Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-06
AT HOME AND ABROAD.
Interesting Facts Regarding ViticuI ture in This Country and in the Ol<
 Unrlh

'" OTlOs Many articles have appeared in news papers in this country giving the impress sion that California Is to wrest the laurels from European wine-producing countries and that in the near future, and the state- ment was of course gratifying to Ameri- cans, but it seems that this country, which, as General Hawley said in his speech at Hartford this week, has such great and such varied resources as to be almost inde- pendent of the rest of mankind. is not likely to be independent of foreign vine- yards in this matter of wine production, although as General Hawley said we come pretty near being supplied with about everything from our own natural re- sources. One of our townsmen, MT. Hugh J. Reynolds, who is very thoroughly in- formed on the subject of wines and wine production, says that the soil of California is too rich and losmy for successful com petition with the vineyards of Europe, 8 different soil being required for the high est results than that of California. On the yubiect of wines and their production the following interesting article is obtained in an interview with this well known author ity on the subject:
 Most writers on the subject of viticul- ture claim that the grapevine is native of Asia. It is generally admitted that the vine came to Italy by way of Greece. The grapevine came to France from Italy about the year 39O, B. 0. In ancient times Burgundy was the great wine-producing section of France. In this age the cham pagne wines have taken the place former ly held by the wines of Burgundy. In what is called good years France has pro- duced fourteen hundred million gallons of wine. The world produces annually four thousand millions gallons of wine.
 The champagne district is forty-ive English miles long and has twenty eight thousand vineyard proprietors. In good years the champagne district has produced eighty million bot vast production is not of the high grade necessary to produce frst-rate effer- vescent wine which we call champagne. The soil of the champagne district is com posed of mixture of chalk, silica and clay. This particular combination ot earth has not been found to exist any. where else in the world. Many of the cellars in the champagne district are ex cavated in solid chalk beds and do not re- quire any masonry. The section of the champagne district which produces the highest grade wines for the manufacture of effervescent wine is situated on tho southern slope of hill, which includes | the villages of Ay and Hsut Villers.
 It was in the cellars of the Benedictin, monastery at Haut Villers in the year 169I that monk of the name of Dom Perigno1 l discovered the mousseux (effervescence) il the champagne wines. Dom Perignon hat 1 charge of the wine cellars at Haut Viller | from 1870 to 1715, in which year he died When on his deathbed he imparted the SC cret of how to produce an efervescen wine to the monk Grsssard, who succeeded him in the management of those famou wine cellars. It is also claimed that Don Perignon was the first to use cork wood a shoppers for bottles. Before the discover
 of cork wood as shoppers for bottles effel
 vescent wine could not be made even if tn
 art was understood, for the reason that
 could not be confined in bottles by the ol
 method of ''stoppering" bottles, which wa
 lump of hemp saturated in oil. The1
 are parts of the world where oil-soake
 Jumps of hemp are still used as stopper
 for bottles.
 The department of the Gironde is divide
 into five viticultural districts. The est |
 of the Gironde is about two hundred an
 eighty millions of francs. The Medoc an
 the Graves districts have especially co1
 tributed to make the Gironde famous an
 rich. It is universally admitted that tt
 Medoc produces the highest grade re
 wines in the world. The Graves distri,
 includes the Sauterne section which pr,
 duces the highest grade white wines
 France. The soil of the Medoc and u
 Graves is collection of small pebble
 The word 'graves" signifies sand an
 gravel. It is remarkable fact that u
 soil of the most valuable vineyards in th
 Medoc and the Graves are too sterile
 grow weeds. The vintage in the Grav'
 continues for three weeks. Each day tf
 grapes which have become rotten ripe al
 picked off the vines one by one. IT Chateau Yquem vineyard produces tl
 highest grade wines of all the Sauterne
 It is called one of the jewels of France.
 Germany possesses the most celebrate
 vineyards in the world, namely, the J,
 hannisberg and the steinberg. The j.
 hannisberg and Steinberg vineyards we
 planted in the years 1106 and 1131 ,respe
 lively, by Benedictine monks from u
 monasteries of Eberbach and Johannisber
 The Johannisberg has sixty-two acres an
 the Steinberg eighty acres of vineyard
 The Steinberg produces the wine celebra
 ed in Europe for centuries past as u
 "Holy Ghost Wine." The reformatic
 broke down the power of the monasteri,
 referred to, since which time the Johanni
 berg and Steinberg vineyards have change
 owners many times. The Steinberg
 now the property of the government
 Prussia. After the battle of Jena Nap
 leon took the Johannisberg from the prin'
 of Orange and gave it to Marshal Kelle
 mann. After the fall of Napoleon in 1S1
 the emperor of Austria took possession
 the Johannisberg. In 1916 the empert
 of Austria presented the Johannisberg
 Prince Metternich, in whose family
 still remains. The Metternich famil
 house of Hapsburg. The Reisling variet of grape is grown in the Johannisberg an 1 the Steinberg to the exclusion of all oth, varieties. The grapes are allowed to b,
 come rotten ripe before the vintage talk, place. The bishop of Fulda made the di
 covery in the year 1775 that rotten grap make the best wine. Before 1795 it use
 to take from ten to twenty years for Rhei
 wines to become ripe enough for bottlin,
 Rhein wines made from rotten grapes al ripe enough for bottling in from three five years. think it is not generally ul , derstood that wines improve in bottles fl,
 times faster than they do in barrels. Rhei wines begin to deteriorate when twent , five years bottled. A good quality of g coholic wine, such as port and sherry, Ii,
 about one hundred years. have san pie of sherry which is known to be tv i, hundred years old. It has been spoiled fe drinking purposes for a long time.
 Hungary produces annually from $50 000, ,000 to 400, ,00O, ,O0O gallons of win The wine which has contributed most make Hungary famous the world over row strip of country about twenty mill the Hegyaya mountains in the state ,, Zemplein, in the upper part of Hungar and known as the Tokay district. It claimed that the soil of the Tokay distri ,, is of volcanic origin and contains iron ar calcium phosphate in great quantities.
 large percentage of the grapes whic grow in the Toksy district bur open and dry up when the ripen. These dried berries are pick. !, off the vines one by one. The grap ! which do not burst open are picked ar kept by themselves, and when a sligl pressure is applied to them the best quail . of the juice is detained. This product
 called ausbruch in the German languag . At this stage of the operation the drit
 berries are thrown into the ausbruch an q allowed to macerate. The berries a . then heaped in an elevated position usus
 ly facing the sun. The juice which rul spontaneously from the heap of resoak,
 dried berries constitutes the highest gra,
 of Tokay essence wine and when known a be bottled fifty years sells for twenty dc
 lars per pint.