THE FAUMEirS MAGAZliNE. 



497 



Here we are, then, at the seat of what we term iu 

 England the claret wines — a particular manufacture, 

 called " travail a V Anglais," and which consists of 

 adding to each hogshead of Bordeaux wine three or four 

 gallons of Alicant, and a small quantity of Hermitage. 

 Bordeaux, the second seaport of France, containing 

 124,000 inhabitants, is well situated for carrying on a 

 trade, principally in wine and hemp, with North and 

 South America, the French colonies, and Great Britain. 

 From 50,000 to 00,000 tons of wine are exported an- 

 nually. Nearly half the best quality is sent to Great 

 Britain ; and very little is consumed in France. Amongst 

 the " lions" of Bordeaux are the cellars of the banking 

 wine-merchants, the MM. Barton and Guestier, in the 

 Cours des Chartrons. They are two storeys in height, 

 and commonly contain from 8,000 to 9,00O casks of 

 wine. The duty paid by this house to the British Go- 

 vernment in one year alone has amounted to ^£'300, 000. 

 The vineyards of the Bordelais extend between the 

 43i-d and 45th degrees of .latitude, and consist of 

 438,430 hectares, which produce an immense quantity 

 of wine of all qualities. Be it remembered that the 

 French people, in thus supplying their own beverages, 

 are not using their best soils — their corn soils — as we 

 do in England, but soils that, sometimes owing to posi- 

 tion, and always to quality, will not produce anything 

 else. Such soils as support the vine in France are 

 quietly given over to furze and rabbits in England. 



The crus, or growths, of the Bordelais may be divided 

 into Medoc, Graves, Palus, and Vignes Blanches, which 

 furnish wines of prime quality. To these may be added 

 those of the territories known as Entre-deux-mers, 

 Bourgeais, and Saint Emilion, the growths of which are 

 of secondary order. 



Medoc, in the department Gironde, which we find 

 contains 140,000 hectares of vineyard, cultivated by 

 60,000 proprietors, and yielding an annual produce of 

 2,500,000 hectolitres, is a long tongue of land, nowhere 

 more than two miles broad, extending northwards be- 

 tween the Garonne on the east and the Bay of Biscay on 

 the west. It is, indeed, the northern termination of 

 the extensive district of sand-hills and sand-plains ex- 

 tending from Bayonne, called " Les Landes." The 

 character of the soil of this strip changes, as it ap- 

 proaches the Garonne, north of Bordeaux, from the 

 sandy waste of the Landes to a light gravel, or what in 

 some places appears to be a mere heap of quartz 

 pebbles mixed with sand, which is nothing more nor 

 less than the abrasions from the Pyrenean rocks, brought 

 down by tributary torrents to the Garonne, and depo- 

 sited, with that wonderful and merciful adaptation that 

 bespeaks an Intelligence that designed the earth for the 

 residence of man. There the vine flourishes ; and when 

 the bed of indurated conglomerate beneath is broken 

 up by manual labour, so as to permit the roots to 

 strike, no soil is so congenial to it, retaining as it does 

 the sun's heat long after that luminary has disappeared. 

 This bank rises 80 feet above the river ; and proceeding 

 by steamer up the Garonne to Pauillac, with a view to 

 the Lafitte (the property of Sir Claude Scott) and 

 Chateau Margaux vineyards, the eye iu vain seeks the 



trained vine, but catches an intervening fringe of marsh 

 meadow-land, grown over with willow-trees. Having 

 landed, we find that the vine is trained, as it usually 

 is here, in the fashion of espaliers, fastened to horizontal 

 laths attached to upright posts 2 feet from the ground, 

 running in an uninterrupttd line from one end of 

 the vineyard to the other. These rows are three feet 

 apart, and from seeing the process* of moving the soil 

 in the intervals performed by oxen, drawing a plough, 

 our own Tull several years ago got the idea of horse- 

 hoeing, and brought it home, much to our advantage. 

 To give his own account, he says he was struck with 

 the field culture of the vine, and noticed that the low 

 vineyards were planted in such a regular order that 

 they could be constantly ploughed, and the soil thus 

 pulverized between each vine at the proper season. He 

 observed also that the vines had no other assistance in 

 the way of manure than this hoeing ; the reason of 

 this being "because the heads and the roots were so 

 near together that dung would spoil the taste of tho 

 wine they produce. It was from this practice I took 

 my vineyard scheme, observing that indifi'erent land 

 produces an annual crop of grapes and wood without 

 dung ; and though there is annually carried off from an 

 acre of vineyard as much in substance as is carried off 

 in the crop of an acre of corn produced on land of equal 

 goodness, yet the vineyard soil is never impoverished 

 unless the hoeing culture be denied it; but a few 

 annual crops of wheat, without dung, in the common 

 management, will impoverish and emaciate the soil. I 

 cannot find, either in theory or practice, any other good 

 reason for this difference, except that the vineyard soil 

 is more pulverized by hoeing." 



In the present state of the controversy on the Lois 

 Weedon system of wheat growing, now carried on at 

 home, it is well to unearth this scrap of evidence in its 

 favour. 



The same peculiar fickleness which was found in 

 the vineyards of Champagne and Burgundy for the 

 vines of St. Estephe and those of Lafitte, both on the 

 same soil, produces wines to which very different values 

 are attached in the market. The qualities of wine are, 

 too, very dependent upon seasons. The goodness of a 

 season will sometimes raise a secondary to a prime wine, 

 or its unpropitiousness on the other hand may debase a 

 premier quality to the rank of a third or fourth. When 

 they are not reputable, so necessary is it to maintain 

 the character of the various vineyards with the best 

 customers, that exportation to England ceases, and 

 Holland takes them, or they are retained in France. So 

 well is this understood, that some years back " the pro- 

 prietor of the vineyard La Rose used to hoist, on a flag 

 staff" above his house, the English flag in good years, 

 the Dutch in middling years, and the French in bad 



years. 



The vine begins to produce at five years of age, and 

 will when the soil is deep and congenial, continue to 

 flourish with unabated vigour two hundred years. Its 

 roots have been known to descend in pursuit of nourish- 

 ment to a depth of from forty to fifty feet. The best 

 species of red grapes is the vcrdot. Those cultivated 



