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<< previous..Owing to this increased demand, and the deficient supply of suitable Rhine wines at a moderate price, the manufacturers of sparkling hocks are reduced to buy much of their raw wine at a distance, and are to-day large purchasers of the growths of the Palatinate, which are less delicate than the vintages of the Rheingau, besides being deficient in that fine aroma which distinguishes genuine hock. A leading manufacturer computes that between four-and-a-half and five million bottles of sparkling wine are made annually in Germany, where there are no fewer than fifty manufacturing establishments. The principal market is Great Britain, which consumes some two millions of bottles annually; a million bottles are drunk at home; while the remainder is divided among the North of Europe, the United States, India, Australia, China, and Japan. The cheapness of these wines is, no doubt, largely in their favour.

At Coblenz, the capital of Rhenish Prussia, and one of the strongest fortresses in the world, the so-called blue Moselle mingles its waters with those of the Rhine, and hence the original Roman name of Confluentia. With so favourable a situation it is not surprising that the city should be the abode of several important firms trading in the wines of the two rivers. At the head of these is the well-known house of Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent still vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-class sparkling wines of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius Wegeler, I was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the Wine Jury of the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over their establishment on the Clemens Platz—one of the most perfect and admirably appointed in Germany. The firm was founded in 1798 by Herr F. Deinhard, who in 1806, when Coblenz was in the hands of the French, secured a ninety-nine years’ lease of some cellars under an old convent at the low rental of 30 francs per annum, and to-day this curious document exists amongst the archives of the firm. Rents of wine-cellars were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril, when commerce was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the course of warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 francs a year of course no very extensive entrepôt could have been rented. To-day Messrs. Deinhard’s new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area of nearly 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other vaults stored with wine in various quarters of the city, the whole giving employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers. Their Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of 1875, when it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress Augusta, who left behind her the following graceful memento of her visit:—

“In grateful attachment to Coblenz, in full appreciation of a work which does honour to the town and to the firm, I wish continued prosperity to both.

Augusta,

“German Empress and Queen of Prussia.”

The proximity of the establishment to the Rhine did not allow of the cellars being excavated to a greater depth than 30 feet below the surface—a mere trifle when compared with the depth of many vaults in the Champagne. Any lower excavation, however, would have been attended with danger, and as it is, when the Rhine rose to an unusual height in March, 1876, the water percolated through the soil and inundated the lower cellars to a height of 5 feet. Above these vaults is a corresponding range of buildings of picturesque design and substantial construction, divided like the cellars into three aisles, each 210 feet in length and 23 feet broad. One of the arches of the façade looking on to the courtyard is decorated with a graceful and characteristic bas-relief, an engraving of which is subjoined. ... next >>