EXPOSITION. 4 



plants lose their perfume and flavour when they are cultivated 

 in rich soils with a northern exposure. Pliny had even noticed 

 in his day, that the wood on the south side of the Appennines 

 was of better quality than that growing in other aspects ; and 

 every one is well acquainted with the effect of exposition upon 

 vegetables and fruits. 



These phenomena, so sensibly felt by all the products of 

 vegetation, are more particularly so by the grape ; and a vine 

 exposed to the south yields fruit very different from those which 

 front the north. Even the surface of the vineyard, possessing 

 a greater or less inclination, although the exposure is the same, 

 gives rise to many variations. The summit, the middle, or the 

 base of a hill yield very different crops. An exposed summit 

 feels the immediate effect of every change, and of every move- 

 ment which arises in the atmosphere; the winds injure the 

 vines, the fogs have a constant effect upon them, the tempera- 

 ture is there more variable and cold ; all these circumstances 

 united cause the grapes in such a situation to be less abundant, 

 to attain more slowly and imperfectly to maturity, and the 

 wine which is made from them is inferior in quality to that 

 produced on the middle of the hill, whose position averts the 

 injurious effects of most of the causes I have enumerated. 

 The base of the hill presents, in its turn, serious inconveni- 

 ences. The general goodness of the soil will, without doubt, 

 support the growth of a vigorous vineyard, but the fruit is neither 

 as sweet, nor of as pleasant a flavour as about the middle of 

 the hill ; the air is constantly filled with humidity, and the 

 earth continually saturated with water, which enlarge the fruit 

 and advance vegetation to a degree prejudicial to the quality 

 of the wine. 



The most favourable exposure for a vineyard is between 

 the rising and mid-day sun. Hills that are situated above a 

 plain, through which there runs a river or a constant stream 

 of water, afford the best wine; but it is preferable that they 

 should not be located too near to it. 



An exposure fronting the setting sun is deemed very unfa- 

 vourable : the earth dried by the heat of the day, presents 





