PORTUGUESE WINES. FRENCH WINES. 65 
The kinds of wine are extremely various. The dif- 
ference which exists betwixt them is not, however, so 
much owing to a distinction in the species of grapes, 
as in the quality of the fruit, produced by the varieties 
of soil, cultivation, and climate to which they are sub- 
ject. This difference likewise depends, in some instances, 
on the peculiar mode of fermentation, and the state of 
the grapes from which the wine is produced. 
(a) PORTUGUESE WINES. Of all the kinds of wine 
that are consumed in England, none are so much in re- 
quest as red port. This has its name from the city of 
Oporto, in the neighbourhood of which the vines that 
produce it are chiefly cultivated. A great proportion, 
however, of the port that is consumed in England, is 
said to be mixed with a Spanish red wine of inferior 
quality, or to be otherwise adulterated. Red port is 
brought over in casks called pipes, which measure 138 
gallons each, and ought to fill fifty-two dozen bottles 
of legal measure. 
The difference in colour betwixt red wines and white 
does not so much depend upon the quality of the grape, 
as upon the mode in which the wines are prepared. 
The juice of red grapes, if carefully pressed, and fer- 
mented separately from the skins, forms a white wine. 
If the skins be pressed so as to discharge the colouring 
matter they contain, or, if they be allowed to remain in 
the juice during the fermentation, the wine assumes a 
red tinge. 
White port, and Lisbon, are two kinds of white wine 
which we receive from Portugal. Of these, the former 
was much in demand some years ago, but it is now sel- 
dom called for; the latter is still in use. 
(b) FRENCH WINES. Many excellent wines are 
produced in France. That usually considered the best 
is Bm -gundy ', a red wine of very delicate flavour, 
which has its name from the province where it is made. 
The wines of the neighbourhood of Orleans, however, 
