SECRETS OF THE WINE TRADE.

New Zealander, Volume I, Issue 51, 23 May 1846, Page 3

SECRETS OF THE WINE TRADE.

"There, now, Sir! to prove how much gentlemen may be mistaken j I assure you, Sir, I'm. an honest man, 1 never had but two sorts of wine in cellar — port and sherry." " How ! when I mjself have tried your claret, your " * " Yes, Sir — my claret, Sir. One is obliged to give gentlemen everything they ask, Sir ; gentlemen who pay their money, Sir, have aright to be seived with whatever they please to order, Sir — especially the young gentlemen from Cainbiidge, Sir. I'll tell you how it is, Sir, I never would have any wines in my house, Sir, but port and sherry, because I knew them to be wholesome wines, Sir j and this I will say, Sir, my port and sherry were the — very— best I could procure in all England—" "How! the best r " Yes, Sir— at the price I paid for them. But to explain the thing at once, Sir. You must know. Sir, that I hadn't been long in business when I discovered that gentlemen knew very little about wine, but that if they didn't find some fan It or other they would appear to know much less— always excepting the young gentlemen from Cambridge, Sir ; and they are excellent judges ! [And here again Bur ley's little eyes twinkled a commentary on the concluding words of his sentence.] Well, Sit ; with respect to my dinner wines, I was always tolerably safe ; gentlemen seldom find fault at dinner ! so whether it may happen to be Madeira or pale sherry, or brown or——" " Why, just now, you told me you had but two sorts of wine in the cellar." " Very true, Sir j port and sherry. But this was my plan, Sir. If any one ordered Madeira : — From one bottle of sherry take two glasses of wine, which replace by two glasses of brandy, and theieto a slight squeeze of lemon ; and this 1 found to give general satisfaction, especially to the young gentlemen from Cambridge, Sir. But, upon the word of an honest man, I could scarcely get a living profit by my Madeira, Sir, for I always used the best brandy. As to the pale and brown sherry, Sir — a couple of glasses of nice pure water, in place of thesame quantity of wine, made what I used 'to call my delicate pale (by the tye, a squeeze>of lemon added to that made a very fair Bucelias, Sir — a wine not much called for now, Sir,)— and for my o .d brown sherry, a leetle burnt sugar was the thing. It looked very much like -sherry, that had been twice to the East Indies, Sir;" and, indeed, to my customers who were very particular about there wines, I used. to serve it as such." " But, Mr. Burley, wasn't such a'proceeding of a character rdther " " I guess what you would say, Sir j but I know it to be a wholesome wine at the bottom, Sir. But my port was the wine which gave me the most trouble. Gentlemen seldom agree about port, Sii. One gentleman would say, ' Burley, 1 don't like this wine — it is too heavy.' Out went a glass of wine, and in went a glass of water. ' Well, Sir,' I'd say, ' how do you approve of thatV 'Why— urn— no; I can't say—' 'I understand, Sir, you like an older wine — softer ; I think I can please you, Sir,' Pump again, Sir. 'Now, Sir,' says I (wiping the decanter with a napkin, and triumphantly holding it up to the light), ' try this, if you please.' • That's it, Burley — that's the very wine ; bring another bottle of the same.' But one can't please everybody the same way, Sir. Some gentlemen would complain of my port as being poor— without body. In went one glass of brandy. If that didn't answer. 'A\e, gentlemen,' says I, 'I know what will please you— you like a fuller bodied, rougher wine. Out went two glasses of wine, and in went two or three glasses of brandy. This used to be a very favourite wine, but only with the young gentlemen of Cambridge, Sir." " And your claret ?" "My good, wholesome port again, Sir. Three wines out, three waters in, one pinch of tartaric acid, two ditto onis-powdet. For a fuller claret a little brandy ; for a lighter claret, more water." " But how did you contrive about Bin gundy V* "That's was my claret, Sir, with from three to six drops of Bergamot, according as gentlemen liked a full flavour or a deln-ate flavour. As for champagne, Sir, that of course, I made mjself." " How do you mean ' of course,' Burley i" Dear Sir, said he, with an innocent yet waggish look; "surely everybody makes his own chainpdgne — else what can become of all the gooseberries," — Sam Sly's African Journal,