1891 Drinks à La Mode by Mrs de Salis

71

WINES AND SPIRITS.

INTRODUCTION. The origin of wine is of such ancient date that no one seems to be able to put a date to it. In fabu- lous history we know that Bacchus, the rosy god of wine, is said to have planted the first vineyards. We find vineyards in Egypt, Greece, and Italy. At a very early date in the Bible we read of wine and drunkenness in the Book of Genesis, for it says, * Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and was drunken.' In Italy we find it existed in the time of Romulus (717 B.C.). In 818 we find the plant in the South of France, and in the sixth century, so says Mr. Denman, who seems to have gone very deeply into the subject of wine, it was acclimatised in Bretagne, Normandy, and Picardy ; in the middle ages in Alsace and Lorraine and the North of Germany.

Manufacture of Wine.

Clarets

are manufactured by picking

the grapes

after

they are in- jure the quality of the wine being carefully re- gathered ; all that are likely to