e is a virgin wine,
which, though made of a red grape, is of a light rose color, because,
being made without pressure, the coloring matter of the skin does not
mix with the juice. There are other white wines, from the preceding
prices down to seventy-five livres. In general, the white wines keep
longest. They will be in perfection till fifteen or twenty years of age.
The best vintage now to be bought, is of 1784; both of red and white.
There has been no other good year since 1779. The celebrated vineyards
before mentioned, are plains, as is generally the canton of Medoc,
and that of the Grave. The soil of Hautbrion, particularly, which I
examined, is a sand, in which is near as much round gravel or small
stone, and very little loam: and this is the general soil of Medoc. That
of Pontac, which I examined also, is a little different. It is clayey,
with a fourth or fifth of fine rotten stone; and at two feet depth,
it becomes all a rotten stone. M. de Lamont tells me, he has a kind of
grape without seeds, which I did not formerly suppose to exist; but I
saw at Marseilles dried raisins from Smyrna without seeds. I see in his
farm at Pontac, some plants of white clover, and a good deal of yellow:
also some small peach trees in the open ground. The principal English
wine merchants at Bordeaux, are Jernon, Barton, Johnston, Foster,
Skinner, Copinger, and M'Cartey: the chief French wine merchants, are
Feger, Nerac, Bruneaux Jauge, and Du Verget. Desgrands, a wine-broker,
tells me they never mix the wines of first quality: but that they mix
the inferior ones to improve them. The smallest wines make the best
brandy. They yield about a fifth or sixth.

May 28, 29. From Bordeaux to Blaye, the country near the river is hilly,
chiefly in vines, some corn, some pasture: further out, are plains,
boggy and waste. The soil, in both cases, clay and grit. Some sheep
on the waste. To Etauliers, we have sometimes boggy plains, sometimes
waving grounds and sandy, always poor, generally waste, in fern and
furze, with some corn however, interspersed. To Mirambeau and St. Genis,
it is hilly, poor, and mostly waste. There are some corn and maize
however, and better trees than usual. Towards Pons, it becomes a little
red, mostly rotten stone. There are vines, corn, and maize, which is up.
At Pons we approach the Charente; the country becomes better, a blackish
mould mixed with a rotten chalky stone: a great many vines, corn, maize,
and farouche. F