28 INTRODUCTION. 



than Lyons, I cannot from personal observation 

 speak of the vine districts of that quarter, cele- 

 brated as they are for the superiority of their 

 productions. It is but seldom that the best 

 wines of France are to be met with in the United 

 States; though I have been told that one of the 

 fine vineyards of the south has been leased for 

 ten years by a commercial house in New York. 

 The vintage of their prime grounds is in ge- 

 neral forestalled by the agents of English com- 

 mercial houses, who pay /or it, good or other- 

 wise, as the case may prove, an exhorbitant price, 

 supplying at a correspondent rate the wine loving 

 portion of the British community, from the 

 presses of Chateau, Margaux, Cote Rotie, or La- 

 fitte. 



There is a small town in France, at the foot of 

 the Jura, called Poligny, but a small distance 

 from the Swiss frontier. A wine esteemed for 

 the delicacy of its flavour is produced there ; but 

 such is the extreme sensibility of the wines of 

 Poligny, that they do not bear a transportation, 

 consequently are but little known, except to the 

 traveller in the neighbourhood. The best pro- 

 duction of that district is the Vin de V Etoile, a 

 delicate light wine, of exquisite flavour, approach- 

 ing more nearly in character to a fine champaigne, 

 as I thought, than to any other wine of France. 

 It is cultivated on the side of the Jura, on a 

 stony barren, and on the plain extending about 

 a hundred yards from the foot of the mountain, 

 the soil of which is a mixture of stone and gravel. 

 Both these positions are famed for the excellence 

 of their wines, possessing, however, a marked 

 dissimilarity of character. They are white and 



