The wines of the world characterized & classed : with some particulars respecting the beers of Europe / By Henry Vizetelly.

  • Vizetelly, Henry, 1820-1894.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wines of the world characterized & classed : with some particulars respecting the beers of Europe / By Henry Vizetelly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    planted by various colonists on the banks of the Hunter river in the northern portion of New South Wales, from one of which the celebrated red and white wines passing under the name of Bukkullah are produced. While the northern colonists were thus active, those of the south were not entirely idle, and a Mr. John Smith having succeeded with a few cuttings which he had obtained from Sir William McArthur, imported numerous others direct from Europe, and, what was of far more importance, brought over three German vine-dressers to attend to their culti- vation. After completing their engagement these Germans settled at Albury, on the north bank of the Murray river, and planted a favourable site, of which they had procured the lease, with vines. This was in the year 1851, and as soon as success was assured they sent to Europe for their relatives and friends, and ere long a thriving German colony was settled on the hills and slopes bordering the river, engaged in transforming the district into what the colonists are now proud to term the Garden of the Vine in Australia, and regarding the waters of the Murray as those of their favourite Ehine. Large vineyards have since been laid out, and to-day the vine is cultivated in all the best situations along the banks of Murray river for a distance of 150 miles. Victoria is reputed to have obtained its first vines from the vineyards of Sir William McArthur at Camden Park, and it is said the earliest plantation was in the Geelong district. Other cuttings were obtained from South Australia, which had already imported vines direct from France, Portugal, and Spain, while the vineyards on the Barabool Hills were being planted with vines brought over direct by Swiss and German immigrants. The gold discovery in 1853 gave a serious blow to the wine industry in Victoria, owing to the high prices which grapes, in common with all other kinds of fruit, commanded, the scarcity of labour, and the low rate at which the imported wines that glutted the market were offered. When things righted them- selves new vineyards were planted in the Sunbury and Sand- hurst districts, at Riddell’s creek, and along the Murray and Ovens rivers, the first of which forms the boundary between Victoria and New South Wales, and where now every farmer cultivates his vineyard and drinks his own wine. In the mean- while the South Australian colonists, with Dr Kelly and Mr. Patrick Auld at their head, on learning of the success which had attended Sir William McArthur’s experiments, had ordered vines, as already mentioned, on a large scale from the principal wine-producing countries of Europe, importing foreign labour to superintend their cultivation, and soon succeeded in