Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/371

Rh "There's a great deal in a name," said Doctor Bronson, "especially when wines are to be considered. No doubt we have your Australian common wines in America under the name of Bordeaux or Burgundy, just as we have our own products. Thousands of casks of California wines are sold every year on the Atlantic seaboard, but not under their own name. Offered as California wines they would not find a market, but as Bordeaux wines they have a ready sale."

"And I have been told," said Mr. Watson, "that the Californian, although very enthusiastic about his own State, will not drink its wine. Am I right?"

"According to my observation, you are," the Doctor replied. "I do not think I ever saw a bottle of native wine on the table of a resident of California. Hotel-keepers in San Francisco have told me that those who order California wines at dinner are invariably strangers; a Californian would almost consider himself disgraced if he should do so."

"Well, it is pretty much the same in Australia," said Mr. Watson. "We are proud of our country and what it produces, but we prefer French champagne to our own sparkling wines, and Spanish sherry to what comes from our vineyards and wine cellars. And not altogether