The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-12-10
THE LAND OF THE VINE
A RAILWAY JAUNT IN THE CRAZE
REGION OF PORTUGAL.
Interesting Facts Concerning One Of
the Greatest Industries of the
Observation-Disclosures


knows that this old Portuguese city Is
the home OF the famous port" (O-porto)
wine but few people have any conception
of the magnitude Of the industry. Though
the wine expectation has fallen off great
IN in the last decade. owing TO the vine
disease phylloxera, which has diminished
their production, it still averages over S0l,-
600 hectolitres a year. One firm alone-the
Vinicola Company. whose enormous ware
houses line the riverside Of Nova da GAIA,
the suburb opposite Oporto-carries stock
valued at two million dollars, While Its an
nual sales reach the million-dollar mark
IN even greater business Is conducted hy
the Ferreira brothers. the largest port vine
producers in the world. in their Com
mercio Agvicola,' and "Compania dos
Vfnhos de Porto" An Englishman named
Anderson deals only in the choicest VIM
tages of the early part of the century
six million litres year of brilliant amber
golden white, and dark. fruity ports. the
poorest of which WHOLESALERS at $40 the gal
lon. There are scores of other wine mer-
chants-Portuguese. English. German
French and Russian, whose endless vaults
and tunneled cellars line the southern
bank or the DourO IOT HllicS-
We have spent busy week investigat-
ing the Ito us) novel industry. including
a railway jaunt to Regoa, tie very center
of the world-famed Paiz do Vinho. or
country of the vine." on the upper Douco,
near the Spanish frontier. Here Senior An
tonic BernadO Ferreira, a Portuguese
multi-millionaire of Oporto, owns dozen
wine farms, or 'quintas," as they are
called in the vernacular, and spends por-
ton of each year, with his family, on one
OF them. Being so fortunate as to receive
a cordial invitation from Mr. and MS
Ferreira to visit them in their country
home we drove 10 the railway station ore
early morning-making a wide detonr
around the La &c quarter. the plague-sn-
fected heart OF the city, where those twin
reapers. disease and starvation, vigorously
hemned in by a Gordon of police, are gar
nerine uncounted harvests. II is about four
hours ride from Oporto to Regoa, sixty
four miles from Lisbon. The road Is the
most picturesque scenic line in the penin-
sula, running through mountains and can
yons, along deep gorges of the Douro. past
quaint villages and peasant cottages pines
and palm trees, and some of the richest
VINEYARDS
these steep and stony but sunny mountain
slopes. with their yellow, brown. mica.
schist soil, the "Bastardo'' grape thrives
TO perfection and the very best wine that
ever delighted mortal lips is made.
PORTUGUESE HOME.
The country home of the Ferreiras. called
the Quinta de Vesuvio C'Garden Of Vesu-
vius'D affords graceful prototype of life
in the land of vineyards. Their elegant
villa, in the Roman style, commands wide
view of the mountains and wine-flled val
ley, olive groves and pasture lands dotted
with sleek cattle; and Of the Douro, dwin-
died to a narrow stream so near its head
waters. From his fat housetop the happy
planter may watch the progress of his
wines to market, in the quaint native bar
cas- rapellos, or fiat-bottomed barges, each
with an enormous rudder, piloted with
greatest skill and care past innumerable
reefs. shadows and rapids, down to the
Oporto storehouses.
Senior Ferreira and his charming wife and
daughters were tireless in their gracious
courtesies, showing us every detail of wine
making to it's final curing in vast cellars
tunneled into the solid rock. To further
exemplify rural life in Portugal. they gave
a ball i'm our honor in the great presshouse,
it's wooden pillars hidden by living vines
covered with punches of luscious grapes,
cut from the vineyard for the occasion.
The peasants in their gypsylike costumes
I'm all colors of Joseph's coat-the men with
short velvet trousers and Jackets. white
blouses. fringed sashes and golden hoops
in their ears; the women wonderfully be-
liz .,f
tinsel filagree necklaces. bracelets. crowns.
brooches. the work OF the world-famed
goldsmiths of Oporto; the strange dancing,
half DANA, half fandango. and the music
of the local orchestra-guitar and mando-
lin. mingled with the sharp click OF casti-
nets. the rasping of gourd fiddles and the
rattle of table forks shaken in glass bottles
things to be long remembered And
then the wines-old. white and amber-hued
ports. distilled more than half a century
ago. not to be rashly imbibeu. but every
drop more precious than gold to sight and
smell.
In the manufacture of port" there are
no secrets and no reserve In the whole
process Of vinifcation, all the world being
welcome to witness every smallest detail
which seems TO show that there is no crook
edness to be concealed. II has been falsely
asserted that Oporto wine is the most
adulterated of fermented beverages. but the
truth is that he who drinks glass of 1t
drinks as nearly natural and pure a form
of concentrated grape juice as it is possible
TO produce. II ever adulterated at all, 1t
has been merely 10 satisfy public taste, at
greater expense and trouble to the makers
than unmixed grape juice. For example.
in England. where these wines find by far
their greatest market, the popular fancy
some years ago ran 10 almost black, very
strong and fruity port" and then, to sat-
isfy the demand, the makers employed elder
berries TO darken IL. When the light-wine
people heard OF IL they pretended TO be ter
ribly shocked. possibly TO cover some crook
edness of their own. and raised no end of
hue and cry about "adulteration," forget
ting that one fruit is really as wholesome
as the other. AS for logwood adulteration,
that fable has always been libelous. Any
chemist will tell you that the peculiar re-
action OF logwood makes It absolutely in
operative a dye in any sort of wine.
Indeed, so long as the public has the good
sense to be satisfied with the true garnet
red color OF pure port" which turns with
age to rich amber. no merchant will be so
extravagant as TO put elderberries in tia
much scarcer. and therefore dearer, fruit
than grapes in Portugal If exacting Gus
toners desire their wine 10 resemble ink