OCR Text |
Show A SlgnlAeant Fact. Notwithstanding that a million of soldiers belonging to the French and Prussian armies have been trampling down and laying waste the magnificent vineyards in the great champagne district dis-trict around Rheims, Epernay, etc., the price of the wine has not been affected af-fected in the least in this country. So extensive and destructive have been the military operations in the department depart-ment of which Rheims is the most important im-portant city, that the vintage this year is almost a total loss, and the wine-factors wine-factors have to a great extent had their stocks of wine destroyed. Any one would suppose this would produce a panic among dealer and consumer of the effervescing wines, but such is not the case. The truth is, in the manufacture manu-facture of the beverages, now sold as wine, the juice of the grape is of no account. A large part of that which is sold in this country is made from cheaper and more gross materials, and we suppose if the vintage should utterly fail abroad for twenty consecutive years, the supply of the wine wou'd not in the least diminish. Some time ago, when the terrible oidium destroyed de-stroyed the vine in Maderia for several sev-eral years, and not a cask of wine was made upon the island, the supply of genuine Maderia was never greater or the price cneaper. Wine drinkers may-take may-take encouragement from these facts. Journal of Chemistry. |