No French white wine has so much celebrity as _Champaigne_. This is of two kinds; one of which, called still or quiet Champaigne, has gone through the whole process of fermentation; the other, which has the name of sparkling Champaigne, has been bottled before the fermentation was complete: this, consequently, proceeds slowly in the bottle, and causes the wine, on the drawing of the cork, to sparkle in the glass. _Vin de Grave_ is produced in the vicinity of Bourdeaux, and the lower parts of Gascoigne: _Pontac_ is made in Guienne; and _Frontignac_ and _Muscadel_ are white wines, the delicious productions of Languedoc.
(_c_) SPANISH WINES.--The country about Xeres, in Andalusia, is celebrated for a grape which produces an excellent wine called _Sherry_. There are several French and English houses at Xeres and Seville which trade, to great extent, in this wine. It is very strong, and full-bodied, owing, in a great degree, to the quantity of brandy with which it is mixed. In the province of Valencia, some of the proprietors have wines of different kinds, sixty, eighty, and even a hundred years old, the prices of which differ according to their age. _Rota_, in Seville, produces a rich and sweet white wine; and the country around _Malaga_, near Gibraltar, is celebrated for white wine which is known by that name; and so assiduously is the cultivation of the vine there pursued, that the export of the produce of the vineyards yields to the inhabitants an annual revenue of more than 200,000_l._ sterling per annum. We import from Spain a harsh and inferior kind of _red wine_, which, duty free, sells for only 10_l._ or 15_l._ per pipe of 126 gallons; but the territory of Alicant produces a very rich and excellent kind of red wine. The sweet red wine which we call _Tent_ is a Spanish production; chiefly imported from Cadiz, and in hogsheads of about sixty gallons each. It is made from the juice of a particular kind of grapes, which are not used for this purpose until some time after they have been perfectly ripe.
(_d_) ITALIAN WINES.--Notwithstanding the ancient celebrity of many of the wines of Italy, by far the greater part of what are now manufactured in that country are thin and bad. Certain vineyards on mount Vesuvius, however, still have great celebrity for a luscious red wine called _Lachryma Christi_.