by the Phoenicians, and to Italy and southern Gaul from Greece. In the earliest Roman times the vine was very little cultivated in Italy, but gradually Rome and Italy generally became a great wine country. At a later date the republic sought to stimulate its home industry by prohibiting the importation of wine, and by restricting its cultivation in the colonies, thus preserving the latter as a useful market for Italian wines. According to Pliny, Spanish, Gallic and Greek wines were all consumed in Rome during the 1st century of the Christian era, but in Gaul the production of wine appears to have been limited to certain districts on the Rhone and Gironde. The cultivation of the vine in more northern parts (i.e. on the Seine and Moselle) was not commenced until after the death of Probus. Owing no doubt to the difficulties of transportation, wine was, in the middle ages, made in the south of England, and in parts of Germany, where it is now no longer produced (cf. Hehn, Culturpflanzen, &c., and Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, v. 98 et seq.) We know very little of the ancient methods of cultivating the vine, but the Romans—no doubt owing to the luxuriant ease with which the vine grows in Italy—appear to have trained it on trees, trellis work, palisades, &c. The dwarf form of cultivation now common in northern Europe docs not appear to have obtained to any extent. It seems likely that the quality of the wine produced in ancient times was scarcely comparable to that of the modern product, inasmuch as the addition of resin, salts and spices to wine was a common practice. With regard to the actual making of the wine, this does not appear to have differed very much in principle from the methods obtaining at the present day. Plastering appears to have been known at an early date, and when the juice of the grapes was too thin for the production of a good wine, it was occasionally boiled down with a view to concentration. The first wine receptacles were made of skins or hides, treated with oil or resin to make them impervious. Later, earthenware vessels were employed, but the wooden cask—not to mention the glass bottle—was not generally known until a much later period.
Production.—The total wine production of the world, which, of course, fluctuates considerably from year to year, amounts to roughly 3000 million gallons. France and Italy are the chief wine-producing countries, the former generally producing rather more than the latter. During the phylloxera period Italy in some years had the greater output (e.g. 1886–1888 and 1890–1892). The average production of the chief wine-producing countries will be gathered from the following table:—
Wine Production. Average Annual Production in Millions of Gallons for Quinquennial Periods.
| Country. | Period. | ||
| 1891–1895. | 1896–1900. | 1901–1905. | |
| France | 770 | 988 | 1126 |
| Italy | 674 | 689 | 840 |
| Spain | 521 | 412 | 390 |
| Portugal | 74 | 123 | 105 |
| Austria-Hungary | 113 | 120 | 178 |
| Germany | 49 | 64 | 74 |
The United States produces roughly 50, Bulgaria and Rumania each 40 and Servia 10 million gallons. The United Kingdom produces no wine, but the Cape and the Australian Commonwealth each produce some 5 million gallons.
The variation from year to year in the quantity of wine produced in individual countries is, of course, far greater than that observed in the case of beer or spirits. Thus, owing to purely climatic vagaries, the quantity of wine produced in Germany in 1891 was only 16 million gallons, whereas in 1896 it amounted to 111 millions. Similarly the French production, which was 587 million gallons in 1895, amounted to no less than 1482 millions in 1900. In the same way the Italian production has varied between 583 million gallons (1895) and 793 millions (1901), and the Spanish between 331 million gallons in 1896 and 656 millions in 1892.
Consumption.—It is only natural that the consumption of wine should be greatest in the countries where it is produced on the largest scale, but the discrepancy between the consumption of different countries is little short of astonishing. Thus, at the present time, the consumption per head in France is practically a hundred times that of the United Kingdom and twenty times that of Germany—the latter, it must be remembered, being itself an important wine-producing area.
The following table will give some idea of the relative consumption of wine in different countries.—
Average Consumption of Wine per Head of Population.
| Country. | Period. | ||
| 1891–1895. | 1896–1900. | 1901–1905. | |
| Gallons. | Gallons. | Gallons. | |
| France | 23.0 | 28.8 | 30.8 |
| Italy | 20.6 | 20.0 | 25.1 |
| Spain | 21.1 | 16.4 | 18.5 |
| Portugal | 11.0 | 20.3 | 17.1 |
| Austria-Hungary | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| Germany | 1.19 | 1.38 | 1.45 |
| United States | 0.30 | 0.32 | 0.43 |
| British Empire— | |||
| United Kingdom | 0.37 | 0.40 | 0.32 |
| Australia | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.30 |
| Cape¹ | . . | . . | . . |
¹Has varied between 1.9 and 3.7.
The whole of the wine consumed in the United Kingdom is imported. On the average somewhat more than one-third of the wine imported is derived from France, and about a quarter from Spain and Portugal respectively.
Wines imported into the United Kingdom in 1906.
| From | Nature of Wines. | Quantity. | Value. | |||
| (Gallons). | £ | |||||
| France | Claret, burgundy, champagne, &c. | 4,105,302 | 2,221,4232, | |||
| Portugal | Chiefly port | ¹ 3,707,377¹ | 1,099,7271, | |||
| Spain | Sherry, tarragona, &c. | 2,808,751 | 397,840 | |||
|
Hock, Moselle | 1,268,662 | 279,002 | |||
| Italy | . . | 2, 243,247 | 42,513 | |||
| Total for foreign countries | . . | 12,356,425 | 4,094,6724, | |||
| Australia | . . | 2, 622,836 | 100,161 | |||
| Total British possessions | . . | 2, 777,689 | 123,891 |
¹ The quantity of port received was exceptionally large. The average quantity is rather under 3 million gallons and the value about £850,000.
² A considerable proportion of the German wines come to the United Kingdom via the Netherlands.
Of the wines imported from France, about one-quarter was Champagne and Saumur, the remainder consisting almost entirely of still wines, such as claret and burgundy.
Viticulture And Wine-Making
General Considerations.-Although the wine is cultivated in practically every part of the world possessing an appropriate climate and soil, from California in the West to Persia in the East, and from Germany in the North to the Cape of Good Hope and some of the South American republics in the South, yet, as is the case also with the cereal crops and many fruits and vegetables, the wines produced in countries possessing temperate climates are—when the vintage is successful—finer than those made in hot or semi-tropical regions. Although, for instance, the wines of Italy, Greece, the Cape, &c., possess great body and strength, they cannot compare as regards elegance of flavour and bouquet with the wines of France and Germany. On the other hand, of course, the vagaries of the temperate climate of northern Europe frequently lead to a partial or complete failure of the vintage, whereas the wines produced in relatively hot countries, although they undoubtedly vary in quality from year to year, are rarely, if ever, total failures. The character of a wine depends mainly (a) on the nature of the soil; (b) on the general type of the climate; (c) on the variety of vine cultivated. The quality, as distinct from general character, depends almost entirely on
