WINE AND VINEYARDS. 11 
liant comet ever seen since that year; it also happened to be 
dry and a very fine wine year, so that wines of the comet year 
of 1811 were long after celebrated for their superior quality. 
Several grades of wine are made from the same vineyard 
and same season. The first, or ‘‘premier cru,”’ is made 
from grapes selected as of the finest flavour, and grown in the 
most favourable aspect. The second and third cru are from 
grapes of lower grade. The quality called Piquette in France 
is made from the refuse that remains in the vats after the wine 
is drawn off, and is increased in quantity by the addition of 
water. Piquette is never exported, but consumed by the 
labouring people of the country. It is requisite to fill up 
the casks frequently during the first few months. The wine is 
racked off twice a year, in March and April. 
The wines used in England in former times were those of 
Alsace, Gascony, Rouen, and Rochelle. Gascony and Guy- 
enne wines inthe time of Henry VIII. were sold at eighteen 
pence the gallon, and Malmsey, Romany, Sack (Sherry), and 
sweet wines at twelve pence the pint, and were drank in Eng- 
land in 1449. The wine of Tyre, the Helbon of Ezekiel, made 
near Damascus, was imported in the reign of Richard Il. by 
Venetian ships, which were bound to bring with each cask ten 
yews for bows, yew-trees abounding in the Levant. 
Acidity in wine was formerly corrected in England by the 
‘addition of quick-lime, which falls to the bottom of the cask. 
This furnishes a clue to Falstaff’s observation, that there was 
‘‘]ime in the sack,’’? which was a hit at the landlord, as much 
as to say his wine was worth little, having its acidity thus dis-. 
guised. 
France inherited the vine from Greece and Italy. Vessels 
from Phocia landed colonists on the coast of Provence. These 
navigators founded Marseilles, and planted the first vines cul. __ 
. 
