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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/77340-0.txt b/77340-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..908fc8c --- /dev/null +++ b/77340-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1791 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77340 *** + + + + +BACCHUS + +OR + +WINE TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW + + + + +TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW + +_A List of the Contents of this Series will be found at the end of this +volume_ + +Transcriber’s Note: in fact, this was omitted. + + + + + BACCHUS + OR + WINE TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW + + BY + P. MORTON SHAND + Author of _A Book of Wine_, _A Book of French Wines_, + etc. + + LONDON + KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. + NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. + + _Printed in Great Britain by_ + MACKAYS LTD., CHATHAM + + + + +BACCHUS + +OR + +WINE TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW + + “Put a cup of wine into my hand that I may cast off from me the + cloak of hypocrisy.”—HAFIZ. + + +The bush which none but the poorest wine ever needed has been hung +out alluringly as a tavern’s thirst-provoking sign-board to entice +the pleasure-seekers of those lands where the grape will not, or may +not, ripen for the wine-press, over all wines good and bad, true and +false, provided only they be duly intoxicating, by that hysterical +piece of amateur legislation known as the Volstead Act. Every people, +we know, has the government and laws it deserves. It is only when the +citizens of a state are so overcome by enthusiasm for the perfection +of their own institutions as to organise propaganda for the conversion +of other countries to conformity with the sovereign panaceas they have +invented, as in the case of Soviet Russia or the republic which recently +substituted a camel rampant and three golden orbs for an eagle as its +national emblem, that the domestic policy of such a state ceases to be +exclusively its own concern. Not that respect for its privacy is desired +by either nation: the one broadcasts its sanguinary social reforms, the +other its strident social vulgarities. The war that was to end war was +also to end wine. The crusaders of the United States, too proud to fight +for any other cause, were to make the world as safe for teetotalism as +for democracy, so that for the Utopian future the latter shibboleth +should imply the former. The Latin nations, however, were deaf to all +material inducements, such as increased industrial efficiency, and +obstinately refused to have the “running sore” of viticulture cauterised +by the same Fiery Cross as had desiccated California’s wine-grapes +into seedless raisins. Ultimately, America, still inspired by the +loftiest moral motives, consented to forgo the forcible conversion +of Europe to the one generally known commandment of the Koran in +exchange for an enormous monetary tribute to indemnify its bankers and +munition-manufacturers for the grievous losses in ethical prestige which +they had sustained by this unparalleled act of renunciation. + +Thanks to the magnificent advertisement given to the inimitable +properties of wine by the School-Marms Government which imposed +Prohibition on a nation ever whoring after righteousness, its future +existence may be deemed assured until the next Puritan revival, or the +advent of the New Matriarchy. In spite of the fact that their aims are +championed by a titled lady, who, though British neither by birth nor +blood, was, appropriately enough, the first woman Member of Parliament +to take her seat at Westminster, our “Temperance Reformers” are no +more likely to catch us unawares in the course of the next few decades +than those other eugenic despots, the vegetarians and the anti-tobacco +fanatics. Humanity reacts swiftly and brutally against Puritanism in any +form. Every lenten cycle of Praise-God-Bare-Bones theocracy is invariably +followed by the reign of a Merry Monarch, if not of a Heliogabalus. In +few ages of the past has the will to deny itself no single pleasure of +the flesh been more manifest in mankind than in the vandal and hedonist +era of transition in which we crudely live. + +For a moment it seemed that the “to be, or not to be” of wine-drinking +might threaten to become a permanent and burning political question +among non-viticultural nations, just as certain practical problems of +wine-growing have for long been the paramount agricultural-political +issues in viticultural countries. Already, however, the tide of an +inevitable revolt against tyrannically “uplifting,” but quite unworkable, +enactments has swept over Scandinavia, the nursery of all “progressive” +movements. Soviet Russia, which began by abolishing Vodka in favour +of a tolerance of light wines and beer, has been constrained to add +distillation to other nationalised industries on the cynical pretext +that the state needs additional revenue only to be found in exploiting +drunkenness. Forewarned, as much by the gruesome Bacchanalia of +Prohibition in operation as by the quality of Bootleggers’ “Hootch,” +British wine-drinkers are determined to fight to the last in defence +of their liberties as their forefathers fought the Excisemen and the +Revenue-Cutters before them. The Labour Party, theoretically committed +to “an ambitious programme of temperance legislation” (including the +back-door policy of Prohibition known as Local Option), dares not lift a +finger to put its academic articles of faith into practice on pain of +seeing the working class vote against it to a man. The only sign of alarm +is in the trade, and can be discounted as a not altogether disinterested +manœuvre. Nonconformity, the standard-bearer of Teetotalism, is as +defunct as Liberalism, which has now won the right to replace “Brandy +Nan” as the alternative proverbial metaphor for something as dead beyond +recall as that extinct and fabulous bird the dodo. + +Thus wine has now begun to acquire an added, and most unenviable, lustre +for no better reason than that it used to be denounced by the zealots in +their wrath as “a wile of Satan.” By a biased application of the doctrine +of Justification by Works, the Calvinists were able to find in wine, +rather than in the unchanging heart of man, the source of that insidious +“temptation” inseparable from every gradation of its use that lies +between the equally “sinful” extremes of moderate digestive enjoyment at +meals and the abuse provocative of delirium tremens. Indeed, no honest +discrimination between natural wine or beer and fortified wine or spirits +was ever made by these impassioned casuists. The drinkers of claret, +stout, cider, port or proof gin, the men who would have felt themselves +for ever dishonoured had they once exceeded the strictest sobriety, +as the habitual drunkards, were one and all outlawed impartially as +profligate “wine-bibbers.” In parts of New England to say of a man +that he “drank wine” constituted an inexpugnable gravamen against his +character only comparable with accusing him of living in open adultery. +It is worth noticing how it was only after mankind had refused to be +any longer very much interested in dogmas one way or the other, and +had ceased to damn or bless a neighbour off-hand for holding a certain +selection of them, that the Puritan conscience began to envisage the +possibility of preaching less purely doctrinal abnegations, such as +“Taking the Pledge,” to a considerably greater extent than had hitherto +seemed consonant with the furtherance of “the Lord’s Work.” From that +moment all biblical precepts endorsing the sanction of wine were as +resolutely put aside as the love, pity and forgiveness of Christ’s +teachings had been by the original wine-drinking founder of these austere +sects some three centuries before. Nor was their awakened interest in +“Total Abstinence” due to any weak human compassion for the appalling +effects of alcoholism in heredity, such as those infant maladies which +are the direct results of “the sins of the fathers”—the hideous tenet +of Predestination could be relied upon to eliminate any such motive—but +simply and solely to the cold zest of robbing life of one more pleasant +thing, one more “snare of the flesh.” + +The proper place for a man to drink wine, or even spirits, is in his +own, or someone else’s, home, among his family or friends, not in the +nauseating atmosphere of a night-club, the squalor of a saloon-bar, or +ensconced in a high-backed church pew, his eyes riveted on the text +“Lord, give me strength,” furtively draining it from a flask, so as +to sustain the onslaught of those serried battalions of theological +syllogisms which reinforce the “prayerfulness” of the average Scottish +sermon. Indeed, it is probable that the peculiarly sordid type of our +taverns is a direct result, even to some extent the expression, of +that harsh Puritan condemnation of all “strong liquors.” For long the +Righteous consistently refused to co-operate in any movement designed +to ameliorate the conditions, or curtail the licensing hours, of public +houses on the pharisaical pretext that what was needed was their +abolition pure and simple, the felling of the whole tree, not the +lopping off of a rotten branch. No alliance, they declared, could be +contemplated with those “Sons of Belial” and “workers of iniquity” who +were striving in and out of Parliament, usually amidst general obloquy, +to bring about sane temperance and render the inn a place which a +self-respecting working-man might no longer be ashamed to frequent in +company with his wife or sweetheart. Towards the end of the last century +the intransigeance of this attitude became sensibly modified. Many +prominent Nonconformists quietly abandoned the practice, and even the +profession, of teetotalism after reaching that degree of affluence which +impelled them to forsake the “true word” of the little Bethels for the +flesh-pots of the parish church. None the less the outbreak of the War +found many of the more uncompromising Puritans exulting in their Bands +of Hope, because a golden opportunity was now presented of forcing total +abstinence on the nation under cover of the specious argument that a +sober man is able to make shells faster than a drunken, and a Blue-Ribbon +soldier can kill far more of his foes in the Lord’s name than one whose +physique has been undermined by dalliance with the flower of the hop +or the fruits of the vine and the juniper-bush. Now that the voice of +the Unco’ Guid no longer carries much weight in the nation’s counsels, +it is reasonably certain that the public-house, as we know it, will be +profoundly changed for the better, both structurally and as regards its +general ambiance. The lessons of direct state control at Carlisle, and +the experiments with restricted licences and indirect regulation of the +management so wisely instituted in some of garden suburbs and municipal +housing-estates, have proved a valuable stimulus to the enlightenment of +public opinion. Sooner or later, too, we shall learn that in spite of +the grandmotherly assurances of County Councillors to the contrary, the +drinking of a glass of beer in the open air at a table adjacent to the +street pavement is no more bound to encourage immorality than when the +same beverage is consumed between four walls. + +Wine, then, if less of a necessity of life than it was for our +forefathers, or even our immediate fathers, is strangely enough regarded +to-day more as something of a luxury, or a minor depravity, than as a +natural taste inherent in the human race. We have grown so accustomed to +quoting the hackneyed and hypocritical “Wine and Women” in explanation +of our neighbours’ failings, that our smug and sniggering satisfaction +makes us apt to forget “Song,” or merriment, the third person of this +ageless trinity, which ennobles the abdiction to both. The three together +can transmute the foul fumes of the gin-palace and the defiling ignominy +of the brothel into the genial fireside haven of a man’s own home, +offering the licit enjoyment of the wife of his bosom and the wine of +his cellar. The abiding verity of Martin Luther’s familiar couplet of +_Gay Sçavoir_, “_Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib, und Gesang, der bleibt ein +Narr sein Leben lang_” has outlived all the rancorous interdictions +of the misanthropic Calvin. Teetotalism and castration are analogous +abnegations, just as drunkenness and vicarious venery are analogous +abuses, of the purest carnal joys that are our earthly inheritance by the +exercise of our own Free Will and God’s good Grace of Election. + +But if the more immediate future of wine, as that of meat and tobacco, +may be considered assured, the same degree of confidence cannot be +expressed in its permanent quality. Prohibition being temporarily +eliminated as a potential menace, there remain three serious and growing +dangers to the survival of wine in that state of purity and excellence +in which it is now obtainable, though by no means necessarily always +obtained. These are its mass-production; its adulteration; and its +prostitution so as to flatter vulgar but expensive palates, or the +exactions of clamant and rapidly expanding congeries of faddists—typified +by the mania for rendering all wines sparkling on the one hand, and that +contradiction in terms, dealcoholised wine, or pasteurised, non-alcoholic +grape-juice, on the other. To these must be added the devastating +epidemics to which the vine is peculiarly subject, such as the Oidium and +the Phylloxera. + +The first of these dangers, that of mass-production, is by far the +gravest. The world’s output of wine is steadily increasing, particularly +in Australia, North and South Africa and South America, and to a less, +but still perceptible, extent in Europe itself. Indeed, there might +soon be enough to meet all potential demands of viticultural and +non-viticultural countries alike, but for such factors as continually +rising costs of production and freight, the increase of customs’ +barriers, the world’s diminished purchasing power and the growing greed +of middlemen. None the less, France, still the largest producer and +consumer, though followed ever more closely by Italy, is forced to buy +some millions of hectolitres annually from Algeria, Tunis, Spain, Italy +and Greece in order to meet her domestic needs. Nor does she export in +_vins fins_ a quarter of what she imports in the form of common blending +wines. The proportion of fine wines to ordinary wines grown in France is +very small. + +The more wine you grow from the same plot of land the poorer will be its +quality. There is a strong temptation for the French peasant-proprietors +of those regions where the most famous wines are grown to use the +“_taille haute_” (the form of pruning which removes less of the young +shoots year by year and so produces a larger number of bunches of grapes) +instead of the traditional “_taille basse_” (which leaves the minimum +amount of new wood on the pollarded vine, thereby entailing many fewer +bunches of grapes, but the highest, because the most concentrated, +quality in the wine). The incentive to ignore this, perhaps the most +sacrosanct of all the honourable traditions of vine-dressing—a tradition +which may be compared to the enormity of shooting foxes in England—is +particularly strong in the Côte d’Or, where the demand is always out +of all proportion to the supply. Another temptation for the _vigneron_, +especially in the less-renowned viticultural districts, is to grow an +excess of what are called “_plants communs_.” Some, but not all, of these +species are hybrid or ungrafted American vines (“_producteurs-directs_”), +while others are the commonest but most prolific native vines +(“_gros-producteurs_”) grafted on to Phylloxera-resisting +“_portes-greffes_” as in the case of the fine vines which produce the +finer wines. The _producteurs-directs_ have been planted in response to +the insistent demand for more and cheaper wine that has arisen since the +War.[1] They give an enormous return per hectare of a coarse, neutral +sort of wine of a quality that can only be described as parlous, instead +of the small yield of excellent wine furnished by one or other of the +delicate “_plants nobles_,” or blue-blooded vines, which are the pride +of, and often peculiar to, each particular district. At present the +_producteurs-directs_, but not the _gros-producteurs_, are denied all +right to a local name, or “_appellation d’origine_,” wherever they may +be planted. Notwithstanding, their growers, now a considerable body, +are redoubling their efforts to obtain this coveted privilege on the +plea that the quality of these wines is rapidly improving; and they may +ultimately succeed for political reasons. + +The world wants more and more wine, and always of the kinds it thinks +the best. The vineyards of Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhine are already +producing all but their maximum yield. Already, too, many plots of +ground in these famous regions are under vines which, from the nature +of their soil, their altitude or exposure, ought never to have been +planted with them. The temptation to indulge in over-production is +continually increasing. The average wine-drinker persists in asking +for about ten names among wines, and will not look at anything else, +however excellent and reasonable in price, because Mr Everyman has no +longer much individual palate, and will not trust such as he has, but +buys imitatively and gregariously as he buys most other things. There +is not enough of these particular wines to go round; indeed there has +not been enough for some decades past. Unfortunately, the public prefers +to be bamboozled rather than have to exercise its own discrimination in +choosing from amongst the immense variety of other growths, many of them +admirable and a few superb, which the earth has to offer in addition to +Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chablis, Sauternes, White Graves, Hock and Moselle +among natural wines, and Port, Sherry and Madeira among fortified ones. +In England we have grown so accustomed to cynical impertinences with +“appellation of origin” that we are neither shocked nor surprised that +bacon can be sold called “Danish Wiltshire,” or that Canadian soft-soap +should be described in commerce as “Cheddar Cheese.” Thus we have no +idea what indignation and contempt such titles as “Australian Burgundy,” +“Algerian Chablis,” “Spanish Graves,” “South African Hock,” or the +now happily defunct “Californian Moselle,” excite among Frenchmen and +Germans, for whom these preposterous and fraudulent titles are the taking +of sacred names in vain. The following verses, taken from the ballad of +Raoul Ponchon, called “_Bourgogne d’Australie_,” which used to be popular +in purely French cabarets—anyhow until the Australians showed their +magnificent qualities as attacking troops by the side of their French +brothers-in-arms—is a typical example of the burning resentment felt by +the whole French people at what is to them an act of the most cynical +piracy, almost the theft of an historic part of their national patrimony. + + “_Vous êtes par trop rigolos,_ + _Australiens immenses!_ + _Mettez bien dans vos ciboulots_ + _Où règnent les démences,_ + + _Qu’il n’est d’autre vin bourguignon_ + _—Croyez-en un ivrogne—_ + _Que celui que nous bourgognons_ + _Aux coteaux de Bourgogne._ + + _Et la Bourgogne, elle est ici,_ + _Et non en Australie!_ + + ... + + _Il faut avoir un fier toupet_ + _Pour mettre une étiquette_ + _Semblable à votre vin suspect,_ + _Véritable piquette!_[2] + + _Il n’est, chez nous, maigre pinard,_[3] + _Qui ne soit cent fois brave_ + _Comme le vin le plus gaillard_ + _De vos meilleures caves._ + + _Vous planteriez, ô Melbournois!_ + _Sur vos coteaux barbares,_ + _Les plus fins de nos ceps gaulois,_ + _Nos Pinots[4] les plus rares,_ + + _En vain! Car à ces gaillards-là,_ + _A ces vrais gentilshommes,_ + _Il faut ce terroir de gala,_ + _Dont, Dieu merci! nous sommes._” + +The future of the purity and authenticity of wine—for though wine is +far better made to-day than it was fifty years ago, thanks chiefly to +Pasteur, it is also far more skilfully doctored—is wrapped up in the +question of how far it may be possible to afford as adequate legal +protection for recognised territorial appellations of origin outside, as +already exists inside, the frontiers of those states in which they are +found. If an imitation “Burgundy,” say Australian, really resembled true +Burgundy, which it does not because it cannot, there would, perhaps, be +less cause to deny its right to a stolen title. The same excuse might +be proffered, though with an even smaller show of logic, if, apart from +any question of resemblance, it was of an equal, or merely comparable, +quality. + +The problem of to what extent the wines of other countries can be +improved, above all in keeping qualities, without sacrificing their own +individual characteristics, so as to make it possible to mention them in +the same breath as the more famous growths of France and Germany, is an +arduous, but, in the long run, not necessarily an insuperable one. Every +year we are learning more about the natural history of the vine and the +chemistry of wine. + +It is useless for the wines of other countries to seek to imitate the +essential flavours and other peculiarities of the most famous French +and German wines to which they may most nearly approximate in colour or +alcoholic strength as it would be for these French and German wines to +seek to imitate their imitators. In the case of the commoner fortified +wines of Portugal and Spain imitation of a kind is not altogether +impossible owing to the very nature of their preparation by brandying the +only partially fermented must. The imitation of one wine by another, it +cannot be too strongly emphasised, is impossible by natural means. Though +every red and white natural wine has something in common with all other +natural red and white wines, no two growths ever really resemble each +other, and rarely two vintages of one and the same growth. + +That large tracts of the earth’s surface are eminently suitable for +viticulture, though still virginal of the vine, such as—excluding the +British Empire for the moment—parts of central China and Morocco, +and possibly Abyssinia and Arabia as well, to say nothing of those +considerable regions of Asia Minor and the United States where it was +formerly cultivated, there can be little doubt. Moreover, such countries +as Southern Russia, the Balkan States, Greece, Persia, Japan and many +of the South American republics are undoubtedly capable of a much +larger production of wine than they actually grow. The trouble is that +the vine, once planted in a strange land, takes many decades, if not +centuries, before it begins to yield wine that has any real quality. A +successful wine-growing industry cannot be created in much less than +half a century. True, we are told by a certain Brother Benedictus in +his “_Chronicques Vivaroises_,” as Mrs G. B. Stern reminds us, that the +“_belle ordonnance de seps, pères de gros savoureux raisins_” on the +famed Hill of Hermitage, the juice of which is “_une rosée paradisiaque_” +rather than mere man-made wine, was planted, pruned and tended ready +for the vintage in a single night by a host of ex-vigneron angels (for +all vignerons, the worthy monk assures us, go straight to heaven, just +as no single miscreant of the ungodly company of water-drinkers has ever +passed St Peter’s scrutiny at the Golden Gate), so that the grapes were +hanging ripe to bursting from these “_vignes séraphiques_” on the morrow, +waiting only on the poor, Saracen-hunted hermit, perishing of thirst, +to pluck and press them. What an impious irony of fate that Hermitage +should be one of the slowest wines to mature! But this is, perhaps, +rather an exceptional case even among legends concerning the origins of +famous vineyards, most of which claim, with wearisome monotony, to have +been planted by the pious legionaries of the benign Emperor Probus, by +Charlemagne himself, or various unfamiliar though duly authenticated +saints; and raised to fame in the inexhaustible goblets of the _Vert +Galant_ or the immortal Rabelais. The vine thrives best and most +luxuriantly and yields the largest, coarsest and most regular harvests in +very hot, sub-tropical climates to which it is not indigenous and where +it is often necessary to irrigate the vineyards. Only in comparatively +cold regions, within measurable distance of the northern limit of the +vine (an imaginary line passing approximately from Nantes, through Paris, +Compiègne, Coblentz, Dresden, a little east of Prague, along the southern +slopes of the Carpathians and to the north of the Crimea and Caucasia in +Europe; bisecting Turkestan, Cashmere, the Chinese Province of Shantung +and Central Japan in Asia; and running from south of Puget Sound, north +of the Great Lakes and across part of Canada, to the Atlantic seaboard +in the State of New York, on the American continent), and from soil long +familiar with its roots, will the Vitis Vinifera yield a vintage of +fine and delicate wine; and then only in very small quantities, with an +infinity of painful labour, at great expense and seldom more than two or +three times in a decade, if, indeed, so often. The world’s most classic +vineyards are planted on poor, stoney soil, often on rugged slopes, +little suitable for other forms of cultivation. + +The world, then, is threatened with the extinction of the few hallowed +acres of its very finest and most renowned vineyards within a measurable +space of time by the ever-growing threat of over-production—the +inclusion not only of just those additional adjacent rods, poles and +perches which past generations in their probity and wisdom resolutely +refused to annex to them; but also of whole square miles of outlying +meadowlands, arable plain or bleak and insufficiently sheltered hill-tops +beyond their immediate limits—no less than by a menacing invasion of +baser and insufficiently acclimatised sub-species of the parent vine. + +Other perils besetting the continuity of the finer wines are the spread +of the so-called Type-Wines, in the form of standardised qualities +for certain districts (a development that originated in California +where wine used to be grown, as long as it could be grown at all, from +vineyards vast as cattle-ranches, equipped with all the typically +American resources of plant and capital for dealing with vintages on a +Ford scale of output), which is being steadily fostered by wine-growers’ +co-operatives in many parts of France, Italy and other wine-lands; and +the wholesale manufacture by the large French wine-shippers of those +vinous mixtures known as “_Monopoles_” and “_Marques Personnelles_.” + + + + +TYPE-WINES + + +The impulse that has called the Type-Wines into being was the necessity +of finding some expedient that would enable the proprietors of the less +famous growths of well-known regions to sell their wines remuneratively, +which was becoming more and more difficult. There was also a strong +desire on their part to profit by the recently established _appellations +d’origine_ for even the most lowly and inferior wines grown within these +areas, and the ambition to compete in foreign markets with the cheap +wines of countries such as Algeria and Australia, that are all of them +inevitably Type-Wines, sold as often as not under the titles of one or +other of the most famous viticultural regions of France (_e.g._, Algerian +“Chablis” and South Australian “Hermitage”). True, these descriptions +would be illegal in France and those countries which, under recent +commercial treaties, now admit yearly quotas of French wines and thereby +assure the authenticity of their appellations; but in England the +International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which +nominally secures respect for these same appellations in all signatory +states, seems to be a dead letter, if indeed it was not stillborn. + +These Type-Wines, already familiar in France, are not easily explained +without giving a concrete and somewhat detailed example. For many decades +wines have been available in commerce which bore the names of one or +other of the great sub-divisions of the Bordelais, such as St Estèphe, +Pauillac or Margaux in the Médoc, and Graves, St Emilion and Pomerol as +representatives of the other districts entitled to be sold as “Bordeaux.” +It was notorious that these wines, which were not always genuine, +differed enormously in quality according to the standing of the firms +which selected them and the vintages to which they belonged: vintages +that were often passed over in silence because the wines in question were +a blend of two or more. Nevertheless, wines sold under these labels, that +made no claim to have been grown on any territorially defined plot of +ground within the borders of their several districts—a particular Château +or Cru—represented the cheapest authentic, or putatively authentic, kinds +of Bordeaux with which the general public was familiar. The Co-operative +Movement among French wine-growers, which had started in the Midi, a +region devoted to the production of cheap wines on a vast scale, without +much pretension to quality, where it was decidedly beneficial to the +interests of the growers and the public alike, eventually spread to +certain of the less-known districts of the Bordelais. One of the latest +recruits is the Commune of Margaux. + +The Commune of Margaux, one of the two most famous in the Médoc, has for +centuries been reputed for producing some of the very finest Bordeaux +wines there are; its supreme glory being the First Growth of Château +Margaux itself. In addition, the Commune boasts four Second Growths, +four Third Growths, one Fourth Growth, about a dozen recognised superior +Bourgeois and ordinary Bourgeois Growths and something like thirty _Crus +Artisans_ and _Crus Paysans_, which represent the tail of the Bordelais +hierarchy in point of reputation. There are besides some half-a-dozen +large growths planted in _Palu_ soil (rich, alluvial clay) on the +foreshore of the Gironde and on certain low-lying islands in the stream. +Palus vineyards give a very much larger yield of appreciably coarser +wines than those planted on the gravel soil further inland, which is +geologically typical of the Médoc proper. In point of production the ten +_Crus Classés_ of Margaux yield about 650 _tonneaux_[5] of wine a year, +which is easily sold at high prices; the Superior Bourgeois, Bourgeois, +Artisan and Peasant Growths account for another 550 between them, the +best of which finds a fairly ready market in good years, but much of +which has nearly always to be sold at unsatisfactory prices; while the +Palus growths produce some 1,100, the sale of which, though prices are +relatively low, is on the whole more remunerative because the vintage is +much heavier and the cost of cultivation much less. Yet each of these +growths, high as humble, every litre of the total average yield of +20,700 hectolitres, has an identical right to the common appellation of +“Margaux.” Anyone who lives in the Commune of Margaux and has a strip of +garden in which there is room to grow a row of a dozen vines of sorts, +tended, perhaps, little and carelessly, can sell his wine as “Margaux” +with the same legality as his neighbour who may cultivate a considerable +and reputed vineyard in the most approved scientific manner. + +Formerly the _Crus Bourgeois Supérieurs_ and the _Crus Bourgeois_ +commanded a ready sale at prices not utterly disproportionate to those +attained by the _Crus Classés_, while the ratio between the two orders +of growths was nearly always the same, whatever the prices realised for +the First Growths, which always set the tone of the market. Nowadays +the public knows far less about wines, and a predominantly _parvenu_ +generation wants to buy the best, and nothing but the best, and is +guided almost entirely by names and labels and very little by vintages +or careful tasting. Moreover there is no longer the same prejudice +against consuming comparatively new wines in this hasty age, and, as a +consequence, the laying down of wines that are slow to mature is the +exception rather than the rule. The result is that it has become so +difficult to sell some of the best and most ancient in fame of the _Crus +Bourgeois_ at a reasonable profit—to say nothing of the _Crus Artisans +et Paysans_—that vines are being grubbed up wholesale. It was to meet +this state of affairs that a Co-operative Communal Cellar was founded in +Margaux. The avowed object is to utilise all wines made in the territory +of the commune, excepting only those that sell readily on their own +names and merits, so as to produce year in and year out, irrespective +of good or bad vintages because blended from both, a uniform wine with a +flavour as typical of the best Margaux growths as the nature of a single +composite mixture may allow. It is needless to say that such a Type-Wine +“Margaux,” bearing full guarantees of territorial authenticity though it +would, must be a hollow parody of a real wine, because it is a synthesis, +a standardisation, of many, blended to the taste of the uncritical +majority of the public. Should this experiment prove commercially +successful, and the example of Margaux prevail, there would soon be an +end to all individuality, to all those finer shades of years and growths +that are the delight of the true wine-lover; and the ambition of Margaux +and its emulators would be to produce an ever-greater quantity, trading +on an ancient and no longer justifiable local renown for quality that was +only attained in the past by a deliberate and consistent sacrifice of any +idea of securing bumper vintages. + +It is the rapid rise of the “_Monopoles_,” the very existence of which is +an impious challenge to the fair name of wine, that has stimulated the +wholesale vatting of these standardised regional growths. + + + + +MONOPOLES + + +The French word “_monopole_,” as applied to wines, really means a +firm’s trade-mark, a proprietary brand: in fact very much the same +sort of thing as the popular blends of Scotch Whisky advertised by the +leading distillers. At present these Monopoles are chiefly confined to +the Côte d’Or and the Bordelais, though specimens have already made +their appearance in the lists of certain Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, +Touraine and Anjou wine-merchants who specialise in these particular +growths. To explain what these Monopoles really are—an authority of the +eminence of M. Raymond Baudouin has not hesitated to stigmatise them +as “pharmacy, but not wine”—the French law concerning appellations of +origin, which the Monopoles have been devised to circumvent, must first +be briefly examined. A wine may now no longer be sold under a territorial +designation unless it is territorially entitled to its use: that is to +say only when it has been grown exclusively within territory having an +identical geographical (but not necessarily administrative) appellation, +or within the area of such adjacent communes as may enjoy a recognised +and long-established right to the better-known name of their neighbour. +For instance, a red wine sold as “Pommard” in France must have been +grown within the Commune of Pommard, Département de la Côte d’Or, and +none other; a white wine sold as Pouilly (not to be confused with the +white wine of Pouilly-sur-Loir from the common border of the Départements +of the Cher and the Nièvre), which is the name of a tiny hamlet in the +Mâconnais and not of any one commune, must have been grown either in the +Commune of Solutré (in which this hamlet actually lies), the Commune of +Fuissé, the Commune of Vergisson and a cadastrally delimited part of the +Commune of Chaintré, in the Département of Saône-et-Loire, and nowhere +else. + +In the Côte d’Or there are two kinds of red vines: one the proud “_plant +noble_,” called the Pinot of Pineau, which alone has made the wine of +Burgundy the nectar that it is, that will grow in few places and then +only on the lower slope—a niggardly beggar so delicate as to be prone to +practically every malady that the vine is heir to; and the Gamay,[6] a +“_plant commun_,” which will thrive anywhere, especially where the Pinot +will not—a hardy vine that is a heavy bearer and causes little anxiety or +expense to the vigneron. + +As there is very little slope with the right exposure in each commune, +it follows that there is a considerable extent of Gamay plantations, +since the wine of the Gamay vineyards has just as much right to be sold +as “Pommard,” if it is grown in that commune, as wine grown in the most +famous of the historic “_climats_” which have been planted exclusively +with Pinot vines since time immemorial. (In England, in so far as our +“Pommard” ever comes from that Commune, or the Burgundy region at all, +it is nearly always Gamay wine, French growers and shippers having +long ago discovered that most English wine-drinkers, and many English +wine-merchants, cannot distinguish it from a Pinot growth, though these +respective flavours, once they become familiar, are as dissimilar as +chalk and cheese.) An amendment to the _Loi des Appellations d’Origine_, +called the _Amendment Capus_ after the name of the Senator who introduced +it, is now before the French Chambers, the object of which, should it, +as seems probable, be ratified, is to limit any given “_appellation +d’origine_” ampelographically as well as territorially: that is, to +confine it to wines grown from those auguster vines that are historically +as much an integral part of the wine itself as the traditional area of +ground and the geological nature of the soil it has always been grown on. +The first important effect of this amendment to the existing state of the +law would be that Gamay wines grown in Côte d’Or communes would no longer +be entitled to any local appellation of origin (such as “Pommard”), +unless it were the generic name “Bourgogne,” the lowest, because the most +general, qualification of all for any Burgundy, red or white. A given +wine, enjoying the right to a special secondary appellation, can always +be made to descend the scale from the particular to the general in bad +years, or for any other cause that may have marred its quality; but a +wine can never be promoted to a higher category than that in which it was +born and bred. A simple instance for exemplifying this point is afforded +by the official grouping in the Beaujolais. The local appellations of +origin here recognised as “_pouvant revendiquer les usages loyaux, +locaux et constants_,” are Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Morgon, Juliénas, +Brouilly, Thorins, and Chénas. Now none of these wines can under any +circumstances appropriate to itself the name of one of its fellows. +Chénas may not style itself Moulin-à-Vent; nor, for that matter, though +there is no sort of temptation to do so, may Moulin-à-Vent style itself +Chénas. Yet all are Beaujolais and “Beaujolais” is the common name to +which every other wine grown in that region has an equal right. Thus any +of these seven “named” wines may call itself simply “Beaujolais,” and +being a Beaujolais has a clear title to the seemingly magnificent, but +in reality exceedingly common and unassuming, patronymic of “Bourgogne.” +There is only one Mackintosh of Mackintosh, but Andrew Mackintosh, gillie +to THE Mackintosh, is as much a “Mackintosh” as the exalted Chief of the +Clan. + +None the less any wine-merchant has the right to sell a wine, or blend +of wines, French or foreign, called by some fantastic name, or whatever +title of his own invention he chooses to employ, provided it is not +identical with an existing appellation of origin. More often than not the +bottler selects a name nicely calculated to seem a genuine territorial +appellation to the unwary, such as Château This or Clos That, Roc d’Or +or Monvalloir; or, keeping within the law, slightly adapts the spelling +of some classic growth with fraudulent intent: Romani for Romanée, etc. +Several of the more important Bordeaux and Beaune firms sell Monopoles +purely on the strength of their own names and previous reputations as +Chose’s Blue and Green Labels, or Red and Yellow Capsules, much as +English grocers sell different qualities of well-known brands of tea. +Where Saints’ names are invoked because of their prevalence in Bordelais +communes, the wines they consecrate are no more catholic for the doubtful +compliment of a spurious, or impersonated, canonisation. Certainly good +St Vincent would have none of these imposters either as brother saints or +tipplers. + +According to M. Raymond Baudouin, a typical recipe adopted by the Côte +d’Or alchemists is + + 25% genuine Côte d’Or Burgundy for flavouring. + + 30% good Côtes du Rhône wine to eke out this flavouring. + + 20% ordinary Algerian wine to reduce the cost. + + 25% natural wine (_i.e._, wine with no special flavour or other + salient characteristic) to drown the taste of the hot Algerian + blending wine and still further reduce the cost of production. + +The Bordeaux houses are said to employ + + 25% genuine Bordeaux. + + 30% good Midi wine. + + 20% ordinary Algerian wine. + + 25% neutral wine. + +It is perhaps hardly necessary to add that these formulas are only +approximate, and that the actual ingredients of each Monopole vary in +nature and ratio with the firm of wine-cooks concerned. Indeed, there +are some Côte d’Or houses which claim that their Monopoles are blended +exclusively from pure, territorially genuine, Burgundies: a claim which, +whether justifiable or not in fact, is best rejected on principle, +because there is seldom any inducement to blend a wine good enough to be +sold unblended. + +A widely organised conspiracy now exists to foist these vinous +compounds, which may conceivably be wine and even French wine, but +are certainly neither Bordeaux nor Burgundy according to any legal or +loyal interpretation of those terms, on purchasers of single bottles +and diners at restaurants because they yield much bigger profits than +ordinary wines. Thanks to our national ignorance of wines, Monopole +brands of White Graves (one boasts that it is supplied to the House +of Lords), and other so-called “Oyster-Wines,” have already gained a +certain footing on the English market because they are supposed to offer +“more regular and uniform quality” than wines bearing straightforward +territorial designations, together with a sustained standard of flavour, +independent of vintage vagaries: a thing which it is simplicity itself +to produce once “_coupage_,” or scientific blending, is resorted to. In +the Côte d’Or, where the demand for authentic Côte de Nuits and Côte +de Beaune Burgundies is anything up to five times as much as can be +genuinely produced, while bad vintages are much more frequent than good, +the evil of the “_Marques Personnelles_” has made such rapid progress +that already more Monopole wines than territorial growths are sold and +the integrity of the sacred name of Burgundy is definitely compromised. +Many of these mixtures are quite agreeable to drink, provided always that +they are taken for what they really are and not for what they pretend +to be, but to offer them to one’s friends is an unpardonable insult, +however merited the insult may sometimes be. The proper sphere for these +beverages—if, indeed, they can be said to have any proper sphere other +than the hoodwinking of the credulous and ignorant for whom they are +lavishly and alluringly labelled in regulation Burgundy and Bordeaux +bottles—is for splashing down a hustled and jolted meal in a dining-car. +A Monopole may be defined as the _Train Bleu_ wine par excellence, since +it can always be relied upon to be none the worse for the most violent +shaking before taking. + +A word of caution is, however, necessary because in French commercial +usage this dangerous word “_monopole_” can have two very different +interpretations. The first, which is infinitely the more common, as we +have just seen, applies to blended wines sold as proprietary brands under +the euphemism which the law requires to be printed in the wine-merchant’s +price-list but not on the label of the bottle: “_exclusif de toute +considération d’origine et de cépage_” (_cépage_ means in this context +the types of vine traditionally associated with particular growths of +wine). The second, and entirely respectable sense, which the same term +may have, is in the case where a certain firm may own or lease the +whole of a particular vineyard and can thus claim that it possesses +a “monopoly” of its wine. An outstanding instance is provided by +Romanée-Conti of Vosne, perhaps the most famous vineyard in the whole +world, which is “_Monopole de la Maison De Villaine et Cambon_” for the +very good and sufficient reason that this old and honourable firm owns +the freehold of the hallowed hectare and a half and bottles every drop of +its priceless wine in its own cellars. + +Strictly speaking, Champagne (where the term originated and where it is +still extensively used), practically all other sparkling wines and most +Ports, Sherries, Madeiras and Marsalas are likewise Monopoles, because +they are sold under the names of different makers—each separate shipper +representing one or more proprietary brands—instead of under the names of +particular vineyards or communes. In each of these cases, however, the +blending formula, which has made the reputation and constitutes the most +jealously guarded secret of each firm, relies wholly on wines enjoying +co-equal local appellations. Every drop of Première Zone Champagne is +territorially genuine “Champagne,” although as many as six separate +communes, each with its own appellation of origin, may have contributed +to its composition. The only way to avoid pitfalls is to know your Côte +d’Or communes and “_climats_” and your Bordeaux districts, with their +constituent communes and satellite _Crus_, _Clos_ and _Châteaux_ (the +latter is almost the work of a lifetime), more or less by heart, and +to apply the cold test of geography to every bottle you are invited +to buy. Even then you have no real guarantee in England, for English +wine-merchants seem to be able to label wines, or other vinous mixtures, +with more or less any names that suit their fancies, and yet enjoy +virtual immunity from prosecution, so long as they do not describe as +“Port” or “Madeira” wines that were not originally shipped from Oporto +and Funchal with the appropriate Portuguese Certificate of Origin. + + + + +ADULTERATION + + +The increasing resources of sophistication in their various legal and +illegal aspects keep pace with the progress of chemical research. +Attempts to level up the irregular work of the sun by artificial +means, so as to overcome the lack of any uniform degree of maturity +in the grape, caused by the alternating clemency and inclemency of the +vintage season, is becoming more and more common. The commonest form of +adulteration is blending, whether of separate growths or vintages. To-day +an unnamed, or vaguely named, wine, gives rise to the suspicion of being +the former, just as an undated wine carries a strong presumption of being +the latter. Happily the practice of indicating the vintages of wines +has now become much more general, and is being adopted by countries, +such as Italy, where the custom was formerly unknown. The consumer’s +best safeguard against blended wine is an estate-bottled growth.[7] The +use of chemical aids in wine-making is to some extent sanctioned by the +law. In France wine may now be sugared (_chaptalisation_), sterilised +(_pasteurisation_), fortified (_vinage_), watered (_mouillage_), +plastered (_plâtrage_), muted (_mutage_) and, in the case of white +wines, sulphured (_sulfitage_), within certain defined limits and +subject of formal declaration. The illegal adulterants of wine have been +too frequently catalogued to need any recapitulation. Synthetic scents +and flavourings are always adding to their number, but it is doubtful +whether any synthetic bouquet or taste will ever be able to deceive an +experienced palate. + +_Chaptalisation_ means supplying the percentage of natural grape-sugar +which the most of wet or cold vintage years is deficient in by the +same amount of cane or beet sugar. This added sugar is converted into +alcohol at the same time, and in precisely the same way, as the natural +sugar of the fruit; thanks to this addition the wine is assured of +sufficient alcoholic body to keep, which might not otherwise be possible. +Only experts can detect a _vin chaptalisé_ from an unsugared wine. +This practice is fairly common in the northernmost vineyards, such as +Champagne, the Côte d’Or and the Moselle. The German law permits sugaring +in certain cases, but no sugared wine may be labelled “_Natur_,” or +“_Naturrein_.” Chaptalisation saved the 1925 vintage in the Bordelais, +where this expedient had hitherto been held up to execration as a +typically Burgundian falsification. _Pasteurisation_ is resorted to +so as to preserve young wines of poor vintages against attacks of +wine-maladies after they have been bottled. It allows wine to be bottled +almost as soon as made, and though it brings the wine well forward in +the process, it arrests most of its subsequent natural development. +_Vinage_ is simply, as in the case of Port, the brandying of sweet wines +with extraneous spirit. _Mouillage_ is resorted to for reducing the +alcoholic strength of common wines, which are taxed and priced at so +much the alcoholic degree. _Plâtrage_ is the sprinkling of the grapes +with plaster of paris while they are being pressed. It is supposed to be +a safeguard against the danger of secondary, or acetous, fermentation +in hot climates during the first summer following the vintage. _Mutage_ +is a means of arresting fermentation chemically, so as to permit of one +wine being blended with another before allowing a joint fermentation of +the two to proceed to completion. _Sulfitage_ is used to preserve the +bright golden colour of white wines, that are apt to turn brown when +exposed to the air, and to prevent _vins liquoreux_, like Sauternes, +alcoholising a certain degree of unconverted grape-sugar, or _liqueur_, +which they are intended to retain. The old method of sulphuring was to +smoke the empty casks with sulphur matches before filling them, which +resulted in the fumes becoming amalgamated with the wine. The newer, +and more dangerous, practice is to add a small percentage of suitably +diluted Sulphur Dioxide. The French tolerance of this chemical is 450 +parts per million: a proportion identical with that adopted under the new +British regulations, which define this “improver” as the only extraneous +substance that wine imported into the United Kingdom may contain. + + + + +PROSTITUTION + + +The outstanding example of the menace to the survival of wine in its +natural form is the wholesale demand for what the French call the +“_champagnisation_” of all kinds of wine, great and humble, good, bad +and indifferent, red, white and _rosé_, quite irrespective of their +suitability for gaseous treatment, which tends more and more to absorb +choicer and rarer, rather than poorer and more abundant, qualities. This +insatiable public appetite for effervescence ignores the amount of those +surplus qualities that are available and, in certain cases, readily +adaptable, for the purpose and so degrades fine still wines from their +lawful sphere by constraining them to pop, froth and bubble in indignant +and impotent protest instead of gurgling majestically into the glass of +honour in a tranquil and limpid stream. Our spendthrift generation is +convinced that the sparkling variety of any given wine must needs be its +highest, because its costliest, expression. Even to-day, few growths have +remained wholly immune to this vandalism, while the commercial pressure +brought to bear on the few conscientious recalcitrants is increasing +yearly. It would seem that in the United States, where the real meaning +of simple words is even more often misunderstood than in England, wine, +in common parlance, always implies a sparkling wine of sorts, whether +genuine or spurious Champagne. The youth of Europe, hypnotised by jazz +strains, convulsions and idioms, is doing its best to make the word have +the same ignorantly exclusive and inglorious significance in lands that +have spontaneously evolved their own languages and ancestral wassailing +traditions. It is arguable whether sparkling wine is really wine at all. +What admits of no sort of cavil is that its name needs qualifying by some +such admonitory adjective so as to distinguish it from the natural wine +from which it is, or purports to be, manufactured. + +Happily there is yet no sign of a vogue in fortified “qualities” of +famous natural wines, but with Port dearer and stronger than ever +owing to the new schedule of wine-duties, there is no reason to be +over-sanguine. Thanks to the spirited competition of Australian sweet +wines, made possible by the considerable preference accorded to Empire +wines in this country and an export bounty of 3s. to 4s. the gallon +granted by the Commonwealth Government, Portugal and Spain are not +likely to have a monopoly of this market for the future. Already, too, +a home industry has sprung up for the manufacture of fortified “British +Wines”—the unfermented must being imported from abroad in a muted state +and “worked up” in this country into a liquid on which the courtesy title +of “wine” has been bestowed. Mr Churchill, in the course of his speech +on the Budget for 1927, tempered the unwelcome compliment of rendering +these concoctions liable to duty by promising to taste them before that +measure had the force of law. A less fearless man in his position might +well have preferred to renounce the project of raising revenue from such +an unpalatable source. + +The transformation of various wines (Chablis, Vouvray, Anjou, Mercurey, +Cap Corse, etc.) into “tonic wines” or _apéritifs_ (the different +proprietary brands of Vermouth, French and Italian, together with the +numerous “Quinas,” “Quinquinas,” “Kinas,” and the like, to say nothing +of those combined with meat-extract sold by English apothecaries) by +an admixture of quinine and other “appetising” herbs and “restorative” +drugs, is another barbarism that is now assuming considerable +proportions. This heinous practice is at all events of more respectable +antiquity than “_champagnisation_,” having been familiar in classical +times, with rather different but no more inviting ingredients, in +the guise of “wine tempered by the nymphs.” As it is, Great Britain +imports more Italian Vermouth than Italian wine. Non-alcoholic wine, +or sterilised grape-juice, which is now prepared in France, Germany, +Switzerland and the United States, is the most recent fad in the way of +_Weinersatz_. It has been claimed that this emasculated beverage has +considerable medicinal value. Doubtless it will soon be advertised in +this country under some such slogan as “Take the Modish Grape-Cure of +Meran at Merriest Margate (or in your own home) with Vincent’s Vitamined +Verjuice.” These parodies of wine, it is hardly necessary to add, belong +to the same school of “refreshing pick-me-ups” as Cydrax, Kop’s Ale, +Herb-Beer, Kola Champagne, Raspberry Sherbet and other mineral-water and +Soda-Fountain eruptions. The survival of these dismal and sickly tipples +depends on the survival of the Teetotal Dogma which ordains the purging +of the pride of the palate with one or other of these potable Puritan +penitences. + + + + +MALADIES OF THE VINE + + +It is too often forgotten that the vinelands of Europe, and the majority +of the Australian, North and South African vineyards planted with +European vines, came within an ace of total destruction by those terrible +scourges the Oidium (first noted in 1845) and the Phylloxera (which +appeared in 1868), which devastated the viticultural world only a decade +or two apart in the middle of the last century. Both came from America, +and pious French vignerons see in Prohibition a divine visitation on a +country so hardened in iniquity as to have wantonly disseminated, if +not deliberately incubated, these frightful pestilences, in despair of +ever equalling the quality of European wines. Of the two, the latter, +because it was recurrent and seems to be endemic to the vine, was by +far the more catastrophic. Chemical means, such as sulphur-spraying, +were eventually devised for coping with the former, so that it could +be, if not eradicated, at least held in check. The Phylloxera, on the +other hand, for long defied the concerted efforts of the world’s most +skilful chemists and agriculturists, traversing Europe from Portugal +to the Crimea like a forest fire, and even passing mysteriously beyond +the seas to infest the young vineyards of other continents. The havoc +wrought was inestimable, particularly in France, where a million hectares +of vineyards, which have never since been replanted, were swept out of +existence. Indeed, when this murrain was at its zenith, there was for +some time grave doubt whether the French peasantry could ever be induced +to replant their perished vines. In the magnitude of its destructiveness +and the swiftness and universality of its contagion, the Phylloxera +can only be compared to the dreaded Pink Bol-Worm parasite of the +cotton-plant. Ultimately salvation was found in wholesale replanting +with grafted vines. The peculiarity of this pest was that it attacked +the roots, but not the foliage, of the European vines, while the roots +of the indigenous American species were as inured against its infection +as their foliage was susceptible to it. Thus by grafting picked European +vine-shoots on to suitable American vine-stocks, a hardy plant could be +evolved, both roots and foliage of which were sufficiently resistent +to the cryptogam. There are, of course, plenty of other blights and +distempers that afflict the vine in greater or less degree according to +the species concerned and the nature of the soil and climate it is grown +in. The vigneron’s life is one unceasing round of watch and ward, toil +and prayer. Not for a single week in the year can the smallest vineyard +go untended. A new and more dreadful Phylloxera might appear at any +moment, though the viticulturist is now much better equipped to resist +fresh parasitic invasions. + +A word may be said in connection with the maladies peculiar to the vine +on the vexed question of the relative merits of the wines grown from +grafted and ungrafted vines. It is usually claimed that the quality +of the pre-phylloxera wines, grown from old French ungrafted vines, +was infinitely superior to anything that the best grafted vines can +ever hope to produce. This contention is not supported by the consensus +of opinion among wine-growers and wine-merchants, though some make a +reservation in favour of the old _vieilles souches_ Burgundies. The new +vines show no “yellow streak.” They have acquired none of the primitive +characteristics of native American vines, such as their foxy flavour, +except their New-World vigour. The wines they yield mature more rapidly +and are certainly, like the grafted vines themselves, shorter-lived, but +they give an equal quality with a slightly larger yield per acre. Fifty +or a hundred years hence it will be possible to pass a more definite +and dispassionate judgment on this controversy. It should, however, be +remembered that those who insistently decry all wines grown from grafted +vines are generally old gentlemen who have already reached that age when, +like the Señor d’Asumar, in “Gil Blas,” the peaches of their youth seem +infinitely larger, juicier and more luscious than any that are grown +to-day. + + + + +THE FUTURE OF EMPIRE WINES + + +During the South African War we were urged to think imperially. After +the World War, the nation, in spite of saturation with American films, +was considered to have pondered sufficiently in an imperial sense for +the time to be ripe to ask it to eat, drink and clothe itself imperially +as well. The dogma of Free Trade was definitely abandoned and several +minor Empire preferences were offered us as grist for mental stimulus. +To food for the mind we were exhorted to add food for the body, though +the reverse process might have made a stronger appeal with a more logical +nation, besides simplifying the necessary change in purchasing habits +which had survived the outworn doctrines of Bright and Cobden who had +been instrumental in moulding them. + +To smoke and drink imperially is rather a different matter to eating +and dressing imperially. Most of us would gladly smoke and drink what +our fellow-Britons grow if the question of quality did not persist in +intruding itself between the cup and the lip. Even when we are prepared +to ignore this aspect of practical patriotism, imperial flattery of the +palate has a way of forcing itself on our attention at the very first +puff or sip. Nor are we always quite honest with ourselves when we make +a resolution to eat, drink, smoke or dress imperially for the future, +because on these occasions we often refrain from making an inventory of +the mental reservations which, consciously or unconsciously, we bring to +the list. Not even the most ardent patriot, until at least he loses his +palate, can pretend that Borneo Cigars or Burmah Cheroots are superior +to Havana Cigars and Manilla Cheroots. So it is with Empire Wines. +Australian “Burgundy” and South African “Hock” could not pass muster for +the French and German wines they so unblushingly pretend to be with the +wine-waiter of the National Liberal Club. + +It is an axiom in wine that quality can only be forthcoming in +countries where viticulture depends primarily on the home market, and +even then it is less often attained than otherwise. For all practical +purposes there are only four provenances of Empire wines: South Africa, +Australia, Palestine and Cyprus, which already produce more than they +can readily dispose of, as only the first and last are in any real +sense wine-drinking countries. A little wine is grown in Cashmere, +Canada and Malta as well, but the quantity is negligible. From climatic +and geological deductions it seems probable that vineyards could be +successfully planted in parts of New Zealand, Kenya, Rhodesia and the +middle slopes of the Himalayas, Ghats and Nilgherry Hills in India, but +there is no potential demand for fresh sources of supply unless their +produce is of a vastly superior quality to anything now grown on British +soil. The Cyprian Commanderia wine of Paphos is historically one of the +world’s most famous growths, but it is doubtful whether its peculiar +flavour will ever make any strong appeal to the British palate. Little +of the ordinary wine of the island is now exported to England, the +bulk of such as is being absorbed by the manufacturers of a well-known +brand of “Tonic Wine,” which is very popular with rigid teetotalers +and connoisseurs of patent medicines. Quantitatively, there is little +hope for Empire wines, even when protected by substantial preferential +tariffs. Algerian common wines, to say nothing of the most ordinary +French, Spanish and Italian growths, will always be cheaper and more +abundant than any similar wines grown in Australia or the Cape, which +have to pay far higher freight and are cultivated by vine-dressers that +are far more highly paid. Even should the Algerian supply fail for any +cause, and at present it is increasing steadily every year, larger and +larger quantities of Argentine and Chilian wines are becoming available +for export. Algerian wines are not particularly choice—they have only +been cultivated for about sixty years—but some of them are superior to +anything produced within the Empire. Moreover, except in England, they +are sold under their local Algerian name as Médéa, Miliana, Mascara, and +Coteaux de l’Harach, etc., and not as Algerian “Claret,” “Burgundy,” +“Chablis,” “Graves,” and “Sauternes”; though our own wine-merchants, save +when, as is not infrequent, they use them anonymously, do not hesitate to +give them these absurd and mendacious titles. + +All other Empire wines, with one or two honourable exceptions, such +as the South African Riebeeck Kastel and the Australian Highercombe +Amber, produce, on their own label avowals, nothing but self-styled +imitations of the leading European wines, prefixed by the safeguarding +qualification Australian, South African or Palestine, as the case may +be, which reduces these fraudulent claims to nonsense. Even where local +names are adopted, such as Schoongezicht, Paarl and Drakenstein, they +are used to qualify the meaningless title “Hock.” It is a lie. The wines +of these three districts—and they are about the best which the Empire +has to offer—are, and always will be, nothing but Schoongezicht, Paarl +and Drakenstein respectively. They are not, and cannot be, “Hocks,” even +though grown from the choicest Rhenish Riesling vines, because Hock is +a purely German wine to which the Rhineside town of Hochheim-am-Main +has given its name. Hochheim is in the Regierungsbezirk Wiesbaden of +Prussia, and not in the Cape Province of the Union of South Africa. +Nearly all Australian, and a great many South African, red wines describe +themselves as “Burgundies” (there are, to be sure, a few “Clarets” and +“Hermitages” as well) and often perpetrate a further, and yet more +laughable, contradiction in terms by claiming that they are grown from +Cabernet or Malbec vines: classic French vines, it is true, but native +to the Bordelais and not Burgundy, where their cultivation is quite +unknown. Burgundy is the product of a certain type of vine grown from +time immemorial on a particular kind of soil with a particular exposure, +at a particular altitude, in a particular climate prevailing between a +particular longitude and a particular latitude that coincide in eastern +France: a concatenation of elements and circumstances which cannot +possibly be reproduced in Australia, South Africa or anywhere else. Nor +does “Burgundy,” as is sometimes supposed, denote a certain strength of +red wine, a full-bodied growth, in contradistinction to “Claret” (which +by the accident of a name, that should rightly be Bordeaux, is not the +fraud it sounds, since “Claret” really means no more than a light-red +wine) as a term used to imply a lighter-bodied and much less alcoholic +type. The alcoholic contents of good Bordeaux and Burgundy, quality for +quality, are usually more or less identical. The strength of wines is +calculated in alcoholic degrees and not by appropriating names filched +from certain representative growths. The essential vinous ethers of these +spurious “Hocks” and “Burgundies,” scanty and not very subtle though +they are, would, like the rose’s perfume, exhale bouquets just as bland +under their own, or any other, names. If a single swallow does not of +itself herald an English summer, all the Emus in the Commonwealth cannot +transmute a South Australian vintage into the _Grande Année_ of a Côte +d’Or _Tête de Cuvée_. + +Even if it be true that vigorous and psychologically intelligent +advertising can increase the sales of any article, irrespective of its +worth or utility, this would scarcely seem to apply to that particular +brand, notable among “Burgundies” which are “generous but not spirity, +soft but not sugary” for being sold under the device “Every Meal a +Banquet.” That slogan “Every Meal a Banquet” is nicely calculated to +deter any normal person from buying this particular brand—and that +without even tasting it. Banquets are usually heavy and singularly +depressing functions which people like Lord-Lieutenants, princes of the +blood, mayors, chairmen of companies, politicians, public officials and +diplomats accept with a heavy heart, and only because such occasions +are part of their regular duties. Secretly they dread these orgies +of ceremonious and oratorical eating as a pernicious waste of time, +nefarious to their digestions. Thus we surmise that a wine capable of +transforming every meal, however simple, intimate and unpretentious, into +that portentously aldermanic and dyspeptic thing, a banquet, must be +singularly heavy and soporific in its effects. + +If real quality in Empire Wines is to be attained at all, it can only +be by abandoning the existing methods of mass-production of Type-Wines +and deliberately fostering the particularisation of certain small, but +promising, local growths. South Africa, where irrigation of the vineyards +is not as common as in Australia—irrigation more than doubles the yield +and more than halves the quality—has already made some progress in this +direction. As has already been noticed, wines are grown in the Cape at +certain localities called Schoongezicht, Paarl and Drakenstein, which we +assume, just because they are named, are probably of far better quality +than the unnamed South African growths. The Australian Type-Wines, on the +other hand, are apparently not even regional specimens of their kind. The +average consumer of flagon wines knows nothing whatever about them except +that they are grown somewhere in a vast Dominion which is a continent in +itself. Keystone, Tintara, Ophir and Harvest are registered trademarks, +not places on the map. + +That these Australian and South African masqueraders under French and +German colours can be sold in Great Britain has been amply proved. In +1926 the consumption of Australian wines increased by over a million +gallons. That their sale would fall away by nearly as much—drinking +imperially is a habit that, to be abiding, requires some little time to +form—were the preference and bounty removed there can be little doubt. + +Palestine, the latest recruit to the wine-lands of the Empire, produces +imitations—very bad imitations, too, though the wines to which these +illustrious and illusory resemblances are attributed by their Zionist +growers are, in their rough and humble way, sometimes quite passable +wines—of all the classical growths of France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, +Hungary and Greece: everything, in fact, except an honest and avowedly +Palestine wine _tel quel_. That some of these vineyards are now being +turned over to the cultivation of table-grapes, or transformed into +orange-groves, for lack of a market for their plagiarising wines, cannot +be regretted as long as the Holy Land, of all regions of the earth, has +not the proper pride to say of its first-fruits, “a poor thing, but +mine own,” rather than “these are extremely fine reproductions, made +purposely to resemble the best-known growths of other countries in all +respects, and sold under their names at a very reasonable price.” + +Thus it is all the more discouraging and humiliating to find that, +according to the “_Times_ Trade Supplement,” the British Empire +Producers’ Organisation counsels Empire wine-growers “to give more +study to questions of bottles and labels, using accepted shapes and +designs _and leaving alone certificates of purity_.” The circular +which recommends the expedient of putting new wine into old bottles, a +practice recognised as disastrous even in biblical days, closes with the +extraordinary statement that “Empire wines are sounder than most foreign +wines at similar price, and are only prejudiced by devices (perhaps just +the absence of these superfluous certificates of purity?) not usually +associated with good wines.” This advice does scant justice to the +commercial probity and intelligence of a nation of shopkeepers. It is +clear that the very reverse is desirable. Empire Wines should evolve +their own shapes of bottles and designs for their labels, just as much as +they ought to develop their own individual flavours and other inherent +characteristics, to say nothing of discovering their own names. Several +of the smaller French growths (notably Anjou and Frontignan), which +have recently experienced some difficulty in disposing of their wines +remuneratively, have adopted individual types of bottle, and find this +policy promotes interest on the part of the public and undoubtedly helps +to increase their sales. + +If Britons do not have a little more proper pride in their own husbandry, +“Empire Produce” will soon come to have something of the purely imitative +significance formerly associated with that familiar hall-mark for +cheapness and shoddiness: “Made in Germany.” German wines, however, +are neither of these _péjoratif_ things, for in German vineyards, +which are far from extensive, quantity has always been subordinated +to quality. The result is that the yield is very small indeed, while +growths like Steinberger and Schloss Johannisberger fetch prices more +than double those of the finest French wines, white as red, which are +in no wise inferior to them. The reason once again is that German +wines do not imitate any others and are content to be unique of their +kind. The very considerable difference in price, fine vintage for fine +vintage, prevailing between them and the choicest French growths is +in ratio to the much larger production of the latter. The royal road +to an enhanced quality in Empire Wines is in imitating the painstaking +methods and local pride of French and German wine-growers instead of +aping the names of their inimitable wines. Empire Wines, even if they +are only ordinary beverage wines, must dare to be themselves and brave +the risk of standing on their own merits and being sold under their own, +and nothing but their own, names. The industry of no nation can take +the same pride in slavishly copying the wares of another country as in +developing the particular indigenous excellencies of its own. Less than +a century ago the Cape produced one wine which became world-famous. +That Constantia has disappeared from the tables of European epicures +need occasion no surprise. The reason was a simple one. The demand for +this wine, which became as fashionable as Madeira, soon exceeded the +supply. Constantia was grown in a single vineyard. Increasing popularity +led to over-production of its vines, and the growing of much spurious +“Constantia,” that was really bad imitation Port, from hastily planted +and badly tended vineyards in the surrounding countryside. To-day +Constantia, like the Maronean and Pramnian of the Classics, is no more +than a memory, though the vineyard still survives and produces, I +believe, a “Constantia Claret” (it might have been yet another “Burgundy” +but for the irresistible appeal of alliteration) in its stead. The moral +is a clear one. Constantia, a fortified red wine, was sold as Constantia +and not as Cape “Port,” or Cape “Alicant.” True, it was often referred to +as “Cape Constantia,” but this was evidence not of a specious fraud but +of a certain local pride in its unusual origin, since no European wine +existed of the same name. + +The vine has now been acclimatised in South Africa for nearly three +hundred years, thus giving the older vineyards time to work out some +of that virgin rankness of soil which is a serious handicap to the +attainment of fine quality. What South African and Australian viticulture +most needs are poorer and more worn soils, more carefully chosen +exposures and altitudes for vineyards; and sterner pruning of the vines +so as to ensure a far smaller yield per acre. + + + + +LEGISLATIVE RESTRICTIONS ON THE SALE OF WINES AND SPIRITS + + +Wine-drinkers are nearly always temperate in their opinions. That is why +they are not “Temperance” advocates, the word having become debased into +meaning the most intolerant teetotalism and the vilification of that +essentially temperate beverage wine. Wine-drinkers, as temperate persons, +are as much opposed to alcoholism as to teetotalism. Teetotalers, as +intemperate fanatics, are opposed not so much to alcoholism as to +alcohol itself—and their dour Puritan hearts are virtuously indignant +that those who like it should continue to enjoy the liberty of drinking +it. Wine-drinkers do not drink between meals, which is one of the first +rules of health. They drink at their meals, just as teetotalers, who are +every whit as thirsty as inveterate beer-drinkers, quaff their gaseous +dill-waters at all sorts of times and in all sorts of places—preferably +opposite ancient ruins: perhaps because they suggest to them the +inexorable decline and fall of the brewing barons and the imminent decay +of the fortunes of distillery magnates. To own a cellar of one’s own is +to be independent of vexatious curtailments of drinking hours. Just and +proper as these restrictions are in theory, at all events until human +nature can be relied upon to resist obviously harmful temptations more +stoically than hitherto, they inevitably penalise those whose time is +not their own. A poor man, however, cannot afford a cellar, which is +supposed to imply a degree of affluence that is far from being borne +out by the actual cost of laying down a few moderately good and varied +bins. It is the wine-merchant who keeps up the idea that a cellar is an +expensive luxury, because it is far more profitable for him to sell his +customers fully matured wine than to encourage them to buy the same wine +from him as soon as bottled and let it mature for nothing in their own +cellars. When the interests of true temperance prevail in Parliament, +light natural wines will be taxed so lightly that anyone who could afford +to order a dozen bottles of Bass or Guinness at a time from the grocer’s +could afford to stock a modest cellar. Spirits, on the other hand, will +be taxed still more highly, and fortified wines proportionately to the +added spirit they contain. The heavier incidence of duty on sparkling +wines is not likely to be removed, because there is no valid reason why +it should be. The consumption of sparkling wines, as we have already +seen, needs to be discouraged in the higher interests of natural wines. +A proper purity standard for beer is not likely to be enforced as long +as the public remains apathetic on the subject: that is to say until the +time comes for the whole attitude of the state to the liquor question to +be reviewed, not at the behest of a handful of teetotal fanatics, or the +trade, but in response to the insistent demand of the consumer himself. + +The question may be asked, “Should the sale of wines and spirits be +a state monopoly, and is this likely to become general in the near +future?” Leaving aside all academic arguments for and against socialism, +the answer would seem to be, as in the case of railway ownership and +operation, “It depends on the country concerned and the particular genius +of that nation; its administrative efficiency and its attitude towards +the state and state institutions.” It is, however, unthinkable that in +the future any state will consent to abdicate that degree of control +of the liquor trade and public health and order afforded by levying +discriminatory duties on the consumption of spirits. Even in France +Absinthe has had to be made illegal. In Sweden a compromise between +state and commercial exploitation has been adopted. A single company, +the _Aktiebolaget Vin och Spritcentralen_, farms the Government’s +monopoly and hands over all surplus profits to the state after paying +a small fixed dividend to its shareholders. This company also owns all +the distilleries and wine-merchants’ shops in the country. It issues +a sort of pass-book to consumers, showing the holder’s name, address, +profession and taxation assessment and the number of bottles of wine and +spirits he is entitled to monthly on this basis. This is certainly not +socialism, for it substitutes the ratio of taxation for the doctrine +of equality of opportunity; but if it denies the poor man the right +to buy as much as the rich, it prevents the rich man buying as much +as he likes, or devoting more than a certain percentage of his income +to laying down a fine cellar of wine. Reminiscent of Food Control and +Food Cards as these regulations sound, they seem to work well enough in +practice. If a man may not himself import the sort of wines with which +he would prefer to fill his cellar, the company, according to Mr Hedges +Butler, gives him at very reasonable prices a choice of 862 varieties +of wines and 263 of spirits and liqueurs: a much wider selection than +the score of most prominent London wine-merchants stock between them. +From a variety of causes, of which inertia and chronic conservatism are +the principal, British wine-merchants, still nominally competitive with +one another, are coming more and more to resemble a number of branches +of one and the same company, offering their customers an ever smaller +selection of stereotyped growths. The invariable answer to this criticism +is “Few but choice,” which is liable to provoke a slightly incredulous +smile. “Few but choice,” faithfully echo the licensed grocers and the +restaurants. The most prominent wine-merchant in Regent Street displays a +wine-list so brief that it could be put to shame by any French provincial +_épicerie_. Indeed British vintners of the present day seem to have +taken as their device Sancho Panza’s words, “I come from my vineyard and +know nothing”—except that very few of them have ever seen a vineyard +or a wine-press. The public must be educated in wine, if its sale is +to increase; a greater sale implies greater variety and cheapness and +better average quality. Our prosperous wine-merchants, supinely content +in the main to make quick and easy profits by the sale of proprietary +brands of Port and Champagne, are much too easy-going to give themselves +the trouble of undertaking any more intelligent propaganda than editing +crude circulars extolling those “very nice wines—not _too_ dry” at +bankrupt stock prices (“cost double”), the curious style of which is +so unchanging as to seem traditional. In fact in nine cases out of ten +they no longer know enough about the commodity they deal in to be able +to do more than sell bottles containing it, much as a barman replenishes +beer-mugs at the tap. There is an urgent need of a better-educated and +more enterprising generation of wine-merchants, knowing their honourable +profession at least as well as their grandfathers did. True, the last +word in advertising wine was said many centuries ago. “Good wine (unlike +the Monopoles and the sham “Hocks” and “Burgundies”) needs no bush”; but +this presupposes that good wine should not be conspicuous by its absence. + +Prohibition in Norway, which I believe actually antedates the celebrated +Volstead Act, was expounded to me on the bridge of a collier hove to in +a thick sea-fog off Copenhagen by one of the finest navigators, drunk or +sober, but particularly drunk, that it has ever been my good fortune to +encounter. + +This Danish skipper gave me to understand (I cannot, of course, vouch for +the accuracy of his information) that in the long night of the Norwegian +winter there was absolutely nothing else to do but to take to theology +or get drunk. When drunk, the Norwegian crofter or fisherman, however +theological his bent, readily finds a second source of distraction in +beating his wife. The women of Norway seem to have got tired of being +beaten even before the outbreak of the War. When the War restricted +fishing, they began to take counsel together. Reflecting that the Fiend +Alcohol was at the root of all their troubles and the immediate cause +of all their bruises, they decided that he must be exorcised in due +legal form. To bring this about all that was necessary was the power and +exercise of the vote. The granting of the suffrage to women does not +appear to have aroused any sort of opposition in a “progressive” country +like Norway, and the right seems no sooner to have been demanded than +accorded. Once Norwegian womanhood was armed with the franchise, the +first measure insisted on was that imposing Prohibition on Norwegian +manhood. Their husbands do not seem to have been aware of the danger, +or perhaps they were encouraged to get rather exceptionally drunk during +the week devoted to a plebiscite on this purely feminine issue. Alas, +the plight of these energetic and resourceful Viking ladies, once their +husbands were deprived of Aqavit, was in no wise ameliorated; their +last state was decidedly worse than their first! Having now no earthly +distraction whatever, their husbands beat them from morning to night, +and, being involuntarily sober, very much more efficiently than they +had ever done before. Thereupon the united voice of the Norse women +clamoured for the abrogation of Prohibition even as they had but recently +clamoured for its ratification. Once again they had their way, and the +country returned peaceably to the _status quo ante_ of a moderate degree +of drunkenness and a moderate, because quasi-inebriated, prevalence of +wife-beating. + +At this point the skipper’s account left off, and we may perhaps +supplement his graphic statement by some rather colder data. However +much bruised Norwegian women may have expressed the desire to see +Prohibition abolished, the chief motive force in securing it was the +economic pressure exercised by foreign countries. Norway is neither +an agricultural nor an industrial country. The nation lives on what +statisticians are fond of calling “invisible exports”—in this case +carrying other nations’ goods in its bottoms—and in exporting the +produce of its fisheries, mostly in the form of dried split-cod, known +variously as _Stokfisk_, _Morue_ and _Bacalão_. This is shipped in +enormous quantities to Roman Catholic countries for Fridays’ dinners. +Now, split-cod, though a foodstuff, is not a prime necessity of life, +like corn and meat, and the countries that buy it find no difficulty in +putting an embargo on it at need. Also Norway is a small and pacific, +and therefore impotent, nation, which can be defied or penalised with +impunity, not a great power backed by a large fleet and the power +of manipulating higher finance. For the sake of its shipping and +the export of its _Stokfisk_, Norway was forced in 1921 to accept +an annual contingent of 4,000 hectolitres of French wine, 5,000 of +Spanish and 8,500 of Portuguese: or a total of some 385,000 gallons, +a very considerable amount for a poor country of well under three +million inhabitants. Thus Norway is now wetter than ever. A state _Vin +Monopolet_ conducts the liquor trade and distils corn-brandy. Wine may +be freely bought, but spirits can only be obtained at a chemist’s shop +on a doctor’s prescription: a regulation the enforcement of which used +in former days to coincide with an alarming increase in such maladies +as snake-bite, anæmia, vertigo, melancholia, personal bereavement, +bankruptcy, religious mania, debility and old age in certain “dry” states +of the American Union. + +At present our bejazzed manhood cannot summon to its aid enough of our +old Viking virility to countenance wife-beating in any form, even when +the chastisement is clearly justified. But when our masterful womenkind +seek to impose Prohibition on us, who knows but that the long-suffering +worm may not turn at last? Perhaps the experience of a short term of this +ban might be the cause of curing half our domestic troubles. + +Much the same sort of system of placing few or no restrictions on the +sale of wine, and investing the purchase of spirits with considerable +formalities, has been adopted by certain Canadian provinces. In Quebec, +possibly as a legacy of French blood, the sale of wine vastly exceeds +that of spirits, in spite of a continuous invasion of this hospitable +territory by thirst-maddened tourists from the freest of all countries +at its gates. In Belgium, too, there are restrictions on the sale of +spirits, liqueurs and _apéritifs_, but none on that of beer and wine. + +The vicissitudes of Norway lead us to the consideration of modern +international commercial treaties in their relation to wine. The old +trade agreements between nations in pre-war days were usually rather +amateur, almost altruistic, affairs. The industrial struggle for +existence had not, as then, become acute, because there were more rich +and fewer poor states in the relatively happy family of the nations. +To-day quotas, contingents and categories of goods are carefully +scheduled and obstinately bargained for, each high contracting party +putting forward its irreducible demands, together with certain other +claims advanced as camouflage, which are quietly abandoned once the +acceptance of the former is conceded. Germany produces fine white +wines and but little red. Her new commercial treaty with France, now +being negotiated, stipulates, within the agreed annual contingent of +French wine which she agrees to accept, for a minimum of white and a +maximum of red. But this is not all. Germany was a pioneer in strict +application of the doctrine of Appellation of Origin as applied to +wine, and Bethmann-Hollweg’s _Reichsweingesetz_ of 1909 preceded similar +legislation in any other country, with the possible exception of Hungary. +Thus it is not surprising to find that Germany should insist on stringent +_appellations d’origine_ for the French wines she pledges herself to buy. +Going further still in this direction, the German Ministry of Commerce +has divided the annual quota into fixed ratios between the several +viticultural regions of France: not so much in proportion to their +importance as in accordance with German domestic needs and tastes. It is +left to the French Government to draw up a list of recognised _local_ +appellations within each of these regions (that is to say the names of +separate communes and smaller, but more famous, growths) and submit it +to the approval of the competent German authorities before the treaty +enters into vigour. The Belgian Government was the real precursor in this +direction, for the recently concluded Belgo-French Commercial Treaty +names over two hundred appellations of French wines, the authenticity of +which is guaranteed by the French state, as being alone entitled to be +admitted into Belgian territory. The only appellations of wine which +enjoy protection under any commercial agreement concluded with this +country are Port and Madeira. Wine sold as “Port” or “Madeira” in Great +Britain and Northern Ireland must be the authentic produce of the Alto +Douro or the Island of Madeira, fortified, as required by Portuguese +law, to a given alcoholic strength: that is a “_vinho surdo_” or “_vinho +muito_.” The first of these exclusive appellations is very distasteful to +Australian manufacturers of sweet wines, who are anxious to call their +more spirituous wares “Australian Port.” All other wines in this country +are still very much what their vendors choose to label them. Fortunately +nations are as imitative as persons. It is to be hoped, therefore, that +when the time comes for the existing Anglo-French Commercial Treaty to be +renewed—which is sure to entail long and pertinacious haggling on both +sides on account of the recent French embargo on British coal—this state +of affairs will be remedied in so far as French, or _soi-disant_ French, +wines are concerned. This hope is not so naïve as it may sound. It will +be as much in the interests of our negociators to see that the fixed +minimum quota of French wines, which we shall probably have to agree to +admit annually, shall be the best, instead of among the worst, of their +kinds, as it will be in that of the French to stipulate that henceforward +no wines sold in the United Kingdom as French shall be anything but +French, and that they must correspond in the strictest territorial sense +with the names printed on their labels. Thus, granted a reasonable degree +of skill in our politicians and public officials, the further we deviate +from Free Trade the better should be the quality of the goods we receive +from other countries: an idea altogether too simple to have ruffled the +brains of the Manchester School mandarins. + + + + +FASHION AND FEMINISM IN WINE + + +The undying snob in man reveals himself as much in the choice of the +wines he drinks as in the clothes he wears or the conversation he +affects. Waves of fashion that depend on the praise or blame of someone +in authority—a king, a beau, a singer, a sportsman, a politician or an +actor—sweep in a wine and sweep it out again. Some have their brief spell +and are no more seen; others return at almost fixed intervals like solar +eclipses. Port we owe to anti-French bias and a long-forgotten political +treaty concluded in the heat of this same rancour; but heavily reinforced +Port will be with us till the threat of Prohibition assumes proportions +menacing enough to make us confine ourselves to natural wines as the +most logical defence against the misrepresentations of the teetotalers. +Sherry, on the other hand, has been coming in and going out ever since +its name was Sack. Madeira’s eclipse has a more rational explanation, +for the quality of that wine has never recovered from the scourge of the +Oidium, which all but exterminated its vineyards in the Fifties. The fate +of Madeira was the ordinary fate of things that are out of sight. The +vines of the island were not in normal bearing again till some decades +afterwards, when the old John Company, the largest buyer of Madeira +wines, had already ceased to exist. Claret and Burgundy, long eschewed +as French growths and penalised by prohibitive duties to the profit +of an ever more alcoholic Port, blossomed for us anew when Gladstone +accomplished the revolutionary step of lowering the duties on light wines +to a shilling the gallon in 1861. Hermitage has disappeared in England, +as Arbois has in France. Hock and Moselle were patriotically, even, +considering the absence of supply, a little ostentatiously, renounced +during the War as Hunnish and unhallowed things—so much so, indeed, that +our greatest living authority on wines passed them over in silence in +a book, which is a classic, written during that period of passionate +professorial denunciation of everything German. Yet long before Locarno +they had returned in triumph to their old popularity in the Houses of +Parliament, as advertising circulars were careful to inform us. Greek +wines, like Byron’s verse, have had their day. Tokay, now a memory and +almost no more made, was hallowed by the prefix “Imperial” and the +knowledge that it was the gift, more precious than jewelled orders or +honorary colonelcies, which kings exchanged in the family circle. Italian +wines have lately enjoyed a good deal of popularity among artistic +persons, explicable by the charm of a Chianti flask rather than by the +average quality of its contents. Marsala, now usually despised as a cheap +and common wine, should be dear to us always as a memory of Nelson. It is +still piously esteemed in the Navy, where Rum has long since passed out +of fashion. Balkan wines may yet enjoy a vogue if Ruritanian princesses +prove as good business women as they are beautiful. Algerian and +Tunisian wines we know well, but more often under Europeanised titles. +The Anglo-Catholic and Jewish communities make much of Palestine wines, +which have little but scriptural geography in their favour. Champagne, +costliest of all wines in the popular imagination, has always held its +own for this very reason. Just as Sherry, decade by decade, had to be +paler or darker in colour and lighter or heavier in body, so Champagne, +which began by being very sweet, has now become dry as a bone. Yet “dry” +Champagne only dates from the Sixties. Sweet it may yet become again, +as sweet as the Russians liked it, when women become sovereign arbiters +of food and drink. A decade or two ago _Carte Anglaise_ was the most +expensive and fashionable degree of “liqueuring” in Champagne. To-day +it is _Drapeau Américain_ (why not “Volstead Bone-Dry Monopole”?) for +the Dollar is at a premium over the Sovereign. Whisky, formerly an +ostler’s dram in the Scottish Highlands, was introduced by golfers, +with the hearty support of the medical profession, and became popular +simultaneously with that now universal game. Irish Whisky, though +extensively drunk, has, for some curious reason, never been fashionable. +There are few brandy-drunkards to-day. Cognac seems to enjoy most esteem +in England as a medicinal restorative. Gin was rescued from Mrs Gamp’s +tea-pot by the sudden popularity during the War of those American +barbarisms, cocktails: a popularity largely due to their requiring +elaborate paraphernalia and the fact that they were illegal in their +native land. Every millionairess who could boast a Diamond Sunburst, we +were given to understand, had her own portable illicit still and a marble +gin-fountain in her platinum-tapped bathroom. Liqueurs, chiefly because +they are sweet and many-hued, have been steadily growing in favour with +ladies ever since dining out in restaurants became an integral part of +our national habits. + +Let no man lull himself into a sense of false security by imagining that +the day is still far distant when women will rule the cellar as well as +rocking Baby—and the bottle—in the cradle. A book on wine which appeared +last year addressed all its advice, as though this was the most natural +thing in the world, to “the good hostess,” “the mistress of the house,” +who in these days “can afford to smile” at Dr Middleton’s “ungracious +behaviour” in defining her sex as “Creation’s glory, but anticlimax +following a wine of a century old.” Another male supremacy lies low! +Man is lord of the cobwebbed bins no more; the cellar-key, even as the +ballot-paper, has been snatched from him by a stronger hand. + +Now women’s real taste in wine is notoriously for such as are sweet. +Fielding, who knew the sex better than most, and was far from ungallant, +was not the first to remark on it. In one of his now forgotten plays, +as Mr André Simon reminds us, the hero, or some kindly male character, +after making the same observation, sends out for a pint of “Mountain” +(the luscious, honey-sweet Muscat wine now known as Malaga, but no longer +obtainable in an age vowed to a cult of dry wines except in the humbler +public-houses) to comfort a lady’s vapours or soothe her alarums. Of +course, many men also secretly prefer sweet wines to dry. Our national +wine, Port, is decidedly sweet, and could not possibly be called “dry” in +the sense that Sherry often is. But Vintage Port, the feminist authority +declares, “is not a woman’s taste in wine,” though it must surely be a +nearer approach to it than either Vintage Claret or Vintage Burgundy. +Anyhow, Port, as the classic monologue “My fust ’usbing was a Guardsman” +clearly shows, is the most popular wine among women in the saloon-bars +of public-houses. At present all women are exclaiming with a single +voice that they execrate sweet wines and have always preferred dry, the +very driest in fact, even in those dim and distant days when they were +not as yet fashionable. This is only a parrot cry catching up the echo +of the vogue of the moment—“Tell me what is being drunk and I will tell +you that I like it best”—which need deceive nobody. It is like those +terrible headaches, unknown to their grandmothers, which have induced +them one and all to shear off their tresses and shave their napes. M. +Daret, the distinguished _Maître de Chaix_ at Château Yquem, perhaps the +greatest authority on _vins liquoreux_, knows better and is far from +being dismayed. Sauternes was never dearer than it is to-day. It can +only be assumed that drinking it in secret enhances its price. Mrs G. +B. Stern in “Bouquet” furiously denounces Sauternes and claims that it +is as monstrous to suppose that women are incapable of sharing “men’s” +taste for dry wines, or Cognac, as any other hereditary “male” passion, +preference, proclivity or prowess. This delightful, if unconvincing, book +ends on a note of wistful nostalgia for the first properly mixed icy-cold +cocktail waiting to reward her for a strenuous and rather hustled tour +of _dégustation_ through the principal French viticultural districts. I +very much suspect that during the course of this pilgrimage “A Deputy +was King.” The real G. B. Stern was probably in spiritual residence at +that “Palace” in Nice or Monte Carlo all the time. Even Mr, Mrs or Miss +Chaloner owns that on this topic “we are brought up against the very +objection that many women have to Claret, since they find its lack of +sweetness distasteful.... Most women begin with a marked preference +for wines that are frankly sweet (so do boys), or perhaps _demi-sec_, +and there is a touch of austerity about Claret that makes them long +frankly, or privately, to add a little sugar to the glass.” Quite so; +the feminine education up to dry wines is purely a question of following +the prevailing mode and a fresh manifestation of the eternal and servile +imitation of man. This is indirectly confirmed by the authoress herself +(I will plump for authoress and a hundred to one against author) when +she adds: “Though the vine flourished long before mankind, and man is +believed to have enjoyed its produce as a beverage as long ago as the +neolithic period, women are only just beginning to give it their serious +attention.” “The fault of their ignorance” (an ignorance which is not +found in wine-growing countries) is naturally placed “partly at the door +of the opposite sex, who in bygone days were only too well pleased with +it.” Similar reproaches have been levelled against man for his former +tyrannical exclusivity in such domains as higher mathematics, marine +zoology, coal-mining, boiler-stoking, Rugby football and legislative +procedure. It is doubtless theoretically arguable that “women should +possess finer palates than men” and be able to detect and eliminate +corked bottles when decanted—what time their husbands are presumably +peeling potatoes or scolding the cook. But this is by no means the only +preliminary to wining claimed for them. “Where the hostess, or even +women-servants, take over the duties of cork-drawing, it is of real help +to use a mechanical cork-screw.” At first blush one feels inclined to say +“amen” to this, but on second thoughts it seems brutally unfair that, +if men are allowed to draw corks with ordinary corkscrews (which being +far simpler and more satisfactory are usually preferred by them), women +should be debarred from the same male privilege. To provide women with +patent corkscrews is clearly to treat them as inferiors. Sex equality is +no better than a hollow mockery if such unsporting handicaps are to be +allowed to remain, or the hostess’s anxious concentration in studying +the grammar of “the international language” of the wine-list is to be +flurried by idle male gossip. + +There is a singular propriety in women arrogating to themselves the +right to choose wines and lay down cellars “like men” in an age in which +so many of them lack the ability to boil an egg. Yet “venturing into +her cellar without a candle” the mistress of the house is told that she +ought to know how to distinguish Bordeaux from Burgundy or Hock bottles +by the exercise of that very tactile sense which now so often fails her +in sewing on a button. “In a well-known women’s club” Miss Chaloner was +recently scandalised to find that the head-waitress, when asked for some +Beaune, had not “even the vaguest notion whether to look for Claret or +Burgundy, or even whether the wine asked for was white or red.” This +pained surprise I am not polite enough to pretend to share. “However, a +discreetly dropped hint that the contour of Burgundy and Bordeaux bottles +was different ... began an interest and education that doubled the value +of the maid to the members of the club.”—From which it might almost be +conjectured that the education in question was imparted to the members +by the maid. When so many prominent judges, divines, scientists, Cabinet +Ministers, university professors and thoughtful clubmen eagerly follow +every passing change in the design of “Camiknicks,” it is melancholy +to be told that “wines ... are seldom appreciated or used to the best +advantage in women’s clubs.” + +Is there a last lingering doubt in the heart of the vinously educated +hostess as to the propriety of offering her guests wine—a moral, an +æsthetic, not a social perplexity, of course—it is soon allayed. “In +the hands of the discriminating hostess, wine has the charm, the kindly +welcome of the hearth to which she invites her guests, and if possessing +in careless, or stupid use, some dangers, that is not a reason for +banishing HER cellar. The hostess who ... still hesitates over so grave a +problem as the ethical values of wine”—previously, no doubt, learnedly +and exhaustively debated at her club: perhaps the very one where the +head-waitress did not know Big Tree from Wonga-Wonga—“may yet take much +comfort to heart.” But where does the model hostess’s husband dine on +these occasions, since he has no longer a cellar of his own, or even a +key to his wife’s? There is at least one occasion mentioned on which we +may be quite sure that he would contrive to find a sufficient excuse for +absenting himself to “the tyrant,” or even brave “the brute’s” wrath by +taking French leave—when she “might desire to give her dinner a special +character, reminiscent of a particular occasion, or holiday in Italy”; +in which case, “she would have no difficulty in confining the choice +of her wine-list to Italian wines.” Perhaps, too, the cigars (which in +spite of the practical protests of Madame Hanska and George Sand have +been allowed to remain a male monopoly for far too long) would be those +delicious curling Minghettis? Italian wines are often excellent in Italy, +when served with Italian cooking, but the prevailing quality of “what the +vintners sell” in what ladies call “those funny little continental shops +in Soho” (for Italian wines are not generally obtainable elsewhere), +under the fair names of Chianti, Barolo, Cortese, Orvieto, Asti Spumante, +etc., is enough to make the most chicken-hearted Fabian husband rebel. + +In the future wine is likely once more to be considered, even in +non-viticultural countries, as a FOOD essential to physical and moral +well-being, rather than as a dangerous artificial stimulant, or the +sybaritic indulgence of a few eccentric old epicures. In cultured +epochs wine is sure to be held in honour as an integral part of taste, +while spirits are certain to reign supreme in barbarous, philistine and +sanctimonious centuries, whether permitted or proscribed by the law. The +present renaissance of gastronomy in England, hesitant though it still +is, is of happy augury for marking the eclipse of an age likely to be +identified by future social historians with the perpetual swilling of +whisky-and-soda by otherwise refined and self-respecting people; and +as heralding the advent of an era in which wine will be purer, better, +cheaper, more abundant and varied in its kinds, besides being more justly +and intelligently appreciated by the nation at large. With the increasing +shortage of cereals throughout the world, the making of grain-spirits +will soon become indefensible, and the same consideration may ultimately +apply to beer as well. + +The survival of wine and male dominance, are, as Scandinavia has shown +us, parallel issues. If wine survives feminism, which, in spite of the +foregoing instances of its latest manifestation, is much more likely +to be œnophobe than œnophil, there will be no place left for teetotal +Puritanism in a wine-loving world. + + * * * * * + +Bacchus, when yet a child, fared one day along an unfamiliar desert path +strewn with the bleaching bones of all manner of birds and beasts that +had perished there of drought. Wearied, he sat himself down to rest +on a heap of stones amidst a solitary patch of verdure growing by the +wayside. He found the rambling shrub, the tender leaves of which cooled +and caressed his bruised and heated feet, so green and gracious that he +pulled it up by the roots so as to take it home with him and plant it in +his garden. Fearing lest it might wither under the scorching rays of the +sun as he bore it in his hands, he picked up a bird’s skull and put the +roots, with a little earth, into the hollow of the beak. The plant grew +so fast while he wended his way homewards that its roots soon outgrew the +prison of their narrow sheath. Thereupon he imbedded the bird’s skull in +the shoulder-blade of a lion. Nevertheless the roots began once again +to overspread their allotted trough, so that he had recourse to the +expedient of thrusting the lion’s shoulder-blade into the jaw-bone of +an ass. When, at length, he reached home and went to plant the strange +wild shrub in his garden, he found it impossible to extricate the knotted +roots from the three bones incasing them; so he planted it just as it +was, bones and all. The vine, for such was the name he gave this goodly +creeping plant, throve luxuriantly and bore the young god, who tended +and pruned the holy tree lovingly, tressing its branches into a shady +arbour, an abundance of heavy bloom-dusted grape-clusters, both purple +and golden: the juice of which he pressed and gave to the sons of men for +their sustenance and comfort in sickness and adversity and to make glad +their hearts on high festivals and days of family rejoicing. And, behold, +as soon as the sons of men first tasted the blood of the grape—which they +straightway called wine, meaning a sacred water—a prodigy came to pass! +For when they began to drink they sang as do the birds of the forest; +when they drank more they became strong and courageous as lions; but when +they drank yet more, they grew foolish as jackasses. + +Thus it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] The main reason is that predominantly cider- and beer-drinking +Départements of the north and north-east have now become large consumers +of wine: an appetite whetted by the much appreciated Army wine-ration, +nicknamed “Pinard,” during the long years of mobilisation. + +[2] _Piquette_ means sour, thin wine; it is to wine what small-beer is to +ale. + +[3] See note to page 17. + +[4] See page 34. The Pinot was tried in Australia, but did not prove a +success in such a hot and arid climate. + +[5] The _Tonneau Bordelais_ has a capacity of four _Barriques_ of 22 +litres each, or 900 litres in all. + +[6] The coarse and common Gamay of the Côte d’Or must not be identified +with the Petit Gamay, the “_plant noble_” of the Beaujolais from which +all the finest wines of the latter region have always been grown. + +[7] It is a significant fact that since the War the only French +viticultural region that has increased its export of bottled wines is the +Bordelais. This is the region in which estate-bottling is most widely +adopted. Exports of Bordeaux wines in the wood have sensibly decreased. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77340 *** diff --git a/77340-h/77340-h.htm b/77340-h/77340-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01f2e00 --- /dev/null +++ b/77340-h/77340-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3247 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Bacchus, or, wine to-day and to-morrow | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +a { + text-decoration: none; +} + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h2.nobreak { + page-break-before: avoid; +} + +hr { + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb { + width: 45%; + margin-left: 27.5%; + margin-right: 27.5%; +} + +hr.chap { + width: 65%; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; +} + +div.chapter { + page-break-before: always; +} + +p { + margin-top: 0.5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +blockquote { + margin: auto 10%; +} + +.center { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.footnotes { + margin-top: 1em; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + +.footnote .label { + position: absolute; + right: 84%; + text-align: right; +} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +.hanging { + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.larger { + font-size: 150%; +} + +.mid { + font-size: 125%; +} + +.noindent { + text-indent: 0; +} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + right: 4%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; +} + +.poetry-container { + text-align: center; +} + +.poetry { + display: inline-block; + text-align: left; +} + +.poetry .stanza { + margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; +} + +.poetry .verse { + padding-left: 3em; +} + +.poetry .indent0 { + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poetry .indent2 { + text-indent: -2em; +} + +.series { + text-indent: 0; + margin: auto; + max-width: 12em; +} + +.smaller { + font-size: 80%; +} + +.smcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; +} + +.titlepage { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.transnote { + background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + text-align: center; + font-size: smaller; + padding: 0.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker .poetry { + display: block; + margin-left: 1.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker blockquote { + margin: auto 5%; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77340 ***</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h1>BACCHUS<br> +<span class="smaller">OR<br> +WINE TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW</span></h1> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p class="center mid">TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW</p> + +<p class="series"><i>A List of the Contents of<br> +this Series will be found<br> +at the end of this volume</i></p> + +</div> + +<p class="center"><span class="transnote">Transcriber’s Note: in fact, +this was omitted.</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage larger">BACCHUS<br> +<span class="smaller">OR<br> +WINE TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br> +P. MORTON SHAND<br> +<span class="smaller">Author of <i>A Book of Wine</i>, <i>A Book of French Wines</i>,<br> +etc.</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="smcap">London<br> +KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co., Ltd.<br> +New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage smaller"><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i><br> +MACKAYS LTD., CHATHAM</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="BACCHUS">BACCHUS<br> +<span class="smaller">OR<br> +WINE TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW</span></h2> + +</div> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Put a cup of wine into my hand that I may +cast off from me the cloak of hypocrisy.”—<span class="smcap">Hafiz.</span></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The bush which none but the poorest +wine ever needed has been hung out +alluringly as a tavern’s thirst-provoking +sign-board to entice the pleasure-seekers +of those lands where the grape will not, +or may not, ripen for the wine-press, over +all wines good and bad, true and false, +provided only they be duly intoxicating, +by that hysterical piece of amateur +legislation known as the Volstead Act. +Every people, we know, has the government +and laws it deserves. It is only +when the citizens of a state are so overcome +by enthusiasm for the perfection of +their own institutions as to organise +propaganda for the conversion of other +countries to conformity with the sovereign +panaceas they have invented, as in the +case of Soviet Russia or the republic +which recently substituted a camel +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>rampant and three golden orbs for an +eagle as its national emblem, that the +domestic policy of such a state ceases to +be exclusively its own concern. Not that +respect for its privacy is desired by either +nation: the one broadcasts its sanguinary +social reforms, the other its strident social +vulgarities. The war that was to end +war was also to end wine. The crusaders +of the United States, too proud to fight +for any other cause, were to make the +world as safe for teetotalism as for +democracy, so that for the Utopian future +the latter shibboleth should imply the +former. The Latin nations, however, +were deaf to all material inducements, +such as increased industrial efficiency, and +obstinately refused to have the “running +sore” of viticulture cauterised by the +same Fiery Cross as had desiccated +California’s wine-grapes into seedless +raisins. Ultimately, America, still +inspired by the loftiest moral motives, +consented to forgo the forcible conversion +of Europe to the one generally known +commandment of the Koran in exchange +for an enormous monetary tribute to +indemnify its bankers and munition-manufacturers +for the grievous losses in +ethical prestige which they had sustained +by this unparalleled act of renunciation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span></p> + +<p>Thanks to the magnificent advertisement +given to the inimitable properties +of wine by the School-Marms Government +which imposed Prohibition on a nation +ever whoring after righteousness, its +future existence may be deemed assured +until the next Puritan revival, or the +advent of the New Matriarchy. In spite +of the fact that their aims are championed +by a titled lady, who, though British +neither by birth nor blood, was, appropriately +enough, the first woman Member +of Parliament to take her seat at Westminster, +our “Temperance Reformers” +are no more likely to catch us unawares +in the course of the next few decades than +those other eugenic despots, the vegetarians +and the anti-tobacco fanatics. +Humanity reacts swiftly and brutally +against Puritanism in any form. Every +lenten cycle of Praise-God-Bare-Bones +theocracy is invariably followed by the +reign of a Merry Monarch, if not of a +Heliogabalus. In few ages of the past +has the will to deny itself no single +pleasure of the flesh been more manifest +in mankind than in the vandal and +hedonist era of transition in which we +crudely live.</p> + +<p>For a moment it seemed that the “to +be, or not to be” of wine-drinking might +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>threaten to become a permanent and +burning political question among non-viticultural +nations, just as certain +practical problems of wine-growing have +for long been the paramount agricultural-political +issues in viticultural countries. +Already, however, the tide of an inevitable +revolt against tyrannically “uplifting,” +but quite unworkable, enactments has +swept over Scandinavia, the nursery of all +“progressive” movements. Soviet +Russia, which began by abolishing Vodka +in favour of a tolerance of light wines and +beer, has been constrained to add distillation +to other nationalised industries on +the cynical pretext that the state needs +additional revenue only to be found in +exploiting drunkenness. Forewarned, as +much by the gruesome Bacchanalia of +Prohibition in operation as by the quality +of Bootleggers’ “Hootch,” British wine-drinkers +are determined to fight to the +last in defence of their liberties as their +forefathers fought the Excisemen and the +Revenue-Cutters before them. The +Labour Party, theoretically committed to +“an ambitious programme of temperance +legislation” (including the back-door +policy of Prohibition known as Local +Option), dares not lift a finger to put its +academic articles of faith into practice on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>pain of seeing the working class vote +against it to a man. The only sign of +alarm is in the trade, and can be discounted +as a not altogether disinterested +manœuvre. Nonconformity, the standard-bearer +of Teetotalism, is as defunct as +Liberalism, which has now won the right +to replace “Brandy Nan” as the alternative +proverbial metaphor for something as +dead beyond recall as that extinct and +fabulous bird the dodo.</p> + +<p>Thus wine has now begun to acquire +an added, and most unenviable, lustre for +no better reason than that it used to be +denounced by the zealots in their wrath +as “a wile of Satan.” By a biased application +of the doctrine of Justification by +Works, the Calvinists were able to find +in wine, rather than in the unchanging +heart of man, the source of that insidious +“temptation” inseparable from every +gradation of its use that lies between the +equally “sinful” extremes of moderate +digestive enjoyment at meals and the +abuse provocative of delirium tremens. +Indeed, no honest discrimination between +natural wine or beer and fortified wine +or spirits was ever made by these impassioned +casuists. The drinkers of claret, +stout, cider, port or proof gin, the men +who would have felt themselves for ever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>dishonoured had they once exceeded the +strictest sobriety, as the habitual drunkards, +were one and all outlawed impartially +as profligate “wine-bibbers.” In +parts of New England to say of a man that +he “drank wine” constituted an inexpugnable +gravamen against his character only +comparable with accusing him of living in +open adultery. It is worth noticing how +it was only after mankind had refused to +be any longer very much interested in +dogmas one way or the other, and had +ceased to damn or bless a neighbour +off-hand for holding a certain selection of +them, that the Puritan conscience began +to envisage the possibility of preaching +less purely doctrinal abnegations, such +as “Taking the Pledge,” to a considerably +greater extent than had hitherto seemed +consonant with the furtherance of “the +Lord’s Work.” From that moment all +biblical precepts endorsing the sanction of +wine were as resolutely put aside as the +love, pity and forgiveness of Christ’s +teachings had been by the original wine-drinking +founder of these austere sects +some three centuries before. Nor was +their awakened interest in “Total Abstinence” +due to any weak human compassion +for the appalling effects of +alcoholism in heredity, such as those +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>infant maladies which are the direct +results of “the sins of the fathers”—the +hideous tenet of Predestination could be +relied upon to eliminate any such motive—but +simply and solely to the cold zest +of robbing life of one more pleasant thing, +one more “snare of the flesh.”</p> + +<p>The proper place for a man to drink +wine, or even spirits, is in his own, or +someone else’s, home, among his family +or friends, not in the nauseating +atmosphere of a night-club, the squalor of +a saloon-bar, or ensconced in a high-backed +church pew, his eyes riveted on +the text “Lord, give me strength,” furtively +draining it from a flask, so as to +sustain the onslaught of those serried +battalions of theological syllogisms which +reinforce the “prayerfulness” of the +average Scottish sermon. Indeed, it is +probable that the peculiarly sordid type +of our taverns is a direct result, even to +some extent the expression, of that harsh +Puritan condemnation of all “strong +liquors.” For long the Righteous consistently +refused to co-operate in any +movement designed to ameliorate the +conditions, or curtail the licensing hours, +of public houses on the pharisaical pretext +that what was needed was their abolition +pure and simple, the felling of the whole +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>tree, not the lopping off of a rotten branch. +No alliance, they declared, could be contemplated +with those “Sons of Belial” +and “workers of iniquity” who were +striving in and out of Parliament, usually +amidst general obloquy, to bring about +sane temperance and render the inn a +place which a self-respecting working-man +might no longer be ashamed to frequent +in company with his wife or sweetheart. +Towards the end of the last century the +intransigeance of this attitude became +sensibly modified. Many prominent Nonconformists +quietly abandoned the +practice, and even the profession, of +teetotalism after reaching that degree of +affluence which impelled them to forsake +the “true word” of the little Bethels for +the flesh-pots of the parish church. None +the less the outbreak of the War found +many of the more uncompromising +Puritans exulting in their Bands of Hope, +because a golden opportunity was now +presented of forcing total abstinence on +the nation under cover of the specious +argument that a sober man is able to +make shells faster than a drunken, and a +Blue-Ribbon soldier can kill far more of +his foes in the Lord’s name than one +whose physique has been undermined by +dalliance with the flower of the hop or the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>fruits of the vine and the juniper-bush. +Now that the voice of the Unco’ Guid no +longer carries much weight in the nation’s +counsels, it is reasonably certain that the +public-house, as we know it, will be profoundly +changed for the better, both +structurally and as regards its general +ambiance. The lessons of direct state +control at Carlisle, and the experiments +with restricted licences and indirect +regulation of the management so wisely +instituted in some of garden suburbs and +municipal housing-estates, have proved a +valuable stimulus to the enlightenment of +public opinion. Sooner or later, too, we +shall learn that in spite of the grandmotherly +assurances of County Councillors +to the contrary, the drinking of a glass of +beer in the open air at a table adjacent +to the street pavement is no more bound +to encourage immorality than when the +same beverage is consumed between four +walls.</p> + +<p>Wine, then, if less of a necessity of life +than it was for our forefathers, or even +our immediate fathers, is strangely enough +regarded to-day more as something of a +luxury, or a minor depravity, than as a +natural taste inherent in the human race. +We have grown so accustomed to quoting +the hackneyed and hypocritical “Wine +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>and Women” in explanation of our neighbours’ +failings, that our smug and sniggering +satisfaction makes us apt to forget +“Song,” or merriment, the third person +of this ageless trinity, which ennobles the +abdiction to both. The three together +can transmute the foul fumes of the gin-palace +and the defiling ignominy of the +brothel into the genial fireside haven of a +man’s own home, offering the licit enjoyment +of the wife of his bosom and the +wine of his cellar. The abiding verity of +Martin Luther’s familiar couplet of <i>Gay +Sçavoir</i>, “<i>Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib, +und Gesang, der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben +lang</i>” has outlived all the rancorous +interdictions of the misanthropic Calvin. +Teetotalism and castration are analogous +abnegations, just as drunkenness and +vicarious venery are analogous abuses, of +the purest carnal joys that are our earthly +inheritance by the exercise of our own +Free Will and God’s good Grace of Election.</p> + +<p>But if the more immediate future of +wine, as that of meat and tobacco, may +be considered assured, the same degree of +confidence cannot be expressed in its permanent +quality. Prohibition being temporarily +eliminated as a potential menace, +there remain three serious and growing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>dangers to the survival of wine in that +state of purity and excellence in which +it is now obtainable, though by no means +necessarily always obtained. These are +its mass-production; its adulteration; +and its prostitution so as to flatter vulgar +but expensive palates, or the exactions +of clamant and rapidly expanding congeries +of faddists—typified by the mania +for rendering all wines sparkling on the +one hand, and that contradiction in terms, +dealcoholised wine, or pasteurised, non-alcoholic +grape-juice, on the other. To +these must be added the devastating +epidemics to which the vine is peculiarly +subject, such as the Oidium and the +Phylloxera.</p> + +<p>The first of these dangers, that of mass-production, +is by far the gravest. The +world’s output of wine is steadily increasing, +particularly in Australia, North and +South Africa and South America, and to a +less, but still perceptible, extent in Europe +itself. Indeed, there might soon be +enough to meet all potential demands of +viticultural and non-viticultural countries +alike, but for such factors as continually +rising costs of production and freight, the +increase of customs’ barriers, the world’s +diminished purchasing power and the +growing greed of middlemen. None the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>less, France, still the largest producer and +consumer, though followed ever more +closely by Italy, is forced to buy some +millions of hectolitres annually from +Algeria, Tunis, Spain, Italy and Greece +in order to meet her domestic needs. Nor +does she export in <i>vins fins</i> a quarter of +what she imports in the form of common +blending wines. The proportion of fine +wines to ordinary wines grown in France is +very small.</p> + +<p>The more wine you grow from the same +plot of land the poorer will be its quality. +There is a strong temptation for the +French peasant-proprietors of those +regions where the most famous wines are +grown to use the “<i>taille haute</i>” (the form +of pruning which removes less of the +young shoots year by year and so produces +a larger number of bunches of grapes) +instead of the traditional “<i>taille basse</i>” +(which leaves the minimum amount of +new wood on the pollarded vine, thereby +entailing many fewer bunches of grapes, +but the highest, because the most concentrated, +quality in the wine). The +incentive to ignore this, perhaps the most +sacrosanct of all the honourable traditions +of vine-dressing—a tradition which may +be compared to the enormity of shooting +foxes in England—is particularly strong +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>in the Côte d’Or, where the demand is +always out of all proportion to the supply. +Another temptation for the <i>vigneron</i>, +especially in the less-renowned viticultural +districts, is to grow an excess of what are +called “<i>plants communs</i>.” Some, but +not all, of these species are hybrid or +ungrafted American vines (“<i>producteurs-directs</i>”), +while others are the commonest +but most prolific native vines (“<i>gros-producteurs</i>”) +grafted on to Phylloxera-resisting +“<i>portes-greffes</i>” as in the case +of the fine vines which produce the finer +wines. The <i>producteurs-directs</i> have been +planted in response to the insistent +demand for more and cheaper wine that +has arisen since the War.⁠<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> They give an +enormous return per hectare of a coarse, +neutral sort of wine of a quality that can +only be described as parlous, instead of +the small yield of excellent wine furnished +by one or other of the delicate “<i>plants +nobles</i>,” or blue-blooded vines, which are +the pride of, and often peculiar to, each +particular district. At present the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span><i>producteurs-directs</i>, but not the <i>gros-producteurs</i>, +are denied all right to a +local name, or “<i>appellation d’origine</i>,” +wherever they may be planted. Notwithstanding, +their growers, now a considerable +body, are redoubling their efforts to +obtain this coveted privilege on the plea +that the quality of these wines is rapidly +improving; and they may ultimately +succeed for political reasons.</p> + +<p>The world wants more and more wine, +and always of the kinds it thinks the best. +The vineyards of Bordeaux, Burgundy +and the Rhine are already producing all +but their maximum yield. Already, too, +many plots of ground in these famous +regions are under vines which, from the +nature of their soil, their altitude or +exposure, ought never to have been +planted with them. The temptation to +indulge in over-production is continually +increasing. The average wine-drinker +persists in asking for about ten names +among wines, and will not look at anything +else, however excellent and reasonable +in price, because Mr Everyman has +no longer much individual palate, and +will not trust such as he has, but buys +imitatively and gregariously as he buys +most other things. There is not enough +of these particular wines to go round; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>indeed there has not been enough for +some decades past. Unfortunately, the +public prefers to be bamboozled rather +than have to exercise its own discrimination +in choosing from amongst the +immense variety of other growths, many +of them admirable and a few superb, +which the earth has to offer in addition +to Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chablis, Sauternes, +White Graves, Hock and Moselle +among natural wines, and Port, Sherry +and Madeira among fortified ones. In +England we have grown so accustomed to +cynical impertinences with “appellation +of origin” that we are neither shocked +nor surprised that bacon can be sold +called “Danish Wiltshire,” or that +Canadian soft-soap should be described +in commerce as “Cheddar Cheese.” Thus +we have no idea what indignation and +contempt such titles as “Australian +Burgundy,” “Algerian Chablis,” “Spanish +Graves,” “South African Hock,” or +the now happily defunct “Californian +Moselle,” excite among Frenchmen and +Germans, for whom these preposterous +and fraudulent titles are the taking of +sacred names in vain. The following +verses, taken from the ballad of Raoul +Ponchon, called “<i>Bourgogne d’Australie</i>,” +which used to be popular in purely French +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>cabarets—anyhow until the Australians +showed their magnificent qualities as +attacking troops by the side of their +French brothers-in-arms—is a typical +example of the burning resentment felt by +the whole French people at what is to +them an act of the most cynical piracy, +almost the theft of an historic part of +their national patrimony.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“<i>Vous êtes par trop rigolos,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Australiens immenses!</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mettez bien dans vos ciboulots</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Où règnent les démences,</i></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Qu’il n’est d’autre vin bourguignon</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>—Croyez-en un ivrogne—</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Que celui que nous bourgognons</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Aux coteaux de Bourgogne.</i></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Et la Bourgogne, elle est ici,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Et non en Australie!</i></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">...</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Il faut avoir un fier toupet</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Pour mettre une étiquette</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Semblable à votre vin suspect,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Véritable piquette!</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Il n’est, chez nous, maigre pinard,</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Qui ne soit cent fois brave</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Comme le vin le plus gaillard</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>De vos meilleures caves.</i></div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vous planteriez, ô Melbournois!</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Sur vos coteaux barbares,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Les plus fins de nos ceps gaulois,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Nos Pinots⁠<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> les plus rares,</i></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>En vain! Car à ces gaillards-là,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>A ces vrais gentilshommes,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Il faut ce terroir de gala,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>Dont, Dieu merci! nous sommes.</i>”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The future of the purity and authenticity +of wine—for though wine is far +better made to-day than it was fifty years +ago, thanks chiefly to Pasteur, it is also +far more skilfully doctored—is wrapped +up in the question of how far it may be +possible to afford as adequate legal protection +for recognised territorial appellations +of origin outside, as already exists +inside, the frontiers of those states in +which they are found. If an imitation +“Burgundy,” say Australian, really +resembled true Burgundy, which it does +not because it cannot, there would, +perhaps, be less cause to deny its right +to a stolen title. The same excuse might +be proffered, though with an even smaller +show of logic, if, apart from any question +of resemblance, it was of an equal, or +merely comparable, quality.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span></p> + +<p>The problem of to what extent the +wines of other countries can be improved, +above all in keeping qualities, without +sacrificing their own individual characteristics, +so as to make it possible to mention +them in the same breath as the more +famous growths of France and Germany, +is an arduous, but, in the long run, not +necessarily an insuperable one. Every +year we are learning more about the +natural history of the vine and the +chemistry of wine.</p> + +<p>It is useless for the wines of other +countries to seek to imitate the essential +flavours and other peculiarities of the +most famous French and German wines +to which they may most nearly approximate +in colour or alcoholic strength as it +would be for these French and German +wines to seek to imitate their imitators. +In the case of the commoner fortified +wines of Portugal and Spain imitation of +a kind is not altogether impossible owing +to the very nature of their preparation +by brandying the only partially fermented +must. The imitation of one wine by +another, it cannot be too strongly emphasised, +is impossible by natural means. +Though every red and white natural wine +has something in common with all other +natural red and white wines, no two +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>growths ever really resemble each other, +and rarely two vintages of one and the +same growth.</p> + +<p>That large tracts of the earth’s surface +are eminently suitable for viticulture, +though still virginal of the vine, such as—excluding +the British Empire for the +moment—parts of central China and +Morocco, and possibly Abyssinia and +Arabia as well, to say nothing of those +considerable regions of Asia Minor and +the United States where it was formerly +cultivated, there can be little doubt. +Moreover, such countries as Southern +Russia, the Balkan States, Greece, Persia, +Japan and many of the South American +republics are undoubtedly capable of a +much larger production of wine than they +actually grow. The trouble is that the +vine, once planted in a strange land, takes +many decades, if not centuries, before it +begins to yield wine that has any real +quality. A successful wine-growing +industry cannot be created in much less +than half a century. True, we are told +by a certain Brother Benedictus in his +“<i>Chronicques Vivaroises</i>,” as Mrs G. B. +Stern reminds us, that the “<i>belle ordonnance +de seps, pères de gros savoureux +raisins</i>” on the famed Hill of Hermitage, +the juice of which is “<i>une rosée paradisiaque</i>” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>rather than mere man-made +wine, was planted, pruned and tended +ready for the vintage in a single night by +a host of ex-vigneron angels (for all +vignerons, the worthy monk assures us, +go straight to heaven, just as no single +miscreant of the ungodly company of +water-drinkers has ever passed St Peter’s +scrutiny at the Golden Gate), so that the +grapes were hanging ripe to bursting from +these “<i>vignes séraphiques</i>” on the +morrow, waiting only on the poor, Saracen-hunted +hermit, perishing of thirst, to +pluck and press them. What an impious +irony of fate that Hermitage should be +one of the slowest wines to mature! But +this is, perhaps, rather an exceptional case +even among legends concerning the +origins of famous vineyards, most of +which claim, with wearisome monotony, +to have been planted by the pious legionaries +of the benign Emperor Probus, by +Charlemagne himself, or various unfamiliar +though duly authenticated +saints; and raised to fame in the inexhaustible +goblets of the <i>Vert Galant</i> or the +immortal Rabelais. The vine thrives +best and most luxuriantly and yields the +largest, coarsest and most regular harvests +in very hot, sub-tropical climates +to which it is not indigenous and where it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>is often necessary to irrigate the vineyards. +Only in comparatively cold +regions, within measurable distance of the +northern limit of the vine (an imaginary +line passing approximately from Nantes, +through Paris, Compiègne, Coblentz, +Dresden, a little east of Prague, along the +southern slopes of the Carpathians and +to the north of the Crimea and Caucasia +in Europe; bisecting Turkestan, Cashmere, +the Chinese Province of Shantung and +Central Japan in Asia; and running from +south of Puget Sound, north of the Great +Lakes and across part of Canada, to the +Atlantic seaboard in the State of New +York, on the American continent), and +from soil long familiar with its roots, will +the Vitis Vinifera yield a vintage of fine +and delicate wine; and then only in very +small quantities, with an infinity of painful +labour, at great expense and seldom +more than two or three times in a decade, +if, indeed, so often. The world’s most +classic vineyards are planted on poor, +stoney soil, often on rugged slopes, little +suitable for other forms of cultivation.</p> + +<p>The world, then, is threatened with the +extinction of the few hallowed acres of +its very finest and most renowned vineyards +within a measurable space of time +by the ever-growing threat of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>over-production—the inclusion not only of +just those additional adjacent rods, poles +and perches which past generations in +their probity and wisdom resolutely +refused to annex to them; but also of +whole square miles of outlying meadowlands, +arable plain or bleak and insufficiently +sheltered hill-tops beyond their +immediate limits—no less than by a +menacing invasion of baser and insufficiently +acclimatised sub-species of the +parent vine.</p> + +<p>Other perils besetting the continuity of +the finer wines are the spread of the +so-called Type-Wines, in the form of +standardised qualities for certain districts +(a development that originated in California +where wine used to be grown, as +long as it could be grown at all, from vineyards +vast as cattle-ranches, equipped with +all the typically American resources of +plant and capital for dealing with vintages +on a Ford scale of output), which is being +steadily fostered by wine-growers’ co-operatives +in many parts of France, +Italy and other wine-lands; and the +wholesale manufacture by the large +French wine-shippers of those vinous +mixtures known as “<i>Monopoles</i>” and +“<i>Marques Personnelles</i>.”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span></p> + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="TYPE-WINES">TYPE-WINES</h2> + +</div> + +<p>The impulse that has called the Type-Wines +into being was the necessity of +finding some expedient that would enable +the proprietors of the less famous growths +of well-known regions to sell their wines +remuneratively, which was becoming +more and more difficult. There was also +a strong desire on their part to profit by +the recently established <i>appellations +d’origine</i> for even the most lowly and +inferior wines grown within these areas, +and the ambition to compete in foreign +markets with the cheap wines of countries +such as Algeria and Australia, that are +all of them inevitably Type-Wines, sold as +often as not under the titles of one or +other of the most famous viticultural +regions of France (<i>e.g.</i>, Algerian “Chablis” +and South Australian “Hermitage”). +True, these descriptions would be illegal +in France and those countries which, +under recent commercial treaties, now +admit yearly quotas of French wines and +thereby assure the authenticity of their +appellations; but in England the International +Convention for the Protection +of Industrial Property, which nominally +secures respect for these same appellations +in all signatory states, seems to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>a dead letter, if indeed it was not stillborn.</p> + +<p>These Type-Wines, already familiar in +France, are not easily explained without +giving a concrete and somewhat detailed +example. For many decades wines have +been available in commerce which bore +the names of one or other of the great sub-divisions +of the Bordelais, such as St +Estèphe, Pauillac or Margaux in the +Médoc, and Graves, St Emilion and +Pomerol as representatives of the other +districts entitled to be sold as “Bordeaux.” +It was notorious that these +wines, which were not always genuine, +differed enormously in quality according +to the standing of the firms which selected +them and the vintages to which they +belonged: vintages that were often passed +over in silence because the wines in +question were a blend of two or more. +Nevertheless, wines sold under these +labels, that made no claim to have been +grown on any territorially defined plot of +ground within the borders of their several +districts—a particular Château or Cru—represented +the cheapest authentic, or +putatively authentic, kinds of Bordeaux +with which the general public was +familiar. The Co-operative Movement +among French wine-growers, which had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>started in the Midi, a region devoted to +the production of cheap wines on a vast +scale, without much pretension to quality, +where it was decidedly beneficial to the +interests of the growers and the public +alike, eventually spread to certain of the +less-known districts of the Bordelais. +One of the latest recruits is the Commune +of Margaux.</p> + +<p>The Commune of Margaux, one of the +two most famous in the Médoc, has for +centuries been reputed for producing some +of the very finest Bordeaux wines there +are; its supreme glory being the First +Growth of Château Margaux itself. In +addition, the Commune boasts four Second +Growths, four Third Growths, one Fourth +Growth, about a dozen recognised superior +Bourgeois and ordinary Bourgeois +Growths and something like thirty <i>Crus +Artisans</i> and <i>Crus Paysans</i>, which represent +the tail of the Bordelais hierarchy in +point of reputation. There are besides +some half-a-dozen large growths planted +in <i>Palu</i> soil (rich, alluvial clay) on the +foreshore of the Gironde and on certain +low-lying islands in the stream. Palus +vineyards give a very much larger yield +of appreciably coarser wines than those +planted on the gravel soil further inland, +which is geologically typical of the Médoc +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>proper. In point of production the ten +<i>Crus Classés</i> of Margaux yield about 650 +<i>tonneaux</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> of wine a year, which is easily +sold at high prices; the Superior Bourgeois, +Bourgeois, Artisan and Peasant +Growths account for another 550 between +them, the best of which finds a fairly +ready market in good years, but much of +which has nearly always to be sold at +unsatisfactory prices; while the Palus +growths produce some 1,100, the sale of +which, though prices are relatively low, +is on the whole more remunerative because +the vintage is much heavier and the cost +of cultivation much less. Yet each of +these growths, high as humble, every +litre of the total average yield of 20,700 +hectolitres, has an identical right to the +common appellation of “Margaux.” Anyone +who lives in the Commune of Margaux +and has a strip of garden in which there +is room to grow a row of a dozen vines +of sorts, tended, perhaps, little and carelessly, +can sell his wine as “Margaux” +with the same legality as his neighbour +who may cultivate a considerable and +reputed vineyard in the most approved +scientific manner.</p> + +<p>Formerly the <i>Crus Bourgeois Supérieurs</i> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>and the <i>Crus Bourgeois</i> commanded a +ready sale at prices not utterly disproportionate +to those attained by the <i>Crus +Classés</i>, while the ratio between the two +orders of growths was nearly always the +same, whatever the prices realised for the +First Growths, which always set the tone +of the market. Nowadays the public +knows far less about wines, and a predominantly +<i>parvenu</i> generation wants to +buy the best, and nothing but the best, +and is guided almost entirely by names +and labels and very little by vintages or +careful tasting. Moreover there is no +longer the same prejudice against consuming +comparatively new wines in this +hasty age, and, as a consequence, the laying +down of wines that are slow to mature is +the exception rather than the rule. The +result is that it has become so difficult +to sell some of the best and most ancient +in fame of the <i>Crus Bourgeois</i> at a reasonable +profit—to say nothing of the <i>Crus +Artisans et Paysans</i>—that vines are being +grubbed up wholesale. It was to meet +this state of affairs that a Co-operative +Communal Cellar was founded in Margaux. +The avowed object is to utilise all +wines made in the territory of the +commune, excepting only those that sell +readily on their own names and merits, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>so as to produce year in and year out, +irrespective of good or bad vintages +because blended from both, a uniform +wine with a flavour as typical of the best +Margaux growths as the nature of a single +composite mixture may allow. It is +needless to say that such a Type-Wine +“Margaux,” bearing full guarantees of +territorial authenticity though it would, +must be a hollow parody of a real wine, +because it is a synthesis, a standardisation, +of many, blended to the taste of the +uncritical majority of the public. Should +this experiment prove commercially successful, +and the example of Margaux +prevail, there would soon be an end to all +individuality, to all those finer shades of +years and growths that are the delight of +the true wine-lover; and the ambition +of Margaux and its emulators would be +to produce an ever-greater quantity, +trading on an ancient and no longer +justifiable local renown for quality that +was only attained in the past by a deliberate +and consistent sacrifice of any idea of +securing bumper vintages.</p> + +<p>It is the rapid rise of the “<i>Monopoles</i>,” +the very existence of which is an impious +challenge to the fair name of wine, that +has stimulated the wholesale vatting of +these standardised regional growths.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="MONOPOLES">MONOPOLES</h2> + +</div> + +<p>The French word “<i>monopole</i>,” as +applied to wines, really means a firm’s +trade-mark, a proprietary brand: in fact +very much the same sort of thing as the +popular blends of Scotch Whisky advertised +by the leading distillers. At present +these Monopoles are chiefly confined to the +Côte d’Or and the Bordelais, though +specimens have already made their +appearance in the lists of certain Beaujolais, +Côtes du Rhône, Touraine and +Anjou wine-merchants who specialise in +these particular growths. To explain +what these Monopoles really are—an +authority of the eminence of M. Raymond +Baudouin has not hesitated to stigmatise +them as “pharmacy, but not wine”—the +French law concerning appellations of +origin, which the Monopoles have been +devised to circumvent, must first be +briefly examined. A wine may now no +longer be sold under a territorial designation +unless it is territorially entitled to its +use: that is to say only when it has been +grown exclusively within territory having +an identical geographical (but not necessarily +administrative) appellation, or +within the area of such adjacent communes +as may enjoy a recognised and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>long-established right to the better-known +name of their neighbour. For instance, +a red wine sold as “Pommard” in France +must have been grown within the Commune +of Pommard, Département de la +Côte d’Or, and none other; a white wine +sold as Pouilly (not to be confused with +the white wine of Pouilly-sur-Loir from +the common border of the Départements +of the Cher and the Nièvre), which is the +name of a tiny hamlet in the Mâconnais +and not of any one commune, must have +been grown either in the Commune of +Solutré (in which this hamlet actually +lies), the Commune of Fuissé, the Commune +of Vergisson and a cadastrally +delimited part of the Commune of +Chaintré, in the Département of Saône-et-Loire, +and nowhere else.</p> + +<p>In the Côte d’Or there are two kinds of +red vines: one the proud “<i>plant noble</i>,” +called the Pinot of Pineau, which alone +has made the wine of Burgundy the +nectar that it is, that will grow in few +places and then only on the lower slope—a +niggardly beggar so delicate as to be +prone to practically every malady that +the vine is heir to; and the Gamay,⁠<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>“<i>plant commun</i>,” which will thrive anywhere, +especially where the Pinot will not—a +hardy vine that is a heavy bearer +and causes little anxiety or expense to +the vigneron.</p> + +<p>As there is very little slope with the +right exposure in each commune, it follows +that there is a considerable extent of +Gamay plantations, since the wine of the +Gamay vineyards has just as much right +to be sold as “Pommard,” if it is grown in +that commune, as wine grown in the most +famous of the historic “<i>climats</i>” which +have been planted exclusively with +Pinot vines since time immemorial. (In +England, in so far as our “Pommard” +ever comes from that Commune, or the +Burgundy region at all, it is nearly +always Gamay wine, French growers and +shippers having long ago discovered that +most English wine-drinkers, and many +English wine-merchants, cannot distinguish +it from a Pinot growth, though +these respective flavours, once they +become familiar, are as dissimilar as chalk +and cheese.) An amendment to the <i>Loi +des Appellations d’Origine</i>, called the +<i>Amendment Capus</i> after the name of the +Senator who introduced it, is now before +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>the French Chambers, the object of which, +should it, as seems probable, be ratified, +is to limit any given “<i>appellation +d’origine</i>” ampelographically as well as +territorially: that is, to confine it to +wines grown from those auguster vines +that are historically as much an integral +part of the wine itself as the traditional +area of ground and the geological nature +of the soil it has always been grown on. +The first important effect of this amendment +to the existing state of the law would +be that Gamay wines grown in Côte d’Or +communes would no longer be entitled to +any local appellation of origin (such as +“Pommard”), unless it were the generic +name “Bourgogne,” the lowest, because +the most general, qualification of all for +any Burgundy, red or white. A given +wine, enjoying the right to a special +secondary appellation, can always be +made to descend the scale from the particular +to the general in bad years, or for +any other cause that may have marred its +quality; but a wine can never be promoted +to a higher category than that in +which it was born and bred. A simple +instance for exemplifying this point is +afforded by the official grouping in the +Beaujolais. The local appellations of +origin here recognised as “<i>pouvant +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>revendiquer les usages loyaux, locaux et +constants</i>,” are Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, +Morgon, Juliénas, Brouilly, Thorins, and +Chénas. Now none of these wines can +under any circumstances appropriate to +itself the name of one of its fellows. +Chénas may not style itself Moulin-à-Vent; +nor, for that matter, though there +is no sort of temptation to do so, +may Moulin-à-Vent style itself Chénas. +Yet all are Beaujolais and “Beaujolais” +is the common name to which every other +wine grown in that region has an equal +right. Thus any of these seven “named” +wines may call itself simply “Beaujolais,” +and being a Beaujolais has a clear title +to the seemingly magnificent, but in +reality exceedingly common and unassuming, +patronymic of “Bourgogne.” +There is only one Mackintosh of Mackintosh, +but Andrew Mackintosh, gillie to +THE Mackintosh, is as much a “Mackintosh” +as the exalted Chief of the +Clan.</p> + +<p>None the less any wine-merchant has +the right to sell a wine, or blend of wines, +French or foreign, called by some fantastic +name, or whatever title of his own invention +he chooses to employ, provided it +is not identical with an existing appellation +of origin. More often than not the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>bottler selects a name nicely calculated +to seem a genuine territorial appellation +to the unwary, such as Château This or +Clos That, Roc d’Or or Monvalloir; or, +keeping within the law, slightly adapts +the spelling of some classic growth with +fraudulent intent: Romani for Romanée, +etc. Several of the more important +Bordeaux and Beaune firms sell Monopoles +purely on the strength of their own +names and previous reputations as Chose’s +Blue and Green Labels, or Red and Yellow +Capsules, much as English grocers sell +different qualities of well-known brands of +tea. Where Saints’ names are invoked +because of their prevalence in Bordelais +communes, the wines they consecrate are +no more catholic for the doubtful compliment +of a spurious, or impersonated, +canonisation. Certainly good St Vincent +would have none of these imposters either +as brother saints or tipplers.</p> + +<p>According to M. Raymond Baudouin, a +typical recipe adopted by the Côte d’Or +alchemists is</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="hanging">25% genuine Côte d’Or Burgundy for flavouring.</p> + +<p class="hanging">30% good Côtes du Rhône wine to eke out this +flavouring.</p> + +<p class="hanging">20% ordinary Algerian wine to reduce the +cost.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span></p> + +<p class="hanging">25% natural wine (<i>i.e.</i>, wine with no special +flavour or other salient characteristic) +to drown the taste of the hot +Algerian blending wine and still +further reduce the cost of production.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="noindent">The Bordeaux houses are said to employ</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="hanging">25% genuine Bordeaux.</p> + +<p class="hanging">30% good Midi wine.</p> + +<p class="hanging">20% ordinary Algerian wine.</p> + +<p class="hanging">25% neutral wine.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="noindent">It is perhaps hardly necessary to add that +these formulas are only approximate, and +that the actual ingredients of each Monopole +vary in nature and ratio with the +firm of wine-cooks concerned. Indeed, +there are some Côte d’Or houses which +claim that their Monopoles are blended +exclusively from pure, territorially +genuine, Burgundies: a claim which, +whether justifiable or not in fact, is best +rejected on principle, because there is +seldom any inducement to blend a wine +good enough to be sold unblended.</p> + +<p>A widely organised conspiracy now +exists to foist these vinous compounds, +which may conceivably be wine and even +French wine, but are certainly neither +Bordeaux nor Burgundy according to any +legal or loyal interpretation of those +terms, on purchasers of single bottles +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>and diners at restaurants because they +yield much bigger profits than ordinary +wines. Thanks to our national ignorance +of wines, Monopole brands of White +Graves (one boasts that it is supplied to +the House of Lords), and other so-called +“Oyster-Wines,” have already gained a +certain footing on the English market +because they are supposed to offer “more +regular and uniform quality” than wines +bearing straightforward territorial designations, +together with a sustained standard +of flavour, independent of vintage vagaries: +a thing which it is simplicity itself +to produce once “<i>coupage</i>,” or scientific +blending, is resorted to. In the Côte +d’Or, where the demand for authentic +Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune +Burgundies is anything up to five times +as much as can be genuinely produced, +while bad vintages are much more frequent +than good, the evil of the “<i>Marques +Personnelles</i>” has made such rapid progress +that already more Monopole wines +than territorial growths are sold and the +integrity of the sacred name of Burgundy +is definitely compromised. Many of these +mixtures are quite agreeable to drink, +provided always that they are taken for +what they really are and not for what +they pretend to be, but to offer them to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>one’s friends is an unpardonable insult, +however merited the insult may sometimes +be. The proper sphere for these beverages—if, +indeed, they can be said to have +any proper sphere other than the hoodwinking +of the credulous and ignorant for +whom they are lavishly and alluringly +labelled in regulation Burgundy and +Bordeaux bottles—is for splashing down +a hustled and jolted meal in a dining-car. +A Monopole may be defined as the <i>Train +Bleu</i> wine par excellence, since it can +always be relied upon to be none the worse +for the most violent shaking before +taking.</p> + +<p>A word of caution is, however, necessary +because in French commercial usage this +dangerous word “<i>monopole</i>” can have +two very different interpretations. The +first, which is infinitely the more common, +as we have just seen, applies to blended +wines sold as proprietary brands under +the euphemism which the law requires to +be printed in the wine-merchant’s price-list +but not on the label of the bottle: +“<i>exclusif de toute considération d’origine +et de cépage</i>” (<i>cépage</i> means in this context +the types of vine traditionally +associated with particular growths of +wine). The second, and entirely respectable +sense, which the same term may have, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>is in the case where a certain firm may +own or lease the whole of a particular +vineyard and can thus claim that it +possesses a “monopoly” of its wine. An +outstanding instance is provided by +Romanée-Conti of Vosne, perhaps the +most famous vineyard in the whole world, +which is “<i>Monopole de la Maison De +Villaine et Cambon</i>” for the very good +and sufficient reason that this old and +honourable firm owns the freehold of the +hallowed hectare and a half and bottles +every drop of its priceless wine in its +own cellars.</p> + +<p>Strictly speaking, Champagne (where +the term originated and where it is still +extensively used), practically all other +sparkling wines and most Ports, Sherries, +Madeiras and Marsalas are likewise Monopoles, +because they are sold under the +names of different makers—each separate +shipper representing one or more proprietary +brands—instead of under the +names of particular vineyards or communes. +In each of these cases, however, +the blending formula, which has made the +reputation and constitutes the most +jealously guarded secret of each firm, +relies wholly on wines enjoying co-equal +local appellations. Every drop of Première +Zone Champagne is territorially +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>genuine “Champagne,” although as many +as six separate communes, each with its +own appellation of origin, may have +contributed to its composition. The only +way to avoid pitfalls is to know your +Côte d’Or communes and “<i>climats</i>” and +your Bordeaux districts, with their constituent +communes and satellite <i>Crus</i>, +<i>Clos</i> and <i>Châteaux</i> (the latter is almost the +work of a lifetime), more or less by heart, +and to apply the cold test of geography +to every bottle you are invited to buy. +Even then you have no real guarantee in +England, for English wine-merchants +seem to be able to label wines, or other +vinous mixtures, with more or less any +names that suit their fancies, and yet enjoy +virtual immunity from prosecution, so +long as they do not describe as “Port” +or “Madeira” wines that were not +originally shipped from Oporto and +Funchal with the appropriate Portuguese +Certificate of Origin.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="ADULTERATION">ADULTERATION</h2> + +</div> + +<p>The increasing resources of sophistication +in their various legal and illegal +aspects keep pace with the progress of +chemical research. Attempts to level up +the irregular work of the sun by artificial +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>means, so as to overcome the lack of any +uniform degree of maturity in the grape, +caused by the alternating clemency and +inclemency of the vintage season, is +becoming more and more common. The +commonest form of adulteration is blending, +whether of separate growths or +vintages. To-day an unnamed, or +vaguely named, wine, gives rise to the +suspicion of being the former, just as an +undated wine carries a strong presumption +of being the latter. Happily the practice +of indicating the vintages of wines has +now become much more general, and is +being adopted by countries, such as Italy, +where the custom was formerly unknown. +The consumer’s best safeguard against +blended wine is an estate-bottled growth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +The use of chemical aids in wine-making +is to some extent sanctioned by the law. +In France wine may now be sugared +(<i>chaptalisation</i>), sterilised (<i>pasteurisation</i>), +fortified (<i>vinage</i>), watered (<i>mouillage</i>), +plastered (<i>plâtrage</i>), muted (<i>mutage</i>) and, +in the case of white wines, sulphured +(<i>sulfitage</i>), within certain defined limits +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>and subject of formal declaration. The +illegal adulterants of wine have been too +frequently catalogued to need any recapitulation. +Synthetic scents and +flavourings are always adding to their +number, but it is doubtful whether +any synthetic bouquet or taste will +ever be able to deceive an experienced +palate.</p> + +<p><i>Chaptalisation</i> means supplying the +percentage of natural grape-sugar which +the most of wet or cold vintage years is +deficient in by the same amount of cane +or beet sugar. This added sugar is converted +into alcohol at the same time, and +in precisely the same way, as the natural +sugar of the fruit; thanks to this addition +the wine is assured of sufficient alcoholic +body to keep, which might not otherwise +be possible. Only experts can detect a +<i>vin chaptalisé</i> from an unsugared wine. +This practice is fairly common in the +northernmost vineyards, such as Champagne, +the Côte d’Or and the Moselle. The +German law permits sugaring in certain +cases, but no sugared wine may be +labelled “<i>Natur</i>,” or “<i>Naturrein</i>.” +Chaptalisation saved the 1925 vintage in +the Bordelais, where this expedient had +hitherto been held up to execration as a +typically Burgundian falsification. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span><i>Pasteurisation</i> is resorted to so as to preserve +young wines of poor vintages against +attacks of wine-maladies after they have +been bottled. It allows wine to be +bottled almost as soon as made, and +though it brings the wine well forward in +the process, it arrests most of its subsequent +natural development. <i>Vinage</i> is +simply, as in the case of Port, the brandying +of sweet wines with extraneous spirit. +<i>Mouillage</i> is resorted to for reducing the +alcoholic strength of common wines, +which are taxed and priced at so much the +alcoholic degree. <i>Plâtrage</i> is the sprinkling +of the grapes with plaster of paris +while they are being pressed. It is +supposed to be a safeguard against the +danger of secondary, or acetous, fermentation +in hot climates during the first +summer following the vintage. <i>Mutage</i> +is a means of arresting fermentation +chemically, so as to permit of one wine +being blended with another before allowing +a joint fermentation of the two to +proceed to completion. <i>Sulfitage</i> is used +to preserve the bright golden colour of +white wines, that are apt to turn brown +when exposed to the air, and to prevent +<i>vins liquoreux</i>, like Sauternes, alcoholising +a certain degree of unconverted grape-sugar, +or <i>liqueur</i>, which they are intended +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>to retain. The old method of sulphuring +was to smoke the empty casks with +sulphur matches before filling them, which +resulted in the fumes becoming amalgamated +with the wine. The newer, and more +dangerous, practice is to add a small +percentage of suitably diluted Sulphur +Dioxide. The French tolerance of this +chemical is 450 parts per million: a proportion +identical with that adopted under +the new British regulations, which define +this “improver” as the only extraneous +substance that wine imported into the +United Kingdom may contain.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PROSTITUTION">PROSTITUTION</h2> + +</div> + +<p>The outstanding example of the menace +to the survival of wine in its natural form +is the wholesale demand for what the +French call the “<i>champagnisation</i>” of +all kinds of wine, great and humble, good, +bad and indifferent, red, white and <i>rosé</i>, +quite irrespective of their suitability for +gaseous treatment, which tends more and +more to absorb choicer and rarer, rather +than poorer and more abundant, qualities. +This insatiable public appetite for +effervescence ignores the amount of those +surplus qualities that are available and, +in certain cases, readily adaptable, for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>the purpose and so degrades fine still +wines from their lawful sphere by constraining +them to pop, froth and bubble +in indignant and impotent protest instead +of gurgling majestically into the glass of +honour in a tranquil and limpid stream. +Our spendthrift generation is convinced +that the sparkling variety of any given +wine must needs be its highest, because +its costliest, expression. Even to-day, +few growths have remained wholly +immune to this vandalism, while the +commercial pressure brought to bear on +the few conscientious recalcitrants is +increasing yearly. It would seem that +in the United States, where the real +meaning of simple words is even more +often misunderstood than in England, +wine, in common parlance, always implies +a sparkling wine of sorts, whether genuine +or spurious Champagne. The youth of +Europe, hypnotised by jazz strains, convulsions +and idioms, is doing its best to +make the word have the same ignorantly +exclusive and inglorious significance in +lands that have spontaneously evolved +their own languages and ancestral wassailing +traditions. It is arguable whether +sparkling wine is really wine at all. What +admits of no sort of cavil is that its name +needs qualifying by some such admonitory +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>adjective so as to distinguish it from the +natural wine from which it is, or purports +to be, manufactured.</p> + +<p>Happily there is yet no sign of a vogue +in fortified “qualities” of famous natural +wines, but with Port dearer and stronger +than ever owing to the new schedule of +wine-duties, there is no reason to be over-sanguine. +Thanks to the spirited competition +of Australian sweet wines, made +possible by the considerable preference +accorded to Empire wines in this country +and an export bounty of 3s. to 4s. the +gallon granted by the Commonwealth +Government, Portugal and Spain are not +likely to have a monopoly of this market +for the future. Already, too, a home +industry has sprung up for the manufacture +of fortified “British Wines”—the +unfermented must being imported +from abroad in a muted state and +“worked up” in this country into a +liquid on which the courtesy title of +“wine” has been bestowed. Mr Churchill, +in the course of his speech on the Budget +for 1927, tempered the unwelcome compliment +of rendering these concoctions +liable to duty by promising to taste them +before that measure had the force of law. +A less fearless man in his position might +well have preferred to renounce the project +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>of raising revenue from such an +unpalatable source.</p> + +<p>The transformation of various wines +(Chablis, Vouvray, Anjou, Mercurey, Cap +Corse, etc.) into “tonic wines” or +<i>apéritifs</i> (the different proprietary brands +of Vermouth, French and Italian, together +with the numerous “Quinas,” “Quinquinas,” +“Kinas,” and the like, to say +nothing of those combined with meat-extract +sold by English apothecaries) by +an admixture of quinine and other +“appetising” herbs and “restorative” +drugs, is another barbarism that is now +assuming considerable proportions. This +heinous practice is at all events of more +respectable antiquity than “<i>champagnisation</i>,” +having been familiar in classical +times, with rather different but no more +inviting ingredients, in the guise of “wine +tempered by the nymphs.” As it is, +Great Britain imports more Italian Vermouth +than Italian wine. Non-alcoholic +wine, or sterilised grape-juice, which is +now prepared in France, Germany, +Switzerland and the United States, is the +most recent fad in the way of <i>Weinersatz</i>. +It has been claimed that this emasculated +beverage has considerable medicinal value. +Doubtless it will soon be advertised in +this country under some such slogan as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>“Take the Modish Grape-Cure of Meran +at Merriest Margate (or in your own home) +with Vincent’s Vitamined Verjuice.” +These parodies of wine, it is hardly necessary +to add, belong to the same school of +“refreshing pick-me-ups” as Cydrax, +Kop’s Ale, Herb-Beer, Kola Champagne, +Raspberry Sherbet and other mineral-water +and Soda-Fountain eruptions. +The survival of these dismal and sickly +tipples depends on the survival of the +Teetotal Dogma which ordains the purging +of the pride of the palate with +one or other of these potable Puritan +penitences.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="MALADIES_OF_THE_VINE">MALADIES OF THE VINE</h2> + +</div> + +<p>It is too often forgotten that the vinelands +of Europe, and the majority of the +Australian, North and South African vineyards +planted with European vines, came +within an ace of total destruction by +those terrible scourges the Oidium (first +noted in 1845) and the Phylloxera (which +appeared in 1868), which devastated the +viticultural world only a decade or two +apart in the middle of the last century. +Both came from America, and pious +French vignerons see in Prohibition a +divine visitation on a country so hardened +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>in iniquity as to have wantonly disseminated, +if not deliberately incubated, these +frightful pestilences, in despair of ever +equalling the quality of European wines. +Of the two, the latter, because it was +recurrent and seems to be endemic to the +vine, was by far the more catastrophic. +Chemical means, such as sulphur-spraying, +were eventually devised for coping with +the former, so that it could be, if not +eradicated, at least held in check. The +Phylloxera, on the other hand, for long +defied the concerted efforts of the world’s +most skilful chemists and agriculturists, +traversing Europe from Portugal to the +Crimea like a forest fire, and even passing +mysteriously beyond the seas to infest the +young vineyards of other continents. The +havoc wrought was inestimable, particularly +in France, where a million hectares of +vineyards, which have never since been +replanted, were swept out of existence. +Indeed, when this murrain was at its +zenith, there was for some time grave +doubt whether the French peasantry +could ever be induced to replant their +perished vines. In the magnitude of its +destructiveness and the swiftness and +universality of its contagion, the Phylloxera +can only be compared to the dreaded +Pink Bol-Worm parasite of the cotton-plant. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>Ultimately salvation was found +in wholesale replanting with grafted +vines. The peculiarity of this pest was +that it attacked the roots, but not the +foliage, of the European vines, while the +roots of the indigenous American species +were as inured against its infection as +their foliage was susceptible to it. Thus +by grafting picked European vine-shoots +on to suitable American vine-stocks, a +hardy plant could be evolved, both roots +and foliage of which were sufficiently +resistent to the cryptogam. There are, of +course, plenty of other blights and distempers +that afflict the vine in greater or +less degree according to the species concerned +and the nature of the soil and +climate it is grown in. The vigneron’s +life is one unceasing round of watch and +ward, toil and prayer. Not for a single +week in the year can the smallest vineyard +go untended. A new and more dreadful +Phylloxera might appear at any moment, +though the viticulturist is now much +better equipped to resist fresh parasitic +invasions.</p> + +<p>A word may be said in connection with +the maladies peculiar to the vine on the +vexed question of the relative merits of +the wines grown from grafted and ungrafted +vines. It is usually claimed that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>the quality of the pre-phylloxera wines, +grown from old French ungrafted vines, +was infinitely superior to anything that +the best grafted vines can ever hope to +produce. This contention is not supported +by the consensus of opinion +among wine-growers and wine-merchants, +though some make a reservation in favour +of the old <i>vieilles souches</i> Burgundies. +The new vines show no “yellow streak.” +They have acquired none of the primitive +characteristics of native American vines, +such as their foxy flavour, except their +New-World vigour. The wines they yield +mature more rapidly and are certainly, +like the grafted vines themselves, shorter-lived, +but they give an equal quality with +a slightly larger yield per acre. Fifty or +a hundred years hence it will be possible +to pass a more definite and dispassionate +judgment on this controversy. It should, +however, be remembered that those who +insistently decry all wines grown from +grafted vines are generally old gentlemen +who have already reached that age when, +like the Señor d’Asumar, in “Gil Blas,” +the peaches of their youth seem infinitely +larger, juicier and more luscious than any +that are grown to-day.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_FUTURE_OF_EMPIRE_WINES">THE FUTURE OF EMPIRE WINES</h2> + +</div> + +<p>During the South African War we were +urged to think imperially. After the +World War, the nation, in spite of saturation +with American films, was considered +to have pondered sufficiently in an +imperial sense for the time to be ripe to +ask it to eat, drink and clothe itself +imperially as well. The dogma of Free +Trade was definitely abandoned and +several minor Empire preferences were +offered us as grist for mental stimulus. +To food for the mind we were exhorted +to add food for the body, though the +reverse process might have made a +stronger appeal with a more logical nation, +besides simplifying the necessary change +in purchasing habits which had survived +the outworn doctrines of Bright and +Cobden who had been instrumental in +moulding them.</p> + +<p>To smoke and drink imperially is rather +a different matter to eating and dressing +imperially. Most of us would gladly +smoke and drink what our fellow-Britons +grow if the question of quality did not +persist in intruding itself between the cup +and the lip. Even when we are prepared +to ignore this aspect of practical patriotism, +imperial flattery of the palate has a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>way of forcing itself on our attention at +the very first puff or sip. Nor are we +always quite honest with ourselves when +we make a resolution to eat, drink, smoke +or dress imperially for the future, because +on these occasions we often refrain from +making an inventory of the mental +reservations which, consciously or unconsciously, +we bring to the list. Not even +the most ardent patriot, until at least he +loses his palate, can pretend that Borneo +Cigars or Burmah Cheroots are superior +to Havana Cigars and Manilla Cheroots. +So it is with Empire Wines. Australian +“Burgundy” and South African “Hock” +could not pass muster for the French and +German wines they so unblushingly +pretend to be with the wine-waiter of the +National Liberal Club.</p> + +<p>It is an axiom in wine that quality can +only be forthcoming in countries where +viticulture depends primarily on the home +market, and even then it is less often +attained than otherwise. For all practical +purposes there are only four provenances +of Empire wines: South Africa, +Australia, Palestine and Cyprus, which +already produce more than they can +readily dispose of, as only the first and +last are in any real sense wine-drinking +countries. A little wine is grown in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>Cashmere, Canada and Malta as well, but +the quantity is negligible. From climatic +and geological deductions it seems +probable that vineyards could be successfully +planted in parts of New Zealand, +Kenya, Rhodesia and the middle slopes of +the Himalayas, Ghats and Nilgherry +Hills in India, but there is no potential +demand for fresh sources of supply unless +their produce is of a vastly superior +quality to anything now grown on British +soil. The Cyprian Commanderia wine +of Paphos is historically one of the world’s +most famous growths, but it is doubtful +whether its peculiar flavour will ever +make any strong appeal to the British +palate. Little of the ordinary wine of the +island is now exported to England, the +bulk of such as is being absorbed by the +manufacturers of a well-known brand of +“Tonic Wine,” which is very popular +with rigid teetotalers and connoisseurs of +patent medicines. Quantitatively, there +is little hope for Empire wines, even when +protected by substantial preferential +tariffs. Algerian common wines, to say +nothing of the most ordinary French, +Spanish and Italian growths, will always +be cheaper and more abundant than any +similar wines grown in Australia or the +Cape, which have to pay far higher freight +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>and are cultivated by vine-dressers that +are far more highly paid. Even should +the Algerian supply fail for any cause, +and at present it is increasing steadily +every year, larger and larger quantities +of Argentine and Chilian wines are +becoming available for export. Algerian +wines are not particularly choice—they +have only been cultivated for about sixty +years—but some of them are superior to +anything produced within the Empire. +Moreover, except in England, they are +sold under their local Algerian name as +Médéa, Miliana, Mascara, and Coteaux de +l’Harach, etc., and not as Algerian +“Claret,” “Burgundy,” “Chablis,” +“Graves,” and “Sauternes”; though +our own wine-merchants, save when, +as is not infrequent, they use them +anonymously, do not hesitate to give +them these absurd and mendacious +titles.</p> + +<p>All other Empire wines, with one or +two honourable exceptions, such as the +South African Riebeeck Kastel and the +Australian Highercombe Amber, produce, +on their own label avowals, nothing but +self-styled imitations of the leading +European wines, prefixed by the safeguarding +qualification Australian, South +African or Palestine, as the case may be, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>which reduces these fraudulent claims to +nonsense. Even where local names are +adopted, such as Schoongezicht, Paarl and +Drakenstein, they are used to qualify the +meaningless title “Hock.” It is a lie. +The wines of these three districts—and +they are about the best which the Empire +has to offer—are, and always will be, +nothing but Schoongezicht, Paarl and +Drakenstein respectively. They are not, +and cannot be, “Hocks,” even though +grown from the choicest Rhenish Riesling +vines, because Hock is a purely German +wine to which the Rhineside town of +Hochheim-am-Main has given its name. +Hochheim is in the Regierungsbezirk +Wiesbaden of Prussia, and not in the Cape +Province of the Union of South Africa. +Nearly all Australian, and a great many +South African, red wines describe themselves +as “Burgundies” (there are, to be +sure, a few “Clarets” and “Hermitages” +as well) and often perpetrate a further, +and yet more laughable, contradiction in +terms by claiming that they are grown +from Cabernet or Malbec vines: classic +French vines, it is true, but native to the +Bordelais and not Burgundy, where their +cultivation is quite unknown. Burgundy +is the product of a certain type of vine +grown from time immemorial on a particular +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>kind of soil with a particular exposure, +at a particular altitude, in a particular +climate prevailing between a particular +longitude and a particular latitude that +coincide in eastern France: a concatenation +of elements and circumstances which +cannot possibly be reproduced in Australia, +South Africa or anywhere else. Nor +does “Burgundy,” as is sometimes +supposed, denote a certain strength of red +wine, a full-bodied growth, in contradistinction +to “Claret” (which by the +accident of a name, that should rightly be +Bordeaux, is not the fraud it sounds, +since “Claret” really means no more +than a light-red wine) as a term used to +imply a lighter-bodied and much less +alcoholic type. The alcoholic contents of +good Bordeaux and Burgundy, quality for +quality, are usually more or less identical. +The strength of wines is calculated in +alcoholic degrees and not by appropriating +names filched from certain representative +growths. The essential vinous ethers of +these spurious “Hocks” and “Burgundies,” +scanty and not very subtle though +they are, would, like the rose’s perfume, +exhale bouquets just as bland under their +own, or any other, names. If a single +swallow does not of itself herald an +English summer, all the Emus in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>Commonwealth cannot transmute a South +Australian vintage into the <i>Grande Année</i> +of a Côte d’Or <i>Tête de Cuvée</i>.</p> + +<p>Even if it be true that vigorous and +psychologically intelligent advertising can +increase the sales of any article, irrespective +of its worth or utility, this would +scarcely seem to apply to that particular +brand, notable among “Burgundies” +which are “generous but not spirity, soft +but not sugary” for being sold under the +device “Every Meal a Banquet.” That +slogan “Every Meal a Banquet” is nicely +calculated to deter any normal person +from buying this particular brand—and +that without even tasting it. Banquets +are usually heavy and singularly depressing +functions which people like Lord-Lieutenants, +princes of the blood, mayors, +chairmen of companies, politicians, public +officials and diplomats accept with a +heavy heart, and only because such +occasions are part of their regular duties. +Secretly they dread these orgies of ceremonious +and oratorical eating as a +pernicious waste of time, nefarious to +their digestions. Thus we surmise that +a wine capable of transforming every +meal, however simple, intimate and unpretentious, +into that portentously aldermanic +and dyspeptic thing, a banquet, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>must be singularly heavy and soporific in +its effects.</p> + +<p>If real quality in Empire Wines is to be +attained at all, it can only be by abandoning +the existing methods of mass-production +of Type-Wines and deliberately +fostering the particularisation of certain +small, but promising, local growths. South +Africa, where irrigation of the vineyards +is not as common as in Australia—irrigation +more than doubles the yield +and more than halves the quality—has +already made some progress in this +direction. As has already been noticed, +wines are grown in the Cape at certain +localities called Schoongezicht, Paarl and +Drakenstein, which we assume, just +because they are named, are probably of +far better quality than the unnamed South +African growths. The Australian Type-Wines, +on the other hand, are apparently +not even regional specimens of their kind. +The average consumer of flagon wines +knows nothing whatever about them +except that they are grown somewhere in +a vast Dominion which is a continent in +itself. Keystone, Tintara, Ophir and +Harvest are registered trademarks, not +places on the map.</p> + +<p>That these Australian and South +African masqueraders under French and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>German colours can be sold in Great +Britain has been amply proved. In 1926 +the consumption of Australian wines +increased by over a million gallons. That +their sale would fall away by nearly as +much—drinking imperially is a habit +that, to be abiding, requires some +little time to form—were the preference +and bounty removed there can be little +doubt.</p> + +<p>Palestine, the latest recruit to the wine-lands +of the Empire, produces imitations—very +bad imitations, too, though the +wines to which these illustrious and +illusory resemblances are attributed by +their Zionist growers are, in their rough +and humble way, sometimes quite passable +wines—of all the classical growths of +France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, +Hungary and Greece: everything, in fact, +except an honest and avowedly Palestine +wine <i>tel quel</i>. That some of these vineyards +are now being turned over to the +cultivation of table-grapes, or transformed +into orange-groves, for lack of a market +for their plagiarising wines, cannot be +regretted as long as the Holy Land, of all +regions of the earth, has not the proper +pride to say of its first-fruits, “a poor +thing, but mine own,” rather than “these +are extremely fine reproductions, made +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>purposely to resemble the best-known +growths of other countries in all respects, +and sold under their names at a very +reasonable price.”</p> + +<p>Thus it is all the more discouraging and +humiliating to find that, according to the +“<i>Times</i> Trade Supplement,” the British +Empire Producers’ Organisation counsels +Empire wine-growers “to give more study +to questions of bottles and labels, using +accepted shapes and designs <i>and leaving +alone certificates of purity</i>.” The circular +which recommends the expedient of +putting new wine into old bottles, a +practice recognised as disastrous even in +biblical days, closes with the extraordinary +statement that “Empire wines are +sounder than most foreign wines at similar +price, and are only prejudiced by devices +(perhaps just the absence of these superfluous +certificates of purity?) not usually +associated with good wines.” This +advice does scant justice to the commercial +probity and intelligence of a nation of +shopkeepers. It is clear that the very +reverse is desirable. Empire Wines should +evolve their own shapes of bottles and +designs for their labels, just as much as +they ought to develop their own individual +flavours and other inherent characteristics, +to say nothing of discovering their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>own names. Several of the smaller +French growths (notably Anjou and +Frontignan), which have recently experienced +some difficulty in disposing of their +wines remuneratively, have adopted +individual types of bottle, and find this +policy promotes interest on the part of +the public and undoubtedly helps to +increase their sales.</p> + +<p>If Britons do not have a little more +proper pride in their own husbandry, +“Empire Produce” will soon come to +have something of the purely imitative +significance formerly associated with that +familiar hall-mark for cheapness and +shoddiness: “Made in Germany.” German +wines, however, are neither of these +<i>péjoratif</i> things, for in German vineyards, +which are far from extensive, +quantity has always been subordinated to +quality. The result is that the yield is +very small indeed, while growths like +Steinberger and Schloss Johannisberger +fetch prices more than double those of the +finest French wines, white as red, which +are in no wise inferior to them. The +reason once again is that German wines +do not imitate any others and are content +to be unique of their kind. The very +considerable difference in price, fine vintage +for fine vintage, prevailing between +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>them and the choicest French growths is +in ratio to the much larger production of +the latter. The royal road to an enhanced +quality in Empire Wines is in imitating +the painstaking methods and local pride +of French and German wine-growers +instead of aping the names of their +inimitable wines. Empire Wines, even if +they are only ordinary beverage wines, +must dare to be themselves and brave the +risk of standing on their own merits and +being sold under their own, and nothing +but their own, names. The industry of +no nation can take the same pride in +slavishly copying the wares of another +country as in developing the particular +indigenous excellencies of its own. Less +than a century ago the Cape produced one +wine which became world-famous. That +Constantia has disappeared from the +tables of European epicures need occasion +no surprise. The reason was a simple one. +The demand for this wine, which became +as fashionable as Madeira, soon exceeded +the supply. Constantia was grown in a +single vineyard. Increasing popularity +led to over-production of its vines, and +the growing of much spurious “Constantia,” +that was really bad imitation +Port, from hastily planted and badly +tended vineyards in the surrounding +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>countryside. To-day Constantia, like the +Maronean and Pramnian of the Classics, +is no more than a memory, though the +vineyard still survives and produces, I +believe, a “Constantia Claret” (it might +have been yet another “Burgundy” but +for the irresistible appeal of alliteration) +in its stead. The moral is a clear one. +Constantia, a fortified red wine, was sold +as Constantia and not as Cape “Port,” +or Cape “Alicant.” True, it was often +referred to as “Cape Constantia,” but +this was evidence not of a specious fraud +but of a certain local pride in its unusual +origin, since no European wine existed of +the same name.</p> + +<p>The vine has now been acclimatised in +South Africa for nearly three hundred +years, thus giving the older vineyards +time to work out some of that virgin +rankness of soil which is a serious handicap +to the attainment of fine quality. What +South African and Australian viticulture +most needs are poorer and more worn +soils, more carefully chosen exposures and +altitudes for vineyards; and sterner +pruning of the vines so as to ensure a far +smaller yield per acre.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LEGISLATIVE_RESTRICTIONS">LEGISLATIVE RESTRICTIONS<br> +ON THE SALE OF WINES AND SPIRITS</h2> + +</div> + +<p>Wine-drinkers are nearly always temperate +in their opinions. That is why +they are not “Temperance” advocates, +the word having become debased into +meaning the most intolerant teetotalism +and the vilification of that essentially +temperate beverage wine. Wine-drinkers, +as temperate persons, are as much +opposed to alcoholism as to teetotalism. +Teetotalers, as intemperate fanatics, are +opposed not so much to alcoholism as to +alcohol itself—and their dour Puritan +hearts are virtuously indignant that those +who like it should continue to enjoy the +liberty of drinking it. Wine-drinkers do not +drink between meals, which is one of the +first rules of health. They drink at their +meals, just as teetotalers, who are every +whit as thirsty as inveterate beer-drinkers, +quaff their gaseous dill-waters at all sorts +of times and in all sorts of places—preferably +opposite ancient ruins: perhaps +because they suggest to them the inexorable +decline and fall of the brewing barons +and the imminent decay of the fortunes +of distillery magnates. To own a cellar +of one’s own is to be independent of +vexatious curtailments of drinking hours. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>Just and proper as these restrictions are in +theory, at all events until human nature +can be relied upon to resist obviously +harmful temptations more stoically than +hitherto, they inevitably penalise those +whose time is not their own. A poor man, +however, cannot afford a cellar, which is +supposed to imply a degree of affluence +that is far from being borne out by the +actual cost of laying down a few moderately +good and varied bins. It is the +wine-merchant who keeps up the idea that +a cellar is an expensive luxury, because +it is far more profitable for him to sell his +customers fully matured wine than to +encourage them to buy the same wine +from him as soon as bottled and let it +mature for nothing in their own cellars. +When the interests of true temperance +prevail in Parliament, light natural wines +will be taxed so lightly that anyone who +could afford to order a dozen bottles of +Bass or Guinness at a time from the grocer’s +could afford to stock a modest cellar. +Spirits, on the other hand, will be taxed +still more highly, and fortified wines proportionately +to the added spirit they +contain. The heavier incidence of duty +on sparkling wines is not likely to be +removed, because there is no valid reason +why it should be. The consumption of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>sparkling wines, as we have already seen, +needs to be discouraged in the higher +interests of natural wines. A proper +purity standard for beer is not likely to +be enforced as long as the public remains +apathetic on the subject: that is to say +until the time comes for the whole attitude +of the state to the liquor question to be +reviewed, not at the behest of a handful +of teetotal fanatics, or the trade, but in +response to the insistent demand of the +consumer himself.</p> + +<p>The question may be asked, “Should +the sale of wines and spirits be a state +monopoly, and is this likely to become +general in the near future?” Leaving +aside all academic arguments for and +against socialism, the answer would seem +to be, as in the case of railway ownership +and operation, “It depends on the +country concerned and the particular +genius of that nation; its administrative +efficiency and its attitude towards the +state and state institutions.” It is, however, +unthinkable that in the future any +state will consent to abdicate that degree +of control of the liquor trade and public +health and order afforded by levying +discriminatory duties on the consumption +of spirits. Even in France Absinthe has +had to be made illegal. In Sweden a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>compromise between state and commercial +exploitation has been adopted. A +single company, the <i>Aktiebolaget Vin och +Spritcentralen</i>, farms the Government’s +monopoly and hands over all surplus +profits to the state after paying a small +fixed dividend to its shareholders. This +company also owns all the distilleries and +wine-merchants’ shops in the country. +It issues a sort of pass-book to consumers, +showing the holder’s name, address, profession +and taxation assessment and the +number of bottles of wine and spirits he +is entitled to monthly on this basis. This +is certainly not socialism, for it substitutes +the ratio of taxation for the doctrine of +equality of opportunity; but if it denies +the poor man the right to buy as much as +the rich, it prevents the rich man buying +as much as he likes, or devoting more +than a certain percentage of his income to +laying down a fine cellar of wine. Reminiscent +of Food Control and Food Cards as +these regulations sound, they seem to +work well enough in practice. If a man +may not himself import the sort of wines +with which he would prefer to fill his +cellar, the company, according to Mr +Hedges Butler, gives him at very reasonable +prices a choice of 862 varieties of +wines and 263 of spirits and liqueurs: a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>much wider selection than the score of +most prominent London wine-merchants +stock between them. From a variety of +causes, of which inertia and chronic +conservatism are the principal, British +wine-merchants, still nominally competitive +with one another, are coming more +and more to resemble a number of +branches of one and the same company, +offering their customers an ever smaller +selection of stereotyped growths. The +invariable answer to this criticism is +“Few but choice,” which is liable to +provoke a slightly incredulous smile. +“Few but choice,” faithfully echo the +licensed grocers and the restaurants. +The most prominent wine-merchant in +Regent Street displays a wine-list so brief +that it could be put to shame by any +French provincial <i>épicerie</i>. Indeed +British vintners of the present day seem +to have taken as their device Sancho +Panza’s words, “I come from my vineyard +and know nothing”—except that +very few of them have ever seen a vineyard +or a wine-press. The public must +be educated in wine, if its sale is to +increase; a greater sale implies greater +variety and cheapness and better average +quality. Our prosperous wine-merchants, +supinely content in the main to make +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>quick and easy profits by the sale of +proprietary brands of Port and Champagne, +are much too easy-going to give +themselves the trouble of undertaking any +more intelligent propaganda than editing +crude circulars extolling those “very +nice wines—not <i>too</i> dry” at bankrupt +stock prices (“cost double”), the curious +style of which is so unchanging as to seem +traditional. In fact in nine cases out of +ten they no longer know enough about +the commodity they deal in to be able +to do more than sell bottles containing it, +much as a barman replenishes beer-mugs +at the tap. There is an urgent need of a +better-educated and more enterprising +generation of wine-merchants, knowing +their honourable profession at least as +well as their grandfathers did. True, the +last word in advertising wine was said +many centuries ago. “Good wine (unlike +the Monopoles and the sham “Hocks” +and “Burgundies”) needs no bush”; +but this presupposes that good wine +should not be conspicuous by its absence.</p> + +<p>Prohibition in Norway, which I believe +actually antedates the celebrated Volstead +Act, was expounded to me on the +bridge of a collier hove to in a thick sea-fog +off Copenhagen by one of the finest +navigators, drunk or sober, but particularly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>drunk, that it has ever been my good +fortune to encounter.</p> + +<p>This Danish skipper gave me to understand +(I cannot, of course, vouch for the +accuracy of his information) that in the +long night of the Norwegian winter there +was absolutely nothing else to do but to +take to theology or get drunk. When +drunk, the Norwegian crofter or fisherman, +however theological his bent, readily +finds a second source of distraction in +beating his wife. The women of Norway +seem to have got tired of being beaten +even before the outbreak of the War. +When the War restricted fishing, they +began to take counsel together. Reflecting +that the Fiend Alcohol was at the +root of all their troubles and the immediate +cause of all their bruises, they decided +that he must be exorcised in due legal +form. To bring this about all that was +necessary was the power and exercise +of the vote. The granting of the suffrage +to women does not appear to have aroused +any sort of opposition in a “progressive” +country like Norway, and the right seems +no sooner to have been demanded than +accorded. Once Norwegian womanhood +was armed with the franchise, the first +measure insisted on was that imposing +Prohibition on Norwegian manhood. Their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>husbands do not seem to have been aware +of the danger, or perhaps they were +encouraged to get rather exceptionally +drunk during the week devoted to a +plebiscite on this purely feminine issue. +Alas, the plight of these energetic and +resourceful Viking ladies, once their +husbands were deprived of Aqavit, was +in no wise ameliorated; their last state +was decidedly worse than their first! +Having now no earthly distraction whatever, +their husbands beat them from +morning to night, and, being involuntarily +sober, very much more efficiently +than they had ever done before. Thereupon +the united voice of the Norse women +clamoured for the abrogation of Prohibition +even as they had but recently +clamoured for its ratification. Once +again they had their way, and the country +returned peaceably to the <i>status quo ante</i> +of a moderate degree of drunkenness and +a moderate, because quasi-inebriated, +prevalence of wife-beating.</p> + +<p>At this point the skipper’s account left +off, and we may perhaps supplement his +graphic statement by some rather colder +data. However much bruised Norwegian +women may have expressed the desire to +see Prohibition abolished, the chief motive +force in securing it was the economic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>pressure exercised by foreign countries. +Norway is neither an agricultural nor an +industrial country. The nation lives on +what statisticians are fond of calling +“invisible exports”—in this case carrying +other nations’ goods in its bottoms—and +in exporting the produce of its +fisheries, mostly in the form of dried +split-cod, known variously as <i>Stokfisk</i>, +<i>Morue</i> and <i>Bacalão</i>. This is shipped in +enormous quantities to Roman Catholic +countries for Fridays’ dinners. Now, split-cod, +though a foodstuff, is not a prime +necessity of life, like corn and meat, and +the countries that buy it find no difficulty +in putting an embargo on it at +need. Also Norway is a small and pacific, +and therefore impotent, nation, which +can be defied or penalised with impunity, +not a great power backed by a large fleet +and the power of manipulating higher +finance. For the sake of its shipping and +the export of its <i>Stokfisk</i>, Norway was +forced in 1921 to accept an annual contingent +of 4,000 hectolitres of French wine, +5,000 of Spanish and 8,500 of Portuguese: +or a total of some 385,000 gallons, a very +considerable amount for a poor country +of well under three million inhabitants. +Thus Norway is now wetter than ever. A +state <i>Vin Monopolet</i> conducts the liquor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>trade and distils corn-brandy. Wine +may be freely bought, but spirits can only +be obtained at a chemist’s shop on a +doctor’s prescription: a regulation the +enforcement of which used in former days +to coincide with an alarming increase in +such maladies as snake-bite, anæmia, +vertigo, melancholia, personal bereavement, +bankruptcy, religious mania, +debility and old age in certain “dry” +states of the American Union.</p> + +<p>At present our bejazzed manhood +cannot summon to its aid enough of our +old Viking virility to countenance wife-beating +in any form, even when the +chastisement is clearly justified. But +when our masterful womenkind seek to +impose Prohibition on us, who knows but +that the long-suffering worm may not +turn at last? Perhaps the experience of +a short term of this ban might be the cause +of curing half our domestic troubles.</p> + +<p>Much the same sort of system of placing +few or no restrictions on the sale of wine, +and investing the purchase of spirits with +considerable formalities, has been adopted +by certain Canadian provinces. In +Quebec, possibly as a legacy of French +blood, the sale of wine vastly exceeds +that of spirits, in spite of a continuous +invasion of this hospitable territory by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>thirst-maddened tourists from the freest +of all countries at its gates. In Belgium, +too, there are restrictions on the sale of +spirits, liqueurs and <i>apéritifs</i>, but none +on that of beer and wine.</p> + +<p>The vicissitudes of Norway lead us to +the consideration of modern international +commercial treaties in their relation to +wine. The old trade agreements between +nations in pre-war days were usually +rather amateur, almost altruistic, affairs. +The industrial struggle for existence had +not, as then, become acute, because there +were more rich and fewer poor states in +the relatively happy family of the nations. +To-day quotas, contingents and categories +of goods are carefully scheduled +and obstinately bargained for, each high +contracting party putting forward its +irreducible demands, together with certain +other claims advanced as camouflage, +which are quietly abandoned once the +acceptance of the former is conceded. +Germany produces fine white wines and +but little red. Her new commercial +treaty with France, now being negotiated, +stipulates, within the agreed annual +contingent of French wine which she +agrees to accept, for a minimum of white +and a maximum of red. But this is not +all. Germany was a pioneer in strict +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>application of the doctrine of Appellation +of Origin as applied to wine, and +Bethmann-Hollweg’s <i>Reichsweingesetz</i> of +1909 preceded similar legislation in any +other country, with the possible exception +of Hungary. Thus it is not surprising to +find that Germany should insist on +stringent <i>appellations d’origine</i> for the +French wines she pledges herself to buy. +Going further still in this direction, the +German Ministry of Commerce has +divided the annual quota into fixed ratios +between the several viticultural regions +of France: not so much in proportion to +their importance as in accordance with +German domestic needs and tastes. It is +left to the French Government to draw +up a list of recognised <i>local</i> appellations +within each of these regions (that is to say +the names of separate communes and +smaller, but more famous, growths) and +submit it to the approval of the competent +German authorities before the +treaty enters into vigour. The Belgian +Government was the real precursor in +this direction, for the recently concluded +Belgo-French Commercial Treaty names +over two hundred appellations of French +wines, the authenticity of which is guaranteed +by the French state, as being alone +entitled to be admitted into Belgian +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>territory. The only appellations of wine +which enjoy protection under any commercial +agreement concluded with this +country are Port and Madeira. Wine +sold as “Port” or “Madeira” in Great +Britain and Northern Ireland must be the +authentic produce of the Alto Douro or +the Island of Madeira, fortified, as required +by Portuguese law, to a given alcoholic +strength: that is a “<i>vinho surdo</i>” or +“<i>vinho muito</i>.” The first of these +exclusive appellations is very distasteful +to Australian manufacturers of sweet +wines, who are anxious to call their more +spirituous wares “Australian Port.” All +other wines in this country are still very +much what their vendors choose to label +them. Fortunately nations are as imitative +as persons. It is to be hoped, therefore, +that when the time comes for the +existing Anglo-French Commercial Treaty +to be renewed—which is sure to entail long +and pertinacious haggling on both sides +on account of the recent French embargo +on British coal—this state of affairs will +be remedied in so far as French, or <i>soi-disant</i> +French, wines are concerned. This +hope is not so naïve as it may sound. It +will be as much in the interests of our +negociators to see that the fixed minimum +quota of French wines, which we shall +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>probably have to agree to admit annually, +shall be the best, instead of among the +worst, of their kinds, as it will be in that +of the French to stipulate that henceforward +no wines sold in the United +Kingdom as French shall be anything but +French, and that they must correspond +in the strictest territorial sense with the +names printed on their labels. Thus, +granted a reasonable degree of skill in our +politicians and public officials, the further +we deviate from Free Trade the better +should be the quality of the goods we +receive from other countries: an idea +altogether too simple to have ruffled the +brains of the Manchester School mandarins.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FASHION_AND_FEMINISM_IN_WINE">FASHION AND FEMINISM IN WINE</h2> + +</div> + +<p>The undying snob in man reveals himself +as much in the choice of the wines he +drinks as in the clothes he wears or the +conversation he affects. Waves of fashion +that depend on the praise or blame of +someone in authority—a king, a beau, a +singer, a sportsman, a politician or an +actor—sweep in a wine and sweep it out +again. Some have their brief spell and +are no more seen; others return at almost +fixed intervals like solar eclipses. Port +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>we owe to anti-French bias and a long-forgotten +political treaty concluded in the +heat of this same rancour; but heavily +reinforced Port will be with us till the +threat of Prohibition assumes proportions +menacing enough to make us confine +ourselves to natural wines as the most +logical defence against the misrepresentations +of the teetotalers. Sherry, on the +other hand, has been coming in and going +out ever since its name was Sack. +Madeira’s eclipse has a more rational +explanation, for the quality of that wine +has never recovered from the scourge of +the Oidium, which all but exterminated +its vineyards in the Fifties. The fate of +Madeira was the ordinary fate of things +that are out of sight. The vines of the +island were not in normal bearing again +till some decades afterwards, when the +old John Company, the largest buyer of +Madeira wines, had already ceased to +exist. Claret and Burgundy, long +eschewed as French growths and penalised +by prohibitive duties to the profit of +an ever more alcoholic Port, blossomed +for us anew when Gladstone accomplished +the revolutionary step of lowering the +duties on light wines to a shilling the +gallon in 1861. Hermitage has disappeared +in England, as Arbois has in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>France. Hock and Moselle were patriotically, +even, considering the absence of +supply, a little ostentatiously, renounced +during the War as Hunnish and unhallowed +things—so much so, indeed, +that our greatest living authority on +wines passed them over in silence in a +book, which is a classic, written during +that period of passionate professorial +denunciation of everything German. Yet +long before Locarno they had returned in +triumph to their old popularity in the +Houses of Parliament, as advertising +circulars were careful to inform us. Greek +wines, like Byron’s verse, have had their +day. Tokay, now a memory and almost +no more made, was hallowed by the prefix +“Imperial” and the knowledge that it +was the gift, more precious than jewelled +orders or honorary colonelcies, which +kings exchanged in the family circle. +Italian wines have lately enjoyed a good +deal of popularity among artistic persons, +explicable by the charm of a Chianti +flask rather than by the average quality +of its contents. Marsala, now usually +despised as a cheap and common wine, +should be dear to us always as a memory +of Nelson. It is still piously esteemed in +the Navy, where Rum has long since +passed out of fashion. Balkan wines may +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>yet enjoy a vogue if Ruritanian princesses +prove as good business women as they are +beautiful. Algerian and Tunisian wines +we know well, but more often under +Europeanised titles. The Anglo-Catholic +and Jewish communities make much of +Palestine wines, which have little but +scriptural geography in their favour. +Champagne, costliest of all wines in the +popular imagination, has always held its +own for this very reason. Just as Sherry, +decade by decade, had to be paler or +darker in colour and lighter or heavier in +body, so Champagne, which began by +being very sweet, has now become dry as +a bone. Yet “dry” Champagne only +dates from the Sixties. Sweet it may yet +become again, as sweet as the Russians +liked it, when women become sovereign +arbiters of food and drink. A decade or +two ago <i>Carte Anglaise</i> was the most +expensive and fashionable degree of +“liqueuring” in Champagne. To-day +it is <i>Drapeau Américain</i> (why not +“Volstead Bone-Dry Monopole”?) for +the Dollar is at a premium over the +Sovereign. Whisky, formerly an ostler’s +dram in the Scottish Highlands, was introduced +by golfers, with the hearty +support of the medical profession, and +became popular simultaneously with that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>now universal game. Irish Whisky, +though extensively drunk, has, for some +curious reason, never been fashionable. +There are few brandy-drunkards to-day. +Cognac seems to enjoy most esteem in +England as a medicinal restorative. +Gin was rescued from Mrs Gamp’s tea-pot +by the sudden popularity during the War +of those American barbarisms, cocktails: +a popularity largely due to their requiring +elaborate paraphernalia and the fact +that they were illegal in their native land. +Every millionairess who could boast a +Diamond Sunburst, we were given to +understand, had her own portable illicit +still and a marble gin-fountain in her +platinum-tapped bathroom. Liqueurs, +chiefly because they are sweet and many-hued, +have been steadily growing in +favour with ladies ever since dining out in +restaurants became an integral part of our +national habits.</p> + +<p>Let no man lull himself into a sense of +false security by imagining that the day +is still far distant when women will rule +the cellar as well as rocking Baby—and +the bottle—in the cradle. A book on +wine which appeared last year addressed +all its advice, as though this was the most +natural thing in the world, to “the good +hostess,” “the mistress of the house,” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>who in these days “can afford to smile” +at Dr Middleton’s “ungracious behaviour” +in defining her sex as “Creation’s +glory, but anticlimax following a wine of a +century old.” Another male supremacy +lies low! Man is lord of the cobwebbed +bins no more; the cellar-key, +even as the ballot-paper, has been +snatched from him by a stronger hand.</p> + +<p>Now women’s real taste in wine is +notoriously for such as are sweet. Fielding, +who knew the sex better than most, +and was far from ungallant, was not the +first to remark on it. In one of his now +forgotten plays, as Mr André Simon +reminds us, the hero, or some kindly male +character, after making the same observation, +sends out for a pint of “Mountain” +(the luscious, honey-sweet Muscat wine +now known as Malaga, but no longer +obtainable in an age vowed to a cult of +dry wines except in the humbler public-houses) +to comfort a lady’s vapours or +soothe her alarums. Of course, many +men also secretly prefer sweet wines to +dry. Our national wine, Port, is decidedly +sweet, and could not possibly be called +“dry” in the sense that Sherry often is. +But Vintage Port, the feminist authority +declares, “is not a woman’s taste in +wine,” though it must surely be a nearer +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>approach to it than either Vintage Claret +or Vintage Burgundy. Anyhow, Port, as +the classic monologue “My fust ’usbing +was a Guardsman” clearly shows, is the +most popular wine among women in +the saloon-bars of public-houses. At +present all women are exclaiming with a +single voice that they execrate sweet +wines and have always preferred dry, the +very driest in fact, even in those dim and +distant days when they were not as yet +fashionable. This is only a parrot cry +catching up the echo of the vogue of the +moment—“Tell me what is being drunk +and I will tell you that I like it best”—which +need deceive nobody. It is like +those terrible headaches, unknown to +their grandmothers, which have induced +them one and all to shear off their tresses +and shave their napes. M. Daret, the +distinguished <i>Maître de Chaix</i> at Château +Yquem, perhaps the greatest authority on +<i>vins liquoreux</i>, knows better and is far +from being dismayed. Sauternes was +never dearer than it is to-day. It can +only be assumed that drinking it in secret +enhances its price. Mrs G. B. Stern in +“Bouquet” furiously denounces Sauternes +and claims that it is as monstrous +to suppose that women are incapable of +sharing “men’s” taste for dry wines, or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>Cognac, as any other hereditary “male” +passion, preference, proclivity or prowess. +This delightful, if unconvincing, book ends +on a note of wistful nostalgia for the first +properly mixed icy-cold cocktail waiting +to reward her for a strenuous and rather +hustled tour of <i>dégustation</i> through the +principal French viticultural districts. I +very much suspect that during the course +of this pilgrimage “A Deputy was King.” +The real G. B. Stern was probably in +spiritual residence at that “Palace” in +Nice or Monte Carlo all the time. Even +Mr, Mrs or Miss Chaloner owns that on +this topic “we are brought up against +the very objection that many women have +to Claret, since they find its lack of +sweetness distasteful.... Most women +begin with a marked preference for wines +that are frankly sweet (so do boys), or +perhaps <i>demi-sec</i>, and there is a touch of +austerity about Claret that makes them +long frankly, or privately, to add a little +sugar to the glass.” Quite so; the +feminine education up to dry wines is +purely a question of following the prevailing +mode and a fresh manifestation of +the eternal and servile imitation of man. +This is indirectly confirmed by the +authoress herself (I will plump for authoress +and a hundred to one against author) +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>when she adds: “Though the vine +flourished long before mankind, and man +is believed to have enjoyed its produce as +a beverage as long ago as the neolithic +period, women are only just beginning to +give it their serious attention.” “The +fault of their ignorance” (an ignorance +which is not found in wine-growing +countries) is naturally placed “partly at +the door of the opposite sex, who in +bygone days were only too well pleased +with it.” Similar reproaches have been +levelled against man for his former +tyrannical exclusivity in such domains as +higher mathematics, marine zoology, coal-mining, +boiler-stoking, Rugby football +and legislative procedure. It is doubtless +theoretically arguable that “women +should possess finer palates than men” +and be able to detect and eliminate corked +bottles when decanted—what time their +husbands are presumably peeling potatoes +or scolding the cook. But this is by no +means the only preliminary to wining +claimed for them. “Where the hostess, or +even women-servants, take over the +duties of cork-drawing, it is of real help +to use a mechanical cork-screw.” At +first blush one feels inclined to say +“amen” to this, but on second thoughts +it seems brutally unfair that, if men are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>allowed to draw corks with ordinary +corkscrews (which being far simpler and +more satisfactory are usually preferred +by them), women should be debarred from +the same male privilege. To provide +women with patent corkscrews is clearly +to treat them as inferiors. Sex equality +is no better than a hollow mockery if +such unsporting handicaps are to be +allowed to remain, or the hostess’s anxious +concentration in studying the grammar of +“the international language” of the wine-list +is to be flurried by idle male gossip.</p> + +<p>There is a singular propriety in women +arrogating to themselves the right to +choose wines and lay down cellars “like +men” in an age in which so many of +them lack the ability to boil an egg. Yet +“venturing into her cellar without a +candle” the mistress of the house is told +that she ought to know how to distinguish +Bordeaux from Burgundy or Hock bottles +by the exercise of that very tactile sense +which now so often fails her in sewing on +a button. “In a well-known women’s +club” Miss Chaloner was recently +scandalised to find that the head-waitress, +when asked for some Beaune, had not +“even the vaguest notion whether to +look for Claret or Burgundy, or even +whether the wine asked for was white or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>red.” This pained surprise I am not +polite enough to pretend to share. +“However, a discreetly dropped hint that +the contour of Burgundy and Bordeaux +bottles was different ... began an +interest and education that doubled the +value of the maid to the members of the +club.”—From which it might almost be +conjectured that the education in question +was imparted to the members by the maid. +When so many prominent judges, divines, +scientists, Cabinet Ministers, university +professors and thoughtful clubmen eagerly +follow every passing change in the design +of “Camiknicks,” it is melancholy to be +told that “wines ... are seldom appreciated +or used to the best advantage in +women’s clubs.”</p> + +<p>Is there a last lingering doubt in the +heart of the vinously educated hostess as +to the propriety of offering her guests +wine—a moral, an æsthetic, not a social +perplexity, of course—it is soon allayed. +“In the hands of the discriminating +hostess, wine has the charm, the kindly +welcome of the hearth to which she invites +her guests, and if possessing in careless, +or stupid use, some dangers, that is not a +reason for banishing HER cellar. The +hostess who ... still hesitates over so +grave a problem as the ethical values of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>wine”—previously, no doubt, learnedly +and exhaustively debated at her club: +perhaps the very one where the head-waitress +did not know Big Tree from +Wonga-Wonga—“may yet take much +comfort to heart.” But where does the +model hostess’s husband dine on these +occasions, since he has no longer a cellar +of his own, or even a key to his wife’s? +There is at least one occasion mentioned +on which we may be quite sure that he +would contrive to find a sufficient excuse +for absenting himself to “the tyrant,” +or even brave “the brute’s” wrath by +taking French leave—when she “might +desire to give her dinner a special character, +reminiscent of a particular occasion, +or holiday in Italy”; in which case, +“she would have no difficulty in confining +the choice of her wine-list to Italian +wines.” Perhaps, too, the cigars (which +in spite of the practical protests of +Madame Hanska and George Sand have +been allowed to remain a male monopoly +for far too long) would be those delicious +curling Minghettis? Italian wines are +often excellent in Italy, when served with +Italian cooking, but the prevailing quality +of “what the vintners sell” in what +ladies call “those funny little continental +shops in Soho” (for Italian wines are not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>generally obtainable elsewhere), under +the fair names of Chianti, Barolo, Cortese, +Orvieto, Asti Spumante, etc., is enough +to make the most chicken-hearted Fabian +husband rebel.</p> + +<p>In the future wine is likely once more +to be considered, even in non-viticultural +countries, as a FOOD essential to physical +and moral well-being, rather than as a +dangerous artificial stimulant, or the +sybaritic indulgence of a few eccentric +old epicures. In cultured epochs wine is +sure to be held in honour as an integral +part of taste, while spirits are certain to +reign supreme in barbarous, philistine +and sanctimonious centuries, whether +permitted or proscribed by the law. The +present renaissance of gastronomy in +England, hesitant though it still is, is of +happy augury for marking the eclipse of +an age likely to be identified by future +social historians with the perpetual swilling +of whisky-and-soda by otherwise +refined and self-respecting people; and +as heralding the advent of an era in which +wine will be purer, better, cheaper, more +abundant and varied in its kinds, besides +being more justly and intelligently appreciated +by the nation at large. With the +increasing shortage of cereals throughout +the world, the making of grain-spirits +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>will soon become indefensible, and the +same consideration may ultimately apply +to beer as well.</p> + +<p>The survival of wine and male dominance, +are, as Scandinavia has shown us, +parallel issues. If wine survives feminism, +which, in spite of the foregoing +instances of its latest manifestation, is +much more likely to be œnophobe than +œnophil, there will be no place left for +teetotal Puritanism in a wine-loving +world.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Bacchus, when yet a child, fared one +day along an unfamiliar desert path +strewn with the bleaching bones of all +manner of birds and beasts that had +perished there of drought. Wearied, he +sat himself down to rest on a heap of +stones amidst a solitary patch of verdure +growing by the wayside. He found the +rambling shrub, the tender leaves of +which cooled and caressed his bruised +and heated feet, so green and gracious +that he pulled it up by the roots so as to +take it home with him and plant it in his +garden. Fearing lest it might wither +under the scorching rays of the sun as he +bore it in his hands, he picked up a bird’s +skull and put the roots, with a little earth, +into the hollow of the beak. The plant +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>grew so fast while he wended his way +homewards that its roots soon outgrew +the prison of their narrow sheath. Thereupon +he imbedded the bird’s skull in the +shoulder-blade of a lion. Nevertheless +the roots began once again to overspread +their allotted trough, so that he had +recourse to the expedient of thrusting the +lion’s shoulder-blade into the jaw-bone of +an ass. When, at length, he reached +home and went to plant the strange wild +shrub in his garden, he found it impossible +to extricate the knotted roots from the +three bones incasing them; so he planted +it just as it was, bones and all. The vine, +for such was the name he gave this goodly +creeping plant, throve luxuriantly and +bore the young god, who tended and +pruned the holy tree lovingly, tressing its +branches into a shady arbour, an abundance +of heavy bloom-dusted grape-clusters, +both purple and golden: the +juice of which he pressed and gave to the +sons of men for their sustenance and +comfort in sickness and adversity and to +make glad their hearts on high festivals +and days of family rejoicing. And, +behold, as soon as the sons of men first +tasted the blood of the grape—which they +straightway called wine, meaning a +sacred water—a prodigy came to pass! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>For when they began to drink they sang +as do the birds of the forest; when they +drank more they became strong and +courageous as lions; but when they +drank yet more, they grew foolish as +jackasses.</p> + +<p>Thus it was in the beginning, is now and +ever shall be.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> The main reason is that predominantly cider- +and beer-drinking Départements of the north and +north-east have now become large consumers of +wine: an appetite whetted by the much appreciated +Army wine-ration, nicknamed “Pinard,” +during the long years of mobilisation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> <i>Piquette</i> means sour, thin wine; it is to wine +what small-beer is to ale.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> See note to page 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> See page 34. The Pinot was tried in Australia, +but did not prove a success in such a +hot and arid climate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> The <i>Tonneau Bordelais</i> has a capacity of four +<i>Barriques</i> of 22 litres each, or 900 litres in all.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> The coarse and common Gamay of the Côte +d’Or must not be identified with the Petit Gamay, +the “<i>plant noble</i>” of the Beaujolais from which +all the finest wines of the latter region have +always been grown.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> It is a significant fact that since the War the +only French viticultural region that has increased +its export of bottled wines is the Bordelais. +This is the region in which estate-bottling is most +widely adopted. Exports of Bordeaux wines +in the wood have sensibly decreased.</p></div> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77340 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77340-h/images/cover.jpg b/77340-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20c9193 --- /dev/null +++ b/77340-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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