Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon].

John Timbs

Date:: 1838

Credit: Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

116/188 page 100

$to the palate. When of superior quality, it has the singu- lar aromatic flavour of champagne in an eminent degree; a flavour which also exists, but is concealed by carbonic acid, in the sparkling wine. St. Peray is a pleasant wholesome effervescing wine; and is remarkable for its natural unbrandied strength. Sauterne has not quite so much strength as Barsac; but it is very fine and mellow. Barsac is distinguished by its strength and flavour in good years, and is generally lively and sparkling, and very mellow. Barsac and oysters are a first-rate luncheon. Both these wines keep well: some Sauterne that dates from the middle of the last century, is said to be in existence. There is a prejudice against Burgundy, as being inju- rious to health; but a more wholesome or more nourishing wine cannot be taken. The Roussillon wines, (as Masdeu lately introduced into this country), require age: and, if originally of fine quality, they are not in perfection unless they have been ten or twelve years in bottle. Claret is chiefly shipped at Bordeaux, and is the produce of the neighbouring country. The first growths, those of Chateau-Margaux, Lafitte, Latour, and Haut Brion, are from the district of Medoc, on the left bank of the river Garonne, below the city. None of the very best quality of the red wines of the Bordelais, (country round Bordeaux), known in England as claret, is exported pure : a bottle of the best Chateau- Margaux, or Haut Brion, being a rarity hardly to be pro- cured in Bordeaux itself, at the rate of six or seven francs. For export, the secondary growths at .Medoc are mingled with the rough Palus. The Bordelais are the safest wines for daily use, as they are among the most perfect of the light wines, and do not easily excite intoxication. They have been accused of pro- ducing the gout, but without reason. Persons who drench themselves with madeira, port, \c., and indulge in occa- sional debauches of claret, may, indeed, be visited in that$

Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon].

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