[36] “Let no man,” says the Talmud, “send his neighbour wine with oil upon its surface.”—Chulin, fol. 94, col. 1.
[37] Malmsey wine is also a product of Funchal, in Madeira. The first so-called wine was shipped for Francis I. of France. The word is probably a corruption of Malvasia or Monemvasia (μόνη ἐμβασία, or single entrance), a Greek island from which the grape may have been brought by the Florentine Acciajoli in 1515.
[38] Rota wines are mostly coloured, or Tintos, whence our English sacramental drink. They are all simmered—at their best in youth, and their worst in age.
[39] Supposed by some to be the old English Sack. The reader interested may consult Hakluyt, Nicols, Hewell’s Dictionary, and Venner’s Via Recta.
[40] The etymology is uncertain. Some derive it from the town near Seville, others from the Spanish word for an apple, and others again from that for a camomile flower.
[41] Valley of Rocks, indicating the soil on which it is grown.
[42] It is frequently damaged by the carelessness of the vinatero, or wine-seller, to such an extent that the proverb Pregonar vino y vender vinagre becomes, like wisdom, justified of her children.
[43] So called from the grape common in most parts of Spain.
[44] The fine old Amoroso, of which a small stock is still remaining.
[45] So called from the battle of Birs, in the reign of Louis XI., in which 1,600 Swiss opposed 30,000 French, and only sixteen of the former survived. The fallen succumbed, we are told, less to the power of the foe than to the fatigue of the fighting.