22 INTRODUCTION. 



unusual care. The fruit. was all carefully exam- 

 ined. Every bunch ascertained to be ripe, and 

 in the proper state for the press. The grapes were 

 all detached from the stems, which, together with 

 the small and imperfect fruit, were rejected. 

 The process of fermentation, so delicate a feature 

 in the arcana of wine making, was conducted un- 

 der his immediate observation, and when finish- 

 ed, the wine was, at proper intervals, several 

 times transvased, to purify it from extraneous 

 matter. In this state it was put up for exporta- 

 tion. The quarter cask carefully closed, was 

 placed in the middle of a hogshead, and secured 

 in its central position by iron stanchions; when 

 thus secured, the hogshead was filled with brandy. 



The wine, hermitically sealed from the action 

 of the air, was sent by land to Marseilles, whence 

 it was shipped to New Orleans, where, on arrival, 

 it was so changed, that the purchaser, for whom 

 it had been so carefully prepared, and who was 

 at Dijon at the vintage, could not recognise it as 

 the same wine. The vintner who directed the 

 operation, had been sanguine as to the result of 

 his theory, and was chagrined at the failure of 

 the experiment. His proprietor believed it the 

 effect of agitation, and notascribable to the voyage 

 by sea^ or the climate of Louisiana; but he admits 

 that his, opinion was mere hypothesis. 



Both the white and the black grape are exten- 

 sively cultivated at Burgundy, though the culti- 

 vation of the latter predominates. There is a 

 strong resemblance in the black grape of that dis- 

 trict to the small chicken grape (vitis sylvestris] 

 of our own country. The difference between 



