THE VINEYARDS OF THE WEST. 465 



took the naturalization of the foreign grape. He advertised for na- 

 tive grapes of any and every sort, planted all and tested all ; and at 

 last, he too has come to the conclusion that the Catawba is the 

 wine grape of America. 



" What sort of wine does the Catawba make ?" inquires some 

 of our readers, who like nothing but Madeira and Sherry ; " and 

 what do you think will be the moral effect of making an abundance 

 of cheap wine?" asks some ultra temperance friend and reader. 

 We will try to answer both these questions. 



The natural wine which the Cawtaba makes is a genuine hock 

 a wine so much like the ordinary wines of the Rhine, that we could 

 put three of the former bottles among a dozen of the latter, and 

 it would puzzle the nicest connoisseur to select them by either color 

 or flavor. In other words, the Catawba wine (made as it is on the 

 Ohio, made without adding either alcohol or sugar) is a pleasant 

 light hock, a little stronger than Rhine wine, but still far lighter 

 and purer than nineteen-twentieths of the wines that find their way 

 to this country. Its subacid flavor renders it especially grateful, as 

 a summer drink, in so hot a climate as ours ; and the wholesome- 

 ness of the Rhine wine no one will deny.* Indeed, certain mala- 

 dies, troublesome enough in other lands, are never known in hock 

 countries ; and though the taste for hock like that for tomatoes 

 is an acquired one, it is none the less natural for that ; any more 

 than walking is, which, so far as our observation goes, is not one of 

 the things we come into the world with, like seeing and hearing. 



As to the temperance view of this matter of wine-making, we 

 think a very little familiarity with the state of the case will settle 

 this point. Indeed, we are inclined to adopt the views of Dr. Flagg, 

 of Cincinnati. " The temperance cause is rapidly preparing public 

 sentiment for the introduction of pure American wine. - So long as 

 public taste remains vitiated by the use of malt and alcoholic drinks, 

 it will be impossible to introduce light pleasant wine, except to a 

 very limited extent ; but just in proportion as strong drinks are 

 abandoned, a more wholesome one will be substituted. Instead of 



* Mr. Longworth is now making large quantities of sparkling Catawba 

 wine, of excellent quality perhaps more nearly resembling sparkling hock 

 than Champagne. 



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