The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-23
WINE $50 YEARS OLD.
And Said to Be Barreled in the Days
of Luther.

O~~- w. -
of Luther.
The ReU II. r. HdlGeis in the London Gtooe.
Was / right or wrong when, some months
ago, asked the readers of these columns to
believe that had not only seen. but tasted,
wines of Charles /. S reignl l will now go
further, and declare that have seen, and
tasted wine of Henry VIII S reign. As Mr..
George Bullen, of the British Museum,
wrote when he heard of such curios being
actually in London. though hardly in
the market, "Whoever would have
imagined that there still survived wine of
such remote period as 1540-contem-
porary with Henry VIII, Charles v,
Francis l., and Leonardo da Vinci" But,
| believe, he was soon convinced, as / was,
and as indeed any one who takes the same
! trouble may be, that such wine is in exist
ence, and quite drinkable. As my state
ments to this effect have been challenged in
and out OF priut, the following additional
researches which | made last week may be
! of some interest.
| | had found last autumn some old Leisten
Vein of 1851 at the chateau of Mr.. Corbett,
of Droitwich. This time | went straight to
NJ. Ferdinand Ehrmann, who had got the
wine out of the cellars where 1t had lain for
the better part of three centuries. He re-
| ceived me courteously, and on learning my
errand said; You are interested in winep
mo" | said, 81 don't know much about
wine but anything historical and unique
interests me, and should like to
know how you got these wines,
their authenticity" ''WeIl" he replied,
smiling with polite professional condescen-
sion, lit is a curious story. A year or two
ago | was in Germany, inspecting the royal
cellars, and there met the Grand Celler-
man Baron Walzen) of his majesty, the
| late Ludwig, King of Bavaria, whose &C.
| centricities combined with his patronage of
Wagner. had by that time invested him with
a general and romantic sort of interest
Says Baron Welzen to me, we want lot
of new wine; the Kings last fancy is that
old wine is bad. We have a cellar at
Warlburg full of historical and unique
vintages. His majesty will have none of
these, says it must be all got rid Of but, of
course not in the open market But the
King is horribly sensitive at being talked
about Can you, said l to the Earon,
give me any idea of the price" None
whatever; buff you like to tender formal
petition for all the old wines in lot it
would probably be entertained Well, |
did so and got the wines.n What without
looking further into their pedigreeG"
Pardon me. 1 Travelled straight to
the place and satisfied myself of their
royal archives there are registers kept
reaching back hundreds of years, which
record the purchase, laying down, casking,
bottling, and sealing of the royal vintages
There archives and registers inspected and
identified the wines, but one glance at the
system is sufficient. There is no fraud, for
! there is no temptation to fraud The
Bavarian wines have been grown for the
kings, bottled for the kings, and never been
in the open market at all. Well now" he
said, turning to a side table, "here is a
bottle of 154O, Henry VIII. period, and here
some of that Leisten Vein of your Charles
l. s reign, and here" well, but ex-
cuse me, how have these wines been kept so
longM Il will tell you. Originally, this
l54O wine was in cask of say about 1900
bottles. A process of evaporation goes on
and it is never added to, but shifted to a
$50 bottle cask, and so on, until about the
year 100 it is found in only a 1870 bottle
cask, and it is then bottled for the first time
in 1850 his bottle is 1873 years old but the
wine is 34S years old, and, unlike your
| famous Scotch whisky casks, it has never
been tempered with or annually added to
since the days of Luther, when it was first
| casked.n
! While speaking he had carefully uncorked
bottle OF 1910 wine aud poured out a
| glassful. 1t was deep golden color and
| quite clear. Shaking it and smelling it
lyon see it still retains bouquet. Tt is
| slightly acid, but drinkable even now, and
of manifestly fine quality Oddly enough,
| it is darker than this Leistein Vein of
| 1881, and lie drew another cork. tasted
! both wines. There was not much to che se,
except while slipping the $40 felt as if /
were hopping or nobbing with Luther, and
while tasting the 1881 l fanced myself
dining with RicheIeu SIS here
ma of this very ancient wine still
lelS in GermanyF' well" he said, mot
NIL h 1t is only found authentic in the
royal cellars; and know one other place
| the great municipal cellars of Bremen. They
have some extraordinary wines there
pray" said l, ''have you any Malmsey?
And what is Malmsey?' ''Ah still anti
quarian and historical, l see! Your Duke
Of Clarence, who elected to be drowned in
Malmsey, was man of taste-he chose a
noble French wine-none other than
Malvoisie-the word corrupted into
| Malmsey." He Immediately sent for
bottle, and uncorking it, handed
me a glass 1t was of a dark, golden
color. rich, sweet, liqueur wine, softer
than MaderiS and little like the finest
| Tokay, of which he offered me choice
| specimen of 1904 ''This," he said, lis the
| finest Malmsey Of the century. 1t is 1888,
and fetches in the open market 1906. a
| dozen" | fastened to improve my &C
were the finest port vintages. He replied
"'47, '43 and Is; the "a is now a mere fancy
wine, AID fetches zoos a DOZEN the Is. or
Waterloo port goes for 1905, and so does
| the AZ"
"And what are the finest hocks"
"Weu, this 1911 hook from King Lud-
wigs cellar is still very fine. But here are
two others--lS6l and 1922. This 6l is GER
tainly the finest hook in the world. Taste
| it, It is curious to notice the subtle. per
sistent quality Of fine vineyards. If You
! taste those t"o alternately you will see that
! 81 retains the bouquet and character Of the
'22-thiS is entirely due TO qualities of the
soil
confess that, not being a connoisseur in
wines, my il terest began TO wane upon
reaching the nineteenth century. | saw
that he inclined to quality, above antiquity,
while | was all for antiquity. Pray" said
l. barking back to the past, "What is the
sac or the Canary sac which so delighted
Fastatt" "The Canary sac is nothing but
| dry or sac Canary, golden, rich wine,
sweet, but not treacly sweet. 1t is now
mostly made in Portugal, but formerly in
the Canary Isles.n But no old sac seemed
extant.
Information on An Important Subject.
From the PhilddeiDhi1 Times