mix them with other fermented liquors, and unite them by repeated fermentation.

"By these arts we have been almost entirely deprived of any genuine claret wines, which had been so long esteemed for their grateful and salutary qualities.

"It is, therefore, no wonder that the port wines are now universally preferred to the French claret ; but, as the demands for them and their prices have greatly increased, it is not improbable but that they will meet with the same fate as the French wines; for, though they still maintain their character, yet they certainly are more heavy and heating than they formerly were, and require more time, after they have been bottled, to bring them to a proper maturity. Several of these wines are frequently adulterated here, which is not to be imputed to the Portugal merchants, and it is well known that large quantities of nominal port wines are made here, without any port wine in them."

What Barry says about factors is perfectly true; but a very old Bordeaux wine - merchant and winegrower informed us, twenty 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, 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, and 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 whose names we now forget.

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 any thing like them." Whence, however, our readers will ask, 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 hogs heads of wine (one white, one red, one claret), was set down at 51. 58.

All we have further to say on

claret will be comprised in Cyrus
Redding's observations on the wine
in his clever article in the Encyclo-

pædia Metropolitana. The remarks
have the merit of brevity; and brevity,
as our readers know, is the soul of
wit:-

Claret, as it is commonly called, is a mixed or assorted wine, being a growth

of Bordeaux, in which a quantity of hermitage, or some full-bodied red wine, is mingled by the merchants on the spot to suit the taste of the English, which is for full-bodied, powerful wines, rather than for those of a pure and delicate character. The best growths of Bordeaux, coming assorted in this manner, are yet among the most pure and salubrious which Englishmen drink. The value of this wine, and those of Bordeaux in general, increases in value 50s. a tun for the first five years annually, and 60s. or 80s. for every succeeding year. All the wines are classed by the brokers, who decide their grade, and, consequently, their price. This renders the grower emulous to raise the class of his wine in the market, even at a considerable outlay of money and labour."

The department of the Rhone produces the côté rôti at a vineyard about seven leagues from Lyons. This is 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 be then bottled, and will improve in bottle for twenty years. The côté 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 we cannot choose but think, if it were generally imported into England, it would be preferred to port by all who have a sound palate and liver. Men may still dwell in Pump Court, King's Bench Walk, Brick Court, Chancery Lane, Gower Street, Russell Place, and Montague Place, who love to muddle and bemuse themselves with the produce of the Methuen treaty, but these are dull, irreclaimable dogs, mere precedent mongers, who know not good liquor

from bad.

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. We are ourselves in pos

session of some which we obtained
ten 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
us at least in five guineas the dozen.
We suppose a similar wine could not
be obtained at any wine-merchant's
at less than from 120s. to 130s. a
dozen, or from 10s. to 11s. a bottle.
We have ourselves paid 11s. 8d. a
bottle for Château Margeaux in 1827,
at the Rocher de Cancale. It was then
said to have been thirty-eight years
old, and to have been a portion of the
wine of Philippe Egalité, duke of
Orleans. The white hermitage is
made of white grapes only, and is
divided into three growths. It is an
exquisite and most delicious bever-
age, and may be pronounced to be
the finest white wine France pro-
duces. White hermitage is said to
keep a century. We have in our
possession a small parcel bought at
the sale of the late Marquess of Lon-
donderry's wines in St. James's
Square, which must be at least forty
years old, and a more delicious wine
was never tasted. The only differ-
ence 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. We remember having
tasted in Kent, in 1836, a few bottles
of this wine which had been in the
late Marquess of Wellesley's cellars
since 1807, but, although a fine wine,
it was not to compare with the her-
mitage of the late Lord Londonderry.
The grape from which the red her-
mitage is made is supposed to have
come originally from Persia.* 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 be-
longs to this firm. By one charge of
it the proprietors can obtain forty
casks of wine, of about fifty gallons

This grape is named the Ciras. In the Enologie Française for 1826 it is spelt Seyras, and it is stated, according to the tradition of the neighbourhood, the plant was originally brought from Shiraz in Persia by one of the hermits of the mountain.

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. This arises in the greatest degree from the octroi and home-duties levied, amounting, in some instances, to twenty per cent.

On the wines of Germany we are unable to dilate either in a manner suitable to the subject, or congenial to our own taste, for our own limits are prescribed; and, in reference to the "Classics of the Table," we may be supposed to be speaking our dy ing speech and last words. 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 inconve nience 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 551. 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 501. 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 Asmanahausen, 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, according to our taste, are the Julius Hospitalis Steinwein of 1811, and the Cabinet Leinstenwein of 1822. We remember in 1828 and 1829 drinking fine specimens of both at the Three Moors at Ausburgh (a capital hotel), and noting down in our journal that the price of the Steinwein was four florins, twentyfour kreutzers, and of the Leinstenwein five florins, forty-eight kreut zers; 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, per haps, 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 we must also be necessarily 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 caldrons 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 little known in the cellars of English merchants, but is far preferable in every respect 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. 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. There is
some very fine aniontillado at the
Garrick club, to which we commend
our readers. The only time we ever
met Boz was at a dinner given at
this club by the clever and agreeable
Michael Angelo Titmarsh, now em-
ployed, if we be rightly informed, in
negotiating a concordat with the
pope. It is not, we tell O'Connell,
Mr. Petre who is at the bottom of all
the mischief, but his attaché and
sense-keeper Micky Titmarsh. Tit-
marsh should, therefore, be forth-
with denounced at the Conciliation
Hall. Let the saddle be put on the
right horse by all means, more espe-
cially as Titmarsh will now be well
able to bear its weight, being pro-
mised the Turkish embassy, if he
succeeds with his Holiness the Pope.
The author of the Chimes was certain-
ly in most mellow tone, and won all
suffrages by the unpretending sim-
plicity and amenity of his manners.
On that particular night, if we re-
member right, there was a great
consumption of amontillado and
Champagne. The Malaga sherry
very much resembles the wine of
Xeres, and large quantities are ex-
ported to foreign countries as genu-
ine sherry. 2001. have been paid for
a first-rate cask of Malaga.

On the Portuguese wine called port, we shall not waste a word. It is a dry, fiery, tannin-fed beverage, much drunk by lawyers above sixty, and their clerks, clergymen above

VOL. XXXI. NO. CLXXXIII.

fifty, and dry-salters, saddlers, tanners and shoemakers of all ages.

A good glass of genuine Madeira, which has gone the rounds, is not amiss after soup, but the wine is no longer fashionable, and was, in our minds, always overrated.

The only Italian wines worth drinking are the Montefiascone, Montepulciano, 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 we in our youth consumed many a bottle of Tokay, and other precious wines,—a "short, sweet odour at a vast expense." The Verumth 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 overrated. Tuns of them are not worth the amount of a farrier's yearly bill for shoeing a dog; or, if you wish, gentle reader, the Gallic phrase, which we learned from the well-read and accomplished Adolphus (one of the cleverest, and certainly the most amusing man at the English bar), ne valent pas les quatres fers d'un chien."

66

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 Russian wines, on which it cannot be expected that we should dilate. At Kaffa, in the Crimea, they produce a Champagne very nearly as good as either the growth of the Borough, or Lambeth; and so we said to the Grand Maréchal de la Cour Polocki, when asked our opinion at St. Petersburg.

Of New South Wales wines, it is absolutely necessary we should say a word or two. We have learned, with much pleasure, that the French, and all other vines, are now tried in that colony; and that the climate is particularly well suited to the growth of the vine. The preparation

BB

VERSES TO AN OLD FRIEND.

WE will not meet again, old friend of mine!
Much of life's beauty hath already past,
And now I would not willingly resign

The spell thy memory can about me cast.
What I have been to thee, and thou to me,
Even since those old days wherein we met,
We ne'er could be again, if each should see
How little of the past remaineth yet.

No, no! It were not well to learn how strange,
How all unlike thy heart and mine have grown;

To feel and know how sorrowful a change

Time and the world have wrought; weeping to own The fairest vision of our lives had fled.

I know we are not as we were; I know

How much, alas, of my past self is dead! Therefore, old friend, we'll meet no more below!

How have the depths of bitterness been stirr'd
Within my soul since those departed days;
I, who could smile at every jesting word,-
I, whom thy spirit at its will could raise
Up to its own proud heights of dreamy thought,-
I, from whose sunny hopes, thy nobler mind
Fresh energy and inspiration caught,

How little of all this thou now would'st find!