#15473, Francis LE COUTEUR

During the 18th century, ‘Mountain Wine’ was the term used to describe Spanish dessert wine popular in England. English cider makers sometimes sent their cider on a sea voyage, as did winemakers in Madeira, to improve it.

Rev. François Le Couteur, (1744-1808) #15473 Rector of Grouville in Jersey, known locally as ‘the mighty fighter for God’, was a significant figure in agriculture on the island and a major producer of cider. In 1801 he wrote:

I had three hogsheads of cider which I left to work on the lees, after which I had it racked three times; and, in March 1789, I put half a gallon of Coignac brandy into each hogshead, and soon after I had it bottled off. I had exactly sixty dozens, which I put on board the ‘Peggy’ (Captain Thomas Bandinal) [born 1763, #15462] and sent them to the Bay of Honduras.

The heat of the climate made a great many of the bottles fly during the passage. The remainder, (the bottles included), was sold as mountain wine, at the rate of forty-three shillings a dozen.

One hears that the practice of doctoring up cider and selling it as Málaga, the Spanish dessert wine, was quite common… but not amongst the clergy, one hopes.