68

DOMESTIC MA.NNEES OF THE riiUSSIANS.

To make wine from grapes, it is necessary tliat a certainamount of saccharine matter should be developecl in the fruitby the action of the sun's rays; and this saccharine matter(which, when duly fermented, serves alone to form the wine)certainly does not possess the property of effervescing uponthe addition of alkaline carbonates: indeed the best Rhenishwines, of the best vintages, are known to contain an unusuallysmall amount of acetic acid.

But because in warm years the sunniest vineyards of theRheingau are able to produce a wine that is not vinegar, itassuredly does not follow tliat every petty vine-garden whichis exposed to the south-east or south-west, rather than lookingdirectly southward, and on which the noontide rays thereforecan fall only slantingly at best, is able to yield, year afteryear,—even though the climate has thermally been barelyequal to that of the Baltic plains — a jnice more vinous, ormore generous, than that which could be expressed from un-ripe cranborries.

This, indeed, constitutes the great fallacy concerning theRhenish wines : because the climate is occasionally hot enoughfor the vineyards of Johannisberg, and Steinberg, and Rüdes-heim, to produce good wine, about once in three years;*

a position the influence of the sunbeams is found to be too weak, and the soiltoo cold. The celebrated vineyard at Worms, however, which produces therenowned wine called " Liebfrauenmilch," is a notable exception to the rule; forthere the vines grow almost in a meadow. Gradually-sloping hüls are prefer-able ; and it is found that the best wine comes from the plants in the middle ofthe slope—those at the upper and lower part of the hill yielding a wine of moreor less inferior quality.

* It is estimated, that in the course of ten years' vintages there is generally

1 very good year.

2 good, or " pretty good" years.

3 moderate years.3 bad years, and

1 failure ;