I may here observe, as a general remark, that fine Madeira wines are
equally improved by the extremes of heat and cold, and that damp is
always hurtful to them.

Burgundy vines have lately been introduced into Madeira. The generally
received opinion that the wines of Teneriffe and the Azores are
brought here for the purpose of giving them the Madeira flavour, and
sending them to foreign markets as the produce of the island, is very
erroneous. Although smuggling is openly carried on, and to an extent
that ought to set at rest so fallacious an opinion, any one acquainted
with this island must be aware of the utter impossibility of
introducing foreign wines with a view to exporting them again as
native produce; for, in the first place, the whole of the inhabitants
would be likely to resist such an attempt, from a conviction that the
introduction would militate against their own interests, and from the
obvious apprehension that the increased quantity as well as the
inferior quality of the adulterated wines, would injure the character
and reduce the price of their own.

The great increase too, which it would occasion in the amount sent out
of the island, would render it very difficult for the speculators in
the spurious wines, to avoid detection. It is, therefore, much more
reasonable to suppose, that these mixtures take place in the markets
to which the wines are sent: the great demand for them tempting the
persons engaged in the traffic, to embark in an imposition which has
had the effect of deteriorating the wines so materially, that at last
they began to lose their previous character, to get out of fashion,
and, consequently, to fall off in demand as well as in price. This
system of intermixing different wines, to swell the quantity of some
favourite wine, is known to prevail to a great extent in those of