W i n e ' and B r a n d y .
Thefe two articles, ;with thofe above mentioned, may be con-
fidered as the ftaple commodities of the Cape o oo ope.
Grapes grow with the g r e a t e f t luxufiancy in every par th
« « » r™ colony , but the
Hood, or. to fpr.t more properly, » »0. ..tended to M
d i l i g e n c e which in other countries i t beflo.ed .ponth Hence
the wines are fufceptible of great improvement, and the quantity
of being increafed indefinitely.
Ten or twelve diftina kinds of wine are manufadured at the
Cape, and each of thofe have a different flavour and quality at
the different farms on w h i c h t h e y are produced. rom 1 erence
of foil, from fituation, and management, fcarcelyany two
vineyards, of :the fame kind of grape, give the fame wine. By
throwing under the prefs the ripe and unripe grapes, together
with the folk, moft of the wines have either a thinnefs and a
flight acidity, or, for want of a proper degree of fermentation,
and from being preffed when over ripe, acquire a fickly faccha-
rinetafte. An inftance of the former is perceptible in that
called Steen, which refembles the Rhenifh wines j and of the
latter in that which is known by the name of ConflanUa. It
is generally fuppofed that this wine is the produce of two fhrms
only of that name; whereas, the fame grape, the mufcadel,
grows at every farm ; and at fome of, them in Drakenftein the
wine preffed from it is equally good, if not fupenor, to the
Conftantia, though fold at one-fixth part of the price; of fiich
importance is a name.
This wine fells at the Cape for 70 or 80 rix dollars the half-
aum, a caik which ought to contain ‘20 gallons; but the avaricious
propenfity of the proprietors, increafing with the demands for
their wine, has led them to fabricate falfe cafks, few of them
that come to England being found to meafure more than feven-
teen or eighteen gallons ; many not above fixteen. And if they
find out that the wine applied for is to be fent abroad, they are
fure to adulterate it'with iome other thin wine. For, according
to their own returns, the quantity exported and confumed in
Cape Town, as in the cafe of Madeira wine, greatly exceeds the
quantity manufactured.
By a fettlement made between the Dutch CommiiFaries General,
in the year 1793, and the owners of the two farms of
Great and Little Conftantia, the latter were bound to furniih,
for the ufe of Government, 30 aums each, every year, at the
rate of 50 rix dollars the aum ; which was regularly taken, after
being tailed and fealed up in prefence of perfons appointed for
that purpofe, by the Englifti Government, to the no little annoyance
of the Great Lord of Conftantia, who is the fon and
fucceflor to the man of whom Mr. Le Vaillant has drawn a very
entertaining portrait. The wine Was paid for out of the Colonial
Treafury, and the whole of it, under Lord Macartney’s
government, fent home to the Secretary of State, for the dif-
pofal of his Majefty.
VOL. 11. The