During the first half of the 19th century, the wine trade of England was in the hands of a compara tively small number of private wine-merchants, who obtained their supplies either direct from abroad or from a few large whole sale houses in London. The two principal qualities good wine was expected to possess were colour and sugar. Nobody, then, would have dared deny that the first duty of a wine was to be red and its second to be sweet. Stout dark vintage ports were the rule; full, sweet sherries and brown Madeiras were their only competitors in the public favour. Sweet Champagne was becoming more popular amongst the wealthy classes, and there was a small but regular demand for the finest hocks and clarets Germany and France could produce. This state of affairs came to an end in the '6os when Gladstone revolutionized the wine trade. On Feb. 29, 186o, the duty on every description of wine was lowered to 3s.
per gallon. On Jan. I, 1861, this uniform rate was superseded by the imposition of a scale of duties, based on alcoholic strength, according to Sykes' hydrometer, ranging from Is. per gallon on wines containing less than 18 degrees of alcohol, to 2S. I'd. per gallon on wines containing 45 degrees of alcohol. On April 3, 1862, this scale was further revised and lowered, all wines con taining less than 26 degrees of alcohol being admitted at the rate of is. per gallon, whilst those containing more, up to 42 degrees, were to pay 2S. 6d. per gallon.
This amounted to a dras tic reduction in the duties on wine and was bound to have an im mediate and considerable influence upon the consumption of wine in England but Gladstone went even further. When, in 186o, he introduced his first measure for lowering the duties on wine, he concurrently brought in a bill to facilitate its consumption, by granting free scope to keepers of refreshment houses of good char acter to sell wine on the premises, on payment of certain excise licences. This bill was followed by the "Single Bottle Act" of 1861, which enabled all shopkeepers to retail wine to be drunk off the premises. Furthermore, while a "dealer" in wine had to pay ten guineas for a wine-merchant's licence, "any person (not being a dealer) who kept a shop for the sale of any goods or com modities other than foreign wines, in England and Ireland," was allowed to sell wine not to be consumed on the premises, by retail, in reputed quart or pint bottles only, on payment of so shillings for an "off licence." That measure opened new channels to the activities of grocers, drapers, limited liability companies, brewers, co-operative societies and others. It threw the wine trade open to all, since every shop keeper was free to sell wine on payment of so shillings.
Very much the same far-reaching consequences to the "Single Bottle Act" of 1861 in England oc curred in the United States at the time of the amendment repeal ing the 18th Amendment of the American Constitution. Where there had been few vineyards and wineries, no legal retailers of wines, in 1933 thousands of acres of new vineyards were planted, wineries were built, suppliers of casks, bottles and other equip ment found new markets, and hundreds of thousands of retailers of wine throughout the country opened establishments.
A complete new industry was made. By 1935 almost $36,500, 000 of basic products were bought yearly by wineries. The wineries added manufacturing services costing $21,000,000, which included payrolls of $3,618,000 for 3,123 persons. In addition thousands of people found employment on farms, in vineyards, in equipment manufacturing plants, in the distributing and transpor tation companies and as sales people in retail stores and drinking places. The Government benefited in this general prosperity by tax income which is increasing yearly.
L. Simon, History of the Champagne Trade in England (i905), History of the Wine Trade in England (Vol: I., 1906 ; Vol. II. 1907 ; Vol. III., 1909) ; In Vino Veritas (1913); Wine and Spirits (1919) ; The Blood of the Grape (192o) ; Wine and the Wine Trade (1921) ; • The Supply, Care, and Sale of Wine (1923) ; Bot tlescrew Days (1926) ; E. R. Emerson, Beverages, Past and Present (1908) ; G. Saintsbury, Notes on a Cellar Book (1920) ; "Wine & Spirit Trade Record," Clarets and Sauternes (192o) ; W. J. Todd, A Handbook on Wine (1922) ; Port (1926) ; Wm. Bird, French Wines (1924) ; H. Warner Allen, The Wines of France (1924) ; W. M. Crowdy, Burgundy and Morvan (1926) ; G. Tait, Practical Handbook on Port Wine (1926) ; Len Chaloner, What the Vintners Sell (1926) ; P. Morton Shand, A Book of Wine (1926) ; Frank Hedges Butler, Wine and the Wine Lands of the World (1926) ; U.S. Dept. of Com merce, Survey of Current Business (July 1939). (A. L. S., X.)
a late 18th-century device for facilitating after-dinner drinking—the cabinetmakers called it a "Gentleman's Social Table." It was always narrow and of semicircular or horse
form, and the guests sat round the outer circumference. In the earlier and simpler shapes metal wells for bottles and ice were sunk in the surface of the table ; they were fitted with brass lids. In later and more elaborate examples the tables were fitted with a revolving wine-carriage, bottle-holder or tray working upon a balanced arm which enabled the bottles to be passed without shaking. Wine-tables are now exceedingly scarce.