History of Ancient and Modern Wines. 127 



They are produced in the greatest excellence and variety in the 

 departments of the Cote D'Or, Yonne, and Saone and Loire. 

 At present the Romane Conti, Clos-Vougeot, and Chambertin are 

 considered as the most choice growths of the Cote D'Or. Upon 

 the subject, however, of the Burgundy wines which come to Eng- 

 land our own observations sanction Dr. Henderson's conclusions ; 

 he shall therefore speak for himself. 



" In England we have in general a very imperfect idea of the 

 great variety and excellence of the wines which this province pro- 

 duces, as it is customary to comprehend them all under the generic 

 term Burgundy^ and as the prime growths are confined to a few 

 favoured vineyards, and are in great request in their own country, 

 it is evident that but a small proportion of them can ever come 

 into the market. Supposing, therefore, our wine merchants chose 

 to give the high prices at which such wines sell, they could not 

 obtain a sufficient supply ; but the high and impolitic duty on 

 French wines renders it their interest to limit their orders for the 

 most part to inferior qualities, or if they should commission the 

 best it is still not unlikely that the French wine-dealer, unable to 

 meet the demand, and unwilling to disappoint his rich, but not 

 very skilful, foreign customers, might be induced to send second- 

 rate wine, which, with persons habituated to the duller liquors of 

 Spain and Portugal, may seem of the very finest quality. Nor does 

 this statement rest altogether on supposition, for we are told by 

 Jullien, that the ordinary wines of first and second quality, — the 

 inferior produce of the vineyards of Vosne, Nuits, Volnay, Pomard, 

 Beaune, Chambolle, and Morey, are often exported under the 

 denomination of the best, to those countries where the first qualities 

 are not duly appreciated ; and indeed the practice in question is 

 notorious, not only in Burgundy, but in all parts of the world 

 whvjre wine forms an article of commerce." — P. 163. 



The white wines of Burgundy are less known here than the red, 

 but some of them are excellent, Mont Rachet and La Perriere, for 

 instance, and some of the wines grown in the vicinity of Chablis. 



3. Of the Hints of Dauphiny, the Lyonais, and the County of 

 Avignon. — The famous vineyards of the Hermitage are upon a 

 granite hill immediately behind the town of Tain, on the left bank 

 of the Rhone ; the whole slope faces the south, and from its 

 steepness is partly formed into terraces. Of the red wines of this 

 district those of Meal and Greffieux, and next to them those of 

 Bessas and Beaume, are most esteemed; they have a full body, a 

 dark purple colour, and a peculiar flavour and perfume; they re- 

 quire to mellow several years in the cask, where they deposit 

 abundance of tartar ; they keep long in the bottle, and their 

 exquisite qualities are then only slowly developed. 



The wines of Cote Rotie are the produce of the terraced vine- 



