Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
which look to the sun at mid-day, or the earlier hours of the afternoon,
produce wines of the first quality. Seven hundred vines, three feet
apart, yield a _feuillette_, which is about two and a half _pièces_,
to the arpent. The best red wine is produced at the upper end, in the
neighborhood of Ampuis; the best white, next to Condrieu. They sell of
the first quality and last vintage, at one hundred and fifty livres the
_pièce_, equal to twelve sous the bottle. Transportation to Paris is
sixty livres, and the bottle four sous; so it may be delivered at Paris
in bottles, at twenty sous. When old, it costs ten or eleven louis the
_pièce_. There is a quality which keeps well, bears transportation, and
cannot be drunk under four years. Another must be drunk at a year old.
They are equal in flavor and price.
The wine called Hermitage, is made on the hills impending over the
village of Tain; on one of which is the hermitage which gives name to
the hills for about two miles, and to the wine made on them. There are
but three of those hills which produce wine of the first quality, and
of these, the middle regions only. They are about three hundred feet
perpendicular height, three quarters of a mile in length, and have a
southern aspect. The soil is scarcely tinged red, consists of small
rotten stone, and is, where the best wine is made, without any
perceptible mixture of earth. It is in sloping terraces. They use a
little dung. An _homme de vignes_, which consists of seven hundred
plants, three feet apart, yields generally about three quarters of a
_pièce_, which is nearly four _pièces_ to the arpent. When new, the
pièce is sold at about two hundred and twenty-five livres; when old, at
three hundred. It cannot be drunk under four years, and improves fastest
in a hot situation. There is so little white made in proportion to the
red, that it is difficult to buy it separate. They make the white sell
the red. If bought separately, it is from fifteen to sixteen louis the
pièce, new, and three livres the bottle, old. To give quality to
the red, they mix one eighth of white grapes. Portage to Paris is
seventy-two livres the pièce, weighing six hundred pounds. There are but
about one thousand _pièces_ of both red and white, of the first quality,
made annually. Vineyards are never rented here, nor are laborers in the
vineyard hired by the year. They leave buds proportioned to the strength
of the vine, sometimes as much as fifteen inches. The last hermit died
in 1751.
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