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C. K. OGDEN
A TREATISE ON WINES.
GEORGE BELL & SONS
LONDON: YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN
NEW YORK : 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND
BOMBAY : 53, ESPLANADE ROAD
CAMBRIDGE : DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.
A TREATISE
ON
WINES
THEIR ORIGIN NATURE AND VARIETIES
WITH PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS
FOR VITICULTURE AND
VINDICATION
BY
J. L. W. THUDICHUM, M.D.
F.R.C.P. LOND.
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1896
First published December 1893.
Reprinted in Bohris Scientific Library 1896.
PREFACE.
THE publishers of this treatise had intended to arrange a
new issue of the work on wines of the late Mr. Cyrus
Redding, 1 which had been so well received by the public
that it went through several editions. But it was found on
approximating the proposition to execution, that not only
had time enlarged and altered many parts of the subject,
but that as Mr. Redding's work had been written mainly for
a political economical object, which had been fully attained
by the legislation of 1860, its argument was exhausted and
its cycle of life complete. Such a work could not practically
be revived by rearrangement to meet the demands of the
present time, and the publishers therefore desired me to
compose a new and independent treatise of similar dimen-
sions. In view of the exhaustive treatise 2 which I had
published jointly with Dr. August Dupre*, and of the studies
which I had instituted subsequently, and communicated in
part in my Cantor Lectures, 3 delivered before the Society of
Arts in 1873, I was glad to have an opportunity of treating
the subject in an abridged and more accessible form, for the
1 "A History and Description of Modern Wines." Third Edition.
London, 1860.
2 " A Treatise on the Origin, Nature, and Varieties of Wine, being
a complete Manual of Viticulture and CEnology." London, 1872.
3 " On Wines : their Production, Treatment, and Use." Six Lec-
tures. Reprinted from the Journal of the Society. London, 1873.
2000106
vi PREFACE.
cognizance of the public as well as the use of traders, of
medical practitioners, and of that part of the inhabitants of
naturally favoured colonies and other English-speaking
countries, who have begun to look to viticulture as a
legitimate and permanent branch of agronomy. The work is
strictly scientific as far as it reaches, but by the exclusion of
ultimate technical details concerning viticultural, or ceno-
poetic, or chemical analytical processes, and of statistical
accounts of production and trade, it is more adapted for
reading than for decisive reference. Savants, traders and
other specialists, who desire final information, should consult
the treatise quoted above, which it may be confidently
asserted rivals any treatise in any language, either as regards
fulness and originality of information, or as concerns correct-
ness and effect of technical elaboration. The present
treatise, within the limits ordained for it, can make a similar
claim to confidence, as no accessible means for imparting
the utmost value to its contents have been left without con-
sideration by the author.
In the history of the culture of the most important
nations wine takes a significant place, and is eminent over
all other beverages, as well in its daily trivial as in its festive
and solemn use. It rouses the higher faculties of thought,
memory, and imagination, the poetical forms of all phases
of the mind ; it increases the zest of life and its duration.
Subordinate, but of similar significance in the given cases,
are its powers to remove pain and cheer "and strengthen the
heart in processes of recovery from fatigue, injury, or illness.
Compared to the benefits which wine confers, the harm
produced by its misuse is truly insignificant; even its sym-
bolic role has protected its physiological mission, and ought
to increase and secure that protection for all time to come.
In the work of my late father, " Grapes and Wine in the
PREFACE. Vll
History of Culture," 1 will be found an almost poetical appre-
ciation of this part of the history of civilization, clothed in
diction reminding of Tacitus by brevity and significance.
It presents one of the pleasing aspects of the process of
culture, as it does not include the record of any conflict of
opinions concerning the practice of past centuries. Sixty-
seven authors of antiquity, arranged alphabetically from
^Elian to Xenophon, contribute the materials for this appre-
ciation, and sixty-seven modern writers, from Anton to
Welles, treat the subject either expressly or passim, and thus
accumulate an amount of ethical testimony for which we
moderns have to be highly grateful.
The technical literature, on the other hand, comprises
some hundreds of volumes, of which I have scrutinized all
that are of any importance or originality, and those in my
possession occupy several yards of shelves. To a number
of these works reference will be made in the text, e.g., to the
works of Guyot, p. 195 ; of Bronner, ibid. ; to Dr. Batt's, Von
Babo's and Metzger's publications. But it is incompatible
with the proportions of this treatise that I should give a
bibliography, still less an account of the contents of the
works alluded to, much as I should like, and well able as I
should be to perform the task. I therefore confine myself
to a few short indications of the most prominent writings, in
order to aid active minds who should like to institute
independent inquiries.
French cenological literature in general is voluminous, and
includes many works of interest and importance. Amongst
these are the " Universal Ampelography " of Count Odart,
1 Thudichum, Dr. Georg, " Traube und Wein in der Kultur-
gescluchte." Tubingen, 1881. Published after the death of the
author as "the last graceful bequest of his always active Muse," by
Professor Dr. F. von Thudichum, of Tubingen.
viii PREFACE.
the " Ampe"lographie Franchise" of Victor Rendu, works
which mainly treat of the natural history and cultivation of
vines. Amongst the best known works on the art of making
wine are those of Count Chaptal, peer and minister under
the Bourbon dynasty, who treated the subject from the
chemical standpoint. The work of B. A. Lenoir consists of
a first viticultural and a second osnopoetic part. The work
of M. C. Ladrey (1857), like that of Chaptal, embodies
mainly the application of chemical principles and is the best
French work of the middle of our century ; it represents the
practice of the Bourgogne, in a town of which, Dijon, the
author was professor of chemistry : to it is appended a use-
ful bibliography. The work of Maumene, " Sur le Travail
des Vins," is also chemical, but treats also with great detail
of the physical conditions called into play in the production
of effervescent wines. The works of Pasteur led to great
developments in the knowledge of the nature of the diseases
of wine, which were recognized to be the result of the invasion
of fungi, and of the means for their destruction by the skil-
ful application of heat. The vineyards and wines of the
Medoc were described at length by W. Franck, by
D'Armailhac, and by Ch. Cocks, re-edited by E. Feret
(1868). This latter contains many sketches of habitations
called "chateaux," and thereby approaches to an illustrated
traveller's guide, for which indeed Cocks had originally in-
tended it ; other parts of France have not been so explicitly
treated, and on some important areas, e.g., the Moselle valley
of Alsace-Lorraine, the French vine-crowned muse has
remained silent.
Spain counts only few cenological publications; first
amongst them is the work of Clemente, "On the Vines of
Andalusia." Useful encyclopaedic works are those of Morales,
who was formerly secretary to the Spanish Board of Agri-
PREFACE. ix
culture ; of Tablada, an author of merit, almost the only
one who gives original information on Spanish wines in
general. A work by Arago opens with an extensive descrip-
tion of Spanish vines; to the cenological part is appended a
discourse on cider and on beer. Of special monographs one
by Barreto, a physician of Madrid, on the wines of Jerez
deserves special notice.
Of Portuguese works we have to notice a series of exhaus-
tive " Reports on the Viticulture and Wines of Lusitania,"
published by its government in 1867, which fill a large octavo
volume, but owing to the want of systematic arrangement and
of indices are difficult to peruse. Another Portuguese official
publication was ornamented with colour-printed plates
representing the principal vines and their fruit in the elegant
style of the modern French Duhamel, but the costly enter-
prise was not completed. Amongst Portuguese monographs
on special subjects, that of Oliveira, jun., " On the Phyl-
loxera" (Porto, 1872), is meritorious and well illustrated.
Concerning Italian wines the period of the Renaissance
had more and better authors than the present time. An
authoritative summary description of Italian wines was
published in 1869 as a result of their exhibition in Paris.
Many British authors have left us works of interest and
value. One of the earliest was Sir Edward Barry, a
physician at Bath, and afterwards state-physician to the
Viceroy of Ireland. Dr. Henderson's " History of Wines "
was published in 1824, that of Redding in 1836; the works
of M'Culloch ("Commercial Dictionary") and of Busby
(" Travels ") gave much useful information. Forrester, " On
Port Wine," appeared in 1854, Tovey's work in 1862. The
sale of the contents of the cellar of this scientific and
accomplished wine merchant, which took place after his
death, a few years ago, at Bristol, realised remarkably high
X PREFACE.
prices. The work of Mr. T. G. Shaw was distinguished
by original information, and by the endeavour to lighten
what he thought a heavy subject by the buoyancy of much
poetry. Sheen's work also was a creditable performance,
though, like most authors who attempt to treat didactic
scientific subjects in what I may be allowed to call a belletristic
manner, its writer rather diluted his essence by the intro-
duction of anecdote for the diversion of the reader, as Shaw
imported poetry. The late Dr. Druitt's writings were intended
to popularize cheap wines, and in this direction they have
had a certain amount of success, particularly by making the
public better acquainted with the effervescent wines of the
valley of the Loire. Sir J. Emerson Tennent's essay, "On
Wine, Its Use and Taxation," 1855, was mainly directed
against the reduction of the import tax on wine ; it was an
able diplomatic and economical memorial, and much of its
argument has been borne out by modern developments oi"
the wine trade.
Wines of Australia were for the first time scientifically
described by the Rev. John I. Bleasdale, in one of the so-
called "International Exhibition (Melbourne, 1872-73)
Essays."
Much useful information was at one time collected by the
Parliamentary Committee on the Wine Duties, which is
embodied in two volumes of Reports of Evidence. The
annual reports of our consuls are also valuable sources of
information, particularly on statistics of commerce and pro-
duction.
It is to be hoped that the political movement for the
expansion of the wine trade which was begun in 1860 may
be continued in the future, and obtain the hygienic results
which its promoters endeavoured to secure. The art of
making wine must include as an integral part the art and
PREFACE. xi
science of prwcnting its diseases, those remarkable parasi-
tisms by the agency of which great volumes of originally
excellent material are ceaselessly and irrecoverably spoiled
and lost. When this art and science shall have found
systematic application, the present insecurity of viticulturists
and traders will disappear, and the public will be able to
obtain excellent wines, such as at present are beyond the
reach of most people. When wine on its field shall be as
good and cheap and accessible as bread now universally is
in this country, the striving of politicians and men of science
will have been rewarded by the success, which will add
another pillar to the great edifice of modern freedom and
civilization.
CONTENTS.
SSCTION PAGE
CHAPTER I. ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY OF VINES.
1 . Definition and Etymology of Wine I
2. Origin and Descent of Vines 2
3. Origin of Cultivated Vines 9
4. Fossil Vines and Grapes 10
5. Geographical Distribution of Vines on the Northern Hemisphere I 1
6. Viticulture in England in Mediaeval Times 13
CHAPTER II. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL AND VINES.
7. Mineral Constituents of the Vine and their Relation to those of
the Soil 15
8. Influence of the Soil on the Mineral Constituents of the Vine . 18
9. Functions of Mineral Ingredients of the Vine 18
10. Amount of Mineral Matter which Viticulture Abstracts from
the Soil . '* 19
11. Organic Ingredients and Chemical Development of the Vine . 20
CHAPTER III. PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE, GENERAL
AND SPECIAL.
1 2. Soil favourable to Viticulture 23
13. Manuring and Improvement of the Soil in Vineyards ... 24
14. Methods of Propagating and Multiplying the Vine .... 24
15. Propagation by means of Eyes, or Buds 25
1 6. Propagation by means of Cut Canes 25
17. Propagation by means of Layers or Slips 26
18. Grafting of Vines 27
19. General Principles of the Cultivation of the Vine 28
CHAPTER IV. VINES AND VINTAGE.
20. Varieties of Vines to be selected for Cultivation 33
21. Selection of suitable Species of Vines for Wine-Making . . . 36
22. Vintage and Vinification 38
23. Time of Vintage 38
24. Modes of Vintage 40
25. Separation of Stalks 42
26. Mashing and Crushing 43
X ; V CONTENTS.
SECTION PAGE
CHAPTER V. PRESSING AND VINDICATION.
27. Wine-Presses f|id Pressing 44
28. Fermentation of the Wine- Must 48
29. Various Modes of Correcting the Composition of Must before
Fermentation 50
30. Plastering of Wine and Must 52
31. Probable Object of the Practice of Plastering 53
CHAPTER VI. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF WINE.
32. Ethylic Alcohol 54
33. Alcohols homologous to Ethylic or Common Alcohol ... 56
34. Aldehydes 56
35. Acids formed from Alcohols in Wine 56
36. Compound Ethers 57
CHAPTER VII. ANALYSIS OF WINES.
37. Mode of ascertaining the Strength of Wine by the Specific
Gravity of the Distillate from it 57
38. Distillation 58
39. Quantation of Alcohol in Wines by Indirect Means .... 59
40. State in which Alcohol is contained in Wine 61
CHAPTER VIII. ACIDS IN WINE.
41. Varieties of Acids in Wine 63
42. Chemical Estimation of the Quantity of Acids in Wine . . 69
43. Estimation of Tartaric Acid and Bitartrate of Potash in Wine 70
CHAPTER IX. ETHERS OR BOUQUET OF WINES.
44. Varieties of Ethers in W 7 ines 72
45. OZnanthic Ether 73
46. Tartaric Ether 74
47. Quantation of Ethers in Wine 74
48. Theory of the Limitation of Ethers in Wine 75
49. Smell, Bouquet or Aroma of Wine 77
CHAPTER X. SUGARS IN GRAPES AND WINE.
50. Varieties of Sugar occurring in Grapes and Wine .... 79
51. Grape-Sugar, Dextrose, or right-turning Glucose .... 80
52. Fruit-Sugar, Levulose or left-turning Glucose 81
53. Invert Sugar 82
54. Inosite or Phaseomannite 82
55. Testing Wines for Sugar 83
CHAPTER XI. COLOURING, ASTRINGENT, EXTRACTIVE AND
MINERAL CONSTITUENTS OF WINE.
56. Glycerol 86
57. Colouring Matters 87
58. Ammonia 91
59. Albuminous Matters 91
CONTENTS. XV
SECTION PAGE
60. Tannin . 92
61. Extractives 93
62. Mineral Constituents 94
63. Total Solid Constituents of Wine 95
CHAPTER XII. WINES OF THE GIRONDE.
64. Divisions of the Gironde 96
65. Vines Cultivated in the Medoc 98
66. Modes of Cultivating the Vine in the Medoc 101
67. Vintage in the Medoc 104
68. Various Qualities of the Wines of the Medoc 107
69. Classified Growths ... 108
70. Consumption of Medoc Wines . . 112
71. The Graves 114
72. Red \Vines of the Graves 116
73. White \Vines of the Graves or Sauternes District . . . . 116
74. Vintage 117
75. Description of the Wines 120
/6. \Vines of the Hill-sides or C6tes of the Gironde 121
CHAPTER XIII. WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC.
77. Wines of Roussillon 125
78. Mode of Production of Muscat Sweet Wine 129
79. Mode of Production of Malvoisie and Maccabeo Wines . . 129
80. Vineyard of Perpignan 130
81. Summary of the Wines of Roussillon 130
82. \Vines of Languedoc, or the Midi of France. Topography
and Soil 131
83. Vines Cultivated in Languedoc 132
84. Distinguished Growths of the Departments of the Aude and
Gard 134
85. Remarkable Growths of the Herault 136
86. Remarkable Muscat Wines 136
87. Manufacture of Spirit distilled from Wine, called " Trois-
six" and "Eau-de-Vie," at Montpellier 137
88. Markets for the Sale of Spirits 137
89. Designations of Spirits of various Degrees of Strength . . . 138
CHAPTER XIV. WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE.
90. Wines of the East of France . x 139
91. C6te du Rhdne 140
92. Chateau-neuf-du-Papc 141
93. Vineyard of St. Peray, Ardeche . . 142
94. Vineyards of the Ermitage 143
95. Vineyards of the Beaujolais, Maconnais, and the Chalon
Cote 145
96. The Beaujolais 145
97. Vines, Vintage, and Classification of the Wines of the
Beaujolais 146
xvi CONTENTS.
4SCTION PAGB
98. The Maconnais. General Division of District and Soil . . 146
99. Predominating Vines 147
100. Mode of Cultivation, Vintage and Treatment of Red Wines . 148
101. White Grape-Vines, and Character of their Wine .... 148
102. C6te of Chalon-sur-Saone 149
CHAPTER XV. WINES OF BURGUNDY.
103. General Observations on the Wines of Burgundy . . . . 150
104. Viticultural Districts of Burgundy 151
105. Varieties of Vines planted in Burgundy 152
106. Mode of Cultivation 153
107. Vintage . ^ 155
1 08. Vatting and Fermentation *. 157
CHAPTER XVI. WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE.
109. Wines of the Champagne 160
no. Wine-producing Part of the Champagne 162
in. Cultivation of the Vine in the Champagne 166
112. Value of the Vineyards 166
113. Varieties of Vines grown in the Champagne 167
114. Vintage in the Champagne 169
115. Pressing, Fermentation, Cellaring, and Fining of the Wine . 171
116. Drawing into Bottles, or Tirage 174
117. Clearing of the Bottles of Yeast, or Disgorging 175
1 1 8. Liqueuring, Corking, and Finishing 175
119. Qualities of Champagne and Quantities produced .... 177
1 20. Historical Note on the Discovery of Champagne .... 178
121. Production and Variation of the Mousse 179
CHAPTER XVII. WINES OF THE VALLEYS OF THE LOIRE AND
CHARENTE.
122. Wines and Vines of the Valley of the Loire iSl
123. Mode of Cultivation 182
124. Wines and Brandies of the Charente 183
125. Varieties of Vines producing the Eau-de- Vie of Cognac . . 183
126. Mode of producing the Eau-de- Vie of Cognac 184
CHAPTER XVIII. WINES OF THE UPPER RH;NE AND
MAINE VALLEY.
127. Wines of Alsatia 186
128. Wines ofjthe Palatinate, or Rhenish Bavaria 188
129. Mode of Cultivating the Vine 189
130. Prevailing Vines 190
131. Wines of Rhenish Hesse 191
132. Wines of Franconia, or the Upper Maine 197
133. Wines of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Hesse, North of the
Maine 194
CONTENTS. xvii
SECTION PAGE
CHAPTER XIX. WINES OF THE RHEINGAU, OF THE LOWER
MAINE, AND OF THE MOSELLF.
134. Wines of the Rheingau. Historical Note 196
135. Topographical and Geological Note 196
136. Varieties of Vines cultivated in the Rheingau 197
137. The Steinberg 198
1 38. Marcobrunn and Johannisberg 200
139. Vineyards of Rudesheim 202
140. Wines of the Lower Maine, or Hochheim 202
141. Wines of the Moselle 203
142. Cultivated Vines and mode of Training 204
143. Peculiarities of Moselle Wines 204
CHAPTER XX. WINES OF AUSTRIA.
144. Wines of Austria 205
145. Red Wine of Voslau, near Vienna 206
146. Wines and Grapes of the Tyrol 207
147. The Tyrolinger, or " Black Hambro " Vine of the Tyrol . 208
148. The Grape-cure at Meran 209
149. Wines of Styria . . 210
150. Viticulturists of Styria 211
151. Varieties of Vines Cultivated 212
152. Vinification, Pressing, and Quality of Wine 213
153. Wines of Croatia 214
154. Wines of Dalmatia 215
155. Varieties of Vines and their Cultivation 216
156. Wines of Istria 217
157. Wines of Gortz 217
158. Wines of Bohemia . 218
CHAPTER XXL WINES OF HUNGARY.
159. General Observations 218
1 60. Viticultural Districts of Hungary . 219
161. Varieties of Soil on which Vines grow in Hungary . . . 220
162. Varieties of Vines and Mode of Cultivation 220
163. Vintage and Vinification 222
164. Classification of Hungarian Wines 223
\6$. Wines of the Banat, Woiwodina, and Syrmia 225
CHAPTER XXII. WINES OF SPAIN.
166. Vineyards of Jerez de la Frontera 226
167. Climate of Jerez 231
1 68. Extent and Position of the Vineyards 231
169. The Balbaina Districts 232
170. New Plantations, Young Vineyards, Majuelos .... 234
1 7 1. Annual Labours in Vineyards 236
172. Productiveness of Vineyards 240
173. Prices of Vineyards 240
b
xviii CONTENTS.
SECTION PACK
174. Principal Vines most commonly Cultivated and their
Distribution in the Pagos 243
175. Pruning of the Vines 247
176. Rarer Varieties of Vines 250
177. Vintage The Lagar Pressing the Grapes Pisa .... 252
178. Further Description of Pagos, their Soils and Vines . . . 258
179. Further Description of Jerez Vines 259
180. Classification of Grapes, in the order of their Quality for
Making Wine 262
181. Eastern, Southern, and Western Group of Pagos .... 263
182. Moscatels 269
183. Density of Jerez Mostos 270
184. Sulphuring Azufrado 272
185. Temperatures of Fermenting Musts 274
186. Stages of Wine, and Qualities 276
187. The Criadera. The Solera 277
1 88. Colours of Sherries Arrope, Color or Vino de Color, Dulce 279
189. Evaporation of Wine from Casks. Flor 283
190. Scuddiness, Viscosity, Nube and other Diseases of Wine . 285
191. Finings 286
192. Tinajas. Casks 287
193. Bodegas and Want of Cellars 289
194. Notes on the History of Viticulture and of the Trade in Wine
at Jerez 293
195. Vineyards of San Lucar de Barrameda 295
196. The Algaida and its Indigenous Vines 297
197. Vineyards of Rota. Tintilla de Rota 299
198. Wines of the Val de Penas 301
199. Wines of Catalonia 302
200. Wines of Valencia, Benicarlo, Alicante 302
201. Wines of Granada, Malaga 303
202. Wines of Aragon and other provinces of Spain, Majorca,
Minorca 304
CHAPTER XXIII. WINES OF PORTUGAL.
203. Vineyards of the Alto Douro 306
204. Vines of the Province Entre Douro e Minho 307
205. Soil of the Alto Douro District 308
206. Topographical Notes 309
207. Modes of Planting and Training the Vine 310
208. Vintage and Modes of Vinification 311
209. The Lagar, the Press, Treading the Grapes, Fermentation . 312
210. Remarks on this Mode of Vinification 313
211. Elderberry and Logwood 314
212. White Varieties of Wines produced in the Alto Douro . . 315
213. Transport of Alto Douro Wines 316
214. Change in the Taste of the Public as regards Port . . . . 319
215. Wine Country of the Bairrada 320
CONTENTS. XIX
SECTION PAGR
2 1 6. The Vineyards around and near Lisbon. Vineyards of Collares 322
217. Vineyard of Bucellas 323
218. Wines of Torres Vedras Lavradio 324
219. General Features of Portuguese Wine-Making 324
CHAPTER XXIV. WINES OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS, MADEIRA,
THE CANARIES, AND THE AZORES.
220. Wines of Madeira 329
221. Varieties of Vines and their Cultivation 329
222. Wines of the Canaries and the Azores 331
CHAPTER XXV. WINES OF ITALY AND OF THE BALKAN
PENINSULA.
223. General Observations on Italian Wines 332
224. Wines of Piedmont and the Island of Sardinia 333
225. Wines of Tuscany 333
226. Wines of Lombardy, Venetia, Central and Southern Italy . 334
227. Wines of Sicily 335
228. Wines of the Balkan Peninsula 336
229. Wines of Greece 336
230. Vines cultivated in Greece 337
231. Vinification 338
232. Islands of the Greek Archipelago, Santorin, Ionian Islands,
Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus 339
CHAPTER XXVI. WINES OF ASIA.
233. Wines of Caucasia 341
234. Wines of Persia. Shiraz and its Vines 342
CHAPTER XXVII. WINES OF AFRICA.
235. Wines of the Cape of Good Hope. Vines ; Mode of
Cultivation 345
236. Qualities of Cape Wines and Importation into England . . 346
237. Principal Viticultural Districts and Estates in the Cape Colony 347
238. The Constantias 348
239. Wines of Madagascar 348
240. Wines of Morocco 349
241. W 7 ines of Algeria 349
242. Wines of the Nile Valley 349
CHAPTER XXVIII. WINES OF AMERICA.
243. General Observations 350
244. Indigenous Vines of North America 350
245. Vines Cultivated in North America 353
246. Rise of Viticulture in America 354
CHAPTER XXIX. WINES OF AUSTRALASIA.
247. General Observations . 355
XX CONTENTS.
SECTION PACE
CHAPTER XXX. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINKS.
248. Rating of the Wines of the World 356
249. Active Ingredients of Wines 361
250. Use of Chemical Analysis of Wine 364
251. Use of Wine to the Healthy and Sick in Youth or Age . . 367
CHAPTER XXXI. DISEASES OF VINES AND OF WINES.
252. Diseases of Vines and their Treatment 370
253. Diseases of Wines, their Prevention and Cure 377
A TREATISE ON WINES.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY OF VINES.
i. DEFINITION AND ETYMOLOGY OF WINE.
WINE is a beverage obtained from the juice of grapes
by fermentation, composed of alcohol, ethers, acids,
water, and peculiar agreeably-smelling ingredients, which
some term aroma, others, with more reason, bouquet.
Fermented beverages are obtained from many other materials
besides grape juice, such are the sap of different palms, the
Mexican pulqiie^ from the stem of an agave, the sap of the
maple, birch, the Homeric lotos, 1 and all kinds of sugar-con-
taining fruit and berries, honey, corn, rice, vegetable roots,
including manioc. 2 Such drinks have also been termed
wine, but generally distinguished by prefixing the name of
the vegetable from which their main character was derived,
e.g., gooseberry-wine. 3 The name wine comes from the
Indo-German orient ; in Hebrew it occurs asjatn, in Ethio-
pian as warn, in Greek as oinos, not improbably pronounced
woinos in Homeric times, 4 Georgian Caucasian ghwins,
Latin, vinum ; this last name is repeated in the Romanic
languages with only a modification of the terminal syllable.
From these names, which are only a selection out of many,
pointed to
delusions of intoxication. (Plutarch, " Sympos." vii. 10.)
2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
it has been concluded, and with no small degree of certainty,
that viticulture and the preparation of wine have been intro-
duced to western nations from the orient. The Greek mythos
of the migration from India to Hellas of the wine-god
Dionysos point to the same conclusion.
2. ORIGIN AND DESCENT OF VINES.
The vine is older than all history, and indeed older than
humanity itself, as is evident from the occurrence of its
fruit and leaves in deposits formed during geologically
so-called tertiary times, which are far anterior to any trace of
human existence. It grows in a so-called wild or unculti-
vated state in many parts of the old and new world, in the
valley of the Rhine, of the Danube, as well as that of the
Orontes in central Asia, and that of the Amoor at its eastern
end, in Italy, Sicily, and Portugal, in central and northern
America. Many wild vines bear no fruit at all, others bear
uneatable and useless fruit, others again, sour or sweet and
eatable berries. 1 The assumption therefore that cultivated
vines were derived from one particular species, the vitis
Tint/era, and that wild vines were degenerated offsprings of
this native of Asia is not tenable. Candolle, 2 who has made
such a deep study of the origin and distribution of plants,
particularly those which are cultivated by man, does not
think it practical to derive a distinction between vines from
the fact of their being " cultivated " or " spontaneous," but he
declares Armenia to be the land in which the species
originated. 3 As a reason for this opinion he adduces the
fact that in Armenia the most gigantic vines, with stems of
the thickness of the human body and the height and expanse
of large trees, produce without cultivation grapes of good
taste. 4 But vines of similar size are known to have grown
in Campania, on the Caspian Sea, in Cashmir, on the
Lebanon, where in the last century there were yet vines
1 Meyen, " Grundr. d. Pflanzengeographie."
y Alph. de Candolle, "Geogr. botanique raisonnee," p. 872.
8 "Patrie originaire de 1'espece," /. c.
* Cf. Gervinus, " Histor. Schriften," Bd. vii., 177.
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY. 3
with trunks six inches in diameter, bearing bunches of the
weight of twelve pounds. 1 Meyen on the other hand believes
Cyrenaica to be the fatherland of the vine. In the presence
of the theory of evolution it would not be difficult to com-
prehend a derivation from one original species, or from
several varieties. But the discussion is not likely to be
conducted to an acceptable conclusion, as the scientific data
for its consideration are too scarce and too imperfect.
We find in viticultural literature many allusions to, or
even descriptions of, wild vines. Thus Crescentius, who
lived in the thirteenth century at Bologna, and wrote a
compendium 2 on agriculture, mainly after the ancient Latin
authors, Palladitis and Columella, stated that he had
met with many varieties of wild vines in Italy, which
appeared to him to be peculiar sorts ; and Clemente 3 re-
cognized the peculiar character of the wild vines of his
country, and believed them to be indigenous to it, and con-
sequently to have existed there previous to the introduction
or origination of the cultivated species. He expresses him-
self as opposed to the limitation of botanists who assume the
original existence of only one vitis mnifera and refer all
other varieties to a play of nature. He describes different
kinds of wild vines, perfectly characterized, as growing in the
Algaida,a sandy district near San Lucar de Barrameda, mainly
grown over with sea-pines. Of this district and its vines,
the so-called garanones, the reader will find a special descrip-
tion under the chapter referring to Andalusia, entitled " The
Algaida and its Indigenous Vines," in which the author has
embodied the results of a special visit made to the locality.
In the southern parts of France, in Provence, Languedoc
and Guyenne, wild vines are met with on hedges, in
jungles, or in woods and forests. According to Duhamel 4
1 Schulz, "Diary of 1754," ed. Volz., "Beitrage zur Kulturgessch,"
1852, 52.
* Petrus de Crescentiis, "Opus ruralium commodorum," Augsburg,
1471, Louvain, 1474, and many other editions in various languages.
3 Simon Roxas Clemente, Director of the Botanical Garden, Madrid,
in his work, " The Vines of Andalusia."
* Duhamel de Monceau, " Traite des Arbres fruitiers," p. 212.
4 A TREATISE ON WINES.
they differ from the cultivated varieties by their leaves being
in general smaller, and more cottony on the surface, and
particularly by their fruit being much smaller, and of a less
soft and sugary taste. These wild vines, to which the
ancients had given the name of Labrusca? are yet known in
the present day in the south of France under the name of
Lambrusco and Lambresquiero.
With Gmelin begins the scientific diagnosis of wild vines.
In elaborating the Flora Badensis he observed that the wild
vine frequently occurred in the dioic state, that is to say, that
some plants were male, and bore no fruit, while others were
female, and bore fruit provided they stood in the neighbour-
hood of male plants. He described such plants botanically
and gave them a separate place in his treatise, under the
title of vitis sylvestris. In most botanical works which ap-
peared subsequently to Gmelin, the vitis sylvestris is quoted
after him, but the discovery is mostly neutralized by the
observation that the vitis sylvestris was nothing but a de-
generated vitis vinifera. Other botanists, including Reichen-
bach, fell into the error of confounding the American vitis
labrusca, as accepted by Linne", with the vitis sylvestris.
These errors were removed, and the observations of Gmelin
were re-established and expanded by the distinguished
cenologist, J. P. Bronner, of Wiesloch near Heidelberg.
He studied these children of the forest in their natural
haunts, the woods which border the marshy shores of the
Rhine between Mannheim and Rastadt, where they grow by
thousands; he visited them in early summer-time, and
selected from innumerable individuals the types of inflores-
cence, and multifarious forms of leaves; he marked the
places of their abode, and returning in the fall, saw and
tasted the grapes, which had then come to maturity. After
devoting years to the observation of the several constant
varieties, he took cuttings from them and planted them in
his garden at Wiesloch, in order to observe their bearing in
1 Linne does not seem to have been acquainted with wild vines of
Europe, for he applied this ancient name or adjective of theirs to an
American indigenous vine, the first variety which he admitted by the
side of the vinifera.
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY. 5
the state of cultivation. (I visited this vineyard in 1866,
and examined a considerable number of these children of
the Rhine marshes. 1 ) Bronner had thus planted thirty-six
varieties, when in the year 1842, a very favourable wine-
year, most of his plants bore very perfect fruit, and brought
it to the utmost maturity. None of these plants had changed
their original character by cultivation. He caused accurate
pictorial representations of their fruit to be made. Already,
during the time of blossoming, he had obtained faithful
portraits of the flowers, leaves, and branches, partly by a
kind of nature-printing, and when these were coloured by an
artist, the whole formed a complete botanical atlas of the wild
vines of the Upper Rhine valley. 2 At the same time Bronner
made an accurate botanical diagnosis of, and attributed a
suitable Latin name to each variety, and arranged the whole
as a special system, based upon the construction of the
flowers, and the formation of the fruit.
The inflorescence of these wild vines shows three distinct
forms. A considerable number of plants exhibit only a male
inflorescence without any umbilicus capable of fructification ;
in the place where there should be a beginning of a berry
there is a yellow receptacle filled with honey. The plants
showing this peculiarity produce an enormous number of
blossoms, each of which is several inches in length, and with
its long yellow stamina and terminal pollen bags resembles
a brush such as is used for cleaning bottles. The flowers
distribute a most agreeable odour around the plant. 3
A certain number of the other vines have exactly the same
inflorescence as the cultivated vines, they are hermaphrodite,
with long projecting yellow stamina and pollen bags, and an
umbilicus capable of impregnation. The leaves of these
vines differ but little from those of the cultivated varieties,
but the fruit has a different shape, and a different chemical
nature, being often very acid and sometimes quite inedible.
1 Cf. Thudichum and Dupre, /. c., p. 4, footnote.
a This atlas is now in the Library and Museum of the CEconomical
and Agricultural Society of Baden, at Karlsruhe.
3 Compare with this description the account which Pliny gives of the
"CEnanth."
A TREATISE ON WINES.
But the great majority of individuals as well as species of
wild vine have a most peculiar inflorescence, differing con-
Fig, i. Inflorescence of hermaphrodite wild and cultivated vines.
(Magnified.)
Fig. 2. Inflorescence of male or sterile wild vines, with open honey
cup in place of fruit. (Magnified.)
Fig. 3. Inflorescence of female or fructiferous wild vines, with
recurved stamina.
siderably from the two forms just described. On close
examination of an active blossom of this class it is seen that
the ordinary so-called crown or cap, which the cultivated
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY. /
vine always sheds completely, is actually detached, but
remains hanging upon the flower, while the stamina are bent
downwards below the basis of the future fruit. The stamina
become, as botanists technically term them, stamina recurvata,
and thus greatly differ in appearance from the stamina erecta
of the wild unproductive variety above described, and of
the hermaphrodite wild and cultivated plants.
Bronner surmised that the plants which show the stamina
recurvata were unable to fructify themselves, but required the
male plants with stamina erecta for impregnation. The
transfer of the pollen from the male to the female individuals,
which are mostly standing at a distance from each other, is
very probably effected by the agency of insects.
American vines also occur in the polygamic as well as in
the dioic state. Monographers do not admit this to be a
characteristic feature, but hold it to be an accident to which
any variety of vine may be subject.
In some vineyards of the department of the Ain, in
France, a variety of vine is cultivated which is termed the
mescle. It has long bunches of oval grapes and deeply
lobated leaves, mostly with five divisions. Each of these
divisions or lobes is provided with a considerable expanse
of vegetable membrane on both sides of the principal so-
called nerve in every case in which the plant is fertile ; but
a leaf with a narrow strip of membrane on both sides of the
nerve indicates a sterile plant ; such a leaf resembles that
of a Virginia creeper. By these peculiarities the plants
can be easily distinguished from each other, even at a
distance.
The absolutely and always sterile plants of the mescle
vine are termed by the vine dressers plants craputs. They
grow luxuriant branches, and the apparently crippled cha-
racter of their leaves is no indication of any general want of
vigour. Their cuttings and pro-vines are as sterile as the
parent stocks. The French imperialist viticultural author,
Guyot, 1 was as unable to account for these phenomena as
were the vine-dressers; but these latter did not dare to
1 " Rapport sur la Viticulture de 1'Ain," pp. 137.
8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
totally extirpate the sterile mescle from the vineyard, al-
though they abstained from increasing the number of indivi-
duals. The sterile mescle is no doubt the male, and the
fertile its female variety, with probably hermaphrodite plants
intermixed.
Bronner classified the hermaphrodite indigenous wild
vines of the Rhine valley ; his list comprises twenty-eight
varieties, of which the details may be consulted in his
original work. 1 Not a single bunch of grapes was met with
which could be said to be similar to or identical with any
variety of the cultivated grapes of the Rhine valley. The
grapes were mostly black, and amongst many thousands of
plants only three were found bearing white fruit. Of these
latter one had acid, the other moderately sweet fruit; the
third bore delicious orange-flavoured grapes. The bunches
of the two first white varieties were loose, pendulous, and
carried long small berries ; the orange-flavoured vine had
bunches with densely placed grapes. Among the black
varieties some bore very small bunches, others reached
from two to five inches in length ; most common were the
black grapes of oval shape. The shapes of the leaves
differed greatly.
In Upper and Lower Austria, particularly between Vienna
and Pressburg, there grow many wild vines on the shores of
the Danube, as well as on the islands of the river. 2 Similar
vines appear below Buda, and extend to Transylvania. The
borders of the Theiss are enlivened by their presence ; the
Save, where it issues from Croatia, waters many plants of
this kind. On the Adige, in the Tyrol, there are some
jungles formed by wild vines creeping over low shrubs of
Rhus cotinus and wild fig-trees ; the wild vines accompany
the Adige into the low marshy country.
From the foregoing it is evident that all those European
countries which possess the climatic conditions have in their
flora many species of the genus Vitis in a wild state, with
such botanical characters as leave no doubt that the plants
are indigenous, produced by natural selection from proto-
1 Cf. also Thudichum and Dupre, /. c., pp. 8 and 9.
8 Jaquin in an article in the Austrian "Annals of Agriculture."
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY. 9
types, and not derived from imported cultivated races of
vines, or degenerated by the struggle for existence from
previously cultivated races, the products of artificial crossing
or human selection.
3. ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED VINES.
In the appreciation of the nature of the different wines
produced in the world, it must be borne in mind that each
particular district producing a particular kind of well-charac-
terized wine does so by means of particular well-characterized
varieties of vines. These vines must be considered as
having been either indigenous to these districts, or as
having been produced in them by natural or artificial selec-
tion from indigenous varieties; for when transplanted to
other districts they change their character more or less so as
to produce a different wine ; or they lose their peculiarities
so completely as to be worthless for making wine ; or they
cease to be fructiferous ; or lastly, they do not succeed at all,
and pine and die out.
The Aramont is a vine commonly grown about Montpellier
on account of its extraordinary fertility ; transplanted to the
south of Germany it begins to bear in the fourth year and
produces many and large bunches of grapes, but year by
year its fertility decreases, its originally large berries become
smaller, until the viticulturist is obliged to remove the barren
plants. Bronner 1 who had become acquainted with the
extraordinary fertility of some vines of Upper Austria the
Rothgipfler, green Muscateller, the white one of Griming (a
village near Vienna) and the red Zierifandler of Voslau
planted numerous samples of all four varieties in his vine-
yard at Wiesloch. During ten years he did not obtain a
single grape from any of them, and after ten further years all
the vines had died out.
The vines of Europe transplanted to North America do
not succeed. Viticulture in that country has hitherto only
succeeded with indigenous varieties or their crosses. Even
the wine made from the celebrated Catawba is so flavourless
1 Bronner " Die wilden Trauben," etc. p. 32.
10 A TREATISE ON WINES.
that the best which we could obtain from St. Louis was
strongly flavoured with elder-flower.
Invariably American vines which yield yet drinkable wine
in the United States, when grown in the Gironde degenerate
and yield no drinkable wine. 1
Vines transplanted from more northern to southern lati-
tudes do not succeed any better than those which have
made the inverse migration. We dismiss as unproved the
often repeated statement, that the Portuguese Bucellas wine
was made from the "hock-grape;" but we reject as entirely
fabulous the statement that the vine called Pedro Ximenes
had been brought to Spain from the banks of the Moselle
by the man whose name it bears. As a French author 2
wittily said, " If he took any he took all ; for no such vine
grows nowadays north of the Pyrenees."
The vines of the Alto Douro differ in specific botanical
character from all other vines, as port wine differs from
other wine. The Gironde produces the peculiar red wines
by means of its Carbenet, Carmenere, Malbec, and Verdot.
Transplanted to Spain, these vines do not produce claret
any longer ; in a climate less moist and less warm, these
vines so lose their fertility as to cease to be remunerative
objects of agriculture.
We might greatly increase the number of data, all pointing
to the same conclusion, but those above given are sufficient
to prove a general law, namely, that every uniform climatic
region has its peculiarly adapted varieties of wild and
cultivated vines, which cannot be so successfully cultivated
in other regions, or cannot be cultivated at all anywhere
else.
4. FOSSIL VINES AND GRAPES.
The vine existed certainly in Germany, and perhaps also
in Bohemia and Tuscany, 3 during the tertiary and before
1 We learned this from the late M. Boucherot of Carbonnieux near
Bordeaux, who planted American vines on a large scale.
a Count Odart, ''Traite des Cepages."
3 Cf. Gaudin, " Mem. sur quelques Gisements des Feuilles fossiles
dela Toscane."
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY. II
the basaltic outbreaks which succeeded the tertiary deposits.
In the relative situations there existed jungles close to lakes
or morasses, in which latter the decaying vegetation of the
neighbourhood became imbedded, and by commixture of
clay, preserved. Thus deposits of lignite, or brown-coal
were formed, which now supply the neighbourhood with
fuel. In this lignite the preserved parts of vines are found in
our time. But these deposits have been preserved from
ulterior changes, from being washed away by rain, or the
combined effects of the agencies which produce what in
geology is termed denudation, by having been covered over
by basaltic lava, which in the particular case of Salzhausen
in Hesse, is no less than 180 feet thick. 1
These lignites contain a great variety of impressions of
leaves, such as oak leaves resembling the Mexican evergreen
varieties, species of smilax and anona, leaves of a walnut-
like tree called carya, and its nuts, the small fruit of a
pistachia, and the broad leaves of a fig-tree, with here and
there the impression of a half-grown fig. Interspersed with
these, or in separate layers, are found the impressions of the
leaves of the fossil vine, vitis teutonica? and large quantities
of the seeds of its fruit, " regular fossil raisin-stones," in the
shape of regular cakes of " murk," or compressed masses oi
kernels and membranes, the residues of husks.
5. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF VINES ON THE
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.
The vine meets with the climatic conditions of its growth,,
and the perfection of its fruit, on the northern hemisphere,
in a belt of territory which is enclosed between two lines, a
northern one on the polar limit and a southern or equatorial
1 For details concerning this deposit cf. Thudichum and DupreV
" Treatise," etc., p. 14-16; also Tasche, in the " Transactions of the
Imperial Caroline Academy of Sciences."
2 They were formerly believed to be derived from a species of acer,
but correctly diagnosed by A. Brown. Cf. F. Unger, " Sylloge
Plantarum Fossilium," in the Sitz. Ber. d. K. Acad. d. W. ; Wien,,
1 86 1, vol. xix.
12 A TREATISE ON WINES.
limit. Commencing north of the Azores, the polar limit
passes through the Channel south of England, excluding
that country, enters France in the Bretagne at Vannes, and
runs by Mazieres, Alengon and Beauvais. It then takes
a more northern turn, includes a portion of Rhenish
Prussia, passes to the north of Thuringia, the valley of the
Saale, Saxony, and then crosses the Carpathians, to pass
through South Russia, almost in a straight line to the northern
end of the Caspian Sea. Thence it proceeds to the river
Amoor, and somewhat to the north of the southern bend of
that river ends in the Pacific Ocean. The equatorial limit
passes south of the Canary Islands, including them and all
the islands near the African and Spanish coast. It enters
Africa about the 3oth degree of northern latitude, and,
running near that degree, leaves Africa at the middle of the
Isthmus of Suez ; runs across Arabia and the Persian Sea,
enters India near the 25th degree of northern latitude, runs
down into Hindostan with a loop, nearly parallel to its
sea-borders, so that the whole interior of Hindostan is com-
prised in it while the whole seaboard is excluded. It
then passes again to the north, enters China and forms a
loop southwards similar to that in Hindostan, to termi-
nate at the eastern end of it, on the 27th degree of northern
latitude.
These limits are really those of the culture of the vine ; for
:some varieties will grow to the north of the limit, though its
fruit never ripens unless with the aid of exceptional protec-
tion : to the south of the equatorial limit the vine becomes an
evergreen on which all stages of growth are represented at
the same time ; and under these circumstances it does not
mature its fruit with the same perfection as when it is sub-
ject to the rotation of the seasons.
The vine requires for the ripening of its fruit not a certain
high average temperature of the year, but a maximum of
summer heat, without which the fruit does not ripen. In
accordance with this general law England does not produce
wine, for although its average temperature is very high, its
maximum summer heat is not high enough, owing to the
large masses of water vapour which constantly pervade the
ORIGIN, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY. IJ
air over Britain, and prevent the sun's rays from influencing
the vegetation with the required energy.
The cultivation of the vine in America is apparently in-
cluded between limits similar to those prevailing in Europe.
Even the indigenous American vines cannot be cultivated
north of 50 degrees north latitude. The scuppernong does
not succeed north of the Potomac, and the indigenous vines
apparently do not pass south of the centre of Mexico.
On the southern hemisphere, Peru, South Africa (at least
the Cape of Good Hope), and Australia produce wine. The
extent of the cultivation in these districts is at present not
exactly known, but it seems somewhat to increase in
Australia.
6. VITICULTURE IN ENGLAND IN MEDIAEVAL TIMES.
In apparent contradiction to the foregoing and apparently
unexplained, but supported by documentary evidence,
stands the assertion that during some centuries, beginning
somewhat before the Norman Conquest, wine was grown in
many parts of the south of England. We take the following
data from Redding's work, 1 premising that in the souitiny
of ancient documents a doubt must be allowed, whether the
Latin word, which has been read as vinarium, whether it
mean a vineyard or a wine-cellar, may not have signified,
and therefore must not necessarily be read as vivarium Y
meaning a pond in which fish were reared or kept for use in
a living state.
Doomsday Book proves that wine was made in Essex, six
acres producing 160 gallons. Rabelais, 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 Vale 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
1 L. c. p. 33, et seq.
14 A TREATISE ON WINES.
days in digging in the vineyard, and gathering the grapes for
three days." Ing. ad. q. d. 39, Ed. III. Fosbr. Glouc., ii.
293. 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 par-
ticular church establishments, whose ruins are yet in their
vicinity. Raleigh, in Essex, was valued, in the time of King
Edward, at ten pounds, propter vinum. In regard to the
Vale of Gloucester, William of Malmesbury says, " There is
no province in England which has so many and good vine-
yards, neither on account of their fertility nor the sweetness
of the grape." The tithes of the vines of Lincombe, near
Bath, were confirmed to the abbey there in 1150, by Arch-
bishop Theobald. The village 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. Vines are distinguished in
old writings as " portantes " or " non portantes." The terms,
41 Vinea nova," " Vinea noviter," and " Nuperrime plantata,"
occur about the date of the Norman conquest. Six " arpens "
of land were then said, if the vines turned out well si bent
brocedit to produce, by one author, 160 gallons by
another, 120. In seeming opposition to this, it is recorded,
in " Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarch," p. 337, tome L, 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
CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL AND VINES. 1 5
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 de-
partment of the Somme. M. Arago instances a similar
change of climate in England, proved by old chronicles as
above quoted, and, inquiring into the causes of this change,
thinks that a very marked alteration of climate has taken
place both in France and England. " The cause," he says,
"is certainly not connected with the sun a proof of which
is given in the steadiness of the temperature of Palestine."
CHAPTER II.
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL AND VINES.
7. MINERAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE VINE AND THEIR
RELATION TO THOSE OF THE SOIL.
AN exact knowledge of the mineral constituents of the
vine enables the viticulturist to adapt his soil to the neces-
sities of the plant in the most perfect and economical manner,
and thus to furnish one of the most important elementary
conditions of the greatest possible production of grapes and
wine. The mode of obtaining this knowledge is part of the
science of analytical chemistry, and as such is without the
limits of the present treatise. We therefore deal only with
the great features of the results as far as they are necessary
to the reader to enable him to appreciate facts and processes
which have to be alluded to summarily in the later chapters.
The mineral constituents of vines, like those of all or-
ganized living beings, are obtained as ashes by the combus-
tion of their several parts, A part of the ash is soluble in
water, and comprises the alkali metals, potassium and sodium,
16 A TREATISE ON WINES.
combined with carbonic and sulphuric acid and chlorine;
while another portion is insoluble in water, and consists of
calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese, combined with
carbonic, phosphoric, and silicic acid. The proportions of
alkalies to earths are about equal : and again, the united
weight of the bases is about equal to the half of the weight of
the entire ash. Different vines yield different proportions of
ash, but vines of the same kind and the same period of vegeta-
tion yield very similar proportions of ash. The ashes of the
various parts of the vine, of leaves, branches, wood, and
roots, differ from each other in a very striking manner. 1
The ripe woody canes at the end of the year's growth contain
from 2o/ to 2 5% of moisture, and from 2-2%to4'2%of ash.
Old wood and roots contain a little more ; capillary roots with
63 % moisture, 6% ash; pith with 86% moisture, 7-5 %
ash. These large quantities of moisture in pith and capillary
roots explain partly why they are more easily killed by frost.
Leaves yield the greatest amount of ash, and ripe grapes
the smallest. The less mineral matter a part contains the
greater is in its ash the proportion of soluble salts ; inversely
with the rise of the total ash falls the proportion of soluble
salts, so that the percentage of soluble ash in leaves is the
lowest among all specimens of ash examined. Half-ripe
grapes contain a very low percentage of ash, and in this the
maximum percentage of soluble salts.
As canes and grapes are mostly removed from vineyards,
while the leaves are left on the ground, it is economically im-
portant to consider what kind and amount of ash is removed
annually from a vineyard. This inquiry was instituted by
the celebrated French philosopher Boussingault at his
estate in Alsatia, and led to the following remarkable results.
The canes yielded 2*44 /o of a h > the murk after the
must had been pressed out, air-dry, 6-65 % ; the wine gave
0*19 % The ash of canes contains less potash and more
lime than that of the murk, and the proportion of potash to
lime is highest in the wine. Thus we get per cent, of
1 Analytical details, the results of many thousands of analyses, tables
showing the per cent, composition of ashes, and references to the litera-
ture of the subject are given by Thudichum and Dupre, /. c. pp. 19-30.
CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL AND VINES. I/
potash contained in ash of canes 18*0, murk 36*9, wine
45 -o; per cent, of lime contained in ash of canes 27-3,
murk 107, wine 4-9. The percentage of magnesia con-
tained in the ash of canes is 6'i, murk 2*2, wine 9*2. The
wine yields a very small percentage of ash compared to the
other parts, and in consequence its percentage of alkalies is
smaller than that of any other part of the vine ; but as it
has lost much mineral matter during fermentation, the
quantity of its ash is not the measure of the quantity of
mineral matter removed by it from the soil ; for ascertain-
ing this latter amount the murk before fermentation, or
must and yeast with accompanying matters, have to be
examined.
Berthier 1 analysed a fruit-bearing one year's branch, cut
from a Camay vine at Nemours, in October, 1850, at the
time of the vintage, and the grapes attached to it. The
branch and leaves contained nine times as much inorganic
matter, four times as much alkaline salts, fourteen times as
much earthy salts, and six to seven times as much phos-
phates as the grapes.
Raisin stones contain about 2 / of ash, and of this
quantity one half is phosphate of calcium.
The leaves in full vegetation contain about 75 % of water,
and 2-i % of ash; therefore, ash in the dry residue 8-4%.
Of this ash one half is carbonate of calcium, or 51 %, and
J 5'3 % is phosphate of calcium. The soluble potassium
salts obtained, as sulphate and carbonate, amount to 15 /
of the ash.
Leaves at the time of the fall contain only 66 % of
moisture and 11-34 % of ash in about 34-02 / of dry
residue. In this ash the carbonate of calcium is increased
to 62-62 %, the phosphate decreased to 13-27 / > and the
soluble potassium salts are diminished to 8-82 % of the ash.
The mineral matters of ripe grapes are so distributed that
if the stalks contain one part, the murk contains about two
parts, and the juice from three to four parts ; an entire
bunch of grapes yields from 0-364 to 0-468% ash.
1 See details of analysis in "Treatise," etc., p. 22.
C
1 8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Many other analyses by Vergnette, Bouchardat, Crasso,
Walz, Hrushauer, Levi, which have yielded results closely
corresponding to the foregoing data may be seen in the
<: Treatise," pp. 23-26.
Of 100 parts of grape bunches, about 4 parts are stalks,
22 parts are murk, i.e. husks and stones and 74 (filtered)
juice.
8. INFLUENCE OF THE SOIL ON THE MINERAL
CONSTITUENTS OF THE VINE.
The quantations of the proportions between the bases, or
alkalies and alkaline earths in the vine, have taught us that
the vine is in this particular respect influenced by the soil
on which it is located. Of course it grows best where all
the bases are ready at hand in excess, or the necessary
quantities for a season's growth ; but when the vine cannot
find a particular kind of base which it ordinarily wants for its
development, it takes another instead ; it does not take a
random and uncertain quantity, but substitutes for the one
which it cannot have a chemical equivalent of that which
happens to be available, and by this means accomplishes
the cycle of its functions. These data have manifested the
existence of a law of nature, which has been chemically ex-
pressed thus : The ashes of the vine may contain very variable
quantities of potash, soda, lime, and magnesia ; but the sum of
the quantities of oxygen contained in these bases is always the
same, showing that the substitution of one base for another
takes place in equivalent proportions.
9. FUNCTIONS OF MINERAL INGREDIENTS OF THE VINE.
The ash of the vine is obtained by the combustion of its
parts ; during this process the organic matters with which
the bases or salts were in combination are destroyed. Instead
of malates, tartrates, and tannates, we obtain in the ash
carbonates of potash, soda, and lime ; the carbonate of the
latter again yields its acid in high temperature and appears as
caustic lime. Organic phosphorus compounds, e.g. of seeds,
CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL AND VINES. 19
and cell nuclei yield phosphoric acid, which expels some of
the more volatile acids. Against this latter emergency no
sufficient precaution has hitherto been taken in ash analysis
by incineration, and all analyses affected by this error are
faulty, and have to be repeated.
To appreciate the part which the bases take in the organic
life of the vine, we must therefore consider them in their
combinations, just as they occur in the natural tissues and
juices. In these their main function seems to be the
fixing and neutralizing of acid nuclei, which, under the re-
ducing influence of light, and in the presence of the elements
of vegetable nutrition, water, carbonic acid, ammonia, and
nitric acid (from which these nuclei themselves have just
been formed) are gradually developed to more complex
bodies. If these bases are not present in the soil in an
accessible form, the vine cannot grow at all ; if they are
present in insufficient amount the growth of the vine is
stunted, and its fertility is impaired or suppressed ; if they
are present in the soil in false proportions the vine effects a
substitution, and is able to accomplish the cycle of its
changes. But at the same time this necessity affects, in
various ways, its growth, durability, fertility, and the nature
of its product ; it is very probable that a large amount of
failure in viticulture is engendered by such a disproportion
in the necessary mineral constituents of the soil. Lastly, in
soils where the vine finds all the mineral ingredients in
proper proportion, quantity, and condition, it grows and
bears with the greatest perfection. In this argument it is
implied that the position, exposure, watering, and mechani-
cal conditions of the soil are equal in every case, and that
the sole variation refers to the mineral ingredients.
10. AMOUNT OF MINERAL MATTER WHICH VITICULTURE
ABSTRACTS FROM THE SOIL.
Boussingault obtained from his vineyard, an inclosed
property of 170 acres surface, called Schmalzberg, near
Lampertsloch, Alsatia. in 1848, 5 5 '05 hectolitres of wine ;
the murk weighed, air-dry, 492 kilos., and left, at 6-65 %,
2O A TREATISE ON WINES.
32-72 kilos, of ash. The cutting of the vines in the spring
of 1849 yielded 2,624 kilos, of canes, which at 2-44 / left
64-03 % kilos, of ash. A litre of wine left 1-870 gramme of
ash, or 102-94 kilos, for the 55-05 hectolitres.
Calculated for an hectare all available data seem to show
an annual exportation by a crop of mixed canes of more than
40 kilos, of mineral matter, of which 6 are potash, 7-28
phosphoric acid. If during the progress of viticulture green
branches with leaves are removed from the vineyards, as is
not rarely done in viticultural districts for the purpose of
feeding domestic herbivorous animals, greater quantities of
mineral matters are exported.
Vergnette calculated that on the Cote d'Or an hectare of
land supports about 25,700 vines ; these produce annually
about 11,462 kilos, of wood, leaves, and grapes, which burnt
together would leave 356 kilos, of ash, containing 69-40
kilos, of soluble and 286-60 kilos, of insoluble salts.
ii. ORGANIC INGREDIENTS AND CHEMICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE VINE.
The ingredients of the seed are lignine, which builds up
its woody structure, then starch, tannic acid, fatty oil, several
albuminous and phosphorised substances, and the mineral salts
already referred to. As soon as with the aid of these sub-
stances the young plant, consisting of a root with fibrils and
spongioles, and a little stalk with leaves, has been con-
structed, it becomes independent of the nourishment from
the seed, and draws its supplies from earth and air. These
it transforms by the elimination of oxygen and the combina-
tion of the more carbonized products with the elements of
water. Thereby a series of acids are formed, which from
the beginning are combined with the bases above described.
Carbonic acid is first transformed into oxalic acid ; by the
combination of two of its particles, and the substitution of
some oxygen by hydrogen, malic acid, the acid contained in
apples, berries of the mountain ash, and unripe grapes, is
formed. This malic acid, by a small addition of oxygen, is
easily transformed into tartaric acid. Tartaric acid again,
CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL AND VINES. 21
by the union of three of its particles, and the addition of
hydrogen from decomposed water, may easily be trans-
formed into grape sugar, or similar carbo-hydrates, just as,
inversely, tartaric acid can be obtained by oxydizing agents
from carbo-hydrates such as sugar of milk.
The various chemical processes in the plant are effected
by the vegetable cells, particularly of the leaves, under the
influence of the rays of the sun ; and the green colouring
matter, or chlorophyll, and the yellow ingredient, hiteine, have
an important mediating share in these processes.
Three entire seasons are mostly required for the develop-
ment of the roots and wood of the plant to such a size as to
enable it to produce ripe fruit. During these various stages
the following chemical compounds are met with in the
various parts and juices of the plant.
The Sap. The first fluid which rises in the canes at the
beginning of spring is called sap. As it runs in drops from
a cut surface of canes it is called " tears," and the act of its
effusion is called "weeping" of the vine. It contains 2 '5
per mille of solid matter, being a little acid potassium tartrate,
and gum and soluble starch, together 1*9 per mille, while
the remaining o - 6 per mille are bases with a trace of phos-
phoric acid; it also contains ammonia and nitric acid, but
probably not any albuminous matter.
The rising of the sap in the vine takes place with an
enormous force, which was first measured by Stephen
Hales, more than a century ago ; he found it equal to the
pressure of a column of mercury 22 inches in height, while
the German professor, Mohr, of Bonn, found it to rise to a
maximum of i9 T 3 T inches.
The young shoots of the vine contain acid tartrate of potash
in much larger quantities than the sap ; cellulose and
chlorophyll in constantly increasing quantities are deposited
within their structure and that of the leaves. The expressed
juice of entire branches deposits vegetable Jibrine and chlorophyll
as a green sediment ; it contains in solution tannin, recog-
nized by its astringent taste, its inky reaction with iron salts,
and its precipitate with gelatine ; vegetable albumin is preci-
pitated from it by boiling ; acid tartrates of potash and lime
22 A TREATISE ON WINES.
can be obtained from it by evaporation and crystallization ;
starch is recognizable by its assuming a blue colour with
iodine ; gum is precipitated from it by alcohol ; mineral sails
remain as ash. The part remaining insoluble consists of
lignin or cellulose, the substances of which all wood, young
and old, is composed. In the cell-cavities of the wood there
is deposited in autumn a quantity of starch, which can be
extracted from the rasped wood by boiling water. The
tendrils taste like, and have the composition of, unripe fruit.
Unripe grapes contain malates and tartrates, mainly of
potassium in varying proportions, changing with each period
of development. Before the appearance of any sugar,
malates prevail ; when the grapes become sugary tartrates
prevail, of which a certain portion remains in the fully ripe
grapes. The grapes then also contains fibrine, albumin,
gum, pectin, tannin, and in largest quantity the sugar
peculiar to fruit ; the tannin is not at first in solution in the
juice, but deposited in the husks and seeds, and requires
maceration for its extraction. The husks of the blue and
black grapes contain the blue colouring matter, also deposited
in the insoluble state along with the tannin, and extractable
only by alcohol and acid, or by wine, and then assuming a
red colour in dilute solution. The amount of acid in the
grapes increases during their growth, and decreases again
during ripening.
The proportion of juice to husks, or husks and stalks
combined, varies in different vines, and in the same vines in
different years ; thus fine white Chasselas grapes contained
only 3 % of husks and seeds, with 97 % of must ; black
Pineau grapes, from which Champagne and Burgundy are
made, yielded juice 94-8 /o, and murk (no stalks) 5-2 %;
another sample pressed with stalks, as in the Champagne,
gave juice 91 '8 / and murk 8*2 %. Again, black Pineau,
which had been allowed to ferment with husks and stalks,
as in the preparation of Burgundy wine, gave wine 69-6 %
and murk 30*4 %
In the " Treatise," pp. 36-45, will be found the records
of a number of original observations on the relation of acid
and sugar in grapes, grown on the Rhine or in France, made
PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE. 23
by A. Dupre, Rendu, 1 and Pasteur. 2 They show that, at
least as regards black grapes, there are two kinds of ripening,
one peculiar to the grape which is not yet black, consisting
in an augmentation of sugar ; the other, a process mostly
accomplished in the black grape, consisting in a diminution
of acidity.
CHAPTER III.
PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE, GENERAL AND
SPECIAL.
12. SOIL FAVOURABLE TO VITICULTURE.
THE vine requires a territory which must not be clogged
with water, but pervious to it, and admit air at frequent
intervals. But at the same time it requires a constant supply
of water within easy reach of the roots. Thus in the fertile
paludal districts of the Gironde the ground-water is within a
few feet of the surface, while the vines of the Medoc are
placed upon little hillocks of gravelly soil, and receive rain
at frequent intervals from the clouds which come landwards
from the Atlantic.
The vine grows on chalky, silicious, aluminous, and mag-
nesian soil, on granitic mountains, on formations of transition,
such as the Devonian slate of the Alto Douro, on tertiary
formations such as the hills of Jerez, on volcanic and alluvial
territory. In all it requires the presence of decaying matter
called humus ; of considerable quantities of chalk and potash
and of the other mineral ingredients. Our English gardeners
have considerable experience in the production of an
empirically prepared soil, in which they grow the vines which
1 " Ampelographie frai^aise," p. 255.
a " Maladies du Vin," pp. 202 and 209.
24 A TREATISE ON WINES.
produce the beautiful grapes of English conservatories
Thomson 1 says that the best is a fibry calcareous loam,
taken not more than three inches deep from an old sheep
or deer-pasture. Such soil should consist of 65 % of
sand, 33 % of clay, and 5 % of chalk, with an abundance of
vegetable fibre. This is next mixed with old plaster with
hair in it, charred wood and wood-ashes, horse-droppings,
broken bone and horn-shavings. Of such soil a full-grown
vine under glass requires from 120 to 150 cubic feet, but of
an ideal soil it would only require 27 cubic feet.
13. MANURING AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL IN
VINEYARDS.
Most natural soils admit of being improved in their compo-
sition, and for such improvements no general rules can be
given. But as all crops remove certain mineral constituents,
they exhaust the land more or less rapidly; the material
abstracted must therefore be restored to the land, and this
is done by manure. Such manure may be of two kinds,
stable manure and mineral manure. Of the latter potash
salts are the most important ingredient, and amply supplied
by the German potash mines. The manuring and improve-
ment of the soil of vineyards in all their aspects are fully
described in Thudichum and Dupre's "Treatise," &c., pp.
49-5 7, and to this we must refer the reader for further and
more detailed data.
14. METHODS OF PROPAGATING AND MULTIPLYING
THE VINE.
As it takes from five to six years before a seedling vine
begins to bear, propagation by seed is not frequently employed.
Frequently seedlings do not fulfil the expectation with which
they were reared, and have to be torn out. If the viticulturist
take care to properly impregnate the flowers from which he
wishes to grow seed, beautiful and interesting varieties of
vines are produced. But no vine of extended applicability
for wine-making has ever been reared in that way. Among
1 "Cultivation of the Grape Vine," 1867, p. 14.
PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE. 25
noted vines obtained by crossing of races and growing from
seed are several American varieties, e.g. Norton's Seedling,
and the largest and finest grape which grows in France in
the open air, known at Thomery under the name of Chasselas
Napoleon. A seedling can be made to bear fruit in the
third year by grafting it upon an old stem.
15. PROPAGATION BY MEANS OF EYES, OR BUDS.
Eyes with the node of wood attached may be cut from
vines and planted in open beds and vineyards. Such will,
in one season, form a small vine with particularly great de-
velopment of roots.
A specifically English method of propagating vines, when
practised in forcing-houses, yields in one year a strong vine,
capable of bearing twelve bunches of grapes the next year.
The eyes to be " struck " are cut right across the cane, about
half-an-inch above and below the node, and then a slice is
taken off the side longitudinally opposite the eye.
English viticulturists place these buds or eyes in pots filled
with light turfy loam and a small proportion of decayed leaf-
mould. These are placed in tan, in vineries or peach-houses,
and forced at temperatures between 55 F. at night, and
90 F. in the daytime. At the end of the season each plant
is an enormous ripe cane with closely set buds ; each will
bear in the next year from eight to twelve bunches of grapes.
Whereas by the ordinary method it takes at least six years
to bring a vineyard to bearing, by this method a vineyard
can be established in two years, and will bring four harvests,
amongst them three full ones, before a vineyard planted with
cut canes will bring one, and will thereby not only repay the
first outlay on the forcing-houses, and the interest of the
cost of the land, but also leave a large profit.
1 6. PROPAGATION BY MEANS OF CUT CANES.
The most common and, as to outlay, cheapest method of
multiplying vines is by the planting of cut canes (French,
boutures, German, Blindholz). The canes are obtained
at the time when the vines are cut, and in bundles of from
25
A TREATISE ON WINES.
eighteen inches to two feet in length form an article of trade.
During winter-time they are kept deep under ground ; in
May they are placed with their lower ends in water, and
when the buds have swelled the canes are planted in the
ground in the order in which the future vines are to stand.
Fig. 4. Mode of propagating vine by layer or buried slip. J, point
where the slip is severed, a year after interment, J', growing branch
of the new vine.
A vineyard planted with such canes will require six years
before bearing a crop.
17. PROPAGATION BY MEANS OF LAYERS OR SLIPS.
A long cane, left in connection with the vine on which it
grew, is partly buried in the earth, but allowed to project into
the air with its cut end. It forms roots and branches, and
PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE. 2J
then its connection with the parent plant may be severed,
and it may be transplanted. Such a layer the French term
marcotte, the German, Senkrebe, English slip (fig. 4).
Another kind of layer is the reverse (fig. 5), produced by
Fig. 5- Mode of propagating vine by inverted slip. K, point where
the fruit arch on the left will be severed, K, point where the slip will
be severed from stock, K', point where the new vine will develop,
after the horizontal slip is suppressed.
burying the end of a long cane in the earth. In this case
the growth of the cane becomes inversed after separation.
1 8. GRAFTING OF VINES.
Of late years grafting has been employed much more
frequently than formerly for the following reason. The
28 A TREATISE ON WINES.
phylloxera was found to destroy the roots of European
vines, while it left those of American vines relatively un-
touched. But American vines grown in Europe gave no
saleable wine. Viticulturists therefore planted American
vines, and, when these had attained a certain size, grafted
European vines upon them, and by this means obtained sale-
able wines. Grafting of vines may be done by the process
of eye or bud-grafting, the same as that commonly used for
the propagation of superior roses ; or by simple inarching, a
process by which two vines previously distinct are united,
and when this has been effected, the foot of the one and the
top of the other vine is removed or suppressed ; a somewhat
more complicated process is called compound inarching.
Grafting in grooi'es is very suitable for use with rootless
canes, or one year's vines ; it should be resorted to in all
cases in which the top and branches of a vine have perished
by frost, or wind, or disease, and the stem and roots are
strong and healthy. Grafting may be resorted to in conser-
vatories when it is decided to change a vine which yields
grapes of undesirable quality for another with preferable
fruit.
19. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE CULTIVATION OF
THE VINE.
The soil having been prepared by deep digging and the
admixture of any new ingredients deemed necessary, it is to
be planted with canes or rooted plants. The latter must be
transferred in March, but canes swelled in water may be
planted during the period from March to June. All vines
should be placed in parallel lines, distant from each other a
little more than a yard, and the single vines to be removed
from each other by the same interval. The quincunx may
be employed where manual labour is relied upon, and short,
small vines are reared. The young vine is not cut or
interfered with in any way during the first three years, but
the ground is freed from all weeds. The vine is pruned for
the first time in the fourth year of its growth ; the pruning
is then mainly directed to the training of the future stock,
PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE. 29
and the production of a first harvest must be a subordinate
consideration. The particular principles of the many
methods of training the vine are generally the same. It is
required that every plant should grow every year at least
two long branches ; of these, one is to produce fruit in the
next year, and no long branches or wood ; while the other
is to reproduce the two long branches by means of which
fruit and wood are to be reproduced in the following year.
Fig. 6. Vine after the fall of the leaves. A B, the year's fruit branch,
C D E F, branches to be trimmed for the next season.
The branch which has borne fruit is cut off entirely in the
spring following the harvest. Suppose the viticulturist has
before him the young stock from which everything has been
cut away except the two principal canes, he should select the
strongest for fruit, and cut it down to a length not exceeding
a yard, and not less than half a yard, in direct proportion to
the strength of the vine. This fruit-branch he should now
attach horizontally, near to the earth, to a stretched wire.
30 A TREATISE OX WINES.
or to a couple of stakes ; the other branch he should cut
back to a spur of three eyes. When the fruit-branch has
formed its shoots, and the buds of flowers are seen, all
shoots without flower-buds should be broken off absolutely,
while all those with buds should be stopped by pinching off
their tops above the sixth leaf. The shoots of the wood spur
must never be pinched or cut back under any circumstances j
they produce but few grapes, must be kept in a vertical
Fig. 7. Vine in spiing, just growing. A B, the fruit-branch, C, grow-
ing fruit-branch and spur-branch for the next year, P P P P, points
where the new fruit-branches are stopped (cut off or pinched off).
position, and tied in a bundle to a stake. This simple vine,
consisting, after pruning in spring, of a stem or foot rooted
in the ground, a longer cane for fruit-bearing, and a short
spur for wood-bearing, may be said to carry one viticultural
element. In practice, a single foot may be made to carry
several such elements. Thus in the Rhenish so-called
basket cultivation a foot carries from three to five such
elements that is, older branches on each of which, at the
time of cutting, a fruit spur with three buds, and a wood spur,
PRINCIPLES OF VITICULTURE. 3!
with two buds, or eyes, are left. The Medoc vines have regu-
larly two elements, but the spreading large vines on espaliers
in the paludal districts of the Gironde, or those grown any-
where on walls and in conservatories, may have any number
of such elements up to several hundred. The greater the
number of elements on a single trunk, the greater must be
the region for the development of its roots. It is therefore
necessary to give to vines which are to grow on the extension
system a greater amount of wood under ground at the time
Fig. 8. Vine in bearing, autumn.
of planting. The system is, however, not well suited for the
growth of the vine in open vineyards, where to ripen grapes
they have to be kept near the ground. Every vine with a
proper element, or number of elements, and which occupies
the required square yard of land, and receives sufficient
nourishment, ought to be able, without exhausting itself,
and without interfering with the growth of neighbouring
vines, to produce sixteen bunches of grapes on the fruit-
branch, and four bunches on the wood-branch, altogether
twenty bunches, weighing on an average fifty grammes per
bunch (of small-graped, small-bunched vines), or one kilo.
32 A TREATISE ON WINES.
per vine. Middle and large-sized grapes and their bunches
(such as are produced by the vines of Alto Douro, or those
of Jerez) attain a greater weight, and a Jerez vine may
produce from five to thirty kilos, of grapes. During the
growth of the vine all the branches must be tied up and
fixed to stakes and wires to maintain the lines. All un-
necessary shoots and all weeds must be removed. The
soil must be repeatedly loosened by means of the hoe or
plough, but deep cultivation is to be reserved for spring and
autumn. In vineyards where the oidium has appeared,
flowers or dry milk of sulphur must be dusted over the vines,
either with bellows or fumigating machines. Manure should
be carried to the vineyard in autumn, and never be placed
in contact with the vines, but in the earth around them. In
dry situations, vines have to be irrigated during the summer
months. Where that is not feasible, the soil has to be
saturated with water during the rainy season, by collecting it
in excavated hollows near each vine, as at Jerez.
The foregoing general principles of viticulture have been
specially elucidated in Chapter III. of the " Treatise," etc.,
as regards the Rhenish, and South Spanish, and Portuguese
countries from personal experience, and as regards France,
on the information of the best French authors. 1 as well as
from personal inspection and examination. For the purposes
of the present work the manner in which vines are cultivated
has been stated under the chapter referring to each particular
kind of wine. In this manner the information of interest
to particular classes of readers will be kept closer together,
and be easier available.
1 Guyot, "Viticulture;" R. Charmeux, "Culture du Chasselas ; "
Lenoir, " Traite de la Culture de la Vigne ; " Odart, Comte de,
"Ampelographie Universdle ou Traite des Cepages."
VINES AND VINTAGE. 33
CHAPTER IV.
VINES AND VINTAGE.
20. VARIETIES OF VINES TO BE SELECTED FOR
CULTIVATION.
EACH variety of vine generally preserves its main characters
wherever the climatic conditions allow it to be cultivated so
as to produce fruit. Exposure, territory, and climate may
make a vine poor or rich, or extinguish it altogether, but it
will never transform it into anything else; the Muscat will
not become Carbenet, the Pineau will never become Gamay,
the Riessling will never become Chardenay or Tokay. But
although it is thus unquestionable that the vine dictates the
quality of the wine, this fact, that the specificity of the plant
governs the nature of the product has always been applied
only to the so-called great growths. In these vineyards
the races of vines are kept select and pure. Indeed, if the
vineyards of Chateau Lafitte were planted with Gamay,
or Gouais, they would produce only detestable wine. If
the old Pineau vines of the Clos Vougeot were substituted
by Gamays, the value of the wine of that vineyard would
sink to one-tenth its present figure. Take the Carbenet
Sauvignon from the Haut Medoc, or the Franc Pineau
from the Bourgogne, and plant it at Madeira, at the
Cape, in Spain, or in Algeria, and everywhere you will
obtain wines, which will at least recall the wines of the
countries from which the plants have been taken. The
exposure, the climate, the mode of cultivation of the vine,
and the mode of making the wine will of course influence
the lightness, richness, taste, and bouquet of the ultimate
product ; but the Pineau, wherever grown, will reproduce
the main qualities of the Burgundy wine, and the Carbenet,
wherever grown will recall that of the Medoc. The
Riessling, whether grown on the Rhine, in the Tyrol, in
D
34 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Croatia, or at the Cape, will always recall the qualities of
the wine of the Rhine. But the quality of the transferred
vines is not preserved for any very long time, and they either
deteriorate, or degenerate and die out. This has been the
case absolutely with European vines transplanted to America.
In Australia, vines have preserved more of their original
character, but it remains to be seen whether this adaptation
will be permanent. Not all bad results of new plantations
must be placed to the account of the vines, much depends
upon the culture of the vine, and upon the vinification.
Thus the Duke de la Vittoria, Espartero, caused Bordeaux
grape-vines to be planted in his vineyards in Navarre, and
they produced a wine resembling Bordeaux, so far as
taste and body were concerned, but it had a sour and bad
after-taste, found in many Spanish wines from other kinds of
grapes, which is not due to the grapes, but is produced
by the methods of preparation and keeping adopted
throughout Spain.
For this reason it ought to be a demand of trade that
each wine, no matter from what country it comes, should
bear the name or names of the grapes from which it is made.
Thus " wine of Burgundy " is an incomplete, deceptive name ;
it should be stated whether the wine comes from Pineau or
Gamais, or other grapes. Bordeaux wine should always be
distinguished as "wine of Carbenet from Bordeaux," or
" wine of Verdot." One should speak of " wine of fine
plants of Champagne," and not of Champagne simply. In
the Bourgogne there are produced, side by side on one and
the same slope, excellent wines from good varieties of grapes,
and very bad wines from bad varieties of grapes. These
varieties are frequently mixed in the vineyard for purposes
which may be very justifiable in the eyes of the producer,
but are sure to deteriorate the wine by the time that it comes
on the table of the consumer. The Germans, in practical
recognition of our contention, call their wine made from
Riessling grapes " Riessling," that from the Traminer by its
name also ; and we may rely upon it that these are pure
wines, because their characters are so striking, and an ad-
mixture of other grapes would produce so infallible a de-
VINES AND VINTAGE. 35
terioration in the quality, that no prudent person would think
of effecting such a mixture. All great "growths" were
originally produced by intelligent persons who planted
favourably-situated vineyards with excellent vines. The
excellence of the produce was gradually ascribed to the
situation only, and the effect of the particular cultivation and
of the species of vine was forgotten. But the great law is,
that the variety of the vine governs the quality of the wine,
and no inferior vine will ever in the best situation and the
best seasons produce wine equal in quality and value to that
of the higher class vines. The finest varieties will not give
less produce than the coarsest if they are cultivated in a
manner adapted to their nature.
The ampelographic school of the garden of the Palace of
the Luxembourg, at Paris, founded in 1819 by the then Due
Decaze, under the direction of M. Hardy failed in exercising
any influence on viticulture anywhere : it was the same with
the collection of vines made at Baden, and another at
Heidelberg, in which Metzger, the botanist, took so distin-
guished a part, and which has served as the basis of the
monograph on vines by Von Babo, of Weinheim : and
another at Gratz made under the direction of the late Arch-
duke John, the quondam German Reichsverweser ; another
at Kloster Neuburg, which serves as the botanical school of
the Agricultural Institute of that convent. All these have
augmented the knowledge of vines in general, but vinifica-
tion has not thereby been improved in any appreciable
manner. The Luxembourg collection was displaced to
Algiers under Napoleon III. before 1870, and will there
also continue to be an interesting botanical collection; it
comprised more than 500 varieties of vines.
The " Ampelographie " of Count Odart is a highly in-
structive and entertaining work for all those who appreciate
the subject of vines in connection with wine. The count
had formed an extensive collection of vines from all parts of
the world, studied their physiology, and formed vineyards
by hundreds of vines of all those which promised a good
yield. The collection was near La Hardelliere, Cormery,
(Indre-et-Loire), and was left by the count to his gardener, as
36 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the departmental council refused to undertake its guardianship,
which had been offered to it by the count on liberal terms.
In the introduction to his work he proves at length that,
contrary to what had been maintained by some authors, e.g.,
Chaptal, vines transplanted from one country to another,
provided they find the required climatic conditions, do not
change in character. On p. 37 he gives the interesting
information from Auguste Saint-Hilaire, that grapes and all
other fruit such as is common and excellent in France,
remain of very mediocre quality in Brazil. This is ascribed
to the humidity of the climate, and the absence of the cold
nights which arrest the circulation of the sap at the end of
the vegetative period. He discusses the information and
names for vines of the authors, and denies that those vines,
which could be recognized from the description, such as
\heAminea of Columella, nowPineau, had altered in character
since ancient times. When vines or vineyards had degene-
rated as it was termed, that is to say become old or barren
or exhausted, the vines could always be recalled to their
pristine character, either by amelioration of the land, or by
transfer of the vine to new land.
In the chapter " On Vines reared from Seeds," Odart
proves that most allegations of new good varieties of vines
having been obtained from seeds, even seeds derived from
the best varieties of vines, were fables ; most seedlings which
bore fruit stood to their parent vines in the relation of
" crabs ; " they generally were made to bear fruit only after
ten to fourteen years, and wine, if at all, after twenty years ;
and no wine was ever produced from seedlings which has
become a staple article or a desirable object of commerce.
This experience does not exclude the occasional success of
seedlings produced with selected pollen as well as recep-
tacles ; but even of such no wine has ever been made.
21. SELECTION OF SUITABLE SPECIES OF VINES FOR
WINE-MAKING.
How great the problem of the selection of vines may
appear when it is considered without reference to locality,
VINES AND VINTAGE. 37
will appear from the fact, that in the whole of France no
less than thirty-eight principal varieties of vines are cultivated
on a large scale. Of these about one-fifth are used for the
production of raisins, liqueur-wines, or for the distillation of
best brandy, the other four-fifths serve for the production
of wine in the true sense of the word. We will first enume-
rate the vines best suited to the south and south-east of
France. They are, for box-raisins, the Mayorquin, or
Bourmen, and the Pauses ; for liqueur- wines, that is to say,
grape-must, the fermentation of which has been prevented
by the addition of spirit, the Furmint, Grenache, Maccabeo,
Malvoisie, Muscat blanc, and Muscat noir. All these are
large-berried and large-bunched vines, requiring for the
whole of their vegetative period a very hot climate. For
good wines are used in the south-east of France the follow-
ing vines : Carignane, Clarette, Marsanne, Petite- Schiraz^
Picpoule, Rons sane, Rousselet, Rousette Ugni, Vionnier. In
the south-west of France only medium and small-berried
small-bunched vines prevail ; these are used for the best
wines, the Carbenet, Carbenet gris, and Carmenere, these
prevailing in the Medoc : the Cruchinet, Muscadelle, Sauvig-
non, Semillon, these latter two yielding the white Sauterne,
and the Verdot, yielding the best ordinary Bordeaux wine ;
the best brandies in the district of the Charente extending
in a circle round the town of Cognac are obtained from a
vine called La Folle blanche. In the east, the central, and
the western districts, the following vines are grown for good
wines : Epinette and Blanc Fume, Fromentes Rose, blanc or
gris, Meslier, Pineau blanc, or Chardenay, Pineau gris or
Beuret, Pineau of the Loire or Vouvray, Fineau noir or
Noirien, Plant Dore, vert or gris, Riessling, or Savagner.
We shall have to refer to the vines again, when we shall
treat of each particular district of cultivation. Bronner was
right when he said that the vine made the wine, and that, e.g.,
in the must of Carbenet one could taste the full bouquet of
fine Medoc wine.
38 A TREATISE ON WINES.
22. VINTAGE AND VINDICATION.
The principles of the most common methods of vinifica-
tion are easily stated, but the details to be noted are so
numerous, depending as they do upon different vines,
customs and countries, that they are better reserved for the
chapters treating of the viticulture of each cenopoetic
district. White grapes are generally crushed and pressed,
and the juice, freed from stalks and husks, is put into
barrels and allowed to ferment in a cellar or other tempe-
rate place. In some districts, however, the juice is allowed
to ferment while the husks and stalks are immersed in it,
e.g., in the Alto Douro, as regards white wine as well as
red. Black grapes which are to yield red wine are crushed
and put into vats, not rarely, as in the south, consisting of
masonry, and allowed to ferment until the wine has ex-
tracted the colouring matter. The wine is then drawn off,
the must pressed, and the united products are put into
barrels or great vats to complete their fermentation or have
it arrested by the addition of brandy.
23. TIME OF VINTAGE.
The first condition of the vintage is that the grapes
should be ripe. In many parts of the south of Europe it is
considered that the grapes should be vintaged when they
have attained their greatest volume. But must from such
grapes is quite unfit for the production of good natural
wine; this can be seen in the product of the vineyard of
San Lucar de Barrameda, which owing to its bitterness is
called Manzanilla ; but here the early vintage is probably a
necessity produced by the climate, which by its early rains
in September is liable to deteriorate or destroy the vintage.
In the most celebrated districts for the production of
white wine the grapes are allowed to hang on the vines
until they have attained the maximum of sweetness and
maturity, and are commencing to decay on their outside.
Thus in the Sauterne district the best berries of every
bunch are cut out at intervals and carried to the press. In
VINES AND VINTAGE. 39
the finest situations of the Rhinegau the grapes are collected
only when rain or frost of the latest autumn necessitate the
vintage. At Tokay the best grapes are allowed to passulate,
i.e., to become shrivelled to raisins, and are then extracted
with must from plump grapes; but the result is here not
wine in the true sense of the word, but a sweet liqueur
which contains only little alcohol formed in the liquid or
added thereto.
Black grapes are never allowed to attain the same degree
of maturity as white ones, except at a few places such as
Rota, in Spain ; for the colour of red wines required by
the traders can only be obtained from grapes at a certain
stage of maturity, and that stage does not coincide with,
but precedes the stage of maximum maturity which the
grapes can attain on the vine. Consequently, much of the
quality of the wine is abandoned in favour of a conventional
dye ; and the unripe wine has to remain years in barrels
and bottles before it acquires the qualities which fit it
for use. The Champagne grapes, on the other hand, are
not permitted to attain the stage of highest maturity,
because it is conventional that the effervescent wines of
that country shall be as pale as possible, and not have the
slightest tint of redness. But whereas the fully ripe Pineau
always yields a rosy or partridge-eye coloured juice, the
stage of fullest ripeness is not awaited, but the grapes are
gathered at the time of their greatest volume, when they
yield a perfectly colourless juice and wine. In Burgundy
again, where red wines are produced, the same time is
chosen, but for another reason : fully ripe Pineau, when
fermented with the husks, yields wine which has a tawny
red colour, and not the lively bluish red of elder-berry juice;
but as traders prefer the latter, the grapes, with few ex-
ceptions, are collected at a time when the husks produce
the deepest colour.
Viticulturists intent upon producing the best wine possible
allow their grapes to hang on the vine as long as is com-
patible with the safety of the harvest. The proprietors of
large vineyards make sample trials from time to time to
ascertain the progress of the formation of sugar in the
40 A TREATISE ON WINES.
grapes, by pressing samples of grapes and testing the must
by special instruments for its specific gravity. Some of
these gravimeters or glucometers are so arranged as to
indicate by one degree of their scale a quantity of fruit-
sugar, which after fermentation would yield a volume (per
cent, of the must) of absolute alcohol, or, in other words,
each degree would indicate the presence in one hectolitre
of must of 1,500 grammes of sugar. Now as must which
would only yield from 6 to 8 per cent, of alcohol would
give inferior wine, grapes showing only as much sugar as
would yield that amount of alcohol should not be harvested ;
the harvest should be contemplated only when the samples
of must show above 8 per cent, of future alcohol, but it
should even then 'be delayed if possible as long as by
repeated trials any increase in the quantity of sugar is
observable. Even when the sugar has attained its maximum
the grapes will still, if the season be favourable, particularly
if the soil be dry, undergo beneficial changes by hanging
upon the vine.
It is an important fact that fully ripe grapes in all viti-
cultural districts contain about the same amount of sugar,
/'.<?., a little more than 16 per cent, of the must. When the
must is much richer in sugar this result has been attained
by passulation of the grapes on the vines, by twisting the
stalks, or by drying of the cut bunches on mats, on straw,
in the sun or sheltered places. In many of these rich musts,
e.g., the Sauternes, fermentation ceases long before even a
great part of the sugar has been consumed, or even the high
degree of alcoholicity, at which all fermentation is absolutely
arrested, namely, 16 per cent, of alcohol, has been attained.
Musts of a saccharine strength of less than 16 per cent, of
fruit-sugar, should be raised to this strength by the addition
of fruit-sugar produced from cane-sugar ; each kilogram and
a half of such sugar added to a hectolitre of must will raise
its alcoholicity by i per cent, of alcohol after fermentation.
24. MODES OF VINTAGE.
The mechanical operation of cutting off all the grapes and
carrying them to the press can be performed by children and
VINES AND VINTAGE. 4!
adults of both sexes. All labourers are required to remain
in line, the work being of course equally distributed to equal
agents. These cut the bunches off with scissors or knives,
and place them in little baskets. Every full basket is re-
placed by an empty one and carried away by a collector,
who thus attends to the wants of from four to six labourers.
The vintagers may be taught to cut out of every bunch all
unripe, corroded, or spoiled berries, long stalks and tendrils,
fJS
Fig- 9- Mode of separating stalks from grapes, by stirring with a
trident. A. The trident. B. Pail with grapes in course of being
stirred.
and put them aside. But it is preferable to intrust this
work to particularly instructed labourers located at the
place where the contents of the primary baskets are deposited.
The cleaned grapes should then be placed in vessels of known
capacity, such as a hectolitre, so that the vintage is im-
mediately measured and the amount of work done ascer-
tained. A butt of the capacity of a hectolitre will hold
fifty kilos, of grapes, and with its own weight of ten to fifteen
kilos, can be lifted and carried by a single man.
42
A TREATISE ON WINES.
25. SEPARATION OF STALKS.
When the grapes are very ripe, the stalks are woody and
do not easily yield juice to any pressure, however strong. But
when the grapes are less ripe, the stalks are green and sue-
culent, and yield some harsh astringent juice on pressure.
In the case of white wines the stalks are not often separated
from the grapes; in Sauternes, e.g., only the first grapes,
which yield only the "head-wine," or tcte, are so separated ;
the " middle " and " tail " are pressed with the stalks ; as a
Fig. IO. Machine for separating grapes from stalks. The funnel-
shaped top D is taken from the stand on which it rests by means of
the hooks E to show the cylindrical box of parallel wires and stirrer
B B within. C. Handle of stirrer. One thirtieth of actual size.
rule, must of white grapes is pressed immediately and not
left in contact with the murk for any length of time. The
black Champagne grapes are also pressed with the stalks,
and the juice of the latter causes the last third of the must
which flows from the press to be harsh and of less value
than the first two-thirds. All black grapes which are to
yield red wine, on the other hand, have to remain in contact
with their juice during fermentation until the red colouring
matter is extracted. If then the must be very astringent a
VINES AND VINTAGE. 43
harsh wine is produced, while the same grapes, without the
stalks, yield a milder, better maturing wine. The stalks
are therefore separated before the grapes are mashed. .This
separation, called in France egrappage, in Germany Abrappen,
can be effected either by stirring the bunches in a tub with
a trident of wood (as shown in fig. 9) or with the aid of
specially constructed machines, such as that represented in
fig. 10. The bunches enter above by a funnel, the berries
Fig. II. Grape mill for crushing grapes, with grooved rollers.
A. Handle for turning. B. Grooved Rollers. C. Frame supporting
runnel and rollers. One-thirtieth of actual size.
are detached by the stirrer, which is put into a rotatory
motion, and then drop through the interstices of the wires of
the cage; the latter at last contains only stalks, which are
removed through a side door. Ripe Verdot of the Gironde
will drop its grapes like hail when it is merely shaken, while
ripe Pineau of Burgundy is less easily separated.
26. MASHING AND CRUSHING.
, The grapes, whether they have been separated from 'the
stalks or not, have to be crushed, with the precaution not to
44 A TREATISE ON WINES.
comminute any stones and stalks if they remain. From
ancient times to the present this has been most commonly
effected by means of the feet of men. This treading of
grapes is a very excellent method; it is done on a wide
wooden platform, or in a large vat, and the juice which is
pressed out simultaneously is allowed to flow off into a
separate receptacle. Another mode of crushing the grapes
is by crushing machines, or grape-mills, consisting of grooved
wooden rollers working against each other, as in fig. 1 1 on
p. 43. Such rollers should be covered with felt or vul-
canized caoutchouc.
CHAPTER V.
PRESSING AND VINDICATION.
27. WINE-PRESSES AND PRESSING.
IN the preparation of Champagne wine the grapes are not
crushed at all in detail previously to their being put into the
press, and the only crushing which they receive is in the
press itself. We have already explained that this is done to
keep the must of the black grapes perfectly colourless. It
is for this reason that the presses in the Champagne are the
most powerful of any known. In the preparation of other
white wines, however, the must is separated from the murk
as much as possible before the latter is pressed, so that the
volume of the matter to be pressed may be as small as
possible.
In the preparation of red wine on the other hand, the
juice which flows off the treading platform, together with all
the husks and the stalks, if they have not been removed,
are put into the fermentation vat; when the stalks have
been isolated they are placed in a heap on the top of the
murk about to be fermented. Fermentation is now allowed
to complete itself under various modalities, of which we
PRESSING AND VINDICATION.
45
Fig. 12. Wine-press for pressing the murk of red wine after
fermentation.
Fig. 13. Wine-press for pressing white grapes before fermentation.
The box consists of six horizontal sections.
46 A TREATISE ON WINES.
shall give details lower down under each viticultural region.
When the fermentation is finished the wine is stirred
energetically with the husks which are mostly collected as
a hard cake on the top of the wine so as to extract the
utmost amount of colouring matter; all the wine which will
run off by itself is drawn from the taps ; the murk, removed
by a manhole at the bottom or side of the vat, is placed into
Fig. 14. Wine-press as used in Spain (Jerez). Grapes in bandaged
cylinder.
the press, and the wine flowing from it is added to the other,
if it be already in barrels, equally distributed amongst them.
The science of the wine-presses is so extensive that it
would admit of being represented in a separate treatise.
Most of these machines reflect the tendency to squeeze the
utmost amount of juice out of the murk, but some are so
powerful as to force the juice out of the stalks ; the applica-
tion of this maximum of pressure should be under all
circumstances avoided, or the juice so expressed at the end
of an operation should be put aside and not mixed with the
PRESSING AND VINDICATION. 47
must. The most suitable presses appear to be those common
in the Gironde, which have an iron screw in the centre of a
round receptacle made of perpendicular or horizontal boards,
such as are represented in the engravings. In fig. 12 as the
murk sinks the screw-nut has to be raised from time to
time by interposed logs of wood; in fig. 13 the screw-nut
need never be loosened, as when it sinks over the murk,
Fig. 15. The press in action. Juice flowing.
the lateral filtering boards can be removed in tiers and
allow free play to the screw lever handles.
Figs. 14 and 15 represent wine-presses as used in Spain
(Jerez). Fig. 16 represents a beam or lever press of the
Alto Douro.
It is probable that presses will soon have to compete
with centrifugal machines, which perform in two hours,
with the aid of three men, what presses working upon the
same amount of material can only perform in seventeen
hours, with the aid of seven men.
48 A TREATISE ON WINES.
28. FERMENTATION OF THE WINE-MUST.
Must for white wine is generally fermented in barrels
with only the ordinary bunghole at the top open for the
escape of the carbonic acid gas. The white wines of the
Gironde are all fermented in barriques, which in this country
are called hogsheads. New casks are always taken; they
are not completely filled with must, so that no yeast or scum
can escape from the bung, but all is retained in the wine.
This therefore differs from the mode in which fermentation
Fig. 16. Ancient beam or lever wine-press as used in Alto Douro and
other wine-producing countries.
is allowed at least to complete itself in the production of
beer, according to the Burton-on-Trent method, where the
beer clarifies itself by the expulsion of the yeast through
the bunghole with the rising froth. The white wines of
the Rhine are mostly fermented in large casks, containing
1,200 litres each, and called "piece," German Stuck.
Sherries are fermented now mostly in butts, rarely in vats
of wood or masonry. The Champagne musts, after having
been cleared of scum and deposit, are also fermented in
small casks of 220 litres each.
PRESSING AND VINDICATION. 49
The mash of black grapes for red wine is generally fer-
mented in vats, being conical wooden casks open at the
top ; this is a mechanical necessity resulting from the com-
plications introduced into the preparation of red wine by
the bulk of the husks and the necessity for stirring. The
Portuguese also ferment some of their red wines in large
closed barrels, with manholes for the removal of the murk.
Port wine is fermented in flat receptacles built of masonry.
In the south-west of France the vats are filled to a certain
point ; if the stalks have been separated they are placed on
the top of the murk, the house is shut, and fermentation is
allowed to complete itself. The heap of stalks on the top,
called "hat" or chapeau, is now taken off, together with the
outer layer of murk which is mostly somewhat decomposed.
The bulk of the murk is now submerged and vigorously
stirred with the new wine, so that its colour may be fully
extracted. At last the wine is drawn off, and the murk put
in the press. In other parts of France the husks of black
grapes are kept submerged in the fluid by a wooden cover
fixed some distance below the level of the fluid, and pierced
with holes to allow the gas to escape. In other parts, again,
the vats are covered, but opened daily, and the murk is
submerged with wooden instruments. In parts of Burgundy
the vats are not covered, nor is the murk stirred before fer-
mentation is complete ; it used then to be agitated by men
in a state of nudity, but this practice, we hope, has been
abandoned.
In all cases when the fermentation of red wine is complete
the liquid is put into barrels and allowed to settle. It clears
much quicker than the white wine, which remains thick for
weeks when fermenting in the temperate atmosphere of
northern climates. In the south the white wine ferments
with great violence, and becomes clear very rapidly. It is
probable that the red wine is ready more quickly because,
fermenting in larger bulk, it attains a higher temperature, and
therefore is finished in a shorter period.
By the time that the wine has completed its fermentation
and become clear, all the yeast and impurity are deposited at
the bottom of the cask. From this deposit the wine has to
E
5O A TREATISE ON WINES.
be separated by racking. This can be done by drawing the
wine through a syphon placed in the bunghole and causing
it to flow over either by gravity or by air pressure produced
in the cask by bellows, or by simply running it off through
a tap-hole or tap fixed in the most suitable place. The clear
wine is put into a clean, not new, but wine-green cask, i.e.,
a cask in which, when it was new, at least one charge of
must has been fermented to wine ; the cask just emptied is
freed of its lees, washed and rinsed, and is immediately
ready to receive the clear wine from another cask to be
racked. By this operation the wine generally becomes
disturbed a little, or it was not yet quite clear, but in any
case requires fining. This is mostly done, in the case of
white natural wine, with isinglass ; in the case of brandied
wines and of red wines with white of egg. All casks thus
treated are made bung-full, closed, and allowed to rest for six
weeks. After this period the wine is mostly quite clear and
bright, and, being racked another time, mostly remains so,
and is ready for the spring sales or other purposes.
29. VARIOUS MODES OF CORRECTING THE COMPOSITION
OF MUST BEFORE FERMENTATION.
There are produced, particularly in bad seasons, quanti-
ties of must which are either too deficient in sugar, or too
abundantly provided with acid to give good wine. These
faults require to be corrected. In some parts, e.g., Portugal,
must which is too watery is concentrated by evaporation in
a cauldron. But in France such must is now corrected by
the addition of sugar or of sugar solution. The sugar to
be employed should always be the so-called grape sugar,
technically called "invert sugar," or saccharine made from
cane sugar. When the must is only thin, and not exces-
sively acid, it has to be improved by the addition of sugar,
until its concentration is equal to that of normal must, i.e.,
until it contain at least 18 and not more than 23 per cent,
of sugar. If however the must be too acid, it has to be
reduced to the normal standard of acidity by the addition of
sugar solution of from 18 to 23 per cent, strength. These
PRESSING AND VINDICATION. 51
processes were first applied en the large scale by French
chemists who happened to be also proprietors of vineyards,
namely, Petiot, Thenard (father and son), Ladrey (of
Douay in Burgundy), and introduced into Germany by
Thilmany, and particularly by Dr. L. Gall, of Treves. Petiot
and the Thenards also produced second wines by ferment-
ing the murk repeatedly with sugar solution. It was the
French cabinet minister, Chaptal, who first improved wine-
must by the mere addition of sugar (at that time cane sugar)
but he did not diminish the acid ; this removal of excess of
acid was generally effected by the addition of chalk or of
plaster of Paris containing chalk. The addition of sugar
and of sugar solution to faulty must was therefore an im-
provement, and it kept the wine pure and homogeneous, and
did not introduce any foreign element into its composition.
Maumene ' relates how the celebrated chemist Macquer,
already in 1777, made from unripe and hard grapes an
agreeably tasting, fiery wine like that from ripe grapes. All
these wines prepared by the processes of Petiot, Gall and
others retain the bouquet of the natural wines. The amount
of acidity or of tartrate of potash is less than in normal
wine, so that they do not deposit any ; they are, therefore,
more like old, long-kept wines, which gradually deposit their
redundant tartar. There is little doubt that although these
processes have been and may be applied with perfect success
by scientific chemists, they will not be useful to the ordinary
agricultural wine producer, just because they require too
much practical scientific attention and knowledge. Those,
therefore, who object to them may rest assured that they are
not likely to meet in trade with such products. In fact,
their production would be more expensive than that of
natural wines is, and they could not, therefore, unless they
were very much better, enter into commercial competition
with the ordinary products.
It should, however, be remembered in this connection
that the process of Gall was only an extension to wine-must
of a practice which for a very great length of time had been
1 "Sur le Travail des Vins."
52 A TREATISE ON WINES.
commonly applied in all countries to fruit wine. In all old
cookery books will be found numbers of prescriptions for
making gooseberry, currant, and other sorts of fruit wine,
and in all of them water is added to the fruit juice to re-
duce the acidity, and then sugar is added in its turn to bring
the sweetness up to the standard of at least 18 per
cent, in order to furnish the material for the production of
that amount of alcohol which will make the product an
alcoholic beverage of the nature and strength of wine. It
should be remembered that wine with more than five per
mille of acid, considered as tartaric, is not drinkable, or at
least not agreeable, or not useful even after dilution with
water; and that the best unbrandied wines contain even
less acid, namely, from 3 to 4 per mille, and from 8 to 1 1
per cent, of alcohol.
30. PLASTERING OF WINE AND MUST.
In Spain and the south of France plaster of Paris, in the
shape of powder, is added to the grape juice in the process
of wine-making. The plaster is either thrown upon the
grapes before they are crushed, or it is added after fermen-
tation has commenced, and is applied as well to white as to
red grape-must. The reason generally given in favour of
such addition of plaster is this, that gypsum (sulphate of
lime) by uniting with some of the water of the grape juice,
rendered the remaining juice richer in sugar and therefore
more valuable. If such were really the intention, the de-
sired effect would not be obtained to any degree worth
noticing, because even perfectly pure and anhydrous plaster
of Paris unites with only about one-fourth of its weight of
water, while the gypsum thus formed takes up mechanically
some of the must and reduces the yield. 1 The effect is not
altered if the gypsum be allowed to ferment with the must,
for in that case the mineral retains a little wine, which can
be as little recovered by pressure as the sugar. We have,
therefore, to set aside this attempted explanation as un-
satisfactory.
1 See the experimental proofs in Thudichumand Dupre, "Treatise,' 1
p. ng,etsef.
PRESSING AND VINDICATION. 53
The addition of gypsum to must or wine has a chemical
effect which is of a somewhat complicated nature. The
sulphate of lime decomposes the tartrate of potassium pre-
sent in the juice, insoluble tartrate of calcium being formed,
and sulphate of potassium going into solution. At the
same time the carbonate of calcium, which is always present
in larger or smaller quantities in plaster of Paris, precipi-
tates the free tartaric acid. It neutralizes some of the other
free acids of the juice, and, if present in sufficient quantity,
it neutralizes them completely, in which case the phosphates
of the juice will also be precipitated. Thus malic acid,
which grapes have in common with all other sour fruit, is
also partially neutralized, but remains in solution. The
place of cream of tartar, however, is taken by sulphate of
potassium, a salt having a perceptibly bitter taste, and
acting as a purgative in even moderate doses.
31. PROBABLE OBJECT OF THE PRACTICE OF
PLASTERING.
As the amount of tartaric acid increases with the increas-
ing ripeness of the grape, while the malic acid diminishes,
the plastering virtually reduces the juice of even the ripest
grapes to a state of unripeness, at least as regards the nature
of the acids. From all these considerations we have come
to the conclusion that the object of the practice as ordi-
narily stated, namely that it withdraws water, and thereby
effects a condensation of the must, is not the real object.
In view of the fact that southern wines are much more
liable to diseases, that is to say, decomposition by minute
fungi (microzymes) than the wines of more northern countries
(where plastering is never practised), and considering that
such diseases are counteracted by sulphurous acid, and by
sulphates ; and considering further that such fungi absorb
and decompose tartrate of potassium, and leave acetic or
other acids instead, and do not thrive so well without
tartar as with it, we have thought it not impossible that this
process of plastering might have been directed against these
diseases and have acted as a double precaution ; the fungi
54 A TREATISE ON WINES.
had less chance to develop at all in the absence of tartar,.
and in case they did nevertheless develop, the result of
their action could not spoil the wine by the development of
that peculiar acidity which just gives the wine an acetous
flavour and depresses its value. From our observations it
seems certain that the presence of tartar favours the
development of the viscosity fungus, and we have even ob-
served the reappearance of the fungus in old originally
plastered wine of natural strength after the sulphate had
been removed and substituted by tartrate. But it must not
be supposed that the viscosity fungus is killed or removed
entirely from wine by plastering; it still exists in even
plastered and somewiiat brandied wine, and does not die
in wine of less than 34 per cent, alcohol. Therefore,
even if the object of plastering were the protection of the
wine from the worst effects of this viscosity fungus or scud,
it would be but partially attained, and there would still be
room for the better prevention and curing of this bane of
the southern wine-growers.
CHAPTER VI.
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF WINE.
32. ETHYLIC ALCOHOL.
THE principal constituent of wine is alcohol, a colourless
very mobile liquid, of a peculiar spirituous smell and ex-
tremely burning taste and poisonous qualities, of a specific
gravity of 079319 at 15 -5 centigrade, water at 4 centigrade
being ro. It does not solidify at the temperature of 150
centigrade, though it becomes somewhat viscid. It is
readily inflammable and burns with a blue non-luminous
flame. It is miscible with water in every proportion. Its
admixture with water is attended with evolution of heat and
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF WINE. 55
contraction of volume; the mixture has a higher tempera-
ture and occupies a smaller space than water and alcohol
separately.
The contraction is greatest when 53*939 volumes of alcohol
are mixed with 49 '836 volumes of water, when it amounts
to 3*638 per cent.; the 103775 volumes of water and
alcohol become reduced, after cooling of the mixture to the
original temperature, to 100 ; or 100 volumes become 96-362
volumes. In these mixtures the specific gravity, the boiling
point and the capillary attraction fall, the rate of expansion
and vapour tension rise with the increasing percentage of
alcohol ; and hence these properties may be made use of
for estimating the amount of alcohol present in a mixture of
alcohol and water.
The bearing of alcohol towards animal membrane is of
importance for the explanation of its physiological action.
If an animal membrane, such as pig's bladder, be made by
a suitable arrangement to separate alcohol from water, or a
stronger from a weaker spirit, an interchange of liquids will
take place through such membrane until the composition of
the mixture on both sides is equal, the alcohol, or stronger
mixture, losing alcohol, but gaining in bulk by the accession
of water ; the water, or weaker spirit, on the other hand,
gaining in alcohol, but losing in bulk by loss of water; the
exchange takes place, generally, the more rapidly the greater
the difference in alcoholic strength on the two sides of the
diaphragm. If the liquid on one side of the membrane be
always pure water, kept pure by renewal, all the alcohol
will find its way out into it, and the interchange will only
cease when nothing but pure water remains on both sides of
the membranous diaphragm.
The German anatomist, Soemmering, discovered a method
for producing strong alcohol which was based upon these
relations of alcohol and water to animal membrane, and had
some practical value a century ago. It consists in putting a
weak spirit into a bladder from a calf or ox and hanging
it up in a warm place for a certain time. Both alcohol and
water pass through the bladder and evaporate on the out-
side, but more than four times the amount of water passes
56 A TREATISE ON WINES.
through in the time during which one part of alcohol passes,
consequently the alcoholic strength of the liquid in the
bladder increases, and it is said even absolute alcohol may
thus be obtained, particularly if the bladder before use be
covered inside and out with a thin coating of isinglass.
33. ALCOHOLS HOMOLOGOUS TO ETHYLIC OR
COMMON ALCOHOL.
When sugar ferments, alcohol and carbonic acid are the
principal products as regards quantity : but besides these, of
which carbonic acid, or as it is called in modern chemistry,
carbonic anhydride, passes into the air, some other alcohols
and some acids are formed. It is possible that these other
alcohols are formed by peculiar ferments ; they are glycerine,
or glycerol) and propylic, butylic, amylic and caproic alcohols.
They are mostly present in very small quantities only,
glycerol in the largest, next to ethylic alcohol. When these
alcohols occur in higher proportions they influence the
taste of the wine unfavourably, and sometimes spoil it
altogether. But on the whole the relation of these alcohols
to the various qualities of wine are not yet sufficiently in-
vestigated.
34. ALDEHYDES.
When some of the hydrogen of the alcohol is removed by
combination with oxygen from the air, a new body, aldehyde^
is formed (alcohol dehydrogenatus) ; to each alcohol cor-
responds a particular aldehyde. Of the several aldehydes,
the ethylic and propylic are occasionally found in wine, the
former particularly as an intermediate product of the acetous
fermentation.
35. ACIDS FORMED FROM ALCOHOLS IN WlNE.
When aldehyde is remaining under the influence of the
acetous ferment in the presence of oxygen, it is transformed
into acetic acid. This transformation of ethylic alcohol into
ANALYSIS OF WINES. 57
aldehyde, and ultimately acetic acid, constitutes the process
known as the acetous fermentation, the final product of which
is vinegar (vin aigre, sour wine). It is remarkable that wine
contains some for/vie acid, although it has never been known
to contain any methylic alcohol ; the formation of this formic
acid is therefore due to another process, and not to a deri-
vation from this alcohol through the intermediate stage of
methylic aldehyde ; propylic acid also occurs in wine.
36. COMPOUND ETHERS.
All the foregoing alcohols and acids, and all the other
acids of the wine may combine with each other to form
cojuponnd ethers in which an alcoholic and an acid radicle
are joined together. These ethers are the main agents in
forming the bouquet of the wine.
CHAPTER VII.
ANALYSIS OF WINES.
37. MODE OF ASCERTAINING THE STRENGTH OF WlNE BY
THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF THE DISTILLATE FROM IT.
THERE are various methods for finding the strength of
wine and other alcoholic mixtures ; these mainly rely upon
specific gravity, or boiling point, vapour tension, or rate of
expansion ; all these methods were devised for the purpose
of saving the trouble connected with the process of distilla-
tion. But they are liable to be affected by many sources of
error arising, e.g., from imperfect instruments, and therefore
the process of distillation and ascertaining the alcoholicity
of the distillate by its specific gravity are almost univer-
sally preferred ; to this process no objections have ever been
raised on the score of want of accuracy.
58 A TREATISE ON WINES.
38. DISTILLATION.
The quantity of wine to be subjected to distillation should
amount to from 200 to 300 cubic centimetres. It may be
weighed, in which case the experiment becomes independent
of temperature, and therefore most accurate ; or it may be
measured, when the temperature of the sample has to be
ascertained. The weighed or measured quantity of wine is
introduced into a flask or retort, rendered slightly alkaline
by caustic soda, mixed with a small quantity of tannin to
prevent frothing, and then carefully distilled by driving the
alcoholic vapours, by means of heat applied underneath the
flask, into a tube surrounded with cold water, a so-called
condenser. It is well to drive over from one-half to two-
thirds of the liquid in the flask. Strong and heavy wines
may advantageously be diluted with water before distillation.
The flask and condenser should be connected air-tight, and
the receiver should be closed with a little mercury valve, so
as to prevent the evaporation of any portion of alcohol.
As soon as the necessary quantity is distilled, the distil-
late is mixed with so much water as may be required to
raise it to the exact weight or measure of the wine originally
taken for distillation. In the case of filling up to measure,
the mixture must be brought to the same temperature as the
original wine, and must be well agitated before being em-
ployed for the purpose of determining its specific gravity.
The latter may be ascertained by a floating hydrometer, or
the balance and specific gravity bottle. The specific gravity
bottle should have a capacity of from 20 to 60 cubic centi-
metres, or a thousand grains. Its contents should have the
temperature of i5'5 C. or 60 F., the temperature for which
most alcohol tables are constructed ; in case it should be
either higher or lower, it should be cooled down or warmed
up to the desired point. When the contents of the specific
gravity bottle have been weighed, and compared with the
weight of the amount of pure water which fills the bottle,
considered as i, the specific gravity of the distillate is
found. In order from this datum of specific gravity to find
the amount of pure or absolute alcohol contained in the
ANALYSIS OF WINES. 59
distillate, it is necessary to consult tables which have been
empirically constructed by experiments on all kinds of
mixtures of alcohol and water, so-called alcohol tables. On
such tables we first find the specific gravity which our
experiment has yielded ; next, the temperature at which it
has been weighed, and opposite this we find the amount of
alcohol in per cents. The reader should bear in mind that
there are several modes of stating the percentage of alcohol,
one being per cent, by volume in volume of wine ; a second,
per cent, by weight in weight of wine ; and a third, percent,
by weight in volume of wine.
The method of expressing the alcoholic strength of a
wine in per cent, by weight in volume seems, on the whole,
the preferable one. If in this case the decimal point is
moved one figure to the right, the number of grammes of
alcohol contained in one litre of wine is obtained ; and if
this figure is further multiplied by seven, the number of
grains of absolute alcohol in one gallon (six bottles) of wine
is given.
In England the government department which collects
the taxes on alcoholic liquids, etc., called the Excise, has
adopted a mode of giving the alcoholic strength of wines
and spirits differing from those of all other nations ; namely,
in volume per cent, of proof-spirit, indicated as degrees by
a hydrometer, called, after its constructor, that of Sikes.
39- QUANTATION OF ALCOHOL IN WlNES BY
INDIRECT MEANS.
We here merely indicate the nature of these processes,
without any description of their details ; these latter and the
mathematical formulae of their application can be seen in
Thudichum and Dupre, "Treatise," pp. 139-158.
The first method was proposed by Tabarie, and much used
and recommended by Balling and Mulder. A quantity
of wine of known specific gravity is measured or weighed off
(100 c.c.), carefully evaporated in a water bath to about
a quarter of its bulk ; it is then cooled and mixed with
sufficient distilled water to bring up its weight or bulk to the
60 A TREATISE ON WINES.
original weight or bulk. Balling preferred the use of weighed
quantities; we employed Tabarie's measuring process, as
the former gives the alcohol a trifle too high, but with
sherries Tabarie's method gives the alcohol too low ; in
neither case does the error exceed 0-25 per cent, either way.
From our experiments it follows that the results obtainable
by this process are sufficiently accurate for all practical
purposes, whilst as regards rapidity and facility of execution,
no other proceeding is comparable to it, particularly when
large numbers of samples have to be examined.
In other methods for the quantation of alcohol the boiling
point of the mixture is used as the test of strength. A
number of instruments, to which the name of ebullioscope has
been given, have been devised by Brossard, Vidal, Pohl,
Ure, Conatz, and others. In a metal boiler containing the
wine a delicate thermometer is sunk, which latter is provided
with a converted scale, i.e., an indicator which shows not
the temperature of the boiling liquid or vapour, but at once
the percentage of alcohol in the boiling fluid. We have
found that the presence of sugar in wine produces an error
in this method, which raises the percentage of alcohol by
about i per cent, for every 5-95 per cent of sugar.
A third method of alcohol quantation is based upon the
vapour tension of alcoholic liquids ; it is applied by means
of an instrument termed a vaporimeter, invented and con-
structed by the late philosophers' mechanician, Geissler of
Bonn ; it was studied by Professor Pliicker, and others, e.g.,
Mohr. Wine is made to boil in the complicated apparatus ;
its vapour is made to force mercury from the bottle into a
tube, until the height of this column of mercury exactly
counteracts the pressure of the vapour rising from the wine
at the temperature of boiling water. This height of the
mercurial column is the measure of the alcoholic strength of
the wine. This process offers difficulties by the presence
of gases in wine, by the changes of boiling point with eleva-
tion above the sea-level ; it also does not actually show the
strength of wine, but only the proportion of wine to water.
A fourth method of alcohol quantation is based upon the
expansibility of alcoholic mixtures by heat, measured by an
ANALYSIS OF WINES. 6l
instrument called a dilatotneter (Silbermann). In this pro-
cess it is found that the presence of sugar increases the rate
of expansion beyond that of a mixture of alcohol and water
of equal strength.
With light wines or natural wines of low alcoholicity, and
without any admixture, all the above methods give toler-
able results ; the process of distillation and Balling's plan
give however the best results; the other methods, while
requiring much care and skill in their application, are liable
to considerable errors from even slight inattention to minute
points in the manipulation or in the character of the wine.
With strong, heavy, sweet wines no process except that of
Balling or distillation deserves any consideration.
40. STATE IN WHICH ALCOHOL is CONTAINED IN WINE.
It has frequently been asked whether alcohol is present in
wine as free alcohol, or is only produced and liberated
during distillation, and this question has been answered some-
times in the negative, and sometimes in the affirmative. What
gave rise to this question was the observation that pure wine
differs in taste from wine to which alcohol has been added.
Most persons of moderate experience in tasting wine are able
to detect the addition of a few per cent, of alcohol to a wine,
even if its strength after this addition is not greater than the
strength of many pure wines in which the spirit cannot be
detected by the taste. A practised wine-taster will detect
the addition of even a few per milles of alcohol to a pure
wine. From these facts, namely, that no alcohol can be
tasted in pure wine, while the addition of even a few per
milles of alcohol to pure wine is instantly detected by the
taste, it has been argued that no free alcohol is contained in
wine, but that what appears as alcohol by distillation exists
in some kind of combination, and that the application of
heat breaks up the compound, alcohol distilling over, the
other constituents of the compound remaining behind. We
have, however, not found a single physical or chemical
property possessed by wine which is not in perfect harmony
with the assumption that it contains the alcohol as a simple
62 A TREATISE ON WINES.
admixture and not in any sort of combination. When wine
is freed from all its alcohol by distillation, and the distilled
spirit is again returned to the residue in the still, a compound
i made which no doubt tastes differently from the original
wine, but is identical with it in all its physical features, such
as specific gravity, boiling point, vapour tension at high and
low temperature, effects of freezing, facility with which the
alcohol can be separated, endosmotic equivalent, capillary
attraction and specific heat. Some of these physical qualities,
such as endosmotic equivalent and specific heat, would cer-
tainly have manifested even slight differences in the physical
or chemical character of the two liquids had there been
any, but all the eight tests prove identity. We have there-
fore to account for the change in taste by the process of
distillation by hypotheses other than that which assumes the
alcohol in natural wine to be in combination. The alcohol
or spirit from fermented liquids is always accompanied by
matters not being ethylic alcohol, but being, like this, pro-
ducts of fermentation, or being products of the action of
heat on certain ingredients of the fermented liquid. Some
of these products remain mixed with the alcohol with great
pertinacity, are hardly separable by practical means, and
impart to it a peculiar pungent taste, differing from that of
pure alcohol. What tastes disagreeably in newly distilled
spirit is not the alcohol, but these admixtures produced by
the influence of heat. The by-taste can be diminished or
removed by purifying the alcohol, distilling it over caustic
lime, diluting it to a strength of 20 or 30 per cent., and
filtering it repeatedly through fresh animal charcoal;
gradually the taste becomes less pungent, and, as the pfirifi-
cation proceeds, the mixture will appear less strong to the
taste than a mixture of equal strength which has remained
unpurified. It is owing to the admixture of these heat
products, which have been termed empyreumatic, that new
whiskey is harsh and objectionable, and requires the in-
fluence of air admitted gradually through the pores of the
wood of the barrels, and of time to become mellow and fit for
use. Alcohol which has been entirely freed from these ad-
mixtures is called silent spirit; but this in its turn never
ACIDS IN WINE. 63
acquires any flavour of any kind, and remains always unfit
for use as a beverage in dilution ; to be drinkable it must
have a flavour imparted to it, such as that of juniper, which
makes it gin, or must itself be mixed with large volumes of
flavoured alcoholic liquids, such as Andalusian wine, which
makes it sherry.
Of the matters which give a peculiar flavour to spirit
distilled from wine aldehyde is not rarely one. Mostly such
wines are condemned to the still which are not fit for being
drunk in their natural state ; and are undergoing progressive
deterioration by the viscous or acetous ferment. To this
rule only the wines of the Charente and of Languedoc are
exceptions, which are grown for being distilled soon after
their fermentation is complete, and which have no time
allowed to them for becoming spoiled ; they are not good
wines for drinking, but their spirit is precious as Cognac
brandy or as Trois-six. The presence of aldehyde is readily
detected by the peculiar smell and flavour; it may be re-
moved from the wine, neutralized by an alkali, by distillation,
and collected in a well-cooled condenser ; it then maintains
its smell and flavour on the tongue, reduces silver salts, and
is easily converted into acetic acid.
CHAPTER VIII.
[ACIDS IN WINE.
41. VARIETIES OF ACIDS IN WINE.
THE acids which have hitherto been distinctly recognized
as present in wine are of two kinds, namely, such as are
already found in the grape, tartaric, malic, and tannic acid,
and such as are produced during fermentation, namely,
acetic, formic, succinic, and carbonic acid. In addition to
these wine nearly always contains traces of some of the more
64 A TREATISE ON WINES.
complicated members of the fatty acid series, as propionic,
butyric, and particularly cznanthic acid ; from the latter some
philosophers have derived the peculiarly agreeable flavour
common to all wine apart from any special bouquet.
Tartaric acid. This is the most characteristic acid of
wine ; it occurs in it as acid potash salt, so-called tartar, in
trade also argol, which is deposited from wine when it is
kept long in barrels. Of the acid six varieties are known,
all of which have the chemical composition expressed by the
formula, C 4 ff & O 6 ; they are all dibasic and form therefore
two classes of salts and ethers, neutral and acid. Of the six
varieties of tartaric acid only two have been found in wine,
namely, ordinary tartaric acid, which as it turns the plane of
polarized light, as seen in an instrument called a polarimder,
to the right, is characterized as dextro-tartaric acid ; and
paratartaric or racemic acid, which has no influence on
polarized light. This latter acid is found in small quantities
in nearly all crude tartar, but more particularly in tartar from
Italy. By various chemical proceedings it can be split up
into two equivalent parts, one being the ordinary dextro-
tartaric acid, the other being an acid of the same chemical
composition and almost identical chemical properties, but
having upon polarized light the opposite effect to that of the
ordinary acid, namely, a turning to the left, and hence being
called laevo-tartaric acid. The ordinary acid turns pola-
rized light just as much to the right as laevo-tartaric acid
turns it to the left ; when the two are combined to racemic
acid one optical effect neutralizes the opposite one, and the
twin acid shows no polarity effect at all. With these optical
characters of the two simple acids and of their conjugation
product other physical and chemical properties are combined,
which are, so to say, oppositionally symmetrical, the left and
right turning acid being in the same relation to each other
as a body before a mirror is to its reflected image. These
relations are of great crystallographical interest, but we must
leave their further consideration to more specifically chemical
works. In wine we have practically to deal with ordinary
tartaric acid, its salts and ethers. In the same form it is a
regular constituent of the juice of the fr-uit of many plants,
ACIDS IN \VIN 7 E. 65
as tamarinds, mountain ash, mulberries, pine-apples, and
others.
Tartaric add ether (C 2 H 6 , C 4 Jf 4 O 6 ), a compound con-
sisting of the acid and alcohol, is analogous to the salts, and
is gradually formed in all wines, very slowly in the cold, more
rapidly in higher temperatures. It contributes not to the
bouquet, but to the rich taste of the wine. Wines which as
must or as wines have been treated with gypsum or plaster
of Paris have thereby lost all tartaric acid present in the
must, consequently do not develop the rich taste of natural
wine, but exhibit a bitter metallic taste of Glauber's salts, or
sulphate of potash.
Malic acid (C 4 H 6 <9 5 ) is found either free or in combina-
tion with alkalies and earths, in the juices, particularly those
of the fruit of many plants, as apples (from which it bears
the name), cherries, plums, grapes, the berries of the moun-
tain ash, etc. ; the latter, containing it in great quantity, are
generally employed for its preparation. Malic acid is also
obtainable from asparagin, a body present in the young
shoots of many plants, e.g., vetches, asparagus, and in edible
roots, e.g., salsifis. Malic, like tartaric acid, is a dibasic
acid, and therefore forms two series of salts and ethers,
neutral and acid ones. As regards the formation of ethers,
it.behaves like tartaric acid.
Succinic acid (C 4 H^ O^ derives its name from its forma-
tion during the destructive distillation of amber, the fossil
resin used for ornaments. It is found in some parts of the
animal organism, e.g., the brain, of which it is a regular con-
stituent. It is a frequent product of the oxydation of
organic substances, more particularly the fats and the fatty
acids. It is also produced during the decomposition by
ferment of various substances, as asparagin, malic acid,
sugar, etc., and is therefore always found in small quantities
in wines. Grape sugar during its fermentation by yeast
yields about 0-5 per cent, of its weight of succinic acid.
Malic and tartaric acid may also be transformed into suc-
cinic acid by the abstraction of some of their oxygen.
Commercial succinic acid is prepared by the fermentation
of malate of lime in water with some cheese. Upon every
F
66 A TREATISE ON WINES.
two parts 01 succinic one part of acetic acid is simul-
taneously formed, and it is not improbable that some of the
acetic acid formed in even plastered wine by the viscosity
fungus is produced from malic along with succinic acid. It
is a very stable body, and is sublimable without change ; it
is dibasic, and forms two series of salts and ethers. Suc-
cinic acid is extracted from the dry residue of wine by ether-
alcohol, combined with lime, and separated as calcium salt
from the glycerol simultaneously extracted. One litre of
wine contains from i to 1-5 gramme of succinic acid, equal to
one-fourth or one-fifth of the whole of its acidity considered
as tartaric.
The relation of the three acids of wine described in the
foregoing are chemically very conspicuous ; they all three
contain the same number of atoms of carbon, C 4 , and hydro-
gen, J1 6 , but differ as regards the oxygen, of which tartaric
acid contains six, O 6 , malic five, O s , and succinic four, O ;
and that this difference in the quantities of oxygen is the only
constitutional difference is proved by the fact that by ab-
straction of oxygen, tartaric acid can be transformed into
malic, and this into succinic acid, while inversely succinic
acid by the addition of oxygen can be promoted to malic,
and this, by a further addition, to tartaric acid.
Acetic add. Acetic acid (C z H 2 ) is found in the juices
of some plants and animals, either free or in combination,
but only in extremely small quantities. The chief sources
of its production for use as vinegar are the oxydation of
ordinary alcohol under the influence of a particular fer-
ment called the vinegar plant (mycoderma aceti), and the
destructive distillation of wood. The manner in which
the plant acts is not known, but it transfers oxygen to
alcohol, forming first aldehyde, afterwards acetic acid. The
mycoderma cannot live in strong alcohol, and converts only
weak spirit, not much exceeding ten per cent, alcoholic
strength, such as is common to natural wine, into vinegar.
The temperature most favourable to the formation of vinegar
is between 22 and 37 C.
Must after partial fermentation contains many of the
elements favourable to the production of vinegar. Where
ACIDS IN WINE. 67
the must ferments in open vats, as in many parts of the
south, it exposes a large surface to the atmosphere, which
is further increased by the thick froth covering it, or, as is
often the case with red wines, by the skins and stalks of the
grapes which float on the top. Much wine in southern
countries is lost by a beginning of acetous fermentation,
and its value is partially recovered only by distilling off the
main bulk of the alcohol. In more northern wine-produc-
ing countries, however, the temperature prevailing during
the time of fermentation is not high enough to favour
acetous fermentation; and, moreover, during the greater
part of such fermentation the carbonic acid constantly
produced and escaping at the surface prevents the free
access of air. In all moderately warm countries it requires,
therefore, but slight attention to prevent an excessive pro-
duction of acetic acid, and in the wines produced there the
quantity of this acid usually ranges from between 0*5 to 1*5
per mille. In warm countries and seasons, however, and in
all cases where the husks are allowed to remain in the
fermenting must, great care is requisite to prevent the
formation of vinegar, and sometimes the fermentation of
the must has to be stopped by the addition of alcohol, in
order to limit as much as possible the time during which
the wine has to be kept in open vats. For just as in the
manufacture of vinegar from wine it is found that the
rapidity with which wine is converted into vinegar increases
to a certain extent with the increasing amount of acetic
acid, so in vinification it is observed that if once the
quantity of acetic acid present has reached a certain
amount, its further production will go on at a greatly increased
rate, and the wine can no longer be kept in vessels to which
air has access without turning sour entirely. If the oxyda-
tion of alcohol takes place under conditions when there is
but a limited supply of oxygen, it often stops short at
aldehyde ; in many wines of Sauternes, and in Greek wines
which had been kept in barrels, we have found aldehyde and
acetic acid simultaneously. Many Australian wines im-
ported into London, red as well as white, are acetous, and
some lots of wine in barrels from that country we found
68 A TREATISE ON WINES.
almost entirely transformed into vinegar. The highest
amount of acetic acid found in more than a hundred
samples of French and German wines amounted to 1*78 pro
mille, the lowest being 0-36 pro mille ; while in a number
of samples of Greek wines the acetic acid varied between
1*53 and 3*63 pro mille.
If the acetic acid, as is the case in wine, is mixed with a
great many other substances, and it is desired to test it and
estimate its quantity, it should be separated from them by
distillation, and the tests should be applied to the distillate,
neutralized, if necessary, by potash or ammonia. That the
volatile acid of wine is almost all acetic acid is readily
proved by estimating its atomic weight This is done by
combining the acid, once purified by re-distillation from its
soda salt, after addition of sulphuric acid, with baryta ; the
pure acetate of baryum contains 53^54 per cent, of baryum ;
the volatile acid from many wines we have found to contain,
as baryum salt, from 53-3 to 53*9 per cent of baryum.
The estimation of the baryum in the salt produced by the
whole of the volatile acid, is not, however, in itself a
perfectly reliable criterion of the purity of the acetic acid
contained in it.
Formic and other acids of the acetic or fatty series. The
series of these acids runs parallel to the series of alcohols
which we have enumerated; they are formic, propionic,
butyric, valerianic, caproic, etc., acids. The only acid of
this series, besides acetic acid, which ha* been recognized as
certainly present in many wines is formic acid; of the
others we only know that they are represented in wine by
one or more of their number, though we cannot certainly
say by which. Formic acid is recognized in the distillate by
appropriate tests, particularly that when heated with silver
nitrate it causes a black deposit of silver. When only little
formic acid is mixed with much acetic it must be separated
first by a process of fractional distillation. By the same kind
of fractionation the heavier acids may be isolated, and their
atomic weights may be fixed by baryta. In all cases in
which the acids distilled from large quantities of wine were
examined, the salt of the first fraction contained less baryum
ACIDS IN WINE. 69
than corresponds to an acetate ; the intermediate portions
contained almost the exact proportion required by pure
acetate; the last fraction contained perceptibly more.
Formiate contains 60-18 per cent, baryum, acetate 53*54, pro-
pionate 48*22, and butyrate 43-87 per cent. To carry,
analytically, the separation of the volatile acids of wine to
perfection would require the distillation of very large
amounts of wine.
(Enanthic acid. This acid does not occur in wine in its
isolated condition, but only combined with alcohol as cenan-
thic ether. Of this ether we shall again speak in the chapter
on ethers. Here it may suffice to state that it was obtained
by Liebig and Pelouze in the course of an examination of
the ether in question. Its formula is C u ff x O s , and it
forms an oil solidifying below 13 C. Its origin and mode
of formation are unknown. It is curious that by itself the
acid is quite inodorous, and that the characteristic smell of
its ether should not be foreshadowed in it. It is insoluble
in water, and therefore could scarcely be contained in must
before fermentation it is therefore probably formed during
fermentation and in statu nascendi at once combines with
alcohol to form ether.
42. CHEMICAL ESTIMATION OF THE QUANTITY OF
ACIDS IN VVlNE. 1
We must only indicate the general principle of the pro-
cesses by which the quantities of acids in wines may be
ascertained. For the purpose of ordinary analysis it is
sufficient to estimate the whole of the volatile acids as acetic.
Infixed acids may be treated as if they were tartaric and
malic only. The entire acidity in wine is ascertained by
adding an alkaline test solution of known strength, and
using freshly prepared tincture of logwood as an indicator ;
when the acid has all been neutralized, the colour of the
logwood changes from yellow to brown or red. In some
vines this change from yellow to red takes place at once,
1 For full details of the processes cf. Thudichum and Dupre,
*' Treatise," pp. 189-197.
/O A TREATISE ON WINES.
and can be easily observed ; in others, however, the colour
passes gradually through brown, blue, green, etc., and never
becomes actually red. In these cases it is impossible to
accurately fix the point where sufficient alkali has been
added, and then the process has to be modified by testing a
small portion of the mixture with logwood tincture a second
time. The mixture remains brown while it is neutral, and
becomes red the moment it is alkaline.
The total amount of volatile acid in wine may be estimated
not only by the acidity of any distillate, but more con-
veniently by deducting the amount of permanent acidity,
after evaporation of the wine, from that which the fresh
wine showed. This proceeding has the advantage that it
can be carried out on as small a quantity of wine as 20 cub.
centimetres, and thus taking much less time than an ex-
periment on the larger quantities required by other methods.
It is almost impossible to estimate accurately the volatile
acid by distillation and quantation of the acidity of the
distillate, because a part of the acid is obstinately retained
by the residue, even when fresh water is added and the dis-
tillation is prolonged. On the other hand, evaporation and
drying in an open dish expels all the volatile acid.
In good sound wines the total amount of free acid ranges
from 0-3 to 07 per cent. ; wines with more than the latter
amount of free acid are neither pleasant nor wholesome. Of
the total acidity not more than an amount of 0-15 per cent,
of the wine should be due to volatile acid.
43. ESTIMATION OF TARTARIC ACID AND BITARTRATE
OF POTASH IN WINE.
This quantation is mostly effected by a process elaborated
by the French chemist Berthelot, and is based upon the in-
solubility of the bitartrate in a mixture of strong alcohol and
ether. Any free acid is soluble, and can be precipitated by
caustic potash. In a process elaborated by the German
chemist Nessler, absolute alcohol only is used to precipitate
the tartar. Both methods give accurate results if the
amount of tartaric acid present does not fall short of 0*05
ACIDS IN WINE. 71
per cent. ; if it be below this amount the results are of less
accuracy, because the alkalimetric liquids fail to be applic-
able. To increase the accuracy of the method we recom-
mend that the operator should use double the quantity of
wine prescribed for the test by both Berthelot and Nessler.
These authors probably had to deal with wines rich in tartaric
acid, while the wines which we examined were less endowed
with that ingredient.
In the majority of wines all the tartaric acid is present as
bitartrate, that is to say, there is a sufficient amount of
potash present to enable the whole of the tartaric acid to be
precipitated in this form by the addition of ether and alcohol ;
the wines, in fact, frequently correspond to a solution of bi-
tartrate, saturated at the lowest temperature to which the
wine may have been exposed for a certain length of time.
All pure natural wines contain more or less of tartaric
acid, and the quantity is probably the higher the riper are
the grapes from which it is produced. There is not, how-
ever, any apparent connection between the amount of tar-
taric acid present, and the quality of the wine ; the excess
of acidity perceptible to the taste depends not upon the
quantity of the tartaric, but that of the malic, succinic, and
the volatile acids present ; we have also occasionally observed
lactic acid as a cause of excessive acidity of wines. All wines
in the course of the preparation of which plaster of Paris,
gypsum, sulphate of lime has been used are nearly free
from tartaric acid.
In the majority of unplastered wines, if not in all, the
amount of tartaric acid corresponds to only a fraction of the
total free fixed acid present ; the rest of the acid consists mainly
of malic, with some succinic acid. In the course of the ana-
lytical proceedings for the isolation and quantation of these
acids, particularly of the tartaric, it has to be borne in mind,
that the wine contains sulphate and chloride of potassium,
which are decomposed by free tartaric acid in the presence
of large quantities of alcohol and ether, as used in the
Nessler and Berthelot processes.
The quantation and isolation of malic acid is based upon
the insolubility of its calcium salt in absolute alcohol.
/2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
The presence of any considerable amount of acetic acid
shows the wine, even when yet of good taste, to be unsound ;
the presence of much malic acid shows the must from which
the wine was made to have proceeded from somewhat under-
ripe grapes; the absence of tartaric acid proves that the
wine has been plastered ; any excess of tartrate of potash is
easily removed by exposing the wine to a wintry temperature.
CHAPTER IX.
ETHERS OR BOUQUET OF WINES.
44. VARIETIES OF ETHERS IN WINE.
THE ethers in wine are compounds of the fixed and volatile
acids with alcohols, and are formed after fermentation, with
the exception perhaps of cenanthic ether, which seems to
be formed during fermentation. They are formed very
slowly, and as wine owes to them much of its flavour it has
to remain long in barrels or bottles to _allow of the etherifi-
cation to be effected.
Aceto-Ethylic Ether. By far the greater part of the vola-
tile ethers found in wine is acetic ether ; it is volatile and
possesses a very decided smell, of an agreeable kind ; and
thereby no doubt contributes much to the general flavour of
wine, although neither the characteristic wine-flavour, nor
the peculiar bouquet of wine is due to it. It serves rather as
a background to these, and its excess is detrimental to the
specific flavours. It can easily be produced by combining
acetic acid and alcohol in the presence of sulphuric acid; in
wine it is formed by the interaction of acetic acid and alcohol
under the influence of the other acids, but its quantity is
kept within certain limits by the great bulk of water contained
in wine. Its formation in wine is gradual, and thus the
amount of it present in wine at a given time can be used as
a measure of the age of the wine.
ETHERS OR BOUQUET OF WINES. 73
Aceto-Propylic, Butylic, Amy lie ^ Caproylic, etc.) Ethers.
The place of ethyl in the acetic ether just described may be
taken by any of the radicles of the other alcohols present in
wine, when the ethers enumerated in the heading result.
They correspond in their general characters to acetic ether,
and are all volatile ; they all have an agreeable smell, greatly
resembling the smell of certain qualities of fruit, more parti-
cularly when much diluted; thus acetate of amyl has the
odour of pears. Minute quantities of these ethers are pre-
sent, particularly in old wine, and contribute to its flavour
and bouquet.
Butyro-Ethylic, Caprylo-Ethylic, Capro-Ethylic, and Pe-
largo-Ethylic Ethers. Just as acetic acid forms a series of
ethers with the radicles of the alcohol series described in the
foregoing, so the other acids form each a series of ethers with
the same series of alcohol radicles. In wine we may expect
these acids always to combine with the prevailing, namely,
ethylic alcohol. The etherification is apparently facilitated
by the presence of tartaric acid. Many of these ethers have
a very powerful and characteristic odour. Very frequently
the odour of the concentrated pure ethers is rather disagree-
able, but becomes agreeable, and resembles the flavour of
fruit, when it is greatly diluted. Thus dilute butyric ether
resembles in its smell that of pine-apples ; caprylic ether has
a similar smell ; caproic ether has the odour of melons , and
to pelargonic ether probably a portion of the characteristic
wine-flavour is due.
45. (ENANTHIC ETHER.
At the end of the distillation of large volumes of wine,
such as are used in the south of France, a small quantity of
an oily liquid passes over, which is the crude ether here in
question. Forty thousand parts of wine yield about one
part of the oil. The ether is also contained in wine yeast,
and removed from it by distillation with water. The ether
as first obtained contains also acid as an admixture which
has to be removed by alkali and re-distillation. The pure
ether is a colourless, thin, oily liquid, with an overpowering
74 A TREATISE ON WINES.
vinous smell and a sharp, disagreeable taste. Its compo-
sition is expressed by the formula C 18 H m O 3 ; it contains
two ethyle radicles. It is very soluble in even diluted spirit,
but insoluble in water. It is generally admitted that the
characteristic vinous smell, which distinguishes all kinds of
wine from every other fermented liquid, is due to the
presence of this cenanthic ether. The particular flavour or
bouquet, however, by which the wines of different vineyards
and vines are distinguishable from each other, is produced
by substances of a different nature and composition. Much
so-called cenanthic ether is synthetically produced in manu-
factories and used in the transformation of silent spirit into
so-called British brandy.
46. TARTARIC ETHER.
Tartaric acid being dibasic may be made to form two
varieties of ethers, namely, neutral and acid ones. Only the
latter kind is met with in wine, tartro-ethylic ether, C 6 T W O 6 .
It is a crystallizable, but deliquescent, solid body, and
behaves like an acid, as it even forms salts with bases. It
cannot be distilled, but under the influence of higher tem-
peratures breaks up into various products.
By the interaction of the alcohols and ethers present in
wine a great number of compound ethers may be formed.
Thus, assuming the presence of five acids and five alcohols,
they might form twenty-five compound ethers, any or all of
which might be present and contribute their share to the
flavour ; and the flavour would alter with the predominance
of the one or the other of these ethers. In the manufacture of
brandy very large quantities of wine are distilled, and a con-
siderable amount of so-called fusel or fousel-oil is obtained,
in which a number of the above-named volatile acids and
ethers, as well as several different alcohols have been detected.
The more volatile ethers of course remain with the distilled
brandy.
47. QUANTATION OF ETHERS IN WlNE.
Berthelot estimated the ethers in wine by destroying them
with baryta and ascertaining the quantity of acid which had
ETHERS OR BOUQUET OF WINES. 75
entered into combination with the earth. But we have found
that the presence of sugar makes the process inapplicable.
We have therefore used another method ; 1 the volatile ethers
are separated by distillation, and decomposed by alkali, and
in the salt the quantity of add is estimated ; the fixed ethers
are decomposed in the residue by alkali ; and the alcohol
separated is estimated. Wine may be distilled from a retort
with the usual precaution of a water or sand-bath, without
any of the ethers undergoing decomposition. The dry
residue of wine by long heating loses its acidity, but not its
fixed ethers ; by careful experiment it has been ascertained
that tartaric ether in the presence of tartaric acid is not de-
composed by being heated in an open dish on a water-bath.
All the volatile ethers are expelled from wine, together with
the alcohol, by a concentration of the wine to one-fifth. The
foregoing process of separate quantation of volatile and
fixed ethers is as applicable to dry natural as to sweet or
sugared wines.
48. THEORY OF THE LIMITATION OF ETHERS IN WINE.
It has been maintained by Berthelot that the amount of
ethers found in any mixture of alcohols and acids is after a
certain time a constant quantity, independent of the nature
of the alcohols and acids present, and a function only of
their relative amount. He has given a formula for calculat-
ing the amount of alcohol contained in the compound ethers
of one litre of a mixture of acids, alcohol, and water, such as
wine essentially is when etherification is complete. The
formula is available for any alcoholic strength up to 25 per
cent. As by far the greatest proportion of alcohol present is
ethylic alcohol, the other alcohols may for the present pur-
pose be left out of consideration. We have found that the
data obtained by the application of Berthelot's formula agree
very well with those obtained by direct analysis ; the only
exceptions to the rule are very young wines, in which etheri-
fication is incomplete, and wines to which alcohol has beea
1 Thudichum and Dnpre, "Treatise," pp. 203-216.
76 A TREATISE ON WINES.
added just before they come under observation, and in which
therefore etherification has not yet re-attained its equilibrium.
The estimation of ethers in wines thus affords a valuable
means of judging of their age and genuineness. A natural
wine should during the first few years contain somewhat less
ether than required by the formula; the amount should
gradually augment with age, until after from four to six years
the maximum would be reached. If then an appreciable
amount of alcohol be added, the wine be fortified, etherifi-
cation will begin afresh, and again reach a maximum after a
number of years. On the other hand, wine prepared arti-
ficially, with addition of ethers, will probably at once show
a maximum of ethers, or will even exceed this, and will then,
instead of increasing in richness, remain stationary, or show
a diminution of ethers with increasing age. Thus sherries,
on arrival from Spain in wood, are always out of equilibrium,
because they have been brandied just before their departure,
and require some years in bottle before they acquire the
limit of etherification.
Although the total amount of alcohol present as ether in
wines which we have examined expressly generally agrees
closely with that required by theory, yet the amount present
in fixed ether on the one, and volatile ether on the other
hand bears no regular relation to the amount of fixed and
volatile acids present. The amount of alcohol present as
volatile ether is almost always greater than the amount
present in fixed ether, in spite of the circumstance that the
amount of volatile acid present is almost always much
smaller than the amount of fixed acid. The proportion
between the volatile and fixed ethers bears no proportionate
relation to the amounts of volatile and fixed acids present.
All the fixed acids are present already in the grape juice,
and their etherification can therefore begin as soon as alcohol
begins to be formed during fermentation, and continue
simultaneously with its production. Moreover, the amount
-of fixed acids is greatest at the beginning of fermentation,
decreasing as the amount of alcohol increases, on account of
the lesser solubility of acid tartrate of potassium in alcoholic
liquids. It is therefore evident. that the amount of fixed
ETHERS OR BOUQUET OF WINES. 77
ethers formed in a given time is greatest in quite young, or
still fermenting wine.
The volatile acids, on the other hand, are all formed
during or after fermentation. If therefore fermentation has-
taken place under circumstances unfavourable to the pro-
duction of volatile acids, say acetic acid, as is the case
when must ferments at a low temperature, or in carefully
closed vessels, little or no volatile acid will be present at
first, but the amount will increase gradually with the age of
the wine, provided it be kept in well-ullaged casks. In,
such a wine, therefore, the production of fixed ethers begins
before that of the volatile ethers. But the continually
increasing amount of volatile acids, aided by their greater
tendency to etherification, and the gradual decrease in the
amount of fixed acids, aided further by the circumstance
that the volatile acids are in presence of alcohol in statu
nascendt, when this combining tendency is at its maximum,
soon reverses the conditions, and causes the volatile ethers-
to preponderate.
In judging of the relative quantity of free, fixed and
volatile acids present it should be borne in mind that the
volatile ethers being neutral ethers, neutralize their acid
completely, while the fixed ethers being acid ethers, have
only half their acidity neutralized. It is therefore necessary,
in order to find the quantity of that part of fixed acid which
is really free and uncombined, to subtract an amount of
acid equal to that found neutralized in the fixed ethers from;
the total amount of free fixed acid found. And from this
the acid present as bitartrate should perhaps also be de-
ducted in order to obtain data by which the amount of
etherification due to fixed and volatile acids respectively;
may be accurately determined.
49. SMELL, BOUQUET OR AROMA OF WINE.
There are odoriferous constituents common to all wines
which we have seen are essentially compound ethers, and!
these produce the truly vinous smell ; this can hardly be
called either aroma or bouquet with much propriety : indeed
78 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the word aroma indicates spice, and wine to become aromatic,
in the language of past pharmacy aromatites, has to be
mixed with spice; of such spice myrrh is used in the
present day at Naples to give a flavour to the flavourless
white wine; crocus or saffron was extracted with Canary
wine and this tincture went by the name of aroph, a con-
traction of aroma philosophorum. But pure wine was never
termed, and is not aromatic in the true sense of the word.
Odoriferous constituents which are characteristic of par-
ticular kinds of wine, being always mixed with the more or
less prominent flavour of the oenanthic principles, may
properly be termed bouquet. The substances producing
the bouquet and peculiar characteristic flavour of special
wines are of two kinds ; namely, such as are already present
in the grape, and are unaltered during fermentation, e.g., the
smell of the muscatel, or Isabella grape ; and, secondly, such
as are formed during and after fermentation, partly out of
substances already present in the grape, partly from matters
formed during or after fermentation. Some of the substances
present in the grape are formed apparently in greater quan-
tity with their increasing ripeness, and have probably the
characters of essential oils. On the other hand the
substances yielding the bouquet are sometimes contained in
greater quantity in unripe than in ripe grapes. The fruit,
blossoms, or other parts of certain plants, when steeped in a
liquid undergoing alcoholic fermentation, produce or yield
a small quantity of essential oil, termed ferment oil, which
possesses a characteristic smell, not rarely resembling the
bouquet of certain kinds of wine. Thus the flowers of elder
when allowed to ferment with the must, or extracted with
spirit, impart to the solvents a flavour not unlike that of
muscatel grapes ; while the flowers of any vine, more par-
ticularly the wild vine, yield to alcohol the Rhine wine
bouquet.
It has been attempted to separate the odoriferous con-
stituents of wine by means of ether, but their extremely
unstable character under the influence of heat and air, and
their small amount made these attempts abortive. The
.extracted bouquetted matter of a litre of wine was entirely
SUGARS IN GRAPES AND WINE. 79
destroyed when fifty cubic centimetres of air were left in
contact with it. This explains the manner in which very
old wines gradually lose their bouquet; the air penetrates
both wood and corks. On the other hand in young wines
the limited access of air is essential to their development as
regards bouquet ; and as the access of air is much more
rapid in casks than in bottles, it is a part of the art and
knowledge and skill of the wine-maker to mature the wine
in cask until it has attained its maximum of bouquet, and
then to bottle it to maintain the bouquet, and effect the
rest of the changes which demand exclusion of air.
CHAPTER X.
SUGARS IN GRAPES AND WINE.
50. VARIETIES OF SUGAR OCCURRING IN GRAPES
AND WINE.
THE sweetness of grapes is due to the presence of a con-
siderable amount of sugar in their juice, which is probably
a mixture in atomic proportions of two different kinds of
sugar, called respectively fruit-sugar and grape-sugar. The
same mixture is produced by the action of dilute acids
upon cane-sugar, and is then termed invert sugar.
Cane-sugar has never been found in grapes; it is however
sometimes added to must or to wine, for example to the
sweet kinds of Champagne and other effervescent vinous
products, and in large quantities to British wines. But
when thus dissolved in wine cane-sugar is soon changed
into invert sugar, so that, after the lapse of a few weeks,
cane-sugar is no longer found in the wine to which it has
been added.
During the fermentation of the must, the fruit and grape-
sugars are decomposed so as to yield chiefly alcohol and
80 A TREATISE ON WINES.
carbonic acid, besides small quantities of glycerol and
succinic acid. The grape-sugar is decomposed more quickly
than the fruit-sugar, so that at the end of the fermentation
generally more fruit-sugar than grape-sugar is left. The
sugar which remains permanently in wine consists mainly
of fruit-sugar, with only a small proportion of grape-sugar.
The proportion between them differs in different kinds of
wine, and seems to depend in some sort on the mode of
fermentation ; in wines which retain much sugar the grape-
sugar sometimes predominates, while all the fruit-sugar is
decomposed. The sugar, whether fruit or grape-sugar, left
undecomposed at the end of the fermentation, in pure
natural wines, rarely amounts to more than 0*5 per cent.,
and is generally much less in quantity. Even this small
amount is confined chiefly to young wines, and disappears
with progressing age of the wine, generally after a second
fermentation in the spring following the first fermentation.
In wines to which alcohol is added to check fermentation,
or in liqueur wines made from sun-dried grapes or raisins,
the so-called dulce of the south of France and Spain, the
sugar ranges from 2 or 3 per cent, to upwards of 20 per
cent.
51. GRAPE-SUGAR, DEXTROSE, OR RIGHT-TURNING
GLUCOSE.
Grape-sugar has the composition expressed by the formula
C 6 HU O 6 , and is found in many kinds of fruit, and in bees'
honey, mixed or combined with fruit-sugar. It is produced
by the action of warm diluted sulphuric acid on starch or
cellulose, is excreted in large quantities by the kidneys in a
disease termed diabetes, and is obtained by the decom-
position of substances, products of organic nature, which
from this fact are termed glucosides. It is also formed by
the action of ferment, e.g., yeast or cane-sugar ; this change
takes place instantaneously when two parts of finely-pow-
dered white cane-sugar are mixed in a mortar with one part
by weight of solid yeast, and the mixture becomes fluid.
Dextrose, as we shall hereafter term this sugar, crystallizes
SUGARS IN GRAPES AND WINE. 8 1
from a moderately concentrated solution in granular masses
containing a molecle of water of crystallization, which they
lose at a temperature of 60 C. If the solution be evaporated
to a thick syrup, so as not to contain this necessary water, it
will crystallize only after having attracted sufficient water from
the atmosphere to form the hydrated crystals. From alcohol
of 95 per cent, strength it crystallizes in fine needles contain-
ing no water of crystallization. It is soluble in its own weight
of water, but slightly soluble in alcohol, scarcely soluble in
ether. Its most remarkable and useful chemical reaction is
that when a salt of copper is mixed with it, and caustic alkali
is added to the mixture a deep blue solution, without any
precipitate, is formed ; when this mixture is allowed to stand,
after a lapse of time, or when it is heated immediately, a
yellowish-red precipitate of hydrate of suboxide of copper,
or cuprous oxide, or a red precipitate of the anhydrous sub-
oxide is formed and deposited. As one molecle of grape-
sugar thus reduces ten molecles of oxide of copper to sub-
oxide, by withdrawing the oxygen from the copper, this re-
action may be used as a means for estimating the amount of
dextrose present in a solution. The reaction was discovered
by Trommer, and bears his name ; its quantitative applica-
tion was elaborated by Fehling, and the fluid of known
strength used in it bears the name of the later chemist. The
test is so delicate that the presence of even a thousandth
part of dextrose in a solution may be detected by it. The
name of dextrose is derived from the fact that solutions of
the sugar turn the plane of a beam of polarized light to the
right, as seen in an apparatus called a polarimeter, or sac-
charometer. The actual rotating power is 56 of the circle
to the right ; this power is but little affected by differences in
temperature.
52. FRUIT-SUGAR, LEVULOSE OR LEFT-TURNING
GLUCOSE.
Fruit-sugar is found and formed in conjunction with dex-
trose in all the cases above described. It can be separated
from the latter by combination with lime, and from the lime
82 A TREATISE ON WINES.
by oxalic or sulphuric acid. It forms an uncrystallizable
syrup, soluble in water in every proportion, soluble in
alcohol, slightly soluble in ether. Like dextrose it decom-
poses an alkaline solution of copper salt, and in exactly the
same proportions. Its solutions turn the plane of polarized
light to the left, its molecular rotating power being 106 of
a circle at 14 C. This power is much affected by tempera-
ture, and at 90 C. is reduced to 53.
53. INVERT SUGAR.
As cane-sugar turns the plane of polarization to the right,
but after decomposition by acids turns it to the left, it was
said to have become inverted, and this gave rise to the name
of inverted or, abbreviated, invert sugar. It behaves like a
mixture of levulose and dextrose, and either of these sugars
can be extracted from it. On adding to a solution of cane-
sugar in strong alcohol much hydrochloric acid, pure dex-
trose crystallizes in time, while levulose remains in solution ;
the levulose in its turn is separated by lime as already stated.
Invert sugar turns the plane of polarization to the left, its mole-
cular rotating power being 26 at 15 C. ; as the temperature
rises above 15 C. the rotation diminishes by 0-37 for each
degree of temperature, while a sinking temperature increases
the rotation by the same amount for each degree below
15 C.
54. INOSITE OR PHASEOMANNITE.
It has been stated that the syrupy wines of Sauternes, and
some Rhine wines of the best years, which retain permanently
up to 4 per cent, of sugar contain, besides dextrose and
levulose, a kind of sugar which was first discovered in green
beans, and hence received the second name of the above
title. It was discovered as an ingredient of the flesh of many
animals, and therefore termed inosite ; it is also present in
considerable amount in the brain of man and of the ox.
Some have supposed that the presence of this sugar in the
wines named might explain in part their strongly intoxicating
SUGARS IN GRAPES AND WINE. 83
quality, which is also peculiar in its kind, and termed by the
French heady. But there is no record of inosite, though it
is an alcohol, having any narcotic effect. Inosite is par-
ticularly liable to the lactic acid fermentation, and it is to
lactic acid formed in the barrels that many medium sweet
wines of the Gironde owe their acidity, which forms so
striking a contrast to their sweetness ; this makes them un-
drinkable to an accomplished palate.
55. TESTING WINES FOR SUGAR.
For details regarding the preparation and application of
the several tests to wine we must refer to p. 226 of the great
"Treatise." As wine must be colourless for the application
of either the chemical or optical test, red and dark-coloured
varieties have to be decolorized by agitation with charcoal ;
very concentrated wines have to be diluted. Some extrac-
tive matters which are not sugar, but affect the copper test,
can be removed by lead acetate, so-called sugar of lead;
this reagent also removes the brownish matters from wines
coloured with caramels, such as sherry and Marsala. If any
cane-sugar be present in the wine to be examined it has to
be transformed into invert sugar by boiling with dilute sul-
phuric acid. Cane-sugar, C 12 H^ O u , by taking up a molecle
of water, H z O, becomes by this process, called hydrolysis,
2 x C 6 H 12 O 6 , or 342 parts of cane-sugar become 360 parts
of invert sugar.
As regards the optical fesf, a full explanation of the theory
of polarization, and description of some of the best apparatus
for its application, will be found in the " Treatise," /. c. t pp.
231-252. The wine to be subjected to the optical test is
made colourless by the application of lead acetate, and
afterwards a little animal charcoal, and the bright colourless
liquid is placed into the tube of the polarimeter. As wine
contains a mixture of dextrose and levulose in proportions
which are not those of invert sugar, the amount of polariza-
tion which it shows depends upon the proportion of the two
sugars present. As one part of dextrose turns about as
much to the right as half a part of levulose turns to the left
84 A TREATISE ON WINES.
a mixture of the two in these proportions would show no pola-
rization at all ; a prevalence of either sugar would cause the
polarization to turn in its peculiar direction but whatever
might be the proportion between them, half a part of levu-
lose would always neutralize the optical effect of one part of
dextrose, and the visible optical effect would be due only to
the excess of either sugar over the stated proportion. The
optical test, therefore, is unable to estimate the amount of
sugar present; it can only estimate the non-neutralized
excess of either. But if to the data obtained by this test be
added the datum obtained by the chemical test, the quantity
of each variety of sugar present is easily calculated.
A number of specimens of wine from the Rhine and the
Gironde contained about i '057 per cent, of sugar by chemical
test; of this, 0-802 per cent, were levulose, 0-252 per cent,
dextrose, or upon one part of the latter 3-19 parts of the
former. A fine old Madeira showed i '024 per cent, of sugar,
of which dextrose placed as i part the levulose amounted to
3-43 parts. Six high-class port wines showed 1-179 P er cent,
sugar: in this, dextrose i part, levulose 2-57 parts.
A sample of cheap port contained 1-971 per cent, of
sugar; in this i part of dextrose corresponded to 1-35 part
of levulose.
A high-class sherry, fifty years old, contained 2-11 per
cent, sugar, in this i part dextrose was present besides 1-26
part levulose.
A commercial Marsala showed 4*329 per cent, sugar ; here
i part dextrose was by the side of 0-84 part of levulose.
A cheap sherry contained 4-617 per cent, sugar; in this
dextrose as i was to levulose o - 8i part.
A sample of Elbe sherry (Greek wine mixed with sugar and
spirit at Hamburg) contained 6-512 per cent, of sugar ; in this
dextrose = i was counterbalanced by levulose = 0-37 part.
In the cases of the last three wines so-called saccharine
(matter) mainly dextrose, had no doubt been added.
In a sample of port chemical tests showed the presence of
0*177 per cent, of sugar, while not a trace of polarization
was perceptible in a saccharometer which will yet indicate
o'oi per cent, or one-seventeenth the quantity found chemi-
SUGARS IN GRAPES AND WINE. 85
cally in the wine. In this case the sugars were in the pro-
portion in which one neutralized the other, or one dextrose
upon one-half part levulose. When the proportion of
levulose sinks still lower the wine begins to turn to the
right. It is usually assumed that this condition indicates
an addition of dextrose to the wine ; we have, however, met
with several wines which turned to the right, although, as
we had been credibly assured, no addition of dextrose or
any other sugar had been made. These wines were young,
and had undergone a second fermentation in bottle. One
specimen before fermentation turned to the left, after it to
the right, so that more levulose than dextrose had been
destroyed. Another contained 0-144 per cent, of dextrose
and o'oio per cent, of levulose, which is equivalent to an
almost total disappearance of the levulose.
Thus while in the above seven and more samples the
residual sugar was mainly levulose, and while these cases
represent the ordinary result of fermentation, under special
conditions dextrose mainly may be preserved, and its
presence in wine in excess of the equivalent of levulose
must not be assumed to necessarily indicate any adulte-
ration or illegitimate addition.
The sugar contained >n champagne is chiefly invert sugar,
formed by the action of the acids in the wine on the cane-
sugar added in the liqueur. Thus the sugar found in a
sample of champagne was found chemically to be 2-935
per cent. ; and the optical test showed it to be almost pure
invert sugar.
Should cane-sugar be suspected in wine, it may be found by
destroying the dextrose and levulose by boiling with caustic
alkali, and then transforming the cane-sugar, proved by its
right-handed polarization, into invert sugar, by boiling with
10 per cent, of strong hydrochloric acid, and finding in the
product the amount of polarization now directed to the left.
It is thus proved that neither the optical nor the chemical
test can by itself give information on the quality and
proportion of the sugars ; the chemical test alone can give
the total sugar ; both tests conjointly are alone able to
furnish complete qualitative and quantitative results.
86 A TREATISE ON WINES.
CHAPTER XI.
COLOURING, ASTRINGENT, EXTRACTIVE AND
MINERAL CONSTITUENTS OF WINE.
56. GLYCEROL.
GLYCEROL, C 3 Jf 8 O 3 formerly termed glycerine, but now
marked as an alcohol by the terminal syllable, one of the
constituents of animal and vegetable fats, and of those
peculiar substances contained in the brain known as phos-
phorised matters, may be prepared by saponification or
decomposition of fats with superheated steam. For our
present purpose it is of importance as a product of the
fermentation of sugar, and contributes, in a limited manner,
to the agreeably sweetish taste of wine. It is a colourless,
syrupy, sweet liquid at ordinary temperatures, but crystallizes
when subject to temperatures much below the freezing
point of water. Owing to its being a tridynamic alcohol it
forms three series of ethers and other compounds, and
undergoes a variety of interesting chemical transformations.
In the process of fermentation 100 parts of cane-sugar,
or 105-26 parts of dextrose, yield 3-64 parts of glycerol.
It should, therefore, always be present in wine in the pro-
portion of about one-fourteenth part of the alcohol, and
thus contribute the more sweetness to the taste the richer
the wine is in natural alcohol. It is separated from the
residue of wine obtained by evaporation by extraction with
a mixture of alcohol and ether, but then is always mixed
with a little dextrose. But with all care the methods of
Pasteur and of Pohl for the quantation of glycerol in wine
do not exclude other extractives besides this dextrose, and
thus it cannot be said that our means of ascertaining its
quantity in wine are very accurate at present. Nevertheless
wines are empirically adjusted to taste by the addition of
glycerol, and it is as legitimate to add glycerol to wines.
COLOURING MATTERS OF WINE. 87
which have been strengthened with alcohol, as to add this
alcohol itself. When so added it should always be in the
proportion of one part to fourteen parts of alcohol con-
sidered as absolute.
57. COLOURING MATTERS.
French, German and Spanish wines in their youth are
almost colourless, so much so that this state was at one
time made a test of genuineness, a colour obtained by age
only being easily imparted by art. It is therefore important
to be able to distinguish natural from artificial tints, for a
good wine matured by age cannot be colourless. Other
wines are purely yellow, like old Sauternes. Other wines
have all varieties of shade of colour up to dark brown ; the
darker shades are all artificially produced by the addition
of boiled must, either to the fresh must before the fermenta-
tion, or to the made wine before sale. The colour of the
boiled must is due to the browned, dehydrated or so-called
burnt sugar, technically called caramel, and used in all
kitchens for browning soups, sauces, and other accompani-
ments of solid productions of culinary art, e.g., custards.
In consequence of this knowledge many wine-makers colour
their products with culinary caramel, /.<?., cane-sugar boiled
to the desired colour ; but every caramel, be it of dextrose
in must or of cane-sugar, introduces an element of bitter-
ness in the wine, which we hold not to be to its advantage.
Some kinds of Marsala and Madeira, otherwise excellent
cheap wines, are not rarely overcoloured, and thereby pre-
judiced in their taste and quality.
The natural colorations assumed by wines originally
colourless, or white, as they are popularly termed, are pro-
duced by the oxydizing effect of the air upon certain matters
contained in smaller or larger quantities in grapes, viz., the
so-called extractives, being bodies not yet known in an
isolated form, and the tannic acid which is extracted by
the juice or wine from the husks, kernels and stalks. The
wine during fermentation and rest in the cask also extracts
tannin from the oak. Now just as raisins, and other kinds
88 A TREATISE ON WINES.
of fruit, during drying assume a brown colour, which becomes
a light yellowish brown in any dilute, watery or alcoholic
extract, so the wine during ripening becomes darker in
colour, and in many cases sheds a brown deposit, being
the fully oxydized extractive matter and tannin which is
incapable of remaining in solution.
Amongst the colorations of white wine which are due to
abnormal agencies there is one which, in the opinion of
Pasteur, is due to the presence or preliminary action of
decomposing fungi. It is observed occasionally upon all
kinds of white wines, upon Graves, Barsac, Haut Sauternes,
Rhenish, Hungarian and Italian wines, upon Cham-
pagne, and effervescent wines of the Loire, Saumur, and
Vouvray. When the bottle is opened, and some wine is
poured into the glass, the liquid is white or nearly so, but
when it is allowed to stand a short time, it becomes some-
what coloured so as to attract attention. When such wine
is filled into a white glass bottle and allowed to stand open,
it will become brown on the surface, and the coloration
will gradually descend to the bottom of the flask. The
upper layers will, after some days or weeks, be actually
blackish brown; ultimately a dark deposit falls. During
this process some of the alcohol is oxydized to acetic acid,
probably by a collateral action of acetous ferment. Wine
showing this phenomenon of quick darkening on exposure
to air is unquestionably unsound, or sick, and requires
appropriate treatment for its recovery.
The tints of all kinds of red wine, whether they are
slightly rose-coloured, or almost black and impenetrable to
light, are produced by peculiar colouring matters contained
originally either in the pulp or the husk of the grape. The
soluble colouring matter contained in the pulp of the grapes
produced by such varieties of vines as the teinturier, or dyer,
which is extensively grown in France and Spain for the
purpose of producing wine of deep colour, which may be
used to dye white wines, in quantity up to eight times the
volume of the red, differs greatly from the colouring matter
deposited in the husks of grapes, particularly by the evident
fact of its solubility in the juice of the grapes, in which
COLOURING MATTERS OF WINE. 89
the pigment of the husk is insoluble. This soluble colouring
matter is more closely related to that contained in the juice
of elderberries and black currants. It enters into the com-
position of many Spanish, Portuguese, south and central
French red wines. It has not, that we are aware of, been
chemically examined with the desirable method and degree of
accuracy. But the colouring matter from the husks of blue
and black grapes has been examined by Mulder and others,
so that we know a little more about it. It is precipitated
from wine by lead acetate, and this precipitate is decom-
posed by sulphuretted hydrogen. From the purified sulphide
the pigment is extracted by alcohol and acetic acid. This
alcoholic acetic solution is now evaporated, when it at first
becomes red like wine ; as the alcohol evaporates further it
becomes violet; and lastly, when only little acetic acid
remains, beautifully blue. The residue is dried completely,
freed from a little fat by ether, and is then pure pigment.
It is in the dry state bluish-black, like black lead (graphite) ;
it is amorphous, insoluble in alcohol, water, ether, chloro-
form, bisulphide of carbon, oil of turpentine and of olives.
It is soluble in alcohol containing a trace of acetic acid,
and the saturated solution has a blue colour ; more acetic
acid makes the solution red. In alcohol and tartaric acid
it is also soluble with a red colour. The same acids do not
make it soluble in ether or chloroform. A red solution in
alcohol and tartaric acid will, after neutralization with
ammonia or any other alkali, become blue ; acids restore
the red colour. If a slight excess of ammonia be added to the
acid alcoholic solution, the colouring matter becomes green.
If an acid be now quickly added, the red colour is restored,
but not with the same intensity as before ; and if the am-
monia is allowed to act upon it for a few moments, or an
excess has been used, the subsequent addition of an acid
does not any longer restore the red colour, but produces
only a brown tint ; the colouring matter has been decom-
posed. This decomposition also ensues when large volumes
of its acetic acid and alcohol solution are heated for a long
time ; it is necessary to effect the evaporation on small
volumes in shallow vessels at the lowest possible tempera-
9O A TREATISE ON WINES.
ture. Almost the same reaction is observed upon all red
vegetable juices, particularly of fruit. Fixed caustic alkalies
effect the destruction as certainly as and quicker than am-
monia. Strong acids do not much affect the pigment, but hot
nitric acid destroys it. Chlorine destroys it, and leaves a
brown liquid ; excess of chlorine makes the solution yellow.
Light has a double effect upon the pigment, it bleaches it in
part and makes another part insoluble.
The colour of wine depends upon two factors, the amount
of blue colouring matter present, and the quantity of free
acid which acts upon it. The more free acid is present,
the more red will the wine appear ; and with the decrease
of the acidity, the colour will approach towards the violet.
The colouring matters of Burgundy, Bordeaux and Oporto
wine behave essentially in the same manner when subjected
to the above proceeding, although port wine generally
contains some of the soluble pigments of the teintiirier
grapes. This requires a little modification of the process
of analysis. The crust which port wine forms in bottles
contains oxydized tannin in an insoluble state, and colouring
matter probably also in a changed state. The changed
tannin combines with the colouring matter like the lead
oxide. The colouring matter when once precipitated
seems to be rather stable, for it can be prepared with all its
characteristic properties from crude red tartar.
There are added to wines in many parts of the wine
countries other natural dyes ; some red wine is made of
white wine coloured with vegetable pigment not being the
product of any vine at all. Black cherries are a favourite
dye. Next come elderberries, the production of which for
this purpose is very considerable. Bilberries are used in
some parts ; logwood is said to be used in others, but we
have not been able to obtain any proof of this. Some
British wines made on a certain scale are coloured with
cochineal, which is also used largely in confectionery and
culinary proceedings. All these pigments are in them-
selves quite wholesome. The great bulk of red wines
contains so much natural pigment that no addition is
needed.
ALBUMINOUS CONSTITUENTS OF WINE. 91
58. AMMONIA.
The grape juice, like all vegetable juices, contains small
quantities of ammonia; a little more is formed during
fermentation from nitrogenized matters not defined. The
greater part of this ammonia is precipitated during the
progress of fermentation as ammonio-magnesic phosphate.
An extremely small quantity however remains in solution in
the wine, and can be isolated and estimated by the usual
chemical proceedings. In some wines, and particularly in
the syrupy liqueur wines, such as Tokay and Tintilla de
Rota (Rota Tent) the ammonia is accompanied with traces
of trimethylamine.
59. ALBUMINOUS MATTERS.
Grapes contain albuminous substances, of which some
curdle like the fibrine of the blood of animals after the juice
is expressed ; others are made insoluble during fermentation.
When exposed to the air on the top of fermenting vats they
are liable to be oxydized as well as decomposed; and it
is necessary to guard against the contamination of wine by
such products. Properly fermented white wines contain
very little of this albuminous substance, and are but little
liable to further change. In imperfectly fermented wines,
on the other hand, particularly wines made from underripe,
grapes, some of this albuminous substance remains dissolved,,
and renders them liable to further change. All red wines
contain, when young, much albuminous substance, which is
preserved from change by the tannin present. In the course
of time the greater part of it is thrown down with the
colouring matter and tannin.
When testing wines, particularly sherries, Marsalas, Cana-
ries, Madeiras, and red wines of the Gironde and Burgundy
for albumen, it must be remembered that these are habi-
tually clarified, or as it is technically termed, fined, by the
addition of considerable quantities of white of egg, In
some sherries we have found enormous quantities of albu-
men, which could be removed by ferrocyanide of potas-
92 A TREATISE ON WINES.
; the precipitate is bluish-black, from admixture of
some iron salt, but leaves the wine perfectly clear and
potable. Indeed sherries which refuse to be clarified by
white of egg alone, can be perfectly clarified by the
combination of albumen and ferrocyanide.
The amount of albuminous matter found in wines varies
between four parts per thousand of wine, or a quantity
equalling that of the free acid, and five in ten thousand ;
the latter quantity we found in port wine, made by ourselves
in the Alto Douro, which had never been fined with albu-
men but had been clarified by filtration. Some natural
wines deposit albumen when they are heated according to
the process of Pasteur ; but all the albumen is not deposited ;
in the case of an excellent young Palatinate wine we found
that the heating diminished the albumen from 0-3550 per
cent, to 0*2448 per cent. In the forms of apparatus working
with tubes for Pasteurizing wine special arrangements are
necessary to clear the tubes from time to time of the albu-
men and other matter deposited on their inner surface during
the heating.
60. TANNIN.
The astringent principles, which give precipitates with
solutions of gelatine and of albumen, and produce a deep
bluish-black precipitate or coloration with persalts of iron
(so called ink), are termed tannins from their use in the
production of leather. There are many varieties of these
substances, occurring in different plants, from which they
derive their surnames. They are all glucosides, that is,
bodies which under chemical decomposition break up into
at least two substances, of which one is a sugar.
The juice of most grapes is perfectly free from tannin ;
the skins and stalks, however, contain a considerable quan-
tity of a substance, which though it be not ordinary tannin
-of the oak or its galls, yet closely resembles it in properties.
While ordinary tannin breaks up by means of the influence
of acids, or of a special kind of fermentation into glucose
and gallic acid, the tannin of grapes, under the like circum-
TANNIN AND EXTRACTIVES OF WINE. 9$
stances, breaks up into glucose and an acid which is not
gallic acid.
White wines, in the preparation of which the must is at
once separated from the murk, contain little tannin ; while
red wines, being allowed to ferment with the murk, are
rich in tannin, which imparts to them the well-known
astringent taste. The tannin of white wines, as of brandies,
is sometimes derived from the oaken casks in which the
wine or spirit is kept ; their colour, at first very pale yellow,
increases in depth in the course of years. The tannin
contained in them absorbs oxygen and is converted into a
yellow, or brown humus-like substance, which, though
much less soluble in wine than the tannin, is yet sufficiently
so to impart a strong colour to it. Red wines, on the other
hand, gradually lose their dark colour by the agency of the
tannin they contain. In these wines so much tannin is
present that more of the humus-like substance is gradually
formed than can remain dissolved ; it is then thrown down
as a precipitate, and carries the colouring matter with it.
The presence of tannin in white wines may be detected
by the inky coloration produced on the addition of a ferric
salt and acetate of potash, and by the precipitate produced
by the addition of gelatine.
Tannin is supposed to render wines more durable by its-
preservative action upon the albuminous substances. The
addition of tannin to wines liable to turn has also, on this-
account, frequently been proposed, and seems to act bene-
ficially. Thus to white Champagne wines it has been
systematically added to prevent viscosity. It would be
advisable to use for this addition a tannin extracted from
the skins, stalks, or kernels of the grapes, or even the green
parts of the vine, instead of the ordinary tannin extracted
from galls or other sources.
6 1. EXTRACTIVES.
By the side of the matters which we have described there
are contained in wine certain matters the chemical charac-
ters of which are at present unknown. As they remain in
94 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the treacly state of vegetable extracts as they appear in
pharmacy, they have been termed extractives. They are
never absent from, but, on the contrary, generally constitute
the greater part of the total solids in all genuine wines which
contain little or no sugar.
Many factitious wines contain only small proportions of
these extractives, or none at all, and it is therefore frequently
possible to distinguish such wines, or diluted wines, by a
quantation of the extractives. Inversely, in genuine wines,
the extractive matter frequently stands in a direct relation
to the value of the wine, the higher class wines containing
generally more extractive than the lower class ones.
62. MINERAL CONSTITUENTS.
The residue which remains after the liquids of the wine
have been evaporated, when subjected to combustion, leaves
the mineral constituents in the form of ash. This consists
chiefly of potassium in the form of carbonate, chloride,
sulphate and phosphate, sodium as chloride, calcium as
phosphate and carbonate, with traces of magnesia, iron,
silica, and sometimes alumina and manganese. The car-
bonates of potassium and calcium are not as such contained
in the wine, but are produced by the combustion of the
tartrate or malate of potassium or calcium. From the ash
of pure natural wines carbonates and chlorides are scarcely
ever absent ; sometimes, however, if the wine has been sub-
jected to much sulphuring, either as must to prevent false
fermentation, or as wine, it may contain an excess of sulphuric
acid, which, during the evaporation and incineration, drives
out all the volatile acids ; the ash, in such a case, consists
exclusively of sulphates and phosphates. The ash of wines
made from must, to which, as to sherries, plaster of Paris
has been added, scarcely ever contains carbonates, and is
very frequently free from chlorides, on account of its con-
taining an excess of sulphuric acid formed by double de-
composition from the calcium sulphate and potassium
-bitartrate.
The amount and nature of the ash left by a wine is a very
MINERAL CONSTITUENTS OF WINE. 95
valuable means of judging of its genuineness. The analysis
to be used for that purpose has been described at length in
the " Treatise " at pp. 267-272. Some mineral constituents,
such as chlorine, are expelled during combustion, and these
must be sought for in the wine itself, and the disarrangement
in the proportion of other acids must be rectified by
similar experiments made on the wine without combustion
of its residue. Sulphuric acid in particular must always be
precipitated from the wine itself, as, in case it were free, it
would be expelled or expel other acids from the mixture ot
salts in the ash.
Iron is generally present in wines in minute quantity,
larger in red wines. It is maintained that the blue colouring
matter of grapes contains iron in organic combination, like
the colouring matter of the blood, but of this there is no
acceptable scientific proof at present to be found in ceno-
logical records. It is said that alum is sometimes added to
flat red wine to heighten its colour and improve its taste ; but
this is probably a very rare adulteration, as we have never
met with a single instance of it, or encountered a judicially
proved case of that kind.
The amount of mineral matter contained in different
wines varies considerably ; in pure natural wines it amounts
generally to from 0-15 to 0-30 per cent.; in wines which
have been plastered the ash rises to 0-5 per cent, and upwards ;
and in all wines in which any excessive acidity has been neutra-
lized by an alkali or an earth, the ash may rise considerably
above that amount.
63. TOTAL SOLID CONSTITUENTS OF WINE.
We have experimentally ascertained that the complicated
mixture of substances constituting the solid residue left after
the evaporation of wine, cannot be completely dried even at
the temperature of boiling water, 1 00 C., without suffering
decomposition. This is proved by the great diminution of
the free fixed acid, and the insolubility of a portion of the
dried matter, which previously was quite soluble ; by long
drying the residue becomes dark brown, semi-charred, de-
96 A TREATISE ON WINES.
composed; much matter is volatilized, and the residue may
weigh less than the mere dextrose, which, as shown by tests
on the wine itself was originally contained in it. The total
solids can therefore not be estimated by drying and weighing
the residue.
Balling has endeavoured to estimate the quantity of solids
in wine by means of the specific gravity of their solution.
Extract of malt has been taken as the standard of com-
parison. But as the mineral constituents of wine differ from
sugar as regards specific gravity of their solutions in this,
that for a given specific gravity the amount of mineral
matter is about double that required for a sugar solution of
the same gravity, it is necessary to subtract from the per-
centage of extract thus estimated the percentage of ash
found in the same wine; or if the amount of extract without
the ash be required, the percentage of ash multiplied by two
has to be subtracted from the percentage found according
to the specific gravity. In wines containing but little ash
this correction is not very important ; but as in some wines
the ash amounts to 0-5 per cent, and upwards a serious error
would be committed without it.
In our experiments a Marsala contained 5^80 per cent,
total solids; a Spanish red wine called port 6-909 per cent j
a Greek Lachrymse Christ! 32-022 per cent
CHAPTER XII.
WINES OF THE GIRONDE.
64. DIVISIONS OF THE GIRONDE.
THE wines of the department of the Gironde, in which
definition are comprised seven viticultural provinces situated
to the south and north of the Gironde and Garonne, namely,
Medoc, Graves, Sauternes, Entre deux Mers, Libournais,
Fronsadais, and Blayais, are celebrated for their variety,
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 97
their remarkable perfection or roundness, the low prices of
their common qualities, the high prices of their first qualities,
and the remarkable trade to all parts of the world to which
they give rise. The department possesses about 140,000
hectares of vineyards, which produce an annual average of
250,000 tonneaux, or 2,280,000 hectolitres of wine. The
estimated average value of two-sixths of the annual produce
is 50 francs the barrique ; two-sixths 125 francs ; one-sixth is
250 francs, and the last sixth 500 francs the barrique, imme-
diately after the spring racking. This gives a gross produc-
tion of 280 millions of francs, and if we deduct from that sum
an average expenditure of 500 francs per hectare, we find
that the Gironde raises an annual clear value of 180 millions
of francs in the shape of wine alone.
The Medoc. The Medoc geographically so-called, is the
tongue of land which, bordered on the Atlantic side by the
Gulf of Gascony, forms on the north-east the left border of
the Garonne after its union with the Dordogne (the two
combined rivers forming the estuary called the Gironde), and
extends on this border from Blanquefort, a little town about
fifteen kilometres west of Bordeaux, to the sea. But the
Medoc of the cenophilist begins only west of Ludon, in the
commune of Macau. It produces the wines of Labarde and
Cantenac ; in its very heart those of Margaux. Further on
are the growths of Saint Julien and Pauillac. Still further
west it produces the St. Estephe, and at its western limits
the wines of Saint Saurin-de-Cadourne. The districts just
mentioned form the Haut-Medoc, which is about forty-five
kilometres in length, and from eight to twenty kilometres
in width. In its main features it is a plain, falling some-
what towards the Gironde. Its soil is gravel, or rolled
quartz, or flint, covering a subsoil which is sometimes clayey,
but most frequently formed of sand, or of sand which by an
infiltration of hydrated iron oxide has been concreted partly
into a soft, friable pudding-stone, partly into a very hard
rock-like material, both being known under the name of the
alios. This variation of the soil causes a great diversity in
its products, so that very good and inferior wines grow often
side by side.
9$ A TREATISE ON WINES.
65. VINES CULTIVATED IN THE MEDOC.
The vines cultivated in the Medoc, although not very
numerous, are designated by various names, so that their
identification is a matter of difficulty. The most common
vine is the Carbenet Saurignoti, (as spelt by Guyot, Caber-
net, Rendu, and known as Petite Vidure in the neighbour-
hood of Bordeaux). Sauvignon is a mere surname derived
from a similarity to another vine bearing that name ex-
clusively. It has small, rugged, light green leaves, the
lower side of which is woolly ; the bunch of grapes is less
than middle-sized, pyramidal, longish, generally bearing two
somewhat detached wings. The berries are small, of even
size, bluish-black, very bloomy, with a thin husk. They are
very juicy, and have not the sweet astringent taste of the
Burgundy grape, but a more acidulous, refreshing, and most
agreeable taste, giving the impression, says Bronner, as if
one had the ready-made wine in one's mouth. It is the best
and most fertile of all the fine black grapes of the Gironde,
ripens the earliest and spoils the last. It is the most
esteemed in the great growths of Pauillac, Saint Julien, and
Margaux; it makes up five-eighths of the plantations of
Lafitte, Mouton, Latour, Le'oville, Margaux, Rozan, and
others. It is regular, but never abundant in production,
and carries all grapes to an equal degree of maturity at the
same time, without showing on the same stalk black, red,
and green grapes. It yields wine of a fine colour, full of
delicacy and possessing great bouquet. The wine during
the first years is a little harsh, and in order to acquire its
perfection must be kept up to four years in wood, and two
years in bottle. It increases a little in bouquet up to
the fifteenth year, if bottled at the right time. After the
twentieth year of its age it loses its soft fulness and becomes
drier. The Carbenet Sauvignon stands to the great wines
of the Me"doc in the same relation as the Pineau or Noirien
to the great wines of the Cote d'Or, as the Riessling to
the great wines of the Rheingau ; they would not exist
without it.
A variety of the former, and only second to it in impor-
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 99
tance in the Gironde, is the Franc Carbenet, also termed
Carbenct gris ; its leaves are of a darker green colour, its
berries are smaller and less deeply coloured than those of
the previously described variety. It prospers in lighter soil
(graves douces) ; its wine is excellent.
The Merlot, or gros doux, is stated by Paguierre to bear
its name from merle, a thrush, because this bird was par-
ticularly fond of the grapes of that vine. As these plagues of
the vineyard eat all kinds of grapes, and destroy much, their
alleged preference for the Merlot is probably due to the fact
that this vine ripens its grapes a little earlier than do the
Carbenets, and when once ripe become easily rotten ; they
are a little flabby when the vine stands on dry soil, for the
vine cannot bear drought, and grows best on moist inclines,
or so-called graves fraiches en coteaux. Its wine is lighter
and earlier ready than that of the Carbenet, and has much
less juiciness (sere) than the latter; it also lacks body and
durability, but it is soft and tender.
The Malbec bears many other names in the Gironde,
amongst them Noir de Pressac, Gourdoux, Ertrangey, Cot
rouge, Piedde Perdrix. In central Germany it passes as blaue
facobstraube (blue James or Jacobin). It is an abundant pro-
ducer and thrives in consistent or in gravelly soil ; its grape
is very precocious, very sweet and tasty, much inclined to
rottenness when once ripe, and gives a light wine without
qualities, particularly when grown on fat land. In the
Medoc it is allowed only on low grounds, where its precocity is
neutralized by the situation, and its grape is admitted only
as material for second-rate wines. Count Odart ascribes to
the wine made from this grape alone, purity, a dark colour,
and much body. This property, says the great cenologist,
enables the wine merchant to mix this wine with white wine,
and thus to impart to it the spirit which it wants. In this
manner most of the white wines of the north side of the
Gironde are transformed into red and exported. The variety
of Malbec with red grapes and stalklets is the Pied de
Perdrix, from the colour of the feet of the red-legged part-
ridge of the south ; another variety has green berries and
stalklets. In its general character the Malbec is closely
100 A TREATISE ON WINES.
related to the Pineau of Burgundy, and in systematic classifi-
tion is always placed by its side.
The Verdot vine occurs in the Me'doc only as an auxiliary,
but in the " Palus " or marshes, it is the vine of the first impor-
tance. The wines of Queyrier and Montferrand owe their
reputation to this vine. Its grapes are small, soft, uneven,
round, reddish-black, strongly bloomed, with a thin skin and
an acidulous taste, ripening late, latest of any in the Gironde.
The vine prospers the better the moister is the subsoil on
which it grows ; and of such position it requires the best, just
on account of its ripening its grapes so late. Its wine has
much juiciness, fulness and vinosity, and combines well with
that of the Carbenet ; it gives durability to wines with which
it is mixed. The Verdot is therefore found amongst the best
growths of the Me'doc, in Pauillac, St. Julien, and Margaux.
The Cruchinet, sometimes also specified as Cruchinet rouge,
as if it had to be distinguished from a white variety, has a large
bunch with closely packed, and hence somewhat elongated
grapes. Its five-lobed leaf is but slightly woolly. It gives a re-
markably agreeable bouquet to wine, and for this reason has
for some years been somewhat multiplied at Chateau Lafitte.
The Carmenere is cultivated amongst other vines at Mar-
gaux and Cantenac ; it thrives in light, sandy soil, and is not
injured by drought. It sprouts early in spring, and thus makes
sure of a long vegetative period ; it yields a sweet and tasty
grape with black skin. Its wine has more body and colour
than that of the Carbenet Sauvignon. The Carmenere de-
velops its full bearing powers only seven or eight years after
plantation, and is never very fertile, yielding about half the
crop which the Carbenet vines yield on the same area. It
is therefore cultivated solely for its peculiar qualities in par-
ticular situations, and not rarely mixed with the Cruchinet.
The mixed wine of these two plants is of excellent quality.
Besides these principal or dominant vines of the Medoc
others are cultivated in mediocre situations solely for their
pi educing quantities of wine. Among these are the Brasac,
with a small grape ; the Mareye, with very large grape ; and
the Enrachet, with sour grapes and red woolly leaves. All
these offer certain advantages in certain localities.
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. IOI
66. MODES OF CULTIVATING THE VINE IN THE MEDOC.
The more valuable the situation the more care is bestowed
upon the preparation of the land by levelling and draining
by tile-tubes ; in the marshy land, or " Palus," ditches are cut
round the vineyards, and at certain seasons kept full of
water by sluices, which at others are opened to let the water
flow out at low tide. In parts where the alias is not far from
the surface it is broken up, however hard it may be, but if it
lies deeper than one metre it is left untouched.
The canes are planted in holes made with an iron rod,
surrounded with a little loose sand, or placed into holes made
with a bidented hoe. In the second year any canes which
have failed to grow are replaced by rooted canes or bat beaux.
Fig. 17. Training of vines in the Haut Medoc. Vines four, eight, and
sixteen years old. a a', branches rising from foot ; b b' , wood spurs ;
cc', bearing or fruit -branches.
Two eyes are left above ground, and the young plant is pro-
tected by a stake. The vines of the same line stand at a
distance of a little more than one metre apart ; the lines are
one metre from each other. The hectare generally carries
9,000 vines. Weeding of the land is most assiduously
attended to. In the third year the vine-dresser commences
to form the two arms which constitute the peculiarity of the
Medoc cultivation. In addition to the " tutor " close to its
stem (carasson), a second stake is placed equidistant from
each two vines, and their tops are united horizontally by a
single line of lath (latte). To these the vines are fixed in the
manner illustrated by the figures. The whole of the vines
of the Haut-Medoc are thus cultivated. As the vines begin
to bear they are manured with rotten stable-dung, so-called
IO2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
consomme, a cubic metre to every fifty vines. The pruning
of the vines takes place between November and January, and
is called faille a Paste. This word aste in the Medoc has the
specific meaning of " fruit-branch," and reminds us of the
German Ast, a branch in general. There are several words
referring to the cultivation of the vine, derived from German
roots, used in the Gironde, which do not occur in any other
part of France. Possibly the transplantation of vines from
the Moselle to the Bordelais, related by Ausonius, was the
occasion of the transfer of these terms. The aste, strictly
so-called, is the strongest cane of the one year's wood, grosvn
from the stationary arm, cut to a length of from six to eight
eyes ; it is always kept fixed to the lath, in such a manner
that the bunches of grapes which it bears hang downwards
Fig. 18. Vines forty and sixty years old, trained for season, d tf, low
wood spurs ( " cots ") ; o o', and //', line where stem may be cut off,
in case of the top perishing.
towards the earth. By the side of the aste is left a cane-
stump of two eyes, intended to produce the canes from which
the next year's aste is selected. Each arm, therefore, carries
one aste, and one two-eyed stump, that is to say a viticultural
element as defined in the general part of this treatise. As
each fruit-bearing branch may carry from six to eight bunches,
and each stump three to four, each vine may bear from,
eighteen to twenty-four bunches of grapes.
Attempts to cultivate the Medoc vines in different moda-
lities have mostly failed. Some vines, however, are treated
a little differently from the above. The Carbenet gris, or
Franc Carbenet, must have at least eight eyes to the aste ;
if it is cut shorter it runs into wood and sheds its blossoms.
The Carbenet Sauvignon, on the other hand, should not
have more than six or seven eyes to the aste. The Malbec
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 1 03
and Merlot are also cut upon aste, tiret, and cot (an auxiliary
stump, to be called into action in case the principal one
fail) but there are one or two tirets left in addition which
produce a few grapes more. The Verdot is cut shorter
than the other vines. The soil is either ploughed or
turned with the hoe ; the earth is removed from the vine,
to allow the water to collect in the furrows during the
winter period; during the vegetative period the earth is
again heaped up around the vines, and the draining furrows
are established between the lines. Most vineyards are now
ploughed with the improved instruments of Portal of Moux,
and of Goethals and Scawinsky of Giscours ; each plough
is drawn by one horse or ox. The first ploughing takes
place in March and is called opening the vine (ouvrir la
vigne), and removes the earth from the plants, which are
now cleared of visible high roots, day-roots; the second
ploughing is performed in April, with the apparatus attached
to the plough called la courbe ; this pushes the earth back
to the vine, and transforms the intervals between the rows
into furrows, through which the rain-water can flow towards
the terminal ditches. In May the vines are again unearthed
as at the first ploughing, and at a fourth and last ploughing,
in July or beginning of August, they are again covered at
their base.
The vine in the Me*doc blossoms during the period from
the loth to the 1 5th of June. Immediately after it has passed
that critical period, the superfluous shoots are cut off with
a knife (in other parts they are broken off). The shortening
of the principal green canes, rognage, is only effected towards
the approach of the vintage.
During the hundred days which generally elapse between
the blossoming of the vine and the maturity of the grape,
the plants have to be cleared of any vermin which may settle
upon them, such as several kinds of endemic caterpillars,
altise, and attelabe, called crabe by the country people ; slugs,
and snails of the helix tribe, H. hortensis> nemoralis and ar-
bustorum ; most commonly, and in some years forming a
veritable plague, the helix aspersa, or escargeot, which may
ruin entire vineyards. The vine-beetle (Curculio Bacchus,
IO4 A TREATISE ON WINES.
should be anti-Bacchus) which pierces green canes and causes
them to pine or die, also causes much damage in some
years.
The cultivated vine lives long, in some places up to
seventy years, while in others its vitality is quickly exhausted,
so that Margaux and Cantenac have to re-plant every twenty
or thirty years.
67. VINTAGE IN THE MDOC.
In exceptionally good years the vintage commences in
August ; in ordinary years between September 20th, and
October ist. Years in which the vintage can only take place
in the first fortnight of October are said to be bad. All the
other vintages of red wine in the Gironde are a fortnight later
than those of the Medoc; the vintage in the whitewine district
of Sauternes is a full month later. There is no vintage-ban
in the Gironde, and every proprietor harvests whenever he
chooses.
The vintage is performed by labourers who congregate for
the occasion from the south of France ; most of them are
given food and shelter, and the women and children receive
from fivepence a day to eightpence, men tenpence; the
labourers in the press-house, who must possess some little
skill, receive a gratuity in addition to the wages and keep.
The vintagers are organized in gangs, consisting of women
and children who cut the grapes; of a superintendent (rangeur);
a basket-emptier (vide-panier\ who puts the grapes from the
cutter's basket into a large pail, called baste; when a baste is
full, a porter (there are two porters to every eight ranges of
vines) carries it to the waggon, when the two attendants,
one the driver of the horses or oxen, and the other the
attendant of the vat fixed upon the waggon, empty the
contents of the baste into the vat (douil or douillat} and
stamp them down. A commandant directs the whole of the
operation from the cutting and cleaning, including the re-
moval of green, rotten, or otherwise spoiled grapes, to the
moment when the vat, being full, is drawn to the cuvier, or
place where the grapes are converted into wine.
This building mostly contains the presses {pressoirs or
WINES OF THE GIROXDE. IO5
fouloirs) on the one side, and the vats or cuves on the other ;
in the term presses are included platforms on which the
grapes are trodden, and apparatus for removing berries from
stalks. The true presses, with screws for the application of
power to murk, are now mostly made of wood, but there
were up to a late date also some presses of stone, e.g., at
Lafitte, Galon Segur, and Chateau Margaux.
The square press has the advantage that any quantity of
grapes, large or small, may be pressed at any time. If the
vintager desires to add fresh pulp to the murk already in the
press, he need only add a tier of boards all round, and thus
raising the height of the receptacle of the press, increase its
capacity. On the other hand, as the pulp is being pressed
dry, the upper boards may be removed, and thus give free
scope to the levers by which the screw-nut is turned. Some
of these presses measure three metres a side ; those of
smaller dimensions have only one metre a side. They may
be fixed, or movable on wheels, so as to be easily trans-
portable to each fermentation vat. In one of the largest
cuviers of the Gironde we saw two presses which were
moved backwards and forwards on railways running in front
of the two rows of fermentation vats. Red wine murk is
pressed only after fermentation, and requires less power
than the murk of white grapes, or of red Champagne grapes
which are pressed before fermentation.
When the berries are pulled from the stalks by any of
the many contrivances invented for that purpose, they are
placed on a platform and trodden by men. This process
is frequently described in books in a spirit of poetical
exaltation ; the sound of music produced by clarionet and
violin, to which the vintagers keep time in forms resembling
a contredanse, is heard here and there, but this has merely
the object and effect of mitigating with the vintagers the
sense of fatigue and tedium which is produced by the long-
continued daily work; for the vintage must be hurried to
bring all the vats into fermentation within as short a compass
of time as possible, in order to be able to close the cuvier,
and preserve the temperature most favourable to a quick and
perfect fermentation.
106 A TREATISE ON WINES.
This method of crushing the berries is falling into desue-
tude, and at the present time more than half the proprietors
in the Me"doc do not crush their grapes at all. The wine
produced is of the same quality whether the grapes are
crushed or not. The stalks are not cast aside, but put into
the fermentation vat either partly or wholly. Many rake
them out of the murk, and place them as a thick layer
on the top of the murk, where they increase the bulk of the
top solids or so-called chapeau (hat) ; this is not rarely
weighted with stones, to keep the rising husks 'submerged.
The fermentation vats, being thoroughly cleaned and
sponged with brandy, are filled with the mixture of juice,
stalks, skins, and kernels ; each vat is, if possible, filled in
one day, and then left at absolute rest until the wine be
formed. The time required for the vinification varies some-
what according to the quality of the vintage and the tem-
perature of the season ; in good years it is not more than
four or five days. If the vatting is continued longer the
wine becomes fuller, but loses a little in taste, softness, and
delicacy ; these latter qualities are preferred to body in the
good parts of the Medoc, where also deep colour is rather
avoided. When the must has lost its sweetness, and assumed
a vinous flavour, it is drawn off by means of an instrument
called a griffon into a large wooden vessel, and is thence
transferred by means of cans into the barriques or hogsheads,
so that each barrique receives an equal number of cans of
each running from the vat, and at the end of the operation
all the barriques of the storehouse {chais) contain wine of
the same quality. This wine, which runs spontaneously, i.e.,
without pressure, from the vats, and runs clear, is termed
the first wine. In this operation a so-called second wine is
not produced by itself, although, curiously enough, there is
a third wine made from the contents of the same vat which
yields the first, thus : When all the clear first wine has run
off, and the run becomes thick, QMS fond the cttvt, or bottoms,
which flows yet spontaneously, is put aside ; it is put with
the whole of the wine made from grapes which are grown in
inferior situations of the estate, and this mixture constitutes
the second wine. When all liquid which will spontaneously
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. IO/
flow has left the murk, this is put into the press ; a very dark
" thick " wine is obtained, which by cautious operators is
never mixed with the first wine. It is more commonly used
for blending with white wine, whereby it loses much of its
hardness and alcoholicity ; for the pulp retains much alcohol
by a peculiar affinity, and the wine pressed from it is from
3 to 5 per cent, stronger in alcohol than the first wine.
The filling of the hogshead with wine must be completed
in three days at the utmost, in order to preserve to the wine
all its qualities. The barriques are then closed. During
the first month they are ullaged, that is to say, the amount
of wine which they have lost by evaporation is supplied
every four or five days ; during the second month every eight
days ; and subsequently every fortnight : this is always
effected with wine of the same quality. In January the
wine is drawn from the lees, or racked, a first time ; a second
time in June ; and a third time in September. In subsequent
years it is racked but twice. It remains in the barriques for
four years before it is put into bottles, and may be drunk
when six years old. But in these respects each vintage has
its peculiarities. Some, like that of 1825, produce wines
which require twenty years to allow the wine to reach its
full perfection ; that of 1828 required seven or eight years ;
the wines of 1831 were late, those of 1839 and 1847 preco-
cious. The wines of 1846 were hardly ready ten years later.
68. VARIOUS QUALITIES OF THE WINES OF THE MEDOC.
There is no viticultural district in which so many distinc-
tions are made between different wines as in the Medoc.
The vineyards occupy an area of 20,000 hectares, of which
each produces 2 tonneaux, or 18 hectolitres and 24 litres of
wine ; on an average, the whole Medoc consequently
produces about 40,000 tonneaux. Of these 4,500 are wines
of high quality, and termed classified because they are again
sub-divided into five classes, or great divisions, or growths
(crus), as they are technically termed. Another 4,500 ton-
neaux are simply fine wines, and are not, in the trade, classi-
fied. Actually, therefore, only about 9,000 tonneaux (or
108 A TREATISE ON WINES.
82,000 hectolitres) out of the 40,000 tonneaux are choice
wines, the other 31,000 tonneaux, although sold under the
name of Medoc, and frequently more choice names, are of
ordinary quality. The 9,000 tonneaux of fine wines of the
Medoc, yielding about ten millions of ordinary wine-bottles
full of wine (six bottles making a gallon), may be arranged
in three categories, (i) The classified wines coming from
certain vineyards in the arrondissement of Bordeaux and
Lesparre. (2) The "citizen" or bourgeois wines, which
are again sub-divided into higher, good, and ordinary citizens,
or bourgeois superieur, bon bourgeois and bourgeois ordinaire.
(3) The "peasants" or pay sans, or wines of the small
proprietors. Whatever the category to which they may
belong, all wines of the Medoc are distinguished and recog-
nized by certain general characters, which exclude all con-
fusion with other wines. They have a certain slight, peculiar
roughness, are fine, juicy, marrowy in the mouth, and after
having been in bottle for some years they have a very beauti-
ful bouquet. They possess the hygienic quality, that they
can be drunk in larger quantities than other wines, without,
as the French say, " fatiguing " either head or stomach.
The Medoc wines also endure transportation better than
other French wines, and by long sea voyages are greatly
improved.
69. CLASSIFIED GROWTHS.
The commercial specialists of Bordeaux recognize as
classified the wines from about 200 estates, or small districts.
They may be conveniently sub-divided, after M. Frank, the
author of a monograph concerning them, into five great
divisions or growths.
First grouiths. This division includes only three vineyards,
called the three first growths (les trois premiers cms) out of
the whole classified sixty of the Medoc. They are the follow-
ing, their names being derived from the dominating country-
house of the district.
Chateau Margaux produces annually from 100 to no
tonneaux of wine. As at Johannisberg and Steinberg, a
great farm is attached to the wine-producing establishments,
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. IQp
on which a very great number of cattle yield the manure by
means of which the vines later on luxuriate. The cuvier
or fermenting shed contains eighteen vats, all in one line ;
opposite to these are s\\pressoirs, all built in stone,upon which
the grapes are separated from the stalks and trodden into
pulp. The cJiais or cellar, is an enormous hall of great height,
its ceiling supported by eighteen columns. The vinification
has been unchanged from time immemorial. The vats are
filled up to within a foot of the upper margin, and the con-
tents allowed to ferment without covering or limitation of
Fig. 19. Normal Cultivation of the Haul Medoc,
air. The chapeaii rises, sometimes to the extent of an
entire foot, above the margin of the vat, its upper half is
always taken off; and no part of it is left that has not a purely
vinous smell, without admixture of acetic or putrid odours.
No selection of grapes is made, and the whole of the vintage
of all the vineyards of the estate furnishes but one quality
of wine. Notwithstanding, the wine is nearly always the best
of the whole Medoc. In good or great years it is absolutely
the best, but in middling years Lafhte and Latour are superior
to it. As compared to St. Julien and Pauillac, the wine of
Chateau Margaux has more finesse and juiciness, but less
IIO A TREATISE ON WINES.
body. The vineyards of the Chateau are about 80 hectares
in extent. Their soil is a grey-coloured, heavy material
(grave), with a substratum of clayey pudding-stone, often
containing sand and veins of iron oxide. The principal slopes
are towards east and west, but the best part of the vine-
yards, the Sampeyre, slopes towards the north and the south,
and nevertheless yields the best wine. One half of the entire
surface is planted with the Carbenet Sauvignon.
Chateau Zafittehas 67 hectares of vine plantation; its soil
is very variable, being a strong grave or clay-gravel, with all
Fig. 20. Lines of vines, the earth in course of being dressed with the
plough. Department of the Haute Garonne.
directions of slopes, amongst which those toward the north
predominate. The subsoil is very uniformly made of quartzy
rolled stones mixed with sand and clay. Five-eighths of
the vineyards are planted with the Carbenet Sauvignon, the
other parts mostly with the Carbenet gris and the Merlot.
The wine of Chateau Lafitte has all the qualities of Chateau
Margaux except alone its finesse ; it has, however, more body
and a distinguished taste.
Chateau Latour is surrounded by 42 hectares of vineyards.
The vines are planted in heavy clay-gravel, with a compact
subsoil of much rolled stone. The surface is more regular
than that of Lafitte, and inclined uniformly one-half towards
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 1 1 I
the north, and the other towards the south. Two-thirds of
the vines are Carbenet Sauvignon ; there are also Carbenet
gris, and Malbec prevails in the low situations. The wine
of this Chateau has the most body amongst the three great
growths of the Mddoc, but \essjintsse and bouquet.
Second^ third, and fourth growths . These comprise about
130 separate properties, half of them, and amongst them
compact large areas belonging to the fourth growth. We
Fig. 21. Vines in lines on ridges, the earth being thrown up around
the stems (chanssees). Department of the Haute Garonne.
abstain from giving a detailed list of them, it may be found
in Thudichum and Dupre's " Treatise," etc., pp. 329, 330.
The yield of the whole of these growths may be estimated
to be about five millions of bottles. The excess of 220,000
bottles, which might be calculated from the sum of the
numbers of tonneaux raised, would be quite absorbed by
filling up, racking, and loss in bottling operations and trans-
mission. When these five millions of bottles are distributed
amongst the wealthy consumers of the whole world, it
becomes apparent how small a quantity each can obtain,
2nd do
1,200 to 1,400 do.
3rd do
4th do
5th do
Bourgois supe"rieur .
do. ordinaire .
Paysans ....
800 to 900 do.
700 to 900 do.
600 to 700 do.
400 to 500 do.
350 to 400 do.
300 to 325 do.
112 A TREATISE ON WINES.
particularly if he insists upon having the product of good
years only, and how enormous must be the substitutions
which the traders of Bordeaux and other places make of
unclassed, and, indeed, of any kind of wine, whether from
Bordeaux or other parts of France, for Me"doc.
From a careful consideration of many data at our disposal
concerning the money value of these wines we have derived
the following scale of prices for average growths of classified
wines of the Medoc :
ist class .... 2,000 to 5,000 francs per tonneau.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
do.
The prices of the latter wines are curiously alike in all
villages of the Me"doc. As the travelling brokers cross the
country, a uniformity of price is established, at least so far
as the price demanded is concerned, which astonishes those
who do not know the machinery by which it is brought about.
These brokers effect most of the sales; they know the districts
and all their varieties and accidents ; they visit the cellars,
taste the wines, and arrange them in order of value. They
sometimes raise or reduce the rank of a certain growth
according to the care which has been bestowed upon the
cultivation of the vine, and upon vinification. The mer-
chants of Bordeaux mostly rely upon the judgment of these
brokers, but the growers are often dissatisfied with it.
70. CONSUMPTION OF MDOC WINES.
Of the first growths only a very small proportion is con-
sumed in France, the bulk goes to foreign parts. England
is the principal consumer of the best qualities of Me"doc ;
lower classes go to Holland, Russia, and particularly the
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 113
north of Germany. There is a tradition that fine wines
destined for exportation to England were mixed with red
Hermitage, in order to please better the palates accustomed
to ports and other strong alcoholic drinks. Such wines
obtained thereby a warmth and spirituosity which is by no
means natural to them, and lost much of their juicy softness
and finesse. Persons of taste would recognize such wines
at once and put them in their proper places. We are, however,
assured that at the present time most fine wines are not any
Fig. 22. Vines trained upon trees, "goblet-shape," as seen at St.
Gaudens near Toulouse. Department of the Haute Garonne.
longer mixed with Hermitage. Common sorts of Me"doc
wines going to England are sometimes and were formerly
more frequently than at present prepared, especially before
exportation, by being mixed with wine from the east or
centre of France, or with brandy. The amount of mixing
carried on at Bordeaux is enormous; for its exports are
twelve times as great as the production of the entire Medoc,
and one-half of these exports sells as Bordeaux wine, so that
it is quite fair to assume that the Gironde wine is multiplied
114 A TREATISE ON WINES.
severaRimes by the addition or substitution of other wines
of France, the Card furnishing alcohol and colour, the
fiat land of the Maconnais, on which formerly wheat was
grown, producing the acidity, and all other parts of France
the special subordinate needed ingredients.
We have ourselves witnessed on the quay at Bordeaux
the addition of brandy to red wines of ordinary quality
destined for exportation to England. The admixture is by
no means uncommon, but is not carried to the same amount
as with Portuguese red wines. Bordeaux wines rarely exceed
in their alcoholicity the maximum of 10 per cent, while
ports have double that amount, namely from 19 to 20 per cent,
of absolute alcohol. According to the statements of the
exporters the addition of spirit to red wines at Bordeaux is
made to suit the English palate, and is by no means required
as a preservative of the wine.
In Thudichum and Dupre's "Treatise," pp. 334-348 can
be seen the statistics of viticultural property and production
in the Medoc, according to districts, of which the following
are the names : Blanquefort, Ludon, Le Taillan, Le Pian,
Parernpuyre, Palus, Arsac, Macau, Labarde, Cantenac,
Margaux, Sousans, Avensan, Castelnau, Moulis, Listrac,
Arcins, Lamarque, Cussac, St. Julien de Reignac, Pauillac
and St. Lambert, St. Estephe, St. Seurin de Cadourne,
St. Laurent, St. Sauveur, Cissac, Vertheuil, St. Germain
d'Esteuil, St. Christoly et Couqueques, Valeyrac, lau,
Lesparre and Uch, Prignac, St. Trelody, Potensac, Blaignan,
St. Yzans, Ordonnac, Begadan, Gaillan, Civrac, Queyrac,
St. Vivien.
71. THE GRAVES.
The district immediately surrounding Bordeaux on the
south side of the Garonne is called the Graves, from the
territory, which consists of sand and gravel, mixed here and
there with more cr less clay and marl. The same soil occurs
also at the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne ; it is
based in most places upon limestone, in others, however, it
overlies the alios, the peculiar concrete-like siliceous layer,
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 115
which has mostly to be pierced in many places to give to the
rainwater access to the subsoil ; if such ditches be not made,
the alias causes the land in the hollow parts to be swampy.
The red wines grown on the Graves have greater body,
deeper colour and a little more spirit than those of the
Medoc, and resemble thereby more to the wines of Burgundy,
but yet have an altogether particular taste and quality. The
bouquet is not great, and they require some as much as six,
Fig. 23. 'Normal Cultivation of the Graves.
others eight years in barrel before they can usefully be put
into bottles. After that they remain of excellent quality.
But the production of white wine prevails in the Graves
over that of red, because the latter are too unlike the Medoc
\vines to be sold with them, while the white ones resemble
those of the Sauternes district, and can be sold as such;
neither white nor red wines are of sufficiently distinguished
quality to make a name for themselves. Many of the white
wines have a peculiar taste, called "of tha pebble," which
seems to us to arise from bad management. Higher up the
Il6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Garonne, in the whole district of Sauternes, the white wines,
which should properly be called yellow, prevail, and no red
wines are produced.
72. RED WINES OF THE GRAVES.
The leading quality, classed immediately after those of
the Chateaux Margaux, Lafitte and Latour, is that of
Chateau Haut-Brion, distant about six kilometres from
Bordeaux, and situated in the community of Pessac. The
vineyards have forty-four hectares of surface; the mode of
cultivating the vine is peculiar to the district, and differs
from that of the Me"doc. The principal vines cultivated
here are the Grosse Vidure and the Vidure Sauvignone,
together with the Malbec and Cruchinet. The vines stand
in rows ; the earth is worked by the plough. Each vine is
generally trained upon two arms, and after that upon three
branches, of which each is supported by a stake. To each
arm there is left a cane of six or seven eyes in length, and a
spur of four eyes : the rest of the operations and the vinifi-
cation are as in the Medoc.
At some distance from Haut-Brion is an estate which
was owned by a well-known vinologist, M. Boucherot.
This gentleman had a collection of vines from all the world
on his estate, amounting to upwards of six hundred
varieties. With many of them he had made experiments
of plantation and vinification on a large scale. All the
American vines failed in these experiments. The German
and other European vines gave indifferent results, and it
was established that the only vines which succeed well
in the district are those which are peculiar to it. We our-
selves had the pleasure many years ago of seeing the whole
estate and all its varieties of viticulture, and of deriving
much information from the kindness of M. Boucherot.
73. WHITE WINES OF THE GRAVES OR SAUTERNES
, DISTRICT.
This district is situated to the south-east of Bordeaux, on
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. Ii;
the left bank of the Loire. The centre is Bazas, its eastern
termination Captieux. A little west of Podensac, on the
Loire, it passes into the Graves of Bordeaux, already
described. It consists of a series of easy hills, rising
gradually from the Loire towards the south and west,
mostly with western exposure, some with all kinds of
orientation. They are interspersed with woods and a little
cultivated meadow-land. The gravelly soil is easily worked.
The vines bear, almost exclusively, white grapes ; they are
mainly of two varieties, the Semillon and the Sauvignone,
mixed here and there with a little Muscatel. It is calculated
that the Semillon occupies two-thirds of the surface, the
Fig. 24. Normal Cultivation of the Sauternes District.
other third is occupied by the Sauvignone. The soil is
worked partly by the plough, partly by hand ; the pruning
is done between December and February. The canes are
left with three eyes, and the spurs with two eyes only, the
Sauvignone generally gets an eye on each cane or spur
more than the Semillon.
74. VINTAGE.
The vintage in these districts is altogether different from
the vintage in any other part of the world ; for the grapes
are allowed to hang until they are ripe and begin to decay,
and then they are collected berry by berry, only such
US A TREATISE ON WINES.
berries being taken as fully answer to the description, " ripe
and rotten." The definition of "rottenness," however,
requires a qualification, which is also well-known on the
Rhine, namely, it must be "sweet." The decay applies
in reality only to the husk, or a portion of it, while the
flesh of the grape remains sound underneath it. We have
been present at Chateau Suduiraut on an occasion when the
vintagers passed through the vineyard for the tenth time,
each time collecting single berries, and it was believed
that they would have to pass once or twice more. In
general, however, the grapes are collected in three successive
harvests. The grapes are crushed and pressed, and the
sweet thick must which flows off is put into barriques.
When the first must has run off the murk is stirred up and
loosened, trodden by the feet of men, and again pressed,
and this process is repeated once more; the barrels
are then removed to the fermenting shed, or chais, and
there allowed to ferment. The vintage of one day is
always kept by itself, and not mixed with the vintage of
another day. In October we observed in the chais of
various great estates, including Chateau Yquem, twenty-one
different sets of barriques, each in a different stage of
fermentation, representing the results of the vintage pro-
tracted during twenty-one days. The first seven or eight
days' collection, when many are made, or the first collec-
tion when only three are made, are kept apart even after
the wine is ripe from those of the second and third seven
days, or the second and third collections. The first series
of collections give generally what is called the "head
wines " vins de tete ; these are the sweetest and headiest.
The second collection or series generally gives vins de
milieu, or wines of middle quality, which are less heady or
alcoholic, and contain less sugar ; and the third class are
wines of the tail, or queues, which are the result of the
pressing of all the grapes that remain after the other selec-
tions have been made. These latter yield the driest wines ;
therefore in tasting the white wines of this district one has to
taste first the three qualities of head, middle, and tail each
by itself, and then a mixture of equal parts of the three,
WINES OF THE GIRONDE.
119
ensemble. By means of this particular treatment of the
grape a must is obtained which is exquisitely sweet ; this
sweetness remains, to a great extent, throughout the whole
life of the wine. Indeed, the Sauternes wines, and all white
wines of the Gironde which are similarly made, and from
similar vines, are now of such a nature that they are not
Fig. 25. Vine supported by a Walnut Tree at Celles, Canton of Mont-
agries, Arrondissement of Riberac. Department of the Boulogne.
preferred in England, France or Germany to fully fer-
mented wines. The excessive sweetness is given to them
on account of the great demand which exists for sweet
Sauternes in Russia. The dry fine wines of Sauternes were
once amongst the great favourites of the cenophilists' cellars,
but they have now almost entirely disappeared. Indeed
Sauternes are now, or will be soon, what Muscat-Lunel and
120 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Rivesaltes have been hitherto, but there will be this
difference, that the Sauternes never receive any addition of
alcohol, whereas the Lunel and Rivesaltes are like the
Spanish dulces^ mere sweet grape-juice not fermented, but
preserved from fermentation by the addition of brandy.
The fermentation of the Sauternes is allowed to proceed
in the barrels, and the yeast is not allowed to be cleared out
at the bung-hole, but is compelled to sink in the fluid.
Thus a maximum of alcohol is obtained to preserve the
great quantity of fermented sugar from subsequent secondary
fermentation. During four or five years the head wines
have a disagreeable flavour, but much alcohol and sweetness,
commonly called body. The flavour improves as they
become drier. The more liquorous the wine is the longer
it must be kept before its strong and peculiar flavour is
adjusted to the right medium.
The principal growths of the district are the Barsacs,
Sauternes, and Bommes. From the heights of Sauternes
and from the castle of Yquem a splendid view of the valley
of the Loire is obtained, one of the finest landscapes in
Europe.
75. DESCRIPTION OF THE WINES.
The wines of Barsac have much body, alcohol and a fine
bouquet. They are more heady capiteux as it is termed in
French and have a more lively taste and a more amber-
tinted colour. The first growth of the district of Barsac is
that of the Chateau Contet. The wines of Sauternes proper
are more marrowy, and fine, more transparent and agree-
able. The Chateau Yquem produces the finest of all the
Sauternes wines; its prices range from 12,000 to 15,000
francs per tonneau of four barriques. In 1869 we tasted
the several vintages, amongst them 1844 and 1865 ; the
latter was very attractive, the tete excessively sweet, and
when it was mixed with the tail, it sank in it like syrup of
high specific gravity. The 1866 was too hot, i.e., too
alcoholic. At Chateau la Tour blanche, we found the 1865
very similar in flavour to Rhenish cabinet wines, which
WINES OF THE GIRONDE. 121
also remain excessively sweet ; the middles and tails suited
our British palates better.
At Chateau Suduiraut, distinguished by rich sources of
flowing spring water, we observed an amusing little incident
illustrative of the view which one may take of the hypocrisy
of tasting wines for purposes of business. In tasting, the
wine is supposed to be spat out after being rolled about the
mouth for a few moments, and the tasters maintain that
they are not in the habit of swallowing any, and that they
are not obliged to swallow any for the purpose of getting a
perfect taste. While we were tasting the 1857 wines the
proprietor's little son came near, and his father asked him
whether he would have a drink. The boy replied in the
affirmative, and then putting the glass to his mouth drank
its contents ; but as the company was not supposed to
drink but only to taste, the father jocularly admonished the
son to " spit a little " crachez tin pen. In reality, of course,
no taster could exist if he had to swallow even a quarter of
what he puts in his mouth for tasting.
The viticultual statistics of the Sauternes district producing
white as well as red wines are fully given in Thudichum
and Dupre, "Treatise," pp. 357-365.
76. WINES OF THE HILL-SIDES OR COTES OF THE
GIRONDE.
A chain of hills extending along the right bank of the
Garonne from Ambarez to Sainte-Croix-du-Mont yield
great quantities of vines termed " of the hill-sides," Vim
de Cotes. The northern part of the district produces
mainly dark-coloured wines, which are at first hard and
rough, but ameliorate with age. These are exported
under the name of " wines of the good hill-side." In the
southern part only little red wine is made but much white
wine of a dry quality, called "wine of the little hill-sides."
Under this latter category the traders of Bordeaux include
the wines of the right bank of the Dordogne, from Bourg,
which is about twenty kilometres north of Bordeaux to
Fronsac, which is about twenty-four kilometres north-east of
122 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Bordeaux. Among all these wines the most celebrated are
those which are grown in the community of St. Emilion,
and named after that district; the vineyards occupy 1,041
hectares. The best qualities are obtained on the plateau of
the Madeleine and St. Martin, and on the inclines towards the
south and west of the St. Emilion hills. The soil on the
hill-sides is chalky clay lying upon rock ; in the lower parts
the territory becomes sandy, and rests frequently upon
ferruginous subsoil.
St. Emilion was a stronghold of the Knights Templars,
Fig. 26. The Secateur as used for pruning Vines in the Gironde
and of their churches and order-houses innumerable ruins
exist, interspersed with inhabited houses.
The varieties of vines met with in this district are the
Noir de Pressac, the Merlot and the Bouchet or Cabernet.
The Merlot is one of the vines of the marshes or Palus,
and the Cabernet one of the best vines of the Medoc,
where however it is designated by the synonym of Carmenet.
These vines are represented at St. Emilion in the
proportion of one-third of the whole set. To the
Cabernet the St. Emilion wine, in our opinion, owes its
finesse ; to the Merlot its body and lasting quality ; and to
WINES OF THE GIRONDE.
123
the Noir de Pressac its particularly fiery and fresh quality.
The mode of cultivation is very similar to the so-called
basket cultivation of the Rheingau. The Noir de Pressac
is pruned so that only short spurs are left. The Bouchet
and the Merlot, however, are cut with long canes. The soil
is worked by hoe and plough. The vines are tied to stakes,
Fig. 27. The Secateur as used with both hands to cut a
thicker branch.
which here bear the peculiar name of carasonr.es. A hectare
of the best vineyards yields about six barriques or thirteen
and a half hectolitres ; the common vineyards yield double
that quantity. The vintage takes place at the end of
September and beginning of October. Most proprietors
crush the grapes and put them by preference into middle-
124
A TREATISE ON WINES.
sized vats. The rest of the treatment is the same as that
which we have described as prevalent in the Me*doc.
St. Emilion of good quality can be put into bottle towards
the fourth year, and must, under all circumstances, be
bottled by the sixth year. If this period be overstepped and
the wine left in barrel beyond it, it loses its fruitiness,
freshness, flavour, and colour, and becomes incapable of
producing in bottle that fragrance which it would have
obtained had it been bottled at the proper time. It follows
that St. Emilion wine will be less injured by premature
bottling than by undue delay of this operation. It is singular
that the St. Emilion wine is not liked in England, although
like the best Montpellier it recalls many of the finest
Fig. 28. Vines of the Palus (Villenave d'Ornon) pruned for
spring growth.
qualities of fine port wines, leaving brandy out of the
question. Fine wines will sell at 300 to 350 francs the
hogshead, and will come to about ;i6 the hogshead in
London. Some qualities sell at 75 francs the hogshead.
Most of the good St. Emilion at present goes to Belgium,
Holland, Denmark and Sweden, the second class St.
Emilion is largely imported into Paris.
St. Emilion is the centre of a district called the Libour-
nais, of which Libourne is the principal town. Towards the
north-west the Libournais is marked off by the river Isle. On
the other side of the river is the district called Fronsadais,
of which the principal town is Fronsac, upon the banks of
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC. 1 25
the Dordogne. To the north-east of the Fronsadais is the
JBlayais, which has the town of Blaye, a fortress lying on the
banks of the Gironde, for its centre. The Blayais, there-
fore, lies opposite the Medoc, on the banks of the Gironde.
In these districts considerable quantities of red and white
wines are produced. None of these are classified, but many
are very useful. Large quantities, particularly of white cotes,
coloured up with Teinturier of Toulouse, are exported to
America.
For statistics of these districts see Thudichum and Dupre\
" Treatise," pp. 370-380.
CHAPTER XIII.
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC.
77. WINES OF ROUSSILLON.
THE ancient province of France formerly called Rous-
sillon is now merged in the department of the Oriental
Pyrenees. Its name has been preserved, at least with
foreign nations, by its wines ; and certainly its wines were,
and in part are yet, its only or principal wealth. It contains
more than 50,000 hectares of vineyards. Three kinds of
wine are produced : liqueur wines, or musts preserved with
spirit without fermentation ; dry wines by ordinary fermen-
tation, and half-fermented wines, which are in such a con-
dition that they can be used for the manufacture of any-
thing factitious port in particular. It is to the fortified
wines, particularly red wines, that Roussillon owes its main
success. The most celebrated vineyards of the district are
at Banyuls-sur-Mer, Collioure, Port-Vendres, Rivesaltes,
and Perpignan. Banyuls-sur-Mer is very near the Spanish
frontier, in the warmest part of the eastern Pyrenees, and
. its vineyards have an area of about 4,500 hectares; they
126 A TREATISE ON WINES.
are mostly on slopes of schistose rock, in the plain on
alluvial soil.
The vineyards are planted almost exclusively with the
Grenache noir and the Carignane. In the whole of the
Roussillon district the Grenache is mainly planted on the
heights, while the lower parts of the vineyards are popu-
lated by the Carignane. The bunch of grapes of the
Grenache is large, loose, pyramidal, with uneven berries,
and otherwise deformed by accident during blossom time.
The bluish-black colour of its thin skin is overlaid by a
strong waxy bloom ; in it fine taste, sweetness and perfume
prevail, and it ripens early. The Carignane is less fertile
and less delicate than the Grenache, and gives dry wine ; its
bunch of grapes is long, round, and uneven, blackish-blue,
with a strong bloom. It has a thick husk, ripens late, and
tastes less sweet than the Grenache. The ordinary Banyuls
wines are generally made of two-thirds of Grenache and
one-third of Carignane grapes. Two other vines furnish
some addition of grapes, one, the Mataro, bearing a
blackish, sweet, and early ripe grape; another, thzPtcpoule,
which seems useful for bearing quantity ; for this it is grown
in the lower Rhone valley, the Herault, and the Gard.
-These two adventitious vines, as far as Roussillon is con-
cerned, according to Lenoir, yield only mediocre wine.
In the accompanying engraving Fig. 29, a view of the
vineyards of Banyuls, Port-Vendres, and Collioure is given,
which shows the remarkable steepness of the slopes on
which the vines are planted. In consequence the labour
here is manual, while in the plain the soil is worked with the
plough. A hectare on the slopes yields about 15 hecto-
litres of wine, while in the plain it gives 25 hectolitres.
Plastering of the must is not rarely practised, and helps to
make Roussillon wine flat and mawkish, and to deprive it
of that refreshing acidity which alone makes sugary wines
palatable.
The so-called Grenache wine is not really a wine at all,
but grape-juice preserved from fermenting by the addition
of spirit., sulphurous acid, and frequent racking from any
deposits, including any yeast which may grow. The richer
128 A TREATISE ON WINES.
in sugar the must is, the less spirit does it require, but the
amount of spirit added is never very great ; the main agents
in suppressing fermentation are, besides concentration and
alcohol, the vapour of burnt sulphur and frequent racking.
It is said that the liqueur must remain in cask for fifteen
years before it is fit for being drunk. This is, therefore, a
preparation resembling in every way to the Spanish dulce,
except in this, that it receives less spirit than the dulce, and
consequently requires more time for its perfection.
The vineyards of Collioure cover 800 hectares, those of
Port- Vendres 600 hectares ; they resemble in every respect
those of Banyuls, and the treatment of plants and product
is the same. The Collioure wines have much colour, body,
and what the French call generosity, yet being drier than
that of Banyuls. They lose colour after ten years in
barrel, and then are thought to be most fit for bottling, but
such delay between growth and consumption is nowadays
not very practicable. When sold after the first spring
racking the wines fetch very low prices, from 15 francs a
hectolitre, being a penny-halfpenny for a litre, up to 150
francs, being a franc and a half for a litre. Most of these
wines go to the United States, to be there transformed into
liqueur wines, and to the Brazils, to be there drunk as dry
wines. Cette and Marseilles take considerable quantities
to work them up into whatever may be demanded. The
vineyards of Rivesaltes cover 10,500 hectares] they yield a
fine wine which is qualified to be transformed into effer-
vescent wine after the manner of Champagne.
In the Collioure vineyards a peculiar vine is grown, the
Ctairette, also sometimes improperly called the Blanquette,
but only intermixed with the main or prevailing sets above
described. The bunches of this vine are pyramidal, with
wings, and among the grapes are many oval, half-transparent,
golden yellow bloomy ones, having a thick skin and a sugary
taste. They ripen late and give a fine wine, which, when
young, is sweet, and afterwards becomes dry, and is also
qualified for transformation into Mousseux.
Rivesaltes produces what are called specialities, which
have a limited reputation, such are the Muscat, the Maccabeo,
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC. 129
the Malvoisie, the Grenache, and the Rando. All these
names are those of vines from which the beverages, mostly
liqueurs, are produced ; the Rando alone is named after its
age and dryness, and bears a Spanish name, which once indi-
cated old wine, but by modern traders is held to be a term
implying condemnation.
78. MODE OF PRODUCTION OF MUSCAT SWEET WINE.
The grapes are shrunk on the plant, or on trays in the
sun, until they are raisin-like shrivelled, but not dry. They
are then crushed by any of the several methods, and on
pressing yield a must of great density, which is put into
barrels and allowed to ferment. The barrels are not
entirely filled up, and when fermentation is completed the
wine is racked. Owing to its great amount of sugar, this
wine, like Tokay or Rota Tent, forms very little alcohol ; in
the first year therefore it resembles more to a syrup than a
wine, and approaches the thick Sauternes in quality, though
these are not artificially condensed, and form more spirit.
In the second year the wine becomes clean, acquires finesse*
and fire, and that Muscat bouquet to which it owes its repu-
tation. It should not be kept very long, for its bouquet
is transient, but should be drunk while it is fresh. The
Rivesaltes is sold young at about 100 francs the hectolitre.
79. MODE OF PRODUCTION OF MALVOISIE AND
MACCABEO WINES.
The grapes used for these wines are not dried or concen-
trated by the sun, but their expressed juice is somewhat
concentrated in a pan over the fire. When the scum has
risen and been removed, the liquid is allowed to cool, and
put into barrels, together with a certain amount of proof
spirit. It is racked once a month for six months, and
thereby fermentation is completely prevented. In the
making of the Malvoisie the grapes are carried to the press
with the utmost care, for if they are at all injured they lose
much of their flavour. The must, although mixed with
I3O A TREATISE ON WINES.
some proof spirit, is allowed to ferment as long as it will.
When fermentation has ceased the wine is racked, and a
little more spirit is added. Dry Malvoisie is also made
with the aid of full fermentation. On the whole, the pro-
duction of these sweet wines is very limited as regards
quantity, and their prices are very low, on account of the
long time during which they must be kept before they are
approved of by the consumers.
80. VINEYARD OF PERPIGNAN
Of the 5,000 hectares of this vineyard two-thirds are in
the plain and of inferior quality to those on the hills, and
even these slopes rise but little above the level of the sea.
The soil is clay, here and there chalk, and everywhere there
are rolled pebbles as in the Medoc. The wine is left in the
cuves from twenty-five to thirty-six days ; the lower class
wines are always treated with gypsum or plaster of Paris ;
the white wines, if sweet, are put in bottle in March. The
red wines remain in barrel much longer, but are apt to lose
much of their colour. As they preserve it when bottled,
they are put in glass early, and decanted from any deposit,
and transferred to new bottles seven times in fifteen years.
It is doubtful whether the resulting wines are worth the
trouble bestowed upon them, and they would not bear the
expense if they were not so extraordinarily cheap when
newly made. Much of the wine grown here goes to North
and South America, to Genoa, Cette and Marseilles, and to
a few inland places of France, Lyons among them. In the
Canton of Perpignan there is produced a wine called Torre-
mila, which comes very near to average Madeira ; at
Torremila also a kind of Mousseux is made, which has a cer-
tain reputation.
8 1. SUMMARY OF THE WINES OF ROUSSILLON.
The most esteemed liqueur wines, whether partly fer-
mented or not, and treated as dukes, are the Muscat of
Rivesaltes, the Maccabeo, the Grenache, and the Malvoisie.
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC. 131
Amongst the dry wines are esteemed those of Banyuls-
sur-Mer, of Torremila, of Rivesaltes, and of Terrats ; the
Malvoisie and Picpoule are here also made of dry quality.
Among the red or commercial liqueur wines those which
take the first places are of Banyuls-sur-Mer, Collioures, and
Port-Vendres, Corneilla-de-la-Riviere, Pezilla-de-la-Riviere,
Tautavel, Montner, and Banyuls-des-Aspres.
Among the dry ordinaries are to be mentioned the wines
of Espira-de-la-Gly, Rivesaltes, Baixas, Salces, Millas, Saint
Andre, and the two Cantons of Perpignan.
The barrels in which Roussillon wine is made and sold
are of the size of barriques of Bordeaux. The wine is laden
into ships directly from the producing district ; but, as the
ships cannot come near to the shore in that part, the barrel
is rolled out to the beach, and then down the beach into
the water, which may be a distance of a mile or two miles.
When the barrel begins to float, the man who has rolled it
pushes it on towards the ship, at last by swimming. When
the cask arrives at the ship, it is lifted on board by a crane,
and the man returns to the shore.
82. WINES OF LANGUEDOC, OR THE MIDI OF FRANCE.
TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL.
Languedoc is the name of an ancient province of France,
and comprises the greater part of what are now the depart-
ments of the Aude, of the Herault, and of a portion of the
Gard. The wines are mostly red, and the inspectors of the
English Board of Customs, who were sent there on an
official inquiry, found none which contained above 23-9 per
cent, of proof spirit, while many contained less. In a great
part of Languedoc viticulture was in a flourishing condition
already at the time of the Romans ; and now these wines
are the objects of a vast commerce, which is daily increasing
owing to the united advantages of climate, soil, and situation,
by means of which great quantities of cheap and saleable
wines are produced. The surface occupied by vineyards
in the three departments mentioned amounts to 258,192
132 A TREATISE ON WINES.
hectares, of which the department of the Aude owns 70,982,
that of the Herault 179,962, and that of the Card 75,248
hectares.
The soil is chalky on the slopes, chalky and clayey in the
plains, and silico-calcareous, with many rolled pebbles, on
the high plains or plateaux. The same vines are raised
throughout the whole of the departments, and the wines
which are obtained from them are classified in the same
manner throughout the entire province of Languedoc.
They go generally under the name of Vins du Midi, which
in the eyes of uninformed persons is equivalent to cheap,
bad stuff. If they knew the quantities of such wines ex-
ported to all parts of France, and mixed with the Burgundies,
the Bordeaux, and other varieties of French wine drunk in
the country or exported, they would moderate their dislike ;
and if they had the enterprise to study the wines of these
countries themselves, they would find their quality and
cheapness a sufficient recommendation to all consumers of
the middle classes. The wines are divided into two cate-
gories : wines for the distillery, and wines for commerce.
These latter are sub-divided, first, into ordinary red and
white wines of commerce; secondly, into the fine red wines ;
and thirdly, into the white dry wines, and the white liqueur
and Muscat wines. The sales are effected through the
agency of brokers, termed courtiers, who formerly were of
more importance than nowadays, when their only office is
to obtain samples and bring them to the merchants.
83. VINES CULTIVATED IN LANGUEDOC.
The vines prevalent in this province are the Carignane,
the Terret noir, the Grenache, the Mourastel, the Aspiran,
the Oeillade and its variety the Sinsaon, the black Picpoule,
the white Picpoule, and the Clairette. These yield the
wines of commerce. For the distillery wines only two vines
are cultivated, namely, the Aramon and the Terret bourret.
These two latter cover the whole of the plains of Herault
and of St. Guilhem upon the sea, the plain of Lunel, of
Orbe, and of the Aude. The grapes of these vines are
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC. 133
their most characteristic parts. The Terret noir has loosely
hanging grapes of equal size, oval in shape, of a blackish-
red colour, transparent and browned by the sun, with a
thick skin of acidulous taste ; the bunch is pyramidal and
winged. The grapes of the Terret bourret are of similar
shape, but of a light rosy or violet colour ; they have a flat
taste, and yield only the lowest wines used in the distilleries.
The Aramon has a long exuberant bunch, with round, equal,
violet-black bloomy grapes, of a flat taste, and provided
with a thick skin. The Oeillade bears a magnificent pyra-
midal winged bunch, with voluminous grapes, hanging on
Fig. 30. Vine of the Herault, with all its wood as seen in winter.
very long green stalks, of blackish blue colour, with brown
sun spots, ripening early; their taste is fresh, sugary, and
agreeable. The Piran or Aspiran bears a middle-sized
bunch with black-bloomed grapes of fine and sugary taste.
The white wines are mostly made of Picpoule and Clairette.
The vines which are planted on alluvial soil are called Tines
of the plain; those on ferruginous soil mixed with pebbles,
the result of chalk denudation, are termed vines of the
terrain de gres. They give esteemed commercial wines.
The slopes, garrigues, yield wines which are fit for exporta-
tion, and are distilled only in years of plentiful harvests.
In abundant years the distillery keeps up the prices of
134 A TREATISE ON WINES.
wines for consumption ; in years of dearth even the wines
of the plain, which ordinarily go to the distillery, are mixed
with wines of good years and sold to the world.
The vines are not very carefully cultivated, the manuring
in particular is very negligently performed. The vintage
takes place in the middle of September and extends into
October. In the rich alluvial plains a hectare may some-
times yield 200 hectolitres of distillery wine ; but on the
slopes and gravels only from 25 to 30 hectolitres. Good
ordinary soils planted with Aramon and Terret bourret yield
up to 50 hectolitres.
The grapes are crushed as usual, powdered over with
Fig. 31. Vines of the Herault pruned and their "feet" uncovered.
a. b. a', b'. Stocks with four branches each.
plaster of Paris, and put into the vats ; the wine is placed
in foudres or large barrels of a capacity varying between 7
and 700 hectolitres.
84. DISTINGUISHED GROWTHS OF THE DEPARTMENTS
OF THE AUDE AND GARD.
The vineyard of Limoux yields a white wine passing as
Blanquette de Limoux ; of this about 3,000 hectolitres are
made, which fetch double the price of the red wine \ of the
latter 10,000 hectolitres are produced. These wines are
termed, after the localities, Le"denon, Langlade, and St.
Gilles, all three in the arrondissement of Nismes. The
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC. 135
Langlade wine is left only three days in the vat, is light, of
rich colour, and less alcoholic than other wines ; as it is so
well known, thousands of barrels of other districts pass under
its name. The vineyard of St. Gilles, 5,000 hectares in
extent, produces wines of brilliant purple colour, soft taste,
yet of the quality which the French express by nerve and
mordant, for which we might say strength and grip. They
are called vins fermes, because they can be used to give
colour and strength to wines which do not possess those
properties, and hence they are also called vins de remede.
The St. Gilles' wines have, however, and always bring into
other wines with which they are mixed, a particular taste
so-called taste of territory. Considered in their character
as dyeing materials for other wines, the products of this
district are divided into six classes, and called accordingly
the wines of one, three, five, or six colours, according to
whether they can, on being mixed with one, three, five, or
six times their volume of white wine, produce a well-
coloured ordinary table wine. At St. Gilles wine is sold by
the barrel, measuring a little more than 50 litres, and cor-
responding almost to the Austrian Eimer. The hectolitre
may fetch up to fifty-three francs, and in good years sink to
three francs. The average price is ten francs the hectolitre.
Most of this wine goes to Paris and Holland.
In the vinification the care taken to extract all the colour-
ing matter from the husks is very great. Before the vintage
is mashed it is put into closed spaces, whereby a slight fer-
mentation begins in the unbroken berries, through which
the skin is predisposed to part with its pigment. The rest
is not peculiar, except that little care is taken to avoid the
effects of a tainted or acetous top or chapeau.
A peculiar process adopted to strengthen wines consists
in concentrating entire grapes in cauldrons heated by steam;
they shrivel, as if they were in the sun, and become cooked
as well ; the hard skin becomes macerated and the pigment
loosened. Grapes thus concentrated are put into spirit or
into new wine. Mild wines of dark rose colour, from the
third day of fermentation, are sent off to Burgundy to serve
in what is called the "arrangement" of Burgundy wines;
136 A TREATISE ON WINES.
excess of colour and of acidity is thereby corrected and the
Burgundy becomes earlier fit for sale.
At St. Gilles sweet wine is also made with the aid of sul-
phuring and racking, which delay fermentation and allow
the wine to become clear ; when fermentation ultimately sets
in it is much slower and less energetic than it would have
been in the must not sulphured and racked, and leaves a
great deal more sugar in the fluid than would otherwise have
been left.
At St. Gilles is also made a speciality, by a proprietor, Dr.
Beaumes, namely, a wine from the true Furmint or Tokay
vine, after the manner of the Hungarian Tokay ; it is called
Tokay Princesse, and sold in the place at the price of six
francs the bottle.
85. REMARKABLE GROWTHS OF THE HERAULT.
Amongst the red wines of the province those of St.
Georges D'Orques, St. Chrystol, and St. Drezery are best
known. The Picardans are white wines, and the Lunels
are Muscat wines. The wines of the arrondissement of
Montpellier are amongst the finest of the department.
The Picardan wines are sweet or dry, and mostly obtained
from the Clairette. The grape of this vine must hang into
October. The wines obtained from it are similar to
Madeira, and are frequently mixed with alcohol, so as to
contain from 13 to 15*5 per cent, of absolute alcohol. The
wines are also heated in the sun, or in hot chambers as in
Madeira. They are mostly cheap, selling at from 12 to 16
francs the hectolitre.
86. REMARKABLE MUSCAT WINES.
The mode of their production has been above described.
They are mostly made from white, more rarely from black
Muscat grapes. At Frontignan from 230 hectares there
are annually produced of white Muscat 800 to 900 barrels,
containing from 220 to 225 litres each, while of red
WINES OF ROUSSILLON AND LANGUEDOC. 137
Muscat only 20 hectolitres are made. The price per barrel
varies between 120 and 200 francs. Lunel is rapidly
diminishing its production, while Maraussan and Espagnac
are not increasing theirs.
87. MANUFACTURE OF SPIRIT DISTILLED FROM WINE,
CALLED "TROIS-SIX" AND " EAU-DE-VlE," AT MONT-
PELLIER.
In the department of the Herault two qualities of brandy,
called trois-six, are made from grapes, one of wine and the
other of murk. The former ones are called "of good
taste " (de bon gout} when the wine from which they have
been made was neither spoiled nor sour. The spirit from
murk, always called trois-six of murk, is less valuable than
that of wine by from 25 to 50 per cent. The trois-six of
good taste is obtained by stills, called after their inventor
De Rosne, and other more modern ones, which will in
twenty-four hours produce up to 30 hectolitres of brandy of
86 per cent, strength. The wines of the plain contain from
7 to ii volumes per cent, of trois-six of 84, in good years
up to 12 volumes per cent : a large still can consume daily
from 200 to 300 hectolitres of wine. The residues have a
very repulsive odour, and when discharged into water-courses
infect the air more than sewage. No use for them has as
yet been discovered. The strength of the distilled spirit is
mostly ascertained by the aid of the alcoholometer of Bories.
This is a very ancient instrument, and the manufacturers
and producers of Languedcc are as reluctant to give it up
as the Germans are with regard to that of Tralles, or the
English with regard to that of Sikes.
88. MARKETS FOR THE SALE OF SPIRITS.
There are in the department of the Herault four markets
of eau-de-vie and alcohol, in the order of their importance :
Be'ziers (principal sale day Friday) ; Pdzenas (Saturday) ;
Cette (Wednesday) ; and Lunel (Monday). If there are no
138 A TREATISE ON WINES.
stipulations made to the contrary, the manufacturers of trois-
six are bound to deliver all produce to one or other of these
markets, and let it be accompanied with a warranty of its
quality. The inspector of the market verifies the analysis,
and, if correct, admits ; if incorrect, returns the piece. The
inspector states the limpidity, which must be perfect ; he
observes that it is free from any colour ; the taste must be
pure and free. If a piece is declared of mauvais gout, it
will be paid for only as trois-six of murk. All trois-six is
paid for in cash.
89. DESIGNATIONS OF SPIRITS OF VARIOUS DEGREES
OF STRENGTH.
The several designations of spirits of various strengths
used in Languedoc and other parts of France are derived as
follows : Common eau-de-vie is accepted as the standard,
and supposed to show 19 Carder at 12-5 temperature. It
then contains a little less than 50 volumes per. cent, of abso-
lute alcohol. Trois-six is a spirit of which three volumes
added to three volumes of water were supposed to give six
volumes of eau-de-vie at 19 Cartier. It is the common
alcohol of commerce, marks 33 on the scale of Cartier, and
contains consequently 84*4 volumes per cent, of absolute
alcohol. Trois-cinq is a spirit of which three volumes added
to two volumes of water were supposed to give five volumes
of eau-de-vie at 19 Cartier, while trois-sept is an alcohol of
which three volumes added to four volumes of water were
supposed to give seven volumes of eau-de-vie. It is evident
that by the more accurate methods of ascertaining the
strengths of spirits these names have lost much of their
meaning, the very standard of eau-de-vie, with 50 volumes
per cent, alcohol, excluding the possibility of the existence
of an alcohol called trois-sept. But whenever these names
are used without the definition of the exact strength in
volume per cent., or degrees Cartier, we may assume that
by 3/7 is meant a spirit of 94 per cent, by volume ; by 3/6 a
spirit of about 84 per cent, volume ; by 3/5 a spirit of 78
per cent, volume ; by proof of Holland a spirit of 58 volumes
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE. 139
per cent. [Rendu, "Vins du Languedoc," i. p. 71, gives
proof of Holland as 52 volumes per cent. ; Payen, "Chimie
Industrielle," third edition, p. 712, gives proof of Holland
at 587, and proof of London at 58 volumes per cent.;
British (or Sikes's) proof spirit at 15-5 contains 57-06
volumes per cent, or 49-24 weight per cent, of absolute
alcohol.]
Commerce and manufactures demand and produce now
only the strongest kind of spirit which can be conveniently
produced by mere distillation. While at Montpellier there
are now produced annually only 2,000 pieces of eau-de-vie,
equal to 6,000 hectolitres of 52, the manufacture of 3/6 rises
to 60,000 pieces, equal to 360,000 hectolitres of eau-de-vie ;
60,000 hectares of vineyards of the Herault produce nothing
but wine to be used for distilling. The average production
of 3/6 in the four departments the eastern Pyrenees, the
Herault, the Card, and the Aude has been 500,000, half-a-
million hectolitres, or fifty millions of litres. The spirit
distilled immediately after the fermentation is the best ;
older wine gives inferior brandy. The alcohol from murk
is expelled by steam. On an average 13,000 kilogrammes
of murk yield 600 litres of spirit The warm murk after
expulsion of the alcohol can be used for feeding sheep.
The alcohols of the Herault are mostly sold in France to be
drunk as eau-de-vie, or to be used for fortifying wine viner
les vin$.
CHAPTER XIV.
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE.
90. WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE.
THE greater and most reputed part of the wines of the
east of France is grown on the right bank of the Rhone in
the communes of Laudun, Chuselan, Tavel, Roquemaure,
all in the department of the Gard ; in the district which
I4O A TREATISE ON WINES.
contains St. Pdray, department of Ardeche, and at Condrieu
and Cote-rotie, department of the Rhone. On the left
bank of the Rhone much less wine is grown than on the
right, but it is celebrated by the name of Chateau-neuf-du-
Pape, department Vaucluse, and of I'Ermitage, department of
the Drome. The vineyards of Croyes, Larnage, and Mer-
curol, in the same department, produce wine which in
quality follows immediately after Ermitage. The wines of
the Card have the character of the Fins du Midi. The
white St. Peray has a character of its own, particularly in
the effervescent or Mousseux state. The wines of the
upper part of the Rhone, Cote-rotie, resemble those of the
Beaujolais and the Cote d'Or. The wines of I'Ermitage
are distinguished by peculiar qualities, and a pleasing
bouquet, coupled with great finesse ; and those of Chateau-
neuf-du-Pape by spirituosity and colour, for which qualities
they are taken to Burgundy to serve as improvers of lesser
qualities.
The greater part of the vineyards of the Rhone is on
calcareous soil, on the left bank mixed with clay and pebbles ;
the upper parts of the borders of the Rhone are formed of
granite, the more horizontal land of diluvium of alpine
origin.
91. COTE DU RHONE.
The name of Cote du Rhone as applied to vineyards is
equivalent to vineyards of the Card ; they are about thirty
miles long by six miles in width. The black grapes grown
here are the Terret, Picpoule, Piran (Aspiran), Camaneze,
and Grenache or Alicante. The latter imparts the good
qualities to the wine of this region. In some localities the
Uni and the Bourboulenque are grown on a small scale
with the others. Of the white grapes the Clairette and
Calitor form about a fifth part, the others are Uni blanc,
Picardan, and several other varieties. The wines produced
on the Cote are classified as follows :
Red Wines First class ; not iwtted, Tavel. Very dry,
light-coloured wines, improve much by age. Annual produce,
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE. 14!
3,000 pieces of 280 litres measure, and about 50 francs value
each.
Lirac. Very dry, firmer than Tavel, of a lively rose-
colour. Annual produce, 1,000 pieces of 50 francs value
each.
Chusdan. Very agreeable liqueur wine. Produce, 2,000
pieces per annum ; value 50 francs each.
Second class ; not vatted, Orsan. A tender wine of deep
colour. Annual produce, 1,500 pieces, value 45 francs
each.
St. Genies-de-Comolas. Of this wine, which has analogies
with Chusclan, 3,000 pieces are annually produced, of 45
francs average value.
Third class. Saint Laurent-des-Arbres. Wine of half a
colour so-called, 3,000 pieces annually, average price 45
francs .
Roquemaure. The better productions are "of good quality,"
and valued as dinner wines ; 5,000 pieces, at 45 francs each.
Of white wine there is only one staple variety, named
Laudun, it is agreeable. The total production is 1,000
pieces per annum, of which 700 pieces remain dry, while
200 pieces are converted into sweet wine.
92. CHATEAU-NEUF-DU-PAPE.
The 600 hectares of this vineyard are situated on the left
bank of the Rhone, a few kilometres from Orange ; the
plantations have mostly a southward inclination ; some,
however, are in the plain, and have contributed much to
decrease the reputation of this vineyard. The black grapes
cultivated here are the Grenache, Picpoule, Tinto, and
Terret noir ; of white varieties, the Clairette, Uni and Muscat.
The cultivators say that the Grenache gives alcohol and
finesse, the Picpoule generosity, Tinto colours, and the
Terret quantity. The best vines, the Grenaches, are the
latest to bear and the earliest to decay ; a well-kept
Grenachiere, as a vineyard planted with Grenaches only is
called, produces up to 30 hectolitres of wine per hectare :
the average of other varieties is only 20 hectolitres. A
142 A TREATISE ON WINES.
piece of wine of 270 litres is sold at the price of from 25
to 50 francs. The red wine sheds its colour after three
years in barrel, and preserves it then only when bottled.
The most remarkable vineyards in this district are the
following : The vineyard of La Nerthe gained its reputation
through the practice of the owner, the Marquis of Villefranche,
of frequently treating his guests at Paris to old fine Nerthe
wine. The product is not now husbanded to the same
advantage. The Cru de Condorcet is situated below the
Nerthe and measures 20 hectares; its wines fetch only
a fifth of the price of Nerthe. The vineyard of Fortia
occupied a place similar to that of Nerthe under its former
proprietor, the Marquis de Fortia d'Urban ; that of Vaudieu
produces light-coloured and less alcoholic wines, several
parts of it are planted exclusively with white vines, from the
fruit of which a dry wine is made, as well as a sweet one by
the addition of spirit to the must. In the commune of
Chateau-neuf-du-Pape the land is extremely subdivided, and
every owner is a wine-grower. The wines are mostly bought
after the harvest by the commission^agents of Roquemaure,
who after having averaged, i.e., mixed them, send the greater
quantity into Burgundy to be used there as " doctors " to
feeble, acid and pale wines of bad years. Bordeaux also
receives a quantity of these wines for the same purpose.
Jn consequence the wines of Chateau-neuf-du-Pape do not
occur in trade in their original condition at all ; when bought
for mixing they are already in a mixed state. The principle
of vinification is to produce black alcoholic wine, in great
volume, and in consequence the ancient reputation of these
vineyards is gradually diminishing.
93. VINEYARD OF ST. PERAY, ARDECHE.
The vineyard of St. Peray is situated on the right bank of
the Rhone in the department of Ardeche; it is 172 hectares
in extent and produces only white wine. The dominant
vine is the Grosse Roussette (Roussanne of the Ermitage) ; it
is mixed with a small proportion of the petite Roussette, but
with no other vine. The dry wine is made in the ordinary
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE. 143
manner, and is put into bottles in the third or fourth
year. The Mousseux is produced in the same manner as
Champagne : Grand Mousseux of the best years is sold at
two francs a bottle retail ; it is very heady and neither so
fine nor so mild as Champagne. The wine in barrel is sold
for 50 to 75 francs the hectolitre.
94. VINEYARDS OF THE ERMITAGE.
The vineyards of the Ermitage are situated on the left
border of the Rhone in the commune of Tain, twenty-eight
kilometres from Valence, department of Drome ; have a
surface of 1 90 hectares and are distributed over two slopes ;
one of these is on granitic soil, the other on alluvial. They
are exposed to the south-west in such a manner that the sun
strikes them from his rising to his setting. The name is
derived from a place of retirement which one Gaspard de
Sterimberg, a courtier of Queen Blanche of Castile, built
thereabouts for his old age in the year 1225. The vineyards
on granitic soil constitute the so-called " Mas de Bessas ; "
those on the alluvial the " Mas du Me"al ; " those on alluvial
clay the " Mas de Greffieux." The high quality of the
Ermitage wines depends upon the combination of these
three vineyards, the produce of which is always sold mixed ;
and a proprietor in order to have his produce classified as
" premier cru " must hold property in the three vineyards.
In short, what is called Ermitage, and has any quality, is
always a mixture of the grapes of the three " Mas." The
vines grown here are the " grosse Sirrah " and " petite
Sirrah" for red wine; and the "Roussanne" and "Mar-
sanne " for white ; the "grosse Sirrah " is remarkable for its
fertility, but produces a common wine ; it is therefore
gradually being driven out of the good vineyards and is
grown in the plain. Nineteen out of twenty parts of the
hill-district cultivate the " petite Sirrah," the rest is planted
with white vines. The " petite Sirrah " has a fine elongated
winged bunch, bearing slightly oval grapes, which are
unequal, closely packed together, of a blackish-violet colour,
much browned on the surface, juicy, very sweet and with a
144 A TREATISE ON WINES.
thin husk ; they ripen early. The grapes of the Roussanne
are white, small, round, unequal, and very much browned
under a thick bloom ; the bunch of the Marsanne is not so
large as that of the Roussanne ; its berries are unequal and
very closely set. As the vines are kept very near to the
ground, many of the bunches lie partially on the ground
when nearly ripe, and become covered with earth. This
entails a special operation in August called "unearthing
the grapes." The vintage ordinarily takes place towards
the end of September, but in early years it is made before
the equinox, as heavy rains are not rarely experienced at that
time. A hectare brings about 24 hectolitres of wine ; a
vineyard of this surface may be bought, if it produce first growth,
for 60,000 francs, second for 48,000 francs, third for 36,000
irancs. The cultivation costs about 900 francs per annum.
To make a barrique of so-called straw wine, i.e., sweet liqueur
wine, 760 kilogrammes of grapes are required, which with-
out drying would have yielded three barriques of wine.
The black grapes remain long, sometimes as long as forty
days in the vats and are stirred frequently. This seems
required by the large amount of sugar contained in the
must, of which the last portions are only slowly transformed
into the strongly alcoholic liquid. The wine can be bottled
after having been in the barrel during four or five years.
The best red Ermitage is sold at about 400 francs the
barrique of 210 litres. Red Ermitage of the best quality
goes to Bordeaux, to be mixed with the colder growths of
the Gironde ; anything sold in trade as Ermitage is always
second class, if it be Ermitage at all. When genuine it is
distinguished by great richness, a lively purple colour, and
a special bouquet, and becomes by these united qualities the
best wine of the south of France.
There are a number of smaller vineyards resembling by
their products Ermitage ; these are called of Crozes, Lamage,
Mercurol (La Rochegude), La Roliere, Die, Condrieu
and Cote-rotie. The wines are mainly red, and ripe for
bottle in five or six years. The piece of Ampuis, measuring
240 litres, is sold at about 200 francs. The wines are fiery
and heady, but have great finesse and much bouquet
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE. 145
When the wine is made from the Vionnier grape mainly, it is
lighter and more delicate, and does not lose its colour by
age, but when made principally from the Terine, the wine is
more harsh, and of darker colour; in bottle it forms a
strong crust, loses its purple colour, and becomes of the
light red colour of onion peel. In ancient times much of the
produce of the Rhone valley was exported to Rome, now it
is dispersed over the world, mainly in admixture to less
alcoholic wines.
95. VINEYARDS OF THE BEAUJOLAIS, MACONNAIS,
AND THE CHALON C6TE.
The districts which contain these vineyards are situated
in the upper part of the valleys of the French contributories
of the Rhone, particularly the Saone. The vineyards are
agglomerated, partly on slopes running towards the Saone,
partly on rich flat land. The traveller by rail or road enters
suddenly upon a viticultural district, continues in it, per-
ceiving right and left nothing but vines, and after having
travelled some miles he suddenly leaves it, when all
viticulture ends and nothing but ordinary agriculture is
perceptible.
96. THE BEAUJOLAIS.
The Beaujolais is an arrondissement with Villefranche as
principal town, and extends from the confines of the Macon-
nais to the district of Lyons. It is divided by a chain of
hills into the high and low Beaujolais. The high Beau-
jolais consists of the cantons of Beaujeu and Belleville, where
the best vineyards are met with. The low Beaujolais pro-
duces a greater quantity of wine, but of a less distinguished
quality. There are now in this district 20,000 hectares of
vineyards, stretching over a length of 35 kilometres and a
breadth of 6 kilometres. In the soil red quartzy porphyry-
predominates ; in other parts a schistose formation comes
out, and there are many mixtures of Plutonic and Neptunic
formations. In the lower part chalk, with alluvial soil, crops
L
146 A TREATISE ON WINES.
up. Most of the vineyards, like those of Burgundy, slope
towards the east.
97. VINES, VINTAGE, AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE
WINES OF THE BEAUJOLAIS.
Two vines prevail in the Beaujolais, the Petit Gamay and
Camay Nicolas. Their bunches are elongated, conical and
winged, and bear loose-hanging, unequal grapes of middle
size, ovoid shape, black colour, bloomy surface, with thin
skin, liquid juice and particularly sweet taste. Many vine-
yards are cultivated by tenant farmers, who occupy from
4 to 5 hectares, reside on the land, and pay as rent half
the produce of wine. The hectare in the Haut-Beaujolais
yields on an average 20 pieces of wine of 210 litres each;
in the Bas-Beaujolais much larger quantities. The vintage
takes place in the end of September, and vinification is per-
formed in the manner usual in Burgundy.
The better wines of the Beaujolais may be arranged
under three categories : First, the fine, early maturing and
little coloured wines of Che'nas, Fleury, Lancie', St. Etienne-
la-Varennes ; secondly, the fine, strong, deep-coloured and
long-lasting wines of which Jullie"nas is the representative ;
and, thirdly, the semi-fine wines which are esteemed but do
not reach the quality of the former. The wines in this
district are more delicate than the wines of the south of
France. They taste juicy, and frequently are very sour.
It is for this reason that they are esteemed in France, where
it is usual to mix water with the ordinary wine drunk at
table. The wines are not treated with plaster of Paris.
The common wines fetch from 80 to 140 francs, the better
ones from 130 to 400 francs the piece of 210 litres. The
special examination of the crus can be seen in Thudichum
and Dupre*'s "Treatise," /. c., p. 418.
98. THE MACONNAIS. GENERAL DIVISION OF DISTRICT
AND SOIL.
The district is situated round the town of Macon, also in
the valley of the Saone, and may be divided into five belts.
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE. 147
of which four yield exclusively red wine,, while the fifth
gives exclusively white wines. The first belt includes the
Thorins and the Romaneche, which yield the finest class of
Maconnais wine ; the second belt is represented by the
vineyard of St. Amour; the third by that of Davaye"; the
fourth belt includes the whole district north of Macon and
the canton of Lugny. The wines of the latter are inferior
to those of other districts, and remain common, but are
abundant. While young they are rough, and become
drinkable only after years of keeping. To the north of
this district is the vineyard of Tournus, which produces
much flat and dark-coloured wine; but this district no
longer belongs to the Maconnais. The fifth zone is repre-
sented by the vineyard of Pouilly, which gives the typical
white wines of the Maconnais. The good vineyards are
mostly situated upon slopes, the soil is granitic and schistose,
frequently chalky. White wines are mostly grown on chalky
soil. The vines on the rich alluvial soil in the valley of the
Saone produce only rough common wines, which go to
supply the town of Lyons.
99. PREDOMINATING VINES.
Formerly the black Burgundy grape called Pineau pre-
dominated, under the name of Bourguignon, but this has
almost disappeared and given way to the Camay, which is
here termed bon plant and plant de la dombe. There are
three varieties of this Camay, the Camay Picard, Gamais
Nicolas, and the Petit Gamais. These vines have nothing
in common with that particular vine called the Gros Camay,
the planting and cultivating of which was forbidden by a
law passed by Philip le Hardi and the parliaments of Metz
and Dijon. The bon plants of the Maconnais bear much
fruit, and this produces good wines, but they are never equal
to the Pineau. In the vineyards for white wines the Char-
denet, or white Pineau, the prevalent white grape of the
Bourgogne and Champagne, predominates.
148 A TREATISE ON WINES.
100. MODE OF CULTIVATION, VINTAGE AND TREATMENT
OF RED WINES.
The vines are kept near the ground, with low stems and
short spurs for growing wood. The vintage begins at the
end of September and is completed by the middle of Octo-
ber. The grapes are vatted, and allowed to ferment during
thirty-six hours ; in the lower parts during five days. The
wines, when in barrel, are treated like those of the Bourgogne
and Gironde. They are fined with white of egg, and bottled
in the fourth or fifth year. They are ripe for drinking six
months after bottling, and are mostly sold in Paris, Lyons,
and Geneva, provided they are cheap. The better Macon
wines are sometimes carried into Burgundy to be sold as
wines of that country. They are very alcoholic, and very
acid at the same time, and if not mixed with water are not
an agreeable drink, but excite the heart. It is possible
that owing to the great acidity the alcohol remains unper-
ceived in the drinking, and incommodes the consumer
afterwards.
1 01. WHITE GRAPE-VINES, AND CHARACTER OF
THEIR WINE.
The typical processes of viticulture and vinification, so
far as white wine is concerned, can be studied at Pouilly
and Fuisse*. The white vines are trained with long bearing
canes, having ten eyes each. At the vintage, towards the
end of September, the grapes are all deposited in baignoires
and after slight mashing are pressed ; the must is run into
barrels, and fermentation proceeds. All the white wines
of the Maconnais district go to the town of Macon, and are
thence transported to Paris. The Pouilly wine is dry, but
too heady ; it is not so transparent as the Chablis, but has
a more golden colour, preferred by many consumers. At
the end of four years, of which two are spent in bottle, the
vinosity and bouquet of the wine are fully developed. The
Fuissd is inferior to Pouilly in finesse and generosity ; it is
therefore mostly "put under," i.e., mixed with Pouilly.
WINES OF THE EAST OF FRANCE. 149
Chaintre' is a pleasing sort of small wine, and of good taste,
but inferior to Pouilly. A hectare of the best Pouilly vine-
yard yields about 18 hectolitres of wine, each of which, at
the vat, is worth 50 francs. The wines of Fuisse" and
Solutre" are rarely worth more than 40 francs.
1 02. COTE OF CHALON-SUR-SAONE.
The vineyards of the arrondissement of Chalon-sur-Saone
are situated along the Cote of Chalon, and produce mainly
ordinary wines, more rarely wines analogous to the half-fine
wines and great ordinaries of the Cote d'Or, which are sold
under the name of the latter. The vineyards are divided
into three zones. The lowest is the plain; the next is the
half cote; and the third, or upper cote, called coteau. The
plain yields only common wines; the half cote wines of
ordinary second quality; while the best wines are obtained
on the incline which commences north of Chalon, runs
through Sivry, and then subsides in the Maconnais. The soil
is chalk mixed with clay, silica and ferric oxide ; much of it
is alluvial. The best growths of the cote are protected by
hills from the north wind, and the sun shines on them from
its rising to its setting. The vines which here predominate
are the Pineau, the Beurot or grey Pineau, in Germany
called Rulander; the Camay, and the Giboudot, which
is also called Malain, or " plant of Abraham." In this
district also the desire of viticulturists for the production of
quantity is increasing daily, and, in consequence, the black
Burgundy grape is being diminished in number, while the
more plenteous bearer the Camay, is being substituted for
it. The grapes of the latter ripen rather late, and as those
of the Beurot ripen early, the mixture is harvested before
the Camay is quite ripe. The "plant of Abraham" has
only one virtue, its enormous fertility. It has large bunches
with loose-hanging berries ; these have thick skins, so that
with the ordinary mode of vatting they remain sometimes
entire. The wine obtained from them is violet red, harsh
and sour, and can be drunk only after it has been several
years in barrel. The white Camay yields a flat white wine
ISO A TREATISE ON WINES.
The wines of the Chalonnais are sold in pieces of 228
litres, and mostly go to Paris. The wine of Mercurey has
for many years had a great reputation. The merchants of
Beaune bought this wine in order to mix it with Volnay, to
which it was very similar, and of which it increased the
small quantity produced, but with the gradual diminution
of its quality Mercurey wine lost even this value. A share
in this decay is due to the general want of intelligence and
care on the part of the vignerons. It is stated that the
renting of vineyards at the rent of half the produce does
not answer well in the Chalonnais.
CHAPTER XV.
WINES OF BURGUNDY.
103. GENERAL OBSERVATION ON THE WINES OF
BURGUNDY.
BURGUNDY is probably the oldest viticultural country in
central Europe, and the art of wine-making migrated thence
to many parts of France and Germany. In the Middle
Ages Burgundy was the standard wine on the table of great
people. When the reputation of Burgundy wine had been
established, many proprietors without that district desired
to obtain the vine from which this beautiful beverage was
produced; and the value of the plant may be estimated
from the fact recorded in history, that reigning princes of
Burgundy made presents of such vines to other princes whom
they befriended. Then the Burgundy vine migrated across
the Rhine, up the Maine, into Saxony, Bohemia, and Moravia,
and with it the mode of cultivation which we see in Burgundy.
The place which Burgundy wine formerly occupied in
society is now taken by Champagne, and in those parts,,
for example, of Germany where formerly much Burgundy
was drunk, now hardly any is met with. But the Nether-
WINES OF BURGUNDY. 151
lands and Belgium preserve much of this ancient predilec-
tion for Burgundy, and in these countries the best wine of
this kind is to be met with.
104. VlTICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF BURGUNDY.
That part of Burgundy which produces the best wines of
its kind has been called the Cote d'Or, or " golden hillside."
This is formed by a series of hills, about thirty-six miles in
length, which stretch from Chalon on the Saone to Dijon,
their cultivated inclination and exposure being towards the
east. They are from 200 to 300 feet high, and consist of
a loose chalk mixed with little clay. Towards the east of
these hills there expands an enormous fertile plain right to
the Jura mountains, which in fine weather can be seen, with
the Mont Blanc behind them. Along these thirty miles of
declivity an uninterrupted series of vineyards have been
planted. They begin on the upper third of the hills, never
ascending to the brow, and then stretch down the inclination
into the plain, and frequently extend for a mile or two in
the plain itself. The good vineyards are all situated about
the lower third of the inclines. The property in the good
situations is very much divided, so that a vineyard of five
hectares is very rarely met with. An exception to this is
the Clos de Vougeot, which has about fifty hectares of vine-
yard and is surrounded by a wall. The vineyard of the Clos
appears to the eye to be almost level. The Clos Romance
Conti has only about two and a half hectares, the Cham-
bertin four to five hectares.
As these celebrated vineyards, and all others approaching
them in quality of product, are very flat, it may be said that
a vineyard which has an inclination of above ten degrees in
the Bourgogne does not belong to the first class. Along
the higher regions of the hills many deserted vineyards with
old terraces may be discovered. They demonstrate that the
vine does not succeed above a certain height along the
incline. In the Champagne also the black Burgundy grape
does not rise up to the crest of the hill, but at the upper
third is replaced by the white Burgundy. Thus nature limited
152 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the production of Burgundy on two sides ; on the side of the
mountain by spring frosts, and on the side of the plain by
want of quality of the produce.
105. VARIETIES OF VINES PLANTED IN BURGUNDY.
The vineyards of Burgundy are populated by a mixture
of vines termed by the vignerons Passe-tous-grains. The
black-graped vine peculiar to, perhaps indigenous of Bur-
gundy, the Pineau or Noirien, is the dominating variety
along the Cote ; but in the ordinary situations, and in small
vineyards, white and red grapes are found among the black.
The Pineau is also the dominating grape in the Champagne.
But by the side of it there is another variety, the Camay,
the dominant grape of the Maconnais and Beaujolais. This
latter grape gives a wine of much inferior quality, but the
vine bears much more abundantly, for which reason it is
preferred by those vignerons who get paid for quantity only.
The must of the Noirien is much sweeter than that of the
Camay, showing one-eighth more sugar than the latter.
The vines themselves are not easily distinguished from each
other by external appearance, but more easily by their fruit,
that of the Camay being larger in the berries and frequently
showing some unripe ones; while the Noirien is always of
equal ripeness in all its berries. The Camay is the same
vine with that planted at Bolle in Switzerland, and there
called La Dole; a great amount of effervescent wine is
manufactured from it at VeVais on the Lake of Geneva.
Another variety of vine which frequently occurs in Burgundy
is one bearing light red, almost grey grapes, called Beurot,
known in Germany as Rulander. Of white grape-vines there
is the Chardenay or White Burgundy, which is grown in the
Champagne in the higher-lying vineyards, but also mixed
with the other vines, and prevails in the northern part of
Burgundy, yielding among others the celebrated wine of
Chablis.
WINES OF BURGUNDY.
1 06. MODE OF CULTIVATION.
153
New plantations follow the ordinary general rules ; young
plants do not bear before the fifth or sixth year ; they are
dressed upon two spurs, kept low on the ground, and sup-
ported by stakes. Single vines are replaced by sinkers.
Rejuvenescence by sinking all the vines, as is frequently
practised in the Champagne, a process which gives to many
Fig. 32. Burgundy Vine as it ought to be dressed, according to Guyot.
A' B' the bearing or fruit cane. C D 1 the space for growing next
year's fruit cane.
vineyards of this district the aspect of great youthfulness,
is not effected with regularity or extensively. Along the
cotes of Beaune we have observed many vineyards with vines
at least twenty years old, and having their bearing systems
a foot and a half above the ground, a condition preventing
excellence in the product ; moreover, the yearly branches
are then so high that the stakes cannot carry them any
more. Such vines would therefore be advantageously treated
by the sinking process usual in the Champagne. Each plant
154 A TREATISE ON WINES.
shoots three new canes, which are allowed to grow until the
middle of summer. They are then tied together at the top,
and when the grapes begin to colour the tops are cut off,
excepting those of all canes which it is intended to sink,
these are allowed to grow to their full length.
As the reproduction of the vine is practised very irregularly,
the vineyards of Burgundy do not present that remarkably
cultivated, orderly, and youthful appearance of the vineyards
of the Champagne. On the contrary, the peculiar sight is
one of great inequality, very young vines being mixed with
very old ones, and very low ones with very high ones. The
soil, moreover, is stony, and is not so well attended to as
elsewhere ; many stones are brought to the surface by the
sinking of ditches for the laying of canes ; these sinkers
affect about one-fifteenth of all the vines every year, so that
a vineyard is rejuvenesced gradually once every fifteen years.
The vineyards are manured as well as possible; all the
labour is done by hand, and there is no ploughing. The
vineyards are divided into ouvrees, or areas, which give a
day's work to a man; such an ouvrbe has 3,645 square feet.
The sinking, up to twenty vines per ouvree, is included in the
contract ; a higher number of sinkers has to be paid for
beyond the wages. In many parts of Burgundy the old
arrangement prevails by which the labourer does all the
work in the vineyard, and receives half the harvest as his
payment. Such a vigneron generally has from three to four
hectares under his charge ; he is aided by his family. He
carries all the earth and manure, finds the poles or stakes,
performs the vintage, presses the wine, and, in short, does
every operation until the wine is in barrel. In parts where
the wines are very good and high in price the viticulturist
has yet to bear the half of the State taxes and of the com-
munal imposts. The proprietor, however, allows him some
collateral advantages, in the shape of plots of land for the
keeping of animals, and free lodging. This peculiar practice
of dividing estates into vintageries or vigneronnages, has been
carried into Saxony, particularly into the neighbourhood of
Dresden, where the whole wine-producing district is culti-
vated upon the pattern of Burgundy.
WINES OF BURGUNDY. 1 55
Grafting, In Burgundy also much grafting is practised,
the slip, sinker, or sunken cane being grafted with its end into
a groove made in the stem which has to be renewed or
lowered. The labour of this process is no doubt great, but
as grapes can be obtained from grafts sometimes in the first,
mostly in the second year, the expense of the labour is
sometimes at least partly repaid.
107. VINTAGE.
The period of the vintage in Burgundy fluctuates between
the latter end of September and first half of October. Early
vintages are supposed to prognosticate a better wine, for of
course they result from a favourable summer season. In some
communes there is yet the vintage ban, a regulation intended
to protect the grape-harvest by keeping everybody out of
the vineyard from the time the grapes begin to ripen until
the time of the vintage. Even the proprietors are not
allowed to enter their own vineyards except perhaps once a
week, during an interval which is announced by the village
bells. When the grapes are ripe a commission is appointed,
consisting generally of the mayor, a proprietor, a practical
vigneron, and one merchant. This commission, while
visiting the vineyard, forms an opinion whether or not the
grapes ought to be collected. When they have fixed the
time they announce it to the mayor, or the prefect, and it
is published by the town-crier or by other means. This
peculiar law does, of course, not affect enclosed properties.
The Gironde abolished it effectually during the revolution-
Burgundy did the same, but the law was re-enacted under
the restoration. In the Rhenish provinces of Germany this
law was also abolished, at least remained only in a harmless
modified form, as a faculty never practised ; but in Wurtem-
berg and some of the wine-producing districts east of the
Rhine it has been retained, and exercises an impeding
influence on the progress of viticulture ; for the vineyards
owner whose grapes, owing to situation or variety of vine,
ripen early, has to let them hang until the late ripening
156 A TREATISE ON WINES.
grapes in the district have attained a tolerable maturity ; and
when he comes to his vineyard he finds his crop either eaten
by flies and other vermin, or rotten, or overripe, and in any
case it yields him a lesser quantity or quality of wine. He
who has late ripening grapes, cannot let them hang to
ripen, because, from the moment that the vintage is over, he
loses the protection of the public custody of the fields.
When the grapes are collected, they are put into a large
vat, called ballonge, fixed on a waggon ; in this they are
trodden down by a man as fast and firmly as possible.
When the vat is full the carter dismounts, rubs his feet on
the nearest bundle of grass, puts on his boots, drives the
cart home, and sees the grapes put into the large vats. The
carter then returns with his ballonge, until the whole of the
harvest is at home. In this manner the great bulk of the
Burgundy grapes are carried home ; but we have also seen
instances of better treatment, in which the grapes were cut,
cleaned, their stalks were removed, and the murk was
fermented by itself. Here, as in the Champagne, many of
the grapes are sold while hanging on the vines, and the
proprietors collect them according to the prescription of the
purchasers. Many wine-merchants buy the whole harvest
of a vineyard and collect the grapes themselves. Frequently
the grapes are bought by others after they have been
collected by the proprietors, and during the vintage an
active trade in grapes is carried on along all the roadsides
in viticultural Burgundy ; there are the baskets full of
grapes, and anyone who likes can come and buy. The
grapes are measured by feuillettes, being barrels of 114 litres
capacity, being half a piece, or a quarter queue ; the half
queue or entire piece in Burgundy therefore contains 228
litres. The feuillettes used for measuring the grapes are
provided with two iron handles. The grapes are filled in
without pressure, and when the vessel is brimful the grapes
are heaped on the top as high as possible. Ten feuillettes
full of grapes generally give one queue, or two pieces of
must ; or 1,140 litres of grapes give 456 litres of must; or
z\ bulks of grapes give one bulk of must; until the wine be
made this proportion is again changed, and nearly three
WINES OF BURGUNDY. 157
volumes of grapes are requisite to furnish one volume of
finished wine, having passed the spring racking.
1 08. VATTING AND FERMENTATION.
The grapes are transferred from the ballonges to the vats
or cuves by a coarse process in which a kind of hook,
called a grappe, is employed. The ripest berries are broken,,
but many of the harder ones remain entire and have to be
broken by the press. The vats are generally higher than-
they are broad, and narrower at the top than at the base.
This shape has practical advantages on account of the
facility with which the hoops can be kept tight. Their
height is between five and six feet ; they are not provided
with any opening at the bottom or side for letting off the
wine, but throughout Burgundy the wine is drawn from the
vats by syphons. The cuves are therefore raised only one
foot from the ground, instead of three or four feet as in the
Gironde. Every proprietor endeavours to fill a cuve in one
day. Some vignerons moisten the inside of the vat with
brandy, to take away what they call the taste of the wood ~ r
but as they do not afterwards remove the brandy with the
woody taste from the cuve, the process results in an addition?
of spirit to the wine. The cuve is filled to within a foot
from the top. A narrow basket of the height of the cuve is-
fixed to the inner side, and serves as a well, or space free
from the murk of the grapes, from which the wine is drawn,
by the syphon after fermentation. In many parts of Bur-
gundy the addition of sugar to the must is very common^
We have witnessed this addition, which in some cases-
amounted to twenty pounds to the piece. This increase of
the eventual alcoholicity preserves the Burgundy better from
secondary fermentations, to which it is so liable. A quick
fermentation, completed in about six days, is desirable for
Burgundy to effect a complete extraction of the colour and
perfect decomposition of the sugar.
While the fermentation proceeds the murk rises to the
top and forms the hat or chapeau. This being penetrated
with or supported by gas, rises above the level of the liquor..
f$8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
As long as the chapeau continues to rise or remain sta-
tionary, the fermentation must be allowed to proceed. In
-case the weather becomes cold, and impedes fermentation, it is
.necessary to warm the fermenting room, by means of stoves,
up to 80 or 90 F. When the chapeau begins to sink it is
-necessary to draw the wine in order to prevent the upper
or somewhat spoiled and acetified part from coming into
contact with the wine and imparting to it a disagreeable
taste. Another criterion of the proper moment for drawing
the wine is the specific gravity of the liquor. This is ascer-
tained by an areometer so constructed that its zero indicates
the point at which the sugar has completely disappeared.
The colour of the wine is also ascertained by means of a
small vessel called a tasse, embossed with hollows, bumps
and ridges, and highly polished, so that the light can be
reflected through the wine in all directions. The wine is
not often drawn before it is of a sufficiently deep colour.
The extraction of the colour is completed by a process of
distributing the chapeau in the wine repeatedly. This is
done by men who in a state of nudity penetrate the
chapeau, sink into the wine, and then mix the chapeau
with the wine for half-an-hour or longer. The spoiled parts
of the chapeau have been previously taken off. After the
lapse of several hours the husks have again risen to the top,
and, if not well decolorised, are mixed a second time with the
wine by the men. The work is very severe upon the men,
for, owing to the large quantities of carbonic acid evolved,
they are mostly deadly pale or blue, and pant and hang
their heads over the edges of the cuves, gasping for fresh
air. We cannot approve this method of effecting the/outage,
otherwise so necessary, any more than the dirty proceeding
of treading the grapes observable in the Gironde or in Spain.
Many more cautious proprietors avoid the spoiling of any
portion of the chapeau, either by keeping it submerged by
wicker-work loaded with weights, or by closing the vat with
a wooden cover, luted by means of loam or clay; the
more rustic and poorer vignerons cover the vat with a layer of
clay or loam, to which cow dung has been added to give it
^cohesion. No wonder, then, that much of the wine that is
WINES OF BURGUNDY. 159
made in Burgundy has a strange, disagreeable taste, and
does not keep ; that along the Cote there is made not only
the best wine in the world, but also the worst ; that in not a
single hotel or inn along the Cote a single bottle of Bur-
gundian wine fit to be drunk by any traveller accustomed to
fair wine is to be obtained, as we testify from personal expe-
rience ; what is set before the traveller is cheap Vin du Midi,
and the growth of the vineyard within sight is as good as
unknown. We cannot be astonished that Burgundy wine is
subject to those many alterations called "diseases," such
as bitterness, loss of colour, acetification, etc.
After \.\\.Qfoulage the wine is drawn by means of a syphon
fixed in the wicker-well already mentioned, and put into
barrels or pieces of 228 litres each. The after-fermentation
is completed in the cellar, and the wine is racked in February
and ready for sale in March. Common wine may be drunk
at the end of the first year. The good wines require four
years in barrel and several years in bottle before they
develop their full qualities ; but during that time they give
to the proprietors and the wine-merchants a great amount of
trouble, and require very attentive treatment.
When the wine is drawn the murk is put upon the press,
and the wine thus obtained is added to the wine drawn by
the syphon. The pressed murk is then sometimes used to
make a second wine, or piquette, which is very much
relished by the working vignerons. The presses commonly
in use in Burgundy are the long-beam presses, which for-
merly prevailed everywhere, and are only gradually disap-
pearing. The beams are of oak, from fifteen to thirty feet
in length, and exercise their pressure upon a space of twelve
feet square as maximum. The beam is weighted at its end
by a box of stones, or a millstone, or even several mill-
stones. The weights are made to exercise this influence
by being raised by an enormous screw passing through the
free end of the beam. In some parts presses like those in
the Champagne are used. Of course, with the progress of
time, the round or square screw presses take the place of
these old constructions, which are difficult to manage and
consume much time in their application.
160 A TREATISE ON WINES.
The wines are mostly drawn into small casks, but on large
properties, e.g., the Clos Vougeot, the wine is laid in barrels
containing from ten to thirty pieces, and is drawn into single
pieces only after it has been sold. While the young wine is in
the chais, the barrels are carefully kept full (ouille). The
fining of wines is effected by means of white of egg.
The wines of Burgundy are sold by \h& piece of 228 litres,
the feuillette of 114 litres, the quartant of 57 litres, and the
bouteilleGi 75 centilitres or three-quarters of a litre. In the
case of great wines the price of the cask is always included
in that of the wine. Quotations are mostly loco Beaune,
the centre of the trade of the Cote d'Or.
An hectare of vineyard planted with Pineaus produces on
an average annually fifteen hectolitres of wine, while the
common varieties of vines produce from fifty to sixty hecto-
litres per hectare.
For further details concerning the statistics of viticulture
in Burgundy, we refer the reader to the table of the " Comite
d'Agriculture de 1'Arrondissement de Beaune." This publi-
cation also contains a good map of the Cote.
CHAPTER XVI.
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE.
109. WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE.
THE Champagne is an ancient province of France, spread
out under three degrees of latitude, the 47th to the 49th. At
the division of France into departments it was cut up into
four parts, which, united with other communes, were formed
into the departments of the Ardennes, the Marne, the Upper
Marne, and the Aube. The celebrated wine called Cham-
pagne is obtained only in the department of the Marne, which
includes the prefectures of Chalons-sur-Marne, Epernay,
Rheims, Saint-Mendhould, and Vitry-sur-Marne. These
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. l6l
prefectures contain 19,589 hectares of vineyards, which are
situated on the territories of 453 communities, and belong
to 27,018 proprietors. An average vintage produces about
700,000 hectolitres, of which more than a quarter is drunk by
the inhabitants themselves. Good wine is produced only in
the prefectures of Rheims and Epernay. The vineyards of
the former are situated around the slopes of a wooded moun-
tain, which is called the Bois et montagne de Rheims. No vines
grow in the plain, and none grow above a certain height on
the slopes of the mountain. About one-half of the vineyards
lie on the north-eastern slope, and the other half on the
southern slope of this little mountain. In the former are
situated the celebrated growths of Bouzy, of Verzy, and of
Verzenay, and if the tourist who visits the Champagne starts
from Bouzy, and walks along the road northward and north-
westward, he will gradually pass all these celebrated places
one by one, and terminate his tour at Villers, a few miles
south of Rheims. The growths situated on the southern
slope include Ay, Haut Villers, and a number of others.
These latter vineyards extend from the slope of the mountain
to very near the border of the Marne, but the plain in
which the Marne itself flows is destitute of vines. The second
district lies south of the Marne, and its centre is Epernay.
It is bordered on the west by the forest of Anguien, the
smaller one of Brugny, and in the south by that of Vertus.
It is one continuous, splendid vineyard, and besides the
growths of Epernay, yields those of Cramant and Avize.
The soil of the Champagne is composed of chalk, sand,
and clay in varying proportions. The vegetation does not
show any particular signs of luxuriance ; the northern district,
which slopes toward the north-east, would, on theoretical
grounds, be supposed to be very unfavourable to the growth
of the vine for wine, for throughout the world we find that
the declivities of mountains sloping towards the meridian
and exposed to the sun are those which produce the best
wine, and that eastern and western exposures are less
favourable, and northern declivitits almost unproductive.
The explanation is supposed to be this. To the north and
east of the Bouzy and Verzenay districts extends a great
II
1 62 A TREATISE ON WINES.
plain, over which the sun exercises a free influence so as to
warm the soil during the daytime to a very high temperature.
Much of this land is barren and bears only a few wretched
pines. It is termed the "lousy Champagne" (Champagne
fouilleuse). Another part is cultivated, but no part of it is
so covered by vegetation as to prevent the sun from striking
the soil. During the whole of the summer months, from
June to September, the prevailing current of the air over
this plain is in the direction of the mountain of Rheims ;
the air thus passing abstracts heat from the soil, and thus, on
reaching the vines, not only adds to the direct effect of the
sun upon them, but is an auxiliary to their progress during
the evening and throughout the entire night. This phenomenon
seems fully sufficient to explain the magnificent development
which the vines and grapes attain round the whole of that
Cote.
no. WINE-PRODUCING PART OF THE CHAMPAGNE.
The wine-producing part of the Champagne from its extreme
north, namely Rheims, to the southernmost point, Vertus,
lias a diameter of about forty-five English miles. The
centre of the whole district is Epernay, on the borders of
the Marne. The slopes of Verzenay, Verzy, Saint Basle,
Villers, Marctnary, and Bouzy are formed on a series of
rounded promontories running out from the main mountain,
the gentle valleys between which, down to the beginning of
the plain, are all covered with vines. But the slopes of
Mareuil, Ay, Dizy, and Haut Villers are more rapid. From
the heights of Ay, one can see the extent of the whole Cote
of the Marne in an easterly as well as westerly direction, and
also perceive a great part of the vineyards south of Epernay.
The vineyards south of Epernay extend over an undulating
plain southward to Vertus. From Pierry to Vertus the
territory consists of an irregular accumulation of small chalk
hills which slope towards the east. Epernay has 6,000
inhabitants, its only trade being in wine. Rheims has 40,000
inhabitants, and, besides a remarkable trade in wine, has a
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. 163
very important industry in spinning, weaving, and dyeing,
particularly of woollen goods. To the east of the Champagne
wine district, and almost out of it, lies Chalons-sur-Marne,
which has 13,000 inhabitants, and an important trade in
wine. This localization of the manufacture of Champagne
at Chalons is due almost exclusively to the circumstance that
the chalk hills running along both sides of the valley are
composed of so favourable a material, that large cellars,
which do not require any masonry to support them, can be
easily excavated. In consequence, these chalk hills are
pierced by cellars like honeycombs, and millions of bottles
of Champagne are constantly stored in them and sent out of
them to all parts of the world.
In coming from Rheims towards Sillery we observed a
little plot of vineyards, said to be the celebrated Bruyeres
de Mailly, which used to form the pretext for the so-called
Sillery wine. The Chateau of Sillery formerly belonged to
the widow of Marshal d'Estrees, and as she possessed some
of the finest vineyards in Verzy and Verzenay, and caused
their products to be treated with particular attention in her
cellars at Sillery, this name obtained a notoriety which its ten
acres of vineyard actually situated there could never have
obtained for it. The chateau afterwards went into the
possession of Madame de Stael, and later into that of M.
Ruinard de Brimont ; some years ago it was owned by
M. Jacqueson, of Chalons. Not very far from this little
chateau is the estate of Romont, to which now a great part
of the Bruyeres and some of the vineyards at Verzenay
belong, which yield the best so-called Sillery.
In one of our cenological peregrinations we started from
Sillery and walked to Verzenay. The road crosses the great
canal repeatedly, then goes along it, and, suddenly turning to
the right, tends towards the mountain. From this road a
most lovely view of Verzenay is enjoyed. It is a bright
village, lying on the high part of the saddle formed by two
promontories projecting from the main mountain. Behind
it is the green forest of the mountain of Rheims. In front
of it are open cultivated plains, and the tops of the two hills
which mark its lateral limits are surmounted by two
1 64 A TREATISE ON WINES.
enormous windmills, which impart to the beautiful view a
kind of animation. The soft verdure of the expanses of
vineyards is most pleasing to the eye. Passing through the
vineyards and the village we went across the heights towards
Verzy and Saint Basle, the character of the country remain-
ing much the same ; but, as the promontories ran more to-
wards the east, one of these declivities formed a good southern
exposure. The best among them were at Contures and
Minets. We everywhere perceived that the lower part of the
cotes bore the black Burgundy grape, while in the higher parts,
toward the forest, the white Burgundy grapes were mostly
grown, but in many parts of the vineyards which we visited
we saw a few white Burgundy among the black. Having
passed Verzy, we found an interruption in the continuity of
the vineyards of several miles in length ; continuing our
journey southward we came to Bouzy. This is celebrated
for its red wine, the so-called still red Champagne; but
many of the grapes grown there are also used for making
white Champagne. The soil is chalky, ferruginous, and
contains many pebbles. A few miles south of Bouzy ends
the viticultural district of the cote of Rheims, and the
traveller passes ordinary fields towards the Marne to enter
upon the southern cote at Mareuil. In wandering through
the splendid situations of Mareuil, Ay, Dizy. and Haut Villers,.
we saw an uninterrupted, undulating, splendidly green vine-
yard, wound like a mantle round the slopes of the Rheims
mountain. Below Haut Villers, which, as its name indicates,
is situated rather high, and nearly opposite Epernay, the
mountain projects more towards the Marne, corresponding
to a similar projection northwards of the mountain which
runs behind Epernay towards Pierry. By this arrangement
a wide kettle-like valley is formed in which Epernay appears
as the inhabited centre. Among the hills which form the
best situations from Mareuil to Haut Villers, the mountain
of Ay is distinguished by its form, inclination and exposure.
It has a height of about 200 feet and an inclination of about
20, being exposed towards the south-south-west. Upon its
side lies the village of Ay, which in its environs has manv
beautiful gardens and villas, giving signs of opulence anj
\VIXES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. 1 6$
well-being. Indeed Ay is the most lovely place in the
whole Champagne, The cote runs uninterruptedly by
Dizy towards Haut Villers, a length of six English miles.
Here mostly black Burgundy grapes are grown. Most of the
vineyards of Haut Villers lie below the village, so that, seen
from a distance, this village seems to crown a mount of
vines ; its best situations are called les quartieres and Hataut.
From Haut Villers viticulture is continued along the right
bank of the Marne to Chatillon.
Passing to the south of the Marne, and starting from
Epernay to Pierry, we observed that the exposure of the
vineyards became south-easterly. In the neighbourhood of
Pierry the vegetation is much richer than in other parts of
the Champagne. The grapes are larger and blacker, so that
one is almost tempted to think they are another kind. In
this part the variety called Meunier, or miller vine, is often
blended with others. It is recognized by the white felt
which covers the dark -green leaves, and particularly the tops
of young shoots, and gives them an appearance of having
been dusted with flour. The soil is very stony, a fact appa-
rently incorporated in the name of the village. On passing
over a considerable chalk hill, the traveller finds near
Cramont, and more southerly, near Avize, a cote or series of
hills having an easterly exposure, and being covered with
vines. This cote runs from Cramont, Avize, Ojer, and Le
Menil up to Vertus, where the vine cultivation terminates.
In this part mostly white grapes are grown, and it is stated
that the black grapes do not succeed so well. Avize
has from 700 to 800 acres of vineyard, amongst them one
with a southern exposure, called Goutte d'Or. This name is
very common in France and indicates everywhere a place
where a good wine is grown.
As the basis of the geological formation of the Champagne
is chalk with pebbles, the fructiferous covering of cultivated
ground could only have been formed by the superaddition
of alluvial masses, and these we find, singularly enough, upon
the high points of the mountains. Much clay has been
washed down from them by the agency of rain, and
enormous quantities of it are annually carried on the backs
1 66 A TREATISE ON WINES.
of donkeys or mules, or in waggons and baskets, into the
vineyards. One particular kind of clay is termed cendriere
(ash soil). We observed this black material in the neighbour-
hood of Verzy and Verzenay, where a trade was apparently
being carried on in it, there being depositories at frequent
intervals along the road, and establishments where it was
mixed with manure and other matters, and formed into a
kind of compost. We ascertained that it contained gypsum,
iron oxide, clay and sand.
in. CULTIVATION OF THE VINE IN CHAMPAGNE.
The management of the Champagne vineyard differs in
some important particulars from that which prevails in other
districts. The established wines are every three years sunk
into the ground, and one year's wood alone is allowed to
project from the ground and to form the new vines. Every
vineyard, almost, thus becomes a continuous nursery for the
formation of young vines. It is to this circumstance, that
no vine which appears above ground has older wood than
three years, that the whole of the vineyards of the Champagne
owe their juvenile aspect. In the Medoc one sees vines
perhaps 150 years old, in the districts of St. Emilion and
Sauternes one sees vines which are seventy or eighty years
old, but in the Champagne district all that appears above
ground is only one, two, or three years old. The method of
the Champagne viticulture might therefore be called viti-
culture by constant rejuvenescence. The vines are pruned
so as to leave to each plant two or three branches, with
from two to four eyes each. The soil is worked by manual
labour with the hoe, never ploughed, and manured as much
as possible. The cultivation of an acre of vineyard costs
from 1 60 to 240 francs per annum.
112. VALUE OF THE VINEYARDS.
Throughout the Champagne the prices of vineyards are
very high, because of the great subdivision of the soil, which
allows as many as 27,000 proprietors to participate in the
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. l6/
benefit of its cultivation by manual labour. At Verzy an
acre of vineyard sells at from 4,000 to 10,000 francs; at Ay
for 6,000 francs ; at Epernay, Pierry and Haut Villers the
acre frequently sells at from 12,000 to 16,000 francs; at
Avize the average price is 4,000 francs, that of the better
situations rises up to 8,000 francs.
113. VARIETIES OF VINES GROWN IN THE CHAMPAGNE.
The prevailing vine in the Champagne is the one called
Plant dore, black-graped, identical with the black-graped vine
of Burgundy, there called Noirien or Pineau. The Pineau is
sometimes distinguished from the Noirien and called Gros
Plant dore. The bunches of the Pineau are less cramped or
closely set, while those of the Noirien are more dense and
rounded off; but the difference in other properties is so
small as to appear irrelevant. The true Plant dore ripens
its grapes equally, while the Noirien, here at least, always
shows a few green berries among the black ones. The
Pineau is the most fructiferous and gives on large bunches
strong grapes. We have not been able to ascertain whether
these popularly admitted varieties are true varieties or not.
We have seen the Plant dore at Pierry with such thick,
glistening and black berries that it seemed almost a different
vine from the one at Verzy, and yet it was the same. Indeed
the black Burgundy grape changes its non-essential properties
according to situation, soil or climate, and its development
into Pineau, or Plant dore is the effect of accidental
circumstances.
Next to these black-graped vines, which yield the best
white Champagne, there is grown in the neighbourhood of
Epernay the Meunier, or miller. This gives a wine of inferior
quality, but bears more than the Plant dore. The white
Champagne grape, called gros blanc and petit blanc, and also
the white of good nature, is identical with the white Burgundy
grape, the Chardenay from which, among others, the wine of
Chablis is made. About one-third of the whole of the
vines in the Champagne are of this white kind. It dominates
1 68 A TREATISE ON WINES.
in the upper part of the Champagne, near Avize, Vertus, and
Cramant ; in the lower part of the Champagne, from Ay to
Rheims, the heights are planted with this vine. The majority
of the old vineyards are yet planted half with white and half
with black grapes, a mixture which was formerly supposed
to be the most suitable to produce great mousse in the wine.
At the present time the Champagne makers prefer to keep
the varieties separate, and to mix the young wine from
white grapes with that from black grapes only in spring,
after the nature of their separate fermentation is known.
The white vines are more hardy, and less liable to suffer
from spring frosts and other calamities. When we visited
the Champagne in 1867 we found that the Pineaus had
suffered greatly at various periods of the year, and yielded
the most indifferent harvests, while the white Burgundy or
Champagne vines, which stood mixed with the Pineaus
\vhich had suffered, were full of healthy, large and tolerably
sweet grapes. Thus, to the cultivator of vineyards, the
white Champagne grape is a kind of assurance in bad years ;
the Pineau failing, the Chardenay will at least give him
his house-drink.
Here and there a little Gamai's, the dominant vine of the
Maconnais, is met with, but it gives a sour wine unsuitable
for the production of Champagne. Another white grape
which occurs here and there is the Marmot vert, -identical
with the Elbling of the Moselle and the Goix <f Orleans. A
variety is moreover met with which the Germans call Rulander,
and which is in effect a black Burgundy which has become
half white, and hence is called "smoked." Of the German
varieties, the Riessling, Traminer, Sylvaner, and Austrians,
not a single plant can be discovered throughout the Cham-
pagne.
On the whole, then, the character of the effervescent
Champagne vines is derived mainly from the black Burgundy
grape the small and large varieties with which in good
years is mixed a certain quantity of white Chardenay ; the
still Champagnes are made, the red varieties from the black
Pineau only; the white varieties (for example, the excellent
white Verzenay) from the white Chardenay only.
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE.
I6 9
114. VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE.
Of the 700,000 hectolitres of wine produced annually in
the department of the Maine, a quantity which would
amount to eighty millions of bottles, only about 180,000
hectolitres, or twenty-two millions of bottles, are trans-
formed into effervescent wine. That is, a little more than
one-fourth of the whole quantity produced. The rest is
Fig. 33. Gathering of the grapes in Champagne.
transformed to a small extent into white, but for the most
part into red wine. The production of red wine is much
like that usual in Burgundy, and therefore does not require
here a description, but the production of white wine offers
peculiarities which we must follow.
There is no vintage-ban in the Champagne. The pro-
prietors either take off the grapes themselves, press them,
and sell the wine in December or January, or they sell the
grapes as they are on the vines, which is called " selling the
170 A TREATISE ON WINES.
harvest." This is done either according to an estimate of
the quantity per acre, or the grapes are measured after
having been cut, and the agreed sum is paid for the grapes
delivered. In bad years from six to seven hectolitres of
grapes may be necessary to produce a hectolitre of wine,
while ordinarily five cr four and a half would be sufficient
to produce that quantity. The vintage attracts great num-
bers of labourers of both sexes, and proprietors of mules,
donkeys, horses, carts, etc., to the district. It is preferred
to cut the grapes early in the morning, even though they
should be yet a little wet from dew, because it is necessary
to press them while they are cool, to prevent the incipient
fermentation from extracting any colouring matter from the
husk, for, although made from black grapes, Champagne is
nowadays the more valuable the more colourless it is. The
cut grapes are carefully cleaned, and carried in baskets or
panniers to the press-house. The animation of a harvest
day in the Champagne can hardly be imagined. Through-
out all the green undulating vineyards hundreds and thou-
sands of people are dispersed ; all the roads are lined with the
cleaners, and the heaps of grapes on trays and in panniers.
Everywhere donkeys stand to wait for new loads, or go in
long strings along the narrow paths of the driving roads.
So peculiar is this scene to the Champagne, that in our
many oenological peregrinations we have never observed
anything like it in any other of the wine-growing countries
which we have visited. The donkey is a symbol of the
vintage in the Champagne, as the great oxen are the symbol
of its culture in the Medoc. Nowhere else have we seen
grapes intended for wine carried home in baskets. The
grapes of the Me*doc, for example, would lose half their
juice if they were so carried, as they become crushed by
their own pressure, or fall off the stalks by slight shaking.
On the occasions of our visits to the Champagne in harvest-
time we were much struck with the good-nature and hospi-
tality of the population. Many persons carrying home their
produce would speak to us, or answer our greeting, and
invite us to taste their grapes an offer which had not always
the object of effecting a sale. The value of a hectolitre cf
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE.
I/I
grapes in bad years is 5 francs, in middling years 10 francs,
and in very good years it rises to from 12 to 15 francs.
115. PRESSING, FERMENTATION, CELLARING, AND
FINING OF THE WINE.
The presses in the Champagne are complicated and
powerful machines. The nuts of the iron screws, of which
ig- 34- The wine press of the small proprietor.
there are two to each press, of the size of a strong man's leg,
are worked by means of a toothed wheel, which is itself
turned by a large upright wheel to which four or five men
can apply their strength. This great power of the pressing
apparatus is necessary because the grapes do not go through
any process of crushing before being placed into the press ;
1/2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the entire grapes as they are emptied from the panniers are
thrown on the press, and the press is the only agent that
extracts the wine. The first must which runs from the
press is the best, and goes by the name of " the first drop."
In middling years this must is kept separate for the pro-
duction of the best quality of wine. The cake of murk is
repeatedly trimmed, the sides are cut off and thrown upon
the middle, and pressure is re-applied. The fourth drawing
is generally a harsh must, with much stalk-juice, and can
only in good years, when the stalks are very dry and yield
no juice, be mixed with the first three drawings. Forty
basicetfuls of grapes are generally put upon the press at
one and the same time, and yield ten pieces of wine. The
entire process of pressing one quantity has to be finished in
two hours; if that time be exceeded the must becomes
coloured. The must obtained by the first three pressings
(called serres) is put into a large vat standing by the side of
the press ; each such vat takes on an average not less than
ten pieces. In these vats, called cuves, the must is allowed to
stand at rest for from six to eighteen hours, to throw up a
froth to the top, and deposit a mucous matter at the bottom.
From both these impurities the must is separated and
drawn into small barrels of two hectolitres capacity and
left to ferment. This clearing of the must is also frequently
effected by filtration, particularly in hot weather. If the
season be warm this clearing must be favoured by sulphur-
ing the must to delay fermentation. The purified must is
then allowed to ferment in the chais, or cellar, and to lie
quiet until the weather has become cold, about the middle
of December. The wine, then mostly clear, is now drawn
from the lees. As the wine has now, to a certain extent,
declared its quality, purchases can be made with more safety
than at harvest-time, but of a less speculative kind, and at
higher prices ; thus commerce becomes enlivened at that
period. It is now that the Champagne-making houses carry
to their own establishments the wvie bespoke in autumn,
or newly bought by their agents, particularly that which
they stand in need of for mixing with the qualities which
ihey may have themselves produced. This mixing is one
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. 1/3
of the most important operations in the production of
Champagne. Every manufacturer is, of course, obliged to
produce the varieties which the public demand, and the
object of all the Champagne houses is to produce, by the
art of mixing, wines which shall satisfy the particular de-
mands, or represent particular qualities under particular
names of localities. When these necessary ingredients have
been brought together they are mixed by vatting, and drawn
off into barrels for further treatment.
The wine is next fined by the introduction of isinglass.
This is pounded small, soaked and swelled up in wine,
kneaded with the hands, and driven through a sieve to
disintegrate all solid particles, and then mixed with sufficient
wine to produce a semi-fluid paste. It is then allowed to
stand for twenty-four hours, when it has again formed a set
jelly. The adding of wine and the kneading with hands is
then continued daily, until the isinglass does not swell any
more, or as it is technically expressed, " ceases to grow." The
fining material is now ready ; it is passed through a tammy
once more, and the necessary quantity of it is then put into
each barrel and mixed with the wine by strong agitation.
The wine generally becomes clear in from twelve to fourteen
hours. One hundred pieces, or little barrels, require a pound
of isinglass, provided the wine was pretty clear when it was
put into the barrels ; but in case the wine was thick, each
barrel requires a quarter of an ounce of isinglass, which is
about double the quantity previously mentioned. Through-
out the Champagne these operations of fining are effected in
the small barrels. The reason for this is the facility with
which the wine is kept cold in them, so as to prevent every
chance of even the slightest degree of fermentation being set
up. All these operations are carried on in a shed above
ground, which is called a cellar or cellier, and corresponds
to the chais of the Me"doc. After the application of the
finings, and their thorough incorporation, the wine is left at
rest for a week or a fortnight, and if clear, is racked ; if not
clear it is left for another fortnight, and if not clear then,
is racked from the lees, and fined a second time. During
these finings and rackings much sulphur vapour is used for
A TREATISE ON WINES.
the purpose of keeping the wine quiet, and making it as
ipale as possible.
1 1 6. DRAWING INTO BOTTLES, OR TIRAGE.
The bottles intended to receive the wine for manufacture
are tested by experienced persons, who strike two bottles
together with their sides ; all badly annealed bottles break
at once ; the bottles which are too thin, or which show
blisters or galls, are rejected. The bottles which are not of
good shape are sold to the country people at a reduced
price, and it is partly owing to this fact that all the wines
which one gets throughout the Champagne in the small
public-houses, or sees among vignerons, is contained in such
faulty Champagne bottles. The bottles are washed with
water, rinsed with spirit, and closed with a cork, and are
ready for use. On each bottle the State levies a tax of
threepence. The 100 bottles cost, at the manufacturers,
twenty-eight francs; of these ten per cent, break or are
rejected at the testing.
The wine is now so arranged by mixing with sweeter wines,
or with sugar, that it shall contain two per cent, of ferment-
able sugar. In this state it is drawn into bottles ; these
are now corked. The corks are compressed by a special
powerful machine, and forced into the neck of the bottle
with a wooden mallet ; they are then tied down with string
and wire.
The full bottles are carried into the fermenting vaults,
or caves, as true cellars are called, and put up in piles of four
or five feet in height and any convenient length and breadth ;
the latter mostly four bottles deep. They are held together
with thin wooden laths ; single bottles can be removed at
any time. The wine in the bottles begins gradually
to ferment ; it becomes turbid, increases in bulk, and
shows the presence of gas when shaken. Now some bottles
break, from the internal pressure, or leak. When the break-
age does not exceed eight per cent, it is cheaper to take no
measures to arrest ; when it is higher the wine has to be
luncorked, or to be moved to a colder place; during this
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. 175
operation the workmen wear masks and gloves, to prevent
injury from bursting bottles. As winter cools the caves the
wine becomes quiescent, and the breakage ceases.
117. CLEARING OF THE BOTTLES OF YEAST,
OR DISGORGING.
When the fermentation is complete the stacks of bottles are
rummaged ; all broken bottles are removed, all those which
leak are put aside, and only those which have kept in good
condition are re-stacked. They are then allowed to lie at
rest until the whole of the yeast has settled on the lower
side of the bottle. In that state the wine remains until it
has to be prepared for sale. The preparations for clearing
the wine consist in putting the bottles with their necks down-
wards on benches which are pierced with holes. A workman
now gives the bottles a skilful turn, thereby effects the
loosening of the deposit of yeast from the side of the bottle,
and causes it to sink upon the cork. This has to be repeated
until the whole of the deposit has been worked down and
the wine is quite clear. The bottles are now what is called
disgorged, that is to say, opened by a skilful extraction of
the cork, and the yeast is removed ; a little wine is lost as
the cork is discharged with a loud report, and the froth,
which immediately rises, carries with it all the impurities
collected in the neck ; the latter is moreover touched with
the finger while the froth is rising, to detach the last traces
of yeast. The bottle thus prepared passes into the hands
of another operator.
118. LIQUEURING, CORKING, AND FINISHING.
Champagne prepared in the manner above described is
quite dry, that is to say contains no sugar whatever percep-
tible to the taste. But the operation of liqueuring is intended
to impart to its taste some amelioration, whereby it may
become more attractive, either by imparting to it some
amount of sugar corresponding to the taste of the con-
sumer, or to give to wine which has not had time to mature
1/6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
a certain finish and flavour, by mixing it with a small quan-
tity of good old well-matured and fine-flavoured wine. For
this purpose the Champagne makers provide themselves with
the best wines they can get for the purpose of making these
liqueurs, and in all these cases the liqueur consists of a
mixture of cane-sugar and wine only. But the cheap kinds
of Champagne, not admitting of the introduction of expen-
sive wines, or requiring the addition of alcohol on account
of the natural want of that ingredient, are only treated with
a liqueur consisting of spirit of wine and sugar. Many of
the so-called dry wines receive no sugar at all, but only
brandy. The liqueurs have to be made stronger or weaker
according to the nature of the wine, and to be added in
larger or smaller quantities according to the taste of the
consumer. For England strong-bodied wines are taken,
and little liqueur is added, because in this country the dry
and semi-dry qualities of Champagne are preferred. But
there is also mild, sweet Champagne imported, such as also
goes to Russia. In Austria and Germany Champagne is
preferred with some sweetness in it. In France a nice
medium of liqueur is commended. When the bottle has
received its measured addition of the selected liqueur it is
filled up with wine already liqueured, and handed to the
corker. The cork is forced in, and is tied down with string
and wire, and the operation of disgorging is complete. The
bottles are washed externally, inspected one by one as to
their clearness, and, if passed, covered with the usual tin-
or bronze-foil. The desired label is attached, and the bottles
are placed in boxes, or baskets, and exported.
Most Champagne makers keep their wine in an unfinished
condition as long as possible, as wine which has been so
lying is not apt to form a second deposit after disgorging.
It sometimes happens, however, that the wine which has
been disgorged and liqueured undergoes a second slight
fermentation, and thereby becomes turbid again. It has
then of course to be disgorged a second time, after the yeast
has been collected on the cork as before. If the wine has
become turbid without any fermentation, as it may from the
development of microscopic fungi, the second disgorging
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. 1/7
involves the loss of much mousse, the wine ceases to be
Grand Mousseux, and becomes simply Mousseux, or even
only Cremant.
119. QUALITIES OF CHAMPAGNE AND QUANTITIES
PRODUCED.
The wines produced in the Champagne are of four
qualities. Of these the first is Champagne non-mousseux
(Still Champagne}. This is wine which has been fully fer-
mented, fined, drawn into bottles, stoppered in the usual
manner of the Mousseux wines, tied, and allowed to rest
a long time. This is the original method of making bottled
wine in the Champagne, and out of it arose the discovery of
the Mousseux. Of such non-mousseux, many, if properly
matured, have striking peculiarities of taste and flavour.
The second variety is that moderately sparkling wine called
Cremant, which derives its name from its faculty of forming
a slight cream of effervescent bubbles upon its surface when
it is poured into a glass. The third variety is Mousseux. This
wine, on the bottle being opened, projects the cork with an
audible report, and begins to rise gently over the margin of
the bottle. The fourth variety is Grand Mousseux, which
projects the cork with a loud report, and immediately over-
flows from the bottle. When only a small quantity is poured
out, the foam which it produces also rises over the edge of
the glass. Champagne which contains less than four atmo-
spheres of carbonic acid gas is not any longer saleable as
Mousseux or Grand Mousseux. Mousseux must have from
four to four and a half atmospheres ; four and a half to five
atmospheres constitute Grand Mousseux. Above five atmo-
spheres of gas cause the wine to be lost by frothing, and
six to eight atmospheres burst most of the bottles. There
are distinctions made between ordinary wines, fine wines,
and cabinet wines ; between pale wines, reddish wines, the
so-called ceuil de perdrix, and those rather uncommon
varieties which are sometimes made as articles of curiosity.
The prices of Champagne begin at 165-. the dozen bottles
at the place of manufacture ; some varieties are sold in
N
178 A TREATISE ON WINES.
London in bond at lys, a dozen. Much is bought at 225.
and can be sold in London at 28^. per dozen. The price
of a good class of wine rises to 40$. ; best sorts to 65^. and
jos. Anything beyond is fancy price, for which special
grounds must exist.
Champagne must be kept a few months after having been
disgorged and liqueured, in order that the wine and liqueur
may be perfectly amalgamated, and the new flavour become
a little developed ; after a year it has reached its perfection,
and does not improve, but deteriorates after two or three
years. It becomes a little etheric, but it loses mousse, and
becomes cremant, and the danger of the stoppers leaking in-
creases with the time during which the pressure has been
exercised upon them.
Latterly, sound, rather dry effervescent wines from various
parts of France have made competition to Champagne ;
they are like the prototype, useful dietetic drinks for persons
of means or patients suffering from impaired digestion.
The glasses from which to drink Champagne should be
conical, seven inches high, and provided with a heavy base
or foot, so that they cannot be easily upset. In these glasses
the sparkling is best observed, in which much of the attrac-
tiveness of Champagne rests.
120. HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE DISCOVERY OF
CHAMPAGNE.
The Champagne has produced red and white wine ever
since the time of the Roman Emperor Probus, A.D. 280, to
whom, it is said, the Gate of Mars, still extant at Rheims,
was dedicated by his troops. It appears from the historical
notes contained in the work of M. Perrier, that there was at
the Abbey of Haut Villers a monk of the name of Dom
Perignon, who managed the cellars of the Abbey from the
year 1670 to that of 1715. One of his successors in the
administration, Grossard, states that Pdrignon was the
inventor of effervescent wine. Grossard had in his posses-
sion the documents of the Abbey up to the time of the French
Revolution, and he asserts that before Perignon, the art of
WINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE. 1/9
stoppering bottles with corks was not known ; the only
stoppers which were used being bundles of hemp dipped
in oil, as seen nowadays in some parts of Italy. It appears
from a little book of the year 1718, which has been
examined by M. Perrier, that white effervescent wine was in
course of being made twenty years previously, which would
put the first record of the making of such wine to the year
1698 ; it was then called petillant, " stopper-jumper," or
" cork -jumper," and "devil's wine." The new wine be-
came popular, but the art of making it was kept secret, and
all sorts of fables were current about it. The writer main-
tains that he possessed the true secret of the manufacture,
and that it had been given to him by the dying Dom
Perignon. It was, therefore, probably first made at Haut
Villers. The introduction of corks for stoppering bottles of
young wine would lead to the formation and discovery of
effervescent wine, and the rest would be done by art and study.
The production of Champagne has much increased during
the century; in 1835 about 5,000,000 bottles were
exported from France; of these America took 500,000;
England 700,000 ; Russia 500,000 ; Germany 500,000 ;
Sweden and Denmark 200,000 ; Italy 100,000 ; and 600,000
were used in France itself. In 1866, the export had risen
to 22,000,000 bottles, and at present exceeds 30,000,000.
i2i, PRODUCTION AND VARIATION OF THE MOUSSE.
One hundred volumes of wine containing 10 volumes per
cent, of alcohol, and 90 per cent, of water at 12 C., at the
ordinary pressure will absorb 132-969 volumes of carbonic
acid gas. The excess of carbonic acid gas, which makes the
wine mousseux can therefore exist in it only under pressure.
The fined Champagne wine, ready for bottling, called
Claret hardly ever contains more than a half per cent, of sugar.
This would be insufficient for producing a good mousse, and
therefore sugar has to be added ; its temperature also must
be raised to let the fermentation begin. The Champagne
maker carefully adjusts the amount of acidity in his claret;
if it be intended for sweet wine it may reach seven per mille,
ISO A TREATISE ON WINES.
while ordinary dry wine bears only four to five per mille.
He then examines the amount of sugar contained in his
claret, and adds as much to the quantity found as will raise
the whole to three per cent, of the weight of the wine ; this
percentage after complete fermentation would yield a mousse
of five and a half atmospheres, which after disgorging, would
fall to five. If the wine has been too much fined, and air
has not been sufficiently in contact with it, it is liable to
lose its power of passing into fermentation. To obviate this
mishap some makers carefully ventilate the wine, and add
a minute quantity of wine-yeast, not exceeding a teaspoonful
to the hogshead, to the sugared claret, in order to make sure
that a few spores may be present in every bottle.
The report on opening a bottle of Champagne is produced
by the gas which is compressed in the air space. If this
space be large the report will be full and deep ; if the space
be small the report is high pitched, dry and short. A good
report is only produced by a cork which fits equally all round,
and does not allow gas to escape on one side before it is
ejected entire. If the cork be unilaterally weak, or stand
obliquely, it allows the gas to escape with a hissing noise on
opening and no report is produced. This is so objectionable
that manufacturers spare no expense to obtain the best corks.
Champagne, after having been opened, and relieved of its
pressure, is somewhat viscid, and disengages the carbonic
acid slowly in the form called sparkling, in French p'etillement.
During the whole of this time the wine is over-saturated with
gas, as is shown by many phenomena. Thus the gas
bubbles rise mainly from projections and uneven portions of
the surface of the glass. Almost invisible particles of dust
give cause to the prolonged rise of strings of little pearls of
gas. Any porous body, such as bread, or sponge cake,
produces immediately a lively effervescence. When the glass
is held tightly in one hand, and the palm of the other is
struck gently on the top of it, bubbles are evolved on the
entire inner surface of the glass. The glass being depressed
suddenly, while the fluid is unable to follow as suddenly,
a slight attenuation is produced in the fluid next to the glass,
whereby the gas is liberated.
WINES OF THE LOIRE AND CHARENTE. l8l
The disgorged Champagne has lost all traces of ferment,
and possesses little tendency to ferment again ; the addition
of brandy and sugar diminish the liability to ferment still
further. Most Champagne, therefore, after proper treatment
remains clear and at rest ; the bottles should be kept lying
on their sides, so that the cork remains moist and swelled
and does not allow any gas to escape.
The cane-sugar, sugar-candy, which is added in the liqueur
to the sweet varieties of Champagne after disgorgement, is
after a short time found to be entirely transformed into
invert sugar.
Champagne after being poured into a glass contains
carbonic acid to the extent only of its own volume, no matter
what may have been the amount of gas in the bottle. It is
therefore probably an error to endeavour to give to this wine
a conventional mousse of six atmospheres. With such a
pressure the cork certainly rises high up in the air with a
loud report, the wine rises from the bottle and from the glasses
into which it is poured, and is in part lost by overflowing; but
when it is drank, the wine does not contain more carbonic
acid than it would if the wine in the bottle had contained
only two and a half to three atmospheres. The more the
wine is agitated by rapid development of overcharged gas
the quicker it becomes flat. The artificial aerated waters
show a similar bearing ; they become flat much sooner than
the natural ones, which, though less charged, are less agitated.
CHAPTER XVII.
WINES OF THE VALLEYS OF THE LOIRE AND
CHARENTE.
122. WINES AND VINES OF THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE.
IN the neighbourhood of Orleans there are considerable
plantations of vines which extend through an extensive
1 82 A TREATISE ON WINES.
plain towards Blois, and then towards Angouleme and
Poitiers, and further towards the Charente into the district
of Cognac.
The most common vine is the " miller," or Meunier, recog-
nized by its white dusted leaves; it bears bluish-black
grapes on middle-sized bunches, and is very fertile. Some
vineyards are exclusively planted with the " dyer vine," the
Teinturier. The grapes of this vine yield a dark red juice on
pressing, and this juice becomes still darker by fermentation
with the husks ; they contain therefore two different kinds
of colouring matter, one soluble in the acid, half-sweet
liquid juice ; and another insoluble in the juice, but extracted
from the husk by the alcohol developed during fermentation
with the aid of the acid contained in the juice. The wine
made from the dyer grape is of itself very sour, but is very
well suited for colouring white wines, one part being suffi-
cient to impart a red colour to seven or eight parts of wine.
Owing to the large quantity of astringent matter present in
the Teinturier juice, the white wines treated with it obtain
the character of original red wines, and are sold as such at
Paris mainly, being unsuitable for transport to greater
distance, or across the sea. The dyer grape, on account of
its thick black colour is also called Gros Noir, in some places
Auvernat tint, and at Cahors, in the department des Lot, it is
called Auxerrois. Next to the " miller" and "dyer," the most
commonly grown grape on the Loire is one called Auvernat
noir, which on examination turns out to be the black
Burgundy grape.
123. MODE OF CULTIVATION.
The cultivation of the vines on the Loire is carried on by a
number of methods ; the most rational is that according to
which the bearing canes form arches tied to a stake; the vines
are sometimes planted in groups of four, and the new canes
are united in the middle. From Blois towards Tours a low
ridge of mountains stretches for about forty-five miles along
the former wide bed of the Loire. The whole incline of
this ridge towards the Loire is covered with vines ; but all
WINES OF THE LOIRE AND CHARENTE. 183
are lying on the ground, with not a single stake to support
them, covering the earth in such a manner that neither a
path nor a separation of property can be distinguished.
From a distance the whole looks like a light green meadow ;
there is no interruption of its remarkable continuity. The
canes are always rejuvenesced by sinking, as in the
Champagne. The Germans call such a plantation a hedge-
vineyard.
In some parts of the valley of the Loire men live in ex-
cavations in the rocks; in others there are luxurious villas,
and splendid gardens with cypress, pomegranate, fig, orange
and citron trees.
124. WINES AND BRANDIES OF THE CHARENTE.
This viticultural district comprises a nearly circular ex-
panse of country on both sides of the river Charente ; its
eastern border is marked by the town of Angouleme, its
western by that of Saintes ; it comprises portions of two
departments, the department of the Charente proper, and
the department of the lower Charente ; its very centre is
marked by the town of Cognac. In many parts of this
land, the entire hill-country, as far as the eye can reach, is
seen to be covered with vines ; from Angouleme to Cognac,
a distance of about fifteen miles, stretches an almost con-
tinuous vineyard. This area produces a wine which is not
valuable as such, but only as the material for distilling from
it the spirit or brandy named Cognac.
125. VARIETIES OF VINES PRODUCING THE EAU-DE-VIE
OF COGNAC.
Cognac brandy is produced from vines bearing white
grapes, namely the Folle-blanche, the JSoillot, and the Blanc
doux, Colombar, Sauvignon, and St. Pierre. None of the
latter varieties, however, gives so sweet and well-flavoured
a spirit as the Folle-blanche. Its wine, nevertheless,
although full of alcohol, is not agreeable. The spirit of
red grape wine, which is sometimes made, does not possess
184 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the soft and agreeable properties which are peculiar to that
obtained from the white. Here vines were formerly
allowed to attain the height of dwarf trees, to admit of
some herbaceous growth underneath them, but the practice
is very rare now.
126. MODE OF PRODUCING THE EAU-DE-VlE OF COGNAC.
As the best brandy is obtained from the youngest wine,
distillation begins almost immediately after the fermenta-
tion is completed, and is carried on during the whole winter-
time. Almost every other proprietor of vineyards possesses
a still. Those vignerons who do not possess a still, sell their
wine to the large distillers, or have it distilled by any of the
migrating distillers, who go about from village to village,
and extract the spirit from any one's wine. In spring the
distillation is mostly effected and over. The spirit obtained
is for the most part, at first, colourless, and of the strength
called "four degrees of Tessa," equal to from 59 to 60
volumes per cent, of absolute alcohol. As regards this time-
honoured instrument, the alcoholometer of Tessa, it is
known and used mainly, some say exclusively, in the Cognac
district. Each of its degrees above four is said to be equal
to 3 volumes per cent, of alcohol, so that " five of Tessa "
would be about 63 per cent, by volume, and so forth.
Calculating the value of the lower degrees at that rate, the
zero of Tessa would be about 47 to 48 per cent, by volume
of absolute alcohol. We may surmise it to coincide with
the strength of eau-de-vie as formerly generally sold in
commerce, namely 49*1 per cent, by volume. The freshly
distilled Cognac brandy has a disagreeable, burning, rough
taste, without any flavour, and is, in fact, undrinkable. It
is kept in barriques of 200 litres for periods differing
between a year and four years. During that time it amelio-
rates, becomes sweet and tasty, and extracts from the wood
the light amber colour which it retains thereafter.
The quantity of brandy produced on the banks of the
Charente every year amounts to 180,000 hectolitres, being
the produce of the distillation of 1,400,000 hectolitres of
WINES OF THE LOIRE AND CHARENTE. 185
wine, which, together with 300,000 hectolitres of wine drunk
in the country and sold as wine, make the 1,700,000 hec-
tolitres of wine which grow on the 112,648 hectares of
vineyards in this department. In good years six to seven
bottles of wine yield one bottle of standard Cognac eau-
de-vie ; in bad years eight to ten bottles are required to
yield the same result. The value of wine, as such, in this
part of France is perhaps the smallest that occurs anywhere,
no more than from 8 to 10 francs per 200 litres being
paid for white, and 1 8 to 20 francs for red wine. Yet wine
continues to be produced, probably because climate and
soil do not admit of the cultivation of other crops. The
cultivable land rests everywhere upon a limestone, which
covers the soil with fragments in the same manner as in
Burgundy ; cultivation is by the hoe. The vines are
pruned once in spring, and beyond that no operation is
effected either upon the soil or upon the vine ; the rest is
left to nature and the sun. Rakes are neither required, nor
used. The vines sometimes have such strong stems and
tree-like branches that children can mount them.
A part of the district bears the name of the Champagne,
and hence the eau-de-vie produced here is called Cham-
pagne brandy, a term which has given rise to the erroneous
conception that the brandy was made from the mousseux
wine of the Champagne proper. All eau-de-vie of the
Cognac district is ranged in five classes ; the best is called
fine Champagne brandy, the second is termed little Champagne
brandy. These terms are all supposed to be derived from
the fact that vines were planted on clearings of forest, and
the space cleared was called a champagne, or cultivated
field. When at the beginning of the present century further
clearings were made, new names had to be made for them,
and they were called bois, or borderies (the latter is also the
ancient name for common wines grown in the district);
they were classified as ires ban bois, bon bois ordinaires, and
troisiemebon bois. Thus Cognac brandy is classified \r\five
great categories, derived from the assumed places of their
growth. Some writers limit the classes of Cognac to four.
The Charente seems to have overcome the depression
1 86 A TREATISE ON WINES.
caused by the ravages of the phylloxera, for it is reported
that about a hundred new firms trading in brandy have been
established at Cognac since 1875.
Those readers who would desire to read or consult a
general classification of the wines of France are referred to
Thudichum and Dupre, "Treatise," etc., /.<:., pp. 495-524,
where will be found at least the name and situation of every
wine-producing community. On pp. 493, 494 is a list of the
names of the vines cultivated in the different parts of France,
arranged according to climatic districts.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WINES OF THE UPPER RHINE AND MAINE
VALLEY.
Wines of Alsatia ; of the Palatinate or Rhenish Bavaria;
of Rhenish Hesse ; of Franconia, or the Upper
Maine; of Baden, Wiirtemberg, and
Hesse North of the Maine.
127. WINES OF ALSATIA.
THESE wines bear the Rhenish character, and are quite
distinct from the French wines ; they are mostly white, and
made from Riessling, Traminer, Burger, or Sibling and
Grosser Rauschling. There is also Sylvaner and Rulander
or Grey Pineau. Peculiar to the district is the Knipperle,
Petit Mielleux, which fills the vineyards of Thann, Rick-
weiher and Ribweiler. The cultivation is peculiar : the
vines are trained to form elements; each element at the
pruning receives a long fruit cane, which is bent in an arch
downwards and fixed to the stake. By this arrangement
most of the grapes are situated too high above the ground,
and ripen with difficulty. But the vineyards in the best
WINES OF THE UPPER RHINE AND MAINE. l8/
situations are cultivated like those of the Rheingau. The
vineyards of Zahnacker and Trotacker at Rickweiher are
celebrated by the researches which Boussingault carried on
in them, and from which we have taken many data con-
tained in our general part. Some parts of Alsatia are said
to be free from spring frosts, but all are exposed to the
early autumnal rains, which destroy a great part of the
harvest, particularly in Sylvaner. The wines produced are
Fig. 35. Cultivation of the Vine. Rhenish Basket.
consumed in the district and in the adjoining parts of
Switzerland. They were formerly added to Rhenish pro-
ducts of the lower districts, but now the reverse obtains.
The Strassburg hotel-keepers and wine-dealers were very
French as regards the labels on their bottles, but the contents
of the bottles were all genuine Alsatian products; this we
know from personal study and experience. Now this is
somewhat altered, and the German market has raised their
wines in the estimation of the Alsatians themselves. Most
1 88 A TREATISE ON WINES.
of the Alsatian wines are white and dry, those of good
quality ranking in the second class ; good old bouquetted
wine can be obtained now and then in country inns ; most
popular wines belong to the third class, and yet are by no
means cheap. The so-called liqueur or straw wines are
more curiosities than articles of commerce, and scarcely
leave the hands of their makers.
The wines of lower Alsatia, particularly those of the
historical environs of Weissenburg and Worth, have to be
considered with those of the Palatinate, as the vines and
viticulture are nearly identical.
128. WINES OF THE PALATINATE, OR RHENISH
BAVARIA.
The viticultural districts of the Palatinate are situated at
the foot of the Haardt mountain, which is the continuation
towards the north of the Vosges, and forms the western limit
of the Rhine valley in Rhenish Bavaria. The mountain,
which consists mainly of sandstone, rises rather rapidly to
a height of from 600 to 800 feet, and is intersected by many
valleys, which are mostly directed rectangularly upon the
Rhine. The land at the foot of this mountain is, in
general, from 50 to 100 feet higher than the level of the
Rhine valley, and forms, therefore, a kind of plateau, inter-
mediate between the Rhine valley and the Haardt moun-
tain. The slope is distributed over a distance of about four
or five English miles, and is therefore little perceptible in
any one locality. Near Landau and Deidesheim the district
is more hilly. The valleys which run from west to east
produce many exposures, but on the whole the aspect of
the vineyards is towards the east. The land upon which the
vineyards are situated is chiefly of alluvial origin, drift from
earlier ages of the Rhine, lacustrine shores, and washings
from the mountain by water and ice-carried drift. Here
and there basaltic formations are seen ; the red sandstone
of the higher mountain reposes upon clay schist and
granite. At some places the grey old chalk becomes
visible, as at Deidesheim and Neustadr, and influences
WINES OF THE UPPER RHINE AND MAINE. 189
viticulture favourably. Marl and sand are found over the
whole district, giving to the soil the peculiar faculty of pro-
ducing large crops. The whole of this alluvial formation,
from the mountain to the plain, is covered with vines, and
only rarely are a few small meadows to be seen in the troughs
of the smaller valleys. From many eminences, e.g., a mount
near Burrweiler, the wine-fields can be seen extending over
an area more than thirty miles long and seven miles wide.
They produce one-seventh part of all the wine of South
Germany, namely 70,000 fuder. The wine of the Palatinate
is reputed for its medium good quality, the purity and fresh-
ness of its taste, and the extreme relative lowness of its
price. The quality of the wine is partly the effect of the
regular air-currents, which during the day pass from west to
east, and during the night from east to west ; this air has
been warmed in the plain of the Rhine, and helps to bring
the grapes to better maturity.
129. MODE OF CULTIVATING THE VINE.
The mode of cultivating the vine is here altogether
peculiar ; it is called double-chamber cultivation (Zwei-Kam-
merbau\ and extends from Landau to Maikammer. At
Hambach and Dittesfeldt the so-called closed low-frame
training is usual. In all the villages east and south of the
village of Haardt the open low-frame training is usual ; this
latter also prevails in the celebrated vineyards of Rupperts-
berg and Deidesheim. The closed chamber-training or
KammerbaU) is essentially the result of a particular/raw^,
which is better understood by a drawing than a description.
From twelve to fifteen vines are adapted to such a frame,,
and, when the leaves and branches are fully developed,
form a low chamber, which is covered on all sides like an
arbour or bower. This framing entails great expense for
wood, and involves great agility on the part of the workers.
It is partly owing to this cause that nothing is done to the
vines throughout the growing season. They are allowed to
spread and cover the whole of the chambers as best they
may. In September only the viticulturists go out to cut
1 90 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the superfluous branches, mainly for the purpose of pro-
ducing fodder for their cows, which then begins to get
scarce in the meadows and in the fields. The branches
which cannot be consumed green are dried for the winter.
In the district of Weissenburg, and in Rhenish Bavaria, the
vine is, indeed, utilized as much to produce fodder as to
produce wine, and in some parts there prevails a practice of
planting mangold wurtzel underneath the chambers, whereby
the thicket is greatly increased, and the chances of the
ripening of the grapes are very much diminished.
The method of closed chambers is most developed in the
neighbourhood of Edenkoben, where the vineyards are
divided by many foot-paths and roads.
130. PREVAILING VINES.
The vines which are most commonly planted in this
district are the Chasselas, called Gutedel, the Traminer,
the Austrian or Sylvaner, and the Riessling. For some
decenniums the Traminer has gained a great preponderance,
and much good wine is now sold as being specifically made
from it. Whatever may be the origin of the name of the
vine, it is certain that it cannot be traced to the little town
of Tramin in Tyrol, as the vine does not occur there. It
occurs however in many localities under different names.
Count Odart and Guyot, the vitologist of the French
empire, term it Gentil dTtret, which we therefore accept as
the French name. The vine is medium-sized, its bunch
is small, generally dense, branched, pyramidal, multiple
and short. The grapes are of nearly equal size, small, and
somewhat elongated, but the more ripe and juicy the more
round they become. They are transparent, show veins of a
light red colour, whence the adjective (Gentil) rose used in
Alsatia, and a greyish-blue bloom. The skin of the grapes
is thick and hard, and resists the autumn rains better
than do the thinner husks of the grapes of other vines.
The juice is of semi-viscid, mucous nature, very sweet and
agreeable, and with a peculiar taste, which is not musky, but
aromatic. From this property the vine is also termed the
WINES OF THE UPPER RHINE AND MAINE. 19 1
aromatic Traminer (Gewurtz Traminer?) It cannot bear
spring frosts, as it does not shoot secondary eyes when the
first shoots have been lost. It is trained with fruit canes,
bent downwards ; the leaves are shed early, and the harvest
is sometimes taken off vines already entirely bared of leaves.
The wine made from the grapes has great body, makes an
impression of corporeality upon the taste, and is locally
called fat; it is smooth, generally, with little acidity.
In Tyrol, where it occurs, it is called Francon, and may-
have come from Franconia on the Maine.
The mixed sets of vines in the vineyards of the Palatinate
offer several advantages to the viticulturist over single sets,
and unitary plantations. The Chasselas ripens early, and
almost every year, and although it does not give wine of
lasting qualities, it yields tolerable substance without acidity.
The Traminer gives wine of much body and smoothness, as
already stated, but its lasting qualities during the first years
are doubtful. The Sylvaner yields a very fine liquid tasting
wine, without much particular flavour. The Riessling, in bad
years gives much acidity, but in good years it imparts to the
mixture of the other qualities a beautiful bouquet. This
mixture of vines produces the best average of which the
changes and vicissitudes of the seasons will admit. In the
direction of Worms plantations of pure Traminer and pure
Riessling are becoming more common.
There are in the Palatinate 33,048 morgen of vineyards;
of these 12,576 belong to the first, 9,816 to the second, and
10,656 to the third class. It is estimated that a full harvest
yields between 70,000 and 80,000 fuder of wine. As a
fuder is about 1,000 litres, the maximum would be 800,000
hectolitres.
131. WINES OF RHENISH HESSE.
The vines and wines of this province, the ancient arch-
bishopric of Mayence, are very similar to those of the Palati-
nate on the one, and those of Rheingau on the other hand.
The average annual production amounts toabout one"Stiick"
(piece) of 1,200 litres per morgen; and as there are 27,842
192 A TREATISE ON WINES.
morgen of vineyards, the total production of wine amounts
to 334,104 hectolitres, being less than half the quantity
produced in the Palatinate. The vineyards of Worms
include the one south of the Liebfrauenkirche, which pro-
duces the "Liebfraumilch," a Riessling wine of fine bouquet.
The district of Oberingelheim produces much red wine of
the character of Burgundies of the second and third class,
from Burgundy grapes, and furnishes considerable quantities
of these latter for the production of effervescent hock. The
district of Bingen is distinguished by the growths of Scharlach-
berg and Feuerberg. The wines of Laubenheim, Bodenheim,
Guntersblum, Nierstein and Selzen possess individual re-
putation, and are often substituted for wines of the Rheingau.
Many wines of the other villages, particularly of the Kreis
Oppenheim are sold under the title of Niersteiner, especially
in England, where the name of this village enjoys marked
favour.
The statistics of the area and production of the vineyards
of Rhenish Hesse, according to districts and communities,
can be seen in Thudichum and Dupre's "Treatise," l.c.^
PP. 537-539-
132. WINES OF FRANCONIA, OR THE UPPER MAINE.
The country anciently called Franconia, which is now
comprehended under the name of the lower circle of the
Maine of Bavaria, contains about 70,000 Bavarian tag-
merke of vineyards, which is about the same surface as that
cultivated in the whole of the kingdom of Wiirtemberg.
Most of the wine grown there is consumed in the country,
only a small quantity, grown in the proximity of Wiirtzburg,
is exported. The slopes and heights surrounding Wiirtzburg
are planted with vines in every direction, there being alto-
gether 6,000 morgen of them visible from the town as centre.
The best vineyard is the so-called Leiste, situated on the left
side of the Maine, in a small side valley, between two hills,
south of the former fortress. Next in quality to this is the
Stein, which is situated on the right bank of the Maine,
close to the river. To the north from the Stein is the so-
WINES OF THE UPPER RHINE AND MAINE. 193
called Middle Stein, and behind that the Harp and Schaiks-
berg; the vineyards continue eastward for some distance.
The wines of these situations in good years have a particular
strength.
The Leiste vineyard, 85 Wiirtzburg morgen, or nearly
17 hectares in extent, was protected from the north
wind by the wall of the former fort ; the grapes ripened a
month or two months earlier than elsewhere. The vines,
cultivated after the manner of Hochheim, are mostly Riess-
ling and Traminer, also the so-called Franconia vine, or
white Traminer, perhaps indigenous to this district. Odart,
who had consulted and corresponded with Stoltz, the author
of an ampelography of the Rhine, does not mention their
supposed origin. Besides these a good deal of Elbling is
grown. A peculiar grape is also grown here, the so-called
Ermitage, of a yellowish-brown colour like the white Trami-
ner, of fine flavour, the taste being between that of a ripe
Riessling and a Muscatel, having neither the fine flavour of
the Riessling nor the gross flavour of the Muscatel. A wine
made from such grapes only might be something excellent.
The greater part of the Leiste is a royal domain, and the
wine made there goes into the cellars underneath the royal
castle of Wiirtzburg.
The cellars of the castle are vaulted, and of splendid
construction ; on both sides of each vault there are casks
holding from five to ten fuder, or 50 to 100 hectolitres.
Many of these tuns date from the time when Wiirtzburg
was the seat of a powerful bishop, who was also the ruler
of Franconia under the Emperor. Many of the old casks
are ornamented with apostles and other saints. The largest
of them is so high that, in order to ascend to the top of it,
it is necessary to make use of a ladder of twenty-four steps ;
this contains 660 eimer, and was built in 1784. Not far
from this is another, called the " tun of the Swedes," because,
it is said, the Swedes, when sacking Wiirtzburg in 1630,
during the Thirty Years' War, left this tun unharmed. The
number of tuns in all the cellars of the castle is 289 ; of
these about ten per cent, are now supplied with wine. The
Leiste wine of good quality is mostly carried to Munich
o
194 A TREATISE ON WINES.
and drunk at court : only a small quantity is sold to the
trade.
The Stein, an abbreviation of Steinberg, or chalk-hill,
slopes towards the Maine, and the vineyards reach the river-
side. The best part of the Stein vineyard is the property of
the town hospital, and yields the wine called "of the Holy
Ghost." This can be bought only from the steward of the
Biirger Hospital, and is sold by him in peculiarly shaped
flasks called " Bocksbeutel," bottles with a wide belly
compressed from the sides, and a short neck, containing
thirty-two ounces of liquid. The vines prevailing in the
vineyards are Riessling, Traminer, and Rulander. The wine
of many vineyards in the neighbourhood of the Stein is sold
as genuine Stein, though of very inferior quality as compared
to it. Much of the wine which is sold under the name of
Stein wine in London is Palatinate wine, which at Mayence
and other places is filled into bottles of the shape of the
Bocksbeutel, and then sold as Stein.
The mode in which the vine was trained in Franconia is
called "the head-knob system," an antiquated form, con-
demned by experience. The best Rhenish methods are now
almost generally introduced.
133. WINES OF BADEN, WURTEMBERG, AND HESSE,
NORTH OF THE MAINE.
Wurtemberg and Baden produce considerable quantities
of wine, but as its quality is rarely above the fourth class
none is exported. The area of the vineyards of Baden is
51,532 Baden morgen; the quantity of wine produced
annually exceeds 500,000 ohm; its value is estimated to
vary between seven and eleven millions of florins, or nearly
a million sterling. Growths of reputation are the white
Markgrafler, which is the product of thirteen village districts,
and the Affenthaler, a light, agreeable red wine.
The government of the Grand Duchy of Baden have done
more for viticulture and the science and art of wine making
than any other authority on the continent. Only by the
government of Napoleon III. was an attempt made, with
WINES OF THE UPPER RHINE AND MAINE. 195
the aid of the viticultural author, Guyot, to effect for France
-what had been initiated by Baden. The scientific referee
And reporter to the Baden government was J. P. Bronner,
an accomplished apothecary and vineyard proprietor at
Wiesloch, near Heidelberg. He was commissioned to
undertake scientific journeys into many viticultural districts,
and report the results of his inquiries and inspections.
Thus he reported on the Champagne, and the art of
producing its effervescent wines ; on the Bourgogne, and the
art of producing red wines; on the Gironde, its treasures
and methods ; he travelled to French Switzerland, to Italy,
the Tyrol, Austria, Styria, Hungary, and in detail examined
the Rhenish vineyards, and studied the wild vines of the
Rhine Valley in an exquisitely scientific, and, withal,
almost poetical manner. He embodied his reports in small
treatises, which were published at intervals during the years
from 1830 to 1845. His works on the red wines, including
a history of the black Burgundy grape, which is interesting
as a chapter of the history of culture in general, were pub-
lished in 1855 and 1856. Altogether his works are con-
tained in some fifteen different publications, which are now
very scarce and difficult to obtain. It was Bronner who
mainly stimulated the adoption of improvement in viticul-
ture, and to his description of the art of making effervescent
wine is due the great development of this manufacture on
the banks of the Rhine. He had enthusiastic support on
the part of Dr. Batt, of Weinheim, and of the Director of the
Botanical Garden at Heidelberg, Metzger, who himself
published a work on viticulture, and formed a collection of
vines in the garden under his direction. There was also the
Baron von Babo, who, stimulated by Dr. Batt, the tutor of his
sons, went in for viticulture, and wrote several encyclopaedic
treatises. A son of this Baron became teacher of viticulture
at the Austrian Agricultural College at Kloster Neuburg.
The area of the vineyards of Wiirtemberg is 54,600 mor-
gen, of which more than half are situated in the valley of the
Neckar. The average money value of the annual product is
only three and a half millions of florins. Much of the wine
has a pale red colour, and hence is termed " Schiller."
Ip6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Hesse north of the Maine, produces wine in the valley of
the Kintzig, from Hanau to Gelnhausen, the ancient castle
of the Emperor Rothbart. named after his daughter Gela.
To the north of this is Biidingen, which has a favourably
situated vineyard called the Pfaffenwald. Here, in a
beautiful garden and vineyard, the author early acquired
that love for viticulture and its resultant or adjuvant
sciences which has remained with him throughout his life.
CHAPTER XIX.
WINES OF THE RHEINGAU, OF THE LOWER
MAINE, AND OF THE MOSELLE.
134. WINES OF THE RHEINGAU. HISTORICAL NOTE.
THE vine was cultivated in the Rheingau as early as the
sixth and seventh century, therefore long before the time at
which Charlemagne is related to have caused vines to be
planted at Riidesheim. Great extension was given to viti-
culture by mediaeval monasteries, Johannisberg (1106),
Eberbach, Steinberg (1131), and Grafenberg. The corpora-
tions were swept away by the Reformation, and the wars
consequent upon the French Revolution of 1789, and the
properties, having been for some time in the hands of
bishops, passed into those of Prince Metternich and the
Duke of Nassau. During last century a great extension of
viticulture ensued by the fact that many persons of property
invested in vineyards and planted new ones.
135. TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL NOTE.
The Rheingau is enclosed between the Taunus mountain
on the north, and the river Rhine on the south ; it forms a
bay in the mountain, twice as long as broad, and filled with
undulating hillocks. It is protected from sweeping northerly
WINES OF RHEINGAU AND MOSELLE. Ip/
winds, and from south-west winds; the climate is most
favourable to the production of the peculiar viticultural pro-
ducts. The basis of the soil is the Rhenish slate, or clay-
schist, the renowned grauwacke, which has been re-named
Devonian slate, as it occurs massively in Devonshire; in some
parts it contains much free quartz; at Rothenberg, near
Geisenheim, much iron oxide. The hills in the wider part
of the Gau are alluvial, with loam, marl, clay, and gravel, the
whole of the Rhine valley from Bale to Bingen having been
a great lake before the river excavated its present bed
through the slate mountains from Bingen to Coblentz.
| 136. VARIETIES OF VINES CULTIVATED IN THE RHEINGAU.
The characteristic and most frequently cultivated vine of
the Rheingau is the Riessling. It is durable, yields wood
every year, ripens in time before the winter frosts, is little
liable to be affected by the winter frosts, and is not easily
nipped by the May frosts, as it grows tardily in the spring.
It is a short-wooded vine. It is also common in Rhenish
Hesse and in the Palatinate, but in the latter the Traminer
and Rulander have much supplanted it. It is, however,
spreading in various parts of the world, even in Australia;
only in France and Italy it seems quite unknown.
The Riessling is not only peculiar to the Rhine valley,
but probably indigenous to it. Being a small vine, its fruit
is developed near the soil, and receives its radiation of heat
at night ; its bunch is not large, its grapes are also of a small
size, with little juice and much acid, with hardy skins cap-
able of withstanding much inclemency of the seasons, and
with great ability to ripen late in the year while hanging on
the vine, almost to the beginning of winter frosts. When
the grapes are very ripe they assume a rose-red hue.
During the last ripening the stalks become dry and shrivel,
ripe berries and some bunches drop off the vine, like other
ripe fruit. Of other vines, a small number of the Albe, or
Elbling, are cultivated. At Assmannshausen the black Bur-
gundy vine, or Pineau, is grown massively, and gives the red
wine for which the place is known. In many vineyards white
198 A TREATISE ON WINES.
grapes are mixed with the black ones. Of these the Klein-
berger is a variety of the Elbling, with small berries among
larger grapes, whence its name Kleinbeeriger, contracted in
speaking as just spelled. The small-berried large-bunched
Velteliner in also grown here and there amongst mixed sets.
The Rheingau is densely populated, but lacks an agricul-
tural substratum of fodder production, and this engenders a
one-sided reliance upon viticulture, which in bad years pro-
duces great want. Good years, on the other hand, make up
for the losses of many years. On the whole, however, the
statistics of the Rheingau show that no proprietor can on
an average make more than three per cent, per annum on
his capital, and for the realization of this interest even he
must be in a position to bide his time for selling.
The most important vineyards of the Rheingau are the
following : Ellfeld or Eltville, the largest village in the Gau,
is situated on alluvial loam, gravel, and clay ; the vines are
disposed in groups of four, an antiquated arrangement
called stocky now on the decline. The vineyard faces the
river. In Rauenthal, vineyards are situated on the side of
a long hill, which appears to be placed across the opening
of a large mountain valley ; it was a forest up till 1626, when
it was transformed into a vineyard. Each rood of land was
then charged by the lord of the manor with an annual impost
of one pint of wine, which tax has remained the same during
the centuries up to the present, and some years ago amounted
for the whole Berg to eight pieces and four ohms of wine. On
the west of the Rauenthaler Berg is an ultimate eminence
of white quartzy sandstone, where there was formerly a
chapel. From this point a view of the Rhine valley and the
Gau can be obtained, which rivals in magnificence that from
the Niederwald, or from Rudesheim. The vineyards of
Kiedrich include the Grafenberg, formerly the property of
the monastery of Eberbach, now held by private parties*
137. THE STEINBERG.
The Steinberg^ the most famous vineyard of Germany,
also belonged formerly to Kloster Eberbach ; it became a
WINES OF RHEINGAU AND MOSELLE. 199
Nassovian domain, and since 1866 is public property of
Prussia. The Steinberg is a hill about three miles distant
from the Rhine; its vineyard is a long oval of about eighty
morgen surface, entirely enclosed with a thick wall, twelve
feet high, and protected from the weather by a roof of
timber and slate. On the eastern side toward the convent
the wall is pierced by a number of doors, through which the
produce is carried to the Kloster. The vineyard is provided
with carriage ways, so that all parts of the plantation can be
reached by horse and cart; it is drained by drains of
masonry, sunk below the sphere of the roots of the vines.
The whole is ornamented by two pavilions. At the foot of
the vineyard is a farm, which is kept for the sole object of
producing the manure necessary for the vineyard ; to this
farm are attached 200 morgen of meadow land, and 400
morgen of arable land ; the tithe contributories delivered,
moreover, 1 2,000 trusses of straw, which, since the commu-
tation, have to be bought One hundred and sixteen head
of cattle are kept, besides the draught animals, and the
entire amount of manure thus produced, namely, a thousand
so-called double-carts full, each being equal to a load for
two horses, or twenty-four cubic feet, is annually carried
into the vineyard. Each morgen of vineyard receives every
three years forty such double-carts full, each double-cart
being distributed to sixty-four vines. The farm carts enter
the vineyard by gates leading into the enclosure of the farm.
It will thus be seen that the Steinberg wine is virtually
the product of 680 morgen of land, and not of the 80
morgen of vineyard only. The vineyard itself is divided
into parts, which produce different qualities of wine ; the
best grows in the part called "the golden beaker"; the
second quality in " the garden of roses " ; the third, newest
part, bears the name of " planzer." The work of dressing
the vines is performed by specially appointed vine-dressers,
called " Weinbergs Hofleute," who work by contract,
according to a special code of instructions, which is an
accurate and intelligible short guide to viticulture adapted
to the Rheingau. The vintage is always very late, mostly
in October, when the grapes are over-ripe. They are
2OO A TREATISE ON WINES.
trodden by men wearing special boots, standing in a pail
with a perforated bottom. Stalks are never separated from
berries ; they produce a slight depreciation of the wine, but
it is less than the expense of removing the stalks. The
presshouse is an old chapel, which the monks, having
built a new one, devoted to Bacchus. Where before stood
the altar they placed ten magnificent wooden wine-presses ;
the rest of the chapel was filled with pails, baskets, vats,
and other apparatus to be used at vintage time.
Opposite this chapel is a smaller hall, where the cabinet
wines are pressed. Close to this hall is the so-called Cabinet,
a vault above ground protected by double walls, and by
trees and shrubs from the external heat of the atmosphere
and the rays of the sun. In this place the best wines are
kept, and hence called Cabinet Wines. All other wines
are put in the large beautiful underground cellars, and
there prepared for sale. All the produce of Steinberg is
sold by public auction at Erbach. The day of this sale
resembles a festivity. Each stranger arriving, presumably
a buyer, receives a dinner and a liberal allowance of good
wine, cabinet wines being given with the dessert. The sale
afterwards proceeds amidst general merriment.
The wine at auction is sold in pieces of 1,200 litres each,
being 7^- ohms ; the cabinet wine is also sold in smaller
quantities by private arrangement, if the auction price be
below the reserved price ; it is also disposed of in bottle at
high prices. The wines of other domainial vineyards, e.g.
Hattenheim, are sold at the same time ; so that with the
average of 84 pieces from Steinberg, 120 to 150 pieces may
be sold at one auction. The price of the wine varies
between ^"65 per piece and ;6oo to ^700, the latter
being the highest realized for exceptionally fine qualities.
138. MARCOBRUNN AND JOHANNISBERG.
The vineyards of Marcobrunn are partly Nassau (Prussian)
domains, partly property of Count Schonborn. In the
middle of the front of the vineyard is the gushing spring
from which the situation bears its name. Other names are
WINES OF RHEINGAU AND MOSELLE 2OI
Hattenheim, Ostrich, Winkel, Geisenheim with its Rother
Berg. The Johannisberg is the only rival of the Steinberg ;
it is a conical hill, projected from the Taunus mountain to
within about a mile of the river Rhine. The estate was
originally a Benedictine abbey, founded in 1106 by
Ruthard, Archbishop of Mayence. In the course of seven
centuries the Johannisberg changed proprietors frequently :
in 1717 it was bought by the Abbot of Fulda, Adalbert von
Walderdorf, who built the present castle. At the time of
the French Revolution the Johannisberg came into the
hands of the then Prince of Orange, but Napoleon, after
the battle of Jena, took it from him and gave it to Marshal
Kellermann. In 1815 the Emperor of Austria took posses-
sion of it, and on August ist, 1816, gave it to Prince Metter-
nich, with whose descendant it now remains. The proprietor
pays annual wine-tithes to the House of Hapsburg.
The vineyard has a surface of 62 morgen, and is manured
by the entire produce of a farm of 450 morgen of arable
land, and 70 morgen of meadow land. The vine is culti-
vated after the manner usual in the Rheingau. The grapes
are selected with great care, and the vineyard is passed
through by the reapers several times, when the best produce
is selected berry by berry. Such Auslese, as it is termed,
easily loses the character of Rhine wine, and becomes a
sweet liquorous product, resembling Muscat or Sauterne.
Much of the wine is bottled at the castle and sold to the
public. Each cork shows the brand of the Metternich arms ;
after it has been inserted in the bottle, it is sealed over, and
the wax is again impressed with the same coat of arms. A
label, stating the name, year, and price of the wine, is now
fixed upon each bottle, and the wine is then sent away in
cases and baskets to its destination.
The cellars of the Johannisberg generally contain upwards
of a hundred pieces of wine. The quantity of wine produced
varies greatly with the years between forty-eight and sixty
pieces. The wines of inferior years are sold by auction after
the spring racking, only the higher qualities are kept in the
cellar, and are bottled at the age of four or five years, the
time of their maturity in cask. After being bottled, the
2O2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
wines improve greatly in bouquet, and keep twenty-five
years. The auction wines fetch from ^50 to ^200 per
piece, and the cabinet wines from ^"500 to ji,ooo per piece.
The Johannisberg wines, like all white Rhine wines, are kept
very pale, and any influence which would increase their
colour is carefully kept away.
139. VINEYARDS OF RUDESHEIM.
The vineyards of Rudesheim have perhaps the most ideal
situation of any on the Rhine, but suffer easily from drought.
They are now daily traversed by many tourists, who ascend
to the Niederwald to inspect the national monument com-
memorating the results of the war of 1870-71. The Rtides-
heimer Berg, as the best part of the vineyard is termed, has
an area of upwards of 400 morgen. The price of vineyards
is very high, as the mere planting, terracing, earthing, and
removal of stones from underground, etc., involves an
original expense of from ^600 to ^"700 per morgen.
140. WINES OF THE LOWER MAINE, OR HOCHHEIM.
Hochheim is a village situated on the northern side of
the Maine, about three-quarters of a mile from the banks of
that river, 100 feet above its level, and about three miles
above its confluence with the Rhine. The vineyards extend
for two miles along the northern bank of the river ; their
area is 1,779 morgen of 160 ruthen each ; their inclination
to the south is slight, and they have no particular protection
from the north wind ; but the two most celebrated vineyards,
the Domdechanei, and the Stein, are protected on their
northern ends by a high church and the houses of the
village. The so-called " church-plot " (or piece) of the
Dechanei yields wines for which, in good years, as much as
^600 per piece Rhenish are obtained. The soil is calcare-
ous clay, mixed higher up with gravel. The vines and mode
of their treatment are the same as in the Rheingau, as by
its methods and results Hochheim is really a part, and a
very typical one, of the Rheingau. The Riessling grape
here attains its highest development; it is, when perfect,
WINES OF RHEINGAU AND MOSELLE. 203
light brown and transparent, not green ; the kernels are
brown, and not white or light-coloured ; the taste is burning,
sweet, and accompanied with the peculiar strong flavour of
the Riessling ; the stalk of the perfectly ripe bunch must be
dry and shrivelled, like that of raisins, and not green or
succulent. Vinification offers no peculiarities. The wine is
ripe for bottling after five years.
Hochheimer seems to have been the earliest and best-
known Rhenish wine in this country, and has furnished the
monosyllabic English term by which all Rhine wines are
confused, the curious symbol of " Hock."
The whole of the vineyards in bearing in the Prussian
province of Nassau, including Hochheim, have an area of
10,974 morgen; the morgen contains 160 ruthen of 100
square feet each. The produce may be estimated as amount-
ing to a piece of wine per morgen. Of all the vines in the
province 51 per cent, are Riessling, 16-3 per cent. Klein-
berger, 8-9 per cent Sylvaner, or Oestreicher,* 6-9 per cent,
are nondescript mixtures; the black Burgundies amount to
4 per cent, the Traminer to 2-2 per cent., and the almost
extinct Orleans vine to only 0.8 per cent. The Nassau
ohm measures 160 litres ; the piece (German Stuck) mea-
sures 74; ohms, or 1,200 litres; the same measures obtain in
Hesse Darmsdadt and Baden. The Frankfort ohm, by which
wine is commonly sold to England, has a capacity of only
143-41 litres, or 31 -56 imperial gallons. Of Frankfort ohms,
eight are equal to one Frankfort stuck of 1,152 litres, equal
to 640 Frankfort maas. The Palatinate/z^kr is 1,000 litres^
141. WINES OF THE MOSELLE.
The Moselle issues from the western slopes of the Vosges,
and receives its principal contributory, the Saar, near Treves ;
it then runs nearly northwards, with many windings, and
flows into the Rhine near Coblentz. The valley is deeply
cut through the Rhenish slate formation, or Devonian schist,,
which on the right bank bears the orological name of Huns-
ruck, or Hundsriick, on the left that of the Eifel. Its
undulating banks in Lorraine are mostly covered with black
2O4 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Burgundy vines; but from Treves to Cochem white vines
are planted.
142. CULTIVATED VINES AND MODE OF TRAINING.
Of the cultivated vines of the Moselle, one, the Albuelis
of Columella, or Elbling, or Kleinberger, seems to be indi-
genous to the Moselle valley. It occurs in all vineyards,
and frequently prevails over the Riessling, but the latter is
everywhere mixed with it. In five or six districts from
Piesport to Trarbach are vineyards planted with Riessling
exclusively. At Piesport and Kersten more red wine is
already made, and in the neighbourhood of Cobern, Cochem,
Garden, and a few places of the Lower Moselle, much red
wine is grown, and the Burgundy vine prevails.
The small viticulturists grow their vines according to the
hedge principle, as it is termed (Hecken- Wingert}, that is to
say, the vines 'get one pruning, no supports, and then grow
as best they can : in August and September superfluous
branches and foliage are removed for fodder, and in October
any grapes are cut. The wealthier viticulturists all go in for
quantity, and frequently injure their vines by leaving too
much wood for bearing. The cultivation on the Upper
Moselle is essentially French, specially Burgundian.
143. PECULIARITIES OF MOSELLE WINES.
The general character of white Moselle wine is that of
thin Rhine wine, but it never attains as much flavour. It
matures quickly, and does not possess the keeping qualities
of Hock. Owing to the natural absence of flavour or
bouquet, the producers of Moselle, and the merchants in
their track, have devised an artificial flavour, namely, the
tincture of the elder flower : it is used particularly in
sparkling Moselle, and when properly applied affords a very
agreeable bouquet. The tincture is made as follows. The
little elder-flowers are cut from the bunches and infused
with pure strong spirit of wine. After twenty-four hours
standing the spirit is filtered. It may now be again infused
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 2O5
upon new elder-flowers, and this process repeated several
times, according to the strength which it is intended to give
to the essence. Much care has to be bestowed upon the
clarification of the essence. Of this tincture a small quan-
tity added to common Rhine wine or Moselle gives it the
peculiar flavour which is termed " muscatel flavour." But
there is no grape grown upon the Moselle fit for wine-
making which has this flavour, or any muscatel flavour, and
not a single barrel of wine is made which has that flavour
naturally, all which has that flavour derives it from elder-
flower ; much of the "Moselle with muscatel flavour" sold
in England is Rhine wine flavoured with the elder. There
can be no objection to the use of this tincture, and there
ought to be no concealment about it. Elder-flower is an
agreeable flavour, in no way prejudicial to health, and has
from time immemorial been used to make a high-flavoured
infusion for the treatment of slight indisposition, particularly
of the gastric organs.
The area of the vineyards on the Moselle is 20,606 mor-
gen, which, with 15,080 morgen situated on the Rhine, make
up 48,631 morgen of vineyards in Rhenish Prussia. The
greater part of this area has been called into viticultural
productivity by the protective -duties which Prussia imposed
on the exports of the small states before they joined the-
customs union, now merged in the empire.
CHAPTER XX.
WINES OF AUSTRIA.
144. WINES OF AUSTRIA.
IN German Austria the young wine is put into new barrels
of large size, provided with man-hole doors which are not
pierced ; for as the wine is not drawn from the lees in spring,
but is allowed to remain over them until sold and broken
2O6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
in smaller parcels, the purchasers do not like to buy casks
which have the man-hole door pierced for the insertion of a
tap, owing to a belief that such a condition of the cask would
indicate that the wine had been disturbed, mixed, or tam-
pered with. The producers, on their side, know how to
disarm such suspicion by providing every old cask which
they use for receiving new wine, or any wine in their cellars,
with a new man-hole door which has not been pierced.
In some convents and monasteries in Austria there are
cellars filled with casks containing up to ten fuder of wine ;
one fuder being equal to thirty-two eimer, or about 1,728
litres, the largest cask would contain upward of 172 hecto-
litres. Many of these casks contain wine ten and more
years old still floating over the first lees. In 1840 Bronner
tasted wine at Neuburg which had been eighteen years over
its first lees, and not been racked at all. This practice
makes wine expensive, and explains many of the short-
comings which Austrian wines formerly exhibited. No
private producers could accumulate their crops in this man-
ner ; on the contrary, they are compelled or induced to sell
their wines somewhat too early, and it is for such reasons that
Austrian wines have not taken that place in European trade
which their otherwise good qualities might entitle them to.
145. RED WINE OF VOSLAU, NEAR VIENNA.
About fifteen English miles south of Vienna, in the
neighbourhood of Baden, are two viticulture districts,
named from the villages of Voslau and of Gumpolds-
kirchen, which have, during the last forty years, obtained
some notoriety. The red wine produced in them comes
from a particular black-graped vine, termed the Early Blue
Portuguese. The grape is early ripening, sweet, of some-
what larger size than the Burgundy Pineau. It is said to
have been imported from Portugal, and to be identical with
the Alvarilhao of the Douro district, 1 but we have not been
able to substantiate these assertions by positive proof. The
wines made from this grape are fit for use in a very short
1 Odart, I.e., p. 369.
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 2O/
time after they are made, and do not require a long sojourn
in the cellar, while wines made from other grapes in Austria
require to be kept in barrel sometime before they become
drinkable.
The produce of Voslau is mostly bought by the inn-
keepers and speculators of Vienna and Baden, in the shape
of what is called gemesch, that is to say, of grapes in a vat
crushed by wooden stampers. The more advanced pro-
prietors make their wines according to the best methods of
France and Germany.
The vines are kept near the ground, but are so pruned as
to produce many small grapes on many branches of wood.
The soil of the Voslau vineyards is chalky.
146. WINES AND GRAPES OF THE TYROL.
The wine-producing part of the Tyrol is situated along
the valley of the Adige, beginning near Verona and running
by Botzen up to Meran. The valley of the Adige is pro-
tected on the north by high mountains, and represents a
kind of basin, over which eastern and western storms h'ave
no power, and the slopes of which are most favourable to
viticulture, particularly where they are composed of a
mixture of decayed chalk, gneiss, and porphyry. At Botzen
and Meran sun and moisture vie in producing the greatest
development of vegetation compatible with the temperature
of the moderate zone. In ascending the Adige we find that
with the Italian language ends the Italian mode of viticul-
ture. With the German language commencing at Tramin and
Neumarkt, the system called " bowers " commences, while
that of the Italian " garlands " ceases. For some miles both
systems are mixed, imitating the mixture of nationalities.
At Roveredo appear the crossed stakes which prevail near
Trieste. The garlands are trained nearer to the ground, and
the plants are close together. At last there are no more twisted
ropes of vine-canes, but only single canes stretching from
stake to stake. These then also disappear, and the vines
are kept near the ground, as at Seyssel, in Switzerland, in
the form called " head-knob," or "willow-tree top."
2O8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
By the bower treatment a great quantity of wine of the
lowest quality is produced, which is only used by the
country people, and quite unfit for any staple trade or ex-
port. But the German inhabitants now cultivate the vine
after the Rhenish pattern.
The varieties of grapes cultivated in the Tyrol are in the
Italian part entirely Italian ; in the German part there have
hitherto been grown only large -berried white and blue
varieties, among them the Vernatsch. This is a black
muscatel, known as such in France and Germany under
the name of Aleatico ; in upper Italy, under that of Ver-
naculo e Toscana. The grape is only fit for the production
of so-called liqueur wines, that is to say, grape juice pre-
served from fermentation by the addition of distilled spirit.
Such is the Tuscan Aleatico wine, and the French Lunels,
Frontignans, the Cape Constantia, Cyprus, and many others.
For the production of fermented dry wines the Vernatsch is
quite unsuitable.
1*47. THE TYROLINGER, OR "BLACK HAMBRO" VINE
OF THE TYROL.
The vine most characteristic of the Tyrol, known in Ger-
many as the Tyrolinger, or Trollinger, is that celebrated,
and to all growers of vines in conservatories and hothouses,
and particularly therefore to English viticulturists, most im-
portant vine, which they know under the name of Knevet's
JSlack Hambro, The French, who received it from the
Palatinate, called it Frankenthal. It is the usual table-
grape in the belt of land which once constituted the
Austrasian empire, stretching from Holland and Belgiuml
through South Germany, down the Danube almost to Pestrr
Odart (/.<:., p. 367) in consequence called it "the nationa,
grape of the Germans " ; and curiously enough speaks of it
as a useless low vine, which he had torn out. However, it
is certain that the Tyrolese or Black Hambro grape is of all
eating grapes the most perfect, on account of its having
thin husks, small pips, tolerably solid yet juicy flesh, and
an agreeable acidity never in excess, mixed with a sufficient
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 209
amount of sugar and mild flavour. The bunches are never
very large, and not so close that the grapes have not suffi-
cient space to develop themselves. The vine is always
fertile, and even in bad years its fruit may be used, though
not completely ripe, or may be used in good years some-
what under-ripe, on account of the modest amount of
acidity. When the grape gets ripe and is allowed to hang
a little beyond its actual period of ripeness, it yields a
splendid wine ; but this state of ripeness is hardly ever
reached in the places where it is cultivated for the produc-
tion of wine. There are two celebrated vines of this variety,
one in a greenhouse in Hampton Court garden, and one in
the conservatory at Windsor Castle; they are very old
stocks, and annually surprisingly fertile.
The Tyrolese wines offer no points for observation, except
that in late years they have been much improved, and several
enterprising viticulturists have planted vineyards with the
best vines of the Rheingau. A first harvest was obtained in
1869. But the treatment in the cellar was not yet developed,
and difficulties have to be overcome to this day, consisting
in the obstinate occurrence of so-called diseases produced
by parasitic fungi. We also doubt whether the transfer of
the Rhenish Riessling will be so successful as is hoped, mainly
because we observe how vines are, so to say, related to dis-
tricts, and perhaps autochthonous, and only succeed under
other latitudes by special care or favour of local conditions.
148. THE GRAPE-CURE AT MERAN.
The expression "grape-cure" is intended to signify the
systematic eating of grapes on the part of patients afflicted
with sundry chronic ailments which resist the ordinary modes
of medical treatment, for the purpose of ameliorating their
ailments. There are at Meran lodging-houses and hotels,
where, in the proper season, people from many parts of
Europe arrive and put themselves under the care of those
medical practitioners who make a speciality of this kind of
treatment. The patients are made to eat grapes in consider-
able quantities frequently during the day, the largest quantity
P
2IO A TREATISE ON WINES.
in the morning, and at the same time to take exercise. To
the greater number of these patients the eating of grapes is
more a pleasure than a privation, particularly when their
digestive organs are not the seat of their ailment. The
earliest effect of the eating of a certain quantity of grapes is
purgative, but as the grape-juice nourishes at the same time,
it is superior to the mere purging mineral waters. The selec-
tion of grapes at Meran is not easy, as there are only Trollinger
and Vernatsche to be had the Trollinger in a state in which
it is still watery and acidulous, and the Vernatsche (i.e.
Veronaccia, or vine of Verona, at Verona called Pavana)
being also, at the early season, when the cure must be
commenced, not sufficiently advanced in sweetness and
concentration. The doctors of Meran have recognized the
disadvantage that their only choice of material was between
these two varieties, and have observed that at some periods
their patients rather lost than gained weight, while with better
grapes the patients mostly increase in weight during the
treatment.
149. WINES OF STYRIA.
The cultivation of the vine in Styria extends from Stein-
briick, along the Save, and from Cille to Marburg, the vine-
yards in the Bacher mountains being particularly extensive.
Styrian viticulture has been described by many authors in
that country itself, but it became known to wider circles
only through the writings of the late G. P. H. Bronner, of
Wiesloch in Baden. The wines of the western part of the
Gallus mountain are generally known under the name of
the place where they are usually sold, namely, at Saurish Winer,
a name which lends itself to the suggestion of invidious
reflections. Styria debouches not towards the Mediterranean,
or the northern part of the valley of the Danube, but its
long-drawn valleys are all directed towards the east, and
communicate with the lower part of Hungary ; as hitherto
the sales could only take place in the direction of the river,
and as just in that direction there was no want, the only
market which the Styrian producer had for his wine was his
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 211
own country and the mountainous district of the neighbour-
ing Alps. Nevertheless, wine is grown on 54,000 joch or
morgen, each joch bearing 4,000 vines. Near Pettau are
ranges of hills, so-called Cotles, nearly thirty miles in length,
on which viticulture is carried on in the crater of the extinct
volcano, of which each hill is the remnant. The funnel-
shaped inside of the crater mostly measures ten morgen, but
there are some the area of which rises to twenty morgen. The
vines are grown on the slopes exposed to the sun ; the slopes
turned to the north are mostly covered with forest. In the
mostly even bottom of the crater ordinary agriculture is
carried on. In the centre of each crater is mostly a central
volcanic cone, on which the residence of the cultivator is
built. The traveller who on a misty morning stands on a
high point, and looks over these craters, sees the houses
appear above the horizon, as if they were suspended to the
sky and had no footing on the earth, and thus enjoys an
apparently magical spectacle.
150. VlTICULTURISTS OF STYRIA.
Styria is divided into two nearly equal parts by the river
Drave, which comes from Carinthia and flows into the
Danube in Hungary. The part of Styria north of this river
is entirely German, the part south of it Wendish. All the
Wends are viticulturists, while the Germans engage here but
little in that occupation. The wine-producing Wends are
termed "AVeinzettel"; they live on small properties, either
as renting farmers or as freeholders. Where the wine-
grower is only a tenant farmer, he frequently pays the most
curious rent or receives remuneration. The master gives him
two cows, and finds fodder and straw; the tenant takes
the grass from the vineyard and feeds the cows with it.
The calf of the cow belongs to the master, the milk to the
cultivator, but the master exacts not rarely eighteen pounds
of butter in a clarified state. On the other hand the master
pays to the cultivator thirty shillings per acre in cash, and
takes half the produce, so that there is a perplexing amount
of cross-calculation. In some parts the dung produced by
212 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the cattle on the farm belongs for half the year to the
master, and for the other half year to the cultivator. This
complicated condition denotes a very elementary state of
society, there being neither capital on the part of the pro-
prietors nor resources of any kind on the part of the
cultivators, and the effect of these circumstances unfavour-
ably influences the wine produce.
151. VARIETIES OF VINES CULTIVATED.
Some of the vines cultivated are probably indigenous to
Styria, which has many wild vines, e.g. on the banks of the
little river Svan. In the Gratz district dominates the
Bellina, by the Germans termed "Heunisch," i.e. Hungarian,
and by the Hungarians "German." In the mountains of Lut-
tenberg and in the vineyards of the Drave the Mosler vine
predominates, also called Schipon, identical with the Hun-
garian Furmint, or vine of Tokay. The Mosler always bears,
ripens its wood, produces middle-sized grapes, which do not
drop easily, and, when the sun is high, shrivel into raisins,
from which, if need be, sweet wine can be made. The
Rhenish Riessling also has been transplanted, but yields a
fiery wine without much bouquet. In the less favoured
part of Styria the dominant vine is the Tantovvina, which
bears copiously, but gives a mediocre wine ; its German
name is Mehlweiss. In the mountains of Gams white or
yellow muscatels are grown, the juice of which is mostly
consumed during fermentation. The Gonovitz red wine is
made from the small round black grapes of the Kauka ; the
red wine of the Sausal mountains is made from grapes of
the blue Wildbacher, an abundant bearer, which gives
tolerable grapes even when grown as a climber on trees.
One such vine, on a pear-tree, yielded to the late G. P. H.
Bronner, of Wiesloch, in 1866, sixty litres of very good red
wine. The wines of the Wildbacher resemble most the
vigorous Bordeaux varieties, the Palus. This vine is no
doubt indigenous to Styria ; in the forests trees are here and
there found covered by it ; it produces long canes, some ex-
ceeding twenty feet in length : it bears every variety of
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 21$
training low, like Burgundy vines, or along houses, or in
frames, and everywhere brings great harvests. The berries
are round, small, black, and covered with bloom. The skin
is so thick and protected by bloom-wax, that it does not rot
easily, resembling the Verdot of the Bordelais, and may there-
fore hang long on the tree without detriment to its colour.
The pruned canes, after cutting time, are thrown into the
roads, to make them passable. Every proprietor abutting
upon the road takes in autumn one half of the bruised and
comminuted fragments of these vine canes, and puts them
into his vineyard as manure. To avoid disputes, the two
abutting proprietors sometimes agree to take the material
alternately every other year.
152. VINDICATION, PRESSING, AND QUALITY OF WINE.
The production of red wine in Styria has, through the
exertion of the oenophilist Trummer, been much improved,
so that closed fermentation vats are used, when formerly
only open, wide, flat wooden pans were employed. The
bruised grapes are packed in the shape of a pyramid and
bandaged with a long flat bandage made of the roots of the
common juniper, and having a length of from 100 to 130
feet. The pressure is now applied, and the spiral lines of
the bandage are pressed the one into the other, until the
whole of the juice is squeezed out. This method is also
common in Andalusia and in Dalmatia. The Wends use
concentric hoops to contain the grapes under the press.
The presses are mostly beam-presses, there being few screw-
presses to be seen ; the beams are up to thirty feet in length,
the pressing beds are from ten to twelve feet square ; stones
are hung to the ends of the beams.
As each joch produces about twenty-five eimer of wine,
the 54,720 jochs of vineyards in Styria give a total harvest
of 1,367,500 eimer. The late Archduke John, quondam
Reichsvenveser of Germany, and Dr. Hlubeck improved
viticulture in Styria greatly during the years from 1830 to
1850. In the Austrian exhibition of 1857 ninety-nine
Styrian wines of good quality were exhibited ; some Styrian
214 A TREATISE ON WINES.
produce is made into effervescent wine by the firm of
Kleinoschegg. The Styrian wines are naturally so good,
that with proper treatment they might become objects of
a considerable commerce.
153. WINES OF CROATIA.
The climatic "condition of Croatia favours viticulture,
but in consequence of the want of labour the producers cul-
tivate the vine for quantity, neglecting all attempts at
quality. The best vine is the Moslavina, known in Hun-
gary as Furmint, but the dominating vines are the Griin-
hainer and the Heunisch, which cannot possibly give good
wine. The vine arrives at its full bearing power only in the
eighth year after being planted ; it is sunk once or twice, to
give it a large footing. It is pruned in spring, when also
the soil is worked ; then the vineyard is allowed to grow as
best it can until the time of the vintage approaches. At that
time the vineyard is a mere jungle. The vine-dressers,
therefore, on entering the vineyard, cut their way through
the tangled vines, and tie up what branches remain uncut,
and in general make the vines accessible to the reapers.
Behind the vine-dressers there go relays of women, who
with sickles cut off the thick layer of weeds and grass on
the ground. A Croatian vineyard, like some we know of
at the Antipodes, is therefore a very picturesque scene at
vintage time, and exhibits the power of nature and the
luxuriance of the vine very well ; but its produce is neces-
sarily of low quality. The grapes are vintaged at the period
of their greatest volume. The presses are mostly beam-
presses ; there are are no proper receptacles for the murk,
but this is mixed with old vine cuttings, as brick earth is
with straw, and pressed. The must gets hot, and when it
has completed fermentation has mostly an acetic taste.
It is kept in a hole dug in the earth, covered by a reedy
thatch, and this arrangement goes by the name of cellar.
Even better cellars below houses are too warm in summer.
The really great viticultural capabilities of Croatia are thus,
wasted entirely.
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 215
At the exhibition of Wagram in 1864 above a thousand
specimens of Croatian wine were exhibited ; they were all
contained in well filled, beautifully corked and labelled
bottles. But not one specimen out of ten was free from
serious faults ; nine out of ten exhibited the acetous flavour
and the mouse-taste. This latter an Austrian juror of
Neuburg facetiously termed the peculiar Croatian bouquet,
while some Croatians themselves believed it to be derived
from the soil.
154. WINES OF DALMATIA.
A traveller intending to visit Dalmatia may leave Trieste
on board a steamer, and pass the Istrian coast and the
bay of Quarnaro. While the steamer passes between the
island and the mainland towards the south, the tourist will
perceive bare rocky mountains without any vegetation;
only here and there will he perceive some shrubs rising from
crevices in the rocks ; if he were to draw a conclusion as
regards the condition of Dalmatia from the appearance of
the sea-coast, he would believe it to be a stony desert. On
penetrating into the interior, however, he perceives that
many valleys.intersect the rocks, the bottoms of which are
cultivated in "various ways, while the slopes leading to them
from the rocks are planted with vines. These vineyards
exist altogether only by the assiduity of man. The earth is
carried from the valleys up the steep inclines, and fixed by
means of terraces ; and as the strong winds from the sea
would speedily blow the earth away, every small piece of
vineyard is surrounded by a wall not less than six feet high.
The stones from which these walls are built are mainly the
produce of blasting operations, undertaken to diminish the
inclination of the territory. The vineyards are thus real traps
to catch the sun's rays and boil the vine. By these means
Dalmatia was able, when the oidium had reduced Italian
wine production to one-tenth of its average, to immediately
supply the deficiency. Since then, Dalmatian viticulture has
been steadily on the increase.
2l6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
155. VARIETIES OF VINES AND THEIR CULTIVATION.
Amongst a great variety of vines cultivated in Dalmatia,
the Italian vines predominate, owing, no doubt, to the easy
communication by sea with Italy. Amongst the blue
varieties are the Hungarian Kadarka, the Crelenjack, the
large and small Plavec, and the Modrulj. On the islands of
Brazza, Glavusa, and Nicousa, the vines called the Vugava
and Uva pasche predominate. The Dalmatians are parti-
cularly pleased with the Crelenjack and the small Plavec.
The latter gives a slight wine, but bears largely. Among
the white varieties is noteworthy a grape called the Maras-
chino (or Maraschina), small, long, and very sweet; it is
cultivated particularly in the island of Brazza, and used in
the production of the sweet liqueur wines called Maraschino.
This must not be confounded with the liqueur which is
drunk in Europe under the name of Maraschino, and which
is distilled from the fermented mash of a small cherry called
the Alarasche. The Maraschino liqueur made at Zara is an
excellent cherry brandy, and exceeds in finesse even the
cherry brandies (Kirschenwasser) of Alsatia.
The Dalmatians term naturally fermented wine " sour,"
and liqueur wines with added spirit " sweet." The grapes,
cut at the time of their largest volume, are put into bags
made of the skins of he-goats, with the hair turned inside,
and carried home. In this way all Dalmatian wines acquire
the taste or flavour of the he-goat. Only in Zara and Sebenico
are grapes carried home in panniers and other baskets. A
third ordeal awaits the grapes during fermentation, which is
conducted in open shallow vats. The presses are very ele-
mentary ; the murk is kept together by a circular bandage,
sometimes a rope made of straw. The new wine is put into
new pine-wood barrels, and thus the ordinary Dalmatian
wine presents a mixture of flavours, which disqualifies it for
use by persons with an educated palate. A bottle of wine
is sold for two pence, and we have been assured, that if all
the faults were removed from this wine, its value in the
locality would not rise to two pence halfpenny. The red
wines are very dark, and so astringent, that we could not
WINES OF AUSTRIA. 2 \J
drink them without diluting them with their bulk of water.
The wines going to Italy fetch only \^d. the litre. Much
wine goes into Thessaly and Epirus. The Austrian Govern-
ment have done much to encourage the improvement and
extension of wine production in Dalmatia.
156. WINES OF ISTRIA.
There are viticultural districts between Trieste and
Pisano, and near Rovigno and Pola. The islands of Vaglia,
Cherso, and Lussin, also produce wine, but spoil it, like
the Dalmatians. Viticulture at Trieste is practised as in
Italy, and is faulty throughout ; and the wine produced
is sour and indifferent. Of vines, the blue Refosco and
the white Malvoisie are the most esteemed and extensively
planted (Odart says they prevail along the shore of the
whole Adriatic sea). The wines made near Trieste have
all the faults of the wines of Croatia and Dalmatia. To
obtain a glass of good wine at Trieste one must ask for
Austrian Voslauer, Gumpolds-Kirchener, or Grinzinger.
If the Istrians produced good wine they could export it to
all the world, because much shipping leaves Trieste in
ballast.
157. WINES OF GORTZ.
The fruit of Gortz is highly esteemed in the markets of
South Germany, and particularly of Vienna, but the wine
produced here is mediocre, because all vines are over-
shadowed by fruit-trees. The tenant-farmers pay rent
in wine, and some corn. The vines are Italian, Refosco
being preferred. Some enterprising men at Gortz now
produce a good red wine ; others an effervescent wine, from
a particular grape called Ribola. The latter was, some
years ago, yet imperfect, as the art of disgorging had not
yet penetrated to Gortz, and the connoisseur drank the
sparkling win* in a turbid state. A sweet liqueur wine is
also made and exported to Turkey and Russia.
2l8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
158. WINES OF BOHEMIA.
Bohemia produces annually about 50,895 eimer of wine,
of which 19,300 are red, and 31,595 are white. The best
wine is that of Melnik, a town situated about twelve miles
to the north of Prague, and is made from the black
Burgundy grape. The production of wine in Bohemia is
decidedly on the decrease, as the climatic conditions are
not sufficiently favourable to make it a remunerative object
of agriculture.
CHAPTER XXI.
WINES OF HUNGARY.
159. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
THE wines of Hungary were the object of much dis-
cussion and controversy at the time when the principles of
free trade received a generalized application in this country.
The late Mr. Cobden used, inter alia, Hungarian wines as
objects on which to illustrate his teaching, and relied for
his information upon an extensive report of our then Con-
sul in Hungary, Mr. Dunlop. The Consul, on his part, had
to rely upon local information, which was in many respects
delusive, and the consequence was that many erroneous
statements on Hungarian wines became current, which found
their final contradiction and extinction only during the last
few years. Hungary no doubt produces much wine, and many
varieties of it. On the occasion of the International Agricul-
tural Exhibition at Hamburg, in 1863, a Hungarian reporter,
Stefan Morocz, estimated the total annual production of
wine in Hungary to be 25 millions of eimer; or, taking
the eimer at 54 litres (it being actually 54-1527 litres),
13^ millions of hectolitres. Of this quantity a little less
WINES OF HUNGARY. 2 19
than one-eighth, namely three millions of eimer, equal to
1-62 millions of hectolitres, was supposed to be capable
of being so prepared as to become fit for European trade.
But of this latter amount a very small proportion is as yet
actually so prepared; and in the year 1859 the exportation
from Pesth, the principal market for Hungarian wines, did
not yet amount to 100,000 eimer.
1 60. VlTICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF HUNGARY.
The principal viticultural districts of the kingdom are five
in number, and may be defined as follows.
The northern district, on the left side of the Danube, is
the continuation in an easterly direction of the viticultural
regions of Lower Austria and Moravia. It includes the valley
of the Waag, in which vines are cultivated from Trentschin
to Szered ; further, the valley of the Gran ; but is mainly-
characterized by the Hegyalja mountain, containing the
celebrated vineyards of Tokay and Erlau, and the less
distinguished but fertile vineyards of the Bodrog, a river
which comes from the Carpathian mountains, and the Samos,.
which issues from Transylvania.
The eastern district is confined between the Stein on the
west, and the river Samos and Transylvania on the east ; its>
southern frontier is the Banat. Its wines are represented-
by the products of Erdod, Bakator, and Menes.
The central district is situated between the Danube on the
west, and the Theiss on the east ; its northern limit is at
Pesth, and in the south it ends at the Woiwodina.
The western district is divisible into two parts ; one to the
west of the Raab river, which is a continuation of the viti-
cultural district of Lower Austria, and is represented by the
vineyards of Rust ; the other parts to the east of the Raab,
and further enclosed by the Danube and Drave, including in.
its centre the regions of the Plattensee. This part is charac-
terized by the wines of Ofen, Somlatt, and Weissenburg.
The southern district includes the Banat and Woiwodina ;
in the former the Werschitz mountain has vineyards on
many slopes.
22O A TREATISE ON WINES.
1 6 1. VARIETIES OF SOIL ON WHICH VINES GROW IN
HUNGARY.
Vines are grown mainly on slopes of hills, but also on
plains, and even on marshy lands. The great wines are
produced either on plutonic or volcanic land, or chalky
soil. Thus the Hegyalja, a promontory of the Carpathians
extending and sloping towards the south, consists mainly of
porphyry and basalt. The best wines of Fiinfkirchen grow
on chalky hills, called the Deindol. The Ofner wine, termed
Adlersberger, grows on volcanic soil, which constitutes a
part of the series of hills running along the Danube from
Pacs-Megyer to Alt-Teteny. The wine of the mountain
of Somlyo, or.Somlau, in Veszprim county, near the Plat-
tensee, grows on basaltic soil. The wines which grow on
the shores of the lake of Neusiedl, and those which grow
round the Plattensee, generically termed " lake- wines," are
grown on basaltic soil, which slopes from the Badacsonyer
mountains southwards towards this lake. All the lake-wine
of Gyorkoer grows on soil which is made up of one-third of
chalk and two-thirds of clay. The wine of Packsdorf, in
the county of Eisenburg, is obtained on strongly ferruginous
soil, while the wine of Musai, in Beregh county, comes from
a soil which is partly the product of the decay of alum-stone
(schist).
162. VARIETIES OF VINES AND MODE OF CULTIVATION.
There are two dominant vines peculiar to Hungary the
Farming or Tokay, with white grapes, and the Kadarka
(Kadarkas) with black grapes. In the county of Baranye
there are some extensive plantations of Burgundy Pi/ieau,
and round Villary there is much of the Rhenish Riessling,
the early Portugese, and the Oporto vine. At Ofen a
black-graped vine, Sar feher, occurs intermixed with the
Kadarka. There are also other varieties imported from
Croatia and Lower Austria, including some degenerate Mus-
catels, which have lost the muscat flavour.
The Fur mint (in Hungarian lo Formint} syn. White
WINES OF HUNGARY. 221
Tokay, Lake-vine, Moseler, Moslavina is a strong vine, with
woolly canes and shoots ; the leathery leaves show a thick
felt on the underside. The bunch of grapes is large, loose,
pendulous, cylindrical, sometimes divided in several lobes.
The fruit-stalk is short and thin, and its node does not carry
a collateral bunch. The berry-stalks are all long, and the
basal enlargement has a brown margin, and fine light green
warts. The berries are medium sized, and, when uncom-
pressed, round, with strong white bloom ; their juice is sweet,
and has a peculiar strong flavour. The grapes ripen early ;
the earliest burst and discharge a portion of their juice,
which dries up, and forms, with the rest of the berry, a shape-
less lump, full of sugar ; these products are called " dry
berries," and must not be confounded with the raisins of
southern climates. The dry berries are mostly interspersed
with fully ripe and plump, not at all passulated, berries. At
the vintage these dry berries are separated from the plump
ones immediately after the bunch is cut off, and collected
in separate vessels, and further treated as will be described
lower down.
Nearly all the red wines of Hungary are made from the
Blue Kadarka. Its berries are oval and of medium size,
black, covered with bloom ; the bunches are of medium
size. The dark green leaf, which is shiny above, and some-
what hirsute on the underside, shows the peculiarity that its
two extreme lobes are generally turned or twisted a little
upwards. By this twist the Kadarka can be distinguished
from other varieties of vines, even at a distance. To get
fully ripe, the Kadarka requires the great heat of the Hun-
garian summer ; it is the only black-graped vine which yields
dry berries like the Furmint, and thus enables the viticultu-
rist to produce the sweet wine called by the Germans in
Hungary "Ausbruch."
The Mode of Cultivation of the vines is that known as
small head, or knob ; this keeps the fruit near the ground,
and avoids the necessity of stakes for support. Nevertheless,.
it does not yield the best quality of wine.
222 A TREATISE ON WINES.
163. VINTAGE AND VINDICATION.
At Ofen (Buda) the white grapes are vintaged first, and
the black ones afterwards. Both red and white wines are
mostly fermented with the husks and stalks, and pressed
after the fermentation. 150 eimer of mashed grapes (a quan-
tity called a "gatzen") yields 120 eimer of clear wine and
30 eimer of murk. The first drawn wine is called " sweet
wine," and amounts to no eimer out of the above 120 ; the
remaining 10 eimer are obtained by pressing the murk, and
are somewhat harsh. The presses are primseval beam-presses ;
the murk is kept together by hoops or boxes. The wine is
preserved in large barrels, but for sale is put in barrels of
from 162 to 270 litres each.
As regards Hungarian wines, we must distinguish between
such as are really thoroughly fermented grape juice, and such
as are more or less sweetened and alcoholized, so as to be,
or to approximate to, liqueurs. What is called " Maszlacz"
German " Ausbruch" whether made at Tokay, Rust, or
Menes, or other places, consists of must from plump ripe
grapes, more or less fortified, thickened and sweetened by
means of " dry berries." In consequence, a portion of the
harvest is deprived entirely of its dry berries, and this now
yields only " ordinary wine" When the dry berries are not
removed, and are made into wine together with the entire
harvest, and without any addition of dry berries from other
vintages, the so-called " natural wine" or " Szamorodni" is
obtained. Maszlacz is made of four qualities, called, one-,
two-, three-, or four-" buttig" according to the quantity of dry
berries added to each cask of must. A cask of wine con-
tains ten " batten" and the addition of dry berries to produce
the several qualities of Maszlacz, therefore, amounts to one
butt, equal to 10 per cent, of the total volume of the murk ;
or to two butts, equal to 20 per cent.; three butts, equal to
30 per cent. ; and four butts, equal to 40 per cent, of the total
murk. Such wine is always highly alcoholic, and more or
less sweet. When five volumes or more of dry berries are
added to the must, so that the mixture consists of equal
volumes of must and dry berries, or so that the volume of
WINES OF HUNGARY. 22J
the dry berries preponderates, "Ausbruch " is formed. The
finest quality of Ausbruch is that which runs spontaneously
from the must-infused dry berries after they have been
allowed to macerate a short time, and is called "Essence."
164. CLASSIFICATION OF HUNGARIAN WINES.
When Hungarian wines are compared with each other,
they can be arranged in a certain series, which indicates
their relative value. But it is not intended by this list to
attempt a comparison of Hungarian wines with other pro-
ducts, either as regards quality, value, or price.
A. Wines of the First Class.
First Order. Tokay: (i) Essence : very sweet, containing
slight amount of alcohol, not exceeding 7 per cent, (should not
exceed 4 per cent.), and produced by extremely slow fermen-
tation ; must be very old. When fifty years old in bottle will
fetch from forty to sixty-six shillings each small Tokay bottle.
(2) Ausbruch: sweet, strong in alcohol (added); must be
old : not rarely deposits, like the essence, sugar in crystals.
(3) Maszlacz : of four different qualities : the quality with
40 per cent, dry berries costs at Tokay from 120 to 1 60 thalers
per eimer, or six shillings the ordinary wine-bottle full.
(4) Szamorodny, or dry natural Tokay : is fiery and acid, and
requires age to develop its qualities, which then are remark-
able. (5) Ordinari. The total production of all qualities in
twenty-one communes of the Tokay district is about 268,000
eimer per annum, or about 14,500,000 of litres. The
Mezes-Male, or Imperial Tokay, grows at Tarczal, a market
town, and is never sold in trade. Next in quality are the
products of Talya, Mad, Liszka, Kirsfaludy, Zsadany.
Third in quality of so-called medium Tokays are the wines
of Tokay town, Kerestur, Erdohenye, Toloswa, Nagysaro-
patak (all four market towns), and of the villages Ond,
Zzanto-Olassi, Ujheli, Sara, Golop, Zzegilong, Zombor,
Erdo-Herwathi, Ratka, Kis-Zoronyia. Around these vine-
yards of the third rank there is a large circle of twenty-five
places producing annually 130,000 eimer, which form the
224 A TREATISE ON WINES.
fourth and last quality, and include all that can have the
most remote title to be called Tokay-Hegyalja.
Second Order. Menes Magyarat, county of Arad. Red
and white Ausbruch and natural wines are produced
annually in fourteen localities, and amount to 241,000
eimer annually. Vinification as in Tokay district.
Third Order. Wines of Rust, Oedenburg county. 69,000
eimer produced annually in nineteen localities ; white,
strong, and sweet Ausbruch and natural wines. The vintage
is here mostly very late, some grapes being allowed to hang
until December.
B. Wines of the Second Class.
(1) White Wines. Some grow at Somlau, Veszprim
county, and are made into table and dessert wines.
Badacsony, on the Plattensee, county of Zala : table,
dessert, and Ausbruch wines. Neszeliny, county Gran.
Ermelleker, county Bihar : strong table and dessert wines.
Szeredny, county Unghu. Neograd : table wines. Krasso :
dinner and dessert wines.
(2) Red Wines. Erlau Visonta, termed Schiller, or
Rubinette, Hevesh county. Szegzard, county Zolna : wine
of fiery taste and honey-like odour. Villany, county Barany :
red wine resembling Burgundy. Ofner Adelsberger : a
good strong wine. Krasso.
C. Wines of the Third Class.
Baranya : good red dinner wines. Pesth, Steinbruch :
white dinner wine. Hont : good white dinner wine.
Presburg : red and white. Vagh-Ujhelyer : good red
dinner wine. Weissenburg : good white dinner. Somogy :
red and white. Bakator, Ermelleker, called Bratehwein :
white. Eisenberg : good white dinner. Raab : good white
dinner. Balaton-Fiired : white. Erdod : red and pale red
(Schiller). Funfkirchen : white strong dinner. Miszla,
county Zolna : white, acid. Oedenburg : white sweetish
table wine. Paulitsch : strong good red. Neusiedl lake-
wine : acidulous dinner wine. Simonthurn, county Zolud :
strong sweetish red.
WINES OF HUNGARY. 225
The rest of the wine-producing places belong to the fourth
class, which it is unnecessary to give a list of. Their
products are mostly very inferior, and consumed by the
population. What we have in the foregoing termed dinner
or table wines, can be bought in Hungary in large quan-
tities, varying between eighteen and thirty-six shillings per
eimer. Clean ordinary wines can be bought at ten to
eighteen shillings per eimer.
165. WINES OF THE BANAT, WOIWODINA, AND SYRMIA.
The wines of the Banat and the Woiwodina resemble the
small wines of Hungary, and are rarely above the third
class. The mode of procedure in vineyard and cellar are
still more faulty than in Hungary. The Werschetz moun-
tain in the Banat yields annually about 400,000 eimer, the
rest of the Temeser Banat 939,500 eimer, andSyrmia nearly
1,500,000 eimer. The free town of Werschetz is the centre
of the most extensive viticultural district of Austria-Hungary,
and produces from 200,000 to 300,000 eimer annually. Of
select qualities, 150,000 eimer are constantly in store at
Werschetz; of these, 15,000 are red, sweet, and alcholic;
15,000 are second class, also strong and red, but not sweet ;
15,000 eimer are sweet, pale reddish wine of the first class ;
about 100,000 eimer generally are dry, spirituous, harsh,
schiller-wine of the second class. Of white wine of
good quality there are only about 8,000 eimer annually
produced ; the rest is a very low-class product. Karlowitz
in Syrmia produces red and white Ausbruch wine, and a
mediocre dry wine resembling low Burgundy ; it is made
mainly from the Magyocka (Magyarika, or early blue
Magyar vine). There are other peculiar wines of Karlowitz.
At this place are also produced the Vermouth liqueur, and
the Slibowitz, or plum brandy, and exported to many parts
of the Orient.
226 A. TREATISE ON WINES.
CHAPTER XXII.
WINES OF SPAIN.
1 66. VINEYARDS OF JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA. 1
Territory and Varieties of Soil of the Vineyards. The
territory of Jerez is entirely of the so-called tertiary period.
It consists of undulating hills, with gently-inclined sides
1 The topographical descriptions occurring in this chapter are best
appreciated with the aid of the excellent map of the Jerez district, pub-
lished in 1867 by Don Jorge G. Suter, the English Consul at Jerez,
and sold by E. Stanford, Charing Cross.
The land measure, termed the aranzada, is equal to 44'72 French
ares, and is therefore about one-tenth larger than the English acre,
which is equal to 40*47 ares.
The measure of length, vara, is equal to 0*843 metres, or 2782
feet English, and is therefore a little shorter than the English yard,
which is equal to O'9I4 metres.
The bota (butt) of wine or must (mostd) measures thirty arrobas, equal
to 106-5 imperial gallons ; one arroba is equal to l6'i33 litres.
The real is equal in value to 2\d. English ; four reals, value lod. , are
equal to a peseta, the Spanish franc ; its value is five per cent, higher
than that of the French franc.
The peso is an imaginary unit of value by which wines are bought
and sold. It is equal to 15 reals.
For the purpose of its topographical consideration and description the
district may be divided into nine parts, radial sections of a circle, of
which the town forms the natural centre, and the roads which lead to
and from it form the natural radii. Many years ago I made each of
them the object of a special scientific reconnaissance. They are the
following :
1. Balbaina section and group of vineyards, N.\V. of Jerez, S.W. of
new road to San Lucar, between it and the road to Rota.
2. Corchuelo section, N.N.W. of Jerez, between old and new carriage-
road to San Lucar.
3. Macharaudo section, N. of Jerez, between the old road to San
Lucar and the road to Trebujena.
4. Carrascal section, N.N.E. of Jerez, between Trebujena and
Lebrija road.
5. Section of the plain, or north-eastern section between Lebrija
WINES OF SPAIN. 227
accessible to cultivation over their entire surface, and
slightly-excavated valleys between them. The hills consist
of a sand and clay pervaded chalk-rock, which crops out at
their tops, or is easily reached by digging a few feet some-
times only one foot into the disintegrated surface. It is
mostly white, here and there coloured by some iron oxide,
and contains chalk or carbonate of lime, clay, or silicate of
alumina, magnesia, iron, quartz, and gypsum. The lower
parts of the inclines of the hills and the flat valleys between
them are covered by alluvial formations of different periods.
These contain much clay, iron oxide, and sand, and in many
parts pass into mere sand, more or less coloured red by
iron-ochre, or white by clay and chalk. These chalk-rocks,
clays, and sands give rise to the several descriptions of
surface-soil distinguished by the Jerezanos under the denomi-
nations of albariza, barros, barro-arenas, or arenas, and bugeo.
The Albariza, also termed Tierra de Anafes, Tierra bianco.
6 Tosca, is the white soil of the hills, the disintegrated ter-
tiary chalk rock According to the analysis of Louis Proust
{the French chemist, who lived at Madrid from the time
of the first revolution to the Napoleonic invasion of Spain)
the soil contains from 60 to 70 per cent, of carbonate of
lime, a considerable quantity of clay, a little silica, and
some magnesia. When the clay and other ingredients dis-
appear or diminish greatly, so that the soil is little more
than chalk, it is no longer termed " tosca " by the natives.
The coarse mixture of chalk, sand, and clay is more
suitable to viticulture than the finer chalk. Its colour
is a dead white; its texture fine-grained and rough, with
harder nodules, which appear when the mass is left to dis-
road and Arcos road. This section I divided in two parts, one N. of
the Seville road, the other between Seville road and Arcos road.
6. Eastern section, between Arcos road and Hijuela de Pedro Diaz.
7. Monte Alegre section, S. of Jerez, between the Hijuela of Pedro
Diaz and the Carretera to Puerto, traversed by the road to the Cartuja.
8. Torrox section, S.S.W. of Jerez, between the carriage-road to
Puerto and the bridle-road to the same place.
9. Carrahola section, W. of Jerez, between the bridle-road to Puerto
and carriage-road to Rota.
228 A TREATISE ON WINES.
integrate under the influence of sun and water. In that
case it breaks up a great deal. When introduced into water
it gives out bubbles of air, and falls gradually into a loose
pasty mass. When dried again it falls into powder-like
particles, and does not cohere in lumps or separate by deep
fissures. On the hills it occurs in layers, which have a
thickness of several yards, and become thin in other parts,
so as almost to disappear. It contains no flints. It is an
impure chalk, and reposes upon a sandy formation. The
greater part of the vineyards of Jerez, San Lucar, and Tre-
bujena, are upon albariza soil. The vineyards of Paxarete
contain it in the immediate subsoil. It is here termed "albero."
A thousand vines planted on albariza at San Lucar produce
about eighty arrobas of mosto; exceptionally in favoured
portions of special territory from no to 120.
Barros is the name given to quartz sand agglutinated by
chalk and clay, and coloured red or yellowish by iron ochre.
It forms horizontal layers of great extent along the coast,
from the mouth of the Guadalquivir to Conil. These banks
are traversed in all directions by fissures, filled with almost
pure sand. The barros is never so hard that it cannot be
disintegrated with the fingers. It is easily washed away by
the tide and by rain, and becomes very slippery when wet ;
but continued rain washes out the chalk and clay, and leaves
the stones and sand on the surface. Clemente, the author
of a celebrated work on the vines of Andalusia, believes
the barros of Jerez to be a small portion of the immense
formation of sandy chalk and clay which runs in one unin-
terrupted course from the shore at San Lucar to Gibraltar.
The vines planted upon barros give double the harvests
produced by the same number on albariza. Near Jerez, the
barros contains many large stones of hard grey chalk, which
occur in layers, and are repeated at intervals down to-
a depth of eighteen feet. It also contains fossil shells, such
as ostrea, cardium, pecten, and others, which becomes so-
numerous in some parts, e.g., near the Badalejo, as almost
to constitute the bulk of the soil. Barros and sand mixed
form the soil of the plain to the north and north-east of
Jerez (Tierra barro arenosa).
WINES OF SPAIN. 229
Arenas (better, barro-arenas) form the third variety of
soil. The pure, nearly white, shifting sand, such as occurs
principally near the sea-shore, is only rarely found in the
Jerez district, being limited to some localities in the East,
towards Cuartillo, and along the road to the Cartuja. . This
sand admits of being transformed into fruitful gardens and
vineyards, as can be seen at San Lucar and Rota. At the
latter place particularly I was surprised to see the work and
care bestowed upon this mere sand, which has actually to
be protected against the wind by frequent small enclosures,
ridges, and deep furrows. These gardens are called nabazos.
On such sand the vine produces as much mosto as on the
barros, but its quality is as much inferior to that of the
ibarros vineyards as the latter is inferior to that coming from
the albarizas. The commonest arena mosto in these days
is sold at about half the price of the albariza mosto.
Bugeo is the greyish black earth which at Jerez and San
tucar occupies the dales between, and lowest slopes of, the
hills of albariza. It consists of clay mixed with carbonate
of lime and fine sand, and a certain quantity of vegetable
mould. During the heat of the summer this soil forms
enormous fissures, and this is said to be the cause of its in-
aptitude for viticulture. But at Jerez, as well at St. Lucar,
there are vineyards on bugeo. They are very fertile, bring-
ing up to six botas per acre, but the wine is coarse.
The albariza vineyards give the finest, cleanest, and
strongest mostos, but produce the smallest quantity. The
barro-arenoso lands produce twice as much as the albarizas,
and are also much easier to work, but their mostos are less
fine and thinner. The bugeo vineyards produce as much
as the barro arenosas, and give mostos of as much or even
more body than the albariza mostos, but they are neither
fine or clean ; and the bugeo soil requires much labours
because it becomes quickly covered with weeds, and cracks
in a manner dangerous to the roots of the vines.
In the trade of Jerez wines are sometimes distingushed as
.wines of the pagos de arena, wines of the pagos de barro,
and wines of the pagos de afuera. The latter term is not a
jgeognostic distinction at all, as the pagos de afuera have soils
230 A TREATISE ON WINES.
of all descriptions, and is not comparative to the other two
terms. It simply means pagos which are out of the circle
of the city boundaries, and at such a distance that the
labourers from Jerez receive an addition to their wages
for distance.
There are few vineyards, and hardly any pagos, in which
all the vines stand upon uniform soil ; and if a pago is
termed of a particular soil, this is to be understood to mean
that that soil is the prevailing, not the exclusive soil There
are, further, a few special names for particular mixtures of
soil. Lustrillo is a mixture of white marl and albariza and
red barro-arenosa soil, interspersed here and there with
strata of chalk, or gypsum. Another kind of earth, produced
by the accumulation of old building rubbish, is termed
Tierra de villares, or Almaduras. The names of Balejuela*
and Lentejuela, are applied to greatly broken up albariza
mixed with a certain material of agricultural improvement
or bugeo. Tajon, the earthy vein in the limestone, and
toxa, the rough earth, are forms of albariza which occur in.
special strata. There are also stony territories which sur-
prise the proprietors by a curious phenomenon, namely, that
the stones have a tendency to come to the surface, of course
by the action of the rain. But the proprietors prefer the
mysterious to the evident, and believe that these stones are
constantly being formed, or being worked upwards by some
mysterious power in the earth.
The different soils are planted with varying sets of vines,
according to empirical traditions which do not admit of pre-
cise exposition. In the albarizas the palomino prevails, and
is generally mixed with a certain proportion of perruno,
canocazo, albillo, Pedro Jimenez, and mantuo, which are
said to impart to the palomino wine superior qualities. In
the barro-arenosa territory the mantuo castellano prevails,
mixed with much mollar, beba, and other vines in small
numbers; on the sand there is a little tintilla, and much
beba. The moscatels and Pedro Jimenez grow best in the
black earth or bugeo.
WINES OF SPAIN. 231
167. CLIMATE OF JEREZ.
The climate of Jerez is determined by its geographical
position between the 36th and 37th degree of north latitude,
and under the 6th degree of longitude west of Greenwich.
The summer season is characterized by great heat and
long-continued drought, during which most of the vegeta-
tion, except vines, olive trees, and pines, comes to a stand-
still, and most annuals die off. The arable land, the grassy
plains, and the dry swamps then look like arid deserts, and
are avoided alike by animals and man.
The autumn and winter consist in a rainy season, and
frost is never observed. Snow has fallen at Jerez only twice
in this century. The first fall occurred in 1819, and no
particulars regarding it have come to my knowledge. The
second and last fall happened on the gth of December,
1867. The snow lay on the ground for two days, and
destroyed many delicate plants. The autumnal rains are
copious, not rarely very much so. Thunderstorms of extra-
ordinary severity appear now and then. The north wind in
summer is dry and hot ; the west wind refreshing and agree-
able The east wind (Levante) easily becomes a storm,
which may continue for days without intermission, and do
much damage to all kinds of crops. It is said that the
vines are kept low on the ground on account of the danger
to which they would be subjected on the part of the Levante
if they were raised higher and fastened to poles.
1 68. EXTENT AND POSITION OF THE VINEYARDS.
The vineyards are estimated to have a surface of 14,000
aranzadas, or 6,287 hectares. They are grouped round the
town of Jerez in a manner which is best appreciated by
inspection of the map. The districts to the N. and N.E.
of Jerez are perfect plains, whereas those to the N.W., W.,
S., and S.E. consist of a series of more or less round hills
and hillocks, separated by glens and dales. The hills are
mostly covered with vines all over, whereas the glens are
mostly not stocked with vines, but with fodder plants, or
232 A TREATISE ON WINES.
used for growing the strong reeds (caiias) which are em-
ployed for making the stakes for young vines, and the fork-
like supports for fruit-laden branches, and give their names
to the dales themselves (canadas). Like land everywhere
else in Europe, the whole of the cultivated land round
Jerez is divided into sections bearing distinctive names, so-
called pagos. These pagos, again, consist of several fields
or properties; only rarely one entire pago, still more rarely
several pagos, also form a single property. The pagos are
very unequal in size; many are entirely covered with
vineyards.
For a list of the Jerez pagos reference may be made to a
brochure on the viticulture and trade of Jerez, by D. Diego
Parada y Barreto, which appeared in Jerez in 1868.
169. THE BALBAINA DISTRICTS.
The district of Balbaina is perhaps the oldest viticultural
pago in the neighbourhood of Jerez. It lies in a north-west
direction from Jerez, on both sides of the new road to
San Lucar, mainly between that road and the road to
Rota. It consists of five great divisions, of which three only
belong to the community of Jerez, while two owe municipal
allegiance to Puerto de Sta. Maria. The Jerez Balbaina,
properly so called, lies on the north-west, or right side of
the San Lucar road, past San Julian, and includes Cande-
lero and the Llano de las Tablas. South-west of it lies the
largest part of the district, termed Balbaina alta, to dis-
tinguish it from the contiguous Balbaina baja, of the Puerto
vineyards. Farther to the north-west, also on the left of the
road to San Lucar, is the pago of los Cuadrados, with the
contiguous Balbaina of Puerto, properly so called.
Balbaina, with Balbaina alta, and including the Puerto
Balbainas, comprises more than twelve hundred aranzadas
of vineyards. Its soil is albariza and bugeo ; its vines are
palomino, perruno, canocazo, albillo, Pedro Jimenez, and
mantuo, and its mostos are held in great esteem. The
most reputed vineyards are the Canas, la Campanilla, del
Arcon, and del Sargento mayor. Jerez monasteries once
WINES OF SPAIN. 233
held a great part of this district, and a particular plantation
they termed the vineyard of God. Candelero, which is
contiguous to Balbaina towards San Julian, is a pago of
about eighty aranzadas, in the valley which bears its name.
The soil is for the greater part bugeo, and its vines are palo-
minos. A special vineyard in the pago also bears its name.
North-west of Balbaina, and bordering upon the Canas, is
the Llano de las Tablas, a pago of forty aranzadas, border-
ing in the north upon Marihernandez.
Just across the San Lucar road is Balbaina alta, a vast
expanse of green hills and dales. The first sub-pago nearest
to Jerez is Sida, a pago of forty aranzadas, with albariza
soil, planted with palomino and Pedro Jimenez. Noted
vineyard, la Miranda. Sida derives its name from that of
an old Jerez family. Farther on is the Canada de Huerta,
a pago with bugeo soil, and palomino vines. It borders
upon the Gallega group of pagos, and upon the Rincones, a
pago with albariza, bugeo, and lustrillo soil, and palomino
stock. At the southern end of Balbaina alta, and close to
and at the right of the road to Rota, is the pago Cruz de
Husillo.
At the north-west end of Balbaina alta, and opposite los
Cuadrados, we find the pago of Plantalina, forty aranzadas
of bugeo and lustrillo soil, with palomino prevailing. Far
to the north-west is the pago of los Cuadrados, two hundred
aranzadas, with albariza and bugeo soil. The palomino
reigns. A noted vineyard is la Soledad. Close by is the
pago of las Peonias, with a good vineyard of the same
name.
In this neighbourhood I observed a beautiful plantation
of albillos. These vines are not ordinarily kept on separate
plots of ground, like the palominos, or Pedro Jimenezes, but
grown interspersed in uncertain numbers with the prevailing
varieties. The Albillo castellano ought to be particularly
good for wine making, as will appear from the following
description. It is a slender vine, with many canes, lying on
the ground, of a silver-grey reddish colour, small palmate
leaves, with heart-shaped sinuses, green, but a little reddish
when first developed, falling late; the bunches are pyramidal,
234 A TREATISE ON WINES.
of middle size ; no side bunch ; stalk very short ; does not
shed unripe berries. The ripe berries are very sweet and
juicy, and are easily emptied of their contents. The juiciness
of the grapes is their most striking characteristic. Clemente
says that each bunch may be considered as a bagful of mosto.
The ants are great friends of these grapes. Mosto weighed
ii and 12 B. on September i5th and igih. It readily
passes into wine of the quality called fino, but is less good
for olorosos, and rarely produces amontillados.
There are two other varieties of albillo, which are less
frequently planted in the Jerez vineyards than the former,
they are :
Albillo pardo, also termed Uva pardilla, has leaves which
are more rough than those of the other varieties of albillo,
its grapes are of a yellowish-green, light colour, less mild,
and taste more sour, than that of the other albillos, but
capable of yielding finos.
Albillo negro. Not frequently planted. Differs from the
white albillo by the black colour of its grapes, its thinner
husks, and larger bunches. Its canes are also lighter, and
the leaves less incised and almost entire.
I also observed some Jaenes, vines which may be supposed
to bear their names from a more northern province of Spain.
Jaen negro. Stock of middling size, with many short,
greyish-red canes, small leaves of lively yellowish-green
colour. They bear many dense bunches of medium size,
round, blackish-red grapes, with hard skins, though fleshy.
Mosto weighs eleven to twelve B. Jaen bianco, also termed
Garilla, is analogous to the former, but its grapes are white.
v
170. NEW PLANTATIONS, YOUNG VINEYARDS, MAJUELOS
Modes of working established Vineyards. The soil is
mostly prepared by deep digging, trenches being drawn,
and the top earth filled in while the deep soil is brought up.
These turnings are more than a vara in depth. They are
generally effected in July or August, and if the soil turned
up be lumpy, it is left to the atmosphere for a year without
any plantation. Th* young vines are produced mostly from
WINES OF SPAIN. 235
canes, rarely from rooted vines prepared in a nursery. Their
distance from each other is from a vara and a half to two
varas in every sense, so that each vine has a surface of four
square varas allotted to it. This large extent of surface is
necessitated by the peculiar mode of turning and working
the earth, to be described hereafter. The canes to be
planted are a vara in length, and are sunk into the ground
in three different methods. Either a hole a vara in depth
is dug for each, and after insertion of the cane, filled up
{plantation par hoyes); or the vineyard is traversed by
ditches, which, after the canes have been laid in, are filled
up (plantacion por cajones). The last form is that which
employs iron bars for making narrow holes in the ground,
in which the canes are inserted (plantation por barras).
During the early years the young vines are kept surrounded
by hollows so as to catch all available water. In the second
and third year they receive a support in the shape of a cana
or strong reed, and begin to show fruit. They are then cut
in a manner to establish the permanent four-armed stocks,
and in the eighth year they begin to bear rich harvests. But
it is not until the fifteenth or twentieth year of their growth
that they produce the best wines. Up to that time these
plantations are termed majuelos, only with the eighteenth
to twentieth year they reach their majority, and then are
termed vinas.
The growth of young vines is very vigorous indeed,
particularly in rainy seasons. The first shoots are very long
and thick. In dry seasons they come to an early standstill,
and many die. Such partial losses in young, and also in old
vineyards, are mostly replaced ^ by layers, slips so-called
mugrones.
A single layer or slip is made in the ordinary manner,,
described in the seventeenth section of this Treatise, if the
object is to produce a single new vine from an old one.
The burying is very deep, and the point of the cane projects
in the bottom of a deep excavation, intended to collect as
much water as possible, and to allow the new cane to be
gradually covered up by earth, so that it may have a deep
footing.
236 A TREATISE OX WIXES.
But when several layers or slips are required from one
vine, the latter is buried in a pyramidal hill of earth, termed
voga. Its four arms are allowed to project, and to grow from
the four inclined sides of this hill, and all fruit is suppressed.
The canes now grow much more vigorously, because they
are fed by the stock itself, as well as by the numerous new
roots which they develop in the voga. They may therefore
be laid down in the winter following their growth, and in
that case are only detached from the mother-stock in the
winter following their growth ; or they, or some of them,
may be detached entirely in the first winter and used as
Fig, 36. The "Yoga," pyramidal hill of earth, for multiplying a
vine fourfold.
rooted plants. After the largest have been detached, the
vine is disinterred, and again puts out new branches.
171. ANNUAL LABOURS IN VINEYARDS.
The labours are all performed by men, and on no single
occasion have I observed women or children to be employed,
even in vintage time and for light work. The working day,
which during vintage time lasts from sun-rise to sun-set, is
interrupted by two periods allotted for meals and repose.
For breakfast, one hour is given ; and for dinner and siesta,
two hours. The labourers are paid for the day, practically
of nine hours, and I have not learned that there are any
who work by piece and contract. They receive the wages
WINES OF SPAIN. 237-
mentioned below, and five cigarettes a-day. During the
time of active labour, particularly poda, chata, cava bien,
and vintage, the men stay in the vineyards; they mess
together, and their food, consisting mainly of arranque, is
prepared for them by the common cook or housekeeper
\casero). In cold weather they sit, during the time of
meals and repose, around a great bonfire of vine and reed
canes, which is lighted in a pit of masonry specially arranged
for that purpose in one of the sheds of the vineyard. The
smoke escapes through a long slit in the highest part of the
roof. The labours which are performed upon the vines and
vineyards in the course of the year, are the following :
Poda. The pruning, or cutting back of the vine, to main-
tain its shape and fertility, is performed during October r
November, and December. Some viticulturists work the
earth before, some after, the poda.
Alumbra, or Chata, consists in digging and dressing the
land in such a manner that there is a large square basin
round each vine, which may catch the rain-water. As the
vines are from 1-5 to r8 metres apart, in every sense these
basins are more than a square metre in width, and one-third
of a metre deep. This work begins in October. When the
digging is not so much a formation of basins, in case the
rains were early and copious, as a stirring, it is termed chata^
Hechar Mugrones is the work of making layers or slips.
Resposicion de Marras is the replacement of dead vines.
Deserpia is the removal of suckers projected by the roots.
Desbragar (desbarbar) is the taking off of the highest
roots, day or dew roots, which, particularly in young plants,,
become exposed by the chata.
Cava bien is the great digging and refilling of the holes-
(cierra) made by the chata. This is performed in February,
after the rains are over, and before the new growth starts.
Castra is the operation of taking off all superfluous shoots-
and buds previous to and immediately after blossom-time.
Golpe lleiio is a digging of the ground after the grape is-
formed, and before the branches of the vines have become
entangled with each other, sometimes even as early as the
end of April or beginning of May.
238 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Levantar varas is the operation of supporting branches
after the grapes have begun to get heavy, by little forks
made of canes or wood. These supports are not higher
than the stocks of the vine, and, consequently, the branches
are kept in a horizontal position.
Vina is a light digging of the surface of the land, per-
formed in the latter part of June, to destroy the weeds.
Recastra is the second removal of superfluous shoots.
Revina is another hoeing at the end of July, to remove
weeds (also termed aschalado).
In August the vineyards become covered with the corre-
guela, or running weed, a kind of convolvulus, whose roots
grow very deep in the ground, and run quickly through
great distances, reproducing the plant at the surface with
great rapidity. Another common weed is the castanucla, a
kind of cyperus. The removal of these weeds in August is
termed agostar.
The vineyard from this time is merely protected by watch-
men until the vintage.
Vendimia, the vintage, begins on the yth or 8th of Sep-
tember, mostly with great regularity, in the best situations.
It lasts until the i8th or 2oth when regular, when interrupted
by rain it may last till the end of the month. Generally it
is a most rapid operation.
The vintagers (vendimiadores) receive three pesetas a day
in money, and have a sleeping room, and mats of rushes
.(enea) provided for them. The pressers (pisadores) receive
also three pesetas per day, and, in addition, for each bota
of mosto pressed one peseta and half a bottle of wine; once
during the entire vendimia each pisador gets a basketful of
:grapes (un capache de uvas) or five reals instead.
The removal of the mosto, or wine, from the vineyard to
the bodega in Jerez costs for each bota about thirty reals
for all distances below and up to one league. Above one
league the cost is forty reals per bota. When the removal
is by mules the vehicles used are carros, when by oxen,
carretas. I have also seen mules laden with a bota full
of mosto each, and believe the practice to be cruel and
.dangerous, and happily rare.
WINES OF SPAIN. 239
The day's work of a man is called peonada. The price
paid for the peonada of each kind varies according to years,
weather, and the labour market. In bad years and during
bad weather, the day's labour is less valuable, and therefore
paid less highly than in good years and fine weather. I
witnessed a strike for higher wages in a vineyard at an ap-
proaching rain. The capataz defied the men, and the rain
passed off. In 1865 labour was so dear that the chata,
which ordinarily costs 14 reals per day per man, actually
had to be paid as high as 38 reals.
A proprietor of a large well-kept albariza vineyard calcu-
lated the cost of his labour per annum, including vintage,
to be from ^15 to ^16 per aranzada, or on the whole one-
twelfth of the amount of capital sunk in the vineyard. A
generally accepted estimate brings the cost of labour to one
real per vine per year.
Manuring is never employed, partly because it is not
frequently necessary, partly because the proprietors believe
it to be injurious to the grapes. It is difficult to understand
this, but the fact remains, that in albariza vineyards, which
have been uninterruptedly planted with vines for 300 years,
as shown by documents of tenure, no manure is ever em-
ployed. In such vineyards there are, however, barren and
bald places, which baffle all attempts to replant the vine.
They may possibly be chemically exhausted, and here
manure should be tried. It is probable that the system of
catching the rain-water may act as chemical manuring, for
it cannot be doubted that the heavy rains of winter bring
much of the constituents of sea-water from the near Atlantic,
and in this a portion at least of the salts required by the
vine.
Nowhere in this district have I seen vineyards cultivated
by the plough, but all labours were done by the arms of
men. On the whole, the labours upon the ground are the
most serious of any which I have witnessed anywhere. But
they seemed out of proportion to the amount of care be-
stowed upon the vine, and the ripening grape in particular
seemed to me mostly neglected in an unaccountable man-
ner. The consideration occurred to me that the bounty of
24O A TREATISE ON WINES.
nature is here so great that man has no necessity for hus-
banding the produce, but if he loses a considerable part of
it he can, with the remainder, still make up a profitable
account.
172. PRODUCTIVENESS OF VINEYARDS.
Albariza legitima is believed to produce, on an average,
from i to 2 botas per arranzada. The dark and arenas
soils produce much more, namely, four or five botas, but
the must is coarse. This depends mainly upon the quality
of the vines, which, for the lower lands, are chosen from the
richest bearers. It was stated to me that the arenas grapes
commanded a uniform low price, and that therefore an
agriculturist would do better to grow quantity rather than to
grow fine vines, unless indeed he did not sell his grapes but
his wine. The best parts of a Balbaina vineyard give from
ten to eleven botas per aranzada. Other pieces give only a
half to one butt, and some parts give nothing.
Competent estimates bring the average production on all
kinds of soil to three botas per aranzada, or ninety arrobas
for every 2,000 vines. If we assume the entire area of the
vineyards of Jerez as 14,000 aranzadas, and of these 12,000
to be in bearing, there would be an average annual pro-
duction of 36,000 botas, or 1,080,000 arrobas of mosto.
The average price of mosto maybe assumed as 75 pesos,
or 1,100 reals per bota, and the value of all the vintages is
therefore about 40 millions of reals. Now, as the 14,000
aranzadas all require labour at the rate above detailed
(though only 12,000 return at the time), and as the wages
for this labour, paid to a population of more than 10,000
men, amount to between 20 and 30 millions of reals, the
interest and profit annually reaped by the proprietors of the
Jerez vineyards amount to from 10 to 20 millions of reals.
173. PRICES OF VINEYARDS.
The usual price for average good vineyards is from 15,000
to 1-8,000 reals say 150 to 180 guineas per aranzada. If
WINES OF SPAIN. 241
the albariza were less absolute, and the vineyard were to
enclose places with dark earth, its price would be less. Old
vineyards fetch higher prices than young plantations. Young
vineyards do not reach first-class value before the twentieth
year. The grapes of young vineyards are mostly worked
up into vino de color, or into dulce. While some vineyards
increase in price (an example which cost 7,000 reals per
aranzada in 1833, in 1871 had a value of 37,000 reals)
others remain stationary, some lose in value; thus a large
vineyard of 80 aranzadas was a few years ago sold for about
;i 6,000 ; it had been established only about twelve years,
and is believed to have been sold at a loss, although by
otherwise firm hands. Most vineyard property around
Jerez about 1860 had risen to very high prices, but the later
years have depressed all prices greatly. This is due to
political circumstances, and also to the fact that proprietors
have ceased to take personal interest in their vineyards.
Consequently returns diminish, and the satisfaction of per-
sonal success disappears. While twenty or thirty years ago
every proprietor (not always resident in his vineyard) would
go to the vineyard during the entire vintage time ; now-a-
days none superintend their vintages, and the consequence
is everywhere visible in dilapidation, deterioration, and
neglect.
Second-class vineyards are sold at 8,000 reals per aran-
daza. The total value of the vineyards of Jerez is estimated
at 210 millions of reals.
In 1819 the barro-arena vineyards were held in greater
value than the albarizas. An aranzada of vineyard in the
pagos of Carrascal or Macharnudo, which have the greatest
fame now a-days, was then not much more than from 3,000
to 4,000 reals, while an aranzada of vineyard in Toleze, San
Antonio, or Peliron, fetched 7,000 reals and more. A care-
ful consideration of all the conditions of the Jerez districts
will show that the barro-arenas soil is economically the most
suitable for viticulture. The albariza is being exhausted
beyond redemption, unless the proprietors resolve to bring,
at least, mineral manure into their vineyards. In fact, the
albarizas are dear because fashionable ; but if the barro-
R
242 A TREATISE ON WINES.
arenas were planted with the same select stock, they would
produce the same quality, and much more quantity, than
the albarizas, and therefore obtain a ready market.
The pagos of the Corchuelo and Afiina group are situated
to the north-west of Jerez, beginning at a distance of about
three kilometres, and extending for about five kilometres
over the entire space between the old and new roads to San
Lucar. They are conveniently reached by either of these
roads, or by a field-road running between them direct from
Jerez to Corchuelo (the Camino de las Vinas). Close to the
town are the vineyard pagos of Picaduena and Miraflores,
the latter remarkable for containing on its commanding
height the splendid reservoir of the waterworks which sup-
ply Jerez with water from the distant mountains (deposito
de las Aguas de Tempul). These pagos include about eighty
aranzadas of barro-arena soil, and are planted with mollares,
mantuos, and the uva calona, the fruit of which is mainly
used in the shape of verdeo, that is to say, eaten fresh.
Close to them is a third small pago, Serrana, on the right of
. the road del Calvario, which separates it from Miraflores ;
it belongs to the barro-arena class.
The pago las Salinillas is an albariza hill stocked with
palomino, and surrounded by swampy territory impregnated
with salt, furnishing the name to the pago, next to Mari-
cuerda. The soil is partly albariza, partly bugeo ; its. vines
mainly palomino. Its surface is from fifteen to twenty
aranzadas. In the direction of Corchuelo is the pago of
Rui Diaz, of one hundred aranzadas, with the noted vine-
yard la Lebrijana. To the south lies the pago of Corta-
dedo, bordering upon Obregon and Rui Diaz. Its extent is
ninety aranzadas, with bugeo, albariza, and lustrillo soil,
planted with palomino.
The pago, el Corchuelo, is circumscribed by the pagos of
Rui Diaz, Cortadedo, Obregon, and Cantarranas, and the
lane of Afiina. It comprises three hundred aranzadas, and
its soil is what is termed lustrillo, being rocky and lumpy
albariza, bugeo, and barro-arena mixed, just the same as is
found in the pagos of Cuartillo and Majada alta and some
others. Prevailing vines are the palominos, with perunno,
WINES OF SPAIN. 243
Pedro Jimenez, mantuo, canocazo, and albillo. Its products
vary in quality. Noted vineyards are la Recobera, los
Desaboridos, and others. The name of the pago is some-
times connected with corcho (cork), and corchuelo may have
signified a plantation of cork trees (alcornbques) . The word
also signifies blockhead.
Close to Corchuelo is the pago of Cantarranas, which
borders to the west upon San Julian, and comprises
two hundred aranzadas. Its higher parts have albariza,
its lower ones bugeo soil. r lhe predominating vine is
palomino.
174. PRINCIPAL VINES MOST COMMONLY CULTIVATED AND
THEIR DISTRIBUTION IN THE PAGOS.
The principal vines which are most commonly cultivated
in the albariza and bugeo districts are the following :
Pedro Xitnems. This vine gives mostos of all kinds, but
is mainly reputed for the sweet liqueurs, conventionally
called wines, which are made by mixing the juice of its sun-
dried grapes with spirit. This dulce is also used for
sweetening the ordinary sherries. The stock is large ; the
canes are the most erect amongst all varieties of vines in the
district. When weighted with a full harvest they sink to the
ground, but after the vintage become again upright. The
leaves are quite smooth, and not woolly or hairy ; medium
to small, lobed or irregularly incised, and possess reddish
greenish yellow nerves. By the erect position of the canes,
and the yellowish colour of the foliage, a stock or vineyard
full of this vine can be easily recognized at a distance. The
grapes are not very large, greenish white, and bloomy, the
sweetest of all grapes ; the bunches not very large, but yet
of southern dimensions. The mostos are from 12 to 15 B.,
without assoleo, but rise to 22 B. after about ten days'
exposure to the sun.
The legend that this vine had been brought by one
Pedro Ximenes from the Canary Islands and Madeira to the
Rhine, and had thence been transplanted to Spain, was first
published by the German author F. J. Sachs ("Ampelo-
244 A TREATISE ON WINES.
graphia," Lipsiae, 1661, 8vo). It has since made the round
of literature, and is an established, but nevertheless coYn-
pletely erroneous tradition. Odart says characteristically,
that this story might flatter a German, but could make
a Frenchman only smile. For if Pedro Ximenes had taken
away any of this vine from the Rhine, he must have taken
all. The vine is not found on the Rhine. It is a large-
graped vine, which would never ripen in any German vine-
yard. The fallacy ought therefore to be discarded.
A less frequent variety of the foregoing vine is the Pedro
Ximenes Loco a. name reminding us of the French la folle
blanche. It is also termed soplona, the tale-bearer, informer ;
names for which the reasons are not assigned. Stock strong ;
canes horizontal ; leaves not provided with reddish nerves ;
bunches and grapes large, and of slightly rough taste.
The most esteemed of all the vines of the Jerez district is
the Palomino, also named Palomino bianco, Listan commun,
Tempranilla, Orgazuela, Alban, and Ojo de liebre. The
^tock is strong, the canes are thin and long, and numerous,
reddish grey, or \vhitish red ; leaves medium-sized, equal,
dark green on the upper, woolly on the lower face. The
blossoms come early, and develop into large bunches.
The grapes are of medium size, of a greenish waxy colour
and bloomy appearance, becoming very much bronzed when
struck by the sun, which spoils their quality; they give
mostos of 14 and 15 B. The wine obtained from it
develops mostly into fino, but not into oloroso. This vine
is the most common on the albariza soil of the Jerez
district.
A very delicate variety of the foregoing vine is the
Palomino negro, also termed Centella. Similar to foregoing,
but with black grapes ; very fine taste ; little grown ; used
for vino de color.
Perruno. Strong stock, with many erect, straight reddish
grey canes, irregular shining leaves, many large bunches,
with small, round, translucent grapes, of bronze yellow
colour. They are very late and hard, not too sweet, and
have astringent husks. The mostos have 12 B., and are
good for olorosos of high flavour.
WINES OF SPAIN. 245
Perruno ne^ra differs from the former mainly by its black
grapes : it is not utilized for the production of wine at Jerez.
The Anina road separates the pagos of Marianez, Cerfate,
Orbaneja, Anina, Cerro, del Marmol, and Montana on the
northern, from Marihernandez, Montana, San Julian, and
Zarzuelo on the southern side of the group.
Marianez is a pago of twenty aranzadas, between Anina
and Corchuelo, and bordering upon Cantarranas, Cerfate,
and Marmol. Its heights are albariza, its lower parts bugeo.
Cerfate is situated at the entrance of the pago of Anina, close
to the Cerro de Orbaneja. It has fifty aranzadas, and its
soil and plantations are like those of Anina. Close to the
old San Lucar road, and separated from it by the opposite
pago of Amarguillo, which I shall describe in connection
with the Macharnudo group, is the Cerro de Orbaneja.
The Cerro borders upon Anina, Cerfate, and Marianez, is
150 aranzadas in extent, its soil is albariza and bugeo, and
other earth in the lower parts, and its principal vine is palo-
mino. On the right of my road lay Anina, stretching
towards the San Lucar road, bordering upon Orbaneja,
Cerfate, and Marihernandez in the west. Its territories
are partly bugeo, partly albariza, and partly villares, that
is to say, soil formed by the destruction of ancient habi-
tations. Its area is one thousand aranzadas, on which the
ubiquitous palomino predominates. Prominent vineyards
are del Aljive, del Alamo, del Caribe. Close to Anina is
the Cerro del Marmol, twenty to thirty aranzadas in extent,
with a rocky subsoil, whence its name is derived.
The most north-western end of the Anina group is formed
by the pago of Montana, two hundred and fifty aranzadas in
extent, with soil varying between bugeo and albariza. In
the south-west it borders upon the pago of Marihernandez,
which in the east touches San Julian, and in the south abuts
upon Balbaina. It has eighty aranzadas, and bugeo prevails
on its surface, although the summits are albariza. I returned
by the Hijuela de Candelero, keeping on my left the pagos
of San Julian and Zarzuela. The latter lies between Cande-
lero and Cantarranas, and has lustrillo, bugeo, and albariza
soil. Its vines are palominos, mantuos, and albillos, San
246 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Julian has 300 aranzadas, and stretches from Zarzuela to
the new road to San Lucar. Its soil is good albariza, its
wines are mainly palominos, with interspersed perrunos,
albillos, canocazos, mantuos, and Pedro Jimenez. It yields
wines of the first quality.
Passing out of the Candelero road into the old San Lucar
road, the topographist passes the last pago of this group,
completing the list, namely, the Cerro de Obregon, eighty-
five aranzadas in extent, a plantation of albariza and bugeo
soil. Along San Julian and Balbaina this road exhibits to
the eye some good long and deep sections of the albariza
territory, the white hard rock, softer surface, and overlying
white or coloured bugeo earth.
The Cerro de Santiago is a pago of more than 200 aran-
zadas, bordered to the west by the old San Lucar road, and
in the north passing directly into Macharnudo bajo. Its
soil is albariza, and it contains the noted vineyards del
Capitan and de la Trinidad. In a north-west direction is
the pago of Dona Juana, bordering upon the bye-road del
Alferez Tuerto, the low arable lands between Macharnudo
bajo and the pago of Amarguillo. The name of this latter
is derived from a spring of bitter water in proximity to the
pago. Its vineyards are divided into two patches, situated
on the right or eastern side of the old road to San Lucar,
which road separates them from the pagos of Anina and
Orbaneja. In the north, Amarguillo passes into Valcargado,
Pelado, and Tizon. Its soil is, for the greater part, bugeo,
its vines are palominos and moscatels. From a height one
sees the pago of Puerto escondido, isolated between Amar-
guillo and the Cerro del Pelado. Its extent is seventy aran-
zadas of lustrillo soil, its vines are palomino, perruno, Pedro
Jimenez, moscatel, albillo, and mantuo. On the right of
the San Lucar road, past Amarguillo and Puerto escondidc
between Tocina, Tizon, and Valcargado, one sees the Cerrc
del Pelado, with albariza heights, bugeo in the lower pai
and palomino prevailing on its ninety aranzadas. Farther
the north-west, close to the Cerro del Pelado, is the
of Tizon, with 200 aranzadas of albariza and bugeo soil
and planted with palominos. Between Tizon and Amar-
WINES OF SPAIN. 247
guillo, close to the latter, is the pago of the Tocina, 100
aranzadas in extent, with soil varying between lustrillo of
albariza, bugeo and barro-arena. Its vines are palominos
and mantuos, and of its vineyards the most noted is the
one del Garrotal, also named del Canonigo. East of Tizon,
north from our point of view, and stretching towards Mach-
arnudo, we see the pago of Valcargado, with a surface of
i oo aranzadas, bugeo and albariza soil, and palomino vines.
East of Valcargado and bordering upon Macharnudo bajo
is the pago of Tabajete, of sixty aranzadas, with albariza and
bugeo soil planted with palomino. We take the road which
borders this pago to the east and divides it from Machar-
nudo bajo, termed Hijuela de Tabajete, and then turning
towards the east take the Hijuela alta, which separates
Macharnudo bajo in its entire length from the isonymous
high pago. Thus we are in the midst of what is termed
comprehensively Macharnudo, perhaps the greatest pago of
Jerez, having more than 1,500 aranzadas of vineyards. In
the east it abuts for several kilometres upon the Trebujena
road.
Its soil is mostly white plastic albariza, with interspersed
low-lying bugeo districts. Its vines are palomino, perruno,
Pedro Jimenez, albillo, moscatel, canocazo, and mantuo ;
palomino forms half the set. It yields excellent wines.
Noted vineyards are those of la Compania, and Domecq's,
originally planted by Haurie, 400 aranzadas in extent.
175. PRUNING OF THE VINES.
The cutting instrument used for pruning is termed hoz de
poda. The long part, boca, bears the oblique cutting edge
with which the canes are cut downwards. The peto is
a kind of light hatchet, and used as such upon trunks and
dry old wood. In cold weather this hoz not rarely breaks
the branches, particularly of young vines, therefore upon
such advanced viticulturists now perform the poda by means
of the secateur. Each established vine is generally so
trained that it carries four anns on a low trunk. Ideally
these arms should be at right angles to each other, but
248 A TREATISE ON WINES.
as the vines have no supports, and the branches are heavily
dragged down by the fruit, they are mostly wonderfully con-
torted. Long fruit-branches may bear from ten to twelve
eyes. The three remaining arms are mere stumps of old wood,
which, if any, have but one or two eyes left to them. There
is here a curious mode of cutting through the node of the
cane without considering the eye close by. When the fruit-
branch has been borne by one arm during one year, it is in
the following established on the next arm to the left, and the
arm with the obsolete fruit-branch is cut down to a stump.
In this manner the fruit-branch travels round the vine
like a game of cards, from right to left, once in four years.
This cycle is observed in the whole land of Sherry.
Fig. 37. The " Hoz de Poda," or pruning knife and hatchet.
After the pruning, the vines look so mutilated and
stumpy, compared to their former richness in branches,
that the uninitiated can scarcely comprehend the manner of
their recovering the autumnal appearance. This was
strongly felt by an English visitor, who expressed his
fear of what might happen if the pruned vines should take
it into their heads not to grow again, and caused him to ex-
claim anxiously, " Y si no mete? "
The pruning is always effected with the intention of
causing the branches to grow towards the ground ; therefore,
stumps which are directed towards the earth are preferred to
those which are turned upwards. When old wood is so
situated that its cutting off might endanger the fruit-branch,
it is left. This is the result of the use of the coarse instru-
WINES OF SPAIN. 249
ment, the hoz, above described. I have not heard of the
use of saws, which in the Gironde now everywhere accom-
pany the use of the secateurs.
In old vineyards young vines are practically all produced
by slips. In new plantations the vines are produced by
canes, or by rooted plants trained in a.plantera, or nursery.
The new stocks are always planted in a deep hollow, which
is gradually filled up. When the plant has obtained a good
Fig. 38. Vine pruned for spring growth.
size, and consists of a good strong cane, it is cut for estab-
lishing the foot, that is to say, whereas before it was cut
close to the ground, now it is cut at a height of one foot
from the ground. Two eyes only are left to it at the top,
from which two canes grow. These two canes are in the
next autumn cut so as to leave two spurs of two eyes each.
Out of each eye a new cane is produced, and these-four canes
furnish the four permanent arms of the vine. At the top of
the primary stem a little dead wood is left to indicate the
spot at which the primary cane was cut from the establish-
ment of the foot. This little stump is. curiously enough,
250
A TREATISE ON WINES.
never removed by the vine-dresser. Here I also noticed
some striking cases of the diseases affecting the vine in
Xeres ; the most remarkable of them is the agena the
insolation, or sun-stroke of the leaves, which causes them to
die in part or entirely. Many leaves in 187 1 showed this effect
in the shape of black or brown patches of dead tissue. This
agena also affected the grapes, and gave to many of them a
nice golden brown face, a feature considered a prime
quality in the chaselas of France, and termed dore (gilt).
But the grapes so affected at Jerez are always inferior, and
Fig- 39- Vine in the second, third, and fourth year.
never attain either the sweetness or aroma of pale greenish
grapes which have ripened in complete shade of the leaves.
The agena affects young vines more than old ones, and
causes great havoc in nurseries (planteras).
176. RARER VARIETIES OF VINES.
The Abejera derives it name from the preference shown
to it by the bees (abejas). It has a thick foot, with many
canes, of silver-grey, yellowish colour, partly hanging, partly
standing erect. The canes have many laterals. The leaves
are entire, or nearly so, somewhat rugose, and of a pale
green colour on their surface, and woolly on the underside.
The branches are pyramidal, the grapes green, juicy, and
WINES OF SPAIN. 25!
sweet, less cloying than those of the albillo castellano,
which, in other respects, it much resembles. It occurs
in Espera as the exclusive stock of vineyards or patches.
The Agracera, distinguished by the agraz, or acid taste of
its grapes, which is said to make it useless for the production
of wine. It is a late-ripening vine, forms flowers until the
end of the spring, and ripens some of its fruit only in
November. Its grapes are very large, black or violet ; the
bunches are mostly small, and poorly provided with grapes.
Sometimes, however, when the vine is planted in good soil,
they become large and close grained. It is almost ex-
clusively grown in espaliers. The stock is slight, the canes
are numerous, and have many branches ; their colour
is greenish-white, and sometimes reddish. The leaves are
small, shining, dark green, and almost smooth. They
remain long on the vine.
The Agracera de soto is a variation of the foregoing. Its
grapes are less black and less acid, and ripen earlier than
those of the ordinary agracera. It also resembles a little to
the melonera. It is more suitable for wine (say the
Jerezanos) than the other two varieties, because it is
less acid.
The pago el Almocaden lies along the right side of
the Trebujena road, opposite high Macharnudo. The
road is here also termed the cross-road or thoroughfare
of Almocaden, as if this pago were situated on both sides of
the road. Its soil is albariza, with palomino mainly, mixed
with some mantuos, moscatels, and others. The principal
vineyard is that of Matamoros. The name of Almocaden is
Moorish, and signifies captain or chief of troops guarding
the fields. To the right is the pago of Cuadros, fifteen to
twenty aranzadas of vineyards upon the rivulet of the same
name, abutting on the road to Trebujena, between it and
that of Carrascal. The soil is bugeo, with some albariza,
mainly planted with palomino. Carrascal is a pago of seven
hundred aranzadas, enjoying great reputation. Carrascal
means a forest or plantation of evergreen oaks ; it may,
therefore, be assumed that these preceded the vines in this
pago. The soil on the heights is albariza, in the lower parts
252 A TREATISE ON WINES.
bugeo. Its predominant vine is palomino, with some
canocazo, Pedro Jimenez, and albillo. It yields fine mostos
and superior dulces. It forms the centre of the group of
pagos which lie between the road to Trebujena and that to
Lebrija. It contains large vineyards, and amongst them
that of Amoroso and that of the Corregidor.
Amoroso lies on a lower hill, surrounded by a circle
of higher ones, and therefore well protected from inclement
winds, particularly the dreaded levante. It produces the
amoroso sherry, which is well known and frequently
imitated. Some time ago, I saw an advertisement of a
London wine merchant, stating that he had fine amoroso,
that he did not know why it should be called so, but it was
much liked, and therefore, etc. He and his customers
will perhaps thank me for the information, that Amoroso
was the name of the original proprietor and planter of this
vineyard, who lived at the beginning of this century, and is
remembered as a contributor to the work of Clemente. But
for this reason the name might be considered objectionable,
particularly as the Italians play much with the root of amor
in the names which they give to many of their vinous pro-
ductions, such as amorino, amoroso, amoretto, and others,
all of which occur not unfrequently on labels.
The vineyard contains some palomino negro, which is
generally used for dulce, or vino de color. The vineyard of
Romano is to be noted, because it used to be ornamented
with a great growth of Marvels of Peru (Suspiros), with
white, red, yellow, and violet flowers. Some yellow flowers
were piebald, one-eighth of their entire petal being red.
177. VINTAGE THE LAGAR PRESSING THE GRAPES
PISA.
The gatherers, or vintagers, all men, select the best grapes
for dulce, to be dried on the platform. Each has a box
(tineta\ with a strap of esparto fixed on one side, by which
the box is hung over arm or shoulder.
The full tinetas are taken to the platform, and their con-
tents emptied on mats. The next operation is the removal
WINES OF SPAIN.
253
of the main stalks, which is effected by cutting the side-
branches of the bunches away from the stalks by means of
knives. This is done for dulce only, and not for other wine.
The buildings are, by their size and convenience, well adapted
Fig. 40. The "Lagar,' er platform for treading and pressing grapes.
for vino-poetic purposes. In a large hall are the sleeping
mats of the labourers, the pit for their nightly bonfire, and
the copper for boiling the must. In a large shed behind this
are the lagares, in number adapted to the size of the estate,,
and a hydraulic press.
254 A TREATISE ON WINES.
The lagar used in Andalusia is a large square wooden
trough, in which the grapes are trodden and pressed, but
never fermented. It differs, therefore, greatly from the
Portuguese lagar, which is mostly of stone, and serves for
treading and pressing as well as fermenting the mosto, at
least during the initial most stormy period. The platform
or even bottom of the Jerez lagar is a square of about three
yards on each side. The sides of the trough are from
eighteen inches to two feet high, and slope inwards towards
the bottom. The top of the trough measures, therefore,
about three and a half yards in each direction. In the centre
of the platform a wooden or iron screw is fixed perpendicu-
larly. This is about seven feet long ; it carries a heavy nut,
to which strong levers are attached, this entire piece from
end to end being about two yards in length, The necessity of
getting this piece out of the way of the workmen, when they
are treading and manipulating the grapes, causes the
enormous length of the screw for while only the lower half
or third of the screw is actually used for pressing grapes, the
upper half or two-thirds serves to screw up the nut and levers
to a height above the heads of the workmen. The lagar is
raised above the ground about a yard or more, and slightly
inclined in the direction of the side, where there is a spout
for the juice to flow off. Sometimes the lagar is raised
sufficiently high to allow a bota to be placed under the spout
and receive the juice directly. But more commonly the
spout delivers the juice into a tub, even when the lagar is
high enough to allow the bota to be placed directly under its
spout. Of such lagares there are generally a number kept
ready in the building attached to each vineyard. In some
vineyards, of which I knew the dimensions, I counted that
one lagar was kept for every eight or ten aranzadas of vine-
yard, so that on each lagar there would be made from thirty
to forty botas of mosto during each vintage.
The grapes are spread on the lagar, and immediately
dusted over with burned plaster of Paris ( Yeso). Perhaps
from twenty to thirty pounds of plaster are thus employed,
enough in any case to precipitate all tartaric acid and leave
a large excess of sulphate. Two men (pisadores\ lightly
WINES OF SPAIN. 255
clad in short breeches, wearing leather shoes, the entire soles
of which are covered with heavy iron nails, now tread the
"grapes in the lagar. The treading proceeds first in one
direction, and then at right angles to it, over the entire lagar.
The juice does not run from the lagar while the trodden
grapes are lying spread, but begins to flow when they are
heaped up in one corner and patted with the shovel. New
grapes are now spread over the lagar, and trodden, and
Fig. 41. The murk bandaged with esparto band, previous to pressing.
shovelled aside; and this is repeated until a sufficient
quantity has been treated to give a bota of mosto and a
quantity of murk sufficient for a pressing, and for leaving a
dry cake of sufficient size. The trodden murk is now heaped
up around the screw, which stands in the centre of the lagar,
and is with great labour and difficulty worked up into a high
conical heap. The lagar is swept, and all is carefully
collected. To see the pisadores building this pie with the
shovel, and ever and anon patting it with the hands, cutting,
bending, and adjusting it, and then see the murk bulge out
256 A TREATISE ON WINES.
here and yonder, and require a new effort on the part of the
pisadores, reminded me greatly of the efforts of boys to con-
struct a snow man in thawy weather. At last, however, the
column stands, and is now ready for being bandaged. A
long band, made of esparto grass, three to four inches broad,
is wound round the cone of murk from below upwards in a
spiral direction ; both ends are fastened by being clenched
between two rounds of the band itself. Frequently the
Fig. 42. Pressing of the bandaged murk with the screw. Juice
flowing.
windings are not uniform, so that no spiral result is obtained.
When well built, the structure resembles much the representa-
tion of the tower of Babel in Merian's picture Bible. About
fifteen rounds of the band are required to cover a cone about
a yard in height. The top of the murk is covered with a
plate, over this passes the nut of the screw to which the
levers are fastened, and the murk is now compressed by turn-
ing the nut downwards. As this proceeds the murk gives
out juice, and the spiral circles of the esparto bands are
pressed, the upper ones behind or inwards of the lower ones*
WINES OF SPAIN. 257
At last the labour of turning the screw becomes severe. To
overcome the friction of the plate, the men have to jerk their
bodies violently, and as they might thereby lose the grasp
of the levers and fall, they tie their hands to the levers.
When the murk is compressed so that the two men jerking
simultaneously at the levers can no longer move the screw,
the pressing is complete. The cake is allowed to remain in
this compressed state for a time and is then removed.
Some now subject the entire murk, distributed on mats,
to a second compression in hydraulic presses ; others remove
the stalks by working the murk on sieves, treat the murk
with water and then compress between mats, others, again,
simply pour water on the murk and press it between mats.
The product is not put with the must or used for wine, but
kept and fermented by itself and ultimately taken to the
distillery.
The juice which runs from the most inclined part of the
lagar through a spout passes through an iron-wire sieve, of
the shape of an oval basin, hung over the end of the spout
to retain pips and husks, and then flows into a tub (fina),
whence it is ladled by flat spoons resembling bankers' money
shovels, into jugs, and from them poured through a finer sieve,
placed inside a wide funnel (embudo), into the butts.
This mode of pressing is highly laborious, and yet does
not yield a dry cake of murk. Its only advantage is that it
is not strong enough to press juice out of the stalks ; but, as
no care is taken to exclude the last portions of juice from the
husks, which are always harsh, from the mosto, this feebleness
is only a partial protection against the coarse elements of the
murk. We can judge of this process better by comparing it
with the method of pressing used in the Champagne. Here
the must is collected in four or five different stages and mixed
consciously only, i.e. after trial of each portion by gustation,
with the distinct object of obtaining the finest and purest
juice and excluding acerbity. Compare also with the Jerez
mode of pressing, that which is used in Styria and Dalmatia,
and the description of good wine-presses as used in the
Gironde.
2$8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
178. FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF PAGOS, THEIR
SOILS AND VINES.
The pago nearest to Jerez reaching from the Lebrija road
to the Sevilla chausee is the Cruz de las Caballeras.
Thirty aranzadas of barro-arena are here planted with man-
tuos and mollares. United to this is the Pie de Rey, a pago
of eight or ten aranzadas. Farther N.N.E. lies Bogar, (or
Bogas), a baro-arena pago of ninety aranzadas, extending
from the Ducha to the Sevilla road.
About one and a half kilometres from Bogar, in the direc-
tion toward Ducha, on both sides of the Ducha road, and
looking towards Carascal on the west, and Val de Pajuela on
the east, is the pago of Dona Rosa, barro-arena with some
albariza, about thirty aranzadas in extent. Its vines are
mantuos and mollares. The most extreme pago in this
section on the Sevilla road, and stretching on its eastern side
to the railway, bordered on the N.E. by the Canada ancha is
Val de Pajuela, a barro-arena pago of one hundred aran-
zadas. On it mantuo predominates.
The second section of the north-east district lies between
the Sevilla road and the Arcos road. The pagos nearest to
Jerez are Jarreta, pago of barro-arena near cemetery, between
the road de la Zanja and the carriage road to Arcos. Here
also lies Membrillar, close to the rivulet of the same name ;
its extent is about forty aranzadas. Laguna del Jabonero is
a pago which may have been a swamp in which soda-plants,
yielding ash fit for soap-making, grew. A part is occupied
by the cemetery. Close to it and the cemetery is the Peral
del Cangrejo, a pago of barro-arena, and close to this, bor-
dering upon Jarretta, is Peliron, barro-arena, forty aranzadas
in extent. Close to the Peral del Cangrejo is the pago of
Cuatro Novias, barro-arena, thirty aranzadas. It borders
upon the suburbs of Jerez.
On the right side of the Sevilla road, between this and the
road De la Zanja, below Valdepajuela, lies the la Zanja, and
a side-road called of Largalo, lies the barro-pago of Santo
Fe, barro-arena, twenty aranzadas in extent. Between the
long narrow lane which runs almost parallel with the Sevilla
WINES OF SPAIN. 259
road, called Callejon de arena pago of Largalo, with a surface
of 200 aranzadas. Close to this, and in the direction of Las
Abiertas, is Pelona, a barro-arena pago. Here also is Per-
ceba, a barro-arena pago of twenty aranzadas, planted with
mantuos and mollares.
The most eastern pago, situated close to the high-road to
Arcos, between the olive-groves of Alcantara and land be-
longing to the Cortijo de la Penuela, is the pago of Alcantara.
It gave its name to the Marquisate of that name, which was
bestowed in the seventeenth century upon the Jerezano D.
Agustin Villavicencio. Its soil is albariza, its surface one
hundred aranzadas the palomino predominates upon it.
Its most notable vineyard is that called of the Cartuja, for-
merly the property of the monastery of that name on the
Guadalete. The last pagos of this group to be described are
the Abiertas de Caulina vineyards, in the plain of Caulina,
forming the extreme E.N.E. end of the group, and bordering
upon the Llanos de Caulina. They extend from the Arcos
road to the Callejon de la Zanja, and are traversed by the
railway. On the north they are bounded by Santa Fe, on the
south by El Pinar. Their soil is barro-arena, their vines are
mantuos and mollares, and their surface is one hundred and
forty aranzadas.
179. FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF JEREZ VINES.
The vines most commonly grown in this and the following
district are the mantuos, mollares, the ferral and beba. I
subjoin a short description of them and of their subordinate
varieties :
Mantuo Castellano. This vine occupies one-half of the
Jerez vineyards. Its stock is strong; its canes are nu-
merous and large; at the thick end they are greyish red,
towards the point whitish red; the leaves are yellowish
green, and reddish when they are shed ; they are of medium
size, entire, and woolly on the lower face. The numerous
bunches are large ; the grapes large, equal, of good taste,
and ripen a fortnight later than those of the palomino ; they
rot easily in rainy weather. They are peculiarly consistent,
260 A TREATISE ON WINES.
without being hard, as if the juice was shut up in many
small receptacles. Many dark stones make the grape dis-
agreeable to eat. Its mosto is very heavy, ranging from
9*7 to 14 B, and developes into wines termed finos.
Mantuo de Pila. The canes are somewhat irregular ; the
grapes hard ; sweet, but late ; this lateness necessitates that
they should hang on the vines beyond the time of the
general vintage, which causes them to be inconvenient
grapes for wine-making, if not kept by themselves. Its
name is derived from Pila, the town in the province of
Seville.
Manluo morado. Similar to the other mantuos, but
differing by the violet colour of its grapes.
Mantuo Cordovi. Whitish strong canes ; leaves yellowish
green ; grapes large, bronzed, and translucent.
Mantuo lacren, ladrenado, or layren. Name derived from
the Arabic, of problematical meaning. Similar to the
former ; its grapes are less translucent and later ripe ; its
bunches more pyramidal.
Canocazo. Arabic name, signifying soft mild grape. Is
also termed mollar bianco. The stock is strong, its canes
are numerous and straggling, some being upright, others on
the ground, hanging in all directions ; they are thick, and
of a greyish red colour, with some yellow admixed. The
large leaves are almost entire, yellowish green ; the branches
are large, with many grapes, and giving a mosto of from
11 to 12 B, which produces high-flavoured olorosos.
When well dried in the sun it may be advantageously com-
bined with Pedro Jimenez for duke.
Mollar negro, also termed Seirillano. Stock middling;
canes numerous, hanging, greyish red ; with large and
almost round leaves of yellowish green colour, which become
red before the fall. The bunches are large and numerous,
the grapes black. Very commonly grown in Jerez, and
used for verdeo. Mosto weighs from 9 to 14 B.
Ferrar, also ferral. Stock strong, with few short, thick,
erect canes, of a greyish red colour. Leaves yellowish
green ; bunches large ; grapes nearly black, large and very
late. In unfavourable years and conditions the husks
WINES OF SPAIN. 26l
remain violet, even green, though the contents are quite
sweet. It should be grown on espaliers in protected places,
upon the so-called extension system, with many branches,
like the so-called Hambro' vine of English conservatories,
the Tyrol grape, to which it has much resemblance. It is.
supposed that from the richness in branches (when it is
grown on espaliers) the Arabic nameferrar is derived. Its
mosto is not very heavy, Clemente finding it 8-5 B. I have
observed it at 14 B, from very ripe ferrars. Clemente says
that its must was not good for wine, as it was too acid.
This has been so often repeated, that it is now generally
believed ; but it is an error. The nonsuitability for wine
of the ferrar arises from its liability to form scud immediately
after fermentation, and to shed its colour and lose quality.
As regards acidity, it must not be forgotten that what in
Andalusia is acidulous, would be very sweet indeed even in
the Gironde.
The last of the favourite vines in this district is the Beba.
Its stock is of middling size, with canes which are red, and
have the silver-grey hue; they sink to the ground. The
leaves are large, and appear whitish, owing to a downy
covering ; in shape irregular, palmate, lobed, and of uneven
surface. The bunches are pyramidal, and dense, and the
grapes are large and hard, and frequently bronzed. They
are late, and therefore are suitable for being hung up for
later use, or for being transformed into raisins. Large
quantities are sold as verdeo. As I have repeatedly used,
and shall have again to use this expression, I give some
explanation of its meaning. Verdear is the selling of fruit
for the purpose of its being eaten fresh, or transformed into
other products. Thus it is said that the inhabitants of
Velez transport to Malaga, in the month of July, "para
verdear," or " para verdeo," 250 mule loads of sugarcane.
The grapes which are sold as such at Jerez are termed
"verdea," but it does not follow that they are all eaten. A
portion, no doubt, is made into wine, although produced
and sold, in the first instance, as verdeo. (See Clemente,
p. 136, footnote i.)
Calona. This vine has a medium-sized stock, and few
262 A TREATISE ON WINES.
straight and erect canes. The leaves are almost entire,
unequally punctured, and of a yellowish green colour. The
bunches are large, the grapes large and white, tasty, but
sour ; this is indeed indicated by its name, which is Arabic
and indicates acid or vinegar. It is an early grape and
used for eating. Its black brother, the Calona negra, also
termed Carchuna, has yellower leaves than the former, and
large thick black grapes. They are sweeter and earlier than
the white ones, and liked for eating.
The Uva de Loja belongs to the class of datileras, has
numerous straggling canes, and small and light yellowish
leaves. The grapes are large and frequently two-winged ;
when single they are conical ; the berries have thin husks,
and are good for raisins and for eating. The name is derived
from the town of Loja.
A kind of vine, not frequently grown here, and possibly
identical with the Malvasia of Greece, is the Malvasia.
Canes erect, short, whitish red. Leaves large, irregularly
lobed or palmate ; grapes transparent, white, very delicate
to eat, sweet, and early, but with a thick skin. Comes from
Cataluna. Another interesting vine is the Vigiriega cominun.
Middling-sized stock, many canes, and yellowish leaves, of
middling size, almost entire and round. Bunches few;
grapes almost round, greenish white, and very sweet, being
good for mosto and for eating. A variety of it is the still
more rare Vigiriega negra, black, and much less sweet than
the former.
1 80. CLASSIFICATION OF GRAPES, IN THE ORDER OF
THEIR QUALITY FOR MAKING WINE.
Pedro Jimenez the finest grape, little grown in Jerez,
mostly used for dulce ; sweetest grape.
Palomino the dominating vine ; produces finos and
amontillados ; made pure.
Perruno produces high-flavoured olorosos.
Mantuo castellano solid fleshy grape.
Mantuo de Pila late grape.
The foregoing alone form sets in vineyards.
WINES OF SPAIN. 263
The following never form sets, and are not prized for
wine :
Beba esteemed for eating.
Cafiocazo scarce ; produces high-flavoured olorosos.
Ferral, Mollard, and Palomino Negro are used by pro-
prietors for making vino de color, as if from white grapes,
not red. The ferral and mollar are rejected by the pur-
chasers of partidos.
Almufiecar and Albillo the most juicy or fluid of grapes.
The proportion in which any of these vines are reared in
vineyards may be seen under the description of each district.
For common vineyards no proportion can be stated. I
inspected some crops while they were being emptied on the
lagares (September 15, 1871), and found them to consist of
a mixture of the following grapes, enumerated in the order of
their apparent frequency : Beba, Mantuo Castellano, Palo-
mino, Albillo, and Mollar.
181. EASTERN, SOUTHERN, AND WESTERN GROUP OF
PAGOS.
The eastern group comprises the section between the
Arcos road and the Hijuela de Pedro Diaz. The first pago
out of Jerez by the Arcos road is that of San Antonio,
situated close to the town, upon the drain or sewer de los
Alunados, between the carriage-road to Arcos, or footpath
del Badelejo on the one and the footpath of the Cana-
leja on the other side. Its extent is thirty to forty aran-
zadas ; its soil is barro-arena, its vines are mantuos and
mollares. On the south-east of, and close to the former
pago, is that of the Pozo de Ramos, twelve aranzadas in
extent. It is close to Jerez, and approached by the long
narrow lane La Manga del Toril. Its soil is barro-arena ;
its vines are mantuos and mollares. East of San Antonio,
and bordering upon the road of Badalejo, is the mantuo-
bearing pago of Barbadillo. Between this, the Arcos road
and the pago El Pina, is that of Cabrestera, forty aranzadas
in extent. In this group also lies Garrido, a pago of about
twenty aranzadas, and Piedra del Mirabel, ot thirty aran-
264 A TREATISE ON WINES.
zadas. Continuing by the Badalejo road, we meet on the
left the large pago of El Pinar, which bears its name from
a plantation of pines contained in it, and includes one
hundred aranzadas. On its north side this pago is bordered
in its whole length by the Arcos road, in the east it borders
upon the Caulina plain and Badalejo. South of El Pinar,
and on the right of the Badalejo road, is situated the long
pago of Canalejo, confined on its south side by the road of
the same name, with fifty aranzadas of vineyard, The name
is probably derived from criadero de canas, Canaveral, or
more probably from canaleja, a drinking trough. The soil
of all the foregoing pagos, when not differently characterized,
may be assumed to be barro-arena, and to be planted with
mantuos and mollares.
East of the Canaleja is the small barro-arena pago of
Catalana, forming a compact mass of vineyards, with the
larger pago of Badalejo. This is situated where the Canaleja
and Badalejo roads join, and, branching off from the road
to Cuartillos, make a semicircular loop towards the Arcos
road, winding round the eastern end of El Pinar, already
described. The pago lies close to the rivulet of the same
name, which flows in a southern direction towards the
Guadalete, and joins its waters, profuse in the rainy season,
almost nil in dry summertime, with those of the Guadalete,
at a point between the Cartuja and the bridge close by.
The name of pago and river is spelt by Suter in his map
" Albaladejo," so that we have here an Arabic article pre-
fixed, and some letters transposed. The spelling which I
adopt seems justified by the probable derivation from the
Arabic guadalec or guadalejo, derived itself from guada,.
fiver. The soil of this pago is barro-arena, with much
chalk, containing great numbers of fossil marine shells of the
tertiary period. The mantuos prevail, and their products
are esteemed. The total area of the vineyards amounts to
forty aranzadas. To the south-east of the pago and rivulet
of Badalejo is the isolated pago of Culebra, with twenty-five
aranzadas of barro-arena soil, planted with mantuos and
mollares.
Due east of Jerez, and about ten kilometres distant, is
WINES OF SPAIN. 265
Cuartillos, forming, with Majada, an isolated group of im-
portant vineyards. It comprises about four hundred aran-
zadas of lustrillo soil. Its vines are palominos, perrunos,
albillos, mantuos, and bebas. The most noted vineyard is
that de las Animas. Majada, also termed M. Alta, measures
twenty aranzadas, and resembles Cuartillos in soil and
plantation.
Returning to Jerez from a visit to the plain round Cule-
bras, I passed the pago, which from a neighbouring flowing
spring is called Fuente de la Teja. It is situated at the
eastern end of the group of vineyards which are enclosed be-
tween the road of the Canaleja and that of Pedro Diaz. It
passes westward into the pago of Pedro Diaz, thirty aran-
zadas of barro-areno soil, and is also blessed with a living
spring of the same name. From this pago all the way to
Jerez the vineyards lying along the Hijuela de Pedro Diaz,
belong to the pago of San Jose, barro-arena vineyards of forty
aranzadas surface, with the mantuos and mollares usual in
this district.
The plains all round this eastern district are, if not barren,
at least mainly uncultivated. Their soil is clay and sand, and
suffers from stagnation of water in winter and drought in the
summer. They are covered by groups of palmitos, and
were adorned, when I first saw them, with numberless
squills in full bloom. Herds of cattle were roaming over
them. I was informed that before the Revolution 0^1833
these lands were the property of the commune of Jerez. In
consequence of the revolution a plan was started in Jerez to
cure the poverty of the labouring population by giving them
lands. The public lands were divided, and somehow dis-
tributed amongst the citizens. The plots were large enough
for separate settlements, or the establishment of small
farms. But not a single one of the new proprietors was
found to settle on, or even work, the newly acquired land.
Some sold it on the evening of the day on which they had
received the boon, for more or less of wine or money, an
arrobe of wine being no uncommon price for an entire lot
of several aranzadas. A few monied persons and land-
owners in the neigbourhood acquired the whole ot what had
266 A TREATISE ON WINES.
been the common land, for a ridiculously inadequate price ;
and thus the community was not only cheated of its pro-
perty, but the mass of its poor inhabitants were deprived of
the greater part of the common land on which their animals
had, during a great part of each year, found their sub-
sistence.
The first pago close to the south side of Jerez, bordering
upon the plain of San Telmo, is that of Mancebia, a small
vineyard, of one aranzada, in bugeo soil. Where the road
to Monte Allegre branches off that to the Cartuja there is
situated the pago of Pozillos, fourteen aranzadas in extent,
with barro-arena soil, and planted with mantuos and mol-
lares. In the angle formed by the Monte Allegre and
Cartuja road is situated the barro-arena pago of Barrial.
Not far off is the farm of Vallesequillo, on barro-arena soil,
with orchards and vineyards. In this part the soil is
remarkably red when freshly worked, paler when long ex-
posed ; some parts are almost reddish brown, and the
colour changes frequently with the situation. To the east
of the pagos just mentioned, between the Hijuela de Monte
Alegre and that of Pedro Diaz, lies the pago of Manjon, or
Majon, twenty aranzadas in extent, with barro-arena soil,
and the vines appropriate to it. Contiguous to this is the
Llano del Moral, a barro-arena pago, of from fifteen to twenty
aranzadas. To the south-east of these pagos, and occupy-
ing almost the entire space between the road to the Cartuja
and that of Pedro Dias, is the important pago of Monte
Allegre, of about four hundred aranzadas. It is divided in
its middle by a road bearing its name. Its soil is in one
part barro-arena, in another portion plastic albariza. The
dominant vines are mantuos with interposed bebas, mollares,
and palominos. The point of Monte Alegre close to the
Cartuja is termed Cabeza de la Azena, and contains twenty
aranzadas of barro-arena soil.
To the south of the road to the Cartuja, between it and
that to the Granja, lies the pago of Buena Vista, which de-
rives its name from certain high hills in its midst, whence a
fine view of the old monastery, and of the valley of the
Guadelete is obtained. It comprises about sixty aranzadas;
WINES OF SPAIN. 267
its soil is barro-arena, with some chalky underground ; the
prevailing vines are mantuos. More towards Jerez, and ta
the west of Buena Vista, we see the ten aranzadas of the
pago of Flamenco, traversed by the three roads of the Car-
tuja, la Granja and Solete. The Cartuja road separates it
from the Moral, and the Granja road from the pago of
Geraldino. This pago is, in its turn, circumscribed by the
road to the Granja and that to the Solete. It contains
twenty aranzadas of barro-arena, and is planted with man-
tuos. The name is said to have been selected in honour of
a Jerez naval man, who fought with unsuccessful glory at
the naval battle of Cape St. Vincent. At the southern
extremity of Buena Vista, and close to the Guadalete,
we find the pago of la Granja, with a farm of the same
name, to which its main vineyard belongs. The road
which leads to it bears the name of Camino de la Granja.
It is thirty aranzadas in extent ; its soil is barro-arena, and
its vines are mantuos, mollares, and others.
West of la Granja, and between it and Solete, is the
barro-arena pago of Lazo. It is a long strip of land, with
twenty aranzadas of vineyards, abutting in the north upoa
the Granja-road, in the south upon that of del Rio viejo.
The last of the large pagos of this district is that of Solete,,
due south of Jerez. It borders in the west upon the Car-
retera del Puerto, in the east upon the pagos of Lazo and
Geraldino, and is traversed by a road which bears its name,
and farther west by the railway to Cadiz, running parallel
with the road. Its soil is barro-arena, and its vines are
mantuos and mollares.
On the outskirts of the district above described are yet a
few small pagos, which may be conveniently here enume-
rated. S.S.E. of Jerez, and at three leagues' distance from-
it, is the pago Torre de la Cera, of forty-two aranzadas,
with albariza soil. In the same direction from Jerez, but at
a distance of five leagues, near the ex-convent del Valle,.
is the pago of Parrilla, of forty aranzadas.
The road to the Cartuja is a quagmire of sand and dust,
with here and there a fragment of macadamized road.
a remnant of a better past.
263 A TREATISE ON WINES.
The Toirox group of vineyards, sometimes also called
group of las Anaferas, is situated S.S.W. of Jerez, in a
pentagonal space, bordered to the N.N.W. by the Trocha
de Jerez al Puerto, on the W.S.W. by the Canada del
Carillo, and the northern slopes of the Sierra de San
Cristobal. On the N.E. it is skirted by the carretera
del Puerto a Jerez, the railroad from Cadiz to Sevilla and
the Rio Guadelete, three roads which run close together at
the former port of Jerez, el Portal. The entire group is
within five kilometres from Jerez, and is easily reached
by the Puerto roads mentioned, or by either of two field-
roads, the Hijuela of Torrox or that of las Anaferas.
The pago of Torrox is S.S.W. from Jerez, in the place
where formerly was a laguna of that name, abutting upon
Gibalcon, and giving its Moorish name to the entire group.
Its extent is two hundred aranzadas, its soil albariza, with
bugeo in the lower parts. The vines are palomino, mantuo,
Pedro Jimenez. To the east of this, and due south of
Jerez, lies Gibalcon, a pago with an Arabic name, and
fronting towards the cerro del Fruto and San Telmo.
Extent, ninety aranzadas; soil, albariza; vines, palomino
and mantuo. Next to the former two pagos, and almost in
the centre of the group, lies the pago of Cibullo, being
albariza with some bugeo, fifty aranzadas in extent, and
mainly planted with palomino.
The pago nearest the river and railway is that of Parpa-
lana, one hundred and sixty aranzadas in extent. Its soil
is white plastic earth, with bugeo in the lower parts. Vines :
polomino and Pedro Jimenez intermixed with peruno, cano-
cazo, albillo, and mantuo. Noted vineyards : Nuestra
Senra de la Merced, Perla de Parpalana, borders upon la
Calderera and Bonaina. The former is an albariza pago, with
sixty aranzadas of palomino, but Bonaina has more bugeo
soil, fifty aranzadas in extent, and is also stocked with
palomino. To this district also belongs the pago de Galera,
a strip of land lying between the river Guadalete and the
carriage road to Puerto, extending from the Portal to the
olive-grove del Duque. Its soil, of which only half an
aranzada is as yet planted with vines, is exclusively bugeo.
WINES OF SPAIN. 269
The pago o. this group, which is third in importance
and most distant from Jerez, is las Anaferas. It borders
upon the Canada (brook lined with reeds) del Carillo, and
the pagos of Cibullo and Torrox. Its soil is white albariza,
of so plastic a nature that it can be carved with a knife,
like soap, and is in that state worked into portable little
stoves for charcoal, over which the common people cook
their dinners. From these stoves the pago derives its name.
The palomino predominates on its ninety aranzadas.
Bordering upon las Anaferas is the pago termed after the
brook Canada del Carrillo, fifty aranzadas, with albariza in
the high and bugeo in the low portions. On the outskirts
of the group we have yet to notice the pago of Colores,
situated on the right of the bridle-road from Jerez to Puerto.
It measures twenty aranzadas, with bugeo soil and some
albariza. Its stock consists of mantuos and palominos.
Close to it, on the left or south side of the same road, is the
pago of Matacardillo, about fifty aranzadas in extent.
South of las Anaferas and of the Canada del Carillo is
the pago of the Sierra de San Cristobal. The vineyard is
situated on the northern slope of this mountain. Its soil is
bugeo, some albariza, and arena, products of the disintegra-
tion of the sand and chalk-rock which forms the mass of the
hill. The soil on the whole is therefore lustrillo. Extent,,
fifty aranzadas ; vines, mantuos and palominos.
182. MOSCATELS.
Close to el Portal is the Vega del Moscatel. It forms
about six aranzadas of vineyards in bugeo soil, on which
choice varities of moscatels are cultivated, amongst them
the following :
Moscatel gordo bianco, also termed romano and flamenco.
The stock is strong, the canes are yellowish, like those of
reeds, the leaves small and entire, or almost so, and the
grapes are large, and have the peculiar flavour.
Moscatel gordo morado, similar to foregoing in shape, but
its grape is violet, and the canes somewhat greyish-red.
Moscatel meniido bianco, also termed morisco andyfw, is a
270 A TREATISE ON WINES.
more delicate plant than the former ; its canes are intensely
greyish-red. The grapes are small and very sweet, and give
the best moscatel wine, or rather, sweet liqueur.
Moscatels require dark territory ; even in this warm
climate their flowers set very imperfectly, but the grapes
which become developed at all attain a high degree of
perfection.
Farther towards Jerez, to the east of Gibalcon, bordering
upon the side-road of las Coles, and the carriage-road to
Puerto, are yet two small pagos, the Cerro de Paez, a single
vineyard of from six to seven aranzadas, with barro-arena
.soil, and pago de Palmosa, a small vineyard with bugeo soil.
183. DENSITY OF JEREZ MOSTOS.
Many a sherry-drinker has heard the oft-repeated tale,
that in the south the grapes are so sweet, so highly charged
with sugar, that the mosto made from them is unable to
consume the whole of it, and remains sweet, to some extent,
even after fermentation has produced the ordinary quantity
of alcohol. This tale is often made to justify or explain the
sweet taste of sherry, and the large amount of distilled spirits
which is added to it.
In the "Treatise on Wine," of Thudichum and Dupre",
p. 638 et seg., a special chapter is devoted to the comparison
of the density of Jerez must with the specific gravity of
must produced from different wines in various countries
and years. This comparison led us to the conclusion that
sherry is not naturally stronger than the principal wines of
France and Germany ; that it Is able to consume the whole
of its saccharine matter by natural fermentation, and become
natural wine, and, if properly treated, does not require
either plastering, or the addition of brandy, spirit, or boiled
must.
I have been able to confirm this conclusion by many
observations made at Jerez upon mostos.as they came from
the lagars, and subsequently fermented in the bodegas.
WINES OF SPAIN.
2/1
Out of 103 mostos, at the average temperature of 70
Fahr. :
i showed specific gravity 10-75 Baume'.
1 1 -oo
n'25
1 1 '33
6
z
24
16
12
4
14
6
4
7
12 OO
I2'IO
12-25
12-50
12-75
13-00
14-00
All these mostos came from the mantuo castellano grapes
(grown in barro-arena soil) and transported to the bodegas
on mules' backs during the time from September 2oth to
October and, that is to say, very late in a very hot Jerez
season. The grapes had, indeed, been subjected to such a
heat that many were shrivelled, and others transformed into
dry raisins. These latter do not influence the specific
gravity of mostos made on the lagar, but are mostly lost to
the wine-makers. When the dry murk is subsequently cast
into the roads, or carried to the dung-heaps or fields, one
can see numbers of poor children rummaging it, and picking
out these raisins. I state this in order to show that the
mostos above described were really highly concentrated
liquids, which is indeed also shown by the specific gravities
themselves, to all those who know that Spanish musts
fluctuate between specific gravity 9 and 14 as extremes, and
are more frequently near the lower than the higher figure.
I next observed eight mostos which were made from
. assoleated grapes, and showed specific gravity 13-3 ; 13-5 ;
four= 14; two = i4'25. Each bota received six arrobas of
brandy of 40 Cartier, whereby the soecific gravity was de-
2/2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
pressed by six or seven degrees. Of mostos made on
October 2nd, from long-dried mantuo de pila, two showed
15, one 1 6, and one 17 Baume. The heaviest mosto I
observed at all at Jerez had 22 B, and came from Pedro
Jimenez grapes exposed to the sun during ten days, from
September 5th to i5th. All these heavy mostos were ex-
pressly prepared for dulce, and were not allowed to ferment
at all, but had their fermentation prevented by the addition
of one-fifth of their volume of alcohol.
I found the best palomino mosto from albariza soil, on
many samples, weighed between September nth and soth,
to have a specific gravity of 13 B. All these mostos, as
well as the mostos of mantuo castellano from barro-arena
soil, fermented readily and rapidly, and in the space of ten
days or so, had completely lost all sugar, and were new,
dry, thoroughly fermented wines. Thus it is shown, by
overwhelming evidence, that the assertion so frequently
made to screen the true nature of sugared and brandied
wines is untrue. Sherry wine is never sweet, except when
it is expressly and intentionally sweetened by makers and
exporters. Sherry is so sweetened, and coloured, and
brandied, in order to cover the natural defects of the taste ;
and no sherry of any claim to quality is ever sugared or
coloured, because the makers know very well that pale,
dry wine, with the least possible amount of alcohol, is far
more valuable than the cooked and drugged, coloured sweet
and hot liquids.
184. SULPHURING AZUFRADO.
The wines in Jerez are all plastered. But the common
wines are not only plastered, but sulphured in addition.
For this purpose a complicated apparatus is employed, con-
sisting of the following parts. A vat, closed on all sides,
of the size of a bota, is raised upon a stand, so that its
bottom is about breast-high ; to the side of this is attached
a little furnace in which the sulphur matches are burned.
The fumes of the sulphurous acid are conducted by a tube
to the top of the vat, and then diffuse in its cavity. The
WINES OF SPAIN. 2/3
mosto is kept in a reservoir under the vat, mostly buried in
the ground, and is repeatedly raised to the top of the vat
by means of a pump. It is spread out in the vat in the
form of a fine shower by means of a rose, or sieve-like dis-
tributor, and in falling becomes impregnated with the
sulphurous acid. The matches which are burned are made
of broad cotton bands, and the products of the imperfect
combustion of these bands are, of course, also admixed
with the must. The quantity of sulphur thus burned to im-
pregnate each bota amounts to one-third of a pound, or
more than five ounces, and this will yield more than ten
ounces of the sulphurous acid gas, and ultimately nearly a
pound of sulphuric acid. As the plastering introduces
several pounds of sulphuric acid into each bota, it is now
explained why some descriptions of sherry contain from
three to five pounds of sulphuric acid. The acid introduced
with the plaster is in a combined state, but that introduced
by sulphuring is ultimately contained in the free state.
The sulphuring process has the effect of somewhat retard-
ing fermentation, in warm weather one, in cooler weather
two days. The process also lasts a little longer than in
must not sulphured. The freshly fermented wine has an
awful smell and taste of brimstone and rotten eggs, and
contains considerable quantities of sulphuretted hydrogen
and other products of the reduction of sulphurous acid.
The object of sulphuring is said to be to prevent the wine
from running into the acetous fermentation. We believe,
however, that the main effect of sulphuring the mosto is
the destruction, partial or entire suffocation, of the fungus
of scud or viscosity, as it is called in wine, a fungus which,
when it invades fresh sweet must, destroys the sugar, and
prevents true alcoholic fermentation. Incidentally the
free acid of the wine is increased in quantity, and thus
approaches more to the condition of unplastered mosto.
It seems also that sulphured wine becomes clear more
quickly than unsulphured. In return for this advantage,
the sulphured wine remains in the objectionable state of
contamination with sulphuretted hydrogen for a very long
time; and after oxydation of this remains turbid from
2/4 A TREATISE ON WINES.
finely-divided sulphur, which is removed with difficulty
ouly. The sulphuring deteriorates the taste of the wine, even
after complete oxidation of the sulphur to sulphuric acid,
and for this reason producers and extractors never sulphur
the better classes of wine, but only the low common quali-
ties.
185. TEMPERATURES OF FERMENTING MUSTS.
On September zist, when the temperature of the outer
air was 76-5 Fahr., I ascertained the temperature of fer-
menting palomino mostos to be 90 Fahr. When the casks
lay in a warmer place, their temperature rose to 92 and 93 ;
when in a cooler, it fell to 85. Thoroughly fermented
mostos about twelve days old showed 74-5. When the
casks were laid up in rows three high, called andanas,
I found that the lower rows quickly assumed an even tem-
perature of about 75, while the temperatures of the middle
rows was about 80. The third or top rows varied between
81 and 92. The highest temperatures were found near
open windows. I have no doubt that, although these botas
completed their noisy fermentation on the even ground,
they carried a portion of the heat acquired by fermentation
up to the andana, and that the entire heat cannot be placed
to the account of position. But a certain portion of the
heat is, no doubt, communicated by the hotter air in the
upper strata, which in the day-time rose to 97, and at night
fell to 74. Now, here is the easy explanation of the obser-
vation, that so much wine at Jerez and in other parts of the
south passes immediately from the vinous fermentation into
the acetous. The temperatures of the casks of one of the
top rows observed were the following: 87, 90, 87-5, 88,
90, 88, 90, 92, 9 1 -3, 76. All these casks had just com-
pleted their fermentation, and were turbid, but beginning to
deposit their yeast. They were lying in warm places, and
following in a certain measure the lead of external
changes of temperature, and kept near their actual tempera-
ture by the heat of the air in the day-time, which at this
period (the middle of September) was excessive, that is to
WINES OF SPAIN. 2/5
say, much higher than in ordinary years. All the casks
were with vacua, that is to say, not filled by a least one-sixth
of their capacity. Under these circumstances, it is, in
my opinion, impossible that they should not directly suffer
at least some acetous fermentation ; indeed, the wonder is,
not that they form vinegar, but rather that any escape from
this contamination, and remain sound wine. This stage is,
indeed, the most dangerous one for Jerez wines, namely, the
time from cessation of the fermentation, at which the wine
has a temperature of 90 to 96 Fahr., and is turbid, to that
time at which the wine has reached 75 and less, and,
not being disturbed by external fluctuation of temperature,
has desposited its yeast and become clear. The danger is
generally diminished by the addition of spirit. But it is well
known that much spirit hinders the development of wines,
and has, therefore, to be avoided. Now, as by the exclusion
of air in hot seasons the acetification of wine can be
prevented, a great part of the necessity for adding so much
spirit to wine is done away with. Consequently, the wine
is in a position to become more quickly developed, and,
being developed, it may be either left in its natural state or
brandied for the taste of consumers desiring to have it thus
treated.
The fermented wine remains stacked in the andanas of
the bodega until it is pretty clear of floating yeast, which is
mostly in January or February. It is then racked (desliado),
and some brandy is added to it. Finos receive half an
arrobe per bota. Common wines receive from one to one
and a-half arrobes, of 40 Cartier. On the whole it may be
said that the better the wine, the less brandy is added to it.
Those botas which have become bad are sent to the still,
and those which are retained are marked, if they have de-
veloped any specific qualities, or left unmarked if they
remain doubtful and on trial. If a wine goes wrong in any
of several ways, the only remedy applied to it is brandy,
never any change in its other chemical or in its physical
conditions.
2/6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
1 86. STAGES OF WINE, AND QUALITIES.
Mosto is not only the freshly pressed juice of the grapes,
but the name is retained for all fermented wine up to the
time of the first spring racking. Vino d'un anno is wine
which approaches or has passed the age of one year.
Quantities of wine of this quality are generally termed
anadas. A regular heavy Jerez wine from albariza soil
remains, as a rule, in an unripe state for several years, and
then gradually becomes fino. It remains so from the 5th
to the 8th year, and then may pass into amontillado ; when
continued in open casks, and allowed to develope, it re-
mains in this state from the Qth to the i4th year, and then
passes into oloroso ; this condition lasts from the i5th to
the 2oth year, whereupon the wine becomes secco ; this is,
properly speaking, a passed wine, all its qualities are ex-
hausted and gone : it is more properly termed passado. In
other parts of Spain very old secco is sometimes called
rancio, but in Jerez this word is not used in the same sense,
but signifies a rancid, bad, sour, and mousy wine. From
stout fino all subsequent qualities may be obtained directly
by accidental development. The wine, as it were, skips a
stage or two, and becomes either oloroso or secco, without
having been in the amontillado stage at all.
When distinguished according to quality simply, wines
give rise to the following names :
Palma. The fine, dry, wines in the second and third
year are thus called. They may yield amontillado in time.
Some extractors say that- the amontillado obtainable from
palma is thin, and never becomes oloroso. Others mark
the amontillado by the sign of the palma.
Double palma signifies the same general qualities as the
former, but more general and ripe.
Treble palma is the highest intensity of this modification,
essence of amontillado.
Palo cortado, the broken stick, or cut stick, the mysterious
sign for oloroso.
Double palo cortado> a better wine than the former.
WINES OF SPAIN. 2?/
Treble palo, the highest perfection of oloroso, " Oloroso
muy viejo."
Some place the oloroso before the palma as to quality.
Probably the palma speaks more to the taste, the palo cor-
tado to the nose.
Out of a large number of butts of wine from the same
vintage and vineyard, only a small number develope into
any of the above qualities. The largest quantity remains
Raya, or rayea, the third quality of wine. This in its
natural state is sound and dry, but without prominent
qualities. Perhaps three-quarters of all albariza sherry is
raya. It is the bulk of the sherries exported to and drunk
in England. This quality (raya pnmera) resembles in
colour and dryness, but does not equal in merit, old secco.
Dos rayas is a common wine, not clean, but affected with
some fault or other.
Tres rayas signify wine which nobody will buy refuse.
Thus it will be seen that with raya the multiplication of the
sign goes along with the increase of badness, while with
palma and palo cortado the multiplication signifies increase
of good qualities.
Vinagre, wine which is more or less affected by acetous
fermentation.
The sign of a grating signifies wine destined for the
distillery.
The foregoing distinctions yield nine different qualities of
wine. Of all wine produced in Jerez only a small propor-
tion reaches the highest quality, and it was the opinion of
one of the first extractors that there were not 200 butts oi
treble palo in Jerez at the time of my visit. These signs
and distinctions are mainly used by the extractors for their
guidance in buying, and during maturing, and are not
generally applied to wines as shipped.
187. THE CRIADERA. THE SOLERA.
This name signifies a kind of nursery, in which wines
are placed which have already arrived at a certain quality
in the partido. The partido is the entire " parcel ; " that is
2/8 A TREATISE ON WINES.
to say, the total number of casks of one vintage from one
particular vineyard. When this partido has been dissolved
into its separate qualities, either by the proprietor or pur-
chaser, these qualities are now added to other quantities of
similar quality, or are simply laid by their side to undergo
their probation. We will assume a hundred botas of palma
to have been selected from ten different partidos. The
hundred casks may all develop equally, or all unequally,
or only a number may take the normal development ; the
others may go back before having their character perma-
nently determined. This result is attained and observed in
tfie criadera. The name is derived from the idea that the
wine while thus situated grows. The extractors say that
they grow the wine, which has to be interpreted, that they
stand by while the wine undergoes its changes for better or
for worse, and observe and register these changes from time
to time. If the wine shows signs of an unfavourable kind
it is treated with some spirits, but no other application or
regimen is applied to it. When wine in the criadera has
attained certain desired qualities it is either arrested in its
career and prevented from changing any further by receiving
its full complement of spirits, or it is taken to the soleras.
A number of botas, which are kept together, and as far as
possible supplied with wine of similar character, are termed
a solera. This institution has for its object to enable the
extractor to supply constantly good wine of the same general
quality, or, at all events, wine which differs no more in the
variation of years and seasons than can be disguised by
careful mixing. If, therefore, a solera, say of amontillado,
consists of sixty butts, and the sales of the extractor have
diminished their contents to one-half, then he has to supply
thirty butts to make up his solera. These he must obtain
either from his own criadera or from that of others.
Now suppose that in the criadera of a hundred butts of
palma assumed in the previous paragraph, thirty had turned
into amontillado, then the extractor would probably dis-
tribute these thirty butts over his solera of sixty butts, and
have it complete; but if he obtained only ten butts of
amontillado in his criadera he would distribute these ten
WINES OF SPAIN. 2/9
over his entire solera, and the butts of the solera would
contain a void of one-third of their capacity. On the con-
trary, if the extractor were to sell thirty botas of his solera,
consisting of sixty, he would not sell half the number of his
casks ; but he would draw from each of the casks half a
bota, arrobe by arrobe, and distribute them equally over the
botas about to be sold. The criadera, therefore, and, still
more, the solera, in one sense, destroys all individuality of
wine as to origin and year. When large soleras have to
be made up from numerous small partidos, they represent,
of course, a mixture of an infinite variety of wines ; and old
soleras represent a mixture of small residues from a great
number of years, the latest addition being probably the
largest in quantity. All the deposits which the wine forms
while in the soleras are, in the practice of some extractors,
left in the butts. I was informed by an extractor that he
once bought the entire and only solera, consisting of 1,000
butts, of an old Cadiz house, who made only one quality of
wine. Each cask contained about four gallons of black
deposit, which was carefully moved with the wine when it
was taken to Jerez. These deposits must not be of yeast,
or they will be injurious. Later deposits are said to im-
prove the wine, and the stirring up of olfl deposits in soleras,
e.g., during the addition of wine from the criadera, has a
tendency to clear the wine. So say some extractors. Others
have no belief in these deposits; they mostly consist of
drowned mycoderma vini, and their significance as such
must be nil, because they are dead, and unable to effect the
change ascribed to the living ferment.
1 88. COLOURS OF SHERRIES ARROPE, COLOR OR
VINO DE COLOR, DULCE.
All young sherry wines which are produced from sound
grapes are very slightly coloured greenish-yellow. With
advancing age they get a little more yellow, but the fines
and amontillados are, on the whole, pale, and it is only the
olorosos which become as dark as amber. The seccos are
amber to brownish. I assume all such wines to be genuine
280 A TREATISE ON WINES.
dry, free from sugar and boiled mosto. Now, as colour in
good wine is an undoubted sign of age (colour in young
wine indicates that there were rotten grapes employed
amongst others), and as many people believe that age is the
highest quality to be desired in wine, the greater part of the
occupation of the Jerez wine trade consists in imparting to
young common wines a sham colour, by means of which it
may pass as aged. But as, happily, the finos, amontillados,
and olorosos are highly valued in the pure state, they are
scarcely ever coloured by extractors who understand their
business. The Englishman of position drinks raya, of ten
or twelve years of age, and it is to the imitation of this that
many efforts are directed. In this process the following
agents are employed.
The plastered must, as it runs from the press, is boiled in
a large copper, which is mostly fixed in a building in the
vineyard. While boiling it is constantly skimmed, and the
impurities and syrup adhering are thrown with the refuse, to
be fermented and distilled. Seventy-six arrobas of mosto,
fresh from the press, yield ultimately, by evaporation, seven
and a half arrobas of skimmings, and fifteen arrobas of
arrope. When five butts have been reduced to one, which
takes from fou teerf to eighteen hours, the mass is constantly
kept stirred to prevent burning at the bottom of the copper,
and promote evaporation. It is now a dark brown or
reddish syrup, in thin layers. The colour is due to caramel,
produced by the united action of heat and acid. Its taste
is partially aromatic, partially bitter and nasty, owing to the
concentrated mass of sulphate of potash which it contains,
as the result of plastering. It is sometimes so acrid as
to blister the tongue of delicate persons who taste it. The
arrope is not used by itself without preparation, but is
always transformed into a dilute menstruum.
To one bota of common wine about eleven gallons of
arrope and a quantity of spirit are added and dissolved by
agitation. By adding varying quantities of this colour to
other wine the shades are produced. Brown sherry receives
about 25 gallons of this vino de color to the bota. The
pale brown (sometimes also termed pale) receives about
WINES OF SPAIN. 28 1
20 gallons. A butt of golden sherry requires 15 to 17
gallons of vino de color ; and the least coloured, called
pale (i.e., golden), receives 7 gallons of colour. It is
perhaps due to this large addition of colour and of boiled
matter in the shape of vino de color, that this " golden "
sherry can be shipped with about 34 per cent, of proof
spirits, while " pale " sherry, with the smallest amount of
colour, is said to require 40 per cent, to 42 per cent, proof
spirit.
In exceptional cases vino de color is made by boiling
mosto down to one-third, and adding spirit to the coloured
liquid.
All vino de color, and wine made with its aid, fluoresces
green. This is easily observed when the wine is exposed
to the direct rays of the sun in an otherwise dark place.
Natural wine never fluoresces in this manner, but requires a
cone of concentrated sunlight for showing fluorescence ;
then it is pale green, nearly white, whereas that of color is
green.
Natural good wine has a mild sweetish taste, without
containing sugar. But common wines have no such taste,
and are therefore mixed with sugar. The most genuine
sweetening material is mosto preserved in spirit, termed
dulce. To produce the best dulce, either Pedro Ximenes,
the sweetest of grapes, or palomino, is selected. The grapes
are exposed to the sun until they begin to shrivel, and then
they are trodden and pressed. I examined a mosto made
from palomino assoleadas, that is grapes which had been
strongly passulated in the sun, and found its specific gravity
to be 22 Baume. The first and later runnings, when the
grapes had been more crushed, had the same specific
gravity, although the men working the press believed that
the many raisins contained in the grapes would make the
mostos heavier. The sugar of true raisins is never extracted
by mosto in the short time during which this is in contact
with them. Therefore, unless raisins are picked out from
amongst the plump grapes, and treated separately, they are
lost in the murk. Murk from which mosto for dulce has
been pressed, is treated with water and pressed in an
282 A TREATISE ON WINES.
hydraulic press, and then yields a mosto of full 15 B.
But this is not of good taste, and goes to the refuse vats to
be distilled after fermentation. The sweet thick mosto to
be made into dulce is mixed with one-fifth of its bulk of
spirit of 40 Cartier strength, so that a bota of dulce consists
of 24 arrobas of mosto and 6 arrobas of spirit. According
to my observation it has then from 8-5 to 9 B. specific
gravity. It is not subject to fermentation, but forms a
deposit ; and when decanted from this becomes clear,
amalgamated, and a little darker by age. Old dulce (dulce
muy viejo) is frequently drunk as a liqueur, and the working
men take a glass of it the first thing in the morning, a
practice which they call tomar la manana.
By the addition of such dulce, the various kinds of mixed
sherry receive their sweetness. No sherry of any kind
contains a sufficient amount of sugar to have a sweet taste
of itself. In fact, all wine in Jerez which has fermented
is perfectly dry and free from sugary taste. Grapes not
passulated by assolation yield always a mosto, which fer-
ments perfectly, and never any sweet wine. Mostos of as
much as 22 B. require twenty per cent, of strongest alcohol
to be protected from fermentation. The ordinary sherries
receive of such dulce as much as may be required by the
taste of the customer. It is found by chemical analysis
that the sugar thus imparted to wine amounts to from one
to four per cent, of the total weight of the wine. In some
bodegas the common dulces are kept in closed casks in the
open air, in order to let them be heated by the sun. Much
colouring and sweetening material is now made from
cane-sugar, and is preferable to the arrope, as it is
not saturated with sulphate of potash. The sugar, when
mixed with wine, is quickly transformed into grape-sugar,
and the caramel is identical with that of the arrope.
I here summarize once more what I have already partly
discussed in connection with mosto, namely, the obser-
vation on the vacua in botas as affecting wines. The casks
containing the wine are at no time filled up to their bung-
hole, but there is always an empty space left, to which the
air has free access. This space is called vacio. The wine
WINES OF SPAIN. 283
is allowed to ferment in seasoned botas, of from 37 to 38
arrobes, and in these a vacio of from 5 to 6 arrobes is
customary, so that after two gallons of lees are abstracted
and a little brandy added, a full bota of clear wine may be
obtained after the first racking. In butts of 30 arrobes the
vacio amounts to from 3 to 4^ arrobes. This empty space
causes the wine to offer a great surface to the action of the
air ; the surface favours all kind of change, the best and the
worst, according to the external temperature. In warm
weather, the mycoderma vini is quickly developed, also the
mycoderma aceti> and the wine changes with great rapidity
from fino to vinegar, to mousetaste, to basto, or amon-
tillado. All these varieties are observed side by side, or
one above the other, in the same lot of originally identical
qualities of wine. This vacio, together with the changeable
temperature of the bodegas, is the great danger of Jerez
wines. No doubt by its means these wines mature quicker in
a low temperature, though even here it is dangerous, as we
know, from the Arbois vaults. But in hot weather the wines
go quickly to their ruin if not suffocated by and pickled in
brandy. It would, therefore, probably be advisable that the
practice of the vacio, at least in summer time, should be
abolished, and only be adopted during the time from
October to March.
189. EVAPORATION OF WINE FROM CASKS. FLOR.
All wines kept in wooden casks diminish in quantity by
evaporation, partly through the wood, partly through the
corks and the bunghole. Young wines lose less than
old ones. The former are estimated to diminish by 2^ per
cent, the latter by 3 per cent, per annum. Some extractors
maintain that all wines become stronger in alcohol by-
keeping, but I am not aware that this has been proved by
reliable experiment.
With'the expression Flor the extractors signalize the whitish
fungus which grows on the surface of wine; the Germans
term it Kahn ; botanists give it the name of Mycoderma
vini. In November, 1871, all the wine of that year which
284 A TREATISE ON WINES.
I examined (and I examined many hundreds of botas) was
covered with this mould. On expressing my astonishment
to the extractors that they allowed their wines to lie with a
vacio and to be covered with this mould, they admitted that
it was an unfavourable feature if the flor appeared on mosto
or young wine yet on the first lees ; but they said they liked
the flor on wine after the first racking, or on the anadas, or
wine in criaderas and soleras. They said that wine, other-
wise sound and growing flor, developed best. It is not
easy to understand why, or how the fungus should be
unfavourable at one and advantageous at another time.
Flor is most commonly associated with the amontillado
development, rarely with the oloroso stage. But I have
also seen it together with mouse and other nasty tastes, and
spoiled wine. But this might be defined as a case of mixed
ferments ; the effect of the flor was spoiled or neutralized by
collateral objectionable ferments. The German wine-
makers consider kahn their greatest enemy, and carefully
prevent its formation. All countries producing red wines
avoid its formation on these wines, as it completely spoils
their purity and high taste. Only at Arbois, in the Jura,
is wine allowed to be covered with mycoderma vini, as
we know from Pasteur's description. This chemist also
made it probable that the flor absorbed oxygen from
the air, and gave it to the wine, but not so as to form
vinegar. This latter function he attributes to the vinegar
plant, or mycoderma aceti, which he found frequently mixed
with the wine-plant, and observed also that it displaced and
drowned the wine-fungus. At Arbois the wine is kept in
cold, deep cellars, with vacios in the casks, which are never
filled up. The moulds are never removed. Many casks of
wine perish by becoming vinegar ; some, however, assume
an admirable development. This quality is said to stand in
a direct proportion to the development of flor. But here
the proof of the flor causing the good development is also
wanting. On the whole this subject requires a scientific
investigation.
WINES OF SPAIN. 285
190. SCUDDINESS, VISCOSITY, NUBE AND OTHER
DISEASES OF WINE.
- A white pertinacious turbidity of wine is called scuddinesSy.
and the matter causing the appearance, scud. It is not
necessary that the matter should be in the shape of clouds
(nube) when the liquid is moved in a glass ; but this kind of
scud is the most unfavourable. Most of these turbid con-
ditions of sherry cannot be removed except after the addition
of large quantities of brandy. Indeed, scud is the main
cause of the brandying of wine. No other wines being sub-
ject to such pertinacious turbidity as sherry, I made a special
study of this matter, and found that the extractors comprise
under the one name scud a considerable variety of con-
ditions of turbidity. I distinguished the following varieties :
The albuminous scud. This is due to suspended albuminous
matter in a fine state of division, and occurs after fining with
white of egg. Removable by Spanish earth.
The bacteria and vibriones scud. This arises in new wine
of feeble alcoholicity, and is counteracted by sulphuring.
This is the most dangerous scud, as it leaves indelible traces
of its presence in the wine, and is itself difficult to remove.
The tartrate of calcium scud. This is the whitest scud,
and deposits gradually as a white deposit, but a cask of wine
affected with it would perhaps not become entirely clear
before some years.
The sulphide of potassium scud. This is caused by the
sulphate becoming reduced in the wine in the absence of
oxygen, and the production of peculiar sulphur compounds.
The reduced sulphur scud. This is caused by the reduc-
tion of sulphurous acid in sulphured wines. Sulphuretted
hydrogen is first formed, and causes the wine to stink horri-
bly ; then this gas is gradually oxidized and deposits finely-
divided sulphur, which is one of the most difficult turbidities-
to remove. This scud is regularly found in all Portuguese
white (and not rarely red) wines during their first year, and
sometimes does not disappear until the third year, or some
time after all the sulphuretted hydrogen has been oxidized,.
286 A TREATISE ON WINES.
and all sulphurous acid has been oxidized or otherwise
decomposed.
While the albuminous and vibrionic scuddiness are re-
movable by ordinary reasonable treatment and fining, the
tartrate of calcium and sulphate of potassium scuds are the
result of plastering, and most difficult to remove without
brandy. The reduced sulphur scud, and the stinking quali-
ties of wines, are the products of the sulphuring which some
wine-makers adopt to protect their wine from acetification,
or to give it more acidity, if that should be required.
191. FININGS.
Animal Charcoal. Much turbid and putrid evil smelling
wine is treated at Jerez with animal charcoal. There are,
indeed, extractors who use charcoal as the sovereign remedy
for all evils. Putrid and evil smells can be removed from
spoiled wines by charcoal, but the clearing such wines is
only a temporary success. The wine dissolves phosphate of
calcium out of the charcoal, and this is deposited from the
wine subsequently in minute quantities and reproduces the
turbidity.
Much wine is fined with blood, which is put warm into
the bota. The albumen precipitated by the alcohol causes
the turbidity to be enveloped, and drags it to the ground.
Jullien's powder consists of dried blood. Blood mostly
leaves a little hematin in the wine, and makes it darker.
It also leaves some acid albumen and the salts in the wine,
not rarely also the particular smell which is peculiar to the
blood of all animals.
Meat is also used for fining wines; slices of steak are
merely hung up in the wine, and their albumen is extracted,
and causes a precipitate.
Most commonly albumen from eggs is used for fining the
brandied wines. Fifteen to twenty whites, together with a
quantity of common salt, are put into a bota and stirred.
After that a quantity of Spanish earth, in the condition of a
smooth thin paste, is added and stirred. The mixture is
-allowed to stand, and the wine becomes clear. In this case,
WINES OF SPAIN. 287
also, the formation of a heavier and copious precipitate drags
down the lighter slight impurity called scud. Milk, so fre-
quently used in this country for clarifying sherry, is not used
at Jerez.
In general, the difficulty of clarifying Jerez wines per-
manently is very great, and is said to be the principal reason
for the addition of so much brandy to wine as we observe
in it.
192. TINAJAS. CASKS.
The wines of all southern provinces of Spain, particularly
those of Montilla, used formerly to be made and kept in
tinajas^ buried in the ground of the bodega. The tinajas
were either large earthenware vessels, containing about a
hogshead each, or they were constructed of bricks and
cement. I have seen both forms in the Jerez district, and
believe them to have been here also the general receptacles.
In a vineyard I saw a large tinaja used as a dog-kennel ;
and in a shed at San Lucar I saw several tinajas of brick
and cement, holding six botas each, in a disused but hardly
dilapidated state. The dangers of these vessels are well
represented in the legend about Don 's Sheep. Don
was a celebrated producer or extractor of wine at
Montilla. His reputation grew, it is said, out of one par-
ticular tinaja, and the beginning of the rise was marked by
the disappearance of a family sheep, a merino ram. After
the lapse of years the celebrated tinaja which had made the
fortune of the house, had at last to be cleared out, and in
its muddy deposit were found the fleece and skeleton of the
unlucky carnero. It is said that, in imitation of this remark-
able event (a discovery without intention), the montillanos
to this day are in the habit of putting the entrails of sheep
into their wine. But whether this is true or not I cannot
say from my own experience ; I know, however, that sheep's
blood, and that in a warm state, is often put into these
wines.
We are now in a position to appreciate why botas and
bodegas do not fit one another. In olden times wines were
1
288 A TREATISE ON WINES.
kept in tinajas, underground, which, in a covered space, is
virtually in a cellar. When tinajas were discarded and
botas adopted, burying was discontinued. The necessity
of providing for export and transport antiquated tinajas;
but the bota exposed wine more to the influence of heat and
air. It is curious to speculate what anxiety this change
must have given to the producers. But the enormous con-
venience of the wooden cask conquered the tinajas and their
security. Now, the necessity for security must send the
botas underground, and they will therefore have to go, not
into the bare earth, where the tinajas were, but into vaults,
to remain accessible and movable.
Jerez casks are mostly made of Memel oak staves, and of
Canadian oak staves. One bota now costs 9 dols., equal to
36*. ; but in productive years the price sometimes rises to
15 dols. and 16 dols.
i cask 5 dols. = 2os.
1 3 = 12*
T 2 ii - 8j.
barrille (^arrobas) 8s.
2 arrobas 55-.
i arroba $s.
The practice as regards the treatment of new casks differs
greatly. Some cause the casks to be burned inside when
the staves are being bent, but do not steam the casks.
Some extractors, possessed of steam-boilers and every neces-
sary apparatus, have abandoned the practice of steaming
casks, as either unnecessary or hurtful to the wood. Other
extractors do not burn, but steam the casks. A third series
of houses both burn and steam their casks. All these
gentlemen, however, agree in soaking the inside of their
casks with water for a very long time, and frequently re-
newing this water, until it remains both colourless and taste-
less.
The new wine, of good quality, is here mostly fermented
in old casks, which are retained in the bodega and never
sold. But the rich proprietors lend new casks to less for-
tunate producers, to ferment their wine in ; after the spring
WINES OF SPAIN. 289
racking and sale the seasoned casks go back to the pro-
prietors.
' 193. BODEGAS AND WANT OF CELLARS.
A cellar is an apartment underground, so constructed as
to withdraw its atmosphere from the fluctuations of tem-
perature of the external air. The necessity for such apart-
ments is felt more by the inhabitants of rigorous climates,
with severe winter frosts, than by those of southern countries
with mild winters. Accordingly the knowledge and practice
of building cellars is more developed in the north than in
the south of Europe. Cellars have been most developed in
their application to beer and effervescent wines, so that the
best are met with in Bavaria and the Champagne. In Bavaria
they fulfil a twofold purpose. The beer is fermented as well
as preserved in them after fermentation. Owing to the low
temperature the fermentation is slow ; it need not be quick,
as exposure to the air does not injure the beer at that low
temperature. But the exposure to air has the advantage of
ripening the beer by oxidizing and precipitating the dissolved
albuminous matters. For these reasons the thin or light Bava-
rian beer keeps better than stronger beer prepared by ordinary
hot fermentation, when both are similarly exposed to air and
heat. The cellars of the Champagne country are not so
much used for fermenting the must as for fermenting the
wine a second time after it is drawn into bottles to give it the
mousse. This fermentation might take place in any apart-
ment above ground, and for it the cellar is not absolutely
requisite. But the equable temperature of the cellar is re-
quired for the deposition of the yeast formed in the bottles ;
in other words for the perfect clearing of the effervescent
wine.
In Jerez, and generally in the south of Spain and Portugal,
there are no cellars such as I have defined above. The
wines are always made, fermented, and kept in buildings
above ground constructed for the purpose, and termed
bodegas in Portuguese, adegas. These structures are fre-
quently of very large size and rather lofty, but they have
2pO . A TREATISE ON WINES.
many windows and doors, and their roofs are made of two
layers of tiles, resting upon wooden rafters. The tiles next
to the wood are flat, like large bricks ; the tiles facing the
sky, however, are corrugated, and so laid as to form parallel
ridges and furrows. The two layers are fixed upon each
other with mortar. Now, this roof conducts the heat of the
sun with great facility, and radiates it easily into the space
of the bodega. The bodegas, therefore, are very hot indeed ;
during the daytime their oppressive condition is only miti-
gated a little by draughts of air. In the night they become
cool again. The wines in the botas follow all these changes
within certain limits. They become cool at night, warm in
the day though they never reach the extremes of the air.
The botas which lie highest on the andana which may form
the third or fourth tier from the ground, are the most
affected : those in the second tier less, and so on to those on
the ground, which are the steadiest in their temperature.
Those botas also which lie near apertures and windows are
liable to great changes of temperature. Accordingly, it is
often found that the upper tiers contain the greatest and the
lower tiers the smallest proportion of spoiled wine. Botas
near windows are frequently spoiled, and all this is just
as it ought to be. Scud, mousetaste, and vinegar threaten
constantly every bota. With anxious mien the capataz tastes
the wines and marks the changes. This basto of to-day was
new amontillado a week ago ; these fines are all in danger
of becoming vinegar. He snakes his head while observing
all, and cannot alter it ; he does not know the reasons for
these ruinous changes ; he consoles himself with the few
palmas which he can inscribe here and there, puts brandy
over the heads of the naughty children, and condemns the
worst of them to the still. But he has no power over the
changes of his wines, either for good or evil, simply because
he cannot regulate their relation to air and temperature, and
such regulation he cannot possibly effect because he has no
cellar. It is unquestionable that the great mass of Jerez
wines is greatly deteriorated, some even ruined, owing to the
absence of cellars. I need hardly include in this category
of ruined wines, those which require and receive brandy for
WINES OF SPAIN. 291
being preserved from Rectification and fermentation, in order
to prove my proposition, but everybody admits that brandy
deteriorates wines, more particularly those of good quality,
and therefore the fact of wine having been brandied is sup-
pressed and disguised by every possible means.
How different would be the case if the Jerezanos were
possessed of proper underground cellars, where their products
might be maintained at the average temperature of the earth
in that region. I ascertained what that temperature is in the
usual manner, by taking on October 3rd the temperature of
three deep wells :
Pozo in a cooperage 64073 F.
Ditto en casa de Don N. ' 64033 F.
Ditto en casa de Don M 64 33 F.
Consequently a good underground cellar in Jerez ought to
have the average temperature of 645, with a very light
increase in summer, owing to the heat radiated into it by
windows and doors. But never would the temperature reach
70, or fluctuate between 70 and 85, as I have observed it to
fluctuate in bodegas in September. The temperature in
those buildings must be very high in summer, but had never
been ascertained by the thermometer.
In such cellars the Jerez wine would undergo a perfectly
normal developement. It would ferment thoroughly, would
not be liable to the acetous or mousy change, and would be-
come clean in a short time. It might be left to develop
with the vacio, for at the low temperature the contact with air
would be hardly dangerous, probably beneficial. It would
probably be always beneficial, for as all betas would be under
identical conditions, they could not fail of producing iden-
tical results. In any case, I am conviced that with cellars
the Jerezanos would produce 90 per cent, of fine wine, where
now they produce 10 per cent. To this some of the ex-
tractors have objected that if they were to change their style
of growing the wine ("growing" is here used as an active
verb by the extractors, who also speak of " rearing " and "edu-
cating," whereas their only action consists in standing by and
seeing the wine behave and misbehave, " kick," and mark the
2Q2 A TREATISE ON WINES.
result with chalk upon the barrel), they ran the risk of failing to>
produce any of those very fine qualities which constituted
their reputation and main profit, and of depressing their
wines to one common low level. To this the answer was
that the mass of their wines was at a very low level indeed,
that half their wine had to be exported at ^15 per bota,
and that ^30 per bota was a high average to assume for the
total export, and that of fine wine at^ioo, about which so
much boast was made, not two hundred betas were annually
exported from Jerez. That the loss of these very high wines,
if it were a necessary consequence, which I by no means
admitted, of a change of vinification, would be very small
compared to the loss the enormous loss inflicted upon the
average wines by the faulty condition of the bodegas ; for as
an example it was notorious in the fortnight following the
harvest of 1871 all wines suffered an immense depreciation
owing to the great heat, which caused them, yet hot from an
active fermentation, to pass at once into the acetous fermen-
tation, (the loss in money value which the Jerezanos suffered
during that fortnight was something like a quarter of a million
of pounds sterling). If these wines had fermented in cellars,
or had been put into cellars after their fermentation, this
deterioration could not have occured, and the cellars would
in one fortnight have repaid the cost of their construction.
This is a matter entirely apart from the question of the
vacio. To prevent misunderstanding, I point out that I am
quite convinced that wines ripen quicker with the aid of the
vacio than without that wines ripen quicker in warm air
than in cooler air. But warm air and vacio together force
the wine to go wrong, and compel the addition of brandy.
Warmth without the vacio does not easily spoil wine, and
vacio without warmth is a safe condition for Jerez wine.
Therefore, the Jerezanos, by transferring their wines to
cellars, would only insure themselves from loss, although
their wines, if left altogether in the cellars, would ripen a
little more slowly than in the bodegas. But what would
compel them to leave their wines always in the cellars ?
Having got them clear and cool, having timed them over
the dangers of great autumnal and summer heat, what
WINES OF SPAIN. 293
would prevent them from placing the wines in the bodegas
for the temperate months of the year, October to April ?
Why should they not in this respect do as the Champagne
makers do, transport their wines to that cave which is most
suitable to their then condition ? Surely, to introduce the
conditions of certainty into these operations is a desirable
thing, and not an innovation to be dreaded, and it can
by no means alter the character of their wine except for the
better, and, therefore, can affect their trade only in the sense
of expansion.
194. NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF VITICULTURE AND OF
THE TRADE IN WINE AT JEREZ.
It is probable that viticulture in Jerez is not of very great
antiquity. In Roman times no wine seems to have been
made there, while the provinces of Catalonia and Valencia
produced plenty. The first reliable historic evidence of the
existence of vineyards at Jerez dates from the year 1268,
when Alonzo el Sabio, after having defeated the Moors,
rewarded forty of his knights by giving to each of them
vineyards in bearing, as the document of donation preserved
in the archives of the municipality at Jerez has it "sex
aranzadas de vina" and land on which they might plant
vines " sex aranzadas de tierra para majuelo." It does
not appear in which district these vineyards were situated,
but an Arabic document, a diary of the field operations
of the Moorish army, published by the Royal Academy of
History, recites that in 1285, when General Jusuf laid siege
to Jerez, he encamped the body of his army between the
river Guadalete and the town, in vineyards and gardens.
This is the place where up to this day we find the greater
number of Jerez gardens, and a great number of vineyards.
The army was ordered to cut down the vines in the vine-
yard during the fourth, fifth, and sixth days of May, in order
to clear the fields for the encampment, from which we may
conclude that the vineyards had considerable extension.
The vineyards presented to the knights in 1268 amounted
to 240 aranzadas, and if they had planted their fields, might
2Q4 A TREATISE ON WINES.
have risen in 1285 to double that number. Probably there
were other proprietors besides these knights. The vines
which the Moorish general ordered to be destroyed were in
the shape of cepas, the low stocks at present in use, and
parras, or vines nailed up to walls and espaliers, with which
the properties were surrounded. From those times dates a
Castilian proverb, which is said to have originated as
follows : Diego Perez de Vargas was pruning his vines,,
when the King Alonzo el Sabio happened to come by,
and entering the vineyard began to collect the cut-off
branches. On Vargas expressing his astonishment, the
King is said to have replied, "a tal podador, tal sarmenta-
dor," meaning that the labourer was by no means too good
for the bricklayer, in this case. In the fourteenth century,
the Jerez vineyards seem to have been neglected, mainly in
consequence of epidemics of pestilence ; in 1402, Enrique
III. expressly forbade their destruction by the proprietors.
But after that the cultivation of the vine took a fresh start,
and in 1431, when the inhabitants of Jerez and Puerto
de Sa Maria agreed upon the boundaries of their relative
communes, and recorded them in documents, they men-
tioned the enclosures of the vineyards of Barbaina and of
La Gallega.
In the fifteenth century vineyards were also fully esta-
blished at San Lucar, and in a manuscript from that period,
preserved in Madrid, it is related that they were dug round
in March.
The Jerez wine of the fifteenth century, which was the
most esteemed, was red wine ; for on September i3th, 1410,
the town council of Jerez, desirous of making an important
present (un presente grande) to Alonzo Nunez de Villavi-
cencio, the Alcade Mayor of Jerez, who was then assisting
at the siege of Antiquera, sent him ten arrobas of the best
red wine. In 1456, the town council, in expectation of the
visit of Enrique IV. to their town, ordered that all persons
who had wine to sell, should sell the best of red, as well as
white, at the price of six maravedis the azumbre. Nowadays,
says a modern writer, " the mode of making red wine is no
longer known at Jerez ; and the wants of its population and
WINES OF SPAIN. 295
its traders are supplied by the viticulturists of Valencia,
Catalufia, and La Mancha. The maravedi of the fifteenth
century is supposed to be equivalent to fifteen maravedis in
the present day ; consequently the arroba of wine was fixed
in 1456, at a little more than 21 reals; the bota of 30
arrobas, therefore, at 42 pesos (a peso being the imaginary
unit by which all wine in Jerez is bought and sold, equal to
15 reals). This price is almost the same as in the present
day. In 1479 tne harvest failed, owing to rains in May
and continuous Levantes and great heat, and the azumbre
of wine rose to 40 maravedis, which is equal to more than
141 reals the arroba, and 282 pesos the bota. Such prices
were, in subsequent years, only realized once, namely in
1863, when all extractors believed the Millennium had
begun.
195. VINEYARDS OF SAN LUCAR DE BARRAMEDA.
The situation and extent of the vineyards of San Lucar is
best appreciated by an inspection of the map of Consul
Suter. They are mainly situated upon albariza hills, and
are worked upon the same principles as the Jerez vineyards.
But at San Lucar all vineyard labours throughout the year
are performed a fortnight earlier than at Jerez. The vintage
is in the beginning of September, when the grapes are in
a much less ripe state than that in which a fortnight later
they are harvested at Jerez. This is probably caused by
the proximity of the sea, which in September brings rains
and winds, both of which are destructive of ripe and over-
ripe grapes. The wines are mostly " listanes," the same as
those which at Jerez are termed palominos. Vinification is
the same as at Jerez ; plastering, vino de color, dulce, and
brandy are used to make up the semblance of sherry. But
there is a speciality produced at San Lucar, which may be
termed the parallel to the Jerez amontillado, namely, the
so-called manzanilla de San Lucar. This wine has a
particularly nice, though thin flavour, while young; with
age it becomes very dry, and somewhat bitter. It has the
character of all wines made from somewhat under-ripe
296 A TREATISE ON WINES.
grapes, and becomes fassado at less than one-third of the
age of genuine sherries. It should always be termed
"manzanilla de San Lucar" in full, to distinguish it from
the wines of Manzanilla, an important viticultural district
not far from Seville. The production and trade of San
Lucar are in the hands of growers or cosecheros, holders, or
almacenistas, and extractores, or shippers, as at Jerez. In
the viticultural pagos of El Merino on the east, and La
Malaya on the west of the new road from Jerez the vine-
yard labours begin immediately after the harvest. The
vines are kept even lower on the ground than at Jerez.
Close to San Lucar are orange-groves of great beauty. In
San Lucar I visited several bodegas, among others that of
an old gentleman who was supposed to possess the oldest
wine in the place. I heard him relate that in 1804 he had
in his bodega three botas of vino de color, which were, to
his knowledge, at least twenty years old. These three botas
had since then, by simple evaporation, become concentrated
to one. It was sold in my presence for ninety pounds
sterling. I looked upon this so-called wine as merely a pickle
of sulphate of potash, caramel, and spirit, from which the
soul of wine had fled ages ago. In the same old bodega in
which this relic was kept I also observed some of the
underground tinajas of 130 arrobas, or six botas capacity
each, executed in brickwork, which in former ages used to
receive the wine. They had evidently been disused for
generations, and now served as the playground of a nu-
merous colony of rats.
Fine Manzanilla de San Lucar, ten years old, will obtain
a price in. loco of 300 pesos, equal to ^45 per bota. Good
wine, three years old, will sell at 140 pesos, or ^21, per butt.
On the whole, the San Lucar wines on an average command
less than half the average price of Jerez wines. The wines
in the bodegas are not highly brandied, but they do not
come to England in that state. They are always suffocated
in spirit before shipment.
WINES OF SPAIN. 297
196. THE ALGAIDA AND ITS INDIGENOUS VINES.
The Algaida is a forest of about 9,000 aranzadas in ex-
tent, on the south bank of the Guadalquivir, to the east of
San Lucar. It is reached by a long journey, along the sandy
and marshy banks of the river, through fields and forests,
and over uncultivated plains of vast extent. It is surrounded
by swamps (tnarismas) and during the rainy season is itself
inundated to a great extent. The soil consists partly of
clay, partly of sand, and in many parts it contains deserts
of pure sand. It is planted mainly with the sea-pine (Pinus
maritima), but contains also groups of the silvery elm, and
large tracts are covered with shrubs of lentiscus. Almost
its entire border, and many large and small open spaces in
its interior, are lined with the wild vines, first described by
Clemente, which were the principal object of my excursion
to the spot.
I was accompanied by some friends, and we engaged two
foresters to guide and guard us, all being well armed. There
are no roads whatever, and paths, beaten by the herds of
goats of the distant villages, exist only round the circum-
ference and in the shrubby parts. In walking along I soon
perceived some wild vines covering an oleander bush ; further
on, wild fig-bushes and trees in numbers. Then more vines,
much pulled about by men and beasts. When, after a long
walk, I arrived in a part where white silver-elms form a large
continuous group, I found vines covering the whole of large
fir-trees ; there were at the same time brambles and sarsa-
parilla in blossom, creeping up shrubs and trees. From a
formidable rampart of brambles, covered with vines, one of
my companions fetched some vine branches upon which
were (on October i3th) eight bunches of blossoms. By
this means I was enabled immediately to diagnose and to
demonstrate, that these garanonas, as the Spaniards term
the wild vines, are really indigenous wild plants, and not
stray children of vineyards; for all the flowers had the
stamina recurvata, which we know to be the characteristic
of the female type of the dioecic wild vine, and no erect
stamina; and the recurvation was so strong and typical
298 A TREATISE ON WINES.
that I observed several stamina which had grasped the little
cap ordinarily pushed off the bud, and kept it closely pressed
to the flower-stem. As often as I bent it back so as to cover
the umbilicus, the stamen returned again with the cap, and
showed its nature.
Such flowers are represented in figs, i, 2, and 3, p. 6, of this
treatise, and the account there given of the indigenous vines
of European countries is confirmed in all essential particulars
by the foregoing observation in the Algaida. Some vine
leaves were red, indicating black grapes. The shepherds
and goats had not left a single berry on this side of the
forest. We were informed by the foresters that the shep-
herds not only eat these wild grapes, but make wine from
them. After a long struggle through miles of forest, brush-
wood, and brambles, through sand and difficulties of every
kind, I at last came to the place described by Clemente :
" In this place the vines form impenetrable thickets, mag-
nificent banquetting halls, most graceful pavilions, grottoes,
places, covered walks, winding footpaths, crossed walks,
labyrinths, walls, arches, pillars, and a thousand other
original and indescribable caprices." This description, which
dates from the year 1803, is literally true in the present
day. From a large tree I took a vine branch fifty feet in
length. Many other canes of the same size were hanging
down, and forming a perfect screen, in the shade of which I
rested for some time to admire the phenomenon.
We then passed miles upon miles of vines ; at last we
struck across the sandy interior of the side of the forest
on which flows the Guadalquivir. A march of two hours
through loose sand brought me to a part where all the forms
of wild vines were found, round a swamp, in their most in-
tense concentration. A wild fig-tree was covered with a
wild vine full of grapes. They were small and black, acidu-
lous, but good to eat. The vine was much affected by the
oidium. The swamp gave me a good idea of the circum-
stances under which the fossil vines described in the Treatise,
pp. 14-15, were living. At Salzhausen, the fossil vine leaves
are found together with the leaves of a fig-tree. The vines
are growing in such masses in this forest, that the foresters
WINES OF SPAIN. 299
estimated the quantity of wine which could be made, if all
the grapes could be collected, at a hundred botas. It is
probable that these garanonas have, by cultivation, yielded
the black palomino, also called tempranillo of the south,
identical with the graciano of the Ebro valley. The doctrine
which I advocated some years ago, in a paper printed in
vol. xviii., p. 109 of the "Journal of the Society of Arts,'"
namely, that the peculiar wines of the great viticultural dis-
tricts of Europe were derived from wild vines indigenous to
these districts, and not imported into them by the agency of
man, has thus obtained an important confirmation.
197. VINEYARDS OF ROTA. TINTILLA DE ROTA.
*The soil of the Rota district is almost pure sand. All
the celebrated Rota vegetables and fruit, as well as the
tintilla, are indeed grown upon sand thrown upon the shore
by the sea. The parcels of land are all surrounded by sand-
walls, and these latter are fixed by stockades of reeds, the
well-known canas. The parcels are mostly small, or, if
large, are frequently subdivided by such reed-palings, to
break the force of the wind and keep the sand in its place.
The wines in the bodegas of Rota I found to be of three very
different qualities. The first quality, the principal product
of the vineyards of Rota, is the tintilla. This is not wine in
the ordinary significance of the term, but more of a syrup,
made from passulated grapes or raisins by a peculiar process.
The black grapes of the tintilla vine are dried in the sun,
taken off the stalks, and put into upright barrels open at the
upper end. Must, which has been evaporated to the con-
sistence of a fluid syrup, arrope, is now put over the raisins,
and the mixture is allowed to stand and macerate, the tops
of the casks being covered with mats. The raisins now
become disintegrated, until the mass is like a jam. More
arrope is added from time to time ; in January the mass is
trodden on the lagar and pressed. The resulting thick,,
dark, reddish brown liquid is the tintilla. No spirit, as I
was informed, is added to it at any time, and therefore the
finished tintilla, which is said not to ferment, ought not ta
300 A TREATISE ON WINES.
contain any alcohol. But on tasting the product of 1870,
in one of the bodegas, I found it to be in a slightly effer-
vescent state, producing the well-known prickly sensation
on the sides of the tongue. And on subjecting a quantity
of old solera tintilla to distillation I obtained 5-89 percent,
by weight of alcohol, or 12 '87 per cent, of proof spirit.
Another specimen of tintilla from another bodega contained
.5-6 per cent, by weight of alcohol, equal to 12 per cent, of proof
spirit. It is therefore certain that the tintilla of Rota contains
alcohol, and that this is probably the product of a very slow
fermentation. But some vendors in this country add spirit
to the tintilla and thus transform it into a brandied counter-
feit. On subjecting a quantity to distillation with oxalic
acid it yielded 0-228 per cent, of acetic acid, another
specimen o - 2 per cent., which, considering the process by
which the wine is obtained, is not excessive and not hurtful.
Distilled with some caustic potash the tintilla yielded an
alkaline distillate, containing ammonia and compound
-ammonias, easily recognized by the peculiar and disagree-
able smell. The existence of these ammonias is accounted
for by the long maceration which the albuminous matters of
the raisins undergo in the casks while moistened with
arrope. Although the tintilla is made from black grapes, it
does not contain the red or blue colouring matter of their
husks, for this would require much alcohol and acid for
their extraction ; as the alcohol is not added and is not
produced until after the juice is separated from the husks,
the colouring matter remains behind. The great amount of
.sweetness and the flavour of dried grapes, together with the
mass of extractives and the little alcohol in juxtaposition to
the free acidity, make the tintilla an article of the class of
agreeable, drinkable sweets. A bota full of the best quality
costs at Rota about ^40, but the current price of the
great bulk of the produce is about 20 to 24. per bota.
The second product of importance of Rota is vino de
color. The tinto grapes are plastered, pressed, and the
white must is allowed to ferment. Another quantity of the
.same white must is evaporated to the consistence of a syrup,
and is added to the fermenting natural must, and the
WINES OF SPAIN. 30 1
mixture completes its fermentation. Then spirit is added
in larger or smaller quantities. This vino de color has a
horrible taste, and is, in fact, undrinkable. Its principal,
perhaps only use, is for mixing with pale country wines, to
give them the external falsified resemblance to the similarly
prepared brown, pale, and golden sherries.
The third quality of Rota product, and the one which
approaches nearest to wine, is the tinto, or tent of English
authors. It is made by fermenting the juice with the husks,
and thus becomes a truly red wine. I have tasted tinto
thoroughly fermented, dry, free from sugar and adventitious
spirit, which was really delicious, and showed what tinto-
might be if properly prepared and left alone. But such is
not to be, for it is not to the taste of the wine merchants,
who want Rota tent with burning spirit and lots of sweet.
This treatment completely ruins the peculiar fine flavour of
this wine. The tinto grape of Rota therefore fares like the
same grape of Tarragona. It is misused for the production-
of imitations of port wine and sold to the British public as-
Spanish Port. The inmates of hospitals and other charitable
institutions are its principal consumers. The prices of this
wine at Rota varied formerly between ^4 and ^9 per
butt. As Catalonia can undersell Rota in this particular
article, the manufacture of Rota has had to endure great
competition, and may, perhaps, cease entirely.
198. WINES OF THE VAL DE PENAS.
The wines produced in this district, mostly red, were, up
to a late period of this century, preserved in hides as of old.
But some enterprising wine-merchants brought casks and
coopers to the Mancha, and now its wines go by rail to
Cadiz, and thence come to this country. The white varieties
have all been treated with gypsum, the red ones mostly, but
some escape it. These wines are commendable for their
generally good quality and low price.
302 A TREATISE ON WINES.
199. WINES OF CATALONIA.
Catalonia yields annually 20,000 butts of wine, which is
mostly red, and shipped to England as a cheap drink for
the general public. The plain of Ampurdan is covered
with vines, and of many other parts of this province four-
fifths of all cultivated land is occupied by viticulture.
Catalan wine is shipped largely also to America.
200. WINES OF VALENCIA, BENICARLO, ALICANTE.
Valencia wines are perishable, and therefore have no
great reputation. They are mostly grown in the plain, only
small quantities on suitable hill-sides. The bulk of these
wines, stated to amount to 100,000 butts annually, a
figure which is probably in excess of reality, is distilled for
brandy, of which 600,000 cantares, or 2, 130,000 gallons, are
annually produced. Owing to the perishable nature of the
wine, stocks are not kept longer than a twelvemonth.
In the district of Benicarlo, a town situated about sixty
miles to the north-east of Valencia, and Vinaroz, near the
mouth of the Ebro, wine is made in the ordinary way, but is
fortified, less for home use than for exportation. Here, also,
little stock is kept, each year's produce being generally sold
for exportation before the new wine is made, so that the
emissary of the English Board of Trade, in 1861, could not
obtain samples of natural wine from former vintages. The
wine for export is brandied twice as strongly as that used in
the country, namely up to thirty-two per cent, proof spirit.
At Alicante, a town about ninety English miles south of
Valencia, much wine is produced, both on hill sides and in
the plain, from a kind of vine which occurs in a black and
a white variety, and passes under the name of Alicante in the
outer world, but at Alicante is termed Tintilla. It has a
large loose bunch, hanging by a long stalk, which forms the
axis and does not form wings or strong branches. The
berries are fleshy and juicy and provided with a thin skin,
and resemble much those of the black Hambro', the Tyrol
vine so well known in this country. The black Alicante
is immensely fertile, steady in blossom, but ripens late, so
WINES OF SPAIN. 303
that it yields good wine only in the best situations even in
its home. The black Alicante, and its paler variety, the red,
are the vines the juice of which forms the basis of most
Spanish wines. It is largely cultivated in the south of
France. In the Dordogne it is termed Benicarlo; in Pro-
vence, Mourvede ; on the east side of the Pyrenees, Mataro ;
in some other places, Tintillo ; at Malaga, Alicante ; and at
Jerez and Rota, Tintilla. The reader may find the argument
for these synonyms in Odart's " Traite des Cdpages," pp. 513
and 531. The white Alicante ripens earlier than the blue,
but is much less cultivated. Alicante wines also are fortified
to at least thirty-two per cent, before exportation.
The wines of Valencia, Benicarlo, and Alicante, being
rich in colour, are made up to imitate port wine, and even
the casks are made up to resemble port-pipes in size and
appearance. A very large proportion of these wines finds
its way to France, for the purpose of being blended with
other wines which are themselves deficient in strength and
colour.
201. WINES OF GRANADA, MALAGA.
The wines of Granada are better known under the name
of wines of Malaga, the centre of the renowned viticultural
district called Axarquia. The hills bearing the vineyards
consist of clay and schist, superposed on limestone. The
more solid schist is termed " herizza" that which easily
disintegrates " lantejuela " or "pizdrra ;" the latter forms the
most suitable soil for viticulture. The climate of the district
is so favourable, that the vine almost becomes a perennial
evergreen, and bears three crops of grapes every year. The
first harvest takes place in June, and is transformed into
raisins exclusively. The second harvest takes place in Sep-
tember, and yields a dry wine somewhat resembling sherry.
The last vintage takes place in October and November, and
gives the particular wines known as Malagas. Of Malaga
wines the following varieties are distinguished, i. Pedro
Ximenes, in reality a dulce. 2. Colour-wines, i.e. solutions
in wine of must boiled down to brown syrup : these are used
304 A TREATISE ON WINES.
to impart the amber-colour, the Pedro Ximenes to give
sweetness to the Malaga wine of trade. 3. Muscatel, also a
dulce, i.e., must preserved in spirit ; of this two varieties are
distinguished, Malaga- Muscat, and "drip" or " tear" Mus-
cat. 4. Dry wines resembling sherries, which are made up
into "Malaga" as just related. 5. Malvoisie, resembling
Madeira. 6. Tintos, coloured, mostly very dark, sweet and
alcoholic wines. 7. Cherry wines, being liqueurs made with
the juice of acid cherries, so-called morellas. The dry wine
is brandied up to 37-5 per cent of proof spirit ; the sweet
wines do not much surmount 30 per cent.
The amount of wine annually produced in the Malaga
district is 80,000 arrobas, or 2,666 butts. Of these the
greater part is exported, mainly to America. Much, also,
goes to England, and the wine for both countries is prepared
in the same manner.
202, WINES OF ARAGON AND OTHER PROVINCES OF SPAIN,
MAJORCA, MINORCA.
Aragon produces dark-coloured, strong-bodied wines of
good taste and flavour, from the celebrated vines, the
Grenache of Sabayes and the Carinena and delivers them
up to the trade of Saragossa. Navarra does not admit
of much viticulture; the vineyard of Roncesvalles alone
supplies a local want. Galicia produces a little good wine
for exportation at Ribadavia and Tuy. In Biscaya much
wine is produced for the people, but is quite unfit for
exportation. New Castile, with the Mancha, produces be-
sides the lightest and least-coloured but most agreeable
wines of Spain, already mentioned above under Val de Penas
and the muscat of luencaral, near Madrid. Near to these are
the wines of the Spanish Tagus, from Arganda del Rey
above Madrid to Talavera de la Reyna. Murtia produces
thick rough wines, of which those of Cartagena sometimes
come up to common sorts of Alicante.
The island of Majorca produces a Malvasia wine, which
is exported by way of Palma: and Minorca produces a
dark red wine round Alcyor, which is not exported, as on
WINES OF SPAIN. 305
sea it spoils in bottles and casks ; while the " alba flora,"
a light white wine with some bouquet, bears keeping and
exportation.
The wines of Spain are, on the whole, of good quality,
but are easily and quickly spoiled in part by unskilful and
unscientific treatment. They are subject to many accidents,
caused by fungi, so-called diseases, which destroy their
value; and to counteract these or their results, the pro-
ducers use plaster, sulphurous acid, boiled plastered must,
brandy and sweet must preserved in alcohol, so-called
dulce. These admixtures, however necessary some of them
may be in default of better means of preservation, are
deteriorating the naturally excellent qualities of the wine.
As regards plastering, some Spanish oenologists have strongly
protested against the practice, and termed it an adulteration
and a fraud. However this may be, the wine is deteriorated
thereby, while the practice is so universal that it must have
some deep reason at present unknown. It is not unlikely
that it was discovered by the practice of keeping wine in
underground cisterns of masonry, of which the binding and
lining material is plaster of Paris. Of course the plaster
itself does not dissolve in the wine, but it removes the
tartaric acid, and substitutes sulphuric for it ; the sulphate of
potash thus produced remains in the wine and gives it a
bitter taste. When this can be once avoided by improved
modes of vinification, the wines of Spain will be much
better and much more valuable than they at present are.
306 A TREATISE ON WINES.
CHAPTER XXIII.
WINES OF PORTUGAL.
203. VINEYARDS OF THE ALTO DOURO.
THE vineyards of Jerez are so beautiful and productive that
they might well be termed the vineyards of Venus. Undu-
lating hills, easily accessible from all sides, are covered with
a luxurious growth of vines, which every September finds
heavily laden with an enormous mass of luscious fruit. A
poetical enthusiast might call these hills the very breasts of
nature. Very different is the aspect and condition of the
vineyards of the Alto Douro. Here all is rock, gorge,
almost inaccessible mountain, precipice, and torrent, while
over, or along, all these rude features of nature are drawn
countless lines of stone walls by which man makes or sup-
ports the soil in which the vines find their subsistence.
When opposite Tua, I had counted 150 stone-built terraces,
one above the other, covering the rock which rises almost
out of the waters of the Douro, I thought that if Jerez was
the vineyard of Venus, this Alto Douro vineyard must be
termed the vineyard of Hercules.
The vineyards of the Alto Douro may be visited from
Oporto. It is convenient to travel in a hired carriage,
particularly when the traveller desires to make cenological
studies by the road-side. In former times when the great
exodus of British merchants to the vineyards took place,
the hire of a carriage and pair was, as a rule, eight pounds
sterling for the single journey. This journey was often
described after the manner in which the Phoenicians related
the dangers of their sea-voyages ; along it were supposed to
be found defiles like those of Scylla and Charybdis. My
surprise was therefore agreeable when I drove to the very
foot of the vineyards on a beautifully constructed macada-
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 307
mized road, while the scenery during the whole journey
surpassed in beauty many of the reputed great sights of
Europe. Indeed, the rise from the side of Amaranthe up
to the watershed of the Douro valley is not surpassed by
anything I have seen in Switzerland, the Pyrenees, or the
mountains in central and southern Spain. The ascent
should be made on horseback, while the carriage is being
drawn up by the steady bullocks, which take half the labour
from the carriage-horses.
204. VINES OF THE PROVINCE ENTRE DOURO E MINHO.
During the entire journey up to the water-shed the
observer sees no vineyards, properly so-called, but he sees
all round the houses and villages, along the roads, along the
margins of woods, vines creeping up trees, and competing
with their foliage for air and sunshine. I observed only
black grapes on these vines, and all those which I tasted
were very acid and astringent. From them is made the
beverage called " green wine " (vinho verde), from its resem-
blance to wine made from unripe fruit. The fruit is, in
fact, unripe, and, moreover, never becomes ripe in any year,
owing to its being grown high up in the air. I have not been
able to ascertain what kind of grapes and wine these vines
would yield if they were cultivated in good situations and
low on the ground. On the whole, what I saw gave me
the impression that these nondescript vines, which I also
observed in forests and in woody valleys, covering shrubs
and brambles, were like the vines of the Algaida, described
in a former chapter, true children of the soil, indigenous
plants, which, with a minimum of help on the part of man
in the shape of pruning, produce an enormous quantity of
harsh fruit, having the same relation in taste to the wine-
berry as a crab-apple has to a fine French pippin. The
vinho verde is only produced in this province of Entre
Douro e Minho, and no other wine, particularly none of the
quality produced in the Alto Douro, termed " vinho maduro,"
ripe wine, is here grown.
308 A TREATISE ON WINES.
205. SOIL OF THE ALTO DOURO DISTRICT.
The river Douro, in Portugal, flows through a valley
with precipitous sides, mainly formed of a clay-schist for-
mation. This reposes upon or alternates with granite, and
Fig- 43- Vines ascending a tree, such as produce the vinho verde in
Entre Douro e Minho.
the latter rock not rarely appears on the heights form-
ing the water-sheds. The clay-schist forms the viticultural
soil, for many reasons. It is easily broken into parallel
slabs, with which terraces can be built, so-called dry walls,
requiring no mortar or other binding material ; it is easily
disintegrated by the atmosphere, and forms a clay soil.
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 309
which retains the water with pertinacity, and allows it to
sink deep into the fissures of the schist, where also the
roots of the vines are able to follow to great depths. The
granite, on the other hand, lacks most of these properties ;
it does not easily break up, and becomes very dry in summer,
and then is generally situated so high above the level of the
sea that the vine becomes excluded from it by the coldness
of the climate resulting from the elevation. A great part of
the soil of the wine districts could not be planted with any
other crops ; the valleys bear a few strips of land used in
maize cultivation ; here and there are some olives. Corn,
and a few fodder plants are grown on the mountains above
the wine region. It is the vine, and the vine alone, which
has made the rocks of the Alto Douro a cultivated part of
the earth's surface.
206. TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
The topography of the Alto Douro is best understood
with the aid of the maps which have been elaborated by the
late Baron Forrester. The largest and most beautiful of
them has, I believe, never been published for sale, but only
printed for private distribution by the baron. A useful
copy, on a reduced scale, was published by Parliament in
1852, in the Report of the Committee on Import Duties on
Wines. The limits of the cultivation of the vine are on
this map marked by a red line, which includes what
was formerly the district under the surveillance of the so-
called Agricultural Company. The cultivation of the vine
is most extended, and as regards the production of a par-
ticular class of wine, most successful, on both sides of the
river Corgo, a tributary of the Douro, coming from the
north. The district west of the Corgo, usually called the
Lower Corgo, has the most ancient cultivation. This begins
at a distance of about forty-two miles English above Oporto,
and occupies the triangular space between the Douro and
Corgo. The part east of the Corgo, ending near the river
Taah, is termed the Upper Corgo. On the south of the
Douro there is also a strip of mountainous territory planted
3IO A TREATISE ON WINES.
exclusively with vines, but it is much narrower than the
district on the north bank. On the whole it may be said
that the vineyards of the Alto Douro extend over a piece of
mountainous country thirty English miles in length from
east to west, and ten miles in width from north to south.
The part of the district above Tua, which contains several
excellent though relatively new vineyards, is now frequently
termed the Douro Superior, as distinguished from the Alto
Douro.
207. MODES OF PLANTING AND TRAINING THE VINE.
In the Alto Douro one can see nearly all the varieties of
culture side by side, but the prevailing mode is a rational
low cultivation. Near and below Regoa there are yet
many espaliers, forming covered walks, about two yards
high, over which the vines are trained ; all these give bad
grapes and bad wine. Above Regoa they disappear entirely,
and the vines are trained low on the ground, but the pruning
is not so methodical as at Jerez, and consequently with the
age of the vine its bearing part rises higher, sometimes a
yard above the ground. Grapes grown at that height
mostly remain sour, and, particularly in dry years, form acid
raisins, which spoil the wine from the lower fully ripe grapes.
The viticulturists renew such vines by forming layers or
slips, bending the highest branch towards the ground, draw-
ing it through a trench, and allowing it to project at a
distance. The young vine is never separated from the old
stock, and the old stock is never allowed to grow branches ;
such old loop-shaped vine-trunks, projecting from the earth,
and destitute of leaves, are seen in great numbers, particu-
larly in old vineyards. There are vines trained to stakes,
as in France and Germany, and vines trained without them ;
in some vineyards the vines were planted through holes in
the perpendicular walls; but it appeared that many so
planted had died from drought and heat.
The operations on the soil are not so methodical as at
Jerez. There is an excavation made round every vine in
autumn to catch the rain-water; at the same time the vine
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 311
is pruned. Each of the two or three, or more, main branches
of the vine is allowed two or three eyes for the bearing
branches, and a spur of one eye with the subsidiary small
eye for the growing of wood. All the vineyards are kept
carefully free from weeds, so that the sun has free play in
heating the soil.
The Douro vines have this peculiarity in common, that
their fruit is not large-sized like the grapes of Andulasia,
nor small-sized like the grapes of Burgundy or the Rhine, but
medium-sized like those of the paludal vines of the Gironde.
208. VINTAGE AND MODES OF VINDICATION.
The Vintage in the Alto Douro begins at the earliest on
the 2oth of September, and ends about the loth of October.
The vineyards in low situations, close upon the Douro, are
the earliest to harvest, and even then the grapes are some-
times over-ripe, so as to be partially passulated ; the latest
vintages are in the third or top region of the slopes. The
vintage is executed by men and women, all from Gallicia,
hence termed Gallegos. These also do all the other labours
on the ground required throughout the year ; the settled
population of Portuguese is too small in numbers, and too
sickly for heavy work ; for the entire district is extremely
unhealthy. The Gallegos receive on an average seven pence
per day in money, and food, which, however, does not
include bread. The daily food consists of a pound of
salted dry cod, of which large quantities are imported into
Portugal from Newfoundland, and of a quart of a kind of
soup, consisting of cabbage leaves, beans and lard, boiled in
water. The Gallegos of each vineyard not only mess
together, but also sleep together in the same shed, and any
attempt to separate the sexes is immediately followed by
protests, and, if these are unheeded, by an exodus. The
women assist in the collection of the grapes only, but the
disintegration of the grapes, their pruning, &c., is all done
by men.
312 A TREATISE ON WINES.
209. THE LAGAR, THE PRESS, TREADING THE GRAPES,
FERMENTATION.
The receptacle in which the grapes are collected while the
vintage is proceeding, in which the grapes are mashed, ex-
tracted, and pressed, is termed a lagar. It is always built of
stone, generally granite, more rarely slate or masonry. In
size it varies, so that it may hold the grapes for only a
few pipes of wine, or for many up to 10 and 16. In the
large vineyards there are, therefore, lagars of several sizes,
so that they are immediately adapted for large and small
harvests. The shape of the lagar is mostly square or
oblong, its depth about 2 feet, or a little more, and its
sides vary in length between 3 yards and 8 or 10 yards.
Over and across each lagar is fixed one of the old-
fashioned lever or beam presses, of which the sketch gives
an idea. Such presses do yet occur in Wiirtemberg, but
they are not any longer in use on the Rhine.
After the lagar has received its full complement of
grapes, or as much as it can conveniently hold during the
entire operations of vinification, a number of Gallegos, with
their legs bared to the upper thighs, go on to the lagar and
tread the grapes into pulp. This operation lasts from
twenty-four to forty-eight hours without interruption, the men
being changed from time to time for refreshment and rest.
During or after this ' operation fermentation begins, and
proceeds, according to temperature, quicker or slower, but
it is hardly ever very tumultuous ; more frequently it falls
below the necessary energy, owing to the stone walls of the
lagar abstracting too much heat. In that case, as many men
as can stand in the lagar are put on to it, and they are kept
slowly stirring the mass with their feet until they have com-
municated so much heat that the fermentation can again
proceed alone. When the fermentation has so far pro-
gressed that the amount of alcohol formed counter-balances
the specific gravity of the remaining sugar so far as to bring
the glucometer to the zero point, the fermenting mass is
again trodden by the Gallegos, this time in order to extract
the colouring matter from the husks. When the wine is as
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 313
dark as may be desired, and a sample runs over a white
plate so as to leave streaks of thick, dark red dye behind,
fermentation is considered complete. The wine is now
drawn off by a pump, syphon, or tap, or through a hole in
the bottom of the lagar, the exit being guarded by some sort
of strainer, and run into a large wooden cask, which may
hold from five to thirty pipes, and is termed a "tonnel."
From four to eight volumes of brandy, of about 40 Cartier,
are added to every hundred volumes of wine, and the
mixture is left to clarify itself by gravity.
Fig. 44. Beam or Lever Press, as used iu the Allo Douro.
210. REMARKS ON THIS MODE OF VINDICATION.
The mode of making port wine is extremely unclean, and
the proceedings are very crude and elementary ; neverthe-
less, so good a product is obtained that its faults are, as it
were, drowned in its good qualities. The great object of
the wine makers must be to produce good and durable wine
with only so much alcohol as shall not be injurious to the
wine drinker. This cannot be said to be the case with the
ordinary thick, heavy, so-called loaded ports of 40 to 42 of
3 H A TREATISE ON WINES.
proof spirit, and for this reason whole classes of society in
Britain have ceased to drink any port wine whatever. Yet
good port wine is one of the most wonderful productions of
the earth ; and I am sure, when vinification in all its
branches and variations shall be once fully understood on
the Alto Douro, it will produce such excellent red wines as
hitherto have not been exported from the Peninsula.
211. ELDERBERRY AND LOGWOOD.
It is said that port wine is coloured with elderberries and
other dyes, and sweetened with jeropiga and treacle, besides
being dosed with brandy; but I have been unable to find
any evidence of this, at least as regards Alto Douro wines.
Elder trees are very scarce in the Alto Douro, and I can in
this respect fully confirm the statement of Mr. Consul
Crawford. Moreover, the Alto Douro wine, of a good year
at least, is so deeply coloured, in fact, so excessively loaded
with colouring matter, that it cannot by any means require
any addition of colour; the elderberries exported from
Oporto are really used for colouring other wines than port
wine, particularly the Spanish ports, Mountain ports, Cape
ports, and Sicilian red wines which are carried to England,
and thence exported to countries where people buy wine
rather by the name it bears than by any quality it possesses.
It is also not rarely stated, upon the evidence of Mr. Cyrus
Field, in the report of the Parliamentary Committee of
1852, that port wine is now and then coloured red by means
of Brasilwood, commonly called logwood ; but this is a
great error, as it is quite impossible to dye wine of any kind
with logwood for the colour of logwood is purple only in
alkaline solution, and not in acid, in which it is only tawny.
Moreover, it is very astringent, a quality which almost all
port wine possesses in excess. Logwood is never used in
trade for dyeing anything purple, and the large quantities of
logwood shipped to Europe are nearly entirely consumed in
the production, by means of iron mordants, of firm black
colours on many kinds of tissues ; and, although it may
occur that particular artists in mixing and counterfeiting,
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 315
dye some pipes of white wine with elderberries, and give
them astringency with logwood, nevertheless I believe that
such products would commercially not pay the cost and
trouble of their production, and are, at all events, only an
exceedingly small fraction of the wines which constitute the
bulk of the exports from Oporto. I am, therefore, of
opinion that the sooner we dismiss these prejudices and
errors regarding elderberry and logwood in port wine, the
better.
212. WHITE VARIETIES OF WINES PRODUCED IN
THE ALTO DOURO.
Many thousand pipes of white wine are annually made in
the Alto Douro, and exported mainly to Russia and Ireland
very little goes to England. These wines are not distin-
guished either by the grapes from which they are made, or
by the qualities which they obtain in the course of their de-
velopment. The great qualities of Jerez wines are dependent
upon a few dominant species of vines, sweet wines are de-
rived from the Pedro Jimenez ; high-flavoured amontillados
and finos, from palomino ; oloroso qualities from mantuo
castellano ; Rota wines owe their important characteristics
to one vine, the tintilla. In a similar manner the wines of
Burgundy come from one kind of grape, that of the pineau;
and Rhine-wine is characterized by the Riessling. But the
Alto Douro white wines are not thus characterized ; they are
not produced from any dominant vine, or vines, but are the
product of the commixture of a great variety of fruit from
frequently heterogeneous varieties of vines, amongst them
the arinto, boal, verdelho, codega, malvasia fina, estreito, or
rabo de ovelha, carnal, Donna Branca, gouveio estimado,
moscatel. Of these the rich bearers, yielding coarse musts,
termed castas grossas, are most favoured by the growers, and
the result appears in the wines. The white grapes are not
grown in the best situation, but only in second and third-
rate vineyards. The Alto Douro wine districts, as a whole,
may be considered as consisting of hills only, without any
valley-bottoms between them ; the declivities of the hills, all
3l6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
supported by numerous terraces, as described, may be con-
veniently divided into three zones. The lowest zones,
nearest to the river and its tributaries, produce the first
class of red wines ; the second zones, occupying the middle
of the slopes, produce the second-class; and the upper
zones, situated near the top of the hill, or covering the tops
of the lower hills, are mainly planted with white vines. These
latter are also planted on the lower zones of the higher lying
valleys away from the Douro. The white grapes are, like
the red ones, fermented with the husks and stalks, and in
this particular the vinification differs from that of most ojher
wine countries; for in these, white musts are generally
pressed out of husks and stalks before fermentation. In
consequence of this practice the Alto Douro white wines
acquire an astringency frequently amounting to harshness.
This may make them more firm and less liable to spoil, but
it greatly prolongs the time necessary for their maturation.
They are also arrested in their fermentation by the addition
of brandy, and, not being so sweet or so fully ripe as the red
musts, require more frequent admixture of artificial saccha-
rine ingredients, such as arobe, jeropiga, or sugar. In con-
sequence of this they acquire no very high vinous character,
even when kept long in bottle. On the contrary, they fre-
quently develop in bottle a heavy disagreeable odour, termed
bottle-stink, which can only partially be removed before the
wine is placed on the table by decanting the wine and ven-
tilating it, so that the air may influence the wine, and dispel
or oxidize the bad smell. This is also a fault of many of
the red ports, which they acquire by being bottled at im-
proper periods and while in an improper condition ; the
cleaner the wines are when bottled the less they develop of
this bottle-stink, and perfect Alto Douro wines have not,
and ought not to have, any of it.
213. TRANSPORT OF ALTO DOURO WINES.
Many of the vineyards are so situated that no animal can
be led to them, and their produce has therefore to be carried
to the lagares on the backs of men. Many of the lagares,
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 317
again, cannot be reached with vehicles, and the wines made
on them have therefore to be transported downhill on the
backs of animals ; and as it would be impossible to use casks
for that purpose, the wines are carried in bags made of the
skins of animals. These wine skins are called " odres." An
odre is made from a goat-skin, and is taken from the dead
animal in such a manner as to injure it in the least possible
degree. The hair is only shortened, not removed, and the
hairy side is turned inwards. This is done in order to leave
the epidermis or scarf-skin intact on the surface of the thick,
strong, leathery skin ; for this scarf-skin is very impenetrable
to moisture, whereas mere leather would be very penetrable.
The skin is made more impenetrable and imputrescible by
being covered over the entire inside with semifluid pitch, or
wood tar. I have seen thousands of these bags in use in the
Alto Douro. Some merchants in this country seem to think
that these odres are a matter which must be kept a secret
from the lovers of port wine ; and it happened to me, at a
meeting of the Committee on Wines, of the International
Exhibition, in Kensington, that, when speaking about these
odres, I was flatly contradicted by a port wine merchant,
and told that there was no such thing used in the Alto
Douro. And yet I had, but a month before, seen strings of
horses, mules, and donkeys, each carrying two of these odres
full of wine, in the establishment of the partner of this very
wine-merchant who so vehemently contradicted me, and had
seen the wine from the odres poured into the tonels of the
partner, whence no doubt it found its way to Oporto in due
course. The odres are also used in Spain, as is popularly
known from the romance of " Don Quixote," by Cervantes.
A tourist who, during vintage time, travels in Italy, Spain,
or Portugal, may frequently see a number of these skins,
mostly distended with air, hanging up, either to be prepared
for use, or to be washed after use. They frequently impart
a pitchy taste to the wine, which is never got rid of; when
made from the skin of he-goats, they also communicate the
goat-flavour. In Spain odres are frequently made from
pig-skins.
When the wine is collected in the tonels in the adegas
318 A TREATISE ON WINES.
attached to the farms, it is ready for the travellers of the
mercantile houses, who now taste, select, and buy. The
wine is left in the adegas, until, in winter time, the water inj
the river Douro is high enough to admit of loaded barges
travelling to Oporto. The wine-merchants from Oporto
then send up their wine-casks, some filled with brandy (I!
have seen many casks of Berlin shape, with Berlin brands in'
the adegas of the Alto Douro, and therefore believe that
much Berlin spirit is put into port-wine), the brandy andi
wine are mixed, put into the casks, returned to the river,!
and shipped to Oporto. The manner in which the wine-
casks, all of the size called pipes, holding 116 gallons, are
brought down the hills to the river, is very remarkable.
They are brought on strong carts, each laden with one pipe
only at a time, and drawn by two oxen. The carts are of
the rudest but most solid construction, and the oxen are of
the finest breed, large and very powerful. The labour which
these oxen perform in bringing such a pipe of wine down
the stony, rocky, horrible mountain roads, is really a most
astonishing performance of muscular work. The wheels of
the carts are fixed to the axle-tree on which the top of the
cart rides by two forks. This arrangement causes much
friction, by which a creaking noise is produced, which can
be heard at great distances, particularly at night. The more
noise an axle-tree makes the higher it is valued, and the
peasants vie with each other for the possession of the cart
which makes the greatest noise.
At last the wine in the pipes arrives at the river-side, and
is shipped in boats to Oporto. The manner in which these
boats are loaded and steered is well represented on the map
of Forrester. Arrived in Oporto, the wine is carted to the
sheds, called lodges, and stored. The treatment which it
receives there mainly consists in the addition of brandy from
time to time ; the brandy is kept as low as possible, in order
not to increase the expense more than is necessary. The
last and principal dosing with brandy is only inflicted justi
before the wine is shipped. If the wine is not sweet enough,
a quantity of jeropica is added; this, when legitimate, con-
sists of sweet must preserved by the addition of one-fifth ofi
WINES OF PORTUGAL 319
its volume of brandy of 40 Cartier, and therefore corre-
sponds to the Jerez dulce. If in bad years, or from any other
cause, the colour of the wine is not so deep as may be wished,
some deep-coloured wine is added ; and some elderberry
may be used now and then, but, as already stated, this is
not frequently used in making up Alto Douro wine. Those
wines which are not mixed with anything except brandy, not
even with other wines of similar quality, but of different
origin, are called vintage wines, and are kept by themselves.
Their date is preserved, and they are made much of by the
merchants. Those wines which are not kept by themselves,
but are mixed with other qualities, the product of different
zones and different years, are termed factory-ports, and con-
stitute the great mass of the wines exported.
214. CHANGE IN THE TASTE OF THE PUBLIC AS
REGARDS PORT.
Much has been written and said regarding the injurious
character of strongly-brandied port wine, and in consequence
the more polite classes of society have almost entirely turned
from port wine, and do not drink it any longer. I have
been present at dinners to which ten or twelve gentlemen
sat down, and not one took port when it was brought round.
An Oporto merchant in London gave a dinner party to
twenty gentlemen, and not one of these was found to drink
even a single glass of the merchant's own best vintage wine.
If this antipathy should continue, it might, perhaps, aid in
the reduction of the brandy in port wine to below delirium
tremens point. (This disease is common among spirit
drinkers, and those who consume much strong port; it
cannot be produced by drinking natural wines with less
than twenty-six degrees of proof spirit, even in large quan-
tity.) I have no doubt that when the objection, namely,
excess of brandy, shall have vanished, many cenophilists
and persons of good taste will return to port, the natural,
full-flavoured, fine-coloured, invigorating, and wholesome
wine, which, as regards bouquet, body, vigour, and lasting
qualities, and as regards its wonderfully exhilarating effect
32O A TREATISE ON WINES.
upon body and mind, is not surpassed by the red wines of
any other land. But, it must be observed that, although
some classes in England have ceased drinking port, others
have taken to it, and in consequence the trade in port wine
has not at all diminished, but has rather increased. The
fact is, the port which was formerly generally bought by
gentlemen, clergymen, noblemen, etc., and laid down in
their cellars to mature for years, is now mainly bought by
publicans, tapped, and sold in glasses at 4^. each. This is
the case, not only in this country, but in America, and even
in Newfoundland. The fishermen there, a great proportion
of whose fish is consumed in Portugal, in return get a
quantity of this port wine, and ease the difficulties of their
climate and situation by enjoying this most delicious drink.
The price of port wine in the district varies between
fourteen and fifteen milreis per pipe of 636 litres. In
Oporto, ^15 to 20 is an average price of good factory
port. Fine wines and old wines rise to ^80 per pipe.
215. WINE COUNTRY OF THE BAIRRADA.
This is a very new wine country, but probably in the
course of time it will develop into something of impor-
tance. The Bairrada lies between Oporto and Lisbon,
rather to the south of Coimbra. The Portuguese Railway
runs through the middle of it. The wine grown in the
middle of the district, which includes both red and white
varieties, is called vinho de embarque, or that which may be
exported, whilst that grown in the outer belt, and its
prolongation towards the north and the south, which is not
fit for exportation, but is used in the country, or distilled
for brandy, is called consumo. The soil there is chalky, of
the so-called lias formation. The wines of that country are
frequently taken to Oporto, and there made up into common
class port wines by a small admixture of Alto Douro wine.
They are brought to London mainly for the purpose of
being re-exported to the colonies, and many butts of them
go to Russia and to America. The wines are peculiar in
this, that though dark coloured when young, they quickly
WINES OF PORTUGAL. $21
lose their colour, and in four or five years, if not assisted
by other means, they get so pale as to resemble old port.
But they also lose their quality, and therefore they cannot
be advantageously reared and kept by themselves. That
arises again from the want of consideration for the principles
of cenopoesis; and because there is in the Bairrada no
dominant grape, but the peasants who grow these vines mix
up every sort of grape they can lay hold of, and the conse-
quence is a want of character and firmness in the product.
The grape mainly grown there is the baga, which means
berry. It is a small-berried, dark-coloured grape. There
is also grown a little of the souzao and a little of the bastardo,
which gives some flavour, but there are no coloured grapes
like the mourisco or tinta, or tinta Francisca. There is also
a white wine, made, as in the Alto Douro, from the boat and
ten other vines ; and the jeropiga, or sweet juice made by
mixing spirit with sweet must, is largely produced, and
further abafado, or must stopped in the middle of its fer-
mentation by spirit, etc. Must is sometimes boiled down,
and to the syrup is added brandy. Then there is also
made arobe, which is the juice of the grape itself boiled
down to a thick syrup, either alone or in company with a
quantity of quinces, apples, and other fruit. I quote from
the Government report of Portugal, where it is stated the
arobe can be of two kinds, viz., simple and compound.
The first is the concentrated must produced by the action
of heat; the second, or compound arobe, is made with
sugar and quinces, apples, and other fruits. I have been
very careful to lay before my readers accurate information,
to eliminate that which is erroneous, and to know and state
only that which is true. Now these practices are not at all
done with the purpose of imposing upon the customer.
They are the results of dire necessities and difficulties in
the vinification, such as it would really require the highest
skill and science to obviate; for the poor peasant has no
means and no scientific guidance, but simply the help of a
copper and a little brandy.
322 A TREATISE ON WINES.
2 1 6. THE VINEYARDS AROUND AND NEAR LISBON.
VINEYARDS OF COLLARES.
There is a quantity of wine grown round Lisbon. It is
called termo, from being grown within the bounds of Lisbon,
but there is not much of it, and it does not constitute an
article of commerce, and therefore need not further detain
our attention. Along the Tagus, south-west from Lisbon,
there is that beautiful village Carcavellos, which once had
a very flourishing production of from 1,300 to 1,500 pipes
a year, and still enjoys a reputation, though the production
is now entirely destroyed. It was one of the first fields
invaded, by the oidium, and some years ago the whole pro-
duction did not amount to five pipes, for most of the vine-
yards had died out.
Going along the shore of the Tagus, and turning north-
wards round the mountain of Cintra, we come to the
celebrated vineyards of Collares. They can also be reached
by coming down the valley from Cintra, and perhaps that is
the most agreeable way of getting there. The vineyards of
Jerez are situated on undulating hills of chalk. Those of
the Alto Doui;o are rocky, but those of Collares are situated
on sand, thrown up by the billows of the Atlantic. Owing
to the shifting nature of this land, the peasant proprietor is
obliged to adopt some device to keep his vineyards and his
wine too. The vineyard is divided into a number of small
parcels, of the size of an ordinary sitting-room, each of which
is surrounded by a hedge of green reeds or canas. The
doors which lead from one to the other are also formed of
these living reeds, so that when you pass from one depart-
ment to another you bend the reeds asunder with the hands,
and walk through, and -the curtain of reeds closes of itself
behind you. In spite of this precaution, when after a windy
night the owner of the vineyard comes to look at his vineyard,
he often finds his vines covered up with sand, and he is
obliged to dig them out. But this apparently barren and
unpropitious soil yields a very excellent product. The soil
is constantly moist, the heat of the sun strikes it all day long,
and the vines lie on the ground, in immediate proximity to
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 323
pure sand. The result is the excellent wine of Collates.
Some of the red wine is made from a grape called the ramisco,
and from that only. The qualities of this wine are based
upon one dominant vine, and it is for that reason that it has
such good substance. It quickly matures, is uniform, greatly
improves in bottle, and will keep, although its alcoholicity is
one of the lowest, being only between eight and ten per cent.
It is a very firm wine also, as it requires no spirit to be added
to it. It has a flavour of its own which cannot be compared
with any other, derived entirely from the ramisco grape. It
is a most agreeable and wholesome wine. About 1,500
pipes are made in the district, and the whole is consumed at
Lisbon,
217. VINEYARD OF BUCELLAS.
Passing from Collares to Cintra, and thence inland, we
come to the vineyard of Bucellas. It is said that the
Bucellas wine is made from the hock grape, alleged to have
been transplanted there by the Marquis of Pombal. All
over Portugal the Marquis of Pombal is remembered as a viti-
culturist, and a man who took great interest in the promotion
of viticulture and wine making. I have gone through pretty
well all the vineyards there, and have asked many experienced
persons, but have not been able to find any hock grapes there
whatever. The only grape grown there, from which the
genuine Bucellas is made, is the Arinto. At first sight the
Arinto has a little similarity to the hock grape called Riess-
ling, as it is small-berried, but it is dissimilar in other
respects, particularly by its possessing a large bunch. It
reminds me of the grapes on the south slopes of the Alps,
and has nowhere the small size of the grapes indigenous to
the Rhenish countries. Its wine somewhat resembles hock
in preserving a little sweetness in good years, and, on the
other hand, in being excessively sour in bad years. The
Lisbon wine-store keepers add sugar and brandy to the
Bucellas, and transform it into the semblance of a low-class
sherry. They add boiled must to it just before bottling it,
and the consequence is that a thick brown crust deposits on
324 A TREATISE ON WINES.
one side of the bottle. This artificial product has no trace
of the original high flavour, refreshing, acidulous, wholesome
nature, of true Bucellas wine.
218. WINES OF TORRES VEDRAS LAVRADIO.
Torres Vedras is a celebrated name in the history of the
British army. A good many thousand pipes of wine are grown
there, but owing to the disregard of the principles I have
mentioned, and owing to the fact of the wine being made
from mixed grapes, it acquires no particular quality, and,
though apparently good to drink in the first year or two, in
the third year it falls off and loses its quality, although it
does not spoil.
Wines of Lavradio. Of the many names for which Por-
tugal had a reputation in the vitilogical world, there remains
yet to be mentioned Lavradio, which lies on the Tagus,
nearly opposite Lisbon, and produces a mild, though some-
what sweetish, but to some people very agreeable wine.
It requires very careful keeping for several years, but after-
wards acquires all the fine properties of the natural and finer
Alto Douro wines. If it were more scientifically treated,
and if there were more of it, the Lavradio would soon
acquire a high reputation.
219. GENERAL FEATURES OF PORTUGUESE WINE MAKING.
In the Alto Douro, as well as in the Bairrada, and
everywhere else in Portugal, all the wine is made in
the lagars, peculiar troughs, made of stone mostly, but
sometimes of wood, in which the wines ferment. They
are very large, about six yards square, and, though in
good years that entails no disadvantage, in years when
the heat of the season is excessive, or when the harvest is
interrupted by rains, the lagar entails every disadvantage
which injuriously affects the wine. Sometimes the lagar
is partly filled, a quantity of grapes being heaped in one
corner; then rainy weather comes, and the grapes are
allowed to lie in the corner for a week ; then, perhaps,
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 325
the vintage is continued, and new grapes perhaps more
rotten than the first are thrown in, and the lagar is filled
up. During that time, if the grapes were ripe, a partial
fermentation would set in. If the mass were heated, a
portion would ferment, and the air having access, it would
produce a process of decomposition. Then when the wine
is made it has to be sulphured, not only for the purpose of
preventing the acetification, which has begun already under
these unfavourable circumstances, but to destroy those
fungi which in every Portuguese white wine declare them-
selves almost from the moment it is made, producing scud
and viscosity. The wines when made are not put into
cellars, but are all kept above ground, in large casks or
tonels, and these are never full. In a good year they may
be three parts full, whereas in a bad year they may be only
one-third or a quarter full, and there is always a greater or
a smaller surface of wine exposed to the air. Then if in
these sheds the temperature rises very high, the surface
being covered by mould, a quick acetification takes place.
At Bucellas, I was in the shed of a poor woman, whose
only property consisted of a vineyard, and of a shed and
tonel of wine, worth, perhaps, ^60. She had not tasted it
for a long time, and when I tasted it, I told her it was
vinegar. I shall never forget the face of the poor woman
when she tasted her wine, and she said, " Yes, it is vinegar."
So throughout the place, owing to the absence of under-
ground cellars, where the wine can be kept away from the
excessive heat in the summer, and owing to the omission of
proper precautions in the making of the wine owing,
further, to the poverty of the people, who can only afford
to buy one great vessel in which they keep their wine,
being unable to buy new casks of a smaller size, which they
could fill to the bung, and thereby prevent the air getting
at the wine when hot and in a dangerous state owing to
these disadvantages, and to the peculiar climate, there are
produced masses of fungi in all Portuguese wines, just as
there are in the Jerez wines. These are called nube, and
when these small microscopic fungi, visible only by the
microscope magnifying 600 diameters, grow more numerous,
326 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the wine becomes at last thick and viscous, and is called
gordo. Then the wine acquires this horrid mouse taste,
which is the destroyer of many of the most beautiful Jerez
wines. The finest Jerez wines are liable to have this
horrible mouse taste, and the merchants will tell you that if
wine gets a mouse taste, it will become a good wine ; but
that is rather a paradoxical assertion. Out of 100 butts
of wine having mouse taste, perhaps about ten good ones
are obtained, but a vast quantity never recover, and these
the extractors send to the still. At Bucellas I saw in the
sheds of a marquis twenty large tonels full of thick, horrid
tasting, sulphury, abominable liquid, which nobody could
ever guess would in the course of a year or two transform
itself into potable wine. When the wine merchant gets
this wine he treats it according to his science, for it
need not be wholly lost, but can be purified by chemical
means. It is simply a process for taking out the dirt,
bad colour, and fungi ; although it is very unpromising
at first, by means of a little chemical operation a perfectly
nice, clean-tasting fluid is produced, and all the mouse taste
is gone.
The power of these fungi is so great that in some Portu-
guese vintages not only a portion of the must is concentrated
to increase the sweetness, but the producer is actually
obliged to put the whole of his must into the copper, and give
it a boiling up, in order to kill the fungi. He does, in fact,
on a large scale with his must that which M. Pasteur at Paris
has proposed as a general principle for the purpose of pre-
serving wines, namely, heat the wine so as to kill the spores,
and thereby set up a healthy fermentation, whereas otherwise
there would have been a diseased fermentation, and conse-
quently a very bad product.
Wine fungi. Plants live on carbonic acid, water, and
ammonia and salts, and fungi are no exception to that rule.
It is frequently said that fungi do absorb compound materials
that they are not dependent upon the carbonic acid in the
atmosphere, as other plants, but that they do, as it were, like
animals, devour compound food. That may be the case
with regard to some which live in the air, but those which
WINES OF PORTUGAL. 327
live in fluid do not do so, for when the carbonic acid is with-
drawn by other means than heat the fungi cease to live, sink
to the bottom, and are inert : that is to say, they are killed
or suffocated, and do not live much longer, and consequently
it is proved that the nube fungi require for their existence
the presence of carbonic acid. And it is for this reason
evidently that they are present in the largest quantities in the
youngest wine. The younger the wine the more nube, and
the older the wine the less carbonic acic it produces and the
quicker the nube goes down. Every Jerez merchant will
tell you that any wine which succeeds at all cures itself. It
requires no particular process for getting rid of the nube.
The flor also cures itself, provided the wine has at least twenty-
nine degrees of proof spirit. This flor is a fungus on the top
of the wine, which requires a large quantity of carbonic acid
in order to live. Remove the carbonic acid, and the fungus
dies. That has not been understood, but the practice has
been based strictly on that plan. If the wine containing
this nube be strongly shaken, the fungi condense, and sink
to the bottom. The evolution of the carbonic acid escapes
attention ; however, if the wine, after having been shaken,
be analyzed, it is found that a large quantity of carbonic acid
has been evolved. If the wine be put under the air-pump,
the carbonic acid be exhausted, and air excluded, the wine
will in a short time be clear and sound. The communications
of the highest importance offered by M. Pasteur will make
the producer of wine independent of all these accidents.
There is a peculiar affection now and then incident to the
wines of the Alto Douro, called the agredcce, or sweet-sour;
the Viscount De Villa Maior, in his work on wines, mentions
the vinagre disease ; the amargo, or bitterness ; the gordura
(which, according to my opinion, is only a continuation of
the nube disease) ; and then he gives the agredoce, which, he
states, is a form of disease different from the first four, which
spoils port wine. The agredoce is not always a particular
disease, it is a transformation of a part of the alcohol into
vinegar in such port wine only as contains from two to
three per cent, of sugar which was not previously fermented ;
thus a wine is obtained which tastes on the one side of
328 A TREATISE ON WINES.
vinegar and on the other side of sugar, in fact, a compound
which, if it was a little sweeter, one might very well drink as
people do raspberry vinegar. It is not at all like the bitter-
ness of Burgundy wines, which arises from a totally different
cause. This is one form of agredoce ; another arises from the
production in sweet wine of lactic acid ; this latter is less de-
trimental to the taste of the wine, as lactic acid tastes purely
acid or sour without any special flavour.
Portugal in itself, poor, yet climatically highly endowed, is
capable of producing a variety of the most beautiful grapes,
and a variety of wines, which, if properly made, would not be
surpassed by those of any other country. The people are
good-natured, industrious, and hard-working, and they have
what is very agreeable to a person who comes from this
country, a great regard for an Englishman. If these good
people would continue to plant their vineyards with particular
sorts of grapes, such as have been proved in the great Alto
Douro districts, in Bucellas, or Collares, to be so excellent ;
if they were to abandon that horrid practice of making sweet
and cooked wines ; if they were to study the conditions by
means of which they might avoid the natural climatic diffi-
culties which produce fungi and acidity ; if they introduced
more cleanliness into their sheds, and if they were to have
their cellars underground ; if they were to avoid large tonels
and adopt small casks, I have no doubt Portugal, one of the
most essential English vineyards, would produce other wines
besides port, which would be of the greatest use hygienically
and socially to this country. We have a great trade with
Portugal in other respects, taking there our manufactures,
and bringing away in return large quantities of produce,
cattle, grapes, figs, apples, and a variety of other articles too
numerous to mention ; and an improved quality of wine
would find in this country a very ready and grateful market.
WINES OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 329
CHAPTER XXIV.
WINES OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS, MADEIRA,
THE CANARIES, AND THE AZORES.
220. WINES OF MADEIRA.
WHEN the Portuguese had discovered Madeira in 1418,
they forthwith set about to destroy the forest with which the
island was covered. The settlers were occupied seven years
in the destruction of the trees on the south side of the island
round the bay, now called "of Funchal." In their place
they planted, inter alia, vines imported from Cyprus and
Candia.
Soil. Madeira is a relatively new production amongst
islands; it consists of a basis of tertiary chalk, whereby it
is demonstrated to have been part of a larger island or
continent now submerged ; even this base would also have
been submerged and destroyed had it not been overlaid,
and, so to say, preserved, by vast masses and countless layers
of eruptive products of a now dead volcano, the ruins of
which, some 6,000 feet in height, pass under the name of
the Pic Ruivo. The basalts, trachytes, tufas, and different
later lavas form mounts and hills with steep slopes, many
and deep ravines; these rocks disintegrate under the in-
fluence of rain and sun, and become a soft stone (pedra
mo//a), which is now easily transformed into a gritty soil, in
which all kinds of plants grow readily. The territory slips
easily, and requires much support for access and cultiva-
tion.
221. VARIETIES OF VINES AND THEIR CULTIVATION.
The Malvasia, said to have been brought from Candia
and Cyprus, is supposed to yield the best Madeira wine, so
33O A TREATISE ON WINES.
called, but it is cultivated less frequently than the Vidogna,
a vine resembling the Chasselas, and yielding dry wine. In
smaller proportion are grown the Bagoual, the Sercial or
Escanagao, the Muscatel, and the Alicante. These bear
white grapes ; but the following produce black grapes, which,
with the exception of the Tinta, are all used for making
white wine : the Batardo, the Negramal (perhaps the same
as Tinta), and the Ferral. The latter is a grape quite unfit
for wine making. The vines are mostly fastened to espaliers
of wood and reeds, from three to six feet in height ; some-
times trained in arbours, with grapes hanging overhead;
in other parts the vines are trained on pollards ; all these
elevated trainings produce mediocre grapes.
Vinification is effected as in Portugal, lagars, presses,
transport, etc., all being the same. The must, carried in
barrels or bags of goat-skins, is carried to the cellar of the
wine maker and there fermented in barrels. Must is called
vinho in mosto, meaning wine as yet in the state of must,
while after the first fermentation and settlement of the
yeast it is called vinho in limpo, wine in a clear state.
The must receives some-addition of brandy at once, as it is
rather watery, and would not keep by itself; after racking
the wine receives more spirit; a month later it is again
racked and receives a third addition of spirit. During the
process of preparation the wine is placed in magazines, which
can be heated, and are called stoves (estitfas), and left there
for some weeks or months. This process assists the forma-
tion of ether and softens the wine by oxidation, but it has
the probably much more important effect of destroying any
fungi which are capable of making the wine scuddy, or of
otherwise changing it unfavourably by viscosity, bitterness,
or acetification. The maturation also succeeds well, if the
wine be sound, by the aid of heat and motion, as imparted
to it by a sea voyage as merchandise to the West Indies,
Hindostan, Java, or China. Wine which has thus been made
to travel was termed, technically, East India Madeira.
Madeira Wine is a more or less amber-coloured liquid
of a peculiar, agreeable, though weak flavour ; in it lives the
genius of the Malvasia and Vidogna grapes. The Sercial
WINES OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 331
also contributes its particular qualities, namely, astringency r
and with this some lasting powers ; but the roughness im-
parted thereby retards its maturation. Most Madeira is dry,
i.e. free from sugar, and is therefore suitable for being pre-
served with less brandy than sweet wines. The best qualities
improve in barrel during ten years, and in bottle during
another ten ; but these periods are now shortened by art
and the estufa. The red wines of Madeira are not distin-
guished by quality, and their production is small.
The best vineyards of the south side are the property of
the royal family of Portugal, and their products do not occur
in commerce. The district yielding the best salable wine
is the Pago de Pereira. Vineyards of the second class are
Calheta, Porto da Sol, Ribeira Brava, Cama de Lobos,.
Estreto, Santo Martinho, and Santo Antonio. The wines-
on the northern side of the island are used mainly for dis-
tilling brandy from them. The most notable vineyards in.
this part are those of Porto da Cruz, Santo Jorge, Ponta
del Gada, Portomoniz, Santo Vincente, and Seycal da Norte..
Before 1852 Madeira produced annually about 20,000 pipes
of wine, and in good years 30,000 ; but then the vine-fungus,
the oidium, destroyed the entire harvests, and subsequently,
the vineyards. No wine was made up to 1857, a calamity
which involved an annual loss of a quarter of a million-
sterling. Since 1860 the vine has gradually been replanted,,
and the oidium repressed. The territorial law of Madeira
is one of great complication, which makes the purchase and
sale of land, if not impossible, at least very difficult. This,
is is alleged as another of the causes which have mad?
Madeira sink to the present low economical condition.
222. WINES OF THE CANARIES AND THE AZORES.
These volcanic islands, comprising TenerifTe, Canaria,.
Lanzerote, Fuerteventura, Gomero, and Ferro, produce wine
from the Malvasia and Vidogna grapes. The wines from,
the latter are dry, and similar but inferior to Madeira,.
The Malvasia is a sweet liqueur wine, and, like Madeira,
tastes of pineapple, a perfume probably derived from that
332 A TREATISE ON WINES.
fruit. Canary sack of former times was the sweet white
wine of these islands, "vino secco" or "seccato," so
called because it was made from grapes which had been
dried and passulated to a certain extent before vinification.
Before 1852 most Canary wine was sold as Madeira ; at the
present day it is transmuted into " sherry " by being vatted
with small quantities of wine of the Palomino grape.
The Azores formerly produced much wine, the island of
Pico alone 5,000 pipes annually; the sweet Malvasia was
called vino passado, the Vidogna secco. Most of these wines
were sold to North and Central America and to Brazil.
The islands suffered the fate of Madeira, and now produce
less wine, but many other exportable products of agriculture.
CHAPTER XXV.
WINES OF ITALY AND OF THE BALKAN
PENINSULA.
223. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON ITALIAN WINES.
ITALY is very active just now in promoting its agriculture;
there are many viticultural societies throughout the penin-
sula, and they organize exhibitions and lotteries to sell the
produce which is brought to them ; but all these efforts will
avail but little before viticulture, as a whole, is placed upon
a more rational basis, and grapes are grown near to the
soil, instead of, as now, high in the air. Italian wines,
including those of Sicily, are singularly destitute of flavour,
and in those which have any it is too often artificial, and in
the white varieties produced by aromatic resins or gums.
This artificial flavour I have, however, never found in the
-sweet and brandied wines of Sicily. The Marsalas, though
brandied up to 36 proof-spirit, and sweetened with raisins
WINES OF ITALY AND BALKAN PENINSULA. 333;
or condensed must, are ordinarily not plastered, and appa-
rently not provided with extraneous flavours. Lately, some
new kinds of Sicilian wines have been introduced into
England which deserve commendation.
224. WINES OF PIEDMONT AND THE ISLAND OF
SARDINIA.
Of these wines those of Asti and Chaumont have acquired
a reputation. Only second to these are the wines of Alba
and Montferrat. We found some Piedmontese wine, which
we obtained directly from Turin, inferior and dear. The
effervescent wine (spumante) mostly had fungi in the bottles-,
the red were all in a state of fermentation, frisky (Italian
fresco] and turbid ; some retained a peculiar biting taste
after complete clearance. A number of red wines are
made from the Grignoli grape, and named Grignolinos ; the
better qualities of these have great merit. The Grignoli
vine is closely related to the Carmenet of the Gironde on.
the one, and to the Kadarka of Hungary on the other.
At many places of the island of Sardinia Malvasia wines
are produced ; at Sorso, Posa, Alghiere, and Naxo ; those
produced at Caunonas, Monai, and Garnaccia are exported.
The wine of Giro resembles the Tinto of Alicante.
225. WINES OF TUSCANY.
The best Italian wines are produced in Tuscany, not
only because the climate favours viticulture, bat because
the former government, and many intelligent members of
the nobility, paid attention to the improvement of the vine-
yards and of vinification.'-
At Monte Pulciano, between Sienna and Rome, the
Aleatico, or red Muscat vine, is extensively grown, and
furnishes the liqueur wine known under that name ; similar
wine is made at Monte Catini, in the Val de Rievole,
and at Ponte a Moriano. The wine is purple in colour,
sweet, and slightly astringent. A good red wine is made at
334 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Chianti, near Sienna, from a peculiar grape At Arcetri,
near Florence, was prepared the best Verdea, or green wine,
so-called from its colour : it is reported that Frederick the
Great favoured it by his patronage. The Trebbiano is a
golden-coloured syrup, produced from grapes passulated on
the vine by torsion of the stalk. The vine is termed Treb-
The nobles of Florence, like those of Vienna, sell their
wines By retail from the cellars in their palaces, in fiascos,
or flasks, of the well-known Florentine pattern, containing
about three quarts each. The wine is not corked, but
covered with a small quantity of olive-oil, which is either
flung out, or soaked out with tow previous to the pouring
out of the wine.
226. WINES OF LOMBARDY, VENETIA, CENTRAL AND
SOUTHERN ITALY.
In these provinces the vines are grown on trees, mutilated
for the purpose, on the margins of cultivated pieces of land,
or in rows intersecting them. The grapes consequently grow
high in the air, and although they look picturesque make
very bad wine. The wine which one can get to drink in the
plain of Venetia is always very poor; it is not dark red,
owing to the imperfect ripening of the grapes, it has a very
.astringent taste, contains very little extractive, little alcohol,
much acid, and is destitute of any vinous flavour. It is an
exceedingly cheap drink to quench the thirst in summer and
winter. The indolence which has laid hold of the popu-
lation of the peninsula, the result of centuries of oppression,
misrule and superstition, favoured by the ease with which life
can be carried on, affects viticulture here as throughout
Italy, and proves the truth of the sorrowful but hardly
hyperbolic words of Matteucci : " Este in Italia ni studio
. ni lavore."
In the former papal state are produced the wines of
Orvieto, and the Muscat of Albano and Montefiascone. At
Naples a wine called Lachrymse Christi is produced at the
/oot of Vesuvius. Although reported to be the strongest
WINES OF ITALY AND BALKAN PENINSULA. 335
wine produced in the district, a sample obtained from a
grower contained only 18*9 per cent, of proof spirit.
The wines of Gallipoli and Taranto are produced in the
province of Puglia or Terra d'Otranto. These wines receive
mostly an addition of spirit, but we have had perfectly
natural Taranto ; it was sold at first at a reasonable price,
but this was raised and the wine went out of the market.
227. WINES OF SICILY.
... The light amber of brown Sicilian wine exported in large
quantities passes under the name of the exporting town of
Marsala. This place is situated near the western termina-
tion of the northern coast of Sicily. The vineyards extend
along the coast towards the east and west in a band of
upwards of twenty miles in length and twelve broad. The
soil is a mixture of chalk and clay, coloured yellow or reddish-
brown by oxide of iron. The varieties of vines are not
scientifically defined, so that Odart does not mention any.
To conclude from the nature of the wine they must be many,
and are cultivated mainly for the production of quantity.
All the wine shipped from Marsala is strongly brandied,
but it is generally not plastered. Much of it is sold as such,
but large volumes are mixed with a little sherry and sold
as "Amontillado."
Red wines are also grown in the island, and being of low
price, are exported to other parts of Italy and to America.
Faro, grown in the neighbourhood of Messina, contains from
1 8 to 23 per cent, proof spirit. Near Mount Etna is made
the wine of Terre Forte, in vineyards formerly held by
Benedictine monks; this is mostly brandied up to 30 per
cent, proof spirit, and, according to Redding, has a taint of
pitch.
The total quantity of wine produced in Sicily has been
stated to be 200,000 pipes, which is probably greatly exag-
gerated. Probably the one-fifth of this quantity believed
to be fit for exportation represents the quantity of marketable
wine actually produced much nearer than the larger figure.
The Marsala pipe contains 93 gallons. There are less than
336 A TREATISE ON WINES.
300,000 gallons of Marsala consumed annually in England ;
its consumption has increased by one-fifth beyond the
quantity, which was imported before the reduction of the
duties nearly thirty years ago.
228. WINES OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA.
The productions of these countries are not suited for the
use of western Europeans, as they are impregnated with tar,
as a means of their preservation. On Mount Athos (Hagion
Oros) German monks have introduced some better mode of
vinification. Wines which pass into commerce are produced
in Macedonia in the following places : Chatista, Fiorina,
Kuprio, Castoria ; in the district surrounding the lake of
Ochrida ; in the plain of Serres ; at Piliori, Crotova, and in
the valley of Resne. In Thessaly : at Larissa, Cachia and
Arta. Much simmered wine for the use of Mahommedans
is made in the village of Galistas, on the slope of Mount
Bernos. Albania produces much red and white wine, which
keeps without the assistance of pitch.
229. WINES OF GREECE.
A mountainous country composed of schistose, chalky
and volcanic ranges, with slopes in countless valleys, with a
climate tempered by the neighbourhood of the sea, and
engendering the most beautiful seasons, would seem to be
an ideal territory for the culture of the vine. But these
advantages were counterpoised by the liability to the occur-
rence of terrible earthquakes ; by meteoric influences which
denuded the mountain-sides of cultivable earth; by exhaus-
tion of the soil in consequence of the ceaseless export of its
produce to foreign lands; by the absence of labour, live
stock, and manure ; and the want of security from
brigandage, which kept the population in terror and
uncertainty. In consequence of these deplorable conditions,
which have been only partially remedied during the last
thirty years, the production of wine in Greece, which was
WINES OF GREECE AND GREEK ISLANDS. 337
considerable at the time of the supremacy of the Venetians,
has sunk to a relatively insignificant amount. But the
production of currants is still a highly important branch of
Greek agriculture.
230. VINES CULTIVATED IN GREECE.
The currant-vine Vitis Corinthiaca, also called Apyrena y
the stoneless, and from its product, in Italian, uva passa, is
mostly grown as a shrub, on a strong stem, without support.
The bunches of its grapes are long, loose and pendulous,
and carry small unequal berries ; the berry stalks themselves
are long and thin. The berries are the smallest of all
grapes, have a thin husk and contain no stones. The
several varieties of the plant are recognized by the colour
of the grapes. The commonest is yellowish-green with a
strong grey bloom. Odart, however, believes the black
variety to be more commonly cultivated for commerce j a
third variety is violet. This vine is also much cultivated in
Italy and Asia Minor. The raisins termed currants are
produced by twisting the stalks of the ripe bunches, and
letting the grapes dry in the sun.
Another Greek vine is the Greco, so termed by the
Italians, the red variety of which is also grown in Corsica,
where it is called Barbirono (Odart, I.e., p. 553). A third
is the Cipro, the vine peculiar to Cyprus. Its berries are
large, and while unripe are round at the insertion of the
stalk, and pointed towards the umbilicus ; but when ripe
they have the shape of acorns, and are dark blue with few
points. The bunch is large, long, and has mostly short
branches. The white and black Moscada of Greece are
identical with the Muscatels of Frontignan. The Malvasia
exists in several varieties, not yet well diagnosed from each
other. The Sultana is cultivated for its stoneless raisins,
but not on so large a scale as in Asia Minor. The most
important vine for the small islands seems to be the Assyr-
ticon, which prevails in Santorin. Besides these there are
cultivated in Greece about sixty varieties of vines, of which
names and descriptions are not yet accessible.
z
338 A TREATISE ON WINES.
231. VINDICATION.
Vinification in Greece is very imperfect, so that the wines
contain more volatile, i.e., acetic acid, than any others.
Many wines last only through the winter, and in summer
turn to vinegar. To avoid this result the proprietors still
adopt all the objectionable preservatives of antiquity : smok-
ing with wood smoke, or vapour of resins, such as mastic,
olibanum, cloves, Rhodus wood, Bucharis-Tagh, and lab-
danum ; the Commendaria (Cyprus) wine is said to get its
flavour from those resins, gums, and spices, which are sus-
pended in the wine, enclosed in a bag ; pitching the barrels ;
adding turpentine and pine-cones; addition of gypsum, chalk,
salt, and of tannin, particularly in the form of hypericum per-
foratum, a resino-tannous plant, which is said to conserve
and to colour wine yellow. Most wine has also the taste
and smell of the goats, in the hides of which it is kept or
transported. In Cyprus and other parts, jars, pitched in-
side, are still in use, but in Santorin and other islands,
barrels are becoming more frequent. The several parts of
Greece produce, according to the "Journal des Travaux de
la Societe franchise de Statistique universelle," the following
kinds and qualities of wines : Akarnania produces wine at
Arta, Limni and Komboti. Ancient Greece proper, Livadia,
has its principal vineyards near Lepanto, Chseronea, Megara,
and on the slopes of Mount Poligouna ; second-class vine-
yards are near Koskina, and in one of the valleys of Mount
Helikon. Not far from Athens is Mount Hymettus, known
by its bees and honey ; the wine bearing its name is grown
in the plain surrounding the mount. Near Megara, twenty-
seven miles west of Athens, upon the frontiers of Livadia
and Morea is the port of Cendura, from which much wine,
and large quantities of currants are exported. Upon the
isthmus is situated what remains of Korinth, the ancient
town known by games and currants, often destroyed by
earthquakes.
The northern part of the peninsula of Morea, Achaia, has
extensive vineyards near Patras, Blattero, Voltizza, and
Kalavrito. Near the latter town is the monastery of Megas-
WINES OF GREECE AND GREEK ISLANDS. 339
pileon, where the monks make and keep wine in large
quantities, some of their tonnels holding from 7,000 to
15,000 litres. In the county of Elis, circle of Gartonin,
much red and white wine is made; the best wine of the
Morea is made near Pergos, and amounts to 100,000 barrels
annually. Red and white astringent wines are produced
near Barbacena and Budschaka, on the left bank of the
Alpheus. Schiron, near Palacropolis, produces currants and
wine of 280,000 piastres annual value. Argolis, east of
Achaia, has vineyards near Argos, and in the valley of St.
Giorgio, twelve miles from Argos ; Nauplia, or Napoli di
Malvasia, the place whence Malvasia wines derived their
name, was nearly destroyed during the Greek wars of inde-
pendence, and produces but little wine in the present day.
Arcadia, in the centre of the Morea, produces annually
15,000 barils of wine, value 150,000 piastres. The largest
vineyards are in the valley of Phokia, 18 miles north of
Tripolizza. The district of the latter town, known as
Tripolis, produces 15,000 barils of wine. A similar quantity
is produced in the vineyards near Androuna and Nisi, to-
gether with 600 barils of brandy. The promontory of
Modon, west of Koron, produces 2,000 barils, value 20,000
piastres. The south-east of the Morea, Lakonia, makes
much Malvasia, particularly at Misitra. The wines are
mostly only third class, and much below.
232. ISLANDS OF THE GREEK ARCHIPELAGO, SANTORIN,
IONIAN ISLANDS, CANDIA, RHODES, CYPRUS.
The Islands of the Greek Archipelago producing wines or
raisins are in this order from north to south : Scopolo, Sciati,
Skyro, Negroponte, Andros, Tine, Zia, Myconi, Thermina,
Naxos, Amorgo, and Santorini. Near Skyro (Syra), a red
wine, Como, is grown, and Scio (formerly Chios) produced
more wine formerly; the "nectar" of Merta is bitter and
astringent. Samos exports grapes, raisins and wines, amongst
the latter a Muscat. Zea, or Zia, is ancient Cos. Of
Tenedos the only production and trade is in wine, and it
sends annually 100,000 barils to Constantinople, Smyrna,
340 A TREATISE ON WINES.
and the Euxine for Russia; all table wine in the East,
wherever wine is drunk, is called Tenedos.
Santorin, ancient Thera, a series of islands, consisting of
fragments of a volcanic ring, and its centre craters, produces
much wine. There are sixty varieties of vines cultivated, but
the dominant vine is the Assyrticon. Some of the vines are
large-bunched. The quantity produced is said to amount
to 9,000 pipes ; it is principally exported to the Black Sea,
and supplies the wants of the interior of Russia. The wines
of these islands were for a time much spoken of in this
country, probably as the result of the accounts of enthusiastic
travellers, but their eastern course has not thereby been
diverted.
Ionian Islands. The red wines of Corfu, of which 33,000
barils are annually produced, are light; a liqueur from
raisins produced here is called Rosolio. Cephalonia produces
upwards of 40,000 barils of red wines of the fifth class.
Zante produces dry and sweet wines, amongst the latter a
liqueur, made from currant grapes, called Jenerodis. Thiaki
(Ithaca) produces 6,000 barils of currants, and Sta. Maura
50,000 annually. All wines made in the Ionian Islands are
plastered.
Candia ancient Crete, produced formerly a kind of
Malvasia wine, stated by A. Baccius (" Naturalis Vinorum
Historia," Romse, 1696, fol., p. 331) to have amounted to
200,000 barils annually. But this production is now much
reduced, and of the viticulture, e.g., of the monastery of
Arcadi, now in ruins, there remains only the monument of
the fine vaulted cellars, now disused. The best vineyards
are near Kanea, Kisamos, Spacchia and Kandia.
Rhodes produces sweet luscious wine from large grapes.
Here, as in Malaga, three harvests can be annually obtained.
Cyprus. The vineyards of Cyprus are on the slopes of
hills, covered with flinty stones and blackish ochreous earth.
The prevailing vine is the Cipro, already alluded to above.
The wines produced are of three classes. The first class
consists of the wines of the Commandery of the Knights
Templars, and is made in the vineyards near Paphos, in the
district of Orni. It is fermented and matured in about
WINES OF ASIA. 34!
40,000 earthenware vessels, oi the ancient shape of amphorae,
of which each holds from ten to twelve litres. The wine is
of a dull red colour, and becomes tawny by age, or of a
golden yellow, a little sweet, with an astringent by-taste, fiery,
of great and peculiar flavour and bouquet, supposed to be
imparted to it by the introduction of resins and spices sus-
pended in bags in the amphorae. The second-class wines
are sweet Muscats, made mainly at Arnodos. The third
class are common red wines, which speedily shed their
colour. Two centuries ago this island exported 365,000
cuses (or guzes) of wine ; sixty years ago the export had
fallen to 65,000 cuses. Cyprus wines are shipped mainly
from Larnaka, the southern port of Cyprus, to Venice and
Livorno. At Venice much Cyprus wine is still drunk.
The Cyprus wine measures are the cass, equal to i^ English
gallons, or 4-73 litres; and the carica, equal to 10-414
litres. The baril repeatedly mentioned in the foregoing, is
the Venetian barilla, equal to 64 boccalis (beakers), or
64-3859 litres, or 1 4-171 12 English imperial gallons.
CHAPTER XXVI.
WINES OF ASIA.
233. WINES OF CAUCASIA.
THE production of wine in Cachetia amounts to 2,000,000
of eimer annually ; the price of good red is one abass (seven-
pence) for one tunga (five bottles) ; common wine is sold at
from five to six kopecs, or twopence per tunga. The natives
keep the wine in skins of buffaloes and goats, with the hair
turned inside, and pitched with black naphtha or asphalt ;
better class proprietors keep the wine in earthenware vases,
of the size of hogsheads, which are buried in the ground.
The vines are being improved by new varieties introduced
from the Russian plantations in the Crimea.
342 A TREATISE ON WINES.
Georgia produces wines at Tiflis, Signack, Elizabethopol,
Gandjea, Mokozange, Vachery and Tscheniedaly. At
Tiflis the vines peculiar to Shiraz are grown, and viticulture
is mainly in the hands of vintners from Suabia or their
descendants.
Mingrelia, Imeritia, Armenia, and Shirwan also produce
wine; the best Mingrelian is that of Odischi, In many
parts German colonists are settled, who produce wine in
casks, and realize good prices. The produce is estimated to
amount to 7,500,000 bottles.
The Caucasian wines are mostly colourless, like water :
the red ones are only pale red, and lose their colour while
assuming a bitterness, thus resembling some Burgundies
and their diseases. Much of the Caucasian wine is distilled
for brandy, of which Cachetia alone produces 20,000 hogs-
heads annually. A society " for the manufacture of Cham-
pagne from indigenous grapes," carries on a considerable
trade in such wine throughout Russia up to St. Petersburg.
The marine, wine and general trade of Caucasia, which
formerly was considerable, has been completely destroyed
by the Russian blockade, which was kept up for more than
a generation, for the purpose of aiding in the subjection of
the Circassian people. This conquest has now been effected,
but the trade of the east of the Euxine has not been restored.
234. WINES OF PERSIA. SHIRAZ AND ITS VINES.
The ancient traveller Strabo relates that in the district of
tne coast of the gulf of Persia called Makine, the vine grew
in swamps, and was cultivated in these morasses by people
who placed baskets of earth into the water, in which the
vines were planted. The vines in these baskets were as
detached from the land as flower-pots in a conservatory,
and were now and then carried out of reach from the shore
by floods or winds. In such a case the cultivators replaced
them again to their former positions by long poles. Such
paludal cultivation of the vine can also be seen in Egypt.
In Persian legends frequent references are made to King
Dchemshid as having raised the accidental discovery ot
WINES OF ASIA. 343
wine to a method of making and keeping it. As he was
fond of eating grapes he caused great vessels full to be
collected in order to enjoy them beyond the season. But
they ran into juice, and boiled so suspiciously that it was
believed a new poison had been discovered, and the liquid
was put aside for appropriate use. Gulnare, the beautiful,
one of Dchemshid's seven hundred wives, grew melan-
choly and resolved to take her own life. She selected the
new poison as the means for self-destruction, and drank
a long draught, which became a deep one when she found
that the supposed poison, contrary to expectation, tasted
very nice. The poison soon acted, however, and Gulnare
sank on her couch and fell asleep. Awaking to despair,
she doubled the draught, sought destruction in vain, but
found happiness in frequent small sips of the suspected
liquid. Shah Dchemshid discovered the effect of the
condemned grape juice upon his mistress, tried a draught,
approved, and henceforth was the patron of wine.
The wines of Persia most renowned in ancient times were
those of Ariana (Iran), Bactriana (Turan), Hyrcania, (Ma-
zanderan), and Margiana (Chorassan). Their reputation
survived for some time the introduction of the Islam. All
the fertile parts south of the Caspian still produce wines,
but their reputation is now overshadowed by that of the
wines of Shiraz, in Ferdistan.
The vineyards of this celebrated place are situated on the
lower ranges of the Zagros mountain, which runs from the
gulf of Persia to the Caspi Lake ; the best of these are
situated at the foot of the mountain to the north-west of the
town. The vines are mostly trained low on the ground,
and are rarely tied to stakes ; some are trained over stone
walls, up on the one side and down on the other, the latter
being drawn down by stones tied to the ends of the canes.
At Casvin the vine-growers irrigate the vineyards annually,
twenty days after the feast of Nokooz, or about April loth,
and the clayey soil thus treated retains sufficient moisture
to last throughout the period of vegetation, which is rainless.
There are twelve principal varieties of vines.
The Kishmish, Sultanieh of the Turks, carries a beautiful
344 A TREATISE ON WINES.
large bunch of white grapes ; the berries are oval, of medium
size, have a tender, thin husk, no kernels, and are of an
agreeable acidulous taste ; they serve for the table, and the
production of raisins and of wine.
The Damas yields a black grape, from which the finest
full-bodied and durable red wine is made. The Samarkand
occurs in several varieties, some of which bear bunches up
to twelve pounds in weight. The Richbaba (Rish baba),
the principal or dominant vine, has large berries, without
seeds ; according to Pallas, the name was derived from the
cylindrical form of the bunch, and the compressed state of
the berries. The Askery has small berries. The Imperial
of Tauris is juicy and delicate. Besides these a great
number of variously and strikingly coloured grapes are
grown, of which the names are given by Odart (I.e. p. 584,
et set?.), after a communication made by a Persian ambassa-
dor to a Due Decaze. They have been described by many
travellers, e.g., Pallas, Chardin, Olivier, Ker Porter. Odart
does not mention either the Damas or the Imperial of
Tauris, and we apprehend that these names were introduced
in the Russian vineyards in the Crimea, and are not Persian.
The wfne of Shiraz is fermented in large egg-shaped vases
of earthenware, four feet high, and holding 250 to 300 litres,
or more than a hogshead. The vases are glazed inside and
out, covered with purified mutton tallow, and are kept
buried in the earth in cool cellars. The made wine is
bottled in glass flasks holding from four to five (old Paris)
pints; the bottles are stoppered with hard-pressed cotton,
covered^ with wax, enclosed in matting, and packed in
boxes holding ten. It is a little harsh on first gustation,
but gains upon the palate by habitual use; this refers to
wine as drunk in Persia. The red Shiraz now and then
brought to this country has always been fortified with spirit,
and perfumed with peculiar resinous matters, which at first
suit the European palate as little as does the rose-flavoured
confectionery of Turkey. There are also white liqueur
wines, with peculiar perfumes, made at Shiraz. The wines
of Shiraz are sold in Persia by weight. A popular proverb
considers them as essential to happiness : " Who will live
WINES OF AFRICA. 345
merrily should take his wine from Shiraz, his bread from
Yesdecast, and a rosy wife from Yest." Next to Shiraz as
wine-producing places are Teheran, the capital of the Shah,
Yezd, (Yest), Shamaki, Gilan, Casvin, Tabriz and Ispahan.
All these places are situated on the slopes of mountains.
The wines of Persia are mostly consumed in the country,
and only a portion is exported to Hindostan, China and
Japan. Through the influences of Mahometanism, the
consumption and production of wine in Persia has much
decreased ; nevertheless wine and spirit drinking are done
in secret, and with the usual result of the Sunday drinking
of intolerant populations. The Persian of to-day buys his
wine from the Gueber, Jewish or Armenian grower, who is
licensed upon payment of a tax. The wine is frequently
mixed with raki and saffron, or the extract of hemp, which
is added to make small quantities more intoxicating. In
the East the idea prevails yet, that the use of wine legitimately
terminates in intoxication, a fallacy which was yet prevalent
with us a few generations ago. We may therefore hope to
see it superseded by that amelioration of customs, which ha*s
changed the ethics of Western banquets.
CHAPTER XXVII.
WINES OF AFRICA.
235. WINES OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
VINES ; MODE OF CULTIVATION.
AT the southern cape of Africa, originally called by its
discoverer "The Stormy Cape," but renamed by his King "of
Good Hope," vines were first planted by Dutch settlers under
the governorship of Jan van Riebeck in 1650. Their
knowledge of viticulture being deficient, they omitted to
select the most suitable situation, and this error has operated
34-6 A TREATISE OX WINES.
against the wines of the Cape for almost two centuries.
Governor Riebeck is related to have imported vines from
the Rhine, France, Spain, Greece, Madeira and Shiraz. In
the best situations the muscat of Frontignac prevails, and is
kept pure, its grapes serving for liqueur wines only. Most
expanded are perhaps the German Riessling giving white, and
the Burgundy grape giving red wine. Two not otherwise
defined vines pass under Dutch names, the Groene-druyf,
(green grape) and the Steen-druyf (stone-grape) : probably
the former is the Sylvaner, and the latter synonymous with
Riessling; for Odart, (I.e. p. 593), says, that they both came
from the Rhine. The Haenapop (has no pip) is easily
recognised as the Persian Sultanieh, which yields the stone-
less raisins. Odart gives a mistaken derivation of this name,
from hanap, meaning a large pot or crock.
The modes of cultivation are those usual in the countries
from which the vines are derived. During the dry season
the vines must be irrigated, or they drop their fruit. The
vineyards of Constantia are regularly irrigated. The vine-
yard proprietors have to combat many enemies, Kaffirs being
the worst thieves; the grapes are devoured by wild dogs,
Cape badgers, monkeys, and sometimes enormous flights of
birds, which do not only devour, but damage and defile what
they do not eat. The ordinary agricultural boer takes little
care in vinification ; but he is also in a difficult situation :
he must import foreign casks, because Cape wood of any kind
is unsuitable for wine-barrels ; to carelessness he adds absurd
practices, such as hanging up freshly killed meat in the
fermented wine, or adding spirit in the shape of indigenous
brandy called Cape-smoke, from its being contaminated with
the flavour of the smoke from the fire by which it is distilled,
like Scotch Whiskey. Only when the wine has passed into
the hands of the exporter begins its transformation into
Cape-brands.
236. QUALITIES OF CAPE WINES AND IMPORTATION INTO
ENGLAND.
The sweet pale-red Constantias are liqueur wines of the
second class ; they soon lose the muscat flavour, but gain
WINES OF AFRICA. 347
ripeness instead. A simmered wine called Kokwyn, made
from muscat grapes, resembles Malaga, and belongs to the
third class. The red wines called dry Pontac and Burgundy,
made from the relative grapes, sometimes become wines of
the .third class, but mostly remain below the fifth class.
The Cape Hock of the village of Paarl in the valley of
Drakenstein is a very characteristic wine, which belongs to
the fourth, sometimes the third rank of white wines. The
unnamed wines of South Africa are also red and white, the
latter being dry. When properly prepared they have none
of the so-called earthy or slaty taste so often complained
of; it is probable that these and other faults are the result
of their being made in too many instances by the unaided
efforts of ignorant Kaffirs or other negroes.
In 1859 the importation of Cape wine into England had,
owing to the favour shown to the Colonies by the mother
country in the imposing a much lower import duty upon it
than upon European wines, risen to 781,581 gallons. After
the reduction of the wine-duties in 1860, the importation
fell in 1862 to 182,282 gallons, or from io'84 per cent, of
the whole imports of wine in 1859 to i'8 per cent, of the
imports in 1862. This wine was not consumed as such, but
worked up into the similitude of sherry and port and sold to
whoever would buy it. There is no reason, however, why
the Cape should not produce and bring to Europe good
237. PRINCIPAL VITICULTURAL DISTRICTS AND ESTATES
IN THE CAPE COLONY.
Stellenbosh, a considerable wine district north of False
Bay, received its name from a former governor, Van der
Stell, who acquired large portions of territory in that locality,
then covered by bush, and constructed a reservoir in the
mountains to irrigate his farms and vineyards during the
dry season, and to grind his corn in a mill by the side of
the wine stores.
Drakenstein, a settlement north-east of Stellenbosh, was
founded by a colony of French refugees after the revocation
34^ A TREATISE ON WINES.
of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Land more suited for the
growing of corn was planted by them with vines. The
Dutch farmer imitated the example, but the produce ac-
quired no reputation. On the western side of the valley of
Drakenstein stands the village of Paarl, surrounded by a
fertile tract of land, and especially distinguished by a curious
mass of granite surmounted by a number of large pebbly
stones like the pearls of a necklace, to which it owes its
name. Here the best white wines of the Cape Colony, so-
called Cape Hocks, are produced.
238. THE CONSTANTIAS.
The Dutch governor Van der Stell, made three planta-
tions of vines at the Cape, and named them after his wife
Constantia, with distinguishing adjectives High Constantia,
Great Constantia, and Little Constantia. The vineyards
are situated at the eastern base of Table Mountain, about
eight miles from Cape town, and midway between False
and Table Bays, all upon very gentle slopes, just sufficiently
inclined to admit of the distribution of water by irrigation
channels. The dominant vine is the red muscat of Fron-
tignan, which gives to all Constantia wines their peculiar
character. There are also a few other varieties of vines
grown here, but with the exception of the Rhenish Riessling
they yield no characteristic products. The vineyards have
a surface of about 250 acres, or 101 hectares, and produce
annually from 700 to 800 hectolitres of wine. The product
is treated as at Frontignan, and owing to its good quality
and limited quantity, its price is well maintained. Another
notable estate near Constantia, is Witteboom, which also
produces red muscats. Seal Island in Table Bay also pro-
duces some good wines.
239. WINES OF MADAGASCAR.
This island possesses an indigenous vine, which the
natives declare to bear a poisonous fruit; probably the
effect of this grape is similar to that of an American vine,
WINES OF AFRICA. 349
the husk of the berries of which inflames the lips; ripe
Riessling also causes the lips to burn. Some Frenchmen
made wine of that grape, and found it quite innocuous, so
that the irritating matter, like that of the manioc, disappears
in the preparation of the product. The inhabitants of Isle
de France and Bourbon cultivated the vine only as an orna-
mental shrub in the garden, and did not multiply it in vine-
yards, as they found vinification to be impracticable.
240. WINES OF MOROCCO.
In the north-west of Africa the vine is cultivated down to
33 lat. The grapes grow larger and sweeter, and are mainly
reared on espaliers in the air, to produce shaded walks ; what
business viticulture there is resembles that of Andalusia,
including the hedges of agave and of prickly pear cactus.
There are seven varieties of vines, one with very large berries,
called " hen's eggs," supposed to be identical with the Spanish
teta de vaca. Wine is made by Jews only, is light and
acidulous, kept in large earthenware jars and in skins, and
does 'not keep beyond one year. The best and largest
amount of wine is made at Uadnum, Tarodante, and
Tangiers.
241. WINES OF ALGERIA.
In 1860 there were only about 220 hectares of vineyards
in Algiers, but in 1870 their area in Oran alone had risen to
3,200 hectares. The wines resemble the small wines of
Languedoc. Viticulture has been somewhat extended since,
particularly after the collection of vines made by Chaptal
was transferred from the garden of the Luxembourg at Paris
to Algiers.
242. WINES OF THE NILE VALLEY.
In ancient times the valley of the Nile produced the wines
of Arsinoe, Mendes, Koptos, and Mareotis; its Delta the
liqueur wine of Sebenytus, of which latter large quantities
were exported to Rome; since the spread of Islam only
grapes and raisins are produced.
350 A TREATISE ON WINES.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
WINES OF AMERICA.
243. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
WITH regard to viticulture in America we have to record
this remarkable fact, that vines from Europe do not succeed
in that country, and that long continued and often repeated
experience shows, that to produce grapes and wine in America
of any quality, recourse must be had to indigenous vines.
In California, European vines seem to grow, and bear fruit,
but it lacks the essential quality of specificity ; the wines
made on the west coast have no flavour.
Viticulture has of late years not progressed much in
America even on the Ohio, which was termed the Rhine of
North America, and where there were some 1,550 acres of
vineyards under cultivation. At St. Louis some very good
effervescent wine was made and even brought to London.
But the supply was soon exhausted, and none of it has been
seen since the American Exhibition.
244. INDIGENOUS VINES OF NORTH AMERICA.
In 1830 Prince counted more than eighty -eight varieties
of American wild vines, but of these only a few were culti-
vated either for making wine or for eating as fruit. The vines
were also described in a monograph by Durand, translated
into French by M. des Moulins. In consequence of the
ravages of the oidium and the phylloxera French viticulturists
turned their attention to American vines, which were said not
to be liable to the attacks of these vegetable animal parasites.
But no good wine could be obtained from any of them, and
the only way of utilizing the immunity of their roots from the
phylloxera was to graft European vines upon American stems.
This was, however, so costly and slow a process, that it could
be only rarely adopted.
WINES OF AMERICA. 351
The American vines are either polygamic or dioic. In
Thudichura and Dupre's " Treatise" a full description of ten
varieties will be found : of which the following are the more
important ones, (i.) Vitis Labrusca L. termed in America
fox-grape or northern fox-grape. The berries are large, purple-
black in colour, and have nearly the same taste and flavour
or odour as black currants ; they ripen at the end of August
or beginning of September. In the wilderness it is a very
handsome climber, and rises to the tops of the highest trees.
Under cultivation its berries become round and large, even
of the size of damsons ; but the pulp always remains tena-
cious and does not easily melt in the mouth ; on pressure
it slips as an entire lump out of the hard thin skin and has
to be crushed expressly. It is assumed that from this V.
labrusca a variety of hybrid vines have been produced,
namely the Isabella, Catawba, Schuylkill, Alexander, Eland's
grape and others. The Labrusca is not subject to the oidium,
even when its branches intertwine with those of ordinary
vines covered with the fungus. (2.) Vitis cestivalis,
(Michaux) Summer grape, Chicken grape, Little grape.
There are two varieties of which one goes by the adjective
of the genuine, the other by that of the sinuated. The former
has berries of a saturated sky-blue colour, smaller than that
of the Labrusca. Although it is called summer-grape for
reasons unknown, it ripens only in October. It is found in
the Atlantic region, on the Mississippi and beyond. The sinu-
ated variety has small sky-blue berries of an agreeable but
austere taste. It is found in the South Atlantic region up
to Louisiana, where it is called Pine-wood grape. It does
not climb so well as the Labrusca. From it the Delaware
grape is derived.
The Vitis Caribaa was named by Decandolle. It has
large, purple-black, little juicy, sour berries, and is very
common in the Antilles ; it also thrives in Florida, South
Arkansas, and Mexico. (4.) The Vitis Candicans (Engel-
mann) is the Mustang grape of New Mexico, Texas and
Arkansas. The grapes are purple-black, the husks contain a
very red and extremely acid juice, the pulp however has a
softer, not burning taste, and is eatable. The vine, as a
352 A TREATISE ON WINES.
parasitic climber, is a great plague of the countries in which
it lives, as it destroys the greatest trees in forests and planta-
tions. It is a great bearer; a plant of eight years yielded fifty-
four gallons of juice ; the must is, however, so acid, that each
gallon requires the addition of three pounds of sugar, and
the made wine requires the addition of some spirit to make
it keep. The wine thus obtained is good, strong-bodied,
agreeable to drink, and nicely coloured. Of this vine,
several varieties are known, some of which have a red pulp,
others a white pulp, all having purple-black husks. The
wild plants are dioic, the males bear no fruit ; they acquire
an enormous size, stemstwo feet in circumference, and extend
their branches over five or six trees, seventy to eighty feet
high. In Texas it reaches such a great size that stems of
eighteen to twenty inches in diameter have been cut down.
When the grapes are ripe, they seem to cover all the foliage
as a black mass ; their taste is detestable, owing to an acrid
principle contained in the husks, which inflames the lips and
the mucous membrane of the mouth. When this husk is
peeled off, the pulp, which remains as a solid lump, may
be eaten without evil effects (5.) The Vitis Calif ornica
has small black berries of agreeable taste ; it is common in
California, Sonora, and the eastern part 'of New Mexico.
The five varieties of vines described in the foregoing have
leaves which on their underside are woolly, or felted, as if
with a spider's web. The following varieties have leaves
which are either quite smooth on both sides, or slightly
downy on the underside. (6.) Vitis Cordifolia, so called
from the heart shape of its leaves (Michaux), inhabits the
whole of the Atlantic region ; it occurs in two varieties, the
genuine, and the one which lives on the banks of rivers.
The former is also termed fox-grape, winter and frost-grape ;
it forms long bunches not very full of berries, which latter
are small, black and late, have thin husks, and are of an
acid taste like that of black currants. The vines overgrow
entire trees, and while they were plentiful, flights of wild
turkeys frequently settled upon them to eat their fruit. The
second variety, the riparia, by French immigrants into
Texas termed Vigne des Battures, is a sweet-scented grape,
WINES OF AMERICA. 353
more acid to the taste, with blood-red juice; it becomes
softer in taste after having been frozen, as do sloes ; each
grape contains only one seed. It blossoms in May, and its
flowers have the odour of mignonette ; the male plant used
to be termed Vitis odoratissima while it was believed to be
an independent species. (7.) Vitis rotundifolia (Michaux)
termed by Americans Bullace, Bullet grape, Scuppernong,
southern fox-grape. Its small leaves have a shape some-
what between a kidney and a heart ; its bunches are small,
the berries have a great odour, a purple, sometimes amber
colour, a hard skin, and an agreeable taste. It is cultivated
for the table, and for wine-making in Virginia, Florida, Texas
and North Mexico, passing everywhere under the name of
Scuppernong. To the north of the Potomac it remains
sterile, and is frequently destroyed by the frost.
A third section of American vines are characterized by
erect or decumbent shoots, without the climbing faculty.
(8.) Vitis mpestris (Scheele) commonly termed mountain
grape, has heart-kidney shaped leaves, small purple-black
berries, which ripen early and have an agreeable taste. Grows
in chalky soil on the banks of rivers in Texas and Arkansas.
(9.) The Vitis monticola (Buckley) has also short branches,
compound strong bunches, with large, closely set, white or
amber-coloured berries. It is said to have the most agreeable
taste of all American grapes ; it grows in Texas. (10.) The
Vitis Lincecumii (Buckley) passes in Texas under the name
of post-oak grape, or pinewood-grape : its berries are purple-
black, sometimes amber coloured ; they have an agreeable
odour and ripen in August. It grows in Western Louisiana,
Arkansas and Texas, and its name was given by Buckley in
honour of the Texas doctor Lincecum.
245. VINES CULTIVATED IN NORTH-AMERICA.
Viticulture in America is probably not yet typical, though
adapted to local conditions ; it has certainly hitherto not been
very extensive. The vines cultivated are hybrids of native
with foreign vines, and several are of excellent quality. We
quote the Catawba, found wild along the Arkansas, cultivated
354 A TREATISE ON WINES.
since 1802, first by a major Adlum; nineteen-twentieths of
all the vines of Ohio are Catawbas. The wine made from
it is good, it can be produced effervescent. Such as we have
obtained in England, directly from St. Louis, was strongly
flavoured with, apparently, elder flower. Longfellow wrote an
enthusiastic poem in praise of Catawba wine. (2). The
Cape grape, also termed Alexander or Schuylkill Muscadel,
is indigenous to the environs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
its must always requires an addition of sugar. (3). The Isa-
bella is indigenous to South Carolina. In Ohio it is fre-
quently injured by frost, while on the shores of lake Erie and
in the neighbourhood of New York it bears amply and ripens
well ; it is cultivated for the table only, as it requires sugar
to acquire a sufficient alcoholicity in its wine. The wine
resembles light Madeira. (4). Bland 1 s Madeira gives a good
grape for eating, but the vine is too delicate for cultivation
even in Ohio. (5). The Ohio or Cigar-box vine yields a hand-
some, black, soft, melting grape, with small berries ; its wine
is dark red, and has little perfume when young, but acquires
some by age. (6). Lenoir yields a sweet and well-flavoured,
melting, black grape. (7). Missouri the same, but is more
suitable for wine-production than the former. (8). Norton's
seedling has a small soft berry, but its wine is of inferior
quality. (9). Herbemonfs Madeira has small black berries,
to which, as to No. 9, the name is by no means appropriate ;
the wine, though of a rosy colour, resembles Manzanilla in
taste. (10), Minor's seedling is a muscat, useless for wine,
(n). White Catawba is much inferior to the red; it has not
been tried for wine. (12). The Mammoth Catawba is a large
variety of No. i. (13). The Saippernong does not succeed
north of the 35 lat.
246. RISE OF VITICULTURE IN AMERICA.
The name of Longworth is associated with the history of
the development of viticulture in America; he it was who
made extensive experiments with European vines, and found
them unsuitable, even the indigenous vines were found to de-
generate quickly, and not to obtain any very high age. The
WINES OF AUSTRALASIA. 355
vineyards were mostly cultivated by Germans from the
Rhine-country; many were farmed by the viticulturists
at the rent of half the vintage. At Cincinnati an acre of
good land could be made to yield a profit of from 50 to 100
dollars.
It will thus be seen that viticulture in America has to
contend with many difficulties. We studied the subject
in detail some years ago, but have not to report any great
progress since. The Chicago exhibition will have afforded
a good opportunity for summarizing the present condition
of viticultural affairs.
CHAPTER XXIX.
WINES OF AUSTRALASIA.
247. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
THE founder of viticulture in Australia was an early
colonist of New South Wales, of the name of Busby ; he
obtained 574 varieties of European vines, from France, and
secured the grant of an experimental garden from the go-
vernment at Sydney. Other enterprising men then took up
the subject, e.g., James Macarthur, and Patrick Auld. They
were followed by many gentlemen of property, who were de-
sirous rather of producing fine and creditable wines, than of
obtaining large or immediate profits. Many cultivated the art
as an interesting scientific experiment. Thus viticulture ex-
panded in Australia and gradually assumed large dimensions.
The generally favourable climate of Australia is' not
invariably favourable to the vine, on account of the
severe droughts and heavy rains to which it is alternately
exposed, and which destroy other crops as well as vines. In
December the growers desire some rain, which they term
vintage rain ; but when rain falls upon the nearly perfected
3 $6 A TREATISE ON WINES.
grapes in February, that makes them swell and burst, lose
their juice, causes them to rot, and destroys much of the
harvest in a short time.
The condition of viticulture in Australia is most fully and
correctly represented in the annual reports of the several
Vineyard Associations. We would ask our readers to consult
these rather than those reports which have no authentication
at all. Products from a new country must be judged not only
absolutely by reference to established standards, but also
relatively with reference to their capability for improvement,
if faulty or imperfect. We have said long ago, that by ap-
plying this principle to Australian wines, we had come to
the result, that many good qualities had already been ob-
tained ; that, if the process of vinification were better, these
qualities would be greatly enhanced j that many wines, evi-
dently made from excellent grapes, are spoiled by faulty
preparation, or by want of proper nursing during maturation.
To prove these points, we gave vouchers from Australian
literature, mercantile, journalistic, and private, from official
reports on Australian exhibitions, etc. Time has fully borne
out these notes, and their continued correctness can be
proved any day by the comparison of mercantile articles
with well-established models.
CHAPTER XXX.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES.
248. RATING OF THE WINES OF THE WORLD.
THE most important practical distinctions of wines are
marked by their relative prices. According to these, wines
become beverages or luxuries for use on festive occasions. It
has been proposed to call table wines all those which can be
sold in this country at prices varying from twelve to thirty
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 357
shillings per dozen bottles. Wines at prices varying between
thirty and sixty shillings per dozen we will, in accordance
with commercial custom, term fine wines, and those at
prices above sixty shillings cabinet wines. The fine and
cabinet wines are so limited in quantity, and so much
sought after, that they can never have a wide area of useful-
ness. But amongst the table wines there are excellent
qualities fulfilling all the hygienic and gustatory conditions
demanded for comfortable and wholesome living. The
great bulk of all the wines of Jerez, Oporto, Lisbon, Bar-
celona, Valencia, Alicante, Cette, Bordeaux, of the Rhine,
of Austria and Hungary, etc., are, commercially speaking,
cheap wines. We may read of high prices in the lists ot
sherry exporters, such as ^1,000 per butt ; but these par-
take of the nature of romance, as the objects, if there were
any of such an ascertained value, never change hands.
The great mass of sherry is exported at 15 per butt, and
the average value of all sherry exported is ^28 per butt.
The same applies to Oporto. The mass of port wine is
exported at a price somewhere between 22 and ^25 per
pipe, and the finer wines at ^"50 to 80 are few and
far between. And so it is with all the places mentioned.
The great bulk of their exports consists of cheap wines.
There are exporters who pretend not to sell cheap wines,
but they sell them in fact in large volumes, while omitting
to place their names amongst the brands on the barrels
in which they sell them. It was upon the importation into
England of low-priced natural wines that the attention of the
legislature was directed when the duty was reduced in 1860;
to this object the attention of enterprising wine-merchants
was directed, who have thereby opened a new era in the
English wine trade, and broken the aristocratic pretensions
with which the dealing in wines was formerly surrounded.
Wines of all qualities can now be had from one shilling per
bottle upwards, and the agitation carried on for so many
years in the interest of temperance and free trade has
resulted in great public benefit, the full extent of which has
however to be obtained by further exertions.
A classification of wines is always a process of the utmost
358 A TREATISE ON WINES.
difficulty because opinions are liable to be governed unduly
by the element of taste, and not by all the elements from
which a valuation has to be elaborated. It might be said
that prices were a sufficient classification of wines, but this
is not really so, as prices are inflated by many fallacious
elements, including past reputations. What can be more
disproportionate than the prices and the qualities of the so-
called dry champagnes, the prices enhanced by an abnormal
impost, which disarranged the settlement of 1860. With
the import duty increased the nastiness of many of the
products of the Marne as well as the lower priced ones of
the Loire. Another objection to any kind of classification,
on however broad a basis of recognized distinction, is the
fact that it is liable to cause much displeasure to the owners
or vendors of qualities not rated at cabinet value. We have
observed this vivacity of sentiment particularly on the part
of foreign and colonial exhibitors, whose products we had
to report upon. Further, a classification of wine would
have to specialize so many places and years in districts
which are liable to great variations in their products, that
the result would be unintelligible. There are years in which
the products of vineyards ordinarily passing as first growths
are of the sixth and seventh class, and out of such accidents
no average can be constructed.
We would place sherry at the head of all wines, had we
not to admit that it is. deteriorated by plaster, brandy,
colour and dulce, Jerez wines and their congeners have
the greatest future, on account of their equability and in-
trinsic vinous quality. They only wait for another reform
like that to which a Scotchman treated them when he sub-
stituted pale and dry for the brown and sweet concoctions ;
when he discovered and purified the amontillado flavour.
Let us hope that another reformer may succeed in turning
aside the plaster and brandy which now denaturalizes this
splendid product of viticulure. We would claim only a
second place for wines of the Alto Douro or port wines so-
called, were they not much deteriorated by the quantities
of brandy with which they are mixed. No doubt port has
properties which make it a peculiar product ; it is full
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 359
of extractive, apart from the fruit sugar, and therefore
requires treatment differing in some respects from that
which will mature the thinner wines with less extractive.
Nevertheless it is much denaturalized by the large quantities
of brandy which it receives, and which disqualify it for use
for so long a time as to cause its cost to exceed its value.
The wines of the Gironde are superior to the former two
classes, by the absence of brandy and other admixtures ;
but they are inferior in body, that is to say, in extractives
apart from alcohol and vinosity, and are not rarely very
acid. With these rank Champagnes of the better years,
white Burgundies and wines of the Rheingau ; now follow
the red wines of Burgundy, Macon and Beaujolais ; then
the white wines of the Palatinate. Now follow Greek,
Austrian, and Hungarian wines, Tokay excepted, of which
the sweet, thick varieties take a place by themselves, as not
being wines in the sense here defined ; but the szamorodnies
are comparable, and take a place after those previously
mentioned. Any rating of wines has to be based upon the
absolute qualities, total quantities of product, prices, average
success in years, absence of variability and of faults, in
short, upon the average result of a consideration of all the
factors which make a wine of the greatest use to the
greatest number at the least cost.
It is a general experience that the stronger wines are
preferred in winter, while the natural wines are sought after
in summer, when the others are avoided. This is caused
by the excessive stimulating qualities of the alcohol, popu-
larly termed heating, which are not very useful at any time,
but bearable in cold weather. Similarly it is found that
delicate persons cannot bear brandied wines, but are able
to digest and to be benefitted by natural wines. All
these conditions have been so ably put forth by many
members of the medical profession, that we need not dwell
upon them at length, but can leave to the public the care
for still more softening the rough drinking habits which
past generations left over to us.
All wine imported into the United Kingdom, pays a
customs' duty, which for natural unfortified wine, and for
360 A TREATISE ON WINES.
wine fortified up to 30 per cent, of proof spirit, has been
fixed by Parliament as is. per gallon. The law has most
liberally defined as natural wine all wine which contains less
than 26 per cent, of proof spirit, equal to 12 per cent, of abso-
lute alcohol by weight, and 14-6 per cent.of absolute alcohol
by volume. All wine which contains more than that propor-
tion of spirit, or alcohol, is assumed to have received an addi-
tion of distilled spirit, or of wine containing distilled spirit, and
was charged with a customs' duty of zs. 6d. if it did not sur-
mount in its alcoholic strength 42 per cent, of proof spirit.
But this arrangement was altered some years ago to this ex-
tent, that the 26 per cent, limit was raised to 30 per cent., so
that 4 per cent, of proof spirit in wine may come into the
country duty free. But the advantage concerns only a small
proportion of the wine imported. For no one would think of
raising Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Hock, and other
natural wines to anything like 30 per cent, proof spirit, and
on the other hand, this strength is insufficient for any sherry,
port, Madeira, or other southern wine of their kind. And
this was the main reason for which the anomaly was acceded
to. The relaxation is abused mainly in this way, that Spanish
white wines are imported at a strength just below 30 per cent,
of proof spirit, and afterwards mixed with wines imported at
the highest alcohol strength, compatible with the zs. 6d.
duty, so that a wine of 36 per cent, proof spirit, supposing
equal parts of the weak and strong to be mixed, will
have paid only is, gd. import tax instead of zs. 6d., equal
to a gain of more than ^4 sterling per butt. All alcohol
above 42 per cent, of proof spirit is charged the same duty
per degree as distilled spirit, i.e. IDS. 6d. per gallon of proof
spirit. Another anomaly was inflicted upon the system of
wine taxation adopted in 1860, namely, the increase to 5*.
a dozen of the import tax on sparkling wines ; this raised
the price of sparkling wines very much beyond the addition
of the 5-f. per dozen bottles ; and acted as an almost for-
bidding increase of the price of the cheap effervescent wines
from the Loire, which are imported at prices, in the River
Thames, beginning at ijs. per dozen, and rising to 28^.
Upon protest being raised on behalf of these -wines, the
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 361
impost upon them was limited to 35. per dozen. Of course,
the actual price also rose, and the quality deteriorated, and
the policy of Mr. Goschen has produced only disadvantage
to the community, and a very trifling increase to the takings
of the customs.
249. ACTIVE INGREDIENTS OF WINE.
The great uniform power in wine, as in all so-called intoxi-
cating liquids, is of course alcohol ; and the main effect upon
the body is produced by alcohol, and in direct proportion
to its quantity. Equal amounts of alcohol, whether taken
in strong or dilute admixture, will cause nearly equal effects,
but dilute beverages will produce the effect quicker than
strong; for these latter require more time for their absorp-
tion. Alcohol is, however, by no means the only active
ingredient of wine ; were it so, mere alcohol would by this
time have superseded wine altogether. Pure alcohol, in-
deed, in a state of drinkable dilution, is not a desirable
beverage at all. It acquires its highest attractiveness by
the presence of that union of flavours produced by the fer-
mentation of grape juice, called vinosity, and represented
mainly by the ananthic ether, the wine-flower or bouquet
ether, described in an earlier chapter. A number of other
ethers no doubt contribute to the sum of the effects, but the
cenanthic ether is the specific one, without which wine has
no existence. This ether, and its helpmates, have a very
remarkable effect upon the organs of taste and smell, which
results in pleasure, and a desire to drink the liquid exhaling
the odour; and again when drunk, the ethers produce an
effect of a pleasureable kind besides, and independent of the
effect of the mere alcohol. It is for these ethers, and their
combination as bouquet, that the high prices are paid for fine
wine. Brandied wines never can rise to the quality, in re-
spect of bouquet, of the natural wines, for although they
contain the cenanthic and other ethers, their olfactory effect is
overcome by that of the newly added brandy. It is for this
reason that few persons accustomed to sherry and port ever
scrutinize their wines with the nose for the pleasure of the
362 A TREATISE ON WINES.
bouquet, as all connoisseurs unfailingly do with Burgundy
and Hock, or Claret ; but rely upon broad gustation for the
satisfaction of the taste and upon alcoholicity for effect.
Amongst the evil effects of wines, and spirituous drinks
made with distilled spirit, several have been ascribed to the
undue admixture with the beverages of alcohols of a more
complicated composition than common or ethylic alcohol.
Thus amylic alcohol, or the oil obtained by the distillation of
dregs, called fusel oil by the Germans, is believed to cause
great excitement and to aggravate to madness the evil
effects of the habitual use of distilled spirit. Apart from the
fact that fusel oil can be removed from any spirit by charcoal,
as Dobereiner showed early in this century, and that the art
of distillation is so far advanced as to admit of and mostly re-
sult in the production of almost chemically pure alcohol,
which, owing to the absence of any kind of flavour, is termed
silent spirit, it must be remembered that the production of
fusel oil in wines occurs only under circumstances of the
lowest uncleanliness, and, as regards natural wine in general,
is not a question of practical importance. But as regards
wine to which spirit is added, if the spirit be produced from
potatoes, and not carefully purified, the introduction of some
fusel oil might be possible. We believe, however, that the
mere interest of the trader would prevent such an impurity
from being introduced, for it would infallibly diminish the
value of the wine by a greater sum than that which would be
saved by the difference between a pure and an impure
spirit.
There are effects of wines upon the nervous system which
are as yet unexplained. Thus, to some men otherwise accus-
tomed to the use of various wines, the higher kinds of white
Burgundies do cause excitement of the heart ; the modern
Champagnes also cause palpitation to many who formerly
enjoyed the natural Champagnes, and used them to advantage;
this arises from the fact that their alcoholicity is high out of
proportion to the amount of their extractives. Champagne as
now drunk in England is mostly a brandied liquid. Burgun-
dies are liable to be a little brandied, even as regards the
higher qualities, but the higher qualities of Hocks, or Bor-
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 363
deaux wines are never brandied; and this circumstance
makes these wines particularly valuable for hygienic use as-
well as medicinal purposes.
Red wines contain an astringent element, which is a useful
agent in hypercatharsis, and, on the contrary, is the cause
of persons of slow peristaltic habit being obliged to avoid
them. The astringency may act as a tonic upon some ; it is
the more likely to do so if it be combined with that peculiar
colouring matter of red wine which contains iron as an element
of its chemical constitution. But even of this only little is
assimilated, and most of it is found in the detritus as dark
sulphide of iron.
Red wines are liable to cause a feeling of acidity in the
stomach to some persons ; we have known such idiosyncrasy
to appear and disappear at varying ages of the persons who
manifested it ; white wine suits such persons better. Again,
we have known both white and red wine to become obnoxious
to certain conditions of life, and in such cases diluted
distilled spirits were the most suitable substitute for the dis-
continued wine. Beer disagrees with such persons still more,
for reasons no doubt connected with the peculiar action of
hops, and the fact that beer is a far more suitable medium
for the propagation of many kinds of fermenting bacteria than
wine, and wine more so than dilute spirit
Wine with excess of natural acidity surmounting five pro
mille expressed as tartaric acid, is neither pleasing to the
taste nor agreeable to the digestion. That such acidity can
be removed by plaster of Paris, without making the wine
absolutely flat, has no doubt contributed to the use of
gypsum, as well as chalk. Wines treated with gypsum have
a slightly cathartic action upon delicate persons, and there-
fore this effect must be noticed in given cases of intestinal
disturbance. We have never known port wine to be plastered ;
sherry always is ; and the wines of the Mediterranean
countries, even the natural red and white ones, certain sort&
of Marsala excepted, generally are plastered.
The extractive matters of wine, apart from sugar and
glycerol no doubt have a distinct stimulating action upon
the nervous svstem^ analogous to the extractive agents con-
364 A TREATISE ON WINES.
tained in meat, milk, and vegetable juices. Their quantity
is greatest in wines of the best years, and these are the most
potent and wholesome. In old wines extractive matters have
accumulated by concentration, and this circumstance is the
main cause of the value of age in wine.
The philosophy of the use of wine as illustrated in history
is a subject so large and important that it would occupy a
separate treatise of the size of the present one. Its intimate
connection with the life of most nations is demonstrated by
the frequent symbolic use in religious observances. This
can only be explained by the long-continued observation of
its beneficial effects, as derived from its active ingredients ;
and for this reason antiquity sought after good wine as much
as do modern nations.
250. USE OF CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF WINE.
The use of chemical analysis of wine for the purpose of
sale and barter may be said not to exist. Wines have been
made for ages, and developed to their present high state
without any application of chemistry; they have been bought
and sold by the test of mere gustation. Even now producers
and sellers of wine do not use or employ chemical analysis
for ascertaining any quality of the object of their trade,
except with regard to alcoholicity, for this governs the
amount of import duty they have to pay in several countries.
Nevertheless chemistry could be of great value to wine
producers if it were properly applied at the suitable con-
juncture, particularly with reference to the remedial measures
required by the accidents of faulty seasons and abnormal
fermentations. We will take excess of natural acidity of the
must as an example of a case in which chemistry might be
useful. The amount of acid having been accurately ascer-
tained, the amount of anti-acid required to be added to the
must, in the shape of potash, would be given by a chemical
equation. Or the chemical data would furnish the basis
for the application of the process of Gall to must of excessive
acidity. But while such an adjustment of the elementary
properties of the raw material to be fermented has been
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 365,
developed to a high state of perfection in the brewing Oi
beer a process which is now literally in the hands and under
the absolute direction of chemists in the production of wine
such interference is looked upon as akin to adulteration and
denounced with sycophantic ardour, We hope that this
erroneous conception of the role of chemistry in vinification
may be discarded, particularly in view of the many empirical
remedies which are applied to wine to correct faults which
are the result of the neglect of chemical rules at the earlier
stages of preparation.
One of the empirical processes most frequently employed
in the making of wines in districts round the Mediterranean
is the addition of plaster of Paris or gypsum to the must.
We will now assume it not to be a mere adulteration intended
to remove acidity from wine, and improve its colour to the
standard cochineal red. We will also admit that it may be
a question whether the removal of all tartaric acid, which
is the main effect of plastering, may not be equivalent to the
removal of a material from which certain fungi can produce
compounds injurious to the quality of the wine ; or, putting
it quite generally, whether the removal of the tartaric acid
may not protect the wine from a possible deterioration,
greater than that which the abstraction of the acid inflicts
on its part. Now it has been ascertained that when this
danger is over, and the wine is made, its taste is greatly
deteriorated, as compared to natural wine containing the
tartar, by the presence of the free sulphate of potash, and
it has a bitter and metallic taste. It has therefore been
attempted to remove from such wine the sulphuric acid,
and substitute instead the tartaric acid, which it naturally
contained ; in other words, to restore to the wine its natural
composition. The removal of the sulphuric acid is easily
effected by baryta, but as that might be objected to on
account of some remotely possible toxic effects, the sulphuric
acid should be taken out by strontia, which is absolutely
innocuous, and at the same time the potash should be
re-combined with tartaric acid. A deposition of the excess
of tartar then would clarify the wine, and after a short
repose the product would be fit for use. In this process
366 A TREATISE ON WINES.
chemistry proves its usefulness, but it also proves the
necessity for great caution. For it was found by experiment
that some wines do contain not only sulphate of potash, as
the result of the plastering, but, in addition, sulphate of soda,
which was no doubt added as such, and these wines, when
treated as just stated, do not only deposit tartar, but retain
tartrate of sodium in solution, and are at least not improved
by the process, for while bi-tartrate of potash is precipitated
by alcohol, bi-tartrate of soda is not so precipitated.
Chemical analysis might inform the wine maker of the
amount of extractive in his wine, upon which the ultimate
development and durability to a large extent depend. It
might inform him more precisely than mere taste of the
presence of fermentable sugar and of its quantity, and
thereby aid him to put his wine in a state of preservation from
the risk arising therefrom in the shape of secondary fermenta-
tion after the bottling.
But at present chemistry is mainly applied to wine for the
sorry purpose of what, owing to its exaggeration, we cannot
help comparing to sycophancy. The discovery of the addition
-to must of any kind of sugar has attracted the highest
ingenuity of food analysts so-called, who strain gnats out of
their scientific solutions while allowing camels to pass
through their filters. It would be preferable if so much
ingenuity and work were applied to the enlargement of
general scientific knowledge rather than to the tracing of
petty remedies which a poor producer applies to his inferior
products in order to give them a chance of being sold at any
price. We have always been surprised that analysts who
denounce a little salicylic acid as an adulteration never
apply themselves to the plastered sherries ; that they do
not even discover the wines the acetic acid of which has
been neutralized by chalk, or the sweet wines the lactic acid
of which has been neutralized in the same or some other
way.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 367
251. USE OF WINE TO THE HEALTHY AND SICK
IN YOUTH OR AGE.
There are some classical phrases to denote superfluous
attempts, such as "carrying owls to Athens" or "coals to
Newcastle." We would consider it equally redundant were
we to say anything in praise of wine and its effects in general.
A late professor of hygiene made a series of elaborate experi-
ments upon a healthy guardsman, from which it seemed to
follow that the use of wine was of no appreciable advantage to
him. Some disciples of this professor went further, and
endeavoured to prove that alcohol did not only not raise the
temperature of the body but lowered it. Now warming a
body does not include the raising of its natural temperature,
and it is certain that wine does not produce fever heat. But
wine can warm a body which feels, or is what is popularly
termed cold, by stimulating the heart to action, and the mind
to vivacity. It may not make him think better, but it will
make him think quicker j it will exhilarate the healthy, as it
will allay pain and spasms of the sick, and reinforce the
wounded or exhausted.
The experiments in which alcohol was made to lower the
temperature were performed on corpora vilia truly so-called,
old, hardened drinkers, who were allowed to soak ad libitum,
and then had their temperature measured. Of course it was
depressed by the paralytic action of the toxic excess, but not
very considerably. The effect was in fact known as necessary
before the experiment, which proved only once more that
when alcohol is made to act as a poison by excess, even
upon persons habituated to excess, it still produces toxic
effects. Such experiments also are " coals to Newcastle," for
classic antiquity knew as much, and then the knowledge is
of no use to anyone whatever. However interesting by its
external precision, it is liable to serve as a basis for false
inductions.
The foregoing experiment was not made with wine at all,
not even with such as contains more than double the amount
of spirit which wine can naturally attain, but with distilled
alcohol, mere brandy. It therefore does, in reality, not illustrate
368 A TREATISE ON WINES.
the question which we are considering in any direct manner,
though it does' so indirectly. We believe that with natural
wine, with an alcoholicity of less than 20 per cent, of proof
spirit, the effect exhibited by these old topers would not be
obtained at all. For there are certain peculiarities by which
even the evil effects of wine are limited to its comparative
advantage. Thus we have never known of an authentic case
of delirium tremens produced by the drinking in whatever
excess of natural wine. It was indeed this well-known
immunity of wine drinkers, on the one hand, from, and
liability of spirit drinkers, on the other hand, to the tremor
cum delirio potatorum, which induced, in countries where wine
is a daily popular beverage, the belief that the alcohol of dis-
tilled spirits was different from that of wine, or was mixed with
a poison not present in wine, which many identified with the
amylic alcohol, or fusel oil. Further, the habitual con-
sumers of natural wine enjoy a remarkable immunity from
gout, gravel and calculous diseases arising from the uric acid
diathesis. Such immunity does not accompany the use or
abuse of fortified wines, and goes the farther out of sight
the greater is the amount of added alcohol. We therefore
meet with men who present all the symptoms of chronic
alcoholic intoxication, whose only beverage is sherry, and
gravely maintain the mysterious nature of their complaint by
assuring the physician that they never touched distilled spirits,
not knowing or forgetting that the full half, or more than
half, of the alcohol contained in their wine consists of
distilled spirit.
The great physiological question of the use of alcohol in
the body has in years gone by engaged my attention, and I
endeavoured to answer it by serious experiment. A number
of young men, engaged in athletic exercise in the open air,
consumed a certain amount of wine of known strength,
at reasonable intervals, with the precaution of avoiding all
excess and any and every symptom of intoxication. It
was ascertained by physiological analysis that 99 per cent,
of alcohol were oxydized in the body, while about half a per
cent, was exhaled by lungs and skin, another half per cent,
re-appearing in the renal emunction. This proved therefore
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WINES. 369
that the teaching of animal chemistry, according to which al-
cohol in the body was oxydized and produced power, was cor-
rect ; the then teaching being faulty only in this respect, that
it was supposed that the power produced was limited to heat ;
the theory caused the non-nitrogenous substances like fat,
starch, sugar and alcohol to be called heat givers ; but more
extensive research showed that the power which they yielded
was more general, and that while a portion might be heat,
another undoubtedly was mechanical energy, and another,
again, nervous. These experiments, which I was the first
to institute, have been repeated since by others, always with
the same result, and it is now generally admitted that alcohol
is food in the true sense of the word.
Beer has an effect upon the body which is distinctly diffe-
rent from that of wine ; it is no doubt an alcoholic liquid
produced by fermentation, but it contains, at the same time, a
principle of great sedative power nearly related to that of
opium, namely hops. There is therefore between the alcohol
on the one, and the lupulous principles on the other, a kind
of antagonism, which, perhaps, neutralizes a portion of the
effect of each in the first instance. As the composition of beer
so is its effect upon the digestive organs more complicated than
that of wine. It contains more extractive matter, in the shape
of dextrine, sugar and salts, than wine, and by this means
affords a material for the more copious development of
bacteria in the intestinal canal, which wine, if at all, offers
only in a much lower degree. The extract of hops is as
powerful a sedative as that of poppy, particularly for the pro-
duction of drowsiness and sleep, but it has not the anaesthe-
tical effect of the latter. Its sedative effect shows itself in
the lowering of all the higher nervous energies long before
the arrival of alcoholic effects ; wine has sedative effects by
its alcoholic effects alone, and by these only at the later
period of its action.
Distilled spirits have this danger in their use, that, in the case
of insufficient dilution, they can be drunk in a more concen-
trated form than is good for the body. On the other hand,
they develop the effects of alcohol in its purest form. Rum
formerly possessed this advantage over other distilled spirit,
370 A TREATISE ON WINES.
that if unmixed with whiskey it was certainly free from
amylic alcohol, so-called fusel oil. The progress in the art
of distillation has imparted this quality to other spirits as
well. Brandy from French cheap wines not rarely contains
fusel oil to this day, and French chloroform made from such
spirit is highly impure, from the admixture of chlorinated
amylic products. But the finest French brandy, Cognac,
made from the wine of ihe/otte blanche is the most ideal, the
finest perfumed, and most wholesome of distilled spirits.
CHAPTER XXXI.
DISEASES OF VINES AND OF WINES.
252. DISEASES OF VINES AND THEIR TREATMENT.
MOST of the abnormal conditions, so-called diseases of
plants? particularly of vines, of which we have any precise
knowledge, are of a parasitical nature, that is to say, caused
by the settlement of living organisms of the nature of plants
or animals upon the surface or in the tissues of the plant ;
drawing their nutriment out of the tissues of the vine, crippling
or destroying them, and leading eventually to the death of
the entire plant.
Thus a fungus of the mushroom type, an agaricits, the
mycelium of which settles upon the roots of many forest
and cultivated trees, and while its cycle of life was little
understood, was called rhizomorpha, in some years infests
many vines, and either makes them permanently sick and
atrophic, or destroys them entirely. The French vignerons
term it Blanc des Racines ; it has been observed also in
the Vaudois, on the lake of Constance, and on the Rhine.
1 The reader who may desire concise information on the Diseases of
Plants should consult the author's " Cantor Lectures " on that subject,
delivered before the Society of Arts in January and February, 1887.
DISEASES OF VINES. 371
Chestnut and apple-trees not rarely fall victims to the
rhizoctonia, or root-killer.
Of the mildew fungi or blights, the Erysiphes (Hedw.) a
division of the Pyrenomycetes, comprising at least seven
genera, and in these more than thirty species, the best known
and most terrible is the oidium of the vine, known after its
discoverer, the Gravesend gardener Tucker, as Oidium
Tuckeri. It lives on the outside of the green parts of the
vine, sends suckers, so-called haustoria, into their tissues, and
Fig. 45. Vine-leaf, covered and crippled by the oidium.
thus gradually destroys them. The leaves shrivel, crumble up
and die ; the young shoots become atrophic and cease to
grow ; the young grapes cease to grow, or shrivel and die,
the larger grapes burst, lose their contents, or rot and die.
These changes are represented by the accompanying sketches
after Du Breuil.
Most viticultural countries were visited by this plague
during several decades of the present century. The wine
production of Madeira, for example, was for years entirely
destroyed; in that island 10,000 butts of wine were at one
372
A TREATISE ON WINES.
time produced annually ; a few years after the invasion of
the oidium no wine at all was produced. In Portugal I
have seen the vines of entire districts, such as Carcavellos,
Bucellas, and others destroyed by that calamity. It has
been found that the presence of sulphur in a finely divided
state is fatal to the oidium, and by the use of such sulphur
only have the wine-producing lands been liberated from
this plague. Du Breuil's work contains many illustrations of
the manner in which the sulphur may be distributed over
Fig. 46. A piece of vine-
shoot covered with patches of
oidium.
Fig. 47. A bunch of grapes,
dwarfed or fissured and burst
through the agency of the oidium.
the vines, but they are all more or less laborious or imper-
fect. The genius of a French gardener invented a machine
for sulphuring which is at once cheap, convenient, and
efficient. It consists of an inner retort filled with water,
and an outer retort filled with sulphur, both fixed in a
portable little stove heated with charcoal. The coal fuses
the sulphur and causes it to distill; the sulphur vapour
causes the water to boil, and the steam carries the sulphur
DISEASES OF VINES. 3/3
vapour with violence out of the cauldron. A man walking
with this apparatus along the vines as quickly as he can,
and keeping about a yard away from them, will cover the
plants in all their finest details with an exceedingly fine
Fig. 48. Wingless female phylloxera, yellow, spotted, greatly mag-
nified ; dorsal aspect.
layer of condensed steam and sulphur. The process is
beautiful and safe, and one application is always effectual.
Of animal parasites affecting vines the most celebrated
and dreaded is the Phylloxera vastatrix (Planch.), (the
devastating leaf- dryer), an insect belonging to the aphidia,
e;enus of green-fly, producing galls on leaves and roots;
374 A TREATISE ON WINES.
but damaging the vine only by the infliction upon the roots.
This insect was discovered to be the cause of the most
destructive vine disease by Planchon, in 1868, after it
had ravaged many vineyards since 1863. Asa Fitch
had previously discovered an insect which produces
galls on the leaves of the vine, and which is now known
to be reared out of the early egg of the winged female
of the phylloxera, which does not hybernate. The
life history of the phylloxera, if we start from the golden
yellow, wingless female, the large spotted creature repre-
sented in Fig. 48, is the following. This female, sitting on
Figs. 49 and 50. Phylloxera of the roots : left specimen presents
dorsal, right one ventral, side. The stinging organ is well seen.
the root, lays thirty to forty eggs, out of which the young
creep in about eight days. Each of these now begins to
multiply by parthenogenesis, and may produce up to eight
generations in one summer. One female may therefore
have a parthenogenetic progeny of thirty millions of indi-
viduals in one summer. They all remain on the roots on
which they have been produced, and by stinging them and
sucking their juices they produce galls and nodosities.
The last brood at the end of summer, termed nymphs, or
puflas, have beginnings of wings. These creep out of the
earth, shed their skin several times, and become fully winged
individuals. Their wings are four in number, large, and
when the animals are at repose, lie flat on the body, as
DISEASES OF VINES.
375
represented in Fig. 51. (The figures are after Oliveira,
junior, of Oporto.) These winged nymphs now fly, and
deposit eggs upon the leaves of vines; the eggs are four in
number, and of different sizes ; the larger eggs develop into
wingless females, the smaller eggs into wingless males.
This development ensues in little galls formed on the under-
side of the vine-leaf, as represented in Fig. 52. When the
Fig. 51. Winged female Phylloxera, presenting ventral side.
wingless animals are mature, they copulate, whereupon each
impregnated female puts down one large winter egg in a
crevice of the bark of the vine. In spring this egg develops
to a wingless female, which descends to the roots, and pro-
pagates on them within the earth by parthenogenesis as
above described. The destruction effected by this parasite
can be estimated by the fact that, while during the four
years from 1875 to 1878, included, the average yield of the
French vintage was 1,275 million gallons, the three vintages
376 A TREATISE ON WINES.
from 1882 to 1885 decreased at a greater rate than 100 million
gallons a year, so that the production of wine in France fell
to little more than half of what it was before the spread of
the phylloxera. The animals are most certainly destroyed
by inundation ; when that is impossible, sulphide of carbon
Fig. 52. Vine-leaf, from underside, with galls of phylloxera.
is forced into the earth by an injector, and is said to produce
the death of the parasites.
Of the shield lice, or coccina, a variety of which is the
Coccus cacti, or cochineal insect, a species, called vine
louse, or vine bug, Coccus vitis, is common in England on
vines grown in conservatories ; it settles on old wood,
covered with loose bark ; to prevent its existence and multi-
plication, the vine trunks have to be scraped clean of the
DISEASES OF WINES. 377
bark and to be painted with milk of lime and tobacco
infusion.
There are some higher insects which effect local damages,
but are never epidemic One of these is the Ettmolpus,
a beetle a third of an inch in length, the larvae of which eat
the vine-leaves. Another beetle of similar size, but pro-
vided with a strong, stinging organ on its head, is the
Attelabe ; the female fixes its eggs on a vine-leaf, and by
stinging it in many places, causes it to roll up spirally and
house the egg; it also stings thick green branches, and
causes them to shrivel and die. A third beetle noxious to
vines is the Altica oleracea (Geoffrey), altise of the French,
which gnaws buds and grape-stalks.
The larva of a small moth, French Pyrale, eats young
leaves and grape-stalks at blossom-time, enveloping them in
a fine veil of netting ; it appears a second time when the
grapes are nearly ripe, covers them again with its silk,
bites stalks, and eats into the grapes. This animal is much
dreaded by French viticulturists. But compared to oidium
and phylloxera, all other parasites of the vine are of rela-
tively small significance.
253. DISEASES OF WINES, THEIR PREVENTION AND
CURE.
Wines are liable to be spoilt by many natural causes, all
being the result of the action of fungi which live in must or
wine as their material of nutrition and medium of propagation
and multiplication. They were recognized and described
both as to their life-history and effects mainly by Pasteur.
Some are the result of the occasional failure of human in-
terference, such as sulphuring, plastering, and fining with
albumen, as described already on p. 285.
The acetous jerment transforms alcohol into acetic acid,
wine into vinegar; for the development of its full action
it requires much air, as its effect is the result of oxydation.
Wine must, therefore, be protected from the access of the
acetous fungi not only, but also from extensive contact with
37^ A TREATISE ON WINES.
air. Even a small proportion of acetic acid will spoil the
flavour of wine.
The scud or viscosity ferment multiplies with terrific energy
in must, transforms it into a milky-white tasteless liquid,
destroys all sugar, and completely crowds out the torula
of alcoholic fermentation. It seems that sulphurous acid
is the best preventive of this destructive change ; the acid
does not kill the fungus or spores, but paralyses them, and
allows time for the true alcohol yeast to develop and trans-
form the sugar into spirit. This is antagonistic to the scud
fungus, but does not kill or prevent its development on a
minor scale. When the scud or viscosity fungus attacks
wine in barrel or bottle it forms in long threads, which
cotton together, and give to the wine the appearance of
jelly. It also develops some acetic acid, and wine which
is once invaded by it, does but rarely recover. It is this
dangerous ferment, mainly, which requires the addition of
brandy to southern wines to preserve them. It is also not
improbable that the removal of tartaric acid from wine by
gypsum acts as a hindrance to the development of this
fungus. But the plastering neither destroys the fungus,
nor prevents its development entirely ; it only modifies the
growth and prevents the appearance of a little acetic acid as
a decomposition product, in this case not of alcohol, but
of tartaric acid. Common, low qualities of must in Spain
and France require sulphurous acid, plaster and brandy, to
be protected from the principal ravages of this dangerous
fungus.
The bacillus muris, or mouse taste ferment, produces a
peculiarly disagreeable flavour in wine, which is closely
resembling to the smell of a residence of mice. It may
spoil the best wines, but its ravages are mitigated by the
fact that, with time and ripening, the fault may disappear
in the main. But the affection always retards the usability
of the wine by two years.
The fungus of bitterness attacks red wines more than white ;
it also causes them to shed their colour. Burgundies are
most liable to its development ; of white wines the Manza-
nillas of St. Lucar sometimes show its traces.
DISEASES OF WINES. 379
The mycoderma vini is a fungus which grows on the surface
of wine and destroys its ethers in so remarkable a manner
as to make the best wine flat to taste in a short time. By
keeping the barrels always quite full, and allowing no ullage,
the formation of this fungus is entirely prevented.
JFlor, or mycoderma montillanum, is a ferment which, like
the mycoderma aceti, requires to float on the surface of wine,
and to have plenty of air for its existence ; the wine must
also be of a certain alcoholicity to exclude the vinegar plant,
which can "crowd out," i.e., overwhelm by greater numbers,
the Montilla plant. When grown on the surface of good
wine, as a pure cultivation, the mycoderma montillanum pro-
duces the flavour known as Amontillado, formerly rejected,
but now considered as a very high development of white
Spanish wines.
Agredoce is a disease of South French and Portuguese
sweet red wines. It is of two kinds, one in which the
acidity accompanying the sweetness is caused by acetic acid,
and another in which it is caused by lactic acid. The latter
is the most incurable, as it continues to act in the presence
of sugar, a certain amount of alcoholicity notwithstanding.
This disorder also afflicts many white wines of the Gironde,
of Barsac and Sauternes.
The prevention of these so-called diseases is entirely in
the hands of the wine makers ; it is also in their power if
they would only apply the teaching of science. This teach-
ing affords the means of arresting these parasitic changes
wherever they may show themselves.
INDEX.
ACETIC acid, occurrence and for-
mation, 56, 66.
Acid, butyric, 68 ; caproic, 68 ;
formic, 57, 68 ; malic, 65 ;
oenanthic, 69 ; propionic, 68 ;
propylic, 57 ; racemic, 64 ;
succinic, 65 ; tartaric, 64 ; va-
lerianic, 68.
Acidity of must, regulation, 50.
Acids, estimation of, 69 ; fatty,
separation of, 68 ; in wine, 63 ;
from alcohols, 56.
Africa, wines of, 345.
Albariza, white soil of Jerez, 227.
Albuelis, Elbling vine, 204.
Albumen, quantation of, used
for fining, 91.
Albuminous matters, presence in
wine, 91.
Alcohol, amylic, 56 ; butylic, 56 ;
caprylic, 56 ; estimation of, 59 ;
ethylic, 54 ; formation of, 54 ;
physical characters, 55 > P r< >
pylic, 54 ; state of, in wine, 61.
Alcoholometry, 57 ; by dilato-
meter, 61 ; by distillation, 57,
58 ; by ebullioscope, 60 ; by
Tabarie's method, 59 ; by va-
porimeter, 60.
Aldehydes, acetic, 56 ; in wine, 57 ;
in spirits, 63.
Algaida, indigenous vines of, 297.
Algeria, wines of, 349.
Alicante, wines of, 302 ; grape-
vine, varieties of, 303.
Alsatia, wines of, classification,
186 ; vines cultivated in, 186.
Alto Douro, description, 308;
lagar, 313 ; vines cultivated in,
310 ; wines of, 314 ; wine
presses of, 313.
America, general observations,
350; cultivation of vines in,
353 ; foreign vines in, 354 ;
varieties cultivated in, 354 ;
wild or indigenous vines of, 350.
Ammonia, estimation of, 91 ; in
sap, 21 ; in wine, 91.
Analysis of wines, 57.
Aragon, wines of, 304.
Archipelago, Greek, wines of, 339.
Armenia, wines of, 342.
Aroma of wine, 77.
Aroph (aroma philosophorum), 78.
Ash of wine, 94.
Asia, wines of, 341.
Assmannshausen, vineyard, 197 ;
vines cultivated at, 198.
Atlantic islands, wines of, 329.
Australia, climate of, 355 ; general
remarks on, 356 ; history of
viticulture in, 355.
Austria, Lower, wines of, 205.
Azores, wines from the, 331.
BADEN, wines of, 194 ; govern-
ment of, 195 ; viticulture as
described by G. Bronner, 195
Balkan peninsula, wines of, 336.
Banat, wines of, 225.
Beaujolais, classification of wines
and topography of, 145 ; train-
ing of vines, 146 ; vines, and
vintage of, 146.
382
A TREATISE ON WINES.
Beer, comparison of with wine,
369.
Benicarlo, wine of, 302.
Berthelot, theory and estimation
of ethers, 75.
Bitartrate, estimation of, 70.
Black Hambro vine, 208.
Blayais, viticulture of, 125.
Bodega, definition of, 289 ; treat-
ment of wines in, 291.
Bohemia, wines of, 218.
Bouquet of wine, 77.
Brandy, varieties, 184 ; produc-
tion, 185.
Bucellas, village anJ vineyard,
323; wine, 323.
Bugeo, clay soil in Jerez, 229.
Burgundy, 150 ; cultivation of
vines in, 153 ; presses and press-
ing, 159; topography, 151;
treatment of wine, 159; vatting
and fermentation, 157 ; vines of,
152, vintage in, 155.
CACHETIA, wines of, 331.
Canary sack (secco), 332.
Candia (Crete), wines of, 340.
Canes, propagation of vines by,
2 5-
Cape of Good Hope, districts of,
345 ; historical notes on, 348 ;
vines, vintage and vinification,
346; wines of, 347.
Carbonic acid, absorption of in
champagne, 1 79 ; production by
fermentation, 48.
Carmenere vine, 100.
Catalan, called Spanish port, 302.
Caucasia, wines of, 341.
Chalon-sur-Saone, Cote de, 149 ;
vines and wines of, 149.
Chalons -sur-Marne, champagne
vaults of, 163.
Chambertin, wine of, 151.
Champagne, carbonic acid in, 179;
adjustment of acid and alcohol
in, 1 73 ; breakage or casse, 1 74 ;
cellaring and fining wine in,
172 ; corking and finishing,
175 ; cultivation of vines in,
1 66; disgorging of bottles, 175;
drawing into bottles, tirage,
174; fermentation in bottles,
174; fining, 173; history of
discovery of, 178; liqueuring,
175; mousse of, 179; pressing
and fermentation, 171 ; pressure
in bottles, 179; provining, 166; ->
soil of, 161 ; topography of,
160; treatment of claret in,
173 ; vines of, 167 ; vineyards
of, 163 ; vintage in, 169 ; spark-
ling, 177; varieties of, 177;
cremant, 177; grand mousseux,
177 ; mousseux, 177 ; non-mous-
seux, 177 ; sparkling ceil de
perdrix, 177 ; still, 177.
Charente, department of, 183 ;
brandies, eau-de-vie, of, 184 ;
wines of, 183.
Chateau-neuf-du-pape, 141 ; vines
of, 141 ; vineyard and wines of,
142.
Chateau, Lafitte, 1 10 ; Latour,
no; Margaux, 108 ; Yquein,
120.
Coccus vitis, vine-bug, 376.
Cognac, brandy, 184; mode of
manufacture at, 184 ; vines used
in making, 183.
Collares, vineyards and vines of,
322.
Colouring matters of wine, 87.
Constantias, wines from the, 348.
Consumo, Portuguese wine, 320.
Cotes, or hillsides of the Gironde
121.
Crete (Candia), wines of, 340.
Crimea', wines of, 341.
Croatia, cultivation of vines in
214 ; wines of, exhibited a
Agram, 215.
Cruchinet vine, 100.
Crushing of grapes, 43.
Cutting or pruning of vines, 28.
Cyprus, wines of, 340.
INDEX.
333
DALMATIA, cultivation of vines
in, 215; maraschino, cherry-
liqueur, 216 ; vintage and vini-
fication, 216; wines of, 216.
Densities of musts of Jerez, 271.
Dextro-tartaric acid, 64.
Diseases of vines, 370 ; wines,
377-
Distillation of wine for quantation
of alcohol, 57.
EAU-DE-VIE of Cognac, 184.
Ebullioscope, 60.
Elbling vine, 204.
Elder-tree on the Douro, 314;
flower, flavour of, in wine, 204 ;
berry, for colouring wine, 314.
Ellfeld, or Eltville, 198.
Entre-deux-mers, viticulture of,
124.
Ermitage, vines cultivated, 143 ;
vineyard of, 143.
Estimation (quantation) of acids,
63 ; albumen, 91 ; alcohol, 59 ;
alkalies, 94 ; ammonia, 91 ; ash,
94 ; bitartrate, 70 ; chlorine,
94 ; ethers, 74 ; extractives, 93 ;
glycerol, 86 ; malic acid, 71 ;
mineral constituents, 94 ; phos-
phoric acid, 71 ; succinic acid,
71 ; sugar, chemical, 83 ; sugar,
optical, 83 ; sulphuric acid, 95 ;
tannin, 92 ; tartaric acid, 70 ;
total residue (solids), 94.
Ether acetic, or aceto-ethylic, 72 ;
aceto - propylic, 73 ; butyro-
ethylic, 73 ; cenanthic, 73 ; tar-
taric, 65, 74.
Ethers, compound, 57 ; compound,
in wine, 72 ; fixed, 72 ; volatile,
72.
Ethylic alcohol, 54.
Eumolpus, parasitic beetle on
vines, 376.
Extractives in wine, 93.
Eyes (buds), grafting of, 28 ; pro-
pagation by, 25.
FERMENTATION of must, 48 ; of
wine in bottles, 174.
Ferments of disease, or fungi, 377.
Fossil vines and grapes, 10.
France, wines of, 96.
Franconia, cultivation in, 192 ;
Leiste, the, 193 ; Stein, the,
194 ; topography of, 192 ; viti-
culture near Wurtzburg, 194.
Frankenthal grape, 208.
Frontignac wine, 136.
Fungi of vines and wines causing
disease, 326.
Furmint, vine of Tokay, 220.
Fusel oil, or amylic alcohol, 56 ;
effects upon the body, 362.
CAMAY, vine, 147 ; Nicholas,
vine, 146 ; petit, vine, 146 ;
Picard, 147.
Card, department, wines of, 131.
Geisler's vaporimeter, 60.
Geographical distribution of vines,
n.
Georgia, wines of, 342.
Germany, wines of, 186.
Gironde, wines of the, 96 ; wines
of the hillsides or cotes of, 121.
Glycerol (glycerine) in wine, 86.
Goertz, wines of, 217.
Graefenberg vineyard, 198.
Grafting, compound inarching, 27 ;
by eyes, 28 ; in grooves, 28 ;
simple inarching, 28.
Granada, wines of, 303.
Grape-cure at Meran, 209.
Grape-mill for crushing, 43.
Grapes, 22 ; acid and sugar in,
during ripening, 22 ; chemical
constituents of, 22 ; fossil, 10 ;
mashing of, 43.
Graves, in the Gironde, 114; clas-
sification of vines of the, 115 J
cultivation in the, 115 ; fermen-
tation in, 118; red wines of,
116; topography, 114; vines
cultivated in, 117; vintage in,
117; white wines of the, 1 16, 12O,
384
A TREATISE ON WINES.
Greece, general remarks on, 336 ;
quantity of wine, 338 ; vines,
viticulture etc. , 337 ; wines of,
varieties, 336.
Greek Archipelago, islands of,
339-
Grenache noir, vine, 126.
HAMBRO black grape, 208.
Hesse, north of Maine, 195.
Hesse, Rhenish, 191 ; Rhenish,
area of vineyards, 191 ; Lieb-
fraumilch, 192 ; Niersteiner,
192.
Hochheim, topography of, 202 ;
vines planted at, 202 ; vinifica-
tion at, 203.
Holy Ghost wine, 194.
Hungary, classification of wines
of, 223 ; cultivation in, 220 ;
Kadarka, blue grape, 220 ; soil
of, 220 ; topography of, 218 ;
vines, varieties of, 220 ; vintage
and vinification in, 220 ; white
Tokay vine (Furmint), 220.
IMERITIA, wines of, 342.
Inarching, compound and simple,
27, 28.
Indigenous vines of the Algaida,
297 ; of America, 350 ; of Eu-
rope, 4; of the Rhine valley,
4,. 5-
Inosite, a sugar in wine, 217.
Italy, wines of, 332.
JEREZ, vineyards and wines of, 226.
Jeropiga, of Portugal, 321.
Johannisberg, description and his-
tory, 200; vines and produce,
201.
KADARKA, blue grape of Hun-
gary, 220.
LANG UEDOC, or Midi, 131; brandy
(trois-six) of, 137; muscat wines
of, 136: remarkable growths of,
134 ; topography of, 131 ; train-
ing of vines, vinification, etc.,
132.
Lavradio, wines of, 324.
Layers or slips, propagation by, 26.
Lisbon wine, 322.
Loire, valley of, 181; cultivation
in, 182 ; vines and wines of, 181.
Lombardy, wines of, 334.
MACEDONIA, wines of, 336.
Macon, town of, 146.
Maconnais, the, 146 ; classification
of growths of the, 148 ; cultiva-
tion in, 147 ; production and
soil of, 147 ; varieties of wines
of, 148.
Madeira, island of, 329 ; wines of,
33-
Maine, lower. See Hochheim, 202.
Majorca, wines of, 304.
Malaga, wines of, 303.
Malic acid in wine, 65.
Manuring of vines, methods of, 24.
Manzanilla, de San Lucar, wine,
2 95-
Maraschino, grape-vine, 216 ;
cherry-brandy, 216.
Marcobrunn, vineyard, 200.
Marsala in Sicily, 335 ; vineyards
and wines of, 335.
Marshes of the Gironde, 124.
Mashing of grapes, 43.
Measures, various Spanish, 226 ;
of capacity, Rhenish ; English ;
French ; Portuguese ; Spanish.
Medoc, classified growths of, 108 ;
consumption of wines of, 112;
cultivation in, loi ; general sta-
tistics of, 97 ; methods of sale in,
112; prices of wines of, 112;
topography of, 97 ; vines and
viticulture, 98 ; vintage and vi-
nification, 104.
Meran, grape-cure at, 209.
Merlot, grapevine, 99.
Mescle,the fertile and the sterile, 7.
Meunier or miller grape vine, 182.
INDEX.
385
Mineral constituents of wine, 15,
18; matter abstracted from land
by vines, 19.
Mingrelia, wines of, 342.
Minorca, wines of, 304.
Montpelier brandy (trois-six), 137.
Morea, vines of, 338.
Morocco, wines of, 349.
Moselle, river, vineyards of, 203 ;
area of, 205 ; sparkling, 204 ;
topography, 203 ; vines and
wines of, 204.
Must, acidity of, adjusted, 50 ;
density of, from various grapes
of Jerez, 271; plastering, 52;
sugar of, adjusted, 50.
Mustang, American grape-vine,
35 1 -
Mycoderma aceti, 66.
NAPLES, wines of, 334.
Nassau, vineyards of, 196.
Nile Valley, wines of, 349.
OI'DIUM TUCKERI, 372.
PALATINATE, area of vineyards,
1 88; kammerbau training, 189;
mixture of vines in the, 190 ; to-
pography, 188 ; vines and wines,
190.
Parasites, animal of vines, 372.
Paratartaric acid, 64.
Pedro Ximenes vine, 243.
Persia, vines and wines of, 342.
Petiot's process of vinification, 51.
Phylloxera vastatrix, 372.
Piedmont, wines of, 333.
Pinching of vine-shoots, 31.
Pineau or Noirien vine, 152.
Plastering of must, 52; of wine, 52,
365 ; probable objects of, 53.
Port, Spanish, 302.
Port wine = Oporto wine, produc-
tion and qualities, of, 316 ;
transport, 316 ; value, 320 ;
vinification and vintage, 311;
white, 315 ; varieties of, 319.
Portugal, wines of, 306 ; Alto
Douro wine, 308 ; Bairrada dis-
trict, 320 ; brandy, addition to
wine, 318 ; Bucellas wine, 323;
Consumo wine, 320 ; cultivation
of vine in, 310 ; Jeropiga added
to wine, 322 ; wages in, 311 ;
wines of, other than port, 315.
Presses and pressing, 44.
RACEMIC acid in wine and grapes,
64.
Rauenthal, vineyards of, 198.
Rheingau, general description, 196;
history of wine in, 196 ; Riessling
vine in, 197 ; varieties of vines
in, 197 ; vinification in, 197.
Rhenish Hesse, wines of, 191.
Rhenish measures of capacity, 203.
Rhenish Prussia, 203. See Moselle.
Rhodes, wines of, 340.
Rhone, cote du, wines of, 140 ;
valley, topography of, 140.
Riessling, grape-vine, 197.
Rota, Tintilla de, 299.
Rothe Berg, Rheingau vineyard,
198.
Roumanian wines, 336.
Roussillon, cultivation in, 126;
Maccabeo, wines of, 129; Mai-
voisie, wines of, 129 ; Muscat,
wines of, 129; shipments from,
131 ; vines and wines of, 125,
Riidesheim, vineyards and wines,
202.
SACCHAROMETRY, chemical, 83 ;
optical, 83.
San Lucar de Barrameda, vine-
yards, 295.
Santorin, wines of, 340.
Sap of vines, 21 ; force of rising,
21.
Sardinia, wines of, 333.
Sauternes district, viticult. statis-
tics, 116; vines and wines, 116.
Sauvignone, grape-vine, 116.
386
A TREATISE ON WINES.
Schirwan, wines of, 342.
Scud fungus in wine, 377.
Secateur, for pruning, 122.
Seed, propagation of vines by, 24.
Semillon, grape-vine, 116.
Shiraz, topography, 342 ; vines,
vinification, 343.
Sherry, colour of, 279 ; densities of
musts of, 270 ; fashions in, and
history of, 193 ; modes of making,
276 ; plastering, 52 ; districts of
growth of, 226 ; stages of, 276 ;
sugaring and boiling must, 279 ;
sulphuring, 272 ; treatment in
bodegas, 274 ; varieties of, 276.
Sicily, wines of, 335.
Smell, or bouquet of wine, 77
Soil for viticulture, 23.
Solera wines, 277.
Solid constituents of wine, 95.
Spain, area of Sherry vineyards,
226 ; density of musts, 270 ;
Port wines, so-called Spanish,
302 ; wines of its provinces, 226
__ to 302.
Spirit, silent, 62.
Spumantes, Italian effervescent
wines, 333.
Stalks of grapes, separation of, 42.
St. Emilion, district and vineyards,
122.
St. Peray, Ardeche, vineyards and
vines, 142.
Steinberg vineyard, 198 ; annual
sale of wines, 200 ; cabinet, 200.
Styria, vines and wines, 211 10213;
social condition, 211 ; Wild-
bacher blue grape-vine, 212.
Sugar of cane, 82 ; estimation of,
83 ; fruit, or levulose, 81 ; grape
or dextrose, 80 ; invert, 82.
Sulphuring of must and wine, 272.
Syrmia, wines of, 225.
TABARIE'S method of alcohol
quantation, 59.
Tannin in grapes and wine, 93.
Tartaric acid, 64 ; dextro, and
levorotatory, 64 ; estimation of,
69 ; para (tartaric acid), 64.
Teinturier (Dyer) grape-vine, 88.
Temperature of fermenting musts,
274.
Teneriffe, wine from, 331.
Tent, or Rota Tent, Tintilla de
Rota, wine, 229.
Tessa, areometer of, 184.
Thera, wine of (Santorin), 340.
Thessaly, wine of, 336.
Tokay, white wine of, 219.
Torres Vedras, wines of, 324.
Traminer vines, 190.
Turkish islands, wines of, 340.
Tuscany, wines of, 333.
Tyrol, black grape of (Hambro),
207 ; cultivation of vines, 207,
208.
Tyrolinger, black Hambro vine,
208.
VAL DE PENAS, wines of, 301.
Valencia, wines of, 302.
Venetia, wines of, 334.
Verdot, grape-vine, ioo.
Vine, organic chemical ingredi-
ents, 2O ; cultivation, general
principles of, 28 ; cultivated,
origin of, 9 ; cutting or pruning,
29 ; fossil, 10 ; geographical
distribution, II ; ditto, as influ-
enced by soil, 1 8 ; propagation,
methods of, 24, 25 ; pruning of,
29 ; sap of, 21 ; support of, 30,
31 ; training after Guyot, 28,
32; treatment during vegetation,
30.
Vines, classification of wild, 8 ;
cultivated in France, 37 ; indi-
genous of Europe, 4; ditto, of
America, 350 ; inflorescence of
wild, 6 ; origin and descent, 2 ;
selection of varieties, 33, 36;
wild, 4.
Vineyards, improving of, 24.
INDEX.
3S7
Vintage, general course of, 38 ;
modes of, 40.
Viscosity fungus in wine, 377.
Viticulture, effects on soil, 19 ;
general principles of, 23 ; in
England in Mediaeval times, 13.
Vitis aestivalis (vine), 351 ; cali-
fornica, 352 ; candicans (mus-
tang), 351 ; caribsea, 351 ; cor-
difolia, 352; labrusca, 4, 351;
Lincecumii, 353 ; monticola,
353 J rupestris, 353 ; teutonica
(fossil), II ; vinifera, 2, 3.
Voslau (Austria), red wines of,
206.
WENDS, viticulturists (Weinzettel),
211.
Wildbacher, grape-vine, 212.
Wine fungi, in diseases of wines,
326.
Wine making, Gall's process, 51 ;
Petiot's,5i ; presses; 44; French,
45 ; Spanish, 46 ; Portuguese,
48 ; The'nard's process, 51 ; use
of at various ages, 367.
Wines, of Atlantic isles, 329; Aus-
tralasia, 355 ; Austria, 205 ;
Cape of Good Hope, 345 ;
France, 96 et seq. ; Germany, 1 86
et seq. ; Greece, 336 ; Hungary,
218; Portugal, 306; Sicily,
335 ; Spain, 226 ; active ingre-
dients of, 361 ; classification of,
357 ; rating of the world's, 356 ;
red, 363 ; taxation of, 359 ;
white, 362 ; plastering of, 365.
Woiwodina, wines of, 225.
Wiirtemberg, wines o r , 194.
Wurtzburg castle, cellars of, 193.
XERES (or Jerez) wines of, 226 :
description of pagos of, 226.
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