The Grape- Vine 



241 



the beautiful Burgundian vineyards ; its origin can be traced back to a.d. 1110, when the 

 monks of Cipeaux received the vineyards from Hugues le Blanc, lord of Vergy, and cultivating 

 it with infinite care, succeeded in producing a wine which has maintained its reputation for 

 centuries. The wines of Beaujolais such as Macon, Thomis, Fleuric, and Moulin-a-vent are 

 also well known, and the pride of the banks of the Rhone are l'Hermitage, Cote-Rotie, 

 and Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But the French wines, however, which enjoy perhaps the 

 greatest popularity in the land which produces them are the world-famous red wines of 

 Bordeaux, some of the principal varieties of which are 

 Haut Brion, Chateau-Margaux, Chateau-Leoville, Chateau- 

 Lafite, Chateau-Lagrange, Chateau-Larose, Chateau-Millet, 

 Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau-Latour, Branaire, Montrose- 

 Dolfus, Ducru-Beaucailloux, Clos dTssan, St. Estephe, 

 St. Emilion, and Medoc. Although the wines of Bor- 

 deaux have been famous for centuries, it was not until 

 towards the end of the eighteenth century that they 

 became really fashionable, a state of affairs which was 

 largely brought about by the influence of Marshal de 

 Richelieu, who introduced them to the notice of the 

 Parisians. 



Having thus briefly dealt with red wines and their 

 manufacture, we will turn our attention to the white 

 varieties. White wines are made in a manner quite dis- 

 tinct from that adopted for red wines, but it is a common 

 error to suppose that white wines are made solely from 

 white grapes to the exclusion of purple fruit. It is quite 

 true that many grapes are quite unsuitable for white 

 wines, since their juice is too strongly coloured, but the ' 

 total exclusion of these varieties for white wines is by 

 no means the case. 



The wines are produced by two distinct methods. In 

 the one case the vintage is thrown into huge bowls or 

 basins and the juice, as soon as it has been pressed out, 

 drawn off and placed into casks, where it is allowed to 

 ferment ; it is very important that the sediment should 

 be abstracted as soon as possible. In the other method 

 the grapes are taken directly to the press and great care 

 is exercised to avoid too great pressure, which would result 

 in the must becoming coloured by the expressed juices of 

 the stalks. In both cases the lees are placed on hurdles 

 and the wine which drips from them is collected and added 



to that obtained first. It frequently happens that in spite of all precautions to the contrary 

 the must is of too strong a tint, and to effect the decolourisation of the wine it is the practice 

 to treat the must with sulphuric acid or charcoal. 



Owing to the early extraction of the lees the fermentation of white wines is much slower 

 and less vigorous than in the case of red wines, and to facilitate the process the wines are often 

 transferred to other vessels. The liquor in these vessels is kept at a constant level by the 

 addition of new must, and if the scum which collects at the surface is repeatedly removed 

 we have the production of " sweet " wines ; on the other hand, if the scum is allowed to remain, 

 so that the fermentation may be more complete, " dry " wines are the result. As the " dryness " 

 of a wine depends upon the completeness with which the sugar of the juice is converted into 

 alcohol and carbon dioxide, it follows that to produce the driest wines fermentation should be 



VINE ATTACKED BY OIDIUM 



17— C.P. 



