AGRICULTURE OX THE RUlMi. 191 



A pipe of wine so made is called " Auslesc," and sells 

 sometimes for 400/, and 500/. 



Adjoining Rudesheim lies Geisenheim, which is con- 

 spicuous from far by the neat Gothic towers that have been 

 recently added to its old church, which is well worth 

 visiting. The Taunus summits recede here from the 

 river s bank, and the alluvial intervening soil at their foot 

 obtains some breadth. The choice site at Geisenheim is 

 the " llothenberg," on the fall of one of the undidating 

 projections which slopes somewhat steeply towards the 

 village, forming an angle of 2jO degrees with great depth 

 of soil. The Duke of Nassau, Count Ingelheim, Baron 

 Zemierlcin, M. Dresel, a wine-merchant, and M.Gergens, 

 are the principal proprietors of the southern aspect of the 

 slo})e, where the rood of land (^|g of a morgen) formerly 

 sold for 80 and 90 florins (1600/. and 1800/. per acre). 

 The value of these sites has considerably declined of late 

 years ; and a few years back some land in a favourite site 

 at Rudesheim was purchased by the Duke of Nassau at the 

 rate of 6000 florins per morgen, or 800/. per acre. In Gei- 

 senheim the traveller can see at M. Gergens', or at Dresel 

 and Co.'s, the arrangement of a private cellar, and form 

 some idea of the capital required to grow and manage 

 these line wines. The houses seldom afford any idea of 

 the extent of subterraneous space devoted to the wine. 

 Several vaults from 80 to 200 feet in length, and broad 

 enough to admit of two rows of double pipe casks to lie 

 on each side and leave a convenient passage in the middle, 

 are a common appendage to a very unpretending domicile. 

 So much money is made by keeping the wine to the 

 proper moment for selling it, that the grower becomes 

 naturally a wholesale wine-merchant. He, however, is 



