02 



The Grape Culfurist. 



IIISTOEICAL SKETCH. 



Till the eighth century the culti- 

 vation of the vine remained in Ger- 

 many in a sluggish and unsatisfactorj^ 

 condition, and no attempts were .made 

 to improve it till the time of Charle- 

 magne, which great emperor's capa- 

 cious mind, was capable of looking far 

 into futurity, and who interested him- 

 self as much for small things as for 

 more important subjects. In his "ca- 

 pitularies" are to be found directions 

 for planting vineyards^ treading out 

 the grapes, fermenting the must, and 

 and preserving the wine in wooden 

 casks, which latter does not appear to 

 have been in use till then, and was 

 therefore a salutary innovation and 

 improvement, in the art of making 

 wine. He further ordered that the 

 best qualities should be deposited in 

 his imperial cellars, and the inferior 

 sorts to be sold to the public ; and in 

 order to distinguish the houses in 

 which wine was sold, he directed that 

 a wreath or hoop of leaves, or a bush 

 should be suspended as a sign over 

 the door. This custom exists to the 

 present da}^ in many wine-producing 

 countries. The writer of these lines 

 has seen them very generall}" used in 

 Greece, in Italy, in Germany, and in 

 the south of France, whilst in many 

 of the smaller towns in Portugal they 

 hang over the doors of the "vendors" 

 and "'estalagems" tho top shoots of a 

 young fir tree. It is therefore no 

 wonder that, as this distinctive sign 

 of cabaret has become so widely 

 spread, it should have given rise to 

 the popular saying that "good wine 

 needs no bush" in various languages. 



Thus in French it is a bon vin II ne 

 faut point d'enseigne ; in Italian^ at 

 huoti vino non hisogna frasca ; in Ger- 

 man, Guter Weill bedarf keines Krau- 

 zes ; in Spanish, el vino que de buono- 

 no ha me^iester pregonero ; in Portu- 

 guese, vinho com nao precisa prego- 

 eiro ; in Latin, vino vendibili hedera 

 siispensa nihil est opus; and in mo- 

 dei-n Greek, 71a deixi halo krasi den- 

 .draki perissos einai. 



The Emperor Charlemagne first in- 

 troduced the vino at Ingelheim, oii 

 the Ehine, which now produces some 

 of the most esteemed descriptions of 

 hock. It is related that, looking out 

 from his castle in Palatine, he ob- 

 served that in the month of March 

 the sun had sufficient power to melt 

 the snow on the western bank of the 

 Ehine, and that the trees were com- 

 ing into leaf, and the pastures covered 

 with verdure, at a time when on his 

 side of the river all vegetation was 

 suspended, and the countrj- hidden 

 under its winter covering snow. Put- 

 ting two and two together, he con- 

 ceived the idea of planting vines there,, 

 which he had immediately put in ex- 

 ecution; the forests rapidly disap- 

 peared, and for a thousand years the 

 slopes of the mountains have been 

 used as vineyards, the cuttings being 

 originally brought from Hungary, 

 Italy, Spain and Burgund}'. The 

 same enterprising sovereign also pos- 

 sessed a large and fertile district in 

 Burgundy planted as vineyards, which 

 still retain his name to this day. As 

 usual among the other sovereigns of 

 that period, he always showed him- 



