CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 95 



a favorable exposure is the all-important consideration; 

 and the poor, light, stony, granitic land, from whence 

 alone the choicest and the most highly-flavored wines can 

 be obtained, is preferred to a rich, manured soil which 

 insures an abundant, but, in quality, far inferior return. 

 Nothing is grander or more beautiful than our mountains, 

 crowned either with shady woods, or with vines of exu- 

 berant vegetation. Where you see a mountain, there you 

 will find our vineyards. The superb Badacsong Moun- 

 tains form a high semicircle around the majestic Lake of 

 Balaton, covering a surface of a hundred and twenty-five 

 English square miles. The arid mountains of Menes or 

 Vilagos overlook proudly the rich plains of Banat, the 

 holy Canaan of Hungary. The mountain called Tokay 

 rises in another large plain like a lofty pyramid. It has 

 the form of Vesuvius, and, indeed, its existing but silent 

 crater: its volcanic formation shows evidently that it was 

 once a fire-spreading mountain. The cultivation of such 

 a soil is very difficult and expensive, the produce ob- 

 tained but little ; but then the latent fire of this volcanic 

 mountain is what we call Tokay wine." 



The above examples confirm the truth of Virgil's oft- 

 quoted statement, "Bacchus amat colles." Yet we find 

 marked exceptions to this rule in various parts of Italy, 



