The Vine and Its Fruit, More Especially in Relation to the Production of Wine ...

PREFATORY NOTE.

It is with feelings of great satisfaction that I presume to invite public notice to this new and enlarged edition of A Brief Discourse on Wine. The gratifying reception accorded to that little volume on its publication, and the flattering notice bestowed on it by a considerable portion of the public press, induced a desire on my part to render the work more perfect and complete. The additional information now supplied may serve to extend its utility, and possess sufficient novelty and interest to make it worthy of attention and perusal.

It will, doubtless, be readily perceived that the task was one involving both time and patient labour; and as the pressure of business left me but little leisure for research, I gladly availed myself of the willing aid of a valued relative, to whose zealous co-operation most of the new matter contained in these pages is due.

It is earnestly hoped that this humble effort at improvement will meet with renewed indulgence and favour; and that the Vine, now replanted and extended, may put forth its blossoms afresh, and its Fruit prove sound, abundant, and refreshing.

J. L. DENMAN.

LONDON: December 1863.

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THE policy of the British Government having by recent legislation been fairly directed towards measures tending to promote an increased consumption of foreign wines. in this kingdom, a new era is opening for the daily use and enjoyment by all classes of that refreshing beverage. For generations past, high and prohibitive fiscal duties had served to exclude the lighter wines of Europe, and the people being thus limited to the knowledge of a few leading and expensive sorts, their taste and judgment were much contracted, if not perverted. Yet no production of the soil, perhaps, demands more uniform care and forethought than the grape, to make it yield in full perfection. Nor should this be matter of doubt or surprise when the many delicate circumstances which affect the health of the vine and the quality of the fruit are fairly considered. A single year of slovenly cultivation, an injudicious mode of training or pruning, an untimely season of frost, or rain, or blight, may deteriorate for years the properties of any particular growth. Carelessness, too, in harvesting the fruit, negligence in the manipulations and subsequent process, imperfect fermentation, unskilful treatment of the must,

unclean ces or inadequate storeage, to say nothing of the requent poverty and ignorance of the farmers themselves-all tend to modify the strength and virtues of the product, and so multiply the sources of uncertainty, that uniform quality is not attainable even by cultivators of the highest repute.

To herald the emancipation of hilarious Bacchus from fiscal shackles of more than a century and a half's duration, neither senatorial eloquence nor sanguine anticipations were wanting, and England's parliament responded with earnest sympathy and applause. It could not be gainsaid, that the substitution of a cheap and wholesome beverage would do more to wean an industrial people from confirmed habits of inebriety than all the custom-house restrictions or Maine liquor laws in the world. The expansion thus wisely inaugurated for the increase of commercial activity in wines, will doubtless promote the importation of vintages hitherto unavailable or unknown in this country; and as sound and timely suggestions in aid of a true appreciation and judicious selection for private use may be appropriate and serviceable at such a juncture, this slight attempt to elucidate succinctly and correctly some of the chief points connected with a subject of so much interest is respectfully proffered to an indulgent public.