called claret, and still more so the wines of
the Loire and its tributaries; the latter,
indeed, are passed off in enormous quantities
as true clarets, either in their natural state,
or mixed in various proportions with wines
of genuine growth. Pink champagne might
even more strictly be called claret; but
merchants and their customers have agreed
to limit the term to the red wines produced
in certain portions of the vast ancient province
of Guienne: notably in the department
of the Gironde. The white wines raised
on the same spots are not clarets, though
they may be Bordeaux wines; thus, the
pleasant and strong family of Vins de Grave
(so called from their being produced on the
Graves, or gravelly plains, which skirt the
south-western side of the river Garonne, and
completely surround the city of Bordeaux, as
far as the Médoc to the north-west, some
seven miles to the west, and some twelve to
the south-east) are not clarets; nor are the
delicate, mignonette-scented, and insidious
wines of Barsac and Sauternes. But, Bordeaux
being the capital of the district, Bordeaux
wines are spoken of as generally
synonymous with clarets—in contradistinction
to wines from Burgundy, Champagne, Tours,
or the Rhine—whether they come from
the Médoc, from St. Emilion, or from Libourne;
the latter town being itself a minor
metropolis of claret, which would shine in
the constellation of Jean Raisin as a fixed star
of very respectable brightness, were it not
reduced to the rank of a satellite by the over-powering
volume and splendour of Bordeaux.

The qualities claimed for good clarets by
their partizans rank with the merits of only
children, the miracles of Russian saints, and
other pet phenomena. They make the old
man or woman young, and they strengthen
the young with two-man power; they cure
the sick, and corroborate the healthy; they
are an antidote to fevers; but—say slanderers
—they bring on the gout, though I do
not believe a word of that calumny. They
will keep till no one knows when, and will
travel to no one knows where. They are
endued with the property of exhilarating
without intoxicating, unless you drink too
much. The choice growths are remarkable
for richness of colour, like the light streaming
in at a stained-glass window, exhibiting a
slightly violet or purple (but sometimes a
bright crimson) tinge and refraction, a seductive
nosegay resembling a mixture of jessamine
and violet blossoms, a pleasant fresh flavour
and after-taste, considerable body, and a
fair share of spirit, as you will find after
a few days' indulgence in wine-tasting. The
latter half of a bottle of claret, after it
has been uncorked a day or two, mostly
assumes a decided flavour of cedar pencils.
Good Bordeaux wines, as a general rule,
require to remain at least five years in
the wood; they do not ripen, in some instances,
under eight, and they continue to
improve in delicacy and fragrance till the
tenth year. When new, they are apt to
betray a trifle of harshness.

In consequence of several distinct causes,
claret always, up to a certain epoch, has been
in article of immense export rather than of
native consumption. What was not drunk
upon the spot, was almost entirely sent away
to the stranger. In the first place, it keeps
longer and bears a sea voyage better than
most French wines. Burgundy has notoriously
a dislike to travelling; even a short
journey will sometimes put it completely
out of sorts. For ages, the roads leading
from the banks of the Garonne to the interior
were so bad and so unsafe, and the means of
communication between one province and
another so difficult, that the quantity of
claret sent to other parts of France was
almost a nullity. The English, who were
masters of Guienne for many years, sent
home large supplies of liquid tribute, and
retained the taste for it, which they communicated
to still more distant countries. Paris
found it more convenient to procure her wines
from Burgundy, Champagne, and the Touraine,
than from Bordeaux; those wines, therefore,
became the mode in the capital, and still
remain so, in the popular taste. Bordeaux
still continues, to a certain degree, isolated
from the central, northern, and eastern parts
of France. Monsieur Claret, consequently,
was one of the deputies who specially represented
the foreign commerce of his native land.

But the great revolution put a stop to
Claret's career of prosperity. Foreign trade
rapidly declined under the republic; and the
republican wars gave it a deadly check.
Napoleon went further; he resolved to attack
England by wounding her commerce, and by
the utter prohibition of her merchandise.
Claret was then obliged to go a-begging, and
to entreat to be taken in, on any terms, in
Paris and other large cities in the interior of
the empire. The vineyard owners of the
Médoc were reduced to the last extremities.
At the restoration, hopes were entertained
that old commercial relations would be re-established;
but it turned out otherwise.
Napoleon's prohibitive system, and our own
also, were continued in existence by means of
custom-house duties. The French beet-sugar
makers, cotton manufacturers, and iron-founders,
who had saved large fortunes during
the continental blockade, were afraid of free-trade
and English competition, and had
sufficient influence to perpetuate a restrictive
policy. Our own people did the same, and.
continue to do so, in respect to the wines of
France. Between Napoleon the Third and
England, who are now sworn friends, the
same commercial repulsion virtually exists—
in consequence of the imposition of excessive
duties—touching one of the staple products
of the empire, as was in force between
England and Napoleon the First, then bitter
and implacable foes. What is Portugal to