1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

56

should be preferred. But here Francatelli remembers a fact which might have spared him his vast labour on this service of wines : that ^* it is difficult, not to say impossible, to lay down rules for the guidance of the palate." The sanguine person, we are told, will prefer the genuine Champagne ; the phlegmatic. Sherry or Madeira. The splenetic and melancholy man will be prone to select Roussillon and Burgundy. The bilious will imbibe Bordeaux. In few words, '' Burgundy is aphrodisiac, Champagne is captious, Roussillon restora- tive, and Bordeaux stomachic." By careful attention to the foregoing remarks, the reader will happily be preserved from any serious mistake in the matter of his dinner. But other meals must also be taken into consideration, about which Francatelli preserves a Sibylline and mysterious silence. For instance, luncheon. We learn, however, from another source that there are luncheon sherries and dessert sherries. With lunch the brown, rich, and full-bodied Rarq may be suitably drunk; but the pale Solera and the soft yet nutty Oloroso should make their appearajice at dessert alone^ M. Batalhai Reis, Consul for Portugal at Newcastle- on-Tyne, in a report on the wine trade of England, has troubled himself thus in the interests of posterity to classify the wines of the world.

Table Wines.

Class I.

Taste acid and

Alcohol and sugar imperceptible.

astringent.

Red.

Division A.