VINE. 





tween the substance of the wood and 

 the included liquid ; and as this at- 

 traction is much greater between the 

 organic matter and water than be- 

 tween organic fibre and alcoliol, it is 

 easy to conceive how wine kept in 

 wood should improv(,'. The very same 

 thing, in tact, appears to go on in re- 

 gard to wine in corked bottles : the 

 cork does not oppose all evaporation, 

 and it seems probable that it is not 

 merely upon some new and little 

 known change of a chemical nature 

 in the constitution of the wine that 

 its improvement and mellowing m 

 bottle depend, but also u|)on the loss 

 of a certain quantity of its water 

 through the pores of the cork. 



" Throwing quality, flavour, &.C., 



out of the question, it is well known 

 that a vineyard, cultivated in the 

 same way, year after year, receiving 

 the same quantity of the same kind 

 of manure, of which the vintage is 

 managed in the same manner, the 

 w ine made by the same method, &c., 

 yields a produce which diflers greatly 

 in regard to the quantity of alcohol it 

 contains in diflerent years. The vine- 

 yard of Schmalzberg, for example, 

 near Lampertsloch, which has been 

 under my management for several 

 years, yields wines of the most dis- 

 similar characters from one year to 

 another. Some idea of this may be 

 Ibrrned from the diflerent quantities 

 of alcoh(d which the wine of different 

 years contains : 



" If we now inquire how the me- 

 teorological circumstances of each of 

 these five years influenced the pro- 

 duction of our wine, we see at once 

 that the mean temperature of the days 

 which make up the period of the cul- 

 tivation of the wine has a perceptible 

 influence. The temperature of the 

 summer was GIM'^ of ttie year which 

 yielded the strongest wine, and only 

 58-4° in 1833, the wine of which was 

 scarcely drinkable. 



"The produce of a vineyard also 

 depends upon its age ; and it would 

 be curious to examine the progress- 

 ive increase of the quantity of wine 

 yielded. This information I am able 

 to give in connexion with a vineyard 

 established in Flanders. I only re- 

 gret that I have no means of present- 

 ing parallel observations from a coun- 

 try more favourable to the vine. The 

 vineyard of Schmalzberg was plant- 

 ed in 1822, with new cuttings from 

 France, and from the borders of the 

 Rhine. The vines are trained as es- 

 paliers, and are now rather more 

 832 



than four feet in height. The vine- 

 yard began to yield wine in 1825, and 

 the following table shows the re- 

 sults in the successive years up to 

 1837: 



" The mean quantity of wine fur- 

 nished by this vineyard from the date 

 of its plantation is 224^ gallons per 

 acre. M. Villeneuve reckons the 

 mean produce of many vineyards in 

 the southwest of France at from 

 about 146 to 192 gallons per acre : 

 considerably less, consequently, than 

 our vineyard at Schmalzberg ; and 

 official documents, while they give 



