1869 Cooling Cups and Dainty drinks by William Terrington

COOLING CUPS AND DAINTY DRINKS.

WINES.

Wine, that glorious juice of the grape, elegantly designated by an ancient poet as a recompense given for the miseries incurred by mankind through the Deluge, has puzzled poets and historians in all ages to account satisfactorily for its discovery. It has been ascribed to Noah, and many other ancient celebrities, but its origin has been accounted for in so misty and vague a manner, and accompanied by circumstances so fabulous, that we forbear all attempts at unravelling the web of its ancient history, and propose to come at once to a descrip- tion of its best-known varieties, and of the chief characteristics of those kinds with which we are now most familiar. The Vine, which is a native of the middle regions of the temperate zone, has been an object B