The wines of Bordeaux used to be greatly drank in England until the great wars with France - in the last century, when, of course, their importation was prohibited - but, even then, large quantities were smuggled. They must, however, have been of better quality than the cheap stuff now imported. In Scot-land, where an affinity with France always existed, it was a common drink, and very cheap; for in Camp-bell's Life of Lord Loughborough (vi. 29), we find that excellent claret was drawn from the cask at eighteenpence a quart: and its downfall as a beverage in Scotland is thus sung by John Home, probably in allusion to the Methuen Treaty of 1703.

"Firm and erect the Caledonian stood, Prime was his mutton, and his claret good: Let him drink port, an English Statesman cried; He drank the poison, and his spirit died."

The white wines of these districts are delicious, and are not suffieiently appreciated in England, where we know very little of the Sauternes, Bommes, Barsac, Fargues, St. Pierre de Mons, Preignac, and those of Petits Graves and the Côtes. Chief of all is the wine of Chateau d'yquem, of which Vizitellyl thus writes:

"Among the white wines of the Gironde which obtained the higher class reward, two require to be especially mentioned. One, the renowned Chateau d'yquem of the Marquis de Lur Saluces, the most luscious and delicately aromatic of wines, which, for its resplendent colour, resembling liquid gold, its exquisite bouquet, and rich, delicious flavour, due, according to the chemists, to the presence of Mannite, is regarded in France as unique, and which, at Vienna, naturally met with the recognition of a medal for progress.

"Mannite, the distinguished French chemist Berthe-lot informs us, has the peculiar quality of not becoming transformed into alcohol and carbonic acid during the process of fermentation. For a tonneau of this splendid wine twelve years old, bought direct from the Chateau, the Grand Duke Constantine paid, some few years since, 20,000 francs, or £800. The other wine calling for notice was La Tour Blance, one of those magnificent, liqueur-like Sauternes, ranking immediately after Chateau d'yquem, and to some fine samples of which, of the vintages of 1864 and 1865, a medal for merit was awarded.

"The characteristic qualities of Chateau d'yquem, which certain soi-disant connoisseurs pretend to pooh-pooh, as a mere ordinary vin de Liqueur, are due, in no degree, to simple accident. On the contrary, the vintaging of this wine is an extremely complicated and delicate affair. In order to insure the excessive softness and rich liqueur character which are its dis-tinguishing qualities, the grapes, naturally excessively sweet and juicy, are allowed to dry on their stalks, preserved, as it were, by the rays of the sun, until they become covered with a kind of down, which gives to them an almost mouldy appearance, During this period, the fruit, under the influence of the sun, ferments within its skin, thereby attaining the requisite degree of ripeness, akin to rottenness.

1 The Wines of the World, Characterized and Classed, 1875, Pp. 16, 17.

the Dilletante Society