DRINKING IMPERIALLY
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR] Ste, -Will you allow me to add my trifling support to Mr. Morton Shand-in his noble light for the integrity of the great territorial names of the wines of France ?
I have no connexion with the English wine trade, but in a small restaurant run in connexion with the theatre under my direction, I have canceled over eighty examples of the wines of France, each one selected personally in the district of its origin. • .
I have no prejudice against Empire wines ; with alacrity I would include 'any that I considered worthy of my collection, although I have • not the opportunity to .select them in the country'of their growth, but I will never disgrace my wine-list with a Wine Which describes itself by the territorial designation of another and greater wine-producing country,: sometimei-in conjunction with the name of a vine which is ,not even the informing vine of the country cited.
If the wine merchants and restaurateurssOf 'Englandf instead of drinking beer and whisky themselves, drank and- studied good wine-and came to realize that wine was something aboVe and beyond a mere article of trade—if, in fact, repUtable wine merchants and restaurant proprietors provided the public with wine lists that supplied the information necessary for intelligent wine drinking, the misappellation of . Empire wines would speedily disappear and these wines would take their just place in the hierarchy of the world's vineyards.-1 am, Siriite. •
TERENCE Gaa.v, Director,'
The Festival Theatre (Ciiinbridge),.LteL all Newmarket Road,. Cambridge.
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