The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-26
EAMONS WINES.
Vintage, of Great Age and Rare Quality
 at the Vienna Exhibition.
From the London egraph.l

at the Vienna Exhibition.
 From the London Te.egraph.l To the Vienna exhibition the Grand Duke of Nassau sent specimens of his famous collection of cabinet wines for merly stored in the vaulted cellars of the Bernardlne Abbey of Eberbach. These included samples of no less than thirty-one vintages, and among the historic ones was e hochheimer hum dred and slxty-seven years old. This grand" wine of 1706 might have been | or after Families. The Nassau cabinet | comprised wines contemporary with the war of American independence. The bulk of the vintage prior to the ex- | ceptionally good year 1S46 had lost not only their fine flavor, but also that fra grant aroma for which the higher class Rhine wines are still so justly re- nowned. Their brilliant color was per- haps the sole survivor of their antique splendor. The modern wines, never theless, were found to be superb in 1873. A Steinberger cabinet of 1882 had pre- served its combination of richness and was ascribed to the comparatively modern practice of employing only over-ripe grapes. in the production of Steinberger, after the manner which, according to somewhat doubtful tra- dition, has been employed for more than a century in the making of the re- nowned Schloss Johannisberger. Prince Metternich also exhibited a very small collection of his world-famed vin- tage, embracing specimens produced between the years 1857 and 1868; every bottle being sealed and every cork branded with the princes crest. In all probability the greater part of Italian wines imported into Germany for blending purposes are used for the manufacture of red wines, such as Assmannshauser, which has been erro- neously qualified as "the Burgundy of the Rhine." Soil and climate have here completely transformed the pro- duce of the Burgundy vine, as has been the case in champagne; the red wines in this district-notably still, red bouzy bear striking affinity to Assmanns- hauser. One drawback of the last named wine is that, compared with the white wines of the Rhine, it is deficient in keeping qualities, and that, more over, although 1t will keep six years in the wood, it rarely improves and often deteriorates after having been six months in bottle, when it begins to lose color. This circumstance may account to some extent for the manufacturers resorting to Italian products for the fertilization of red Rhine wines such as those of Walporzheim, Anrweiler and Bodendorf. With regard to the in- ferior growths it has been notorious that for many years the most of the wines has been doctored by the pro- cess first introduced by Gall. In the district of Neuwield 1t became custo- mary for wine dealers from abroad to swoop down on the district every au- tumn; and, whether the vintage prom ised we'll or ill, to buy up the growing grapes and make from them five or six times the quantity of wine which the press of an honest winter could produce. Barges full of soapy substance man. ufactured from potatoes, and called by it's owners Sugar" were brought down the Rhine, and the stuff was thrown into the vats containing the must; large quantities of water being added. When the brewage had fermented suf- ficiently it was strained and laid away, the lees being similarly treated three, four or five times over; and when the dregs became so exhausted that fur ther natural fermentation was impos- sible. chemical ferments and artificial heat were applied. This abominable cooking or stewing was often contin- ued until mid-winter, producing so- called "wines" of every denomination for the consumption of every class in every country where Rhine wines were popular.