1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

The Vineyards and Vines of the Alto Bouro. 93

good sweet wine of a particular kind, made,however,in very limited quantities. Among the purple moscatels is the variety which produces the well-known muscat wines of Setuhal, as well as the moscatel preto, needing a rich soil to yield wine in anything like abundance. All the malvasia and moscatel vines in the Alto Doui-o appear to be particularly liable to the attacks ofthe oidium. The Alto Douro wine district, comprising a series of steep hiUs intersected by narrow ravine-like valleys, extends for a distance of some thirty miles, and is from five to ten miles in breadth. The vineyards are estimated to occupy an area of about 86,500 acres. Their production, which varies con siderably in different years, has largely fallen off since the phylloxera has made its appearance in the district. In 1856, when the oidium had done its worst,the total yield was merely 15,000 pipes of wine of 115 gallons each. Five years ago the average yearly produce was calculated to be 80,000 pipes. Of this quantity about one-fourth was fii-st-class wine, vintaged princi pally in the Upper and to a small extent in the Superior Douro, while of the second quahty, grown for the most part in the Lower Douro,there were about 30,000 pipes. A portion of the latter is ordinarily mixed with wine of the fii'st quality, and the bulk of what remains is shipped to the Brazils. The in ferior wine, of which about 30,000 pipes used to be vintaged, comes from vineyards situated at a considerable altitude, and generally at some distance from the river and its tributaries. The price on the spot of the newly-made Douro wines ordinarily rangesfrom about.£12 for the best down to £6 per pipe for the inferior qualities. This, is, however, but a mere fraction of their cost by the time the wines are shipped to England. The general course of the Diver Douro is from east to west. The disposition of its banks,the great altitude of many of the heights which form the river vaUey, and the heat-absorbing properties of their soil, combine to give the region a peculiar chmate,temperate in the winter and extremely hot in the sum mer,owing to which circumstance densefogs arise,causing agueto