66 SPANISH WINES. 
after having been matured by age, are much like Bur- 
gundy. Claret is the only French red wine for which 
there is any great demand in England. It is thin and 
highly flavoured, and is chiefly supplied from the neigh- 
bourhood of Bourdeaux. Some of the red wines of 
Champaigne are highly prized for their excellence and 
delicacy, though they, occasionally, have a pungent and 
sourish taste. Hermitage is produced from vineyards, 
at a place so called, near the village of Thein, on the 
eastern bank of the Rhone ; and Cote Rotie from vine* 
yards on the .opposite side of the river. 
No French white wine has so much celebrity as 
Champaigne. This is of two kinds ; one of which, called 
still or quiet Champaigne, has gone through the whole 
process of fermentation ; the other, which has the name 
of sparkling Champaigne, has been bottled before the 
fermentation was complete: this, consequently, proceeds 
slowly in the bottle, and causes the wine, on the draw- 
ing of the cork, to sparkle in the glass. Vin de Grave 
is produced in the vicinity of Bourdeaux, and the lower 
parts of Gascoigne : Pontacis made in Guienne; and 
Frontiginw and Muscadel are white wines, the delici- 
ous productions of Languedoc. 
(c] SPANISH WINES. The country about Xeres, in 
Andalusia, is celebrated for a grape which produces an. 
excellent wine called Sherry. There are several French 
and English houses at Xeres and Seville which trade, 
to great extent, in this wine. It is very strong, and full- 
bodied, owing, in a great degree, to the quantity of 
brandy with which it is mixed. In the province of Va- 
lencia, some of the proprietors have wines of different 
kinds, sixty, eighty, and even a hundred years old, the 
prices of which differ according to their age. Rota, in 
Seville, produces a rich and sweet white wine ; and the 
country around Malaga, near Gibraltar, is celebrated 
for white wine which is known by that name ; and so 
assiduously is the cultivation of the vine there pursued, 
that the export of the produce of the vineyards yields 
