WINE 1145 



The district known as Medoc, or the promontory between the left bank of the Gironde 

 and sea to the west and north of the city of Bordeaux, is remarkable for the great 

 value and extent of its wine production, the produce of the vineyards of this district 

 being estimated at a value of 11,000,0001. in ordinary years. The centre of the trade 

 is at Bordeaux, where the following classification of the different growths is adopted : 



1st class. Premiers Cms. This includes only three growths : those of Chateau- 

 Lafitte, Chateau-Margaux, and Ghateau-Latour. 



2nd class. Twelve growths : includes Mouton, Leoville, Larose, and Braue 

 Cautenac. 



3rd class. Fourteen growths : including Kirwan, Cautenac, Lagrange, and Giscours. 



4th class. Twenty-eight growths : including St. -Pierre, Beycherille, and others in 

 Pauillae and St.-Estephe districts. 



Besides the above, there is a fifth class of named wines, below which the qualities 

 are distinguished as Bourgeois, superior and inferior, and Paysans, the latter being the 

 lowest class. 



The proportional scale of prices in an average year may be taken as follows : 



A 



1st class 80 to 200 per tonneau. 



2nd . . . . . 48 , 56 



3rd 32 



4th 28 



5th . . . . .24 

 Bourgeois, superior . . .16 

 ,, ordinary . . .14 



:S . 12 



36 

 36 

 28 

 20 

 16 

 13 



Much of the red wine exported from Bordeaux is fortified with red Hermitage, 

 Spanish red, or other similar Southern wine, for the purpose of increasing its alcoholic 

 strength. The demand for Bordeaux wines is so large and constantly increasing that 

 it would be difficult to meet it without having recourse to sources of supply not lying 

 within the district. 



White Wines of the Gironde. The principal white-wine producing districts in the 

 Gironde are those of Graves and Sauterne, which are on the left bank of the Garonne 

 above Bordeaux. 



The most celebrated vineyards are those of Chateau-Yquem and Chateau-Latour 

 Blanche. The treatment of the grapes differs from that in other districts, for they are 

 allowed to remain on the vines until they are rotten ripe, and are then gathered berry 

 by berry, care being taken to reject such as may be too far gone, or not sufficiently 

 ripe. By this means a greater amount of saccharine-matter and higher flavour is 

 obtained in the must than is the case in any other wine. Each picking is crushed 

 separately, and the process is so arranged that the vintage of each day is kept apart. 

 The first seven days' collection gives the so-called head wines, vins de tete, which are 

 the sweetiest and heaviest ; the second or vins de milieu, contain less sugar, while the 

 third or queues, which are made by pressing all the grapes remaining from the former 

 selections, are the driest. From their great sweetness and strength the highest class 

 of Sauternes require to be kept for several years before their peculiar fineness and 

 richness of flavour is developed. The wines of Chateau-Yquem when five years old, 

 are valued on the spot at from 400. to 6001. per tonneau, according to the vintage. 



Such is a somewhat concise statement of the varieties of wines known in commerce. 

 It is not possible to enter into all the details of the manufacture, varying as it does in 

 every locality, the numerous peculiarities being due in some cases to the conditions 

 of the grape itself, and in others to the methods pursued with regard to the fermen- 

 tation and the subsequent treatment of the wine. 



There are many persons who confound the ' flavour ' of wine with the ' bouquet.' 

 The differences are well determined by the writer on wine in the ' Penny Cyclopaedia.' 

 ' The flavour of wine, called by the French seve, indicates the vinous power and the 

 aromatic savour which are felt in the act of swallowing the wine, embalming the mouth, 

 and continuing to be felt after the passage of the liquor. It seems to consist of the 

 impression made by the alcohol and the aromatic particles which are liberated and 

 volatilised as soon as the wine receives the warmth of the mouth and stomach. The 

 seve differs from the bouquet, inasmuch as the latter declares itself the moment the 

 wine is exposed to the air; it is no criterion of the vinous force or quantity of 

 ulcohol present (being, in fact, greatest in weak wines), and influences tho organ of 

 smell rather than of taste.' 



The bouquet- of wine is a new product, and in no way dependent on the perfume of the 

 grape from which the wine is made. Red wines scarcely ever retain a trace of the odour 

 of the grapes ; the white muscadine wines do in some degree, especially Frontignan. 



