work very late, and leave off fame hours before fun- ■ 
let, and the wine is the better for it. 
It is true, that fometimes it is good to wait for the 
falling of the rains, but this ought to be fome weeks, 
or at leaft many days before the vintage, and not in 
the time of gathering. 
As for example : when no rain has fallen for a long 
time, and the Grapes have been fo Ihriveiled by the 
heat, that there is fcarce any thing but Grape ftones, 
and a tough thick fkin, if one ffiould gather them 
then, they would yield but very little wine, and alfo 
it might turn to a tartneis, as it happened for the moft 
part to the red wines of the year 1718, which was ex- 
traordinary hot and dry. 
So then we ought not to gather the Grapes fo foon as 
the rain that we have waited for is fallen, becaufe the 
Grapes ought to have time to havethe advantage of it, 
which may be known when the berries grow large, 
and fall upon the ground. 
As to the other forts whether red or white, they may 
be gathered with lefs precaution, but they rauft always 
have their degree of ripenefs, according to the diffe- 
rent lands on which the vineyards are planted. ' ! 
Of the wines made in Orleans . 
For a long time, at Paris and other places, there have 
been thofe who have endeavoured to decry the wines 
of our vineyard plots, efpecially the red wines. In 
the mean time it is obfervable, that thofe who fpeak 
of them with the greateft contempt, cannot do with- 
out them, but procure them as they did formerly, ei- 
ther to put off their weak wines, without colour, or 
that have fome other faults, and alfo to preferve the 
fineft, moft delicate, and moft celebrated. 
For the wines of Burgundy are no fooner brought in, 
than they mix them with ouf wines to drink them, fo 
long as they laft ; and there is this to be faid of our 
wines, that there is not one ftngle wine merchant at 
Paris, who has not our wines in his vaults, not only 
for mixing with others which are meaner, but for 
felling without any mixture; fortho’ they have much 
ftrength, yet for all that, they do not fail to fell them 
pure, as well for their tables as their offices, to thofe 
that have the curiofity to drink a wine that is- good, 
natural, and without fophiftication. 
The Rapes which are yearly made, and the great 
quantity of wines, both red and white, which they 
are fo folicitous to purchafe a long time before they 
are made, in order to tranfport them from Paris into 
Flanders, Holland and England, and as far as the 
American iflands, where they drink good to the very 
laft drop, are in my opinion, fufficient proofs that 
our wines are not fo contemptible as they would re- 
prefent them. 
For it muft be owned, that if they had not fuch good 
qualities, or if they had any fault, they would not 
come in fearch of them fo far, and would not take 
fuch care to furniffi themfelves with them in time. 
Some fay that our wines being harffi, red, and too 
violent, they are not fo agreeable to be drank, and 
that thofe that drink them to any excefs, find them- 
felves incommoded, which never happens to them 
when they drink the fame quantity, or even a greater, 
of the wines of Champaign and Burgundy, and many 
other vineyard plots of the kingdom. 
I anfwer, that thefe pretended faults are the real quali- 
ties of our wines, and thofe are what caufe them to be 
fo much fought after; for this very colour and harfti- 
nefs (provided that it be not too much fermented in 
the vat) ferve to give a quality to other wines that are 
weak, which would never be vended to any advan- 
tage without being mixed with others. 
Befides, if the harftmefs of them, which they fome- 
times have, be their fault, this is not always, fo, it is 
but accidental, and may be prevented by letting them 
remain lefs time in the vat. 
As for the inconvenience that thofe are fenfible of, 
that drink too much of it, it is a very eafy thing for 
them to remedy that themfelves ; they need only drink 
lefs of it, and then it would not incommode them. 
As for example : aqua vitas is not drank in fo great a 
quantity as wine, nor a ftrong wine as a weak one. 
When the wine is very ftrong, they ought to drink 
water with it, or drink lefs of it, then it would nou- 
riffi a perfon, inftead of wearing his body, or ftupefy- 
ing his fpirits. Thus, when one is fenfible of any bad 
efiefts from our wines, it is not from their quality that 
they proceed, but from their quantity, which people 
know not how to ufe rightly. 
Whatfoever ill-founded prejudice may be taken up 
againft the wines of our vineyard plots, it muft ne- 
verthelefs be allowed that we have the advantage over 
the greateft part of other wines, that we are able to 
make them fuch as we Would have, and fuch as are 
demanded ; that is to fay, a delicate wine fit for pre- 
fent drinking, red without being harffi, and more or 
lefs hard, without lofing its quality, and thus we are 
able to make a wine equally good to drink through 
the whole courfe of the year, and alfo for many years 
after. 
‘There are in this kingdom many vineyard plots, the 
Vines of which have this bad quality, and yet thefe are 
the wines that are fo much boafted of, which will 
not keep the year without fpoiling, if they were not 
preferved by ours, which have more of the quality 
than they. 
But if thofe who put fo great a flight upon our wines,, 
flnould fay we do not know how to make them, they 
would reafon more juftly than they do, when they 
would have us to believe that our wines are not good 5 
for they ought to allow that they are good in them- 
felves, and we fball agree, that if there is any fault 
in them, it is by accident, fince it only proceeds from 
the manner of making it. 
Then it muft be faid, that the wines of Orleans are 
good, but they make them ill, and then there is no-' 
thing more wanting, but to avoid the faults in the: 
manner of making, and that is what I am going to 
treat; of. 
We have in this plot of vineyards fo many different 
forts of foils and plants, that it would not be eafy to 
give a direction for the manner of making the wines- 
from each of them ; I can only fay in the general, 
that in order to make good wine, the foil ought to be 
proper for the Vines, well expofed to the fun, on a 
gentle declenfion from the north to the fouth, rather 
dry than moift ; that the plants fet there be of a good 
kind, and well chofen ; that the vineyard be rather old 
than young, never dunged, or but very little, but ra- 
ther earthed, and always well wrought, and in the 
proper times to work them, and that the Grapes have 
a certain degree of ripenefs before they be cut, and 
that they be tunned after they have been trodden, 
when one would make wine that ffiould have a colour, 
and not for prefent drinking. 
It is certain that when all thefe things concur, it will 
be eafy to make good wine ; but there are yet other 
things to be obferved, of which I ffiali fpeak in the 
following part of this article. 
They make in this plot of vineyards, as well as in ma- 
ny others, both red wine and white ; I ffiali fpeak firft 
of the red, and afterwards of the white,, of which 
there are a few things to- be faid. 
The belt and moft precious wines of all that are made 
in this plot of vineyards, is the Auvernat. Of this 
there are fix fpecies, viz. the Auvernat Teint, the 
black, red, gray, and two kinds of whites ; which, 
are the white Auvernat of Soler, and that of the Low 
Country. 
The Auvernat Teint is the reddeft ; and as it has al- 
ways the quality, it gives the colour and the body to* 
the Auvernats, and prevents them from growing ropy. 
And when it is mingled with the red only, they ought 
to let it remain in the vat a little while ; efpecially in 
thofe years, that there is reafon to believe the wine 
will take as much colour as they would that it fhould 
have, or where it grows, on a foil where the wine has 
alwayi 
