[31] Colonel Leake described the ordinary country wine as a villainous compound of lime, resin, spirits of wine, and grapes, without body or flavour. Nor were things better in the days of old. Dugald Dalgetty, a German Ensign, writing from Athens in 1687, says, “Would that I could exchange a cask of Athenian wine for a cask of German beer!” The _vin du pays_ is impregnated with resin or turpentine now as formerly, whence, according to Plutarch, the Thyrsus of Bacchus is adorned with a pine cone. Pliny says it favours the preservation of the drink. [32] The island owes this name to its patron saint Irene, martyred here A.D. 304. [33] The value attached to this wine is one example among many of the caprice of fashion. The _Muscadine_ of Syracuse or the _Lagrima_ of Malaga is equal to it in richness, and few people would prefer it to other wines, did they dare to contradict the decision of fashion in its favour, and to have a taste of their own. [34] So called from its green colour. It is said to have been a favourite wine of Frederick the Great. It is held now in slighter esteem. [35] Called _Est Est_ from the writing under the bust of the valet of the bibulous German bishop Defoucris, who drank himself to death, upon which his valet composed his epitaph. _‘Est est,’ propter minium ‘est,’._ _Dominus meus mortuus est._ Reverence for antiquity is our sole excuse for the reproduction of these wretched lines. _Monte Pulciano_ has also the credit of having killed a Churchman. Other wines doubtless have had the same honour. [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.