dients were infused ; and took its name copying their descriptions of the customs • Ye shall have rumney, and malmesyne, Both ypocrasse and vernage wine, or more toasted Seville oranges, in a cer. Mount Rosef and wine of Greke, tain quantity of Burgundy or other light Both algrades and respice|| eke; Antioche and bastarde, wine, and then sweetening the whole with Pyment also, and garnarde; T. Wine of Greke, and muscadell, The reed your stomake to defye, And pottes of osey sett you bye.'** " In the following century, it is clear, described. But, in the writings of the age, that the prevailing taste for sweet wines there is abundant evidence that our coun led to the importation of all the choicest trymen were already familiar with several kinds ; for they are frequently noticed, and genuine wines of that class ; though, at the seem to have been used in considerable same time, it must be acknowledged, that quantity. In one of the ordinances for the the frequent notice of them, in the works household of GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, alluded to, does not always imply that made on the 9th December, 1469, we find they were imported into England. Much the sum of twenty pounds allowed for the of the literature of that period consisted of purveying of Malvesie, romenay, osay, translations from foreign authors; and in bastard muscadelle, and other sweete . “ For he had yeven the gailer drinke so Of a clarrie, made of certain wine, CHAUCER, Knight's Tale. « • He drinketh Ipocras, clarrie, and Vernage Of spices hote, to encrease his corage.'"- Merchant's Tale. When made with Burgundy or Borileaux wine, it is called bishop; when old Rhine wine is used, it receives the name of cardinai ; and when Tokay is employed, it is distinguished by the appellation of pope.-RITTER's Weinlehre, p. 20.9. But Port, Claret, Burgundy, are, it seems, the three grades in the vinous vocabulary of Oxford.-See Reginald Dalton, vol. 1. p. 342. # Monte Rose. § Algarves, or Algadia. Garnache, or Grenache. There is some reason to believe, that this term may be a corruption of ** Ritson's Metrical Romances, Vol. III. p. 176. wynes. As some of these varieties have nia, and Rumenia, correspond pretty closenot before appeared in our lists, it may be ly with the variations in the name of the desirable to ascertain their respective cha wine. In confirmation of this view of the racters and history a little more fully. subject, it may be remarked, that one of “ Though the trade with the Canary the species of grapes at present grown in Islands had been for some time established, Andalusia, is termed Romé negro, and no wines were obtained from them at this there can be no doubt that the word period : sugar being still the principal * Romé' is derived from the Arabic, Rumi, commodity which they supplied. Nor had That the wines of that province were then Spain or Portugal as yet sent us any malm freely imported into England, and distinsies. The best dessert wines, however, were guished, as they have always been, by their made from the Malvasia grape : and Can uncommon strength, is evident from the dia, where it was chiefly cultivated, for a manner in which CHAUCER speaks of the long time retained the monopoly. The white wine of Lepe, (now Niebla,) beterm Malmsey is merely a corruption of tween Moguer and Seville :Malvasia, or rather Monemvasia, the name of a small fortified town in the bay Namely fro the white wine of Lepe, “Now kepe you fro the white and fro the rede, of Epidaurus Limera, whence the grape That is to sell in Fish-streat and in Chepe: was originally derived.t This wine of Spain crepeth subtelly, “ Another of the above-mentioned wines, And other wines growing fast by, Of which riseth soch fumosite, designated by the name of the grape, was That whan a man hath dronk draughts thre, the Romenay, otherwise Romeney, Rumn. And weneth that he be at home in Chepe, He is in Spain, right at the tuune of Lepe.' ney, Romanie, or Romagnia. That it could not be the produce of the Ecclesias " The oseye, otherwise spelled osoye, ostical State, as the two last corruptions of sey, &c.,which the act of 5 Ric. III. directs the word would seem to imply, may be to be sold at the same price as the wines of safely averred; for at no period, since the Gascony and Poitou, appears, from the endecline of the empire, has the Roman soil try above quoted, to have been of the sweet furnished any wines for exportation ; and kind: And in an ordinance of CHARLES even Bacci, with all his partiality, is VI., cited by LE GRAND, it is noticed in obliged to found his eulogy of them on similar company. Some verses, which are their ancient fame, and to confess, that, in inserted in the first volume of HACKhis time, they had fallen into disrepute. LUYT's Voyages, place it among the By Cogan and others, Romeney is classed • commodities of Portugal :' but, on the among the Spanish white wines; but from other hand, a passage in Valors' Descripwhat part of Spain it came is not specified. tion of France seems to prove beyond disExcept the small town of Romana, in Ar. pute, chat oseye was an Alsatian wine ; ragon, there is no place that bears a simi. Auxois, or Osoy, being, in old times, the lar denomination; and I am not aware that name commonly used for Alsace. If this the wines of that province have ever been conjecture be well founded, we may premuch known beyond the places of their sume, that oseyje was a luscious-sweet, or growth. The probability is, that it was a straw-wine, similar to what is still made in wine made from a grape of Greek extrac that province. That it was a rich, high.. tion ; and, in fact, Bacci informs us, that flavoured liquor, is sufficiently shewn by a the produce of the red and white musca- receipt for imitating it, which may be seen dels, which were cultivated in the Ionianı in MARKHAM; and we learn from Bacci, islards, and the adjoining continent, was that the wines wliich Alsace then furnished, called by the Italians, Romania. In a in great profusion, to England, as well as passage of an old serinon, quoted by Car. different parts of the continent, were of that PENTIER, the word occurs in conjunction description. In the · Bataille des Vins,' with malvaticum,' or malmsey ; and BEN we find the · Vin d'Aussai' associated with Jonson mentions the “ Romagnia' along the growths of the Moselle. with the wine of Candia. The name, how “ With respect to Bastard, or, as the ever, is not exactly, as Bacci supposes, of printing of the ordinance, if rightly copied, Italian origin, but comes from Rum-Ili, might lead us to name it, Bastard muscathe appellation given by the Saracens to a del, there is greater difficulty in tracing its considerable partof the continentof Greece; history. That it was a sweetish wine there and the several spellings, Romania, Ruma can be no doubt ; and that it came from * “ Collection of Ordinances for the Government of the Royal Household. Lond. 1790, p. 101. " It was anciently a promontory, called Minoa, but is now an island, connected with the coast of Laconia by a bridge. The name of Monemvasia, derived from the circumstances of its position (uó:n èu Bacia, single entrance,) was corrupted by the Italians to Malvasia ; and the place being celebrated for the fine wines produced in the neighbourhood, Malvasia, changed to Malvoisie in French, and Malmsey in English, came to be applied to many of the rich wines of the Archipelago, Greece, and other countries "Rescarches in Greece, by W. MARTIN LEAKE, p. 197 dete liar clase hava SCH tha us." some of the countries which border the in such obscurity. But, in pursuing the Mediterranean appears equally certain. inquiry, we shall find, that on this, as on MINSHEW and SKINNER suppose it to many other points of antiquarian research, have been a liquor obtained from dried the truth lies nearer the surface than has grapes (v. passum ;) but all the luscious. been commonly imagined. sweet wines, as we have seen, are made in “ It seems, indeed, to be admitted, on this manner--this definition, therefore, all hands, that the term Sack was originally cannot be received. CARPENTIER, on the applied to certain growths of Spain. Min. other hand, pronounces bastard to have Shew defines it to be a wine that cometh been a mixed wine (v. mixtum ;) which out of Spain, vinum siccum, vin sec, vino accords with the assertion of LE GRAND, seco, q. d. propter magnam siccandi hu. that it was a wine from Corsica, mingled mores facultatem.' SKINNER, however, with honey. In the translation of the thinks this explanation unsatisfactory, and « Maison Rustique,' by MARKHAM, we inclines to the opinion of MANDELSO, a are told, that such wines are called mun. German traveller, who published an acgrell or bastard, which, betwixt the sweet count of his travels to the East Indies in and astringent, have neither the manifest 1645, and who derives the name from sweetness, nor manifest astriction, but in- Xeque, a town in Morocco, whence the deed participate and contain both qualities.' plant that yields this species of wine is said This character, however, is far from satis. to have been carried to the Canary Islands. factory, as it will apply to many of the But in all the catalogues of vines which I finest growths, which have that mixed have had the opportunity of consulting, taste. On the whole, the most intelligible there is no mention of any such species. account of the matter is given by VENNER, Besides, it was not from the Canaries, but who says, that · Bastard is in virtue some. from Spain, that sack was first brought to what like to muskadell, and may also, in stead thereof, be used : it is in goodness so “ Dr Percy has the credit of restoring much inferiour to muskadell, as the same the original interpretation of the term. In is to malmsey.' It was, therefore, not a a manuscript account of the disbursements true muscadel wine, though approaching by the chamberlain of the city of Worcesto that class in flavour, and taking its ter for the year 1592, he found the ancient Dame not from any admixture of honey, mode of spelling to be seck, and thence conwhich would have reduced it to the nature cluded that Sack was merely a corruption of a piment, but from the grape of which of sec, signifying a dry wine. MINSHEW, it was made,-probably a bastard species as we have seen, renders the term vin sec ; of muscadine. In support of this conjec- and CoTGRAVE, in his Dictionary, gives ture, it may be observed, that one of the the same translation. The most satisfactory varieties of wines now cultivated in the evidence, however, in support of this opi. Alto Douro, and also in Madeira, is called nion, is furnished by the French version of bastardo, and the must which it yields is of a proclamation for regulating the prices of a sweetish quality. Of the Bastard wine wines, issued by the privy council in 1633, there were two sorts—white and brown ; where the expression vins secs corresponds both of them, according to MARKHAM's with the word sacks in the original copy. report, ' fat and strong ;' the tawny or It may also be remarked, that the term sec brown kind being the sweetest. They are is still used as a substantive by the French frequently mentioned by dramatic authors, to denote a Spanish wine ; and that the especially about the time of Queen Eli. dry wine of Xerez is distinguished at the ZABETH. COGAN, we perceive, calls Bas. place of its growth by the name of vino tard a growth of Spain ; and Sach, who agrees with him in this particular, describes 6 These several authorities, then, appear it as the heaviest of all wines.” to warrant the inference, that Sack was a " With respect to the wines called Sacks, DRY Spanish wine. But, on the other which had now come into general use, hand, numerous instances occur, in which much diversity of opinion has prevailed; it is mentioned in conjunction with wines and, although various attempts have been of the sweet class. The act of HENRY VIII. made to explain their nature, and the sub- speaks of“ sakkes or other swete wynes.' ject has undergone frequent discussion, In like manner, the Mystery of Vintners,' especially among those writers who have published by DR MERRET in 1675, gives laboured to illustrate our early poets, the a receipt to correct the rankness and eager. question remains, in a great measure, un. ness of wines, as Sack and Malago, or determined. When we consider how fami. other sweet wines.' GLAs, in his History liar our ancestors must have been with this of the Canary Islands,' makes no distincclass of wines, and how repeatedly they tion between Malmsey and Canary Sack ; have been noticed by authors of every de- and Nichols, in the account which he has scription, it appears not a little singular given of Teneriffe, expressly says, “ that that their history should now be involved island produces three sorts of excellent Vol. XVI. B seco. wines-Lanary, Malmsey, and Verdona ; gar, if the liquor had not been of the sweet which all go under the denomination of kind. But on this point little stress can be Sacks.' To get rid of the difficulty which laid ; as at that time it was a general custhus arises, MR NARES has recourse to tom with the English to add sugar to their the supposition, that Sack was a common wines. The testimony of VENNER, how, name for all white wines. 'But it has been ever, who has discussed the question, whealready shewn, that the appellation was ther Sack be best to be taken with sugar originally confined to the growths of Spain ; or without,' clearly points to a dry wine. and if it had been used to designate white Some,' he observes, affect to drinke wines in general, there can be no reason Sacke with sugar, and some without, and why it should not have been applied to upon no other ground, as I thinke, but those of France or Candia, which were then that, as it is best pleasing to their pallates. imported in large quantity. If, again, we I will speake what I deeme thereof, and I suppose that the name denoted a sweet thinke I shall well satisfie such as are juwine, we shall be equally at a loss to dis dicious. Sacke, taken by itself, is very hot, cover the circumstances which could have and very penetrative : being taken with sugiven rise to such a distinction between it gar, the heat is both somewhat allayed, and the other kinds then in use ; not to and the penetrative quality thereof also remention that such an application of the tardated. · Wherefore let this be the conterm would have been wholly at variance clusion : Sacke taken by itself, without any with the etymology as above deduced. A mixture of sugar, is best for them that have more particular examination of the charac cold stomackes, and subject to the obstructers assigned to Sack by the few writers who tions of it, and of the meseraicke veines. have described it, will perhaps enable us to But for them that are free from such obreconcile these discrepancies, and remove structions, and fear lest that the drinking much of the perplexity in which the ques of sacke, by reason of the penetrative fation has hitherto been involved. culty of it, might distemper the liver, it is “ In the first place, we are told by VEN best to drinke with sugar; and so I leave NER, that “Sacke is completely hot in the every man that understandeth his owne state third degree, and of thin parts, and there. of body, to be his own director herein.'» fore it doth vehemently and quickly heat “Sack was used as a generic name for the the body: wherefore the much and un wines in question : but occasionally the timely use of it doth overheat the liver, in- growths were particularly specified. Thus, flame the blood, and exsiccate the radical in one of the scenes in The Second Part humour in lean and dry bodies.' This de of K. Henry IV.' we have a laboured paseription accords with the epithet spright- negyric by FALSTAFF on the attributes ly,' which is giveri to it in some verses pub of Sherris-sack, or dry Sherry; and for a lished in 1041, and sufficiently proves, long time the words Sack and Sherry were that it could not have been of a thick lu used indiscriminately for each other. In scious quality, like most of the dessert like manner, we frequently read of Canary wines then in vogue. That, however, it Sack, and find the latter term sometimes was a liquor of considerable strength and employed to express that particular wine; body, may be inferred from a subsequent although it differed materially from Sherry passage of the last-mentioned work, where in quality, and scarcely came within the it is extolled as the elixir of wine ;' description of a dry wine. • Canarie wine,' expression apparently borrowed from one says VENNER, which beareth the name of Ben Jonson's plays. HERRICK, of the islands from whence it is brought, is again, calls it a “frantic liquor ;'-expa of some termed a Sacke, with this adjunct tiating, with rapture, on its witching beau sweete, but yet very improperly, for it difties,' generous blood,' &c.; and most of fereth not onely from Sacke, in sweetnesse the dramatic writings of the age contain and pleasantnesse of taste, but also in cofrequent allusions to its enlivening virtues lour and consistence ; for it is not so white and other fascinating properties. Had in colour as Sacke, nor so thin in substance; there been nothing new or uncommon in wherefore it is more nutritive than Sacke, the nature of the wine, it could hardly have and lesse penetrative. It is best agreeable excited such extravagant admiration, or to cold constitutions, and for old bodies, come into such universal request, at a time so that they be not too impensively cholerwhen our countrymen were alrcady fami- icke; for it is a wine that will quickly enliar with the choicest vintages from almost flame, and therefore very hurtfull unto hot all parts of the globe. and cholericke bodies, especially if they be “The practice which prevailed of mix- young.' This passage is the more desering sugar with Sack has been thought by ving of attention, as it not only illustrates most persons to indicate a dry wine, such the nature of the Canary wine in use at the as. Rhenish or Sherry. Dr DRAKE, in commencement of the seventeenth century, deed, is of a contrary opinion, alleging, but shews that there were considerable dif. that there would be no humour in FAL ferences in the quality of the wines which STAFF's well-known jest on Sack and su. bore the general name of Sacks, and thus mon. Uleare he state en.' for the ly the Thus, a Part med på 1824.] 11 removes much of the confusion that has same quality as those wirich inve since arisen from the misnomer above alluded to. been so largely imported under the name Whether the Canary Islands then furnish of Mountain. But that the richest growths ed any dry wines, similar to those which of the Malaguese vineyards were not unare now imported from Teneriffe, seems known in England at this period, the free doubtful: but it is clear, that Canary Sack quent notice of the Pedro Ximenes, under resembled the liquor which still passes un various disguises of the name, sufficiently der that denomination. Of the precise de. testifies. gree of sweetness which it possessed, we “ Judging from what is still observable may form some idea from the observation of some of the wines of Spain, we may of HOWELL, who informs us, that · Sher. easily imagine, that many of the Sacks, ries and Malagas well mingled pass for properly so called, might, at the same Canaries in most taverns, more often than time, be both dry and sweet. At all events, Canary itself.' BEN Jonson mentions when new, they would belong to the class his receiving a present of Palm-sack, that of sweetish wines ; and it was only after is, sack from the island of Palma. having been kept a sufficient length of “ With these decisive authorities before time, to ensure the decomposition of the us, we can more readily understand the greater part of the free saccharine matter description which MARKHAM has given of contained in them, that they could have the various kinds of Sack known in his acquired the peculiar dryness for which time. • Your best Sacks,' he observes, they were distinguished. We find, ac are of Xeres, in Spain,-your smaller, cordingly, that they were valued in proporof Gallicia and Portugall; your strong tion to their age; and the calls for old Sacks are of the islands of the Canaries Sack,' as Sack sat' toxiv, were very comand of Malligo; and your muskadine and We may also presume, that there malmseys are of many parts, of Italy, would be much less difference of taste Greece, and some special islands.' It thus among the several species of Sack, in their appears, that the Xerez wine, though the recent state, than after they laad been long driest of any then imported, was inferior kept ; for even the sweetest wines betray in point of strength to the growths of Ma at first some degree of roughness, which is laga and the Canary Islands ; which is gradually subdued by age; while the much the same character that was given of character of dryness, on the other hand, it at a subsequent period. With respect will hardly apply to any of the dura. to the Sacks of Galicia and Portugal, How ble wines, as they come from the vat.. ELL would persuade us, that few of them Mountain and Canary were always sweeter could have been then brought to this coun than Sherry: but between the richer kinds try. • There is,' he remarks, a gentle there is often a strong resemblance in fig. kind of wine that grows among the moun vour, which is the less extraordinary, as tains of Galicia, but not of body enough to they are made from the same species of bear the sea, called Rabidavia. Portugal grape, though growing in different soils. affords no wines worth the transporting.' It was, therefore, not without reason, that This opinion, however, I conceive to be they were considered as “ near allied.” erroneous. In the verses above referred to, - The conclusion at which we thus which were published soon after the Revo arrive is so far satisfactory, as it proves, lution, the wines of Galicia and Carcavel. that the wines formerly known under tỉe los are noticed ; and there is some reason name of sacks, though they may, upon to believe, that the latter may have been the whole, have been inferior, yet differed the growth which MARKHAM had in view, in no essential quality from those with when speaking of the Portugal Sacks. which we are at present supplied by the SHAKSPEARE and other dramatic writers same countries that originally produced mention a wine called Charneco, which, in them, and which are still held in such de. a pamphlet quoted by Warburton, is enu. seryed estimation. They probably first merated along with Sherry-sack and Ma came into favour, in consequence of their laga. According to Mr Stevens, the ap- possessing grcater strength and durability, pellation is derived from a village near and being more free from acidity, than the Lisbon. There are, in fact, two villages white wines of France and Germany; and in that neighbourhood, which take the owed their distinctive appellation to that name of Charneca ; the one situated about peculiar sub-astringent taste which characa league and a half above the town of Lis. terizes all wines prepared with gypsum.” bon,-the other near the coast, between The history of the English taste in Collares and Carcavellos. We shall, there wines may be carried down from these fore, probably not err much, if we refer days to the present in a single sentence. the wine in question to the last-mentioned Claret became the standing liquor at territory. “ The Malaga Sacks must have been not the Restoration, and continued so until only stronger, but also sweeter than the the abominable Methuen treaty gave other kinds ; as, by mixing them with those shameful advantages to the PorSherry, a liquor resembling Canary wine tuguese growers, by which their pockwas produced. They were doubtless of the ets are to this hour enriched, and our ibutes for a were · In anary etimes wine; herry the zine, jame ht, is unct dit esse CO-hite nce; cke, able ies, derenhot be er tes Ehe if. ch US |