THE GRAPE IN AUSTRALIA. 
47°, and the Hock district about 50°. These 14 degrees of N. latitude, 
although tempered to some extent by altitude and proximity to the coast, 
embrace considerable differences of climatic conditions, differences which 
experience has proved to be necessary in Europe to the production of 
the different varieties of wine. A similar range of climatic conditions 
can be found in Australia, but the absence of any large businesses to 
undertake the purchase and distribution of Australian wines has com- 
pelled Australian vignerons to be their own wine merchants, and to 
attempt to make almost every variety of wine in the same vineyards—the 
larger and older-established makers merely erring, in this respect, upon 
a more colossal scale than the smaller makers; and it speaks volumes 
for the suitability of our climatic conditions that the average result is 
anything like so satisfactory as it is. It is almost certain that mm none 
of the European wine countries would similar practices be attended 
with even approximate results. 
The writer well remembers an attempt by the eminent firm of wine- 
‘makers, Messrs. G. G. Sandeman, Sons and Company, of Oporto, Xerez, 
and Bordeaux, in the early seventies, to establish a claret vineyard in 
the Tarragona district of Spain, and a hock vineyard in the Xerez 
district of Spain, with exactly similar results in each case. The warmer 
conditions under which the vines were grown than those under which 
they produced their typical results, caused the grapes to produce more 
sugar, and this excess of sugar appeared to be produced at the expense 
of all the finer properties of the grape; for, whilst the resulting wines 
were free from the thinness and acidity of a cheap French claret in the 
one case and a cheap German hock in the other case, they never developed 
any character, and there was a headache in every bottle. The claret 
was sold as “ Valpierre,” and the hock as “ Bucellas,” both at very low 
prices, but they were withdrawn from the market after two or three 
years’ unsuccessful attempts to popularize them. It is probable that 
these failures are worth taking into consideration in planting vineyards 
in Australia for export wines. When the writer left the Old Country, 
about 23 years ago, Australian burgundies, in spite of extensive adver- 
tising, were very far from popular, and those who used them were 
frequently chaffed by their friends for drinking them on patriotic 
grounds, and not because of a real preference for them. <A wine that 
is too heavy for a claret, or too light for a port, does not necessarily 
become a burgundy. We can produce in Australia every type of wine 
that can be produced in Europe, and we can produce each type of an 
infinitely higher average quality; but the European experience that 
results in growing each different type under different climatic conditions 
is entitled to our very respectful consideration. The wine trade in 
England would much more readily undertake the distribution of types 
of wine to which the consumers were accustomed, even if their distri- 
bution was hampered by a compulsory alteration in their nomenclature. 
Some such alteration will probably be enforced as a question of inter- 
national policy, although nothing is, perhaps, more certain than that 
the different types are due to varieties of grape and climatic conditions, 
rather than to soil or territorial conditions. There is a concession in the 
‘duty in favour of Colonial wines entering Great Britain of 6d. per 
gallon upon wines under 26°; and of 1s. per gallon upon wines over 
26° and under 42°. ‘This concession might well be made more liberal, 
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