Part 6

Of white Ports the best are _Muscatel de Jesus_ (the testimony to religious influence in this and the _Lacryma Christi_ is extremely touching), considered the prince of all, the _Dedo de Dama_, the _Ferral Branco_, _Malvazia_ (our Malmsey),[37] _Abelhal_, _Agudelho_, _Alvaraça_, _Donzellinho_, _Folgozão_, _Gonveio_, White _Mourisco_, _Rabo da Ovelha_, and _Promissão_. Of the black Ports the finest is _Touriga_, and the sweetest _Bastardo_. Other dark Ports are _Souzão_, the darkest of all, _Aragonez_, _Pegudo_, besides _Tintas_, whose names are legion. Other wines grown here, or in the immediate vicinity, are _Alvarilhão_, a kind of Claret, _Alicante_, _Muscatel_, _Roxo_, and _Malvazia Vermelha_. Great quantities of wine are produced in the _quintas_ outside the line of demarcation, and some of these wines are equal to those made in the wine district of the _Alto Douro_ itself. Red wines transformed into French Clarets at Bordeaux, are exported in large quantities. A wine from Tarragona, known as “Spanish Red,” or superb Catalan, is sent yearly to England, and sold as very full, rich, fruity, and tawny Port. Port will not keep good in the cask for more than two years without the addition of alcohol. The Oporto merchants use a pure spirit distilled from the wine itself. The old Port which we prize so highly and pay for so dearly is seldom unaffected by brandy or other spirit.

Some of the best wines are produced by Estremadura, such as _Bucellas_, _Collares_, _Lavradio_, _Chamusca_, _Carcavellos_, _Barra a Barra_, and many others of which not even the names are known in England. The vines round Torres Vedras might, it has been said, produce the finest wines in the world, if properly cultivated. _Arinto_ and _Estremadura_ are comparatively new wines. The white wines of Tojal and the vintages of Palmella and Inglezinhos have only to be known to become popular. The province of Traz-os-Montes, in spite of its climate of _nove mezes de inverno, e tres de inferno_, produces excellent wines in the Piaz Vinhateiro. Those in the vicinity of the river Tua and the Sabor are considered by connoisseurs to resemble the celebrated _Clos Vougeot_. There is a remarkable red wine called _Cornifesto_, and the white wines of _Arêas_, _Bragança_, _Moraes_, _Moncorvo_, and _Nosedo_ are excellent. The cup of _Charneco_ (2 Hen. VI. ii. 3), a wine mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher and Decker, is said to have been made at _Charneco_, a village near Lisbon (_European Magazine_, March, 1794).

Port-wine is accredited with producing gout, and the two accompanying illustrations give the “Introduction to the Gout,” and the real fiend itself.

RUSSIA.

_Kahetia_ is a wine produced in a district of that name, east of Tiflis. It is of two descriptions, red and white, and is much esteemed throughout Transcaucasia. As it is kept in skins made tight with naphtha, it has generally a slight taste of leather and petroleum. _Gumbrinskoé_ is a sweet wine grown in the Gumbri district of the Caucasus. _Donskoé Champanskoé_, the champagne of the Don, is said by Dr. Charnock to be a very good wine, and better than many sorts drunk in Britain. Russian wines generally, as those of many other countries, are largely diluted, and, like the majority of Greek wines, do not improve by keeping.

SICILY.

A thousand years before Christ, says Mr. Simmonds, districts of Sicily were famous for wine. The coins of Naxos (500 B.C.) bear the head of Bacchus on the obverse, on the reverse Pan, or a bunch of grapes. Of Sicilian wines, the light amber or brown wine of _Marsala_ is best known. There is Ingham’s L.P., and Woodhouse’s; there is also the Old Brown. The Faro is perhaps the strongest wine of Sicily. The wine of Terre Forte is made near Etna, in some vineyards of Benedictine monks. Marsala, as we know it, is generally adulterated, or fortified, to use a more technical term. Even the “Virgin” has not escaped this common lot of wines. Much Marsala is indeed sold as Marsala, but much more is sold as Sherry. The wine of _Taormina_ has the classic taste of pitch. Augusta produces a wine with a strong flavour of violets. This to some palates is the most agreeable wine drank in Sicily or elsewhere. The _Del Bosco_ of Catania, and the _Borgetto_ have been both recommended by the subtle taste of Dr. Charnock. A dry wine called _Vin de Succo_ is made about ten miles from Palermo. The wine of Syracuse somewhat resembles _Chablis_.

SPAIN.

As Spain succeeds France geographically, so it follows it in the excellence of its vinous productions. Throughout all ages this country has been distinguished for its wines. But the Spaniard’s chief glory under heaven is in the preparation of white dry fortified wines such as Sherries, and sweet wines such as _Malagas_. In the province of Andalusia is situated Xeres de la Frontera, and the convent of _Paxarete_, which produces a rich sweet sparkling drink. Here, too, are the vines of the _vino secco_ and the _abocado_, and _Rota_,[38] which produces Andalusia’s best red wines. Here are _Ranico_, _Moguro_, or _Moguer_, a cheap light wine, _Negio_, and the capital _Seville_. Catalonia yields a large quantity of red wine shipped to England mostly as a drink for the general. The _Malaga_ of Granada is well known. Sherry[39] wines are, or ought to be, the products of Cadiz, including Xeres de la Frontera, San Lucar de Barrameda,—where _Tintilla_, an excellent Muscadine red wine, is manufactured,—Trebujena, and Puerto de Santa Maria. The celebrated wine known as Manzanilla[40] is made in San Lucar de Barrameda. _Val de Peñas_[41] wines are commonly red. After the perfection of age, this celebrated product of La Manche[42] is, in the opinion of Redding, equal to any red wine in the world. Much wine of Catalonia is now imported into England as Catalan Port. Borja produces a luscious white wine. The country about Tarragona on the road to Barcelona is almost wholly occupied with wine making. _Beni-Carlos_, _La Torre_, _Segorbe_, and _Murviedro_, are all fair wines of Valencia. Alicant produces an excellent red wine, _vino tinto_, strong and sweet; when old, this wine is called _Fondellol_. Vinaroz, Santo Domingo, and Perales, offer red wines of moderate excellence. The best wines of Aragon are _Cariñena_ and the _Hospital_, from the vine which the French call _Grenache_. In Biscay, at Chacoli, a _vino brozno_, or austere wine, is produced in large quantity. The best is made at Vittoria, and called _Pedro Ximenes_.[43] Fuençaral, near Madrid, offers a good wine seldom exported. The most famous wine-growing district of Granada is that of Malaga, termed Axarquia. This produces _Malagas_, _Muscatels_, _Malvasies_, and _Tintos_. The red wines called _Tinto de Rota_ and _Sacra_ are unfermented with only enough spirit for preservation, and are commonly advertised in our wine circulars as “suitable for sacramental purposes.” _Guindre_ is flavoured with cherries from which it derives its name. Into this wine, as into some others, the Spaniards are wont to put roasted pears, under the conceit that thereby it is much improved in taste and rendered more wholesome. Hence arose the proverb _El vino de las peras dalo a quien bien quiéras_. _Malaga Xeres_ is often known in England as the pale, gold, dry Sherry,[44] as the wines of Alicant, Benicarlos, and Valencia are sold as a rich and fruity Port. The so-called _Amontillado_ Sherry is very often the outcome of accident. Out of a hundred butts of Sherry from the same vineyard, some, says a great authority, will be _Amontillado_, without the manufacturers being able to account for it. At Cordova, a dry wine called _Montilla_ is commonly drunk.

SWITZERLAND.

Swiss wines are commonly consumed only in Switzerland. The best is produced in the Grisons, called _Chiavenna_, aromatic and white from the red grape. A white _Malvasia_ of good quality is made in the Valais. It is luscious, as is _Chiavenna_. The Valais also furnishes red wines, made at La Marque and Coquempin in the district of Martigny. Schaffhausen gives plenty of red wine. The _wine of blood_[45] is manufactured at Basle. These wines are also known as those of the _Hospital_ and _St. Jaques_. The red wines of Erlach, in Berne, are of a good quality. The red wine of Neufchâtel is equal to a third-class Burgundy. St. Gall produces tolerable wines. In the Valteline, the red wines are both good and durable, much resembling the aromatic wine of Southern France. These wines are remarkably luscious, and will, it is said, keep for a century. The largest amount of wine is produced by the Canton of Vaud. The wines of _Cully_ and _Désalés_, near Lausanne, much resemble the dry wines of the Rhine.

CIDER.

The original meaning of the word _cider_[46] appears to have been strong drink. It was used to designate a liquor made of the juice of any fruit pressed, and an example of the word in this use is to be found in Wycliffe’s Bible, in the speech of the angel to Zacharias (Luke i. 15), in allusion to his promised progeny: _He schal not drynke wyn and syder_. The next meaning is that of a liquor made from the juice of apples expressed and fermented.

“A flask of _cider_ from his father’s vats, Prime, which I knew.”

TENNYSON: _Audley Court_.

We have little information about cider either from the Greeks or the Latins. It would seem that it was not known to them, if we may trust Ainsworth, who translates cider by _succus e pomis expressus_, and Byzantius, who gives μηλίτης (οἶνος) εἶδ. ποτοῦ as the equivalent for _cidre_.[47] Gerard, in his _Historie of Plants_, published in 1597, says that he saw in the pastures and hedgerows about the grounds of a “worshipful gentleman,” dwelling two miles from Hereford, called M. Roger Bodnome, so many trees of all sorts that the servants drunk for the most part no other drink but that which is made from apples. The quantity, says Gerard, was such that by the report of the gentleman himself, the parson “hath for tithe many hogsheads of Syder.” This reference to the servants and the parson drinking it, but not to the “gentleman,” seems to show that the liquor was not then held in much esteem.

Bacon placed cider after wine, and we have followed in our arrangement of the present volume his august example. This great philosopher speaks of cider and perry as “notable beverages on sea-voyages.” The cider of his day did not, he says, sour by crossing the line, and was good against sea-sickness. He also speaks of cider, a “wonderful pleasing and refreshing drink,” in his _New Atlantis_.

John Evelyn’s _French Gardener_ gives much information on this subject, and his _Pomona_ is, says Stopes, the first monograph on the manufacture of cider in England.

Cider is made in many parts of Barbary, and in Canada. In all the States, apples are abundant, particularly in New York and New England, and cider is a common drink of the inhabitants. And it is as excellent as it is common. That of New Jersey is generally considered the best. It is curious that the least juicy apples afford the best liquor. Cider of a superior quality is abundant in Cork, Waterford, and other counties of Ireland, where it was introduced, we are told, in the reign of Elizabeth. It was first made at Affane, in the county of Waterford.[48] Worledge’s _Vinetum Britannicum_, 1676, and his _Most Easy Method for Making the Best Cider_, 1687, have been considered at full length by Mr. Stopes. Worledge’s press is an improvement upon one shown in Evelyn’s _Pomona_.

Cider appears in Russia under the name of _Kvas_. There is _Yàblochni kvas_, made of apples; _Grùshevoi kvas_, of pears, a perry; and _Malinovoi kvas_, of raspberries. George Turberville, secretary to the English Embassy to Moscow in the year 1568, mentions _kvas_ in a description of the Russians of his time as:—

“Folk fit to be of Bacchus’ train, so quaffing is their kind; Drink is their whole desire, the pot is all their pride. The soberest head doth once a day stand needful of a guide. If he to banquet bid his friends, he will not shrink On them at dinner to bestow a dozen kinds of drink, Such liquor as they have, and as the country gives; But chiefly two, one called _kwas_, whereby the Moujike lives, Small ware and waterlike, but somewhat tart in taste; The rest is mead, of honey made, wherewith their lips they baste.”

Stopes is of opinion that the finest cider is made, not in the west, as has been commonly asserted, but in the east of England. This authority seems particularly to favour the Ribston pippins of Norfolk.

“Worcester,” says Macaulay, in his _History of England_, ch. iii., “is the queen of the cider land;” but Devon and Somerset, Gloucester and Norfolk, might dispute the title. To make good cider the apples should be quite ripe, as the amount of sugar in ripe apples is 11·0; in unripe apples, 4·9; in over-ripe apples, 7·95. The fermentation should proceed slowly. Brande says that the strongest cider contains, in 100 volumes, 9·87 of alcohol of 92 per cent; the weakest, 5·21. By distillation, cider produces a good spirit; but it is seldom converted to that purpose in consequence of its acidity, which, however, is greatly remedied by rectification.

Much cider is distilled in Normandy, and sent to this country under the name of _arrack_, or some other foreign spirit, according to its flavour. To the Normans the invention of this liquor has been attributed. They are also said to have received it from the Moors. Whitaker (_Hist. Manchester_, i. 321) says this drink was introduced into this country by the Romans; and Simmonds (p. 25) that it was first used in England about 1284.

Cider has been immortalised by Phillips in a classical poem, in imitation of Virgil’s Georgics, which, according to Johnson, “need not shun the presence of the original.” Milton’s nephew thought that cider—

“far surmounts Gallic or Latin grapes.”

PERRY.

Perry is prepared from pears, as cider from apples. It is capable of being used in the adulteration of champagne.[49] The harsher, redder, and more tawny pears produce the best drink. Perry is less popular than cider, but some consider it superior.[50]

BRANDY.

The Invention of Brandy—Early Alchemists—Aqua Vitæ—Distillation—The Still-room—Ladies Drinking—Nantes and Charente—Johnson’s Idea of Brandy—The Charente District—Manufacture of Brandy—The Cognac Firms.

Who invented Brandy? is a question that cannot be authoritatively answered offhand; but the good people of some parts of Germany hold that it was the Devil. And their legend is, at all events, circumstantial.

Every one who is at all acquainted with old legends is fully aware that the Father of Evil is extremely simple, and has allowed himself, many times, to be outwitted by man. Once, especially, he was so guileless as to put trust in a Steinbach man, who cajoled him into entering an old beech tree, and there he was imprisoned until the tree was cut down. His first step, on regaining his freedom, was to revisit his own particular dominion, which, to his horror, he found empty!

This, naturally, would not do, and he set about re-peopling hell without delay. He thought the quickest plan would be to start a distillery; so he hurried off at once to Nordhausen, where his manufacture of Brandy (his own invention) became so famous that people from all parts came to him to learn the new art, and to become distillers. From that time his Satanic Majesty has never had to complain of paucity of subjects.

It seems fairly established that the famous chemist Geber, who lived in the 7th or 8th century, was acquainted with distillation, and we know that it was practised by the Arabian and Saracenic alchemists, but have no knowledge whether they made any practical use of the _alcohol_ they produced. They, at all events, gave us the word by which we now know the _spirit_, or ethereal part, of wine.

Alcohol, distilled from wine, is first reliably mentioned by a celebrated French alchemist and physician, Arnaud de Villeneuve, who died in 1313, who gave it the name of _aqua vitæ_, or water of life,[51] and regarded it as a valuable adjunct in physic, and as a boon to humanity. Raymond Lully, the famous alchemist, who is said to have been his pupil, declared it to be “an emanation from the Deity,” and on its introduction it was supposed to be the elixir of life, capable of rejuvenating those who partook of it, and, as such, was only purchasable at an extremely high price.

We may see, by a book[52] written 200 years after the death of Arnaud de Villeneuve, the esteem in which Aqua Vitæ was held even after so great a lapse of time.

Aqua Vite is comonly called the mastresse of al medycynes, for it easeth the dysseases comynge of colde. It gyveth also yonge corage in a person, and cawseth hym to have a good memorye and remembraunce. It puryfyeth the fyve wittes of melancolye and of unclenes whan it is dronke by reason and measure. That is to understande fyve or syx droppes in the mornynge lastyng with a sponefull of wyne, usynge the same in the maner aforsayde the evyl humours can not hurte the body, for it withdryveth them oute of the vaynes.

¶ It conforteth the harte, and causeth a body to be mery.

¶ It heleth all olde and newe sores on the hede comynge of colde, whan the hede is enoynted therwyth and a lytell of the same water holden in the mouthe, and dronke of the same.

¶ It causeth a good colour in a parson whan it is dronke and the hede enoynted therwyth the space of xx dayes; it heleth Alopicia, or whan it is dronke lastyng with a lytell tryacle. It causeth the here well to growe, and kylleth the lyce and flees.

¶ It cureth the Reuma of the hede, whan the temples and the fore hede therwith be rubbed.

¶ It cureth Litargiam,[53] and all yll humours of the hede.

¶ It heleth the coloure in the face, and all maner of pymples. It heleth the fystule when it is put therein with the Juce of Celendyne.

¶ Cotton wet in the same and a lytell wronge out agayn and so put in the eares at nyght goynge to bedde, and a lytell dronke thereof, is good against all defnes.

¶ It easeth the payn in the teethe, when it is a longe tyme holden in the mouthe, it causeth a swete brethe, and theleth the rottyng tethe.

¶ It heleth the canker in the mouthe, in the teethe, in the lyppes, and in the tongue, whan it is longe time holden in the mouthe.

¶ It cawseth the hevy togue to become light and wel spekyng.

¶ It heleth the shorte brethe whan it is droke with water wheras the figes be soden in, and vanisheth al flemmes.

¶ It causeth good dygestynge and appetyte for to eat, and taketh away all bolkynge.[54]

¶ It dryveth the wyndes out of the body, and is good agaynst the evyll stomake.

¶ It easeth the fayntenes of the harte, the payn of the mylte, the yelowe Jandis, the dropsy, the yll lymmes, the goute, in the handes and in the fete, the payne in the brestes whan they be swollen, and heleth al diseases in the bladder, and breaketh the stone.

¶ It withdryveth venym that hath been taken in meat or in drynke, whā a lytell tryacle is put therto.

¶ It heleth the flanckes[55] and all dyseases coming of colde.

¶ It heleth the brennyng of the body, and of al membres whan it is rubbed therewith by the fyre viii dayes contynnynge.

¶ It is good to be dronke agaynst the sodeyn dede.

¶ It heleth all scabbes of the body, and all colde swellynges, enoynted or washed therwith, and also a lytell thereof dronke.

¶ It heleth all shronke sinewes, and causeth them to become softe and right.

¶ It heleth the febres tertiana and quartana, when it is dronke an houre before, or the febres becometh on a body.

¶ It heleth the venymous bytes, and also of a madde dogge, whan they be wasshed therwith.

¶ It heleth all stynkyng woundes whan they be wasshed therwith.”

From use in medicine, Aqua Vitæ soon came into domestic use, and here is given one of Iherom Bruynswyke’s “Styllatoryes,” which he says was the “comon fornays” which was “well beknowen amonge the potters, made of erthe leded or glased, and it may be removed from the one place to the other.”

It was in a still of this sort that the old housewives of the sixteenth and succeeding centuries used to concoct their strong and cordial waters—a practice which has given, and left to, our own times, the name of “Still-room,” as the housekeeper’s own particular domain. They experimented on almost every herb that grew, and some of their concoctions must have been exceedingly nasty. Yet some of their recipes read as if they were comforting, and they were not deficient in variety.

Heywood, in his _Philocothonista_, or _The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected, and Anatomized_, 1635, p. 48, mentions some of them. “To add to these chiefe and multiplicitie of wines before named, yet there be Stills and Limbecks going, swetting out _Aqua Vitæ_ and strong waters deriving their names from _Cynamon_, _Lemmons_, _Balme_, _Angelica_, _Aniseed_, _Stomach Water_, _Hunni_, etc. And to fill up the number, we have plenty of _Vsque-ba’ha_.”

The old housewives’ books of the latter end of the sixteenth century, until much later, are still in existence, and from them we may learn many drinks of our forefathers, how to make _Ipocras_ (_very good_, especially when taken in a “Loving Cup”), to clarify _Whey_, to make _Buttered Beer_, _Sirrop of Roses or Violets_, _Rosa Solis_, _a Caudle for an old Man_, or to distil _Spirits of Spices_, _Spirits of Wine tasting of what Vegetable you please_, _Balme Water_, _Rosemary Water_, _Sinamon Water_, _Aqua Rubea_, Spirits of Hony, Rose Water, _Vinegar_, very many scents, and a distillation called _Aqua Composita_, which entered into many receipts. There are many formulæ for this, but Bruynswyke gives the following:—

“AQUA VITE COMPOSITA.

“The same water is made some time of wyne with spyces onely, sometyme with wyne and rotes of the herbes, sometyme with the herbes, some tyme with the rotes and herbes togyder, for at all tymes thereto must be stronge wyne.

“Take a gallon of strong Gascoigne wine, and Sage, Mints, Red Roses, Time, Pellitorie, Rosemarie, Wild Thime, Camomil, Lavender, of eche an handfull. These herbes shal be stamped all togyder in a Morter, and then putte it in a clene vessell and do herto a pynte of Rose Water, and a quart of romney,[56] and then stoppe it close and let it stand so iii or iiii dayes. Whan ye have so done, put all this togyder in a styllatory and dystyll water of the same; than take your dystylled water, and pore it upon the herbes agayne into the styllatory, and strewe upon it these powders followynge.

¶ Fyrst cloves and cynamon, of eche an halfe ounce, Oryous[57] an ounce, and a few Maces, nutmeggs halfe an ounce, a lytell saffran, muscus, spica nardi, ambre, and some put campher in it, bycawse the materyals be so hote. Stere[58] all the same well togyder and dystylle it clene of, tyll it come fat lyke oyle, than set awaye your water, and let it be wel kepte. After that make a stronge fyre, and dystyll oyle of it, and receyve it in a fyole,[59] this oyle smelleth above all oyles, and he that letteth one droppe fall on his hande, it will perce through. It is wonderfull good, excellynge many other soveraygne oyles to dyvers dysseases.”