The remnant of my wine, years after, I had the pleasure of seeing sold by auction for the highest price wine had ever fetched in Persia on the spot, viz., two kerans (one and sixpence) a bottle. It had then been nine years in bottle, and was _very_ like a virgin sherry, very astringent and light to the taste, but very powerful. I only once made wine again; one’s house is thoroughly upset, and one has wine on the brain. It is very interesting, of course, to do it all for the first time, but it is a ticklish affair, and requires an immense amount of personal attention. The new wine is drinkable, and is like a light Bucellas to the taste by the succeeding May; but it is then exceedingly heady, and most intoxicating; one glass will give the most fearful headache, while to the taste it appears a light wine. No one who is a connoisseur will drink the new wine, on account of the headaches which follow. These, however, need not be dreaded after the second year, when the wine is thoroughly drinkable. The fine aroma and bouquet only come with age; and the nutty flavour, which is very strongly marked in good old Shiraz wine, is not found until it has attained five years in the carboy. Of all Persian wines, Shiraz, or rather “Cholar,” wine is the most renowned. That made in Ispahan is not to be compared to it; while the stuff concocted in Teheran, of watered grapes and vine leaves, is good only in colour. The Hamadan wine will not keep, and is very heady, though pleasant in flavour. The Kerman wine is rough, and carelessly made, but when old is very good, tasting like a fair specimen of Caucasus wine. Persian wine much improves by bottling. I made a point of filling all wine, brandy, and beer bottles with Shiraz wine: a thick crust is thrown down, and it matures more rapidly, strange to say, when in bottle than when in bulk. As a rule the Persians, when they store it in carboys, merely put a bit of rag or cotton-wool in the mouth, not even trying to keep out the air; but so good is the wine that it stands even this treatment, and this, too, though perfectly pure, and with _no addition of spirit_, or other adulteration! From the refuse the arrack is distilled by the Jews, and it is a profitable operation; they sell the strong pure spirit at one shilling a quart. The room where the wine-making goes on is much haunted by wasps, but the exhalations kill them. I fortunately did my wine-making in a separate courtyard, and so was not troubled by them; but they are, unless one takes this precaution, a great nuisance.