Wine, the vine and the cellar / [Thomas George Shaw].

  • Shaw, Thomas George.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wine, the vine and the cellar / [Thomas George Shaw]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/532 (page 28)
    was procurable if persons would go to dealers of character and position. Although the whole appears in the Appendix, the letter contains so much that is interesting and new that I offer no apology for gmng here the following extracts :— I made acquaintance also mth Mr. Christopher Smith, a very old wine merchant, who told me that when he had come to a state of manhood (about the year 1750), and drinking wine at taverns, it was eightpence per quart, served up in a curious pewter measure, which turned round upon a little swivel, with a spout, and, if ten were in company, one glass served them all. The call was only for red wine or white wine, but frequently the red was called claret, and the white sherry. Sherry was then generally, like other white whies, kept in a state of fer- mentation, by sweet rnalaga, meade, cider, or honey. Pale wine was but just coming home (about 1768) on the lees, with which was mixed Spanish or small French wine; and a similar mixture was made of the various sorts of white wines. The dexterity of the wine cooper then was shown in making the most palatable at the lowest prices; but now (referring to 1807, the date of his letter) all wine comes in so clean and so perfect that the skill of the wine cooper of former days is not required. With white port, being subject to ferment in summer and grow foul in winter, we mixed a little Teneriffe, which improved its flavour, and prevented any further fermenta- tion. I think three years had elapsed before I had seen a butt of sherry; but when I did, I recommended it in preference to white port. A man of quality recommended to me Mr. Duff, our late consul at Cadiz, to whom I sent orders from several friends, and white port soon became despised, although it had been in such esteem that, even as late as 1782, I got orders in one week for eighty pipes. Now it is forgotten, and sherry has prevailed.