A VENERABLE WINE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 22 June 1911, Page 22

A VENERABLE WINE.

The most celebrated, of all the wines of Germany■ is known as rose wine, and according to a French contemporary it is jealously preserved in the Town Hall' of’Breme. > ! 1 • ' The wine has been in; the vaults, so

we learn, since 162-1. when the conscript fathers had six great vats made at Johannesberg and six others at Hockheimer. Each received the name of one of the Apostles. It is an unwritten law that as soon aS a bottle of wine is drawn from the vats a similar quantity of the same vintage is put into the tun, consequently they are always full. Each of the tuns or vats in the Town Hall at Breme cost originally £4B and their capacity is 204 litres, or about 57 gallons. Now we have our French statistician again at work as to the cost of the upkeep of the cellar. He comes to the conclusion that each time a bottle of this wine is drunk it represents a sum of over £5O. During the war of 1870 the French occupied the town, and the officers, braving the anger of the Council of Breme, made free with their precious Wine, and it was said that the town of Breme paid more to France than all the other towns in Germany. At the time of the Crown Prince’s wedding we further learn that he was allowed one bottle, and one only.— “London (Eng.) Globe.”