1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Elderherries and Logwood—Getieral remarks ahout Port. 145

or the pineau noir of Bui-gundy. There is no reason whatever why a perfectly fermented and consequently dry Alto Douro wine, which has received no addition of spirit, should not find a market in England; but it is scarcely likely to do so to the detriment of the"grand vin de hqueur," as the French style it, which we know under the name ofPort. One great disadvantage under which shippers of Port wine labour is the frequent change offashion with regard to the style of wine demanded in England. So constant are the changes and so endless the varieties now-a-days that it has been said there are almost as many styles of Port wine as shades of ribbon in a haberdasher's shop. At one time a deep-coloured, heavy wine will he in vogue; at another a wine paler in colour and fighter in body, but rich in flavour. Sometimes dry wines are in request,and latterly the fashion has set in for thin wines of a fight tawny tint, the result of their resting for many years in the wood—the kind of wines,in fact,which the Oporto shippers invariably drink themselves. But then these wines are often called for at a ridiculously cheap rate—less,in fact,than one- fourth of what wines of the required age would cost the shipper himself, who can only meet the demand by blending a red and a white Port together. This blending is perfectly harmless,and the consumer comforts himself with the belief that he has acquired a tawnyPort offabulous age at an absurdly low figure. Iam,of course, referring here to cheap tawny Ports, and not to those grand wines which have mellowed in flavour and lost their colour in the course of a quarter of a century of ripeness, and which are only to be obtained by paying an adequate price for them. With such varying tastes requiring to be ministered to.Port wine must necessarily bein some measurea work of art. Imagine the dogmatic British wine-merchant demanding of Viscount Aguado a high-coloured, fruity,or robust Chateau Margaux,or sending to Burgundy for a rich and racy Gorton,and think of the kind of answer he would be likely to receive. The happy possessors of Port in perfection are popularly

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