1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

THE OLD WINES AND THE NEW 14.1 cinnamon, cloves, mace, and all-spice into a sauce pan, with half a pint of water ; let it boil until reduced one-half. Boil one bottle of port wine; burn a portion of the spirit out of it by applying a lighted paper to the saucepan. Put the roasted lemon and spice into the wine, stir it well, and let it stand near the fire ten minutes. Rub a few lumps of sugar on the rind of a lemon, put the sugar into a bowl with the juice of half a lemon (not roasted), pour the wine into it, grate some nutmeg into it, sweeten to taste, and serve with the lemon and spices floating on the surface. Xo sum up, the decline and fall of port in British estimation may be said to be due, mainly, to the following causes ; inferiority of most of the modern vintages, the introduction of whisky, the present taste for lighter wines, such as the cheaper clarets and burgundies, with the wines of Germany and Italy, and a sort of "boom" in wines from Australia and California. These last-named, however, are but seldom seen at the tables of the wealthy ; and thus far the demand for the productions of gallant little Wales have not been in any great request, although the demand is said to be equal to the supply. Sherry, the " sack "which was said to cheer the heart of Sir John FalstafF and other of Shake speare's heroes, is, like port, a light of other days. Like thewine ofPortugal, also, its exportation has for many years been in the hands ofEnglish settlers. The following startling statistics have been published about these exports, which statistics speak for themselves : The output to England in 1891 was 2,135,969 gallons, or sixty-four per