The art of living in Australia

Then again, many of the widely advertised Australian wines in the old country are sold too young ; and unfortunately these young wines constitute the bulk of the trade done with England. They are bottled when too green and crude, and have not been given a sufficient time in cask to develop into high-class wines. They must be allowed to acquire a proper amount of cask ripeness, and if they were stored and attended to for twelve months before being bottled they would vastly improve. In some cases, also, wines are shipped from Australia before they are twelve months old, and as they are usually fined, bottled, and sold as soon as possible after arrival, it has actually happened that the British public have repeatedly drunk wines that are hardly one year old. Indeed, the wines are frequently bottled when in a state of fermentation, consequently secondary fermentation goes on in the bottle, and the bottles are often shattered by an explosion. And more than this, they are often badly blended; they do not receive sufficient care and attention ; and they are not uncommonly in the hands of a few men whose sole object is to make money. There is still something further which is greatly prejudicial to the fair name of Australian wine, and it is this : Many of the wine merchants hold very small stocks, so that any one supply soon runs out and is no longer obtainable. As a result it is urged against the wines that they are not constant, and that it is impossible to procure the same wine twice running. With larger stocks, too, there would be some certainty that the wine was matured, as for example with a merchant holding a three years' supply. In this case, also, the consumer would be Q2 enabled to obtain a continued supply of any particular wine to which he might have become attached. My own belief, however, is that the most powerful impetus to our wine industry will arise from the Australians themselves taking an interest in all that concerns this great source of health, wealth, and employment. I have said so before, and take this opportunity of saying so again. Let our people take an active interest in every detail connected with the growing of the grape, and with the making of the wine ! Let a light, wholesome wine, also, enter into the daily dietary of the whole people ! For the national drink for Australian use is unquestionably a wine of low alcoholic strength ; a wine of a sufficient age to be free from any reproach of newness ; and a wine possessing those qualities which render it wholesome, beneficial, hygienic, cheering, and restorative.