccs. Ho remarks, too, that tho task of classifv \\\$ thoin generally throughout. 1-Yaneo \et remains to be executed. Tho most favoured species of tho \iuo at present, according lo lYeuch treatises .e subjeet. obtain thoir denomination trom the varieties in thoir produce, bein^ tho original plant, altered in somo Cases but ^cry slightly, by ditVereuees in t he soil and movio of cult nation. It vunild boa wasfo of tiino to enumerate the various con- jooturos which aro upon record ris|u\'tiu^ tho ori ocnintry of tho vino. If it oaino from tho 1 \hioh ihcre is little reaaou to olonbt, tho naino of him u ho first oin tlitMvihl plant, is lost in obliuon, uuloss tho of Noah in Holy \Yrit -.ipposoti lo ti\ tho oror prior to tho Uiou\sus of tho Gh iliiulv^os. Aloxaiulor fho v ,1 \ino on tho banks of tho Hydaspos. Tho mountains of bYnlistan, in lVr>ia. probably aupplioil tho vinos \\hu-h \\ .iltivatoil b\ man: tho \\ino of Shirax is inado of unos LTi\nvn on thoso h I wiKl orooping with its liarsli fruit is gonoral in tho Kast. In America no loss than sovonty kinds of uild vino aro knoNvn. though not moro than ono-half boar truit. From Kiivpt. Palostino, or Asia Minor, into tho luvok .Islands, tho transition of tho vine was natural) as well as from the islands to the mainland of Greece, and thence along the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Hercules. Vinos wore oultivatod in Kraiuv before the time of theCassars: first, it is lvlio\od. at Mar- seilles, They were found both there and in Narbonno v\ hen ,lnlius Caesar conquered G-aul. It would bo ourious to I possible, the transmissions of tho vino from country aniry, as the MaLvasia grape is said to ha\e been i mitt lul to Madeira, and the Hock to the Cape of Good Hope. auce, but ofteuer design, etVeeteii these elia b wrought novelties in the prodnet. Thus a tew si I i randrieu, of the Soyras grapi\ transfon-iHl to the granite declivities of Tain, jjave, as the result, the ^oih .o and red Hermitage. In the thirteiMith eentnn the :d fanatieal expeditions to Asia to eombat the Mo- ieda.ns. made no return for their disasters better than the introduction of tho vines of C\ prus and Palestine into TIII: VIM:. 31 and th< ir produce of tlie wines of Kronti^nac. L i oilier;-, before unknown. The;, mted the Pyrenees. Th" vine was introduced into Germany later; the fir rdfc being on the Kbine in a Cleared portion ofthe Black EOT \ niinnl.fr description of 1 he vine in the la: >f the botanist would be out of place hen:. The ^fncrai cL >f the plant an,- familiar 1o every reader. The fruit, too, it is well known, differ.-- in flavour ;: dobular or oval in form ; BOmetmiefl hir^e and sweet in ore varieties a! i as a pea, of a . crabbed, disagreeable flavour. The graj iffers much in colour, from a rich violet to a jet-black, or a white, green, or golden hue. The bloom, upon the grape, which so delicately tints the skit:. --red in proportion to its prevalence a proof of attention or ne^liirence in the culture. The colour is wholly in the skin ; the pulp of every kind of irrapc, save one variety, having the same internal hue. When the vine blossoms it exhales a perceptible odour, of which the people of the East are very fond. This odour is thought, by the inhabitants of many countries in which the 1 vine is cultivated, to induce fecundity in the human species. The general qualities of the plant are the same in all countries ; they only vary in degree as the action of the sun in a genial climate matures more or less those virtues upon which the excellence of the juice depends. It need scarcely be remarked, that upon their degree of perfection depends the goodness of the wine. vine is a hardy plant, and will grow so far north that it can do no more than blossom. In some parts of England, in propitious seasons, the grape will ripen very well ; but the uncertainty of the climate prevents any attempt at cultivating the vine with a view to profit. There is abundant evidence that vineyards did once exist in England, and that wine was made here; but now that land is so valuable, a crop that would not repay the grower more than one year in seven, would not be worth attention. The limits within which the vine may be successfully o as to make a proper return, do not depend upon a ripening of the fruit now and then for the table. These limits are capricious, and connected with causes, if not wholly THE VINE. unknown, at least very unsatisfactorily explained. Half a degree north of Coblentz is nearly the exact limit in that direction. South of that wine is made that will repay the grower from fruit reared in the open air. Moselle is made as far north as Coblentz, and though a wine of secondary quality, it is by no means of so common and poor a class as some which is grown several degrees further south. From Coblentz, in latitude 51 north, an oblique line of defini- tion for the wine country in the west of Europe might be extended to Mouzon, in the department of Ardennes in Prance, in 49^ north latitude. Let such a line then be continued concave towards the north, through a portion of the department of the Seine and Oise to the town of Bcauvais. From Beauvais to Pontoise, across the Seine to Evreux, and from the latter town through part of the depart- ments of the Sarthe and Mayenne to the mouth of the Vilaine, excluding entirely the departments of the JSTord, Pas des Calais, Somme, Seine Inferieure, Calvados, Manche, Cotes du Nord, and Finisterre. In this large extent of ter- ritory, except an isolated spot or two of no moment, in which a little miserable sour wine may be made in a favourable season, as an exception to the rule, there is no vine country. Yet some of the most celebrated wines in the world, both French and German, are made tw r o or three degrees north of the mouth of the Vilaine, which is in latitude nearly 47 25'. Hock and champagne are made a good way to the north of that latitude, while in Hungary the rich, sweet, and far-famed Tokay is made in latitude 48. The vicinity of the ocean cannot affect this singular boundary. The coast from the Loire to the Pyrenees is an excellent wine country. The cold, biting spring north-east winds, which retard summer so much in England, even after passing the sea upon the eastern coasts of the island, blow over the flat, chill, marshy lands stretching on the south of the Baltic far inland, and may probably be the cause. These winds having their origin in the north-east of Eussia, sweep over plains of snow before they reach the Baltic coast. It is found that their verge south- west is about the commencement of the vine country, lying obliquely between Amiens and Paris. In the former city, in the spring months, the arid, biting wind will prevent sitting in the open air sometimes even at noon at the close of the THE TINE. 33 month of May. Proceeding to Paris the reverse will be the case, and the temperature will be found full warm enough even at night. Returning to Amiens again, the former cold tem- perature will be sustained. The author has more than once experienced this in the space of a few days, and made remarks upon it. There is a range of hills to the north of Beau- vais which may turn this wind in some degree, but it still follows the coast obliquely. The greater prevalence of these winds of late years is acknowledged, and they produce a chill which the vine is too delicate to withstand. The north-west wind, sweeping along a vast extent of ocean, and across the British Isles, is always comparatively soft, and from that cause the country in question cannot be rendered unpro- pitious to the plant. The soil is rather favourable than other- wise to the cultivation of the vine in these districts. There are chalk and other favourite strata, but much of the territory is of a very trifling altitude above the oceanic level in any part, and is more humid from this circumstance. Doomsday Book proves that wine was made in Essex, six acres producing a hundred and sixty gallons. There has been a change of some kind in that climate, as in different parts of Europe. Eabelais, who was born in 1483, makes an allusion in his works to wine of Britain not Bretagne, but England. William of Malmesbury, in his book, " De Pontificibus," says that the Yale of Gloucester used to produce, in the twelfth century, as good wine as many of the provinces of France. Near Tewkesbury is a field still called the " Vineyard." A messuage and land in Twyning were held of the lord of Tewkesbury on certain conditions, one of which was the " finding a man for sixteen days in digging in the vineyard, and gathering the grapes for three days." Ing. ad. q. d. 39 Ed. III. Fosbr. Grlouc., ii. 293. It is well known that in the counties of "Worcester, Hereford, Somerset, Cambridge, and Essex, there are lands which bear the name of vineyards, many of them having been attached to particular church establishments, whose ruins are yet in their vicinity. Ealeigh, in Essex, was valued, in the time of King Edward, at ten pounds, propter vimtm. In regard to the Yale of Gloucester, William of Malmesbury says, " There is no province in Eng- land which has so many and good vineyards, neither on ac- count of their fertility nor the sweetness of the grape." The D THE TINE. tithes of the vines of Lincombe, near Bath, were confirmed to the abbey there in 1150, by Archbishop Theobald. The vil- lage of Winnal, or Wynall, near "Winchester, was so named from a vineyard, and not from any saint, as some pretend. Besides the counties above mentioned, Hertford, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, Hants, Dorset, and "Wilts, had vine cultivation, as appears from Doomsday Book ; but no county north of Cambridge is said to have borne vines. Hence it may be concluded that the vine did not yield any profit if it grew northward of that place. The etymology of Winnal is said to be the Welsh " gwinllan," a vineyard. Yines are dis- tinguished in old writings as "portantes" or " non portantes." The terms, " Vineanova," " Yinae noviter," and " Nuperrimi plantata," occur about the date of the Norman conquest. Six " arpens" of land were then said, if the vines turned out well si lene procedit to produce, by one author, a hun- dred and sixty gallons by another, a hundred and twenty. In seeming opposition to this, it is recorded, in " Memoires pour la Yie de Petrarch," p. 337, tome i., in an extract from one of Petrarch's own letters to a friend, A.D. 1337, that "in England they drink nothing but beer and cyder. The drink of Flanders is hydromel; and as wine cannot be sent to those countries but at great expense, few persons can afford to drink it." Petrarch, however, must have spoken from hearsay alone. More recently, M. Arago, of the French Institute, has commented on the changes in the climate of France. He says, that at Macon, in the department of the Saone and Loire ancient Burgundy wine, in 1553, was made of the Muscat grape, which it is not now possible to ripen there. The vineyards of Etampes and Beauvais were at one time celebrated. Their wines, if now made, are unworthy of notice. According to a report compiled in 1830, no wine can be made in the whole department of the Somme. M. Arago instances a similar change of climate in England, proved by old chronicles. At one time vines were cultivated in the open fields throughout a large extent of the country, while now it requires the utmost care and attention to bring grapes to maturity in the open air. M. Arago, inquiring into the causes of this change, thinks that a very marked alteration of climate has taken place both in France and Eng- land. " The cause," he says, " is certainly not connected THE VINE. 35 with the sun a proof of which is given in the steadiness of the temperature of Palestine." The southern boundary of the wine country is in Asia, at Shiraz, in latitude 33. The vine is grown in more southern latitudes, but no good wine is made south of that Persian city. Between Coblentz, or 51 north latitude, and Cyprus, 34 30', is comprised the vine district of Europe, an extent of sixteen degrees of surface, within which are found the choicest wines known. The principal countries are Prance, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Hungary, Styria, Carinthia, and Transylvania. There is also some wine made in Eussia, the larger part in the Crimea. In 1831, no less than six hundred thousand vedros, or nine millions six hun- dred thousand bottles of a red wine called Kokour, were made in that province. In North America the vine is culti- vated with some success. Near Washington there is grown a species of vine named Cataroba, unknown in Europe, and at Boston there is a good grape, called by some Isabelle. The Hock grape was introduced into Canada many years ago by German settlers, and also into the province of Ohio, in the United States. * In the southern hemisphere, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Australia, and in South America, the vine is successfully cul- tivated. A soil too elevated in a northern country fails to mature the grape sufficiently for wine, as might be expected, from its being some degrees colder than the plain, and rendering the grape too harsh. A warm sun alone develops the saccharine principle in abundance, and prevents austerity in the vine. Thus in latitude 48 or 49 a slope of small elevation best suits the vine. Proceeding southward, though the slope may increase in height and steepness, it will be found equally eligible for ripening the grape. Owing to the increase of tem- perature in the south, the vines grown at a considerable ele- vation will be found to produce wine of a quality equal to that made from Ifines grown on a plain farther north, while the southern plain grows a vine of much more body, strength, and generosity than the plain to the north, supposing the soil of both to be in every respect similar in quality. With the difference of temperature northwards, the vine cultivated for making wine in open vineyards decreases in D2 36 THE YI1TE. size. At the northern boundary of the vine country it is a stunted shrub, in the warm south it spreads from tree to tree, with a luxuriance of vegetation proportioned to the more genial influence of the climate. The vines of Tuscany, or of Grenada, and those of Coblentz, present a curious contrast both in appearance and fruit. On the one, ISfature bestows a prodigality of beneficent nurture, on the other she seems to abandon her stunted offspring to man. The French, who understand the culture of the vine better than any other people, say, that the art of adapting each par- ticular species of vine to the soil most congenial to its culture is yet in its infancy. Yet this, and the choice of the vine- shoots, embraces all upon which success in the quality of the wine depends. This, in the first wine country in the world, would be deemed inexcusable, were it not very well known that the interference of the government, and the discouraging system of extortion which it lately exercised, left the cultiva- tor no means of trying experiments. AVine of ordinary cha- racter generally pays the grower much better than the supe- rior growths. This is a truth in relation to most countries wh^e much commerce in wine prevails. Hence the proprie- tor has no motive to improve his wines, or to search out know- ledge by tedious or expensive processes. Until 1789 he was not allowed to increase -the extent of his vine land, because it was supposed to diminish the growth of food for the labourer. It is the same in the East at this moment ; the ignorance and rapacity of the ruler stinting the industry of the cultivator. The vine-grower of Cyprus hides from his neighbour the amount of his vintage, and always buries part of his produce for concealment; the exactions of the government are so great, that his profit upon what he allows to be seen is too little to remunerate him for his loss of time and labour. "When the taxes upon the industry and capital of a people are no more than are needful for good government, the aspect of nations will be wonderfully changed for the better. Whether plains or hills are the best situations for the vine has been much debated. The majority of rich wines are cer- tainly produced on the slopes of hills, whether abruptly or gently inclined. " Bacchus loves the hills," said Virgil, seven- teen hundred years ago. Though wines of the Gironde in Trance, so much esteemed, are produced on the plain, the suf- THE TINE. 37 frages in that country are decidedly in favour of the hills, which must be understood with the qualification that they are not hills of great elevation, or, in such cases, that the allusion is made only to the lower portion of them. Argillaceous hills are not those in which the vine most delights. Calcareous hills are the best for plants producing dry wines, especially when their summits are well wooded, the southern sides being open to the sun. It might be supposed from this circumstance, that in the climates farthest north, where the vine is cultivated with success, the southern aspect would be indispensable. This, however, is not the case. The vine is productive on both banks of the Ehine and Moselle. In some parts of Trance a western exposure is found to answer best. There are instances were even a gentle slope to the north has done well, as at Chatellerault ; also in the department of the Indre and Loire, as well as on the banks of the Loire. A great deal of the best mountain wine of Eheims is produced from vineyards with a northern aspect, almost up to the northern boundary of the growth of wine in Europe. The vines receive the sun's rays obliquely, on very gentle northern slopes. Yet few would think it safe to plant a vineyard in the north, where it would not receive the direct rays of the sun, and it would ill answer to take the exception for the rule in this respect. The south- eastern aspect in many instances produces good wine, though in Burgundy they complain that vineyards with this aspect are exposed too frequently to the latter frosts. On the whole, in the north the southern aspect is preferred, and in the south the eastern. The most fatal scourges to the vine grower in the north- ern parts of Europe are frosts in April and May, especially after the preceding portion of the year has been sufficiently mild to allow the vines, which are very susceptible of atmo- spherical changes, to be advanced in budding. To obviate the consequences of this they have recourse to artificial means, particularly on the Rhine, where an hour before sunrise they burn litter among the vines. Four persons are sufficient to smoke an arpent of vines, or one acre one perch English measure, which they effect by torches of straw. They con- tinue to operate until the sun shines on the plants/ The melted frost falls off. It would seem, therefore, that the in- jury arose from the sun's action on the frost and not from 38 THE TIKEV the cold. The expense is about tenpence an arpent, exclu- sive of the labour. Another mode is practised in G-ermany. Paragelees,* or frost-guards, are used, made of cords of straw, hemp, or the rind or bark of trees. "With the cord they sur- round their fruit trees, letting the ends drop into a vessel of spring water. One vessel will do for all the trees of a large espalier. Cords must necessarily be joined together to sur- round a greater number of trees, and the two ends must be plunged into the vessel, placed four or five yards away from the trees in front. In Poland and Prussia this singular pre- servative is found to be effectual in sheltering fruit trees of all kinds from late frosts. Hail is another enemy to the vine grower. This is said to be completely obviated by the use of paragreles, which are now adopted on the continent where- ever hail is likely to do mischief; their construction is well known, being simply that of lightning conductors, only less substantial. Cold spring rains and wet summers are injuri- ous to vine culture, and fog is highly prejudicial. Then come the diseases of the plant itself, which a want of know- ledge in regard to causes renders obscure in all but their fatal effects. The vine has a disorder styled plethora, one which arises from want of nourishment, a kind of paralysis ; the canker ; several diseases affecting the leaves ; the fall of the fruit, and others, all necessary to be guarded against in culture. Be- sides these, wild boars, foxes, and even dogs, enter the vine- yard to prey on the grape. Birds of many species are ene- mies of the grape, though some come on a friendly errand to devour the insects, of which there are many to be found about the plants in fact, no less than fourteen well-known varieties. These render the attention of the cultivator incessant ; in fact, there is no rural occupation, at particular seasons of the year, more onerous. The insect called by the French hanne- ton (Scardbceus vitis), in two species, attacks the vine leaf in the south, and does great mischief ; snails ; the puceron, called larlot in Medoc, of a golden green colour ; also the Cryptocephalus vitis, called by the French, among other names, the writer (ecrivairi), because its track on the leaves * Paragele'es, not paragreles ; the latter are hail-guards, or conductors, of which mention is presently made. The paragel^e would be worth trial in British gardens. THE TIKE. 39 resembles letters. It sometimes disappears for years to- gether, and then returns and commits fatal ravages. The Rhyncliites lacchus and rulens lay eggs in the young leaves, and the larvae prey upon them and the buds ; but it would occupy too much room to designate each species, and the methods adopted for their destruction, which are too often but partially successful. At Xeres, vines are afflicted by a worm which finds its way into the heart of the vine stalk, and destroys whole vineyards. The remedy is to prune the vines, leaving a knot on each branch cut off, as the insects would enter the stock by the incision were it made too close. The vine will grow in any soil which is not infected by stagnant waters ; but it flourishes most in that which is dry, light, and stony, or sandy. In the Arriege, in France, a rich wine, like Tokay, is obtained from mountain-sides covered with large stones, as if the cultivators had left all to nature. Q-ood rich soils never produce even tolerable wine, for the wine is not excellent in proportion to the size and luxuriance of the plant, but rather the contrary. It is best as the soil is lighter and drier. Porous soils, particularly those which are chalky, produce the best wines, fresh and light. Volcanic debris are congenial to the vine. In such soils it comes on slowly, but once rooted it flourishes well. In short, the soil which from dryness and lightness is scarcely fit for any other culture, is best adapted for the grapes designed for wine making, if it be either calcareous or volcanic. The soils which are granitic, or mingled with decomposed particles of that kind of rock, grow good wines. In Italy and Sicily, the best vines grow among the rubbish of vol- canoes. Any light, mixed, friable soil, in which water will not lodge, is congenial to this plant. Such a soil on a hill- side is certain, with a genial sun and climate, to yield wine. On the quality of the soil, in every case, the nature of the wine depends. * Good vines do not grow well in close valleys where there are rivers, if they are planted near them, though in vales tolerably wide, where the sun can act with fervour, this is of small moment, as in the Grironde, where about a league from the river are the finest vineyards. Some circumstances rela- tive to differences in the vine are singular. In one little vineyard, that of Mont-Eachet, in Burgundy, hereafter men- 40 THE TINE. tioned, the soil is the same, the aspect alike, the vines receive the same care and culture, and the wine is made in the same manner, and yet three varieties of wine are produced : one, of the very first character, perfect, Mont-Eachet Alne; another, far less perfect, Mont-Eachet Chevalier; while the third, Mont-Eachet Bdtard, has rarely any of the qualities of the first-named wine at all ! The cause seems inexplicable, un- less one portion of the vines draws its nourishment from a stratum which the others do not reach, and thus a different quality attaches to the fruit from something which it obtains from its own peculiar sources. In ancient times the Eomans trained their high vines as they now do in Tuscany, along palisades, or from tree to tree. This mode is followed in some parts of southern Prance. The vine is planted near a maple, a cherry-tree, or an elm, sometimes with a single stem, sometimes with two ; the vine is suffered to interlace itself with the branches of the tree. The grapes are often shaded this way, by the leaves above them, from the heat of the sun, and do not reach maturity, so that the wine made from them is acid and cold. When two stocks are planted, they are suf- fered to grow up to the fork of the tree, and are then carried in festoons to the neighbouring branches. Columella says, the ancients planted six stocks to one tree ; but not more than three are ever planted now. The trees were twenty feet asunder, too, in ancient times, as is gathered from another authority. It is found that by the present method the fruit ripens well. The land is cultivated below with leguminous vegetables : although no object can be more beautiful than a vineyard planted in this manner, the product of the vines is injured by the cultivation beneath, if too extensive. Most persons believe that this is the mode adopted in all vineyards ; hence they are disappointed on first seeing vineyards upon the continent, particularly those of the north. It happens in too many instances that the trees which sus- tain the vines are irregularly planted ; some are too near each other, and some too far off. In particular places a kind of ladder work has been substituted for the trees, about eight or nine feet in height, and placed about the same distance asunder ; the vines are then led in festoons from one to the other. At Weissemburgh they are trained in bowers, or THE VINE. 41 upon palisades. The different methods are denominated in Prance, that of the high stem training (tige haut), in oppo- sition to the low (tige las) . By far the greater part of the European vines, if not all north of Provence, are of the low training, and, indeed, this may be styled the general method in Prance, Germany, Swit- zerland, and Hungary. Trellis work of arches is adopted in Italy for most villa gardens. In the Campagna, and in Lombardy, poles and trellis work are both used. The vines on the hills are dressed in terraces, and wheat sown between. The vines of Greece, Cyprus, and Candia, are seldom above three feet high, but being very thick in the stalk, and grown like pollards, they are left to themselves for support. In the low mode of culture in various places there are methods equally various adopted for propping the plant. The simplest is the single prop, to which the vine about three feet high is affixed. Another method is to train its branches one over the other, like espalier fruit trees. The plants in some places are so low as to be left to themselves ; or they are trained along little rods in circles, or on low trellises near the ground, and carried out horizontally. In Baden they are trained on pyramids of poles, in a complex manner. The result of experience is, that the high training by festoons is best adapted to certain situations in warm climates, and the low to those which are colder ; while the vines grown on a sandy site may be left to run along the surface of the earth, though this cannot be done to advantage in soil of any other quality. Though most vine proprietors have their favourite species of plant, yet many are not choice enough in this respect, and manufacture wine from a dozen different kinds of grape mingled together. The consequence is, that while some few species ripen their fruit at the period of the vintage, others in an unripe state find their way into the wine, and too often impart tartness. It would be unsafe to hazard a vintage on one species of vine alone ; but five or six kinds selected with care would do away with this evil. It is from neglect of a similar kind that vineyards become deteriorated. The grape which furnishes the most saccharine matter makes the best wine ; no other quality will remedy a defi- ciency in sugar. The red fruit should be grown with the white, in the proportion of three red to one white, where 42 THE YI2TE. there is no attachment to deep colour rather than a more delicate wine. The red grape contains the colouring prin- ciple, the white is believed to impart the delicate flavour. Vineyards are made in autumn, by which mode a year is gained in the bearing ; and not only is there that advantage, but many vines planted in spring fail entirely. In Erance the vine is propagated by layers of buds, which are taken up after the vintage, and by slips chosen from among the cuttings. They are planted in lines, where the ground will admit, and terrace fashion, one above another, where the declivity is considerable. An interval of four or five feet is left between each line of plants, which are so placed as not to range with each other frontways. The vines from cuttings live longest, and bear most fruit ; those from the layers shoot earliest. Crops of vegetables are obtained in some districts from the space between the rows the first year ; yet most kinds of vegetables thus grown in vineyards are thought to impart a disagreeable taste to the wine. Slips for propagating the vine, cut in winter from kindly stocks, are tied in bundles. They are immersed in a miry soil for seven or eight days, and planted in spring in a slanting direction. The ground of a vineyard is dressed in different ways, according to the custom of the cultivator and the nature of the soil. If it be dry and sandy it is sometimes deeply raked. Many vine growers use the plough between the vine, and some substitute the hoe; pickaxes of various shapes are adopted in particular places, the spade, and even the pitch- fork. On steep slopes the ground is turned over or raked in a diagonal direction. "Weeds must be hoed up, and a hollow left round the roots of the vine in young plantations to retain the moisture ; in fact, the earlier years of a vine plantation require great and incessant attention. Though the ground must be kept clear of weeds in light soils, the earth is not turned up to any depth from the surface. Over- labouring at the soil is prejudicial, while everything must be accommodated to the nature of the stratum below. In Spain, and in some parts of the Lyonnais, the ground is left in its natural state, when the roots are imbedded in a rocky super- ficies slightly covered with vegetable matter. Three or four times a year, in certain districts, the ground is laboured, and in others many times more. THE VINE. 43 "Wlien vines are dressed it must be with great judgment in the choice of material. March is the best time for dressing vines, but litter is never to be used for that purpose. Pigeon's dung is in high esteem. The scouring of ditches or roads is excellent. Ashes on some soils are considered useful ; but the nature of the soil of the vineyard must settle the com- post to be used when it is required at all. Lupines in some parts of France are sown among vines, and buried when in flower round their roots, where they decay ; a practice found to be of singular utility to the crops. A good dressing may be obtained in various old earths from meadows or woods, of a different quality from those of the vineyard ; one dressing of this kind will last ten years, and keep the vine in bearing. After all, the judgment of the cultivator must decide on the compost most suitable to the situation. Many obstinately use rich dressing in a considerable quantity, and injure the fruit. The wine made from vines so treated is apt to turn ropy, and be ill-flavoured. The leaves in a year or two ac- quire a yellow tint, the stems decay, and there is no resource but to renew the vineyard. A moderate dressing only should be given. The decayed branches of the vine itself, the simple leaves of most vegetable substances, such as broom, briar, thorn, lucerne, and several kinds of grasses are observed to fertilise the vine. Marine weeds must be used very sparingly, so must animal manure. That of birds alone is found to be beneficial. The Portuguese and French agree in their experience of the substances useful or detrimental for vine dressing. Some of the finest dry wines are grown where no dressing is ever used, especially where the soil is calca- reous. For sweet wines the dressing is not so carefully re- gulated when used at all. A little road mud, old vegetable earth, and the calcareous wreck of ruined houses, sparingly used once in five years, are said to have proved beneficial in Grermany. Next to the soil and care of the cultivator the season is of importance. A cold wet season, as already stated, is inju- rious ; the grapes produced being insipid. The prevalence of high winds is a source of mischief, and lastly, too high a tem- perature for long periods together. The favourable season is that which allows the vine to flower in calm, warm, dry wea- ther, followed by soft showers just as the fruit begins to form, 44 THE TINE. and when the heat desirable in the lasb stage for bringing it to full maturity is uniform, and uninterrupted by hu- midity. Vines may be regenerated. This operation in France is performed by what is called provignage and couchage. In the first mode, the-worn out or weak plants are removed and their places filled with provins from the stronger ones, the old vines being laid in the ground. Only two or three of the younger shoots are suffered to appear above the surface. This should be done in autumn in a warm climate, in a cold one, in February. After the layer takes it is cut from the old stock, which dies off after becoming the root of two or three young plants. In this mode vineyards are often wholly renewed by burial every fourteen or fifteen years. The coucliage differs in some respects from the former method, but has the same object : the tine is laid in the ground from December till March, but not till the buds appear. Old vines are frequently dug up and cleared, and again planted, by which they receive great benefit. The vines are pruned three times before they bear fruit, when this operation is again repeated. In pruning there are rules to be observed, dictated by experience, which are too copious to detail. The pruning is directed more especially to the objects of the proprietor as to present or protracted Erofit. In hot climates pruning takes place just before the ill of the leaf, and that is considered the best period. In the northern and middle districts of France, the first or second week in March is by most growers deemed an eligible time. The vine is frequently pruned with an instrument made on purpose, which accelerates the operation, and prevents the branches from being bruised. Besides pruning, the vines are deprived of a portion of their buds, to increase the size of the fruit; to do this well is considered a work of judgment; and it is generally undertaken immediately after the flowers are put forth. The vine, as already shown, is not always propped, though in the North of Europe this is generally the practice. The time chosen is after the first labouring of the ground in spring, before budding takes place, care being taken to avoid injuring the roots. The vines are tied to the props in a par- ticular manner, with oziers if attached to a single prop ; or if THE YTffE. 45 to espaliers or props placed palisade fashion, with straw bands. "Whichever mode is adopted, it should be undertaken just as the vine has done flowering. There is also an operation styled clipping, which is performed by taking off certain shoots above the joints ; the object of this is to increase the flavour of the fruit, and it requires great care in the perform- ance. In Cyprus the ground is hollowed in a cup-like form round the plant, to retain the moisture, and reflect the heat, a certain degree of humidity being needful at the proper season. In order to hasten the maturing of the grape, and increase its good qualities, recourse is frequently had, where wine is carefully made, to the annular incision. A tight band of iron wire has been adopted in Italy and in Germany for this pur- pose. The practice of incision is supposed to have been known to the ancients, to have been lost in the middle ages, and again resumed at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury. The method in Italy is to loosen a band of the bark all round the branch, or stem, a little time before the plant flowers. The operation is performed only when a wet or cold season would prevent the setting of the fruit, six or eight days before the flowering, as damp seasons make harsh or in- sipid ascesceiit wine. Incision may take place on the old or young wood. The breadth is from a line to an inch. The vine leaves soon show a tint of advancing maturity. Nature generally clothes the naked part of the stem with a substance from between the bark and the body above, which replaces the bark taken away. If this does not happen, the vine dies above where the incision was made, and fresh shoots yield fruit from, below. Maturity is advanced from ten to fifteen days by the annular incision, according to the French cultiva- tors of the Cote d'Or and TTonne. It is performed there with an instrument made for the purpose. In some coun- tries, on young trees -a hempen string, steeped in oil, is used. The age to which the vine bears well is from sixty to seventy years, or more, and in the common course of things it is six or seven before it is in full bearing. In parts of the Grironde department in France, the vine does not bear well beyond forty years. In others, on a sandy soil, it will live and bear well to one hundred and fifty, or more. Bosc says, a vine in 46 THE VINE. Burgundy had reached four hundred years, and in some Italian vineyards plants three centuries old still nourish and bear. The ancients gave the vine a longevity of six hundred years. The loss of time in bearing may be obviated by graft- ing on the stocks, or rather roots. There are two or three different modes of doing this. By that commonly adopted in the Bordelais, a whole vineyard may be grafted for three francs per cent, of the successful grafts, to the workman, and he will graft two hundred vines or more in a day. Vegeta- tion proceeds slowly until July, when the shoots almost dart forth, and grapes are produced for the same year's vintage. The operation is simple but curious, and in saving time to the grower is of the utmost importance, besides husbanding his capital. There is yet another operation to which the vine is made to submit, in order to improve the quality of the fruit, and that is taking off the leaves. This is adopted only in humid seasons, or situations in the North. In the Calabrias, and south of Italy, they are obliged to have recourse to the oppo- site mode, and shade their vines with fern from the too-fer- vent heat of the solar rays. It is not possible to make the reader comprehend the minute distinction between one variety of vine and another, by any verbal description. In many countries there is one prevailing kind which remains the favourite, as in the south of Spain, where the variety called Pedro Ximenes is that with a large proportion of which the wines most valued are made. It was first brought to Malaga by a person of that name, two hundred and fifty years ago. The skin is fine, and the fruit exceed- ingly sweet. An idea may be formed of the variety of Spa- nish vines, and the slight distinction there is between them, when Eoxas Clemente describes one hundred and twenty species in Andalusia and Grenada alone. Besides the Pedro Ximenes, there is Uva de Hey, a white variety with a fine skin. The Mbllar black, ripening early. It is generally planted in the arenas, or sandy soil, sometimes to the propor- tion of a third, in the vineyards near Xeres. The Tern- grana, a valuable species, from the name an early ripener. It is white, and is the same with the common List an of Xeres. It is also an eating grape, and is much used in sweet wines. The Layren, white, cultivated at Malaga. The Doradilla, THE YltfE. 47 white, used in Malaga for wine and raisins, and often mixed for wine with the Pedro Ximenes. The Larga, white. The Jaen, white and late in ripening ; it yields much brandy. The Bueno, white. The Moscatel Gordo is the large white mus- catel from which the best Malaga raisins come. There is also the small white muscatel, or Moscatel Menudo JBlanco, the Mantuo Castillan, of a fine grey skin, the Marbelli and Co- Mel; aH these last more esteemed for eating than for making wine. Crescenzio, when he wrote his " Opus ruralium com- modorum," reckoned forty species of vine in Italy in the thirteenth century. In France, the kinds most noted are the early black Morillon, of two varieties, the Madeleine, white, and the vine of Ischia, the first originally from Italy. The vine of Ischia produces fine fruit as high north as lat. 48. It is supposed to have reached Italy from Ohio. Then there is the Meunier, the earliest bearing species known. The black Bourguignon, or Franc Pineau ; the Pineau blanc, noir, dore, vert; the Teinturier, or great Garnet, and the little Garnet; the pearl grape ; the violet Cornichon ; the white Griset; the white Morillon; Pique-poule gris ; the white Moiirnain; the Muscat; the Chasselas, originally from Cyprus ; the Cioutat ; the black grape of Corinth ; the Aleppo grape ; the Vionnier, grown at Condrieu with the Shiraz, or Scyras grape, said to have been brought from Persia, from whence the hermitage vines are taken. Then there is the Muscat noir and violet, the Isabelle, an American variety, with a raspberry flavour, the white Verdet, the black Muscade. The Sowvignan of the Grironde, white ; Barsac, Sauterne, and the Graves, are planted with this variety, and two or three other white species. The Li- verdun, of the department of La Meurthe, wonderfully pro- ductive, yielding at all times twice as much as other vines, and in good seasons sometimes two thousand five hundred gallons to the English acre. It is a black species. The Car- binet, of two kinds, has a high reputation in the Grironde, also a black species. In Provence they have the Passe, or Panse, a white species, with a tender skin ; the Arignan, white ; the Bouteillant, black, a hardy kind ; and the Urunfourcat, which gives excellent wine. The Muscat of Bivesaltes, of which there are three species : the Gouais, which has several other names ; the Verjus ; the Macaleo, from whence a sweet wine is made in the country; the violet Corinth; and numerous 48 THE TINE. others. Hervey's catalogue of the Luxemburgh collection, published in 1812, reckons of the black oval sorts, thirty- seven ; black round, ninety-eight ; white oval, forty-four ; white round, seventy-three; grey or violet oval, five; grey or violet round, ten ; in all, two hundred and twenty-three. The Botanic Garden of Montpelier has five hundred and sixty varieties. Columella reckons fifty-eight varieties an- ciently, in his book De re Rustica; Herrera, fifteen essential species in Spain; Duhamel, fourteen species, with distinct marks adapted to the French soil ; while in respect to minute differences in species, no less than nineteen were counted by Dumont, in one vineyard at Arbois. In the Grironde seven kinds are grown for white wine alone. The Pineau, and its varieties, afford the wines of Burgundy and Champagne. There are eighteen varieties. Hermitage, as before observed, is produced from the Scyras, or Shiraz grape. The Cote Eotie comes from the Serine. In Madeira there are many varieties of the vine ; and it is there planted in rows. At the Cape of Grood Hope it is planted in the same way, and there are several varieties of the plant. At Madeira, the VerdelJio seems to recal the French Verdot ; there is also a species called Tinto, from the Spanish Tintilla. The grape of Candia, as already stated, was planted there from the East. A French grape from near Orleans pro- duces, on the Ehine, some of the best Grerman wines. Then there is the Traminer with a small berry, sweet, and fond of a marly soil. It is sometimes used with two parts of the J&iesling, a favourite species. The Kleiriberger is seldom used for good wine. The Orleans, Riesling, and Traminer produce the finer wines. The Kleinberger is sometimes grown on trellis work to shelter the other vines. It is a good dessert fruit. But it is useless to occupy further room with this topic ; the foregoing sketch will suffice, generally, for a sub- ject on which much more might be written. It is clear that the species of vine chosen should be adapted to the peculiar nature of the soil, country, and cli- mate in which it is planted. Too often this affinity is over- looked ; the custom of the province or country, or the ca- price of the proprietor, overruling the more rational and scientific method of adaptation. Very celebrated wines are produced in vineyards where the species of plant is by no THE VINE. 49 means held in the best repute. There appear to be anoma- lies in the vine, and the making of wine, which require more acute observers to explain than have yet written upon the cultivation of the plant, and the process of maturing its produce. It is impossible to determine what particular circumstances cause those alterations in the nature of the vine which occa- sion its varieties. There is an obvious difference in the pro- duce of vines grown upon particular soils, but they do not alter sensibly the character of the plant. The vines grown upon calcareous or chalky soils are not exclusively designated, any more than such as nourish upon those which are volcanic, and therefore they cannot be thus classified. The best dry wines seem to be intimately connected by nature with a soil more or less calcareous ; the sweet are not thus remarked, but provided there be sun enough to mature or shrivel the grape, are produced on every kind of soil. Change of climate may alter the nature of the fruit, but the ground favourable to the plant generally is favourable to each variety, as gra- velly, rocky, or sandy spots, whether in the north or south. It is allowed by the French that there is much knowledge yet to be acquired respecting the vine, its adaptation to particular situations, and certain mysteries in its bearing. They do not themselves pretend to know much upon the sub- ject ; and if they are not among the initiated, it is in vain to look further for information, since nearly all we know of the vine and its generous produce that is worth knowing is the fruit of their experience and communication. There is no part of the vine which is not applied to some useful purpose. In Switzerland the leaves are used for me- dicinal or surgical cures. In cuts and green wounds they are esteemed a sovereign remedy. Decoctions of the juice of the leaves are used in poultices with great advantage. The leaves afford an agreeable tea, requiring more sugar than that of China; it is observed greatly to strengthen the nerves. The primings, well bruised and pressed, yield excellent vinegar. The leaves and tendrils bruised, and the juice fer- mented, give a pleasant light drink of a vinous character. On this head the late Dr. Macculloch has treated fully in his work on British wines. The leaves are also excellent food for cows, sheep, and hogs, when other food is scarce ; but they E 50 THE TIKE. are of so much more importance in the vineyard that they are rarely spared for that purpose. "When thus applied, they must not be taken till they begin to fall off. They must then be gathered, put in a dry place, and if salted, pressed, and left to ferment, so much the better. In some places they are stratified with straw, and afford still more excellent fodder. Animals are sometimes turned into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse upon the leaves. What are called the " tears of the vine" are a limpid dis- tillation of the sap at the time the plant begins budding. The same liquid will make its appearance on the slightest wound. The latter is injurious, but the former is a necessary emanation. The " tears of the vine" are thought in some places to be possessed of valuable properties in keeping off disorders. The liquid is collected in a bottle. The end of a shoot being cut off, it is bent into a circle without break- ing, and inserted in the neck : in a few days the bottle is filled. Vine branches furnish potash and salts when burned ; basket-work is fabricated from them, and the bark is used for bands to tie the vin.es to the props. The Glermans not only procure wine from the grape, and dry the fruit for raisins, but they distil brandy from the skins or murk, use the sweeter unfermented juice for syrup in place of sugar, and extract an oil from the pips. The pips are collected before the skins ferment, dried, and broken in an oil-mill. The oil is used for domestic purposes, and for burning. The skins, when pasturage is scarce, are given to oxen, but not to cows, as it affects the quality of their milk. A plant so useful, it need be matter of no surprise, has its superstitious applications. Not only do the leaves decorate the hair of the village girls in some of the southern vine countries, but the mode of plucking them, under certain spells, is thought to discover to the vintage lasses the truth or falsehood of their lovers. This chapter might be extended ; but as the cultivation of the grape for wine is of no moment in England, the general outline of the plan pursued is sufficient to satisfy curiosity upon the subject. It is not commonly known that the tendrils of the vine may be made to produce fruit. By cutting off branches near the place from which the tendrils spring, in a short time THE VINE. 51 small nobs make their appearance. These nobs become grapes, equal in excellence to any on the tree. This dis- covery was made by a gentleman of Strasburg. If report say true, the experiment has been frequently tried by other persons since, and found to succeed. This must suffice, as old G-ower says, Of howe men should set vines, And of the grape make wines ; which wine-making is described in the next chapter. [The smaller Wine Press.] CHAPTEE III. OF THE VINTAGE. MATURITY OF THE GRAPE MODE OF GATHERING PRESSING TREATMENT IN THE VAT COURSE OF FERMENTATION SUBSEQUENT OPERATIONS. THE vintage is the next important operation connected with the vine after the cares of the dresser are over. Not only do the opinions of individuals in wine countries differ very widely upon the management of the vintage, but in some the period of the gathering is regulated by authority. In France this barbarous custom still continues in many districts, the prefets of departments, or sous-prefets, and even the mayors of the communes, who may, or may not, know anything about the matter, issue the order for the vintage to com- mence, as if the vine grower were not the best judge of the state of his own produce, and did not know when his pro- perty was in the best order for yielding him a profitable re- THE YINTAGE. 53 turn. The consequence of this relic of feudal outrage upon property and free will is, that the -vintage being seldom fixed in a proper manner, the fruit after all cannot be collected at once ; for while in one place it is matured, in another it is far short of the necessary degree of ripeness. The proper moment for gathering the grape is agreed to be when the pellicle is thin and transparent, not breaking easily between the teeth ; when the colour is deep ; if the grape be white when it takes a grey tint ; if red when it puts on a dark colour, or if violet a deep black. The stems of the clusters, when they have become in substance like wood, losing their green hue, and resembling the main branches of the vine in texture, are another sign ; and, finally, when from the pen- dant cluster the grape gives way readily, the fruit, particularly in the South, shrivelling up from the sun's action, if required for the sweet and luscious wines. These signs are observed in the South of Europe about the end of September, or com- mencement of October.* In the North the fear of autumnal frosts, which injure the unripe grape, makes the seizure of the exact moment proper for the vintage a matter of great importance. In Hungary the vintage terminates generally before the middle of November, but sometimes later, when frost announces the approach of winter. The vines are then cut. The props are removed, the prunings carried away, and the whole vine-stock laid with its branches along the ground, and covered a foot deep in earth, if possible, before the first snow falls. The time of the vintage being fixed, the gathering is begun as early in the day as possible after the sun has dissipated the dew. The red grape is generally ripe before the white. In the North they are not so particular respecting the dry- ness of the fruit when gathered as in the South ; in fact, it is often gathered in the north of Prance with the dew upon it. The gathering is uniformly continued with as much rapidity as possible, if the weather continue fair, so as to terminate the pressing in one day. If this cannot be done the vintage is suspended; for the fermentation in a warm, or even a * So our poet Spenser: Then came October fall of merry glee, Nor yet his noule was totty of the must, Which he was treading in the wine-fat's sea, And of the joyous oil. 54 THE VINTAGE. moderate temperature, is far more energetic than in cold damp weather. It ruins the durability of the wine if the fruit be gathered and fermented at such a time. In Spain the vintage lasts for several weeks, so as to ensure maturity to all the grapes, beginning in September, and ending some- times not until the close of October. The fermentation takes place only in the casks, vats not being employed in an operation so prolonged. The clusters in some countries are cut off the plant with a knife. In France the scissors is used, by which the stems of the bunches are rapidly severed. In ruder countries the hand only is applied, a mode injurious to the grape as well as to the vine. The most approved plan is to make three sepa- rate gatherings of the fruit. The first includes all the finest and ripest bunches. The green or rotten grapes, or such as have been eaten into by insects, are cleared from the clusters, which are then carefully carried home. The second gathering implies naturally a second pressing. The grapes are not quite as ripe as for the first. The last gathering and pressing con- sists of the inferior grapes. The gathered bunches are depo- sited as lightly as possible, to prevent the fruit from being bruised. All dry or spoiled grapes are cast aside, where proper care is used, or fine and delicate wine is to be made. Each labourer places his gathering in an ozier basket, or in a sort of wooden dosser, borne by another labourer with the least possible motion. In France, in the department of the Marne, the fruit is carried on horseback, and covered with cloths. The grapes in the better vine districts are plucked from the bunches ; in the others placed entire in the press, steins and alL The best grapes only are used for making the best kind of wine. The astringent principle lodged in the stems is thought to be beneficial, and to impart to the wine a capacity of endurance. "When the grapes are picked off it is only for red wine, and is generally performed by the hand. "White wine grapes are rarely picked from the clusters. In Spain all the grapes, even for the best sherries, are flung into the press together ; nothing but their being at perfect maturity is re- garded. In G-ermany, in the Eheingau, the bunches of fruit are cut off, and sometimes bruised with clubs in place of being trodden. The press is frequently used as far as to the fourth time. THE TINT AGE. 55 "Where a vine grower has land producing different qualities of fruit, he mingles his produce according to the wine he de- sires to make. Light, or stony soils, yield a bright wine, of a fine bouquet. The fruit from a different soil, by blending the grapes together, may produce a wine more desirable for other qualities, observing that growths of the first quality must alone be intermingled. No improvement can ever take place by mingling good wine with that of inferior quality. Perfect wine can only be made by superior combinations. Delicacy, colour, aroma, bouquet, transparency, are only to be retained by a strict adherence to this rule. A cloudy wine, of little merit, is the result of a good mingled with an inferior growth. In making white wine, it is desirable that the grapes should be bruised or shaken as little as possible on the way to the press ; for when the contrary happens, the colour will infal- libly be disengaged from the skin, and the wine will be what is called "partridge eye," and not white. E-ed wines are bruised or trodden previously to pressing, to disengage the colour from the skin, which is so much avoided in making the white wines. After treading they are thrown into the vat, the colour disengages itself, and the press is applied to the murk. Grapes were anciently trodden out after being exposed on a level floor to the action of the solar rays for ten days, and were then placed in the shade for five days more, in order to mature the saccharine matter. This practice is still followed in certain cases in one or two of the islands of the Greek Archipelago ; at St. Lucar in Spain, in Italy, at least in Calabria, and in a few of the north-eastern departments of Erance. The fermentation is facilitated greatly by this pro- cess. In some parts of France a labourer with sabots treads the grapes out as they come from the vineyard in a square box, having holes in the bottom, placed over a vat a very barbarous method. The murk is then removed, and he pro-v ceeds with fresh grapes, until the vat beneath is full. Some- times they are squeezed in troughs, by naked men getting into the vats, using both sabots and 'hands at once. In other places the press is first used, under which the bunches of grapes are placed, and the must is pressed out ; but it is found that by this mode the grapes oppose a resistance so 56 THE VINTAGE. strong as to render the operation tedious. A bebter mode than treading has been adopted, not unfrequently, in Prance. Two wooden cylinders, turning in opposite directions, are employed to crush the fruit. There is a still more complete invention of a machine by M. Acher, of Chartres, which does not permit a single grape to escape its action. The wine-press differs in construction in different coun- tries. There are several forms. It has already been ob- served, that for red wine the grapes are trodden before they are pressed, to disengage the colouring matter from the skins ; and that in making white wine this operation is never per- formed. In either case, when the press is applied, the first pressing is despatched as quickly as possible. Of presses, there are commonly the small and the large. The first is a simple screw-press, furnished with blocks of wood, to replace the void when the murk has been pressed nearly to its ut- most. This common press is easily understood. Instead, however, of placing the bar which turns the screw in a hole in the screw itself, it is frequently omitted altogether. A wheel, of a diameter as large as the space between the cheeks of the press will allow, is substituted, the circumference of which is grooved to receive a rope, that it may act in the way a rope acts upon a drum, in mining machinery. One end of this rope is attached to a capstan, with a wheel of larger dia- meter, forming the circumference of half a dozen spokes, which are the levers. The rope from the press being wound round the main tree of the capstan, is turned by men at the extremity of the radii, and consequently exerts an im- mense power upon the murk. Others, having the wheel fixed to the screw, are worked by the spokes. Presses are generally of oak, about eight feet square. Some have two screws. Most of the presses used in wine countries might be greatly improved in the workmanship. In Spain they are very rude, many being mere levers ; while in certain districts portable ones are employed, carried from vineyard to vine- yard. The plank which rests on the lower part of the press on which the grapes are placed, is called the maye in France. It is furrowed, and slopes a little for the wine to run forwards, where one channel conveys it into a vat sunk in the ground. "When the press is heaped as high as is thought necessary, THE YINTAGE. 57 three pieces, or rather beams of wood, are placed upon the grapes parallel with the side of the press one in the middle, and one at each extremity of the heap, on which rest thick planks, their ends towards the cheeks. Upon these again rest transverse beams, and over them the beam attached to the screw comes down. At first the press is used gently, that the wine may not overflow. The pressure is then gradually increased, until the murk is moderately acted upon. This is the first pressing. The grapes that did not sustain pressure being scattered over the edges of the heap, are now gathered up, the press relaxed, and being placed upon the murk, the press is tightened again. The wine from this is called of the second pressing. The edges of the whole mass are now squared down with a cut- ting instrument, so that the mass of fruit is reduced to the form of an immense oblong cake, upon which the cuttings of the edges are heaped, and the press worked again, which makes wine of the third pressing, or, as the wine maker calls it, " wine of the first cutting." The pressing and cutting are repeated two or three times, and what liquid flows is called among the labourers wine of the second or third cut- ting. Last of all, the murk is frequently steeped to make piquette or small wine for the labourers. At Ay, in Cham- pagne, the press is used with great power, and the murk is as hard as a board. The wine of the first pressing is always kept apart from the rest, especially when the season is hot, and the fruit ripe. It would be apt to take a red colour if mixed with wine of the second pressing, when it is designed to make white wine. There are seasons, however, when it is useful to mingle the first and second pressings. The third, in Prance, must never be mixed with the two first. In Spain, the agua pies, or last pressing, is often mingled with the first, although a jar or two of water has been flung upon the murk between the pressings. The larger of the wine-presses consists of a screw, acting upon the extremity of two immense levers. "It is capable of making no less than twenty-five pieces of wine in four hours. "Where vineyards are extensive, as it is desirable to press the produce of the gathering in one day, however much in quan- tity, this press is useful ; but it is the instrument for making 58 THE TINT AGE. a large quantity of secondary wine, rather than a little of a choice character, and is used principally by the larger vine growers. There is one species of 'wine made without beat- ing, treading, or pressing ; this is what they call in Spain " lagrima" The grapes melting with ripeness, are suspended in bunches, and the wine is the produce of the droppings. This can only be effected with the muscatel grape of the warm South. In this way the richest Malaga is made. In Cyprus the grapes are beaten with mallets on an inclined plane of marble, with a reservoir either at the side or at one end. The vats are always cleaned and put in order by the time the vintage commences, in those countries where due regard is had to the character of the wine. The fermentation, carried on in barrels in Spain, in France and Q-ermany, is effected in vats more or less capacious. Some wash their vats with particular substances. Yats made of stone are washed with layers of quick-lime, to saturate the malic acid existing in the must. Many wash the vats with warm water if they are made of wood ; or with brandy, decoctions of aro- matic plants, salt water, boiling must, and similar liquids. The practice of using quick-lime for this purpose is very liable to injure the wine. The quicker the succeeding operation is effected the better is the wine. To this end each vat is filled on the same day, wherever the process is well understood ; but they are not quite filled up, lest the must should ferment over. Vats of a very large size are not often employed in cold climates, where the seasons are hazardous, because they take too long a time to fill. In warm climates, the larger the vat the more active is the fermentation. Fermentation is the mysterious change of certain vegetable matters, when separated from the vital stem, and about to form new combinations. It is rendered active by warmth, while it is retarded by cold. The great principle is the sac- charine, without which it would be in vain to expect the process to be perfect. Yet the saccharine principle will remain inactive, unless it be combined with other vegetable matter in due quantity to effect the result desired. A relative proportion of sugar must combine with the substances thus necessary. An attempt has been made to ascertain, by an THE VINTAGE. 59 instrument, when fermentation is perfect, but its success is doubtful, and of the precise time experience alone still re- mains the judge. Certain substances are absolutely necessary to be present to effect those changes, without which nature is inert, and no process goes forward. The materials necessary to fermen- tation are five in number ; for although chemical skill may detect fractional parts of other substances, they are not essential, and only those which are readily distinguishable are necessary, as hereafter enumerated. Other matters, ob- vious to the observer in wine, do not belong to this mys- terious natural process, and may be altered, omitted, or destroyed, without affecting it. Such are colour, flavour, and the astringent quality communicated by tannin from the bruised stones or pips of the fruit. This subject may be interrupted for a moment to add that there is in wines an essential oil, not known except to che- mists. It has been met with in decomposing spirit of wine with sulphuric acid. Two parts and a half of sulphuric acid poured upon one of anhydrous alcohol is a mode of procuring it. It resembles peppermint in smell, and is soluble in alcohol or ether. Of its composition nothing certain is yet known. The sugar of the grape and of the cane are different. It is the first species that effects vinous fermentation in the natural mode. This species of sugar is the sweet principle in honey, and therefore sugar of honey and sugar of the grape not being the same in quality, this last is the only kind which should be added to the produce of the wine when sugar happens to be deficient in the must, or in making home wines from garden fruits. It is the sugar of the grape that prevails in our wall-fruit, when ripe, and not that of the cane. This ought to be borne in mind, as it may have a con- siderable effect on the flavour of wine artificially made. Sugar of grapes consists of 37-37 carbon 6 % 7 8 hydrogen 56*51 oxygen Sugar of the cane consists of 44'78 carbon 6'40 hydrogen 48'82 oxygen -100-66 parts 100 parts. The sugar of grapes will not go into fermentation so quickly as the sugar of the cane, and this is one reason why it should be always adopted in preference for aiding the fer- mentation artificially. This sugar is procurable from starch 60 THE TINT AGE. by a simple chemical process, and may be obtained more easily still from honey. The temperature of twelve degrees of Beaumur, or fifty- nine of Fahrenheit, is most conducive to the success of this process ; and therefore, when the weather retards the fermen- tation, it is customary in the North to add hot must to hasten its progress ; this must is not allowed to remain on the fire longer than to obtain the highest degree of heat possible without actual ebullition. If the season has been cold, sugar in a small quantity is sometimes added to the must, if the saccharine matter be deficient; shoots of peach or almond trees, or a handful or two of dry elder flowers, are also added. The must is stirred and agitated, and then covered up. In many places the mode of management is different from this, but not materially so. In warm weather, when fermenta- tion proceeds naturally with sufficient rapidity, no artificial methods are taken to expedite it, as in the South of Europe. Even in the North, when the season is propitious, the fer- mentation is best left to nature. Vinous fermentation begins in a few hours, or may be retarded several days, especially if there be no communication between the must and the atmosphere ; for though wine will ferment when excluded from atmospherical communication, it then ferments exceedingly slow. Some erroneously contend that the wine thus treated is better, and keeps its bouquet in higher perfection. Sugar, vegetable extract, tartaric and malic acid, and water, are ingredients in the composition of wine ; and as they vary in quantity in the fruit, different results are produced on the must undergoing fermentation. First, then, sugar is a great ingredient in fermentation, making the larger part of the product of the matured grape. This substance exists pure in the fruit, and also combined with a vegetable matter which is supposed by experienced chemists to be the great fermenta- tive agent, having a near resemblance to albumen, or the glutinous matter observed in wheat, in which the substance called azote has been discovered. It is to the amount of sugar in the grape that the alcohol, or, as it might in future for distinctness' sake be called, the brandy, has relation in quantity, and consequently the body or strength of the wine. In fermentation the sugar is decomposed and the brandy THE VINTAGE. 61 formed. In order, however, to make the process effective, the sugar must be combined with another agent, which is the leaven or fermenting principle ; this is the substance just men- tioned, and enumerated above under the title of, secondly, "vegetable extract," which acts in the process of vegetable fermentation throughout every species of substance submitted to the operation. Azote is present in the substance, which is so analogous to the albumen in wheat. "Whether azote is es- sential to fermentation is undecided by chemists : most likely not. The extract is found in beer, cider, and in all ferment- ing liquors universally. Thirdly, tartaric acid, or crude tartar. This is as essential as sugar in the manufacture of wine. In dry wines tartar much more predominates than in sweet ; in these last the sugar predominates. Wines grown in the South, and of highly matured fruit, cannot, from the want of tartar, be made dry, but are always sweet, because the pro- portions of sugar and tartar are out of due relation. Tartar, in a certain quantity, is necessary in the production of brandy or alcohol, but in what degree no satisfactory experi- ment has yet decided. It is to the presence of tartar that wine owes its superiority over other fermented beverages. Tartar, however, must be connected with the last-mentioned substance to proceed into fermentation. The fourth ingre- dient discovered in wine is malic acid, but not in a large quantity. It is to saturate this acid, which is injurious to wine, that, where it is discovered to abound, gypsum, or plaster of Paris, as it is vulgarly called in some places, is sprinkled over the grapes in the operation of making, from the known affinity of the acid for that substance. It is in- jurious to wine in proportion to the quantity of it present. The fifth ingredient in making wine is water, in a due pro- portional degree. Too much water impedes the progress of fermentation, and renders the wine weak; and too little is equally prejudicial to the balance of the component parts of the substances yielding good wine. If on fermentation a just proportion of tartar does not appear, a dry wine will not be the product ; for in the rich luscious wines there is the smaller quantity of tartar, the great richness of the grape occasioning the saccharine matter to be in excess. This difference in the fruit is caused by the climate and sun, and the excessive ripeness of the grape, even 62 THE YINTAGKE. to the shrivelling of the skin in some cases. Thus the rich sweet grape of the climate of Malaga, in which sugar abounds, as may be expected, produces a wine very different from Burgundy, where the tartaric and saccharine principles are perhaps nearly on an equality. In the Malaga wine the sugar is not all decomposed in fermentation ; in Burgundy it is wholly so. The saccharine matter is in dry wines wholly changed by fermentation into spirit, or brandy, from simple vinous fermentation. This is most probably not the case with the luscious Southern wines, or they would be much more spirituous than they are. Distillation, however, shows the quantity of alcohol that may be obtained from them to be much greater than from the wines of the North. In France, the wines of the Cote d'Or, or Burgundy, give only one- eighth of their weight in the brandy of Commerce on distilla- tion; those of the Grironde, or Bordelais, a fifth; while a generous wine of the Drome yields a third part of spirit. The second fermentation in the cask is a miniature repeti- tion of that in the vat. A precipitation again takes place, and the wine is afterwards racked. A third, called the insen- sible fermentation, continues for a long period after the wine appears as perfect as art can mature it. Time, which mellows the harshness of the wine, blends more intimately the compo- nent parts, while all extraneous matter and the tartar are thrown down, adhering to the sides of the cask. It seldom happens that the wines of the South become acid, because the saccharine principle is more powerful, from the action of the warmer sun, than in those of the North ; but this will be noticed further on. Fermentation in the vat is at first what is called " tumul- tuous;" the carbonic gas ascends in bubbles to the surface with a hissing noise, and a scum is formed on the surface, consisting of the lighter portions of the impurities of the wine. Heat is evolved ; the temperature of the wine increases to ninety or a hundred degrees. At length the vinous odour is perceived, and the fermentation ceasing, all is quiet as at first. Those wines which effervesce (vim mousseuoc) are impreg- nated deeply with carbonic acid gas, from their being drawn off before fermentation is complete. This gas disengages itself from all kinds of wine during the process of fermenta- THE TINT AGE. 63 tion, and when it ceases to do so the wine becomes limpid, and the taste is purely vinous. The first period of fermenta- tion is one of great disturbance in the must, over the surface of which is collected what the French call the cJiapeau the head, or crust, which swells upward as the fermentation pro- ceeds, the gas escaping through the pores or cracks which form in it. When it is observed to sink down, the time is arrived to close the vat. Space enough must still be left for the carbonic gas to free itself. The time necessary to com- plete the fermentation differs according to the quality or ripeness of the grapes, the species of plant, the soil, and the temperature of the vineyard. In some places in France, as in Burgundy, the must remains in the vat from six to thirty hours only. Near Lyons, it is left six or eight days, or even as many as from twelve to twenty ; in the south-east, from twenty-five to forty. At Narbonne it is frequently kept for seventy days, and the fermentation being over, the wine cla- rifies in the vat, in contact with the stalks, which add strength to it. It appears that the head, daily acquiring greater con- sistency, at length completely excludes the atmospheric air, and the wine is deemed secure. This usage it must be unsafe to depend upon; there is great hazard to the wine in the practice. In Portugal about seventy or eighty hours may be the average of fermentation ; in Spain, from four to five days, varying according to the temperature. In Germany the stalks are rarely suffered to remain during fermentation ; in Portugal always ; and in Spain, too, this is generally the practice. Though experience has shown in France that exposed fer- mentation is the best, an individual at Montpellier, named G-ervais, claimed the invention, and asserted the superiority of a close method, by an apparatus which is said to have been borrowed from others, but was nevertheless secured by patent. Madame Grervais was a proprietor of considerable vineyards near Montpellier. She embraced the idea, by no means a new one, that what is termed the vinous fermentation is a mild natural distillation. She proceeded to obtain an appa- ratus that she imagined would operate so as to return into the vessel the spirit and flavour that was evolved in fermentation, and let out the carbonic gas, which might burst the working- tun. Her apparatus consisted of a vessel, resembling the 64 THE VINTAGE. head of the ancient still, constructed of such a form as to be capable of being placed securely in the back or vat in which the process of fermentation was carried on ; the back or vat was air-tight, with a hole in the top, communicating with that part of the apparatus called the cone, or condenser. This cone was surrounded by a cylinder, or reservoir, to be filled with cold water, so that the alcoholic vapour or steam evolved during the process might be condensed as it came in contact with the cold interior surface of the cone, and, being thereby converted into liquid, trickle down the inside of the con- denser, and, through a long pipe, be returned into the fer- menting liquor. By the application of this apparatus a con- siderable portion of alcohol, which had been suffered to escape in the form of vapour, along with the non-condensable gases, was to be condensed and returned into the liquor ; and the non-condensable gases carried off by a pipe, which, proceed- ing from the interior lower part of the cone, and running up the inside of the cylinder in the cold water, passed out through the side, and the end being immersed some depth below the surface of water contained in a separate vessel, permitted the gases to escape, but still under a certain degree of pressure, the object of which was to confine the alcoholic steam and gas within the cone, and allow them a sufficient time to cool and condense. The apparatus being applied to ferment the must of grapes, was also said to procure an increase of quantity. This effect, however, has not been confirmed by the makers of wine in France, who have very little opinion of the efficacy of the machine. The error of the machine is said to be the re- tention of the carbonic acid gas, which ought to be allowed to escape freely, or the fermentation will not be complete, from the want of considering that the quicker the fermentation, the alcohol and perfume will evaporate in a less quantity, because they are superseded by the more vehement evaporation of the gas, which, in that case, occupies the space above the head exclusively, and will not suffer either the alcohol or perfume to rise and mingle with it. The usual method will preserve the bouquet fully as well. The slower the carbonic gas escapes, the less likely the spirit and perfume are to pass along with it. In fact,, the suffrages of the best practical judges are against this invention, as not imparting anything new to the wines in quality or perfume, covering the vat being found THE VINTAGE. 65 fully equal to every object, leaving sufficient space for the escape of the gas. Some persons in the North, in order to hasten the process of fermentation, plunge red-hot iron bars into the wine, and with considerable advantage to the process when the temperature is untoward. The vats and barrels require great attention ; if they are new, the wood of which they are composed is apt to impart a bad and bitter taste to the wine. This is guarded against by repeated washings in cold, and afterwards in hot water, in which peach leaves are steeped, or by a washing of salt water, or rather soaking, to extract all which is disagreeable in the wood, and finally they are washed with boiling must, bunged, shaken, and left to cool. Old casks are washed in hot must, after the tartar has been scraped from them. In case of their exhibiting symptoms of decay they are burned, for sooner or later the effects are sure to be perceived in the wine. Sulphur match is burned in those barrels which afford the least suspicion of their imparting a bad taste, and they are set in a dry place, being bunged up before the match has expired. Before burning the sulphur the barrels must be carefully dried, for damp or water left in them will make the wine taste of sulphur, a flavour which is sometimes much too perceptible in the wines of Germany. No pains should be spared to guard against mischief from this cause. Oak is the wood preferred for casks ; but in some parts of the continent beech is employed, because there is an opinion that beech- wood imparts an agreeable flavour to the wine, and brings it earlier to perfection. Casks, or barrels, have various names in different provinces, or countries, without immediate reference to difference of measure. Thus, in the department of the Marne, the cask is called a queue, which in the Cher is denomi- nated tonneau ; in Indre et Loire, poincon; in La Vendee and La ISTievre, pipe ; at Lyons, lotte ; at Bourdeaux, larrique. When casks are of a large size they are named a muid ; and when of the largest that are made, foudre. The casks of Portugal are most commonly denominated pipes, so are those of Madeira. In Spain, at Barcelona, and in Valentia, they are the pipe ; at Xeres, the lotta or butt. Earthen vessels, glazed, are among the most ancient re- ceptacles for wine, which casks have superseded. If they are the least porous they cannot fail to be prejudicial. The an- 66 THE VINTAGE. cients remedied this defect by waxing, pitching, or liming them ; but the wine must have been liable to injury from these materials, and the carriage of earthen vases must have rendered them expensive from breakage. At La Mancha in Spain, at Val de Penas and Manzanares, they use huge clay vessels, holding eight hundred gallons each, called tenejas. Staves are not to be obtained there for vats. The wine mellows in these receptacles, from whence it is drawn off into skins. At Pesth in Hungary, marble vessels are employed to hold wine. In Cyprus, as hereafter stated, conical earthern ves- sels are used in fermenting the wine, sometimes pitched, or anointed when they come from the furnace with a boiling mixture of turpentine and pitch, mixed with vine-branch ashes, goats' hair, and very fine sand, which never falls off. These vessels contain from twelve to twenty barrels, and must not be confounded with the jar by which Cyprus wines are usually sold. Notwithstanding these last, a large pro* portion of Cyprus wine is transported in skins. Limed vessels, and those of marble, are liable to be acted upon by wine to its great detriment. Before taking leave of this part of the subject, it may not be amiss to mention that colour has no relation to the time of the must acquiring vinosity. If the quantity in the vat be considerable, and the weather warm, the wine should remain but a short time, for the fermentation is quickly perfected. If the saccharine principle abound, the must be thick, and the temperature low, the fermentation will be slower. The want of perfection in fermenting in the vat, may be helped considerably after barrelling ; but wine suffered to become acid, injured by excess of carbonic gas, or touched with mouldiness, cannot be properly recovered. In regard to colour, some of the most perfect wines in that respect, as well as in delicacy of taste, remain only six hours in the vat. Time, in fermentation, does not add to the depth of the colour, the bruising of the skins alone imparting that quality. The precise time for drawing off wine from the vat, after the fermentation is perfect, can be attained only by ex- perience. The moment the head sinks, visible fermentation has ceased in the rising of gas bubbles, but the sensible heat being over, it is not always proper to draw off the liquid. Sometimes the proper period is not less than twenty hours THE VINTAGE. 67 after the wine drawn into a glass seems fine enough, and in all respects ready to draw. "When the wine' is drawn off, the murk remaining in the vat is again subjected to pressure. It is oftentimes the case that this last wine is mixed with what is first drawn off from the vat, to its great deterio- ration. The wine being barrelled, is removed into the first cellar. The best cellars should be slightly humid, and as deep under ground as the nature of the soil will permit them to be, even to fifty feet. If too damp it affects the wine, if too dry the staves of the barrels shrink, and waste the liquor. Light should be admitted by very small apertures, having slides or shutters to close according to the state of the temperature, for which end a thermometer or two are indispensable to hang against the walls. The arch over should be solid, and as thick as possible, in order to prevent any motion above communicating its tremour to the barrels, and the whole should be covered as well in winter as summer with litter, to prevent the action of both cold and heat. The floor should be of earth, well beaten, and the recesses, if any, and the entire floor, should be strewed with sand. If found too humid, the number of air-holes should be aug- mented ; and if too dry, a part of them should be stopped, and those left be narrowed. If by any chance the rays of the sun penetrate by the air-holes, a wall must be built before them, or sloping planks, covered with turf, be fixed above them. The casks should be set upon stands, six or seven inches high, made of square strong timbers. Wedges should be placed under, to keep them steady. No cask should be suffered to touch its neighbour, or the cellar wall, but should stand perfectly insulated, and at the same time immoveable from any slight cause. The casks should stand parallel with a horizontal line through their centres lengthwise, so that all sediment may lodge in the bellying part of the barrel which is lowest. No fruit, flowers, garden produce, or green wood, should ever be placed in a wine- cellar, as they frequently impart a bad taste to the wine, which is wonderfully susceptible of all that impregnates the atmosphere around, and often contracts acidity from extra- neous substances lodged near it. The wine cellared from the vintage requires new cares to r 2 68 THE YIKTAGE. render it fit for the market. The casks, in consequence of the disengagement of the carbonic gas still remaining, are not quite filled up, to allow space for the secondary fermen- tation. About two inches from the bung is left vacant. A hole is made near the bung, and stopped with a wooden pin, to let out the gas from time to time as it fills up the space above the wine, but care must be taken that no external air enters. "When it is found that no more gas escapes, the barrels are filled, and hermetically closed. This last filling in France is known by the term ouiller, to ullage, and in some places this operation is performed every day for the first month, every fourth for the second, and every eighth until the wine is racked. In this way the celebrated Hermitage wines are treated. At Bourdeaux it is performed every eighth day. The wine used for filling should be of a quality equal to that in the cask. The cellars must be visited daily, and the wine frequently tasted to judge of its state. When casks are neglected to be filled up, a white mouldi- ness, styled "the flower" by the French, covers the surface of the wine, which soon renders it unfit for drinking. To remedy this, the atmospheric air is forced out, after which lighted sulphur is introduced, and the barrel is struck to make all the air bubbles rise to the surface, and force the mouldiness towards the bung ; the cask is then gradually filled, and the mouldiness collected at the bung-hole, until it all comes away. It is said that there is a sympathy between the wine in the cellar and the vine. The former is observed to work in a re- markable manner when the vine puts forth its buds. The fermentation at this period is often obliged to be resisted by artificial methods, as sulphate of lime, camphor, sulphuric acid, and even the application of ice. The next operation is the racking, to separate the wine from the lees. In Cyprus the wine is kept on the lees to the last. In France, racking is indispensable ; such is the dif- ference arising from climate and soil. In some countries the wine is racked in the first December after the vintage, in others once a year in February or March. The first year, in some places, wines are twice racked, in spring and autumn ; in others, in May and December, if possible, during a frost. The necessity for racking more than once a year depends upon the nature of the wine. Some wines, of a generous THE VINTAGE. 69 quality, will remain on the lees three or four years, but in general they should be racked before the first vernal equinox. There are some who, instead of racking, by troubling the wine, and remixing it with the lees, establish a second time a species of fermentation, which is intended to ameliorate its quality ; but this must be executed with great care, to avoid ascescency, and the wine must be racked the instant it ap- proaches fermentation, and be placed in a colder situation than that it previously occupied, having fined it before the racking, if it appear at all troubled. This should be done in fine dry weather. In racking wine, the cask should be bored about three fingers' breadth above the projecting part of the staves with an instrument made on purpose, and the cock introduced, so as not to waste more than a few drops of the wine," and ex- clude in the operation the smallest portion of external air. The bung is slightly lifted, to permit air enough to enter and set the wine running. At Beaune, in the Cote d'Or, the wines of which rank so high in estimation, they are racked by means of a brass tap, having a straight stem. To this stem is fixed another tube, the end of which is inserted in a wooden pipe, of a slightly conical form, which is introduced into the empty cask. The cask is placed on the side ; a small hole or two are bored with a gimlet in the uppermost stave, which, when the cask is full, are stopped up, and the cask set in its place. The wine is thus racked without the least disturbance. In some parts of France, as at Condrieu, on the Rhone, the wine is racked two or three times, twenty or thirty hours only passing between each operation. If the wine is dis- placed for any reason, while in the growers' hands, it is gene- rally racked each time. At Xeres the sherries are racked in general but once, although there may be here and there a par- ticular exception to the rule. "Wines which do not become limpid by racking are sub- mitted to the further process of fining, as afterwards de- scribed in this work, and then racked. Many kinds of wine require, from the extreme fineness of the particles of the lees held in suspension, to be put through this process before they are fit for the market. The wine during the operation is always strongly agitated with a cleft stick. It is observed 70 THE YItfTAGKE. that the inferior wines lose their harshness by this process, and that the best growths acquire greater delicacy. A word or two may be added here respecting the employ- ment of sulphur matches, which sometimes imparts a slight taste to wines when ill done. The object is to impart to wine clearness and the principle of preservation, and to pre- vent fermentation. A little cotton cloth is rolled up, until it is an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, and six or seven inches long. This is dipped in melted sulphur, to which, rather fancifully, certain aromatic perfumes, extracted from sweet-smelling flowers, are sometimes added. The match is lighted, and suspended in the cask by means of an iron wire, the bung is then closed. This process injures the colour of some of the red wines, and the substitution of a little brandy flung into the cask, and set on fire by an in- flamed string, or cord, while the hand is kept over the bung- hole, is found to answer the same purpose, without injuring the wines. The cask, as before stated, must be perfectly dry when this is done, the smallest quantity of moisture in it re- taining the sulphur and tainting the wine. In the south of France a quantity of wine is made, called muet, for which the grapes are trodden and pressed at the vintage, and the wine is fined immediately, to prevent fer- mentation. This wine, or rather must, is next poured into a barrel until it is only a fourth part filled ; above the surface of the liquid several sulphur matches are then burned, and the bung closed upon the fumes. The cask is now violently shaken until the sulphurous gas is absorbed, so that none escapes on opening the bung. More must is then added, and fresh sulphur, and the cask treated as before. This is re- peated several times, until the cask is full. This must never ferments ; it has a sweetish flavour, and a strong smell of sulphur. A quantity of proof spirit is now added, and a wine highly spirituous is the product. It is sometimes called Calabrian wine, and is generally employed to give strength, sweetness, and durability to wines which lack these qualities. [Gathering of the Grape.] CHAPTEE IY. THE VINTAGE (Continued.) ACCIDENTS TO THE PRODUCT OF THE VINTAGE IN ITS SUBSEQUENT STATE REMEDIES TREATMENT AND USES OF THE MURK OIL OF GRAPE-SEED BOILED WINES VINS DE LIQUEUR, DE PAILLE, JAUNE STRENGTHENING THE PRODUCE OF WEAK VINTAGES. are subject, from known or unknown causes, to dete- rioration, or malady, soon after they are made. The two most dangerous changes to which they are liable in the maker's hands, are becoming oily, or contracting acidity. Oiliness is a milky appearance, put on by wines made in a wet season, and ill fermented. The wine loses its natural fluidity, and becomes, what is called in England, ropy. White wines are most subject to this malady, not in the wood, unless of meagre quality ; but they will sometimes turn oily in the bottle, however well corked. After a certain time has expired they will again frequently become pure. The white substance at first seen in the wine turns brown, shrinks, and detaches itself in scales. The wine then takes its usual clear colour, and is cured. It is not prudent, however, to leave the cure to chance. Cream of tartar is often applied as a remedy in France. To each barrel holding seventy-eight 72 THE VINTAGE. 1 gallons, about four quarts of wine are allowed, heated to the boiling point, with from six to twelve ounces of the purest cream of tartar, and the like quantity of sugar, thrown in, and well mixed up. This is put into the barrel hot, the bung made close, and the cask shaken for five or six minutes. In case there is reason to think the bung will fly, a little hole is ma4e near it with a gimlet, to be stopped with a peg as quickly as possible, so that only the smallest quantity of the carbonic acid gas thus generated can escape, for it is to the generation of this gas that the wine is indebted for its cure. Two days afterwards the wine is fined in the ordinary man- ner, but with the bung closed. The cask is then shaken, and returned to its place. After the expiration of five days more it is racked. Wine in bottles so damaged is uncorked, emp- tied into a barrel, and treated in the same manner. Some remedy the malady by passing the wine over new lees, then fining, and sulphuring it ; others, by placing the bottles in a higher temperature, and in the fresh air ; and some fine it with whites of eggs and fish glue beaten together. But these methods will not restore the wine to the state it attains when naturally cured. In Spain, from the slovenly fermentation, and mixture of bad grapes with good, ropiness is very com- mon. It is cured by mixing brandy with the wine, princi- pally sherry, which also makes it more agreeable to the English palate. If used early, this is considered to prevent the mischief altogether. Picking over the grapes would be a more rational and wholesome preventive, but the Spaniard is the slave of custom, and perhaps too idle to be at the trouble. All wines are liable to turn acid, those which are weak more especially, if ullage be allowed ; therefore the casks must always be kept filled up to the bung. Wines are ob- served to be most liable to this disorder about the time of the vines being in flower. They never recover from this state without aid, but get worse and worse until good for nothing. By taking the malady at the moment of its appearance, the evil may be arrested. The wine must be drawn into a cask, well sulphured, and placed in a situation colder than that in which it previously stood. Honey, or liquorice, is often dis- solved in the wine, or cream, or the wine is saturated with acetate of magnesia. Many use gelatine of bones ; but the THE YINTAGKE. 73 best mode is to pass it over the lees at the vintage, when it will lose its acidity. In the spring succeeding, however, it is almost certain to revert to an acid state again. Thus far, provided the wine is taken at the first appearance of change, if it be at all advanced, the malady is hopeless, and the wine will infallibly become vinegar. Sometimes the acidity of wine is only superficial, and when that is the case an instrument is adopted in Prance, which passing deep into the contents of the cask, fills it without the least disturbance, until the bad portion overflows at the bung-hole, being displaced by that which is introduced below in a sound state. Bitterness is another malady to which the best quality of wine is subject. It follows the insensible fermentation either in the wood or bottle, and does not show itself until the wine is old. Some of the best Burgundy is subject to bitterness, especially if it tasted rough on attaining maturity. The wine is generally clear during the time it is thus affected. If it happen in the cask, it must be passed over new lees, or wine of a younger growth of the same vineyard ; but this only renders it liable to new changes, and injures the bouquet. It should be afterwards fined with eggs, suffered to rest two or three months, and then be racked. If the wine is in bottle, it will often re-establish itself in two or three years, but it must not be moved. The wine will lose some of its colour and bouquet, but become finer, and good for drinking. If moved it must be decanted, which some persons do on first discovering the malady, and repeat it as often as there is any deposit. Almost all wines change colour with age, and generally in proportion to their original deep- ness of hue. When this is the effect of malady, they lose their transparency ; the red become black, and the white a livid yellow ; the taste, also, gets worse. This is a pew fer- mentation, and is stopped with purified tartar, reduced to a fine powder, an THE ISLANDS. 277 that " Corpo di Baceo !" is the common oath, of tlie lower classes. The poet of the Tuscan vine, Redi, with his " Bacco in Toscana," has enumerated his country's wines as if they were the first in the world, and gives the palm to the "manna of Monte Pulciano," la manna di Monte Pulciano, & sweet wine of the second class ; which has the stain on its character of having killed a churchman, who drank of it too magnificently, unless an error has been made by confounding it with Montefiascone and Bishop Defoucris. The treatment of the vine, then, is much better in the Tuscan states than in other parts of Italy. In Florence even the nobles sell their wine by retail from their palace cellars. The term "flask of wine" is essentially Tuscan, the wine being served out to the consumer in vessels so denominated, in shape that of a well-known oil vessel. A flask holds about three quarts. When filled, a little oil is put into the neck, which keeps the wine effectually from the air, as was a cus- tom in ancient times. When the wine is to be poured out, a bit of tow is first inserted to draw off or absorb the oil from the surface of the wine. The luxuriant vines of Tuscany are almost all of the high training, and the wines are made in some places with con- siderable care. The hill wines only are good, those of the plains are generally poor, and of Lecore proverbially so. The plains were once forbidden to be planted with vines. Among the nobility and landowners excellent Tuscan wine will be found, which has been made under their own super- intendence. The liberal character of the government liberal compared to other states in Italy, where so much of the soil is ruled by foreigners has exhibited its advantages even in the manufacture of so common an article, for it has excited emulation among the better classes of society. At a Tuscan villa, the owner will, with some degree of pride, extol the vinous growths from his estate, and mention the efforts he is making to increase the excellence of the produce. They who introduced Lancastrian schools, gas, and steam machinery into Austrian-Italy were made exiles or languished in dungeons a Porro, Gonfalionieri, or Arrivabene ; and it is something to find that a Tuscan nobleman may introduce improvements on his lands, borrowed from more enlightened countries, without individual hazard, and that a generous 278 WINES Or ITALY AND TIIK ISLANDS. ruler, in the person of a late grand duke, set the honourable example himself. 'Without any excess, all das- cany enjoy their wine, fancying it makes good blood; in the words of their poet II buon vino fa buon sangue. It has been remarked that no two traveller :bout the merit of Italian wines. This often arises from the same names being adopted in different Italian states for wines of very opposite qualities. There is a vino santo, for example, in the Roman states, and a vino Grseco. There are wines of the same name in Naples. Even a wretched Veronese wine, truly "vino debolissimo e di niuna stima," "vino santo," while there is an excellent " vino santo Brescia. It is the same with half a dozen of the most i wines of Italy, and unless the place of growth be ann 11 as the name, one traveller will praise a wine of the same appellation as that which another pronounces execrable. There is no other guide than the place of growth to make the quality clear ; for though the wine is often called from the grape of which it is made, as vino Graeco from the Gre- cian grape, even this is not uniformly the case. The celebrated Verdea is a white wine, having a bright green tinge, grown at Arcetri ; it was formerly held in high esteem. The plain of Pisa produces poor weak wines un- worthy of Tuscan neighbourhood. The red wine of Chianti, the wines of Val di Marina, Carmignano, Poncino, Antella, Artiminio, and others of the same class, are produced not far from Florence, and are several of them excellent. The wines of Sienna among them Montelcino, Eimaneze, and Santo Stefano are good wines de liqueur. The "Aleatico" of Tuscany resembles "tinto," and is a red muscadine wine, made near or at Monte Pulciano. It is a wine of great ex- cellence, luscious, with a rich perfume. The Malvasia wine of Trebbio is a very fine variety. The red Florence wine, as it is called, is deeper in colour than claret, and harsher, being left long on the murk. It has been observed that near Ravenna, on land recovered from the Adriatic, the vines attain an extraordinary size. From Verona to Vicenza it is the custom to plant the trees lozenge fashion. In Lombardy they are planted in the same manner, for the support of the vines, and between Bologna WI> T ES OF ITALY AXD THE ISLANDS. 270 and Modena. The soil in Lombardy is, however, far too rich to produce good wine. In the north, from Bassano to Trent, the valleys abound in vineyards, but the wine is of too luscious a character to be drunk by any but the inhabitants. The vineyards here were formerly so pestered with bears, which devoured the fruit, that they were obliged to erect straw huts upon the top of a post, just large enough to conceal a man, from whence he could shoot the intrusive animals without being perceived. There is an endless variety of grape used in the wines of Italy, without regard to the quality. The mammolo is a red grape, much grown at Florence ; the canajuol, a black Tuscan variety ; then there is the moscatello,from mosca, a fly, whence also muscat and muscadine, from the ancient name of wines apiance, according to Eedi ; the Barbarossa, or red-beard, so called from its long clusters of red fruit ; the malvagia, or malvasia, from the Morea ; and the Greek grape. The wine of Chianti comes principally from a creeping species of vine, vifce bassa ; there also is the vernaccia and aleatico vine, with numerous other kinds, many of them of the first excellence. Chianti wine was formerly imported into Great Britain before that of Oporto had nearly excluded the other species, and the red wine of Florence continued to arrive after the importation of Chianti had ceased. The last was most pro- bably sold for adulterating or mingling with other growths, to give them body and colour, and deceive the purchaser. It does not appear that a single cask from that country is im- ported now, though Sicilian wines are constantly introduced. While the wines of France, so superior to all others, are ad- mitted at the same duty, there is little chance of such as are of a middling quality at best. Savoy and Piedmont produce red wines of tolerable quality ; those of Montrnelian and St. Albero, in Savoy, are among the best in the country, and come from the slopes of Mont Ter- mino and St. John de la Porte. One of these wines is deno- minated clairet, from being fermented but a short period : there are several other red wines. The best vin de liqueur is made upon the Ehone, near Chamberry, from a Cyprus species of vine. An effervescing wine is made at Lasseraa from the malvasia grape. Asti, near Marengo, and Biella, produce red 280 in i: LSL \ wine- ..f tolerable flavour. At Asti. the plants call retta and Malva.-ia .Xebiolo prod;, de lif/ucur, with the smell of the ray pberrv. The wine of Montferrat, near Ma- ren< ;!>!>. ]t was upon this account, most probably, that a church was built to our Lady of the Vineyards, the monopo- lists, as monopolists will, turning even religion to account for lucre's sake. In Sardinia, the produce of the vine is very abundant, so that the fruit is frequently left upon the vines for want of vessels to hold the must. An amber-coloured wine -, and a red wine named Giro, are the most remarkable. There are also several sweet and ordinary wines. The wines called Caunonao, Monaca, and Garnaccia, are exported to Holland and : Elba grows a little red wine of excellent quality. A hundred will produce from twelve to fourteen barrels on the The older the vine the richer is the wine : one hundred and fifty years old. The hermitage of 3 I Serrato and the environs grow Moscatello wines. ] tico and Bianillo of Elba are red Moscatello, and resemble Monte Pulciano when it has lost its peculiar odour. They make there a champagne of the Procanico grape. They have also a wine called Bischillatto. The Elbese wines will bear a sea voyage well; some have been exported to America with- out injury. They plant their new vineyards in December, and are assisted in their vine culture by labourers from the neighbouring coast of Italy. It is remarked, that the wine made from the vineyards in the valleys of the island, will not keep long, while that from vines grown on the hills is durable. The soil is a red sandy stone. Little is known of these wines in England, but as the taste for strong wine, even in the middle circles, is on the decline, it may be hoped that a variety from other countries will supply its place ; by this means competi- tion will be excited, and wines of greater excellence be pro- duced to exchange for our manufactures, from places hitherto little known here for the cultivation of the vine. The Lipari WIXES OF ITALY AND THE ISLANDS. 281 Isles have tolerable wines of the ordinary class. Their Malmsey is excellent ; that drawn from the volcano Strom- boli is held in much esteem, and nearly all exported. Sicily produces wine in great abundance ; but the same re- marks which apply to the bad husbandry and vintage of Italy will apply to this island. The best wines of the province of Mascofi grow on Etna, and are red, being almost the only good red wine of the class in the island, though others are produced at Taormina and Faro, but they have a taint of pitch. Syracuse produces over its mouldering remains a red musca- dine, equal to any other in the world, if not superior. A white vin de liqueur is also made there, but only of the second class. Messina furnishes much wine for exportation. The Yal di Mazara and its vineyards give wines known in Eng- land, as well as Etna and Bronte. Marsala, when obtained without the admixture of execrable Sicilian brandy, is an agreeable wine, something like Madeira of the second class, and of great body. A voyage to India and home renders this wine, when of the best quality, a most excellent dinner wine, equal to Madeira. The difference is scarcely to be credited. Augusta produces wine having a strong flavour of violets. The Sicilian wines may be said to have received more attention since the closer connexion of England with the island took place. The soil is excellent, and when the true interests of the vine-owners and merchants are clearly seen by them, growths may be obtained which will add con- siderably to the variety of the table, while their strength will meet the class of persons who relish the more fiery wines, for of this class are all those with which commerce has yet fur- nished Great Britain from Sicily. [Wine Vessels.] CHAPTEE XL WINES OF HUNGARY, AUSTRIA, STYRIA, AND CARYNTHIA. HUNGARIAN VINES CALCULATED PRODUCE PRACTICE AT THE VINTAGE- DIFFERENT KINDS OF WINEPRINCIPAL VINEYARDS AUSTRIAN WINKS CARYNTHIAN AND SCLAVONIAN. THE wines of Hungary have long enjoyed a well-merited fame, and though no great variety is known of such wines as go to foreigners by exportation, they rank so high in the highest class of the products of the vintage, that they have borne the name of Hungarian wine far beyond where it has ever been seen or tasted. It is pretended in the country, that Probus first introduced the vine into Hungary from Italy, planting it near Mount Almus ; but it is far more probable that it passed from Tran- sylvania, and came into the country from the north-west of Asia. The produce of the wine districts of Hungary is estimated at eighteen millions of eimers, of ten gallons each. The vineyards which produce the best wines are those of Ofen, Pesth, Tokay, the Syrmia in the south, Groswarden, Erlon, and Warwitz in the Bannat. The consumption in the country is very considerable, and a great deal is exported. Tokay wine was first noticed extensively and became fashion- able about the middle of the seventeenth century. It has WINES OF HUNGARY AND AUSTRIA. 283 rather increased than diminished in reputation since. In 1807, the common Tokay, Tokay Ausbruch, and Ausbruch of other kinds, amounted in value to 657,762 florins, including thirty thousand eimers of superior, besides 2813 casks of common Tokay. The great fair for the wines of Hungary is held annually at Pesth. Great encouragement is given by the government to vine cultivation. The Hungarians enjoy their wine, and generally carry a flask on their journeys called Csutora. Their songs dwell much on their wine of Tokay : they sing that their Muses, young and laughing, Dwell in vineyards of Tokay. The manufacture of the wine is very coarsely carried on by the peasantry, who are, notwithstanding their want of care and system, very observant of cleanliness in all that concerns the vintage. The wine presses and vats are well cleaned with boiling water, in which vine leaves have been steeped. The fruit is collected in wooden vessels, which are carried by the labourers, and overseers attend to see that no grapes are left on the vines. The different gatherings are collected in vats having a double bottom, the uppermost of which is pierced with holes for the juice to pass through, while the grapes are beaten and bruised with a stick. "When the upper vessel is full, its contents are taken to the press. They generally divide the gathering for the red and white wines, but do not reject the bad grapes. All are pressed together, and the must thrown into a large vat to ferment. When the grapes are too abundant for the operation of pressing, they put them into sacks and tread them out, and the contents of the sack are afterwards put by for distillation. The red grape is seldom pressed at all. Cattle are fed on the re- fuse of the press. The Hungarians reckon sixty varieties of grape. The vineyards in Hungary are permitted to be purchased by the peasantry. They are obliged to pay a tenth to the lord of the soil, which is considered a heavy tax upon their industry, and they are kept in a state of miserable poverty by their lords and rulers. The price of old red Ofen wine, astringent, and like Burgundy, was at Pesth, in 1813, from fourteen to twenty florins the eimer of about ten gallons. 284 WINES OF HUNaABY AND AUSTEIA. !N"ew wine from eight to twelve, and common wine from six to eight. In 1814, old red Ofen wine was from thirty to forty florins, and old white from thirty-two to forty-five. Fivepence a bottle, which is about the price in 1814, was much dearer than the wine had been in preceding years. About thirty kinds of Hungarian wine have been reckoned. The most celebrated is the Tokay, called the "King of "Wines," the product of a district around the town of that name, extending about twenty miles, called the Submontine or Hegyallya, in North-East, or High Hungary, in the county, or circle, of Zemplin. The Hegyallya is a range of the Car- pathian mountains, in latitude 48. Throughout this district the grape is large, and of a rich luscious taste. The best grapes in Hungary are those of Yirovichitz, near Vacia. To return to the Tokay. The grapes for this wine are the Hungarian Blue, when ripe called Trockenbeeren. They are collected late in the season, almost shrivelled up to rai- sins, and then carefully picked one and one. The species called Formint and Hars-levilii furnish the prime Tokay, called Tokay Ausbruch. The vines are reared pollard fashion, and the vintage seldom takes place before the end of October. The Trockenbeeren, or overripe shrivelled grapes, are by that time shrunk enough, and are carefully placed on a table grooved, from which the juice runs into earthen jars, and forms the rich "essence of Tokay/' through their own pressure. This wine is like the syrups of the south of Prance, and is set aside by itself. The quantity made is small, very thick, and considered most precious. The thickness made it a cha- racteristic ; hence the remark, " Spain for strength, France for delicacy, Italy for sweetness, and Hungary for thickness." The grapes thus used are trodden in a vat with the naked feet, and a small portion of wine essence is added to the must, which is allowed to stand twenty-four hours, and then set to ferment. This last is the famous Tokay wine, or Tokay Aus- bruch (ausbruch, or flowing forth of the syrup). It ferments for two or three days or inore, during which it is stirred, and the matters which arise to the surface are skimmed off. It is then strained into casks. Tokay has a powerful aroma. It does not become bright for some time after it is in the cask, nor is it ever as bright as the favourite wines of the "West of Europe. The taste is soft and oily. The flavour earthy and WINES OF HTTNGABY AND AUSTEIA. 285 astringent. Tokay Ausbrucli contains sixty-one parts of essence, and eighty-four of wine. The Maslas is a more diluted species of the Tokay, containing sixty-one parts of essence, and a hundred and sixty-nine of wine. The best wine of Tokay has so peculiar a flavour of the aromatic kind, and is so luscious, that the taste is not easily forgotten. In truth, it is more a liqueur than a wine. This wine sells in Yienna for twelve pounds sterling the dozen. The vineyard belongs to the Emperor and certain of the nobles ; the Tarczal grape produces the best. The side of the slope on which the vineyards lie, is about nine thousand yards long ; but the choice portion, called Mezes-Male, is but six hundred, and is reserved with its produce for the Emperor and a few of the nobles. Tokar and Mada fruit rank next ; and their wines are remarkable for sweetness and delicate aroma. The vineyard of Tallya is reputed to have most body, and that of Zambor the greatest body. The wines from Szeghi and Tsadany are aromatic, while the wines of Tolesva and Erdo Benye are best for exportation. Tokay cannot be drunk under three years old. The wine ferments in the casks on transportion by sea, and thus clarifies itself. In bottling, a space must be left between the cork and the wine, or the bottle will break. In Hungary, a little oil is poured upon the wine ; it is then corked, and a piece of bladder tied firmly over the cork. At Cracau this wine has been kept of the hundredth vintage. The new is called there, vino slotki ; the old, vino vitraivno. The colour of the prime Tokay should not be of a reddish hue, though there is an inferior sort of that colour ; the taste soft, and not sharp or acrimonious ; it should appear oily in the glass, and have an astringent twang, a little earthy. The aroma, however, can- not be mistaken, as that of no other wine resembles it. Almost all the wines sold as Ausbruch-Tokay are the pro- duce of the Tokay vineyards in general. St. Gyorgy, (Eden- burg, nine G-erman miles from Presburg, and feust, produce an Ausbruch of good character. Menes, or Menesch, in the county of Arad, grows a red wine, sweet, with a fine bou- quet. The Ausbruch of the (Edenburg is less powerful. Gpengyaesch, near Mount Matra, produces red and white wines. The wine of Buda is red, and was once a favourite wine in. 286 WINES OF HUNGARY AND AUSTRIA. England. The Sexard resembles Eourdeaux. The Gros- warden wine is of excellent body. "Warwitz, in the Bannat, produces wine which resembles Burgundy. The rich red Meneser wine is very good, and, with Menes Tokay, is grown upon a range of hills of clay-slate, so called from the village of Menes, or Menesch. The strata on which the Tokay is grown differ, but all consist of substances favourable to the vine, and mostly volcanic. There are numerous other wines, of various qualities, never exported. There is a red wine called Schiller, and another species, like Champagne, called Schisacker. The wines called Palunia and Tropfwermuth pass under the general name of Wermuth. They are a preparation of grapes with wormwood, seeds, and spices of different kinds, over which they pour old wine, and cork it up. It is drunk at home, and rarely exported. This, too, is a wine used medi- cinally, and drunk as a mixed wine. At Oxford and Cam- bridge, "Bishop" used to be made by infusing lemons or oranges in claret, with sugar, and warming it with spices. In Germany they use Burgundy and toasted oranges for bishop, old Ehenish for " Cardinal," and Tokay for "Pope." The vineyards of the Ausbruchs and the Maslas pay no tenths to the lord of the soil. They are not confined to Tokay alone, but extend to other places in the Syrmian. The tenure of the peasant is generally only the good- will of the lord. Many of the estates are but temporarily occupied about a month before the vintage. The proprietor at other times leaves his house and vineyard to the care of a peasant, for which his wages are increased. The vintage is over early in November ; the fruit is, a large part of it, white. The vine cuttings are taken away, the poles removed, and in some places the vines laid in and covered with earth, all being pre- pared before the first snow falls upon the land. The average produce is almost a hundred thousand eimers. The wines of Tokav were at one time not permitted to be made beyond a certain quantity in a limited district. The thick Tokay essence is enormously dear, and even in Vienna is rarely to be tasted at the tables of the opulent. The prac- tice of mingling the essence with the common wines has given the latter a celebrity which they scarcely deserve, and lessened the quantity of the essence sold. These wines have WINES OF HUNGARY AND AUSTEIA. 287 a harsh taste, which is highly esteemed in some parts of the Continent. The genuine Tokay is not commonly exported in wood, but in small bottles. It is an enduring wine, of a colour to be compounded out of umber and ochre, with a bouquet and taste very peculiar. The bottles do not contain much more than a pint English perhaps what is called in Hungary a "media," eighty of which make the small barrel denominated an " anthiel." The value of Tokay is another example of the caprice of taste or fashion in wine. The rich muscadine of Syracuse, or the lagrima of Malaga, seem in every respect equal, and even superior to it in richness. Though the peculiar flavour in the wine of Tokay will easily distinguish it from them, yet that flavour itself has nothing more than its singularity to recom- mend it. Few Englishmen would prefer Tokay to wines very much its inferior in fame. The Austrian wines are, some of them, of very good quality, though they are little known. Blumenbach states the pro- duce of the whole Austrian empire, including Hungary and the Italian provinces, at thirty-three millions of eimers of ten gallons each, or above two millions and a half of pipes of a hundred and twenty-three gallons each, or about a third of what is produced in France. Some make the produce higher, or nearly six hundred millions of gallons, of which sixty mil- lions are said to be exported. The archduchy is reported as producing thirty-six millions of gallons. The product of Moravia is six millions and a half gallons ; of Bohemia, four hundred thousand. Burgundy vines are planted in Bohemia, but the red wines made from them are not of an enduring quality. Some tolerable wine is produced at Poleschowitz, in Moravia. In Austria Proper the best wines are grown in the neighbourhood of Lichtenstein. They are stronger than Rhine wines, are of a greenish hue, and may be drunk young. The mountain wine, to the south of Vienna, called Giberwein, will keep thirty years. A good wine, next in quality to the Hungarian, is made in Transylvania. An Ausbruch, resembling Tokay, is grown there. Some very good wines are also made near Birthalmen. The produce of the country is said to be fifteen millions of gallons. In the Tyrol and vicinity of Trent, there is a common wine, of excellent quality, but all consumed in the country. 288 WINES OF HUtfGABY AND ATJSTBIA. In Carynthia, some wines resembling those of Italy are made; and in Carniola, near Moettling and Wipach. In Styria, eighteen millions of gallons are produced. The Lut- tenberg wines of Lower Styria are among the first ; and those of Sansal and Wiesel are extolled. In Istria tolerable wine is also made. Prosecco, Antignana, St. Servo, and Trieste, produce both red, white, and mousseux, well flavoured. Ber- chetz is a wine grown on a rock in the Adriatic, sweet, and of a deep-red colour. Vins de liqueur are made at Capo d' Istria, Pirano, and Citta JN"ova, called St. Patronio. Piccoli, Petit Tokai, and St. Thomas, are good wines of their class. At Priuli much wine is made; and that of Corregliano is highly esteemed at Venice, The luscious wine made at Pic- coli is equal to the vino santo of southern Italy. Syrmia and Posega, in Sclavonia, produce red and white wines of good flavour and strength, and the neighbourhood of Carlowitz is noted for its red wine. The kingdom of Illyria produces nearly eleven millions of gallons, consumed in the country. The wines of Croatia are made best at Mosy- vina, and resemble Burgundy. At Vinodal a sparkling wine is made, of good flavour. In Dalmatia they make a wine at Sebenico called Maraschina, whence the name of the liqueur Maraschino di Zara, from Zara, in the same territory. The best wines of Eagusa are produced at Gravosa. In general, the vines are much neglected in Dalmatia. The vineyard ground occupies in Zara about 36,426 acres ; in Spolato, 53,861 ; at Eagusa, 18,132 ; and in Cattaro, 3567 : in all, 111,987 acres. The wines are not of a goodness sufficient to render them adapted for commerce. They have, however, a delicious wine called Marzenius del Teodo ; and they have a tolerable Muscatel. At Prosecco some good wine is grown. The whole produce of the country is estimated at eight mil- lions and a half of gallons. In Moldavia the best reputed vineyards are near Cotnar. The wines of Piatra are held in good esteem. The wine of that name is green, and becomes deeper by age. It is nearly as spirituous as brandy, and by many is preferred to Tokay. Much wine is sent from this province to Eussia. In "Wai- lachia they have light wines. There are also tolerable wines produced in abundance in Eomania. In Macedonia, the monks of Mount Atlas are great cultivators of the vine. [Bacchus and Demeter, from a Cameo.] CHAPTEE XII. THE WINES OF GREECE. GREEK WINES GENERALLY WINES OF THE ISLANDS CYPRUS WINE WINE OF THE COMMANDERY MODE OF MAKING, AND QUALITIES WINES OF THE IONIAN ISLANDS OF ALBANIA, ROMANIA, AND OF THE RUSSIAN DOMINIONS, OF the wines of the ancient Greeks we know little. That they preferred old wines to new, that they mixed water with their wines, and sometimes used them perfumed, that an habitual drunkard was considered infamous, and that the names of some of their* wines may be found in the works of the writers which have reached our time, together with the names of the cups or vessels out of which they quaffed the juice of the grape, is familiar to every incipient scholar. To the quality and taste of the wines of ancient Greece the moderns must remain strangers. Prom all which has come down to the present day, it does not appear that aught which can be of the least advantage to our age is known respecting the treatment of the vintage or culture of the vine. It is to useful information, rather than to the gratification of curi- osity, that this volume is directed. The manufacture of wine in Cyprus at the present hour, which is described at length u 290 WINES OF GKBEECE. in this chapter, is that which, it is most probable, resembles nearest the general conduct of the vintage among the ancient Greeks. The general character of dry, sweet, or luscious wines, which depends principally upon the soil, or moment of gathering the fruit, must have been similar in their times to that in our day. It is not thus uncertain with matters of a more important character. The glory of Greek literature and art is as brilliant now as ever, and matters of mere gour- metise may well be spared, seeing others of so much more importance remain to us. The flavour of the old Greek wines would, in all likelihood, have been to a modern palate worse than " caviar to the general." Since the time of the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, it is not at all likely that in the Greek islands the mode of manufacturing the wine should have much changed, however the quality might have become deteriorated. So recently as the period when the power of the Venetians was extended over these islands, the vintages were celebrated. In Napoli di Malvasia, about seventy miles from Napoli di Eomania, in the Morea, was made the renowned Malvasia or Malmsey, which has since been imitated in almost every other wine country in the world. The vines from thence are said to have been transplanted into Candia. The yoke of Turkish despotism falling less heavy upon the islands than upon the mainland, habits were less altered there; and when little Malvasia wine was made in the Morea, it continued an article of very considerable importance in the exports of Candia, even after the subjugation in 1670. Malmsey in England was only twopence a quart in 1492, but in 1550 the price was doubled. Henry VII. , whose love of wine was as great as his heart was mean, laid an increased duty upon wine from Candia. The soil of the islands and the mainland of Greece differs very much, but a large proportion is particularly favourable to the growth of the vine. Hills of calcareous earth, with slopes of benign aspect ; gravelly soils, and others of volcanic origin, offer situations for vineyards of rare occurrence. The rule of the Moslem, unfortunately, made the profit of the slave too small, and his tenure of land too precarious, for him to labour more than enough to answer barely the ends of animal existence, after satisfying the rapacity of his masters. WI1STES OF GBEECE. 291 The vine is cultivated in different parts of Greece in various methods. In Thessaly where the Turks used to drink the must, though they would not touch the wine, in order to evade the breach of their prophet's command in Thessaly the vines are trained for the most part after the low order, being what are styled dwarf vines. They are not propped. The bunches are for the most part fine and luxuriant, of a luscious and rich taste, and as large as plums. The wine is sweet, and would be good, but it is tainted with the disagree- able taste of pine resin, introduced with the notion of flavour- ing and preserving the wine ; an ancient custom. A careful fermentation, with the naturally saccharine nature of such fruit, would be adequate to every measure of durability. On the mainland of Greece the vines were formerly nume- rous, and the produce considerable. In the late war whole vineyards throughout entire districts were rooted up by the Turks, and in the Morea the most wanton devastation was committed upon them by the troops of Ibrahim Pacha. In some places the high method of training over trellises pre- vails, in others the plant is not allowed to rise but a foot from the ground, and is kept closely pruned. A cup is ex- cavated round the main stem to retain humidity at one season, and at another to prevent the grapes from touching the soil while the heat of the sun concentrates within it. At Corinth, where the vine flourishes remarkably well, it is not trained upon trellis- work, as in some other places, but the vines are shaped like currant bushes, and the clusters of small pearly grapes hang around them. Near the Field of Platsea, vines are planted to a considerable extent. Nothing but the want of a better and more scientific method of conducting the vintage, prevents the wines of modern Greece from ranking higher. The fermentation is carelessly executed, and the skin, with its pitch, makes the wines worse, yet some of them would be drunk and pronounced good by foreigners but for this defect. Candia produces much excellent wine at this day, though since it was conquered by the Turks its vintages have greatly deteriorated. The principal wine manufacturers are the monks. At Arcadi large and noble cellars are shown at the monastery, where the produce of the vintage was formerly stored. Much boiled wine was prepared in this island. The 292 WINES OF GREECE. grapes are some of the finest in the world. The lands of the monastery of Arcadi extend to the sea, and the wine they make is a rich Malmsey. Grood clairets are produced at Kissanos ; and at Eethymo the Jews make a tolerable white wine, called the " "Wine of the Law." The white muscadine is not equal to the red, which is named Leattico : it is plea- santer then tent to the palate, and is sold very cheap. The wine-drinkers of Candia were once so notorious, that a party of them would sit round a cask, and not rise until it was emptied. The wines of Ehodes are said to be excellent ; but they are nearly all of the sweet or luscious kind. One grape is as large as a damascene plum, and very similar in colour. The sun is sufficiently powerful in this island to keep the vines in bearing every month in the year, provided water is judiciously given to them, so that ripe and incipient grapes are seen on the same vine. This practice being thought to impair the plants, the watering them in December and January is customarily omitted. In Cyprus, the hills on which the vine is cultivated are covered with stones or flints, and with a blackish earth mixed with ochrous veins. Some soils contain particles of talc. The vines are planted in equi-distant rows in the rainy season, or about November. Young vines are in some spots planted in trenches three feet deep, in which thyme plants grow, or have been planted to shelter them in the wet season, and to preserve the earth about them. The plants are put into the ground with a ladder-shaped instrument of two staves, to receive the foot that forces it down. The plant is sunk about eighteen inches, a little water is poured in on the root, and the opening filled up. In other places no trench is made, unless a hollow round the plant, when the fruit appears, may be so called, excavated to prevent the grapes from touching the ground and rotting. This is further beneficial by retain- ing water or moisture, so needful in a climate intensely warm. No trees are allowed near the vines, and the surface is well weeded. The vines grow thick in the stem, but are not more than three feet high. They are pruned in February and March. Two shoots are left on each plant, and two buds on each shoot, or if three shoots are left, only one bud is re- served on each. No props are used, for it is believed that WINES OP GREECE. 293 the grapes receiving the concentrated and reflected heat from the ground, as well as from the sun's direct rays, ripen faster. A few grapes only are borne on each plant, but these are plump and fine. They hang by long stems ; are of a rich purple colour, and the pulp a reddish-green. The grapes of the Commandery have a thin delicate skin, and the pulp is compact. The vintage lasts six weeks, beginning about the twentieth of August, and the grapes for the more common wines are first gathered. When collected they are placed on covered floors, called punsi, and spread out with care to the depth of eighteen inches, where they remain till the seeds begin to drop from them. They are then raised with shovels and carried into rooms paved with marble, or covered with a cement equally hard and durable, a little sloping on one side. They are there bruised with a flat mallet, and squeezed three or four times under small presses, called patitiri, the thick expressed juice flowing into a vessel placed at the lower side of the floor, which is emptied as it fills into small vases, and conveyed into baked earthen vessels, half buried in the earth, their bases cone-shaped, ending acutely like amphorae. The wine ferments in these forty days. In some parts of the island the vessels are covered during fermentation. The wine in the fermenting state cannot be taken without causing severe colic pains. To prevent these it is sometimes fined by filtering it through bags filled with vine ashes, but when thus treated it never afterwards attains perfection. When the forty days of fermentation have expired, the vessels are uniformly shut up close with covers of baked earth. The wine is now observed to be much lighter in colour than before. The vessels in which it ferments are either simply coated with pitch or painted internally, as soon as they come from the potter's furnace, with a boiling liquid composed of turpentine and pitch, mixed with vine ashes, goats' hair, and fine sand, which effectually closes the pores, and never falls off. The art of making these vessels is very ancient, even to the remotest ages. They contain from twelve to twenty barrels each. The deposition of the wine in them is styled mana. The wines are often transported to the coast in leathern bags, carelessly pitched, and detrimental to the flavour of the wine, which it takes many years to lose. The cellars, though in so hot a country as Cyprus, are all 294 WHITES OF GKEECE. above ground. The casks are placed about six inches from the floor on joists. They have little light, and no attention is paid to aspect. The country in Cyprus, situated between Limassol, Paphos, and Mount Olympus, not the ancient mountain of that name, contains a good many hamlets and villages, and was anciently occupied by the Commandery of the Templars and the Xnights of Malta. The wine made of the best grapes is that still called the wine of the Commandery. The villages of Zopi, Omodos, Limnari, and Effragoni, afford good wines also. At Limassol the wines of the country are collected and transported to the cellars at Larnic, which are the largest in the island, and there the wine trade is concentrated, or rather was some years ago, for the commerce of the island has of late much declined. The wines of the Commandery are made in August and September, from grapes of a red colour. In hue it resembles the Italian wine of Chianti. As soon as it is made it is put into the earthen vessels before mentioned. After being thus left for a year, its red colour changes to a yellowish tint. It fines itself by age, so that at eight or ten years old it is of the same hue, or nearly, as the sweet wines of Southern Europe. The dregs it deposits are very thick, and they are supposed by attraction to aid the fining, so that the wine remains upon the lees until it has attained its last degree of limpidity. "When the wine is brought from the country into the towns it is placed in casks, where there are dregs, for it must always remain on them a year at least after it is made, to acquire perfection. They do not regard whether the casks are full or not, for it makes no difference in the quality of the wine. They even deem it necessary in some places to empty the casks several inches down when they are put into the cellar. Thus various are the modes of bringing wine of dif- ferent qualities to perfection in different climates. Cyprus wine is sold at the vineyard by the load. Each load is sixteen jars, and each jar holds five Florence bottles. The vendor must warrant the goodness of the wine until the fifteenth of August following the vintage, or for the space of a year, no matter whether it remains in his own possession or in that of the purchaser. If not found good it is returned ; if the contrary, it is deemed a proof of its goodness in every WINES OJF GEEECE. 295 way satisfactory. The quantity of real wine of the Com- mandery produced is about ten thousand jars, though forty thousand were once sent out of the island under that name. The Venetians were the largest purchasers of the inferior and newest kinds, which did not bring more than a piastre a jar in Venice. Some of the same quality is sent to Leghorn. The better kinds sent to Italy, France, and Holland, are sold for two and a half or three piastres a jar, equal to five bottles. This wine is generally exported in casks, of three hundred and fifty bottles each. The duties in the island used to be about ten piastres the cask. None of the wines exported are more than ten years old, and very little exceeding twenty will be found even in the private cellars. The wines of an inferior quality produced in Cyprus are generally drunk by the inhabitants. Like the wines of the Commandery, they grow yellow by age, and, singular enough, seem then to 'approach very near in quality and flavour to those famous wines. A little of them is exported to Syria, but none to Europe. They taste insupportably of pitch. About five thousand jars of muscadine wine are made in Cyprus ; the best at Agros. The sweetness of this wine is excessive ; it drinks best at one or two years of age. It is clearer than the Malmsey of most other countries, and at first is white, but acquires a red colour and increase of body by age. The price is the same as that of the wines of the Commandery, a little varying with the goodness of the vintage. These wines, it is most probable, have undergone little or no change since the days of Strabo and Pliny, who reckon them among the most valuable in the world. Selim II. con- quered the island, that he might be master of them. At that time wines of eight years old were found, which it is said burned like oil. Cyprus wine, the Cypreots say, is, when old, a remedy for the tertian and quartan agues, so pre- valent in the island, and excellent for cleansing wounds. After sixty or seventy years, some of this wine becomes as thick as syrup. The age of Cyprus wine may be known by pouring it into a glass, and observing whether particles, like oil, adhere to the sides : this cannot be produced by art. It is often adulterated with luscious wines and perfumes. Cold is in- 206 WINES OF GBEECE. jurious to its quality. It should be placed before a fire, if drunk in the north, during autumn or winter. One very remarkable circumstance attached to the wines of Cyprus is the value of the lees : they are always exported with the wine, if possible. Before bottling, a month or two of rest must be given to the cask, that they may subside. They settle with greater difficulty abroad than in their native island. The cask must be pierced above the dregs, and the wine will come off limpid ; but this should only be done for bottling. The wine deposits no tartar on the cask, but the dregs or lees are sometimes a mixture in colour of black, red, and yellow, of the consistence of paste, but generally of the hue of Spanish snuff. The wine being poured upon them, they rise, clarify it, and subside. They are always left with the vendor, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. Ten or twelve bottles in quantity are allowed to be kept back by the vendor from each cask for this purpose. Casks with the lees sell for four times the price of those without, and hence wines that are adulterated by colouring, or with any other object, do not produce lees, and lose their strength. A small quantity of lees should be thrown into every cask prior to exportation, and when eight or ten years old the wine should be bottled. A sort of wine liqueur is made in Cyprus, and exported to Syria and the parts adjacent, but little, if any, comes to the West. It is imitated in Paris under the name of mn de Chypre, and sold as a liqueur in the coffee-houses. Some of the wines of Cyprus are so tainted with the skin, that they cannot be drunk by a stranger without water, ex- cept under the penalty of a severe head-ache. This is much to be regretted, as it arises entirely from neglect. At Omo- dos, some Frenchmen, a few years ago, attempted to make wine after the manner of Provence. When it had been a year in wood, and bottled for a short time, it was equally as good, and could not have been known from the Proven9al wines. There is a custom in Cyprus, among families, of burying a jar of wine on the birth of a child, to be dug up on its mar- riage, which wine is never sold, whatever may be the fate of the child. Most of the smaller Greek islands produce wine. Naxos WINES OF GEEECE. 297 was formerly noted for its drunkards and its temple of Bacchus. At Pirgo much wine was made about a century since. At Nicaria a white wine, very remarkable as a diuretic, is made from vines which grow among the rocks. Milo has frequently exported wine to the other islands. Samos, the wine of which was thought in ancient times to be bad, is now noted for ex- cellent muscadine ; large quantities of vines are grown there : both red and white are manufactured, and the wine is held in considerable repute. Tenedos produces both dry and sweet wines ; its muscadine is famous, it having exported five hundred thousand okes a year. Santorini is remarkable for the sulphurous taste borne by its wine when new, and for its vino santo. This vino santo is sold for three or four parats the oke at the vintage : it is made from white grapes, which are first exposed for seven or eight days on the roofs of the houses, then trodden or pressed, and fermented in close casks. It is a luscious wine, and a million of okes is said to have been exported in some years, principally to Eussia. The wine of Meconi is so mingled with water to increase the quantity, that few will purchase it. Scio still produces wine called Homer's nectar, as it did two thousand years ago ; the white and black grapes are mingled to make the wine, which is in much esteem in the Archipelago. Another kind, called Nectar, until matured by age, strangers cannot relish. The grape is said to be styptic. Mista is the most renowned vine- yard. The wines which go under the name of " wines of the Dardanelles," are of very middling quality, and come for the most part from Lampsacus, in the Sea of Marmora. Lamp- sacus,Thasos, Chios, and Lesbos, were once famed for excellent wines, and upon all their coins heads of Bacchus and Silenus appear, or else ivy leaves, amphorae, grapes, or panthers, in allusion to the character they bore. Ohio is high and very hilly on the south side, with deep valleys ; on the other side the land is low ; it therefore possesses every kind of site agreeable to vine culture. The hills called Menaleto, St. Helena, Vicchio, Pino, Cardanella, and St. Angelo, were noted a century or two ago for their wines ; but Arvisio, a wild, rough, rocky spot, excelled them all. There was one species of wine lately grown on this island that almost in- stantly took away the faculties upon a stranger's indulging in it. The wine of Ohio or Scio was anciently in great 298 WINES OF GREECE. repute. Caesar gave away a hundred vessels of it on the occasion of his triumph. The Ionian Islands, now in the possession of England, grow some good wines, whenever proper care is exerted in the management of the vintage. Zante wines are in much esteem. This island grows about 8000 casks annually. They are both dry and sweet. One of the latter is a mn de liqueur, unequalled in the Levant : it resembles Tokay, is called Jenorodi, and made of the Corinth grape. Here also is a rich muscadine wine. All the wines grown on the island are strong. They make a wine which is taken as a cordial, although water is added to the grapes after they are crushed. Corfu produces strong wines, and a cordial liqueur from dried raisins, called Eosolio. St. Maura and Cerigo grow red wines of the quality of inferior Bourdeaux. Cephalonia has a white muscadine peculiar to its own shores, besides the common red wines of the Seven Islands. The wine of Luxuria, in Cephalonia, was formerly much esteemed. Finally, the territory of Greece possesses every variety of soil to produce the finest wines, but neglect in the vintage and culture of the vine, as well as in the process of fermen- tation, render much of the product of the country almost nauseous to foreigners. The use of the resin, mingled with the wines to impart that short-lived durability which a pro- per management of the vine and its products would ensure without, is considered by the Greeks as a necessary and agreeable flavour. The amount of wines grown on the mainland of Greece, according to Gordon, the traveller, in his excellent work upon the country, was nearly 4,640,000 okes, valued some- where about 62,OOOZ. sterling. Albania, Romania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria, all except the last, produce very good common wines, both red and white. The wines grown in Hussia bear no comparison in quantity to the ardent spirit to which a coarse, half-civilised people of the north may well be supposed to yield the preference. About twenty-eight millions of gallons of coarse brandy are every year distilled in that empire, besides a variety of other liquors ; but, as may be inferred, little of this is the product of the vine. In the southern parts of the empire the vine WINES OF GREECE. 299 has of late years been cultivated with success, and as the territory of the Tzars is extended in this direction by force or fraud, the extent of Eussian wine produce will be yet more enlarged. That manufactured at present is chiefly made at Astracan and in the Crimea. It has been already observed, that 600,000 vedros of a red wine called Kokour were grown in the Crimea in 1831. The wines sell, from the grower, at about six piastres the vedro.* The Crimea wines are thought the best in the empire. Prom the description of travellers, some of these are good red wines. There are about three hundred vineyards. Pallas says, that the val- leys of Soudak and Koos manufacture the best. A large proportion of them is sent to Cherson on the Black Sea. The manufacture is stated to have been confided to Greeks in many instances, which speaks ill for the management of the Crimean vintage, to judge from the slovenly mode of conducting operations in Greece. The process of fermenta- tion is carried on much in the manner of that already de- scribed as being the usage in Cyprus, or, if anything, rather coarser. The vats are pits dug in the ground, and plastered on the inside with clay and lime. Prom the circumstance of a hundred eimers yielding four of brandy upon distillation, the strength of this wine may be easily inferred. The inhabitants of the Crimea formerly prepared thick wines, or rather syrups, as well as confections, from the produce of their vines, and distilled brandy from the refuse of their grapes ; but this is now given up, from finding the sale of wine more profitable. The vineyards of the Crimea are on the increase, and the climate is excellent ; but it is easy to imagine the manufacture of a good wine is likely to remain a desideratum for some time to come. Bostandschi- Oglu is the wine most approved, grown at Koos. At Kafia there is a vin mousseuoc. Wine of the Crimea is now shipped at Soudak for Tanganrog, which shows that the quantity of wine made there is on the increase. One recent cargo was composed of a white wine, very much resembling French Chablis, and some part of another was a new effervescing wine very similar to Champagne. The vineyards of Astracan are old, and the grapes, which were first introduced there from Persia by an ecclesiastic, * A vedro is about fourteen gallons. 300 WINES Or GJREECE. some time in the fourteenth century, have long been noted for their fineness and flavour. The first vineyards were cul- tivated by the government, but afterwards abandoned to private individuals, very few now out of one hundred and thirty-five belonging to the crown. It is said that Ivan Yassilievitsh first ordered the vines to be planted there in 1613. In the time of Peter the Great the grapes were first sent to Petersburg, for his table, from Astracan, on account of their fineness. They bear a high price there, from the care necessary in the carriage. The vineyards of Astracan produce both red and white wines, of the nature of which it is difficult to convey any idea, from the paucity of information respecting them. Twenty different sorts of vines are said to be cultivated. They are covered with earth or stubble in winter. The numerous waterings given the vines in summer to improve the size of the fruit are said to render the grapes insipid. Some of the wines are described as bearing a resemblance to Moselle ; others to Lacryma Christi, and some sparkle like Champagne. They put the grapes into bags of coarse cloth, and tread them, after which they are pressed. The Don Cossacks possess a few vineyards, which travel- lers say produce excellent grapes. The wines they prepare, though small in quantity, are reported to be good. A white wine of E/asdorof and Zymlensk sells at Moscow very high : one vineyard is managed by a Frenchman. The wine of Tanganrog is much inferior. Sarepta is said to produce very good wine of the country. In some places of the Caucasus they hang poppy heads, before they are mature, in the casks during fermentation, by which means the intoxicating effect of the wine is much increased. The vines are left to climb, according to nature, to the tops of the highest trees, where bunches of grapes are seen baffling the reach of the gatherers at the vintage. Notwithstanding the immense quantity of spirits made and consumed in Russia, not less than a million of roubles has been paid, for years together, upon the import of wine into Petersburg alone. An Esculapian visitor to Peters- burg, who saw many very extraordinary things there, which have been a sealed book to the travellers who preceded or followed him, imagined, from the quantities of Champagne WINES OF GEEECE. 301 he saw drunk in that capital, that some other country ex- isted of that name besides the Champagne of France. The doctor would have soon discovered, had he inquired, that almost all the places in the Eussian empire which contain vineyards make a vin mousseux, though whether it has the bouquet and delicacy of that of Ay, is another question. The Astracan grape, one of the largest and finest to look at in the world, forced by frequent irrigation to the magnitude it attains, has its flavour proportionally deteriorated. Before it is ripe, reasoning with Dr. M'Culloch, it would make a species of Champagne, and no doubt a vast deal of the sparkling wine of Astracan is consumed as such in the Eussian city, to say nothing of the effervescing wines of the Crimea. In Georgia, good wine has been made even from wild vines, but the process is negligent and slovenly. In the vineyards there is little attention paid to the culture of the plant, and the fermentation being neglected, the wine will not keep. The use of skins, daubed with asphaltum, taints the wine, so that few strangers can touch it. The country possesses all the requisite materials for making good casks. The inhabitants are described by one traveller as drinking a tongue a day, a measure above five bottles of Bourdeaux in quantity. The wine is so plentiful it does not cost above a halfpenny the bottle, English money. [Bala Rama, the Hindoo Bacchus.] CHAPTEB XIII. WINES OP PERSIA AND THE EAST. PERSIAN LEGEND RELATING TO JEMSHEED OF THE GRAPES AND WINES OF PERSIA THE WINES OF MOUNT LIBANUS AND JUDEA OF INDIAN AND CHINESE WINES. SIB JOHN MALCOLM says, in Ms account of Persia, that the natives have a tradition that wine was discovered by their "King Jemsheed, through an accident. This monarch had an extraordinary fondness for grapes, and placed a quantity in a vessel of considerable size, which he lodged in a cellar for a future supply. Some time afterwards, the vessel being opened, the grapes had fermented, and being found acid, were believed by the king to be poisonous, and marked accord- ingly. A lady of his harem, tired of life, owing to the suf- ferings she endured from a nervous head-ache, drank some of the wine, or, in plain matter of fact, got drunk. She slept, awoke well, and afterwards took so many potations that she finished all the poison. The monarch discovered what she had done, and thence took the hint for his own advantage. "Whether this story be true or not, the consent of universal WINES OE PEBSIA AND THE EAST. 303 tradition has bestowed the origin of the vineyard upon Persia. The fruit in that country reaches a remarkable size, and the provinces bordering upon the southern end of the Caspian Sea have been always noted for excellent wine. It is said the Armenians claim the precedence, because Noah planted his first vineyard near Erivan, about a league from the city walls, upon the very same spot where he and his family resided before the Deluge. The certainty of the truth being thus upon their side must be settled by doctors learned in casuistry and divinity. The natural evidence, if it may be so called, is on the side of the Persians, since their country produces the finest grapes, some of which are a fair mouthful. Yet the white wine of Ispahan is made from a small white grape called Kismish, which has no pips, perhaps first brought from the island of that name, noted for fine fruits, near Grombron. The grape of the province of Cashbin is celebrated ; it is called ShaJionijthe " royal grape," golden coloured, and trans- parent. The grapes are kept over the winter, and remain on the vine a good deal of the time in linen bags. A Persian winter, it must be observed, is very different from an English one, the air being dry and fine for the whole season. It is in Parsistan or Perdistan, upon the lowest slope in the mountains not far from Shiraz, that the largest grapes in Persia are grown, though the imperial grape of Tauris is most extolled for eating and the table, being considered more delicately luscious, The whole country near Shiraz is covered with vineyards. The best red wine is made from a grape named Damas ; it is said to be of good strength and body, and to keep well for fourscore years, preserving all its virtues in the highest perfection. This wine is put into flasks of glass, called Carabas, of about thirty quarts, covered with plaited straw, and packed in chests of ten bottles each. In this way it is sent to Teheran, Bassora, the East Indies, and wherever it is exported. There are twelve kinds of grape grown near Shiraz. Some species are violet, others red, and even black in colour, as the Samarcand grape ; a single bunch will weigh a dozen pounds. They sell their wine by weight, and keep it either in flasks or jars of well-glazed earth. Their cellars are strong, and built with great attention to coolness, water being often 804 WINES OF PEESIA AHD THE EAST. introduced for this purpose. Seats are frequently provided in them for visitors to enjoy the wine in greater luxury, although fordidden by the Mahomedan law. Of the quantity of wine grown at Shiraz it is not easy to form an estimate. Tavernier states, that when he travelled, between four and five thousand tuns were made annually. The grapes are placed in a vat, and well trodden, the must passing through small holes into another vessel, and thence into jars of glazed pottery, in which it ferments upon being placed in the cellar, where the must is agitated briskly. It is afterwards strained and put into bottles for sale. One of the wines of Shiraz is a vin de liqueur, made re- markably sweet and luscious, and full of strength and per- fume. The celebrated Shiraz wine sent to England as a present from the King of Persia was white, but some in the country is deep, even to a dark amber colour. The red wine of Shiraz, known in Europe, is like Bourdeaux in appearance, and of a taste not agreeable to strangers. The white re- sembles Madeira, to which it is by no means equal. Mr. Morier says, that the vine-dressers of Persia train their vines up one side of a wall, and then make them hang down on the opposite side by suspending weights to the tendrils or branches. This ingenious traveller observes that they only water their vines near Shiraz once a year, about the tenth of April, the soil holding the moisture sufficiently well to answer every purpose until that time twelvemonth. A great deal of wine is drunk secretly in Persia by the Mahomedans, independently of what is consumed by the numerous inhabitants of that country who are not of the Moslem creed. A vast proportion of the empire disappoints the traveller, who has heard of the beauty of the country, and the luxuries with which it abounds. The fertile spots, indeed, are equal to everything which has been reported of them ; yet in proportion to the extent of the empire they are not nu- merous. Shiraz about a century and a half ago was more populous than at present, but even then the ruins were ex- tensive, and among them vineyards were planted. At that time a pottle of Shiraz wine was sold for half-a-crown English. Mandelsloe, in 1638, says Shiraz was noted for the excellence of its wine and the beauty of its women, and repeats a saying "WINES OF PEESIA AND THE EAST. 305 of the Persians, that " if Mahomed had been sensible of the pleasures of Shiraz, he would have begged of God to make him immortal there." Marco Polo, the traveller, met with boiled wines on the confines of Persia as long ago as the middle of the thirteenth century. He says, that the Mahomedans of Tauris, to whom wine was forbidden by their religion, used to boil it, by which means they changed the taste of the wine, and conse- quently the name, whence they might lawfully drink it, through the gloss thus flung over the stumbling-block which their faith cast in the way of their enjoyment. The same writer adds, that the people were great drunkards. Tauris boasts of sixty different kinds of grapes. Teheran, Yezd, Shamaki, Grilan, and Ispahan, are the principal wine districts in Persia known to strangers. In Mingrelia, the ancient Colchis, the soil is bad, but the wines are characterised as excellent. G-eorgia sends its wine to Azarbazaii and Ispahan. At Teflls wine is sold openly. "Wine tolerably good is said to be made in Chorasan. The Turks, both in Persia and the neighbouring countries, when they take the forbidden draught, laugh at Christians for mingling water with it ; and yet if they but spill a single drop upon their own garments, however valuable they may be, they immediately throw them away as polluted. The Turks always intoxicate themselves, hence the wine manufac- turers in Mahomedan countries add stimulating and in- toxicating ingredients to the wines made for secret sale to the children of the Koran. Of late years the manufacture of wine, even at Shiraz, has been neglected, and it is much to be feared the produce of the still has taken its place with the Mahomedans in their covert oblations to Bacchus. Tavernier says, that Shah Abbas II. was much addicted to wine, but did not on that account neglect state aifairs. Sir John Chardin states much the same, and informs us that his successor, Solyman, loved wine and women to great excess, and being always half drunk, was exceedingly cruel in conse- quence. His son, Hussein Abbas, was so struck with the ill effects of wine, probably from his father's example, that he forbade the use of it in his dominions, until his mother feigned illness, and her physicians declared nothing but wine would save her life. Hussein instantly conceded the request out of 306 W1KES Or PEBSIA AKD THE EAST. filial piety, and obliged her so far as to taste it himself, on which he became, as his two predecessors had been, a slave to a love for the juice of the grape ; and the result was more fatal to Hussein than it had proved to them. The red wine of Shiraz has been extolled by the verses of Hafiz in exaggerated strains, but, it is to be feared, from the best estimate which can be formed, that it was of a quality by no means first-rate. The Falernian of Horace and the Shiraz of Hafiz are, it is too truly to be apprehended, both exaggera- tions, if they could be placed in comparison with the delicate flavour of modern Trench growths of prime character ; be- sides, who constituted them connoisseurs in wine for any but their own palates ? Both wines would no doubt intoxicate, and both wines were delicious to the taste of the poets and their friends ; but in times when plain truth is most valuable, the probability, however much it may injure early and agree- able associations, is always to be strictly preferred. "Writers who follow their predilections are apt, with little regard for other considerations, to imagine modern things deterio- rated from those existing in past time. Thus some assert that the wine of the ancients was best, though they are incapable of deciding the question one way or the other. JSTo one is justified in accrediting a fact that rests upon varying and worthless conjecture. The Armenians at Chiulful were formerly great drunkards, though not profane or quarrelsome in their cups, like their fellow- Christians who drink port wine. Instead of this, they became doubly devotional, and, when very much intoxicated, poured forth incessant prayers to the Yirgin. Had this re- sult been general in Europe, Jesuitical influence would have turned it to some advantage in the days of priestly power ; perhaps proclaimed intoxication a virtue. The other wines of Asia are few and little known. In Arabia the wine is cultivated both by Jews and Christians. The followers of the Koran, as elsewhere, drink the juice in secret, no doubt finding it sweeter for being denounced by their religion. In Arabic they call it " Khumr." In Ana- tolia much wine is made, and particularly at Trebisonde. Syria produces red and white wines of the quality of Bour- deaux. At Damascus the " wine of Tyre" of the Scriptures, called by Ezekiel " wine of Helbon," and by the Greeks "wine WINES OE PEESIA AND THE EAST. 307 of Chalybon," is yet made; it is a sweet wine. On Mount Libanus, at Kesroan, good wines are grown, the most part boiled. They are of course sweet and white, some much less sweet than others. The wine of Lebanon sells for ninepence and a shilling a bottle, white and red. The strongest of the former kind is the best. The common wine sells at about fourpence the bottle. The wine is preserved in jars. A wine called vino d'oro is in much esteem there; a dry, delicate wine, which, when boiled, sparkles like Champagne. In cul- tivating their wines on Mount Libanus the spade is not used, the plough superseding it entirely, as the vine rows are suffi- ciently distant to allow its free passage between them. The vines are not propped, but suffered to creep along the surface of the ground. Some of the wine is exceedingly delicate and pleasant to the taste. The grapes are as large as plums. These they say are of the class the Hebrews saw when ap- proaching the Land of Promise, to which they belonged of old if so, they might well covet the soil which grew them. The soil is strong ; in certain places iron stone prevailing, in others volcanic rocks. The Maronites and natives drink freely of their wine, and are said to be remarkably convivial. At Jeru- salem, white wines are made, of very poor quality. The territory of India was the fabled birthplace of Bac- chus. Sir "W. Jones compares to him Bala E/ama, who married an old maid named Eevati, of four millions of years' virginity, so tall that the hands clapped seven times could only just be heard by her. Suradevi is the Hindoo goddess of wine. India at present produces little or none of the juice of the grape, except in the northern parts, between the Sutlej and the Indus, bordering upon the former river. To the south- ward the climate is too hot, and the soil too rich for vine cul- ture. The Indians said, according to Diodorus, that Bac- chus first taught them the art of pressing grapes and making wine, and that he resided in his capital of Nysa, in the modern Punjaub, that he ruled India with justice, and was after his death adored as a god. All this, whether fabulous or not, only relates to the territory west of the Sutlej, or, as it was anciently called, the Hyphasis river. Eastward of this the arms of Alexander ne^ver penetrated, nor does it appear the ancients knew anything of the country. At Lahore, be- yond the Sutlej, wine is made of good quality, and all the 308 WINES OF PEESIA AND THE EAST. way from thence to Candahar, and northward to and in Cash- mere, vines are planted and wine is manufactured. That of Cashmere resembles Madeira. "Wine is made in Nepaul, where the best is prepared in the common way. The must is called sihee. Hot water is poured upon the murk and re- sidue, and a less worthy sort is thus manufactured. At Can- dahar wine is forbidden to be drunk, according to custom in Mahomedan countries ; but that drunkenness does happen, is plain from the punishment attached to those who are dis- covered intoxicated. They are seated on an ass with their faces towards the tail, and so led through the streets, pre- ceded by the beating of a gong, and surrounded by a crowd of vagabonds. "Wine was once made in Grolconda upon the hills. During the reign of the great Akbar, whose tomb near Agra has lately- been repaired, though wine was forbidden, yet it was evi- dently used in this the noblest city of his empire. It is re- lated that Akbar, standing in need of good gunners, got some from on board English vessels trading to his dominions. One of these, who from the dry character of the man was evidently a tar, being ordered to fire at a carpet suspended as a mark that the emperor might see his dexterity, purposely shot wide of it. He was reproved, and told he was an impostor ; upon which the fellow answered, with great pretended humility, that his sight was bad from having been debarred the use of wine, but if Akbar ordered him a cup, he could hit a smaller mark. A cup, a full quart was brought him, which he drank off, and then, firing, hit the mark, to the applause of all pre- sent. Akbar ordered it to be recorded, " that wine was as necessary to Europeans as water to fish, and to deprive them of it, was to rob them of the greatest comfort of their lives." He then gave permission to foreigners to cultivate vineyards in his dominions. There can be no doubt but the vine would flourish well on the table-lands and mountain-sides of India, as on the Nilgarry hills, where the temperature and soil are all that can be desired for the purpose. The wine used at Delhi in the time of Aurung Zebe, was imported from Persia by land, or by sea, at Surat. The wine of the Canaries was brought to the same port, and both sent overland to the imperial city, where a bottle cost in those days three crowns, though no more than three pints in measure. WINES OF PEBSIA AND THE EAST. 309 A king of Oude very recently showed a fondness for wine, and yet was anxious, like a right son of his Church, to maintain the " appearance" of being a good and true believer, knowing that this was all about which he need trouble himself. He found great difficulty for some time in gratifying his anti- Mahomedan desire and preserving his reputation for holi- ness. At length he consulted a pious and learned mufti, who had a regard for monarchical favour as strong as the odour of sanctity with which he gratified the nasal organs of the faithful. The mufti understood the case in all its bearings, as a son of the Church anywhere.would not fail to do ; but what puzzled him was, how to advise to keep the matter secret. At length, the king, knowing that he could trust his hookah-bur- dar, who was an old attached servant, proposed that the wine should be placed in lieu of the water in his hookah bottom. "Excellent," said the mufti ; " that can bring no scandal on our faith." He took his leave of the king, and the next day returned to ask a favour, which, as he was in the secret of the hookah, the king could not do otherwise than grant. In the mean while the king enjoyed his wine in security, and was considered one of the most faithful of the prophet's disciples. IS"or did he ever miss the heart-cheering beverage whenever inclination pointed to it. The Chinese are said to make a small quantity of wine, though they prefer the produce of the still from animal flesh, as in their spirit distilled from lambs' flesh, said to be very potent and disagreeable. They have a rice wine called Sain Zou. The Chinese say, that under the Emperor Tu, or Ta-yu, twenty -two hundred years before Christ, wine was invented by an agriculturist named I-tye. The government of that time, however, laid what are now called heavy prohibitory duties upon it, not with the mercenary and ignoble motive of modern rulers, to fill their pockets, but lest the people should grow effeminate from the use of so delicious a beverage. This philanthropic kind of legislation was vain. Those who had tasted could not refrain from tasting again, and indulging to excess ; so that a sort of northern Tzar, named Kya, about fifteen hundred years before Christ, filled a lake with it in one of his freaks of autocratism, and made three thousand of his subjects jump into it. Grape wine was always esteemed 310 WI]SES OF PEKSIA A^TD THE EAST. there the " wine of honour." Yet mandates have been issued at various periods for rooting up the vines, until the grape was almost forgotten. Grape wine is spoken of in annals of China long before the birth of Christ. Rice and palm wine are made in large quantities. The Chinese, it is certain, will buy European wines, particularly sherry, for it is often imported in British vessels, and sells well. The grape is also grown at Siam, but only for raisins to distil into brandy. The islands in the East many of them produce the grape, but it is too luscious for making wine. Near Batavia, in Java, the vines bear ripe fruit three times in the year. The vine has been introduced into New South Wales, in all its varieties. "Wine, said to be of a very tolerable quality, has been made there in small quantities. The climate is ad- mirably adapted for the vine, and it may be expected that in a few years a product of value may be supplied for home con- sumption, if not for exportation. Of the quality of the wine which had been made in Sidney, there is yet no means of judging. Mr. Busby, who wrote an account of a tour which he made in Europe, for collecting choice varieties of the vine to introduce into that colony a business which he seems to have followed out with great diligence and a patriotic spirit highly to his credit, proves that durability, without brandy- ing, is one of the virtues of the New South Wales produce, for he brought it to Europe and took it back to Australia, perfectly sound on his arrival: another proof of the idlo notion that all wines must be brandied to bear a voyage, no matter how short. It is only to be feared that the soils chosen for the vine in our colonies may be selected too often from those which carry the rich decay of vegetable refuse, in place of sand or calcarious strata. Grood dry wine is the product to be desired. The heat of our Australian territory will ripen in many places, there is no doubt, the musca- dine grape for sweet wines and raisins. The difficulty will be found in getting a good sound palatable dry wine. The idea of a beneficial product from a rich arable soil it is difficult to eradicate from the minds of those who have not "been witnesses of the real state of the case. Australian wines, it is gratifying to learn, have been made WIKES OF PEESIA AND THE EAST. 311 so successfully as to sell in the market at Calcutta for thirty- two shillings per dozen. In 1849 the number of acres of vines was 1127, producing 101,063 gallons of wine, and 1781 of brandy. A first con- signment reached London in 1851, amounting to 255 dozen, described as "Australian Wine," and "Australian Red Her- mitage." [Symbols of the Vine.] CHAPTEE XIY. WINES OF AFRICA AND AMERICA. FEW AFRICAN WINES NORTH OF THE CAPE WINES OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IMPORTATIONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA INTO GREAT BRITAIN CUL- TIVATION OF THE VINE IN AMERICA. THE continent of Africa no longer boasts through Egypt of its famed Mareotic wine ; the vines once so famed are now cultivated principally for their shade, and the fruit neglected, or dried for making raisins. It does not appear that wine is made 'on either side of the vast peninsula of Africa, though Ethiopia yields very good grapes. On the northern coasts, at Morocco, wine is manufactured by Jews, and in Tetuan it is made nearly equal to the Spanish wine of Xeres. In dif- ferent parts of the Algerine territories vines have been grown, and good red wine made by persons not Mahomedan. The visits of the locusts, however, have been found very destruc- tive to the vines. The Mahomedan religion is an obstacle to this species of cultivation, which must be in the hands of individuals of a different faith, though in secret the faithful quaff the produce with great relish. The heat and aridity in some countries, and the excessive richness of the soil in WINES OF AFKICA AND AMEEICA. 313 others, are equally prejudicial to the culture of the vine. Deserts of burning sand, and a population completely savage, occupy the middle portion of this quarter of the globe, and it is only at European settlements in the southern hemisphere that civilisation has introduced one of its greatest luxuries on any tolerable scale of extent or success. The vineyards of the Cape of Good Hope are some of them in the vicinity of Cape Town itself, where the beauty of the climate and equality of the temperature are particularly favourable to vine cultivation. The proper choice of a site for a vineyard was seldom taken into consideration by the Dutch, who first planted vines, under the governorship of Yon Kiebeck, in 1650. At least, so the Dutch say, but on the revocation of the Edict of JSTantes, the Dutch settled a colony of emigrant French, at Franschehoek, a secluded valley, and the residents at the Cape give them the merit of the introduction. Their descendants are still the principal vine growers. There are many places where the soil is ex- ceedingly favourable, but these are neglected for situations which have been chosen from local convenience, the caprice, or mistaken policy of the planters. The fertility of some of the land near the first settlements was very great, and on that account the less applicable to vine culture, yet vine- yards were planted in such places very early after the Dutch began to bring in the land. It is not far from Cape Town, or about half way between the Cape and Saldanha Bay, so well known to seamen, that the Constantia, both red and white, celebrated among the first class of sweet wines, is grown. Of the two, the preference is given to the red, though both are luscious, and the white is remarkably full in the mouth. Both are what the French call vins de liqueur, and are drunk as such. The vineyard is very small, and is divided into two parts, belonging to different proprietors, called the Higher and Lower Constantia, separated only by a hedge, and having an eastern exposure. It was named from the farm on which it stands, and the farm from the wife of the Dutch governor, Vander Stel, who formed it. The wine of both vineyards is nearly alike in quality, though the Cape connoisseurs pretend that there is a considerable dif- ference. Formerly, when the Cape belonged to the Dutch, their East India Company always took off a third part at a 314 WTSTES OF AFBICA AND AMEEICA. fixed price. Threescore years ago the wine sold for between two and three shillings per bottle on the spot. It lies about eight miles to the west of the town, and the produce both of the red and white does not exceed eighty or ninety pipes annually, though some have calculated it at twelve thousand gallons. The soil of the Constantia vineyard is a sandy gravel, lying upon a gentle slope. The vines are of the Spanish muscadine species, and cultivated without props ; when pruned, only a small number of buds is left for bearing. The wine is pressed after the grape is freed of the stones and every extraneous substance. The casks are deposited in a cellar, where the air has a free circulation, upon a level with the ground. The price of Constantia varies from a hundred to a hundred and forty dollars the half aum of nineteen gallons. The other wines run from twelve dollars as high as seventy-six. Stellenbosh, so called from the Dutch governor Stel, and the bushes which covered it, is a second wine district, north of False Bay, by the Stellenbosh river. Stel seized upon large portions of territory for himself with more than Dutch cupidity, and drew a great profit from the vineyards and corn- fields in that part of the colony. He constructed a reservoir in the mountains to water his farms and vineyards, which he conveyed in a channel by his wine cellars to a mill where he ground his corn. The valleys are described as being very fertile in corn and vineyards. Drakenstein, another settle- ment to the north-east of Stellenbosh, was settled by Trench refugees in 1675. In Simon's Valley, one Yon Blesius planted vineyards, and, as well as Stel, seems to have turned the country into a source of private profit, until an ordinance from Holland in 1707 forbade the civil officers of the colonies to traffic for their own advantage in wine, corn, or cattle. It appears that wherever land was proper for the growth of corn, vineyards were introduced, and to this conduct the bad quality of most of the Cape wines may be ascribed. There was no care discovered in the choice of the site or soil. The beauty of the vineyards at the Cape seems to argue against their existing site and mode of culture. Two vineyards in 1722, near Cape Town, were described as the most beautiful in the world, one fourteen hundred paces long by two hundred and thirty-five, with a rivulet through the midst. The Dutch WIKES OF AFKICA AND AMEEICA. 315 placed high duties upon the wine sold at the Cape to strangers touching there during the infancy of the colony. Dampier speaks of the strength and sweetness of the wine in his time; but he probably alluded to the Constantia. In no wine country is there room for greater improvement, nor is there any in which care and science, properly directed, would earlier exhibit their effects. JSTo method recommended by European science or experience prevails. The improver would have to encounter very considerable obstacles. That it would be highly beneficial to Great Britain, as well as the colony, there is no doubt. Things are undoubtedly better now than they were twenty years ago ; but amendment is very slow. The obstinacy of the Dutch character is proverbial. Old habits can with difficulty be overcome in a long series of years. The boors are a- very ignorant, dogged race of people, and not at all of speculative habits, but content to do, in the same mode, what their fathers did before them, and no more, contented with " the wisdom of their ancestors." Except a soil consisting of volcanic remains, there are traces of every other species of land congenial to vine cul- ture. There can be no doubt that were vineyards planted on the sites better adapted to their growth, and the grapes selected with due care, a vast deal of good wine might be sent from the Cape into Great Britain. The quantity of produce is now the only object kept in view by the farmer. The vines are not always propped for the common wines. It is observed already, that they never are propped for the Con- stantia wine, but left too frequently to grow like currant- bushes in England, and even to rest upon the ground. Erom this custom, perhaps, arises one cause of the earthy taste of the wine. The customary mode of doing everything as it has been done before, together with an inveterate adherence to precedent, renders it very difficult to effect the least ameliora- tion. The Dutch farmer presses his grapes under any cir- cumstances that will ensure quantity of product. Careless- ness in training and dressing the vines also equally contributes to perpetuate the bad nature and bad character of the wine, in a country where nature is free from any share of the blame. The wine grown at the Cape is both red and white, and the larger part is dry. They have, besides the red Constantia, 316 WINES OF AEBICA AND AMERICA. a red wine called Kota, and various wines grown at Stellenbosh, Dragenstein, and Perle. The real Cape Madeira is a boiled and mixed wine, and used to be sent to Holland, India, and America. The farmers sell their new wine to merchants at Cape Town for thirty-six dollars the leaguer of fifty gallons, which the latter retail at an advanced price, adding execrable native brandy. They also ship it off to the quickest market, rarely having capital to retain it in their own hands until it is properly matured by age. The greater part of the wine produced goes by the general name of Stein wine, some of which, when carefully prepared, and after due keeping, is really excellent when about seven years old. The absurdity of government interference exists at the Cape; tasters, inspectors, and what not, get a living upon the wine owners, mere tools of the government, for which the people are taxed. The wine is not permitted by these agents to leave the grower's hands under six months or longer at their caprice. A duty, equal in some cases to one-half the price of the wine, is laid upon that which enters Cape Town for consumption. The entire product of the vineyards of the Cape is calculated at fourteen thousand leaguers, of which the colony consumes six thousand ; two are sent to St. Helena, and the rest ex- ported, a large part to this country. Erom the parliamentary papers in 1817, the total quantity was then estimated at about twenty-one thousand pipes and upwards. The importation was as follows, in tuns, from 1816 to 1820: 1816 . . 1,631 2 21 1817 . , , 4,218 29 1818 . . 3,648 15 1819 , . ,. 1,648 3 19 1820 . . . 1,925 60 13,071 3 18 Of which were exported again . . . 1,923 1 17 Total consumed in Great Britain in five years 11,148 2 1 (See also Appendix, No. XVI.) A large proportion of Cape wine is used in England to deteriorate the growths of other countries, by making what are called cheap wines. In the six years ending with 1849, the quantity decreased from 349,257 imperial gallons in 1844, to 241,845 in 1849, as returned to January 5, 1850. It is WINES OF AFRICA AND AMERICA. 317 singular that British example has been unable to make an impression upon Dutch doggedness in the way of improve- ment, and that efforts, if made, have been directed as igno- rantly as that of the older Dutch, with an utter disregard to later precedent. Yet tolerable wine is to be drunk at the Cape itself, from its own vineyards. Eed Cape drunk of a proper age in the country is a sound, good wine. "Who would believe this, from the specimens tasted in England ? The merchants at the Cape are more careful of their cellars and appurtenances than of the wine they export from them. In these they deposit the produce of their purchases from the farmer in large tuns, made of a hard dark wood, holding six or seven hundred gallons each. The bungs are kept locked down by brass plates well scoured, and only opened in presence of the owner. The grapes were first brought to the Cape from the banks of the Ehine. The muscadine grape, as before stated, is found there, as well as other European species. The fruit is rich, full, and fine, and has none of the earthy taste found in the wine. It is therefore very probable that this taste is further aided by the stalks and stems, for the grapes are neither picked nor sorted, ripe from unripe, except for the Constantia, and what earth may cling to them all go into the vat together, the whole management being generally en- trusted to emancipated slaves. The casks, too, are ill-prepared for the wine. The vintage labour takes place in February and March. The process of fermentation is ill-conducted ; even the operations preceding the vintage are rude, and managed as coarsely as cider-making in Devonshire. The grossest manure is applied to the vines. It is, therefore, not wonderful that Cape wines have become depreciated in public opinion. This is the more to be lamented, because the mother country possesses no colony where a more congenial soil exists, or where better wines might be grown. The reduced duties, and extent of the home population, would secure a consumption for a superior wine, which would render the Cape in return pecuniary advantages that could not fail to be felt by the colonists. It is wonderful that English speculation, securing a few French cultivators, has not made new attempts to raise the character of these wines, of which even the worst find a market. The return would not be slow, 318 WINES OF AFBICA A:N T D AMEEICA. the capital be secure, and a little patience recover the market for any distinct well-characterised wine which might be grown. There is, however, another obstacle to be over- come in the ill-managed fiscal regulations of some of our colonies, and the arbitrary enactments of military governors ignorant of everything but regimental duty, whose will is too often the sole law by which everything in them is regulated. Until this system is abolished, and the colonists become self- governed in all things of which they have the true compre- hension, little emendation is to be expected. In America, wine is made in many places, both in the north and south continent. The wild vines on the Ohio attain an immense growth, and wine has been frequently nflade from the grapes they produce. Some species of wild vine are of pro- digious size, their trunks being from seven to ten inches in diameter, and their branches hanging down sixty or seventy feet from the tops of the tallest trees. Certain Swiss settlers, in the states of Ohio and Indiana, have cultivated the vine with considerable advantage. The crop in 1811 was as much as twenty-seven hundred gallons, though the vineyard was only planted in 1805. The wine was said to resemble Bour- deaux in quality. Vines from Madeira and the Cape of G-ood Hope are found to succeed well in the soil here. "Wine was known to be made twenty years ago from the native grape of America, to the value of six thousand dollars. Of these, and the wines grown near Philadelphia, the author has no means of ascertaining the quality. In several parts of Mexico good wines of the second class have been produced, as at Passo del JSTorte. Those of Paras, in New Biscay, equal them. "Wines are also made at St. Louis de la Paz and Zalaya, of tolerable quality. Lower California has some vineyards, which give an agreeable red wine. A vineyard established on the Kentucky Biver, in 1798, did not meet with success, probably from the rich state of a primeval soil, owing to the excess of vegetable decomposition. The banks of American rivers must for the most part be uncongenial sites for the vine, as they flow generally through a very fertile and level country. "Wine was long ago made in Louisiana, and in the French colonies of America. In Florida a considerable quantity was produced from a native grape, resembling that of Orleans, as far back as 1564, according to the testimony of Sir John WINES OE AFBICA AIS'D AMERICA. 319 Hawkins. Twenty hogsheads were made in one year at a particular spot, and it was well tasted, but the colony got into a dispute with the Indians, and was ruined in conse- quence, together with the manufacture. Laudonniere says, writing his voyage to Florida, in 1562, that the trees were environed about with vines bearing grapes, so that the num- ber would suffice to make the place habitable. In Mexico, where the small wild grape was indigenous, the Spaniards had introduced that of Europe as early as 1572. " Master Ealph Lane," the head of the first colony esta- blished in Virginia, wrote to England, in 1585, that he had found in that country " grapes of suche greatnesse, yet wilde, as France, Spaine, nor Italie have no greater." This perhaps savoured a little of exaggeration. Thomas Heriot, who com- piled an account of the productions of Virginia for Sir "Walter Ealeigh, says : " There are two kinds of grapes yielded natu- rally, one small and sour, of the size of those in England ; the other far greater, and of a luscious sweetness." The island of Cuba has an abundance of wild grapes, which have an acrid taste, and afford a light, cool, sharp wine. The trunks of the vines are often as thick as a man's body, and with their branches interwoven extend in thick woods over leagues of surface. South America abounds in vineyards. "Wine has been made in Paraguay long ago : it was forbidden to be manufac- tured in the Brazils during the sovereignty of Portugal there, lest the home-made wine should suffer detriment. Vines are grown at numerous places between Buenos Ayres and Men- doza ; they are remarkably productive, and bring forth fine fruit wherever the owners have taken the necessary trouble with the cultivation. The post-houses on the road, after that of Achiras, surprise the traveller with the richness and beauty of the fruitage surrounding them. The clusters of grapes are remarkably fine and rich, and are intermingled with the pear, apple, and peach, in the most luxuriant manner, all in great perfection. A very good second-class wine is made at Men- doza, at the foot of the Andes, on the eastern side, which is an article of considerable traffic with Buenos Ayres, a thousand miles distant across the Pampas. They are transported even during the summer heats, and so far from spoiling, are found to improve by the carriage. The quantity thus sent is con- 320 WINES OF AFBICA AND AMERICA. siderable. The wine is not carried in the odre, or hogskin of the mother country, which so infects the otherwise sound wines there, but it is conveyed in small barrels slung on each side of a mule. Sweet wine, resembling Malaga, is made at Mendoza, to which end they suspend the grapes for some time in bunches to mature, after they are taken from the vine. On approaching Mendoza, fields of clover and vine- yards greet the eye on both sides, and the gardens of the city are filled with some of the best muscadine grapes in the world, both for size and flavour. The vineyards produce black and white grapes alike ; the vines are not suffered to grow above four feet high, and the vineyards are irrigated. Both red and white wines are made, the latter bearing in the United States the price of Madeira. The wines are sent in exchange for barrel staves: a plan which Old Spain had never the sagacity to imitate. Brandy is also distilled from these wines. Peru affords delicious grapes of various kinds, principally for eating, near Lima. No wine is made near that city, from the great demand for the fruit. The vines grow in a stony and sandy soil, and are of good flavour ; that called the Italian is remarkably large and delicate. The vines are regularly pruned and irrigated, and require no other attention. The culture bestowed on the vines, from which the wine imported into Lima is made, at lea, Lucumba, Pisco, Nasca, and other places, does not differ ; the vines are generally trained upon espaliers. The soils there are stony, sandy, or consist en- tirely of smooth flints and pebbles ; not more than eighteen inches of earth anywhere covers them even in the part devoted to arable purposes. The land may, therefore, be imagined very congenial to vine culture. The trenches which still irrigate these lands are the work of the unfortunate Incas, which, amid all their blind devastation, the Spaniards had the foresight to preserve. The olive flourishes here in whole forests, and gives finer oil than in any other country. The wines made both in Peru and Chili are white, red, and dark red. Those of Chili are thought the best, the muscadine being remarkably good. The wine of Nasca is white, and least in request, being of inferior excellence ; brandy of good quality was once distilled there, and sold at Lima. The wine of Pisco sells best, and is highly es- WINES OF AFBICA AND AMEEICA. 321 teemed. Callao is the great entrepot whence the wines are re-exported to Guayaquil, Panama, and Gruamanga. In Chili, though the vines produce better fruit for wine than in Peru, purchasers of the wines to a remunerating extent are wanting, and much of the vine ground lies neglected. The red grape is most cultivated, and is remarkable for rich- ness and flavour. The muscadine far exceeds that of Spain, as well in the fruit as the wine it produces. The vines are grown on espaliers. The Chili wines were formerly sent to Lima in considerable quantities. At Cumana they were sold as low as fivepence English a bottle. The white wines were celebrated long ago in all South America. They were first made of two species of grapes which bore the names of Uba, Torrentes, and Albilla. The red wines were made of the Mollar grape, and had considerable perfume. Nothing can equal the beauty of some of the clusters of the Chilian grape. A bunch has been gathered so large as to fill a basket of itself. The trunks of some of the pollard vines are as large round as a man's body. The Spanish traders formerly presented the Caciques of Arauco with wine when they wanted to traffic, and by that means always obtained leave. In 1824 the Spaniards forbade traders to carry more wine into the In- dian territories than was sufficient to treat the masters of families to a passing cup, because the inebriation of the Indians was followed by lamentable excesses. [Wine Vessels The Sack Cup is at Cothele. Cornwall.] CHAPTEE XV. KEEPING WINES. WINE COUNTRIES NOT GIVEN TO EBRIETY ENORMOUS DUTIES IN FAVOUR OF SPIRIT SO EXPENSIVE AN ARTICLE TO BE CAREFULLY KEPT THE PRESERVATION, CELLARING, AND MELLOWING OF WINES. ADAM SMITH, in his " "Wealth of Nations," b. iv., c. iii., says : " The cheapness of wine seems to be a great cause, not of drunkenness but of sobriety. The inhabitants of the wine countries are in general the soberest people in Europe ; wit- ness the Spaniards, the Italians, and the inhabitants of the southern provinces of France." The enormous duties laid upon wine above spirit (see the Appendix) render the cheapest wine on which it is worth while to pay the duty a valuable commodity ; and while it is forced to be a luxury, which, were it less so, would contribute greatly to health and so- briety, it becomes requisite to know how to preserve it from injury in the most convenient way. The modes of making wine, so varied in detail in different countries, and yet in the general operations of expression KEEPING WINES. 323 ind fermentation the same in all, furnish much matter for eflection. The division of wines into three grand heads, of Iry, sweet, and luscious, would, perhaps, be the best method )f * classing them, while treating of their qualities ; but the ;erms of dry and sweet having been adopted customarily, it nay be as well to follow the general rule, for the sake of simplicity, as the subdivisions from these two heads may be nade to include the thicker and more luscious mider the generic term of " sweet," as well as the more meagre in sugar, under that of " dry" wines. It is singular that good wines should be made under such multifarious modes of treatment as are shown in the fore- going part of this work. The process of fermentation is carried on in many different modes, not regulated by locality 3r climate, and wine of excellent quality is produced under 3ach. It seems difficult to decide which mode is to be pre- erred. The first requisite to make good wine seems to be a )eculiar quality in the soil in which the fruit is grown, more ;han in the species of vine itself. Every treatment after the vintage is secondary to this. The quality in the soil which operates upon the plant, so genial in some spots, yet scanty and confined in limit, is in its precise nature unknown. The general character of the soils friendly to the vine is already amiliar to the reader ; but the nature of the influence pos- sessed by one small spot in the same vineyard over another, as exhibited in the productions of several choice varieties of the vine, will, perhaps, for ever baffle the keenest spirit of inquiry. The second requisite to good wine is the species of plant, aided by a judicious mode of training and cultivation. On the whole it appears, that, to refrain from attending to the soil at all, is better than to overwork it. Three-fourths of all vines are grown on hills, and wines of the first character are made from those that flourish among stones and pieces of rock, with little attention, more than occasionally raking the ground between them, where it is possible to do so. Hermitage was first grown among granitic rocks and stones, broken smaller by art, and little or no dressing was used ; on the other hand, no wine of tolerable quality is grown on rich highly-dressed land ; this may be taken as of equal truth in the north and south. It is remarkable, also, that the quan- Y2 324 KEEPING WINES. tity of must, afforded in different situations in all respects similar, differs much ; and that, on approaching the south, the quantity rather diminishes, as if with the increase of the saccharine principle of the grape. Thus, as before seen, in the department of the Meurthe, in France, the quantity of wine per hectare is never under 50*64^ hectolitres. Ex- amples of two hundred are on record : an incredible quan- tity. B,bkoning the hectare at two acres and a half, and the hectolitre at twenty-six gallons, this amounts to upwards of twenty-two hundred gallons for the English acre. On the other hand, the produce in the Cote d'Or only averages 22-81 each hectare, and only ten or twelve for the richer wines, while the poor wines of the Seine and Oise yield 52'13f . The table of the relative products of the French vineyards, at the end of this volume, is curious, and will show these variations in quantity more fully. The species of plant which is a favourite in one district is discarded in another. In making the drier wines, the species seem more regulated by caprice than judgment ; while, for the luscious, the rich grapes of the East are cultivated in preference, from their abounding so much in sugar. The fermentation is carried on in troughs, rats, or casks, in all countries, covered or open, or in .France with the appa- ratus of G-ervais, to which allusion has already been made. This last mode is recommended, because the inventor supposes it retains the strength and aroma of the wine ; but a far better method is adopted in tonneaux a portes (p. 152). (See also Appendix, No. II.) It is argued by some that the process should be as quick as possible, and by others that it should be slow, each pursuing his own method. As fermentation has been already touched upon generally, the mention of it here is rather with the intention of recalling the various modes of accomplishing it in different places than to describe the opera- tion. Effervescing wines in Champagne are casked soon after the fermentation commences. The must is not allowed to free itself of the carbonic acid gas, nor to remain in the vat but a few hours, nor is it racked until the Christmas after the vintage. In the Ardeche, on the contrary, the wine of Argen- tiere, designed to effervesce, remains in the vat twenty-four hours, the must is racked into large bottles, and decanted every two days, until there is no appearance of fermentation, KEEPING WINES. 325 and then bottled, corked, and sealed. The effervescing wine of Arbois, once so celebrated, is made by suffering the must to remain from twenty-four to forty-eight hours in the vat, until a crust of the lees is formed as thick as possible before the fermentation begins. The moment gas bubbles ascend it is racked, left until a second crust is formed, racked again, and the double operation repeated until the must is limpid. It is then casked, and, until the fermentation is complete, kept full. "When the fermentation ceases, the cask is bunged. It is several times racked, and once fined before the following month, when it is bottled. Here are three modes in one country of making mousseux wine. ^Nor can the best wine of the three settle the question which mode is preferable, as the growth may cause the difference in the goodness of the product. Other modes might be cited, but the preceding will exhibit to the reader, in a clear point of view, the variety of treatment to which wines are subjected, and he will find others himself, if he wishes to follow the comparison further. Neither with red wines is there any uniform treatment. The fine Burgundies of France are managed in the simplest manner, while great labour is bestowed upon wine of very in- ferior character. Some wines are left but a few hours in the vat, as in the Cote d'Or; others remain, as in the Lyonnais, six or eight days or more, and at Narbonne even seventy. Nor does any difference of product prove the discrepancy be- tween one mode of treatment and another, where the wines are good. This being the case with every class, it may reason- ably be inferred, that much less of the peculiar excellency of wine attaches to its treatment after it enters the vat than is generally imagined. "When the must has been judiciously placed in a state ready for fermentation, after due care had been exercised, the simplicity of all which remains to be done, and very frequently the opposite methods adopted from caprice or custom, to make it ready for the market, tend to substantiate this opinion, not to excluding improvement in numerous existing cases of management. In treating of the cares of the wine-maker, allusion has been made to the diseases which the contents of his casks may sustain in the cellar before they go out of his hands, or are transferred to the market in fact, while they are yet preparing for that purpose. The due care of wine in the* hands of the 326 KEEPING WOES. mercantile purchaser, or in the custody of the private indi- vidual, remains to be noticed. He who has a good cellar well filled, cannot too soon make himself acquainted with its management, and with the history of that beverage which, taken in due moderation, may be reckoned among the most precious gifts of Heaven to the temperate and rational man. He should become acquainted with the phenomena of secondary fermentation, for that process often continues in- sensibly for a long period after wine is in the bottle, and will affect it accordingly under varying circumstances of locality or temperature. The chemical analysis of the ingredients in the composi- tion of wine has already been given in the second chapter. Secondary, or " insensible fermentation," as it is called, takes place in the cellar. This fermentation, from exposure to an exciting cause, sometimes becomes acetous, and spoils the wine. To this mischief distinct allusion is necessary, in order to point out its prevalence. This it is which, if neglected, most commonly brings on the principle of decay that had until then been resisted, and which would be so longer, were the due balance and proportion of the substances in the wine correct at first, and the decomposition of the tartar and sugar perfect. Durability in the cellar can only be ensured by the change of the sugar into alcohol to such an extent as to afford the necessary resistance. Where the sugar is great in quan- tity, the wine is less liable to turn acid in the bottle, if the fermentation in the vat has been good. "Weak wines, in which tartar is predominant and the principle of preservation feeble, are often lost irrecoverably before the owner imagines it possible. It is against this degeneration of the wine that the purchaser or consumer has more particularly to guard, as of all the accidents to which wines are liable after leaving the grower's hands, to fall into the acetous fermentation is the most common. The description of a wine cellar of the most eligible class has already been given, to which there is little that can be added. It should, if possible, face the north, and in England consist of two divisions, one of which should be some degrees warmer than the other, for there are many wines which do best in a cellar of high temperature. Madeira, Sherry, Canary, Malaga, Syracuse, Alicant, Cyprus, and some others. KEEPING WINES. 327 keep better in warm than in cold cellars. The wine of Por- tugal is so hardy, that even the cellars under the streets of the metropolis will little injure its quality ; but this is not the case with other kinds. The wines of Bourdeaux, Champagne, and the Rhone, should be kept in cellars where no motion can affect them, far from the vibration, or rather trembling, of the earth, from the traffic over granite pavements. They should be as far removed from sewers and the air of courts, where trades of a bad odour are carried on, as possible. These in wet weather do not fail to affect the wine, and give a tendency to acetous fermentation. ISTo vinegar must be kept in a wine cellar, and the temperature ought to be un- changed throughout the year. The fermentation of wine in close cellars is very apt to affect the atmosphere around to a considerable degree, and this is an additional reason why they should be well aired, The vapours which are found in similar cases produce some- times distressing effects upon those who encounter them. Intoxication, vertigo, vomiting, deadness of the limbs, and sleepiness, are frequently experienced, but these disappear upon returning into the fresh air, and taking repose, after swallowing an infusion of coffee, or acidulated water. There have been instances, however, in which dangerous paralysis has occurred from too long exposure to the carbonic acid gas, and even death has ensued. It is proper, therefore, always before entering a closed cellar some time shut up, and where the wine is thought to be in a state of fermentation, to halt a moment, when the peculiar odour of the gas will be perceived. A lighted candle is a good test, by the diminution or extinc- tion of its flame. Upon first perceiving the flame to diminish in intensity, and burn fainter, it is a sufficient warning to retreat, until the cellar is purified. The quantity of the wine in a cellar must be regulated by the rate of consumption in each class, so that too large a stock may not be kept of such as is least durable. This, in a large establishment, where a curiosity in wines is indulged, is a matter of much importance. The details, however, do not come within the scope of this volume. They are easily regulated by attending to the history of each particular wine, and the length of time since the vintage in which they were made. 328 KEEPING WINES. Artificial heat may be introduced into cellars which hold the wines of the South, in very cold weather, with considerable advantage. This may be done by means of a chafing-dish. The cellar should be kept clean, and swept as often as con- venient. In this climate a cellar should have an ante-room, and be entered through two doors, closing one before the other is opened, and keeping, by artificial means, if natural ones will not do, the same temperature throughout the winter and summer, judging by a thermometer. The choice of wine is a very difficult task, especially for the uninitiated. The difficulty is twofold : in the first place, no two persons have the same ideas of the flavour of any particular wine ; secondly, the wines of the same vineyard differ in different years. Age, care in keeping, or accident, cause a change in the flavour of the same class of wine, per- ceptible to an amateur, though little noticed by strangers not accustomed to the variety. A purchaser should always, if possible, choose for himself the wine which is most agreeable to his palate. There is much of pretension in the general taste for wine ; and it has been asserted that oftentimes the worst judge complains first of the quality of the wine set before him. At one moment, the example of a fashionable person will make a wine held in very little esti- mation before, and perhaps very worthless in reality, the prime wine of the table for a season. In England, it is this fashion, or accident, and not the true regard for vinous ex- cellence, which makes the demand considerable for any par- ticular species. The first object to be attained in choosing wine, next to the taste meeting the approbation of the purchaser, is its purity. "Whatever be the country from whence it comes, whatever the class, if it be adulterated with anything foreign to its own growth, it ought not to be selected. To distin- guish genuine wine from that which is mixed requires great experience, when the species to be judged is of a second or third-rate class. The bouquet may be imitated, and even the taste, unless long practice has habituated the purchaser to a nice discrimination. It is needful to know whether new wines will keep or change, and to what alterations the flavour will be liable. Without this knowledge, great loss may be sustained by a purchaser. "Wines may appear good KEEPING WINES. 329 and bright which will not keep a year, and others, that at first seem by no means deserving of preference, may prove in the end excellent. The private purchaser has no resource then but in the dealer of extensive connexions and high character, while the dealer himself must acquire, by long experience and nice observation, the requisite qualification. The taste is the criterion by which a judgment is to be formed ; but a taste in wine, which can be depended upon, is a rare gift. The particular impression on the sense is so liable to alteration by the state of the bodily health, or by the last substance taken into the mouth, that it is difficult to depend upon. Sweet or spiced food taken a good while before will affect the judgment. Many recommend cheese, but after that all wines have an agreeable relish, while those who are in the habit of drinking strong wines or spirits lose entirely that nicety of taste so requisite in judging of the superior product of the purest growths. A habit of tasting the superior wines will alone give the healthful palate the power of discriminating minuter differences in the aroma, bouquet, and seve of the choicer kinds. Such a palate judges by comparison of what ought to be found in the best growths, and the opinion is formed by an effort of memory upon pre- vious sensation. Good wine is most frequently found among capitalists, who can afford to buy up large quantities in favourable years, the cheapest mode of purchase, who can bottle as it may be deemed most fitting for the contents of their ceHars, and who have a reputation to lose. The pea- sants' wines on favoured spots, mentioned in a preceding chapter, do not bring a good price, because the owners have not capital enough to make them in the best man- ner, or keep them in stock until it is most eligible to offer them in the market. The same rule holds good with the merchant. The higher classes of wine are transported to the pur- chaser with great care. The best season for removing the more delicate wines of Prance, and, indeed, wines of every kind, is the spring and autumn, when the weather is tempe- rate. Cold or hot weather is equally prejudicial to the car- riage of most wines. If transported in wood, they must be racked before they are removed ; if in bottle, they should be decanted. Due precautions are taken to guard against 330 KEEPING WINES , the frauds of carriers on the continent, by running plaister on the heads of the casks, and covering them entirely with hoops. The transport in cases, of the high bottled wines, is most generally adopted. These cases are strongly put toge- ther, and carefully packed, each bottle being bedded in straw, after having been previously wrapped in cartridge paper. With Champagne the case is also lined throughout, to guard as much as possible against atmospherical influence. Cham- pagne wine sent to America is embedded in salt, so that it is kept always cool. In this mode, bedded in salt and straw in very tight and strong cases, Burgundy has been successfully transported to India. The wine should be left in the cases until the moment it is wanted for use. Wine of strength, intended to mellow in the wood, should be put into the largest casks which can be conveniently obtained, for most wines mellow best in a large body. They should be frequently examined, and if the cellar be moist, placed upon elevated tressels, touching no part of the walls. If the cellar be too humid, new apertures should be made, or the old ones enlarged. In such cellars the barrel staves are apt to decay, and let out the wine. Old cellars are better than those newly built, for it is observed that in the last the wine does not keep so well. The loss in a humid cellar by evaporation is much smaller than in one which is dry. Aque- ous, and no doubt some spirituous evaporation, by the pores of the wood, goes on while the wine is mellowing. This does not amount in a cask holding eighty gallons to more than a glass a month in a humid cellar ; but in a dry one, though the casks are preserved better, the loss is frequently as much as two bottles in the same space of time. The barrel should be placed, after the vintage, as observed in chapter the second, upon square pieces of timber, and these should rest upon traverses of a larger size, placed upon the floor three feet asunder. These traverses should not be more than five inches square, nor the uppermost pieces, on which the barrels rest, be more than three or four. The casks must be kept steady by wedges, and they must be so far forward from the wall of the cellar that the inner ends of the casks may be easily examined with a candle. Casks should never be placed upon each other when it can be avoided, as in case of accident, or for ullage, it is difficult to get the lower tier KEEPINGS WINES. 331 cleared. The French call this mode of placing casks engerber. "When cellar room is scanty, however, it is difficult to dispense with the practice. It is agreed, that the longer the wine remains in the wood the better it gets, the uttermost term which it will bear in that state being known. Delicate and light wines should be bottled as short a time as possible, for this class gains little by remaining in that state. Strong bodied wines, on the contrary, should remain long in bottle, in which state they improve best. Bottling, though a very simple operation, re- quires care and regularity in the performance. The admis- sion of air into the cask during the process of bottling is in- evitable, and, if the operation be protracted, the wine, espe- cially if it be of a very delicate or superior kind, is certain to be-injured. The best plan in bottling delicate and expensive wines, which will enable them to be drawn off to the last drop in full perfection, without hurrying, or even to be drawn off slowly for drinking, is that adopted on the continent. A bottle of fine olive oil is poured into the cask, by which means acidity or mouldiness is effectually prevented. It must be the purest that can be procured. Eor a year's duration the wine will preserve its quality perfect. This arises from the oil covering the surface of the wine and excluding entirely all contact with the external air. Bottles should be selected of good manufacture, and of equal diameter throughout, or they will be liable to break in the bin when piled high.* Twenty-four hours at least before they are filled, the bottles should be cleansed and rinsed. Shot should never be used, for the acid of the wine is apt to act upon such as are left jammed in the hollow of the bottom. Clean gravel is better, or a small iron chain, the links minute, and yet as loose as they can be procured. The bottles should then be reversed to drain in planks, having holes for the necks. Afterwards they should be rinsed in a little brandy, if the * M. Collardeau of Paris invented a machine for trying the strength of French bottles. It consists of a forcing pump, with a regulator and manometre, to ex- hibit the pressure exerted. Bottles for Burgundy or Champagne average a re- sistance to internal pressure outwards equal to twelve or fifteen atmospheres. The weakest parts of a French bottle are at the junction of the neck, or at the bend in the bottom. The utmost number of bottles for Champagne that all the manufacturers can make, for the next year's bottling upon an extraordinary vint- age, is 10,800,000. rfET 332 KEEPING WINES. wine to be bottled is weak and of small body, letting them drain as with the water, but not until quite dry. Yery fine wines are injured by the brandy, and for them this process must not be used. The corks must be sound, well cut, so as to press equally on every part of the neck, and perfectly new, or they will impart a bad taste to the wine. They must be supple, or there is a chance of their breaking the bottles. Any corks with blackness, or the remains of the bark upon them, must be rejected. The corks should be driven home with a wooden mallet, the weight of which is regulated besb by experience. Bottles should be waxed, or rather stopped with a compo- sition. It is the custom among many wine merchants merely to seal over the tops of the corks. This is not enough ; the glass should be included, to prevent any air passing between that and the cork. In Prance, for every three hundred bottles two pounds eight ounces of rosin are mixed with half that quantity of Burgundy-pitch, and a quarter of a pound of yellow wax, adding a small portion of red mastic ; these are melted together, and taken off the fire when the froth rises, then stirred and placed on again until the mass is well com- bined. In some places tallow, in a smaller quantity, is substi- tuted for the wax, for, if there be too much, the substance will not harden sufficiently ; and if neither wax nor tallow are employed, it will be too dry and brittle. The corks, and a quarter of a ninch of the bottle-necks, are dipped in this sub- stance while it is hot, and then set by to cool. "When the bottles are corked and waxed they should be placed in a perfectly horizontal position, so that the cork be always in contact with the liquid. The soil on which the bottles lie should be first beaten very firm. Laths may be placed between each tier of bottles, and a bed of clean sand should lie in the interstices of each tier, and cover the bottles ; for sand, though not commonly adopted, has great advantages. Piles, a yard in height, the ends of the piles confined by wooden posts, are a better situation than when the bottles are placed touching the cellar walls, or in bins. The rich wines de liqueur, such as Malaga, Syracuse, Ali- cant, and the like, may be placed on their ends ; but the dry wines must be arranged in the horizontal position. Upon the lowest tier of bottles the whole pile naturally depends. KEEPING WIKES. 333 and these should be very well placed. The necks of this range of bottles should be supported either by laths, or by embedding them in the soil of the cellar. The lowest range of bottles should be about fifteen lines asunder, having a bit of thin cork between. By this means the upper ranges will be certain to come within the allotted space, as there may be some small difference in the size of a bottle or two. The laths used must be thicker than common, if the pile be more than from three to five feet high. The preferable mode is to have vertical supporters placed at the distance allotted for the ends of the piles, by which means they may be reared in the middle of the cellar, which, as already observed, is pre- ferable to the common mode against the walls, when room will admit of it. The wines are now left to ameliorate, according to their various qualities, a greater or less space of time. Tet thus excluded from external impressions," as it might be imagined, they are subject to decomposition whether by the evapora- tion of their alcohol, or of some other constituent principle, it is not easy to ascertain. Those wines in which the sac- charine principle exists in abundance, or where it has formed a strong-bodied wine, are much less liable to change com- pared with the more delicate classes, unless from some pre- vious mismanagement. . That in bottles, stopped in the most careful way, in fact sealed hermetically, wine is still subject to the action of external causes, though some of them are trifling in their nature, is an admitted fact. It is during the secondary fermentation, and the consequent deposition, that wines are apt to become acid in the wood, and what is called the insensible fermentation in the bottle is a state in which it has the same tendency. If the fermentation be once per- fected, and the tartarous and saccharine principles be com- pletely developed, the wine being supposed to possess the just balance, it will be proof against change from any common cause for a long period of time, as may be supposed the case with hock, already mentioned in another chapter. Where the sugar predominates, alcohol sufficient is produced to ensure durability ; but neither of these contingencies, it is probable, accompanies the cellaring of the finer and more de- licate wines, which will not keep at most more than twenty years. It is in vain that the impurities are cleared away by 334 KEEPING WIKES. racking ; the cause of the evil still remains, perhaps, in the very delicacy itself. The precipitation of wine in bottle is only the continuance of that which began in the vat, and keeping this in mind, the remedy is apparent. All wines deposit in this their last state of preservation, from the coarse crust of port to the depot pierre of Champagne, or the almost invisible sediment in some other wines. These consist of tartar, colouring matter, and in white wines supertartrate of potash. Some substances are observed in particular wines, which have too much levity to sin-k, and always remain in suspension while the wine is acquiring age. This substance burned is found to be pure potash. The same wine will often deposit under two different forms in the same bottle. In Champagne, what is called the depot pierre is like very fine sand or small flinty crystals, but it is nothing more than an appearance put on by the crystallised tartar of the wine. This substance is found in every vinous precipitation, in some form or another, more or less apparent. Those wines which deposit freely are observed to be the most durable. "Wines which deposit much should be decanted into fresh bottles in case of removal, or the deposit may ascend and injure the wine. "When wines in wood are observed to ferment about the time of the equinoxes, they exert a great force upon those barrel staves which have decayed more rapidly than common, from being attacked with a species of dry rot, which generally begins in the wood nearest the cellar walls. The casks burst, and the wine is lost, unless the decay is observed early, and the wine drawn off, for which purpose the casks should be frequently visited and narrowly inspected, for the staves will quickly become so rotten in particular places as to yield before the finger. The French call these accidents, or rather the attacks of the rot, coups defeu. The casks should be filled monthly, to make up for the loss by evaporation, or mouldiness will cover the surface of the wine and spoil it. Racking should be performed in the most careful manner, so as not to agitate the wine more than can possibly be avoided ; and for this purpose, in the more deli- cate wines, a tube should be used, to prevent as much as possible all contact with the atmosphere. When the wine is labouring under any of the accidents while in the cellar KEEPING WINES. 335 which are enumerated in the chapter on the vintage, recourse must be had to the same remedies laid down there. It is evident that the preservation and amelioration of wine in the bottle depend upon its maturity in the wood, and upon the utmost possible freedom from all substances it may hold in suspension while so situated. The time for this operation differs with the character of the wine. The first class of the more delicate Burgundies should be bottled at the end of a year after the vintage, while the more generous and higher- coloured should remain in wood four or five years, such as Pomard, Vosnes, or Chambertin ; Bourdeaux may mellow in wood for ten years. "White wines may be bottled for the most part earlier than red, and so may the muscadines. The Rhine wines may remain in wood for many years ; so may most of the southern dry wines ; the effervescent wines, on the other hand, require to be bottled early. A clear, dry, cool atmo- sphere, with a northerly wind, after a racking within the pre- ceding six or eight months, so that perfect limpidity can be obtained, is the best time for putting any wine in bottle. The early part of the month of March is the time of the year preferable to every other. A great object in the preservation of wines in the cellar is to keep the bouquet as long as possible, with that agreeable aroma which marks the highest class of wines, rarely met with save in those of France. This is the characteristic of the fine wines, and in some degree of all wines of the first quality which are pure, though in the secondary sorts it is less per- ceptible. Wines lose their bouquet by being kept too long. There is always a middle age, a maturity of years, so to speak, equally removed from the extremes of youth and senility, in which the finer wines should, if possible, be drunk. When they lose anything of their virtues or good qualities, it is cer- tain that this maturity is past, although the wine may keep good for a long while, perhaps for many future years. It is an error, caught up from the notion that old axioms are indis- criminately correct, it is an error to suppose that the wine which will keep long should only be drunk when it will keep no longer. Mere age is no criterion of the excellence of wine, though a certain age is necessary to carry it to the state when it is best for the table. Wines differ in the quality of en- durance, and proportionably in the time requisite for improve- 336 KEEPING WINES. inent. Burgundy of the first class, it is an acknowledged fact, will support itself to twenty years, but after twelve or fourteen it does not in the least improve ; and the third year in bottle, or the sixth from the vintage, is the time when it is most perfect in every good quality for which the wine is famed. Grood Champagne, on the contrary, will often be found to improve for ten or fifteen years, and will support itself until thirty, and sometimes until it is forty years old- The best age for the use of this wine is about twelve years. On the other hand, hock is in full perfection when it is forty years old, and it will keep well four times that term. The red wines of Roussillon, though kept fifteen years in wood till they acquire a golden tinge, are then bottled, and kept seven years longer, and after that continue to deposit. These wines keep well for a century and a half. The luscious wines keep long, and the dry wines of the South, Sherry, Canary, and others of similar class, endure for a long term. But this endurance is in no case a proof that wine, at the ex- treme point of its durability, is in the highest perfection ; for, on the contrary, the term age can only be rationally used when intended to comprehend the fitness of wine for drinking, and to describe that which is arrived at maturity, as the word "new" might explain wine not yet arrived at the full development of its qualities for use. Many wines, which keep well to a great age, lose some of their vinous qualities not- withstanding. Port wine, when it is old, retains but a very small proportion of its vinosity. Time is requisite to destroy the fiery mixture with which it is adulterated, or the potency of the brandy ; but before that moment arrives, the vinous characteristics are generally gone. Tawny port may be very good, and well-mellowed brandy-wine, but it ceases to possess the original qualities of the juice of the Oporto grape. It is important that this should be borne in mind. It will render the very small quantity of first-class port wine which comes to England more valuable, as this alone can be drunk nearest the vinous state. The characteristic bouquet of the finest and best wines cannot be transferred, because the delicacy cannot be imi- tated, and they accompany each other. They are unrivalled in their nature. "When we take them we drink " the very blood of the earth," as Alexander the Great said to Andro- KEEPING WLN'ES. 337 cydes. A taste may easily be imparted to wine by artificial means, but this cannot deceive the palate well acquainted with what is genuine. Age softens what the French call the seve of the finer wines, or their spirituous aroma, but it is often fatal to the bouquet. To preserve both perfect, the best method is to take care that the casks are kept well filled with wine of the same vineyard and quality, to bottle it at the exact time, and only to remove it for the table. The finer wines will not bear any mixture, and the barrels should be kept filled, by putting in pebbles well washed and dried in the sun, rather than by the introduction of any different species of wine, or any but that of the same vineyard, and spot of the vineyard to which the growth belongs. The French allow no dry wines of the first class to be grown out of their own -country, and it is difficult to substantiate either a charge of vanity or error against them on this account. All other dry wines but their own prime growths they rank in the second class, and this rule has been observed in the list of wines in the sequel, with the exception that the highest class of hock and amontillado sherry, on account of their delicacy, and not bearing any intermixture, seem as well entitled to that rank. The mixture of wines not of the finest class, which last will not bear it, taking place while they are in the hands of the grower, and mingled in fermentation, must not be con- founded with that which is practised with the view of adulte- ration, treated of in a subsequent chapter. A weak wine, the product of a bad year, is mingled with a more generous growth, and respectable growers always state the fact to the purchaser, the object not being to cheat the latter by the imposition of a false growth, but to render agreeable a wine which would otherwise be found feeble or too sharp for the palate. New wine of a high colour, though of a good growth, is not agreeable to the taste, and in bad seasons possesses frequently an earthy taint, but mingled with old wine it becomes excellent when duly mellowed. Sometimes the wine of one year is mingled with that which follows, if one crop has been deficient in body. "White wines, which have contracted a yellow tinge, are frequently poured over the lees of red, or are mingled with a deep-coloured red, to lighten it ; but such wine cannot be bottled for some time afterwards. 338 KEEPING WINES. The wine thus treated is found to be ameliorated when judg- ment is shown in the proportion of each kind which is used. The wines of Torins, in Burgundy, according to a distinguished French writer on the subject, when mingled with Bomaneche or Chenas, keep longer, and are better drinking than when kept separate. The price of both kinds of wine is the same, and the only object is to obtain by the mixture a better article. Thus the use of what the French call vins rapes is unobjectionable, being only boiled wines to deepen colour, made for the purpose. Champagne is mingled with its neighbouring growths to prevent too great an effervescence, which frequently happens when the wine is bottled from one vineyard. This mingling takes place generally for the pur- pose of improving the wine, and consisting of no foreign or adventitious mixtures, may be regarded as perfectly legiti- mate. The mixture of the Moguer wines with the second class of sherries in Spain, to lower them to cheap sherries, is legitimate. These mixtures are avowed, and the price of the wine lowered accordingly. Brandy and syrup of raisins are mingled with the wines of France to please the foreign palate, but never for home consumption. Such is the travaillage a V Anglaise at Bourdeaux with the wines for England; the quantity of spirit of wine added to the very purest and best kind is about six per cent. But Spanish wine, or the Rhone growths, are mingled also, because the standard of taste, as respects red wine in England, is formed upon the wines of Portugal, which are full-bodied. It is from the habit of drinking so much brandied wine that the English palate, except among the more fashionable classes of society, so little relishes the virtues of pure wine of any kind, but particularly of those most delicate and recherche. The effects of these wines upon the feelings are as different from those of port or the heavier wines as possible. Bourdeaux, Hock, Burgundy, and similar growths, cheer and exhilarate almost insensibly, whilst there is a pleasant ease in the cheerfulness arising from their use a buoyancy which it is in vain to look for in the spirituous heavy wines, which seem to force on a boisterous artificial mirth, a joy that is like the laugh of unwieldiness or decrepitude, without levity and that airy feeling which the other kinds always induce. Their effects on the constitution, too, are diametrically opposite KEEPING WTN-ES. 339 when taken largely. All wine which is mingled loses en- tirely the perfume and fineness of that which is pure, though it may, notwithstanding, be of a very good healthy quality, when the mixture is of no other kind than that alluded to already, consisting of sound wine alone. With the indi- vidual who is in the habit of drinking only the prime growths at the proper age, no mixture in imitation of them can go oif ; it can only impose upon the ignorant. There is something exceedingly susceptible in the nature of the finer wines. Thunder, the rolling of heavy bodies over the cellar, and some things scarcely credible, are said to occasion the renewal of the fermentation. That other matters in a fermenting state should affect the wines by affinity, whether in cask or bottle, may be credited upon the weight of testimony existing in proof; but that the presence of workmen or persons in cellars afflicted with particular disor- ders, should bring on acetous fermentation, as well as carry wines already in that state into one of putrid decomposition, is almost incredible. Yet such is averred to be the fact, and the presence of individuals in such a state of ailment, is said, on the authority of French authors of experience, to be in- dicated promptly by the wine, particularly in the spring and autumn, and even when the wine is fermenting in the vat. The fermentation of the wine in the cellar is perceptible by a peculiar odour throughout, familiar to persons of experi- ence, by the force with which it is projected when a cask is opened, and by a species of glutinous mushroomy substance formed round the bung, and any other porous part of the cask. A hole should be bored with a gimlet in the bung, and stopped with a peg, to ascertain from time to time the state of the liquid. If the latter be projected with force through the opening, it must be enlarged, that the carbonic gas may escape, and not burst the cask. Sulphur should be burned in the cellar, or the wine drawn off* into a barrel which has been sulphured ; but care must be taken not to do it so as to impart a taste to the wine, by seeing that the barrel is perfectly dry before the sulphur is'burned. During chis secondary fermentation a slight taste of acid is percep- tible in the wine, which is evidently not the acetous fermen- tation, but only the production of carbonic acid. To this secondary fermentation, young wines which still contain z 2 340 KEEPING WINES. some of the saccharine principle remaining convertible, are liable, and it is not at all injurious. "Where this is not the case, as in old wine, the process must be stopped at all hazards by sulphur or cold, and the wine racked, to prevent its degenerating into vinegar. Old wine should be kept as far removed as possible from new, and sulphur matches should frequently be burned near the casks of the older wine to purify the air, and repress any tendency to ferment. The sweet or luscious wines disposed to ferment should be racked into fresh casks, in which a third part of a quart of brandy has been previously burned. Spirit of wine would be still better, and might supersede the use of sulphur, taking care, in the case of dry wines, to lessen it to one-half the quantity. Champagne is a wine which requires attention in keeping. The bottles should be carefully laid on laths, or in sand, in a cool cellar where air is admitted, and never be placed on their bottoms, as from this cause they will very speedily lose their effervescence. When once placed they should not be touched, but for removal to the table. If they are left in the cases the mark of the upper side should be carefully at- tended to. The effervescing Sillery is sometimes apt to effervesce after carriage, or on being placed in bad cellars. The bottles should in that case be placed on their bottoms for some time, and, before drinking, the wine should be kept an hour in ice. The most esteemed of the effervescing wines is the vin cremant d'Ay, which is the least frothy and the fullest bodied. The best Champagne in the best year has a slight tinge of the rose colour, which is one proof of its being of excellent quality. The deposit in Champagne, already mentioned in these pages, is not the only one to which the wine is liable. While the depot pierre is considered a proof of the goodness of the wine, a black or yellow deposit, which will on motion float in the liquid, is a bad symptom, and shows that the wine is deteriorating fast. Deep cellars are best for Champagne, and as little variation of temperature as possible. The older it gets the less liable it is to be attacked by changes to its disadvantage ; and the better this wine is, the more it is liable to accident from heat, cold, or bad cel- lars ; it will, however, in most cases, very soon recover itself. The wines of Prance generally require the same kind of KEEPING WINES. 341 cellar as Champagne. It lias been already remarked that the wines of the South should be kept in such as are of a warmer temperature. Claret, which is Bourdeaux worked up with other wines, as already stated, is very apt to exhibit its artificial com- position in the cellar by changing its original colour. When this wine is not fine it should be racked over its own. lees, agitated, and then treated as usual ; by this means the evil will be removed. Claret is thought to drink best about ten years old. The amelioration of wines in the cellar by age is not by any means clearly understood. "Wines deposit both in wood and bottle, until they become pale, rancio, or tawny. Port wine, at first harsh and hot, is best judged by occasional trials. This wine should be suffered to deposit nearly all its impurities in the wood, besides getting rid of its brandy. The bottle deposit, too often exhibited as a convincing proof of vinous excellence, really means little. It might be sup- posed that the spirit evaporated, because that which was at first so spirituous, when it gets old, loses its strength in a great degree, and becomes more agreeable to the palate, though at the expense of its vinosity. Yet, in other in- stances, it may be conjectured that not the spirituous, but the aqueous part of the wine evaporates. M. Yon Soem- mering, after some experiments directed to ascertain if pos- sible the actual truth, recommends that wine should be kept in glass vessels having their orifices closed with bladder. He asserts it ameliorates much quicker by that mode of treatment, and he took great pains to ascertain the fact. He found that water escaped through dried bladder, but that the spirituous portion of the wine did not do so with equal facility. He, therefore, prefers glass to wood, in every state of amelioration ; and, covered with bladder, he asserts that wine will mellow more in twelve months in glass than in the cask in twelve years. There is also the advantage of saving the wine lost in the wood by evaporation, the dis- pensing with ullage, and the preservation of the taste and colour. It was remarked, that the shallower the glass vessel, and the wider the orifice, the sooner the amelioration was perfected. The experiences of the inhabitants of the countries in which 342 KEEPING WINES. each particular species of wine is grown, furnish, whenever they can be obtained, some of the best hints for the future management of the wine when it has quitted the grower's hands. Wines of a delicate character are treated abroad with a care in private cellars which is seldom bestowed upon them in England. The treatment of port, and the cellarage altogether, are not the model for keeping pure and delicate wines, that receive detriment from heat and cold, putrid effluvia, the presence of vegetable matter, and the shaking of street vaults from the rolling of carriages. Spirituous Madeira wines are ameliorated by heat and agitation. The bottle perfects the fermentation, but whether alone, by the evaporation which takes place, is a difficult question to answer, whatever has been said about it. Wine has been placed in a bottle with a glass stopper, and found to have acquired mellowness from age, where there seems ground to believe no evaporation could happen, except through the pores of the glass. In such a case it is con- jectured by some to be matter of proof, that the mellowness of wine arises from a change in its constituent principles, and a blending together of them more intimately. An in- sensible change in some of these principles may be effected by time and contact alone ; the change in the colour of old wines proves there is ground for this supposition, and as many wines become more mature in large vessels, in which the pressure must be greater than in small ones, the mellow- ness is thus hastened. At all events, if the latter suppo- sition be groundless, it can but take its rank with other conjectures on the same subject, towards fixing the certainty of which not a fractional portion of truth seems to be yet established. IK 75 [Genuine Wine Manufactory.] CHAPTEE XYI. ON THE ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. PREVALENCE OF ADULTERATION OF BRANDY, AND ITS USES MIXED WINES FORBIDDEN ANCIENTLY INCREASE OF SPIRIT CONSUMPTION VARIOUS MODES OF SOPHISTICATING WINE OF MAKING OR ADULTERATING PORT AND CLARET OBSERVATIONS. THE spirit of traffic, which attracts to our doors the luxuries of the earth, rarely limits its aim to legitimate profit. As in war all stratagems are lawful, so in trade the desire of gain wearies imagination with contrivances for turning to account every substance of which money can be made. To be over- scrupulous about the mode would argue tardiness in the pur- suit of an object, to which every generous feeling of life must be sacrificed if it intervene, and to gain which, honesty is 344 ADTJLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. only the best policy when knavery is insecure from discovery As an article of commerce finds a larger consumption, and the cost is increased by an extravagant taxation of two or three hundred per cent., the temptation to defraud is greater because the profits are proportionably enhanced. The adul- teration of wine, among that of other articles, has of late become almost a scientific pursuit. The clumsy attempts at wine brewing made a century ago, would now be scorned by an adept. It is said that when G-eorge the Fourth was in the " high and palmy" days of his early dissipation, he pos- sessed a very small quantity of remarkably choice and scarce wine. The gentlemen of his suite, whose taste in wine was hardly second to their master's, finding it had not been de- manded, thought it was forgotten, and, relishing its virtues, exhausted it almost to the last bottle, when they were surprised by the unexpected command that the wine should be forth- coming at an entertainment on the following day. Conster- nation was visible on their faces ; a hope of escaping dis- covery hardly existed, when one of them, as a last resource, went off in haste to a noted wine brewer in the city num- bered among his acquaintance, and related his dilemma. "Have you any of the wine left for a specimen?" said the adept. " Oh yes, there are a couple of bottles." "Well, then, send me one, and I will forward the necessary quantity in time, only tell me the latest moment it can be received, for it must be drunk immediately." The wine was sent, the deception answered ; the princely hilarity was disturbed by no discovery of the fictitious potation, and the manufacturer was thought a very clever fellow by his friends. "What would Sir Bichard Steele have said to so neat an imitation, when in his day he complains that similar fabrications were coarsely managed with sloe juice : the science of adulteration must then have been in its infancy. It is to be lamented that adulterations of such wines as port and sherry may be so easily practised as to deceive very experienced tastes, owing to their spirituous strength. Any attempt to fabricate BomaneeConti would not thus easily answer, because the fineness, delicacy, and perfume of the wine are not to "be copied. Much of the Oporto wine in the British market being of inferior quality, is peculiarly subject to imitation. The ignorance of many persons of the true ADTTLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 345 baste of Champagne has of late caused the importation of a wretched and cheap manufacture from the continent, which is sold for the genuine article ; but still larger quantities of a fictitious wine, under the same name, have been .made here of common ingredients, and passed off at public places. Balls, races, masquerades, and crowded public dinners, are profitable markets for adulterated wines, and the practice is not confined to the metropolis. By the adulteration of wine is not to be understood the mixture of two genuine growths for the sake of improvement already noticed, but, in the first place, a clandestine amalga- mation of an inferior kind of wine with one which is superior, to cheat the purchaser, by passing it off for what it is not ; and secondly, what may be denominated with more propriety the product of fictitious operations passed off as genuine growths, having .little or no grape juice in its composition. The first of these heads may be divided into adulterations of wines before and after they are imported. "Wines adulterated abroad are generally so operated upon in the cellars of the exporter, and but seldom in those of the grower, who, when he has disposed of them to the wholesale dealer, ceases to have an interest in their fate ; the dealer generally knowing how to take care that no imposition is practised upon himself. There may be instances in which the grower and the dealer have an understanding or interest together ; but this is not commonly the case. By the prac- tice of mingling wines in the ports of wine countries for the English market, a facility is given for adulterating wine which comes to England beyond that which is sent elsewhere, because a taste accustomed to a pure wine is much less liable to be deceived than one habituated to mixtures. The Dutch import most of their wines pure on the lees, and thereby show their wisdom. The northern nations of Europe gene- rally drink them in the same state as they are drunk in the lands of their growth ; some of the Grerman provinces alone excepted. Eor England, however, no wine will do without brandy, and the delicious sherries of Spain, which are of a quality sufficiently spirituous by nature, and come over as pure as any wines to this country, must be strengthened for British consumption. The wines of Spain, are, however, no other way deteriorated abroad, and a good price will always 346 ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. procure good wine. Low priced sherries come over without concealment for what they are, and with what is done in England the foreigner has no concern. In England, sherry of the brown kind, and of low price, when imported, is mingled with Cape wine and cheap brandy, the washings of brandy-casks, sugar-candy, bitter almonds, and similar pre- parations. The colour, if too great for pale sherry, is taken out by the addition of a small quantity of lamb's blood, and it is then passed off for the best sherry by one class of wine sellers and advertisers. The softness of good sherry is closely imitated. G-um benzoin is used to produce the coun- terfeit brown sherry, which in the real wine is given by boiled must. The whole is tempered in a large vat, and sold out in bottles of fifteen to the dozen, on which a profit is often- times made of twelve shillings upon every dozen impudently sold as genuine pale sherry. Dr. Paris has made some ingenious observations, the result of experiment, upon the alcoholic principle in wine. If alcohol or brandy be mingled with water, in the proportion of one-fourth of spirit to a quart, this gives half a pint of pure brandy. The effect of such a combination, taken fre- quently, it is easy to comprehend, when applied to the stomach. The same quantity of alcohol, however, contained in a quart of wine, formed and combined with it in the natural process of fermentation, is by no means so intoxica- ting, or prejudicial to the constitution. With the natural wine it is moderated in its effects, so as to exert much less power upon the stomach, and by consequence, is not inju- rious, except in too large potations. That this is correct there can be little doubt, from the test of daily experience. In England, the natural alcohol of the wine is not deemed sufficient. "Wine, often containing much brandy natu- rally, is strengthened by the artificial mixture of an enor- mous quantity which is raw, and which never combines in the natural way with the wine itself, notwithstanding the practice of " fretting in" by the maker. To this adulteration the injurious effects of mixed wines on the constitution are mainly attributable. How this difference between combined and uncombined alcohol happens, baffles the research of science to explain, but it is sufficient to know that such is the incontrovertible fact. It must be admitted that the ADTJLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 347 alcohol in wine is that constituent portion which diminishes greatly in strength by evaporation, and naturally combines with the wine less than when artificially introduced. Nor Lave the experiments as to the quantity of spirit in wine been yet very satisfactory. But the foregoing absurd and injurious practice is not alone followed by bad consequences to the constitution of the unwary individual who drinks in years of suffering with the cup of momentary conviviality, it further renders the whole community liable to imposition respecting all wines, from depriving it of power to judge between pure wine and that which is deteriorated, and from making impure wine the standard of the general taste. It has already been stated, that to drink tawny port is to drink a wine after its vinous properties are destroyed by the process necessary to kill the spirit with which it is saturated ; that spirit by time evaporating too, after all the principles of good wine have long been gone. In the more delicate wines, by the admixture of brandy, the aroma and perfume perish, together with that peculiar freshness which renders pure wine so estimable beyond every other potable. In England, among common wine drinkers, it is the alcohol of the wine alone that gives a momentary elevation to the spirits, not at all different in its nature from that which brandy mingled with water will afford, and re- acting heavily. The exhilaration from pure wine is of a very different character, either from the mode in which the spirit- uous strength is applied to the stomach, and affects the ner- vous system, or from its combination with other elements. In the one case, as in Champagne, where it is true the car- bonic acid gas may be supposed to produce the modification, though in the finer wines of France, as Romance or Lafitte, it is the same thing, the spirits are elevated, and even a slight excess in the quantity taken passes away speedily, nor leaves any ill effect. In wine mingled with brandy, the ex- hilaration is the first access of a fever, and the head and stomach suffer severely for the indulgence, not to comment upon the certain ruin to the constitution of the individual who follows the constant use of such wines, without taking them to excess, in the shape of indigestion, and ultimately of apoplexy or dropsy. Brandied and adulterated wines are 348 ADTTLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. the bane of Englishmen, though the ill effects may be slower in some cases than others ; while, in like manner, diseases may not be so obvious that really owe their origin to them. The wish is patriotic and humane, that Englishmen could drink only wine pure and unsophisticated. That an abuse of the good things which the Creator has bestowed for the enjoyment of man, should be followed by just punishment in the miserable consequences that succeed excessive indul- gence, is just and natural. The intemperate man, in the vinous product preferred in England at present, will find his reward; but it is singular enough, that in proportion as drunkards have abounded in any nation, the wines drunk there have been more sophisticated, and strengthened with substances foreign to them. The healthy stomach relishes plain food ; the sickly one must be pampered with savoury or spiced dishes. The truth of this is clear ; we have the "mixed wine" of the Hebrews in proof. Like the taste too general in England, from which the better classes and people of information are most exempt, "strong drink" is that which is most desired. Pure wine is chill to the arid and burning stomach. The Jews knew nothing of the product of the still, and strenigthened and mixed their wines with stimulating and intoxicating herbs. The denunciations in the Scripture are against mixed wine : " They that go to seek mixed wine." " Woe to them that are mighty to drink, and men of strength to mingle strong drink :" (sheJcJiar IDE?). The Greeks and Eomans rendered wine more intoxicating by the use of strong aromatics. Turpentine, resin, and pitch were mingled with them for this purpose. Distilla- tion being unknown, spices or hot peppery substances, as our East Indian countrymen sometimes practise now, were had recourse to in certain countries. The very use of these adulterations shows that the stomachs which relished them had either first been debauched and debilitated by ex- cess, or that health and social cheerfulness were not objects in the vinous draught, but that a stimulant, operating rapidly and producing ebriety with speed, was the real thing sought after. In the West Indies formerly, when a stomach was well-nigh worn out, the acceptable stimulant, taken as a cordial, was a glass of brandy, with Cayenne pepper in it, usually termed " a flash of lightning." That to the gene- ADTTLTEKATKXS- AND SOPHISTICATION OF WIJSES. 349 ralityof the nations of the oS'orth, accustomed to drink quan- tities that would be instant death to those not inured to them, of the burning product of high distillation, the gene- rous soul-enlivening juice of the vine, in its pure state, should be cold and inert as spring-water, is not a subject for marvel. Pure wine was not made for men who can drink two or three bottles of brandied wine at a sitting. Bur- gundy, or Chateau Margaux, to such palates would be spring- water. If they drink wine at all, it must be adulterated with alcohol; yet the northern fondness for strong drink does not prevent all the nations of the North from relishing natural wine. In Sweden, where ardent spirits are much drunk, wine is enjoyed unadulterated, in its genuine state ; and even in Petersburg, where the strongest product of the still is consumed, people drink wine in its pure state. The consumption of wine in this country has not increased with the increase of population, while that of spirits is enor- mous. The following will show the lamentable increase of spirit distillation in 1830, for home consumption only, in England, Scotland, and Ireland. (See more of this in the Appendix.) Population. Wine, 1831. Spirits, Home Made, 1831. Spirits, Foreign. Colonial. Total Spirits. 13,889,675 ) 2,365,930 J 7,500,000 Imp. Gals. 6,928,466 j 795,909 7,732,101 6,007,631 9,004,539 1,267,397 38,967 10,406 3,503,141 137,806 18,011 12,502,639 6,184,404 9,032,956 23,755,605 7,724,375 22,744,271 1,316.770 3,658,958 27,719,999^ Thus the inhabitants of the United Kingdom swallow above a quart of wine a head, man, woman, and child, and more than a gallon of spirits annually, to say nothing of oceans of malt liquor, beside home-made wines, cider, and perry. As the fondness for spirit increases, that for wine diminishes. The cuticle on the hand of a blacksmith is hardened by the hot iron, and cannot distinguish objects by the^sense^of feeling; in the same manner the stomach of the spirit-drinker is lost to the healthy freshness of wine, being too cold and unseasoned for his seared stomach, while 350 ADULTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OE adulterations or coarse mixtures of the grape remain undis- covered. It is, after all, a very indifferent compliment to good taste, that in a consumption of 6,628,496 imperial gallons of wines, consumed in England in 1830, even Canary, Eayal, and Sicilian, made 5'54 per cent., Cape 8'] 4, but Trench only 5 per cent, of the whole. Ehenish made but 1 ; Madeira, 3-44 ; Spanish, 32'63 ; while Port was 44'25 ! out of 100 parts. The least vinous and coarsest in taste, but most potent in spirit, was, as usual, preferred ; for not more than one-fifth of the port wine imported can be considered of the better quality. It is something, however, to find, that in 1833 the port had fallen to 43*85, and the Spanish had risen to 35 : it is to be lamented, on the other hand, that the French had fallen from 5 to 3-81. In the better Bourdeaux wines, even " when prepared" for the English market, the fine qualities of the pure wine still exist, though they are to be less strongly traced. In the wines of Portugal they cannot be traced at all. Indeed, so coarse are three-fourths of the wines commonly drunk in England, from the foregoing cause principally, operating as a disguise for the vilest imitations, that they might easily be made without the juice of the grape forming a part in the composition. A person named Legrand proposed to give wine, and even vinegar, not from the grape, the same appa- rent qualities as if they had been, by means of tartaric, citric, and oxalic acids, introduced into the wash or liquors during or after fermentation. The acids also to be mixed with spirituous liquors, for the purpose of converting them by acidification into vinegar, or by distillation into brandy ; the vegetable acids to be employed to increase the strength of vinegars, and imitate those made from wine. This idea is crude enough, but the intention is not the less dishonest. If by such combinations perfect wine could be made, then have we arrived at the mystery of uniting substances which possess chemical affinity, while we had hitherto discovered only the secret of analysation a union which nature had sealed until now in darkness. If it be possible to make per- fect wine this way, why not embody the diamond from carbon, or, triumphing over the ancient alchemists, fill our coffers with gold of our own fabrication ? It is not worth ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 351 paying so much money for wine, if it be deficient in all which, gives wine the first place in human luxuries, if spirit and colouring matter are productive of the same effect ; if the aroma, bouquet, and liveliness of the genuine liquid are neither wanted nor valued, and heavy, dull intoxication, and the brutalising of the faculties, are preferred to a pleasant elevation of the spirits, and to the draught which enlivens without injury. It is as little detrimental to the stomach, and much more beneficial for the purse, to drink none of the juice of the grape at all, but only that beverage, quantities of which have been passed off for wine at country inns and similar places. Yet the mistake is not confined to the country parts of England, of judging wine by its potent effects rather than its vinous qualities. Why have recourse to natural wines at all, if combinations, formed out of the discoveries made by chemical analysis, will answer as well ? It is as pro- bable that tartar, spirits of wine, and other ingredients should combine, and form wine under the hand of the experimental- ist, as that raw brandy should combine with fermented wine. Brandy, cider, sugar, tartaric acid, logwood, or elderberries, and alum, in proper proportions, would make a beverage not distinguishable from a vast deal of what is drunk for wine in this country, and not be more injurious. In fact, quantities of wine have been made of similar ingredients, and yet, on any one well acquainted with the pure wine, scarce as it is, the imposition could not be practised. The wines of Portugal, Spain, and Sicily, are, from the deterioration of their vinous properties by brandy, most liable to imitation ; for in propor- tion as the true virtues of the wine remain, the difficulty of imi- tation is increased. It cannot be denied that the wines of Bourdeaux, called " claret" in this country, though not adulterated like the wines of Portugal, suffer injury before they are considered fit for the English market. It has been thought necessary to give the pure Bourdeaux growths a resemblance to the wines of Portugal, in some respect, in consequence of the false taste which has been given by the use of legislated wine ; thus one mischief treads upon the heels of another. Bourdeaux wines in England and in Bourdeaux scarcely re- semble each other. The merchants are obliged to "work" the wines before they are shipped, or, in other words, to 352 ADTJLTEEATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. mingle stronger wines with them, such as Hermitage, or Cahors, which is destructive almost wholly of the bouquet, colour, and aroma of the original wine. So much are the merchants sensible of this that they are obliged to give per- fume to the wine, thus mixed, by artificial means, such as orrisroot and similar things. Easpberry brandy is some- times employed, in minute quantities, for the same purpose, and does very well as a substitute in England, though any [Frenchman conversant with the wines would instantly dis- cover the deception. The perfume is sensibly different from that given by nature. These operations cause the clarets of England to be wines justly denominated impure, though not injurious to the constitution. There is nothing in them which does not come from the grape. It is only encouraging a coarseness of taste, which, after all, is but matter of fancy, while wholesomer wines cannot be drunk. When old, claret is apt to turn of a brick-red colour : this arises solely from mingling it with more potent wine. The cheapest Bour- deaux is continually passed off in England for fine claret. It is to be bought cheaply enough. Chateau Margaux may be had (so named) at 442. the hogshead, and less ; but it is only so named, and is really a low growth. Eighty pounds is about the price of prime Chateau Margaux to the mer- chant in London, if the wine is of a good year. It must be acknowledged that there are good wines to be had in the Grironde, upon which fashion has not set its seal, that are as well worthy of being drunk as those which are in such favour, but this cannot justify the fraud of selling one article for another. In the south of Prance, Malaga, Lacryma Christi, and Cyprus, are imitated by mingling wines of age with boiled luscious wine of a later date ; but there does not appear to be in the adulteration anything but what comes from the vine, and they are therefore no more reprehensible than because they are passed off for the wine they imitate. In Erance the principal adulteration used is water, to increase the quantity. Cette ports and sherries designed for England are brandied. There is much Bourdeaux of a common quality, little more than a vin du pays, brought over and sold as claret at seven and sixpence the bottle, worth only ninepence or tenpence in the country. The inferiority to good claret is not discovered by ADTJLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 353 those who only ask for claret to cool their port. This end it answers admirably. Thus far belongs to the wine whilst in the custody of the foreigner, or when it is transmitted to the hands of respect- able merchants in England. Eut there are large quantities of what is miscalled claret, manufactured in this country, for making which, as well as improved claret of prime character, many receipts are extant. A very inferior French wine, sold to the adulterators at a few sous a bottle, is now frequently mingled with rough cider, and coloured to resemble claret, with cochineal, turnsole, and similar matters. This is pro- nounced of fine quality, and sold as such in this country. Certain drugs are added as they appear to be wanted, and the medley, to which a large profit is attached from the impo- sition, is frequently drunk without hesitation, and without any discovery of the cheat. JSTew claret is made to imitate old, by uncorking and pour- ing a glassful out of each bottle, corking the bottles, and placing them for a short time in an oven to cool gradually ; then they are filled up again, finally corked, and passed for wine nine years old. Port is put into warm water, which is urged to the boiling point, and then, as already stated, the wine is put into the cellar, and deposits a crust that looks like the growth of years. Madeira is thus artificially treated. The ancient fumarium seems to have had the same object of forcing a premature mellowness. A vast deal might be written upon the methods adopted and ingredients used in carrying on these deceptions ; the present object is only to touch upon the subject, in order to illustrate certain principles recorded in this volume; but more especially to show the reader how necessary it is to form a just judgment, and obtain a perfect acquaintance with genuine wine of every species, that he may thereby be better enabled to escape imposition. Champagne is a wine in which adulteration is most obvious to such as are well acquainted with it in the genuine state, and it is adulterated in England with more boldness than any other. There is a very weak Champagne made in the country, which was until very lately consumed wholly on the spot, incapable of resisting decomposition for more than a year. 2 A 354 ADTJLTEBATIOH AND SOPHISTICATION OE WINES. This certain shrewd wine-makers from England have disco- vered, and imported as the best Champagne. It is without the flavour or bouquet of the genuine wine ; it froths or effer- vesces freely, but the colour is paler than that of better quality. This wine is not worth more than a few sous the bottle in the country. In England it is purchased and drunk for the genuine article by those who are only now and then introduced to wine of that name ; yet the exquisite bouquet of Champagne, so different in the genuine kind from all others, is the best mode of detecting the bad sort. Some will direct attention to the effervescence, and assert, that in genuine Champagne it is marked by a peculiar kind of sparkle. This is no criterion ; for carbonic acid gas alters nothing at all in quality or appearance, where the fluid may possess a very opposite flavour. The bouquet of genuine Champagne cannot be imitated. Gooseberry wine itself is often passed off for Champagne upon the inexperienced, and the full price of the genuine wine exacted. The very bottles are bought up for the purpose of filling with gooseberry wine, and are then corked to resemble Champagne. The most wretched wine that could be bought in the country at a franc a bottle is known to have been imported, sold, the wine drawn, and the bottles refilled with Champagne from the gooseberry, on which a profit of forty or fifty shillings a dozen has been made. In France, Champagne is never adulterated by the grower, who has the wine of various prices and qualities, and is interested in its reputation ; he sells the inferior kinds for what they really are. An advertiser in London of the "best Champagne," at a price at which it could hardly be purchased at Epernay, was suffered to obtain a verdict for libel against a weekly periodi- cal some time ago,* because it exposed the deception. It was still more extraordinary that no defence was made, as it was a public duty to make one, and a hundred credible persons could have proved that the best Champagne was not to be purchased at such a rate in France. The first charge per bottle at Epernay was then from three and fourpence to three and tenpence ; Sillery four and sevenpence to five shillings ; carriage to the sea, freight, duty on bottles and on wine not * The Literary Gazette, which might easily have reversed the tables. A ver- icfc in favour of the trash was heedlessly given, and 502. damages. ADTTLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OP WINES. 355 included. There are inferior wines of Champagne down to the fifth or sixth grade, the lowest and poorest of which might then be purchased of dishonest dealers, but they would only keep from a twelvemonth to eighteen months. The best Champagne was out of the question here then at the price of five shillings and sixpence. In imitating the still Champagne, an accusation has been made against the numerous adulterators, that lead is used in the process. In France, it does not appear that lead in any form has ever been employed in altering their wines, though in Germany, a century ago, it is said to have been detected. On the 13th of March, 1824, a member of the Chamber of Deputies moved for a law to punish the practice. The motion was rejected, and very properly, because neither litharge, nor any other preparation of lead, was shown to have been used, nor was any instance cited in which it had been dis- covered, though an ordinance was made against its use in 1696. "Wines seized in France as bad, by the council of health, and analysed, have never shown the presence of lead. From 1770 down to 1825, not one instance had occurred in the analysis of the wines which were brought to Paris of this dangerous intermixture, upon the authority of M. Cadet Grassicourt, whose duty it was to examine them. M. Jullien, by a course of experiments, proved that litharge will not deprive wine of its acidity ; that it decomposes the wine if much is added to it, and, if little, the wine remains unchanged, that it is easily detected, but in no case does it alter the acidity of the wine. This able writer concludes, that tartar in some form has deceived observers. Potash, too, may have been taken for it, but in no case has it been of late years detected in France. Fixed alkali has been employed frequently to cor- rect acidity ; but it does not appear that, in France, adultera- tions of any other kind than the mingling of different wines is practised in a manner worthy of notice here. Water and perry seem to be the mixtures which have come mostly under the lash of the law there. A small quantity of sugarcandy and cream of tartar is sometimes added to Champagne in bad years ; but the quantity is so small, it cannot be called an adulteration. In truth, the detection of adulteration in wine drunk in the country is so certain, if substances not vinous 2 A2 356 ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. be employed, that it may be concluded tlie practice is not by any means general, while those of such a nature as take place here are wholly unknown. It would not be easy to imi- tate cider in Hereford or Devon, so as to deceive the people who are constantly in the habit of drinking it genuine. In England Champagne has been made from white and raw sugar, crystallised lemon or tartaric acid, water, home- made grape wine or perry, and French brandy. Cochineal or strawberries have been added to imitate the pink. Such a mixture at country balls or dinners passes off very well ; but no one in the habit of drinking the genuine wine can be deceived by the imposition. The bouquet of real Cham- pagne, which is so peculiar, it is repeated, cannot be imitated ; it is a thing impossible. Acidity in wine was formerly corrected in this country by the addition of quick ]irne, which soon falls to the bottom of the cask. This ^furnishes a clue to Falstaff's observation, that there was " lime in the sack," which was a hit at the landlord, as much as to say his wine was worth little, having its acidity thus disguised. As to the substances used by various wine doctors for flavouring wine, there seems to be no end to them. Vegetation has been exhausted, and the bowels of the earth ransacked, to supply trash for this quackery, which nothing will annihilate but the habit of drinking pure, unbrandied, unadulterated wine of the best vintages, let the wine be of the first or third class. Of this, people will soon come to see the wisdom and good sense. It may be asked, how they are to obtain it ? The reply is, go or send to the country. A few families might combine to pay a trustworthy person at first to go to the wine-grower, or deal at home with a particular merchant, and pay a good price to a man of honour, whose determi- nation it is to keep all classes of nis wine from the pure offspring of the grape truly designated. It is impossible to calculate what the loss to the public in revenue must be by the adulterations of wine in this country. The basis of most of these is Cape wine, which pays a low duty, and is consequently most conveniently useful in this transmutation of wines for purposes of lucre. It can hardly be supposed, that when the population of the empire was ten, ADULTEKATION A^D SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 357 and when it was sixteen millions, no more wine was consumed. The deficiency must not all be charged to the badness of the times, nor to the increase of the cost of port wine, which, notwithstanding the stationary character of the demand, rose in price in a very rapid manner after 1753. England took then from eleven to twelve thousand tuns ; and now, when she takes on an average only two or three thousand tuns more, it is found to cost many times as much. The truth is, that a vast quantity of fictitious port is passed off in this country for that which is real, and the idea derives credit from the very considerable importations of wine which can only be used for such purposes, to which two or three-and- twenty hundred tuns of Cape, a quantity of Beni Carlos, and of Eigueras wines undoubtedly contribute, to say nothing of what is made without having in its constitution a single drop of grape juice at all. In a most useful work, professing to treat of the art of adulteration, the following mode of managing this branch of trade is well exposed.* It relates to the first class of manu- factured wine in contradistinction to the second, which has none of the component parts of wine at all in its composition. It is premised that all wine manufacturers keep large vats for the object of similar fabrications. Beni Carlos wine can be purchased, including duty, for thirty-eight pounds a pipe ; Figueras for forty-five ; Red Cape for thirty-two ; of moun- tain wine, to follow the author, " a small quantity may be added, if required, to soften and give an appearance of rich- ness. Sal tartar, a portion to occasion the compound when bottled to crust firm and soon, dissolved with a proportionate quantity of gum dragon, to impart a fulness of flavour and consistency of body, and to give the whole a face. Berry- dye, a colouring matter extracted from German bilberries, and known under this name. In addition to these may be introduced brandy-cowe (the washings of brandy-casks), which costs nothing, in the proportion of about three gallons to every hundred gallons of made-up wine, in fabricating the second quality of fictitious wine. Into this may be racked as follows : * Wine and Spirit Adulterators Unmasked. Kobins & Co., 1 vol. 12mo., 1829. 358 ADTTLTEBATIOtf AND SOPHISTICATION OE WINES. Imp. gal. . Imp. gal. . s. d. 2 Pipes of Beni Carlos 230 at 38 per 115 cost 76 2 Pipes of Figueras . 1 Pipes of Red Cape l| Pipes of Stout Good Port 1 Pipe of Common Port Mountain Brancty-Cowe Colouring Etceteras: 2lbs. of Salt of Tartar and 31bs. Gum Dragon 230 45 115 90 137 32 91 48 3 6 165 76 115 109 10 115 63 115 63 20 60 105 11 8 7 20 000 30 031 00 040 00 300 Extra allowance for loss by bottoms 8 Pipes Port, 115 gal. ca. Pipe . 920 Imp. gallons. 401 " The value of the empty pipes and hogsheads is 51. 5s., and not being deducted from the amount in this example, is supposed to pay all expenses of cartage, that part of the etceteras which may not be sufficiently charged, or paid for by the water used to dissolve them, and which is sold as wine, and for any additional loss which may be sustained by the bottoms. Thus, then, we have eight pipes of superior port wine, made up according to the best and most approved plan, and which stands advertising dealers at 50Z. per pipe of 115 imperial gallons, every expense included, and reckoned at the very outside. The wine thus made up, if drawn off in bottles of the size of sixteen to the gallon, old measure, and adding a charge of 6d. per dozen extra for corks, would cost only 16s. 9d. per dozen!" Wines under the names of Eritish Madeira, Port, and Sherry, are also made, the basis of which is pale malt ; sugar- candy, French brandy and port wine are added in small quan- tities to favour the deception. So impudently and notoriously are these frauds practised, and so boldly are they avowed, that there are books published called " Publicans' Guides," and " Licensed Victuallers' Directors," in which the most infamous receipts imaginable are laid down to swindle their customers. One of these recommends port wine to be ma- nufactured, after sulphuring a cask, with twelve gallons of strong port, six of rectified spirit, three of Cognac brandy, forty-two of fine rough cider, making sixty-three gallons, which cost about eighteen shillings a dozen. Another receipt is forty-five gallons of cider, six of brandy, eight of port-wine, two gallons of sloes stewed in two gallons of water, and the liquor pressed off. If the colour is not good, tincture of red ADFLTEEATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF "WINES. 359 sanders or cudbear is directed to be added. This may be bottled in a few days, and a teaspoonful of powder of catechu being added to each, a fine crusted appearance on the bottles will follow quickly. The ends of the corks being soaked in a strong decoction of Brazil wood, and a little alum, will com- plete this interesting process, and give them the appearance of age. Oak bark, elder, Brazil wood, privet, beet, and turn- sole, are all used in making fictitious port wine. "Wines of Madeira are in like manner adulterated, or wholly manufactured in England, which, from these devices, may justly claim the title of a universal wine country, where every species is made, if it be not grown. The wine thus manufactured is not served up at the tables of the rich, but is principally consumed by those who only drink wine occa- sionally, on the presence of friends. Not that the better classes of purchasers escape being imposed upon, but that they are cozened in a different manner, by giving West India Madeira an artificial flavour, and passing it off for that which is East Indian, and in consequence much dearer. The basis of the adulteration of Madeira itself is Vidonia, mingled with a little port, mountain, and Cape, sugar-candy and bitter almonds, and the colour made lighter or deepened to the proper shade, as the case may require. Even Yidonia itself is adulterated with cider, rum, and carbonate of soda, to cor- rect acidity ; sometimes a little port or mountain is added. Bucellas, in short, every species of wine that it is worth while to imitate, is adulterated or manufactured in this country with cheaper substances. Common Sicilian wine has been meta- morphosed so as to pass for Tokay and Lacryma Christi; even Cape wine itself has been imitated by liquids, if possible, inferior to the genuine article. A large quantity of bad wine is passed off in London in exchange for other goods. This opens another system of dishonesty and fraud, purchaser and seller each striving to outvie the other in trickery; the wine-seller generally, it need not be remarked, having the advantage on his side. It may be well for the government of the country to consider whether some obstacle cannot be thrown in the way of these practices by legislative enactment. The possession and use of large casks, or rather vats, absolutely necessary for the purposes of adulteration, and of little advantage to the dealer 360 ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES, who does not contemplate similar frauds, might certainly admit of the control of the excise officers. However, in this as in all cases, persons of good sense can take care of them- selves if they will but exercise a sound discretion. There are a variety of tests which may be applied to the more vulgar adulterations by those who do not understand chemistry. Sulphur will detect the presence of lead, turning the wine black or dark if it be present ; sulphurated hydro- gen gas, acidulated by muriatic acid, will detect it in a mo- ment. Alum is detected by equal quantities of lime-water and wine being mixed and examined within sixteen hours, when, if there be no alum, crystals will be found, easily separable by nitration ; a muddy deposit will be seen if there be. The presence of colouring bodies is least injurious, and may be discovered by numerous tests, such as lime- water, if beet-root has been employed, acetate of lead, bil- berries, elder, or logwood. The best mode, where adultera- tion is suspected, is to apply to any chemist of tolerable skill, who can easily analyse the wine. According to M. Chevalier, the following are the best wine tests for the colouring matter : potash, applied as a re- agent, to ascertain the natural colour of the wine ; this it changes from red to bottle or brownish-green. The change of colour produced by this agent, it must be remarked, is different in the wine of different ages. JNo precipitation of the colouring matter takes place when potash is applied. Acetate of lead, lime-water, muriate of tin with ammonia, and with subacetate of lead, should not be employed, because incapable of producing uniform colours with wines of natural colour only. Ammonia may be employed, the change of colour it produces not perceptibly varying. It is the same with a solution of alum, to which potash has been added, which will answer the purpose. The best precaution against the adulteration of wines would be an act of parliament, levying a heavy penalty upon all sellers of wine, on the detection of any substance in the same that is not strictly vinous, upon an analysis made by competent persons. Such an enactment exists in Paris, and it might be introduced into London with good effect. The adulteration of wines would thus be much more difficult, and though the mingling of inferior with superior wines could ADtrLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 361 not, perhaps, be abolished, it would be less frequently prac- tised, whilst the making of fictitious wines would cease. The penalties should not be so excessive as to defeat the end, as is the case with some of the excise laws, which are in many cases at war with the objects they have in view, and* in practice, as secret, . dark, and impenetrable as those o the inquisition. They are destructive of the social compact, and of the principle of justice (the basis of all law), by encou- raging men to commit offences that they may, through ob- taining accomplices in their own frauds, make them legal victims, and obtain a further reward by their own infamy. What other construction can be put on the permission of a man to sell smuggled goods, and put the money into his pocket, that he may convict the individual he has induced, perhaps by falsehoods and entreaties, to purchase. No go- vernment, on any consideration, should violate, for the plea of revenue or any other excuse, the great fundamental prin- ciples of natural morality the natural justice of universal conscience. Such enactments are unworthy of modern civili- sation, and will not much longer be tolerated in the code of civilised nations. The revenue must be protected, but in so doing, both in money and morality, more may be paid than is at all politic. Laws against adulteration of wines are of old standing in this country, and it is only of late years that they seem to have given way before enactments against the state crime of cheating the excise. Anciently, there was an effective com- pany of vintners, who took care of similar matters ; and men- tion is made of a Lord Mayor, in 1426, flinging a hundred and fifty butts of adulterated wine into the kennel. Charles II., among whose vices the want of regard for good wine is not enumerated, signed an act, which showed that he was de- termined there should be.no mixture of any kind in his wine, by prohibiting the use of any substance whatever, even wine itself from being intermingled. This act, 12 Car. II., might be modified with great advantage in the present day. As it stands it is inoperative, for no merchant can fine or flavour his wines if it be enforced, and, if taken literally, there are a great many substances used by adulterators which are not forbidden in its clauses. To such an extent is this base mode of swindling carried in the present time, that some severe 362 ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. measure seems doubly necessary to restrain it, for to prevent it altogether is impossible, unless the public will declare the purity of the article rather than its cheapness their main ob- ject in purchasing, and more especially make it a rule never to buy of wine sellers who advertise cheap wines. There is no scarcity of good wine, if it be wisely sought after, and paid for liberally. Government is more especially bound to do all its power to aid in this desirable object, because, were wine free of taxation, it would not be worth while to adulte- rate it, and the mischief would remedy itself, the fraud on the revenue as well as on the purchaser tempting dishonest traders by its double profit. The various docks on the Thames do not secure purchasers from the malpractises of dishonest dealers ; in this many are deceived. It has been naturally, yet erroneously imagined, that wine purchased in the docks must be a pure article. Malaga sherry is constantly shipped to England for the real sherry of Xeres, Figueras for port, and so on. Port wine being sent from the place of its growth to Guernsey and Jersey, and there reshipped with the original quantity tripled for the English market, the docks are no security. "Wine, too, may be racked in the docks into casks of less measure, and there is plenty of room for fraud in this apparently well- timed permission, of which the dishonest have known how to avail themselves. Finally, the best test against adulterated wine is >a perfect acquaintance with that which is good. Those whose test of wine is the degree of spirituous strength it affords, may re- main satisfied with wines as they are. They who commend the purple draught for the warmth it imparts to the stomach, which has been perhaps for years at the temperature of a hundred and twenty of Fahrenheit, can only value it in pro- portion as it stimulates the already over-excited organ. Swal- lowers of Madeira and Cayenne pepper, cognac and capsicum, proof whisky, and similar fiery liquids or compounds, may purchase their wines anywhere. Indeed, be the desired virtue of potency but mentioned to the adulterator or maker, it will be provided high coloured and burning enough for the most tropical taste, or for Chaubert himself. To such this chapter is at least a "vox, et prseterea nihil." But by those who seek not " strong drink," nor " mixed wine," who relish ADTJLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. 363 the healthful glass that cheers without inebriation, that en- livens conversational ideas without coarse mirth, and kindles social friendship in the hour of relaxation, without passing the limits of "well-regulated enjoyment, these remarks may be better received. The effect of pure wine upon a healthful stomach is known in this country but by few. It is lament- able that the general taste has been so perverted. Those whose judgment of what wine should be is founded upon the general run of port for the last forty years in this country, are not in the situation of judging what is really intended by wine. Who would think of valuing the malt liquors of this country in proportion as their composition was deteriorated from the pure malt and hop, in proportion as gin, coculus indicus, or tobacco, imparted to them a strength and flavour not derived from the corn which is their basis ? Yet such is the too general taste for wine indulged in by the bulk of the community. The man of taste, on the contrary, whose stomach is not a " burning fiery furnace," who knows how to enjoy wine of delicacy, perfume, and aroma who finds in the juice of the grape alone those virtues which a proper and rational participation in the benevolent gifts of Providence enables him to discriminate will feel the truth of what has been laid down here, and acknowledge its justice. " Claret for boys, port for men, brandy for heroes," said Johnson, whose coarseness was not among his virtues. " Burgundy or claret for gentlemen, port for carters,* and brandy for savages," would have been a more just apophthegm. A word or two may not be inappropriately added here in regard to drinking wine, though not strictly the historical part of the subject, belonging rather to manners. Nations differ in the mode of using wine. The Prench. take theirs at dinner ; the Germans sit late and early ; the Russians are only a little more moderate than the Germans. The two last are boisterous in their cups ; the first takes just enough to make his conversation sparkle like his own wines, among the ladies, with whom he rises from the table. The * It is not to be imagined the author supposes there is no good port wine ; but only that a very large proportion of what is so called is not worthy to be called wine, from not having the true vinous properties, and being spirituous enough for stomachs of caoutchouc. A glass of good old port, pure and generous, may be met with occasionally yet, and valued the more from its rarity. 364 ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. Englishman, in respect to the quantity he takes, formerly adopted the French and G-ermaii modes combined ; he took wine with dinner and much afterwards. In this respect he has of late years wonderfully improved; inebriety is very happily gone out of fashion in good society. Still the national characteristic of the grave effect of wine on the Englishman remains, owing to the strong species in which he delights ; for, just as old Froissart describes, he still " gets drunk very sorrowfully." In the better circles of society, and where expense is of no moment, the purer wines are generally taken ; but great care is necessary in going into company, as to the quality of the wine a guest may find before him. If he have any apprehen- sion, it is better he select one kind which is sound and take no other. Madeira, Sherry, or Bucellas of tolerable quality are safer than any red wine of dubious quality and spirituous strength. A light Trench white wine is very far better. The acid of a wine with little spirit will speedily give way to a spoonful of magnesia, should it by accident happen to dis- agree from ill quality, but if it be a strong brandied wine, the effect of only half a dozen glasses is quite enough to make them long remembered. At public dinners, with six-sevenths of tavern wine, great hazards are run. In a large company, where the individual is thrown off his guard by speeches, toasts, and claptraps of all kinds, it is far better to order, if it agree with the individual, a decanter of weak brandy and water, and pass the wine bottles as they come round. Many would this way escape a fearful headache. A decanter of sherry and water half-and-half, if it can be obtained, or even lemonade, may be thus substituted. It is at public dinners that bad wines are got off, just as bad Champagne and genuine gooseberry pass unnoticed at balls and places of public resort, where dancing and exercise, or the heat of the rooms, make any liquid grateful to the palate. "With the foregoing caution as to public dinners, or parties where " mine host" is not conversant with good wine, and scarcely knows Sherry from Cape, a good look-out must be kept : this is easily done, for, if there is a variety, no doubt something tolerable may turn up. At tables of consideration in society there will always be good wine of some kind, if there be any one species bad at aU. It is not a good rule to ADULTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OP "WINES. 365 drink of too many kinds of wine at dinner. A gfiiss of full- bodied strong white wine should always follow the soup. Good sherry is perhaps the best, and then Madeira may be taken until the soup or first course is removed ; then the light wines may be introduced with effect, except Champagne, which should be drunk when the things are removing for the dessert. The still kind is the best, then the creaming, and last of all the more effervescent. In fashionable life there are always three, four, or more kinds of white wine on the table during dinner, besides port on the sideboard. It is not common to take any red wine with dinner, as with some dishes it comports very ill. The Trench commonly begin with white wine of some kind, as they fre- quently take oysters first, with which red wines do not har- monize. The sweet wines and liqueurs should come after the ices. There is a method or fitness in all these matters. In the middling class of society in England, where expensive wines are often given, the correct order of things is reversed, and no regard is paid to the course of the dishes in which at the moment of taking wine the guests may be participating. A Frenchman will take oysters and a glass of. Pontac or Chablis. Then his soup is followed by a glass of good ordi- nary red wine, such as Macon. With the other wines he follows his inclination ; sometimes Burgundy, Hermitage, or white growths, except that, after the first course is taken off, he pours out a very small glass of Madeira, rum, or something similar. The French never decant their finest wines, such as Eomanee, Chambertin, or Lafitte, and they take them out of very thin glasses. Champagne is drunk just before their dessert, and the ices are followed by liqueurs, sweet wines, or a glass of punch a la Romaine. The wines are never demanded but under the name of the particular growth. At private dinners ci la Eusse the wines are placed upon the table, but no dishes. The guests help themselves to wine according to their fancy. ^ The dishes are on side tables, the guests being presented with a card of a variety ready for that day, so that each may order the servants to bring what most pleases his fancy. The centre of the table is commonly decorated with an ornament, near which the wines are placed, when the table happens to be circular. Sometimes the servants pour out the wines. In most other countries of Europe, in good society, 366 ADTJLTEBATIOH AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. the French mode is imitated pretty closely in the variety of wines, time, and mode of taking them. Bhenish wines of all kinds are taken out of green or coloured glasses, after the manner of the country. Always ice white wines in summer if the weather be hot ; but with red wines this must not be regarded, as a great degree of cold is apt to affect their flavour. If the cellar be of the requisite degree of coldness, say 52 or 53? and the thermometer stand at 70, the wine is full cold enough to be grateful ; and, brought directly from the cellar to the guest, which it should always be at that season, the outside of the decanter will be clouded, a sure test that the wine is sufficiently cold. "Where ice is not obtainable the white wine decanter may be hung up in a flannel bag, previously well soaked in water in the full glare of the sun's rays, where there is also a strong draft of air. The constant evaporation keeping the bag dripping wet, will cool the wine almost to the freezing point. The water of a covered well or spring drawn fresh, in which a pound or two of salt is thrown, placed in a cool cellar, will reduce the temperature of wine to a very low and agreeable point. Perhaps the old Italian custom of lowering the wine for dinner in a well, an hour or two before use, renders it cool enough. Lastly, if expense be no object, freezing mixtures may be used. Eleven parts of sal ammo- niac, dry and powdered ; ten of nitre ; sixteen of Glauber's salts ; and thirty-two of water, will cool wine sufficiently in any climate observing that the operation should be carried on in the coldest place possible. In winter, when a bottle of wine instead of being bright looks clouded, which is the effect of atmospheric cold below the cellar temperature, it may be placed in a room where there is a good fire for an hour or two before dinner. The strong white wines, such as sherry or Madeira, may in winter be de- canted two or three hours before dinner with advantage, and the stoppers of the decanter left out, if they are deposited in the dinner room in the interim. This should never be done with light or delicate French wines, either red or white, be- cause their bouquet and freshness are thereby affected. It is for this reason that such wines are best drunk out of the bottle the ^moment they are drawn, and without decanting. As to wine-coolers, they are ornamental luxuries ; nothing more ; unless, indeed, they contain ice and water, and then ADTJLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OP WINES. 307 the wet bottle is no very pleasant thing to hand round over the snowy damask, which, in the best society, is never taken off the table until the guests have departed from the dining- room. "Wine that deposits should be strained into the de- canter, if the owner be very particular about its brightness. The common silver funnel, perforated, used for this purpose, by some called a strainer, is of very little use, and does its office ill. A funnel of the inverted cone shape, having a little way down within, a wire, round which is fastened a muslin bag, like those used for coffee, is by far the best strainer. It may be made of silver, with a bent beak and tolerably large orifice. The cork being carefully drawn, shaking the bottle as little as possible, the wine should be poured in with a uni- form stream, the orifice of the bottle being previously cleared of every particle of dust, wax or cork, that may hang upon it. For a steady extraction of the cork with the bottle in a state of perfect rest, the patent spiral corkscrew is the best, as it not only permits the bottle to remain without chance of motion while it is used, but it prevents the danger of fracture in the bottle if it be cracked or made of very thin glass, an accident attended with much danger to the hands. It is to guard against this danger that waiters in taverns are fre- quently seen to strike the bottle before drawing the cork, that they may find if it be sound, and then to wrap a cloth around it. There is some little attention required in using the patent screw, that is all. If the operator is not a perfect master of his art with that instrument, the old way and a common screw are best. To prevent accident, a napkin must be bound round that hand which grasps the bottle, though even then the inside of the thighs, above the knees, is by no means free from danger ; while, if the bottle be broke at all, the wine is lost. No hazard of either kind is incurred by a correct use of the patent screw. What is called the bees- wing in port will not render the wine turbid, though few like to see any substance floating in it. Some wines have a deposit like mud, which, once set in motion, will render the wine highly turbid for a time, and no strainer will cure it. Such wine must be very carefully managed in decanting, particularly in keeping the same side of the bottle up that was uppermost in the bin, while the liquid is poured, and not emptied out too near the dregs. 368 ADTJLTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. The art of taking wine is the science of exciting agreeable conversation and eliciting brilliant thoughts for an idle hour between the repast and the drawing-room. "Wine makes some men dull ; such persons should on no account drink the strong brandied wines of the south, but confine themselves to the light red French growths, or to the white, pregnant with car- bonic gas. If these fail to promote cheerfulness ; if with the light Burgundy, with Lafitte, or the ethereal sparkle of Cham- pagne, a man continue unmoved, he may depend the innocent use of wine cannot be his. He may excite himself by the stronger kinds, and half intoxicate himself to raise a leaven of -agreeability which is altogether artificial ; he may woo mirth " sorrowfully," but he will only injure his stomach and cloud his brain. Oftentimes do Englishmen drink themselves into taciturnity below-stairs, and, ascending to the drawing- room, sit silent and solemn as so many quakers, among the fair sex. Such are past the stage of innocent excitement by a rational quantity of the juice of the grape. They take it because the effect is a temporary indifference, an agreeable suspense from pleasure and from pain. Such are not the true enjoy ers of. wine in its legitimate use ; and they should always rise and retire with the ladies, for the effect upon them is that of a narcotic. The true enjoyer of wine finds it exhilarate the spirits, in- crease the memory, and promote cheerfulness. If he be some- thing of a wit, it draws out his hoarded stores of good sayings and lively repartees, during the moment of relaxation from thought, at the hour when it is good "to sit awhile." The cheerful glass calls into action his better natural qualities, as with the ruby liquid he swallows " a sunbeam of the sky." He makes his wine secondary to his conversation, and when he finds the latter at what he thinks its keenest edge and brightest polish, he leaves the table to mingle with beauty, and exchange the wine for a sparkle of more attractive and higher character, perhaps to bask in " the purple light of love." He who would destroy good wine, by taking it when its flavour is no longer fresh to the palate, is a drunkard ; he knows nothing of the refinement in animal enjoyment, which consists in taking rather less than enough. Always to rise from the feast with an appetite is a maxim which, however gourmands and sensualists may despise it, is the course for a rational ADULTERATION AND SOPHISTICATION OE WINES. 369 being, as well as that which yields the richest enjoyment. By this we preserve the freshness of the first taste, the full flavour of the first sip. As the odour of the rose deadens upon the sense after the first exhalation, so is it with wine and with all our enjoyments. Thus we learn how we may, in the truest and most refined sense, enjoy the pleasures by which the benevolence of Him who has given us the things enjoyed is best repaid by our enjoying wisely. Many who are of the earth, earthy, imagine, as long as they get wine into the stomach, it is no matter how the thing is done. Such persons may be styled " stomach-drinkers," and may as well attain the lodgment of the fluid in the part de- sired by means of a forcing pump and a tube as any other mode. The palate to them is secondary to the warmth of this general magazine of liquids and solids. One of true oinographical taste must feel a horror at association over wine with such persons. A refinement even in our sins is better than the grossness of the coarser natures of mankind in animal vices. How much does this tell in innocent enjoy- ment. As Chesterfield felt when his son licked the plate at table, despite all his instructions in good breeding, it may be imagined how the man of refinement feels in the company of coarse, vulgar companions over wine. One half our pleasures are relative or conventional, and therefore alloy in any mode turns them to pain. All delicate wines should be taken out of thin glasses. The reason why wines of this class drink better out of such glasses it is impossible to say. The greatest objection, except to the opulent, is the ease with which such glasses are broken by servants, which renders them expensive. Their form may be adapted to the fancy or to the reigning fashion. To a man of taste in such matters, Romance and Lafitte would lose half their flavour in heavy coarse glass, though to the thick oily wines de liqueur or to sweet wines, the same rule of adaptation does not seem to apply. The glass and the specific gravity of the wine should harmonise. The ancients had a passion for particular wine-cups. The rich murrhine cup, out of which the emperors and patricians drank their Falernian wine, the Surrentine, the cups or vases of Saguntum in Spain, and so- on. The murrhine cup was the great luxury, because it im- parted a perfume to the wine drunk out of it. The modern 2s 370 ADULTEBATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF WINES. preference of thin glasses for the first-class wines has there- fore the merit of a species of precedent. If we could divide a soap bubble in half while floating on the zephyr, we should have a perfect bowl out of which to quaff Komanee, Lafitte, or Sillery. In all cases wine-glass coolers, with the coldest water, should be laid on the table and the glasses reversed in them. No one should pour out more wine at his dinner than he intends to take at one sip, and then immediately reverse his glass. For this purpose, glasses without feet are sometimes used, so that the reversing them in the water it is impossible to omit. The chief thing in the art of drinking wine, is to keep within those salutary limits which mark the beneficial from the pernicious. In good society, in the present day, this line is well defined ; but a man must mingle in this distempered life with every class, and the difficulty is to keep the mean in those cases, where others have no regard to it. This is best done by studying self-respect, and the art of saying "no," when the necessity for saying "no" is strongly 'felt. The courage to do this, and that absence of all fear of being accounted singular which it is a man's duty to cultivate, if he wish to be thought worthy of his specieswill prevent his suffering in stomach or moral character from that table-com- plaisance which the too pliant force upon themselves contrary to their better feelings. APPENDIX, No. I. DISTILLATION was a process unknown to the ancients, and though practised by chemists in Europe, it is probable, from 1150, or about the twelfth century, it did not, until the beginning of the eighteenth, become a general art. We are indebted to the Arabs for the inven- tion of distillation, about the year 900. Curious distillation in England is inferior both in the mode of the operation, and the excellence of the product, to that of France. Some of the French apparatus is exceedingly complex and expensive, and each kind has a specific application. The excellence of French brandy of the first quality need not be dwelt upon here. In 1639 the art was well established in France. {Since 1789 the increase in quality has kept pace with a great improvement in that year. Wine from the grape is the subject of general distillation, although alcohol is produced from numerous other substances. ( 13'04 Hydrogen. Alcohol is composed of < 52'17 Carbon. I 34*79 Oxygen. Total 100-0 Parts. Of wine, 5,229,880 hectolitres are distilled, and give 55,497 hecto- litres of spirit, in strength nineteen degrees of Cartier's hydrometer ; 169,807 at twenty degrees; 343 at twenty-one; 353,883 at twenty-two; and 172,415 at thirty -three. In pure alcohol the whole amount is 469,817 hectolitres, 36 litres, according to M. Gay Lussac. The prin- cipal departments where distillation is carried on are those of Aude, Herault, Gard, Gers, Charente, and Charente Inferieure. Then come the Loire and Cher, Gironde, Lot and Garonne, Var, Loire Inferieure, Dordogne, Deux Sevres, Bouches du Rhone, andLandes. The murks, however well pressed, always contain a portion of unde- composed sugar, besides being impregnated with the wine in the vat, whether red or white. These are fermented anew and distilled, and the product is called brandy of the murk. The produce is about 37,288*07 hectolitres of pure alcohol, from 70,015 hectolitres of brandy. Cider and perry, corn, potatoes, prunes, cherries, the residue of brew- eries, furnish together 93,457 hectolitres more of brandy of nineteen degrees of strength. In all, 915,417 hectolitres of brandy, yielding 553,086*27 of pure alcohol. Common distillation was formerly effected in France by an apparatus that made small quantities of spirit at a time, of a very faulty construction. The more modern apparatus of 372 APPEKDIX. every kind is improved, so as to work well, and give French spirit, let the substance distilled be what it may, a very great advantage over our own, where the process of distillation is in the hands of the Excise, and the distiller is not permitted to make a liquor which can be drunk.* In large stills the head is of copper, but in small ones of tin. In the an- cient still, the head was made with a neck, to retain the descending steam, and carry it into the beak of the head ; but at present this is omitted, as being of no real service, because a free passage is allowed to the spi- rituous part, which is not condensed until the vapour has passed out of the vessel. The worm is of copper in the large apparatus, with as many spiral turns as possible, its diameter being nicely adjusted to the condensation demanded. It is kept cool by fresh water continually in- troduced into the vessel which contains it. The utmost care is taken that the fire be not too high. In fact, this is considered one of the operations in distillation requiring most experience, and to this end the masonry of the furnace is adapted with great care, so that the heat shall be distributed as equally as possible ; the fire being concentrated against the bottom of the still. The chimney is frequently provided with a valve to enlarge or contract at pleasure, and thus equalise the current of air, which keeps the fire in activity, according to the state of the atmo- sphere. The greatest improvement in the chimneys is considered to be one long known, but not brought into general use until Count Chaptal set the example. It consists, instead of the straight funnel of the common chimney, in the introduction of a spiral flue, which winds several times round the still two- thirds of its height, and thus makes the flame which, in the common method, is lost, to the last possible moment available for the work. Care must be taken, however, that these spirals be not carried above the usual level of the liquor in the still, lest the metal be destroyed by the flame. The marine bath is used for delicate liquors, that cannot bear the direct action of the fire without being tainted or altered. A still, in this case, is always made of the purest tin, and placed within the larger, which last is filled with water. The first is carefully isolated from the sides and bottom of the external vessel, and in consequence its contents are not exposed to a greater heat than that of boiling water. These vessels are luted with care. The substances employed are quenched lime, well mingled into a soft paste with whites of eggs; the only defect of this luting is, that it dries too quickly if the whites are not beaten up with a little water prior to mixing and tempering the lime with them. Lime tempered with curdled milk or bullock's blood, or new wood ashes and bullock's blood, are used. Chalk or lime tem- pered with boiled linseed oil and litharge, formerly adopted, is now * Government will not allow the distiller in England to distil a wash that will produce less than nineteen per cent, of spirit, which of course cannot be drunk. Although a duty of ten and sixpence a gallon is levied upon the spirit in its pure state, the distiller must dispose of it to a rectifier, who adulterates it with juni- per, spirit of turpentine, and similar trash, and sells it diluted as gin, or, spoil- ing it with spirit of nitre or prunes, calls it brandy. By this means England has no pure distilled spirit from the grain, like Scotch or Irish whisky. Such is ill- managed taxation, which sacrifices the end and usefulness of a thing to the ex- tortion of a revenue by increased injury to the stomachs of consumers. APPENDIX. 373 very rarely applied. Lime kneaded with whites of eggs or fresh cheese is considered the best luting of all others. The main object of distillation with the French is to disengage the spirit speedily, with as much purity as possible, together with the aromatic principle belonging to the substance distilled, where any such may be. It is carefully seen that the liquid remain uniformly at the proper temperature. The still is filled three parts full of wine, and the vessel being luted and secured, and cold water let in round the worm, the fire is raised until the wine is in a state of ebullition. The air within the apparatus now becomes violently dilated, and escapes by the inferior part of the worm, or through the joints, and is speedily fol- lowed by the condensing steam, which begins first to cover in drops the head of the still, and run back into it, until the head has acquired a degree of heat from the contact sufficient to prevent the condensa- tion. Cold water is then thrown upon the head, and the condensation renewed until no more takes place within the still, but the constantly ascending vapour drives all into the worm, where it condenses in the same manner as the first ascending vapours did, against the head of the still while it was yet cool. The cold water round the worm is continu- ally renewed. If this is not done, or if, by any accident, the surround- ing temperature become too elevated, though the vapour may not be of Sufficient strength to burst the apparatus, the aroma and fine taste of the liquid distilled are injured or entirely destroyed. Wines which most abound in spirit naturally boil quickest, and the largest quantity of fuel is required for the poorest wines. The brandy which is first given out from the still is weak, and not well flavoured; it is always flung back into the vessel. This is speedily followed by the purest product, which is called eau de vie premiere, to distinguish it from that which is given out subsequently. The excellence and strength of the premiere depend naturally upon the quality and richness of the wine and the management of the fire under the still. As the distillation proceeds, the brandy given out becomes weaker, so as at last not to exceed the strength of ten or twelve degrees. When the spirit nearly ceases to be what is called preuve de Hollande, from eighteen to nine- teen degrees, or preuve de /mile, from nineteen to twenty-two degrees of the hydrometer (so called, because on letting a drop of oil fall from a small height into the brandy it sinks to the bottom), they put aside the eau de vie premiere, or first brandy, and this operation is styled couper a la serpente, literally, " to put a stop to the worm." This first brandy is supposed to contain a considerable quantity of an essential oil from the wine, which imparts to it an agreeable bouquet, not to be met with in that which succeeds it, being among the substances first volatilised in the operation. This taste or bouquet is lost in the brandy which comes to England, denominated Cognac, owing to the prejudice indulged here in behalf of particular flavours, to obtain which, in the use of burnt sugar, all its traces are destroyed. Still. eau de vie premiere is the only kind exported, because the manufacturer finds it more advantageous to redistil the other and inferior products into a stronger spirit, or, as it is called, spirit of trois-six, as it saves expense both in casks and transport. In distilling common and poor 374 APPEKDIX. wines, it is not customary pour couper a la serpente, or to put aside the first spirit. That in the still is generally worked out, and then con- verted by redistillation into spirit of trois-six, from the state called petites eaux de vie, or second products. Brandy beyond preuve de huile is called eau de vie double, up to twenty-eight degrees. Brandy is, however, not generally made quite up to twenty-two degrees of strength, because the duties are nearly doubled upon all above that scale. The best cognac is 2 if. Spirit of wine is measured in strength in the same manner as brandy, but the mode of expression is different. Thus, spirit of five-sixths requires one part of water to reduce it to eigh- teen degrees, and is therefore called of the strength of twenty-two. Alcohol of three-sixths requires three-sixths, or one half water, and is in general about thirty-three degrees of strength. The last is the only spirit of wine exported. The mode in which the strength of spirit is calculated is always regulated by the temperature of the product from the worm, for the temperature and strength bear a regular proportion. If it be more than ten degrees of Reaumur, when taken' immediately from the still, it is found proper, in stating exactly its degree of strength, to calcu- late for every five degrees of the thermometer one less of Cartier's hydrometer. So strongly marked is the spirit with the taste of the wine from which it is distilled, that persons of experience can always easily tell from what wine district it comes, and from what species of grape The brandy distilled from the grape, it is needless to say, after this, is easily discriminated from that produced by any other substance. From the still it is apt to contract two bad qualities, the one called hi France the gout defeu, or taste of the still. This, time generally cures; the other an empyreumatic taste, caused by a minute portion of the* copper of the still becoming decomposed, and, by being burned, im- parting a bad taste to the brandy, which some assert to be poisonous. The preservation of the aroma of any liquor may be secured, or the aroma diminished at pleasure, by taking the spirit as low in strength as will answer the end proposed, keeping up the fire to make the odour or savour ascend rapidly. On the other hand, when it is necessary to get rid of any particular taste, the distillation should be carried to the highest degree. Aromatic liquors lose much of their peculiar flavour by redistilling. The manufacturers of brandy from inferior materials are so aware of this, that they make their products of the highest proof, and adding a third of the quantity of genuine brandy of the strongest character, delude the unwary by its resemblance to the real quality. If the fire be kept too high, the product is made feeble, from the too rapid ascension of the vapour ; if too low, its action may en- tirely cease. An exact and skilful regulation of the fire alone ensures a good quantity of the eau de vie premiere. Liquids that deposit are agitated to prevent the burning of the deposition, until they are in a state of ebullition. Very solid substances are suspended in the still in cloth bags when the marine bath is not used, and danger of burning is apprehended. By due care in redistilling, the worst brandy from the murk is rendered potable. Fine liquors and perfumes are rectified in APPENDIX. 375 alembics of glass, with the greatest care and delicacy of treatment. The range of French distillation is very widely extended to all roots, vegetables, and fruits, that abound in saccharine matter. The fruits require only to be perfectly mashed, water in a proper proportion poured upon them, and then set to ferment, with or without the ad- dition of leaven, as the case may be. The product is a liquor possess- ing the flavour of the particular fruit, and more or less rich according to the quality and careful treatment bestowed upon ft. Some of the kernels, particularly that of the plum, give out so much prussic acid on distillation, that the product must be carefully diluted. It is best for security in all cases to separate the stones from the fruit before fermentation, and to distil them separately, or put them aside alto- gether, to avoid hazard by those unaccustomed to their distillation. In France a considerable portion of agricultural produce, which is of little use for any other purpose, is devoted to making brandy of in- ferior quality, which may be applied to numerous purposes of domestic economy. The sediment of wines from garden fruits, honey, molasses from the best sugar, corn, potatoes (of which latter the product is very- great), and similar substances, are all distilled in France, and the spirit is a source of profit to the agriculturist, from which in England he is debarred by the Excise. The coarseness, or ill-flavour of the brandy, is much reduced by judicious treatment and by rectification. All spirit is ascertained to be more or less alcoholic by its specific gravity, and this is the criterion which the French apply, as least liable to err, for ascertaining most easily the quantity of spirit in a mixture of spirit and water. Spirit of trois-six is in proportion to water as eight hundred and forty to a thousand, so that a cube of water, or a litre weighing a thousand grammes of the same quantity of spirit, would weigh but eight hundred and forty. This litre of a thousand grammes forms a standard by which to try the strength of every mixture of spirit. It suffices to multiply a thousand, the centimetre cubes in a litre of water, by the difference between that and the specific gravity of the liquor to be tried, and to divide the product by the difference between the specific gravity of a litre of pure spirit, as a point of com- parison, with that of a litre of water. A table of the specific gravities of brandy is kept for this purpose, graduated by the hydrometer. The litre, the quality or proper title of strength of the brandy, is established by the hydrometer. But as a variation of temperature of Reaumur, varying five degrees, changes the instrument of Cartier one degree more or less, the titre of the brandy is always established at a temperature of ten degrees of Reaumur, and from this temperature the instrument is graduated on the scale. Thus there is a fairness in the strength of the spirit proclaimed to the purchaser, who might else be a loser, as well as the seller, from differences in the volume, and the con- sequent erroneous analysis. Brandy must have ae to lose the new taste from the still, yet, if kept in a warm place in wood, it will lose a portion of its spirit by evaporation. The wood, too, gives an amber-colour to the spirit, and impairs its clearness, which should be transparent as water. In order 376 APPENDIX. to remedy this, the brandy is frequently injured in quality by attempt- ing to give it limpidity, though in that exported to England any tint it has received in the still or wood is of no importance. The heavy wines of the south, and such as are abundant in tartar, give very middling brandy; that from acid or pricked wines is deeply tainted. Wines abounding in saccharine matter, which has decomposed entirely during the insensible fermentation, give the best spirit. These last wines are not distilled new, as they are apt to burn, and give out less alcohol. White wines give a softer brandy than red. All brandy should be of the right colour, and that of cognac should not conceal an ill-coloured article when it is prepared for exportation. Brandy is reduced, when necessary, by an admixture of water, which the French call mouillage. Heat is given out in this operation. The brandy must be agitated, and the quantity nicely adjusted to reduce the strength to the required degree. For this purpose, the quantity of strength to be reduced is multiplied by the number of degrees it carries on the hydro- meter. The product is divided by the number of degrees of which it is desired the brandy should consist when lowered. Subtracting from this sum the quantity of spirit employed, the water to be added is found. Suppose 25 litres of spirit, at 32 degrees, are to be lowered to 18 degrees, it is found that 800 is the product of 25 multiplied by 32; this divided by 18, gives 44 litres 44 centilitres. It only remains to subtract the litres of spirit employed, and the result is 19-44 tho quantity of water required. Pure spirit of wine is generally sold by the velte. Thus everything in the conduct of distillation in France is regulated by due attention to science, which accounts for the superiority of that country in this and several similar branches of the useful arts. This statement respecting distillation will serve without the parti- culars of the process in other countries, where it is managed in an in- ferior manner. Spanish brandy ranks next in quality to that of France. The prices of 1849 ranged from 4s. 6d. to 5s. 8d. per gallon imperial, according to age. No. II. WINES OF THE FIKST CLASS. FRANCE, SPAIN, HUNGARY, GERMANY, SICILY, NAPLES, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. Wines. Country. Place. Character. Romance Conti France do. do. do. do. do. do. do. C6te d'Or do. do. do. do. do. do. do. ' The first and most de- licate red wines in the world, full of rich per- fume, of exquisite bouquet < and fine purple colour, light, yet with body and spirit sufficient to render them pleasant and health- _ful in use. (continued) Chambertin Clos Vougeot Romance St.Vivant LaTache St. Georges APPENDIX. 377 Wines. Country. Place. Character. First growths of Pr6maux Musigny.. France do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. Spain Germany Naples Sicily Hungary Moldavia Cyprus Africa Spain Cote d'Or do. do. do. do. do. do. do. Gironde do. do. do. La Drome do. do. do. do. Marne do. do. do. do. do. do. Gironde do. do. do. do. do. La Loire Rhone < Pyre"ne"es ") 1 Orientales j Haut Rhin do. Rh6ne Andalusia The Rhine Naples Syracuse (" County of ") 1 Zemplin j Cotnar Com. D. f Cape of Good 1 Hope Malaga Burgundies, closely re- ^enabling the above growths in aroma, and all their other qualities. White highly esteemed, f Fine colour and per- | fume, light, less warm Vosne, Nuits, ChamboUe, Vol- 4 ) nay, Pomard, Beaune, Morey, > Savigny, Meursalt ) Marne C6te d'Or Red wines of Champagne. (* Excellent red Burgun- j dies, very little inferior to Cfirst growths. Olivotes, Pitoy, Perriere, Pr&iux... Chainette, Migrenne Yonne do. j Good wines. Moulin a Vent, Torins, Chinas... Hermitage second growths Saonne et Loire, Rhdne Rhone JRed. Red, C6te Rdtie do. Red. Rozan, Gorze, Le~oville, Larose,") Branne-Mouton, Pichon-Lon- > gue ville, Calon ) Gironde Red. Coteau Brule" Vaucluse Red. Basses Pyre'ne'es Red. Roussillon, Bagnols, Cosperon,") Collioure, Tor6nmila, Terrats, > Masdeu ) Pyre'ne'es Orien- tales JRed. Cramant, Avize Oger, Menil Marne ( White Champagne wines La Perriere, Combotte, Goutte") d'Or, Genevriere, Charmes et > Meursalt ) Cote d'Or (. of good quality. f White Burgundies, of (.high repute in France. Guebwillers, Turkeim, Wolx-^) heim, Molsheim, and Rangen, > in Belfont ) Haut Rhin Bas Rhin C" Dry, white, and vins de Ipaille, of good repute. Arbois, Pupillin, Chateau Chalons Coudrieu . Jura Rhone c Good wine, mousseux land still. ( A white wine, which < keeps long, of fine seve Langon, Cerons, Podensac Gironde Cand perfume, f White wines, capable of Montbazillac, Tcaulet, Raulis, \ Dordogne \ endurance. ( Good white wines of the 1 country. Buzet, Amazon, Vianne Lot et Garonne < Generous white wines, St. Peray St. Jean Ardeche C Delicate mousseux and < non mousseux, of agree- Juran9on Basses Pyre'ne'es Cable flavour, r White, with an agree- Frontignan and Lunel Mazet Bagnols, Collioure, Rodez j Maccabeo of Salees Herault Pyrenees Orien- tales do. ? Sweet, rich, and lus- (.cious; white, r Red, styled de Gre- \ nache, rich and sweet. Sweet, vins de liqueur. APPENDIX. 379 THIRD CLASS. FRENCH. Wines. Place. Character. Hautvilliers, Mareuil, Dizy,") Pierry, Epernay, Taisy, Ludes, f Chigny, Villers-Allerand, Cu- f mitres ) Marne Aube C6te d'Or Yonne Sa6ne et Loire Puy de D6me Dr6me Is^re Rhdne Gironde Dordogne Landes Gard Vaucluse Aube Cote d'Or Yonne SaAne et Loire Jura Gironde Loire Herault do. Bouches du Rh6ne C Eed Champagne wines < of the second quality ; (.light and agreeable. Resembling the preceding. f Good Burgundies of the (.the third quality. Ditto. Ditto. Not wines of note ; red. r Resembling red Hermi- mitage ; a little less full <{ and fine, might be called 1 Hermitage of the third Lquality. f Red wines, very mid- (. dling of the class. Resembling C6te Rotie. C Pouillac, St. Estephe, \ good light red wines ; Cas- "i telnau mediocre ; the Bother growths agreeable. C Resembling St. Emilion ; (.keeping well. C Red, light coloured, (.with a harsh taste. f Red wines grown on the j banks of the Rh6ne ; will 1 not keep good more than V.six years. < Good red wines; keep (.well. C Champagne; light and 1 agreeable, white. f Tolerable wine ; not ex- l ported. C In considerable esteem 1 in Paris as wines of the Ctable. They are all white. (" Much the same as the (. preceding. White. Do. of middling quality. C" Ditto ; consumed in the (. country. ( Second growths of those < famous and rich white (.wines. r Rich, luscious, sweet 1 wines, prepared in the <| department of Herault, 1 and very little exported ; Lalso muscadines. r Rich sweet wines, boil- < ed wines and malmseys, of Cgood quality. Ricey, Avirey, Bagneuxla Fosse... Gevrey, Chassagne, Aloxe. Savigny sous Beaune, Blagny,) Santen ay Cheno ve 5 Fleury, Roman6che. Chapelle Guinchay ... Chantergues, Montjuset Crozes, Mercurol, Gervant Seyssuel, Revantin .. Verinay Pouillac, Margaux, Pessac, St.-\ Estephe, St. Julien, Castelnau t de Medoc, Cantenac, Talence, ( Merignac Canon ) Farcies Terrasse Campreal Cape Breton, Soustons Chuzclan, Tavel, St. Genies,^) Virac, Ledenon, St. Laurent > des Arbres ) Chateauneuf Riceys Vamnorillon, Grises, Valmure,"} Grenouille, Vaudesir, Bour- 1 gereau, Mont de Milieu et C Chablis ) Etoile, Quintigny Pujols, Hats, Landiras, Vire-^) lade, St. Croix du Mont Lou- > Frontignan and Lunel Vins de Picardan of Marseillan") and Pommerois. Vins de Ca- > labria, de Malaga ) Eoquevaire, Cassis, Ciotat. Vins "> Quite j 380 APPENDIX. The above are the three first classes of French wines, including all which are commonly exported; there are, according to the best autho- rities, six classes of red, seven of white, and four of vins de liqueur. In these (exclusive of the list above comprising the choicest kinds) there are two hundred and forty-three white, nine vins de liqueur, and four hundred and sixty-three red wines, commencing with the fourth class. The wines of Champagne descend six degrees in class and quality, hence the importance of ascertaining the proper class by those who purchase them. It would occupy too much room to give the names of all the growths and vineyards. The author has a list of sixteen hundred in his possession, and they do not comprise the whole by a considerable number. TABLE OF DEPARTMENTAL PRODUCE. The following is the departmental product of the French vineyards, the number of hectares of vines, the product in hectolitres per hectare, the value of the wines for each department, and the hectolitres dis- tilled into brandy, being the first statement of the same nature from authentic data published in this country. The whole are from the actual returns. Departments. Hectares of Vines. Hectolitres par Hectare. Total Hectolitres of Wine. Value in Francs. Hectoli- tres of Wine Distilled. Hectoli- tres of Brandy. Strength by Carticr. Ain 16,418 8,494 15,243 3,600 5,850 14,929 1,960 8,843 22,586 36,064 13,714 27,338 5 400 136,124 85,107 13,054 15,804 10,485 25,351 64,346 6,625 28,212 1,780 5,496 22 '78 9-16 31-98f 18-95 1-15 28'00 18*61 15'05 5-7 28-33| 12-15| 25-36i 16-68| 21-19 21-59 20' 00 10-80 13-041 21*05f 25-61 5-12 18-14 31*12 2-2-81 10*27 21-13 18-00 33-28| 2-0-00 373,828 271,717 288,866 99,800 108,900 224,322 55,540 117,453 572,870 601,775 291,435 590,244 100 4,320 1,826,092 1,791,610 332,832 286,682 310,730 578,252 660,704 139,978 507,908 59,240 109,920 5,617,120 6,211,090 5,113,350 1,596,800 1,633,500 3,816,190 1,110,800 1,761,795 9,858,232 6,326,136 4,260,996 8,803,302 1,500 51,840 17,008,844 18,986,060 6,666,356 4,012,148 4,660,950 15,473,530 11,913,854 2,566,812 9,918,152 1,356,096 2,198,400 191,000 45,000 1,300,418 1,095,927 1,260 50,000 27,286 9,000 185,774 148,329 210 7,600 40 (contii 33 20 22 20 19 19 wed} Aisne .... Allier Alpes, Basses ... Alpes, Hautes... Ardeche Ardennes Arie"ge Aube Aude Bouches du Rh&ne Calvados Cantal .. Charente Chareiite Infe"- rieure Cher Correze Corse Cdted'Or Cdtes du Word.. Dordogne Doubs Drdme Eure Eure et Loire ... APPENDIX. 381 Departments. Hectares of Vines; Hectolitres par Hectare. Total Hectolitre of Wine. Value in Francs. Hectoli- tres of Wine Distilled Hectoli- tres of Brandy. Strength by Cartier. Finistere Gard 51,198 47,902 73,785 137,002 91,941 h. a. 93,73 16,625 28,310 10,665 16,487 20,052 22,769 11,254 4,445 28,643 28,591 49,759 38,483 995 26,401 19,066 12,183 681 13,592 12,250 221 5,254 8,054 4,369 21,436 20,483 14,296 29,913 13,087 11,694 18,126 10,698 30,708 9,689 2,504 16,517 16,298 15,885 62 20,631 23,168 15,895 20-34f 9-76 14-83 18-72f 18-63 1-9 29-65i 17-00 23'OOJ 34-58f 18-70 25| 28-43 1-7 24-54 20 28'65 24-25 ll-39 16-43 15 18-69| 22-16 41-82 13* 50-64 5-6 44- 61 1-12 1,041,65 467,723 1,094,61 2,805,476 1,713,60 2,757 282,560 665,224 368,861 308,297 511,209 647,360 276,162 88,900 812,794 693,304 566,859 579,187 14,925 493,452 422,487 509,790 9,494 688,358 546,523 5,876 260,759 161,664 108,316 352,859 333,330 278,063 343,968 464,807 347,335 458,000 232,378 660,942 148,753 99,117 557,516 849,718 264,236 - 690 433,297 264,360 693,448 10,949,83 6,248,12 10,309,46 49,177,45 17,797,40 33,084 3,921,51 10,993,13 6,106,07 5,025,979 6,209,000 8,062,120 5,517,430 1,264,140 7,219,755 11,420,230 9,566,112 10,972,069 268,650 8,239,495 11,235,397 7,292,880 151,904 9,430,296 9,093,656 76,388 4,693,662 3,083,816 3,449,566 7,335,760 5,270,433 3,271,814 7,164,612 8,336,526 4,869,145 10,366,400 4,338,884 13,027,079 2,172,650 1,953,120 8,462,740 14,775,880 3,399,262 13,800 5,411,160 3,035,700 8,303,780 308,20 3,00 300,10 120,00 1,063,60 4,000 40,000 160,00 60,000 3,000 93,250 2,400 30,000 1,200 49,000 1,625 65,000 ( 29,61 \ 20,00 46 83,33 24,00 125,12 57 5,71 26,66 8,57 500 17,643 343 5,500 250 7,000 270 12,000 (conti 20 33 20 20* 19 33* 22 19 20 220 19 19 21 20* 20 20 20 20 lutd) Garonne Haute Gers Gironde He'rault Hie et Vilaine... Indre Indre et Loire... Jura . Landes Loir et Cher Loir . . . Loire Haute Loire Infe'rieure Loiret .. Lot Lot et Garonne Lozere Maine et Loire Manche Marne Marne Haute ... Mayenne Meurthe . . Meuse . Morbihan 26i 49-63 1-2G 20-07i 24| 16-46 2-21 16*26 7-20 19-45 11-50 35-51 8-13 29-70$ 25-26 21-72 1-10 21-521 15-36 1-16 39 33f 52-13| 16-69 9-15 11 1-7 21-00$ 11-40| 43 '62 Moselle .. Nieve Nord . . Oise Orne Pas de Calais ... Puy deDome ... Pyre'ne'es, Basses ... Pyre"n6es, Hautes Pyre'ne'es, Orien- tales Rhin, Bas .... Rhin,Haut Rh6ne . Saone, Haute ... Saone et Loire Sartke Seine Seine Infe'rieure Seine et Marne Seine et Oise ... Sevres, Deux ... Somme Tarn Tarn et Garonne Var 382 APPENDIX. Departments. Hectares of Vines. Hectolitres par Hectare. Total Hectolitres of Wine. Value in Francs. Hectoli- tres of Wine Distilled. Hectoli- tres of Brandy. %% Vaucluse . ... 22,038 13,374 21,423 2,351 3,116 33,630 16 25-19J 20-67J 15'52i 32- 67J 23'39i 362,208 336,982 435,451 36,506 100,808 886,604 6,519,744 3,369,820 4,881,130 512,922 1,905,720 23,639,086 15,000 11,000 16,000 2,500 1,350 2,288 20 22 22 Vend6e Vienne Vienne Haute... Vosges Yonne . Totals 1,736,056 mean 20-27 35,075,689 540,389,298 5,229,880 751,945 70,015 Add Brandy extracted from t Total Brandy from the Vine . tie Murk . 821,960 An attempt was made some time ago to value the French wines according to their qualities, by M. Chaptal. Without being founded on any positive data, these calculations carried the total value to 718,941,675 francs. The statement was an exaggerated one. The totals of the Cadastre, and more minute inquiries, have established that the foregoing table comes as near as possible to the truth. The calculations of M. Chaptal thus made, it is, therefore, a waste of space to repeat here, having given the value of the wines in each separate de- partment, with a total annually of 540,389,298 francs, or 22,516,220/. 15s. sterling. The mean exportation of all kinds of wine may be rated at some- thing above 1,155,074 hectolitres annually, of which England takes only 14,367. These added to the wines consumed in distillation, make about 6,384,953 hectolitres, leaving for wines drunk in France, spoiled, manufactured into vinegar, and the tike, 28,690,736. The consump- tion of wine in all modes, therefore, reckoning the French population at 31,000,000, cannot be anything like a hectolitre per head per annum. The value of the wines and spirits exported in 1823 was 76,639,026 francs; it had increased in 1832, in quantity if not in value, to 28,761,600 imperial gallons. The brandy exported is about 335,697*64 hectolitres per annum. To recapitulate, and add the other spirituous drinks in France, ex- cept liqueurs, Hectolitres. Value Francs. The brandy, averaging 19, distilled from other substances than the grape 93,457 Cider and Perry 8,868,738 Beer 2,300,689 "Wine 35,075,689 14,018,550* 67,178,956 1,335,236 540,389,298 Total of all kinds 46,338,573 622,922,040 It has been estimated at about eighteen gallons, and the annual value of eight shillings per head, on 33,000,000 population. The following * This brandy is perhaps valued too high at 150 francs the hectolitre. APPENDIX. 383 has also been given as the produce of France and its disposal, the pro- duce supposed to be 924,000,000 gallons. Consumed by proprietors not paying duty 198,000,000 Manufactured into brandy 141,000,000 Loss and waste with grower 91,344,000 Ditto in conveyance and with dealers 44,000,000 Exported 24,530,000 Made into vinegar 11,000,000 Duty on consumption 308,000,000 Fraudulent consumption 105,466,000 or 42,000,000 hectolitres. The inhabitants" of the towns consume 8,670,293 hectolitres, those of the country 19,122,707 hectolitres. If to 28,690,736 hectolitres of wine are added 12,000,000 more for beer, cider, and other liquids of a similar kind consumed, there cannot then be reckoned, including waste, as much as 1 J hectolitre of con- sumption per head for the population of France. The prices of the wines of France it would be of little use to give for the current year, as they vary so much with the season. The prices approximating as nearly as possible to mean prices are given in the chapters descriptive of the wines, and need not be repeated tabu- larly. The entire imports of French wine into Great Britain for the last hundred and fifty years were as follow: the home consumption is in some cases less, a part being exported. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. 1700 664 2 26 1729 894 51 1758 274 55 1701 2051 3 62 1730 636 24 1759 338 2 3 1702 1624 14 1731 1007 42 1760 377 2 37 1703 139 3 46 1732 865 2 44 176L 546 2 16 1704 198 3 7 1733 840 17 1762 303 3 49 1705 168 26 1734 780 1 56 1763 441 2 61 1706 158 3 3 1735 667 2 48 1764 446 1 7 1707 103 2 23 1736 528 3 4 1765 540 2 26 1708 167 1 23 1737 633 2 55 1766 497 3 7 1709 238 1 51 1738 471 2 22 1767 545 1 59 1710 113 3 60 1739 607 1 61 1768 441 2 39 1711 532 1 2 1740 856 2 47 1769 460 2 3 1712 116 39 1741 165 36 1770 468 2 27 1713 2551 2 26 1742 435 3 59 1771 535 3 20 1714 1198 1 55 1743 310 1 2 1772 475 3 17 1715 1260 2 48 1744 557 1 10 1773 494 1 61 1716 1570 1 49 1745 140 3 31 1774 560 52 1717 1396 1 37 1746 86 2 32 1775 497 1 43 1718 1798 1 42 1747 206 1 41 1776 434 3 48 1719 1766 2 2 1748 414 2 40 1777 602 1 35 1720 1366 36 1749 464 2 33 1778 595 2 3 1721 1247 1 20 1750 418 1 59 1779 363 1 34 1722 1424 3 16 1751 461 1 28 1780 376 1 33 1723 1037 1 8 1752 407 3 8 1781 378 3 38 1724 1147 3 57 1753 623 2 10 1782 456 3 14 1725 1087 3 14 1754 659 1 11 1783 370 33 1726 633 2 41 1755 650 1 34 1784 385 2 46 1727 1085 3 1 1756 554 3 44 1785 470 1 41 1728 1105 30 1757 350 3 24 1786 475 2 16 384 APPENDIX. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Imperial Gallons. 1787 2127 3 20 1809 13,105 33 1829 5474,37 1788 1445 1 45 1810 4,117 52 1830 408,210 1789 1114 3 26 1811 3,441 2 57 1831 337,093 1790 1101 2 52 1812 5,100 1 7i 1832 278,863 1791 1137 43 1813 741 15 1833 228,627 1792 1617 1 9 1814 3,902 3 32i 1834 260,930 1793 1590 11 1815 2,116 1 17i 1835 271,661 1794 757 3 25 1816 1,612 46f 1836 352,063 1795 1347 2 49 1817 802 2 17 1837 440,322 1796 1809 3 38 1818 1,798 2 6 1838 417,281 1797 850 2 1819 1,543 I 394 1839 270,738 1798 1577 49 1820 1,090 3 30 1840 239,172 1799 1662 61 1821 1,057 1 6 2-20 1841 353,7.40 1800 2078 1 15 1822 1,193 17 11-20 1842 360,692 1801 2506 3 36 1843 326,498 1802 1236 1 16 Imperial Gallons. 1844 473,789 1803 1445 9 1823 307,326 1845 443,330 1804 1425 3 1824 249,520 1846 409,506 1805 2593 1 5 1825 978,635 1847 397,329 1806 5393 1 40 1826 427,801 1848 355,802 1807 5438 1 33 1827 353,904 1849 331,690 1808 7838 58 1828 451,361 1850 342,223 ROUSSILLON WINES. (Page 149.) The statement in regard to these wines in the body of the present work was printed as their position when the first edition was pub- lished. The following bears relation to the wines of the province at the present time, the letter containing the statement having only just come to hand: " The department of the Pyrenees Orientales, part of the old pro- vince of Eoussillon, contains now about 30,000 hectares of vines, pro- ducing 11-50 hectolitres per hectare, or 345,000 hectolitres in all, of which the value is about 7,000,000 francs. The larger part of these wines is produced in the arrondissements of Perpignan and Ceret. They form two principal classes, known as 'Wines of the Plain,' and * Wines of Collioure and Banyuls.' The larger part of these wines is exported. The inferior qualities are consumed in the country, or carried into the neighbouring mountains of the departments on the borders of Spain. The best qualities are bought for Paris, Italy, Brazil, and the United States. The grapes mostly cultivated are the grenache, the mataro, and the crignane, for the red export wines. The pique-pouille noir, and gris, 'the serret, blanquette, and muscat, for fancy and white wines. The mataro gives the most colour, and the crignane the most fruit. The grenache contains the most saccharine matter and greatest quantity of must. The mixture of all these kinds is the mode generally adopted ; still many old vines, including a great variety, are more or less appreciated in the mingling. " The muscadine vintage is the earliest, and begins at the end of Sep- tember. A time is chosen when the weather is dry and the grape and soil are still warmed by the sun. If the grapes are not all mature, they are gathered at two different times, and are left at the foot of the tree until they are sufficiently dry and even shrivelled. They are then APPENDIX. t 385 trodden and pressed. Some suffer the fruit to dry on the stem before it is gathered. The must of the muscadine grape, after it is pressed, is very saccharine and thick. It is placed in vats to ferment. This wine is often sold and delivered after remaining fifteen or twenty days only in the vat, and without being cleared. In case the owner intends keeping it longer, it is racked a month or two after the pressing, when it deposits very largely. "The commune of Rivesaltes, distant six miles from Perpignan, affords the best muscadine wine. All that is made, about 400 hec- tolitres, is sold at a high price to the merchants of Lower Languedoc, who use it to increase the aroma of the muscadine wines of their own districts. Some of the growers place it in their cellars, where it ameliorates, and will keep an indefinite time. " At Rivesaltes, and some other vineyards o the department, par- ticularly at Rodez en Conflent, the grenache grape is alone planted. The must is not left to ferment upon the murk, or, if left, it is not for more than twenty -four hours. The fermentation takes place in the barrel. This wine is much esteemed, and preserves with age great clearness, vinosity, and bouquet. At ten or twelve years old it loses its colour, and takes a fine straw tint or that of a topaz. This class of wines is not sold, as it would be difficult to find a quantity sufficient for general purchase. It is the same with the Macabeo and Mal- vasia wines, which are made by a few persons only for family con- sumption. The white wines are made with the blanquette grape, produced from vines wholly of their own kind, or deposited from the black grapes with which they are often mingled in the vineyard. The vintage is completed at one picking, and not, as with the muscadines, at two. There are different qualities of these wines, more or less dry or sweet, the differences proceeding from the nature of the gravelly or quartzose soil in some vineyards, and the argillaceous or calcareous nature of others. About 800 hectolitres, planted with the blanquette grape, produce each on the average about twelve hecto- litres. " The red wines designed for exportation form the most important part of the Roussillon vintage. Although in this part of the south of France the time when the vine buds and blossoms is earlier than in the neighbouring departments of the Aude and the Herault, the vintage is later, and never commences for these wines before the first days of October in the plain, and at Collioure and Banyuls before the 8th. " In this part of France wine is rarely made in open vats, but gene- rally in large casks, called tonneaux a portes. The must from the press with the fruit is introduced by a square opening, closed by a covering having a small hole in the centre, through which the carbonic gas escapes during the fermentation. A large part of this gas is thus condensed in the space between the surface of the must and the cask. The pressure thus arising upon the murk prevents a too rapid fermentation, and pre- serves the aroma and alcoholic part of the wine. By this means the surface of the murk is kept from contact with the air, which tends to 2 c 386 APPENDIX. prevent acidity. The skins of the grapes, too, are constantly submerged, and the extraction of the colouring matter is rendered more com- plete. " When the fermentation is thought to have terminated, the wine is drawn off by a cock inserted in the lower part of the cask, and the murk is taken out by the opening already described. The vines of Collioure, Banyuls, and Port Vendres, are situated on the lower slopes of the Pyrenees which terminate in the Mediterranean. The soil is composed of schistose debris. To support the soil upon the steeper slopes, they form their vineyards in terraces. The produce is less than that of the vines growing on the plains. Neither the one nor the other receive dressing. The wines of Collioure and Banyuls are finer and sweeter than those of the plain, and also carry a higher price. They are bought by the merchants of Paris to ameliorate wines otherwise too harsh. "The wines of the plain are bought in a still larger quantity, the sales taking place shortly after the vintage. These wines are not racked before they are sold, when the sale is not deferred beyond the month of March, at which time the red wines are always racked. In general this is done but once, and not again unless with the wines destined to be long kept. Some growers rack a second time in the March of the second year from the vintage, for which they choose dry weather. The wine is kept in the cask until it becomes rancio, the name by which it is generally known in the country, and throughout Prance. It ameliorates in the cask by age. Care is taken not to move the tartar which forms on the interior of the staves, and diminishes evaporation through the pores of the wood. The red wines remain ten or fifteen years in wood, and at that age carry a golden colour, but even then they will not have attained full perfection. They deposit continually. If they are bottled they preserve their colour better, but as they form a crust and deposit, it is customary to decant them before they come to table. The muscadine wines are bottled at four years old. Age deepens their colour, and it is the same with the other white kinds. The red wines of Eoussillon are remarkable for their fine deep colour and alcohol. They have the peculiar advantage that they do not spoil by remaining in casks or bottles but partially filled. The wines of Collioure, Banyuls, and Port Yendres, are distinguished by their richness, aroma, and fineness; when they have attained a certain age, they rival the wines of Andalusia. About sixteen thousand hec- tolitres are made. The wines of the plain have equal body, but they are drier, and their quality is more varied, according to the difference in the nature of the soil, and the variety of the plant from which they come. The principal growths are those of Torremila, Corneilla de la Riviere, Pezilla, Baixas, Peyrestortes, llivesaltes, Salces, and Terrets. The wines of Estagel, Latour, and Us soul, are of less body than the former. There is a wine of this department, strong in body, deep in colour, of an excellent bouquet, and rich, soft taste, which bears great analogy to the wines of Portugal when old, without being as heady. It is called Masdeu, from the name of the vineyard producing it APPENDIX. 387 between Collioure and Perpignan. Masdeu, in the Catalan language, which is the popular language of Roussillon, for a long time a part of Catalonia, in Arragon, signifies * God's Farm.' It is the property of the bankers so well known, the Messieurs Fois Durand. Between Collioure and Port Vendres there is a small vineyard, which produces the Cosperon wine, a rich, sweet species. The prices of these wines are very variable, and rise, according to their age, very considerably. Bed, of good quality, only valued at 24 guineas at the vintage, will be 150 guineas at ten or twelve years old. Kept in bottle, it brings a franc and a half and two francs the bottle. Very old and fine qualities some- times bring five and even six francs." Legislation alone caused the change in our relations with France, and the rejection of "her delicate for coarser wines. For more than a century its influence has been felt, while attempting to exclude the produce of the vineyards of that country from our markets by dif- ferential duties. It is not difficult to trace the seeds of this commercial dissonance to the reign of Charles II., during which the French king (acting under the advice and in agreement with the system of his minister Colbert), having imposed some duties upon English goods, the lex talionis was applied. "It was about the same time (1667) that the French and English began mutually to oppress each other's industry, by the like duties and prohibitions, of which the French, however, seem to have set the first example. The spirit of hostility which has subsisted between the two nations ever since, has hitherto hindered them from being mode- rated on either side." Smith's Wealth of Nations. Notwithstanding these checks and discouragements to the French trade, our consumption of Portuguese wines was forced down to 1689; but the revolution which occurred in that year, by widening our political differences with France, had some effect in obliging the people of this country to seek elsewhere for their supplies of that beverage which, in all ages and in all countries, has been so much prized by man. The notion that in taking wine from France we promoted the benefit of that country exclusively, while Portugal returned the traffic in wine by taking our woollen goods, as if France, if she did not take woollen goods, took nothing in exchange, is a proof how ignorant we then were of the simplest principles of political economy. The following returns show our trade with France before we attached ourselves to Portugal exclusively: Years. French. Portuguese. Tuns. Tuns 1675 7,495 20 1676 9,645 83 1677 6,789 176 1678 7/212 199 31,1-11 478 In 1679 the French wines were prohibited. 2 c2 388 APPENDIX. Tears. 1679.. 1681 1682 1683 1684 French. Tuns. 3 1 French trade re-opened, 1686. Years. French. Tuns. 1686 12,670 1687 15,518 1688 14,218 1689 11,109 53,515 Portuguese. Tuns. 1,013 1,003 1,718 13,860 16,772 11,611 12,885 58,862 Portuguese. Tuns. 286 327 448 579 1640 Thus, in four years, the consumption of French wines, on the open- ing of the trade, nearly equalled in four years that of Portugal in seven. Prior to that important era our demand for French wines amounted at times to 20,000 tuns per annum.* The war which broke out in 1689 occasioned a stoppage of our supplies from France; and though the peace of 1693 was instantly followed by an increased import of French wines, notwithstanding the action of heavy differential duties, yet the durable commencement of the Oporto trade may be fixed about this period. Thus the "Farewell to Wine," published in 1693, runs Some claret, boy ! Claret, Sir ! Lord, there's none ! Claret, Sir ! why, there's not a drop in town ; But we've the best red port, What's that you call Red port ? A wine, sir, conies from Portugal ; I'll fetch a pint, &c. And Prior, who flourished at this time, has frequent allusions to the change in the beverage : Else (dismal thought) our warlike men Might drink thick port. Alma First Canto. And again And in a cottage or a court Drink fine champagne, or muddled port. Tliird Canto. Again Or if it be his fate to meet "With folks who have more wealth than wit, He loves cheap port. Prior's Chameleon. But spite of the poets, legislation and economy prevailed, and we accordingly find red port, or some of the other wines of Portugal were * A tun of wine is two pipes. APPENDIX. 389 introduced; for it must be born-3 in mind, that formerly the consump- tion of Lisbon white wines was very great. In 1697, 4774 tuns of Portuguese wines were imported, while only two tuns were brought from France, instead of 14,000, or, according to some, 20,000 tuns, but nine years before. The support which the Stuarts received at the court of France, and the intrigues of Louis XIV. in Spain, contributed to make the English government encourage a still closer amity with Portugal. Though the imports of French wines had again risen to 1800 tuns, the average in 1701 and 1702, when the war was again renewed, the supplies dimi- nished, and, to complete their exclusion, the Methuen treaty was signed in December, 1703. By that treaty it was stipulated that on condition we admitted the wines of Portugal at one-third less duty than those of France, Portugal would receive " the woollen cloths and the rest of the woollen manu- factures of the Britons till they were prohibited by the laws." Aided by the ten years' war, the effect of the treaty was, that the imports of French wines were reduced to 200 tuns in annual average or there- abouts ; but when the Treaty of Peace and Commerce was signed in 1712, the historian says that "a day being appointed by the Commons to deliberate on the Treaty of Commerce, very just and weighty ob- jections were made to the 8th and 9th articles, importing that Great Britain and France should mutually enjoy all the privileges in trading with each other that either granted to the most favoured nation, and that no higher customs should be exacted from the commodities of France than were drawn from the same productions of any other people. The balance of trade having long inclined to the side of France, some duties had been laid on all the productions and manu- factures of that kingdom, so as almost to amount to a total prohibi- tion." " Some member observed, that by the treaty between England and Portugal the duties charged upon the wines of that country were lower than those laid upon the wines of France; that should they now be reduced to an equality, the difference of freight was so great that the French wines would be found much cheaper; and as they were more agreeable to the taste of the nation in general, there would be no market for the Portuguese wines in England." Smollett's continuation of Hume, year 1713. No wonder that those interested in the Portuguese trade found the advance of the French imports from 116 tuns in 1712 to 2551 tuns in 1713 "a very just and weighty objection," especially if taken in con- nexion with what is stated at page 82 of " Original Documents concern- ing the injurious effects and impolicy of the Portuguese Royal Company at Oporto," published in London, 1813, "that so late as 1715 the Portuguese were supposed to have been ignorant of the art of preparing wine for exportation:" aye, twelve years after the treaty forcing them upon Englishmen was signed ! Influenced at once by hatred of France, disgusted at the treacherous treatment of our allies, by the then existing government, and a desire to be rid of the ministry, Parliament refused to sanction that Treaty 390 APPENDIX. of Commerce, and the differential duties were continued in full play. These, in 1726, according to a " Complete View of the British Customs, by Henry Crouch, of the Custom-house, London," consisted of old sub- sidy, new subsidy, additional duty, cognage, impost, additional impost. French wine, French duty; and though at this distance of time the modes of ascertaining the exact amount to an unpractised person are far from facile, yet the following, it is believed, will be found the sums levied respectively on French and Portuguese wines. The terms " filled" and " unfilled" were modes of entry. When the merchant took 011 himself the payment of the duties on the " actual content," as it is now expressed ; that is, on the exact quantity the cask contains ; the wines were entered " filled." With a view, however, to save very rigid examinations, an allowance of ten per cent, was made for leakage on the voyage ; and where this satisfied the merchant, he then entered the wines " unfilled." 1726. DUTIES PEK TUN ON WINES. FEEXCH. POETUG-UESE. Filled. Unfilled. Filled. Unfilled. For sale 4811 8 46 Private use... 49 810 4617 4 Retailers 49 11 10 48 3 7 For sale 20 7 3 1713 9 Private use... 21 5 6 18 910 Retailers 21 17 6 20 9 2 A trifling difference of duty attached at that time to the uses for which, in the entry at the Custom-house, it was declared the wines were in- tended to be applied. It would be easy to show that drawbacks may exercise either a very partial or prejudicial effect, or both ; at this period they were constituted so as eminently to favour Portugal, and injure France. 1726. DRAWBACKS ON WINE PER TUN. FEENCH. POETUGUESE. Filled. Unfilled. Filled. Unfilled. For sale 21 18 3 19 18 10 Private use... 22 6 5 20 6 Retailers 22 11 9 21 3 6 For sale 16 5 4 14 8 Private use... 1617 6 141011 Retailers 17 5 6 15 17 2 Leaving, as follow, the actual amount levied should the wines be ex- ported ; and in those days neither docks, nor bonded vaults, nor the ware- housing system, which created both, were in existence: FRENCH. PORTUGUESE. Filled. Unfilled. Filled. Unfilled. Porsale 2613 5 26 710 Frivateuse... 2617 5 2611 4 Retailers 27 1 27 1 For sale 4 1 11 3 13 6 Private use... 480 31811 Retailers 4 12 4 12 The effect of such heavy duties, from the unworthy hatred borne to everything French by the minister of the day, in endeavouring to force a taste for Portuguese wine, by making the people pay heavily for that to which they had been long accustomed, caused much smuggling. In APPENDIX. 391 a report of a, committee of the House of Commons relative to the customs in 1733, it appeared that from 1723 to 1725 no less than 4738 hogsheads of wine had been known from informations to have been run in Devon, Dorset, and Hants alone ! The habits of a people cannot be changed at the whim of a chancellor of the exchequer, without ex- tensive demoralisation. Port came into use in London before it was relished in the country. An invitation from a friend in Devonshire runs : " If you can leave bowls of Bourdeaux for a pint of port." None can fail to see why Portugal at that time supplied us with thousands, while Prance sent only hundreds of tuns. It may suffice to add an account of the duties levied on French and Portuguese wines, from 1786 inclusive; premising it with this single observation, that while we were patronising the wines of Portugal by such discriminating duties, the Portuguese were sagacious enough to perceive that more was done than was needful, and actually imposed an export duty to England only ! Not only, then, were we taxed to exclude French wines, but so taxed as to contribute liberally to the Portuguese ex- chequer. DUTIES ON FRENCH AND PORTUGUESE WINES FROM 1786 TO 1831 INCLUSIVE, PER IMPERIAL GALLON. Years. French. Portuguese. Years. Fre nch. Portuguese. 1786 1787 . 8. 8 G 1 ! 10 12 13 d. 8| 24 6 4i 4 7"! H S. 4 3 3 4 6 6 6 7 8 9 d. 2 6f lOf .3 9f 3 1805 to .... s. 13 19 13 13 7 7 5 d. S 84 9 9 2| 3 G s. d. 9 1* 9 1 9 li 9 H 4 9f 4 10 5 6 still existing, with 3d. addition total 5 9 1788 to .... 1795 1814 to .... 1819-. .. 1796 to .... 1798 to .... 1801.. . . 1825 1826- . .. Ig31 1802 1803 1804 From the period of our Revolution, then, to 1831, French wines had no opportunity of competing with those of Portugal in our mar- kets, being burdened by the action of these very heavy discriminating duties. But it may be asked, how it happens that though these duties were equalised in 1831, no material increase is yet observable in the Par- liamentary or other returns of the quantity consumed ? Among other causes, it is thought that the following have con- tributed to keep the demand contracted, and also to hinder the official returns, which are often but " false facts," from showing any increase. 1st. The very reduction of the duty, by rendering the French wines then most in use less recherche as a luxury, because less costly, would and did make them less valued by their former consumers, the rich and great, while as yet no other class of the community was familiarised either with them or any of the other varieties of French 392 APPENDIX. \vines, "respecting many of which, in England, as little is known as of Shiraz." 2nd. The alarm which the cholera produced tended materially to diminish the call for French wines, while, by way of compensation, it fell on the brandies of France. 3rd. In importance may be ranked the frequent changes of duty, oftener affecting French than Portuguese wines, in addition to their more onerous character, especially that of 1813, amounting almost to prohibition. Besides, time must be allowed for inquiry as to the most suitable wines for preparation to suit our markets, as also to prepare them after the choice is made, for only old wines are suited to England. Security is an inherent principle in the right application of capital ; and good wines for our market can only be had after long preparation. "WINES OF THE GIEONDE. WITH AVEBAG-E PEICES SINCE THE PEACE AS SOLD NEW BY THE GROWERS. In three or four years the increase for keep and shipping is 45 additional. MEDOC. Lafitte Latour Chateau Margot . Good Years. frs. 3000 2700 2400 1800 1500 1000 600 450 Middling 1 Bad. Tuns. frs. 1750 1400 1200 i 1000 900 600 400 300 frs. 400 350 325 300 280 250 220 300 620 650 750 1,100 6,000 20,000 20,000 49,420 60 200 3,000 10,000 1,000 3,000 30,000 100,000 961,680 tinned, Rausan, Durfort, Lascombe, Leoville, Branne IHouton Larose . Gorce, Ki'rwan, Chateau d'lsson, Malescot Brown, Ducru, Tichon, Cabarras, Cosse Galon, Giscours, Toujet, Loyac, Lacolonie Lorlagune, Daleure, Dubignon, Ferriere Durand, Palmer, Desmirail, St. Pierre, Du- luc, Becheville, Mandari, Montrose, Daux... Poutet, Cariet, Bedout, Ducasse, Grand Pui, Turine, Darmaillac, Montpelon, Bataily, DuHard, Croiset, Carnet, Coutanceau, Pop, Pergonson, Tronquoy, Morin, Lebose Of good St. Estephe, Pouillac, Soussan, Mar- The same lower Quantities . . Common of the same, and Lower Medoc Total tuns in all ^ledoc, ordinary year.. GRAVES. 2700 1500 800 500 700 450 400 300 1600 700 500 300 400 280 250 200 350 300 280 250 225 200 180 150 Second ditto Third ditto ST. EMILLON- First class Second ditto PALUS, COTES, &c. Good Car "'O Wine Lower ditto Produce of Gironde in common years . (con APPENDIX. 393 Good Years. Middling. Bad. Tims. WHITE WINES. Yguem, Coulet, Durvi, La Faurie, Binaud, Day nie . frs. 1100 frs. 700 frs. 300 430 Perot, Bert, Guiroux, Baptiste, Carle, Per- naud, Cave, Latour blanche, Duboscq, Riouscc. Bouclieraud, St. Brice 950 GOO 300 700 Pilhau, Hersoc, Fiton, Emerigon, Darche, Mareilhac, Laffont, Laborde, Monfailiis, Dllos Duboscq, Brim 800 400 ^40 4 7 Ordinary Wines of Sauterne, Barsac, Preig- nac . . . . . .. 450 300 200 I 600 Cerons, Podensac, Fargues, Toulains, Vire- lade, Arbales, Pujos, St. Pays 500 350 180 2,400 Blanquefort, Yilleneuve, Leognau 400 250 170 550 Flas, Landiras, Budos, St. Seve, St. Medard, St. Morillon, Labrede, Castres, St. Croix, Loupiac, Langoiran, Boreche, Tabanac, Paillet, Rioms, Begage, Cadillac 270 200 135 8000 Cambers, Quinsac, Camblanes, Bouillac, Flo- rae, Jeuac . 160 140 110 2,000 Eiitre deux mers.. 150 120 90 1 2,000 Average of White Wines in the Gironde... ... 28,127 The export of French wines to England diminished as follows : 1828, 948,733 gallons ; 1829, 792,171 gallons ; 1830, 605,908 gallons ; 1840, 239,172 gallons ; 1850, 342,223 gallons. This arises from the want of an exchange of goods between the two countries. Cash must be remitted for wine purchases. No. III. WINES OF THE SECOND AND THIED CLASSES SPANISH. Wines. Place. Character. Val de Penas New Castile C Good body, deeper than Manzanares Manzanares I Bourdeaux in colour. An inferior Val de Penas. Ciudad Real New Castile A tolerable red wine. Albacete Ditto Ditto Vino Tinto Alicant . . Valentia C Yellowish red colour, < when old railed Fondel- Mataro Catalonia Uol. Good bodied and generous. Torre, Beni Carlos, Santo Do-~) mingo, Segorbe, Perales, Vi- > neroz ) Valentia f Wines of good body, j some of the most esteem- 1 ed red growths of the Hospital Arragon ^country ; colour deep. ( Excellent flavour and < bodv from the Garnacho Carignena Ditto I grape. ( A vino tinto from the Tinto Olivencia Estramdura \ Garnacho grape. r Excellent red wine, the Tinto di Rota, or Tint ilia Andalusia (.best in Spain. KA sweet reddish cordial wine. (continued) 394 APPENDIX. Wines. Place. Character. Rlbidavla Gallicia An ordinary red wine Chacoli Biscay A very harsh austere wine Guindre . .. Malaga ( Dark, flavoured with Tinto di Malaga Ditto 1 cherries. ( Seldom exported a good Aleyor < Minorca, near (. wine. 7 A red wine, consumed Palma Mount Taurus Maiorca $ on the island. A full bodied wine Cordova Andalusia -\ Mirando de Ebro . . Old Castile (_ Grood red wines of the Carbezon Valladolid f country. Terra del Campo . Old Castile Velez Malaga Malaga A luscious sweet wine Malaga Ditto Ditto with a burnt taste Pedro Ximenes ... Ditto Ditto fine and delicate Malaga Xeres Ditto Resembling sherry dry. Xeres vino seco, pale and brown f \bocado . Xeres de la Frontera Ditto j Pale and brown sherry. A second growth sherry Jjuesca . .. . Ditto A yellowish white wine Paxarete . > Ditto and St. "> A sweet wine of light Moguer \ Lucar Niebla, Anda- ) amber colour. C t Used to lower the sher- < ries at Xeres, of which it Negro Rancio lusia Rota Us an inferior species. (" A sweet wine of a yel- Montilla . Cordova 1 low colour. C A dry wine of good bou- Borja \ Arragon and 1 quet and flavour. ( A luscious wine San Lucar di Barameda Tarragona Andalusia A light red muscadine. Manzanilla Ditto C Dry white, of inferior Zalonge and Carlon Ditto ( quality ; a vin du pays. Ditto. Yepes New Castile A well-flavoured red wine. Fuen9eral Ditto A vin de liqueur. Sitges and the Priory Catalonia Malmseys of two qualities. Peralta and Tudcla . . Navarre C White dessert _ wines. \ Peralto is a Rancio when Pollentia Majorca (aged. A vin de liqueur AlbaPlora . . Minorca A dry kind of Rhenish. Vidona The Canaries C A wine resembling Ma- Verdonia .... Ditto I deira, of inferior quality. C A green wine, not now Palma Ditto 1 made. C A rich Malmsey, having C a taste of the pine-apple. APPENDIX. 395 No. IV. The following is a statement of the importation of Spanish wines, from 1700 to 1849. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. 1700 13,649 7 1751 3878 1 5 1802 5,325 1 58 1701 11,184 2 17 1752 2918 2 50 1803 6,871 2 56 1702 7,482 2 : J 1753 5175 3 10 1804 6,646 3 29 1703 1 ,359 52 1754 4168 I 30 1805 9,393 2 25 1704 3,020 21 1755 4657 2 8 1806 8,264 3 1 1705 3,011 1 9 1756 3669 3 55 1807 7,640 3 28 1706 2,774 1 21 1757 2401 2 12 1808 11,986 2 8 1707 3,277 2 25 1758 4613 1 12 1809 10,939 46 1708 3,990 1 35 1759 3233 3 52 1810 10,168 1 21 1709 4,904 1 58 1760 3843 1 50 1811 4,541 3 22 1710 8,591 24 1761 4244 3 36 1812 8,068 2 24 1711 6,786 2 7 1762 2611 I 12 1813 Returns lost by fire 1712 5,690 1 51 1763 3504 3 47 1814 5,635 1 58| 1713 7,031 3 10 1764 3720 3 8 1815 5,148 38 1714 8,479 3 23 1765 3854 1 31 1816 3,392 2 15 1715 9,2 { retic qualities. Secondary Moselle Bacharach . (. Canton ) Near Mayence ^Yme once in high repute. C Becherbach \ Secondary Moselle. AYalporzheimer \ Canton $ Upon the Ahr Called wine of the Ahr. Rutz On the Moselle C Considered one of the Steeg Near Ba^harach A light Rhine wine. Montzingen Ditto Inferior ditto. Bodendorf Near Bonn A secondary wine. Affenbourg Hamcn . Near Coblentz Ditto, a Rhine wine. Strang CNearNeider") Ditto. Elzenburger ... ... I Breisig j Ditto Ditto. Alzenburger . Ditto Ditto LutZ Near Treiss Ditto. "Maas and Huhn .... C Niedar \ Ditto. Stuererboes; .... c. Heimbach > Rhine Ditto. (continued) 398 APPENDIX. Wines. Places. Character, Engehohe On the Nahe C Called wine of the Nahe ; Neiderborg Ditto (. secondary wines. Ditto Leinenborn .. Ditto Ditto Bangert . Ditto Ditto Rosenhech . . . Ditto Ditto Rensberger Tarbach Secondary Moselle. Wurzgarten Tarben Ditto Amfuhr C Burg, left ) < bank of the > Ditto. Rothenberger C Rhine f } Geisenheim Soft delicate prime wine. Scharlach f Mt. Schar- \ C Pine flavoured; rich Roth \ lachberg $ rNear Hoch-^ s heim Spire r (. aroma. Hock of good Quality Konigsbach (. district ) Ditto Ditto Weinheiin Ditto Ditto Porst Ditto Ditto TJngstein Dit^o Ditto Schierstein and Narden Epstein . ... Wisbaden C Near > Tolerable wines. Middling wines Phillipsecli . (. Prank fort y Ditto Ditto Reichenberg and Wildenstein Pdnerbach and Laufen Erbach ( Kear Pri- ^ 3 bourg, at I ( Inferior Rhine wine in I quality. (" These are considered the Heidelberger and Kleingenberger Richenau Island 1 Baden- C {. weiler ) Baden C Lake of \ Ibest wines of Baden. Good wines of the country. Ditto. Meresberg and TJberlingen Cretzingen I Constance ) Near the Lake Baden Ditto. Ditto. Berghausen and Stellingen Ditto Ditto. Beringfield and Zeil Bavaria s LindauandRavenspurg Schweinf urt Ditto Ditto J- Inferior wine. Liest Wurtsberg f Excellent wine, Rhen- Stein Ditto |ish character. Ditto of a very dear price. La Harpe Ditto ( Inferior, but often sold Escherndorf and Sehalhsberg Bischofsheini Ditto ( Near Ha- *) < nau, Prank- > C. for Stein. Inferior to Stein. ( A. tolerable wine, resem- Calmus L fort J ( Treiffen- S 3 stein, near f tbling Rhenish. A vin de liqueuv. Guben . . . ~) y Aschaffen- \ L bourg ) Meissen..... ) Saxony Very poor wines . Pranconia ... Pranconia A vin de paille ; aromatic. Assmannshauser Bessingheimer C The Rhein- ") < gau, near > C Rudesheim ) f Lauffen, ") C Equal to the second class 1 of Burgundy ; excellent (.body. ( Well tasted, good bou- < quet ; called wine of the 1 Wirtemberg / CNeckar. (continued) APPENDIX. 399 Wines. Place. Character. Altenahr ('Rhine coun-") 4 try, left > Inferior wine. Mavschof (. bank J Ditto Ditto. Rech Ditto Ditto. Ahrweiler .... Ditto Ditto. Bruch . . Ditto Ditto. Creutzberger Ditto Ditto. Hoenningen Ditto Ditto. Kesseling Ditto Ditto. Dernan Ditto Ditto. Blischert Lintz A tolerable good wine. Neuwied Blischert Wangen . ( Hesse ) t Darmstadt ) Bavaria Ditto. < Poor, though esteemed < . , , ' Naumbourg . Saxony Cm the country. C Like fourth class Bur- s gundy ; styled vins agre- The wine of Blood, Sang des") Suisses ... ) Bale Llets. C A good wine, called also < the Hospital and Ceme- Erlacli Berne Ctery of St. James. Valteline . 5" Made in the ") Remarkable for durability. Boudry and Cortaillods . (. ~\ alteline / Neufchatel < Equal to third class Bur- Cully ... C Near Lau- ") l gundy. Desales < sanne, and > Like Rhenish. La Cote (. Vevay ) C Between ~\ s Lausanne ? Bernang Cand Coppet j St Gall T 1 Frangy and Monnetier .. Geneva J ' La Marque . ") C Red and white, and Coquempin / Martigny < muscadine of tolerable Chiavenna Grisons (.quality. C Aromatic, white, from (.red grapes. No. VII. The following is the importation of German Wines for the last hundred and forty-nine years. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. 1700 1430 3 56 1710 434 1 17 1720 529 1 38 1701 789 1 39 1711 514 3 14 1721 444 2 59 1702 693 3 21 1/12 387 2 27 1722 406 13 1703 748 10 1713 378 47 1723 491 1 35 1704 667 3 33 1714 103 3 34 1724 332 28 1705 441 I 49 1715 502 3 34 1725 269 50 1706 331 1 47 1716 476 1 54 172(5 397 1 49 1707 568 3 50 1717 418 3 61 1727 509 1 6 1708 ! 584 3 31 1718 495 1 16 1728 476 3 12 1709 ! 544 1 46 1719 418 42 1729 616 1 12 (continued) 400 APPENDIX. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. 1730 480 2 29 1771 164 3 62 1812 23 1 30i 1731 413 2 41 1772 151 1 8 1813 No Return 1732 412 1 33 1773 125 39 1814 126 3 564 1733 325 2 56 1774 125 37 1815 140 3 isj 1734 367 2 60 1775 160 40 1816 121 2 42j 1735 312 27 1776 1'26 3 50 1817 85 28 1736 198 3 2 1777 151 28 1818 153 2 62 1737 312 3 15 1778 111 1 16 1819 120 1 60 1738 276 3 4 1779 88 3 41 1820 130 1 58 7-10 1739 211 2 32 1780 128 54 1821 110 1 45 13-20 1740 2-21 1 14 1781 94 1 34 1822 115 3 31 6-20 1741 204 2 17 1782 219 1 15 1742 250 16 1783 196 2 2 Imperial Gallons. 1743 205 1 3 1784 124 3 19 1823 26,332 1744 219 5 1785 133 3 47 1824 27,666 1745 162 3 33 1786 187 3 52 1825 146,346 1746 162 2 16 1787 177 1 32 1826 86,023 1747 180 3 45 1788 138 2 27 1827 79,784 1748 193 1 18 1789 117 6 1828 84,264 1749 275 1 33 1790 122 1 20 1829 71,641 1750 272 2 17 1791 128 1 40 1830 66,213 1751 260 48 1792 139 1 1 1831 71,423 1752 249 1 53 1793 110 2 27 1832 60,568 1753 242 2 5 1794 129 1 37 1833 38,197 1754 219 1795 36 1 1834 43,758 1755 213 3 9 1796 54 12 1835 48,696 1756 198 2 25 1797 48 1 15 1836 59,454 1757 171 2 33 1798 61 3 56 1837 44,807 1758 163 I 46 1799 92 3 45 1838 57,584 1759 182 2 23 1800 19 2 18 1839 63,937 1760 219 3 53 1801 105 3 45 1840 60,0. r >6 1761 189 I 47 1802 114 2 4 1841 55,242 1762 186 33 1803 158 42 1842 53,535 1763 199 1 1804 34 3 2 1843 49,943 1764 176 1 31 1805 21 56 1844 53,865 1765 230 3 39 1806 103 1 57 1845 62,519 1768 205 1 25 1807 144 59 1846 64,478 1767 225 58 1808 628 1847 55,774 1768 176 3 12 1S09 43 2 5 1848 44,651 1769 179 3 31 1810 33 1 9 1849 46,405 1770 140 2 62 1811 110 39 No. VIII. SECOND AND THIRD CLASSES. PORTUGAL WINES. Name. Province or Town. Remarks. Carcavellos, or Lisbon | Bucellas Between OEiras and Carcavellos Near Lisbon. f Sweetish, white, well known tin England. {A fiery wine, from brandy being mingled with it ; some- Vinho de Torino Estremadura thing like Barsac when pure. C A light ordinary wine of the Setuval . Ditto t country, f Two kinds, dry, and mus- (. cadine ; both good. (continued) APPENDIX. 401 Same. Province or Town. Remarks. Lainego Near Coimbra An inferior kind of Bordeaux. Alenquer, Monsaou Estremadura (" As the form er, but somewhat Santorin . . . Near Lisbon I better in quality. An ordinary wine. Barra a Barra Near Lavadrio A good wine. Colares Near Ciiitra A light port, of good quality. Pezo da Regoa, Abasas, VilO larinho des Freires, Gor- I vaens, Alvacoes do Corgo, ^ Honnida, Guials, Conve- linhas, Galafura J On the Douro C AVines of the Douro, of the -< first and second qualities, or CFeitoria and Ramo. Geropisa General r Used to mingle with the na- j tural growths an artificial 1 mixture to assimilate wines to vvarious tastes. No. IX. PORTUGAL WINES imported into Great Britain from 1700 to 1849. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. GalL 1700 7,757 1 47 1737 I 14,985 I 14 1774 13,773 2 39 1701 7,408 *2 31 1738 11,487 2 10 1775 12,658 3 61 1702 5,924 3 60 1739 11,747 1 47 1776 12,755 1 13 1703 8,845 1 60 1740 7,524 3 28 1777 14,482 55 1704 9,924 2 49 1741 16,559 1 14 1778 11,871 1 46 1705 8,449 2 59 1742 15,270 20 1779 10,127 2 9 1706 7,709 23 1743 16,611 2 56 1780 17,107 1 48 1707 9,01 1 3 44 1744 8,028 3 27 1781 10,963 28 1708 9,637 2 24 1745 15,209 2 40 1782 8,063 58 1709 7,651 19 1746 11,450 2 35 1783 10,908 1 56 1710 6,729 3 18 1747 13,490 2 30 1784 11,434 3 13 1711 7,647 3 54 1748 11,820 1 40 1785 12,171 6| 1712 6,483 36 1749 13,470 2 29 1786 11,770 1 37 1713 5,975 2 51 1750 9,050 60 )787 16,087 13 1714 8,965 1 8 1751 10,188 47 1788 18,039 3 27 1715 10,721 3 46 1752 10,132 3 4 1789 19,839 1 35 1716 9,105 2 37 1753 12,815 58 1790 21,431 3 22 1717 10,340 26 1754 10,036 1 9 1791 23,606 17 1718 14,617 2 41 1755 11,022 3 34 1792 26,938 3 23 1719 12,171 33 1756 7,841 20 1793 15,629 2 9 1720 11,152 1 44 1757 11,066 2 24 1794 22,229 3 40 1721 14,086 3 26 1758 10,826 1 27 1795 25,286 2 1 1722 11,580 18 17P9 11,669 2 44 1796 15,017 2 58 1723 12,336 3 41 1760 10,986 3 33 1797 12,420 2 14 1724 14,222 3 50 1761 9,622 JO 1798 16,956 3 11 1725 14,403 2 30 1762 12,995 2 33 1799 24,300 1 10 1746 7,772 3 41 1763 12,936 3 39 1800 20,738 47 1727 12,945 3 35 1764 13 ; 046 3 59 1801 28,669 1 27 1728 18,208 58 1765 13,506 1 34 1802 22,023 7 1729 14,371 1 25 1766 13,135 3 37 1803 27,682 3 53 J730 5,279 2 5 1767 12,619 1 39 1804 9,849 2 3 1731 1^, 122 1 58 1768 14,311 3 36 1805 20,003 61 1732 10,939 2 37 1769 13,760 1 17 1806 19,848 1 38 1733 11,162 32 1770 11,919 3 18 1807 23,914 1 62 1734 11,723 1 10 1771 12,396 2 7 1808 22,093 16 1735 13,838 1 1772 11,957 3 52 1809 20,578 1 61 1736 11,367 2 13 1773 11,847 44 1810 27,360 39 (continued, 402 APPENDIX. Tuns. Hds. Gal!. Imperial Gallons. Imperial Gallons 1811 9,'260 2 19 1823 2,775,941 1837 2,573,157 1812 15,007 3 28 1824 2,392,557 1838 2,900,457 1813 f Returns lost by") ) firp \ 1825 1826 4,587,616 2,883,891 1839 1840 2,921,422 2,668,534 C. lire j 1827 3,063,394 1841 2,387,017 1814 15,498 48| 1828 3,008,808 1842 1,288,953 1815 16,913 60 1829 2,416,132 1843 2,517,709 1816 8,215 35f 1830 2,608,311 1844 2,887,501 1817 14,125 1 36f 1831 2,933,176 1845 2,688,084 1818 17,944 2 4f 1832 2,762,935 1846 2,699,798 1819 10,311 1 24| 1833 2,617,405 1847 2,360,851 1820 10,598 1 24J 1834 2,780,303 1848 2,446,813 1821 12,092 3 13 12-20 1835 2,780,024 1849 2,648,242 1822 14,814 2 20 1836 2,878,359 TOTAL EXPORT OP WINES PROM OPORTO. PIPES, FEOM 1824 TO 1833, INCLUSIVE. England. Other Parts. Total. 1824 19,968 6,149 26,117 1825 40,277 170 40,477 1826 18,310 287 18,597 1827 24,207 10,030 34,237 1828 27,932 13,295 41,227 1829 17,832 7,539 25,371 1830 19,333 4,832 24,165 1831 20,171 3,268 23,439 1832 13,573 2,977 16,550 1833 19,432 1,063 20,495 No. X. WINES OF MADEIRA AND THE AZORES. Name. Province or Town. Remarks. MaWasia, or Malmsev Madeira Rich and sweet. Madeira Ditto A durable, dry wine. Sercial Ditto Ditto, of excellent quality. Muscatel . Ditto Not exported ; a good wine Tinto Ditto ( A red wine, changing i ta few years to rich ol Fi*aa do Pereiro . ") Madeira in colour. ( Of inferior kind to th Santa Antonio S *Vino Passado [ Ditto Pico in the \_ above, f A species t of Malmsej *Vino Seco . . Azores Ditto 1 of light quality ; keeps ill C A dry wine, light, no (. durable. In 1798, a Portuguese cjeira of land, 240 feet by 120, bore 1000 vim roots, yielding generally a pipe of wine, valued at 12,000 reis, o] 3l. 7s. 6d. The expense of cultivation was 6000 reis; duties, 1045 contingencies, 945 ; profit, nearly 4000 reis, or about I/. 2s. 6d. on th< fruit for a pipe of wine. * The importations of the Azores wines are generally included in the list o miscellaneous wines imported. APPENDIX. 403 No. XI. MADEIRA. WINES imported into Great Britain from 17S5 to 1849. Tuns. HJids. Gall. Tuns. Hhds. Gall. Imp. GalL 1785 ! G13 2 26 1808 2790 50 1829 218,311 1786 526 2 9 1809 2902 1 44 1830 204,956 1787 ."57S 1 41 J810 2353 1 24 1831 228,221 1788 K74 2 13 1811 1518 33 1S32 219,102 1789 1174 1 12 1812 2035 2 47 1833 161,042 1790 14G4 3 45 1813 No returns 1834 150,369 1791 1623 2 58 1814 2018 2 5QJ- 1835 139,422 1792 1252 42 1815 1826 Hi! 1836 133,673 1793 1007 3 1816 1512 1 3J; 1837 119,873 1791 783 2 10 1817 1270 2 58i ; 1838 110,294 1795 699 3 52 1818 2316 2 4V 1839 118,715 1796 501 1 23 1819 2922 281 1840 112,555 1797 287 3 1820 2617 1 6l| 1841 107,701 1798 659 17 1821 2411 2 44 3-20 1842 65,209 1799 671 41 1822 2046 1 59 10-20 1843 95,589 1800 967 2 42 1844 111,577 1801 1777 54 Imperial Gallons. 1845 102,745 1802 1497 3 38 1823 450,417 1846 94,580 1803 1564 1 1824 489,816 1847 81,349 1804 1075 40 1825 541,453 1848 76,938 1805 1101 3 41 18-26 569,668 1849 71,097 1806 1605 2 61 | 1827 308,041 1807 1981 3 32 1828 258,795 No. XII. " METHUEN TREATY." (Page 235.) Treaty between England and Portugal, signed Dec. 27, 1703. "Art. 1. His sacred royal Majesty of Portugal promises, both in his own name and that of his successors, to admit for ever hereafter, into Portugal, the woollen cloths and the rest of the woollen manufac- tures of the Britons, as was accustomed until they were prohibited by the laws; nevertheless, upon this condition: " 2. That is to say, that her sacred Majesty of Great Britain shall, in her own name and that of her successors, be obliged for ever here- after to admit the wines of the growth of Portugal into Great Britain; so that at no time, whether there shall be peace or war between the kingdoms of Great Britain and France, anything more shall be de- manded for these wines, by the name of customs or duty, or whatsoever other title, directly or indirectly, whether they shall be imported into Great Britain in pipes or hogsheads, or other casks, than what shall be demanded from the like quantity or measure of French wine, deduct- ing or abating a third part of the custom or duty ; but if at any time this deduction or abatement of customs, which is to be made as afore- said, shall in any manner be attempted and prejudiced, it shall be just and lawful for his sacred royal Majesty of Portugal again to prohibit the woollen cloths, and the rest of the British woollen manufactures. " 3. The most excellent Lords of the Plenipotentiaries promise and take upon themselves that their above-named masters shall ratify this treaty, and that within the space of two months the ratification shall be exchanged. " Given at Lisbon, the 27th of Dec., 1703. " MARCHIS ALEGRETENSIS. " JOHN METHUEN." 9 T> 9 404 APPENDIX. "NATURAL EFFECT OF THE MONOPOLY." (Page 287.) The Oporto Company seem to have possessed astonishing power over the seasons ; in that the wines were rarely affected in price by bad or good vintages, but came to England in the same qualities and prices as usual, however they went to other countries. It must be observed, that the Company fixed the time of the vintage often without any re- gard to the chance of the rains setting in, these taking place some seasons a few days sooner than others, and thus injuring the vintage. Whether they delayed it to the last moment, in hopes to obtain a riper and more perfect vintage, or whether any motive more ignoble was the cause, is not clear. In the fine climate of Portugal the hazard from bad seasons must be thought very slight, much less than in Bur- gundy. Neither in a good season in Burgundy, nor anywhere else, would the first class of wines be some very fine and some very bad. First and third classes would be equally affected by a good or bad season, but this is not the Company's experience in a steady southern climate. The prices of the wine, nevertheless, have nothing to do with the quantity or quality. The following years carry the prices of the better wines per tun, and the character of the year's vintage. The years 1797 and 1798, it must be observed, were years both marked " very bad;" 1799, 1800, and 1801, the same. In the natural course of events, the wine of one year would be materially affected by the bad season preceding, did not monopoly interfere. Years. Quality Prices per Tun of Two Pipes. Pipes grown. Pipes imported. 1799 Bad. s. d. 82 10 64251 4,600 1800 Bad . 92 10 72,484 41,476 1801 Generally bad some good 89 3 71,658 57,338 1802 Good 71 18 46 263 44,046 1803 Good ... 94 9 73,430 55,364 1804 Good . 89 10 76,655 19,698 1805 Middling 82 9 76 550 40,006 1806 Very good 86 9 57,869 39,696 1807 Ordinary . . 84 19 54,707 47,828 1808 Middling 94 9 56 524 44,186 1809 1810 1811 Middling, but some of high flavour... Some good, of full flavour, but light... Some good 98 9 114 9 104 to 110 38,633 36,250 42663 41,156 54,720 18,520 1812 Good, some very fine 133 55,913 30,005 1813 Ordinary 108 no ret. no ret. 1814 Ditto 105 30,996 1815 Very good 93 6 8 33,826 1816 Middling 84 47,819 16,430 1817 Ordinary 84 37422 28.250 1818 Middling, some good 96 53.831 35,888 1819 Ditto, some high flavoured 96 73,936 20,622 1820 Very good ... 78 13 4 70,231 21,196 The total exportation of wines from Oporto has not increased of late years. In 1819 there were 13,146 pipes less exported than in 1780, and in 1820 the quantity was 4486 less. In 1849 the exports of port wine to England and Europe had gene- rally averaged for seven years 24,632 pipes annually. It will be seen that the price of 1800, after no less than three bad APPENDIX. 405 years, is nearly equal to the good years. It is remarked in other coun- tries, that abundant years are, for the most part, years of good quality and good prices, but then they have not the enjoyment of a managing company to balance natural disadvantages. These and other abuses were often noticed, but the treaty and the Company, twin evils, stifled everything like resistance to their despot- ism. The (jpmpany was always triumphant. The same wine has been shipped to England from Oporto, in virtue of the treaty, at 40/. a pipe, and to other countries at 20/. ! The Board of Trade in vain pointed out the character of this monopoly in 1767. To exhibit the conduct of the Company as to consistency and the ful- filment of its duties, the following table will be sufficiently explanatory to the reader, showing the qualities and produce of the vintage of the Douro in the years named, and its system of approval and disapproval of the same wines, as might be found convenient. The table illustrates the working of the system (page 249), and explains how bad and good vintages are made of the desired quality; Produce. Years. As First Class. As Second. As Third. Repose. Total. Deducted from First Approval. Left Approved. 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 Totals 18,002 21,338 6,585 35,801 38,214^ 25,721 12,450 15,714 12,754 10,162 18,101i 18,7084 21,843 10,909 17,166 15,643 16,127 29,384| 24,448 36,998i 14,239i 21,580 16,931 28,332 19,471 10,356| 22,552| 30,030 72,462 66,666 61,206 102,758 91,727 107,115f 67,628 6,002 7,338 1,585 15,801 20,214$ 18,721 5,450 12,000 14,000 5,000 20,000 18,000 7,000 7,000 158,111| 108,192| 154,006^ 149,253* 569,5631 75,11U 83,000 "MODIFICATION OP THE COMPANY'S CHARTER." (Page 243.) "1. The General Company for the Superintendence and Encourage- ment of the Vineyards of the Alto Douro shall continue in existence, in as far as the production of wines in that district shall exceed the quantity exported and used for home consumption. "5. The existing divisions of Feitoria andliamo shall cease: but the exterior line of demarcation shall be retained, comprehending all those lands which are now planted, or may afterwards be planted with low wines, within the said boundary. " 6. The Directors of the Company shall continue, as heretofore, to take an account of the quantity and qualities of wine produced, and to regulate the tonnage upon it. "9. The Government, on receiving the Report of the Directors, shall determine, according to the circumstances, both the day for the opening of the fair of the Douro, and the time for its duration ; provided always, that the opening be not deferred beyond the second day of February. " 10. The preferences which the law had accorded to the Company, and the legitimate export merchants (negociantes legitimos exporta- dores), are declared to be abolished. 44 11. Every citizen shall be at liberty to purchase wines in the 406 APPENDIX. Alto Douro, and to sell them in the town of Oporto, or wherever else he may find expedient, as well as to distil any wines, whether of his own manufacture, or bought by him. " 12. The Company shall be obliged to purchase, at the price fixed by the law of the 21st September, 1802, all the wine remaining unsold after the fair of Kegoa, that shall be offered to it by the farmers, until the end of March. "13. The wine mentioned in the preceding article, in case it be not exported, may be applied to the same purposes as the inferior wines, or sold for distillation. " 18. Only the Directors of the Company shall have the right to sell and import brandy for preparing and mixing with wines, within the barriers of Oporto, Villa Nova de Gay a, and the line of demarca- tion of the Alto Douro. " 30. The present decree shall continue in force for the space of five years, or until the whole or any of the articles contained in it shall be revised or altered in such manner as may be judged fit." DECREE. PEESENTED BY JOSE DA SILVA CAEVALHO, DECLAEING LISBON" AND OPOETO PEEE POETS. " Art. 1. The port of Lisbon is free to all merchant vessels of every country, not at war with Portugal ; and every kind of merchandise and articles of commerce will be admitted into it for deposit, wheresoever produced, or under whatsoever flag imported. " 9. All the provisions of the present decree shall be extended to the city of Oporto, as soon as the measures necessary to facilitate its execution shall be taken. " The Minister for the Affairs of Finance will take notice hereof, and see to its execution. (Signed) " DON PEDRO, Duke of Braganza. " Palace das Necessidados, 22nd March, 1834." A previous decree, dated April 3, 1 833, permitted the import of foreign wines into Oporto by sea or land, upon payment of a duty of 20 per cent, ad valorem. DECREE. (Page 255.) " Taking into consideration the reports of the Ministers of the In- terior and of Finance, and with the advice of the Council of State, I think fit, in the name of the Queen, to decree as follows : " Art. 1. All the privileges, authorities, prerogatives, and imrnu- rities, of whatever nature or denomination, granted to the Wine Company of the Alto Douro, and to the Junta of its administration, from the time of its establishment to this day, are abolished. " 2. The free disposal of their vineyards and wines is accordingly restored to the cultivators of the Upper and Lower Douro, as to those of all other parts of these kingdoms. APPENDIX. 407 " 3. All imposts hitherto laid on the wines of Oporto, with the ex- ception of the subsidio litterario, and of the duties on consumption in the city of Oporto and its district, as well as that of 12,500 reis on each pipe exported from the Foz of Douro, are abolished. " 4. The subsidio litterario shall be received, as in every other place, by the Receiver General and his deputies. " 5. The duties on consumption shall be received in the same man- ner, but those on exportation will be paid at the Custom-house of the the city of Oporto, on the manifests which are to be presented by the sellers and exporters under the penalties ordered in such cases. " 6. The company shall convoke the shareholders within a month, to deliberate with them on the settlement of the accounts, the employ- ment of their property, and their interests. " 7. All ordinances and regulations whatsoever contrary to the present decree are abolished, as if they were expressly mentioned. The Ministers of the Interior and Finance are charged with the execution of the present decree. " DON PEDRO, Duke of Braganza. " BENTO PEREIRA DA CARMO. " JOSE DA SILVA CARVALHO. " Palace das Necessidados, May 30, 1834." POET WINE. (Page 253.) Extract from a letter in the Periodica dos Pobres, dated Regoa, Por- tugal, October 19, 1843 : " The grapes in the quintas of the first rank and in the hotter situa- tions (which an English house declared last year were burned up) were this year in the most perfect condition, and produced musts of a very superior kind. The rage for elderberries still continues, and in one quinta alone it is notorious that a purchase of not less than 400 razas was made. Elderberry here is at 3200 per raza, and is of a very in- ferior quality. An exception, however, to this taste deserves to be mentioned ; for a merchant who possesses property here a few days ago ordered all the alders, which his commissary had planted, without his orders to afford shade in the courtyard of his warehouse, to be cut down ; and I am informed that the same merchant, who has bought and made wines this vintage, in order to obtain them pure, inserted the following clause in the contract : * The wines are to be made at the expense of the purchaser, it being, however, understood that the use of elderberry is prohibited, in consequence of the purchasers considering it not only prejudicial to the quality of the wine, but also to the credit of the contracting parties.' " It continues : " There is a great demand for brandy, and it has reached the price of 74 dolls. 400 rs. per pipe. This is to be attributed to the excessive quantity which it is the present custom to throw into the wine during its first racking, and also to the extensive orders given this year for Geropiga. If the ancient system of making wine were to be reverted to by the merchants in general, we might then hope to 408 APPENDIX. see port wines in the enjoyment of their full credit; but unhappily, as the general taste still continues for black, strong, and sweet wines, which is not the character of the pure wines, the latter are rejected, and the farmer has no other resource than to make his wines in such a way as promises to be most lucrative to himself." In a letter from the same writer, dated from Eegoa, October 30, 1843, the Velho Lavrador do Douro, so signing his printed correspondence, and still complaining of the mode in which the wines of his country are treated, writes: *' I cannot but declare that the real innovators are certain English merchants who come here and make wine after their own fashion, be- fore the right time, and in a wrong way, thus inducing some incautious farmers to follow their injurious example. I am nearly sixty-one years of age, and am obliged to declare that never in the course of those years have I seen so much ignorance and imprudence. If those gentle- men would only get rid of some of their pride, they certainly could not deny that, if they had acted in a different manner, they would not have found themselves under the necessity of distilling or selling for tavern use the produce of those new discoveries of their ' Progresso' produce, which conld not have failed to equal that of the worthy farmers of the Douro, if in the making of it that degree of intelligence and capacity which abounds in my honoured countrymen had not been wanting." MADEIRA. (Page 268.) A decree relative to Madeira is as follows: " 1. All such goods and merchandise as are admitted to pass through the Custom-houses in Portugal shall have the same privilege at the Custom-house of Funchal, in the island of Madeira. " 2. The Custom-house at Funchal will be regulated in every respect by the practice of the one at Lisbon, excepting in any thing which may be peculiar to that island. "3. Its wines will pay a duty of three per cent, when exported to Portugal, and of eight per cent, when to foreign countries, upon the valuation of sixty milreas per pipe ; all other produce of the country, such as fruits, salt fish, sweetmeats, &c., will only pay one per cent, on exportation. "4. Each pipe of wine which may be ripened by stoving shall be subject to a duty of two milreas per month." N.B. The reason assigned for this is, that the government consider the quality of the wines injured by this process, and they wish, by the imposition of this tax, to discourage its continuance. The other articles are not of any general importance. APPENDIX. 409 No. XIII. SECOND AND THIRD CLASSES. ITALIAN AND SICILIAN WINES. Name. Trovince or Town. Remarks. Lacrynaa Christ! ) Naples, Mount Vesuvius Sicily Naples Ditto Sicily, Mount Etna Ditto Ditto Roman States Piedmont Elba Ditto Ditto Tuscany Ditto Ditto Ditto MountVesuvius, Lake Aver no, Maria deCapoua Ditto Naples Ditto Ditto Ditto Near Reggio Campagna Kingdom of Naples Sicily Ditto Lipari Isles Near Bologna Near Spoletto ") Red rich muscadine, of a j fine flavour and perfume. Luscious red muscadine. Resembling Burgundy. Ordinary wine. r The best red wines in the island, of excellent < body, like the secondary Rhone growths; rare in Lthe island. Pitchy taste, ordinary wines. Tolerably good. Excellent durable red wines. Ditto. C Good wine of the second 1 class. A durable wine, exports well. A mousseux wine. A good wine. C Resembling the Tinto of < Alicant in flavour and bou- Cquet. Good wines of the country. Ditto. ") A delicate line coloured j wine. An excellent muscadine. Muscadine, flavour of fennel. Muscadine and common. Vin de liqueur. Good ordinary wine. C Between light French \ wine and v in cuit. A vin de mousseux. | Good ordinary wine. Of tolerable quality. Ditto. ( Ordinary wines and su- <. pcrior muscadine. Vin cuit mousseux. Good wines. (continued) Syracuse Reggio , Baia.. Mascoli "^ Macchia ( Catania Tormina and Faro . Ovieto . Asti Bianillo and Aleatico . Bischillato J*rocanico Chianti Aleatico . ... Carniignano, Antella, Artiminio,"^ Tizzana, Mentali, Lamporec- ( cliio. Monte Spertoli, Poncina, C Glogoli. . J ValdiMarini . . Naples muscadine < Vino Greco . Carigliano Bari and Tarento Reff8n.o . Baia Gierace Asprino Fundi [ ' Mazara -] Veterano ValdOIassa \ <1Wf\ Marsala . Girgenti J Messina, Milazzo, Avola, Vittoria... Idpari and Stromboli Imola Terni 410 APPENDIX. Name. Province or Town. Eemarks. Farnese I^ear Castri Good muscadine. Ovieto (white) Pvomaii States Muscadine not durable. Monte Fiascne j Near the Lago C A strong muscadine, finely s perfumed and flavoured ; Albano Bolsena Roman States Cof great strength. Ditto, excellent. Moscatello .. . "s Aleatico / {Vins de liqueur, of greater Vino Santo f Ditto or less merit ; not bearing Vernaccia ) exportation. Iticcia Ditto ( Good wine but a small Buti Plain of Pisa I quantity made. Monte Pulcino .. Tuscany Weak wine. C The most esteemed of Montalcino, Rimeneze, Pont-") Ecole, and Santo Stephano ) Vermut Ditto Elba (.the Tuscan muscadines. Good muscadines. C A cordial wine, prepared Rio Ditto t with wormwood, c. Good muscadine. Vino Morto The Veronese < Deficient in spirit and Vino Santo Ditto \ strength. Good red and white wines. Bellagio Lake of Como Wines of colour and spirit. Labusca Mantua An agreeable wine. Pavia Pavia C Both dry and mousseux, Monte di Brianza Milan 1 but very inferior wines. Good flavoured wines. Panocchia, Vigatto, Traverse- ) tolo, Casola, Avola, Azano > Val Irdone, Bottola, Pont6 d'Al-S lolio,Verdetto,SaladelChristo [- Creta ) Parnia Placentia C Ordinary wines of the (. country. Ditto. Santo Pretasso, Frescale, Caselle, \ Lassurasco, Rugarlo, Castel- ( lina, Salso, Maggiore, Villa- f Chiara, Claretto, Pazolo ) Katrera and Sapolo District of Borgo Placentia Modena C Inferior wines, some of j them, vins de liqueur, 1 having a disagreeable taste Lof honey. ( Ordinary wine for home VinPiccolit Friuli (. consumption. Resembling Tokay. No. XIV The Sicilian, Fayal, &c., mixed, &c., except wines from the Cape of Good Hope, are included in the following list of miscellaneous and un- rated wines imported, of which the varieties are not specified. Tans. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. 1785 62 3 21 1795 13 2 40 1805 20 3 3 1786 * 73 1 10 1796 95 1 39 1806 156 2 1787 54 61 1797 37 1 23 1807 161 3 21 1788 42 2 13 1798 27 GO 1808 74G 7 1789 27 1 45 1799 16 1 24 1809 535 f> 1790 15 3 7 1800 18 3 3 1810 1362 2 25 1791 22 2 54 1801 60 2 10 1811 874 3 35 1792 24 3 55 1802 71 3 53 1812 2539 42f 1793 30 35 1803 177 2 29 1813 No returns. 1794 12 30 1804 188 58 1814 1894 1 5i (continued APPENDIX. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Imperial Gallons. Imperial Gallons. 1815 889 1 19 1826 268,853 1838 370,610 1816 897 3 15f 1827 223,850 1839 369,417 1817 64 1 3 35 1828 174,590 1840 383,774 1818 1204 1 12 1829 206,669 1841 401,439 1819 919 2 llf 1830 238,909 1842 393,028 1820 1044 3 S 1831 259,709 1843 398,743 1821 1159 3 5 1832 262,850 1844 463,685 1822 755 1 2 4-20 1833 253,084 1845 506,523 1823 Imperial gallons. 176,141 1834 1835 313,732 374,549 1846 1847 508,285 470,429 1824 265,217 1836 403,155 1848 488,683 1825 331,268 1837 373,458 1849 444,608 No. XV. SECOND AND THIRD CLASS. HUNGARIAN, AUSTEIAN, AND SCIAVONIAN WINES. Name. Province or Toivn. Remarks- Tokay, Essence, and Ausbruch . j Tokay, Maslas Near Mount Tokav, Hungary Ditto Mount Matra, Upper Hungary Lower Hungary District of Arad, ditto Ditto Upper Hungary Lower Hungary Near Presburgb. Near Pesth On the Danube, in Sclavoiiia Near the ancient capital Between Buda and Esseh Near Transylva- nia, the fortress In Sirmian Ditto Menes Near Presburgh Ditto ' See wines of first class. A secondary Tokay. "> Wmes, both red and ) white, much esteemed. Ditto. ) Red kind, much esteem- ) ed for spirit and sweetness. C Like Tokay, preferred < by some; rich, aromatic, C sweet, not cloying. (" Good red and white (.wines, and an Ausbruch. Similar to (Edenbourg. (" A white wine of excel- < lent quality, somewhat in (.aroma like Tokay. Good wine of the country. | Resembles Cote Rotie. | Like Burgundy. (" Resembles Languedoc, a < good red wine of the (.country. j Ditto. ( Strong and sweet, of a tred colour. ( Wines prepared with i spices and wormwood, f Scarcely different from \ Meneser. f Excellent wine, resem- 1 1 bliug Burgundy. Ditto. 'continued) Gysengycesch . . . . . j (Edenbourg . Meneser < Meneser- Ausbrucli Erlon Rusth St Gvorerv Ofen ^arlowitz < Buda.... . .( I Sexard | Gros Warden | Schiller IT- 4.1 CPalunia .... ....") \\ ermuth [ Tropfwermuth j Glodova, Menos, Gyordk, Paulis.. Mode on Katschdorf, Grunau, Obernusdorf. 412 APPENDIX. Name. Province or Town. ! Remarks. Neustoed, Zschelhae, Kosrad .. Wersitz i Near Buda In the Bannat Bannat of Tameswar Ditto Croatia Ditto Transylvania iSebenico, Dal- matia Moldavia "Wallachia Ragusa Sclavonia Ditto Circle of Leut- meritz, Bohemia Circle of Bunz- low Moravia Austria Ditto Southerly, near Vienna Ditto Lower Styria Ditto Ditto Carinthia Ditto Istria An Adriatic island At Capy d'Istria, Pirano, Cit- tanova Istria In the Tolna district } Wines like Burgundy and Bordeaux. > Good red wine. Ditto. White wine Ditto; same quality. C Wine of the country, (. Ausbruch. ") A wine highly character- ) ised ; not the liqueur. C Green in colour, and (. strong as brandy. Light, rivalling Tokay. Good country wine. Good red wine. {Both red, and of agree- able flavour, and much spirit. ") Red wines, which will ) not keep. j Ditto, like Burgundy. C Good wines, equal to (. Hungarian. Ordinary wine. ( Wines of little note, < generally of a green hue, Cand drank young. (" A wine that will keep, -< though of no extraordi- (.nary quality. Good wine. Good wines, red and white. 5" Of the next rank to the ( foregoing. Good wines of the country. C" Resembling good Italian (. wines. Ditto. C Red and white, spark- l ling and well flavoured. ") Red wine, deep coloured, ) and sweet. > Good vins de liqueur. ( A good wine, consumed tat Venice. | A superior red wine. Jobbagy, Etsey, Soetvesch $ Weisskirchen ( Zips, Arva, Liplow .. Buokwetz . Vinitza, Toeplitz Birthalman Marachina .... ) Cotnar Piatra Gravosa Semlin ... . Syrmia and Posega . . . Podskalchi < Melnick < Poleschowitz Mount Calenberg Hoeflein, Kloster Newbourg,-) Unter Kutzendorf, Kaplen- ( burg, Misdorf, Salneridorf, and f Lichtenstein ) Giberwein . . \ Spitz Luttenberg Radkersbourg, Arnfels, Win- j disch, Gonowitz, Kerchenberg $ Sansal, Leitschach, PickerneA Stadlberg, Pulsgau, Sauritsch, I Raen, Rast, Peittersberg, Wie- ( sel ) Moettling, Weinitz Freyenthurn, Wipach, TscherO enable, Marzamin ) Prosecco Antignana, St. Serf") Trieste $ Berchetz j St. Patronio, Petit Tokai, St.C Corregliano Izeszgard s APPEXDTX. 413 No. XVI. Wines of the Cape of Good Hope, imported from 1801 to 1849, inclusive. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Imperial Gallons. 1S01 45 2 57 1818 3,648 15^ 1333 514,262 1802 15 3 58 1819 1,648 3 19* 1834 525,081 Is03 13 1 31 1820 1,925 60| 1835 522,941 1804 838 1821 2,1J3 2 12 10-20| 1836 541,511 1805 2 14 1822 2,244 2 17-20 1837 500,727 1806 9 57 1838 638,528 1807 20 3 42 Imp. Gall. 1839 534, 182 1803 178 1 30 1823 843,172 1840 456,773 1809 16 36 1824 591,078 1841 441,238 1810 19 3 41 1825 746,925 1842 370,800 1811 8 2 19 1826 356,070 1843 332,369 1SI2 40 2 56 1827 679,447 1844 349,257 1813 No returns. 1828 699,805 1845 357,793 1814 349 3 55 1829 653,742 1846 365,867 1815 1512 1 4 1830 580,408 1847 293,016 1816 1631 2 21 1831 537,188 1848 267,922 1817 4218 29 1832 540,357 1849 241,845 No. XVII. Total French, Spanish, Rhenish, and Portuguese Wines imported into Great Britain from 1700 to 1785. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. Tuns. Hds. Gall. 700 23,502 10 1729 25,672 3 50 1758 15,896 1 54 701 21,443 2 23 1730 19,823 3 31 1759 15,405 2 19 702 15,725 1 62 1731 24,239 1 58 1760 15,427 3 47 703 11,092 2 42 1732 21,384 11 1761 14,602 3 46 704 13,811 1 57 1733 21,420 1 57 1762 16,097 1 1705 12,070 1 17 1734 21,264 1 47 1763 17,082 3 21 1706 10,973 2 31 1735 24,416 1 28 1764 17,390 1 42 1707 12,962 16 1736 20,763 10 1765 18,132 1 4 1708 14,380 50 1737 26,605 1 38 1766 18,472 14 1709 13,338 1 48 1738 22,171 2 I 1767 17,087 3 5 1710 15.8C9 56 1739 18,594 3 28 1768 18,580 58 1711 15,481 2 14 1740 15,198 3 60 1769 18,371 2 30 1712 12,677 1 27 1741 17,178 1 3 1770 ltf,724 40 1713 15,937 1 8 1742 lti,715 3 58 1771 16,874 2 12 1714 18,747 1 57 1743 17,655 34 1772 15,597 2 42 1715 21,751 9 1744 10,276 2 60 1773 16,431 3 20 1716 18,834 3 7 1745 16,034 1 34 1774 17,992 1 20 1717 22,260 3 58 1746 12,205 1 11 1775 17,736 13 1718 23,875 1 48 1747 14,560 2 32 1776 16,734 36 1719 25,510 2 13 1748 25,135 1 16 1777 18,217 2 60 1720 19,141 44 1749 21,555 35 1778 16,343 51 1721 25,263 45 1750 15,456 2 11 1779 12,760 2 10 1722 25,470 42 1751 14,788 2 1780 20,514 2 39 1723 22,415 1 1 1752 13,708 2 25 1781 13,311 3 20 1724 23,075 3 8 1753 18,857 20 1782 9,791 39 1725 24,722 3 35 1754 14,982 3 50 1783 13,624 1 51 1726 19,334 24 1755 16,544 2 22 1784 14,499 56 1727 21,064 3 61 1756 12,264 2 18 1785 14,807 1 27 1728 30,045 2 32 1757 14,050 2 30 414 APPENDIX. No. XVIII. Wine of all kinds imported into Great Britain, for Home Consumption and Exportation, and Receipts of Revenue thereon, from 1785 to 1849. Year. Imperial Gallons. s. d. Year. Imperial Gallons. s. d. 1785 3,420,318 5-6 ) 1817 5,614,622 2,023,720 8 2 1786 *3,409,355 ! Import and 1818 6,139,490 2,241,380 2 7 1787 4,898,225 f Export. 1819 4,978,600 1,802,097 1 11 1788 5,368,3005-6 J 1820 5,019,960 1,818,396 2 5 For Home Con- 1821 5,016,569 1,797,491 7 10 sumption only. 1822 4,975,159 1,794,013 11 2 1789 5,814,665 721,518 19 3 1823 5,291,410 1,907,466 13 3 1790 6,492,317 820,562 7 4 1824 5,479,732 1 1,967,953 13 10 1791 7,658,276 916,769 5 1825 t8,055,993 794,009 4 6 1792 8,082,249 1,019,645 3 1826 6,450,814 1,270,118 1 6 1793 6,890,910 600,686 5 2 1827 7,262,110 1,426,550 11 9 1794 6,799,220 795,023 19 1828 7,580,625 ! 1,506,122 15 4 1795 6,927,121 1,430,722 15 1 1829 7,446,159 i 1,321,433 19 2 1796 5,732,383 1,159,523 19 7 1830 5,461,635 i 1,389,068 17 4 1797 3,970,901 1,383,665 12 8 1831 $6,368,229 1,524,177 6 9 1798 4,760,657 1,372,661 6 7 1832 6,386,687 1,519,643 1799 4,777,631 1,692,826 12 1833 5,965,542 1,629,219 1800 7,728,871 1,697,213 8 5 1834 6,480,544 1,705,520 1801 7,006,310 1,922,987 9 11 1835 6,420,342 1,691,522 1802 6,355,749 J,931,872 19 9 1836 6,809,212 1,793,963 1803 8,181,466 2,141,356 12 9 1837 6,391,560 1,687,097 1804 4,840,719 1,814,323 5 5 1838 6,990,271 1,846,056 1805 4,565,551 2,003,866 8 4 1839 7,000,486 1,849,699 1806 5,936,235 2,320,428 11 8 1840 6,553,992 1,872,799 1807 5,922,337 2,334,197 18 9 1841 6,184,962 1,800,127 1808 6,408,534 2,353,736 12 1 1842 4,815,222 1,409,205 1809 5,808,087 2,361,113 18 3 1843 6,068,987 1,704,434 1810 6,805,276 2,513,615 16 3 1844 6,838,684 1,960,738 1811 5,860,874 2,169,871 6 3 1845 6,736,131 1,787,560 1812 5,136,490 1,911,352 19 11 1846 6,740,316 1,887,516 1813 4,718,568 Records burn ed. 1847 6,053,847 1,700,153 1814 4,941,663 2,032,840 19 4 1848 6,136,547 1,727,409 1815 5,968,435 2,095,299 18 1849 6,251,862 1.7^7,516 1816 4,420,807 1,610,299 5 8 1850 6,448,317 f,824,457 * Duty reduced in 1786 from 99?. 8s. 9 12-20d. per tun in British ships to 50?. 16s. 6d. on French wines, and from 49?. 14s. 4 16-20d. to 32?. 16s. 6d. on Por- tuguese and Spanish. In 1803 an additional duty was imposed, when, exclusive of French wines, 1,230,724?. was paid upon 49,230 tuns. In 1804 the consumption had fallen to 34,657 tuns, and the duties to 1,026,488?., exclusive of French wines. t In 1826 the duty was reduced on French wines to 6s. old wine measure, or 7s. 3|d. the imperial gallon. This was followed by a consumption the following three years, that increased the revenue 9000?. a year more than it had been at the high duty. "Wine, too, was allowed to be imported in packages of any size. The reduction of revenue this year was owing to the allowance for stock on hand. J The duty on French wine further reduced, and as well on all wines, except Cape wine, fixed at 5s. 6d. the imperial gallon, to which 5 per cent, was afterwards added. The alteration of duty on Cape did not take place until 1834, but it was raised 4d. per gallon. APPENDIX. 415 No. XIX. Wine of all kinds imported into Ireland for Home Consumption, and Keceipts of Revenue thereon, from 1789 to 1828. fear. \ Gallons. s. d. Year. Gallons. s. d. 1789 ] 1,336,253 130,187 8 4 1809 1,264,926 324,889 10 5 1790 i 1,428,929 138,589 12 7 1810 1,020,275 272,971 12 1 1791 ! 1,430,272 138,010 7 9 1811 894,792 263,136 8 5 1792 ! 1,339,800 129,110 5 6 1812 892,946 278,065 7 4 1793 ; 1,041,932 94,506 18 8 1813 760,004 253,765 1 1 1794 1,374,429 117,839 2 3 1814 636,137 234,736 7 3 1795 2,959,004 264,165 5 6 | 1815 730,351 293,091 11 3 1796 . 1,199,129 128,728 9 6 1 1816 439,602 167,158 2 1797 312,212 41,808 3 1 1817 571,596 200,891 11 11 179S 1,558,265 184,489 12 6 1818 642,206 225,935 10 10^ 1799 2,588,166 343,194 13 1 1819 589,854 203,261 19 7 1800 1,024,832 157,594 13 1 1820 508,501 169,421 5 5^ 1801 1,245,742 192,663 18 4 1821 642,701 209,006 11 1802 2,130,350 348,199 14 9 1822 569,038 188,868 61 1803 1,690,291 282,572 2 1823 547,218 180,764 16 Hi 1804 1,708,510 327,132 13 10 1824 564,529 185,158 11 4 1805 981,690 251,927 19 3 1825 953,810 140,655 7 H 1806 1,053,979 254,102 7 8 1826 822,586 155,161 12 6| 1807 1,603,278 395,689 2 4 1827 929,619 174,036 16 74 1808 1,189,716 294,738 14 9 1828 1,003,224 193,928 10 9 Notwithstanding the increase of population nearly to double, 333,029 gallons of wine less were drunk in Ireland in 1828 than in 1789. Between 1791 and 1814 the duty was raised on French wines from 33Z. 7s. per tun to 144?. 7s. 6d. and Portu- guese and other wines from 221. 4s. 8d. to 95?. 11s. The consequence was that in 1824 the consumption had fallen to 564,529 gallons, and the revenue had only increased to 185,000?. with a quadrupled duty. No. XX. DUTIES ON WINES. (Page 235.) In 1272 the duties on wine were two shillings per tun, and the best came to the monasteries. This duty was called butterage. In 1618 wine was thirteenpence the full quart. A pint of Muscatel, sixpence. Two eight gallon rundlets of Claret, sixteen shillings. A pottle of Canary of nine pints, two and sixpence. Three quarts of Sherry were sold for two shillings. Three quarts of white wine three shillings, being the vintner's prices. Parliamentary papers of some standing, show, that down to the time of the revolution in 1688, or even a year or two subsequently, great quantities of French wine were imported, to the extent in some years of 20,000 tuns. The jealousy towards everything French after that time, induced the laying on of enormous duties by legislators, who were not wise enough to reflect that those wines must have been exchanged for British commodities of one class or another. In 1693 the duties on French wines were increased 8/. per tun. In 1697, this duty was made 251. more than on Portugal wines. Instead of two- fifths of all wine imported being French, as in 1669, the high duty had 416 APPENDIX. so driven it out of the market, that in 1784 only a thirty -fifth part was French. In 1697, the duty was 4s. Ojd. on French, and Is. 8d. on Portuguese wine. From 1778 to 1806, French wine was raised from 6s. 3^d- the gallon to 11s. 5jd. duty, and Portuguese from 2s. llfd. to 7s. 7d. From 1770 to 1782, from 60/. to 96?. per tun were levied, while other wines only paid from SO/, to 50/. Those duties were reduced in 1786, but during the late war they were raised to 144/. 7s. 6d. on French, and 95/. 10s. on Portuguese, while German and Hungarian wines paid 118/. 13s. in British bottoms. In 1825 these absurd duties, which had acted most prejudicially to the revenue, and were unjust to the consumer as well as to trade, were reduced, and in 1831 finally settled at a duty of 5s. 6d. a gallon upon all wines except Cape. Threepence was subsequently added, making the whole duty 5s. 9d. The variation in these heavy duties was a proof how little reason and sound sense had to do with the enactment of them, seeing that whether French, Spanish, Portuguese, or any other wines were imported, they must be paid for in British manufactures, and what claim had the manufacturer of woollen over the maker of cotton goods, bar iron, silk, or steel ware ? The duty of 1713 was levied from 1726 to 1736, an average of ten years, on 23,109 tuns per annum, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese wines alone, the population being about 5,000,000; in- cluding other wines imported, 24,000 tuns may be reckoned as the importation, which would give a revenue of 576,000/. Now that of 1786, with duties from 32/. to 50/., and 7,000,000 of population, only yielded 721,518/. 19s. 3d. Tripling the population of 5,000,000, the aggregate is 15,000,000, and tripling the duty at 24/., we have 1,728,000/., being nearly the revenue from wine in 1849, supposing the consumption had increased only in the same ratio, and the duties re- mained as in 1726. But the duty of 24/. was on French wines; Por- tuguese paid' but 7 1 5s. 3d. per tun. Madeira, until March 3, 1825, paid 9s. 2jd. the imperial gallon; after that time, to 1831, 4s. lOd. Cape paid 3s. Ojd., French wines 13s. 9d. Cape was then reduced to 2s. 3d., and French to 7s. 3jd. Rhenish wines paid lls. 3|d. until 1825. TABLE. SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS OF WINE DUTIES AT ONE VIEW, BOTH OF THE CUSTOMS AND EXCISE, FROM 1786. Tears. French. Cape. Madeira. Portugal. Spanish. Rhenish. Other Sorts; Highest Keceipts Revenue. s. a. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 178G 8 8f 4 2 4 2 4 2 4 3 4 3 8 8f 1787 6 2 3 6| 3 6J 3 6f 3 6| 4 lOf 4 6 848,909 1788 4 G 3 6^ 3 3 3 4 lOf 4 6 1,148,755 1795 7 4i 5 5| 4 lOf 4 10| 4 lOf 6 9f 6 4f 1,694,888 1796 10 2| 7 4! 6 9| 6 9f 6 9| 8 8| 8 3f 1,288,252 1798 10 6* 7 6 7 l| 6 11 6 11| 9 I 8 5| 2,124,808 1801 10 2| 7 4| 6 9| 6 9| 6 9| 8 8| 8 3f 2,185,661 1802 10 7i 7 7 7 U 7 7 9 2 8 6 2,280,072 (continued) APPENDIX. 417 Years. t French. Cape. Madeira. Portugal. Spanish. Rheniah. Other Sorts. Highest Receipts Revenue. s. d. S. d- s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 1803 12 54 8 3 8 4 8 3 8 3 10 4 8 3 2,423,929 1804 13 6| 9 9 H 9 9 11 li 9 2,141,456 1805 13 8 9 I* 9 2 9 li 9 li 11 3 9 li 2,255,794 1809 19 8J 9 li 9 2g 9 li ("W. 9 li > IR. 10 3 ) 11 3 9 li 2,686,003 1813 19 8 3 Og 9 2i 9 U All 9 li 11 3 9 li No record 1814 13 8} 3 0| 9 2* 9 li 9 H 11 3 9 li 2,267,578 1819 13 9 3 oj 9 ? 9 1? 9 li 11 3| 9 li 2,005,359 1825 7 2* 2 5 4 9| 4 93 4 9f 4 9| 4 9f 934,665 1826 7 3 2 5 4 10 4 10 4 10 4 10 4 10* 1,424,326 1831 5 6 2 9 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 1,535,484 1832 1,715,812 1850 ... 1,824,457 5 per cent, added since to the last-named duty above. The proportion per cent, which each description of wine bore to the total consumption of all sorts in the years 1847 and 1848 was, French, 6*56 and 5-80 respectively; Portuguese, 39-00 and 39-87; Spanish, 39-18 and 39*69; Madeira, 1*34 and 1-25; Rhenish, 0'92 and 0-73; Ca- nary, 0-38 and 0*33; Sicilian and other kinds, 778 and 7*96; the wine of the Cape of Good Hope, 4-84 and 4-37. The stock of wine in the different ports of the United Kingdom fluc- tuates from seven or eight millions of imperial gallons to ten millions. The port of London alone has sometimes in bond not less than 50,000 pipes or butts of wine and 40,000 puncheons of foreign spirits. Nothing can more faithfully show the incapacity of the various judgments of the government than the above fluctuations. At a duty of 5s. 9d. there is a return to the revenue of 1,824,457/., which a duty of 10s. 2d. did not yield, nor of 13s. 9d. much exceed. From 1798 to 1814 were years of war, and the army and navy were largely supplied, and drawbacks allowed which do not figure above. It may be doubted whether 2,267,578/. was not the maximum of revenue for home con- sumption, at the highest duty, the records of that year, 1813, being destroyed, and before Peel's Currency Bill had struck down the value of all property twenty-five per cent. A revenue of 1,824,457 in 1850 is equal, from this last cause alone, to one of 2,267,578 in 1814. The enormity of the duty is the cause of the diminished consumption of wine. A gallon of foreign brandy will be diluted in drinking with three gallons of water, in all four gallons, paying 15s. duty, worth, with the cost of the article, about 20s. Four gallons of wine pay 23s. 6d. duty, worth, at prime cost, from 3s. 6d. to 20s. the gallon, as the, case may be. Now the wine of the highest price will not contain more than ten or twelve per cent, of brandy, nor of any wine more than sixteen or seventeen. The stimulant powers of the spirit and water are,, therefore, much greater, at a rate vastly cheaper, even with the enor- mous duty on foreign brandy. How much more is this the case with 2E 4X8 APPENDIX. whisky and home-made spirit, at half the duty of the foreign! An ad valorem duty on wine is not possible in practice, therefore the duty should be reduced one-half at least. We profess a high regard for public morals, we talk about improving the circumstances of the people, yet in typhus, which ravages England so fearfully, wine, the main remedy, is shut out from the poor, while its liberal administra- tion is necessary. So with the fevers of our marshy districts : wine and bark are the sole dependence, yet the last is forbidden by the price, which is a positive cruelty. The people are encouraged to drink ardent spirit in consequence but then, the revenue profits ! The consumption of wine in England for the undermentioned years was in proportion to the population: Year. Population. Gallons. 1700 5,475,000 5,922,504 French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German only. 1750 6,467,000 3,894,912 Ditto. Duties being raised. 1801 8,872,980 7,006,310 Of all kinds. Imperial Gallons. 1811 1,063,676 5,860,874 Ditto. Ditto. 1821 11,978,875 5,016,569 Ditto. Ditto. 1832 13,889,675 6,386,687 Ditto. Ditto 1841 15,911,725 6,184,960 Ditto. Ditto. 1851 17,922,768 6,448,517 Ditto. Ditto. Scotland for three periods : Tear. Population. Gallons. 1801 1,599,068 317,833 1811 1,805,688 340,247 1821 2,093,456 390,000 The duty in 1801 was 1,922,987/., and in 1821, 1,797,491?., with an increase of population in the latter year of 2,290,696. In 1841 the duty was only 1,800,127/. It is clear the people of England drank in 1700 three times as much wine in proportion as they do now. The natural consequence has been the increased consumption of spirits. From 1730 to 1830, the consumption of British made spirits increased from 873,840 gallons to 7,732,101, keeping pace with the increase of crime; as if not only the temperature of the atmosphere, but the amount of misery, poverty, and crime, were to be guaged by alcohol. Ireland, in 1821, paid duty only on 2,649,170 imperial gallons of home- made spirits, but in 1828 on no less than 9,004,539 imperial gallons. In 1849 the amount was reduced to 6,973,333 imperial gallons. Scot- land, in 1784, distilled but 268,503 common gallons of spirit; in 1833, 5,988,556. Thus there were made in England, in the year ending January 5, 1850, 9,053,676 imperial gallons; Scotland, 6,935,003; Ire- land, 6,973,333. The total being 22,962,012 gallons. It is, therefore, a fact, however much of an anomaly it may appear, that inebriety in this country has increased with the diminution of the wine consump- tion, and morals as well as health have suffered by the same decrease, and the augmented use of ardent spirit. The number of bottles of wine consumed daily in England, Wales, and Scotland, in 1821, being the average of three years, calculating four bottles to the old gallon, was : APPENDIX. 419 England and Wales. Scotland. Total. French 1,848 196 2,044 Cape 5,548 148 5,688 All other kinds 43,592 3236 46,828 50,980 3580 54,560 The proportion from 1785 to 1794 was 3j bottles per head. From 1794 to 1814 it fell to three bottles, and from 1814 to 1820 to two bottles. Since that year it has fallen to 1 1-9 bottle per head. Ireland, in 1790, consumed no less than 1,117,556 gallons of wine; and, in 1824, only 476,000 gallons. The consumption of spirits of all kinds in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the year ending 5th January, 1850, was: Imp. Galls. Duty. Home made 22,962,012 5,793,381 Colonial Rum Home consumption 3,039,862 French Brandy Ditto 2,187,358 Geneva Ditto 26,917 Channel Island spirits Ditto 16,050 Other sorts, foreign Ditto 14,788 TOTAL 28,246,987 This would give a consumption of spirit in England not equal to that of Holland, which is T39 imperial gallons per head ; England, 0*569 gallon per head; Ireland, 0-853 gallon per head; Scotland, 2-647 gal- lons per head. The increase in the consumption of foreign spirit was considerable in the United Kingdom in the last six years. In 1844 the total amount of all sorts of foreign spirits retained for home consumption was 3,267,878 imperial gallons, of all kinds. In 1849, ending 5th January, 1850, it was 5,284,975 imperial gallons. Increase in six years, 2,017,097 in foreign spirits. The difference in home-made spirits in six years has been from 18,864,332 imperial gallons to 22,962,012. Increase, 4,097,680; or about as much proportionally as in foreign spirits. The decrease of the consumption of spirits in Ireland has been very considerable. Prior to the year ending 5th January, 1841 (or the consumption of 1840), the consumption, on the average of four years, was about 11,500,000 imperial gallons. The year ending 5th January, 1842 (or the consumption of 1841), numbered but 7,401,051 imperial gallons; and the year ending 5th January, 1850, gave as consumed only 6,973,333 imperial gallons, a further reduction. Temperance, poverty, or some other cause have wrought there this remarkable change, Scotland has been rather on the increase in the last six years, but it has not been considerable. England has increased about 400,420 gal- lons, which is inconsiderable, for her amount of population in that time. Of course it is not known in which of the three kingdoms the increased consumption of foreign spirits has occurred, but it is most probably in England. 2E2 420 APPENDIX. The duty oil spirits is not, like that on wine, equalised. This may be seen by the following statement: Fer Gall, s. d. Brandy, from March, 1846, Geneva, and all other foreign ... 15 Rum, duty in England from 1848 to 1850 8 2 Ditto, in Scotland 4 Ditto, in Ireland 2 8 Channel Island spirits, from 1845 to 1850 England 9 Ditto, in Scotland 4 10 Ditto,iu Ireland 3 6 A more unjust system of taxation can scarcely be conceived, than one marked by the above differences. Why should the Englishman pay more duty than the Scotch or Irish upon a luxury? The spirit made from grain in Scotland and Ireland is more whole- some than the English. The Scotch is the strongest, being above both rum and brandy. The English is not allowed to be sold pure by the distiller, because, for the convenience of the excise, it must be distilled only in a certain mode and strength above proof. The distiller is, therefore, compelled to sell his product to a person called a rectifier, who reduces and adulterates it at his pleasure. He imitates with the most convenient ingredients, in the clumsiest way, all sorts of foreign spirits. Sometimes these imitations are mingled with the genuine spirit as French brandy, or colonial rum, to increase the quantity, but oftener they are sold as British brandies, or gin, disguised from the genuine spirit with extract of logwood, nitre, burnt sugar, and worse trash, to the detriment of the stomachs of purchasers. Why, like the Scotch and Irish, the English should not have a pure spirit, especially as it is the poor who suffer most from these mixtures, it is difficult to tell. The care of the subject's health, and the interests of morality, have no weight with the government that, while affecting to regard both, takes no opinion upon the subject but of the excise, for whose sole convenience the disgraceful adulterating system continues. It is worthy, as a matter of record, to state the duties before the last alteration upon ardent spirits : Per GalL Per s. d. Cent. Foreign brandy 22 10 500 Geneva 22 10 500 Liqueurs 30 4 500 Ireland and Scotland, made spirit, corn 3 8 about 200 Ireland, malt 5 330 Scotland, malt 4 4 300 mno.iMuil'corn 7 10 500 England }. malt 9 2 600 Of,the above, the Scotch and Irish are, at least, wholesome and pure spirit; but why such differences of duty ? On home-made spirits, per- haps high duties are not amiss, as the article is decidedly pernicious to health and morals. In 1733, Jamaica rum sold, according to the London prices, from 6s. to 7s. per gallon. In 1849, the very best qualities, from 4s. to 4s. 6d., down to 2s. 5d. and 2s. 6d. ; Leeward Islands, 6s. 4d. English spirits were sold in that year from 2Ql. to 2QL per tun. Wheat was APPENDIX. 421 then from 22s. to 25s.; barley, from lls. to 13s. 6d.; oats, from 10s. to 12s. No less than 800,000 quarters of corn were exported that year and the year preceding, between July and July, to Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy, which it was calculated brought a million sterling into the country. Gold in bars, at this time, was from 3/. 18s. Id. to 3l 18s. 2d. In coin, 3/. 18s. 3d. Silver standard, 5s. 4d. No. XXL WINE MEASURES TTSED BY DIFFERENT NATIONS. Gallons. Litres. Ahtn Hanover 41*095 155*552 Ditto Rotterdam 39*993 151*380 Alma or meter Constantinople 1*381 5*227 Alnmdfl Oporto 6-731 25*480 Ditto .. Faro 4-896 18*532 Ditto Lisbon 4*370 16*541 Anker ,, Copenhagen 9-947 37*655 Ditto .. Pernau 10*233 38*756 Ditto Revel 11*172 42*276 Ditto Riga 10*333 39*097 Ditto 9*562 36*199 Antheil . Hungary .'. 13*350 50*534 Asn6e Lyons 21*809 82*549 Arroba 4*245 16*073 Ditto, mayores ") Ditto, menores (12 make > 39 old gallons) . .) Spain (25 old galls, make 6) 4-245 16*073 Ditto Valencia 3*112 11*786 Ditto Malaga 4*186 15*850 Barrique Limoux 31*695 120*000 Ditto Rh6ne 31*695 120*000 Ditto Basses Pyr6n6es 79*239 300*000 f Rouen 51*688 195*648 Ditto \ Rochelle 46*039 174*279 Nantes Bourdeaux 63*405 60*748 240*000 229*937 Barile Corfu 18*000 68*133 Ditto Ditto S T aples Florence 11*013 12*042 41-685 45'584 Ditto Ditto Bastia Genoa 36*986 19*610 140-000 74-225 Ditto Leghorn 12'042 45"584 Ditto Ragusa 20*363 77'075 Ditto Rome 15-413 58*341 Ditto Zante 17*625 66'707 Bareile Rh6ne Department 63*390 240-000 BergEimer Both Ratisbon Germany 23-196 126'000 87-812 477*036 Botte Brenta Ditto Ditto France.... Milan Verona Bergamo 112*519 18*865 19*199 19-223 426*000 71*405 72-337 72*761 Cantara Ditto Ditto Alicant Arragon Oviedo 3*052 2*724 5-098 11*554 10-313 19-286 Carabus Persia 7-500 27-877 (continued) 422 APPENDIX. Carga Barcelona Gallons. Litres. 123-756 73-783 1-016 9-967 55-532 67-689 72-072 73-316 56-892 76-099 37-020 67-984 63-439 64-167 68-690 113-620 56-564 12-249 954-072 3-786 3-804 3-565 1-590 12-063 100-000 2'615 606-080 2-302 2-064 1-479 1-311 1-671 2-300 1-868 1-823 1-642 2-651 55-378 64-330 161-991 50-026 139-019 149-756 46'093 56-564. 249-558 236-458 1-694 8-175 32-695 19-493 0-268 2-633 14-670 17-870 19-040 19-368 15-030 20-102 9-750 17-959 16-761 16-950 18-145 30-014 14-942 3-250 252-000 1-000 1-008 0-942 0-419 3-187 26-419 22-001 0-691 150-000 0-608 0-545 3-786 0-391 0-346 0-441 0-607 0-493 0-481 0-433 0-700 14-630 16-990 42-798 13-215 36-700 39-572 12-176 14-942 65-930 62-487 0-447 2160 Corba Bologna Cuba Abyssinia . Cusa Cyprus Eimer Breslau Ditto Dresden Ditto Erfurt Ditto Hungary, Higher Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto, Lower Deipsic Munich Ditto Visiermass...") Ditto Schenkmass. 5 Eimer , Nuremberg , , ^ Prague Ditto Ditto, Great Prussia Ratisbon ... Eimer Ditto Fuder or Stuckfass Germany Gallon.... England Ditto France Ditto Ireland Garniec Poland . . Gerra Hectolitre Minorca T?* Q n 5" common gallon , . . France I imperial gallon... Kcinno Leager India, Ceylon Lot Ditto Dunkirk Lisle Litre France Mass Augsburg Ditto Ditto Shaffhausen Berne . Maas Heidelberg Ditto Mayence M. Land "> M.City S Madida Zurich ( Bra7.il ... Mastello . :Ferrara Millerolle Marseilles Ohm Basil.... Ditto jSwfiflen Ditto | Ditto Dantzic Strasburg . . Orna Oxhoft Ditto Trieste Oldenburg Libau Pint Scotland Quartlin Cassel ,.. APPENDIX. 423 -t Gallons. Litres. Quartant Marne 23789 90-057 Ditto .... Burgundy 27-161 102*822 Quart Lindau 0-606 2*294 Ditto Quartin LaNievre 3Jtij orc*"i< 30-375 7*168 ii5-ooa 27 "131 Rubbio Turin 2'480 9'389 Ditto Nice 2-076 7*857 Salma Messina 23-079 87*36Q Secchio .... Venice 2-853 10-800 Setier ... Geneva 11-948 45*224 Soma . . Aucona 22*698 85-917 Stoff Konigsburg 0'378 1'433 Stoopen Stekan... Antwerp Amsterdam 0-726 5126 2-748 19*405 Stubgen Bremen 0'842 3'187 Ditto Brunswick 0-969 3-669 Ditto .... Stralsund .... 1-027 3'883 Ditto Zell 1-025 3-883 Vat .., Netherlands 26-419 100-000 Vedro .. Russia 3-246 12*289 Viertal Copenhagen 2-041 7-726 Ditto Lubec 1-913 7-241 Ditto Osnaburg 1-290 4'883 Ditto . "vVismar 1-913 7-241 Ditto Frankfort 1-948 7-373 Ditto Cologne 1-580 5-980 Velte France 2' 017 7'609 Ditto Bourdeaux 1*896 7'177 Ditto Bayonne 1'952 7-390 Ditto ! Roussillon i 1716 Besides the above, which are generally used for -wine measures alone, the folio wing are frequently applied to the same purpose: Cubic Inches. Number equivalent to 100 gallons English. Azumbre .... 1181 195*14 Used in Spain. Quartillo . 29 784*40 Ditto. Quartilla 185 124'86 Ditto. Libra 2f 780-40 Ditto. Cantara 775 5-6 29-78 Ditto. Schoppen 780'40 Used in Strasburg. Kanne 159- 144*71 ,, Sweden. Matero 1375 16*80 Italy. Metaro 5771 40*00 Tunis. Basso 275f 83'77 Verona. Moggio 6789 3"40 Mantua, Quartillo 66*09 Minorca. Stof 78 293*90 Narva. Aliquer 675| 34-18 Oporto. Pint 116 199'14 Prague. Boccale 79f 289*47 Rome. Kra.skn 931 246'07 ,, Russia. Cassise 675 33'24 Sicily. Neessal 44| 516-20 Stettin. The following national wine measures, in a connected form, will not be misplaced here : 424 APPENDIX. SPAIK. At Cadiz the cantaro is 8 azumbres, or 32 quartillos. The large arroba is 4 gallons, the small 3f . 16 arrobas make 1 mayo 27 ditto 1 pipe 30 ditto 1 botta. The bota is 127 J English wine gallons: the Sanish pipe 114f. PORTUGAL. At Figueras the almude is equal to 63 gallons. AtViannato 6 ditto. 21 almudes of Oporto make a pipe; at Lisbon 31 almudes. At Lisbon 2 potes are equal to 12 canadas, or 48 quartillos: 18 almudes make a baril: 52 almudes make 1 tonnelada, or 277 J gallons. SWEDEN. 2 stoope make 1 kanne 2 oxhoft 1 pipe 16 kannes 1 anker 1 pipe is 124J gallons. 2 ankers 1 eimer 1 ahm is 41 5-12 ditto 2 eimers 1 ahm 100 kannes are 69 J gallons, li ahms 1 oxhoft. RUSSIA, PETERSBURG. 11 tsharky make 1 krashka 3 vedros make 1 anker 8 krashka 1 vedro 6 ankers 1 oxhoft 40 vedros 1 sorokovy 2 oxhofts 1 pipe. 13* bottles 1 vedro. The vedro is not quite equal to 3 gallons. RUSSIA GENERALLY. English gallons, Litres. 1 garnetz = 0*72123 3'276875 1 vedro = 2-7048 12'289 1 tschetvrick __ 57698 26'215 1 osmine _. 23'079 104'86 1 tschetvert = 46'159 20972 1 last 738-54 3355'52 GREECE. Wine is generally sold by the oke, 45 of which make 12 7 Ib. avoirdu- pois: hence the oke is 2 Ib. 2 oz. 5 drachms of that weight. ITALY. At Trieste, 40 boccali are equal to 15 gallons. At Venice the anfora = 4 bigonzi, or 8 mastelli, or 48 secchii, or 192 bozze, or 768 quartuzzi. The anfora is 137 English gallons. At Genoa, 100 pinte = 1 barilla; 2 barilla = 1 mezzarolla, or 39 gallons English. GERMANY. At Hamburgh, the ahm is 38 gallons, and the fuder 229J. The ahm is 5 tierces; a fass = 4 oxhofts, or 6 tierces. The oxhoft varies in quantity. APPEIsDIX. 425 HOLLAND, AMSTEEDA3I. stoope = 5| pints. 100 mingles = 82 common or 26 imperial measure. Dutch ahm = 41 gaUons. DENMAEK. 4 ankers an ahm = 37| English gallons, Copenhagen anker = 9'647 ditto. 100 pots = 25| gallons, oxhoft = 58 ditto, fuder = 930 pots. CYPETJS. 1 }ar is 5 Florence bottles. 4 lars a barrel. 4 barrels a load. Cyprus wines are exported in casks of 70 jars. CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 1 flask is H gallons, or 4'946 imperial. 1 anker 9 ditto, 7 -j^. 1 aum 38 ditto, 31|. 1 legger 152 ditto, 126 -rr- A pipe is 110 gallons, old measure, or 91 -^j imperial. It is to be hoped, that, in process of time, a greater uniformity in weights and measures may prevail among civilised nations. Nothing but inexcusable negligence prevented one British imperial gallon and four French litres from being made equal, as the former differs so slightly from the latter. This, at least, would have made uniform the liquid measures of the two most civilised European nations. The wisdom of reckoning liquid quantities by a medium standard, instead of the old method of tuns, hogsheads, and so forth, need not be commented upon; it is gratifying to see that the Custom-House returns must be are made in imperial gallons only. NO. xxn. Tuns. Pipes. Pun- cheons. H gs- heads. Tierces. Imperial Gallons. Gallons. Quarts. Pints. French Litres. 1 2 3 4 6 210 " 252 1008 2016 954-0720 1 U 2 3 105 126 504 1008 477-0360 1 tt 2 70 84 336 672 318-2240 1 1* 52| 63 272 504 238-5180 1 35 42 168 339 159-0120 1 1-20 4'80 9-60 4-5444 1 4 8 3-7860 1 2 9465 1 4732 426 APPENDIX. STANDARD GUAGE FOR FOREIGN WINES. Old Gallons. Imperial Measure. Pipe Carcavellos, Lisbon, Bucellas 140 116*63540 Pipe of Port 138 114' 96918 j, Madeira .. 110 91*64210 ,, Vidonia .. . 120 99'97320 Butt of Sherry 120 99*97320 Mountain 126 104*97186 Hogshead of Claret . . 57 47*48727 Tent ... 63 52*48593 Ahm, Rhenish 36 29*99196 Cape 20 16*66220 The tun is decimally 209*94372, imperial mea- sure. The pipe, 104*97186. The puncheon, 69*98129. The hogshead, 52*48593. The tierce, 34'99062. The gallon, -83311 ENGLISH CUBIC INCHES. Pint 281 Old gallon 231 or 3 Ib. 5 oz. 64 dwt. avoirdupois. Runlet 4,158 Barrel 7,276| Tierce 9,702 Hogshead 14,553 Puncheon 19,279 Butt 29,106 Tun 58,212 The imperial gallon is 277-274 cubic inches, and the French litre 61-0280264 cubic inches English. 378^ litres make 100 old imperial gallons English, and l %% 3 hectolitres make 100 ditto. NO. xxin. OLD WINE GALLONS, WITH THEIR EQUIVALENT IN IMPERIAL GALLONS, EROH 1 TO 100. For common purposes, the old gallon multiplied by 5, and divided by 6, will answer very well : the following table will be available where the nicest calculation is demanded. The reverse mode will answer for the new gallon. To reduce a larger number to imperial measure may be done thus : suppose 63 gallons old measure, or a hogshead to the new imperial thus, 63 x '83311=52*486, or 63X|=^, or 52 im- perial gallons, very nearly. 1 .0-83311 12 9-99733 23 19' 16155 34 28-32577 2 1-66622 13 10-83043 24 19-99466 35 29-15888 3 2-49933 14 11-66354 25 20-82777 36 29-99199 4 3-33244 15 12-49665 26 21-66088 37 30-82510 5 4-16555 16 13-32976 27 22-49399 38 31-65821 6 4-99867 17 14-16287 28 23-32711 39 32-49133 7 5-83178 18 14-99608 29 24-16022 40 33-32444 8 6-66489 19 15-82919 30 24-99333 41 34-15755 9 7-49800 20 16-66222 31 25-82644 42 34-99066 10 8-33111 21 17-49533 32 26-65955 43 35-82377 11 9 '16422 22 18-32844 33 27*49266 44 36-65688 (.continued) APPENDIX. 427 45 37-48999 59 49-15354 73 60-81710 87 72-48065 46 38-32310 60 49-98665 74 61'65021 88 73-31376 47 39-15626 61 50-11976 75 62-48332 89 74' 14687 48 39-98932 62 51-65288 76 63-31643 90 74-97998 49 40-82243 63 52-48599 77 64-14954 91 75-81309 50 41-65555 64 53-31910 78 64-98265 92 76-64620 51 42-48866 65 54-15221 79 65-81576 93 77-47931 52 43-32177 66 54-98532 80 66-64887 94 78-31242 53 44-15488 67 55-81843 81 67-48198 95 79-14554 54 44-98799 68 56-65154 82 68-31509 96 79-97865 55 45-82110 69 57-48465 83 69-14820 97 80-81176 56 46-65421 70 58-31776 84 69-98152 98 81-64487 57 47-48732 71 59-15087 85 70-81443 99 82-47798 58 48-32043 72 5Q-98398 86 71-64754 100 83-31109 ROMAN WINE MEASURES WITH OLD ENGLISH GALLONS. Ouleus .. 1 20 40 160 960 1,920 3,840 7,680 11,520 46,080 Decimal old Gallons. 135-6551 '6-7827 3-3913 0-8478 0-1414 0-0707 0-0353 0-0176 0-0117 0-0029 Ampliora 1 2 3 48 96 192 384 576 2304 Urna* 1 4 24 48 96 192 288 1152 Gonjius 1 6 12 24 48 72 288 Sextarius 1 2 4 8 12 48 Hprrnri3i 1 2 4 6 24 Quartarius 1 2 3 12 1 1-5 6 "i 4 i Acetabulum Cyathus Li&ula No. XXIV. INSTRUMENT REFERRED TO, Page 75. The outline below is very simple. The object is to decant the wine without the smallest disturbance. The instrument being firmly screwed to a table, is elevated or depressed by moving forward or backward a circular bit of wood, the end of which is seen in Fig. 4. The corkscrew and vice, Fig. 1, explain themselves. The tubes which are introduced into the bottles are more complicated. Fig. 3 is little other than a prolonged funnel, the lower end bent as wine funnels are in general. The top is capped, and only a small opening is left for the introduction of Fig. 2. This last being inserted in the bottle to be decanted, as shown in the sketch below; the large end has a forked and curved tube to be placed in the orifice of Fig. 3, over which is a little ring to receive a pointed knot on Fig. 2, and keep it in its place; the cock in the neck of the upper tube is turned, and the air entering by the second fork of the tube curved upwards, fills the vacant space as the wine flows out. A second cock closes the tube which enters the empty bottle, should it be of smaller size than that holding the wine, and danger of an overflow be apprehended. Both these instru- ments fit the bottles hermetically, by means of their conical shape, 428 APPENDIX. near the upper end, almost close to which, in the lower part of the tube, some small holes are made in the upper side of the tube, to take off the last of .the wine in the bottle's neck. See Fig. 2. No. XXV. EEOTLATIONS OF THE CUSTOMS. Wine must be imported in vessels of 60 tons or upwards. Wine must be imported, for home consumption, in British ships, or those of the country in which the wine is grown, or of the country from which it is exported. Wines of France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Canaries, Madeira, and the Western Islands, imported in foreign ships, to be alien goods, and pay port and town dues. No abatement to be made on account of damaged wine. Wine from the Cape must have a certificate of its production. By the Act 9th Geo. IV., cap. 76, wine is permitted to be imported in any sized package, and the duties on bottles are reduced to one- fourth, and from British possessions to 8d. per dozen. No. XXVI. ALCOHOLIC STEENGTH OF WINES AND LIQTJOES, AFTEE ME. BEANDE, EXCEPT THOSE IN ITALICS. This is confessed to be an inaccurate statement of the mean alcoholic strength of wines and liquors. It is obvious that there will be a great difference produced by the nature of the fruit and the season, as well as by the fermentation and the alcohol evolved, so that no wine from APPENDIX. 429 the same vineyard will exactly agree for two successive years. Ana- lyses for seven years, and then registering the mean, would be desirable. No doubt many of these wines received additions of brandy, and were not pure. Genuine wine carefully obtained, and thus analysed, would afford something of a test to detect the brandy introduced on importa- tion. Portugal and Sicilian wines are always brandied, some without discretion. We know that amontillado has not more than 13 or 14 of brandy per cent. Sherry is here set down generally at 19 and upwards, when some sorts have alcohol in addition, and others little or none. Burgundy, average of ") four samples ) Pure Alcohol per cent. Madeira Malmsey, red Ditto Pure Alcohol per cent. 14-57 11-95 16-60 12-61 13-80 12-80 12-32 12-79 12-32 14-22 15*52 17-43 13-94 12-80 13-86 19-00 17-26 17-11 16-32 14-08 12-91 15-10 21-24 18-94 17'26 19-17 19'79 19-25 17-26 13-20 14-37 13-00 8-88 12-22 11-46 19-75 22-96 18-94 19-20 18-10 18-49 16-40 22-30 18*40 24-42 23-93 21-40 19-41 22-27 25-09 19-70 26-47 24-35 15*28 30-00 16-20 19-75 18-92 18-25 22*94 20-51 19-80 15-52 9-88 14-63 26-40 2512 20'o5 11-84 11-26 9-87 54-32 53-90 53-68 53-39 51-60 7'84 7-26 7-32 8-88 6'20 5'56 4-20 6-80 1-23 Ditto, lowest of the four ... Ditto, highest of ditto Champagne, four sam- ") pies; average / Ditto ... Sercial Ditto Average Dftto, still Marsala; average of two j specimens .... ) Ditto, mousseux CdteRotie Lacryma Christi Frontignan Lissa .. Bed Hermitage Ditto Sautenie Lunel Syracuse Etna White Hermitage Aleatico . . Vinde Grave Constantia, white Ditto, second sample Barsac Ditto, red Cape Muscat K/oussillon Ditto Madeira Ditto, second sample Average of three sainO pies j Claret ... Ditto Shiraz, white Ditto Ditto, Ted Ditto Tokay Average Nice Grenache ... Raisin wine Malaga, 1666 . Average of three spe-") cimens S Ditto Sherry; average of four") kinds $ Currant wine Gooseberry . Teneriffe Orange ; average of six \ samples . _) Vidonia AlbaElora Elder wine Tent SPIEITS. Scotch Whisky Hochheimer Ditto Ditto, old Irish ditto Jiudeslieimer, 1800 Rum Average of ten kinds by \ Ziz and Prout J Brandy Gin Colarcs Port .... Cider, 9*87 and 5'21 average Perry; four samples Mead Port; average of seven) specimens y Lisbon Burton Ale Carcavellos Edinburgh Ditto .. Dorchester Bucellas London Porter Madeira Malmsey Brown Stout Ditto, red London Small Beer 430 APPENDIX. A tolerably correct guess may be formed on this subject by the re- turns from the wine districts in France of the quantity of the brandy of commerce, extracted from the different wines of that country the southern wines yielding the most. Burgundy and the wines of the Cote d'Or generally give only one-eighth of brandy in distillation, which brandy contains only 53-39 of pure alcohol. Hence the return at the above rate must be erroneous. The wines of the Bordelais give a fifth of their weight in the brandy of commerce, and the strong wines of the Drome a third, or 33 1-3 per cent. This last would be 16| pure alcohol. Now the difference in weight between the brandy of commerce and wine in general is not great. The specific gravity of Burgundy is -991 ; of Claret, -992 ; of Hock, -999; of Champagne, 962; of Madeira, 1*038; of pure alcohol, -8293; water being reckoned 1000. The brandy of commerce is -8371. It is probable that if the foregoing statement were read brandy in place of pure alcohol per cent., it would far exceed the truth. The addition of brandy artificially is another question. The statement only relates to the natural wines, with the brandy which is formed in fermentation. The following is another statement upon what authority is un- known. It will be seen that it differs from the former: A bottle of Port, of 26 oz., seven years in glass, gave 2 oz. 7 dchms. of pure alcohol. A bottle of Port, 25 oz., one year in bottle, and two in wood, 2 oz. 6 dchms. of pure alcohol. Ditto pale Sherry, 25 oz., and three years old, produced, 2 oz. 4 dchms. Ditto another specimen, 2 oz. 7 dchms. Ditto Madeira, 25 J oz., two years old, produced 2 oz. 5 dchms. Ditto Cape, 25 oz., one year old, produced 2 oz. Ditto old Hock, 21 oz., produced nearly 1 oz. Ditto Brandy, 24 oz., produced 10 oz. Ditto Rum, 24| oz- produced 9 oz. Port wine contains in the residuum an astringent extract, and malic acid, with much more tartaric acid than Madeira, and Sherry much less than either. The preference given to Port on account of its astringency, is objectionable by reason of its malic acid, causing indigestion and irritability of the viscera. Sherry is better fermented, less obnoxious on that account, and therefore preferable wher- ever such irritability is observable, or the port- wine drinker feels his stomach out of order, and cannot discover the cause. No. XXVII. The wines of antiquity most commonly met with are as follows. The list is taken from the Encyc. Metropolitans Abates. Carenum. Aeoreplos. > * -\ > Caulmum. *** c^iu. Acvy\cvKes. Coecuban. 'E^/za. Albanuni. Chalybon. Falernum. Chian. Helbon, or Circumcisiturn. v \ /o< Chazomenian. XoXifroww. ySSSL Cnidos. Ismarus. Corinthian. Labici. Arsymum. Corcyran. Lesbos. AvroKparov. Coum. Leucadia. Bythynian. Crete. Lora. Byblos. Cyprus. Mamertinun. Caleuum. Defutum. Mareoticum. APPENDIX. 431 Maronean. Massilian. Moecenatianum. Mendean. Meroe, Narbonensian. Naxos. Nomentanum. 9 O\iy6 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS RENEWALS AND RECHARGES MAY BE MADE 4 DAYS PRIOR TO DUE DATE. LOAN PERIODS ARE 1-MONTH. 3-MONTHS. AND 1-YEAR. RENEWALS: CALL (415) 642-3405 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 1 783 BERKELEY, CA 94720 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY