favourite Teneriffe wine is _Vidueño_ or _Vidonia_. Canary _sack_ is
supposed to have been made from the _Malvasia_ sweet grape, whereas the
modern sack is dry (_sec_). The best vineyards are at Orotava, S. Ursula,
Ycod de los Vinos, Buenavista, and Valle de Guerra.
ENGLAND.
British made wines hold no very high rank. A cheap foreign manufacture
is, according to some of their vendors, gradually ousting them from the
market. But at one time they formed a part of the education of the good
housewives of Great Britain. Home wines were chiefly made from plums,
apples, gooseberries, bilberries, elderberries, blackberries, currants
(red and black), raspberries, cherries, cowslips, parsnips, raisins,
greengages, damsons, ginger, oranges, and lemons. Less commonly and in
former times we had wines from mulberries, quinces, peaches, apricots,
and from the sap of the birch, beech, sycamore, and other trees. Years
ago “sweets” or home-made wines were sent from Scotland and Ireland,
such as ginger wine and so-called cherry and raspberry whiskies. The
flowers of meadow-sweet (_Spiræa ulmaria_) yield a fragrant distilled
water, which is said to be used by wine merchants to improve the flavour
of their wines. In a little work by Mr. G. Vine on Home-made Wines, the
reader will find numerous receipts how to make and keep these wines, with
observations on gathering and preparing the fruit, fining, bottling, and
storing. A correspondent of the _Gardeners’ Chronicle_ gives a receipt
for _beer wine_, a beverage which has puzzled many connoisseurs. The
curious may find it also quoted in Vine’s brochure.
The manufacture of home-made wines is familiar. An excellent wine is
sometimes made from a mixture of the fruits above mentioned, as, for
instance, that from gooseberries and currants. All home-made wines are
prone to run into acetous fermentation without the addition of a due
proportion of pure spirits. Plums or sloes, with other ingredients, can,
it is said, be turned into excellent fruity port, the “very choice”
kind, silky, soft, and full bodied. A wine said to be agreeable is also
made from the red berries of the mountain ash or service-tree (_pyrus
aucuparia_). Birch wine is still made in some parts of England. Morewood
gives a long receipt for its manufacture. Like most other wines, it
improves greatly with age. This is especially true of parsnip wine. From
potatoes which have suffered a sort of malting from frost, a tolerable
wine has been obtained. It is said—but there are people who will say
anything—that a great portion of the champagne drunk in this country is
made from sugar and green gooseberries. Rhubarb wine has been affirmed to
be synonymous with British champagne. The reader anxious on this subject
may consult Dr. Shannon’s elaborate _Treatise on Brewing_. Cowslip wine
is all too like some of the Muscatel wines of Southern France, and the
wine of the _Sambucus nigra_ has been more than once, through some
unlucky accident, confused with Frontignac.
[Illustration]
FRENCH WINES.
The Great Makers of Champagne—Its
Manufacture—Bottling—Treatment—Bordeaux or Claret—Its early
Use and Name—Whence it comes—The different Growths—White Wines
of the District—Burgundy—Different Growths and Qualities—Other
Wines.
CHAMPAGNE.
Reims and Epernay are the two great centres of the Champagne district;
but Reims, from its size and antiquity, must be considered its capital.
Here are the establishments of Pommery & Greno, Ernest Moy, Théophile
Roederer & Co., Louis Roederer & Co., Henriot & Co., Permet & Fils,
De St. Marceaux & Co., Werlé & Co. (successors to the renowned Veuve
Cliquot), Heidsieck & Co., De Lossy & Co., G. H. Mumm & Co., Jules Mumm &
Co., Piper & Co., and many others of lesser note.
The wines of this district have, for centuries, been famous, and
especially beloved of kings and potentates. Our Henry VIII. had a
vineyard at Ay, and, in order to know that he got the genuine article,
he had a superintendent of his own on the spot. Francis I., Leo X., and
Charles V. of Spain, all had vineyards in the Champagne district. But
the wine they obtained thence was not sparkling: that was to come later,
and is said to have been the invention of Dom Petrus Perignon, who died
in 1715, monk of, and cellarer to, the Royal Monastery of St. Peter’s
at Hautvilliers. He was especially happy in his blends of wine, and
having found out the secret of highly charging the wine, naturally, with
carbonic acid, is said to have introduced the cork and string necessary
to confine it in its bottles.
Champagne Wine owes its goodness, in the first place, to the soil on
which it is grown, which is unique in its mixture of chalk, silica,
light clay, and oxide of iron; in the second, to the very great care and
delicate manipulation which the wine receives. Every doubtful grape is
discarded, and the carts conveying the grapes from the vineyard go at a
most funereal pace, so that none of their precious contents should get
bruised; for if these little grapes (for they are little larger than
currants) get at all crushed, or partly fermented, in carriage, the fruit
is rendered absolutely worthless for Champagne purposes.
Very great care, too, is exercised in the pressing. The grapes are laid
in carefully stacked heaps upon the floor of the press, where they are
left for a time, and then the first gentle, but firm, sustained squeeze
is applied. The juice thus extracted is the cream of the grape, and is
used only for the finest brands. There are six of these squeezes made,
each more powerful than the last; and the result of each is, of course,
inferior in quality to its predecessor, till the sixth, called the
_rébêche_,[23] is reached, which produces a coarse wine, reckoned only
fit to be given to the workmen.
The must begins to ferment more or less quickly, according to the
temperature, in the casks, at the end of ten or twelve hours, and the
process continues for a considerable time, during which the colour
changes from pale pink to a light straw tint. About three months are
allowed to elapse, when the fermentation stops through repeated rackings
and the cold of the season.
And now the real trouble of the Champagne manufacturer begins. First,
there is the blend, which varies in the case of each manufacturer. The
produce of the different vineyards is mixed in enormous vats, according
to the recipe in vogue in the particular establishment, and to this
mixture is added, if necessary, a proportion of some old wine of a
superior vintage. A most subtle, carefully educated, and exquisite
taste is required to discern when the wine, in this crude state, has
acquired the proper flavour and bouquet. Then comes the important point
of effervescence—a source of much anxiety to the manufacturer, for the
extremest care is required to regulate the quantity of carbonic acid gas,
so that there shall be neither too little nor too much. For if there
be too little, the wine will be flat; and if there be too much, the
bottles will burst by thousands. An instrument, called a _glucometer_, or
_saccharometer_, is used to measure the amount of saccharine matter in
the wine at this point; and if the necessary standard be not reached, the
deficiency is supplied by the purest sugar candy. To the ordinary palate,
at this stage it differs in no respect from still white wine, of somewhat
tart flavour, and is now drawn off into other casks to undergo the next
treatment in the process; viz., the fining, to make it bright, and remove
what is known to connoisseurs of wine as “ropiness.”
The wine is now ready for bottling, and the danger to be avoided is the
bursting of the bottles, for the pressure of the gas is tremendous; hence
it is that the champagne bottle is the most solid and massive in use.
The bottling takes place, as a rule, about eight months after the grapes
have been first pressed, and the precautions against breakage are of the
most minute description. The instant any symptoms of bursting display
themselves, the wine has to be removed to a cooler temperature; but even
with every precaution, the loss sustained by the bursting of bottles is
often very serious indeed, sometimes to an almost ruinous extent. The
risk of breakage is generally almost past by the end of October, and the
bottles are then kept in the cellars for a period ranging from eighteen
months to three years, according to the custom of the establishment.
But even now all is not over, for, during this period, a sediment,
resulting from the fermentation of the wine, has been deposited, which
must be removed before the wine is ready for consumption; and very
troublesome work it is to get rid of this sediment. The bottles are
placed in a slanting direction with the necks downward, and the angle
of inclination is altered from time to time till they stand almost
perpendicular, whilst every time the position is changed, the bottle is
sharply twisted round, so that the sediment may not cling to the sides.
Finally, the deposit collects in a ball in the neck of the bottle, from
whence it is “disgorged”—literally blown out—when the original cork is
removed. A temporary stopper is then inserted until the liqueur, which is
to give the wine its distinctive character, dry or sweet, is introduced.
This liquor consists of a preparation of the very finest sugar candy, the
best Champagne, and the oldest and purest Cognac.
The next process is corking, and, as we all know, champagne corks are not
as other corks. They are made larger than the vent of the bottle, and are
soaked in water, and very often steamed. They are somewhat expensive, the
best corks used costing about threepence each; but it is a very false
economy to use common corks, for the gas would escape. The pliant cork
is placed in a machine which pinches it and compresses it to the size of
the aperture of the bottle, and holds it there till a twenty-pound weight
is let drop, on the principle of a pile-driving hammer, and drives the
cork in firmly. The powerful leverage used to bring down the edge of the
cork for wiring and stringing, imparts the round-shaped top peculiar to
champagne corks. The bottles, after being corked and wired, are allowed
to rest for two or three months, in order that the wine and the liqueur
may properly amalgamate, and are then tinselled and labelled, ready for
the consumer; but some of the best wines are kept for years to mature,
and are, of course, of far higher value.
A sweet Champagne may be made of any wine, but a dry Champagne must be a
good wine, as, if it is not sound, its acidity is detected at once; but
this defect would be hidden by the liqueur necessary to make it sweet.
At Epernay, the bulk of the wine is not so good as that coming from
Reims, and sells at a lower price; but there are firms there of
world-wide note, such as Moet & Chandon, Perrier, Joüet & Co., Meunier
Frères, Wachter & Co., etc.
BORDEAUX OR CLARET.
In England we generally call the wines coming from Bordeaux, _Clarets_,
the derivation of which cognomen is somewhat obscure; but it seems almost
universally accepted that it comes from the French word _Clairet_,
which is used even at the present time as a generic term for the _vins
ordinaires_ of a light and thin quality, grown in the south of France,
and was in use from a very early date. The old French poet, Olivier
Basselin (who died 1418 or 1419), sings:—
“Beau nez, dont les rubis ont coûté mainte pipe
De vin blanc et clairet ...”
There was, however, another Claret, a compounded wine, resembling
_hypocras_, which Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived in the twelfth century,
classes thus: “Claretum, mustum, et medonem” (Claret, must, and mead).
And the venerable Franciscan, Bartholomew Glanville,[24] says: “Claretum,
ex vino et melle et speciebus aromaticis est confectum” (Claret is made
from wine, honey, and aromatic spices). It makes a marked feature in a
curious tenure.[25] “John de Roches holds the Manor of Winterslew, in
the county of Wilts, by the Service, that when our Lord the King should
abide at Clarendon, he should come to the Palace of the King there, and
go into the Butlery, and draw out of any vessel he should find in the
said Butlery at his choice, as much Wine as should be needful for making
(_pro factura_) a Pitcher of Claret (_unius Picheri Claretti_), which he
should make at the King’s charge, and that he should serve the King with
a Cup, and should have the vessel from whence he took the Wine, with all
the Remainder of the Wine left in the Vessel, together with the Cup from
whence the King should drink that Claret.” This refers to a roll of 50
Ed. III., or 1376.
[Illustration: FROM THE “COMPOST ET KALENDRIER DES BERGERES,” 1499.]
But this is not the Claret of our days, which is the wine produced in the
countries watered by the rivers Dordogne and Garonne and the Gironde,
at least it should be so; but, in truth, owing to the good railway
communication, wine comes to Bordeaux from every part of France, large
quantities owing their birth to the banks of the Rhone, from the Hérault,
Roussillon, etc.; and a judicious blending at Bordeaux, and its being
shipped thence, is a very good title to its being grown in the Médoc; but
the quantity shipped to all parts of the world, compared with the acreage
of growth, entirely precludes the supposition that it possibly could
have been the production of that district.
The nobility of the Médoc wines is small. There are only four _premiers
crûs_, but they are magnificent. They are Château Lafitte, Château
Latour, Château Margaux, and Château Haut-Brion; and all these,
especially the Latour, have a flavour and seductive _bouquet_ all their
own, which is believed to arise from an extremely volatile oil contained
in the grape skins, which, like all ethers, requires time to evolve and
mature. But the soil, undoubtedly, has most to do with it, and this must
be in a very large degree composed of fragments of rock, small and large,
while the smooth round pebbles reflect the rays of the sun and throw them
upwards, so as almost to surround the grapes with light and heat. Again,
these stones absorbing the sun’s rays during the day, give out warmth
after sunset, whilst they keep the roots of the vines cool, and prevent
to a great degree the evaporation of the natural and necessary moisture
of the earth.
But these _premiers crûs_ are not always good; for instance, in 1869,
Messrs. Fulcher & Baines, wine brokers, sold by auction a very large
parcel of Château Margaux for about 30_s._ per dozen. There was no doubt
but that it was genuine wine, bottled at the Château, for the cases and
corks were all properly branded; but of such low quality was it, or it
deteriorated so rapidly, that when sold again in 1871 the same wine only
averaged 18_s._ per dozen.
_The 2nd Growths are_:—
Mouton, coming from _Pauillac_.
Rauzan-Segla, ” _Margaux_.
Rauzan-Gassies, ” ”
Léoville-Las Cases, ” _St. Julien_.
Léoville-Poyféré, ” ”
Léoville-Barton, ” ”
Durfort-Vivens, ” _Margaux_.
Lascombes, ” ”
Gruard-La rose-Sarg, ” _St. Julien_.
Gruard-La rose, ” ”
Braune-Cantenac, ” _Cantenac_.
Pichon-Longueville, ” _Pauillac_.
Pichon-Longueville-Lalande, ” ”
Ducru-Beaucaillou, ” _St. Julien_.
Cos-Destournel, ” _St. Estèphe_.
Montrose, ” ”
_3rd Growths._
Kirwan, coming from _Cantenac_.
Château-d’Issau, ” ”
Lagrange, ” _St. Julien_.
Langoa, ” ”
Château-Giscours, ” _Labarde_.
Malescot-St. Exupéry, ” _Margaux_.
Cantenac-Brown, ” _Cantenac_.
Palmer, ” ”
La Lagune, ” _Ludon_.
Desmirail, ” _Margaux_.
Calon-Ségur, ” _St. Estèphe_.
Ferrière, ” _Margaux_.
M. d’Alesmeis Becker, ” ”
_4th Growths._
St. Pierre, coming from _St. Julien_.
Branair-Duluc, ” ”
Talbot, ” ”
Duhart-Milon, ” _Pauillac_.
Poujet, ” _Cantenac_.
La Tour-Carnet, ” _St. Laurent_.
Rochet, ” _St. Estèphe_.
Château-Beychevelle, ” _St. Julien_.
La Prieuré, ” _Cantenac_.
Marquis de Therme, ” _Margaux_.
_5th Growths._
Pontet-Canet, coming from _Pauillac_.
Batailley, ” ”
Grand-Puy-Lacoste, ” ”
Ducasse-Grand-Puy, ” _Pauillac_.
Lynch-Bages, ” ”
Lynch-Moussas, ” ”
Dauzac, ” _Labarde_.
Moulton d’Armailhacq, ” _Pauillac_.
Le Tertre, ” _Arsac_.
Haut-Bages, ” _Pauillac_.
Pédesclaux, ” ”
Belgrave, ” _St. Laurent_.
Camensac, ” ”
Cos-Labory, ” _St. Estèphe_.
Clerc-Milon, ” _Pauillac_.
Croizet-Bages, ” ”
Cantemerle, ” _Macau_.
These are only some of the wines of the Médoc, so that I may be excused
from recapitulating the names of the different growths of the Graves,
the Pays de Sauternes, the Côtes, the Palus, and those of Entredeux
Mers—their name is legion, and it would answer no good purpose. Cocks,
in his _Bordeaux and its Wines_, gives a list of 1,900 of the _principal
growths_, so that we can have a good choice of names from which to
christen our “Shilling Gladstone.”
The wines of Bordeaux used to be greatly drank in England until the great
wars with France—in the last century, when, of course, their importation
was prohibited—but, even then, large quantities were smuggled. They
must, however, have been of better quality than the cheap stuff now
imported. In Scotland, where an affinity with France always existed,
it was a common drink, and very cheap; for in Campbell’s _Life of Lord
Loughborough_ (vi. 29), we find that excellent claret was drawn from the
cask at eighteenpence a quart: and its downfall as a beverage in Scotland
is thus sung by John Home, probably in allusion to the Methuen Treaty of
1703.
“Firm and erect the Caledonian stood,
Prime was his mutton, and his claret good:
Let him drink port, an English Statesman cried;
He drank the poison, and his spirit died.”
The white wines of these districts are delicious, and are not
sufficiently appreciated in England, where we know very little of the
Sauternes, Bommes, Barsac, Fargues, St. Pierre de Mons, Preignac, and
those of Petits Graves and the Côtes. Chief of all is the wine of
Château d’Yquem, of which Vizitelly[26] thus writes:—
“Among the white wines of the Gironde which obtained the higher class
reward, two require to be especially mentioned. One, the renowned Château
d’Yquem of the Marquis de Lur Saluces, the most luscious and delicately
aromatic of wines, which, for its resplendent colour, resembling liquid
gold, its exquisite bouquet, and rich, delicious flavour, due, according
to the chemists, to the presence of Mannite, is regarded in France as
unique, and which, at Vienna, naturally met with the recognition of a
medal for progress.
“Mannite, the distinguished French chemist Berthelot informs us, has the
peculiar quality of not becoming transformed into alcohol and carbonic
acid during the process of fermentation. For a tonneau of this splendid
wine twelve years old, bought direct from the Château, the Grand Duke
Constantine paid, some few years since, 20,000 francs, or £800. The other
wine calling for notice was La Tour Blance, one of those magnificent,
liqueur-like Sauternes, ranking immediately after Château d’Yquem, and to
some fine samples of which, of the vintages of 1864 and 1865, a medal for
merit was awarded.
[Illustration: THE DILETTANTE SOCIETY.
In this illustration of “the Dilettante Society” we find that Noblemen
and Gentlemen such as Lord Mulgrave, Lord Seaforth, Hon. Chas. Greville,
Charles Crowle, and the Duke of Leeds, drank their claret out of the
black bottle—dispensing with the decanter altogether.]
“The characteristic qualities of Château d’Yquem, which certain
_soi-disant_ connoisseurs pretend to pooh-pooh, as a mere ordinary _vin
de liqueur_, are due, in no degree, to simple accident. On the contrary,
the vintaging of this wine is an extremely complicated and delicate
affair. In order to insure the excessive softness and rich liqueur
character which are its distinguishing qualities, the grapes, naturally
excessively sweet and juicy, are allowed to dry on their stalks,
preserved, as it were, by the rays of the sun, until they become covered
with a kind of down, which gives to them an almost mouldy appearance.
During this period, the fruit, under the influence of the sun, ferments
within its skin, thereby attaining the requisite degree of ripeness, akin
to rottenness.
“On the occasion of the vintage, as it is absolutely essential that the
grapes should be gathered, not only when perfectly dry, but also warm,
the cutters never commence work until the sun has attained a certain
height, and invariably suspend their labours when rain threatens, or
mists begin to rise. At the first gathering they detach simply the
_graines rôties_, or such grapes as have dried after arriving at proper
maturity, rejecting those which have shrivelled without thoroughly
ripening, and, from the former, a wine of extreme softness and density,
termed _crème de tête_, is produced.
“By the time the first gathering has terminated, other grapes will
have sufficiently ripened and rotted, or dried, and both sorts are now
detached, yielding the wine called _vin de tête_, distinguished by
equal softness with the _crème de tête_, but combined with a larger
amount of alcohol, and greater delicacy of flavour. At this point, a
delay generally ensues, according to the state of the weather, it being
requisite, towards the end of October, to wait while the rays of the
sun, combined with the night dews, bring the remainder of the grapes to
maturity, when the third gathering takes place, from which the wine,
termed _centre_, frequently very fine and spirituous, is produced.
Another delay now ensues, and then commences the final gathering,
when all the grapes remaining on the stalks are picked, which, when
the vintage has been properly conducted, is usually only a very small
quantity, yielding what is termed the _vin de queue_.”
However, although it is not given to all of us to be able to afford
Château d’Yquem, yet there are many of the other white wines of France,
which are within ordinary limits, and which compare more than favourably
with the red wines.
BURGUNDY AND OTHER WINES.
Verily there cannot be much amiss with wine that causes a holy man (by
profession) to break forth into song as follows:—
“Nous les boirons lentement,
Nous les boirons tendrement,
Ton Clos Vougeot, ton Romanée:
Par nous la sainte liqueur,
Qui nous rechauffe le cœur,
Ne sera jamais profanée.”
More generous than the wines of Bordeaux, it has been the drink of Kings
and Popes, and perhaps no vineyard has a similar honour done it as that
of Clos-Vougeot (Napoleon’s favourite wine); for when a French regiment
marches past that celebrated vineyard, it halts, and presents arms.
On the golden slope—the Côte d’Or—is grown this wine of Burgundy, and
the _vignerons_ divide the district into two parts, the Côte de Nuits
and the Côte de Beaune, the first of which produces the finest wines,
from Vosne especially, whence come Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg,
Romanée-St. Vivant, La Grande Rue, Gaudichat, Malconsort, and others;
but of all these Romanée Conti is king. Unfortunately the yield of this
vineyard is very small, and genuine Romanée is seldom to be met with.
But there are plenty of good wines to be bought at moderate prices,
those of Chambertin, Volnay, Beaune, Mâcon, and Beaujolais. Chief among
the white Burgundies is Chablis; but there are other sorts, not half
enough drank in England—Mâcon, Pouilly, Meursault, Chevalier-Montrachet,
Montrachet-Ainé, and many other fine white wines. Sparkling Burgundy is
not to be despised.
The Côtes du Rhone produce fine wines, too, such as Hermitage, Côte
Rôtie, Condrieu, and St. Peray; but of these, perhaps, Hermitage red and
white are best known to us.
Much wine is made in the South of France, in the departments of the
Hérault, the Gard, the Aude, and the Pyrenées-Orientales, whilst
Languedoc has always been famous for its wines, which are very similar to
some Spanish varieties. Roussillon is nearly as good as Burgundy, and,
after being manipulated at Cette, is often palmed off as “Vintage Port,”
and the Muscat wines of the Hérault and the Pyrenées-Orientales are
particularly luscious, especially those from Lunel.