SACK.
(Vol. ix., p. 272.)
With respect to the wines called Sacks, much diversity of opinion has prevailed, and although the question has been frequently discussed, it still remains, in a great measure, undetermined. It seems admitted, on all hands, that the term sack was originally applied to certain growths of Spain. In a MS. account of the disbursements by the chamberlain of the city of Worcester for 1592, Dr. Percy found the ancient mode of spelling to be seck, and thence concluded that sack is a corruption of sec, signifying a dry wine. Moreover, in the French version of a proclamation for regulating the prices of wines, issued by the privy Council in 1633, the expression vins secs corresponds with the word sacks in the original. The term sec is still used as a substantive by the French to denote a Spanish wine; and the dry wine of Xerez is known at the place of its growth by the name of vino seco. The foregoing account is abridged from The History of Ancient and Modern Wines, by Alex. Henderson, Lond. 1824. The following is taken from Cyrus Redding's History of Modern Wines, Lond. 1833:
"In the early voyages to these islands (the Canaries), quoted in Ashley's collection, there is a passage relative to sack, which will puzzle wise heads about that wine. It is under the head of 'Nicols' Voyage.' Nicols lived eight years in the islands. The island of Teneriffe produces three sorts of wine, Canary, Malvasia, and Verdona, 'which may all go under the denomination of sack.' The term then was applied neither to sweet nor dry wines exclusively, but to Canary, Xeres (i. e. sherry), or Malaga generally. In Anglo-Spanish dictionaries of a century and a quarter old, sack is given as Vino de Canarias. Hence it was Canary sack, Xeres sack, or Malaga sack."
Ἁλιεύς.
Dublin.
In reply to your correspondent, I believe sack to be nothing but vino secco, dry wine, probably identical with sherry or madeira. I once, when an undergraduate at Oxford, ordered a dozen from a travelling agent to a London wine merchant, probably from Shakspearian associations, and my belief is that what he sold me under that name was an Italian wine of some sort, bearing a good deal of resemblance to the vino panto, of which Perugia is the head-quarters.
B. D.
This is the same wine which is now named sherry. Falstaff calls it sherris sack, and also sherris only, using in fact both names indiscriminately (2 Henry IV., Act IV. Sc. 3.). For various commentaries regarding it, see Blount's Glossographia; Dr. Venner's Via recta ad Vitam longam, published in 1637; Nares' Glossary, &c. Cotgrave, in his Dictionary, makes sack to be derived from vin sec, French; and it is called seck in an article by Bishop Percy, from an old account-book at Worcester, anno Elizbethæ 34.
N. L. J.