TH6 JOURNAb 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



QAKDEN. 



T'fie department of Mgricufture 



OF 



VICTORIA 



Vol. VIII. Part 2. 



10th February, 1910. 



THE AVINE INDUSTRY IX SOUTHERN FRANCE. 



Montpellier Bevisited. 

 /•'. de Castdla, Government Yiticiilturist. 



On 30th Januar\ . 1908, 1 arrived at Montpellier from Llansa, my 

 last stopping place in the extreme north-east of Spain, which I left the 

 same morning, crossing the Franco-Spanish frontier at Culera-Cerbere. 



The line crosses the border at a most picturesque spot where the 

 Pyrenees fall rapidlv awav from the heights, covered in places with per- 

 petual snows, to the Mediterraneaii. The lower ridges of the hills are 

 crossed bv frecjuent tunnels, between which forests of cork oaks are 

 seen, for this part of France, like Cataluna, produces cork. The towers 

 to be seen perched here and there among the hills are evidence of the 

 turbulent times of long ago in this frontier region. 



Shortlv after entering France, the three railway stations of Ban\uls, 

 Port Vendres, and Collioure are passed in rapid succession. These three 

 localities, and the limited area in their vicinity which it has been possible 

 to plant with \-ines, constitute a viticultural region, which though small 

 in extent has a marked character of its own. producing wines distinct 

 from those of the rest of France. This extreme south-eastern corner of 

 the department of Pyrenees-Orientales, or Rousillon, as it is perhaps 

 more generalh known, is one of the few parts of France where wines 

 in anv way resembling Port are produced. Much of what I have already 

 written concerning the wines of the Priorato district and of Llansa in 

 Spain (see Journal for June, 1909) applies also to this corner of the 

 Rousillon. 



One finds the same terraced vineyards perched in almost inaccessible 

 situations on schistose hillsides of the same primary geological age and., 

 above all, one finds the same variety of vine — the Grenache — producing 

 wines which rapidlv develop a pronounced Rancio character. In some 

 vinevards, a little Carignane is also grown — rarely as much as one-fifth, but 

 the 'preponderating vine is Grenache. Both the ordinarv black variety, 



17087. C 



