1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

Medoc. 3 bushes attached to low espaliers rising about two feet from the ground, and producing grapes which look like over-ripe black currants. Yet these un- promising grapes are those which produce the renowned wines of Lafite and Chateau Margaux, worth, at least, ten shillings a bottle. It seems an established fact that the fruit of vines hignly grown are not so productive as the fruit of low-trained plants ; and in observing the usages of the ancients, it is surprising how small is the change that the lapse of time has brought into the culture of" the vine in Italy. It appears the plant is still grafted and managed there as it was in the days of Varro, author of De Re Eustica, who died 28 B.C. In other countries where the culture of the grape has been more scientifically treated, the varieties have been astonishingly multiplied; but in Italy the vines are allowed to follow their natural mode of growth, and are simply trained picturesquely amongst trees and on trellis-work. Let us now direct our attention to the glorious vintage-season, the annual festival of Medoc,— October, " the wine month/' as it is called,—when the ruby tears of the grape are made into the mos'& delicious beverage—a wine destined to find a wei- come at the halls and palaces of wealthy epicures B 2