Page:Through a Glass Lightly (1897, Greg).djvu/79

 which would work its ruin blending not with it.

In the autumn following the vintage, the great Burgundies, which, in the hopes of men, already eclipse the ancestral vintages, pour into Charleroi and Namur. One by one the great years1811, ’34, ’37, ’39, ’40, ’42, ’44, ’46, ’48, and ’65have toppled off their shelves and live only in the memories of amateurs. Even now the Flemings are waiting with tiptoe expectation the development of 1889, of which it has been rumoured that none other save 1811 will surpass it. Yearly the value grows, and yearly more splendid and glorious the well-earned increment. The wine is bottled at the end of fifteen weeks, and some would say that it has passed its prime when sixteen years are told, which opinion