Africa.
Of this country the most important wines of the present are, perhaps, Pontac, Hanepoot, Frontignac, and Drakenstein. On the wines of the Cape of Good Hope, Dr. Edward Kretschmar is a great authority. Kokwyn, made from Muscat grapes, resembles Malaga. The best dry white wines, called Cape Hocks, are produced in the village of Paarl. The Constantias, so called from the wife of the Dutch governor, Van der Stell, are of three kinds. These excellent sweet wines are too frequently falsified and adulterated before reaching the palate of the English consumer. A red wine, called Rota, is made at Stellenbosch. Cape Madeira is a boiled and mixed wine. Stein wine is excellent when old. Red Cape, when drunk in the country, is a “sound, good wine,” says Cyrus Redding.[19] The wine of Morocco is chiefly made by the Jews; it is light, acid, and will not keep. In Tetuan a wine is made nearly equal, according to Cyrus Redding, to the Spanish wine of Xeres. Palm wines are, of course, common. The people of Cacongo prepare a wine called Embeth, and those of Benin Pali and Pardon. The Caffres make a wine called Pombie, from millet or Guinea corn.[20] In Congo they drink a wine called Milaffo, which will not keep beyond three days.
Of the many wines produced at Algiers, the best is probably the white wine of Mascara, situated on a slope of the plane of Egbris, 1,800 feet above the sea level. The Arabic name of the place is a corruption of Umm-al-asakir, or the Mother of Soldiers. The wine is the principal industry of Algiers. It is eagerly bought up by agents of Bordeaux houses. Wines of inferior quality are made at Boue, Tlemcen, Medeah, and Milianah. The wines of Oran are said to resemble the small wines of Languedoc. In ancient times the valley of the Nile produced the wines of Mareotis, Mendes, Koptos, and Arsinoe, and its Delta the liqueur wine of Sebenytus.
America.
The first attempt to cultivate the vine in North America was made, we are informed by Drs. Thudichum and Dupré, in 1564. Some of its best known wines at the present time are the Catawbas[21] (still and sparkling), red Aliso and Angelico. Wine has been made from the vines on the Ohio, said to resemble Bordeaux in quality. In several parts of Mexico, as at Passo del Norte, at Zalaya, and at St. Louis de la Paz, wines are made of tolerable flavour. The red wine of California is agreeable. In Florida, according to Sir John Hawkins, wine was made from a grape like that of Orleans, as far back as 1564. The island of Cuba possesses a “light, cool, sharp wine,” according to Redding.
In South America wine was made long ago in Paraguay. A sweet wine resembling Malaga is made at Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes, and is found to improve by transportation some thousand miles across the Pampas. The wines made in Chili and Peru are white and red. The Muscatel of Chili is considered to be especially good.[22] The white wine of Nasca is inferior. The wine of Pisco is highly esteemed. Though the white is held by connoisseurs to be superior to the red wine of Chili, yet it is little drunk in the cradle of its production. Chacoli is a wine commonly patronised by labourers. The Mosto of Concepcion differs from Mosto asoleado by the grapes of the latter being sundried for some twenty days.
Australia.
Australian wines are pretty well known from our tradesmen’s circulars. For instance, there is the Gouais, the Carbinet, a soft wine like Burgundy, the Mataro, the Sauvignon. There is that “elegant dinner wine,” Kaludah, the Singleton Red or White Hermitage, “noted for its refinement”; the Tintara Ferruginous, of “immense power and generous quality”; the Tokay Imperatrice; and the Alexandrian Moscat, both poetically described as “abounding in memories of the sun which begot them,” and possessing the “most beautiful bouquet that can be imagined,” with a flavour “resembling the first crush in the mouth of three or four fine ripe Muscatel grapes—the large white oval ones—covered with a light bloom, and attached to a clean, thin stalk.”
Drs. Thudichum and Dupré, who are themselves indebted to a publication by Toovey, have given an excellent description of these wines. Verdeilho is a wine, like Madeira, of delicate aroma and a full body; Frontignac is described as a thin white wine with a slight taste of the Muscat grape, being a fictitious elderflower flavour; Malbee is described as made from “claret” grape; Tavoora is described as a pure “port” of 1859; Tintara, a red, clear wine; Adelaide, a pure white wine, mainly from Riessling grapes with a soupçon of Muscatel, “a little too fiery for greatness.” Wattlesville is an acidulous white wine. The poor and acid Chasselas, the strong-scented Highercombe, said to resemble good Sauterne, with many varieties of so-called claret, as Emu, St. Hubert, and so-called Hock, as Heron and Royal Reserve, are also imported from Australia. The Conatto is a rich liqueur with a flavour of Curaçoa and Rum Shrub combined.