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The Country Gentlemaii s Magazine 



or asked for out of Italy. The object of 

 the growers must be to produce certaui types 

 or classes of wine. This is done in all the 

 countries that have now any important export 

 of wine. Beginning with that first of vine- 

 yards, France, we find a very limited number 

 of classes. There are the Bordeaux wines, 

 of which the peculiar merits and excellence 

 render it unlikely they will ever be paralleled; 

 there are the wines of Champagne and 

 of Burgundy and of the Cotes du Rhone — 

 four classes in all. If other wines than 

 these find their way out of France, it is that 

 they are grown to imitate one of those sorts, 

 or are made up to resemble them by the 

 ingenious chemists and wine-compounders 

 who have their principal depot at Cette. 

 Here, in Italy, unity of action among wine- 

 growers does not exist, although it is, perhaps^ 

 beginning to do so in one or two provinces. 

 In this respect, as in others, there has of 

 late years been improvement in Piedmontese 

 wine-growing, and the Chianti wines in 

 Tuscany are becoming known as a class. 

 The principal of these is Baron Ricasoli's 

 Broglio, which has considerable merit for an 

 Italian wine, and which would probably 

 greatly improve if kept in bottle, as do some 

 of the Piedmontese wines, and notably the 

 kind known as Barolo, which, when it gets 

 old, has much the ' character of light port. 

 But, in by far the larger portion of Italy, the 

 wine is made anyhow, and every grower 

 follows his own devices. The grape is badly 

 grown, to begin with, generally far from the 

 ground, trailing over trees, of which the 

 foliage often keeps from the grapes the sun- 

 shine so indispensable to their flavour and 

 perfect maturity. A better system, witnessed 

 in some of the districts I have lately visited, is 

 that of trailing the vine, in long festoons, from 

 tree to tree. Thus grown, it gets more sun, and 

 may be better pruned. But the only proper 

 plan — the low, small plants, so grown as to 

 produce the largest possible amount of grapes 

 in proportion to the wood — is rarely observed. 

 Enormous quantities of grapes are neverthe- 

 less obtained, but, when gathered, they are 

 badly treated, and the wine is afterwards in- 

 judiciously stored and ill kept. In some 



places they are put into enormous vats, con- 

 taining hundreds of barrels, a practice spoken 

 of by experienced growers as unfavourable to 

 its preservation and condition. In the pro- 

 vince of Ravenna, from the brink of which I 

 write this letter, the wine can hardly be kept 

 from vintage to vintage, and it frequently 

 happens that last year's wine is sour before 

 the following year's growth is ready for con- 

 sumption. Under the present want of sys- 

 tem and bad viticulture, wine, which ought 

 to be a source of wealth to this country, since 

 it is one of its principal products, is sold for 

 next to nothing and almost thrown away. 

 The prices (often i)4d. or 2d. a quart) at 

 which it is obtainable in most wine-growing 

 districts, may give some idea of the profits of 

 those inn-keepers who charge 2f or 3f for a 

 bottle of Italian vin ordinait-e. What is 

 wanted in this country is an importation of 

 experienced French wine-growers. It would 

 be difficult to overcome the prejudices of 

 the natives and to get them to submit to- the 

 guidance of the foreigner ; but the thing 

 might be done, and the change, both in cul- 

 tivation and fabrication, would soon be strik- 

 ing. The Sicilians have found means of pro- 

 ducing a wine, which, although depreciated 

 in England, because its name has often been 

 given by dealers to inferior articles is, it may 

 be safely asserted, when its best qualities are 

 really obtained, superior to much of what is 

 sold and drunk as sherry — the wine which 

 genuine Marsala of Ingham's and some other 

 first-rate brands, most nearly resembles. 

 There seems no valid reason why Italy 

 should not be as successful as Sicily, and 

 produce red wines fit to vie with some of the 

 stronger French sorts, and white wines as 

 good as many that are exported from 

 Germany and Hungary. But, to bring about 

 so desirable improvement, the Italians must 

 shew themselves self-helpful, and not look 

 for Government initiative, as people are prone 

 to do who have long been badly and des- 

 potically governed. The intelligent and 

 truly patriotic portion — and I fully believe 

 that this is no small one — of the class of 

 country gentlemen, and particularly those, 

 and they are many, who pass the gi'eater 



