1911 Beverages de luxe

BY

H. GRUENEBAUM Of Sonn Bros. Co. New York

^^larets

The poets of ail générations hâve eulogized the clarets of the Gironde ; even Ausone, the f amous poet of the fourth centnry, lias idolized them in his poenis. The clarets of Gascogne, aniongst which the clarets of Bordeaux occnpied a prominent place, en- joyed, in the year 1302, a firm réputation in the Lon-

don markets. Althongh, in the middle of the sixteenth centnry, the con- sumption of the clarets derived from Spain and Portugal in- creased to an alarming degree in the London market, yet it was impossible to dethrone the French clarets, which, through their exquisite taste, quality and bouquet, maintained their superi- ority above ail others, and graduai ly obtained a world-wide réputation. A prominent Ambassador of France, speaking of the coining of English sovereigns in London, at that time stated that most of this precious métal would find its way into France through the enormous sales of French clarets from Gascogne; and we find in a manuscript given out by the Mercantile Asso- ciation of Bordeaux, in the year 1730, that the clarets shipped from Bordeaux annually attained the stupendous figure of 70,000 tons, principally sold to England, Holland, Sweden, Den- mark and America. The production of clarets in France increased to such an alarming degree that the vénérable Minister Montesquieu in- duced the farmers to destroy their vines and turn over their fields to the production of wheat or other cereals. In 1787 the Bureau of Commerce in Bordeaux published that the animal average crops of claret of Gironde attained the enormous figure of 200,000 tons, valued at the exorbitant amount of 510,000,000 francs. Similar to the soil of Havana, particularly adapted to the growing of tobacco, the same can be applied to the Department of Gironde, known under the name of Clarets of Bordeaux. This territory, comprising about 1,000,000 acres, produces the fanions St. Estephe, St. Emilion, St. Julien, PauiHac, Sau- vignon, and the white wines Le Sauvignon, Le Semilion and Vigneau. Among the most known brands, let us not forget Château