THE VINTAGE OF 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 142, 16 November 1874, Page 3

THE VINTAGE OF 1874.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.)

The news just received from Germany seems to promise that the comet of 1874 will leave behind it in the wine countries a pleasant memorial of its visit. Mr B. Archer Burton, writing from Ehrenbreitstein, states that the vintage in the Ehiue and Moselle districts, especially where the highest class of wines produced, is likely to compensate for the disastrous years of 18(59, 1870, 1871, 1872, and 18751. In the favored spot known as the Rheingau no such quantity has been recorded since the celebrated comet year of 1811. At one time it was apprehended that the early May frosts had, as in former years, committed much damage among the vines ; but these fears have long been dispelled, and there is now, we learn, the fairest promise that the vintage of 1874 will be an exceptionally grand one both in quantity and quality. Such delicate little attentions to wine drinkers on the part of these erratic heavenly bodies are the more appreciated because we are not always able to count upon them. Since 1811 not by any means all of the numerous comets which have appeared in this country have been careful to perpetuate their memories by their handsome presents of wine. The comet of 1811 above referred to and Donati’s comet of 1858, with the magnificent claret vintage which ful-

’owed it, are per] laps the only two which can he held in grateful remembrance for their effects upon wine. On the other hand, two famous years, ’24 and ’34, produced their wines without any cometary assistance, unless the near approach of a comet in one case .and its recent departure in the other can be supposed to have exercised any influence upon the vineyards. A comet was visible in December, 1823, and the year 1835 was the date of the last appearance of Halley’s comet of IGS2.