, 1884-01-30
TRICKS OF THE WINE TRADE.
Watering the American Product
How the Native Article Is Trans
formed Into the Foreign.

II will tell you a little personal experience
Of my own In the neighborhood Of the
University buildings and Washington square,
in New York city, there are a number of
French-Italian cafes attracted thither by the
large number of bachelors who lodge in the
vicinity. frequented one kept by an Italian.
The dinner, including "A small bottle of red
wine, cost 81. The dinner was very good
and the wine, which ! knew was American,
was somewhat thin. The proprietor and my
self being on excellent terms, / asked him one
evening with bold effrontery how much
water he put in his wine, and in a burst of
confidence, heightened by liberal indulgence
in his own wine, which, by the way, he al
ways drank pure himself, he told mo that the
wine he furnished his guests was one-third
waterSa dilution OF his own-he could not
say how much the dealer had put in before it
reached him..
"One evening while l was sitting near the
little pupitre whence the wine was brought
to the tables, a pale-faced young man with a
critical air entered and seated himself near
the window. The room being of limited pro-
portions, all conversation. save that carried
on in All undertone, can easily be heard. 1t
was, therefore. without any desire to listen,
that l heard the newcomer, after looking
very sharply at the unlabled bottle of vim
ordinaire before him, and, thrusting it aside,
ask the proprietor il he would not fetch
him n bottle of sound wine.
"What quality do you wishf' said the Int
ter.
"St. Julien" was the reply.
"Certainly."
@This answer was a surprise TO me, for /
knew the proprietor had no wine in the house
save that in dilution, as we might say, and n
little pure italian wine which no occasionally
offered to his most cherished guests. His
VnaNhlI hAuavar - a,--tYf,- r,-n-t,I
wines OF almost any description was a simple
one, and had nothing whatever in common
with that old-fnhsioned and expensive one of
cultivating the grape, extracting the juice,
etc. From a little box he selected a hand
some label with the legend st, Julien
Edouard Champlis Fills Bordeaux ct Rheims
This, which was gummed on one side, he
placed in a soup plate filled with water.
Then he took from another box a gilded silver
foil cork covering, and taking up one of his
bottles Of diluted wine he placed this dex-
terously over the cork, pressing it neatly
down around the edges. Taking the bottle
up in his left hand he took the label from the
soup plateand stuck it securely on to the
bottle.
at was certainly a neat job, but / won
dered, as / knew he would be expected to
| pull the cork, how he would be able to ac-
count for the absence OF the popping noise
which in all cases accompanies the uncorking
OF a good bottle of wine. But l moderated
his genius. He supplied this as artistically
as he did the label and tho cork. Taking the
bottle to his customer in n silver pail filled
with ice, he inquired If he should open it,
to which an affirmative reply being given,
he turned the cork-screw in briskly, leaned
his head and shoulders so as to completely
conceal his face, and, as the cork flew out,
he, by placing his tongue to his cheek, draw
ing in his breath and suddenly opening his
mouth, made a noise which to the ear, even
where | sat, was almost the exact counter
part OF that which is produced by drawing
n very tightly-corked bottle. Yet, the cork
in this bottle, like the corks in all the bottles
In this cafe, was so loose that had it not had
a metallic label over it, it would nave
almost fallen out. The young man drank
the wine with evident relish and was charged
$l.50 extra, while those around him were
drinking the same wine without extra
charge"
Such instances as that related above are by
no means rare, They occur every day in
New York and Brooklyn, and doubtless in
every other city in the country.