Messrs. Siemssen & Ca., agents for Messrs. Cutler, Palmer & Go., have sent us a report on the vintages in' Europe in 1888, We learn from it that there is a generally super-abundant quantity of made {wine, and as is generally the case in such the quality is not by any means {prospectively good. In the Bordeaux districts the vintage was late and the quantity greater than in the previous year, the larers having less body, sugar and colour, and those of the lower class shew greenness. The crop will be from 1,600,000 to 1,700,000 hogsheads. About Champagne the report says:—The vintage in Cham-payne will be among the poorest we have for many years, At the end of August y growers did not expect to make wine, as there was hardly any hope left of the grapes being able to ripen, so much rain and cold weather having prevailed during all the sammer. Happily, in the first days of September hot and dry weather began, which lasted all that month, and allowed the grapes to be made int but of course without much quality, 1 character of the vintage is a want of bod: of bouquet, and of everything constituting agood wine. With regard to quantity, the 1888 vintage is about the half of a medium one.
Burgundies are far superior to what was expected; Cognac has a vintage double the quantity of Inst year, but the alcoholic strength will be less and the quality inferior to that of 1887, The prospects of the German vintage have not been realised owing to unfavourable weather. There has been a larger vintage of sherry than is usual, and as the lower qualities are not, in such demand as formerly and the higher and more expensive grades are slow of sale, at no time in the history of the Shei trade has better value and more matur Q from Jerez than present. intage in Portugal in 1883 though inferior to that of the preceding year has not proved by any means the complete failure expected at one time, and the report says:—The wines of last year have fully come up to our expectations, and we can confidently assert that these will hold a prominent rank among the vintages of the last half-century, The shipments of wine from' Oporto up tothe end of October last, exceeded the total of the first ten months of any previous rear, clearly proving that Port Wine is eld in the highest estimation all over the world. There has been a good all-round vintage in Madeira, and the trade in its wines is decidedly on the increase.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.