Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-21
IMPURE FRENCH BRANDrEs.
Wine Making stopped in C0gnac
mo Genuine brandy Now Im-
ported.


WASHINGTON Special to Philadelphia Press.
Consul Glover, of Havre, In the last vol.
nme OF consular reports, says, respecting
French wines and brsndies: "It Is verV
difficult to arrive at a lust concln.
sion In regard to the amount OF faIsi6ed
wines and liquors shipped from tbis
Consul District to the United States. Nv
opinion is, however, that a very large per
centage OF such products is either adulter-
ated by the Introduction of deleterious
drugs or the mixing of a low grade
hardly prepared to say that such
falsitication would call for the absolute pro
hibition OF importation In the outside States
am not sure that our government womb
not be justified in institutfng a rigid ipsnec.
ton of all wines and brandies exported to
this country" Consul Clifford, of La Ro.
chelle, writes on the subject Of brandy: "No
considerable quantity OF wine is being ex-
ported to the United States from the Ia
Rochelle district. NY inquiries have been
wholly confined to the quality of the bran
dy produced in this region, whence nearly
the entire supply of our country IS drawn
In the year 1881 the export of brandv
from France to the United States was of the
declared value Of 81 ,33S'563, OF which part.
valued at 81, ,lOl ,S5l, was shipped from this
district, chiefly from the town of CoOnac
WhiteSWine OF the country has substaD-
TALLY ceased on account Of the failure of
the wine. In trip for personal Observation
through the Grand Champagne' region NJ
the Department of Charente I was nnabIe
to find single vineyard. The destruction
caused by the phYlloxera is complete. and
not DarIeI OF wine will be made this year.
In this famous wine country the average
annual production of wine was formerlv
176, 900, 900 gallons in the two eepartments.
g''For the past three years it has fallen to
less than one-third of its former average.
and in the cognac region il has
ceased. The production of genuine
brandy has diminished In a much
larger proportion. The greater part
of the brandy of to-day is prepared from
alcohol obtained from grain, potatoes or
beets. A simple process of reduction and
admixture Of drugs, little pure brandy or
the dregs OF wine to give the brandy taste
and the color of the wood, ordinarily suffice,
with the brand Of cognac, to create a
beverage which finds a ready sale in for
eign countries. 1t is becoming the custom
to sell this brandy in twelve bottle cases
marked with one, two, or three
stars, according to the presumed quality
Of the article, thus avoiding any com
promising mention of the year of pro-
1uction or region Of origin. Some mer-
chants, or rather manufactures, after
properly mixing the ingredients,
pass the whole through the still.
others import the small raisins from
,he East and obtain a beverage called
brandy from their juice, at least
one such establishment being in operation
1t Cognac. All French brandy
night properly and perhaps ought to
De excluded from the United States on sani-
ary grounds. There is a strong pre-
sumption against the purity of very large
part of it, and it is unfortunately almost I'm
possible to detect the fraud by chemical
analysis, especially where the various mix
ures now employed are passed through the
till.n