These wines are now all forgotten, and, with the exception of the vin de Condrieux, exist no longer. Who could have imagined this a century ago? and how “has it come to pass?” May it not have been, as Le Grand d’Aussy suggests, that the proprietors, blinded by the bait of a sure and speedy sale, which the proximity of the capital afforded, were guilty of the imprudence of neglecting the proper cultivation of the vines, or chose plants of an inferior quality. It was remarked, more than two centuries ago, that the reputation of the Orleans wines was owing to the manner of making them. It appears that the inhabitants of Orleans, like wise and sensible men, confined themselves to that object alone, making it their only occupation. Over the minutest details they exercised supervision and control; whereas the Lyonnais and the Parisians purchased a wine estate, rather as a showy bauble than as a matter of commerce, and completely surrendered the management to paid agents. “Whence comes it,” says Liebaut, “that you rarely hear a native of Orleans or a Bourguignon complain of his vines, whilst the complaints of a Parisian are iteratively urged?” The reason is that one occupies himself personally in the matter, whilst the other trusts to an ignorant or knavish vine-dresser.
To Francis I., and the grandees of his court, Champier attributes the discredit into which the wines of the neighbourhood of Paris had commenced to fall. “These personages,” says he, “having had their taste blunted by good cheer, found the Parisian wines poor and weak. They, therefore, fell on the strong and vigorous wines of the south of France, which they obtained at considerable cost.”
The Auvernat wine of Orleans, so praised by the Abbé de Marolles, is thus severely treated by Boileau,—
The first time I find mention of a vin de Grave is towards the year 1550. If we are to judge from the testimony of Madame de Sévigné, it was indifferently esteemed in her day. In speaking of M. de Lavardin, who is stated by St. Evremont to have been Bishop of Metz, she says, “C’est un gros mérite qui ressemble au vin de Grave.” The district of Graves yields from 1000 to 1500 tuns, generally of a lively and brilliant colour, with more body than the vines of Medoc, but less bouquet, raciness, and fineness. The Graves are so termed from the nature of the soil which produces them. Formerly the appellation was confined to the white sorts; but it now comprehends the red as well as white wines which grow on the gravelly lands to the south-east and south-west of Bordeaux. The Haut-Brion ranks highest amongst the red wines, and approaches in quality to some of the better sorts of Burgundy; but it wants the fine perfume by which the Medoc wines are distinguished.
The vins de Grave are an excellent table wine, and very proper to be taken with oysters, if Chablis cannot be obtained. But little mention is made of the Hermitage wine till the seventeenth century. But if its reputation was tardy, it was at least brilliant. As soon as it became known at the court, it was placed in the first rank of wines. “The king,” wrote Patin, in 1666, “has made a present to the King of England of 200 muids of very good wine of Champagne, Burgundy, and Hermitage.” Boileau, soon afterwards, speaks of it as a wine of first quality. The best white Hermitage I ever drank was a parcel purchased at the sale of the late Marquis of Londonderry’s wines in St. James’s Square, after the death of Emily, Marchioness of Londonderry, in 1828. It was really exquisite,—a perfect liqueur in its way.
“Hermitage wine is divided into five classes. It is styled by the French the richest coloured in their great variety of wines, but it differs much with the seasons as to quality. Red Hermitage will not keep more than twenty years without altering. The price of the first class is often as high as 550 francs the piece of 210 litres. The other growths or classes sell from 450 down to 300, and even as low as 250 francs the piece. When the season is bad, and the wine of moderate quality, the wine of the first growth will not bring more than 250, and of the last, 120 francs.
“Red Hermitage, when it is of the first quality, is not bottled for exportation until it has been four or five years in the cask, in which, as well as in bottles, it is generally sold at that age. The price, in the former case is high, even if the quality be moderate.
“The white Hermitage is made of white grapes only, and divided into three growths. This is the finest white wine France produces. Its colour should be straw-yellow; its odour is like that of no other known wine. It is of a rich taste, between that of the dry and luscious wines. It is often in a state of fermentation for two years, but it is never delivered to the consumer, if it can be avoided, until fermentation is complete. The quantity of real white Hermitage does not exceed 120 pieces annually.”
The reputation acquired by the Burgundy wines was due to an accidental circumstance. Louis XIV. having fallen ill, the physicians advised him the vin de Nuits as the most pectoral and proper to re-establish his health; and thence the reputation which this class of wine has ever since enjoyed. The memoir of the Intendant of Burgundy tells us that the wines of Tonnerre were, in 1698, very much sought after by the Flemish. The vin de Tonnerre is fine, full-flavoured wine, of great body, and very suitable to a damp, cold climate. It is not unlike first-rate old port, but far superior in bouquet and fragrancy. The finest ever drank by me was at the château of the Marquis de Louvois, at Ancy-le-France, and had been grown on his own estate.
The Abbé de Marolles, in his translation of Martial, gives a list of the wines for which Burgundy was renowned in his day, and here they are. The wines of Auxerre, Beaune, Coulanges, Joigny, Irancé, Vermanton, and Tonnerre, “which some people prefer,” says he, “to all other wine” (“que quelques-uns préférent à tous les autres”).
The wine of Tonnerre is certainly particularly calculated for the cold and foggy climate of Burgundy, or for any portion of England. Henderson thus alludes to the vin de Tonnerre:—“The department of the Yonne furnishes several excellent red wines, of which those of Tonnerre and Auxerre have been long celebrated.”
Redding is more copious and careful in his remarks on the Burgundies. “The wines of Tonnerre,” says he, “of the finest kind fetch ninety francs the hectolitre on an average; and the other wines in gradation from sixty to thirty-five. The wine of Olivotte, one of the best, has good flavour, is fine, and of excellent colour, but it lacks the true bouquet, unless in very favourable years. The communes which furnish the best wines are Tonnerre, Epineuil, Dannemonie, for the finer red wines.”
The country round Tonnerre has many distinguished vineyards; as those of Pitoy, de Perrière, and Des Preaux. Near these localities is situated the famous vineyard called Des Olivottes, already spoken of, which produces wines of a good colour, much body, and particularly spirituous. They are at the same time fine and delicate, and possess aromatic flavour and bouquet. Among the white wines of Burgundy is the Chablis, so universally used with oysters, both in France and on the Continent generally. The best classes of Chablis, produced at four leagues from Auxerre, rank among the second classes of white Burgundy. Chablis is not always to be procured good in England, more especially in the provinces; but such as desire a light, pleasant wine with their oysters, may swallow a tumbler of Chablis or Sauterne, or vin de Pouilly, or a large glass of good Bucellas, a wine possessing the fragrancy and bouquet of the Rhenish, with the warm, aromatic, and cordial flavour of the best Spanish and Portuguese wines. Bucellas is produced at about six leagues from Lisbon; it is preferred to the dry wine of Setuval, and is stronger than Barsac. It is, however, like all delicate wines, irretrievably injured by an admixture of brandy. Care should therefore be taken to procure it from a trustworthy source.
To return to the vins de Bourgogne. It would take a volume to describe the different species of Burgundy. It is the vinous product most noted in France for its exquisite flavour, bouquet, and delicacy; but Burgundy is nevertheless a wine which least bears transport even on land, whilst transport by sea is too often fatal to its fragrance and flavour. Within the last thirty years I have imported three parcels, one of which was completely spoiled. The two others (one I procured through the good offices of my late friend the celebrated Mauguin, deputy for Burgundy) arrived soundly and uninjured; but the merchants had taken care to envelope the bottles in a thick paper, very much like cotton wadding, and to encase the wine in two casks, the inner hogshead being smeared over with a composition formed of plaster of Paris and other ingredients of which I am ignorant. Burgundy is also frequently exported, more especially to Russia and America, enveloped in salt. The Burgundy wines are divided into numerous classes. In the quantity yielded, as well as in the quality, these classes differ hugely.
“That of the first class,” says Redding, “is small in quantity, and, if any other wine be mingled with it, is certain to be injured irreparably. From hence it may be judged how little the common wine of Portugal can claim to be classed high in the list of superior wines, when from six to ten gallons of brandy are added to each pipe. The difference in the effect of wine that intoxicates from the presence of a large admixture of alcohol, and that which exhilarates from its native qualities alone, is very singular. The pure wine, by the accurate blending of the constituent parts, even where there has been a habit of free indulgence, never leaves those distressing effects upon the constitution which are caused by drinking wine and unblended alcohol.”
The author of the “Topographie des Vignobles” says that the vineyards of Burgundy cover 103,000 hectares; the produce, on the average, being 2,550,000 hectolitres of wine, 70,000 of which are consumed in the country. The vineyards have increased very much since the Revolution, many landowners having converted into vineyards low and marshy lands; others having introduced manures, or carried new earth upon the old to increase the crop; others, again, have substituted young for the old plants, and even common plants for the fine and superior growths of the vine. This has caused a degeneracy in the wines in the opinion of the purchaser; but, notwithstanding the increase in low and common wines, the number of good vineyards have, in the opinion of good judges, likewise increased. But little has been written in England on the subject of vineyards since the time of Arthur Young, whose work on France was published at Bury St. Edmund’s in 1794, seventy years ago. The most modern journal giving an account of the Burgundy vineyards that I have met with is the journal of Mr. James Busby, published originally in New South Wales, and reprinted by Smith, Elder, and Co. several years ago.
It is no common thing, according to the best authorities, for a hogshead of red Burgundy wine to fetch from 1250 to 1500 francs; but the white wine is never said to rise above 600 francs the hogshead.
Touching the Clos Vougeot in particular, however, M. Joubert remarks—and he represents at Paris the houses of Barton and Guestier of Bordeaux, of Ruinart, père et fils, at Rheims, of Charles Marcy of Nuits, and of Deinhart and Jordan of Coblentz—that this famous vintage is year by year deteriorating. Formerly, says M. Joubert, this wine possessed the greatest renown of any wine in France, but it is not so now. It is no longer the production of artistes, but purely and simply an affair of trade. So long as the vineyard was the property of the monks (we owe to the monasteries the finest vineyards of France), the Clos Vougeot was made with infinite care, and carefully preserved till age had developed its full perfections. The Messrs. Tourton and Ravel had continued to practise these good traditions, but M. Joubert seems to insinuate that since their time fraud and falsification abound in the preparation of the wine. This remark was probably addressed to the late notorious Ouvrard, who, in the year 1832 or 1833, took a large house at the corner of Langham Place, for the purpose of making known these wines. But notwithstanding these frauds, Burgundy produces in good years admirable wines, in the most exact signification of the term, possessing an incomparable colour and bouquet. A worthy Benedictine named Perignon, according to the author of the “Spectacle de la Nature,” presided at the making of the wines of the Abbaye of Hauvilliers; and Pluche says, by the invention of new processes, Père Perignon procured for these wines a reputation which they never enjoyed before.
As though the vinous wealth of Burgundy were not already sufficiently extensive, the wine proprietors have introduced within the last dozen years a sparkling Burgundy; as Deinhart and Jordan, at Coblentz, have sought to introduce a sparkling Moselle; but these new inventions, though applauded by greenhorns, are not patronised by those wiser and older wine drinkers who have been accustomed to Nuits, Volnay, Beaune, Pomard, and Chambertin. The Nuits wine is seldom fit for drinking till the third or fourth year after the vintage, but is said by Henderson to bear the carriage well; and there can be no doubt that, when old, it acquires a high flavour. Salins, who wrote in 1704 the “Defense du vin de Bourgogne contre le vin de Champagne,” says, the inestimable advantage which Burgundy possesses over its rival is that of furnishing successively cases of wine for all seasons of the year. “In the first place,” says he, “there are the wines of Pomard, Beaune, and Volnay; then the white wine of Meulsant; and lastly the Nuits qui n’a pas son pareil et ne peut être assez prisé.”
It is the district of Nuits which produces the Burgundy called St. George and the Meursault wines. Here, also, the curious wine called Mont Rachet is made of three distinct kinds of grape grown on the same aspect, with no difference that can be discovered in soil; and yet, says Redding, one species is so good as to bring three times the price of the others. The wine produced at Volnay, a village situated about three miles from Beaune, was in Barry’s time, who wrote in 1775, exactly eighty-nine years ago, the finest and most volatile wine in Burgundy.
In the year of a good vintage, there is no better wine of entremets than Beaune. It is of a fine red colour, has no noxious qualities, does not heat the blood like other crus of Burgundy, will keep a long time without spoiling, and will bear water carriage. I have drunk excellent Beaune in the remotest corners of Hungary and Transylvania, in the heart of Poland, nay, even in the midst of Russian snows. It is a favourite wine both at Petersburg and Moscow, where great quantities are consumed, mingled with ice and water in the summer months. In order to drink Beaune in perfection, it should not, however, be more than four or five years old.
Pomard is a delicious wine, having body and colour; and, if first-rate, a light and grateful aroma. I have now some more than thirty years old, obtained pure direct from the grower, through the instrumentality and good offices of M. Mauguin, who succeeded the Marquis de Chauvelin, as deputy for the Côté d’Or. A finer wine was never tasted.
Chambertin, it is well known to everyone, was the favourite wine of Napoleon before he arrived at St. Helena. After that period he drank Bordeaux, probably because he thought Burgundy would have been injured by the sea voyage. Chambertin is produced, according to M. Jullien, two leagues and a half from Dijon, occupies twenty-five hectares, and produces yearly from 130 to 150 pieces of excellent wine, which gives a most perfect bouquet and aromatic flavour, what the French wine merchants call sève and moelleux. It has a fuller body and colour than the Romanée, with an aroma nearly as fragrant. The Richebourg Tache and St. George approach, according to Henderson, the Chambertin in their more essential qualities. Chambertin is said to be one of the Burgundy wines which best bears exportation. This, and almost all other Burgundy wines should, however, be drunk in moderation, for they are apt to give a feverish heat to the blood. Herein the true gourmet should follow the advice so happily given by Panard:—
The wine which ranks the highest in estimation of all the Burgundy wines is the Romanée Conti. The produce is exceedingly scant, as the vineyard is limited to five acres. As the quantity is so small, this wine is rarely exported. It sells even on the spot from six to eight francs the bottle. Henderson says it is seldom met with in a genuine state, and that there is reason to believe that the produce of the vineyard of Romanée St. Vivant (so called from the monastery of that name), which is more abundant and of a similar, though inferior quality, is often sold for it. It may be here remarked, that when the monks possessed the superior Burgundy vineyards, they wisely made it a rule to sell the wines only in bottle. Tourton and Ravel of Paris, who purchased the vineyard of Clos Vougeot during the Revolution at a million of francs, or about £500 the English acre, followed this example; but it appears the marked distinction of qualities that existed in the time of the monks has not been kept up, and that it will be long before the ancient character can be regained.
The vinous products of Saone and Loire do not equal the premiers crus of the Côté d’Or, but several of them nearly approach the wines of this far-famed district; and they are in general what French wine-growers call plus solides, i.e., they are less injured in the transport and less exposed to sudden changes, ruinous to the merchant and most unsatisfactory to the consumer. Chalons and Mâcon possess wines of high merit. Under the name of Mâcon wines are comprehended not only the growths of the Mâconnais, but also the wines of the Beaujolais, forming part of the department of the Rhone. Those of Romanèche and of Thorins, in the vicinity of Mâcon, in particular, are esteemed for their delicacy, and sprightliness, and agreeable flavour; that of Chenas, in the canton of Beaujeu, on the other hand, is a more spirituous and fuller wine, and will bear keeping three or four years in the wood. Of these wines the best are grown, according to Henderson, on a granitic soil. Formerly the plant called chanay, which produces a very small grape, and yields an excellent wine, was in general cultivation here; but the cupidity of the farmers had led to the substitution of the Bourguignon grape, in which, as usual, quality is exchanged for quantity.
It may not be uninteresting to state that the Mâcon wines are praised by no less an authority than Gregory of Tours; and mention is also made of them in the “Comédie des Côteaux ou les Friands Marquis,” published in the year 1665. They are, without any doubt, the wholesomest wines that come from Burgundy, and may be drunk with impunity at all seasons of the year; but a great portion of the ordinary Mâcon consumed at Paris is adulterated. When, however, this wine is obtained genuine, it is equal to mothers’ milk. I remember as a boy dining with an old gentleman of large fortune in the Chaussée d’Antin, who had been one of the Mousquetaires Rouges, and who gave me goblet after goblet of this pure Mâcon.
“Where, my dear sir, did you obtain this excellent wine?” I asked.
“Ah, mon cher!” said my old friend, “that was a present to me from Créuzé de Lesser, when he was Prefect at Autun. I doubt that my neighbour Tourton, who lives at the corner of the Rue de Provence, or that Jovet or Vilcoq of Antun could match it!”
Mâcon wine may be generally imported into England without risk of being injured in flavour. There is one observation which might be made on the wines of Burgundy before this part of the subject is closed, and the observation equally applies to all wines which have, like the Burgundies, a very fine bouquet and aromatic flavour. Such wines should never be iced. Icing, or even a too cold cellar, causes them to lose that inappreciable and fugacious flavour which is developed by a moderate degree of heat. Burgundies should be taken out of the cellar an hour or two before dinner and placed in the dining-room, within the wake of a temperate fire.
I go farther than most persons, and maintain that most red wines should not be iced. It may be answered, that “there is no wine more iced than Claret in all the Indian presidencies;” but this Claret so iced is not the pure juice of the grape. It is a loaded wine made for the market, which every genuine lover of Claret should abhor. It was the custom in the first society of Bordeaux, and always at the prefecture, in the days of Baron d’Haussey, afterwards Minister of Marine to Charles X., to serve Claret with a tepid napkin round the claret-jug or decanter into which the wine was poured, or round the green glass bottle itself, if, as indeed it more frequently happened, the wine was not decanted. This gentle heat brings out advantageously the flavour and aroma of the wine.
As to the period of the dinner when Burgundy should be introduced, all I would say is this, that it should not be served later than the roast. A glass of Pomard, Nuits, or Chambertin, may be very well taken after the first mouthful of a good haunch of South Down or a filet de bœuf à la Poivrade is swallowed. Neither should I object to a repetition of the dose (whatever Lord Brougham, who contends for Claret after game, may say to the contrary) after swallowing a slice of woodcock, partridge, or that excellent bird, so justly bepraised, the golden plover; but to reserve Burgundy for the entremets, sucrés, or dessert, is a piece of rampant snobbishness worthy of a nouveau riche.
The water-drinkers may laugh at me for having written at such length on such subjects, but I answer in the lines of François de Neufchateau:—
I now come to Champagne wine. The quarrel which existed in the time of Louis XIV. between the Burgundy doctor and the Champenois, concerning the respective merits and defects of the wines of their different provinces, has been before alluded to. The Bourguignon maintained that Burgundy merited a preference over the wine of Rheims, for that these latter over-excited the nerves, produced dangerous maladies, such as the gout; and, in a word, that Fagon, first physician to Louis XIV., forbade their use to that monarch. The citizens of Rheims deemed themselves in duty bound to resent this insult, and the faculty of medicine of the town was charged with the task. The faculty, of course, maintained that the wines of Aï, Pierri, Versenai, Silleri, Hauvilliers, Tassi, Montbré, and St. Thierri, bore off the bell in the “top-loftiest manner,” as Sam Slick would say, from Burgundy; that they possessed a more limpid colour, a sweeter perfume, more body, and greater durability. The Bourguignon rejoined, that the courts of England, Germany, and Denmark, drank no other beverage than Burgundy; “and as to Champagne,” says he, “it owes its renown to the two ministers, Colbert and Le Tellier, who, as wine-proprietors, vaunted their own vineyards in the neighbourhood of Rheims.”
This was, however, a mistake. Colbert was, indeed, a Champenois, but neither he nor Le Tellier gave renown to the wines of Champagne. The vineyards of Champagne had been celebrated for centuries before they were born; and Francis I., Leo X., Charles V., and Henry VIII., had each of them a vineyard at Aï, with a resident superintendent. The other objections of the Bourguignon have more show of reason. “Champagne is a wine,” says he, “which is neither strong, nor full-bodied, nor generous. It is weak, insipid, and watery, liable to change colour, incapable of bearing exportation, or a long journey; whereas Volnay was drunk in Poland at the coronation of Sobieski, and Beaune was served at Venice by Comandante Morosini at the entertainment which he gave the senators after the conquest of the Morea, when it was considered one of the first wines of Europe.”
The champion of Champagne answered with an extract from a letter of St. Evremond to the Duke d’Olonne:—“Fussiez vous a deux cens lieues de Paris, n’épargnez aucune dépense, pour avoir des vins de Champagne. Ceux de Bourgogne ont perdu leur credit auprès des gens qui ont le goût délicat; et à peine conservent ils un reste de réputation chez les marchands.”
This vinous battle continued till 1741, when another question was started, viz. “Le vin de Champagne est il aussi salutaire qu’agréable?” It was à propos of this question that the Sieur Navier maintained twenty years later, in the schools of Rheims, that Champagne might be usefully employed in putrid fevers. But notwithstanding these pros and cons, the world went on pretty much as usual. Those who relished Champagne drank it, and those who preferred Burgundy swallowed their modicum of their favourite tipple without the least regard to the literary combatants. So it will ever be.
The department of Marne, in the opinion of most women, and of all boys, is the real and genuine vinous glory of France. I admit that if you find a Champagne of a really first-rate cru; limpid, neither too sweet, nor too sparkling, nor too spirituous; but brisk with body, vinous, and retaining these amiable qualities so as fully to develope them in the arrière bouche—that then you obtain a rare wine, and not to be despised. But how seldom, how very rarely indeed, is such a wine to be had!
In consequence of the tricks played with Champagne wines, the generality of the vintages possess not that perfect, piquant, and fine flavour which heretofore characterized them. How can it be otherwise? A gentleman with whom Mr. Busby travelled told him he could buy very good sound Champagne at Châlons for two francs a bottle, and was then going to purchase one hundred bottles at that price. Millions of bottles of champagne mousseux are, however, yearly sold in the Champagne country at two and three francs the bottle, and this shocking swipes is too dear by half. Champagne should only be purchased with the greatest precautions.
“By Champagne wine,” says Henderson, “is usually understood a sparkling or frothing liquor, or a wine subjected to an imperfect fermentation, and containing a quantity of carbonic acid gas that has been generated during the insensible fermentation in bottle, and is disengaged on removing the pressure by which it was retained in solution. This notion is not altogether correct; for the district under review furnishes many excellent wines, both red and white, which do not effervesce. It is true, indeed, that most of the white, or River Marne wines, are brisk; and in general, they are of superior quality, and more highly esteemed than the red or mountain wines. They are distinguished by their delicate flavour and aroma, and the agreeable pungency and slightly acidulous taste which they derive from the carbonic acid. Their exhilarating virtues are familiar to every one.
“It must be remembered, however, that the briskest wines are not always the best. They are, of course, the most defective in true vinous quality, and the small portion of alcohol which they contain immediately escapes from the froth as it rises on the surface, carrying with it the aroma, and leaving the liquor that remains in the glass nearly vapid; for it has been shown by Humboldt, that when the froth is collected under a bell-glass, surrounded with ice, the alcohol becomes condensed on the sides of the vessel by the operation of the cold. Hence the still, or the creaming, or slightly sparkling Champagne wines (crêmants, or demi-mousseux) are more highly valued by connoisseurs, and fetch greater prices than the full-frothing wines (grand-mousseux). By icing these wines before they are used, the tendency to effervesce is in some degree repressed, or only allowed to operate to such an extent as may be compatible with the more perfect flavour that we desire to find in them; but when they are kept cool this precaution is unnecessary.
“Among the white wines of Champagne, the first rank is usually assigned to those of Sillery, under which name is comprehended the produce of the vineyards of Verzenay, Mailly, Raument, &c. It is a dry, still liquor, of a light amber colour, with considerable body and flavour, somewhat analogous to that of the first growths of the Rhine, and, being one of the best fermented Champagne wines, may be drunk with the greatest safety. Having been originally brought into vogue by the peculiar care bestowed on the manufacture of it by the Maréchale d’Estrées, it was long known by the name vin de la Maréchale. It has always been in much request in England, probably on account of its superior strength and durable quality. It is usually drunk iced.”
The rich dry Sillery is kept longer in the cask than the other wines, and the fermentation not being checked, it is esteemed more wholesome. The still wines of Epernay are inferior to those of Rheims; but the other kinds, according to Redding, approached very nearly to those of Aï in delicacy of bouquet. The price to the merchant on the spot, according to the same authority, is about 2s. 3d. a bottle, and in scarce years 2s. 6d. In an article in the “Encyclopædia Metropolitana,” it is said that those wines must be kept three years in bottle to attain perfection, and will continue excellent for ten, twenty, and even thirty years or more, if they are of prime quality. This, under favour and with submission, is a grave mistake. Champagne, with the exception of first-rate qualities, is not a vin de garde, and requires to be looked after every year. If there be the least sediment or deposit, it is the custom in all the great wine-vaults in Champagne to filter the wine into fresh bottles. The Champagne wines are short-lived; but if the quality of the liquor be of the very best, the wine does not acquire perfection till it has been three years in bottle. Supposing it to be of the very primest quality, the cream of Champagne certainly may last for fifteen or twenty years, and still acquire perfection. Some there are, indeed, who say that delicious Champagne has been tasted forty years old. I never tasted any above thirteen years old, and that was many years ago, at the house of Mr. Marsh, author of “The Clubs of London,” then living in the Rue de Bourbon, Faubourg St. Germain. A friend, however, who is a good judge of Champagne, and fond of a good glass of it—and, what is better than all, a good fellow,—says he has tasted excellent twenty years old, and I defer to his authority, now that the old Irish peer, Allen (the fondest and most inveterate of Champagne-drinkers I ever encountered, whether peer or plebeian), is not producible, or, at least, not forthcoming to give his evidence, though called on his subpœna.
It should be stated, that the wine-growers in Champagne prepare their merchandise for the various tastes and caprices of different nations. Thus, the Champagne for the Russians is a very different wine from the Champagne for the Germans; which, again, differs from the wine confectionné for the English market. The Americans are said to put up with anything which foams and sparkles in a “tarnation toplofty fashion.” In Jaquesson’s cellars at Châlons sur Marne, you see bins for all the principal towns of the world,—London, Vienna, Paris, Petersburg, Madrid, &c.
Champagne, unlike Burgundy or Claret, is a wine always improved by ice. The chief characteristic of the best Champagne is its exquisite delicacy of flavour. The strength of the bottles for the sparkling wines, and their uniform thickness, are most carefully ascertained. A bottle with the least imperfection or malformation is put aside for the red wines.
It were useless to particularise every variety of wine produced in Champagne. Some of the classes are so bad that they will not bear exportation. The wine most esteemed after the Sillery is the Aï; but it is nearly equalled by the wine of Mareuil. The wine of Pierry is drier, but will keep longer than those of Aï, and nearly equals them in quality. The wines of Dizz follow next, and lastly Epernay, part of whose wines is inferior, and part equal to those of Aï.
The author of the “Topographie des Vignobles” thus speaks of the high price of the Vins Mousseux:—“The high price of the Vins Mousseux,” says Jullien, “comes not only from the quality of the wines chosen to make them, and the infinite pains required before they are finished, but also from the considerable losses to which the proprietors and dealers are exposed in this kind of speculation, and the strange phenomena which determine or destroy the qualité mousseuse. As to losses, the owners count in general upon fifteen or twenty bottles broken in a hundred; sometimes even thirty or forty. To this must be added the diminution which takes place as the wine is separated from its deposits by decanting,—an operation which is performed at least twice.”
These certainly are curious and unexplainable phenomena; but explainable or not, one thing is certain, that if gentlemen wish to obtain first-rate Champagne, whether still or sparkling, they must go to a respectable wine-merchant, and pay a good price, whether at home or abroad. In dealing with Moët, or Ruinart, or any other accredited agent, they cannot fail to find a superior article; but they should avoid the cheap Champagnes with as much care as they would avoid the feculent water flowing out of Fleet Ditch into the Thames. Mr. Redding, in a valuable little book of his called “Every Man his own Butler,” says, “Some people fancy they get better Champagne by going to the docks and choosing for themselves.” But that this is not so will be very apparent, when it is stated that hundreds of thousands of bottles of Champagne are imported, which, glass, wine, and all, are not worth the duty.
The bottling of the effervescing Champagne wines begins in March, and the fermentation in May. The latter continues all the summer, but is particularly strong in June, during the flowering of the vine; and in August, when the fruit begins to ripen. At these times, the greatest loss in the bursting of bottles takes place, and it is not safe to pass through a cellar without being guarded with a mask of iron wire. It occasionally happens that the workmen who neglect this precaution are sometimes severely, sometimes dangerously, wounded. Among the wines prepared to effervesce—or, to use the technical phrase, for la mousse—there are some which only partake of a slight fermentation. These are the crêmants wines, which drive out the cork with less force, and sparkle in the glass. Their mousse is frothy, and, like the
They are said to have the advantage over the Vins grand mousseux, in preserving more vinous qualities and being less sharp. Their price is also higher, for they are sought for by connoisseurs, and cannot be obtained in great quantity. The best red Champagne wines are produced upon the north side of the declivities of the Marne, which are called the Montagnes de Rheims.
The Champagne wine-merchants use the greatest precaution in packing their wines for exportation. The sides of the baskets or cases are lined with pasteboard, and each bottle is enveloped in a sheet of blue or grey paper. Champagne mousseux, exported to the Indies or America, is preserved from the excessive heat by being packed in salt. At the bottom of the case there is a layer of straw, and then a layer of salt, upon which the first row of bottles is placed. Jullien, in his “Manuel du Sommelier,” states that the finest Burgundies thus packed have preserved all their qualities on a voyage to India, and experienced but fourteen degrees of heat in passing under the equator.
I come at length to Claret, and with Francesco Redi, exclaim,—
Blessed, indeed, be Bordeaux, the ground that bare it; for it is king of all wines, past, present, and to come! Of this opinion, too, was Lémery, physician to Louis XIV., who thus speaks of it:—“Claret,” says he, “of all others, is generally the best wine for all constitutions; and the reason is, because it contains a sufficient quantity of tartarous parts, that make it less heady and more stomachical than white wine. As for pale wine; it is a middling sort, between the red and white; the same is made of grapes of the same colour, or else by mixing white wine with a little red.”
The Bordeaux wines are generally divided into vins de Médoc, des Graves, des Palus, des Côtes, de Terre forte, and vins d’entre deux Mers; but so much do they differ by the taste, colour, bouquet, durability, and a thousand imperceptible shades, that it would be difficult to give an exact list of the varied and magnificent productions of the Gironde. Commercial men have, however, established two recognised classes, which appear to be tacitly admitted by all parties, and which may serve as a guide to the purchaser. In the first class are ranked Château Margeaux, Château Lafitte, Latour, Haut Brion. The product of these four vintages may be rated at from 400 to 450 tonneaux, the value of which represents a capital of 2400 to 3000 francs per tonneau. When age has developed the qualities of these wines, more particularly in a good vintage, the value is at least doubled. For the last twenty years the Haut Brion seems to be on the wane in public favour, and it sells at a lesser price than one of its three rivals.
The second class of Bordeaux wines is composed of the Rauzan, Braune, Mouton, Léoville, Gruau, La Rose, Pichon, Longueville, Durfort, Degorse, Destournelle; producing 850 tonneaux, which ranges at from 2000 to 2100 francs the tonneau.
The third class comprises within its ranks the Kirwan, Château d’Issau, Poujets, many clos of Cantenac, and of Margeaux, Mulescot, Ferrière, Giscours, &c. These vineyards produce about 1100 tonneaux, of the value of from 1700 to 1800 francs the tonneau.
The fourth class has two divisions: first, the Saint Julien, Béchevelle, Saint Pierre, &c.; producing about 650 tonneaux, worth about from 1200 to 1500 each. In the second division are ranged the great properties of Pauillac and Saint Estèphe, with some others, producing about 1000 tonneaux, at from 1000 to 1200 francs the tonneau.
The difference which exists between these four or five superior qualities of wine, and the wines made by small proprietors, which are sold at from 300 to 450 francs the tonneau, results less from the quality of the grape and the nature of the soil than from circumstances incident to the want of capital, and from the desire of obtaining quantity at the expense of quality. There can be no doubt whatever that the large capitalist purchases a better wine than the small one, though the small capitalist has it in his power to produce as good a bottle of wine on his own table as his richer neighbour. But, when he caters for the public, it is more profitable by different mixtures to produce 100 tonneaux of middling quality than fifty of superior wine, even though the latter be sold at a considerably higher price than the former. In the cellars at Bordeaux there is great management of the wine. It is always kept in a vault or cellar pretty nearly of the same temperature, and is fed, once every two or three weeks, if intended for the English or foreign market, with a pint or two of the best brandy. The wine is frequently tasted to know what state it is in, and the brandy is used accordingly. Care must, however, be taken never to put in much at a time, especially for wines intended for immediate sale, as such a mode of proceeding would destroy the flavour of the wine, and cause it to taste fiery. If a little be put in at a time, it is said to incorporate quickly with the wine, and to feed and mellow it. Among the London wine merchants the custom is, if the Claret be faint and has lost its colour, to rack it into a fresh hogshead upon the lees of good Claret. It is then bunged up, pulling the bung downwards for two or three days that the lees may run through it, after which its bung is laid up till it be fine. If the colour be not then perfect, it is racked off again into a hogshead that has been nearly drawn off, then an ounce of cochineal is added, shaken up in a bottle of wine, and put it into the hogshead; and by this method the wine is said to acquire both a good colour and body. Sometimes a pound of turnsole is put into a gallon or two of wine, and the cask rolled about, and then the wine-doctors tell you your beverage will have a perfect colour. The greenhorns may think this is pure invention; but, lest I should be thought “to draw on my fancy for facts,” I extract the following receipts from the work of John Davies, who, having practised them on the lieges of Leeds for a long while, at length came up to the metropolis, and published his work “On the Managing, Colouring, and Flavouring of Foreign Wines and Spirits,”—a work which subsequently went through many editions. The following are his receipts verbatim et literatim:—
“Method of Colouring Claret.—Take as many as you please of damsons or black sloes, and strew them with some of the deepest-coloured wine you can get, and as much sugar as will make it into a syrup. A pint of this will colour a hogshead of Claret. It is also good for red Port wines, and may be kept ready for use in glass bottles.
“A Remedy for Claret that drinks Foul.—Rack off your Claret from the dregs on some fresh lees of its own kind, and then take a dozen of new pippins, pare them, and take away the cores or hearts, then put them in your hogsheads, and, if that is not sufficient, take a handful of the oak of Jerusalem and bruise it, then put it into your wine, and stir it very well. This not only takes away the foulness, but also gives it a good scent.”
The great commerce of Bordeaux is in its wine, but it is much diminished since the loss of St. Domingo. A considerable export of wines, not so loaded as they formerly were, has recently taken place to the East Indies; and no doubt the opening of the China trade will also somewhat tend to improve the condition and state of the Gironde wine-grower. But what most desire to see, would be a freer exchange of the vinous wealth of France with England. It is in every sense desirable that our population, instead of drinking that thick and heady Port, consumed by the Eldons and Stowells of a past generation, and some old dons and tutors of Oxford, a few old barristers, and a great mass of attorneys of the present generation, should drink the ordinary red Bordeaux wines; or, if they will have white wines, those Sauternes and Graves whose prices sometimes rise so high as 3000 francs the tonneau. There is not a pleasanter or more healthful wine than good Sauterne. It is, of course, difficult to get pure Sauterne in taverns or hotels; but to such as have not establishments in town, a trial of the Sauterne at Bellamy’s, at the House of Commons, would be advisable. The following account of Jullien is very interesting:—
“The inferior wines of Bordeaux,” says the author of the “Topographic des Vignobles,” are exported to America and the interior of France; those of the first quality to India, Russia, and England.
“The difference in price between the first and inferior wines is very great. Those of the best vineyards sell generally the first year at from 2000 to 3000 francs the tonneau, and rise to 5000 or 6000, and even higher, in a very favourable vintage. On the contrary, the vins communs fetch only from 100 to 120 francs, and seldom rise to more than 200 or 300.
“The wine of first quality, at its point of maturity, ought to have a beautiful colour, much firmness, a very agreeable bouquet, and a flavour which embalms the mouth, strength without intoxicating, and body without harshness. The Bordeaux wines are, contrary to the generality of French wines, improved by a sea voyage; and wines of the second and third quality, after a voyage, have equalled those of the first.
“The English houses at Bordeaux, immediately after the vintage, purchase a large quantity of the wines of all the best vineyards, in order that they may undergo la travaille à l’anglaise. This operation consists in putting into fermentation part of the wines during the following summer; by mixing in each barrel from thirteen to eighteen pots of Alicant or Benicarlo, or the wines of the Hermitage, Cahors, Languedoc, and others; one pot of white wine called Muet (wine whose fermentation had been stopped by the fumes of sulphur), and one bottle of spirits of wine. The wine is drawn off in December, and then laid up in the chars (cellars) for some years. By this operation the wines are rendered more spirituous and very strong, they acquire a good flavour, but are intoxicating. The price, likewise, is increased.
“The age of wine at Bordeaux is counted par feuilles; that is, the number of times the vine has been in leaf since the vintage. The years which the wines require to be kept vary, but those of vins de Graves do not reach perfection before the fifth or sixth.”
This is a recent account; but it will be well to hear what old Barry, who wrote ninety years ago, says on the same subject. After having perused his account it will appear that we, at the commencement of the twentieth century, are but practising, with variations, the tricks which our ancestors played centuries ago.
“The French wine-merchants,” says Barry, “encouraged by the great demands for these Claret wines, first began to mix their inferior wines with the Spanish; and, though there was a severe law forbidding this practice, yet it was connived at, as it increased the value and demand for them. This encouraged some persons from hence and Ireland to reside there as factors, with a view, at first, of acquiring the profit arising from the large commissions which before had always been consigned to the French wine-merchants. But these factors soon became wine-merchants likewise, among whom it was usual to employ their tasters, after the vintage was over, to examine the new wines; and, when they had been properly informed, purchased such a quantity as was sufficient to answer the demands they expected. These were soon after mixed and prepared with the Spanish wines, which added more strength and flavour to them. Thus the price of them was gradually raised much higher than the wines of these growths had been formerly estimated.
What Barry says about factors is perfectly true; but a very old Bordeaux wine-merchant and wine-grower informed me, nearly forty years since, that the factors of seventy years ago were principally Irish and Scotch, and that there were at that period many Irish and Scotch among the proprietors of vineyards. “There were,” said he, “Gernons, Byrnes, Cruises, Cassins, M’Donnells, Maxwells, Stewarts, M’Laurins, among the factors; and among the proprietors of vineyards Cockburns, M’Kinnons, Kirwans, Frenches, Dalys, Walshes, Bogles, Archers, and O’Connors.” This may have accounted for the superiority which Dublin and Edinburgh obtained more than half a century ago over the London market in respect of Claret,—a superiority which was attested by the great run made for these wines on the house of Sneyd, French, and Barton; Cockburn and Co.; Cranston and Co.; Stewart and Co.; Roche and Co.; Sir John Ferns and Co.; Sir Anthony Perrier and Co.; Brook and Co.; Wilson and Co., and many others.
The excellence of the Bordeaux wines was celebrated even in the days of Ausonius, and they have uniformly maintained their repute. They are, without any manner of doubt, the most perfect wines that France produces. They keep perfectly, are improved by sea carriage, and may be freely exported to any part of the world. The original fermentation being usually very complete, they are less disposed to acidity, and are more wholesome than the wines of Burgundy. A great proportion of the wine, however, which is drunk as Claret, is but vin ordinaire, or the secondary wine of the country, for the prime growths fall far short of the demand which prevails for these wines all over the world. In Bordeaux the very best growths are scarce, and cannot be purchased at less than from six to seven francs a bottle. “During the twenty years that I have been living at Bordeaux,” says one of Rozière’s correspondents, “I have not tasted three times any wine of the first quality; yet I am in the way of knowing it and getting it when it is to be had. The wines of the year 1784 were so superior to those of other years, that I have never met with anything like them.”
Whence comes the word Claret? From the French adjective clairet, which in the feminine, is clairette. In the masculine it is only used of what is called a vin rouge paillet, vinum rubellum sanguineum. In this sense a man is said to be entre le blanc et le clairet, i.e., that he is entre deux vins. Hypocras was formerly called Claret, and is still so called in Germany. Old Cowel, in his “Interpreter,” says, “This denomination originates from claretum, a liquor made anciently of wine and honey, clarified by decoction, which the Germans, French, and English call hippocras, and it is for this reason that the red wines of France were called Claret.”
In Pegg’s “Cury” there is an account of the rolls of provisions, with their prices, in the time of Henry VIII., and we there find at the dinner given at the marriage of Gervys Clifton and Mary Nevil, the price of three hogsheads of wine (one white, one red, one claret), was set down at 5l. 5s.
The department of the Rhone produces the Côte Rôti at a vineyard about seven leagues from Lyons. This a wine which possesses body, spirit, flavour, and perfume. If allowed to remain in the cask for five or six years, it improves wonderfully. It may then be bottled, and will improve in bottle for twenty years. The Côte Rôti is a wine much drunk in Switzerland and Franche Comté. It is grown at Ampuis, and ranks as one of the best wines of France. It is, when young, slightly bitter and rather heady, but is much improved by a voyage. The flavour somewhat resembles red Hermitage, and if it were generally imported into England, it would be preferred to Port by all who have a sound palate and liver.
Tain, four leagues from Valence, possesses the famous Hermitage vineyard. Hermitage is divided into five classes. It is not bottled for exportation till it has been four or five years in the cask. The price of the wine is high, even if the quality be moderate. I am in possession of some obtained twenty years ago as a favour, at 96s. a dozen, from the Prince Charles de Broglie, and with freight, carriage, interest of money, &c., it now stands me in at least seven guineas the dozen.
The white Hermitage is made of white grapes only, and is divided into three growths. It is an exquisite and most delicious beverage, and may be pronounced to be the finest white wine France produces. White Hermitage is said to keep a century. I tasted some bought at the sale of the late Marquess of Londonderry’s wines in St. James’s Square, which must be at least sixty years old, and a more delicious wine was never produced at table. The only difference between it and white Hermitage of five years old is that the tint and colour are of a deep amber, but in dryness, richness, and aroma, it is unrivalled.
In 1836, a few bottles of this wine, which had been in the late Marquess of Wellesley’s cellars since 1807, was purchased by me; but, although a fine wine, it was not to compare with the Hermitage of the late Lord Londonderry, better known as Lord Castlereagh.
The grape from which the red Hermitage is made is supposed to have come originally from Persia.[36] The vineyard was, it is said, planted by a hermit of Bessas for his amusement.
Richard and Sons are among the first wine-merchants and bankers at Tournon, a town on the opposite side of the Rhone to Tain, and joined to it by a suspension-bridge. They export large quantities of the finest growth of Hermitage to Bordeaux to mix with the first growths of Claret. The largest wine-press in France belongs to this firm. By one charge of it the proprietors can obtain forty casks of wine, of about fifty gallons each.
One of the principal proprietors of the Hermitage vineyards is a gentleman of Irish descent, a Mr. Machon. The soil on which the Hermitage grows is highly calcareous, and it is to this peculiarity, as well perhaps as to the selection of the plants, that the wine owes its superiority. The labour bestowed in the vineyards is said to be unremitting.
The cost of wine cultivation in France is immense, and it seldom happens that more than four or five per cent., and frequently not more than two or three, are returned to the landowner.
The German wines, as a general description, may be pronounced generous and finely flavoured, rich in bouquet, and the least acid among the northern wines. They are, however, drier than the wines of France. That they are what the French call vins de garde, or wines that will keep, is plainly apparent from the fact that the better qualities have been found perfect at eighty and even at a hundred years old. The Moselle wines are among the least acid of the German, or indeed of the wines of any country. The German jurist Hontheim says the best Moselle wines make men cheerful; when drunk in quantity and old, good; the heat leaving the body and head without inconvenience and disorder. Rüdesheim, six leagues from Mayence, is said to produce the best wines in Germany, having more body, strength, and bouquet, than those on the left bank of the Rhine. An auhm of 1811 sells for 55l. On the Johannisberg wines it would be unnecessary to dilate here. Barry, seventy years ago, in speaking of the Hock wines, adduced, as a circumstance that contributed to their advancement, the fact that there was an annual addition of a due proportion of the recent and new wine of the same growth to the old wine. In his day the best old Hock sold at the price of 50l. the auhm. The Rhine wines of most strength are the Marcobrunner, Rüdesheimer, and Nierstiner. The Johannisberger, Geissenheim, and Hockheim have the most perfect delicacy and aroma. The wines of Bischeim, Asmanshausen, and Laubenheim, are also light and agreeable. The German proverb says, “Rhein wein, fein wein, Necker wein, lecre wein, Franken wein, tranken wein, Mosel wein, unnosel wein.” But the wines of all wines are the Julius Hospitalis Steinwein of 1811, and the Cabinet Leinstenwein of 1822. I remember in 1828 and 1829 drinking fine specimens of both at the Three Moors at Augsburg (a capital hotel), and noting down that the price of the Steinwein was four florins, twenty-four kreutzers, and of the Leinstenwein five florins, forty-eight kreutzers; the one amounting nearly to 8s. and the other fully to 9s. of our money. They are both exquisite wines, but are said to produce strangury. Switzerland grows little good wine. The Neufchâtel would, perhaps, most please an English palate; it is equal to the third quality of Burgundy, and has some resemblance to Port without much body.
On the Spanish wines I must be brief. Under the influence of the sun of a warm climate, they contain more alcohol, and are altogether differently prepared. The grapes are suffered to become quite ripe, and part of the must is concentrated by boiling it in large cauldrons for forty-four hours. The Spanish wines, however, with the exception of those of Xeres and Malaga, are greatly neglected in the manufacture. Manzinilla, the country wine of the district of Xeres de la Frontena, is a light, pleasant beverage, not destitute of mellowness and flavour. It is far preferable in every respect to those loaded, coloured compounds which pass for Sherries in London taverns.
The extent of the cellars of Gordon and Co., of Cadiz, is immense. The length of the largest 306 feet, and the breadth 222 feet. The ordinary stock of wine is said to be 4000 butts, which is kept in casks of various sizes, containing from one to four butts. The wine merchants of Xeres never exhaust their stock of finest and oldest wine. A cask of wine, said to be fifty years old, may contain a portion of the vintages of thirty or forty seasons. The better class of wine merchants at Xeres never ship wine for England till it is two years old. The higher qualities of Sherry are made up of wine the bulk of which is from three to five years old; and this is mixed in the older wines. From the gradual mixture, therefore, of the wines of various ages, no wine can be less a natural wine than Sherry. The Amontillado is a dry kind of Sherry, abounding in a dry, nutty flavour. It is very light in colour, and is often used to restore the colour of Sherries of too deep a brown. It sells much dearer than other Sherry wines. The Malaga Sherry very much resembles the wine of Xeres, and large quantities are exported to foreign countries as genuine Sherry. 200l. have been paid for a first-rate cask of Malaga.
On the Portuguese wine called Port I shall not waste many words. When dry and old it is a good winter wine for old people, if they restrict themselves to a glass or two.
A good glass of genuine Madeira which has gone the rounds, is good after soup, but the wine is no longer fashionable.
The only Italian wines worth drinking are the Montefiascone, Montepulciano, and Vino d’Asti. Many of these wines are too harsh, and some of them are too thick and sweet for a French or English palate.
Some of the wines of Hungary are very tolerable. The Tokay wine is exquisite. Even the Maslas, which is a diluted Tokay, is a splendid wine; soft, oily, and stomachic. A glass of it may be had any day after dinner, at about 10d. or 1s. English, in the Speise Saal of the Schwann, at Vienna, where I in my youth consumed many a bottle of Tokay. The Vermuth is a stomachic mixture, too much bepraised by those who have never tasted it; indeed, as much overpraised as the Crême d’Absinthe. All the Greek wines are also over-rated. There are tuns of them not worth the amount of a farrier’s yearly bill for shoeing a dog; or if you wish the Gallic phrase, “ne valent pas les quatres fers d’un chien.”
The Constantia wine of the Cape, though much liked by Frenchmen of seventy and upwards, and Frenchwomen above forty, never can be generally a favourite with Englishmen. There are some few Russian wines. At Kaffa, in the Crimea, they produce a Champagne very nearly as good as either the growth of the Borough or Lambeth.
Of New South Wales wines a word or two. I learned with much pleasure that the French, and all other wines, are now tried in that colony; and that the climate is particularly well suited to the growth of the vine. The preparation and keeping of the wine must, however, be much more attended to than heretofore. At the Cape, too, the English wine-growers have gone on very progressively from year to year in ameliorating their Pontacs. The best white Capes fetch, since their flinty character is diminishing, prices as high as Sherries of middling qualities. Such prices were, however, encouraged perhaps by the import duties on colonial wine being only half the amount levied on foreign grown. As these Cape wines are now so pure as to mix well with Xeres wines, the conscientious London dealer, of course, largely availed himself of a colonial-grown article to mix with Sherry wines for English country consumption.
Two works have recently been published on wine, in which may be found chapters dedicated to the wines of Southern Africa, Greece, the Western Archipelago, and to the wines of Columbia, Australia, &c. But notwithstanding these efforts to introduce new vintages from Italy, Greece, Hungary, Australia, and Southern Africa, elderly and middle-aged men of the present generation are certain still to adhere to the old wines which their fathers and grandfathers consumed for the last half-century. It may, I think, even be doubted whether the use of any new vintages can become general (supposing them to be as good or better than the old) before the end of the present century or A.D. 1900, from which coming epoch we are still removed by an interval of seven and thirty years. It would, therefore, be the idlest of idle follies in me to recommend to any host to fill his cellar with new vintages of which his guests knew nothing, and which they might not relish. The aim of a host, now as heretofore, should be to have choice wines and liqueurs, all excellent of their kind. Persons of moderate fortune should look to the excellence of the quality of the wines, rather than to the variety of their stock. With good bins of Sherry, Madeira, Port, Claret (white and red), Champagne, Hock, and Burgundy, any gentleman is in a position to entertain his guests worthily. Larger quantities of Sherry, Port, Madeira, and first-rate Claret, may be laid in than of lighter wines, for of these latter the consumption will be necessarily less.
At most London dinners in the season, Champagne, Sauterne, Barsac, Rhenish and Moselle wines are produced; but of the four latter wines scarcely more than a bottle of each is used, though three or four bottles of Champagne may be consumed, in a party of twelve. But, notwithstanding that there is a more considerable consumption of Champagne than of other light wines, it is not advisable that any private gentleman should have a large stock of this wine in his cellar, as after a twelvemonth it is apt to get ropy, and to require fresh bottling. But of the vins de garde, such as Madeira, Sherry, Port, first-rate Claret, and Burgundy, a host may profitably cellar as large a quantity as his fortune will allow. Of one thing, however, every purchaser should convince himself before he purchases a single bottle, and that is, that it is impossible to have good wine at a low price. The finest vintages of wine are always scarce and dear; and the finest vintages must, like other and inferior vintages, be matured before they are fit to drink. A considerable efflux of time is necessary for this, so that there is interest on the original cost of the wine, as well as the interest on its keep, to be added to the prime or original cost. This is so if the wine be imported direct from the wine-grower; but if it be obtained from the merchant or dealer in this country, his profit, as well as the skill, labour, and industry he has applied, must all be additional items in the price. The idea of low-priced wine is therefore a mere myth; and, whether at the sales of private gentlemen’s stock or otherwise, good wine generally fetches its full value in London. It is said that, at the sales of deceased gentlemen in Dublin and Edinburgh, few wines, unless some exceedingly rare specimens, fetch above 60s. per dozen; but in London it is very common, at private sales, for Port and Sherry to fetch double as much as this.
The best way for any gentleman desiring to stock a cellar, is to go to a first-rate wine merchant of position and character. Such a man will deal honestly, and give his customer a good article, though he may charge what is called in the trade a long price for it. If gentlemen have personal friends or connections at Cadiz in whom they can confide to send them wine in the piece, they may lay in Amontillado, Montilla, or Manzinilla, at 10s. or 12s. a dozen less than they can obtain them of the wine merchants in England. Anything like a first-rate Amontillado sells among English wine merchants at from 72s. to 84s. the dozen, while Manzinilla and Montilla range at from 60s. to 70s.
Fabulous prices are given for old Ports and East India Sherries and Madeiras, at the sales of well-known connoisseurs in wine. Many East India Sherries have sold for nine and ten guineas a dozen, and much of the late Mr. Justice Talfourd’s Port went for eleven and twelve guineas a dozen. Though the wine was excellent, this was unquestionably a fancy price. There is no need to give so large a sum for old and first-rate Port. Any man of ordinary acumen and intelligence, in addressing himself to a first-rate wine house in London may have excellent, if not first-rate, Port at from three to four guineas a dozen, and considerably cheaper if he buys it in the wood.
First-rate Clarets have been rising in price during the last five or six years; but even in London first-rate Clarets ought to be and are procurable at from four to five guineas a dozen, and the best sparkling Champagne at about the same price, or a shade lower. Sillery Champagne of the very highest quality is sold by wine merchants at 6l. the dozen. Burgundies of the highest qualities are rare, and difficult to find good; but excellent Beaune and Chablis can be obtained at two guineas the dozen in London, and considerably cheaper if imported direct.
As to the dietetic qualities of the wine, I would remark that those wines which contain a sufficient quantity of alcohol, and which have undergone a complete fermentation, stimulate and accelerate digestion. Among these are Madeira, Sherry, Port, Rhone, and Rousillon wines. The most salutary wines are those which contain a moderate quantity of alcohol, as old Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne. The modern practice of taking a great variety of wines at table cannot be commended. It is decidedly injurious to health and digestion, more especially when sweet succeed to slightly acidulated wines, or wines of much body to very light wines.
I should say that the best red Burgundy was the Romanée Conti, and the best white the Montrachet. But good vintages of Pomard, Volnay, Nuits, and Chambertin, are excellent. Burgundy, however, is a wine of which only a small quantity should be drunk, as it is very heating.
Among the Champagne wines the most esteemed growths are those of Aï, Sillery, and Epernay; and among the Rousillon and Rhine wines, red and white Hermitage, Côte Rôti, and St. Peray.
The best growths of Bordeaux red wines are Lafitte, La Tour, Château Margaux, and Haut Brion. Among the second class of red wines the best are the Monton, the Rauzan, and the Léoville; and among the third class are the Kirwan, the Château d’Issan, and Lagrange.
A glass of Chablis, Barsac, Sauterne, or Bucellas, may be taken after the oysters, while a glass of old Madeira or Sherry follows the soup. In the middle of the first course, in France, they serve Champagne or sparkling Burgundy; and toward the end of the first course, the finer kinds of Claret, white and red. With the roast comes Burgundy and Hermitage, and these wines, as well as Bordeaux, may be served with game. With the dessert it is the custom in France to offer Malmsey and Malaga; but these wines are rarely produced in England, though white and red Constantia, and Frontignan are frequently produced.
In the last sixteen years the consumption of Champagne has doubled in England. In 1831, the quantity of French wine imported amounted, in round numbers, to 254,000 gallons, whereas in 1861 it amounted to 2,227,000 gallons.