Hock (wine)

“ Charnock, frequently superior to the ordinary Niersteiner.
[29] “Hock,” says one of those wine circulars, which weary alike the postman and the public, “is the English name for the noble vintages of the Rhine, which afford models of what wine ought to be. Their purity is attested by their durability. They are almost imperishable. They increase appetite, they exhilarate without producing languor, and they purify the blood. The Germans say good Hock keeps off the doctor. Southey says it deserves to be called the Liquor of Life. ”

“ Owing to this increased demand, and the deficient supply of suitable Rhine wines at a moderate price, the manufacturers of sparkling hocks are reduced to buy much of their raw wine at a distance, and are to-day large purchasers of the growths of the Palatinate, which are less delicate than the vintages of the Rheingau, besides being deficient in that fine aroma which distinguishes genuine hock. A leading manufacturer computes that between four-and-a-half and five million bottles of sparkling wine are made annually in Germany, where there are no fewer than fifty manufacturing establishments. ”

“ At the present time there are in each district a number of wines possessing various names, such as Hermitage, Shiraz, Carbenet, Burgundy, Chasselas, Riesling, Tokay, &c., but these names actually mean nothing. Each district should produce a different type of wine. A Riesling from the Yarra and a Riesling from the Murray are as distinct as Hock and Sherry. Mr. de Castella further advises that each vine-grower should join the Vine–Growers’ Association in his locality. ”

“ The vintage had not indeed as yet begun, but I saw the process performed on a small quantity of grapes, which had been ripened in a garden. Every vineyard proprietor, besides his stock-fruit, has some peculiar species of grape from which he makes the wine for his own use and that of his immediate friends: these grapes are very carefully picked and culled, and none but the soundest and best are thrown into the tub. The wine thus made is infinitely superior to the stock-wine for sale: when old, it is not inferior to Hock, and I believe is frequently sold as such by the foreign purchasers. ”

“ The principal wine districts of Germany are the valleys of the Rhine and Moselle and their tributaries, whence come the well known Hock and the red and white wines, which, though sometimes rather thin and deficient in flavor, are never colored, plastered, boiled, or have spirits added to them, and are therefore natural and wholesome. ”

“ If Burgundy is the emperor of wines, Hock is the empress. For youngsters, perhaps, I should except the Hock that gets what they would fancy a trifle pique, turned with age, so as to lose in their opinion its empress flavour.'
Temple said modestly: 'I should call that the margravine of wines.'
My father beamed on him with great approving splendour. 'Join us, Mr. Temple; you are a man of wit, and may possibly find this specimen worthy of you. This wine has a history. You are drinking wine with blood in it. Well, I was saying, the darling of my heart has been torn from me; I am in a foreign land ”

“ Ingredients.—1 bottle of hock or other white wine, 1⁄2 a pint of water, 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of castor sugar, the juice and thin rind of 1 lemon, a small handful of black currant leaves, a few sprigs of woodruff, crushed ice. ”

“ Peel them and cut them in halves, crossways of the cells; squeeze into a tub. The press used must be so close that the seeds cannot pass into the must. Add 2 lb. white sugar to each gallon of sour orange juice, or 1 lb. each gallon of sweet orange juice, and 1 qt. water to each gallon of the mixed sugar and juice. Close fermentation is necessary. The resultant wine is amber-coloured, and tastes like dry hock, with the orange aroma. Vinegar can be made from the refuse, and extract from the peels.
Oxford Grace Cup.—Extract juice from peeling of a lemon, and cut the remainder into thin slices ”

“ It is, however, a question, whether they will be able to replace those hitherto cultivated, the conditions of climate and soil being so different. As is well known, none of the European vines succeed in North America; and the two indigenous sorts, which are grown in great quantities on the banks of the Ohio and the Missouri, cannot stand a comparison with any of our finer kinds. The juice of the American grapes is best suited for the manufacture of what82 is called sparkling hock, which is very like the Austrian Schaumwein. ”

“ The dominance of Concord is not wholly desirable for viticulture, as by keeping out better varieties, the consumer is prevented from obtaining grapes high in quality; and by giving the grower a feeling of sufficiency in having this sort, other varieties do not receive the consideration they deserve. The variety is used somewhat for making red wines and a white wine as a base for champagne but it is a poor wine grape, as much sugar must be added to attain the amount of alcohol necessary for a good wine and the foxy taste is not a pleasant flavor. ”

“ All these, when obtained genuine, are excellent, and I believe wholesome, but they should be used very sparingly indeed when wine is taken. Dr. Paris tells us that the most useful quality in the beer comes from the hop. “Independently,” says he, “of the flavour and tonic virtues which hops [264] communicate, they precipitate by means of their astringent principle the vegetable mucilage, and thus remove from the beer the active principle of fermentation; without hops, therefore, we must either drink our malt liquors new and ropy, or old and sour.” ”

“ In very bad years, when their wines become vinegar, they are sold for six florins the piece, and made into brandy. They yield one-tenth brandy.
White Champagne is deemed good in proportion as it is silky and still. Many circumstances derange the scale of wines. The proprietor of the best vineyard, in the best year, having bad weather come upon him while he is gathering his grapes, makes a bad wine, while his neighbor, holding a more indifferent vineyard, which happens to be ingathering while the weather is good, makes a better. The M. de Casotte at Pierrij formerly was the first house. ”

“ It is, however, worthy of remark, that the smaller the quantity of wine that is obtained from a vineyard, the better will be the wine, and vice versâ; thus the choicer vineyards of France yield a much smaller quantity of wine than the ordinary ones; the best Medoc wines, for instance, only averaging six barriques to each arpent of ground, whilst some inferior vineyards yield thirty barriques to the arpent. Mr. Busby states that the vintage through-out France yields, one year with another, two hundred and forty-seven gallons to the acre. ”

“ On the occasion of the vintage, as it is absolutely essential that the grapes should be gathered, not only when perfectly dry, but also warm, the cutters never commence work until the sun has attained a certain height, and invariably suspend their labours when rain threatens, or mists begin to rise. At the first gathering they detach simply the graines rôties, or such grapes as have dried after arriving at proper maturity, rejecting those which have shrivelled without thoroughly ripening, and, from the former, a wine of extreme softness and density, termed crème de tête, is produced. ”

“ Vines should be trained to the height of a man and the interval between the props should be sufficient to give room for a yoke of oxen to plough. The least expensive kind of a vineyard is that which brings wine to the jug without the aid of any sort of prop. There are two of this kind, one in which the earth serves as a bed for the grapes, as in many places in Asia, and where usually the foxes share the crop with man; [64] or, if mice appear, it is they who make the vintage, unless you put a mouse trap in every vine, as they do on the island of Pandataria. ”

“ The second growths are shipped to the different markets of Europe, North and South America; and the third growth principally to Holland and Hamburgh. In order to strengthen the natural body of claret wine, and to render it capable of bearing the transition of the sea, the first and second growths are allowed from ten to fifteen gallons of good Alicant wine to every hogshead, with one quart of stum. ”

“ There are cases, however, when cutting becomes necessary, as when the wine from being kept too long in casks, has commenced to decline, has lost its fruity flavor, has become acrid and dry; when made in a bad, cold season; and when they are too poor, green, or too feeble to keep well.
When wines are too old and worn out, they should be fortified with young wines of the same kind, produced, if possible, from the same vineyard, one or two, or at most, three years old, and possessing great mellowness. ”

“ Many prefer adding the hops when the wort has just come to the boiling point. Their effect is to repress the further progress of fermentation, and especially the passage into the acetous stage, which would otherwise inevitably ensue in a few days. In this respect, no other vegetable production hitherto discovered can be a substitute for the hop. The odorant principle is not so readily volatilised as would at first be imagined; for when hop is mixed with strong beer wort, and boiled for many hours, it can still impart a very considerable degree of its flavour to weaker beer. ”

“ On the other hand, the white grapes used in the making of German sparkling wine, and which are almost exclusively of the far-famed riesling species, are treated precisely as when making still Rhine wine—that is, they are crushed in the vineyards by means of grape-mills, and afterwards pressed in the usual way. The must for sparkling wines, whether from black or white grapes, is run at once into casks to ferment. If possible it is conveyed in large casks known as stucks—immediately after the pressing, and before fermentation begins—to the manufacturer’s cellars in town ”

“ The excrement of the hoppers also covers the grapes largely, and spoils their appearance and keeping quality, at least as table grapes. It is principally the table grapes and wine grapes which are injured by this insect; the former are made unfit for shipment, and the latter do not color well when deprived of their leaves. If the grapevines are kept growing, the grapes are less injured, and some growers even contend that the hopper is advantageous, as it causes the leaves to fall and the grapes to mature. ”

“ The soil of the neighbouring hills seems peculiarly adapted for the growth of black grapes, one of the best of German red wines being produced in the vineyards adjacent to the village of Walporzheim. In order that the wine may be as pale as possible, the black grapes are pressed as soon after gathering as they can be, and only the juice resulting from the first pressure is reserved, the subsequently extracted must being sold to the small growers of the neighbourhood. The newly-made wine is brought in casks to Coblenz, and rests for eight weeks while completing its fermentation. ”

“ A very good vinegar can be made from grapes, although as yet this outlet for over-production is not largely utilized in America. Grapes which are unsuitable for raisins, dessert, wine-making or grape-juice can be used for vinegar-making. Under the most favorable conditions, grape-vinegar cannot compete in cheapness with vinegar made from numerous other products and must, therefore, always sell at a high price. Indeed, it is doubtful whether a high-grade grape-vinegar can be manufactured at a less price than good wine. ”

“ The grapes are then not crushed, but are immediately pressed, and the juice alone is subjected to fermentation. As a rule, three wines are made in the principal vineyards in three successive periods. The first wine, which is termed the vin de tête, is generally the sweetest and finest, the next (called the milieu) being somewhat drier and the last (vin de queue) being the least valuable. ”

“ The building contains four presses, three of which are worked with large fly-wheels requiring several men to turn them, while the fourth acts with a screw applied by means of a long pole. At the vintage 3,600 kilogrammes, or nearly 8,000lbs., of grapes are put under each press, a quantity sufficient to yield eight to ten hogsheads of wine of forty-four 77 gallons each, suitable for sparkling wine, besides three or four hogsheads of inferior wine given to the workmen to drink. ”

“ If putty well wrought, tar, or even yellow soap, be rubbed over the seams, and round the inner rim of the head of the cask, it will preserve it from opening. The equal temperature of the kitchen is preferred by experienced housewives to letting the vinegar stand abroad; they aver the coldness of the nights in this country is prejudicial to the process, being as speedily perfected as if it underwent no such check. By those well skilled in the manufacture of home-made wines and beer, excellent maple-wine and beer might be produced at a very trifling expense ”

“ It is claimed that it retards fermentation, and that red wines under its effects develop more color, because the marc can be left longer in the fermenting vat; that the froth of plastered wine is livelier and sooner disappears, which pleases the merchants; and that it has a preservative effect upon the wine. It is claimed by some that it renders the wine dryer and harsher, as it does, if used to excess, and by others, that it unites with a portion of the water of the juice, and renders the remaining juice richer in sugar. ”