Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/646

Rh 608 WINE Cultiva tion of the vine for port. Vintage in Alto Douro. tion of which, at all times difficult and even dangerous, on account of the numerous rocks and rapids which obstruct its course, is often rendered impossible by freshets. The Douro railway, however, now traverses the whole length of the wine country along the river bank from Oporto, and other lateral railways are in course of con struction which will open up several fine wine-producing districts hitherto unavailable owing to want of roads. The method of cultivating the vine in Alto Douro differs con siderably from those employed in various other parts of the country, where the vines are either trained over pollarded trees or treillaged at a certain height from the ground, or where they are planted in rows and grown like bushes. The method is as follows. In November or December trenches are dug, 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches deep, according as the soil is heavy or light, and 2 feet broad, in which vine cuttings are placed at a distance of 3 feet to 4 feet 6 inches apart from each other. The trenches are then partly filled in, in order that the vines may get all the benefit of the rain-water collecting in them. During the first year of planting great care is taken to keep down all weeds whilst the vines are shooting. At the end of two years the young vines, if they have come on well, can be grafted, the best time for performing this operation being October or February ; in this way the period of production is hastened, and the vineyard will yield in four instead of five years time. Should some of the vines die, their places are usually sup plied by the process called mcrgulho or layering : that is, a trench is dug in the direction of the space left bare and in it the stock of the nearest vine is turned down. The trench is then partly filled in, leaving two or three shoots of the buried vine visible to the extent of a couple of &quot; eyes&quot; above the surface, which shoots are to take the place of the missing vines. There is also the system of planting from nurseries, which are made with either Portuguese or American varieties. The plot of ground used for the nursery must be kept well clear of weeds and, if in a dry situation, well watered. In two years time and during the month of February the young vines can be transplanted, and the year after grafted, when the vineyard is planted. The first of the regular operations in the course of cultivation is to clear away the soil from the feet of the stocks, which takes place directly the vintage is over. At the same time manure may be given, and, if the vines are strong enough to bear the application, sulphate of carbon may be injected, on account of the prevalence of Phylloxera. After this the vines are pruned. In March the first annual turning of the soil takes place ; then the branches of the vines are tied to stakes or canes, in which process considerable skill is brought to bear so as to make the vine shoot in the required direction. Immediately after or about the time they blossom the vines are sulphured, to keep off the Oidium, which disease is still active in Portugal ; and lastly in June the soil is hoed over to destroy the weeds. The turning of the soil, which is effected with an implement resembling a two-pronged hoe, and the cultivation of the vineyards generally, are to a great extent performed by labourers (GaUcgos) from Galicia in Spain, but at vintage time serranos from the neighbouring serras also flock in to work. The vintage in Alto Douro generally commences late in Sep tember. The grapes are cut by women and children, and are con veyed in large baskets twenty-two of which full of grapes will yield a pipe of wine by Gallegos to the place where the wine is to be made. Here they are emptied into large stone tanks, 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches in depth, each holding from seven to thirty pipes of wine. Each tank is fitted with a beam press, except where the modern screw press has taken its place. As the grapes come in, the stalks are removed, either with a kind of rake or, as in the best managed establishments, with machines called desingaradorcs, made for the purpose. The white grapes are separated from the red, the &quot; white port &quot; being made from the former ; this wine was formerly much appreciated in England, but now finds its chief market on the Continent. When the tank is full, a number of men, and sometimes even women, begin the process of treading, which is continued for about forty-eight hours ; after that the must is left to ferment by itself. When the weather has been cold or the year a very ripe one, it has sometimes been found necessary to give as much as seventy-two hours treading ; nowadays, how ever, there is seldom need for so much work. When the must has sufficiently fermented, it is drawn off into huge vats, holding as a rule about twenty-five pipes each ; at the same time sufficient alcohol is added to prevent acetous fermentation and retain part of the sweetness of the grape. Formerly the drawing-off of the must from the tank was determined simply by taste or judgment, but of late years the saccharometer is employed to decide when the must has reached the requisite degree of sweetness. The wines are left untouched in the vats till the cold weather causes them to deposit the lees, when they are racked, and at the same time another small addition of brandy is made. The brandy used is with hardly any exception simply distilled wine, and is of very fine quality. About March or April the wines are again racked from their lees into casks, and are sent down either by boat or rail to Oporto, where they are stored, in most cases for a considerable number of years previous to being shipped. The cheaper wines are an exception, being as a rule shipped when young, also those of the so-called &quot;vintage&quot; class, which are the finest wines of a good year kept separate and shipped as the produce of that particular year. The following is a list of the most famous &quot;vintages&quot; of the 19th century 1809, 12, 15, 20, 27, 34, 40, 47, 51, 63, 68, 70, 73, 78, 81, the last year when the wine was shipped as a vintage being 1884. The stores or lodges wheifi the wines are warehoused are chiefly situated on the Villa Nova Side of the river, facing Oporto, and generally speaking comprise a series of long one-storied stone buildings, with thick partition walis and heavy tiled roofs. The wines are kept in casks ranged in ro&amp;gt;-s of two or three tiers ; in some establishments large vats, holding from 10 to 110 pipes, are also used, being especi ally serviceable for blending purposes. The amount of wine con tained at the present day in these lodges is calculated at something like 80,000 pipes, the gross value of which cannot be less than two and a half or three million pounds sterling, by far the greater part of this sum representing English capital. The chief market for port wine is, as it always has been, England. Port- Its introduction into England, which was the beginning of the wine trade in these wines, dates from the end of the 17th century. At trade, first the exportation was small, the annual average for the first ten years being just over 600 pipes. The consumption, however, gradu ally increased till 1753, when, owing to adulterations and various other causes, port wine fell into disrepute, and the shipments receded to a very low figure. The prices of new wine to the farmer at this time varied between 2 and 3 per pipe, whilst the shipping prices for old wine did not exceed 9. To remedy this state of things the Old Wine Company was established in 1756 by the marquis of Pombal. The first act of the company was to make an arbitrary circumscription of what they considered the viticultural region of Alto Douro, outside of which no vines could be planted. The territory within the limits of the demarcation was then divided into three districts, (1) that producing the factory wines, i.e., those set apart for England, (2) that whence the supplies for the Brazils were drawn, and (3) that the produce of which was reserved for tavern use or distillation. For all the wine allowed to be exported permits were issued, without which not a single cask could be sent down to Oporto for shipment. Later on, however, these permits were openly sold in the market, fetching as a rule about 3. The inconvenience and damage to the trade resulting from these absurd regulations led to the abolition of the company in 1833. But in 1843 the creditors of the Old Wine Company, whose lodges, with their valuable contents, had been destroyed at the raising of the siege of Oporto by the retreating Miguelites, induced the Govern ment, as an indemnity for their losses, to re-establish the former company s monopoly. The new company had no authority to pre vent the planting of vines ; but their powers as to the classification and exportation of port wine were the same as those possessed by the old company. For instance, in 1848 over 11,000 pipes were produced, but only 7000 were approved for exportation to England. At this time the export duty on wine destined for England was 3 per pipe in reality 6, if the 3 permit is taken into considera tion, whilst that on wine destined for countries out of Europe was only 6d. per pipe. The consequence was that considerable quantities of wine were shipped to America and thence to England, the differ ence in the duty just paying expenses with a slight profit to the shipper. This state of things lasted till 1853, when the company was finally &quot;exonerated from its official duties&quot; and the export duty equalized on wine to all countries. Since that time the port- wine trade has been entirely unrestricted. Besides the curse of monopolies, Alto Douro has suffered severely Ravage, from th e Oidium and Phylloxera. The former appeared about 1848, of Phyl but it was not till 1853 that the disease assumed serious proportions, loxera The climax was reached in 1856, when only 15,000 pipes were vin- and taged, about one-sixth of the usual quantity. At one time it Oidium seemed as if the whole trade would collapse, as the exportation dropped from 41,621 pipes in 1856 to 16,696 pipes in 1858. For tunately, however, the sulphur remedy was discovered and applied in time, and since then the Oidium, though not entirely got rid of, has at any rate been effectually prevented from doing much harm. The same, as yet, cannot be said of the Phylloxera, the ravages of which have been much more serious. Its presence in Alto Douro was suspected as early as 1868 ; but for years hardly any attempt was made to save the vines, owing to the incredulity of the large farmers, who considered the cause of the withering of their vines to be the continuous drought of successive dry seasons. More energetic efforts are now being made to cope with the disease ; but in the meantime the yield has been getting less year by year, and at the present time is little more than half what it used to be during the three years previous to the appearance of the Oidium, when the average was over 100,000 pipes. The excess of exportation over production for the last few years is owing, in the first place, to the enormous increase in the Brazilian trnde, which is largely made up of wines from the Minho and Beira districts, and, secondly, to the new trade in common country wines with France. The shipments of wine of all kinds from Oporto to the Brazils amounted during