BRITISH WINE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In spite of the fact that the modern British wine industry has been established for nearly a quarter of a century, the wildest misstatements are still being circulated regarding its products. Some of these are the result of ignorance ; others have a different motive. May I, as the biggest maker of British wines, assure your readers that pure grape juice is used in the production of British wines ? At one time this was not the case, but that was before the British manufacturer had learned how to import fresh grape juice. Now, thanks to the aid of the scientist, he is able to prevent fermentation while the grape juice is on its way to this country from the vine- growing countries of Europe and the Empire, and so to import it in whatever quantities he requires. And British wine has this advantage over the cheaper foreign wines that find their
Way into the country : it is produced in -model works under the most hygienic conditions.
That British wine is pure no one who troubles to investigate the question can doubt for one moment. It has been analysed hundreds of times, and in every case it has stood the most searching tests. Because it is cheap it is not necessarily nasty ; because it is British it is not necessarily bad. Our national habit of self-depreciation is probably at the bottom of the prejudice from which the British wine industry is at present suffering.—I ain, Sir, &c.,
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