The Norfolk Post

THE WINE CROP OF FRANCE

Of 89 French departments only 11 are not wine-growing; of the others, 20 consume all they grow, and 58 export. In France there are upwards of 2,200,000 proprietors of vines. The average annual produce of wine during the four years 1858-61 was upwards of 38,000,000 hectolitres, which is equivalent to more than 836,000,000 imperial gallons. The wine growers are thirsty souls, for upwards of 15,000,000 hectolitres are set down as consumed by them. Paris in 1863 drank 2,696,538 hectolitres of wine, besides about 534,000 hectolitres of spirits, beer, cider, and perry. Setting down the population of Paris at 2,000,000, including the floating population of strangers, the allowance per man is handsome, if we consider how little the women and children consume. M. Maurial, an enthusiastic French wine merchant, has recently printed a book, from which the Evening Post translates, these facts are taken. He gives some sound advice about wine and wine drinking, his book being dedicated 'to the drinkers of all countries,' and having for its motto, 'I pity the water-drinker; I blame the drunkard.' The writer holds it one of the virtues of good claret that one may drink a good deal of it; he considers eight different glasses to be required for each guest at a respectable dinner; and in a chapter on 'wine tasting' remarks: 'While the act of degustation is accomplishing, the degustator should reflect, and keep in his memory the recollection of all the impressions produced on his tongue, cheeks, gums, and especially on the back part of his mouth; he ought, in short, to listen to himself tasting with great attention. The tasters at Bordeaux are, beyond a doubt, the first in the world, and one can compare to them, for sureness of taste, only certain amateurs among persons in the highest society, the delicacy of whose senses and the habit of drinking great wines, constitute them real connoisseurs.