1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

The Wines of Tenei-ife.

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tcristics of a madeira; another, vintaged some twelve years ago, l^roved remarkably soft and rich, while an old Malmsey of 1859 had all the ai'oma and lusciousness of a fine liqueur. Tenerifc wine has its own special character, differing as much from sherry on the one hand as from madeira on the other; and if it develoijs none of the higher qualities of these well-known vintages, it is nevertheless a wine of some pretension, and well deserves a return of its lost popularity. It is usually shipped when from three to four years old, and may he kept in the wood for a quarter of a century with a certainty of improvement, although eight years will ordinarily he found sufficient for its development. In bottle it keeps equally well and improves far more rap>idly. The only excursion we made in the interior of the island was to its old capital, Laguna,interesting alike from its i)leasant situation and its antiquated churches, quaint public buildings, and truly seignorial residences. On our journey thither -we were struck by the i^rcvalence of the prickly pear,not forming hedges] merely as in Spain, but planted in inclosed grounds as an important object of cultivation. These plantations are due to the cochineal industry, the prickly pear (cactus cochiniUfor) being the plant on which the insect is raised. The lowlands in the Canary Islands, with a southern aspect, are utilised to produce the insect early in the year, the upper iDlantations being supidied from them with the "mothers," or breeding insects,in June or July, and the crop being ready for gathering in September or October, or later, according to the season. The insect is proj^agated in two ways, one method being to spread the mothers thinly on trays, with jDieces of cloth placed lightly over them, which soon become covered with young insects, and are then transferred to the pirickly jiear. The second method consists in p)laeing a few of the mothers in a little bag of clear muslin or of perforated paper, which is pinned to the cactus leaf,on to which the new-born insects crawl through the meshes of the muslin or the holes in the p)aper. This is a critical i^eriod,for the infant insect is very delicate,and

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