1914 Beverages de luxe

As we proceed further through the Po Valley, skirting the hills located at the Toot of the Appenines, where our attention is attracted by the artistic manner in which the grapevine is trained, in garlands and festoons from tree to tree, giving the country a picturesque and festive appearance, we are not sur- prised to find sj'nthesized all these natural beauties, and, I should say, the very bountif ulness of the Aemilian district in the famous Lambrusco wine, produced near Modena, a red, sparkling wine, of violet-like bouquet, somewhat similar to Nebbiolo, but more tasty and not quite so fruity. In the infinite gamut of wines, which gladden the heart of man, Chianti, this most popular and most representative of Italian wines, represents a type entirely of its own, well defined and well established. Elegantly, nay coquettishly, gotten up in tho.se familiar, neatly-trimmed flasks, adorned with the national colors of Italy, Chianti is essentially a joyous and vivacious wine, the prototype of the red wines of Tuscany, characterized by the brightness and vivacity of their ruby color, the vinosity of their bouquet, the moderateness of their alcoholic strength (just sufficient to move the brain without impairing it), by the cleanliness, smooth- ness and gentleness of their tlavor, and, above all, by that quality which the Tuscans define as "passante," viz., easily dige.stible. Chianti has not the austerity nor the deep flavor of Barolo or (iatlinara, but has many of the soft graces of the Valpolicella or Valtellina, which alone, among the fine table wines of Italy, can, on aristocratic tables, contend with this son of ancient Etruria. Aleatico is a red. Muscadine wine, of which Henderson, the well-known English authority, says that "the name in some measure e.xpres.ses the rich quality of this wine, which has a brilliant purple color and a luscious aromatic flavor, without being cloying to the palate, as its sweetness is generally tem- pered with an agreeable sharpness and slight astringency. It is, in fact, one of the be.st .specimens of the dolce piccanti wines; and probably ap])roaches more than any other some of the most esteemed wines of the ancients." P^rom Tuscany, whose good wine is, as Bedi says, "Gentle- man," and "No headache hath he, no headache, I say, for those who talked with him yesterday," we step into the Orvieto dis- trict of Central Italy, famous for its white wines, and for being the home of the historical "Est-Est-E.st Wine," which robbed Germany of one of its abbots, the bibulous Johann Fugger. The celebrated wines of Naples come from the slopes of fiery Mount Vesuvius, where it would seem almost parado.xical that the vine should flourish and yield such excellent products