202 



ON VINEYARDS* 



the Rhenish wine is made, in preference to any 

 kind cultivated in France. 



I have remarked above, that the early sweet 

 kinds of grapes are improper for making wine in 

 this country : my reason is, that though such 

 grapes yield a sweet juice, it is not calculated to 

 undergo fermentation. 



It is found, by experience, that good-bodied, 

 or generous wines, can be made from grapes of an 

 austere taste, and that, too, even before they are 

 quite arrived at a state of maturity. But then 

 wine, from such crude grapes, requires to be kept 

 to a good age. k 



The case is similar with respect to apples. It 

 is well known that the sweet kinds of apples which 



k " But that we may answer every objection that may be 

 made against planting Vineyards in England, give me leave to 

 recite what I have heard relating to making of liquors with 

 unripe and sour fruits. In Devonshire a gentleman made a 

 vessel of verjuice, of crab, or wilding apples, which being 

 placed in his cellar among other liquors, was not used till 

 about three or four years afterwards, and was then found to 

 be so palatable and exceeding pleasant, that he now prefers 

 the liquor made of such wilding sour fruit (after it has had 

 time to digest) to any cyder of that country. So I have known 

 verjuice made of half-ripe grapes, that after two or three years 

 keeping in a vessel, has become delicate wine ; and the Rhenish 

 wines, when they are newly made, are so sour, that they are 

 not fit to drink ; but after several years' standing, afford us that 

 incomparable liquor which is called Old Hock ; and, on the 

 contrary, sweeter liquors are apt to turn sour by keeping." — 

 New Improvements in Gardening, by Richard Bradley, F.R.S. 

 p. 177. 



