Morning journal and courier., 1884-01-25
Wine Talk. From the London Standard. l

No knowledge which depends on the senses is, in truth, so hard to require or so rare, as that of wine A palate which can tell the | quality of any particular bin or bottle; which can pronounce whsther g port is an 1920, an 1884, or an 1847, and whether 1t is feeling its age by the decrease Of its body what it Is exactly that distinguishes Chateau Lafitte from Chateau Margaux, or wherein | lies the merit of a La Rose of 1874 or Lsoville of 1870, is more exceptional than one might imagine from dinner table talk Most men say whether the wine before them is fruit, or dry, and some of them, if they dared, would prefer it in the former condition; but, in spite of all their vinous iargon, it is not given to every one in good credit with his wino merchant to say, until he looks at the label, whether the burgundy he is imbibing is a Clos Vougeot at eighty four shillings or Beaune at half the figure.
 Indeed, always excepting picture talk which carries off the palm for hollow verbiage, there are not many shams of the dinner table which are legs sincere than wine talk. To see the British ratepayers frank and honora- ble in every other relation of life, discussing
 "a glass of wine'' is 8 picture for the satirist and a sadness for the moralist. After eating fish, flesh and fowl, and boiled roast, and seasoned until the original taste has disap- peared, and washed down with three or four different wines, they pretend to discuss the t'bouquet" of claret which, to appreciate, would require 8 virgin palate and an acuteness of the gustatory nerves that, like the talent of the professional tea taster, is born with man, not acquired. It IS one Of those affsctations which the Briton considers ! necessary to his good repute in society, for he would as soon allow that he was lacking ! in this technical knowledge as that he knew nothing about horse or could not drive a gig.
 The only criterion great many worthy people have of the character of a wine is q, ( Ina hoof md if is to be allowed that, if the wine merchant knows his business, and is as honest as, happily, most wine merchants of repute are, l they have thereby done their duty to them ! selves and to their guests. The golden rule | in buying wine is to remember that there is ! always a market for the best brands, and ! that there are no such things as bargains" in noted vintaees. Another maxim for the | uninitiated is to drink only the native wine l of any country he may happen to be visiting. | 1t is reasonably sure to be pure, and If the 1 cheapest is selected, the chances arc that 1t | will also be the best, for too many people are judges of this brand for the dealer to attempt | any tricks with it. It is not .rious that the | foreigner who asks for 8 costly Rhine wine | at Coblentz or Cologne generally gets only ! what happens to be handiest, though the wet l label is printed with any name from Johan- l nisberg to Niersteiner.
 l The reason for this is not hard to seek. The dealers know from long experience that | out of 8 thousand men who talk wine, not | one knows anything about 1t. All that can ! be said is, that if he drinks a cheap wine I and majority of people do not the most ! costly-he will possibly be judge of the ar l ticle. Hence Germany is the great mart for \ the worst French clarets-the Canors judi ciously weakened and palmed off for the choice growths of Medoc-and England for ! the Hooks, Moselles, Madeirns, ports, sher- ries, and clarets which are concocted in the factories of Hamburg and Berlin. Better, therefore, drink Henri Quatre's "bon win du Surene," though 1t be a trihe acrid, and even l swallow with 8 wry face the Dreimannerweln of Gruneberger, though according to the Si- 1 lesian ballad it takes three men to drink glass of it-one to swallow the liquor and two to keep his courage 5p. But 1t is pure of it's kind Champagne offers even wider field for the ingenuity of the dealer, since, as the public insist on running after one or two famous brands, of which there is only limited quantity produced, the temptation to palm of other manufactures, and even vile rubbish, on the buyer whose only guide IS the label, becomes too frequently irresistible. At all events, it is not often resisted.
 The champagne district of the land of the Ay, Verzenay, Epernay and Rheims vine- yards produces some 300 900, ,000 bottles eve- ry year. Of this not one half is exported, and yet America is said to use twice as much of wine which professes to be French and
 has unquestionably French labels, ''fizzes, " and is more or less exhilarating. As mat ter of fact, the gooseberry gardens and ap pie orchards on both sides of the Atlantic
 are responsible for much of the cheaper
 "champagnes, and-ewipg to the natural
 sourness of this s'wine'' requiring the addi-
 ton of syrup-for good deal Of sWeetened
 ''sillery'' which is beloved of womankind.
 But it does not necessarily follow that be- cause a champagne is exported from the
 champagne country it is the product of any
 of the world famous vineyards, for some of
 the worst of 8 very bad article comes from a
 region where the best of very good one is
 prepared. Good champagne can never be
 cheap, for the labor necessary in producing
 1t and the loss incurred by the bursting bot
 ties is so great that the price must always
 range high At the same time, there is no
 wine which owes more to the skill of the
 maker and less to the quality of the grape
 than this favorite beverage. It may, indeed
 be made out of almost any grape. and If care
 is taken the result will be sound wine, though
 doubtless not one possessed of the delicate
 aroma and indeseriDable something" which
 are more spoken of than appreciated. Spark
 ling Burgundy-the .sred champagne" once
 SO generally drunk-is now never heard of :;
 and, although few people dream of associa-
 ting the name with anything save efferves-
 eence, ''still" champagne is preferable to the
 wine as we ordinarily see 1t. Indeed, it is
 mistake to drink sparkling wine until the
 carbonic acid has partially disappeared, for
 then, if the quality is good, it will be found
 to have retained it's body and flavor, which
 before had been concealed by the eferves.
 cence. Good champagne throws down it's
 head rapidly, and then, though the bubbles
 have disappeared, the aroma remains. But
 if people will blindly drink Q wine by the
 label, they deserve no pity and are not likely
 10 receive much.