An interesting feature of the Côte d'Or is the Hospice de Beaune,
a celebrated charitable institution and hospital, the revenues of
which are principally derived from certain vineyards in Beaune,
Gorton, Volnay and Pommard. The wines of these vineyards are
sold every year by auction early in November, and the prices they
make serve as standards for the valuation of the other growths.
To the south of Lyons, in the department of the Drôme, are made in the district of Valence the celebrated Hermitage red and white Hermitage. wines. The quality of some of these, particularly of the sweet white wines, is considered very fine. The quantity produced is very small. The red wines made at the present time are after the style of Burgundy and possess good keeping qualities.
If we except the wines of Roussillon, produced in the old province of that name, in the extreme south of France, the above constitute Midi. the principal varieties of French wines known in the United Kingdom. They form, however, but a small fraction of the entire production of the country. The most prolific viticultural district of France is that known as the Midi, comprising the four departments of the Herault, Aude, Gard, and the Pyrenées-Orientales. Thus in 1901 the department of the Herault alone produced nearly 300 million gallons of wine, or approximately a quarter of the whole output of France. The average amount of wine made in the four departments for the past three years has been roughly 500 million gallons. These wines formerly were largely exported as vin de cargaison to South America, the United States, Australia, &c., and were also much employed for local consumption in other parts of France. Owing, however, to the fact that viticulture has made much progress in South America, in California, in Australia and particularly in Algeria, and also to the fact that the quality of these Midi wines has fallen off considerably since the phylloxera period, the outlet for them has become much reduced. These and other reasons, notably the manufacture of much fictitious wine with the aid of sugar (fortunately stopped by the rigid new wine laws), led to the grave wine crisis, which almost amounted to a revolution in the Midi in the spring and summer of 1907.
Viticulture has made great strides in Algeria during recent years. The first impetus to this department was given by the destruction Algeria. or crippling of many of the French vineyards during the phylloxera period. The present output amounts to roughly 150 million gallons, and the acreage under the vine has increased from 107,048 hectares in 1890 to 167,657 hectares in 1905. The wines, moreover, of Algeria are on the whole of decidedly fair quality, possessing body and strength and also stability. In this regard they are superior to the wines of the Midi.
Wines of Spain
The wines of Spain may be regarded as second in importance to those of France. Although the quantity produced is not so large as in Italy, the quality on the whole is decidedly superior to that of the latter country. There are three main types of wine with which consumers in the United Kingdom are familiar, namely Sherry, Tarragona (Spanish Port or Spanish Red) and wines of a claret type. The trade with the United Kingdom is of considerable proportions, the total quantity of Spanish wines imported in 1906 amounting to 1,689,049 gallons of red wine (to the value of £154,963), and white wines to the extent of 1,119,702 gallons (to the value of £242,877).
The most important wine produced in the province of Andalusia, which is the chief vine-growing district of Spain, is that known to Sherry. us as sherry, so called from the town of Jerez de la Frontera, which is the centre of the industry. Sherry is produced in a small district bounded by San Lucar in the north-east, Jerez in the east and Port St Mary on the south. The total viticultural area amounts to about 20,000 acres. The soil is of very varying nature, and consists in some districts of the so-called albariza (mainly chalk with some sand and clay), in others of barros, which is mainly sand cemented together with chalk and clay, and of arenas, which consists of nearly pure sand. Most of the vineyards in the Jerez district are upon albariza soil, those to the north and north-east are mainly of barros, and those close to the seashore of arenas. The dominating vine is the Palomino, which produces amontillados and finos. Other important vines are the Perruno and the Mantua Castellano. There is also a variety of Pedro-Ximenes, which, however, is not used for making ordinary wine, but for the purpose of preparing the so-called dulce, a very sweet must or wine, made from over-ripe grapes, which, after fortification with spirit, is employed for sweetening other wines. The process of vinification is comparatively simple. The grapes are, after gathering, dusted over with plaster of Paris, and then crushed by treading in a shallow rectangular vessel termed the lagar. The juice, which is so obtained together with that which results from the pressing of the murk, is fermented in much the same manner as is customary in other countries. There are two main types of sherry known in the United Kingdom, namely, those of the amontillado and those of the manzanilla classes. The former are generally sweet and full-bodied, the latter light and dry. The manzanillas are mostly shipped in the natural state, except for the addition of a small quantity of spirit. The amontillados may be again divided into the finos and the olorosos, the former being the more delicate. These distinctions are not of a hard and fast character, for they frequently merely represent different developments of the same wine. Thus, according to Thudicum, the regular heavy sherry from albariza soil remains immature for a number of years and then becomes a fino. After five to eight years it may become an amontillado, and if it is left in cask and allowed to develop, it will, after it attains an age of nine to fourteen years, become an oloroso, and still later it may become a secco. In Jerez itself a different classification, namely that according to quality and not age, exists, which, however, is only employed locally. Thus the term palma is applied to fine dry wines when in their second or third years. These may be amontillados, but according to some they never become olorosos. Then there are varieties known as double and treble palma, and single, double and treble palo, the latter being the finest form of oloroso. Then there is the quality of wine termed raya. This is dry and sound, and forms a great part of the sherry exported to the United Kingdom. The sweetness of the sweet sherries is partly due to an inherent property of the wine (apart from any sugar they may contain) and partly to natural or added sugar. In some cases the fermentation of the must is stopped by the addition of spirit before the whole of the saccharine is converted, and the wines so prepared retain a proportion of the sugar naturally present in the must. In other cases dry wines are prepared and sugar is added to them in the form of dulce (see above). In order to prevent refermentation it is then necessary to fortify these wines with spirit. The standard of colour required for certain quantities is maintained by the addition of color. The latter is made by boiling wine down until it attains the consistency of a liqueur. The great bulk of sherry shipped to the United Kingdom is blended. The system of blending sherry in some respects recalls that of the blending of Scotch whiskies. Wines of the same type are stored in vats or soleras, and the contents of the soleras are kept as far as possible up to a particular style of colour, flavour and sweetness. Prior to shipment the contents of various soleras are blended according to the nature of the article required.
In addition to the wines described above there are others of a similar nature grown in the vicinity, such as montilla (made in Cordova) and moguer (produced on the right bank of the Guadalquivir).
The bulk of the sherry imported into the United Kingdom still consists of the heavier, fortified wines, varying in strength from 17 to 21% of absolute alcohol, although the fiscal change introduced in 1886, whereby wines not exceeding 30 proof (i.e. about 17% of alcohol) were admitted at a duty of 1s. 3d., as against 3s. for heavier wines, naturally tended to promote the shipment of the lighter dry varieties. In this connexion it is interesting to note that the importation of sherry into the United Kingdom on a considerable scale commenced in the 15th century, and that the wine shipped at that time was of the dry variety. It seems possible that sherry was the first wine known as sack in this country, but it is at least doubtful whether this word is, as some contend, derived from seck or sec, i.e. dry. According to Morewood it is more likely to have come from the Japanese Saké or Sacki (see Saké), derived in its turn from the name of the city of Osaka.
Chemically the sweet sherry differs from the natural dry light wines in that it contains relatively high proportions of alcohol, extractives, sugar and sulphates, and small quantities of acid and glycerin. This is well illustrated by the following analysis:
Analysis of Sherry (Fresenius).
| Alcohol per cent by vol. |
Grams per Litre. | |||||
| Extract. | Total Acid. |
Ash. | Glycerin. | Sugar. | Sulphates. | |
| 19.94 | 48.9 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 30.2 | 3.75 |
Malaga is a sweet wine (produced in the province of that name) which is little known in England, but enjoys considerable favour on Malaga. the Continent. It is generally, as exported, a blend made from vino dulce and vino secco, together with varying quantities of vino maestro, vino tierno, arope and color. The vino dulce and vino secco are both made as a rule from the Pedro Jimenez (white) grape, the former in much the same way as the dulce which is employed in the sherry industry, the latter by permitting fermentation to take its normal course. The vino maestro consists of must which has only fermented to a slight degree and which has been “killed” by the addition of about 17% of alcohol. The vino tierno is made by mashing raisins (6 parts) with water (2 parts) pressing, and then adding alcohol (1 part) to the must. Arope is obtained by concentrating vino dulce to one-third, and color by concentrating the arope over a naked fire. Malaga is therefore an interesting example of a composite wine. Besides the sweet variety, a coarse dry wine is also made, but this is little known abroad.
Another well-known wine district in the south of Spain is that of Rota, where a sweet red wine, known in England as tent (tinto), chiefly used for ecclesiastical purposes, is produced.
Wines of the Centre and North.—While the most important Spanish wines are those grown in the southern province of Andalusia, the
