254 
ON COLONIAL WINES. 
— and with careful making, one of our very best wines ; 
while in the medium and cooler ones I note its 
improvement in all the best vinous properties from 
year to year. This is due, no doubt, to the vines 
having become acclimatised, and to more extensive 
experience in the making and maturing of the wine. 
If this colony ever produces novel wines that will 
distinguish it in the market of the old world, Chasselas 
will be prominent among them. Another instance of 
a vine that we have received from France is the 
Aucarot. This pre-eminently requires a warm climate 
— such as from Sandhurst all along the valley of the 
Murray — and produces a wine that will most likely 
be the first to attract attention as a peculiar product of • 
our country. Properly made, it yields a medium 
sweet wine, of good body, of a dark, golden yellow, 
and having a bouquet that resembles that of a handful 
of new sweet hay. It is, moreover, one of the few 
kinds that can be safely used in moderate quantity for 
blending with either white or red wines. But all the 
samples I have seen of it from our colder climates 
have been poor and hard, as have also been some from 
about the Murray, where the attempt had been made 
to render it prematurely a dry wine. The awards of 
the late wine jury of the Board of Agriculture, 1870, 
bear out my observations on this head, and those 
samples still in my possession are sweety-sour, one of 
the worst of bad properties. This is due to bad 
making. Many other varieties of imported vines from 
different parts of Europe will, no doubt, show, if they 
have not already shown, marked changes ; and let us 
hope for the better. 
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