324 GRAPE CULTURE AND 



two years, and keep improving as they grow older. I have 

 tasted Rieslings and Traminers in this State, eight to ten 

 years old, which it would be difficult to excel any where for 

 flavor, richness and mellowness. Who ever has such wines, 

 and can afford to keep them, will certainly not loose by doing 

 so; while the producer of lighter wines will do well to sell as 

 soon as he receives a fair offer. Let us not forget that it is 

 not age alone which gives wines their quality and their name; 

 there must be something else to make them grand wines. 

 Small wines in fact have a sprightliness when young, which 

 makes them appear better than they really are. They will 

 sell best as long as this remains, and become flat and dull with 

 age. 



CHAPTER IX. 



DISEASES OF WINE. 



Here again, preventative is better than cure. Wine pro- 

 perly made and handled, will not become diseased in our cli- 

 mate, where we always have sugar in the grape to produce it 

 of sufficient alcoholic strength to keep it. In this respect, 

 though the French may beat us as wine doctors, we have the 

 advantage of them in the perfection of our product, which 

 needs no doctoring, if well made and treated. 



But still we have patients enough in our State, made so by 

 improper treatment, and although hardly competent to pre- 

 scribe for them, as my wines were generally healthy, I will 

 try and give some advice in cases of emergency, which may 

 arise even in the best regulated wine cellars. 



