The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-02

amber, no merchant will be so extrava-
CANT as to put elderberries in tia much
scarcer, and therefore dearer, fruit
than grapes, in Portugal. If exactng
customers desire their wine to resemble
| INK there is much cheaper dye than
even logWood, and one always at hand
in POrtugal-the darker varieties Of ma
tive grapes in their natural colors. So
the point Is clear, that as there is moth
ing so cheap and convenient with which
to adulterate port wine as itself, it Is
bound to be pure as the Yankee cider,
for which the farmer carries his own
apples to the mill and watches the pro-
cess Of their crushing, worms and all.
The true port wine is made only in
one corner of Portugal, in a district
marked out especially by nature to be
one huge vineyard. 1t is cut off from
the sea by one lofty range of moun-
tains, and sheltered by others from the
north and east winds. Even the valley
of vineyards is hilly and precipitous.
the vines growing on barren-looking
soil, a peculiar brown, crumbing,
staty schist, built up into multitude
nous terraces from top to bottom of the
hills. The entire strip of country,
about sixty miles above the mouth of
the Douro, is only twentyseven miles
long by five or six miles wide. In Win
ter it is almost as cold as the climate
of Maine; but in summer the sun fairly
revels in the narrow vale and is re-
Elected from the hill amphitheaters with
particular intensity. Cut off from every
breeze, the Whole region lies still and
becalmed in tropic heat, though in
about the same latitude as Boston or
Chicago. Nowhere else in Europe can
the vines get such a roasting, and no.
where else are the juices of the grape
elaborated into such rich and potent
liquor. One understands port wine at
the first glance of the vine country. 1t
would be easy to find hotter suns-in
Cuba. for instance; but the vine that
produces the wine, par excellence, is
not tropical plant and needs the Sc
we're cold of winter to give it season.
able rest. The wine district is one Of
the few in Portugal where ice forms in
winter thick enough to bear the weight
of a man. TIE vines are grown as
bushes-more like English gooseberry
trees than anything else. Early in the
year they are closely pruned and the
summer shoots are supported by stakes
Elsewhere in the peninsula. except
where specially good wine is wanted,
the vine is trained over trellises or
against pollarded trees. In that way
more grapes may be had, but the wine
is poor. The vintage begins toward the
end of September. Much care and
knowledge are required in selecting thu
right proportions of the many varieties
of grapes grown on a single plantation
some for color, some for flavor, some for
bouquet, and some for strength. The
ripe grapes are thrown into vat and
trodden under bare feet--not unWaShed,
let us hope; and the weary process re-
minds one of the Biblical phrase, HE
hath trodden the wine-press alone"
The skins, stones, juice and stalks are
then allowed to remain until the liquid
ferments. Soon as the heat of fermen-
tation begins to abate the wine is run
into large casks, (tonels, believe. is the
technical name), whereby the active
is checked, but is not
wholly arrested until the cold weather
Of winter sets in. Then the wine
clears, the casks are filed to the tops,
bungs are driven in tight and tine bev-
arage is fit for consumption. This Is
how red wine has been made since the
first juice of grapes was pressed out
and fermented: how it is still made in
France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal
and Hungary, the ingenuity of man
having added very little to the time
IGNORED process of Abraham's day.
To be sure there are some variations
md Improvements, such as scientific in
struments called saccharometerS, for |
determining precisely the right moment |
or drawing off the must" and in |
eW cases frauds are practiced, such as |
rdding burned sugar to the poorest and |
hinnest sour wine to initiate the fla |
Jor of Madeira and doctoring it with |
IN alkali to take away overacidity |
The "Sherr-is sack" of Shakespeare's |
ime, which then all England drank, !
vas so sour tina. it had to be sugared |
is we sweeten tea. You remember that |
'oins addresses Falstaff as Sir John
sack and Sugar, and that worthy gen
leman plaintively replies, IF sack and
ugar be fault, God help the wicked"
There is a wine disease called "Od-
m," which appears in early summer,
S white, filnly mold, or fungus, on the
caves. Later it shows in the unripe
ruit; and if allowed to run it's course,
finders the growth Of the grape and
auses it to split open and rot. AS the
nost highly-bred animals succumb
oonest to an epidemic. so the finest
rowths of wine grapes suffer first. So
ad has this been two or three times
lithin the century, that estates pro-
ucing an average of one hundred and
lXty pipes year, came down to five
ipes, of quality so poor that even the
lborers could not drink it-and the
line which they will not guzzle must
e very poor indeed Finally the quick
+ witted French found remedy, in
owdered sulphur, blown on the leaves
'om bellows.
The natural wines of Europe-those
lade to be consumed on the spot
hich are In proportion of thousand to
ne of the wines produced, are intended
, be drunk the summer they are made,
nd will very rarely keep two years. 1t
a curious fact that the common claret |
ines, grown in the neighborhood of ,
porto and drunk by the peasantry are
ten dearer than the costlest VintaSes
the port-wine district. The appa- :
mt anomaly is accounted for by the
let that, while the commoner wine is :
Il n X h1a within ciy months q fta, Ioay-