Copy 1
A history and description of modern wines / By Cyrus Redding.
- Cyrus Redding
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A history and description of modern wines / By Cyrus Redding. Source: Wellcome Collection.
80/496 page 12
![from the river are the finest vineyards. Some circum- stances relative to differences in the vine are singular. In one little vineyard, that of Mont-Rachet, in Burgundy, hereafter mentioned, the soil is the same, the aspect alike, the vines receive the same care and ‘culture, and the wine is made in the same manner, and yet three varieties of wine are produced: one, of the very first character, perfect, Mont-Rachet Ane; another far less perfect, Mont-Rachet Chevalier ; while the third, Mont-Rachet Batard, has rarely any of the qualities of the first-named wine at all! ‘The cause seems inexplicable, unless one portion of the vines draw their nourishment from a stratum which the others do not reach, and thus a different quality attaches to the fruit from something which it obtains from its own peculiar sources. In ancient times the Romans trained their high vines as they now do in Tuscany, along palisades or from tree to tree. ‘This mode is followed in some parts of southern France. ‘he vine is planted near a maple, a cherry-tree, or an elm, sometimes with a single stem, sometimes with two; the vine is suffered to interlace itself with the branches _of the tree. The grapes are often shaded this way, by the leaves above them, from the heat of the sun, and do not reach maturity, so that the wine made from them is acid and cold. When two stocks are planted, they are suffered to grow up to the fork of the tree, and are then carried in festoons to the neighbouring branches. Columella says, the ancients planted six stocks to one tree; but not more than three are ever planted now. ‘The trees were twenty feet asunder too in ancient times, as is gathered from another authority. It is found that by the present method the fruit ripens well. ‘The land is cultivated below with leguminous vegetables: although no object can be more beautiful than a vineyard planted in this manner, the pro- duct of the vines is injured by the cultivation beneath, if too extensive. Most persons believe that this is the mode adopted in all vineyards; hence they are disappointed on ]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33095012_0001_0080.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
