Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/789

GERMANY, Wines of. The wine-producing area of Germany is limited chiefly to those parts watered by the Rhine and its tributaries, the Moselle, the Nahe, the Neckar, the Main, and several smaller streams, so that the terms Rhine wine and German wine may be considered almost synonymous. Bonn, in Rhenish Prussia, and Freiburg, in Baden, mark approximately the northern and southern limits of the grape culture. Both red and white wines are produced, but those known to commerce are, with a few exceptions, white. The red varieties are mostly of inferior quality and are consumed within the country. All are distinguished by their comparative freedom from alcohol, which barely exceeds 12 per cent., and at the same time by their durability, the finer growths frequently retaining their excellence for half a century or more. Liebig attributes their distinctive character and bouquet to the free acid which they contain, and their valuable hygienic properties to the tartar present in them. To this cause he ascribes the immunity enjoyed by persons dwelling on the Rhine and the Moselle, and indeed by all who use German wines, from calcareous complaints. The most favored and celebrated viticultural district in Rhineland is that known as the Rheingau, a strip of territory about 15 m. in length, and not exceeding 3 m. in width, lying between the Taunus range of mountains, in Nassau, and the right bank of the Rhine. It extends from Walluf, just below Mentz, to Lorch, 6 m. below Bingen. The river, after following a northerly course for many miles, turns abruptly at Mentz to the west, in which direction it flows as far as Bingen, when it again turns northward. Having thus a southerly exposure, and being protected from the north winds by the mountains behind it, and from the southwest winds by a range on the west bank of the Nahe, with the further advantage of having the rays of the sun reflected from the river directly upon its slopes, the Rheingau affords a site for vineyards unequalled perhaps in Europe, and has a climate peculiarly favorable to the production of the fragrant and delicate wines for which the district is famous. In connection with the Rheingau may be considered the neighboring district of Hochheim, on the north bank of the Main, about 4 m. from Mentz, and from the first syllable of which is derived the name, hock, by which all Rhenish wines were once designated in Great Britain and the United States. The vineyards of Hochheim have a southerly exposure, and are essentially an easterly continuation of those of the Rheingau. The vine appears to have been cultivated throughout this whole region as early as the 6th or 7th century, but to the monastic foundations established there during the middle ages belongs the credit of discovering and perpetuating the system of viticulture which has brought its wines to their present high degree of perfection. During the religious and civil conflicts which disturbed Germany from the 16th century to the end of the Napoleonic wars, the most famous vineyards gradually passed from the hands of the monks to those of the dukes of Nassau, the princes of Metternich, or less distinguished proprietors. In the latter half of the last century many new vineyards were planted by persons of means from Mentz, Frankfort, and other neighboring cities; and by the conjunction of capital with intelligent labor the Rheingau has become the most highly cultivated wine-growing region, perhaps, in the world. Within a comparatively recent period the discovery has been made that the Riessling grape, which yields the bouquetted wines, develops its finest qualities only when in a state of over-ripeness, without concurrent acetification. This has led to a complete reform in the treatment of the wines in the cellar. While formerly young wine required from ten to twenty years to ripen, it is now perfected in from three to five years, with a perceptible improvement in quality. In like manner the large casks previously used, to diminish to the utmost the loss by diffusion and evaporation, have been discarded, as they were found to be impediments to the quick maturation of wine by diminishing the surface accessible to oxygen. The vineyards of Hochheim lie about three quarters of a mile from the banks of the Main, above which they are elevated 100 ft., and embrace an area of between 700 and 800 acres. The finest wine is produced on the estate known as the Dechanei, or deanery, eight acres in extent, which has an admirable exposure. The Stein, a continuation of the Dechanei, yields wines which are sometimes said to surpass the best products of the Rheingau. These vineyards, formerly the property of the dukes of Nassau, now belong to the emperor of Germany.—Entering the Rheingau proper, we find a famous series of vineyards extending from the village of Elfeld to Asmannshausen. In the centre of the district, on a gentle eminence half a mile from the Rhine, lies the estate, about 46 acres in extent, of Schloss Johannisberg, a name long associated with the choicest products of the Rhenish vines. It yields a white wine, which in respect to fulness of taste and richness of bouquet has been called “the finest and most powerful drink on earth.” Johannisberg was originally a Benedictine abbey, founded in 1106, which, after various changes of ownership, became in 1815 the property of the emperor of Austria, who bestowed it upon Prince Metternich, with whose descendant it now remains. Notwithstanding the limited area of the estate, the soil varies considerably in different parts, which are marked off by stakes with numbers affixed; and the cultivation and the vintage are especially adapted to each part. A similar practice prevails in other celebrated vineyards of the Rheingau. Great care is exercised in the selection of grapes for the press, the first picking, or Auslese, of over-ripe fruit yielding the highest quality of the