454 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1773. 



vintage, to choose their own wine on the ground, and see it carefully managed. 

 But it is a false opinion of many, that they contract for the wine of several years 

 forwards: no such thing has ever been practised. For these last 20 years the 

 court of Petersburg has had an agent, who resides constantly at Tokay, for the 

 purpose of buying wine. He commonly purchases every year from 40 to 6o 

 antheils of Auspruch, but never of any other sort. 



It is much the best way to transport it in casks ; for when it is on the seas, it 

 ferments 3 times every season, and refines itself by these repeated fermentations. 

 When in bottles, there must be an empty space left between the wine and the 

 cork, otherwise it would burst the bottle. They put a little oil on the surface, 

 and tie a piece of bladder on the cork. The bottles are always laid on their sides 

 in sand. 



Mr. D. is persuaded an English merchant, or company of merchants, would 

 find their account in establishing a correspondence with one of the principal pro- 

 prietors in the country, or in sending an agent to reside at Tokay, who 

 might watch the opportunity of the good vintages, choose the best exposures, 

 and bargain with the proprietors themselves. They should have cellars there 

 to keep the wine to a proper age, and an agent at Warsaw, and another at 

 Dantzic, to receive it. This is the road it must take. 



There is not, Mr. D. believes, in Europe any country which produces a 

 greater variety of wines than Hungary. They count as many as 100 different 

 sorts. The most valuable white wines, after the Tokay, are, 1 . The St. George 

 wine, which grows near a village of that name, about 2 German miles north of 

 Presburg, and in the same latitude with Vienna. This wine approaches the 

 nearest of any Hungarian wine to Tokay. Formerly they used to make Aus- 

 pruch at St. George; but this was prohibited by the court about 1 6 years ago, it 

 being supposed that it might hurt the traffic of the Tokay wine. 2. The Eden- 

 hurg wine, resembling the St. George, but inferior in quality and value. Eden- 

 burg is a town situate about Q German miles north-west of Presburg. 3. The 

 Carlotvitz wine, something like that of the Cote rotie on the banks of the Rhone. 

 Carlowitz is the seat of the metropolitan of the Greek church in Hungary. It 

 stands on the banks of the Danube, between 45 and 46 degrees of latitude. 



The best red wines are, 1. The Buda wine, which grows in the neighbour- 

 hood of the ancient capital of the kingdom. This wine is like, and perhaps 

 equal to. Burgundy, and is often sold for it in Grermany. A German author of 

 the last century says, that a great quantity of this wine used to be sent to Eng- 

 land in the reign of James I., over land by Breslaw and Hamburg, and that it 

 was the favourite wine both at court and all over England. 2. The Sexard tvine, 

 a strong deep-coloured wine, not unlike tlie strong wine of Languedoc, which is 

 said to be sold at Bourdeaux for claret. The Sexard wine on the spot costs about 



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