New-York tribune., 1869-02-27
DOES ANYBODY pRINK VINE,

BEFORE deciding abruptly whether the Coming
Man will drink wine, it might be pertinent to
ask whether tho present man drinks wine.
For If he does not-if the yariously- tinted con-
coctions now 80 freely imbibed should turn
out not 70 be wine after all, then the delete
rious effects so fairly ascribed to them cannot
be charged to the genuine article. and the dis
cussion begins all over again. Or, rather,
new discussion opens of the question whether
ANYBODY drinks wine; and if that inquiry bo
answered in the affirmative, the further query
arises, What is the effect OF it Now the re-
ply to this first question is by no means as
simple as some good folks suppose. There is
ground for thinking that pure wine is the one
thing that never comes into the market, or is
never tasted, if it does. England, the country
of wine bibbers and wine merchants, is, we
are told by so high an authority as The Pal
Mall Ga=ette, infested with hosts of scientific
chemists, who initiate, with more or less sue
cess, the growths of the Douro and Guadal-
culver. The wines Of Andalusia are invariably
branded when intended for expectation. Tho
sherry Of Calpe, England's destined wine, is
intercepted on the road from the Spanish wine
merchant to the London docks, and made TO
undergo the same mysterious change that rem
ders them cOngenial, it is supposed, with tho
constitutions of r the phlegmatic island
ers. Men habitually indulge in straw
coored beverage which they mistake for
sherry, and go down to their graves as little
conversant with sherry as the Marchioness was
with beer previous to her acquaintance with Mr..
Richard Swiveller. AS for Port, the trade
with Oporto has been an artificial one from
l.. - -. Il
in its exports The wine is pronounced to be, at
its best, deformed Burgundy changehng
" from the cradle OF the vat, reared in spirits
"and cheap sweetmeats.n England annually
exports to Portugal from million and half
TO two millions of the spirit that comes back
TO gentlemen's tables in the shape of the rich
old wine which no well-stocked cellar can be
without. There is an enormous and most
flourishing business carried on at Hamburg, by
which common German wines and coarse spirits
are transmitted into ports and sherries; so the
authority we have been quoting, The Pal Mall
Gazette, assures u.s. and the same authority
pronOunces this cooking of rough common
wines into smooth fine ones TO be, relatively,
a venial and honest form of impositiOn-the
cunning chemist preferring usually the manu-
facture of an original article to the adultera-
ton of an article already in existence. Into
this new article every ingredient enters except
the grape. 1t is presumed Of course, that
none drink the product Of the illicit stills but
the patrons of common grOeers second and third
class taverns, aud wine merchants OF average
renOwn. But who knowsf At all events, the
article is manufactured is sold, is consumed,
and tha effacfa of ITO conanuntion are spt down
to the account of the vineyards, which are
not in the smallest degree answerable
for them. The rhubarb and nettle- juice do
duty at dinners and balls and the fs0liva Ocoa~
slons OF middle life, the guests never aaspecdng
headache or something worse In the handsome
bottles, with their beautiful labels. Travellers
reyel in the delusion that, in the wine growing
countries themselves, tho pure juice of the
grape is to be had at every inn, as abundant
aud cheap as water. But Italian wines are