AMONGST THE VINES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1822, 23 April 1888, Page 3

AMONGST THE VINES.

The charming aeriea of papers v Pictureeqao Victoria" still graca tha " Argaa. " From the latest, on the vrine districts we extract the following : — " Bat 'tia time to qnlt the vineyard and to make for the station. So we yoke up Mr Sayle's marvellous two-wheeled coach, " The mountain Maid," and walk oat across the flits

I smoke m tilenco aud the old oolorJsfc says '• Yoa did not seem to admire tho vintage." 1 answer, " The vineyard was good, and the master of the vineyard perfect m courtesy and hospitality, and all the virtaeß of life, — bat the pcoc?ea of the vineyard haa destroyed a pleasant dream, a fond imagining," He anawera, " How ?" and I rejoin, " I will tell you a atory — There was, a few years ago, a young Lord de Clifford travelling m Australia fur his pleasure and health, and at dinner one night he told a 'good story of wine and the way it should be made, or rather the jovial circumstances whioh should attend its making. We had drunk bock, which seemed good, and incidentally remarked my lord, " It is said m England that we have the only perfect hook m Europe, and it Ib a funny story how we acquired it. My grandfather a year or two after Waterloo was making tho grand tour, He had travelled through France. Ha waß m the valley of the Rhine. It was a hot day and all of the pirty were thirsty. They met by a littlevinoyard asort of vintagefeatlval, There were plperafand zither players, and what not, and all the population m holiday at tire; and just airiv6dattho preßß, the laßt load of grapes, with a girl like a May Qaeen, only dressed with vine foliage iustead of hawthorn bloom atop. My grandfather askod for wine, and they prayed all to drink and to join m the fun. I never heard whether the request waa acceded toornot, or whether theparty stayed allfnlght and danced with the girls or not, and there ia nothing m tho family record to chow when and whe«e and how they went to bed that night. But with the morrow they went oa their way, finished their journey and returned home. And In the spring of next year my grandfather, walking a terrace m the morning, saw a proceaßion apprcaohing something like a half-dczan of Barclay and PerkinB 1 wagons, each with it 1 ? half-dozen hogsheads. He stood fn astonishment, and found no speech till a sturdy, yellow-headed fellow dismounted from the foremost, and assailed him m German, He had brought tho wiac — the vintage hoina. What wine and vintage 1 Did not my lord remember, perhaps my lord would recogniae that He produced an agreement, a contract of 8bI« whereby it waa shown that the Baron de Clifford had sgreed to purohase tho whole of the vinfago of Herr itudesheimor, or whatever hla name was, at a certain fixed price. Tho Baron'a Hignature waa there, and the Baron must, therefore, accept delivery and pi.y. The latter was anpleaßant,butthe former sisemed impossible. The half of it would never go into the collar. Borne was sold, some given away, and for years thereafter to mention hock to the Baron was a high crime and misdemeanour. But when decadea were passed, they began to drink Iho wlno, and m a quarter of a century to like it, and fifty yeara Inter to priza it ; and now, as I toil yon, thoagh there Ib not much loft, they sppak of It, not as the bout, but aa the only hock m Europe." So, doubtless, when an English milord cornea to Australia and meets a vintage feotival with a, more divine qneen of grapea and hearts than llhineland ever boro, riding heme amid the purple olutfera *nd rusiet leaves, and aska for a drink of wine, and loves tho flavour, and buys the whole vintage and takes It homo and koopa it a hundred years — why, then there will ba no nr m occasion for a carping critic, filled full of old pagan fantasioa, to complain, ur.d tho fame of Australia m wine will be es'fabllehod for ever. Long before that period we hope, however, to manage all things well, and to establish the Tame of our wine by our own efforts. Acd how much haa been done m this way, and Is now m progress, will ba seen and nuder stood at tho great vineyard of St Humbert's. Commercial enterprise has been joined with practical knowledge and scientific research thore, and the firm of Rowan and Ooafrello will make the^ way for the Anatralian vintage to all the markets of the world, We will boo that vineyard uext week,