In the Lyonnais, we meet with the red wines of Côte Rotie and the sweet white wine of Condrieux, both unrivalled in their kinds. The former, which are produced on two shelving banks, have a strong body, combined with an exquisite vinous flavour, and a most agreeable perfume. They should be kept in the cask six or seven years, to acquire a sufficient degree of ripeness, and then bottled, when they are still susceptible of improvement for a number of years. The Condrieux sweet wine has no muscadine flavour, but a very balmy relish and odour. It may be kept for a long time, and assumes an amber tint in old age. Wine of a similar though inferior description is grown in the adjacent vineyards, and sold under the name of Condrieux: but we are not here informed from what sort of grape either the Côte Rotie or the Condrieux is produced. The department of the Drome is noted for its red and white Hermitage, so called from a small district in the territory of Tain, in Dauphiny. The red is characterized by a strong body, a delicate vinous flavour, and a most pleasing perfume, partaking of that of the raspberry. In order to have it in perfection, it should be kept in the cask eight or ten years, according to the degree of the maturity of the grape employed; and, like the preceding, it still improves considerably in the bottle. The white is also a liquor of the first quality; very soft and unctuous, full of spirit, and of a fine essential odour. It may be kept for a long time, and becomes of an amber hue as it grows older. These delicate wines, however, are so scantily noticed by M. JULLIEN, that we entertain some doubts of his being particularly acquainted with their history. Of the Vins de Bourdeaux, or various kinds of Claret, the extent and notoriety supply him with a far more copious theme, through the details of which we cannot presume to follow him. The red kinds, which figure in the first class, are those of Lafitte, Latour, Chateau-Margaux, and Haut-Brion; and the white in most request are those of Graves, Dulamon, Pontac, Sauterne, Barsac, Preignac, and Beaumes. The travail à l'Anglaise, or the process of rendering the pure native claret more vigorous for certain English palates, is particularly described: but the liquor which has undergone this manipulation is openly sold as worked wine, and at an advanced price, on account of the waste incurred and the additional pains bestowed. Languedoc is particularly fertile in excellent wines, but few of them, comparatively, are exported. The white and muscadine sorts of Lunel and Frontignan have, however, obtained merited celebrity. Next to the muscadine wines of Rivesaltes, those of Frontignan are reputed the best in the kingdom, being distinguished by their sweetness, strength of body, a marked taste of the fruit, and a most exquisite perfume. They improve with age, may be preserved for a very long period, and sustain land or water-carriage without injury. The vine-tract which produces them extends over a vast plain, gently inclined to the south-east. Lunel, the chief place of the district, at five leagues north-east of Montpellier, also produces excellent muscadine wines, the best of which are equally prized with those of Frontignan: they are more precocious, and somewhat more light and delicate, but have less body, a relish less distinctly defined, and sooner lose their soundness. This description of wine forms but a small portion of the produce of the Lunel vineyards, which yield an ample store of common red wines that are almost wholly allotted to distillation.' The vineyards of Provence supply more varieties of the grape than any region of France: but this very circumstance seems to deprive its wines of any very decided or appropriate flavour, so that they are not generally much in request. The department of Vaucluse, however, furnishes the red wines of Coteau Brûlé, Chateauneuf, and Sorgues, and the muscadine wines of Beaumes, all of which rank in the first class; while the inspissated sorts of Aubagnes, Cassis, and Ciotat, especially when of mature age, are deemed by competent judges superior to the sweet wines of Spain, Italy, and Greece, and are by some considered as not inferior to Tokay. Jurançon and Gan, both in the neighbourhood of Pau, in Bearn, furnish red and white wines that are greatly preferred to most which are produced in the same quarter of the country; the white Jurançon, in particular, being characterized by a delicate truffle-flavour: but they are surpassed by the white sweet muscadine of Rivesaltes, which is regarded by connoisseurs as one of the best liqueur-wines in Europe, and, when ten or twelve years old, may vie with the finest Malmsey. In this very compendious report of the first part of the work before us, we have purposely refrained from touching on the numerous French wines of subordinate quality, with which the author has chosen to swell his descriptive catalogue; though it was already sufficiently protracted by his plan of recapitulating the names of places. If his commemoration of the inferior wines, however, be redundant, the information with which he furnishes us concerning some of the better kinds is occasionally deficient: at least, we should have attached more importance to his pages if he had more frequently particularized the qualities of the soil, the management of the plants, the modes of conducting the several vintages, the average sale-prices of the different wines, &c. In some few few instances, he ventures to hazard an observation on the chemical constitution of certain wines; though his general reserve on this interesting department of his subject would induce us to believe that he is a stranger to some excellent communications by Chaptal, and others, on the scientific principles of vinification: as well as to an ingenious paper, by Mr. Brande, inserted in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1811. The article Vigne, by Dussieux,. in Rozier's "Course of Agriculture," might also have been consulted with great advantage. — In his hasty explanation of tannin, in a note, the author convinces us that the figure of speech called a bull is not confined to Ireland. • This substance,' says he, contained in oak-bark, and which effects the tanning of leather, exists in a greater or less quantity in all wines, and such of them as contain none of it are not susceptible of being clarified by the fining process.' - M. JULLIEN's second part presents us with a very superficial view of the vinous products of the other quarters of the globe: but his rapid notices are rather lame and scanty than incorrect; and, as they contain little that is new or particularly alluring, we may safely permit them to rest in peace. -With the exception of some detailed passages, his performance partakes more of the nature of an index than of a treatise; or it resembles an almanac, which is adapted for consultation, rather than a consecutive history which requires and deserves a regular perusal. Yet through this and many much duller volumes we are doomed to toil; and, in the hope that, peradventure, M. JULLIEN may generously improve our hint, and deign to beguile the irksomeness of our calling by a glass of his pink Champagne, we honestly assure him that we would rather criticize his wines than their topography. ART. III. Merveilles et Beautés de la Nature en France, &c. ; i. e. The Wonders and Natural Beauties of France, or a Description of all that is most curious and interesting in that Country, in the Department of Natural History; as Grottos, Cascades, Springs, Mountains, Rocks, Torrents, Picturesque Views, &c. With Seven Engravings, and a Map. By G. B. DEPPING, Member of several Literary Societies. The Third Edition, revised and corrected. 2 Vols. 12mo. About 400 pages in each. Paris. 1816, ON N some previous occasions, our attention has been solicited by M. DEPPING, who writes with too much celerity, and exercises his pen on subjects of too multifarious a nature, to permit us to rank him among the select few that work for immortality. He seems, however, to have attained a decent easiness of style that is not unsuitable to the general character of his writings; and, if he seldom excites emotions of sublimity or terror, or warms the heart with the glow of genuine sentiment, he rarely shocks taste by puerile conceits or extravagant painting. As a register of many singular and striking natural scenes and phænomena, these volumes may be consulted, if not with much profound instruction, yet with profit and entertainment. Some of their wonders and beauties, which have counterparts in almost every country, might have remained unnoticed without any serious injury to the performance; and readers who are minutely conversant with the topography of France may, probably, search the volumes in vain for descriptions of some objects which were unknown to the author. At the same time, in such a wide field of contemplation, it may be no easy task to fix on the particulars that may be deemed most worthy of distinct notice. In the present case, the author's honest aim has been to reduce, into a popular and interesting form, the descriptions of geographers, naturalists, and travellers; to enlarge or abridge them, as circumstances might require; to draw up many of his reports from personal observation; and to mould the contributions of his correspondents into unison with the rest of his materials. Since the appearance of the first edition, in 1811, he has prudently and candidly availed himself of the remarks of public and private critics; and he continues to invite the friendly and liberal suggestions of all competent judges. The first section is occupied with a rapid general view of the soil, the vegetable, animal, and mineral productions, the waters and atmosphere, of France. The chapter on the soil, however, relates rather to certain geological features than to agricultural qualities and diversities of the land; to symptoms of extinct volcanos; to marine and fresh-water depositions; and to the disruption of hills; - phænomena by no means peculiar to the territory of France. The varieties and contrasts of the vegetable tribes, induced by comparative latitude, elevation of surface, &c. afford some interesting observations, and some striking notices of the progress of French horticulture and husbandry: while the catalogue of curious or useful mineral substances, and of mineral, thermal, intermittent, and subterraneous waters, is still more ample, though not sufficiently novel or detailed to call for any particular analysis. We apprehend that the due illustration of the animal department required more space than the author has allotted to it. Under Under the article Air, we find some curious information concerning the Mistral, and other local winds, which occasionally prevail in the southern districts. "We have all heard of the mistral, (mistraou,) a wind peculiar to Provence and Languedoc, and denominated circiers by the Latins. Piercing and impetuous, it contributes to the formation of hail, chills the fruits which have not acquired a certain size, and occasions diseases by the sudden change of temperature * ; and we learn from various passages in the writings of antient authors, as Strabo, Pliny, and Seneca, that the case has always been the same in Provence. The cause of this wind is not yet. distinctly ascertained: but we may presume that it descends from the glaciers of the Alps, and that some special impulse constrains it to remount the Rhône. Its impetuosity is remarkable +: it raises waves in the Rhône, and sometimes precipitates carriages into that river it moves at the rate of nearly four leagues in an hour, and blows for four, seven, or nine days, successively, though sometimes it ceases in twenty-four hours; and its violence is reckoned proportionate to the quantity of rain which falls in the Cevennes and the Vivarais. In 1769 and 1770, it blew for fourteen months consecutively. It extends to a great distance; so that even the territory of Nice, notwithstanding the curtain which encompasses it, is not wholly screened from its effects. In the month of October, 1778, however, the mistral, having encountered obstacles in the clouds which it could neither dissipate nor divide, or in a contrary wind, did not reach beyond the Hieres islands: but this phænomenon is rare. In the places exposed to the mistral, all the trees are much bent, and we shall not, perhaps, find one that is quite straight; while the branches are all directed to the side opposite to the wind, and the roots to the side whence it proceeds,, by which means the trees more forcibly resist it, and the branches are less easily broken. It has been generally observed that trees accommodate their constitution to the force of the wind, and that they keep a firmer hold of the ground in places in which it reigns with the greatest force. On the rock of Orgon are trees which resist upwards of eight pounds of wind; whereas, according to Bouguer, six pounds, in the other countries of France, suffice to tear them up by the roots. The sap, which the wind propels forwards, the branches, which are scarcely ever disposed in a contrary direction, and, lastly, the inclination of the tree, contribute to this greater resistance of the trees in the gorge of Orgon; it is true that they are there stunted by the force of the wind, but they oppose to it a resistance which it overcomes with difficulty. Yet, when the tree, in consequence of its growth, exposes more surface to its action, the wind ultimately prevails. -- * S. Papon's Travels in the Maritime Alps.' all + Saussure's Travels in the Alps, tom. vi. chap. lxxxv. 8vo. edition.' manon.' Extracted from the manuscript observations of Paul La |