194
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
economical nature than derived from any thing ornamental
they present. Their value is best appreciated in the cellar,
•which, like the whole estate, is managed with almost
military precision. Prince Metternich’s cellar at Johan-
nisberg, and that of the Duke of Nassau at Ebcrbach, of
which we shall presently speak, are most useful establish-
ments, serving as models for the country, with the es-
pecial advantage of being most economically and profitably
conducted. Every experiment that promises to be an
improvement is sure to be tried, and the result is made
known with the greatest liberality. Both establishments
have long been under the direction of excellent adminis-
trators, whose services are proved by the fact that none
of all the competitors in the same line have been able to
produce wine at all equal to the choice vintages of Johan-
nisberg and of the ducal estates. That the excellence of
the wine where soil and situation are nearly equal is de-
cided by the treatment in the cellar, is proved by the
care taken to preserve unvarying method and unrelaxing
diligence in all the processes. The cellar at Johannis-
berg occupies the basement story of the whole building,
and consequently consists of a front equal to that of the
castle and two extensive wings. The entrance is on the
western side, by a spacious staircase into the wing that
forms the bottling department. A considerable store of
bottles and packing-cases in all stages, filling, applying
the etiquettes, winding paper and straw round each, and
packing in the cases, first attracts attention ; especially as
the packers, to show their skill, make no scruple of jump-
ing on the open cases and pressing the bottles down with
all their weight. The cellar itself is a more imposing
object, presenting a long vista of double pipes, ranged
Agricultcre on the rhine.
195
in throe rows sufficiently wide apart to allow' a double pipe
to be rolled between them ; each is marked with a num-
ber stamped on a tin plate corresponding with the entry in
the cellar-book. The stranger who enjoys the patronage
of the cellar steward, can here form an acquaintance
with the genuine hock wine that he can only extend in
the Duke of Nassau's cellar at Eberbach, which is, howr-
ever, on a much larger scale. The value of the wine
contained in upwards of 100 double pi pes may be esti-
mated from the price of the general run of the wine, which
varies from 400Z. to 600Z. A double pipe of 1822 was
sold to the Court of Berlin for 12,500 florins, or 1440Z.
The vintages of 1811 are said to have produced 48 of
these double pipes: 1818 yielded 47; 1819, 52; and
1833, 57 double pipes, or nearly one to the morgen,
being equivalent to three pipes per acre. These were
extraordinary vintages, and there is reason to believe
that the average of the Steinberg vineyard obtains
here, being about a pipe per morgen. The vineyards now
contain 62 morgens, or about 40 acres. Connected with
the castle is a farm comprising 450 morgens of arable
and 70 morgens of meadow' land, together 300 acres.
A large stock of cattle is kept to furnish cow-dung for
the vineyards.
The Johannisberg was founded as a Benedictine abbey
in 1106, by Ruthard, Archbishop of Mayence. In the
last century it was bought by the Abbot of Fulda,
Prince AValderdorf, who, in 1717, built the castle as it
now stands. It fell during the confiscations of tho
clerical lands to the house of Orange Nassau, and was
taken from that house by Napoleon, after the battle of
Jena, and conferred upon Marshal Kellermann, the