178 AGRrCUI.TrRE ox THE RHINE. 



vines ; and this is illustrative of the truth of the remark, that 

 where Nature does the most, man is often tem})ted to do 

 the least to improve her gifts. The most recent im- 

 provements of late years have been made in the regula- 

 tion of the fermenting process. By care bestowed in 

 this stage of wine-making, valuable crops that formerly 

 were wasted are now turned to account. Not that good 

 treatment will make sour grapes yield sweet must, or 

 bestow flavour where Nature has withheld it : but for- 

 merly much fruit that was both well ripened and well fla- 

 voured, produced, in bad hands, a most unsavoury drink. 

 The fine wines of this district are all red, and are 

 treated in the French fashion. The chief reason for 

 this is that the small red Burgundy grape ripens earlier 

 and requires less depth of soil than the fine grapes used 

 in the Rhinegau. A supplementary reason may be, that 

 red wine allows of additions to heighten the flavour, 

 such as are well understood in France ; whereas the 

 pure "hock" spurns all artificial adjuncts. 



The Ahrbleichart wines, as they are commonly called, 

 are fully equal to the French " vin du pays," in the 

 northern departments, and at Walportsheim and the 

 Ahrdale, a wine of generous quality is produced that 

 may rank with some of the Macon and Rhone growths, 

 which it resembles more than the Bordeaux clarets. 



The cultivation of the vine ought nowhere to be un- 

 dertaken by peasants, for it supposes the possession of 

 no inconsiderable capital where it is to prove remu- 

 nerating. When a vineyard is laid down, three years 

 are lost before even gi-apes can be gathered, and wine 

 cannot be expected before the fifth year. The field se- 

 lected ought, moreover, to lie fallow for two or three years 



