CHAPTER XX.--ON WINES, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

Lord Bacon, Bacci, Barry, Redding, Shaw, and Denman on wines, 275, 276. Hippocrates on vinous mixtures, 276. Plato and Homer’s praises of wine, 277. Virgil, Pliny, and Columella on wines, 278. The Setine wine commended by Martial, Juvenal, and Silius Italiens, 278. Sand, powdered marble, and salt water added to ancient wines, 279. Cato’s receipt for artificial Chian and Falernian, 279. The Cæcuban, 280. The Falernian, 280. Galen and Martial on Falernian, 280. Virgil on the vinum Rhæticum, 281. The lighter wines of the Roman territory, 281. The earliest Greek wines, 281. The Thrasian and Cretan wines, 282. Greeks familiar with Asiatic and African wines, 282. Greeks drank wine diluted with water, 282. Athenæus on the πεντε και δυο, 283. The Greeks had casks, 283. Gauls knew the use of wine six centuries before Christianity was introduced, 283. Athenæus calls the wine of Marseilles good, 286. The Allobroges mixed pitch with wine, 286. Dioscorides says pitch is a necessary ingredient in Gaulish wine, 286. Secret as to the Bordelais wine, 287. The Marseillaise boiled their wine, 287. Horace and Tibullus on the smoking of wine, 288. Baccius on the wines of Alsace, 288. Domitian publishes an order for rooting up one half of the vines in some provinces, and for destroying them in others, 289. This order abrogated by Probus, 289. The Roman legions spread in Gaul employed in replanting the vine, 289. The Salique law, and law of the Visigoths, as to the cutting of the vine and stealing grapes, 290. Vine property regarded as sacred, 290. Tribute decreed by Chilperic, 290. Massacre of the officer who was to levy the tribute, 290. Passion for the culture of the vine among French kings, 290. Wine-presses and utensils for making wine in all the palaces, 290. Charlemagne and his Capitularies, 290. The Louvre enclosed vineyards within its precincts, 290. “La Bataille des Vins,” a fabliau of the thirteenth century, 291. Philip Augustus had vineyards in many districts of France, 291. Wines of Guyenne sold in Flanders and England, 291. Matthew Paris, on the sale of Gascony wine in England, 292. Froissart on the number of merchantmen that arrived at Bordeaux from England, A.D. 1372, 292. Champier as to the consumption of French wine and corn in England, 292. Charles IX. proscribed the vine in 1566, 292. His ordonnance respecting it, 293. In 1577 Henry III. modifies this ordonnance, 293. Louis XV, in 1731, forbade any new plantation of vines, 293. Origin of the expression, vendre à pot, 293. Adulterations 1800 years ago as frequent as now, 294. The ancients understood the maturing of wines, 294. Customs survive forms of polity and government, 294. Identity of the amphoræ to vessels in present use at Asti, Montepulciano, and Montefiascone, 295. Use of casks unknown to Greeks and Romans, 295. Romans employed glass, but a rude glass, 296. Invention of casks due to the Gauls, 296. Ordonnance of Charlemagne as to employment of barrels, 297. The άβαξ or abacus, 297. Misquotation of Barry as to abaci, 297. The ancients had servants like our butlers, 297. Business of the οἱνοπτης, 298. The cup-bearer and pourer out of wine, 298. Cicero’s description of a supper, &c., 298–9. Deep drinkers of a congius or gallon, 299. Cooling of wine by snow not a modern invention, 299. Pliny ascribes it to Nero, 299. Drinking of healths to absent friends, 299. Extract from Henderson as to the manner of pledging friends and drinking healths, 300. Analogy between the French and Greeks as to mixing wine and water, 300. The vin d’entremets; the wine for oysters and roast meat, 300. The coup-d’avant and du milieu, 300. The coup du milieu, according to the “Manuel des Amphitryons,” 301. Wormwood, Jamaica rum, or old cognac used for it, 301. Practice at Bordeaux in this respect, 301. The coup-d’avant used in Russia, Sweden, and Germany, 302. The coup-d’apres, what, 302. Wine used for it, 302. Wine cellars of the ancients, 303. Precautions as to cellar, 303. Women forbidden to enter the cellars of the ancients, 303. Principles of the ancients as to cellars, 303. An ante-cellar advisable, 304. Salt used in cellars, 305. The ancients more effectually preserved their wines than the moderns, 305. Wine better tasted in quarts than in pints, 305. Ancient rules for site of cellars, and on time for tasting and racking, still sanctioned by practice, 305. Wine of middle age best and most grateful, 305. Fancy prices paid for old wines, 306. No one obliged to drink on compulsion among the ancients, 306. Irish practice, 306. Some ancient sages great bibbers, but unexcited, 306. Cyrus a larger drinker than Artaxerxes, and therefore, in his own thinking, worthier of the crown, 306. Darius’s capacity of drinking, 307. Hippocrates rarely directs water, but almost invariably wine mixed with water, 307. Cornaro before and after a new vintage, 307. His plan of preserving his health, 308. Effect of fresh sugar-canes on mules, 308. Pitching ancient and modern wines, 308. Monster puncheons in Latium and Germany, 309–10. The French constructed their wine-vats in brick or stone, 310. Pierre de Blois’s denunciation of the luxury of the twelfth century, 310. Repast of Philippe de Valois and his leathern bottles, 311. Wine supplied by a miracle, 311. The tanners of Amiens obliged to furnish the bishop with two leathern bottles, 312. The derivation of the word bottle, 312. The name afterwards applied to decanters, 312. Charles VI., according to Froissart, was supplied with wine out of leathern bottles, 312. Gregory of Tours speaks of the wines of Maçon, Orleans, Cahors, and Dijon, 313. Wines of Rheims and Marne mentioned in a letter of Pandulus, 313. Henry I. and the wine of Rébréchien, 313. Louis le Jeune and the wine of Orleans, 313. Wines of Auxerre, Beaune, &c., 314. Wine of Chabli, Epernai, Rheims, &c., 314. The popes drank Beaune at Avignon, 314. The queen of Louis XII. sent Beaune to the ambassadors of the Emperor Maximilian at Blois, 314. Caprice in the estimate of wine, 315. Wine of Romanée Conti, 315. Wine of Mantes carried to Persia uninjured, 316. Burgundy and Champagne in the fifteenth century, 316. Leo X., Charles V., Francis I., and Henry VIII., had vineyards in Champagne, 316. Erasmus and Burgundy wine, 316. Champier on the excellence of French wines, 317. Rabelais vaunts Auxerre wine, 317. Canteperdrix wine, 317. This wine sent to Rome for the pope, 317. Canteperdrix wine now known as the vin de Beaucaire, 317. Favourite beverage of Henry IV., 318. Paumier on the colours of wine, 318. Wines of Château Thierry gout producing, 319. Gout does not come from Champagne, 319. Baccius on the wines of France, 319–20. Paumier on the wines of Paris, 320. Liebaut and Patin on wines, 320. The vin de Condrieux, 321. The manner of making Orleans wines, 321. Boileau on the wine of Orleans, 322. Vin de Grave, mentioned in 1550, 322. Why the wine is called Grave, 323. The Haut-Brion, 323. Hermitage, 323. Hermitage of Lord Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry, 323. Hermitage divided into five classes, 323. Prices of Hermitage, 324. How the Burgundy wines got their reputation, 325. The vin de Tonnerre, 325. The Abbé de Marolles’ list of Burgundy wines, 325. The wine of Olivotte, 326. The vin de Chablis for oysters, 326. Vin de Pouilly and Bucellas good with oysters, 326. Difficulty of transporting Burgundy, 327. Extent of Burgundy vineyards, 328. Arthur Young on the vineyards, 328. Mr. James Busby on the Burgundy vineyards, 329. Clos Vougeot, 329. The late notorious Ouvrard, 330. Père Perignon and the wines of Hautvilliers, 330. Sparkling Burgundy and Moselle, 330. The vin de Nuits, 330. The St. George, Meursalt, and Mont Rachet, 331. Volnay the finest wine in Barry’s time, 331. The vin de Beaune, 331. The vin de Pomard, 332. Chambertin the wine of Napoleon, 332. The Romanée Conti, 333. The Maçon and Beaujolais wines, 334. Maçon a wholesome wine, 335. Adulterated at Paris, 335. Burgundy not to be iced, 335. Burgundy at the roast, 336. Champagne wine, 337. Dispute, in the time of Louis XIV., between the Burgundy doctor and the Champenois, 337. Fagon forbid the use of Champagne to Louis XIV., 337. Opinion of the faculty of the town of Rheims, 337. Colbert, a Champenois, but he did not give renown to the wines, 338. Francis I., Leo. X., Charles V., and Henry VIII. had vineyards at Aï, 338. Volnay drank at the coronation of Sobieski, 338. Beaune served at Venice to the senators after the conquest of the Morea, 338. St. Evremond on Champagne wine, 338. Champagne used in putrid fevers, 339. Millions of worthless Champagne sold at two francs and three francs the bottle, 340. Dr. Henderson on Champagne, 340. The briskest Champagne not the best, 340. Crêmants and demi-mousseux wines, 341. Sillery Champagne, 341. Vin de la Maréchale, 342. The rich, dry Sillery, 342. Champagne not a vin de garde, 342. Old Champagne, 343. Jaquesson’s cellars, 343. Champagne always improved by ice, 343. Jullien on the high price of the vins mousseux, 344. How to obtain a first-rate Champagne, 345. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of Champagne at the docks are not worth the duty, 345. When the bottling of Champagne begins, 345. Vins grand mousseux, 346. Precautions in packing Champagne for exportation, 346. Champagne for India and America packed in salt, 346. Burgundies so packed preserve their qualities, 347. Claret, 347. Château Margaux and Château Lafitte, 348. Monton and Léoville, 348. Kirwan and Château d’Issau, 348. St. Julien, Béchevelle and St. Pierre, 348. Great management in Bordeaux cellars, 349. Brandy ought to be put in in very small quantities, 349. Extract from Davies’ work on colouring Claret, 350. A freer exchange of the vinous wealth of France with England desirable, 351. Difference in price between first and inferior wines, 352. Mixture of Benicarlo and other wines with claret, 353. The age of wine at Bordeaux counted par feuilles, 353. What Barry wrote ninety years ago on Claret wines, 353. Names of the proprietors of vineyards and factors, 110 years ago, 354. Irish Claret and Irish wine merchants, 355. The Bordeaux wines celebrated in the days of Ausonius, 355. A great proportion of the wine drank as Claret is vin ordinaire, 355. Definition of the word Claret, 356. The Côte Rôti, 356–7. Hermitage and its division into five classes, 357. White Hermitage of the late Lord Castlereagh, 357. Hermitage of the late Marquis of Wellesley, 358. The cost of wine cultivation in France immense, 359. The German wines, their general character and durability, 359. Price of Rüdesheim, 359. In Barry’s day the best old Hock sold at 50l. the auhm, 360. Marcobrunner, Rüdesheimer and Niersteiner, 360. Julius Hospitalis and Liesteinwein wines, 360. Spanish wines, 360–1. Cellars and stock of Gordon and Co. of Cadiz, 361. Amontillado, 361. Port and Madeira, 362. The Italian wines, 362. The wines of Hungary, 362. The Greek wines over-rated, 363. The Constantia wine of the Cape, 363. The Russian Champagne, 363. The New South Wales wines, 363. New vintages, 364. Advice as to purchase and stock of wines, 365. Good and low-priced wine a myth, 366. Prices of wines at sales in Edinburgh and Dublin, 366. Prices of Amontillado, Montilla, and Manzinilla, 366. Fabulous prices given for old Ports and Sherries, 366. First-rate Clarets rising in price, 367. Burgundies, 367. Dietetic qualités of wine, 367. The best Burgundies and Champagnes, 368. The best Bordeaux wines, 368. Red Constantin and Frontignan, 369. Consumption of Champagne doubled in England since 1848, 369.