Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-17
Brandy Waking in France.

lErencn correspondence Of the New York Tribune
 I do not think that any of the published ac- counts have exaggerated the extent of the dis aster so far as it affects this region. The Moniteur Vinicole, the recognized organ of ne-growing interests, has published what claims to be statement of the wine crops in the various parts of France. The two Cha rantes, it says, and I think it overestimates, will not make this year over ], 1,5O0, ,0O0 hecto- litres of wine, as compared with nearly r. 900, ,000 in 1878. I asked prominent brandy merchant of this city how much the brandy crop of this year, which necessarily depends on the wine crop, would amount to. His re- ply was practically nil" It is not only the quantity, but more particularly the alcoholic density of the wine crop in any given year that determines the brandy crop for the same year. There are years, for instance, when even with an increased productiveness of the vines there is less brandy as resultant than in other years when the vines bore less, but the grapes contained a greater percentage of alcohol But this year not only do the vines lack grapes, but the grapes, such as there are, lack alcohol, and it is bad time generally for the brandy-makers.
 But strange to say, 'Old Cognac" is found to be just as plentiful as ever. That is, there is no end of casks and cases so labeled and filled with liquid which in taste and appear ance so closely resembles the distilled juice of the grape as to defy all ordinary means of detection. Some months ago French news paper correspondent writing from Bordeaux to the New Era, of Cognac, made the start ling assertion that enormous quantities of spurious brandy known as ''trois-six," dis tillation from grain, beet-root, potatoes or other substances, were arriving there from Germany, were put into brandy casks which had been sent back empty from London, and were then shipped to foreign countries, nota- ply to England and Spain as "Pure Cognac Brandy" To what extent foreign markets l~a-- Lz1- 1-1. r will not undertake to say. There is no means of detecting the imposition. If there be any fraud in it, it is one which would be cIassed as only commercial fraud''-an affair between buyer and seller, between producer and consu- mer. It does not concern the French Gov ernment so long as duties are paid on the al- cohol it does not concern the United States Government in case of any shipment being made to our country, for the regular entry duty of $2 per gallon is paid the same as on good brandy. It is for buyers and consumers to look out for themselves. The che mist can discover any difference between the genuine and the spurious brandy the most expert connoiseurs find it impossible to distinguish one from the other by the taste. The varia- tion in price alone would serve as guide were 1t not that the bad so successfully commercials the good as to command an equal price in the market. A hectolitre composed part ly of good brandy and partly of tttrois- six" can be manufactured at cost, it is said, of 100 or 110 francs and sell at 175 or 180. But after all, ''de gustibus non dispu- tandum." If buyers and consumers find the spurious article equally palatable with the genuine, even though in the long run it's use does prove deleterious, who is to hinder them from purchasing and drinking2 Still the fact remains that the traffic in the original cognac, such as our Yankee shippers used to buy once for our forefathers to smack their lips over, is now sensibly feeling the effects of their cheap competition. There is plenty of good brandy yet on hand. Even seven years of Egyptian famine would not suffice to exhaust the stocks laid up in the enormous vaults of the Hennesseys Martel, Otard, Dupuy and other great houses lining the Charentes. In the years of plenty ample provision has been made for such short crops as this of 1879, and good grape brandy will always be forth coming from Cognao for those who are will ing to pay for it, and who have care to or der it from honorable and trustworthy deal CTS.