It is not surprising in view of the description given of the care, time and expense attending the manufacture of a sparkling wine that its cost is usually out of all proportion to its merit as a drink. While by no means the most costly of wines, the sparkling wines, as a class, are much higher priced than any other kinds. With the duties attached thereto in this country the ordinary sparkling wines imported from abroad sell at from four to five dollars a bottle, while the very highest grades of vintage wine made from the grapes of a single vineyard and not blended with any other materials may be double that which has just been mentioned. These prices do not begin to compare with the prices which a very old still wine of any of the first growths of France would fetch in the market. American sparkling wines, free of the duty of the imported article, and only lately subject to any excise duty, are made and profitably disposed of at a price something like a dollar a bottle.