There was a valuable pamphlet on Australian wines written by the late Doctor Bleasdale, of Melbourne, in 1876.  It is now out of print, and regrettedly so, for the worthy Doctor was one of the best connoisseurs of wine Australia ever had.  Mr. L. Bruck, the well-known medical publisher of Sydney, however, has placed me under considerable obligation by giving me his own copy, and in the preface therein I note that the author, in speaking of this very question, remarks:—­“I would here reiterate what I have often stated, namely, that if the cellar management in the three colonies were equal to the magnificent produce of the vines, no “country on the earth could surpass, in quality and variety “of kinds, Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales.”

Then again, Mr. James Smith, of Melbourne, in the course of his admirable prize essay on Australian wine, which appeared in GREVILLE’S year book of Australia for 1886, has these observations on this subject:—­“It is, however, in the management of the cellar that one must look for the most efficient means of securing that uniformity of quality which I regard as such an important desideratum.  If it be not a science, it is certainly an art requiring special knowledge, training, and experience, combined, perhaps, with natural aptitude.  And it is precisely in this respect, I fear, that our deficiency in Australia is greatest.

“In the wine-making countries of Europe the cellarmaster is an expert who inherits the skill, traditions, methods, and usages of many generations of men who have adopted and followed the same calling.  His organs of smell and taste have been educated to practise the nicest discrimination of flavour and odour, and if the vintage of a particular year differs in quality from that of its predecessor, he knows how, by a judicious blending of the old with the new, of the highly-coloured with the pallid, to arrive at that uniformity which is so indispensable.”

The cellar must neither be too damp nor too dry.  Any excess of dampness would rot the casks and give a musty taste to the wine; while, on the contrary, in too dry a cellar the staves of the casks would shrink and cause leakage.  The cellar is usually kept somewhat dark.  The openings for the admission of air and light should be provided with shutters, so that the atmosphere and temperature may be under control.  The floor of the cellar should be paved or cemented, be well levelled, and cleanliness throughout should be strictly and strenuously maintained.

But the following remarks of Signor Bragato as to what a cellar ought not to be will perhaps be more instructive, and besides they contain a vast amount of information on the subject.  In referring to some of the cellars he came across during his tour of inspection through one of the Victorian districts, he writes:—­