The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-29 00:00:00

CHEAP WINE MADE DEAR.

•
It will one day be thought a remarkable fact,
and related by historians as a curious characteristic
of the period, that in England, once upon a time, the
only wines known were port and sherry, and that
both of them were luxuries. Yet that is still the
case, or very nearly so. The Commercial Treaty is
just bringing the wines of France to our doors, and
in a few months more, perhaps, most people will
know something of claret and Burgundy, but the
reign of the old " red and white" is not quite over.
The fact certainly shows what may be done by
taxation and treaties in modelling, even the taste
of a nation. Our tellers and our stomachs were
handed over to Portugal a century and a half ago,
and we have been bound to the Peninsular vine-
yards ever since. All this while Europe was over-
flowing with wines of infinite variety and merit.
Next to wheat, there seems no plant so universal as
the vine. France has been described as one huge
vineyard, and the description will apply with equal
truth to the country on the other side of the Pyre-
nees. But Western Europe is hardly richer in this
respect that Central Europe or Eastern Europe.
The wines of the Rhine and and the Moselle are ad-

mirable in their several kinds, and everybody l;s
heard that the wines of Hungary are so good as to be
almost priceless. There are other vineyards, how-
ever, besides Jill these. Do our schoolboys ever
think what kind of wine Anacreon used to sing of,
or what were the liquors which the friends of
Homo used to press upon their guests ? Where
were the grapes grown for the vintages painted
in " Virgil ?" If Italy could produce good wines
in the times of Augustus, why not now, when it
seems as if the climate must be warmer than of
old ? The query is answered in the letter of our
Turin correspondent which we publish this morning.
Italy abounds with wines of the very finest sorts—
some of them not unknown at English tables in days
gone by. All these wines are at our service if we
would but fetch them. There is no limit to the
variety of :flavour, substance, and quality at our
command, and what is said of Italy may be said
with more or less truth of all the eastern shores of
the" Mediterranean.

Our dealings with wine countries have hitherto
very much resembled the old dealings of the Japa-
nese with Europe. They received two ships once a
year from a particular port, and learnt just as much
about European produce as the Dutch chose to teach
them. We gave much the same monopoly to Oporto
and Cadiz, and stocked our cellars exclusively with
the exports from those cities. It is but a very few
years since claret was a rare and expensive luxury,
only brought on the table after the company had
been previously well soaked with port, just as
school children were economically crammed with
pudding before they were allowed to begin at
the meat. That a thin and delicate wine could
neither do much good, nor give much satisfaction,
after the stomach had been loaded and the palate
seared with wine nearly as strong as brandy,
was a fact on which the last generation failed to
reflect. Even this modification, however, of the
ordinary service was very uncommon. The regular
wines were port and sherry only, so constantly
and religiously produced in couples that the very
decanters for containing them were manufactured
and sold by " the pair."
During all this time, too, the the price was most
extravagant, not, perhaps, as regarded the actual
worth of the article, but as bearing on the general
use of wine itself. There were no qualities fitted
for common consumption. Wine, in fact, was not a
beverage, but a liqueur. It was at once too strong
and too dear. Nobody could take it at meal-times
in the ordinary way of drink, and few people could
afford to consume it by pints, or half-pints, or at
draught. It was preserved carefully in a decanter,
brought out of the corner cupboard on holydays,
and measured into glasses carefully sized. An
.Eng-
lish wine-glass of the last century tells its own tale,
like the saltcellar of an old Indian dinner service.
You see at once by the smallness of the article how
precious the contents were thought. Even now the
public can hardly be persuaded that " wine" can
ever be cheap. Mr. Gladstone's quotation of good
sound claret at 14s. a dozen was received with a
smile of incredulity, and Mr. Dickens himself never
wrote anything more extravagantly ludicrous in
the eyes of ordinary readers than when he intro-
duced the famous bottle of port "at one and nine."
The chances are that "one and nine," if it could but
be disbursed at the right spot, would buy a very
goad bottle of port indeed.
But the climax of all these paradoxical announce-
ments comes from Turin this morning. Imagine,
not a tkin, acid, or doubtful- looking beverage,
but a " fine, dry, high-flavoured, and deliciously
fragrant wine," equal in all respects to Johan-
nisberg at £9 a dozen, offered at tenpence a'bottle!
It is wine, too, which will bear either land or sea
carriage as well as Madeira, and will keep any
length of time. That is the article now advertised
from Italy if anybody likes the look of the bargain.
The truth is, there are good wines in all countries,
and, what is more, these good wines are always
cheap until we make them dear by monopoly and
taxation. Hungary, for instance, notwithstand-
ing the name it has got for costly produce,
abounds in cheap wines. Even Tokay itself can
be had as cheap as Cape or Marsala. It is only
the wine of certain vintages or particular districts
which is so fabulously dear. Be it remembered
that in all these cases wine is a very common
article of produce. We have got into the habit of
thinking it rare and costly because with us it is an
exotic, and has been made scarce by legislation.
When we hear of the poorest classes of a country
drinking go6d wino at discretion we can hardly
avoid a feeling of surprise, but our wonder is very
like that at finding on landing at Calais the very
children speaking French. Except in eases of great
age or peculiar quality wine is naturally cheap.
The real wonder ought to be, not that good claret
can be had for a few pence a bottle, but that it
should ever have cost as many shillings. A pretty
commentary will be suggested on our legislation
when it is read in the history of the times that
people were charged with the profligate extrava-
gance of drinking " French wines," France being
close at oar doors, and producing the largest crops
of wine in the world.

There is, however, a certain point which must not
be overlooked in the contemplation of the prospect
now before us. Wine depends for its excellence
not only on the material, but on the manufactu. re.
Good grapes may be easily turned into bad wine.
It is here that France and Portugal have such great
advantages. On the Douro and the Garonne they
know not only how to cultivate the vine, but how
to manipulate its produce. The whole art of wine
making has there been brought to perfection,
whereas in Italy, as our correspondent admits, the
mysteries of the manufacture have yet to be learnt.
The case very much resembles that of cotton. Hun-
dreds of countries can grow the cotton-plants, just
as hundreds of countries can grow the vine, but it
is only at particular spots that the culture has been
perfected, and the trade absolutely organized.
Italy can only compete with France in the wine
trade under the same disadvantages as have hitherto
attended India when competing with America in the cotton trade. Bordeaux has got the command , '
of the market. In Italy there is the material ready
to hand, but the manufacture has yet to be per-
fected. That there is room, however, for much to
be done will be seen from the statisticts of a cor-
respondent in another part of our columns. Though
Italy and Hungary and many other countries are
inviting our inquiries, seven-eighths of our entire
imports still come from the old quarters. It is a
pity but what we could turn to better advantage
the variety before us.—Times.

Mr. S. R. Graves, Mayor of Liverpool, was taken
ill on Sunday morning in St. George's Church. He rose in
order to leave the building, but as he was passing the Com-
munion-table, he was observed to fall. Assistance was im-
mediately at hand, and he was removed to the Town-hall,
where he soon recovered sufficiently to drive home. Yester-
day ho was apparently quite restored. The mayor's official
duties Lt4vo lattgly bowl rather perm,

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