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order and neatness. But all his English associations had failed to make an Englishman of my old conductor, or he would never have declined the money I hesitatingly offered on taking leave.

The grating upon which they were stemming grapes in the press-room of Pomys was framed of oak bars one inch thick on the face and two and a half inches deep, and the meshes, or openings, were one inch wide by eighteen long. On the grating the fruit was rubbed by means of a rake, also of oak, the teeth being of the same stuff and dimensions as the bars of the grating, set edgewise to the line of the handle, and sharpened at the ends. The handle was long.

In this connection I will describe a utensil for stemming grapes which I think the best I have yet seen. It is the one used at the Longworth Winehouse in Cincinnati.

A tub flaring at the top, three feet high and four feet across at its greatest diameter, is fitted with a cover-made of one-inch thick white-oak board, which rests on shoulders that sustain it 28 inches above the bottom, and seven inches below the top of the tub. The cover has a strong cross-piece on the under side to keep it from warping. It is pierced with holes of the diameter of one inch on the upper surface, and

an inch and a half on the lower, the holes being four inches apart, measuring from centre to centre.

Wine of Cos d'Estournel, which ranks in the second class, sells for 2500 francs per cask of four barriques, called "tonneau," while that of its next. neighbor, Pomys, of no class at all, brings only 1000 francs.

The market value of the various classes will appear in the following table, which gives the prices established for the vintage of 1862. Each tonneau containing 912 litres, and each litre being equal to 1.760773 pint imperial measure, and the franc being equal to about 20 cents in real money, every reader may reckon for himself.

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The dinner to which I had been invited was given in honor of the reunion of six college mates, of whom two were the young Messrs. Averous, two were young and very jolly priests, one was an Englishman, and the other a Bostonian. It was pleasant to drink authentic Médoc in its very home, and equally pleasant to witness the enjoyment of the college

friends. The priests were as good fellows as any of the rest, but French priests are never required to assume a vinegar aspect, and drink melted ice on principle.

CHAPTER V.

SAUTERNE.

I GOT upon the boat next day, and returned to

Bordeaux once again, whence, on the following morning, I took the cars for Agen by a route that ascended the valley of the River Garonne. At Lángon a gentleman entered the carriage where I was whom I found could give me full information concerning the vine district I had just traversed in the preceding half hour's ride. It was the district where is grown the fine white wines known under the general name of Sauterne.

He told me the soil was in some places of gravel, in others of sand, and in others of clay mixed with sand and underlaid with limestone. They plant their vines about three feet apart in both directions. They prune them low, the two or three canes allowed on each stock, or souche, being cut back to two eyes each. Leaf-pruning is practised to excess. Beginning early in September, they proceed with it gradu

ally, but severely, so that before vintage, the fruit, little by little robbed of all its natural shelter, hangs naked to the sun's rays.

Three gatherings are made; the first culls from each bunch only a few excessively ripe berries, the second takes such as have ripened to the same excessive degree since the first, and the third sweeps in all the remainder. This protracted vintage hardly comes to an end before November. Wine of the first gathering is called "head wine;" of the second, "middle wine;" and of the third, "tail wine." About ten per cent. of the whole is of the extremely precious first fruit, and about forty per cent. is of the second quality. The average yield is about the same as in Médoc.

They manure once in five years, plow thoroughly, and cultivate by hand as well, and, from what I learned of my railway-carriage informant and from other sources, are even more exact and careful in the conduct of their delicate wines than those I had just left.

After the first two or three years Sauterne wine is transferred from the barriques into very large tuns called "foudres," which hold nearly 2500 gallons. While remaining in barriques, it is drawn off three times a year, and filled up twice a week. In foudres

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