WINE PROSPECTS IN FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4513, 15 November 1884, Page 3

WINE PROSPECTS IN FRANCE.

A Groat Champagne Vintage Promised

this Autumn,

The vino interest in Franco is looking up. From many distant quarters come reports that the. plants appear richer and greener thia year than they have evor been since the phylloxera got the upper hand, and hopes are somewhat prematurely expressed that the pest is wearing itsolf out. But tho truth eeems to be that, in somo districts at least, the downpeur of two winters ago partially drowned out the insect, tho only effectual mode of destroying which is inundating tho vineyards wherever land and water lend themselves to the opera tion. . The early part of the year, when the vine blossoms, was generally unfavourably to unsheltered localities. Cold wind by day and colder nights were adverse to the knitting of the fruit, and the flowers "ran " — coulaimt, as the vine grower says. The consequence is that the bunches carry quantities of little abortive grapolots, which must harm the wine.

There is, too, a very general complaint of anthrachoais, mildew, and the oidium, which first oovei- the grape with a fungus, then blackens and bursts it open, and finally rots it away. Frequent sulphuring of the young shoots, the leaves, the buds, and the grapes by means of a special bellows is the oaly remedy for this; but the labour cos te money, and it is not always properly : practised, nor, it must be confessed,- always qutte ewjoeesful. Plants which struggle against the phylloxera are yet bo weakened toy its attacks that their fruit is often a total prey to these other diseases, especially in the damper climates. \ This applies especially to the Bordeaux country, where, however, if the 1884 yield be smaller in consequence of the late dry, hot season, the quality is expected to be very fine. The vineyards thereabouts still hold their value. One near Pes&ac, about four miles. southwest of Bordeaux, well known as La Mission Haut-Brion, because originally planted by the monks, has just been sold to the Bouillons Duval Company of Paris for £10,000. It pro luces, one year with another, about 3,C(!0 gallons of the well-known chlof red yin de graves, so called from the gravelly soil in which the vines are planted. This vine ia rich in colour, and more robust than the most celebrated Medocas, with which it challenges comparison. Its boucpiet, softneaa, and delicacy are also inferior. Still it commands at tttctes a .higher .price than the Rothschild Monton. It takes long to kinature—from Bix to seven years; ao that the careful may note that in about that time it may be worth while, if all goes well, to order a bottlo of Haut-Brion at a Duval restaurant,

We are promised from Rheims a grand champagne vintage this year, as to quality; the vinos are looking splended. As to quality it will be but moderate, owing to "coulaga" in the spring and tho present excessive heats. On the Loire there are no complaints save where' heavy hail-storms have been at work. In the extreme south there is a great outcry about the terrific heats, the grapes in some places roasting instead of ripening. In the Cognac districts the remnant of the vine's'will give what is rurally known as a "jealous" vintage—very good here, bad there, and middling further on. The native vines gra/ted on American stocks are now beginning to sell wherever they have been planted, and are the healthiest of all.

In general it may be said that unless the weather take an extroardinarily bad turn, tho complete ripening of the grapes is now assured, and that is everything as to the excellence of the wines, be the yield great or small. The consequence is that the wine sales between the proprietors and the merchants are small, and it is noticeable, too, that the importation of foreign wines to Bordeaux fell off 5,000,000 gallons in the first seven months of this year. That port alone still, however, took the immense quantity of 12,000,000 gallons from abroad during that period. Three-fifths of it came from Spain. How long will the English consumer persist in paying France Bordeaux prices for ordinary Spanish wines ?