"'Oui, oui, Monsieur,' 's the waiter's answer;
'Quel vin Monsieur desire-t-il?'
'Tell me a good one.'--'That I can, sir:
The Chambertin, with yellow seal.'"
Then again he speaks of dipping his gray beard in the Gascon wine 'ere
Time catches him at it and Death knocks the crimson goblet from his
lips.
In countries where wine is grown there is little or no drunkenness. It
is to be feared that drunkenness is increased by impure wines. It is
shocking to read of the adulterations which first-class wines are
subjected to, or rather the adulterations which are called first-class
wines.
Wilkie Collins has a hit at this in his "No Name," where he makes the
famous Captain Wragge say, "We were engaged at the time in making, in
a small back parlour in Brompton, a fine first-class sherry, sound in
the mouth, tonic in character, and a great favourite with the Court of
Spain."
Our golden sherry, our Chambertin, our Château Lafitte is said often
to come from the vineyards of Jersey City and the generous hillsides
of Brooklyn; and we might perhaps quote from the famous song of "The
Canal":--
"The tradesmen who in liquor deal,
Of our Canal good use can make;
And when they mean their casks to fill,
They oft its water freely take.
By this device they render less
The ills that spring from drunkenness;
For harmless is the wine, you'll own,
From vines that in canals is grown."
A large proportion of the so-called foreign wines sold in America are
of American manufacture. The medium grade clarets and so-called
Sauternes are made in California, in great quantities. Our Senator,
Leland Stanford, makes excellent wines. On the islands of Lake Erie,
the lake region of Central New York, and along the banks of the Ohio
and Missouri Rivers, are vineyards producing excellent wines. An
honest American wine is an excellent thing to drink; and yet it
disgusted Commodore McVicker, who was entertained in London as
President of our Yacht Club, to be asked to drink American wines. Yet
the Catawbas, "dulcet, delicious and creamy," are not to be despised;
neither are the sweet and dry California growths.
The indigenous wines which come from Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and
Mississippi are likely to be musty and foxy, and are not pleasant to
an American taste. The Catawbas are pleasant, and are of three
colours,--rose colour, straw colour, and colourless, if that be a
colour. In taste they are like sparkling Moselle, but fuller to the
palate.
The wine produced from the Isabella grape is of a decided raspberry
flavour. The finest American wines are those produced from the vines
known as Norton's Virginia and the Cynthiana. The former produces a
well-blended, full-bodied, deep-coloured, aromatic, and almost
astringent wine; the second,--probably the finer of the two,--is a
darker, less astringent, and more delicate product.
Among the American red wines may be mentioned the product of the
Schuylkill Muscadel, which was the only esteemed growth in the country
previous to the cultivation of the Catawba grape, being in fact
ambitiously compared to the _crûs_ of the Gironde. It was a bitter,
acidulous wine, little suited to the American palate, and invariably
requiring an addition of either sugar or alcohol.
Longfellow sings of the wine of the Mustang grape of Texas and New
Mexico:--
"The fiery flood
Of whose purple blood
Has a dash of Spanish bravado."
The Carolina Scuppernong is detestable, reminding us of the sweet and
bitter medicines of childhood. The Herbemont, a rose-tinted wine is
very like Spanish Manganilla.
Longfellow says of sparkling Catawba, that it "fills the room with a
benison on the giver." It has, indeed, a charming bouquet, as says the
poet.
The name of Nicholas Longworth is intimately connected with the
subject of American wines. To him will ever be given all honour, as
being the father of this industry in the New World; but the superior
excellence of the California wines has driven the New York and Ohio
wines, it is said, to a second place in the market.
In the expositions of 1889 at Paris, and in Melbourne, silver medals
were awarded to the Inglenook wines, which are of the red claret,
burgundy and Médoc type; also white wines,--Sauterne Chasselas, and
Hock, Chablis, Riesling, etc.
The right soil for the cultivation of the grape is a hard thing to
find; but Captain Niebaum, a rich California grower, has hit the
key-note, when he says, "I have no wish to make any money out of my
vineyard by producing a large quantity of wine at a cheap or moderate
price. I am going to make a California wine which, if it can be made,
will be worthily sought for by _connoisseurs_; and I am prepared to
spend all the money needed to accomplish that result." He says frankly
that he has not yet produced the best wine of which California is
capable, but that he has succeeded in producing a better wine than
many of the foreign wines sold in America. He might have added that
hogsheads of California grape-juice are sent annually to Bordeaux to
be doctored, and returned to America as French claret.
The misfortunes of the vine-grower in Europe, the ruin of acres of
grape-producing country by the phyloxera, should be the opportunity
for these new vine-growers in the United States. It is only by travel,
experiment, and by a close study of the methods of the foreign
wine-growers that a Californian can possibly make himself a vineyard
which shall be successful. He must induce Nature to sweeten his wines,
and he can then laugh at the chemist.
Of vegetables we have not only all that Europe can boast, excepting
perhaps the artichoke, but we have some in constant use and of great
excellence which they have not. For instance, sweet corn boiled or
roasted and eaten from the cob with butter and salt is unknown in
Europe. They have not the sweet potato, so delicious when baked. They
have not the pumpkin-pie although they have the pumpkin. They have
egg-plant and cauliflower and beans and peas, but so have we. They
have bananas, but never fried, which is a negro dish, and excellent.
They have not the plantain, good baked, nor the avocado or alligator
pear, which fried in butter or oil is so admirable. They have not the
ochra, of which the negro cooks make such excellent gumbo soup. They
have all the salads, and use sorrel much more than we do. They do not
cook summer squash as we do, nor have they anything to equal it. They
use vegetables always as an _entrée_, not served with the meat, unless
the vegetable is cooked with the meat, like beef stewed in carrots,
turnips, and onions, veal and green peas, veal with spinach, and so
on. The peas are passed as an _entrée_, so is the cauliflower, the
beet-root, and the turnips. They treat all vegetables as we do corn
and asparagus, as a separate course. For asparagus we must give the
French the palm, particularly when they serve it with Hollandaise
sauce; and the Italians cook cauliflower with cheese, _à ravir_.