* Besides this meaning of rapé (same as raspé), Cotgrave gives first “A verie small wine comming of water cast uppon the mother of grapes which have been pressed!”
The highly-praised Raspatum of Baccius, p. 30-2, of which, after quoting what Pliny says of secondary wines, he declares, “id primùm animaduerti volumus à nostra posteritate, quod Lora Latinorum, quam deuterium cum Græcis, et secundarium Vinum dixit Plinius, δευτερία, seu ποτιμὸν Dioscorides, quodque τρυγὸν vocauit Galenus, cum Aquatis quibus hodie vtimur in tota Italia, & cum nouo genere, quod à delectabili in gustu asperitate, Rasputum vocat; similem omnes hæ Voces habent significantiam factitii .s. ex aqua Vini. p. 30. Quod uini genus in Italia, ubi alterius uini copia non sit, parari simpliciter consuevit colore splendido rubentis purpuræ, sapore austero, ac dulcacido primis mensibus mox tamen exolescente, p. 31-2, &c.” Raspice was also a name for Raspberries. Item, geuene to my lady Kingstone seruaunte bringing Strawberes and Respeces to my ladys grace xij d. Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, p. 31; and in his Glossary to this
book Sir F. Madden says, ‘In a closet for Ladies 12mo. London, 1654, is a receipt “To preserve Raspices,” and they are elsewhere called “Raspisberries.” See “Delights for Ladies,” 12mo. 1654.’
[6.] Muscadelle of Grew: Bastard: Greke: Malvesyn. “The wines which Greece, Languedoc, and Sapine doe send vs, or rather, which the delicacie and voluptuousnesse of our French throats cause to be fetched from beyond the Sea, such as are Sacks, Muscadels of Frontignan, Malmesies, Bastards (which seeme to me to be so called, because they are oftentimes adulterated and falsified with honey, as we see wine Hydromell to be prepared) and Corsick wines, so much vsed of the Romanes, are very pernicious unto vs, if we vse them as our common drinke. Notwithstanding, we proue them very singular good in cold diseases ... but chiefly and principally Malmesey.” Stevens and Liebault’s Maison Rustique, or The Countrey Farme, by R. Surflet, reviewed by Gerv. Markham, 1616. Muscadell, vinum apianum. Withals. Mulsum, wine and honie sodden together, swiete wine, basterde or Muscadell. Withals. William Vaughan says, “Of Muscadell, Malmesie, and browne Bastard. These kindes of wines are onely for maried folkes, because they strengthen the back.” Naturall and Artificial Directions for Health, 1602, p. 9.
Andrewe Borde, of Physicke, Doctor, in his Regyment or Dyetary of helth made in Mountpylior, says, “Also these hote wynes, as Malmesey, wyne corse, wyne greke, Romanyke, Romney, Secke, Alygaune, Basterde, Tyre, Osaye, Muscadell, Caprycke, Tynt, Roberdany, with other hote wynes, be not good to drynke with meate, but after mete and with Oysters, with Saledes, with fruyte, a draughte or two may be suffered ... Olde men may drynke, as I sayde, hygh wynes at theyr pleasure. Furthermore all swete wynes, and grose wynes, doth make a man fatte.”
[7.] Rompney. Henderson, p. 288, says, “Another of the above-mentioned wines (in the Squire of Low Degree) designated by the name of the grape, was the Romenay, otherwise Romenay, Rumney, Romaine, or Romagnia. That it could not be the produce of the Ecclesiastical State, as the two last corruptions of the word would seem to imply, may be safely averred; for at no period, since the decline of the empire, has the Roman soil furnished any wines for exportation; and even Bacci, with all his partiality, is obliged to found his eulogy of them on their ancient fame, and to confess that, in his time, they had fallen into disrepute.” He argues also against the notion that this wine came from Romana in Aragon, and concludes that it was probably a Greek wine, as Bacci (Nat. Vin. Hist. p. 333) tells us that the wine from the Ioinan Islands and adjoining continent was called in Italian Romania,—from the Saracen Rum-ili. Now this is all very well, but how about the name of Rompney of Modene or Modena, just outside the Western boundary of the Romagna,—not Meudon, in France, “amongst all the wines which we use at Paris, as concerning the red, the best are those of Coussy, Seure, Vaunes, and Meudon.” Maison Rustique, p. 642.—Who will hold to John Russell, and still consider Romney an Italian wine? Rumney, vinum resinatum. Withals.
[8.] Bastard. Henderson argues against the above-quoted (No. 6) supposition of Charles Etienne’s (which is supported by Cotgrave’s Vin miellé, honied wine, bastard, Metheglin, sweet wine), and adopts Venner’s account (Via Recta ad Vitam Longam), that “Bastard is in virtue somewhat like to muskadell, and may also in stead thereof be used; it is in goodness so much inferiour to muskadell, as the same is to malmsey.” It took its name, Henderson thinks, from the grape of which it was made, probably a bastard species of muscadine. “One of the varieties of vines now cultivated in the Alto Douro, and also in Madeira, is called bastardo, and the must which it yields is of a sweetish quality.” Of the Bastard wine there were two sorts,—white and brown (brown and white bastard, Measure for Measure, Act iii. sc. 2), both of them, according to Markham’s report, “fat and strong; the tawny or brown kind being the sweetest.” In The Libelle of Englysch Polycye, A.D. 1436 (Wright’s Political Songs, v. 2, p. 160), ‘wyne bastarde’ is put among the commodyetees of Spayne.
[9.] Tire, if not of Syrian growth, was probably a Calabrian or Sicilian wine, manufactured from the species of grape called tirio. Tyre, vinum Tyrense, ex Tyro insula. Withals.
[10.] Ozey. Though this is placed among the “commodities of Portugal” in some verses inserted in the first volume of Hackluyt’s Voyages, p. 188—Her land hath wine, osey, waxe, and grain,—yet, says Henderson, “a passage in Valois’ Description of France, p. 12, seems to prove, beyond dispute, that oseye was an Alsatian wine; Auxois or Osay being, in old times, the name constantly used for Alsace. If this conjecture is well-founded, we may presume that oseye was a luscious-sweet, or straw-wine, similar to that which is still made in that province. That it was a rich, high-flavoured liquor is sufficiently shown by a receipt for imitating it, which may be seen in Markham (English Housewife, 1683, p, 115), and we learn from Bacci p. 350) that the wines which Alsace then furnished in great profusion to England as well as different parts of the continent, were of that description. In the ‘Bataille des Vins’ we find the ‘Vin d’Aussai’ associated with the growths of the Moselle.” Osey is one ‘Of the commoditees of Portingalle,’ Libelle, p. 163.
[11.] Torrentyne of Ebrew. Is this from Tarentum, Tarragon, or Toledo? Whence in Ebrew land did our forefathers import wine? Mr G. Grove says, “I should at first say that Torrentyne referred to the wine from some wady (Vulgate, torrens) in which peculiarly rich grapes grew, like the wady of Eschcol or of Sorek; but I don’t remember any special valley being thus distinguished as ‘The Torrent’ above all others, and the vineyards are usually on hill-sides, not in vallies.”