Notwithstanding the great number of excellent wines made in their own country, the French imported from other lands.  In the thirteenth century, in the “Battle of Wines” we find those of Aquila, Spain, and, above all, those of Cyprus, spoken of in high terms.  A century later, Eustace Deschamps praised the Rhine wines, and those of Greece, Malmsey, and Grenache.  In an edict of Charles VI. mention is also made of the muscatel, rosette, and the wine of Lieppe.  Generally, the Malmsey which was drunk in France was an artificial preparation, which had neither the colour nor taste of the Cyprian wine.  Olivier de Serres tells us that in his time it was made with water, honey, clary juice, beer grounds, and brandy.  At first the same name was used for the natural wine, mulled and spiced, which was produced in the island of Madeira from the grapes which the Portuguese brought there from Cyprus in 1420.

The reputation which this wine acquired in Europe induced Francis I. to import some vines from Greece, and he planted fifty acres with them near Fontainebleau.  It was at first considered that this plant was succeeding so well, that “there were hopes,” says Olivier de Serres, “that France would soon be able to furnish her own Malmsey and Greek wines, instead of having to import them from abroad.”  It is evident, however, that they soon gave up this delusion, and that for want of the genuine wine they returned to artificial beverages, such as vin cuit, or cooked wine, which had at all times been cleverly prepared by boiling down new wine and adding various aromatic herbs to it.

Many wines were made under the name of herbes, which were merely infusions of wormwood, myrtle, hyssop, rosemary, &c., mixed with sweetened wine and flavoured with honey.  The most celebrated of these beverages bore the pretentious name of “nectar;” those composed of spices, Asiatic aromatics, and honey, were generally called “white wine,” a name indiscriminately applied to liquors having for their bases some slightly coloured wine, as well as to the hypocras, which was often composed of a mixture of foreign liqueurs.  This hypocras plays a prominent part in the romances of chivalry, and was considered a drink of honour, being always offered to kings, princes, and nobles on their solemn entry into a town.

[Illustration:  Fig. 112.—­Butler at his Duties.—­Fac-simile from a Woodcut in the “Cosmographie Universelle,” of Munster, folio, Basle, 1549.]

The name of wine was also given to drinks composed of the juices of certain fruits, and in which grapes were in no way used.  These were the cherry, the currant, the raspberry, and the pomegranate wines; also the more, made with the mulberry, which was so extolled by the poets of the thirteenth century.  We must also mention the sour wines, which were made by pouring water on the refuse grapes after the wine had been extracted; also the drinks made from filberts, milk of almonds, the syrups of apricots and strawberries,