Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/790

 wine of each year. The quantity of wine annually produced has varied from 25 pieces of 240 gallons each to 60 pieces. The wines of inferior quality, produced in poor years, are sold by auction immediately after the spring racking, and only the select qualities are kept in the cellars of the estate. At the age of four or five years they are bottled, after which they greatly improve in bouquet. The largest yield was in 1857, when 60 pieces, or 14,400 gallons, realized at auction $60,000. The difficulty of obtaining genuine Schloss-Johannisberger is very great, and large quantities of spurious wine are sold under the name. The first quality has been known to command from $5 to $8 a bottle; but the auction wines are much less valuable, and sell for from $250 to $1,000 the piece, according to the qualities they possess for mixing.—Next in reputation to the Johannisberger wine, if not its equal, is that produced on the estate of Steinberg, which until 1866 was the property of the dukes of Nassau, but in that year passed into the possession of the crown of Prussia. The Steinberg is a hill 3 m. from the Rhine, the vine-growing portion of which occupies an area not exceeding 60 acres, enclosed by a massive wall of masonry. This, with the mountain barrier in the rear, effectually screens the vineyard from chilling or injurious winds. The estate, which once belonged to the wealthy cloister of Eberbach, includes also a farm of 450 acres, maintained for the sole purpose of producing the manure necessary for the vineyard. The latter has various undulations and hollows, by which it is divided into districts yielding different qualities of wine. The soil is heavier than that of the Schloss Johannisberg, and on this account in warm seasons the ripening of the grape is not as a rule effected before the latter has reached its full maturity. The opposite result is often witnessed in the Johannisberg vineyard. Thus, during the years 1857, 1858, and 1859, which were exceptionally warm, the Steinberg wines showed a marked superiority over those of the Johannisberg. The discovery that the over-ripe grapes yield the best wine was made on this estate about 50 years ago, and since then the vintage has always been very late. In ordinary years there are two or three selections of grapes, from the first of which is made the best wine, the rest hanging 10 or 15 days longer. The annual product of the estate varies from 14,000 to 20,000 gallons, valued at $350 to $3,500 the piece, the latter price being paid for the choicest cabinet wines only. The Auslese of certain exceptionally fine years has sometimes sold in the cask as high as $5 a bottle. The ordinary qualities, like those of the Johannisberg wine, are sold annually by auction.—Scarcely inferior to these wines are those produced on the Rüdesheim-Berg and Hinterhaus, which have a southerly exposure, and lie so near the Rhine that the reflection of the sun from the surface of the river greatly facilitates the ripening of the grape. The vineyards, comprising an area of about 300 acres, divided among a number of proprietors, are terraced from the base to the summit of the hills, and yield wines of considerable body and fine bouquet, the best qualities of which are high-priced. A short distance below Rüdesheim is Asmannshausen, which yields the only good red wine of the Rheingau. This is produced from the black Burgundy grape known as the pineau noir, whence the wine is often spoken of as a species of Rhenish burgundy. It has a soft and exceedingly delicate flavor, but like the higher class of burgundies suffers from transportation. The wines produced on the estates of Marcobrunn, Hattenheim (first growth), Gräfenberg (first growth), and Geisenheim-Rothenberg, also rank as of the highest quality, and in favorable seasons command enormous prices. Of the second growth of the Rheingau produce, the most esteemed varieties are the Johannisberg-Claus, Vollraths, and Rauenthal-Berg. Among the third growths may be mentioned Hattenheimer, Winkel, Hallgarten, Rüdesheimer, Geisenheimer, Erbach, Elfeld, and Lorch, which may be regarded as the ordinary wines of commerce. In good seasons, and when the best grapes only are selected, these latter growths sometimes reach a high degree of excellence, and command a correspondingly high price.—The banks of the Rhine from Asmannshausen to Coblentz are thickly planted with vineyards, but the situations being for the most part unfavorable, little or no wine of first-rate quality is produced on this part of the river. But in the valley of the little river Ahr, which enters the Rhine about 20 m. below Coblentz, is grown a pale red wine, called the Ahr-Bleichart, having certain strengthening and astringent qualities, and an agreeable burgundy flavor.—Rhenish Bavaria or the Palatinate produces an immense quantity of wine, the yield in favorable seasons reaching 16,000,000 gallons, which is noted for its medium good quality, its purity and freshness of taste, and its cheapness. While never approaching the wines of the Rheingau in bouquet, it not unfrequently surpasses them in richness. The vineyards occupy a fertile, undulating plain, somewhat elevated above the valley of the Rhine, and bounded on the west by the Haardt mountains, a northerly continuation of the Vosges range. About 25,000 acres are under cultivation. The wines of the first growth are Rupertsberger, Deidesheimer, Wachenheimer, and Forster; of the second, Ungsteiner, Dürkheimer, and Königsbach.—Rhenish Hesse produces wines partaking of the qualities of those of the Palatinate and of the Rheingau. Well known growths are the Liebfrauenmilch, produced in and around the convent garden of the Liebfrauen-Stift, near Worms, an agreeable middle-class wine of fine bouquet; the Scharlachberger and Feuerberger of Bingen and its neighborhood; and the wines of Laubenheim, Bodenheim, Oppenheim, Nierstein, and Selzen, several of which have considerable local