1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

90

In the Port Wine Country.

oidium. The oidium chiefly attacks thefruitofthe vine,the insect blighting and -withering the grapes-which it preys upon, whereas the phylloxera gnaws mainly at the roots of the plant, checking its bearing powers and eventually causing it to perish. The existence of the phylloxera in the Alto Douro vineyards was flrst suspected in 1868, but nothing much was done to arrest the progress of the scourge until comparatively recently, and even now only the more intelligent and well-to-do -vine proprietors have attempted to cope -with it. The chief remedies employed are—first,the hainit, or sulphate ofpotash,and natural magnesia, which is sown on the carefully-tilled ground round the vine- stocks in a powder consisting of a mixture of thatsubstance -with Aylesbury sewage and -vine-ashes in equal proportions; secondly, sulphurate of carbon made up into Eohart's cubes or gelatinous prisms, which are thrust into the ground between the vine- stocks at about a foot or a foot and a-half distance. A score or more of different varieties of grapes enter into the composition of Port -wine. By far the best among them is the touriga, which is assumed to bear some resemblance to the oarbenet,the grand grape of the Haut Medoc. It is sloe-black in colour, soft, pulpy,and thick-skinned, with a sweetness of flavour which is almost nauseating, and is indicated in the •expressed must by 24 per cent, of sugar. Next comes the mourisco preto, or tinto, which the Trazmontanos have nick named the "uva rei," or king grape,thick-skinned and pulpy like the touriga, less sweet but pleasanter in flavour, and yielding in must 65 per cent, of the weight of its bunches. The tinta francisca,another prized variety, is said to be identical -with the pineau noir of the Cote d'Or, of which species of vine Mr. Archibald,the founder of the Quinta do Eoriz,obtained uumerous specimens from France, as appears by the old account-books of the quinta. This grape, as gro-wn in the Alto Douro, is of a deep purplish black,not very pulpy, but suc culent, thick-skinned, and extremely sweet, yielding, like the touriga,24 per cent, of sugar,and no less than 60 per cent, of its weight in mosto. Of the alvarelhao, which is more plentiful