It Should At Once Be Understood That No Quality Of
Cyprus Wines Is Suitable To The English Market, As They Are Generally
Shunned Even By The English Residing In The Island, Where Their Extreme
Cheapness Might Tempt People Into The Bad Taste Of Consuming Them.
At
the same time, these wines are well appreciated by the native
population, especially the dark astringent qualities.
The difficulty of introducing a new wine is well known to English
wine-merchants, and the mysteries of the trade would somewhat astonish
the innocent would-be connoisseur. There can be no doubt that the palate
must be educated to enjoy fine dry wines, precisely as the ear must be
instructed before it can appreciate classical music. There is a harmony
in the senses of hearing, smell, and taste which is the result of
civilised life; this may be right or wrong physically, as the nerves
become more delicate and sensitive, which may affect the brain more or
less directly. There can be no doubt that it affects the stomach.
Certain civilised persons prefer game in a state approaching to
decomposition; I have seen savages who enjoy flesh when actually putrid,
and above all horrors, fish when stinking! Such food would disgust the
civilised man who prefers his game "high," and would perhaps kill other
civilised people whose palates and stomachs have been educated to avoid
impurities. In the same manner the palate must be educated for wines or
other drinks. I gave an old priest a bottle of Bass's pale India ale; he
could not drink half a glassful but rejected it as picro (bitter); the
same old man enjoyed his penny-a-bottle black Cyprus wine, reeking of
tar and half-rotten goat-skins, in which it had been brought to
market--a stuff that I could not have swallowed! It must therefore be
borne in mind when judging of Cyprian wines, that "English taste does
not govern the world." Although the British market would be closed to
the coarse and ill-made wines of Cyprus, there are other markets which
accept them gladly, and would absorb them to a high degree, were they
improved by superior cultivation and manufacture.
At the same time that the produce of Cyprus is now a unsuitable to the
English market, there is no reason why it should be excluded at a future
time, when scientific culture shall have enhanced the quality. It should
be remembered that the poorer classes of Great Britain would be
immensely benefited by a beverage that should be within their reach in
price, and at the same time be sufficiently invigorating without the
direct intoxicating properties of spirits or the sleepy, heavy, and
thirst-increasing qualities of beer. If Cyprus is at some future time to
become a British colony, the wine trade will be the principal source of
industry, and should be developed by the government with every possible
encouragement to the proprietors of vineyards. An improved quality of
wine will not necessitate an additional price, but, on the contrary, the
wine-growing resources of the island are so irrepressible that they have
withstood the oppression of the past and present, and when relieved of
this incubus, not only should the quality improve, but the price should
be reduced. In this case, should the Cyprian produce be favoured by a
nominal import duty in England, the wine will be within the reach of the
poorer classes, and may ameliorate that crying evil of our country,
"intoxication," by weaning the spirit-drinker to a more wholesome
drink.
It must never be supposed by the most sanguine that Cyprian wines will
be fashionable among the upper classes in England. I do not think they
will ever surpass Marsala or many of the Cape wines. English people, as
a rule, object to cheap wines, or at least they are reserved concerning
the price, should cheap wine be upon their table. It is a dangerous
thing to mention the cost of any wine, even to your nearest friend;
although he might have enjoyed it when he thought it must have cost you
72 shillings the dozen, he will detect some unpleasant peculiarity when
you may foolishly have confided to him that it only cost you 36
shillings, or, worse still, 24 shillings. He will possibly suggest to
you on the following morning that "something disagreed with him during
the night, but he does NOT think it was the 24 shilling wine." Here is
the fault of HALF-EDUCATED palates; they expect too much, and are guided
by fancies. The same person might be beguiled into the belief that the
24 shilling wine was very superior if he had been deceived by an
assurance that it cost 72 shillings. There are really very few amateurs
who could value unknown wines by the test of their own palates; but the
chilly climate of England is adverse to light wines, and necessitates a
full body, with considerable strength.
The sherries are always fortified by an addition of between 30 to 40 per
cent. of alcohol before they are shipped to England, without which they
would be unsaleable; as to our taste, they would be empty and vapid. We
must therefore make a considerable allowance when judging of Cyprus
wines in their present extremely rude and uncultivated position.
Nothing is added, and the following concise description will account for
their disagreeable peculiarities.
There are no roads in Cyprus in the mountainous wine-producing
districts, therefore all agricultural products must be conveyed upon the
backs of mules up and down the steepest and most dangerous rocky tracks,
apparently more fitted for goats than other animals. A mule will travel
in this rough country with a load of 250 lbs. This serious difficulty of
transport will account for the rude and ancient method of conveying wine
in goat-skins. "No man will put new wine into old bottles," referred to
this system of employing skins instead of casks, or other receptacles
that could be cleaned and rendered tasteless.
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