INTRODUCTION. 29 



red, and it is generally conceded that the moun- 

 tain production is the superior wine. Whenever 

 these wines are sent out of the district which 

 produces them, they are, of necessity, so highly 

 reinforced, as to destroy, in a great degree, the 

 delicacy of their flavour, and change their origi- 

 nal character. No correct idea can, under these 

 circumstances, be formed of the primitive wine. 

 Both are highly esteemed at Poligny, and cost 

 there a high price. 



There can hardly be a greater dissimilarity 

 than that existing between the wines of Poligny 

 and of Switzerland, distant but a day'sjourney on 

 the southern side of the Jura. The wines of the 

 Canton of Geneva are, in general, light, weak, 

 and of little flavour; and if we except those from 

 the coast, taking, from their position on the shores 

 of the lake, the name of Vin de la Cote, are 

 for the most part difficult of long conservation, 

 becoming hard and sour when but three years 

 old. The district producing the Vin de la Cote, 

 stretches along the shore of the lake Leman, 

 near the town of Nyon, and that which gives to 

 this wine the character it bears, of superiority 

 among Swiss wines, is not an intrinsic excellence, 

 but because it is better than the other Swiss wines 

 of the neighbourhood, which, by any one unac- 

 customed to the hard and sour wines of that 

 Canton, would be pronounced as inferior, and, in 

 any other country, not worth the labour of produ- 

 cing them. From these remarks as to the lake 

 wines, may be excepted the wines of Neufchatel, 

 in the Canton of that name ; and those of Vevey, 



c 2 



