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_the soil of a grapery, very poor wine would be produced, and the only question 
is will a moderate quantity do harm? ‘This is precisely the question the com- 
mittee put toeMr. Herzmansky, the intelligent and thoroughly experienced 
director at Johannesberg, where the best wine in the world is made. His 
answer was, “No. As we apply it on this soil it does not impair the quality 
of the wine in any degree; on the contrary, it improves the flavor.” Then he 
led the way to his well-ordered cow stables, and pointing to the compost heaps 
remarked, “ There is the beginning of Johannesberger.” 
Nore.—The vineyard of F. T. Buhl, alluded to in a previous note, is fertilized by a com- 
post made of wood-ashes, stable manure, and earth. This is applied in the spring in trenches 
dug to the depth of about ten inches and again covered with earth; the application is made 
in this manner to every alternate row of the vineyard. The fellowing year the same pro- 
cess is gone through with in the remaining rows, by the removal of the soil as previously 
stated, and the treatment of manure as just detailed; this vineyard now produces wine of a 
very superior quality of a delicious bouquet, rich in saccharine matter, and alcohol, and pos- 
sessing all those excellences that we prize in a first-class wine, and is now readily selling at 
twelve francs the titre. To which is this wine most indebted for the extraordinary change 
in its character, to the volcanic soil, or the manure which is annually buried in the vineyard ? 
Now Johannesberger is the most delicate of wine, as it is indeed superlative 
in every respect. By the kind invitation of the Princess Metternich the com- | 
mittee were allowed to taste specimens of the best the castle cellar contained, 
including some that was 21 years old in the cask, and some from a cask that 
was par excellence, called the “ bride of the cellar,” and the opinion formed was 
that the quality of Johannesberger is such that it cannot be described, and can 
be communicated only to the organs of taste, nor can it be understood or even 
imagined, except by those who are so highly favored as to have a taste of it. 
But this marvellous wine is but the ‘crowning product of the famous district of 
the Rhinegan, or that portion of the valley lying just north of Mayence, a strip 
less than ten miles in length, whose fruit yields a juice which surpasses all 
others of the world, combining richness with flavor and delicacy with strength. 
The soit of the Rhinegan seems to be of a red sandstone mostly, if not wholly. 
Johannesberg hill reminds one strongly of the soil of some parts of New Jersey 
and Connecticut, and in the neighborhood of New Haven, in the latter State, 
the “basalt” is seen resting upon the red stone, just as it does upon the hills 
that skirt the Rhine. Nearly all the German and Swiss wines, and, indeed, 
nearly all the grapes grown in Germany and Switzerland, are white, for which 
the soil and climate of the former country seems peculiarly adapted, while at 
the same time unsuited for ripening colored grapes to the tint needed in a true 
red wine. The peculiarity of the better sort of Rhenish wines is “bouquet,” 
and of the inferior sort, acidity compared with them; their French rivals are 
quite negative, and so are those of Switzerland. A French wine, white or red, 
must be very poor indeed if it shows any acidity, and must be very fine indeed if 
it possesses any easily-tasted “bouquet.” Altogether, we must award the palm 
of excellence to the white wines of the Rhine, as we do to the skill and industry 
of the vine dressers who produce them. In considering the merits of the different 
soils as geologically distinguished from each other, we seem drawn to the con- 
clusion that, so far as our observation has gone, the red sandstone is the superior 
one, but we confess ourselves unfit to make any such sweeping generalization, 
and will only say that the soil in question, for aught we can see, seems as fit as 
any other to grow a superior wine. The difference between wine made by 
fermenting the bruised grapes, juice, skin, pulp, and seeds altogether, and called 
“red wine,” and that made by pressing immediately after gathering and fer- 
menting its pressed juice by itself, called “white wine,” is not a difference of 
color alone. For certain bodily temperaments, and for certain conditions of 
health, possibly, too, for the peculiar constilution of the German people, whzte 
wine may be the best. And to that of the Rhine country Leébig attributes the 
virtue of being an antidote for calculus and gout. But all this being admitted, 
