Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/645

Rh WINE 607 titles are produced in the southern provinces, but they are of a commoner description and are reserved for home consumption. Thus in 1887 the two departments of Aude and Herault yielded between them 5,643,832 hectolitres, or about 124,160,000 gallons, which was considerably in excess of the total produce of the districts previously alluded to. In the department of Pyrenees- Orientales, in the old province of Roussillon, a full-bodied and deep-coloured wine is produced, a small portion of which is sent to Great Britain and is of a better quality than most southern growths. This wine is known by the old name of the province and is of considerable value for blending light thin wines. There are also some very fair wines made in the department of Jura and in the district lying east of Burgundy. Algeria. Owing to the devastation caused by the Phylloxera in France much attention has of recent years been bestowed on vine culture in Algeria. The result of the first experiments has been very encouraging. M. Bouchardat in a recent report to the Medical Society of Paris wrote &quot; In the not very distant future by means of the vine we may look for the definite conquest of Algeria. Through its cultivation new colonists will be brought into the country and the habit of labour and its accompaniment, wealth, will result both for them and for the natives. It is through the cultivation of the vine also that we may hope to remove the greatest present obstacle to progress in Algeria, viz. , the unhealthiness of the marshlands ; for in reality on all the soils where the vine is cultivated we soon see those conditions disappear to which intermittent fevers owe their origin.&quot; Algeria undoubtedly possesses soil and climate suit able to vine culture ; in fact, the vine seems almost to grow at will and is productive in the third year after being planted. The laying out of vineyards is consequently proceeding very rapidly, and con siderable improvement by means of skilled labour is becoming noticeable in the making of the wines. The wines of Algeria re semble that of Roussillon in general character, being full-bodied, with good colour and alcoholic strength. The greatest quantity is produced in the province of Algiers, although there is a consider able yield in the provinces of Constantine and Oran, the latter being cultivated principally by Spaniards. Spain. Spain is second only in reputation to France among wine-growing countries. Its white wine, known as sherry, first brought it into prominence ; and the red wines of Tarragona and Rioja have of late years formed a great feature in the commerce of the Peninsula. The reduced yield of the French vineyards, especially of those pro ducing the cheapest wines, owing to the ravages of the Phylloxera, combined with an increased home consumption, has compelled that country to import large quantities of wine for its own iise, and Spain has taken a foremost place in supplying the demand which has thus sprung up. In addition to this, a considerable quantity is exported to other countries, Great Britain amongst the number, in the shape of Spanish claret and port, which are perhaps of as good an intrinsic value as any that reach the &quot;United Kingdom. The wines of Andalusia naturally claim a priority in description. Sherry, so called from the town of Jerez (Xeres) de la Frontera, the headquarters of this industry, is produced in Andalusia in the area included between San Lucar in the north, Port St Mary in the south, and Jerez in the east. This tract of country contains in all about 25,000 acres of vine-growing soil. The system of pre paring sherry is different from that followed in the case of most other wines. In France every small grower can make his few hogsheads of wine, and when these have been made the process is complete. In Jerez, on the contrary, the immense establishments, many of them owned by Englishmen, purchase the grape juice or fruit and make their own must. The wines, which are stored in bodegas or sheds above ground, are reared for a number of years as soleras. These soleras consist of vats of various characters of sherry, the style of which is unvaryingly kept up, and whenever a quantity is drawn off they are filled up with wines of the same description. Certain quantities taken from various soleras are blended in order to make up the regular marks, by which means the style of different shipments is maintained. There are several different varieties of sherry known in the United Kingdom, which may be divided into the Amontillado and the Manzanilla classes. The Amontillado class may be again subdivided into Fino and Oloroso, the former being the more delicate ; frequently the two descriptions are different developments of exactly the same wine. The Manzanilla wines are very much lighter and drier, and are the produce of vines grown on the coast. In making up the marks for the different markets several varieties of sweetness and colour are required. These are obtained by the addition of vino dulcc made from grapes which are allowed to grow dead-ripe, and of colouring matters made from wine boiled down almost to a liqueur. A cer tain amount of grape spirit is added to check the tendency to re- fermentation. This system applies only to the Amontillado class. The Maiizanillas are mostly shipped in their natural state, with spirit added in small quantities only where it is feared that the wines will otherwise not be able to stand the journey. This description of wine, however, has not hitherto been in great demand in Great Britain. In addition to Manzanilla, there is another description of somewhat similar wine, but with less characteristic taste and some what more body, known as Montilla ; it is grown in the province Montilla, of Cordova. Yet another description of wine grown in the vicinity, Moguer, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, is that known as Moguer, &c. which resembles a cheap sherry, and is only used for blending with the commonest qualities. Of late a large quantity of this wine has found its way to France to assist in making a cheap wine for the French consumers. Other districts in the south of Spain well known for the production of wine are those of Malaga and Rota. The former yields a sweet description, principally made from Muscat grapes, although a coarse drier wine of the sherry type is also produced. The Rota district is known principally for a sweet red wine, known in England as &quot;tent&quot; (tinto), mainly used for ecclesiastical purposes. The central districts of Spain also produce some good red wines Val de suitable for exportation, such as Val de Penas, which have moderate Peiias. colour and considerable strength, and are said to be the produce of vines brought from Burgundy. The name Val de Penas, how ever, is often given also to wines grown in the neighbouring dis tricts. The system of storing these wines is very similar to that mentioned by Horace in connexion with Falernian, and is still practised at Montilla. The wines are placed in large earthen jars (tinajas) like Roman amphorse, which are prepared inside with a kind of varnish with a view to the preservation of the wine. Leon and Old Castile in the northern and central parts of Spain Riojaand furnish about one-half of the wine grown in the entire country. Tarra- On the border of this region is the rich and fertile district of Rioja gona. (Logroho), which has a climate admirably suited to the production of wines of moderate strength. The wines of Navarre are more full-bodied and have more colour and alcoholic strength, but owing to want of care in their production are less suitable for exportation. In Catalonia there is a much more important wine industry, the district producing what is known in England as Tarragona or Spanish red. The best quality produced is the wine of the Priorato district (about 15 miles inland from Tarragona), which is very rich and full-bodied, and keeps well. Unfortunately this particular area, which is chiefly mountainous, is limited. The next descrip tion to this is the wine of Huesca, which is also fine-coloured and full-flavoured. The wines of Aragon are also good, but require special care owing to their liability to a second fermentation. The best growth is that of Carinena (Zaragoza). The greater part of the Spanish wines imported into France are supplied from Catalonia and Aragon. A French authority on the subject states that &quot;of all the towns in Catalonia which supply wines to France Manresa is in reality the one which, for several years, has sent the largest quantity. This region enjoys a climate more temperate than that of Roussillon, and from hence are derived three-quarters of the wine shipped to France from Barcelona. Hence may be found all types of wines, including dry white and natural red. &quot; The only islands of the Canary group on which vine culture is Canary now carried on on a commercial scale are those of Gran Canaria wine. (Grand Canary) and Teneriffe, for although a certain amount is pro duced at Palma it is all used for local purposes. On the two first- named islands the industry has fallen away of late, owing to the attacks of Oidium, which destroyed the vines at about the same period as in Madeira. Since then the islands have been chiefly de voted to the production of cochineal, until the recent discovery of aniline dyes, which has, to a great extent, ruined the industry, and again led the inhabitants to turn their attention to vine culture. This has been especially the case in Gran Canaria, where a consider able area of ground is now r planted with vines, and a fair return of wine is obtained. These are being treated similarly to those of Madeira, which they greatly resemble in character. In Teneriffe a wine known as Vidonia, which is of a somewhat similar type, is produced, and is exported in small quantities. Vine-growers in this island adhere more to the methods in vogue in Spain. Portugal. The generous, full-flavoured wines known as port are the produce Port, of the district of Alto Douro in the north-east of Portugal, which begins at a point on the river Douro some 60 miles above Oporto, whence these wines are shipped. The whole of the port-wine dis trict, comprising a region between 30 and 40 miles in length with a maximum breadth of about 12, is rugged and mountainous, necessitating the construction of terraces supported by walls, with out which protection the soil would inevitably be washed away by the winter rains. The climate of Alto Douro is very cold in winter and extremely hot in summer (frequently 108 Fahr. in the shade). It is owing to this intense heat combined with the peculiar richness of the soil, which is of argillaceous schist formation, that port wines attain to such perfection of colour, body, and ripeness. Till quite recently the means of communication between Oporto and Alto Douro were extremely limited. Roads in the district itself there were none, or very few, and the only way of getting the produce to the port of shipment was by the river, the naviga-