Drinks of the world / by James Mew and John Ashton.

  • Mew, James.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drinks of the world / by James Mew and John Ashton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Xeres. Palm wines are, of course, common. The people of Cacongo prepare a wine called Embeth, and those of Benin Pali and Pardon. The Caffres make a wine called Pombie, from millet or Guinea corn.1 In Congo they drink a wine called Milaffo, which will not keep beyond three days. Of the many wines produced at Algiers, the best is probably the white wine of Mascara, situated on a slope of the plane of Egbris, 1,800 feet above the sea level. The Arabic name of the place is a corruption of Umm-al-asakir, or the Mother of Soldiers. The wine is the principal industry of Algiers. It is eagerly bought up by agents of Bordeaux houses. Wines of inferior quality are made at Boue, Tlemcen, Medeah, and Milianah. The wines of Oran are said to resem- ble the small wines of Languedoc. In ancient times the valley of the Nile produced the wines of Mareotis, Mendes, Koptos, and Arsinoe, and its Delta the liqueur wine of Sebenytus. America. The first attempt to cultivate the vine in North America was made, we are informed by Drs. Thudi- chum and Dupre, in 1564. Some of its best known wines at the present time are the Catawbas2 (still and 1 Patterson’s Travels in Caffraria, p. 92. 2 One of these inspired Longfellow, who thinks (poetically) the richest wine is that of the West, which grows by the beautiful river, whose sweet perfume fills the apartment, with a benison on the giver:— “ Very good in its way is the Verzenay, Or the Sillery, soft and creamy; But Catawba wine has a taste more divine, More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy.” A dreamy taste is something startling even in poetical description.