Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/213

 instance been impregnated with that disagreeable earthy flavour which is so predominant in the wines of Southern Africa. In feet, there is no other dependency belonging to the British Crown, which is so well adapted to produce superior wines and brandy as Australia, for which articles of consumption, Great Britain is entirely dependent on foreign countries. It will be some years before Australia can produce more wine than her inhabitants can consume. Whenever that time will arrive, India and the mother country, will take all she can supply.

I have observed, in the preceding observations on the MacLeay river, that the geological formation of the country, exercises a most marked influence on the quality of wine produced from vines grown on it. Thus the vineyards Ay and Epemay, which yield the best Champagne wines, have been planted on a poor clayey soil lying on chalk, which is so little below the surface, that it is frequently exposed at one spit deep. The wines of the province of Anjou, although little known in England, are much esteemed in France; the vines which produce them grow on schistose slate, and some of the best vineyards on the Rhine grow also on the same formation. The villages of Côte-Rôtie, l'Hermitage, la Romaneche, Chenard, Banjeu, enjoy the highest reputation for their wines, the basis of the country being granite. Vineyards planted on volcanic soils in France produce wines of very variable quality; thus near the Rhine they are