Viticulture

“ This constitutes one of the vexed questions connected with viticulture, and the most diverse opinions have been expressed about it. Some believe that irrigation is of great value, while others cannot say enough against it. But it would seem that when judiciously employed it is of unquestionable advantage. It renders the cultivation of the grape possible in places where it would otherwise be impossible; it largely increases the yield; and, what certainly must not be forgotten, it enables a lighter wine to be produced in the warmer regions. ”

“ A modification in the system of cultivation and pruning of the vines will also be factors in improving the quality of the wine.
“There is in this country good soil, and a climate which cannot be equalled for the successful cultivation of the vine. Capital is plentiful, and the people very enterprising; so there remains only the want of Technical Instruction, by the institution of practical schools of Viticulture, without which it is doubtful if ever its vignerons will succeed in making wines likely to be appreciated in the foreign markets.” ”

“ Viticulture forms a marked industry, though as yet largely undeveloped. There are 1,450 acres under cultivation, and this area is rapidly increasing. The slopes of the coastal ranges are admirably adapted for the culture of the vine, and the chief varieties grown are those most suitable for wine-making and for the table. Chasselas Doradillo, White Rice, Black Alicante, and Muscat of Alexandria are largely cultivated. There is, I conjecture, a good field open for the capitalist in the direction of the wine manufacture. ”

“ This is not because American varieties cannot be grown, although they succeed rather less well here than on the eastern seaboard, but because the Viniferas are liked better, and climate and soil seem exactly to suit them. Viticulture on the Pacific slope is divided into three interdependent industries which are almost never quite independent of each other—the wine industry, raisin industry and table-grape industry. ”

“ So completely, indeed, were viticulturists won by the thousand and more native grapes, that for the century which followed no one has planted Old World grapes east of the Rockies, while vineyards of native species may be found North and South from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Meanwhile, much new knowledge has come to agriculture, old fallacies have received many hard knocks and chains of tradition in which the culture of plants was bound, have been broken. In no field of agriculture have workers received greater aid from science than in viticulture. ”

“ The sandy soil will, in general, produce a delicate wine, the calcareous soil a spirituous wine, the decomposed granite a brisk wine.
When a soil is to be chosen for a vineyard, all cold, compact, and wet soils, and such as are easily hardened by the sun's rays, are to be avoided. If it is more profitable, or desirable, to obtain a large quantity of wine for the general consumption of a country, or for distillation, good rich soils may be resorted to; thus, on the banks of the Cher and Loire, in France, they not only cultivate the vine on rich soils, but even with the aid of manure. ”

“ The substance of what the French writers have said on this point, amounts to this:—You have, already, extensive and excellent vineyards, and in the lapse of ages, each variety has found out the soil and situation which fits it best or has found out the soil and situation which fits it best, or has become naturalized to the climate and soil where it grows. Choose your plants from the best in your own neighbourhood, attend to their cultivation, and to the fermentation of your wine, and you will have the best your land is capable of producing. ”

“ THE MAKING OF THE WINE—THE CELLAR. Up till this time our whole attention has been taken up with everything that has to do with the production of the grape. But with the gathering of the crop a complete change has taken place, for nature no longer exercises such a controlling influence. At this stage the art of winemaking really begins, and the climate, the soil, and all the other factors that have so much to do with the growth of the grape assist us no longer. From the moment that the grapes are gathered till the wine is ready for bottling is a most eventful period ”

“ The vineyards which occupy so large a portion of this district, contain a great many varieties of the vine, which circumstance, together with the prevailing difference of soil and aspect, naturally produces wines of very various flavour and opposite qualities.
It is affirmed, that the first requisite to make good wine seems to be a peculiar quality in the soil in which the fruit is grown, more than in the species of vine itself; the second requisite to good wine is the species of plant, aided by a judicious mode of training and cultivation. ”

“ 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; 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. ”

“ Every body knows that no product of the arts varies so much as wine; that different countries, and sometimes the different provinces of the same country, produce different wines. These differences, no doubt, must be attributed chiefly to the climate in which the vineyard is situated—to its culture—the quantity of sugar contained in the [Pg 90] grape juice—the manufacture of the wine; or the mode of suffering its fermentation to be accomplished. If the grapes be gathered unripe, the wine abounds with acid; but if the fruit be gathered ripe, the wine will be rich. ”

“ The produce of a particular vineyard, although from the same species of grape, cultivated under precisely similar conditions, will differ materially in flavour and bouquet, not merely in bad and good years, but in vintages of equal excellence. Moreover, these wines need the most skilful cellar treatment during the long years they are maturing. All great wines, it should be remembered, ripen slowly, and cannot be ‘pasturised’ into perfection—that is to say, cannot be rapidly matured by heating them to a certain temperature, as ordinary wines may be. ”

“ The soil, which is of the customary calcareous formation, has a marked ruddy tinge, indicative of the presence of iron, to which the wine is in some degree indebted for its distinguishing characteristics—its delicacy, spirituousness, and pleasant bouquet. Vintagers were passing slowly in between the vines, and carts laden with grapes came rolling over the dusty roads. The mountain which rises behind the vineyards is scored up its sides and fringed with foliage at its summit, and a small stone bridge crosses the deep ravine formed by the swift-descending winter torrents. ”

“ This end cannot be obtained, even in the warmest climates of France, in a plant of greater height than four and a half feet, including the mother branches; and perhaps no cultivator, who is not regardless of the quality of his wine, should allow it to exceed this height. But even in countries, enjoying every advantage of climate, and vineyards, possessing the most suitable soil and situation, the cultivator sometimes finds it his interest, to confine its growth to the dimensions more common in less favourable climates. ”

“ This may easily be done, where each grape grower makes his own wine, and has immediate supervision of the picking, and has sufficient men to finish it with promptness. But in the case of large manufacturers who buy their grapes and cannot supervise or order the gathering in the numerous vineyards whose crops they purchase, it may sometimes be necessary, when the grapes come in overripe, and it is not desirable to [Pg 20] make sweet wine, to add a small quantity of water to insure prompt and complete fermentation. ”

“ They grafted and crossed the vine plants till they got the most admirably bearing bushes, and then, generation after generation, devoting all their attention to the quality of the wine, without regard to the quantity—scrupulously taking care that not a grape which is unripe or over-ripe finds its way to the tub—that the whole process shall be scrupulously clean, and that every stage of fermentation be assiduously attended to—the results of all this has been the perfectly-perfumed and high-class clarets, which fetch an enormous price ”

“ It is not only because the fruit of these vines, supported by trees, is, by their foliage, shaded from the rays of the sun, that they yield wine of as inferior description. It is the nature of the vine, to absorb moisture by its leaves, in much greater proportion than, by its roots; and this unmeasured foilage continues to supply a quantity of sap, which circulates without elaboration, and is rather employed in the formation of wood, and the grapes, consequently, contain an aqueous fluid, which it is impossible to convert into a wine of good quality. ”

“ In these, the vine grows freely, but this very strength of vegetation, as has been before observed, is essentially hurtful to the quality of the grape, which, with difficulty, attains to maturity, and produces a wine without strength or flavour. If, then, a rich soil is free and open, the vine planted in it flourishes vigorously, producing in abundance a wine, weak, watery, and destitute of perfume ”

“ At five o'clock in the evening I again set off. The spectacle of yesterday evening was repeated, and at sunset the grasshoppers again began to sing. For about a league the journey lies between walls above which the grape-espaliers are visible. Other walls, which are not high enough, have been eked out with stones, thorns, etc., to prevent passengers from plucking off the grapes. Many owners sprinkle the foremost rows with lime, which renders the grapes uneatable, but does not hurt the wine, as the process of fermentation drives out the heterogeneous matter. ”

“ The grapes from which port-wine is made are all grown within the narrow compass of a mountain-valley about twenty-seven miles long by five or six wide, where the conditions of soil and climate most favorable to wine-culture—including a large degree of both heat and cold—are found in perfection. Owing to its elevation the frosts in this district are tolerably severe, while in summer the sun looks steadily down with his hot glance into the valley till its vine-clad sides are permeated by heat. The grapes ripened there are of peculiar richness and strength. ”

“ There is a vast field open to the wine maker of this State, for we have differences of soil and climate suitable for the production of a wonderful variety of wines. But every man must decide for himself what kind of wine his soil and situation are best adapted to produce, and his aim then should be to produce the best of that kind. ”

“ LXV. When the must is stored in the vat to make wine, it should not be racked off while it is fermenting nor until this process has advanced so far that the wine may be considered to be made. If you wish to drink old wine, it is not made until a year is completed; when it is a year old, then draw it out. But if your vineyard contains that kind of grape which turns sour early, you should eat the fruit, or sell it before the succeeding vintage. ”

“ If every grower in the State will only devote a portion of his ground to the cultivation of the choicest varieties of grapes, making sure that he knows what he is cultivating, will use the best methods of vinification, preserve each kind of wine by itself, or keep a careful record of his blends, and will age and rear the different products according to the best and most intelligent methods, the writer confidently expects that favored spots will be found in time which will produce wines that will compare favorably with the fine wines of Europe ”

“ The handsome red and white buildings{203} which held the cuvier, the long line of stables and farm-buildings, the immense storehouses full of wine and wine barrels, were at their busiest, and on the slopes below the château the vintagers were working at top speed to finish by the end of the week. As we walked through the long vineyards by the river, the grapeless rows of vines looked forlorn and elderly, like mothers who have married off their daughters and have no occupation left. ”

“ As the selection of a proper location is of vast importance, and one of the main conditions of success, great care and judgment should be exercised in the choice. Some varieties of grapes may be grown on almost any soil, it is true; but even they will show a vast difference in the quality of the fruit, even if the quantity were satisfactory; on indifferent soil, and in an inferior location. Everybody should grow grapes enough for his own use, who owns an acre of ground, but every one cannot grow them and make the most delicious wine. ”

“ I visited, among others, the Le Franc vineyard, which dates from 1851, and is the pioneer in making wine-growing a regular industry. Here are about a hundred and seventy-five thousand vines, set out a thousand, perhaps, to the acre. The large, cheerful farm buildings are upon a gentle rise of ground above the area of vines, which is nearly level. An Alsacian foreman showed us through the wine-cellars. A servant-maid bustling about the yard was a thorough French peasant, only lacking the wooden shoes. ”