328 DURATION OP VINEYARDS. 



bare appearance on the tables of the affluent would serve to 

 acquire them renown ? 



The nobility who attended Louis XIV. to his coronation, 

 restored to the 'wines of Sillery, Hautvillers, Verseriai, and 

 other vineyards in the neighbourhood of Rheims the celebrity 

 they had formerly possessed, and which they have since en- 

 joyed. The wines of Romanee, and those of Bourdeaux, 

 owe their fame in part to skilful management, but more parti- 

 cularly to certain fortunate and coincident circumstances, too 

 well known to be repeated. 



Duration of vineyards. 



The vineyards in which' they replant the vines every twenty 

 or thirty years, do not yield wines of fine quality or of long 

 preservation, and more generally the vines are left to the age 

 of fifty to a hundred years. It is seldom, except in Burgundy, 

 that vines are met with which have been planted for three, 

 four, and five centuries. The wood of young vines is more 

 porous than that which has become hardened by age, and the 

 sap which it circulates is more watery ; such vines produce 

 more grapes, but these yield a wine less generous and less 

 susceptible of preservation, and it is often not until twelve or 

 fifteen years have expired that a vineyard is considered as hav- 

 ing attained to perfection in regard to the quality of its wine. 

 Those vineyards that are renewed continually with provins 

 or layers, which are separated from the main vines when two 

 years old, are considered in the class of young vineyards. 



Uses of sweet grapes. 



Sweet and luscious grapes yield in general but inferior 

 wines, from the same causes that apples of a similar character 

 afford cider of the least excellence. But they are useful 

 nevertheless for a variety of purposes. Very -sweet, luscious, 

 and high flavoured varieties are suitable for what is termed 

 essence grapes, in order to be mixed with others less sweet 

 and high flavoured in making wine, as they substitute the 

 saccharine quality, and impart an artificial flavour, which 



