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.

CHAPTER XXI.--THE CELLAR FOR WINES.

The cellar for wines, 370. Requisites of a wine-cellar, 370.
Lighter wines require a colder cellar than strong, 371.