70 THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 
met with in those of France. This is the characteristic of the 
fine wines, and in some degree of all wines of the first quality 
which are pure, though in the secondary sorts it is less per- 
ceptible. Wines lose their bouquet by being kept too long. 
Mere age is no criterion of the excellence of wine, though a 
certain age is necessary to carry it to the state when it is best 
for the table. 
The characteristic bouquet of the finest and best wines can 
not be imitated or the delicacy transferred. They are un- 
rivalled in their nature. When we taste them we drink 
“The very blood of the earth,” 
as Alexander the Great said to Androcydes. A taste may 
easily be imparted to wine by artificial means, but this cannot 
deceive the palate well acquainted with what is genuine. 
IMPORTS OF WINE. 
From the United States Custom House Reports, 1872. 
Import of wine in casks, 9,484,000 gals. - - value, $3,290,000 
<5 bottles, 450,000 :*: == * 2,754,000 
From which it appears that the cost of wine imported in casks 
was about 35 cents per gallon, and in bottles about $6.35 per 
dozen. 
TEMPERATE USE OF WINE. 
Adam Smith, in his ‘‘ Wealth of Nations,’’ says the cheap- 
ness of wine seems to be a good cause, not of drunkenness, 
but of sobriety. The inhabitants of the wine countries are in 
general the soberest people of Europe; witness the Spaniards, 
the Italians and the inhabitants of the southern provinces of 
