1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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In fhe Port Wine Country.

•wines to England resulted from this treaty. Nine years before- it was signed—namely,in 1693—we received as many as 13,011 pipes of these -wines, whereas during the first fifteen years of the existence of the treaty only in one year—namely,in 1716— was the quantity exceeded, and then merely by 900 and odd 23ipes. At this period English merchants in Oijorto j)aid as. much as 60 milreis, or ^813 6s. 8d., for the pipe of Alto Douro- wine—a price which tempted the growers to make considerable- plantations of new -vineyards. Very soon afterwards the cjualitv of the wine began to deteriorate. Not only were inferior gro-wths mixed -with it, but it was sojAisticated in various wavs. causing it to fall into such great disrepute that by the middle of the eighteenth century the best wine in the market commanded no more than ten milreis, or under <£2 5s., per pijie. Owing to this inadequate price, and the poverty of the growers,the vine- yai-ds became neglected and their produce diminished. Mer chants and producers accused each other of being the cause of this disastrous state of things, and the latter appealed to theh- govemment to save them fi-om impending ruin. In the year 1754 we find an English firm complaining to- their agents in the Alto Douro that"the grower at the time of" the vintage was in the habit of checking the fermentation of the- -wines too soon by putting brandy into them whilst fermenting., a practice," they emphatically remark,"which must be con sidered as diabolical; for after this the -wines will not remain- quiet, but are continually tending to ferment and to become ropy and acid." The agents in reply assert that"the English, merchants knew that the first-rate wine of the Factory had become excellent, but they -wished it to exceed the limits which nature had assigned to it, and that when drunk it should feel like liquid fire in the stomach,that it should burn like inflamed gunpowder,that it should have the tint of ink,that it should be like the sugar of Brazil in sweetness, and the spices ofIndia in aromatic flavour. They began by recommending, by way of secret, that it was proper to dash it -with brandy in the fermen tation to give it strength, and with elderberries or the rind of