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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling
+Wines, by Henry Vizetelly
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines
+
+Author: Henry Vizetelly
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2007 [EBook #20889]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Transcriber’s Note:
+
+  This text file comes in several versions. The unicode/utf-8 version
+  (file name ending in -0) is “best� and should be used if your text
+  reader or browser can handle it. The latin-1 version (file name ending
+  in 8) is similar but not as precise. The ASCII-7 version (file name
+  without extra numeral) should be used only as a last resort.
+
+  Errors are listed at the end of the text.]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE DISGORGING, LIQUEURING, CORKING, STRINGING, AND WIRING
+  OF CHAMPAGNE (Frontispiece)]
+
+
+
+
+  FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE
+
+  and
+
+  OTHER SPARKLING WINES,
+
+
+  Collected During Numerous Visits to the Champagne
+  and Other Viticultural Districts of France,
+  and the Principal Remaining
+  Wine-Producing Countries of Europe.
+
+
+  by
+
+  HENRY VIZETELLY,
+
+  _Chevalier of the Order of Franz Josef._
+  _Wine Juror for Great Britain at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions
+    of 1873 and 1878._
+  _Author of “The Wines of the World Characterized and Classed,� &c._
+
+
+  WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS,
+  Drawn by Jules Pelcoq, W. Prater, Bertall, etc.,
+  From Original Sketches.
+
+
+  London:
+  Ward, Lock, and Co., Salisbury Square.
+  1879.
+
+
+
+
+This little book scarcely needs a preface, as it speaks sufficiently for
+itself. It is for the most part the result of studies on the spot of
+everything of interest connected with the various sparkling wines which
+it professes to describe. Neither pains nor expense have been spared to
+render it both accurate and complete, and the large number of authentic
+engravings with which it is illustrated will conduce, it is hoped, to
+its value.
+
+
+
+
+  Uniform with the present work and the Author’s “Facts About Sherry,�
+
+  FACTS ABOUT PORT
+  AND MADEIRA,
+
+  Including Chapters on the Wines Vintaged Around Lisbon
+  and the Wines of Teneriffe.
+
+  Illustrated with 80 Engravings from Original Sketches.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                                   PAGE.
+I.--THE ORIGIN OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+The Early Vineyards of the Champagne-- Their Produce esteemed by
+  Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates-- Controversy regarding
+  the rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne--
+  Dom Perignon’s happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine-- Its Patrons
+  under Louis Quatorze and the Regency-- The Ancient Church and
+  Abbey of Hautvillers-- Farre and Co.’s Champagne Cellars-- The
+  Abbey of St. Peter now a Farm-- Existing Remains of the Monastic
+  Buildings-- The Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient Church--
+  The Last Resting-Place of Dom Perignon-- The Legend of the Holy
+  Dove-- Good Champagne the Result of Labour, Skill, Minute
+  Precaution, and Careful Observation                                  9
+
+II.--THE VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. THE VINEYARDS OF THE RIVER.
+
+Ay, the Vineyard of Golden Plants-- Summoning the Vintagers by
+  Beat of Drum-- Excitement in the Surrounding Villages-- The
+  Pickers at Work-- Sorting the Grapes-- Grapes Gathered at
+  Sunrise the Best-- Varieties of Vines in the Ay Vineyards-- Few
+  of the Growers in the Champagne Crush their own Grapes--
+  Squeezing the Grapes in the “Pressoir� and Drawing off the
+  Must-- Cheerful Glasses Round-- The Vintage at Mareuil--
+  Bringing in the Grapes on Mules and Donkeys-- The Vineyards of
+  Avenay, Mutigny, and Cumières-- Damery and Adrienne Lecouvreur,
+  Maréchal de Saxe, and the obese Anna Iwanowna-- The Vineyards of
+  the Côte d’Epernay-- Boursault and its Château-- Pierry and its
+  Vineyard Cellars-- The Clos St. Pierre-- Moussy and Vinay--
+  A Hermit’s Cave and a Miraculous Fountain-- Ablois St. Martin--
+  The Côte d’Avize-- The Grand Premier Crû of Cramant-- Avize and
+  its Wines-- The Vineyards of Oger and Le Mesnil-- The Old Town
+  of Vertus and its Vine-clad Slopes-- Their Red Wine formerly
+  celebrated                                                          20
+
+III.--THE VINEYARDS OF THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+The Wine of Sillery-- Origin of its Renown-- The Maréchale
+  d’Estrées a successful Marchande de Vin-- From Reims to
+  Sillery-- Failure of the Jacquesson Vineyards-- Château of
+  Sillery-- Wine Making at M. Fortel’s-- Sillery sec-- The Vintage
+  and Vendangeoirs at Verzenay-- The Verzy Vineyards-- Edward III.
+  at the Abbey of St. Basle-- From Reims to Bouzy-- The Herring
+  Procession at St. Remi-- Rilly, Chigny, and Ludes-- The Knights
+  Templars’ “Pot� of Wine-- Mailly and the View over the Plains of
+  the Champagne-- Wine Making at Mailly-- The Village in the
+  Wood-- Village and Château of Louvois-- Louis-le-Grand’s War
+  Minister-- Bouzy, its Vineyards and Church Steeple, and the
+  Lottery of the Great Gold Ingot-- MM. Werlé’s and Moët and
+  Chandon’s Vendangeoirs-- Pressing the Grapes-- Still Red Bouzy--
+  Ambonnay-- A Peasant Proprietor-- The Vineyards of
+  Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville, and St. Thierry-- The
+  Still Red Wine of the latter                                        32
+
+IV.--THE VINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE AND THE SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION.
+
+The Vines chiefly of the Pineau Variety-- The Plant doré of Ay,
+  the Plant vert doré, the Plant gris, and the Epinette-- The Soil
+  of the Vineyards-- Close Mode of Plantation-- The Operation of
+  Provinage-- The Stems of the Vines never more than Three Years
+  Old-- Fixing the Stakes to the Vines-- Manuring and General
+  Cultivation-- Spring Frosts in the Champagne-- Various Modes of
+  Protecting the Vines against them-- Dr. Guyot’s System-- The
+  Parasites that Prey upon the Vines                                  42
+
+V.--PREPARATION OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+Treatment of Champagne after it comes from the Wine-Press--
+  Racking and Blending of the Wine-- Deficiency and Excess of
+  Effervescence-- Strength and Form of Champagne Bottles-- The
+  “Tirage� or Bottling of the Wine-- The Process of Gas-making
+  commences-- Inevitable Breakage follows-- Wine Stacked in
+  Piles-- Formation of Sediment-- Bottles placed “sur pointe� and
+  Daily Shaken-- Effect of this occupation on those incessantly
+  engaged in it-- “Claws� and “Masks�-- Champagne Cellars-- Their
+  Construction and Aspect-- Transforming the “vin brut� into
+  Champagne-- Disgorging and Liqueuring the Wine-- The Corking,
+  Stringing, Wiring, and Amalgamating-- The Wine’s Agitated
+  Existence comes to an End-- The Bottles have their Toilettes
+  made-- Champagne sets out on its beneficial Pilgrimage              48
+
+VI.--THE REIMS CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Messrs. Werlé and Co., successors to the Veuve
+  Clicquot-Ponsardin-- Their Offices and Cellars on the site of a
+  Former Commanderie of the Templars-- Origin of the Celebrity of
+  Madame Clicquot’s Wines-- M. Werlé and his Son-- The Forty-five
+  Cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé Establishment-- Our Tour of
+  Inspection-- Ingenious Liqueuring Machine-- An Explosion and its
+  Consequences-- M. Werlé’s Gallery of Paintings-- Madame
+  Clicquot’s Renaissance House and its Picturesque Bas-reliefs--
+  The Werlé Vineyards and Vendangeoirs-- M. Louis Roederer’s
+  Establishment-- Heidsieck and Co. and their Famous “Monopole�
+  Brand-- The Firm Founded in the Last Century-- Their various
+  Establishments Inside and Outside Reims-- The Matured Wines
+  Shipped by them                                                     63
+
+VII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+The Firm of G. H. Mumm and Co.-- Their Large Shipments to the
+  United States-- Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the
+  Rue Coquebert-- Bottle-Washing with Glass Beads-- The Cuvée and
+  the Tirage-- G. H. Mumm and Co.’s Vendangeoirs at Verzenay--
+  Their Various Wines-- The Gate of Mars-- The Establishment of
+  M. Gustave Gibert on the Site of the Château des Archevêques--
+  His Cellars in the Vaults of St. Peter’s Abbey and beneath the
+  old Hôtel des Fermes in the Place Royale-- Louis XV. and Jean
+  Baptiste Colbert-- M. Gibert’s Wines-- Jules Mumm and Co., and
+  Ruinart père et fils-- House of the Musicians-- The Counts de la
+  Marck-- The Brotherhood of Minstrels of Reims-- Establishment of
+  Périnet et fils-- Their Cellars of Three Stories in Solid
+  Masonry-- Their Soft, Light, and Delicate Wines-- A Rare Still
+  Verzenay-- M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s Establishment and Renaissance
+  House-- His Cellars in the Cour St. Jacques and Outside the
+  Porte Dieu-Lumière                                        74
+
+VIII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+M. Ernest Irroy’s Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoirs--
+  Recognition by the Reims Agricultural Association of his
+  Plantations of Vines-- His Wines and their Popularity at the
+  best London Clubs-- Messrs. Binet fils and Co.’s Establishment--
+  Wines Sold by the Firm to Shippers-- Their Cellars-- Samples of
+  Fine Still Ay and Bouzy-- Their Still Sillery, Vintage 1857, and
+  their Creaming Vin Brut, Vintage 1865-- The Offices and Cellars
+  of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co.-- Testing the Wine before
+  Bottling-- A Promenade between Bottles in Piles and Racks--
+  Repute in which these Wines are held in England and on the
+  Continent-- The New Establishment of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. in
+  the Place de Betheny-- Its Construction exclusively in Stone,
+  Brick, and Iron-- The Vast Celliers of Two Stories-- Bottling
+  the Wine by the Aid of Machinery-- The Cool and Lofty Cellars--
+  Ingenious Method of Securing the Corks, rendering the Uncorking
+  exceedingly simple-- The Wines Shipped by the Firm                  86
+
+IX.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_concluded_).
+
+La Prison de Bonne Semaine-- Mary Queen of Scots at Reims--
+  Messrs. Pommery and Greno’s Offices-- A Fine Collection of
+  Faïence-- The Rue des Anglais a former Refuge of English
+  Catholics-- Remains of the Old University of Reims-- Ancient
+  Roman Tower and Curious Grotto-- The handsome Castellated
+  Pommery Establishment-- The Spacious Cellier and Huge Carved
+  Cuvée Tun-- The Descent to the Cellars-- Their Great Extent--
+  These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally Quarries-- Ancient
+  Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the Protestants--
+  Madame Pommery’s Splendid Cuvée of 1868-- Messrs. de St.
+  Marceaux and Co.’s New Establishment in the Avenue de Sillery--
+  Its Garden-Court and Circular Shaft-- Animated Scene in the
+  Large Packing Hall-- Lowering Bottled Wine to the Cellars--
+  Great Depth and Extent of these Cellars-- Messrs. de St.
+  Marceaux and Co.’s Various Wines                                    93
+
+X.--EPERNAY CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Early Records of the Moët Family at Reims and Epernay-- Jean
+  Remi Moët Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines-- Extracts
+  from the Old Account-Books of the Moëts-- First Sales of
+  Sparkling Wines-- Sales to England in 1788-- “Milords� Farnham
+  and Findlater-- Jean Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon,
+  Josephine, and the King of Westphalia-- The Firm of Moët and
+  Chandon Constituted-- Their Establishment in the Rue du
+  Commerce-- Delivering and Washing the New Bottles-- The Numerous
+  Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm-- Making the Cuvée in
+  Vats of 12,000 Gallons-- The Bottling of the Wine by 200 Hands--
+  A Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily-- 20,000 Francs’
+  worth of Broken Glass in Two Years-- A Subterranean City, with
+  miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open Spaces, Tramways, and
+  Stations-- The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults-- Tablet
+  Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon I.-- Millions of Bottles
+  of Champagne in Piles and Racks-- The Original Vaults known as
+  Siberia-- Scene in the Packing Hall-- Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s
+  Large and Complete Staff-- Provision for Illness and Old Age--
+  Annual Fête Given by the Firm-- Their Famous “Star� Brand--
+  M. Perrier-Jouët, the lucky Grandson of a little Epernay
+  Grocer-- His Offices and Cellars-- His Wine Classed according to
+  its Deserts-- Messrs. Roussillon and Co.’s Establishment-- The
+  Recognition accorded to their Wines-- Their Stock of Old
+  Vintages-- The Extensive Establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger and
+  Co.-- Their Large Stock of the Fine 1874 Vintage-- Preparations
+  for the Tirage-- Their Vast Fireproof Cellier and its Admirable
+  Temperature-- Their Lofty and Capacious Cellars of Two Stories     101
+
+XI.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AY AND MAREUIL.
+
+The Establishment of Deutz and Geldermann-- Drawing off the
+  Cuvée-- Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Champagne-- The Firm’s
+  New Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoir-- The old Château of Ay
+  and its Terraced Garden-- The Gambling Propensities of Balthazar
+  Constance Dangé-Dorçay, a former Owner of the Château-- The
+  Picturesque Situation and Aspect of Messrs. Ayala’s
+  Establishment-- A Promenade through their Cellars-- M. Duminy’s
+  Cellars and Wines-- His new Model Construction-- The House
+  Founded in 1814-- Messrs. Bollinger’s Establishment-- Their
+  Vineyard of La Grange-- The Tirage in Progress-- The Fine
+  Cellars of the Firm-- Messrs. Pfungst frères and Co.’s Cellars--
+  Their Dry Champagnes of 1868, ’70, ’72, and ’74-- The Old Church
+  of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and Vineleaves-- The
+  Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre-- The Montebello Establishment at
+  Mareuil-- The Château formerly the Property of the Dukes of
+  Orleans-- A Titled Champagne Firm-- The Brilliant Career of
+  Marshal Lannes-- A Promenade through the Montebello
+  Establishment-- The Press House, the Cuvée Vat, the
+  Packing-Room, the Offices, and the Cellars-- Portraits and
+  Relics at the Château-- The Establishment of Bruch-Foucher and
+  Co.-- The handsome Carved Gigantic Cuvée Tun-- The Cellars and
+  their Lofty Shafts-- The Wines of the Firm                         117
+
+XII.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT ATIZE AND RILLY.
+
+Avize the Centre of the White Grape District-- Its Situation and
+  Aspect-- The Establishment of Giesler and Co.-- The Tirage and
+  the Cuvée-- Vin Brut in Racks and on Tables-- The Packing-Hall,
+  the Extensive Cellars, and the Disgorging Cellier-- Bottle
+  Stores and Bottle-Washing Machines-- Messrs. Giesler’s
+  Wine-Presses at Avize and Vendangeoir at Bouzy-- Their Vineyards
+  and their Purchases of Grapes-- Reputation of the Giesler
+  Brand-- The Establishment of M. Charles de Cazanove-- A Tame
+  Young Boar-- Boar-Hunting in the Champagne-- M. de Cazanove’s
+  Commodious Cellars and Carefully-Selected Wines-- Vineyards
+  Owned by Him and His Family-- Reputation of his Wines in Paris
+  and their Growing Popularity in England-- Interesting View from
+  M. de Cazanove’s Terraced Garden-- The Vintaging of the White
+  Grapes in the Champagne-- Roper frères’ Establishment at
+  Rilly-la-Montague-- Their Cellars Penetrated by Roots of Trees--
+  Some Samples of Fine Old Champagnes-- The Principal Châlons
+  Establishments-- Poem on Champagne by M. Amaury de Cazanove        129
+
+XIII.--SPARKLING SAUMUR AND SPARKLING SAUTERNES.
+
+The Sparkling Wines of the Loire often palmed off as
+  Champagnes-- The Finer qualities Improve with Age-- Anjou the
+  Cradle of the Plantagenet Kings-- Saumur and its Dominating
+  Feudal Château und Antique Hôtel de Ville-- Its Sinister Rue des
+  Payens and Steep Tortuons Grande Rue-- The Vineyards of the
+  Coteau of Saumur-- Abandoned Stone Quarries converted into
+  Dwellings-- The Vintage in Progress-- Old-fashioned Pressoirs--
+  The Making of the Wine-- The Vouvray Vineyards-- Balzac’s
+  Picture of La Vallée Coquette-- The Village of Vouvray and the
+  Château of Moucontour-- Vernou with its Reminiscences of Sully
+  and Pépin-le-Bref-- The Vineyards around Saumur-- Remarkable
+  Ancient Dolmens-- Ackerman-Laurance’s Establishment at
+  Saint-Florent-- Their Extensive Cellars, Ancient and Modern--
+  Treatment of the Newly-Vintaged Wine-- The Cuvée-- Proportions
+  of Wine from Black and White Grapes-- The Bottling and
+  Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing Operations-- The Château of
+  Varrains and the Establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné-- His
+  Cellars a succession of Gloomy Galleries-- The Disgorging of the
+  Wine accomplished in a Melodramatic-looking Cave-- M. Duvau’s
+  Vineyard-- His Sparkling Saumur of Various Ages-- Marked
+  Superiority of the more Matured Samples-- M. Alfred Ronsteaux’s
+  Establishments at Saint-Florent and Saint-Cyr-- His convenient
+  Celliers and extensive Cellars-- Mingling of Wine from the
+  Champagne with the finer Sparkling Saumur-- His Vineyard at La
+  Perrière-- M. E. Normandin’s Sparkling Sauternes Manufactory at
+  Châteauneuf-- Angoulême and its Ancient Fortifications-- Vin de
+  Colombar-- M. Normandin’s Sparkling Sauternes Cuvée-- His
+  Cellars near Châteauneuf-- High recognition accorded to the Wine
+  at the Concours Régional d’Angoulême                               139
+
+XIV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF BURGUNDY AND THE JURA.
+
+Sparkling Wines of the Côte d’Or at the Paris Exhibition--
+  Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot-- Burgundy Wines and Vines
+  formerly the Presents of Princes-- Vintaging Sparkling
+  Burgundies-- Their After-Treatment in the Cellars-- Excess of
+  Breakage-- Similarity of Proceeding to that followed in the
+  Champagne-- Principal Manufacturers of Sparkling Burgundies--
+  Sparkling Wines of Tonnerre, the birthplace of the Chevalier
+  d’Eon-- The Vin d’Arbanne of Bar-sur-Aube-- Death there of the
+  Bastard de Bourbon-- Madame de la Motto’s Ostentatious Display
+  and Arrest there-- Sparkling Wines of the Beaujolais-- The
+  Mont-Bronilly Vineyards-- Ancient Reputation of the Wines of the
+  Jura-- The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri Quatre-- Rhymes
+  by him in its Honour-- Lons-le-Saulnier-- Vineyards yielding the
+  Sparkling Jura Wines-- Their Vintaging and Subsequent
+  Treatment-- Their High Alcoholic Strength and General Drawbacks    157
+
+XV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
+
+Sparkling Wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and Languedoc--
+  Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the South-- Valence with
+  its Reminiscences of Pius VI. and Napoleon I.-- The “Horns of
+  Crussol� on the Banks of the Rhône-- Vintage Scene at
+  Saint-Péray-- The Vines and Vineyards Producing Sparkling Wine--
+  Manipulation of Sparkling Saint-Péray-- Its Abundance of Natural
+  Sugar-- The Cellars of M. de Saint-Prix and Samples of his
+  Wines-- Sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage--
+  Annual Production and Principal Markets of Sparkling
+  Saint-Péray-- Clairette de Die-- The Porte Rouge of Die
+  Cathedral-- How the Die Wine is Made-- The Sparkling White and
+  Rose-Coloured Muscatels of Die-- Sparkling Wines of Vercheny and
+  Lagrasse-- Barnave and the Royal Flight to Varennes-- Narbonne
+  formerly a Miniature Rome, now Noted merely for its Wine and
+  Honey-- Fête of the Black Virgin at Limoux-- Preference given to
+  the New Wine over the Miraculous Water-- Blanquette of Limoux
+  and How it is Made-- Characteristics of this Overrated Wine        165
+
+XVI.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY.
+
+Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle-- Sparkling German Wines
+  First Made on the Neckar-- Heilbronn, and Götz von Berlichingen
+  of the Iron Hand-- Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn
+  their attention to Sparkling Wines-- Change of late years in the
+  Character of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- Difference between
+  them and Moussirender Rheinwein-- Vintaging of Black and White
+  Grapes for Sparkling Wine-- The Treatment which German Sparkling
+  Wines Undergo-- Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
+  Moselles-- Fine Natural Bouquet of High-Class Sparkling Hocks--
+  Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines
+  during the Franco-German War-- Annual Production-- Deinhard and
+  Co.’s Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz-- The Firm’s Collection of
+  Choice Rhine and Moselle Wines-- Their Trade in German Sparkling
+  Wines-- Their Sources of Supply-- The Vintaging and
+  After-Treatment of their Wines-- Characteristics of their
+  Sparkling Hocks and Moselles                                       172
+
+XVII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY (_continued_).
+
+From Coblenz to Rüdesheim-- Ewald and Co.’s Establishment and
+  its Pleasant Situation-- Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and
+  Convenient Accessories-- Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the
+  most favoured Localities-- The Celebrated Vineyards of the
+  Rheingau-- Eltville and the extensive Establishment of Matheus
+  Müller-- His Vast Stocks of Still and Sparkling German Wines--
+  The Vineyards laid under contribution for the latter--
+  M. Müller’s Sparkling Johannisberger, Champagne, and Red
+  Sparkling Assmannshauser-- The Site of Gutenberg’s Birthplace at
+  Mayence occupied by the Offices and Wine-cellars of Lauteren
+  Sohn-- The Sparkling Wine Establishment of the Firm and their
+  Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles-- The Hochheim Sparkling
+  Wine Association-- Foundation of the Establishment-- Its
+  Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- The Sparkling Wine
+  Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the Nahe
+  Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of
+  M. Oppmann at Würzburg-- The Historic Cellars of the King of
+  Bavaria beneath the Residenz-- The Establishment of F. A.
+  Siligmüller                                                        183
+
+XVIII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY,
+  SPAIN, RUSSIA, &C.
+
+Sparkling Voslauer-- The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of Graz--
+  Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers-- Vintaging and Treatment
+  of Styrian Champagnes-- Sparkling Red, Rose, and White Wines of
+  Hungary-- The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at
+  Pressburg-- Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia,
+  Moravia, Dalmatia, the Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat--
+  Neuchâtel Champagne-- Sparkling Wine Factories at Vevay and
+  Sion-- The Vevay Vineyards-- Establishment of De Riedmatten and
+  De Quay-- Sparkling Muscatel, Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo,
+  and Lacryma Christi of Italy-- Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece,
+  Algeria, and Russia-- The Krimski and Donski Champagnes-- The
+  Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great Russian Fairs                 196
+
+XIX.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America-- Failures to
+  Acclimatise European Vines-- Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers
+  and the Mission Fathers-- The Yield of the Mission Vineyards--
+  The Monster Vine of the Montecito Valley-- The Catawba Vine and
+  its General Cultivation-- Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of
+  American Viticulture-- Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at
+  Cincinnati-- Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures there--
+  Longfellow’s Song in Praise of Catawba-- The Kelley Island Wine
+  Company-- Vintaging and Treatment of their Sparkling Wines--
+  Decrease of Consumption-- The Vineyards of Hammondsport--
+  Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage--
+  After Treatment of the Wines-- The Pleasant Valley and Urbana
+  Wine Companies and their Various Brands-- Californian Sparkling
+  Wines-- The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society of San Francisco--
+  Its Early Failures and Eventual Success in Manufacturing
+  Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage in California-- Chinese
+  Vintagers-- How the Wine is Made-- American Spurious Sparkling
+  Wines                                                              203
+
+XX.--CONCLUDING FACTS AND HINTS.
+
+Dry and Sweet Champagnes-- Their Sparkling Properties-- Form of
+  Champagne Glasses-- Style of Sparkling Wines Consumed in
+  Different Countries-- The Colour and Alcoholic Strength of
+  Champagne-- Champagne Approved of by the Faculty-- Its Use in
+  Nervous Derangements-- The Icing of Champagne-- Scarcity of
+  Grand Vintages in the Champagne-- The Quality of the Wine has
+  little influence on the Price-- Prices realised by the Ay and
+  Verzenay Crûs in Grand Years-- Suggestions for laying down
+  Champagnes of Grand Vintages-- The Improvement they Develop
+  after a few Years-- The Wine of 1874-- The proper kind of Cellar
+  to lay down Champagne in-- Advantages of Burrow’s Patent Slider
+  Wine Bins-- Increase in the Consumption of Champagne-- Tabular
+  Statement of Stocks, Exports, and Home Consumption from 1844-5
+  to 1877-8-- When to Serve Champagne at a Dinner Party-- Charles
+  Dickens’s dictum that its proper place is at a Ball--
+  Advantageous Effect of Champagne at an Ordinary British Dinner
+  Party-- Sparkling Wine Cups                                        212
+
+THE PRINCIPAL SPARKLING WINE BRANDS                                  225
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustrated Text:]
+
+  FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE
+  AND
+  OTHER SPARKLING WINES.
+
+
+
+
+I.--THE ORIGIN OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+The Early Vineyards of the Champagne-- Their Produce esteemed by
+  Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates-- Controversy regarding the
+  rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne-- Dom
+  Perignon’s happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine-- Its Patrons under
+  Louis Quatorze and the Regency-- The Ancient Church and Abbey of
+  Hautvillers-- Farre and Co.’s Champagne Cellars-- The Abbey of St.
+  Peter now a Farm-- Existing Remains of the Monastic Buildings-- The
+  Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient Church-- The Last Resting-Place
+  of Dom Perignon--The Legend of the Holy Dove-- Good Champagne the
+  Result of Labour, Skill, Minute Precaution, and Careful Observation.
+
+
+Strong men, we know, lived before Agamemnon; and strong wine was made in
+the fair province of Champagne long before the days of the sagacious Dom
+Perignon, to whom we are indebted for the sparkling vintage known under
+the now familiar name. The chalky slopes that border the Marne were
+early recognised as offering special advantages for the culture of the
+vine. The priests and monks, whose vows of sobriety certainly did not
+lessen their appreciation of the good things of this life, and the
+produce of whose vineyards usually enjoyed a higher reputation than that
+of their lay neighbours, were clever enough to seize upon the most
+eligible sites, and quick to spread abroad the fame of their wines. St.
+Remi, baptiser of Clovis, the first Christian king in France, at the end
+of the fifth century left by will, to various churches, the vineyards
+which he owned at Reims and Laon, together with the “vilains� employed
+in their cultivation. Some three and a half centuries later we find
+worthy Bishop Pardulus of Laon imitating Paul’s advice to Timothy, and
+urging Archbishop Hincmar to drink of the wines of Epernay and Reims for
+his stomach’s sake. The crusade-preaching Pope, Urban II., who was born
+among the vineyards of the Champagne, dearly loved the wine of Ay; and
+his energetic appeals to the princes of Europe to take up arms for the
+deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre may have owed some of their eloquence
+to his favourite beverage.
+
+The red wine of the Champagne sparkled on the boards of monarchs in the
+Middle Ages when they sat at meat amidst their mailclad chivalry, and
+quaffed mighty beakers to the confusion of the Paynim. Henry of Andely
+has sung in his _fabliau_ of the “Bataille des Vins,� how, when stout
+Philip Augustus and his chaplain constituted themselves the earliest
+known wine-jury, the _crûs_ of Espernai, Auviler, Chaalons, and Reims
+were amongst those which found most favour in their eyes, though nearly
+a couple of centuries elapsed before Eustace Deschamps recorded in verse
+the rival merits of those of Cumières and Ay. King Wenceslaus of
+Bohemia, a mighty toper, got so royally drunk day after day upon the
+vintages of the Champagne, that he forgot all about the treaty with
+Charles VI., that had formed the pretext of his visit to France, and
+would probably have lingered, goblet in hand, in the old cathedral city
+till the day of his death, but for the presentation of a little account
+for wine consumed, which sobered him to repentance and led to his abrupt
+departure. Dunois, Lahire, Xaintrailles, and their fellows, when they
+rode with Joan of Arc to the coronation of Charles VII., drank the same
+generous fluid, through helmets barred, to the speedy expulsion of the
+detested English from the soil of France.
+
+The vin d’Ay--_vinum Dei_ as Dominicus Baudoin punningly styled it--was,
+according to old Paulmier, the ordinary drink of the kings and princes
+of his day. It fostered bluff King Hal’s fits of passion and the tenth
+Leo’s artistic extravagance; consoled Francis I. for the field of Pavia,
+and solaced his great rival in his retirement at St. Just. All of them
+had their commissioners at Ay to secure the best wine for their own
+consumption. Henri Quatre, whose _vendangeoir_ is still shown in the
+village, held the wine in such honour that he was wont to style himself
+the Seigneur d’Ay, just as James of Scotland was known as the Gudeman of
+Ballangeich. When his son, Louis XIII., was crowned, the wines of the
+Champagne were the only growths allowed to grace the board at the royal
+banquet. Freely too did they flow at the coronation feast of the Grand
+Monarque, when the crowd of assembled courtiers, who quaffed them in his
+honour, hailed them as the finest wines of the day.
+
+But the wines which drew forth all these encomiums were far from
+resembling the champagne of modern times. They were not, as has been
+asserted, all as red as burgundy and as flat as port; for at the close
+of the sixteenth, century some of them were of a _fauve_ or yellowish
+hue, and of the intermediate tint between red and white which the French
+call _clairet_, and which our old writers translate as the “complexion
+of a cherry� or the “colour of a partridge’s eye.� But, as a rule, the
+wines of the Champagne up to this period closely resembled those
+produced in the adjacent province, where Charles the Bold had once held
+sway; a resemblance, no doubt, having much to do with the great medical
+controversy regarding their respective merits which arose in 1652. In
+that year a young medical student, hard pressed for the subject of his
+inaugural thesis, and in the firm faith that
+
+  “None but a clever dialectician
+  Can hope to become a good physician,
+  And that logic plays an important part
+  In the mystery of the healing art,�
+
+propounded the theory that the wines of Burgundy were preferable to
+those of the Champagne, and that the latter were irritating to the
+nerves and conducive to gout. The faculty of medicine at Reims naturally
+rose in arms at this insolent assertion. They seized their pens and
+poured forth a deluge of French and Latin in defence of the wines of
+their province, eulogising alike their purity, their brilliancy of
+colour, their exquisite flavour and perfume, their great keeping powers,
+and, in a word, their general superiority to the Burgundy growths. The
+partisans of the latter were equally prompt in rallying in their
+defence, and the faculty of medicine of Beaune, having put their learned
+periwigs together, enunciated their views and handled their opponents
+without mercy. The dispute spread to the entire medical profession, and
+the champions went on pelting each other with pamphlets in prose and
+tractates in verse, until in 1778--long after the bones of the original
+disputants were dust and their lancets rust--the faculty of Paris, to
+whom the matter was referred, gave a final and formal decision in favour
+of the wines of the Champagne.
+
+Meanwhile an entirely new kind of wine, which was to carry the name of
+the province producing it to the uttermost corners of the earth, had
+been introduced. On the picturesque slopes of the Marne, about fifteen
+miles from Reims, and some four or five miles from Epernay, stands the
+little hamlet of Hautvillers, which, in pre-revolutionary days, was a
+mere dependency upon a spacious abbey dedicated to St. Peter. Here the
+worthy monks of the order of St. Benedict had lived in peace and
+prosperity for several hundred years, carefully cultivating the acres of
+vineland extending around the abbey, and religiously exacting a tithe of
+all the other wine pressed in their district. The revenue of the
+community thus depending in no small degree upon the vintage, it was
+natural that the post of “celerer� should be one of importance. It
+happened that about the year 1688 this office was conferred upon a
+worthy monk named Perignon. Poets and roasters, we know, are born, and
+not made; and the monk in question seems to have been a heaven-born
+cellarman, with a strong head and a discriminating palate. The wine
+exacted from the neighbouring cultivators was of all qualities--good,
+bad, and indifferent; and with the spirit of a true Benedictine, Dom
+Perignon hit upon the idea of “marrying� the produce of one vineyard
+with that of another. He had noted that one kind of soil imparted
+fragrance and another generosity, and discovered that a white wine could
+be made from the blackest grapes, which would keep good, instead of
+turning yellow and degenerating like the wine obtained from white ones.
+Moreover, the happy thought occurred to him that a piece of cork was a
+much more suitable stopper for a bottle than the flax dipped in oil
+which had heretofore served that purpose.
+
+The white, or, as it was sometimes styled, the grey wine of the
+Champagne grew famous, and the manufacture spread throughout the
+province, but that of Hautvillers held the predominance. To Dom Perignon
+the abbey’s well-stocked cellar was a far cheerfuller place than the
+cell. Nothing delighted him more than
+
+  “To come down among this brotherhood
+  Dwelling for ever underground,
+  Silent, contemplative, round and sound,
+  Each one old and brown with mould,
+  But filled to the lips with the ardour of youth,
+  With the latent power and love of truth,
+  And with virtues fervent and manifold.�
+
+Ever busy among his vats and presses, barrels and bottles, Perignon
+alighted upon a discovery destined to be most important in its results.
+He found out the way of making an effervescent wine--a wine that burst
+out of the bottle and overflowed the glass, that was twice as dainty to
+the taste, and twice as exhilarating in its effects. It was at the close
+of the seventeenth century that this discovery was made--when the glory
+of the Roi Soleil was on the wane, and with it the splendour of the
+Court of Versailles. Louis XIV., for whose especial benefit liqueurs had
+been invented, recovered a gleam of his youthful energy as he sipped the
+creamy foaming vintage that enlivened his dreary _têtes-à-têtes_ with
+the widow of Scarron. It found its chief patrons however, amongst the
+bands of gay young roysterers, the future _roues_ of the Regency, whom
+the Duc d’Orléans and the Duc de Vendôme had gathered round them, at the
+Palais Royal and at Anet. It was at one of the famous _soupers_ d’Anet
+that the Marquis de Sillery--who had turned his sword into a
+pruning-knife, and applied himself to the cultivation of his paternal
+vineyards on the principles inculcated by the celerer of St.
+Peter’s--first introduced the sparkling wine bearing his name. The
+flower-wreathed bottles, which, at a given signal, a dozen of blooming
+young damsels scantily draped in the guise of Bacchanals placed upon the
+table, were hailed with rapture, and thenceforth sparkling wine was an
+indispensable adjunct at all the _petits soupers_ of the period. In the
+highest circles the popping of champagne-corks seemed to ring the knell
+of sadness, and the victories of Marlborough were in a measure
+compensated for by this happy discovery.
+
+Why the wine foamed and sparkled was a mystery even to the very makers
+themselves; for as yet Baume’s aerometer was unknown, and the connection
+between sugar and carbonic acid undreamt of. The general belief was that
+the degree of effervescence depended upon the time of year at which the
+wine was bottled, and that the rising of the sap in the vine had
+everything to do with it. Certain wiseacres held that it was influenced
+by the age of the moon at the time of bottling; whilst others thought
+the effervescence could be best secured by the addition of spirit, alum,
+and various nastinesses. It was this belief in the use and efficacy of
+drugs that led to a temporary reaction against the wine about 1715, in
+which year Dom Perignon departed this life. In his latter days he had
+grown blind, but his discriminating taste enabled him to discharge his
+duties with unabated efficiency to the end. Many of the tall tapering
+glasses invented by him have been emptied to the memory of the old
+Benedictine, whose remains repose beneath a black marble slab in the
+chancel of the archaic abbey church of Hautvillers.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS AND ABBEY OF HAUTVILLERS. (p. 14)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS. CHARLES FARRE & CO., AT HAUTVILLERS.
+  (p. 15)]
+
+Time and the iconoclasts of the great Revolution have spared but little
+of the royal abbey of St. Peter where Dom Perignon lighted upon his
+happy discovery of the effervescent quality of champagne. The quaint old
+church, scraps of which date back to the 12th century, the remnants of
+the cloisters, and a couple of ancient gateways, marking the limits of
+the abbey precincts, are all that remain to testify to the grandeur of
+its past. It was the proud boast of the brotherhood that it had given
+nine archbishops to the see of Reims, and two-and-twenty abbots to
+various celebrated monasteries, but this pales beside the enduring fame
+it has acquired from having been the cradle of the sparkling vintage of
+the Champagne.
+
+It was in the budding springtime when we made our pilgrimage to
+Hautvillers across the swollen waters of the Marne at Epernay. Our way
+lay for a time along a straight level poplar-bordered road, with verdant
+meadows on either hand, then diverged sharply to the left and we
+commenced ascending the vine-clad hills, on a narrow plateau of which
+the church and abbey remains are picturesquely perched. Vines climb the
+undulating slopes to the summit of the plateau, and wooded heights rise
+up beyond, affording shelter from the bleak winds sweeping over from the
+north. As we near the village of Hautvillers we notice on our left hand
+a couple of isolated buildings overlooking a small ravine with their
+bright tiled roofs flashing in the sunlight. These prove to be a branch
+establishment of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co., a well-known champagne
+firm having its head-quarters at Reims. The grassy space beyond, dotted
+over with low stone shafts giving light and ventilation to the cellars
+beneath, is alive with workmen unloading waggons densely packed with new
+champagne bottles, while under a neighbouring shed is a crowd of women
+actively engaged in washing the bottles as they are brought to them. The
+large apartment aboveground, known as the _cellier_, contains wine in
+cask already blended, and to bottle which preparations are now being
+made. On descending into the cellars, which, excavated in the chalk and
+of regular construction, comprise a series of long, lofty, and
+well-ventilated galleries, we find them stocked with bottles of fine
+wine reposing in huge compact piles ready for transport to the head
+establishment, where they will undergo their final manipulation. The
+cellars consist of two stories, the lowermost of which has an iron gate
+communicating with the ravine already mentioned. On passing out here and
+looking up behind we see the buildings perched some hundred feet above
+us, hemmed in on every side with budding vines.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PORTE DES PRESSOIRS, HAUTVILLERS.]
+
+The church of Hautvillers and the remains of the neighbouring abbey are
+situated at the farther extremity of the village, at the end of its one
+long street, named, pertinently enough, the Rue de Bacchus. Passing
+through an unpretentious gateway we find ourselves in a spacious
+courtyard, bounded by buildings somewhat complex in character. On our
+right rises the tower of the church with the remains of the old
+cloisters, now walled-in and lighted by small square windows, and
+propped up by heavy buttresses. To the left stands the residence of the
+bailiff, and beyond it an 18th-century château on the site of the
+abbot’s house, the abbey precincts being bounded on this side by a
+picturesque gateway tower leading to the vineyards, and known as the
+“porte des pressoirs,� from its contiguity to the existing wine-presses.
+Huge barn-like buildings, stables, and cart-sheds inclose the court on
+its remaining sides, and roaming about are numerous live stock,
+indicating that what remains of the once-famous royal abbey of St. Peter
+has degenerated into an ordinary farm. To-day the abbey buildings and
+certain of its lands are the property of Messrs. Moët and Chandon, the
+great champagne manufacturers of Epernay, who maintain them as a farm,
+keeping some six-and-thirty cows there with the object of securing the
+necessary manure for the numerous vineyards which they own hereabouts.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The dilapidated cloisters, littered with old casks, farm implements, and
+the like, preserve ample traces of their former architectural character,
+and the Louis Quatorze gateway on the northern side of the inclosure
+still displays above its arch a grandiose carved shield, with
+surrounding palm-branches and half-obliterated bearings. Vine-leaves and
+bunches of grapes decorate some of the more ancient columns inside the
+church, and grotesque mediæval monsters, such as monkish architects
+habitually delighted in, entwine themselves around the capitals of
+others. The stalls of the choir are elaborately carved with cherubs’
+heads, medallions and figures of saints, cupids supporting shields, and
+free and graceful arabesques of the epoch of the Renaissance. In the
+chancel, close by the altar steps, are a couple of black marble slabs,
+with Latin inscriptions of dubious orthography, the one to Johannes
+Royer, who died in 1527, and the other setting forth the virtues and
+merits of Dom Petrus Perignon, the discoverer of champagne. In the
+central aisle a similar slab marks the resting-place of Dom Thedoricus
+Ruynart--obit 1709--an ancestor of the Reims Ruinarts, and little square
+stones interspersed among the tiles with which the side aisles of the
+church are paved record the deaths of other members of the Benedictine
+brotherhood during the 17th and 18th centuries. Several large pictures
+grace the walls of the church, the most interesting one representing St.
+Nivard, Bishop of Reims, and his friend, St. Berchier, designating to
+some mediæval architect the site the contemplated abbey of St. Peter was
+to occupy. There was a monkish legend that about the middle of the 7th
+century this pair of saints set out in search of a suitable site for the
+future monastery. The way was long, the day was warm, and St. Nivard and
+St. Berchier as yet were simply mortal. Weary and faint, they sat them
+down to rest at a spot identified by tradition with a vineyard at Dizy,
+belonging to-day to the Messrs. Bollinger, but at that period forming
+part of the forest of the Marne. St. Nivard fell asleep with his head on
+his companion’s lap, and the one in a dream, and the other with waking
+eyes, saw a snow-white dove--the same, firm believers in miracles
+suggested, which had brought down the holy oil for the anointment of
+Clovis at his coronation at Reims--flutter through the wood, and finally
+alight on the stump of a tree.
+
+In those superstitious times such a significant omen was not to be
+disregarded, the site thus miraculously indicated was at once decided
+upon, the high altar of the abbey church being erected upon the precise
+spot where the tree stood on which the snow-white dove had alighted.
+
+The celerer of St. Peter’s found worthy successors, and thenceforward
+the manufacture and the popularity of champagne went on steadily
+increasing, until to-day its production is carried on upon a scale and
+with an amount of painstaking care that would astonish its originator.
+For good champagne does not rain down from the clouds, or gush out from
+the rocks, but is the result of incessant labour, patient skill, minute
+precaution, and careful observation. In the first place, the soil
+imparts to the natural wine a special quality which it has been found
+impossible to imitate in any other quarter of the globe. To the wine of
+Ay it lends a flavour of peaches, and to that of Avenay the savour of
+strawberries; the vintage of Hautvillers, though fallen from its former
+high estate, is yet marked by an unmistakably nutty taste; while that of
+Pierry smacks of the locally-abounding flint, the well-known _pierre à
+fusil_ flavour. So on the principle that a little leaven leavens the
+whole lump, the produce of grapes grown in the more favoured vineyards
+is added in certain proportions to secure certain special
+characteristics, as well as to maintain a fixed standard of excellence.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+II.--THE VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. THE VINEYARDS OF THE RIVER.
+
+Ay, the Vineyard of Golden Plants-- Summoning the Vintagers by Beat
+  of Drum-- Excitement in the Surrounding Villages-- The Pickers at
+  Work-- Sorting the Grapes-- Grapes Gathered at Sunrise the Best--
+  Varieties of Vines in the Ay Vineyards-- Few of the Growers in the
+  Champagne Crush their own Grapes-- Squeezing the Grapes in the
+  “Pressoir� and Drawing off the Must-- Cheerful Glasses Round-- The
+  Vintage at Mareuil-- Bringing in the Grapes on Mules and Donkeys--
+  The Vineyards of Avenay, Mutigny, and Cumières-- Damery and Adrienne
+  Lecouvreur, Maréchal de Saxe, and the obese Anna Iwanowna-- The
+  Vineyards of the Côte d’Epernay-- Boursault and its Château-- Pierry
+  and its Vineyard Cellars-- The Clos St. Pierre-- Moussy and Vinay--
+  A Hermit’s Cave and a Miraculous Fountain-- Ablois St. Martin-- The
+  Côte d’Avize-- The Grand Premier Crû of Cramant-- Avize and its
+  Wines-- The Vineyards of Oger and Le Mesnil-- The Old Town of Vertus
+  and its Vine-clad Slopes-- Their Red Wine formerly celebrated.
+
+
+With the exception of certain famous vineyards of the Rhône, the
+vinelands of the Champagne may, perhaps, be classed among the most
+picturesque of the more notable vine districts of France. Between Paris
+and Epernay even, the banks of the Marne present a series of scenes of
+quiet beauty. The undulating ground is everywhere cultivated like a
+garden. Handsome châteaux and charming country houses peep out from amid
+luxuriant foliage. Picturesque antiquated villages line the river’s bank
+or climb the hill sides, and after leaving La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, the
+cradle of the Condés, all the more favoured situations commence to be
+covered with vines.
+
+This is especially the case in the vicinity of Château-Thierry--the
+birthplace of La Fontaine--where the view is shut in on all sides by
+vine-clad slopes, which the spring frosts seldom spare. Hence merely one
+good vintage out of four gladdens the hearts of the peasant proprietors,
+who find eager purchasers for their produce among the lower-class
+manufacturers of champagne. In the same way the _petit vin de Chierry_,
+dexterously prepared and judiciously mingled with other growths, often
+figures as “Fleur de Sillery� or “Ay Mousseux.� In reality it is not
+until we have passed the ornate modern Gothic château of Boursault,
+erected in her declining years by the wealthy Veuve Clicquot, by far the
+shrewdest manipulator of the sparkling products of Ay and Bouzy of her
+day, and the many towers and turrets of which, rising above umbrageous
+trees, crown the loftiest height within eyeshot of Epernay, that we find
+ourselves within that charmed circle of vineyards whence champagne--the
+wine, not merely of princes, as it has been somewhat obsequiously
+termed, but essentially the _vin de société_--is derived.
+
+The vinelands in the vicinity of Epernay, and consequently near the
+Marne, are commonly known as the “Vineyards of the River,� whilst those
+covering the slopes in the neighbourhood of Reims are termed the
+“Vineyards of the Mountain.� The Vineyards of the River comprise three
+distinct divisions--first, those lining the right bank of the Marne and
+enjoying a southern and south-eastern aspect, among which are Ay,
+Hautvillers, Cumières, Dizy, and Mareuil; secondly, the Côte d’Epernay
+on the left bank of the river, of which Pierry, Moussy, and Vinay form
+part; and thirdly, the Côte d’Avize (the region _par excellence_ of
+white grapes), which stretches towards the south-east, and includes the
+vinelands of Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil, and Vertus. The entire
+vineyard area is upwards of 40,000 acres.
+
+The Champagne vineyards most widely celebrated abroad are those of Ay
+and Sillery, although the last-named are really the smallest in the
+Champagne district. Ay, distant only a few minutes by rail from Epernay,
+is in the immediate centre of the vinelands of the river, having Mareuil
+and Avenay on the east, and Dizy, Hautvillers, and Cumières on the west.
+Sillery, on the other hand, lies at the foot of the so-called Mountain
+of Reims, and within an hour’s drive of the old cathedral city.
+
+The pleasantest season of the year to visit the Champagne is certainly
+during the vintage. When this is about to commence, the vintagers--some
+of whom come from Sainte Menehould, forty miles distant, while others
+hail from as far as Lorraine--are summoned at daybreak by beat of drum
+in the market-places of the villages adjacent to the vineyards, and then
+and there a price is made for the day’s labour. This is generally either
+a franc and a half, with food consisting of three meals, or two francs
+and a half without food, children being paid a franc and a half. The
+rate of wage satisfactorily arranged, the gangs start off to the
+vineyards, headed by their overseers.
+
+It was on one of those occasional sunshiny days in the early part of
+October (1871) when I first visited Ay, the vineyard of golden plants,
+the unique _premier crû_ of the Wines of the River. The road lay between
+two rows of closely-planted poplar-trees reaching almost to the village
+of Dizy, whose quaint grey church tower, with its gabled roof, is
+dominated by the neighbouring vine-clad slopes, which extend from Avenay
+to Venteuil, some few miles beyond Hautvillers, the cradle, so to speak,
+of the _vin mousseux_ of the Champagne.
+
+Everywhere was bustle and excitement; every one was big with the
+business in hand. In these ordinarily quiet little villages the majority
+of the inhabitants were afoot, the feeble feminine half with the
+juveniles threading their way through the rows of vines half-way up the
+mountain, basket on arm, while the sturdy masculine portion were mostly
+passing to and fro between the press-houses and the wine-shops. Carts
+piled up with baskets, or crowded with peasants from a distance on their
+way to the vineyards, jostled the low railway trucks laden with bran-new
+casks, and the somewhat rickety cabriolets of the agents of the big
+champagne houses, reduced to clinch their final bargain for a hundred or
+more _pièces_ of the peerless wine of Ay, beside the reeking wine-press.
+
+There was a pleasant air of jollity over all, for in the wine-producing
+districts every one participates in the interest excited by the vintage,
+which influences the takings of all the artificers and all the
+tradespeople, bringing grist to the mill of the baker and the bootmaker,
+as well as to the café and the cabaret. The various contending interests
+were singularly satisfied, the vintagers getting their two francs and a
+half a day, and the men at the pressoirs their three francs and their
+food. The plethoric _commissionaires-en-vins_ wiped their perspiring
+foreheads with satisfaction at having at last secured the full number of
+hogsheads they had been instructed to buy--at a high figure it was true,
+still this was no disadvantage to them, as their commission mounted up
+all the higher. And, as regarded the small vine proprietors, even the
+thickest-skulled among them, who make all their calculations on their
+fingers, could see at a glance that they were gainers, for, although the
+crop was no more than half an average one, yet, thanks to the
+ill-disguised anxiety of the agents to secure all the wine they
+required, prices had gradually crept up until they doubled those of
+ordinary years, and this with only half the work in the vineyard and at
+the wine-press to be done.
+
+On leaving Dizy the road runs immediately at the base of the vine-clad
+slopes, broken up by an occasional conical peak detaching itself from
+the mass, and tinted from base to summit with richly-variegated hues,
+in which deep purple, yellow, green, grey, and crimson by turns
+predominate. Dotting these slopes like a swarm of huge ants are a crowd
+of men, women, and children, intent on stripping the vines of their
+luscious-looking fruit. The men are mostly in blue blouses, and the
+women in closely-fitting neat white caps, or wearing old-fashioned
+unbleached straw-bonnets of the contemned coal-scuttle type. They detach
+the grapes with scissors or hooked knives, technically termed
+“serpettes,� and in some vineyards proceed to remove all damaged,
+decayed, or unripe fruit from the bunches before placing them in the
+baskets hanging on their arms, the contents of which are from time to
+time emptied into a larger basket resembling a deep clothes-basket in
+shape, numbers of these being dispersed about the vineyard for the
+purpose, and invariably in the shade. When filled they are carried by a
+couple of men to the roadside, along which dwarf stones carved with
+initials, and indicating the boundaries of the respective properties,
+are encountered every eight or ten yards, into such narrow strips are
+the vineyards divided. Large carts with railed open sides are
+continually passing backwards and forwards to pick these baskets up, and
+when one of them has secured its load it is driven slowly--in order that
+the grapes may not be shaken--to the neighbouring pressoir, so extreme
+is the care observed throughout every stage of the process of champagne
+manufacture.
+
+In many of the vineyards the grapes are inspected in bulk instead of in
+detail before being sent to the wine-press. The hand-baskets, when
+filled, are all brought to a particular spot, where their contents are
+minutely examined by some half-dozen men and women, who pluck off all
+the bruised, rotten, and unripe berries, and fling them aside into a
+separate basket. In one vineyard we came upon a party of girls,
+congregated round a wicker sieve perched on the top of a large tub by
+the roadside, who were busy sorting the grapes, pruning away the
+diseased stalks, and picking off all the doubtful berries, and letting
+the latter fall through the interstices of the sieve, the sound fruit
+being deposited in large baskets standing by their side, which, as soon
+as filled, were conveyed to the pressoir.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  A VINTAGE SCENE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. (p. 24)]
+
+The picking ordinarily commences with daylight, and the vintagers assert
+that the grapes gathered at sunrise always produce the lightest and most
+limpid wine. Moreover by plucking the grapes when the early morning sun
+is upon them they are believed to yield a fourth more juice. Later on in
+the day, too, spite of all precautions, it is impossible to prevent some
+of the detached grapes from partially fermenting, which frequently
+suffices to give a slight excess of colour to the must, a thing
+especially to be avoided--no matter how rich and ripe the fruit may
+be--in a high-class champagne. When the grapes have to be transported in
+open baskets for some distance to the press-house, jolting along the
+road either in carts or on the backs of mules, and exposed to the torrid
+rays of a bright autumnal sun, the juice expressed from the fruit,
+however gently the latter may be squeezed, is occasionally of a positive
+purple tinge, and consequently useless for conversion into champagne.
+
+On the right of the road leading from Dizy to Ay we pass a vineyard
+called Le Léon, which tradition asserts to be the one whence Pope Leo
+the Magnificent, the patron of Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Da Vinci,
+drew his supply of Ay wine. The village of Ay lies right before us at
+the foot of the vine-clad slopes, with the tapering spire of its ancient
+church rising above the neighbouring hills and cutting sharply against
+the bright blue sky. The vineyards, which spread themselves over a
+calcareous declivity, have mostly a full southern aspect, and the
+predominating vines are those known as golden plants, the fruit of which
+is of a deep purple colour. After these comes the _plant vert doré_, and
+then a moderate proportion of the _plant gris_, the latter a white
+variety, as its name implies. A limited quantity of wine from white
+grapes is likewise made in the neighbouring vineyards of Dizy.
+
+We visited the pressoir of the principal producer of _vin brut_ at Ay,
+who, although the owner of merely five hectares, or about twelve and a
+half acres of vines, expected to make as many as 1,500 pièces of wine
+that year, mainly of course from grapes purchased from other growers.
+One peculiarity of the Champagne district is that, contrary to the
+prevailing practice in the other wine-producing regions of France, where
+the owner of even a single acre of vines will crush his grapes himself,
+only a limited number of vine-proprietors press their own grapes. The
+large champagne houses, possessing vineyards, always have their
+pressoirs in the neighbourhood, and other large vine-proprietors will
+press the grapes they grow, but the multitude of small cultivators
+invariably sell the produce of their vineyards to one or other of the
+former at a certain rate, either by weight or else per caque, a measure
+estimated to hold sixty kilogrammes (equal to 132lbs.) of grapes. The
+price which the fruit fetches varies of course according to the quality
+of the vintage and the requirements of the manufacturers. In 1873, in
+all the higher-class vineyards, as much as two francs and a quarter per
+kilogramme (10d. per lb.) were paid, or between treble and quadruple the
+average price. And yet the vintage was a most unsatisfactory one owing
+to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet throughout the summer. The
+market, however, was in great need of wine, and the fruit while still
+ungathered was bought up at most exorbitant prices by the _spéculateurs_
+who supply the _vin brut_ to the champagne manufacturers.
+
+Carts laden with grapes were continually arriving at the pressoir, and
+after discharging their loads, and having them weighed, kept driving off
+for fresh ones. Four powerful presses of recent invention, each worked
+by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, were in
+operation. The grapes were spread over the floor of the press in a
+compact mass, and on being subjected to pressure--again and again
+repeated, the first squeeze only giving a high-class wine--the must
+filtered through a wicker basket into the reservoir beneath, whence,
+after remaining a certain time to allow of its ridding itself of the
+grosser lees, it is pumped through a gutta-percha tube into the casks.
+The wooden stoppers of the bungholes, instead of being fixed tightly in
+the apertures, are simply laid over them, and after the lapse of ten or
+twelve days fermentation usually commences, and during its progress the
+must, which is originally of a pale pink tint, fades to a light straw
+colour. The wine usually remains undisturbed until Christmas, when it is
+drawn off into fresh casks, and delivered to the purchaser.
+
+On our way from Ay to Mareuil, along the lengthy Rue de Châlons, we
+looked in at the little auberge at the corner of the Boulevard du Sud,
+where we found a crowd of coopers and others connected in some way with
+the vintage taking their cheerful glasses round. The walls of the room
+were appropriately enough decorated with capering bacchanals squeezing
+bunches of purple grapes and flourishing their thyrsi about in a very
+tipsy fashion. All the talk--and there was an abundance of it--had
+reference to the yield of this particular vintage and the high rate the
+Ay wine had realised. Eight hundred francs the pièce of two hundred
+litres, equal to forty-four gallons, appeared to be the price fixed by
+the agents of the great champagne houses, and at this figure the bulk of
+the vintage was disposed of before a single grape passed through the
+wine-press.
+
+At Mareuil, which is scarcely more than a mile from Ay, owing to the
+steepness of the slopes and to the roads through the vineyards being
+impracticable for carts, the grapes were being conveyed to the
+press-houses in baskets slung across the backs of mules and donkeys,
+who, on account of their known partiality for the ripe fruit, were most
+of them muzzled while thus employed. The _vin brut_ here, inferior of
+course to that of Ay, found a ready market at from five to six hundred
+francs the pièce.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+From Mareuil we proceeded to Avenay, a tumbledown little village in the
+direction of Reims, and the vineyards of which were of greater repute in
+the 13th century than they are to-day. Its best wine, extolled by Saint
+Evremond, the epicurean Frenchman, who emigrated to the gay court of
+Charles II. at Whitehall to escape a gloomy cell in the Bastille, is
+vintaged up the slopes of Mont Hurlé. At Avenay we found the yield had
+been little more than the third of an average one, and that the wine
+from the first pressure of the grapes had been sold for five hundred
+francs the pièce. Here we tasted some very fair still red wine, made
+from the same grapes as champagne, remarkably deep in colour, full of
+body, and with that slight sweet bitterish flavour characteristic of
+certain of the better-class growths of the south of France. On leaving
+Avenay we ascended the hills to Mutigny, and wound round thence to
+Cumières, on the banks of the Marne, finding the vintage in full
+operation all throughout the route. The vineyards of Cumières--classed
+as a second crû--join those of Hautvillers on the one side and Damery on
+the other--the latter a cosy little river-side village, where the “_bon
+Roi Henri_� sought relaxation from the turmoils of war in the society of
+the fair Anne du Puy--“_sa belle hôtesse_,� as the gallant Béarnais was
+wont to style her. Damery too claims to be the birthplace of Adrienne
+Lecouvreur, the celebrated actress of the Regency, and mistress of the
+Maréchal de Saxe who coaxed her out of her £30,000 of savings to enable
+him to prosecute his suit with the obese Anna Iwanowna, niece of Peter
+the Great, which, had he only been successful in, would have secured the
+future hero of Fontenoy the coveted dukedom of Courland.
+
+The vineyards of the Côte d’Epernay, south of the Marne, extend eastward
+from beyond Boursault, on whose wooded height Madame Clicquot built her
+fine château, in which her granddaughter, the Comtesse de Mortemart,
+to-day resides. They then follow the course of the river, and after
+winding round behind Epernay diverge towards the south-west. The vines
+produce only black grapes, and many of the vineyards are of great
+antiquity, one at Epernay, known as the Closet, having been bequeathed
+under that name six and a half centuries ago to a neighbouring Abbey of
+St. Martin. A short drive along the high road leading from Epernay to
+Troyes brings us to the village of Pierry cosily nestling amongst groves
+of poplars in the valley of the Cubry, with some half-score of châteaux
+of the last century belonging to well-to-do wine-growers of the
+neighbourhood, screened from the road by umbrageous gardens. Vines mount
+the slopes that rise around, the higher summits being crowned with
+forest, while here and there some pleasant village shelters itself under
+the brow of a lofty hill. Near Pierry many cellars have been excavated
+in the chalky soil, to the flints prevalent in which the village is said
+to owe its name.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The entrances to these cellars are closed by iron gateways, and on the
+skirts of the vineyards we come upon whole rows of them picturesquely
+overgrown with ivy. Early in the last century the wine vintaged in the
+Clos St. Pierre, belonging to an abbey of this name at Châlons, acquired
+a high reputation through the care bestowed upon it by Brother Jean
+Oudart, whose renown almost rivalled that of Dom Perignon himself, and
+to-day the Pierry vineyards, producing exclusively black grapes, hold a
+high rank among the second-class crûs of the Marne.
+
+Crossing the Sourdon, a little stream which, bubbling up in the midst of
+huge rocks in the forest of Epernay, rushes down the hills and mingles
+its waters with that of the Cubry, we soon reach Moussy, where the
+vineyards, spite of their long pedigree and southern aspect, also rank
+as a second crû. Still skirting the vine-clad slopes we come to Vinay,
+noted for an ancient grotto--the comfortless abode of some rheumatic
+anchorite--and a pretended miraculous spring to which fever-stricken
+pilgrims to-day credulously resort. The water may possibly merit its
+renown, but the wine here produced is very inferior, due no doubt to the
+class of vines, the meunier being the leading variety cultivated. At
+Ablois St. Martin, picturesquely perched partway up a slope in the midst
+of hills covered with vines and crowned with forest trees, the Côte
+d’Epernay ends, and the produce becomes of a choicer character.
+
+The Côte d’Avize lies to the south-east, so that we have to retrace our
+steps to Pierry and follow the road which there branches off, leaving
+the vineyards of Chavot, Monthelon, and Grauves, of no particular note,
+on our right hand. We pass through Cuis, where the slopes, planted with
+both black and white varieties of vines, are extremely abrupt, and
+eventually reach Cramant, one of the grand _premiers crûs_ of the
+Champagne. From the vineyards around this picturesque little village,
+and extending along the somewhat precipitous Côte de Saran--a prominent
+object on which is M. Moët’s handsome château--there is vintaged a wine
+from white grapes especially remarkable for lightness and delicacy and
+the richness of its bouquet, and an admixture of which is essential to
+every first-class champagne _cuvée_.
+
+From Cramant the road runs direct to Avize, a large thriving village,
+lying at the foot of vineyard slopes, where numerous champagne firms
+have established themselves. Its prosperity dates from the commencement
+of the last century, when the Count de Lhery cleared away the remains of
+its ancient ramparts, filled up the moat, and planted the ground with
+vines, the produce of which was found admirably suited for the sparkling
+wines then coming into vogue. To-day the light delicate wine of Avize is
+classed, like that of Cramant, as a _premier crû_. It is the same with
+the wine of Oger, lying a little to the south, while the neighbouring
+growths of Le Mesnil hold a slightly inferior rank. The latter village
+and its grey Gothic church lie under the hill in the midst of vines that
+almost climb the forest-crowned summit. The stony soil hereabouts is
+said to be better adapted to the cultivation of white than of black
+grapes, besides which the wines of Le Mesnil are remarkable for their
+effervescent properties.
+
+Vertus forms the southern limit of the Côte d’Avize, and the vineyard
+slopes subsiding at their base into a broad expanse of fertile fields,
+and crested as usual with dense forest, rise up behind the picturesque
+old town which the English assailed and partly burnt five centuries ago,
+spite of its fortifications, of which to-day a dilapidated gateway alone
+remains. The church is ancient and curious, and a few quaint old houses
+are here and there met with, notably one with a florid Gothic window
+enriched with a moulding of grapes and vine-leaves. The vineyards of
+Vertus were originally planted with vines from Burgundy, and in the 14th
+century yielded a red wine held in high repute, while later on the
+Vertus growths formed the favourite beverage of William III. of England.
+To-day the growers find it more profitable to make white instead of red
+wine from their crops of black grapes, the former commanding a good
+price for conversion into _vin mousseux_, it being in the opinion of
+some manufacturers especially valuable for binding a _cuvée_ together.
+The wine of Vertus ranks among the second-class champagne crûs.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  CHATEAU OF SILLERY.]
+
+III.--THE VINEYARDS OF THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+The Wine of Sillery-- Origin of its Renown-- The Marechale d’Estrées
+  a successful Marchande de Vin-- From Reims to Sillery-- Failure of
+  the Jacquesson Vineyards-- Château of Sillery-- Wine Making at
+  M. Fortel’s-- Sillery sec-- The Vintage and Vendangeoirs at
+  Verzenay-- The Verzy Vineyards-- Edward III. at the Abbey of St.
+  Basle-- From Reims to Bouzy-- The Herring Procession at St. Remi--
+  Rilly, Chigny, and Ludes-- The Knights Templars’ “Pot� of Wine--
+  Mailly and the View over the Plains of the Champagne-- Wine Making
+  at Mailly-- The Village in the Wood-- Village and Château of
+  Louvois-- Louis le Grand’s War Minister-- Bouzy, its Vineyards and
+  Church Steeple, and the Lottery of the Great Gold Ingot-- MM.
+  Werlé’s and Moët and Chandon’s Vendangeoirs-- Pressing the Grapes--
+  Still Red Bouzy-- Ambonnay-- A Peasant Proprietor-- The Vineyards of
+  Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville, and St. Thierry-- The Still
+  Red Wine of the latter.
+
+
+The smallest of the Champagne vineyards are those of Sillery, and yet no
+wine of the Marne enjoys a greater renown, due originally to the
+intelligence and energy of the Maréchale d’Estrées, the clever daughter
+of a Jew financier, who brought the wine of Sillery prominently into
+notice during the latter half of the seventeenth century. She had
+vineyards at Mailly, Verzy, and Verzenay, as well as at Sillery, and
+concentrated their produce in the capacious cellars of her château,
+afterwards sending it forth with her own guarantee, under the general
+name of Sillery, which, like Aaron’s serpent, thus swallowed up the
+others. The Maréchale’s social position enabled her to secure for her
+wines the recognition they really merited, added to which she was a keen
+woman of business. She also possessed much taste, and whenever she gave
+one of her rare entertainments nothing could be more exquisite or more
+magnificent. At the same time, she was so sordid that when her daughter,
+who was covered with jewels, fell down at a ball, her first cry was, not
+like Shylock’s, “my daughter,� but “my diamonds,� as rushing forward she
+strove to pick up, not the fallen dancer, but her scattered gems.
+
+The drive from Reims to Sillery has nothing attractive about it. A long,
+straight, level road bordered by trees intersects a broad tract of open
+country, skirted on the right by the Petite Montagne of Reims, with
+antiquated villages nestled among the dense woodland. After crossing the
+Châlons line of railway--near where one of the new forts constructed for
+the defence of Reims rises up behind the villages and vineyards of
+Cernay and Nogent l’Abbesse--the country becomes more undulating.
+Poplars border the broad Marne canal, and a low fringe of foliage marks
+the course of the languid river Vesle, on the banks of which is Taissy,
+famous in the old days for its wines, great favourites with Sully, and
+which almost lured Henri Quatre from his allegiance to the vintages of
+Ay and Arbois that he loved so well.
+
+To the left rises Mont de la Pompelle, where the first Christians of
+Reims suffered martyrdom, and where in 1658 the Spaniards under Montal,
+when attempting to ravage the vineyards of the district, were repulsed
+with terrible slaughter by the Remois militia, led on by Grandpré.
+A quarter of a century ago the low ground on our right near Sillery was
+planted with vines by M. Jacquesson, the owner of the Sillery estate,
+and a large champagne manufacturer at Châlons, who was anxious to
+resuscitate the ancient reputation of the domain. Under the advice of
+Dr. Guyot, the well-known writer on viticulture, he planted the vines in
+deep trenches, which led to the vineyards being punningly termed
+Jacquesson’s _celery_ beds. To shield the vines from hailstorms
+prevalent in the district, and the more dangerous spring frosts,
+so fatal to vines planted in low-lying situations, long rolls of
+straw-matting were stored close at hand with which to roof them over
+when needful. These precautions were scarcely needed, however; the vines
+languished through moisture at the roots, and eventually were mostly
+rooted up.
+
+After again crossing the railway, we pass the trim, restored turrets of
+the famous château of Sillery, with its gateways, moats, and
+drawbridges, flanked by trees and floral parterres. It was here that the
+Maréchale d’Estrées carried on her successful business as a _marchande
+de vins_, and the pragmatic and pedantic Comtesse de Genlis, governess
+of the Orleans princes, spent, as she tells us, the happiest days of her
+life. The few thriving vineyards of Sillery cover a gentle eminence
+which rises out of the plain, and present on the one side an eastern and
+on the other a western aspect. To-day the Vicomte de Brimont and
+M. Fortel of Reims, the latter of whom cultivates about forty acres of
+vines, yielding ordinarily about 300 hogsheads, are the only
+wine-growers at Sillery. Before pressing his grapes--of course for
+sparkling wine--M. Fortel has them thrown into a trough, at the bottom
+of which are a couple of grooved cylinders, each about eight inches in
+diameter, and revolving in contrary directions, the effect of which,
+when set in motion, is to disengage the grapes partially from their
+stalks. Grapes and stalks are then placed under the press, which is on
+the old cyder-press principle, and the must runs into a reservoir
+beneath, whence it is pumped into large vats, each holding from 250 to
+500 gallons. Here it remains from six to eight hours, and is then run
+off into casks, the spigots of which are merely laid lightly over the
+holes, and in the course of twelve days the wine begins to ferment. It
+now rests until the end of the year, when it is drawn off into new casks
+and delivered to the buyer, invariably one or other of the great
+champagne houses, who willingly pay an exceptionally high price for it.
+The second and third pressures of the grapes yield an inferior wine, and
+from the husks and stalks _eau-de-vie_, worth about five shillings a
+gallon, is distilled.
+
+The wine known as Sillery sec is a full, dry, pleasant-flavoured, and
+somewhat spirituous amber-coloured wine. Very little of it is made
+now-a-days, and most that is comes from the adjacent vineyards of
+Verzenay and Mailly, and is principally reserved by the growers for
+their own consumption. One of these candidly admitted to me that the old
+reputation of the wine had exploded, and that better white Bordeaux and
+Burgundy wines were to be obtained for less money. In making dry
+Sillery, which locally is esteemed as a valuable tonic, it is essential
+that the grapes should be subjected to only slight pressure, while to
+have it in perfection it is equally essential that the wine should be
+kept for ten years in the wood according to some, and eight years in
+bottle according to others, to which circumstance its high price is in
+all probability to be attributed. In course of time it forms a deposit,
+and has the disadvantage common to all the finer still wines of the
+Champagne district of not travelling well.
+
+Beyond Sillery the vineyards of Verzenay unfold themselves, spreading
+over the extensive slopes and stretching to the summit of the steep
+height to the right, where a windmill or two is perched. Everywhere the
+vintagers are busy detaching the grapes with their little hook-shaped
+_serpettes_, the women all wearing projecting, close-fitting bonnets, as
+though needlessly careful of their anything but blonde complexions. Long
+carts laden with baskets of grapes block the narrow roads, and donkeys,
+duly muzzled, with baskets slung across their backs, toil up and down
+the steeper slopes. Half way up the principal hill, backed by a dense
+wood and furrowed with deep trenches, whence soil has been removed for
+manuring the vineyards, is the village of Verzenay, overlooking a
+veritable sea of vines. Rising up in front of the old grey cottages,
+encompassed by orchards or gardens, are the white walls and long red
+roofs of the vendangeoirs belonging to the great champagne houses--Moët
+and Chandon, Clicquot, G. H. Mumm, Roederer, Deutz and Geldermann, and
+others--all teeming with bustle and excitement, and with the vines
+almost reaching to their very doors. Moët and Chandon have as many as
+eight presses in full work, and own no less than 120 acres of vines on
+the neighbouring slopes, besides the Clos de Romont--in the direction of
+Sillery, and yielding a wine of the Sillery type--belonging to M. Moët
+Romont. At Messrs. G. H. Mumm’s the newly-delivered grapes are either
+being weighed and emptied into one of the pressoirs, or else receiving
+their first gentle squeeze. Verzenay ranks as a _premier crû_, and for
+three years in succession--1872, 3, and 4--its wines fetched a higher
+price than either those of Ay or Bouzy. In 1873 the _vin brut_ commanded
+the exceptionally large sum of 1,030 francs the hogshead of 44 gallons.
+All the inhabitants of Verzenay are vine proprietors, and several
+million francs are annually received by them for the produce of their
+vineyards from the manufacturers of champagne. The wine of Verzenay,
+remarkable for its body and vinosity, has always been held in high
+repute, which is more than can be said for the probity of the
+inhabitants, for according to an old Champagne saying--“Whenever at
+Verzenay ‘Stop thief’ is cried every one takes to his heels.�
+
+Just over the mountain of Reims is the village of Verzy, the vineyards
+of which adjoin those of Verzenay, and are almost exclusively planted
+with white grapes, the only instance of the kind to be met with in the
+district. In the clos St. Basse, however--taking its name from the abbey
+of St. Basle, of which the village was a dependency, and where Edward
+III. of England had his head-quarters during the siege of Reims--black
+grapes alone are grown, and its produce is almost on a par with the
+wines of Verzenay. Southwards of Verzy are the third-class crûs of
+Villers-Marmery and Trépail.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS OF VERZENAY. (p. 36.)]
+
+On leaving Reims on our excursion to the vineyards of Bouzy we pass the
+quaint old church of St. Remi, one of the sights of the Champagne
+capital, and notable among other things for its magnificent ancient
+stained-glass windows, and the handsome modern tomb of the popular
+Remois saint. It was here in the middle ages that that piece of priestly
+mummery, the procession of the herrings, used to take place at dusk on
+the Wednesday before Easter. Preceded by a cross the canons of the
+church marched in double file up the aisles, each trailing a cord after
+him, with a herring attached. Every one’s object was to tread on the
+herring in front of him, and prevent his own herring from being trodden
+upon by the canon who followed behind--a difficult enough proceeding
+which, if it did not edify, certainly afforded much amusement to the
+lookers-on.
+
+Soon after crossing the canal and the river Vesle we leave the grey
+antiquated-looking village of Cormontreuil on our left, and traverse a
+wide stretch of cultivated country streaked with patches of woodland.
+Occasional windmills dot the distant heights, while villages nestle
+among the trees up the mountain sides and in the quiet hollows. Soon a
+few vineyards occupying the lower slopes, and thronged by bands of
+vintagers, come in sight, and the country too gets more picturesque. We
+pass successively on our right hand Rilly, producing a capital red wine,
+then Chigny, and afterwards Ludes, all three more or less up the
+mountain, with vines in all directions, relieved by a dark background of
+forest trees. In the old days the Knights Templars of the Commanderie of
+Reims had the right of _vinage_ at Ludes, and exacted their modest “pot�
+(about half a gallon) per pièce on all the wine the village produced. On
+our left hand is Mailly, the vineyards of which join those of Verzenay,
+and yield a wine noted for _finesse_ and bouquet. From the wooded knolls
+hereabouts a view is gained of the broad plains of the Champagne, dotted
+with white villages and scattered homesteads among the poplars and the
+limes, the winding Vesle glittering in the sunlight, and the dark towers
+of Notre Dame de Reims, with all their rich Gothic fretwork, rising
+majestically above the distant city.
+
+At one vendangeoir we visited at Mailly between 350 and 400 pièces of
+wine were being made at the rate of some thirty pièces during the long
+day of twenty hours, five men being engaged in working the old-fashioned
+press, closely resembling a cyder press, and applying its pressure
+longitudinally. The must was emptied into large vats, holding about 450
+gallons, and remained there for two or three days before being drawn off
+into casks. Of the above thirty pièces, twenty resulting from the first
+pressure were of the finest quality, four produced by the second
+pressure were partly reserved to replace what the first might lose
+during fermentation, the residue serving for second-class champagne. The
+six pièces which came from the final pressure, after being mixed with
+common wine of the district, were converted into champagne of inferior
+quality.
+
+We now cross the mountain, sight Ville-en-Selve--the village in the
+wood--among the distant trees, and eventually reach Louvois, whence the
+Grand Monarque’s domineering war minister derived his marquisate, and
+where his château, a plain but capacious edifice, may still be seen
+nestled in a picturesque and fertile valley, and surrounded by lordly
+pleasure grounds. Soon afterwards the vineyards of Bouzy appear in
+sight, with the prosperous-looking little village rising out of the
+plain at the foot of the vine-clad slopes stretching to Ambonnay, and
+the glittering Marne streaking the hazy distance. The commodious new
+church was indebted for its spire, we were told, to the lucky
+gainer--who chanced to be a native of Bouzy--of the great gold ingot
+lottery prize, value £16,000, drawn some years ago. The Bouzy vineyards
+occupy a series of gentle inclines, and have the advantage of a full
+southern aspect. The soil, which is of the customary calcareous
+formation, has a marked ruddy tinge, indicative of the presence of iron,
+to which the wine is in some degree indebted for its distinguishing
+characteristics--its delicacy, spirituousness, and pleasant bouquet.
+Vintagers are passing slowly in between the vines, and carts laden with
+grapes come rolling over the dusty roads. The mountain which rises
+behind is scored up its sides and fringed with foliage at its summit,
+and a small stone bridge crosses the deep ravine formed by the swift
+descending winter torrents.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS OF BOUZY. (p. 38.)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  PRESSING GRAPES AT M. WERLÉ’S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 39)]
+
+The principal vineyard proprietors at Bouzy, which ranks, of course, as
+a _premier crû_, are M. Werlé, M. Irroy, and Messrs. Moët and Chandon,
+the first and last of whom have capacious vendangeoirs here, M. Irroy’s
+pressing-house being in the neighbouring village of Ambonnay. M. Werlé
+possesses at Bouzy from forty to fifty acres of the finest vines,
+forming a considerable proportion of the entire vineyard area. At the
+Clicquot-Werlé vendangeoir, containing as many as eight presses, about
+1,000 pièces of wine are made annually. At the time of our visit, grapes
+gathered that morning were in course of delivery, the big basketfuls
+being measured off in caques--wooden receptacles, holding two-and-twenty
+gallons--while the florid-faced foreman ticked them off with a piece of
+chalk on the head of an adjacent cask.
+
+As soon as the contents of some half-hundred or so of these baskets had
+been emptied on to the floor of the press, the grapes undetached from
+their stalks were smoothed compactly down, and a moderate pressure was
+applied to them by turning a huge wheel, which caused the screw of the
+press to act--a gradual squeeze rather than a powerful one, and given
+all at once, coaxing out, it was said, the finer qualities of the fruit.
+The operation was repeated as many as six times; the yield from the
+three first pressures being reserved for conversion into champagne,
+while the result of the fourth squeeze would be applied to replenishing
+the loss, averaging 7½ per cent., sustained by the must during
+fermentation. Whatever comes from the fifth pressure is sold to make an
+inferior champagne. The grapes are subsequently well raked about, and
+then subjected to a couple of final squeezes, known as the _rébêche_,
+and yielding a sort of _piquette_, given to the workmen employed at the
+pressoir to drink.
+
+The small quantity of still red Bouzy wine made by M. Werlé at the same
+vendangeoir only claims to be regarded as a wine of especial mark in
+good years. The grapes before being placed beneath the press are allowed
+to remain in a vat for as many as eight days. The must undergoes a long
+fermentation, and after being drawn off into casks is left undisturbed
+for a couple of years. In bottle, where, by the way, it invariably
+deposits a sediment, which is indeed the case with all the wines of the
+Champagne, still or sparkling, it will outlive, we were told, any
+Burgundy.
+
+Still red Bouzy has a marked and agreeable bouquet and a most delicate
+flavour, is deliciously smooth to the palate, and to all appearances as
+light as a wine of Bordeaux, while in reality it is quite as strong as
+Burgundy, to the finer crûs of which it bears a slight resemblance. It
+was, I learnt, most susceptible to travelling, a mere journey to Paris
+being, it was said, sufficient to sicken it, and impart such a shock to
+its delicate constitution that it was unlikely to recover from it. To
+attain perfection, this wine, which is what the French term a _vin vif_,
+penetrating into the remotest corners of the organ of taste, requires to
+be kept a couple of years in wood and half-a-dozen or more years in
+bottle.
+
+From Bouzy it was only a short distance along the base of the vine
+slopes to Ambonnay, where there are merely two or three hundred acres of
+vines, and where we found the vintage almost over. The village is girt
+with fir trees, and surrounded by rising ground fringed with solid belts
+or slender strips of foliage. An occasional windmill cuts against the
+horizon, which is bounded here and there by scattered trees. Inquiring
+for the largest vine proprietor we were directed to an open
+porte-cochère, and on entering the large court encountered half-a-dozen
+labouring men engaged in various farm occupations. Addressing one whom
+we took to be the foreman, he referred us to a wiry little old man, in
+shirt-sleeves and sabots, absorbed in the refreshing pursuit of turning
+over a big heap of rich manure with a fork. He proved to be M. Oury, the
+owner of I forget how many acres of vines, and a remarkably intelligent
+peasant, considering what dunderheads the French peasants as a rule are,
+who had raised himself to the position of a large vine proprietor.
+Doffing his sabots and donning a clean blouse, he conducted us into his
+little salon, a freshly-painted apartment about eight feet square, of
+which the huge fireplace occupied fully one-third, and submitted
+patiently to our catechizing.
+
+At Ambonnay, as at Bouzy, they had that year, M. Oury said, only half an
+average crop; the caque of grapes had, moreover, sold for exactly the
+same price at both places, and the wine had realised about 800 francs
+the pièce. Each hectare (2½ acres) of vines had yielded 45 caques of
+grapes, weighing some 2¾ tons, which produced 6½ pièces, equal to 286
+gallons of wine, or at the rate of 110 gallons per acre. Here the grapes
+were pressed four times, the yield from the second pressure being used
+principally to make good the loss which the first sustained during its
+fermentation. As the squeezes given were powerful ones, all the best
+qualities of the grapes were by this time extracted, and the yield from
+the third and fourth pressures would not command more than 80 francs the
+pièce. The vintagers who came from a distance received either a franc
+and a half per day and their food, consisting of three meals, or two
+francs and a half without food, the children being paid thirty sous.
+M. Oury further informed us that every year vineyards came into the
+market, and found ready purchasers at from fifteen to twenty thousand
+francs the hectare, equal to an average price of £300 the acre. Owing to
+the properties being divided into such infinitesimal portions, they were
+rarely bought up by the large champagne houses, who preferred not to be
+embarrassed with the cultivation of such tiny plots, but to buy the
+produce from their owners.
+
+There are other vineyards of lesser note in the neighbourhood of Reims
+producing very fair wines which enter more or less into the composition
+of champagne. Noticeable among these are Ville-Dommange and Sacy,
+south-west of Reims, and Hermonville and St. Thierry--where the Black
+Prince took up his quarters during the siege of Reims--north-west of the
+city. The still red wine of St. Thierry, which recalls the growths of
+the Médoc by its tannin, and those of the Côte d’Or by its vinosity, is
+to-day almost a thing of the past, it being found here as elsewhere more
+profitable to press the grapes for sparkling in preference to still
+wine.
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+IV.--THE VINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE AND THE SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION.
+
+The Vines chiefly of the Pineau Variety-- The Plant doré of Ay, the
+  Plant vert doré, the Plant gris, and the Epinette-- The Soil of the
+  Vineyards-- Close Mode of Plantation-- The Operation of Provinage--
+  The Stems of the Vines never more than Three Years Old-- Fixing the
+  Stakes to the Vines-- Manuring and General Cultivation-- Spring
+  Frosts in the Champagne-- Various Modes of Protecting the Vines
+  against them-- Dr. Guyot’s System-- The Parasites that Prey upon the
+  Vines.
+
+
+In the Champagne the old rule holds good--poor soil, rich product; grand
+wine in moderate quantity. Four descriptions of vines are chiefly
+cultivated, three of them yielding black grapes, and all belonging to
+the Pineau variety, from which the grand Burgundy wines are produced,
+and so styled from the clusters taking the conical form of the pine. The
+first is the franc pineau, the plant doré of Ay, producing small round
+grapes, with thickish skins of a bluish black tint, and sweet and
+refined in flavour. The next is the plant vert doré, more robust and
+more productive than the former, but yielding a less generous wine, and
+the berries of which are dark and oval, very thin skinned and remarkably
+sweet and juicy. The third variety is the plant gris, or burot, as it is
+styled in the Côte d’Or, a somewhat delicate vine, whose fruit has a
+brownish tinge, and yields a light and perfumed wine. The remaining
+species is a white grape known as the épinette, a variety of the pineau
+blanc, and supposed by some to be identical with the chardonnet of
+Burgundy, which yields the famous wine of Montrachet. It is met with all
+along the Côte d’Avize, notably at Cramant, the delicate and elegant
+wine of which ranks immediately after that of Ay and Verzenay. The
+épinette is a prolific bearer, and its round transparent golden berries,
+which hang in no very compact clusters, are both juicy and sweet. It
+ripens, however, much later than either of the black varieties.
+
+There are several other species of vines cultivated in the Champagne
+vineyards, notably the common meunier, or miller, bearing black grapes,
+and prevalent in the valley of Epernay, and which takes its name from
+the circumstance of the young leaves appearing to have been sprinkled
+with flour. There are also the black and white gouais, the meslier,
+a prolific white variety yielding a wine of fair quality, the black and
+white gamais, the leading grape in the Mâconnais, and chiefly found in
+the Vertus vineyards, together with the tourlon, the marmot, and half a
+score of others.
+
+The soil of the Champagne vineyards is chalk, with a mixture of silica
+and light clay, combined with a varying proportion of oxide of iron. The
+vines are almost invariably planted on rising ground, the lower slopes
+which usually escape the spring frosts producing the best wines. The new
+vines are placed very close together, there often being as many as six
+within a square yard. When two or three years old they are ready for the
+operation of provinage universally practised in the Champagne, and which
+consists in burying in a trench, from 6 to 8 inches deep, dug on one
+side of the plant, the two lowest buds of the two principal shoots, left
+when the vine was pruned for this especial purpose. The shoots thus laid
+underground are dressed with a light manure, and in course of time take
+root and form new vines, which bear during their second year. This
+operation is performed in the spring, and is annually repeated until the
+vine is five years old, the plants thus being in a state of continual
+progression, a system which accounts for the juvenescent aspect of the
+Champagne vineyards, where none of the wood of the vines showing
+aboveground is more than three years old. When the vine has attained its
+fifth year it is allowed to rest for a couple of years, and then the
+pruning is resumed, the shoots being dispersed in any direction
+throughout the vineyard. The plants remain in this condition
+henceforward, merely requiring to be renewed from time to time by
+judicious provining.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The vines are supported by stakes, when of oak costing sixty francs the
+thousand; and as in the Champagne a close system of plantation is
+followed, no less than 24,000 stakes are required on every acre of land,
+making the cost per acre of propping up the vines upwards of £57, or
+double what it is in the Médoc and quadruple what it is in Burgundy.
+These stakes are set up in the spring of the year by men or women, the
+former of whom force them into the ground by pressing against them with
+their chest, which is protected with a shield of stout leather. The
+women use a mallet, or have recourse to a special appliance, in working
+which the foot plays the principal part. The latter method is the least
+fatiguing, and in some localities is practised by the men. An expert
+labourer will set up as many as 5,000 of these stakes in the course of
+the day. After the vines have been hoed around their roots they are
+secured to the stakes, and the tops are broken off at a shoot to prevent
+them from growing above the regulation height, which is ordinarily from
+30 to 33 inches. They are liberally manured with a kind of compost
+formed of the loose friable soil dug out from the sides of the mountain,
+and of supposed volcanic origin, mixed with animal and vegetable refuse.
+The vines are shortened back while in flower, and in the course of the
+summer the ground is hoed a second and a third time, the object being,
+first, to destroy the superficial roots of the vines and force the
+plants to live solely on their deep roots; and, secondly, to remove all
+pernicious weeds from round about them. After the third hoeing, which
+takes place in the middle of August, the vines are left to themselves
+until the period of the vintage. When this is over the stakes supporting
+the vines are pulled up and stacked in compact masses, with their ends
+out of the ground, the vine, which is left curled up in a heap,
+remaining undisturbed until the winter, when the earth around it is
+loosened. In the month of February it is pruned and sunk into the earth,
+as already described, so as to leave only the new wood aboveground.
+Owing to the vines being planted so closely together they starve one
+another, and numbers of them perish. When this is the case, or the stems
+get broken during the vintage, their places are filled up by provining.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The vignerons of the Champagne regard the numerous stakes which support
+the vines as affording some protection against the white frosts of the
+spring. To guard against the dreaded effects of these frosts, which
+invariably occur between early dawn and sunrise, and the loss arising
+from which is estimated to amount annually to 25 per cent. some of the
+cultivators place heaps of hay, faggots, dead leaves, &c., about twenty
+yards apart, taking care to keep them moderately damp. When a frost is
+feared the heaps on the side of the vineyard whence the wind blows are
+set light to, whereupon the dense smoke which rises spreads horizontally
+over the vines, producing the same result as an actual cloud,
+intercepting the rays of the sun, warming the atmosphere, and converting
+the frost into dew. Among other methods adopted to shield the vines from
+frosts is the joining of branches of broom together in the form of a
+fan, and afterwards fastening them to the end of a pole, which is placed
+obliquely in the ground, so that the fan may incline over the vine and
+protect it from the sun’s rays. A single labourer can plant, it is said,
+as many as eight thousand of these fans in the ground in the course of a
+long day.
+
+Dr. Guyot’s system of roofing the vines with straw matting, to protect
+them alike against frost and hailstorms, is very generally followed in
+low situations in the Champagne, the value of the wine admitting of so
+considerable an expense being incurred. This matting, which is about a
+foot and a half in width, and in rolls of great length, is fastened
+either with twine or wire to the vine stakes, and it is estimated that
+half-a-dozen men can fix nearly 11,000 yards of it, or sufficient to
+roof over 2½ acres of vines, during an ordinary day.
+
+Owing to the system of cultivation by rejuvenescence, and the constant
+replenishing of the soil by well-compounded manures, the Champenois
+winegrowers entertain great hopes that their vineyards will escape the
+ravages of the phylloxera vastatrix. According to Dr. Plonquet of Ay
+they are already the prey of no less than fifteen varieties of insects,
+which feed upon the leaves, stalks, roots, or fruit of the vines.
+Between 1850 and 1860 the vineyards of Ay were devastated by the pyrale,
+a species of caterpillar, which feeds on the young leaves and shoots
+until the vine is left completely bare. The insect eventually becomes
+transformed into a small white butterfly, and deposits its eggs either
+in the crevices of the stakes or in the stalks of the vine. All the
+efforts made to rid the vineyards of this scourge proved ineffectual
+until the wet and cold weather of 1860 put a stop to the insect’s
+ravages. More recently it has been discovered that its attacks can be
+checked by sulphurous acid.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+V.--PREPARATION OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+Treatment of Champagne after it comes from the Wine-Press-- Racking
+  and Blending of the Wine-- Deficiency and Excess of Effervescence--
+  Strength and Form of Champagne Bottles-- The “Tirage� or Bottling of
+  the Wine-- The Process of Gas-making commences-- Inevitable Breakage
+  follows-- Wine Stacked in Piles-- Formation of Sediment-- Bottles
+  placed “sur pointe� and Daily Shaken-- Effect of this occupation on
+  those incessantly engaged in it-- “Claws� and “Masks�-- Champagne
+  Cellars-- Their Construction and Aspect-- Transforming the “vin
+  brut� into Champagne-- Disgorging and Liqueuring the Wine-- The
+  Corking, Stringing, Wiring, and Amalgamating-- The Wine’s Agitated
+  Existence comes to an End-- The Bottles have their Toilettes made--
+  Champagne sets out on its beneficial Pilgrimage.
+
+
+The special characteristic of champagne is that its manufacture only
+just commences where that of other wines ordinarily ends. The must flows
+direct from the press into capacious reservoirs, whence it is drawn off
+into large vats, and after being allowed to clear, is transferred to
+casks holding some forty-four gallons each. Although the bulk of the
+new-made wine is left to repose at the vendangeoirs until the
+commencement of the following year, still when the vintage is over
+numbers of long narrow carts laden with casks of it are to be seen
+rolling along the dusty highways leading to those towns and villages in
+the Marne where the manufacture of champagne is carried on. Chief
+amongst these is the cathedral city of Reims, after which comes the
+rising town of Epernay, stretching to the very verge of the river, then
+Ay, nestled between the vine-clad slopes and the Marne canal, with the
+neighbouring village of Mareuil, and finally Avize, in the centre of the
+white grape district southwards of Epernay. Châlons, owing to its
+distance from the vineyards, would scarcely draw its supply of wine
+until the new year. The first fermentation lasts from a fortnight to a
+month, according as to whether the wine be _mou_--that is, rich in
+sugar--or the reverse. In the former case fermentation naturally lasts
+much longer than when the wine is _vert_ or green. This active
+fermentation is converted into latent fermentation by transferring the
+wine to a cooler cellar, as it is essential it should retain a large
+proportion of its natural saccharine to ensure its future effervescence.
+The casks have previously been completely filled, and their bungholes
+tightly stopped, a necessary precaution to guard the wine from absorbing
+oxygen, the effect of which would be to turn it yellow and cause it to
+lose some of its lightness and perfume. After being racked and fined,
+the produce of the different vineyards is now ready for mixing together
+in accordance with the traditional theories of the various
+manufacturers, and should the vintage have been an indifferent one a
+certain proportion of old reserved wine of a good year enters into the
+blend.
+
+The mixing is usually effected in gigantic vats holding at times as many
+as 12,000 gallons each, and having fan-shaped appliances inside, which,
+on being worked by handles, ensure a complete amalgamation of the wine.
+This process of marrying wine on a gigantic scale is technically known
+as making the _cuvée_. Usually four-fifths of wine from black grapes are
+tempered by one-fifth of the juice of white ones. It is necessary that
+the first should comprise a more or less powerful dash of the finer
+growths both of the Mountain of Reims and of the River, while, as
+regards the latter, one or other of the delicate vintages of the Côte
+d’Avize is essential to the perfect _cuvée_. The aim is to combine and
+develop the special qualities of the respective crûs, body and vinosity
+being secured by the red vintages of Bouzy and Verzenay, softness and
+roundness by those of Ay and Dizy, and lightness, delicacy, and
+effervescence by the white growths of Avize and Cramant. The proportions
+are never absolute, but vary according to the manufacturer’s style of
+wine and the taste of the countries which form his principal markets.
+The wine at this period being imperfectly fermented and crude, the
+reader may imagine the delicacy and discrimination of palate requisite
+to judge of the flavour, finesse, and bouquet which the _cuvée_ is
+likely eventually to develop.
+
+These, however, are not the only matters to be considered. There is,
+above everything, the effervescence, which depends upon the quantity of
+carbonic acid gas the wine contains, and this, in turn, upon the amount
+of its natural saccharine. If the gas be present in excess, there will
+be a shattering of bottles and a flooding of cellars; and if there be a
+paucity the corks will refuse to pop, and the wine to sparkle aright in
+the glass. Therefore the amount of saccharine in the _cuvée_ has to be
+accurately ascertained by means of a glucometer; and if it fails to
+reach the required standard, the deficiency is made up by the addition
+of the purest sugar-candy. If, on the other hand, there be an excess of
+saccharine, the only thing to be done is to defer the final blending and
+bottling until the superfluous saccharine matter has been absorbed by
+fermentation in the cask.
+
+The _cuvée_ completed, the blended wine, now resembling in taste and
+colour an ordinary acrid white wine, and giving to the uninitiated
+palate no promise of the exquisite delicacy and aroma it is destined to
+develop, is drawn off again into casks for further treatment. This
+comprises fining with some gelatinous substance, and, as a precaution
+against ropiness and other maladies, liquid tannin is at the same time
+frequently added to supply the place of the natural tannin which has
+departed from the wine with its reddish hue at the epoch of its first
+fermentation.
+
+The operation of bottling the wine next ensues, when the Scriptural
+advice not to put new wine into old bottles is rigorously followed. For
+the tremendous pressure of the gas engendered during the subsequent
+fermentation of the wine is such that the bottle becomes weakened and
+can never be safely trusted again. It is because of this pressure that
+the champagne bottle is one of the strongest made, as indicated by its
+weight, which is almost a couple of pounds. To ensure this unusual
+strength it is necessary that its sides should be of equal thickness and
+the bottom of a uniform solidity throughout, in order that no particular
+expansion may ensue from sudden changes of temperature. The neck must,
+moreover, be perfectly round and widen gradually towards the shoulder.
+In addition--and this is of the utmost consequence--the inside ought to
+be perfectly smooth, as a rough interior causes the gas to make efforts
+to escape, and thus renders an explosion imminent. The composition of
+the glass, too, is not without its importance, as a manufactory
+established for the production of glass by a new process turned out
+champagne bottles charged with alkaline sulphurets, and the consequence
+was that an entire _cuvée_ was ruined by their use, through the
+reciprocal action of the wine and these sulphurets. The acids of the
+former disengaged hydrosulphuric acid, and instead of champagne the
+result was a new species of mineral water.
+
+Most of the bottles used for champagnes come from the factories of
+Loivre (which supplies the largest quantity), Folembray, Vauxrot, and
+Quiquengrogne, and cost on the average from 28 to 30 francs the hundred.
+They are generally tested by a practised hand, who, by knocking them
+sharply together, professes to be able to tell from the sound that they
+give the substance of the glass and its temper. The washing of the
+bottles is invariably performed by women, who at the larger
+establishments accomplish it with the aid of machines, sometimes
+provided with a revolving brush, although small glass beads are more
+generally used by preference. After being washed every bottle is
+minutely examined to make certain of its perfect purity.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+With the different champagne houses the mode of bottling the wine, which
+may take place any time between April and August, varies in some
+measure, still the _tirage_, as this operation is called, is ordinarily
+effected as follows:--The wine is emptied from the casks into vats or
+tuns of varying capacity, whence it flows through pipes into oblong
+reservoirs, each provided with a row of syphon taps, on to which the
+bottles are slipped, and from which the wine ceases to flow directly the
+bottles become filled. Men or lads remove the full bottles, replacing
+them by empty ones, while other hands convey them to the corkers, whose
+guillotine machines are incessantly in motion; next the _agrafeurs_
+secure the corks by means of an iron staple, termed an agrafe; and then
+the bottles are conveyed either to a capacious apartment aboveground,
+known as a cellier, or to a cool cellar, according to the number of
+atmospheres the wine may indicate. It should be explained that air
+compressed to half its volume acquires twice its ordinary force, and to
+a quarter of its volume quadruple this force--hence the phrase of two,
+four, or more atmospheres. The exact degree of pressure is readily
+ascertained by means of a manometer, an instrument resembling a pressure
+gauge, with a hollow screw at the base which is driven through the cork
+of the bottle. A pressure of 5¾ atmospheres constitutes what is styled a
+“grand mousseux,� and the wine exhibiting it may be safely conveyed to
+the coolest subterranean depths, for no doubt need be entertained as to
+its future effervescent properties. Should the pressure, however,
+scarcely exceed 4 atmospheres, it is advisable to keep the wine in a
+cellier aboveground that it may more rapidly acquire the requisite
+sparkling qualities. If fewer than 4 atmospheres are indicated it would
+be necessary to pour the wine back into the casks again, and add a
+certain amount of cane sugar to it, but such an eventuality very rarely
+happens, thanks to the scientific formulas and apparatus which enable
+the degree of pressure the wine will show to be determined beforehand to
+a nicety. Still mistakes are sometimes made, and there are instances
+where charcoal fires have had to be lighted in the cellars to encourage
+the effervescence to develop itself.
+
+The bottles are placed in a horizontal position and stacked in rows of
+varying length and depth, one above the other, to about the height of a
+man, and with narrow laths between them. Thus they will spend the summer
+providing all goes well, but in about three weeks’ time the process of
+gas-making inside the bottles is at its height, and may cause an undue
+number of them to burst. The glucometer notwithstanding, it is
+impossible to check a certain amount of breakage, especially when a hot
+season has caused the grapes, and consequently the raw wine, to be
+sweeter than usual. Moreover when once _casse_ or breakage sets in on a
+large scale, the temperature of the cellar is raised by the volume of
+carbonic acid gas let loose, which is not without its effect on the
+remaining bottles. The only remedy is at once to remove the wine to a
+lower temperature when this is practicable. A manufacturer of the
+pre-scientific days of the last century relates how one year, when the
+wine was rich and strong, he only preserved 120 out of 6,000 bottles;
+and it is not long since that 120,000 out of 200,000 were destroyed in
+the cellars of a well-known champagne firm. Over-knowing purchasers
+still affect to select a wine which has exploded in the largest
+proportion as being well up to the mark as regards its effervescence,
+and profess to make inquiries as to its performances in this direction.
+
+It is evident that in spite of the teachings of science the bursting of
+champagne bottles has not yet been reduced to a minimum, for whereas in
+some cellars it averages 7 and 8 per cent., in others it rarely exceeds
+2½ or 3. In the month of October, the first and severest breakage being
+over, the newly-bottled wine is definitively stacked in the cellars in
+piles from two to half-a-dozen bottles deep, from six to seven feet
+high, and frequently a hundred feet or upwards in length. Usually the
+bottles remain in their horizontal position for about eighteen or twenty
+months, though some firms, who pride themselves upon shipping perfectly
+matured wines, leave them thus for double this space of time. All this
+while the temperature to which the wine is exposed is, as far as
+practicable, carefully regulated; for the risk of breakage, though
+greatly diminished, is never entirely at an end.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+By this time the fermentation is over, but in the interval, commencing
+from a few days after the bottling of the wine, a loose dark-brown
+sediment has been forming which has now settled on the lower side of the
+bottle, and to get rid of which is a delicate and tedious task. The
+bottles are placed _sur pointe_, as it is termed--that is to say,
+slantingly in racks with their necks downwards, the inclination being
+increased from time to time to one more abrupt. The object of this
+change in their position is to cause the sediment to leave the side of
+the bottle where it has gathered; it afterwards becomes necessary to
+twist and turn it, and coagulate it, as it were, until it forms a kind
+of muddy ball, and eventually to get it well down into the neck of the
+bottle, so that it may be finally expelled with a bang when the
+temporary cork is removed and the proper one adjusted. To accomplish
+this the bottles are sharply turned in one direction every day for at
+least a month or six weeks, the time being indefinitely extended until
+the sediment shows a disposition to settle near the cork. The younger
+the wine the longer the period necessary for the bottles to be shaken,
+new wine often requiring as much as three months. Only a thoroughly
+practised hand can give the right amount of revolution and the requisite
+degree of slope; and in some of the cellars that we visited men were
+pointed out to us who had acquired such dexterity as to be able at a
+pinch to shake with their two hands as many as 50,000 bottles in a
+single day.
+
+Some of these men have spent thirty or forty years of their lives
+engaged in this perpetual task. Fancy being entombed all alone day after
+day in vaults which are invariably dark and gloomy, and often cold and
+dank, and being obliged to twist sixty to seventy of these bottles every
+minute throughout the day of twelve hours. Why the treadmill and the
+crank with their periodical respites must be pastime compared to this
+maddeningly monotonous occupation, which combines hard labour, with the
+wrist at any rate, with next to solitary confinement. One can understand
+these men becoming gloomy and taciturn, and affirming that they
+sometimes see devils hovering over the bottle-racks and frantically
+shaking the bottles beside them, or else grinning at them as they pursue
+their humdrum task. Still it may be taken for granted that the men who
+reach this stage are accustomed to drink freely of raw spirits, and
+merely pay the penalty resulting from over-indulgence.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+In former times the bottles used to be placed with their heads downwards
+on tables pierced with holes, from which they had to be removed and
+agitated. In 1818, however, a man named Muller, in the employment of
+Madame Clicquot, suggested that the bottles should remain in the tables
+whilst being shaken, and further that the holes should be cut obliquely
+so that the bottles might recline at varying angles. His suggestions
+were privately adopted by Madame Clicquot, but eventually the improved
+plan got wind, and the system now prevails throughout the Champagne.
+When the bottles have gone through their regular course of shaking they
+are examined before a lighted candle to ascertain whether the deposit
+has fallen and the wine become perfectly clear. Sometimes it happens
+that, twist these men never so wisely, the deposit refuses to stir, and
+takes the shape of a bunch of thread technically called a “claw,� or an
+adherent mass styled a “mask.� When this is the case an attempt is made
+to start it by tapping the part to which it adheres with a piece of
+iron, the result being frequently the sudden explosion of the bottle. As
+a precaution, therefore, the workman protects his face with a wire-mask
+or gigantic wire spectacles, which give to him a ghoul-like aspect.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The cellars of the champagne manufacturers are very varied in character.
+The wine that has been grown on the chalky hills undergoes development
+in vaults burrowed out of the calcareous strata underlying the entire
+district. In excavating these cellars the sides and roofs are frequently
+worked smooth and regular as finished masonry. The larger ones are
+composed of a number of spacious and lofty galleries, sometimes parallel
+with each other, but often ramifying in various directions, and
+evidently constructed on no definite plan. They are of one, two, and, in
+rare instances, of three stories, and now and then consist of a series
+of parallel galleries communicating with each other, lined with masonry,
+and with their stone walls and vaulted roofs resembling the crypt of
+some conventual building. Others of ancient date are less regular in
+their form, being merely so many narrow low winding corridors, varied,
+perhaps, by recesses hewn roughly out of the chalk, and resembling the
+brigands’ cave of the melodrama, while a certain number of the larger
+cellars at Reims are simply abandoned quarries, the broad and lofty
+arches of which are suggestive of the nave and aisles of some Gothic
+church. In these varied vaults, lighted by solitary lamps in front of
+metal reflectors, or by the flickering tallow candles which we carry in
+our hands, we pass rows of casks filled with last year’s vintage or
+reserved wine of former years, and piles after piles of bottles of _vin
+brut_ in seemingly endless sequence--squares, so to speak, of raw
+champagne recruits awaiting their turn to be thoroughly drilled and
+disciplined. These are varied by bottles reposing necks downwards in
+racks at different degrees of inclination according to the progress
+their education has attained. Reports caused by exploding bottles now
+and then assail the ear, and as the echo dies away it becomes mingled
+with the rush of the escaping wine, cascading down the pile and finding
+its way across the sloping sides of the floor to the narrow gutter in
+the centre. The dampness of the floor and the shattered fragments of
+glass strewn about show the frequency of this kind of accident. The
+spilt wine, which flows along the gutter into reservoirs, is usually
+thrown away, though there is a story current to the effect that the head
+of one Epernay firm cooks nearly everything consumed in his house in the
+fluid thus let loose in his cellars.
+
+In these subterranean galleries we frequently come upon parties of
+workmen engaged in transforming the perfected _vin brut_ into champagne.
+Viewed at a distance while occupied in their monotonous task, they
+present in the semi-obscurity a series of picturesque Rembrandt-like
+studies. One of the end figures in each group is engaged in the
+important process of _dégorgement_, which is performed when the deposit,
+of which we have already spoken, has satisfactorily settled in the neck
+of the bottle. Baskets full of bottles with their necks downwards are
+placed beside the operator, who stands before an apparatus resembling a
+cask divided vertically down the middle. This nimble-figured manipulator
+seizes a bottle, holds it for a moment before the light to test the
+clearness of the wine and the subsidence of the deposit; brings it,
+still neck downwards, over a small tub at the bottom of the apparatus
+already mentioned; and with a jerk of the steel hook which he holds in
+his right hand loosens the _agrafe_ securing the cork, Bang goes the
+latter, and with it flies out the sediment and a small glassful or so of
+wine, further flow being checked by the workman’s finger, which also
+serves to remove any sediment yet remaining in the bottle’s neck. Like
+many other clever tricks, this looks very easy when adroitly performed,
+though a novice would probably empty the bottle by the time he had
+discovered that the cork was out. Occasionally a bottle bursts in the
+_dégorgeur’s_ hand, and his face is sometimes scarred from such
+explosions. The sediment removed, he slips a temporary cork into the
+bottle, and the wine is ready for the important operation of the
+_dosage_, upon the nature and amount of which the character of the
+perfected wine, whether it be dry or sweet, light or strong, very much
+depends.
+
+Different manufacturers have different recipes, more or less complex in
+character, and varying with the quality of the wine and the country for
+which it is intended; but the genuine liqueur consists of nothing but
+old wine of the best quality, to which a certain amount of sugar-candy
+and perhaps a dash of the finest cognac spirit has been added. The
+saccharine addition varies according to the market for which the wine is
+destined: thus the high-class English buyer demands a dry champagne, the
+Russian a wine sweet and strong as “ladies’ grog,� and the Frenchman and
+German a sweet light wine. To the extra-dry champagnes a modicum dose is
+added, while the so-called “_brut_� wines receive no more than from one
+to three per cent. of liqueur.
+
+In some establishments the dose is administered with a tin can or ladle;
+but more generally an ingenious machine of pure silver and glass which
+regulates the percentage of liqueur to a nicety is employed. The
+_dosage_ accomplished, the bottle passes to another workman known as the
+_égaliseur_, who fills it up with pure wine. Should a pink champagne be
+required, the wine thus added will be red, although manufacturers of
+questionable reputation sometimes employ the solution known as _teinte
+de Fismes_. The _égaliseur_ in turn hands the bottle to the corker, who
+places it under a machine furnished with a pair of claws, which compress
+the cork to a size sufficiently small to allow it to enter the neck of
+the bottle, and a suspended weight, which in falling drives it home.
+These corks, which are principally obtained from Catalonia and
+Andalucia, cost more than twopence each, and are delivered in huge sacks
+resembling hop-pockets. Before they are used they have been either
+boiled in wine, soaked in a solution of tartar, or else steamed by the
+cork merchants, both to prevent their imparting a bad flavour to the
+wine and to hinder any leakage. They are commonly handed warm to the
+corker, who dips them into a small vessel of wine before making use of
+them. Some firms, however, prepare their corks by subjecting them to
+cold water _douches_ a day or two beforehand. The _ficeleur_ receives
+the bottle from the corker, and with a twist of the fingers secures the
+cork with string, at the same time rounding its hitherto flat top. The
+_metteur de fil_ next affixes the wire with like celerity; and then the
+final operation is performed by a workman seizing a couple of bottles by
+the neck and whirling them round his head, as though engaged in the
+Indian-club exercise, in order to secure a perfect amalgamation of the
+wine and the liqueur.
+
+The final manipulation accomplished, the agitated course of existence
+through which the wine has been passing of late comes to an end, and the
+bottles are conveyed to another part of the establishment, where they
+repose for several days, or even weeks, in order that the mutual action
+of the wine and the liqueur upon each other may be complete. When the
+time arrives for despatching them they are confided to feminine hands to
+have their dainty toilettes made, and are tastefully labelled and either
+capsuled, or else have their corks and necks imbedded in sealing-wax, or
+swathed in gold or silver foil, whereby they are rendered presentable at
+the best-appointed tables.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Thus completed champagne sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage to
+promote the spread of mirth and lightheartedness, to drive away dull
+care and foment good-fellowship, to comfort the sick and cheer the
+sound. Wherever civilisation penetrates, champagne sooner or later is
+sure to follow; and if Queen Victoria’s morning drum beats round the
+world, its beat is certain to be echoed before the day is over by the
+popping of champagne-corks. Now-a-days the exhilarating wine graces not
+merely princely but middle-class dinner-tables, and is the needful
+adjunct at every _petit souper_ in all the gayer capitals of the world.
+It gives a flush to beauty at garden-parties and picnics, sustains the
+energies of the votaries of Terpsichore until the hour of dawn, and
+imparts to many a young gallant the necessary courage to declare his
+passion. It enlivens the dullest of _réunions_, brings smiles to the
+lips of the sternest cynics, softens the most irascible tempers, and
+loosens the most taciturn tongues. The grim Berliner and the gay
+Viennese both acknowledge its enlivening influence. It sparkles in
+crystal goblets in the great capital of the North, and the Moslem wipes
+its creamy foam from his beard beneath the very shadow of the mosque of
+St. Sophia; for the Prophet has only forbidden the use of wine, and of a
+surety--Allah be praised!--this strangely-sparkling delicious liquor,
+which gives to the true believer a foretaste of the joys of Paradise,
+cannot be wine. At the diamond-fields of South Africa and the diggings
+of Australia the brawny miner who has hit upon a big bit of crystallised
+carbon, or a nugget of virgin ore, strolls to the “saloon� and shouts
+for champagne. The mild Hindoo imbibes it quietly, but approvingly, as
+he watches the evolutions of the Nautch girls, and his partiality for it
+has already enriched the Anglo-Bengalee vocabulary and London slang with
+the word “simkin.� It is transported on camel-backs across the deserts
+of Central Asia, and in frail canoes up the mighty Amazon. The
+two-sworded Daimio calls for it in the tea-gardens of Yokohama, and the
+New Yorker, when not rinsing his stomach by libations of iced-water,
+imbibes it freely at Delmonico’s. Wherever civilised man has set his
+foot--at the base of the Pyramids and at the summit of the Cordilleras,
+in the mangrove swamps of Ashantee and the gulches of the Great Lone
+Land, in the wilds of the Amoor and on the desert isles of the
+Pacific--he has left traces of his presence in the shape of the empty
+bottles that were once full of the sparkling vintage of the Champagne.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DEVICES FROM THE COMMANDERIE AT REIMS.]
+
+VI.--THE REIMS CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Messrs. Werlé and Co., successors to the Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin--
+  Their Offices and Cellars on the site of a Former Commanderie of the
+  Templars-- Origin of the Celebrity of Madame Clicquot’s Wines--
+  M. Werlé and his Son-- The Forty-five Cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé
+  Establishment-- Our Tour of Inspection-- Ingenious Liqueuring
+  Machine-- An Explosion and its Consequences-- M. Werlé’s Gallery of
+  Paintings-- Madame Clicquot’s Renaissance House and its Picturesque
+  Bas-reliefs-- The Werlé Vineyards and Vendangeoirs-- M. Louis
+  Roederer’s Establishment-- Heidsieck and Co. and their Famous
+  “Monopole� Brand-- The Firm Founded in the Last Century-- Their
+  various Establishments Inside and Outside Reims-- The Matured Wines
+  Shipped by them.
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The cellars of the great champagne manufacturers of Reims are scattered
+in all directions over the historical old city. They undermine its
+narrowest and most insignificant streets, its broad and handsome
+boulevards, and on the eastern side extend to its more distant
+outskirts. Messrs. Werlé and Co., the successors of the famous Veuve
+Clicquot-Ponsardin, have their offices and cellars on the site of a
+former Commanderie of the Templars in an ancient quarter of the city,
+and strangers passing by the spot would scarcely imagine that under
+their feet hundreds of busy hands are incessantly at work, disgorging,
+dosing, shaking, corking, storing, wiring, labelling, capsuling, waxing,
+tinfoiling, and packing hundreds of thousands of bottles of champagne
+destined for all parts of the civilised world.
+
+The house of Clicquot, established in the year 1798 by the husband of La
+Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, who died in 1866, in her 89th year, was
+indebted for much of the celebrity of its wine to the lucky accident of
+the Russians occupying Reims in 1814 and 1815, and freely requisitioning
+the sweet champagne stored in the widow’s capacious cellars. Madame
+Clicquot’s wines were slightly known in Russia prior to this date, but
+the officers of the invading army, on their return home, proclaimed
+their merits throughout the length and breadth of the Muscovite Empire,
+and the fortune of the house was made. Madame Clicquot, as every one
+knows, amassed enormous wealth, and succeeded in marrying both her
+daughter and granddaughter to counts of the _ancien régime_.
+
+The present head of the firm is M. Werlé, who comes of an old Lorraine
+family although born in the ancient free imperial town of Wetzlar on the
+Lahn, where Goethe lays the scene of his “Sorrows of Werther,� the
+leading incidents of which really occurred here. M. Werlé entered the
+establishment, which he has done so much to raise to its existing
+position, so far back as the year 1821. His care and skill, exercised
+over more than half a century, have largely contributed to obtain for
+the Clicquot brand that high repute which it enjoys to-day all over the
+world. M. Werlé, who has long been naturalised in France, was for many
+years Mayor of Reims and President of its Chamber of Commerce, as well
+as one of the deputies of the Marne to the Corps Législatif. He enjoys
+the reputation of being the richest man in Reims, and, like his late
+partner, Madame Clicquot, he has also succeeded in securing brilliant
+alliances for his children, his son, M. Alfred Werlé, having married the
+daughter of the Duc de Montebello, while his daughter espoused the son
+of M. Magne, Minister of Finance under the Second Empire.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MADAME VEUVE CLICQUOT AT EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE.
+  (_From the Painting by Léon Coignet_.) (p. 64)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CLICQUOT-WERLÉ ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 65)]
+
+Half-way down the narrow tortuous Rue du Temple is an ancient gateway,
+on which may be traced the half-effaced sculptured heads of Phœbus and
+Bacchus. Immediately in front is a green _porte-cochère_ forming the
+entrance to the Clicquot-Werlé establishment, and conducting to a
+spacious trim-kept courtyard, set off with a few trees, with some
+extensive stabling and cart-sheds on the left, and on the right hand the
+entrance to the cellars. Facing us is an unpretending-looking edifice,
+where the firm has its counting-houses, with a little corner tower
+surmounted by a characteristic weathercock consisting of a figure of
+Bacchus seated astride a cask beneath a vine-branch, and holding up a
+bottle in one hand and a goblet in the other. The old Remish Commanderie
+of the Knights Templars existed until the epoch of the Great Revolution,
+and to-day a few fragments of the ancient buildings remain adjacent to
+the “celliers� of the establishment, which are reached through a pair of
+folding-doors and down a flight of stone steps, and whence, after being
+furnished with lighted candles, we set out on our tour of inspection,
+entering first of all the vast cellar of St. Paul, where the thousands
+of bottles requiring to be daily shaken are reposing necks downwards on
+the large perforated tables which crowd the apartment. It is a
+peculiarity of the Clicquot-Werlé establishment that each of the
+cellars--forty-five in number, and the smallest a vast apartment--has
+its special name. In the adjoining cellar of St. Matthew other bottles
+are similarly arranged, and here wine in cask is likewise stored. We
+pass rows of huge tuns, each holding its twelve or thirteen hundred
+gallons of fine reserved wine designed for blending with more youthful
+growths; next are threading our way between seemingly endless piles of
+hogsheads filled with later vintages, and anon are passing smaller casks
+containing the syrup with which the _vin préparé_ is dosed. At intervals
+we come upon some square opening in the floor through which bottles of
+wine are being hauled up from the cellars beneath in readiness to
+receive their requisite adornment before being packed in baskets or
+cases according to the country to which they are destined to be
+despatched. To Russia the Clicquot champagne is sent in cases containing
+sixty bottles, while the cases for China contain as many as double that
+number.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  REMAINS OF THE COMMANDERIE AT REIMS.]
+
+The ample cellarage which the house possesses has enabled M. Werlé to
+make many experiments which firms with less space at their command would
+find it difficult to carry out on the same satisfactory scale. Such, for
+instance, is the system of racks in which the bottles repose while the
+wine undergoes its diurnal shaking. Instead of these racks being, as
+they commonly are, at almost upright angles, they are perfectly
+horizontal, which, in M. Werlé’s opinion, offers a material advantage,
+inasmuch as the bottles are all in readiness for disgorging at the same
+time instead of the lower ones being ready before those above, as is the
+case when the ancient system is followed, owing to the uppermost bottles
+getting less shaken than the others.
+
+After performing the round of the celliers we descend into the _caves_,
+a complete labyrinth of gloomy underground corridors excavated in the
+bed of chalk which underlies the city, and roofed and walled with solid
+masonry, more or less blackened by age. In one of these cellars we catch
+sight of rows of work-people engaged in the operation of dosing,
+corking, securing, and shaking the bottles of wine which have just left
+the hands of the _dégorgeur_ by the dim light of half-a-dozen tallow
+candles. The latest invention for liqueuring the wine is being employed.
+Formerly, to prevent the carbonic acid gas escaping from the bottles
+while the process of liqueuring was going on, it was necessary to press
+a gutta-percha ball connected with the machine, in order to force the
+escaping gas back. The new machine, however, renders this unnecessary,
+the gas by its own power and composition forcing itself back into the
+wine.
+
+In the adjoining cellar of St. Charles are stacks of bottles awaiting
+the manipulation of the _dégorgeur_, while in that of St. Ferdinand men
+are engaged in examining other bottles before lighted candles to make
+certain that the sediment is thoroughly dislodged and the wine perfectly
+clear before the disgorgement is effected. Here, too, the corking,
+wiring, and stringing of the newly-disgorged wine are going on. Another
+flight of steps leads to the second tier of cellars, where the moisture
+trickles down the dank dingy walls, and save the dim light thrown out by
+the candles we carried, and by some other far-off flickering taper stuck
+in a cleft stick to direct the workmen, who with dexterous turns of
+their wrists give a twist to the bottles, all is darkness. On every side
+bottles are reposing in various attitudes, the majority in huge square
+piles on their sides, others in racks slightly tilted, others, again,
+almost standing on their heads, while some, which through over-inflation
+have come to grief, litter the floor and crunch beneath our feet.
+Tablets are hung against each stack of wine indicating its age, and from
+time to time a bottle is held up before the light to show us how the
+sediment commences to form, or explain how it eventually works its way
+down the neck of the bottle, and finally settles on the cork. Suddenly
+we are startled by a loud report resembling a pistol-shot, which
+reverberates through the vaulted chamber, as a bottle close at hand
+explodes, dashing out its heavy bottom as neatly as though it had been
+cut by a diamond, and dislocating the necks and pounding in the sides of
+its immediate neighbours. The wine trickles down, and eventually finds
+its way along the sloping sides of the slippery floor to the narrow
+gutter in the centre.
+
+Ventilating shafts pass from one tier of cellars to the other, enabling
+the temperature in a certain measure to be regulated, and thereby
+obviate an excess of breakage. M. Werlé estimates that the loss in this
+respect during the first eighteen months of a _cuvée_ amounts to 7 per
+cent., but subsequently is considerably less. In 1862 one champagne
+manufacturer lost as much as 45 per cent. of his wine by breakages. The
+Clicquot _cuvée_ is made in the cave of St. William, where 120 hogsheads
+of wine are hauled up by means of a crane and discharged into the vat
+daily as long as the operation lasts. The _tirage_ or bottling of the
+wine ordinarily commences in the middle of May, and occupies fully a
+month.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  RENAISSANCE HOUSE AT REIMS, IN WHICH MADAME CLICQUOT RESIDED. (p. 69)]
+
+M. Werlé’s private residence is close to the establishment in the Rue du
+Temple, and here he has collected a small gallery of high-class modern
+paintings by French and other artists, including Meissonnier’s
+“Card-players,� Delaroche’s “Beatrice Cenci on her way to Execution,�
+Fleury’s “Charles V. picking up the brush of Titian,� various works by
+the brothers Scheffer, Knaus’s highly-characteristic _genre_ picture,
+“His Highness on a Journey,� and several fine portraits, among which is
+one of Madame Clicquot, painted by Léon Coignet, when she was eighty
+years of age, and another of M. Werlé by the same artist, regarded as a
+_chef-d’œuvre_. Before her father’s death Madame Clicquot used to reside
+in the Rue de Marc, some short distance from the cellars in which her
+whole existence centered, in a handsome Renaissance house, said to have
+had some connection with the row of palaces that at one time lined the
+neighbouring and then fashionable Rue du Tambour. This, however, is
+extremely doubtful. A number of interesting and well-preserved
+bas-reliefs decorate one of the façades of the house looking on to the
+court. The figures are of the period of François Premier and his son
+Henri II., who inaugurated his reign with a comforting edict for the
+Protestants, ordaining that blasphemers were to have their tongues
+pierced with red-hot irons, and heretics to be burnt alive, and who had
+the ill-luck to lose his eye and life through a lance-thrust of the
+Comte de Montgomerie, captain of his Scotch guards, whilst jousting with
+him at a tournament held in honour of the marriage of his daughter
+Isabelle with the gloomy widower of Queen Mary of England, of sanguinary
+fame.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The first of these bas-reliefs represents two soldiers of the Swiss
+guard, the next a Turk and a Slav tilting at each other, and then comes
+a scroll entwined round a thistle, and inscribed with this enigmatical
+motto: “Giane le sur ou rien.� In the third bas-relief a couple of
+passionate Italians are winding up a gambling dispute with a
+hand-to-hand combat, in the course of which table, cards, and dice have
+got cantered over; the fourth presenting us with two French knights,
+armed _cap-à-pie_, engaged in a tourney; while in the fifth and last a
+couple of German lansquenets essay their gladiatorial skill with their
+long and dangerous weapons. Several years back a tablet was discovered
+in one of the cellars of the house, inscribed “Ci-gist vénérable
+religieux maîstre Pierre Derclé, docteur en théologie, jadis prieur de
+céans. Priez Dieu pour luy. 1486,� which would almost indicate that the
+house had originally a religious character, although the warlike spirit
+of the bas-reliefs decorating it renders any such supposition with
+regard to the existing building untenable.
+
+The Messrs. Werlé own numerous acres of vineyards, comprising the very
+finest situations in the well-known districts of Verzenay, Bouzy, Le
+Mesnil, and Oger, at all of which places they have vendangeoirs or
+pressing-houses of their own. Their establishment at Verzenay contains
+seven presses, that at Bouzy eight, at Le Mesnil six, and at Oger two,
+in addition to which grapes are pressed under their own supervision at
+Ay, Avize, and Cramant in vendangeoirs belonging to their friends.
+
+Since the death of Madame Clicquot the legal style of the firm has been
+Werlé and Co., successors to Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, the mark, of
+which M. Werlé and his son are the sole proprietors, still remaining
+“Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin,� while the corks of the bottles are branded
+with the words “V. Clicquot-P. Werlé,� encircling the figure of a comet.
+The style of the wine--light, delicate, elegant, and fragrant--is
+familiar to all connoisseurs of champagne. What, however, is not equally
+well known is that within the last few years the firm, in obedience to
+the prevailing taste, have introduced a perfectly dry wine of
+corresponding quality to the richer wine which made the fortune of the
+house.
+
+The house of M. Louis Roederer, founded by a plodding German named
+Schreider, pursued the sleepy tenor of its way for years, until all at
+once it felt prompted to lay siege to the Muscovite connection of La
+Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and secure a market for its wine at Moscow and
+St. Petersburg. It next opened up the United States, and finally
+introduced its brand into England. The house possesses cellars in
+various parts of Reims, and has its offices in one of the oldest
+quarters of the city--namely, the Rue des Élus, or ancient Rue des
+Juifs, records of which date as far back as 1103. These offices are at
+the farther end of a courtyard beyond which is a second court, where
+carts being laden with cases of champagne seemed to indicate that some
+portion of the shipping business of the house is here carried on.
+M. Louis Roederer refused our request for permission to visit his
+establishments, so that it is only of their external appearance that
+we are able to speak. One of them--the façade of which is rather
+imposing, and which has a carved head of Bacchus surmounting the
+_porte-cochère_--is situated in the Boulevard du Temple, while the
+principal establishment, a picturesque range of buildings of
+considerable extent, is in the neighbouring Rue de la Justice.
+
+The old-established firm of Heidsieck and Co., which has secured a
+reputation in both hemispheres for its famous Monopole and Dry Monopole
+brands, has its cellars scattered about Reims, the central ones, where
+the wine is prepared and packed, being situated in the narrow winding
+Rue Sedan, at no great distance from the Clicquot-Werlé establishment.
+The original firm dates back to 1785, when France was struggling with
+those financial difficulties that a few years later culminated in that
+great social upheaving which kept Europe in a state of turmoil for more
+than a quarter of a century. Among the archives of the firm is a patent,
+bearing the signature of the Minister of the Prussian Royal Household,
+appointing Heidsieck and Co. purveyors of champagne to Friedrich William
+III. The champagne-drinking Hohenzollern _par excellence_, however, was
+the son and successor of the preceding, who, from habitual
+over-indulgence in the exhilarating sparkling beverage during the last
+few years of his reign, acquired the _sobriquet_ of King Clicquot.
+
+On passing through the large _porte-cochère_ giving entrance to Messrs.
+Heidsieck’s principal establishment, one finds oneself in a small
+courtyard with the surrounding buildings overgrown with ivy and
+venerable vines. On the left is a dwelling-house enriched with elaborate
+mouldings and cornices, and at the farther end of the court is the
+entrance to the cellars, surmounted by a sun-dial bearing the date 1829.
+The latter, however, is no criterion of the age of the buildings
+themselves, as these were occupied by the firm at its foundation,
+towards the close of the last century. We are first conducted into an
+antiquated-looking low cellier, the roof of which is sustained with rude
+timber supports, and here bottles of wine are being labelled and packed,
+although this is but a mere adjunct to the adjacent spacious
+packing-room provided with its loading platform and communicating
+directly with the public road. At the time of our visit this hall was
+gaily decorated with flags and inscriptions, the day before having been
+the fête of St. Jean, when the firm entertain the people in their employ
+with a banquet and a ball, at which the choicest wine of the house
+liberally flows. From the packing-room we descend into the cellars,
+which, like all the more ancient vaults in Reims, have been constructed
+on no regular plan. Here we thread our way between piles after piles of
+bottles, many of which having passed through the hands of the disgorger
+are awaiting their customary adornment. The lower tier of cellars is
+mostly stored with _vin sur pointe_, and bottles with their necks
+downwards are encountered in endless monotony along a score or more of
+long galleries. The only variation in our lengthened promenade is when
+we come upon some solitary workman engaged in his monotonous task of
+shaking his 30,000 or 40,000 bottles per diem.
+
+The disgorging at Messrs. Heidsieck’s takes place, in accordance with
+the good old rule, in the cellars underground, where we noticed large
+stocks of wine three and five years old, the former in the first stage
+of _sur-pointe_, and the latter awaiting shipment. It is a speciality of
+the house to ship only matured wine, which is necessarily of a higher
+character than the ordinary youthful growths, for a few years have a
+wonderful influence in developing the finer qualities of champagne. At
+the time of our visit, in the spring of 1877, when the English market
+was being glutted with the crude, full-bodied wine of 1874, Messrs.
+Heidsieck were continuing to ship wines of 1870 and 1872, beautifully
+rounded by keeping and of fine flavour and great delicacy of perfume,
+and of which the firm estimated they had fully a year’s consumption
+still on hand.
+
+Messrs. Heidsieck and Co. have a handsome modern establishment in the
+Rue Coquebert--a comparatively new quarter of the city where champagne
+establishments are the rule--the courtyard of which, alive with workmen
+at the time of our visit, is broad and spacious, while the surrounding
+buildings are light and airy, and the cellars lofty, regular, and well
+ventilated. In a large cellier here, where the tuns are ranged side by
+side between the rows of iron columns supporting the roof, the firm make
+their _cuvée_; here too the bottling of their wine takes place, and
+considerable stocks of high-class reserve wines and more youthful
+growths are stored ready for removal when required by the central
+establishment. The bulk of Messrs. Heidsieck’s reserve wines, however,
+repose in the outskirts of Reims, near the Porte Dieu-Lumière, in one of
+the numerous abandoned chalk quarries, which of late years the champagne
+manufacturers have discovered are capable of being transformed into
+admirable cellars.
+
+In addition to shipping a rich and a dry variety of the Monopole brand,
+of which they are sole proprietors, Messrs. Heidsieck export to this
+country a rich and a dry Grand Vin Royal. It is, however, to their
+famous Monopole wine, and especially to the dry variety, which must
+necessarily comprise the finest growths, that the firm owe their
+principal celebrity.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  STATUE OF LOUIS XIII. ON THE REIMS HÔTEL DE VILLE]
+
+VII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+The Firm of G. H. Mumm and Co.-- Their Large Shipments to the United
+  States-- Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the Rue
+  Coquebert-- Bottle-Washing with Glass Beads-- The Cuvée and the
+  Tirage-- G. H. Mumm and Co.’s Vendangeoirs at Verzenay-- Their
+  Various Wines-- The Gate of Mars-- The Establishment of M. Gustave
+  Gibert on the Site of the Château des Archevêques-- His Cellars in
+  the Vaults of St. Peter’s Abbey and beneath the old Hôtel des Fermes
+  in the Place Royale-- Louis XV. and Jean Baptiste Colbert--
+  M. Gibert’s Wines-- Jules Mumm and Co., and Ruinart père et fils--
+  House of the Musicians-- The Counts de la Marck-- The Brotherhood of
+  Minstrels of Reims-- Establishment of Périnet et fils-- Their
+  Cellars of Three Stories in Solid Masonry-- Their Soft, Light, and
+  Delicate Wines-- A Rare Still Verzenay-- M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s
+  Establishment and Renaissance House-- His Cellars in the Cour St.
+  Jacques and Outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière.
+
+
+Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. have their chief establishment in the Rue
+Andrieux, in an open quarter of the city, facing the garden attached to
+the premises of M. Werlé, and only a short distance from the grand
+triumphal arch known as the Gate of Mars, by far the most important
+Roman remain of which the Champagne can boast. The head of the firm,
+Mr. G. H. Mumm, is the grandson of the well-known P. A. Mumm, the large
+shipper of hocks and moselles, and is the only surviving partner in the
+champagne house of Mumm and Co., established at Reims in 1825, and
+joined by Mr. G. H. Mumm so far back as the year 1838. The firm not only
+ship their wine largely to England, but head the list of shipments to
+the United States, where their brand is held in high repute, with nearly
+half a million bottles, being more than twice the quantity shipped by
+M. Louis Roederer--who comes third on the list in question--and a fourth
+of the entire shipments of champagne to the United States.
+
+The establishment of Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co., in the Rue Andrieux, is
+of comparatively modern construction. A large _porte-cochère_ conducts
+to a spacious courtyard, bordered with sheds, beneath which huge stacks
+of new bottles are piled and having a pleasant garden lying beyond. On
+the left is a large vaulted cellier, where the operations of disgorging,
+liqueuring, and corking the wine are performed, and which communicates
+with the vast adjoining packing department. From this cellier entrance
+is gained to the cellars beneath, containing a million bottles of _vin
+brut_ in various stages of development. This forms, however, merely a
+portion of the firm’s stock, they having another three millions of
+bottles stored in the cellars of their establishment in the Rue
+Coquebert, where a scene of great animation presented itself at the time
+of our visit, several scores of women being engaged in washing bottles
+for the _tirage_, which, although it was early in May, had already
+commenced. The bottles, filled with water, and containing a certain
+quantity of glass beads in lieu of the customary shot, which frequently
+leave minute particles of lead--deleterious alike to health and the
+flavour of the wine--adhering to the inside surface of the glass, are
+placed horizontally in a frame, and by means of four turns of a handle
+are made to perform sixty-four rapid revolutions. The beads are then
+transferred to other bottles, which are subjected in their turn to the
+same revolving process.
+
+The _cuvée_, commonly composed of from two to three thousand casks of
+wine from various vineyards, with a due proportion of high-class
+vintages, is made in a vat holding 4,400 gallons. The _tirage_ or
+bottling is effected by means of two large tuns placed side by side, and
+holding twelve hogsheads of wine each. Pipes from these tuns communicate
+with a couple of small reservoirs, each of them provided with
+half-a-dozen self-acting syphon taps, by means of which a like number of
+bottles are simultaneously filled. Only one set of these taps are set
+running at a time, as while the wine is being drawn off from one tun the
+other is being refilled from the casks containing the _cuvée_ by means
+of a pump and leathern hose, which empties a cask in little more than a
+couple of minutes. Three gangs of eight men each can fill, cork, and
+secure with _agrafes_ from 35,000 to 40,000 bottles during the day. The
+labour is performed partly by men regularly employed by the house and
+partly by hands engaged for the purpose, who work, however, under the
+constant inspection of overseers appointed by the firm.
+
+At Messrs. G. H. Mumm’s the champagne destined for shipment has the
+heads of the corks submerged in a kind of varnish, with the object of
+protecting them from the ravages of insects, and preventing the string
+and wire from becoming mouldy for several years. In damp weather, when
+this varnish takes a long time to dry, after the bottles have been
+placed in a rack with their heads downwards to allow of any superfluous
+varnish draining from the corks, the latter are subjected to a moderate
+heat in a machine pierced with sufficient holes to contain 500 bottles,
+and provided with a warming apparatus in the centre. Here the bottles
+remain for about twenty minutes.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE TIRAGE OR BOTTLING OF CHAMPAGNE
+  AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS. G. H. MUMM & CO. (p. 76.)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. G. H. MUMM & CO.’S VENDANGEOIR AT VERZENAY. (p. 77)]
+
+Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. have a capacious vendangeoir at Verzenay,
+near the entrance to the village when approaching it from Reims. The
+building contains four presses, three of which are worked with large
+fly-wheels requiring several men to turn them, while the fourth acts
+with a screw applied by means of a long pole. At the vintage 3,600
+kilogrammes, or nearly 8,000lbs., of grapes are put under each press,
+a quantity sufficient to yield eight to ten hogsheads of wine of
+forty-four gallons each, suitable for sparkling wine, besides three or
+four hogsheads of inferior wine given to the workmen to drink. The
+pressing commences daily at six in the morning, and lasts until
+midnight; yet the firm are often constrained to keep their grapes in the
+baskets under a cool shed for a period of two days. This cannot,
+however, be done when they are very ripe, as the colouring matter from
+the skins would become extracted and give a dark and objectionable tint
+to the wine.
+
+Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. ship four descriptions of champagne--Carte
+Blanche, a pale, delicate, fragrant wine of great softness and refined
+flavour; a perfectly dry variety of the foregoing, known as their Extra
+Dry; also an Extra Quality and a First Quality--both high-class wines,
+though somewhat lower in price than the two preceding.
+
+Within a few minutes’ walk of Messrs. G. H. Mumm’s--past the imposing
+Gate of Mars, in the midst of lawns, parterres, and gravel-walks, where
+coquettish nursemaids and their charges stroll, accompanied by the
+proverbial _piou-piou_--is the principal establishment of M. Gustave
+Gibert, whose house claims to-day half a century of existence. On this
+spot formerly stood the feudal castle of the Archbishops of Reims,
+demolished nearly three centuries ago. By whom this stronghold was
+erected is somewhat uncertain. The local chronicles state that a château
+was built at Reims by Suelf, son of Hincmar, in 922, and restored by
+Archbishop Henri de France two and a half centuries later. War or other
+causes, however, seems to have rendered the speedy rebuilding of this
+castle necessary, as a new Château des Archevêques appears to have been
+erected at Reims by Henri de Braine between 1228 and 1230. The
+circumstance of the Archbishops of Reims being dukes and peers as well
+as primates of the capital of the Champagne accounts for their
+preference for a fortified place of residence at this turbulent epoch.
+
+On the investiture of a new archbishop it was the custom for him to
+proceed in great pomp from the château to the church of Saint Remi, with
+a large armed guard and a splendid retinue of ecclesiastical, civil, and
+military dignitaries escorting him. The pride of the newly-created “duke
+and peer� having been thus gratified, the “prelate� had to humble
+himself, and on the morrow walked barefooted from the church of St. Remi
+to the cathedral. After the religious wars the château was surrendered
+to Henri IV., and in 1595 the Remois, anxious to be rid of so formidable
+a fortress, which, whether held by king or archbishop, was calculated to
+enforce a state of passive obedience galling to their pride, purchased
+from the king the privilege to demolish it for the sum of 8,000 crowns.
+Tradition asserts that the Remish Bastille was destroyed in a single
+day, but this is exceedingly improbable. Its ruins certainly were not
+cleared away until the close of the century.
+
+When the old fortress was razed to the ground its extensive vaults were
+not interfered with, but many long years afterwards were transformed
+into admirable cellars for the storage of champagne. Above them are two
+stories of capacious celliers where the wine is blended, bottled, and
+packed, the vaults themselves comprising two tiers of cellars which
+contain wine both in cask and bottle. M. Gibert’s remaining stocks are
+stored in the ancient vaults of the abbey of St. Peter, in the heart of
+the city, and in the roomy cellars which underlie the old Hôtel des
+Fermes in the Place Royale, where in the days of the _ancien régime_ the
+farmers-general of the province used to receive its revenues. On the
+pediment of this edifice is a bas-relief with Mercury, the god of
+commerce, seated beside a nymph and surrounded by children engaged with
+the vintage and with bales of wool, and evidently intended to symbolise
+the staple trades of the capital of the Champagne. A bronze statue rises
+in the centre of the Place which from its Roman costume and martial
+bearing might be taken for some hero of antiquity did not the
+inscription on the pedestal apprise us that it is intended for the
+“wise, virtuous, and magnanimous Louis XV.,� a misuse of terms which has
+caused a transatlantic Republican to characterise the monument as a
+brazen lie. Leading out of the Place Royale is the Rue de Cérès, in
+which there is a modernised 16th-century house claiming to be the
+birthplace of Jean Baptiste Colbert, son of a Reims wool-merchant, and
+the famous minister who did so much to consolidate the finances which
+the royal voluptuary, masquerading at Reims in Roman garb, afterwards
+made such dreadful havoc of.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLIERS AND CELLARS OF M. GUSTAVE GIBERT.
+  (_Near the Porte de Mars, Reims_.) (p. 78.)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PLACE ROYALE AT REIMS,
+  SHOWING THE ENTRANCE TO THE CELLARS OF M. GUSTAVE GIBERT. (p. 79)]
+
+M. Gustave Gibert possesses pressing-houses at Ay and Bouzy, and has
+moreover at both these places accommodation for large reserve stocks of
+wine in wood. As all the wines which he sends into the market are
+vintaged by himself, he can ensure their being of uniform high quality.
+His _Vin du Roi_ is notable for perfume, delicacy, perfect
+effervescence, and that fine flavour of the grape which characterises
+the grand wines of the Champagne. It is a great favourite with the King
+of Sweden and Norway, and the labels on the bottles bear his name and
+arms. M. Gibert’s brand has acquired a high reputation in the North of
+Europe, and having of late years been introduced into England, is
+rapidly making its way there. The merits of the wines have been again
+and again publicly recognised, no less than ten medals having been
+successively awarded M. Gibert at the Exhibitions of Toulouse in 1858,
+Bordeaux in 1859, Besançon in 1860, Metz and Nantes in 1861, London in
+1862, Bayonne and Linz in 1864, and Oporto and Dublin in 1865. This long
+list of awards has led to the wines being placed “_hors concours_,�
+nevertheless M. Gibert continues to submit them to competition whenever
+any Exhibition of importance takes place. The wines are shipped to
+England, Germany, Russia, and Northern Europe, Spain and Portugal,
+Calcutta, Java, Melbourne, and Hong-Kong, besides being largely in
+request for the Paris market.
+
+On quitting M. Gibert’s central establishment we proceed along the
+winding, ill-paved Rue de Mars, past the premises of Messrs. Jules Mumm
+and Co., an offshoot from the once famous firm of P. A. Mumm and Co., to
+the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, in one corner of which stands a massive
+and somewhat pretentious-looking house, dating back to the time of Louis
+Quatorze. Here are the offices of Ruinart père et fils, who claim to
+rank as the oldest existing house in the Champagne. The head of the
+firm, the Vicomte de Brimont, is a collateral descendant of the Dom
+Ruinart, whose remains repose nigh to those of the illustrious Dom
+Perignon in the abbey church of Hautvillers. From the Place de l’Hôtel
+de Ville we proceed through the narrow Rue du Tambour, originally a
+Roman thoroughfare, and during the Middle Ages the locality where the
+nobility of Reims principally had their abodes. Half-way up this street,
+in the direction of the Place des Marchés, stands the famous House of
+the Musicians, one of the most interesting architectural relics of which
+the capital of the Champagne can boast. It evidently dates from the
+early part of the fourteenth century, but by whom it was erected is
+unknown. Some ascribe it to the Knights Templars, others to the Counts
+of Champagne, while others suppose it to have been the residence of the
+famous Counts de la Marck, who in later times diverged into three
+separate branches, the first furnishing Dukes of Cleves and Julich to
+Germany and Dukes of Nevers and Counts of Eu to France, while the second
+became Dukes of Bouillon and Princes of Sedan, titles which passed to
+the Turennes when Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne,
+married the surviving heiress of the house. The third branch comprised
+the Barons of Lumain, allied to the Hohenzollerns. Their most famous
+member slew Louis de Bourbon, Archbishop of Liège, and flung his body
+into the Meuse, and subsequently became celebrated as the Wild Boar of
+the Ardennes, of whom all readers of _Quentin Durward_ will retain a
+lively recollection.
+
+To return, however, to the House of the Musicians. A probable conjecture
+ascribes the origin of the quaint mediæval structure to the Brotherhood
+of Minstrels of Reims, who in the thirteenth century enjoyed a
+considerable reputation, not merely in the Champagne, but throughout the
+North of France. The house takes its present name from five seated
+statues of musicians, larger than life-size, occupying the Gothic niches
+between the first-floor windows, and resting upon brackets ornamented
+with grotesque heads. It is thought that the partially-damaged figure on
+the left-hand side was originally playing a drum and a species of
+clarionet. The next one evidently has the remnants of a harp in his
+raised hands. The third or central figure is supposed merely to have
+held a hawk upon his wrist; whilst the fourth seeks to extract harmony
+from a dilapidated bagpipe; and the fifth, with crossed legs, strums
+complacently away upon the fiddle. The ground floor of the quaint old
+tenement is to-day an oil and colour shop, the front of which is covered
+with chequers in all the tints of the rainbow.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Leading from the Rue du Tambour is the Rue de la Belle Image, thus named
+from a handsome statuette of the Virgin which formerly decorated a
+corner niche; and beyond is the Rue St. Hilaire, where Messrs. Barnett
+et fils, trading under the designation of Périnet et fils, and the only
+English house engaged in the manufacture of champagne, have an
+establishment which is certainly as perfect as any to be found in Reims.
+Aboveground are several large store-rooms, where vintage casks and the
+various utensils common to a champagne establishment are kept, and a
+capacious cellier, upwards of 150 feet in length, with its roof resting
+on huge timber supports. Here new wine is stored preparatory to being
+blended and bottled, and in the huge tun, holding nearly 3,000 gallons,
+standing at the further end, the firm make their _cuvée_, while adjacent
+is a room where stocks of corks and labels, metal foil, and the like are
+kept.
+
+There are three stories of cellars--an exceedingly rare thing anywhere
+in the Champagne--all constructed in solid masonry on a uniform
+plan--namely, two wide galleries running parallel with each other and
+connected by means of transverse passages. Spite of the great depth to
+which these cellars descend they are perfectly dry; the ventilation,
+too, is excellent, and their different temperatures render them
+especially suitable for the storage of champagne, the temperature of the
+lowest cellar being 6° Centigrade (43° Fahrenheit), or one degree
+Centigrade below the cellar immediately above, which, in its turn is two
+degrees below the uppermost one of all. The advantage of this is that
+when the wine develops an excess of effervescence any undue proportion
+of breakages can be checked by removing the bottles to a lower cellar
+and consequently into a lower temperature.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLIER AND CELLARS OF PÉRINET ET FILS AT REIMS. (p. 82)]
+
+The first cellars we enter are closely stacked with wine in bottle,
+which is gradually clearing itself by the formation of a deposit, while
+in an adjoining cellar on the same level the operations of disgorging,
+liqueuring, and corking are going on. In the cellars immediately beneath
+bottles of wine repose in solid stacks ready for the _dégorgeur_, while
+others rest in racks in order that they may undergo their daily shaking.
+In the lowest cellars reserved wine in cask is stored, as it best
+retains its natural freshness and purity in a very cool place. All air
+is carefully excluded from the casks, any ullage is immediately checked,
+and as evaporation is continually going on the casks are examined every
+fortnight, when any deficiency is at once replenished. At Messrs.
+Périnet et fils’, as at all the first-class establishments, the _vin
+brut_ is a _mélange_ comprising the produce of some of the best
+vineyards, and has every possible attention paid to it during its
+progressive stages of development.
+
+Champagnes of different years were here shown to us, all of them soft,
+light, and delicate, and with that fine flavour and full perfume which
+the best growths of the Marne alone exhibit. Among several curiosities
+submitted to us was a still Verzenay of the year 1857, one of the most
+delicate red wines it was ever our fortune to taste. Light in body, rich
+in colour, of a singularly novel and refined flavour, and with a
+magnificent yet indefinable bouquet, the wine was in every respect
+perfect. Not only was the year of the vintage a grand one, but the wine
+must have been made with the greatest possible care and from the most
+perfect grapes for so delicate a growth to have retained its flavour in
+such perfection, and preserved its brilliant ruby colour for such a
+length of time.
+
+From the samples shown to us of Périnet et fils’ champagne, we were
+prepared to find that at some recent tastings in London, the particulars
+of which have been made public, their Extra Sec took the first place at
+each of the three severe competitions to which it was subjected.
+
+M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s central establishment is in the Rue des Deux Anges,
+one of the most ancient streets of Reims, running from the Rue des Élus
+to the Rue de Vesle, and having every window secured by iron gratings,
+and every door thickly studded with huge nails. These prison-like
+façades succeed each other in gloomy monotony along either side of the
+way, the portion of M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s residence which faces the street
+being no exception to the general rule. Once within its court, however,
+and quite a different scene presents itself. Before us is a pleasant
+little flower-garden with a small but charming Renaissance house looking
+on to it, the windows ornamented with elaborate mouldings, and
+surmounted by graceful sculptured heads, while at one corner rises a
+tower with a sun-dial displayed on its front. Here and in an adjoining
+house the canons of the Cathedral were accustomed to reside in the days
+when four-fifths of Reims belonged to the Church.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+From the garden we enter a capacious cellier where the blending and
+bottling of the wine takes place, and in the neighbouring packing-room
+encounter a score of workpeople filling, securing, and branding a number
+of cases about to be despatched by rail. From the cellier we pass to the
+cellars situated immediately underneath, and which, capacious though
+they are, do not suffice for M. Duchâtel’s stock, portions of which are
+stored in some ancient vaults near the market-place, and in the Rue de
+Vesle behind the church of St. Jacques. This church, originally built at
+the close of the twelfth century, is hemmed in on all sides by old
+houses, above which rises its tapering steeple surmounted by a medieval
+weathercock in the form of an angel. A life-size statue of the patron
+saint decorates the Gothic gateway leading to the church, from which a
+troop of Remish urchins in the charge of some Frères de la Doctrine
+Chrétienne emerge as we pass by.
+
+The Cour St. Jacques, where M. Duchâtel’s cellars are situated, may be
+reached by passing through the church, the interior of which presents a
+curious jumble of architectural styles from early Gothic to late
+Renaissance. One noteworthy object of art which it contains is a
+life-size crucifix carved by Pierre Jacques, a Remish sculptor of the
+days of the Good King Henri, and from an anatomical point of view a
+perfect _chef-d’œuvre_. The cellars we have come to inspect are two
+stories deep, and comprise numerous ancient cavernous compartments, such
+as are found in all the older quarters of Reims, and usually in the
+vicinity of some church, convent, or clerical abode. It has been
+suggested that they were either crypts for sacred retirement and prayer,
+dungeons for the punishment of recreant brethren, or tombs for the dead;
+but it is far more probable that in the majority of instances they
+served then as now simply for the storage of the choice vintages of the
+Marne, for we all know the monks of old were tipplers of no ordinary
+capacity, who usually contrived to secure the best that the district
+provided. These vaults of M. Duchâtel’s, in which a considerable stock
+of the fine wine of 1874 is stored, are from two to three centuries old,
+and probably belonged to the curés of St. Jacques. They are of
+considerable extent, are well ventilated, and are walled and roofed with
+stone. M. Duchâtel’s remaining stock reposes in some new
+cellars--certain transformed chalk quarries outside the Porte
+Dieu-Lumière, comprising broad lofty galleries and vast circular
+chambers--fifty feet or so in height and well lighted from above.
+
+At M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s we tasted a variety of fine samples of his brand,
+including a beautiful wine of 1868 and an almost equally good one of
+1870, with some of the excellent vintage of 1874, which was then being
+prepared for shipment.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+VIII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+M. Ernest Irroy’s Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoirs-- Recognition
+  by the Reims Agricultural Association of his Plantations of Vines--
+  His Wines and their Popularity at the best London Clubs-- Messrs.
+  Binet fils and Co.’s Establishment-- Wines Sold by the Firm to
+  Shippers-- Their Cellars-- Samples of Fine Still Ay and Bouzy--
+  Their Still Sillery, Vintage 1857, and their Creaming Vin Brut,
+  Vintage 1865-- The Offices and Cellars of Messrs. Charles Farre and
+  Co.-- Testing the Wine before Bottling-- A Promenade between Bottles
+  in Piles and Racks-- Repute in which these Wines are held in England
+  and on the Continent-- The New Establishment of Fisse, Thirion, and
+  Co. in the Place de Betheny-- Its Construction exclusively in Stone,
+  Brick, and Iron-- The Vast Celliers of Two Stories-- Bottling the
+  Wine by the Aid of Machinery-- The Cool and Lofty Cellars--
+  Ingenious Method of Securing the Corks, rendering the Uncorking
+  exceedingly simple-- The Wines Shipped by the Firm.
+
+
+Few large manufacturing towns like Reims--one of the most important of
+those engaged in the woollen manufacture in France--can boast of such
+fine promenades and such handsome boulevards as the capital of the
+Champagne. As the ancient fortifications of the city were from time to
+time razed, their site was levelled and generally planted with trees,
+so that the older quarters of Reims are almost encircled by broad and
+handsome thoroughfares, separating the city, as it were, from its
+outlying suburbs. In or close to the broad Boulevard du Temple, which
+takes its name from its proximity to the site of the ancient Commanderie
+of the Templars, various champagne manufacturers, including M. Louis
+Roederer, M. Ernest Irroy, and M. Charles Heidsieck, have their
+establishments, while but a few paces off, in the neighbouring Rue
+Coquebert, are the large and handsome premises of Messrs. Krug and Co.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  M. ERNEST IRROY’S ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 87)]
+
+The offices of M. Ernest Irroy, who is known in Reims not merely as a
+large champagne grower and shipper, but also as a distinguished amateur
+of the fine arts, taking a leading part in originating local exhibitions
+and the like, are attached to his private residence, a handsome mansion
+flanked by a large and charming garden in the Boulevard du Temple. The
+laying out of this sylvan oasis is due to M. Vadré, the head gardener of
+the city of Paris, who contributed so largely to the picturesque
+embellishment of the Bois de Boulogne. M. Irroy’s establishment, which
+comprises a considerable range of buildings grouped around two
+courtyards, is immediately adjacent, although its principal entrance is
+in the Rue de la Justice. The vast celliers, covering an area of upwards
+of 3,000 square yards, and either stocked with wine in cask or used for
+packing and similar purposes, afford the requisite space for carrying on
+a most extensive business. The cellars beneath comprise three stories,
+two of which are solidly roofed and lined with masonry, while the
+lowermost one is excavated in the chalk. They are admirably constructed
+on a symmetrical plan, and their total surface is very little short of
+7,000 square yards. Spite of the great depth to which these cellars
+descend they are perfectly dry, the ventilation is good, and their
+temperature moreover is remarkably cool, one result of which is that
+M. Irroy’s loss from breakage never exceeds four per cent. per annum.
+M. Irroy holds a high position as a vineyard-proprietor in the
+Champagne, his vines covering an area of nearly 86 acres. At Mareuil and
+Avenay he owns some twenty-five acres, at Verzenay and Verzy about
+fifteen, and at Ambonnay and Bouzy forty-six acres. His father and his
+uncle, whose properties he inherited or purchased, commenced some thirty
+years ago to plant vines on certain slopes of Bouzy possessing a
+southern aspect, and he has followed their example with such success
+both at Bouzy and Ambonnay that in 1873 the Reims Agricultural
+Association conferred upon him a silver-gilt medal for his plantations
+of vines. M. Irroy owns _vendangeoirs_ at Verzenay, Avenay, and
+Ambonnay; and at Bouzy, where his largest vineyards are, he has built
+some excellent cottages for his labourers. He has also constructed a
+substantial bridge over the ravine which, formed by winter torrents from
+the hills, intersects the principal vineyard slopes of Bouzy.
+
+M. Ernest Irroy’s wines, prepared with scrupulous care and rare
+intelligence, have been known in England for some years past, and are
+steadily increasing in popularity. They are emphatically connoisseurs’
+wines. The best West-end clubs, such as White’s, Arthur’s, the old
+Carlton, and the like, lay down the _cuvées_ of this house in good years
+as they lay down their vintage ports and finer clarets, and drink them,
+not in a crude state, but when they are in perfection--that is, in five
+to ten years’ time. M. Irroy exports to the British colonies and to the
+United States the same fine wines which he ships to England.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  LABOURERS AT WORK IN M. ERNEST IRROY’S BOUZY VINEYARDS. (p. 88.)]
+
+From M. Irroy’s we proceeded to Messrs. Binet fils and Co., whose
+establishment in the Rue de la Justice is separated from that of
+M. Irroy merely by a narrow path, and occupies the opposite side of the
+way to the principal establishment of M. Louis Roederer. The firm of
+Binet fils and Co. was founded many years ago, but for a long time they
+sold their wines principally to other shippers on the Reims and Epernay
+markets, where their cuvées were held in high repute, and only of recent
+years have they applied themselves to the shipping trade. Their
+establishment has two entrances, one in the Rue de la Justice, and the
+other in the Boulevard du Champ de Mars. On passing through the former
+we find ourselves in a courtyard of considerable area, with a range of
+celliers in the rear and a low building on the left, in which the
+offices are installed. In the first cellier we encounter cases and
+baskets of champagne all ready to be despatched by rail, with women and
+men busily engaged in labelling and packing other bottles which continue
+to arrive from the cellars below in baskets secured to an endless chain.
+Beyond this range of celliers is another courtyard of smaller dimensions
+where there are additional celliers in which wines of recent vintages in
+casks are stored.
+
+The vaults, which are reached by a winding stone staircase, are
+spacious, and consist of a series of parallel and uniform galleries hewn
+in the chalk without either masonry supports or facings. Among the solid
+piles of bottles which here hem us in on all sides are a considerable
+number of magnums and imperial pints reserved for particular
+customers--the former more especially for certain military messes, at
+which the brand of Binet fils and Co. is held in deserved esteem. We
+tasted here--in addition to several choice sparkling wines, including a
+grand _vin brut_, vintage 1865--a still Ay of the year 1870, and some
+still Bouzy of 1874. The former, a remarkably light and elegant wine,
+was already in fine condition for drinking, while the latter, which was
+altogether more vinous, deeper in colour, and fuller in body needed the
+ripening influence of time to bring it to perfection. Through their
+agents, Rutherford, Drury, and Co., Messrs. Binet fils and Co. achieved
+a great success in England with their still Sillery, vintage 1857, and
+subsequently with their superb creaming _vin brut_, vintage 1865, of
+which we have just spoken, and which is still to be met with at London
+clubs of repute.
+
+Some short distance from and parallel with the Rue de la Justice is the
+Rue Jacquart, where Messrs. Charles Farre and Co., of whose
+establishment at Hautvillers we have already spoken, have their offices
+and cellars. We enter a large courtyard, where several railway vans are
+being laden with cases of wine from the packing-hall beyond, and in the
+tasting-room adjoining find wine being tested prior to bottling, to
+ascertain the amount of saccharine it contains. This was accomplished by
+reducing a certain quantity of wine by boiling down to one-sixth, when
+the saccharometer should indicate 13° of sugar to ensure each bottle
+containing the requisite quantity of compressed carbonic acid gas.
+
+Messrs. Farre’s cellars, comprising eighteen parallel galleries disposed
+in two stories, are both lofty and commodious, and are mainly of recent
+construction, the upper ones being solidly walled with masonry, while
+those below are simply excavated in the chalk. Here, as elsewhere, one
+performed a lengthened promenade between piles after piles of bottles of
+the finer vintages and a seemingly endless succession of racks, at which
+workmen were engaged in dislodging the sediment in the wine by the dim
+light of a tallow candle. It was here that we were assured the more
+experienced of these men were capable, when working with both hands, of
+shaking the enormous number of 50,000 bottles a day, or at the rate of
+seventy to the minute.
+
+The fine wines of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co. have long enjoyed a
+well-deserved celebrity, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 the firm
+secured the highest medal awarded to champagnes. The high repute in
+which the brand is held on the Continent is evidenced by the fact that
+the Prussian and other courts are consumers of Messrs. Farre’s wines.
+The firm not only number England, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Northern
+Europe, and, as a matter of course, France, among their customers, but
+also several of the British colonies and North and South America as
+well.
+
+The new establishment of Messrs. Fisse, Thirion, and Co., in the
+erection of which they have largely profited by their experience and the
+various resources of modern science, is situated in the Place de
+Betheny, in the vicinity of the railway goods station and the local
+shooting range, largely resorted to at certain seasons of the year, when
+the crack shots of the Champagne capital compete with distinguished
+amateurs from different parts of France and the other side of the
+Channel.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. FISSE, THIRION & CO.’S ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 91)]
+
+On entering the courtyard through the iron gate to the right of the
+dwelling-houses of the resident partners--flanked by gardens brilliant
+with flowers and foliage--we first reach the offices and tasting-rooms,
+and then the entrance to the cellars. A speciality of this important
+pile of building is that everything employed in its construction is of
+stone, brick, or iron, wood having been rigorously excluded from it.
+In the rear of the courtyard, which presents that aspect of animation
+common to flourishing establishments in the Champagne, is the principal
+cellier, with a small building in front, where a steam-pump for pumping
+up water from the chalk is installed, while at right angles with the
+cellier are the stables and bottle-sheds. The large cellier, which is 20
+feet high and 80 feet broad, will be no less than 260 feet in length
+when completed. It contains two stories, the floors of both of which are
+cemented, the lower story being roofed with small brick arches connected
+by iron girders, and the upper one with tiles resting on iron supports.
+The cement keeps the temperature remarkably cool in the lower cellier
+where wine in cask is stored, the upper cellier being appropriated to
+wine in racks _sur pointe_, bales of corks, and the wicker-baskets and
+cases in which the wine is packed.
+
+The preparation of the wines in cask and the bottling take place in the
+lower of the two celliers, a mere lad being enabled, by the aid of the
+mechanism provided, to bottle from six to eight thousand bottles a day.
+A single workman can cork about 4,500 bottles, which a second workman
+secures with metal agrafes before they are lowered into the cellars. The
+latter are of two stories, each being divided into three long parallel
+galleries 20 feet high and 23 feet wide, vaulted with stone and floored
+with cement. Bordering the endless stacks of bottles are small gutters,
+into which the wine flows from the exploded bottles. Lofty, well
+ventilated, and beautifully cool, the temperature invariably ranging
+from 45° to 47° Fahrenheit, these capitally-constructed cellars combine
+all that is required for a champagne establishment of the first class.
+The breakage has never exceeded 3 per cent., whereas in some old cellars
+which the firm formerly occupied in the centre of the city, their
+breakage on one occasion amounted to ten times this quantity.
+
+At Fisse, Thirion, and Co.’s, after the wine has been disgorged and
+liqueured, the corks are secured neither with string nor wire, but a
+special metal fastener is employed for the purpose. This consists of a
+triple-branched agrafe, provided with a kind of hinge. A tiny toy
+needle-gun suspended to the agrafe is pulled outwards and turned over
+the top of the bottle, whereupon the fastening becomes instantly
+disengaged, and anything like trouble, uncleanliness, or annoyance is
+entirely avoided. The operation is so easy that a mere child can open a
+bottle of champagne, secured by this patent fastener, as easily and
+rapidly as a grown-up man.
+
+The firm of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. succeeded that of Fisse, Fraiquin,
+and Co.--established originally at Reims in 1821--in 1864, when the
+brand of the house was already well known on the Continent, more
+especially in Belgium and Holland. Since that time the wines have been
+largely introduced into England and the United States, and the firm, who
+have secured medals at many of the recent exhibitions, to-day have
+agents in the English and Dutch Indies and the various European
+settlements in China. Several descriptions of wine are shipped by the
+house, the finest being their dry Cuvée Reservèe and their fragrant
+soft-tasting Cachet d’Or.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  OLD HOUSE IN THE RUE DES ANGLAIS, REIMS.]
+
+IX.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_concluded_).
+
+La Prison de Bonne Semaine-- Mary Queen of Scots at Reims-- Messrs.
+  Pommery and Greno’s Offices-- A Fine Collection of Faïence-- The Rue
+  des Anglais a former Refuge of English Catholics-- Remains of the
+  Old University of Reims-- Ancient Roman Tower and Curious Grotto--
+  The handsome Castellated Pommery Establishment-- The Spacious
+  Cellier and Huge Carved Cuvée Tun-- The Descent to the Cellars--
+  Their Great Extent-- These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally
+  Quarries-- Ancient Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the
+  Protestants-- Madame Pommery’s Splendid Cuvée of 1868-- Messrs. de
+  St. Marceaux and Co.’s New Establishment in the Avenue de Sillery--
+  Its Garden-Court and Circular Shaft-- Animated Scene in the Large
+  Packing Hall-- Lowering Bottled Wine to the Cellars-- Great Depth
+  and Extent of these Cellars-- Messrs. de St. Marceaux and Co.’s
+  Various Wines.
+
+
+Nigh the cathedral of Reims and in the rear of the archiepiscopal palace
+there runs a short narrow street known as the Rue Vauthier le Noir, and
+frequently mentioned in old works relating to the capital of the
+Champagne. The discovery of various pillars and statues, together with a
+handsome Gallo-Roman altar, whilst digging some foundations in 1837,
+points to the fact that a Pagan temple formerly occupied the site. The
+street is supposed to have taken its name, however, from some celebrated
+gaoler, for in mediæval times here stood “la prison de bonne semaine.�
+On the site of this prison a château was subsequently built where Mary
+Queen of Scots is said to have resided in the days when her uncle,
+Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, was Lord Archbishop of Reims. Temple,
+prison, and palace have alike disappeared, and where they stood there
+now rises midway between court and garden a handsome mansion, the
+residence of Madame Pommery, head of the well-known firm of Pommery and
+Greno. To the left of the courtyard, which is entered through a
+monumental gateway, are some old buildings bearing the sculptured
+escutcheon of the beautiful and luckless Stuart Queen, while to the
+right are the offices, with the manager’s sanctum, replete with artistic
+curiosities, the walls being completely covered with remarkable
+specimens of faïence, including Rouen, Gien, Palissy, Delft, and
+majolica, collected in the majority of instances by Madame Pommery in
+the villages around Reims. Here we were received by M. Vasnier, who at
+once volunteered to accompany us to the cellars of the firm outside the
+city. Messrs. Pommery and Greno originally carried on business in the
+Rue Vauthier le Noir, where there are extensive cellars, but their
+rapidly-increasing connection long since compelled them to emigrate
+beyond the walls of Reims.
+
+In close proximity to the Rue Vauthier le Noir is the Rue des Anglais,
+so named from the English Catholic refugees who, flying from the
+persecutions of our so-called Good Queen Bess, here took up their abode
+and established a college and a seminary. They rapidly acquired great
+influence in Reims, and one of their number, William Gifford, was even
+elected archbishop. At the end of this street, nigh to Madame Pommery’s,
+there stands an old house with a corner tower and rather handsome
+Renaissance window, which formerly belonged to some of the clergy of the
+cathedral, and subsequently became the “Bureau Général de la Loterie de
+France,� abolished by the National Convention in 1793.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The Rue des Anglais conducts into the Rue de l’Université, where a few
+remnants of the old University, founded by Cardinal Charles de Lorraine
+(1538-74), attract attention, notably a conical-capped corner tower, the
+sculptured ornaments at the base of which have crumbled into dust
+beneath the corroding tooth of Time. From the Rue de l’Université our
+way lies along the Boulevard du Temple to the Porte Gerbert, about a
+mile beyond which there rises up the curious castellated structure in
+which the Pommery establishment is installed, and whose tall towers
+command a view of the whole of Reims and its environs. As we drive up
+the Avenue Gerbert we espy on the right an isolated crumbling Roman
+tower, a remnant of the days when Reims disputed with Trèves the honour
+of being the capital of Belgic Gaul. Close at hand, and almost under the
+walls of the old fortifications, is a grotto to which an ancient origin
+is likewise ascribed. In another minute we reach the open iron gates of
+Messrs. Pommery’s establishment, flanked by a picturesque porter’s
+lodge, and proceeding up a broad drive alight under a Gothic portico at
+the entrance to the spacious and lofty cellier. Iron columns support the
+roof of this vast hall, at one end of which is the office and
+tasting-room, provided with a telegraphic apparatus by means of which
+communication is carried on with the Reims bureaux. Stacked up on every
+side of the cellier, and when empty often in eight tiers, are rows upon
+rows of casks, 4,000 of which contain wine of the last vintage,
+sufficient for a million bottles of champagne. The temperature of this
+hall is carefully regulated; the windows are high up near the roof, the
+sun’s rays are rigidly excluded, so that a pleasant coolness pervades
+the apartment. On the left-hand side stands the huge tun, capable of
+containing 5,500 gallons of wine, in which the firm make their _cuvée_,
+with the monogram P and G, surmounting the arms of Reims, carved on its
+head. A platform, access to which is gained by a staircase in a side
+aisle, runs round this tonneau; and boys stand here when the wine is
+being blended, and by means of a handle protruding above the cask work
+the paddle-wheels placed inside, thereby securing the complete
+amalgamation of the wine, which has been hoisted up in casks and poured
+through a metal trough into the tonneau. Adjoining are the chains and
+lifts worked by steam by means of which wine is raised and lowered from
+and to the cellars beneath, one lift raising or lowering eight casks,
+whether full or empty, in the space of a minute.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE POMMERY ESTABLISHMENT, IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF REIMS. (p. 96)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  HEAD OVERSEER AT POMMERY AND GRENO’S.]
+
+At the farther end of the hall a Gothic door, decorated with ornamental
+ironwork, leads to the long broad flight of steps 116 in number and
+nearly twelve feet in width, conducting to the suite of lofty
+subterranean chambers where bottles of _vin brut_ repose in their
+hundreds of thousands in slanting racks or solid piles, passing
+leisurely through those stages of development necessary to fit them for
+the _dégorgeur_. Altogether there are thirty large shafts, which were
+originally quarries, and are now connected by spacious galleries. This
+side of Reims abounds with similar quarries, which are believed to have
+served as places of refuge for the Protestants at the time of the League
+and after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and it is even
+conjectured that the early Christians, the followers of St. Sixtus and
+St. Sinicus, here hid themselves from their persecutors. Since the
+cellars within the city have no longer sufficed for the storage of the
+immense stocks required through the development of the champagne trade,
+these vast subterranean galleries have been successfully utilised by
+various firms. Messrs. Pommery, after pumping out the water with which
+the chambers were filled, proceeded to excavate the intersecting
+tunnels, shore up the cracking arches, and repair the flaws in the chalk
+with masonry, finally converting these abandoned quarries into
+magnificent cellars for the storage of champagne. No less than £60,000
+was spent upon them and the castellated structure aboveground. The
+underground area is almost 240,000 square feet, and a million bottles of
+champagne can be stored in these capacious vaults.
+
+Madame Pommery made a great mark with her splendid _cuvée_ of 1868, and
+since this time her brand has become widely popular, the Pommery Sec
+especially being highly appreciated by connoisseurs.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PACKING HALL OF MESSRS. DE SAINT-MARCEAUX AT REIMS. (p. 99)]
+
+On leaving Messrs. Pommery’s we retrace our steps down the Avenue
+Gerbert, bordered on either side with rows of plane-trees, until we
+reach the treeless Avenue de Sillery, where Messrs. de Saint Marceaux
+and Co.’s new and capacious establishment is installed. The principal
+block of building is flanked by two advanced wings inclosing a
+garden-court, set off with flowers and shrubs, and from the centre of
+which rises a circular shaft, covered in with glass, admitting light and
+air to the cellars below. In the building to the left the wine is
+received on its arrival from the vineyard, and here are ranged hundreds
+of casks replete with the choice _crûs_ of Verzenay, Ay, Cramant, and
+Bouzy, while some thousands of bottles ready for labelling are stocked
+in massive piles at the end of the packing-hall in the corresponding
+wing of the establishment. Here, too, a tribe of workpeople are arraying
+the bottles with gold and silver headdresses and robing them in pink
+paper, while others are filling, securing, marking, and addressing the
+cases or baskets to Hong-Kong, San Francisco, Yokohama, Bombay, London,
+New York, St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Paris.
+
+The wine in cask, stored in the left-hand wing, after having been duly
+blended in a vast vat holding over 2,400 gallons, is drawn off into
+bottles, which are then lowered down a shaft to the second tier of
+cellars by means of an endless chain, on to which the baskets of bottles
+are swiftly hooked. The workman engaged in this duty, in order to
+prevent his falling down the shaft, has a leather belt strapped round
+his waist, by means of which he is secured to an adjoining iron column.
+We descend into the lower cellars down a flight of ninety-three broad
+steps--a depth equal to the height of an ordinary six-storied house--and
+find no less than four-and-twenty galleries excavated in the chalk,
+without any masonry supports, and containing upwards of a million
+bottles of champagne. The length of these galleries varies, but they are
+of a uniform breadth, allowing either a couple of racks with wine _sur
+pointe_, or stacks of bottles, in four rows on either side, with an
+ample passage down the centre.
+
+The upper range of cellars comprises two large arched galleries of
+considerable breadth, one of which contains wine in wood and wine _sur
+pointe_, while the other is stocked with bottles of wine heads downward,
+ready to be delivered into the hands of the _dégorgeur_.
+
+MM. de St. Marceaux and Co. have the honour of supplying the King of the
+Belgians, the President of the French Republic, and several German
+potentates, with an exceedingly delicate champagne known as the Royal
+St. Marceaux. The same wine is popular in Russia and other parts of
+Europe, just as the Dry Royal of the firm is much esteemed in the United
+States. The brand of the house most appreciated in this country is its
+Carte d’Or, a very dry wine which, in conjunction with the firm’s Extra
+Quality, secured the first place at a recent champagne competition in
+England.
+
+In the neighbourhood of the Pommery and de St. Marceaux establishments
+numerous other champagne manufacturers have their cellars formed from
+the abandoned quarries so numerous on this side of the city. Of some of
+these firms we have already spoken, but there remain to be mentioned
+Messrs. Kunklemann and Co., Ruinart père et fils, George Goulet, Jules
+Champion, Théophile Roederer, &c. The cellars of the three last-named
+are immediately outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière, near which is a house
+with a curious bas-relief on its face, the subject of which has been a
+source of much perplexity to local antiquaries.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  BAS-RELIEF NEAR THE PORTE DIEU-LUMIÈRE.]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  JEAN REMI MOET.]
+
+X.--EPERNAY CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Early Records of the Moët Family at Reims and Epernay-- Jean Remi
+  Moët Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines-- Extracts from the
+  Old Account-Books of the Moëts-- First Sales of Sparkling Wines--
+  Sales to England in 1788-- “Milords� Farnham and Findlater-- Jean
+  Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon, Josephine, and the King of
+  Westphalia-- The Firm of Moët and Chandon Constituted-- Their
+  Establishment in the Rue du Commerce-- Delivering and Washing the
+  New Bottles-- The Numerous Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm--
+  Making the Cuvée in Vats of 12,000 Gallons-- The Bottling of the
+  Wine by 200 Hands-- A Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily--
+  20,000 Francs’ worth of Broken Glass in Two Years-- A Subterranean
+  City, with miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open Spaces, Tramways, and
+  Stations-- The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults-- Tablet
+  Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon I.-- Millions of Bottles of
+  Champagne in Piles and Racks-- The Original Vaults known as
+  Siberia-- Scene in the Packing Hall-- Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s
+  Large and Complete Staff-- Provision for Illness and Old Age--
+  Annual Fête Given by the Firm-- Their Famous “Star� Brand--
+  M. Perrier-Jouët, the lucky Grandson of a little Epernay Grocer--
+  His Offices and Cellars-- His Wine Classed according to its
+  Deserts-- Messrs. Roussillon and Co.’s Establishment-- The
+  Recognition accorded to their Wines-- Their Stock of Old Vintages--
+  The Extensive Establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger and Co.-- Their
+  Large Stock of the Fine 1874 Vintage-- Preparations for the Tirage--
+  Their Vast Fireproof Cellier and its Admirable Temperature-- Their
+  Lofty and Capacious Cellars of Two Stories.
+
+
+Those magnates of the champagne trade, Messrs. Moët and Chandon, whose
+famous “star� brand is familiar in every part of the civilised globe,
+and whose half-score miles of cellars contain as many million bottles of
+champagne as there are millions of inhabitants in most of the secondary
+European states, have their head-quarters at Epernay in a spacious
+château--in that street of châteaux named the Rue du Commerce, but
+commonly known as the Faubourg de la Folie--which is approached through
+handsome iron gates, and has beautiful gardens in the rear extending in
+the direction of the River Marne. The existing firm dates from the year
+1833, but the family of Moët--conjectured to have originally come from
+the Low Countries--had already been associated with the champagne wine
+trade for well-nigh a century previously. If the Moëts came from Holland
+they must have established themselves in the Champagne at a very early
+date, for the annals of Reims record that in the fifteenth century Jean
+and Nicolas Moët were _échevins_ of the city. A Moët was present in that
+capacity at the coronation of Charles VII. in 1429, when Joan of Arc
+stood erect by the principal altar of the cathedral with her sacred
+banner in her hand, and for having contributed to repulse an attempt on
+the part of the English to prevent the entrance of the Royal party into
+the city, the Moëts were subsequently ennobled by the same monarch.
+A mural tablet in the church of St. Remi records the death of D. G.
+Moët, Grand Prior, in 1554, and nine years later we find Nicol Moët
+claiming exemption at Epernay from the payment of _tailles_ on the
+ground of his being a noble. An old commercial book preserved in the
+family archives shows that in the year 1743--at the epoch when the
+rashness of the Duc de Grammont saved the English army under George II.
+from being cut to pieces at Dettingen--a descendant of the foregoing,
+one Claude Louis Nicolas Moët, who owned considerable vineyard property
+in the vicinity of Epernay, decided upon embarking in the wine trade.
+It is his son, however, Jean Remi Moët, born in 1758, who may be looked
+upon as the veritable founder of the present commerce in Champagne
+wines, which, thanks to his efforts, received a wonderful impulse, so
+that instead of the consumption of the vintages of the Marne being
+limited as heretofore to the privileged few, it spread all over the
+civilised world.
+
+At Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s we had the opportunity of inspecting some
+of the old account-books of the firm, and more particularly those
+recording the transactions of Jean Remi Moët and his father. The first
+sales of sparkling wine, on May 23rd, 1743, comprised 301 bottles of the
+vintage of 1741 to Pierre Joly, wine-merchant, _bon des douze chez le
+Roi_, whatever that may mean, at Paris; 120 bottles to Pierre Gabriel
+Baudoin, also _bon des douze_, at Paris; and a similar quantity to the
+Sieur Compoin, keeping the “hotellerie ditte la pestitte Escurie,� Rue
+du Port Maillart, at Nantes in Brittany. The entry specifies that the
+wine for Nantes is to be left at Choisy-le-Roi, and taken by land to
+Orleans by the carters of that town, who are to be found at the Ecu
+d’Orléans, Porte St. Michel, Paris, the carriage as far as Choisy being
+4 livres 10 deniers (about 4 francs) for the two half-baskets, and to
+Paris 3 livres 15 deniers the basket.
+
+Between 1750 and ’60, parcels of wine were despatched to Warsaw, Vienna,
+Berlin, Königsberg, Dantzig, Stettin, Brussels, and Amsterdam; but one
+found no mention of any sales to England till the year 1788, when the
+customers of the firm included “Milord� Farnham, of London, and Messrs.
+Felix Calvert and Sylvin, who had a couple of sample bottles sent to
+them, for which they were charged five shillings. In the same year
+Messrs. Carbonnell, Moody, and Walker (predecessors of the well-known
+existing firm of Carbonnell and Co.) wrote in French for two baskets,
+of ten dozens each, of _vin de champagne_ “of good body, not too charged
+with liqueur, but of excellent taste, and _not at all sparkling_!� while
+the Chevalier Colebrook, writing from Bath, requests that 72 bottles of
+champagne may be sent to his friend the Hon. John Butler, Molesworth
+Street, Dublin, “who if contented with the wine will become a good
+customer, he being rich, keeping a good house, and receiving many
+amateurs of _vin de champagne_.� Shortly afterwards the chevalier
+himself receives 50 bottles of still wine, vintage 1783. In 1789 120
+bottles of champagne, vintage 1788, are supplied to “Milord� Findlater,
+of London--an ancestor, no doubt, of the wine-merchants of the same name
+carrying on business to-day, and whom the Moëts in their simplicity
+dubbed a “Milord�--and in 1790 the customers of the house include Power
+and Michel, of 44, Lamb Street, London, and Manning, of the St. Alban
+Tavern, the latter of whom is supplied on March 30th with 130 bottles of
+champagne at three livres, or two “schillings,� per bottle; while a
+month later Mr. Lockart, banker, of 36, Pall Mall, is debited with 360
+bottles, vintage 1788, at three shillings.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  WASHING BOTTLES AT MESSRS. MOËT & CHANDON’S, EPERNAY. (p. 105)]
+
+In this same year M. Moët despatches a traveller to England named
+Jeanson, and his letters, some two hundred in number, are all preserved
+in the archives of the house. On the 17th May, 1790, he writes from
+London as follows:--“As yet I have only gone on preparatory and often
+useless errands. I have distributed samples of which I have no news.
+Patience is necessary, and I endeavour to provide myself with it. How
+the taste of this country has changed since ten years ago! Almost
+everywhere they ask for dry wine, but at the same time require it so
+vinous and so strong that there is scarcely any other than the wine of
+Sillery which can satisfy them.... To-morrow I dine five miles from
+here, at M. Macnamara’s. We shall uncork four bottles of our wine, which
+will probably be all right.� In May, 1792, Jean Remi Moët is married,
+and thenceforward assumes the full management of the house. On December
+20 of the year following, when the Reign of Terror was fairly
+inaugurated, we find the accounts in the ledger opened to this or the
+other “citoyen.� The orthodox Republican formula, however, did not long
+continue, and “sieur� and “monsieur� resumed their accustomed places,
+showing that Jean Remi Moët had no sympathy with the Jacobin faction of
+the day. In 1805 he became Mayor of Epernay, and between this time and
+the fall of the Empire received Napoleon several times at his residence,
+as well as the Empress Josephine and the King of Westphalia. The
+Emperor, after recapturing Reims from the Allies, came on to Epernay,
+on which occasion he presented M. Moët with the cross of the Legion of
+Honour. In 1830 the latter was arbitrarily dismissed from his mayoralty
+by Charles X., but was speedily reinstated by Louis Philippe, though he
+did not retain his office for long, his advanced age compelling him to
+retire from active life in the course of 1833. At this epoch the firm,
+which, since 1807 had been known as Moët and Co., was remodelled under
+the style of Moët and Chandon, the two partners being M. Victor Moët,
+son of the outgoing partner, and M. P. G. Chandon, the descendant of an
+old ennobled family of the Mâconnais, who had married M. Jean Remi
+Moët’s eldest daughter. The descendants of these gentlemen are to-day at
+the head of the business, the partners being on the one hand M. Victor
+Moët-Romont and M. C. J. V. Auban Moët-Romont; and on the other, MM.
+Paul and Raoul Chandon de Briailles.
+
+Facing Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s offices at Epernay is a range of
+comparatively new buildings, with its white façade ornamented with the
+well-known monogram M. and C., surmounted by the familiar star. It is
+here that the business of blending and bottling the wine is carried on.
+Passing through the arched gateway access is obtained to a spacious
+courtyard, where carts laden with bottles are being expeditiously
+lightened of their fragile contents by the busy hands of numerous
+workmen. Another gateway on the left leads into the spacious
+bottle-washing room, which from the middle of May until the middle of
+July presents a scene of extraordinary animation. Bottle-washing
+apparatus, supplied by a steam-engine with 20,000 gallons of water per
+diem, are ranged in fifteen rows down the entire length of this hall,
+and nearly 200 women strive to excel each other in diligence and
+celerity in their management, a practised hand washing from 900 to 1,000
+bottles in the course of the day. To the right of this _salle de
+rinçage_, as it is styled, bottles are stacked in their tens of
+thousands, and lads furnished with barrows, known as _diables_, hurry to
+and fro, conveying these to the washers, or removing the clean bottles
+to the adjacent courtyard, where they are allowed to drain, prior to
+being taken to the _salle de tirage_ or bottling room.
+
+Before, however, the washing of bottles on this gigantic scale
+commences, the “marrying� or blending of the wine is accomplished in a
+vast apartment, 250 feet in length and 100 feet broad, during the early
+spring. The casks of newly-vintaged wine which have been stowed away
+during the winter months, in the extensive range of cellars hewn out of
+the chalk underlying Epernay, where they have slowly fermented, are
+mixed together in due proportions in huge vats, each holding upwards of
+12,000 gallons. Some of this wine is the growth of Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon’s own vineyards, of which they possess as many as 900 acres
+(giving constant employment to 800 labourers and vinedressers) at Ay,
+Avenay, Bouzy, Cramant, Champillon, Chouilly, Dizy, Epernay, Grauves,
+Hautvillers, Le Mesnil, Moussy, Pierry, Saran, St. Martin, Verzy, and
+Verzenay, and the average annual cost of cultivating which is about £40
+per acre. At Ay the firm own 210 acres of vineyards; at Cramant and
+Chouilly, nearly 180 acres; at Verzy and Verzenay, 120 acres; at Pierry
+and Grauves, upwards of 100 acres; at Hautvillers, 90 acres; at Le
+Mesnil, 80 acres; at Epernay, nearly 60 acres; and at Bouzy, 55 acres.
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon, moreover, possess vendangeoirs, or
+pressing-houses, at Ay, Bouzy, Cramant, Epernay, Hautvillers, Le Mesnil,
+Pierry, Saran, and Verzenay, in which the large number of 40 presses are
+installed. At these vendangeoirs no less than 5,450 pièces of fine white
+wine, sufficient for 1,360,000 bottles of champagne, are annually
+made--that is, 1,200 pièces at Ay, 1,100 at Cramant and Saran, 800 at
+Verzy and Verzenay, and smaller quantities at the remaining
+establishments. All these establishments have their celliers and their
+cellars, together with cottages for the accommodation of the numerous
+vinedressers in the employment of the firm.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. MOËT & CHANDON’S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 106)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  BOTTLING CHAMPAGNE AT MESSRS. MOËT & CHANDON’S, EPERNAY. (p. 107)]
+
+Extensive as are the vineyards owned by Messrs. Moët and Chandon, the
+yield from them is utterly inadequate to the enormous demand which the
+great Epernay firm are annually called upon to supply, and large
+purchases have to be made by their agents from the growers throughout
+the Champagne. The wine thus secured, as well as that grown by the firm,
+is duly mixed together in such proportions as will ensure lightness with
+the requisite vinosity, and fragrance combined with effervescence,
+a thorough amalgamation being effected by stirring up the wine with long
+poles provided with fan-shaped ends. If the vintage be indifferent in
+quality the firm have scores of huge tuns filled with the yield of more
+favoured seasons to fall back upon to ensure any deficiencies of
+character and flavour being supplied.
+
+The casks of wine to be blended are raised from the cellars, half a
+dozen at a time, by means of a lift provided with an endless chain, and
+worked by the steam-engine of which we have already spoken. They are
+emptied, through traps in the floor of the room above, into the huge
+vats which, standing upon a raised platform, reach almost to the
+ceiling. From these vats the fluid is allowed to flow through hose into
+rows of casks stationed below. Before being bottled the wine reposes for
+a certain time, is next duly racked and again blended, and is eventually
+conveyed through silver-plated pipes into oblong reservoirs, each fitted
+with a dozen syphon-taps, so arranged that directly the bottle slipped
+on to one of them becomes full the wine ceases to flow.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Upwards of 200 workpeople are employed in the _salle de tirage_ at
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s, which, while the operation of bottling is
+going on, presents a scene of bewildering activity. Men and lads are
+gathered round the syphon-taps briskly removing the bottles as they
+become filled, and supplanting them by empty ones. Other lads hasten to
+transport the filled bottles on trucks to the corkers, whose so-called
+“guillotine� machines send the corks home with a sudden thud. The corks
+being secured with _agrafes_ the bottles are placed in large flat
+baskets called _manettes_, and wheeled away on tracks, the quarts being
+deposited in the cellars by means of lifts, while the pints slide down
+an inclined plane by the aid of an endless chain, which raises the
+trucks with the empty baskets at the same time the full ones make their
+descent into the cellars. What with the incessant thud of the corking
+machines, the continual rolling of iron-wheeled trucks over the concrete
+floor, the rattling and creaking of the machinery working the lifts, the
+occasional sharp report of a bursting bottle, and the loudly-shouted
+orders of the foremen, who display the national partiality for making a
+noise to perfection, the din becomes at times all but unbearable. The
+number of bottles filled in the course of the day naturally varies,
+still Messrs. Moët and Chandon reckon that during the month of June a
+daily average of 100,000 are taken in the morning from the stacks in the
+_salle de rinçage_, washed, dried, filled, corked, wired, lowered into
+the cellars and carefully arranged in symmetrical order. This represents
+a total of two and a half million bottles during that month alone.
+
+The bottles on being lowered into the cellars, either by means of the
+incline or the lifts, are placed in a horizontal position, and with
+their uppermost side daubed with white chalk, are stacked in layers from
+two to half-a-dozen bottles deep with narrow oak laths between. The
+stacks are usually about six or seven feet high and 100 feet and upwards
+in length. Whilst the wine is thus reposing in a temperature of about
+55° Fahrenheit, fermentation sets in, and the ensuing month is one of
+much anxiety. Thanks, however, to the care bestowed, Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon’s annual loss from bottles bursting rarely exceeds three per
+cent., though fifteen was once regarded as a respectable and
+satisfactory average. The broken glass is a perquisite of the workmen,
+the money arising from its sale, which at the last distribution amounted
+to no less than 20,000 francs, being divided amongst them every couple
+of years.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The usual entrance to Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s Epernay cellars--which,
+burrowed out in all directions, are of the aggregate length of nearly
+seven miles, and have usually between 11,000,000 and 12,000,000 bottles
+and 25,000 casks of wine stored therein--is through a wide and imposing
+portal, and down a long and broad flight of steps. It is, however, by
+the ancient and less imposing entrance, through which more than one
+crowned head has condescended to pass, that we set forth on our
+lengthened tour through these intricate underground galleries--this
+subterranean city with its miles of streets, crossroads, open spaces,
+tramways, and stations devoted solely to champagne. A gilt inscription
+on a black marble tablet testifies that “on the 26th July, 1807,
+Napoleon the Great, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector
+of the Confederation of the Rhine, honoured commerce by visiting the
+cellars of Jean Rémi Moët, Mayor of Epernay, President of the Canton,
+and Member of the General Council of the Department,� within three weeks
+of the signature of the treaty of Tilsit. Passing down the flight of
+steep slippery steps traversed by the victor of Eylau and Jena, access
+is gained to the upper range of vaults, brilliantly illuminated by the
+glare of gas, or dimly lighted by the flickering flame of
+tallow-candles, upwards of 60,000lbs. of which are annually consumed.
+Here group after group of the small army of 350 workmen employed in
+these subterranean galleries are encountered engaged in the process of
+transforming the _vin brut_ into champagne. At Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon’s the all-important operation of liqueuring the wine is effected
+by aid of machines of the latest construction, which regulate the
+quantity administered to the utmost nicety. The corks are branded by
+being pressed against steel dies heated by gas, by women who can turn
+out 3,000 per day apiece, the quantity of string used to secure them
+amounting to nearly ten tons in the course of the year.
+
+There is another and a lower depth of cellars to be explored to which
+access is gained by trapholes in the floor--through which the barrels
+and baskets of wine are raised and lowered--and by flights of steps.
+From the foot of the latter there extends an endless vista of lofty and
+spacious passages hewn out of the chalk, the walls of which, smooth as
+finished masonry, are lined with thousands of casks of raw wine, varied
+at intervals by gigantic vats. Miles of long, dark-brown,
+dampish-looking galleries stretch away to the right and left, and though
+devoid of the picturesque festoons of fungi which decorate the London
+Dock vaults, exhibit a sufficient degree of mouldiness to give them an
+air of respectable antiquity. These multitudinous galleries, lit up by
+petroleum-lamps, are mostly lined with wine in bottles stacked in
+compact masses to a height of six or seven feet, only room enough for a
+single person to pass being left. Millions of bottles are thus arranged,
+the majority on their sides, in huge piles, with tablets hung up against
+each stack to note its age and quality; and the rest, which are
+undergoing daily evolutions at the hands of the twister, at various
+angles of inclination. In these cellars there are nearly 11,000 racks in
+which the bottles of _vin brut_ rest _sur pointe_, as many as 600,000
+bottles being commonly twisted daily.
+
+The way runs on between regiments of bottles of the same size and shape,
+save where at intervals pints take the place of quarts; and the visitor,
+gazing into the black depths of the transverse passages to the right and
+left, becomes conscious of a feeling that if his guide were suddenly to
+desert him he would feel as hopelessly lost as in the catacombs of Rome.
+There are two galleries, each 650 feet in length, containing about
+650,000 bottles, and connected by 32 transverse galleries, with an
+aggregate length of 4,000 feet, in which nearly 1,500,000 bottles are
+stored. There are, further, eight galleries, each 500 feet in length,
+and proportionably stocked; also the extensive new vaults, excavated
+some five or six years back, in the rear of the then-existing cellarage,
+and a considerable number of smaller vaults. The different depths and
+varying degrees of moisture afford a choice of temperature of which the
+experienced owners know how to take advantage. The original vaults,
+wherein more than a century ago the first bottles of champagne made by
+the infant firm were stowed away, bear the name of Siberia, on account
+of their exceeding coldness. This section consists of several
+roughly-excavated low winding galleries, resembling natural caverns, and
+affording a striking contrast to the broad, lofty, and regular-shaped
+corridors of more recent date.
+
+When the proper period arrives for the bottles to emerge once more into
+the upper air they are conveyed to the packing-room, a spacious hall 180
+feet long and 60 feet broad. In front of its three large double doors
+waggons are drawn up ready to receive their loads. The seventy men and
+women employed here easily foil, label, wrap, and pack up some 10,000
+bottles a day. Cases and baskets are stacked in different parts of this
+vast hall, at one end of which numerous trusses of straw used in the
+packing are piled. Seated at tables ranged along one side of the
+apartment women are busily occupied in pasting on labels or encasing the
+necks of bottles in gold or silver foil, whilst elsewhere men, seated on
+three-legged stools in front of smoking caldrons of molten sealing-wax
+of a deep green hue, are coating the necks of other bottles by plunging
+them into the boiling fluid. When labelled and decorated with either wax
+or foil the bottles pass on to other women, who swathe them in pink
+tissue-paper and set them aside for the packers, by whom, after being
+deftly wrapped round with straw, they are consigned to baskets or cases,
+to secure which last no less than 10,000lbs. of nails are annually used.
+England and Russia are partial to gold foil, pink paper, and wooden
+cases holding a dozen or a couple of dozen bottles of the exhilarating
+fluid, whereas other nations prefer waxed necks, disdain pink paper, and
+insist on being supplied in wicker baskets containing fifty bottles
+each.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PACKING HALL AT MESSRS. MOËT AND CHANDON’S, EPERNAY. (p. 112)]
+
+Some idea of the complex character of so vast an establishment as that
+of Messrs. Moët and Chandon may be gathered from a mere enumeration of
+their staff, which, in addition to twenty clerks and 350 cellarmen
+proper, includes numerous agrafe-makers and corkcutters, packers and
+carters, wheelwrights and saddlers, carpenters, masons, slaters and
+tilers, tinmen, firemen, needlewomen, &c., while the inventory of
+objects used by this formidable array of workpeople comprises no fewer
+than 1,500 distinct heads. A medical man attached to the establishment
+gives gratuitous advice to all those employed, and a chemist dispenses
+drugs and medicines without charge. While suffering from illness the men
+receive half-pay, but should they be laid up by an accident met with in
+the course of their work full salary is invariably awarded to them. As
+may be supposed, so vast an establishment as this is not without a
+provision for those past work, and all the old hands receive liberal
+pensions from the firm upon retiring. Every year Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon give a banquet or a ball to the people in their employ--usually
+after the bottling of the wine is completed--when the hall in which the
+entertainment takes place is handsomely decorated and illuminated with
+myriads of coloured lamps.
+
+It is needless to particularise Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s wines, which
+are familiar to all drinkers of champagne. Their famous “star� brand is
+known in all societies, figures equally at clubs and mess-tables, at
+garden parties and picnics, dinners and _soirées_, and has its place in
+hotel _cartes_ all over the world. One of the best proofs of the wine’s
+universal popularity is found in the circumstance that as many as 1,000
+visitors from all parts of the world come annually to Epernay and make
+the tour of Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s spacious cellars.
+
+A little beyond Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s, in the broad Rue du
+Commerce, we encounter a heavy, ornate, pretentious-looking château, the
+residence of M. Perrier-Jouët, which presents a striking contrast to the
+almost mean-looking premises opposite, where the business of the firm is
+carried on. M. Perrier-Jouët is the fortunate grandson of the Sieur
+Perrier Fissier, a little Epernay grocer, who some eighty years or so
+ago used to supply corks, candles, and string to the firm of Moët and
+Co., and who, when the profits arising from this connection warranted
+his doing so, discarded his grocer’s sleeves and apron and blossomed
+forth as a competitor in the champagne trade. Perrier-Jouët and Co.’s
+offices are situated on the left-hand side of a courtyard surrounded by
+low buildings, which serve as celliers, store-houses, packing-rooms, and
+the like. From an inner courtyard where piles of bottles are stacked
+under open sheds, the cellars themselves are reached. Previous to
+descending into these we passed through the various buildings, in one of
+which a party of men were engaged in disgorging and preparing wine for
+shipment. In another we noticed one of those heavy beam presses for
+pressing the grapes which the more intelligent manufacturers regard as
+obsolete, while in a third was the _cuvée_ vat, holding no more than
+2,200 gallons. In making their _cuvée_ the firm commonly mix one part of
+old wine to three parts of new. An indifferent vintage, however,
+necessitates the admixture of a larger proportion of the older growth.
+The cellars, like all the more ancient ones at Epernay, are somewhat
+straggling and irregular, still they are remarkably cool, and on the
+lower floor remarkably damp as well. This, however, would appear to be
+no disadvantage, as the breakage in them is calculated never to exceed
+2½ per cent.
+
+The firm have no less than five qualities of champagne, and at one of
+the recent champagne competitions at London, where the experts engaged
+had no means of identifying the brands submitted to their judgment,
+Messrs. Perrier-Jouët’s First Quality got classed below a cheaper wine
+of their neighbours Messrs. Pol Roger and Co., and very considerably
+below the Extra Sec of Messrs. Périnet et fils, and inferior even to a
+wine of De Venoge’s, the great Epernay manufacturer of common class
+champagnes.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  COURTYARD OF MESSRS. POL ROGER’S ESTABLISHMENT AT EPERNAY. (p. 115)]
+
+Champagne establishments, combined with the handsome residences of the
+manufacturers, line both sides of the long, imposing Rue du Commerce at
+Epernay. On the left hand is a succession of fine châteaux, commencing
+with one belonging to M. Auban Moët, whose terraced gardens overlook the
+valley of the Marne, and command views of the vine-clad heights of
+Cumières, Hautvillers, Ay, and Mareuil, and the more distant slopes of
+Ambonnay and Bouzy, while on the other side of the famous Epernay
+thoroughfare we encounter beyond the establishments of Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon and Perrier-Jouët the ornate monumental façade which the firm of
+Piper and Co.--of whom Messrs. Kunkelmann and Co. are to-day the
+successors--raised some years since above their extensive cellars.
+A little in the rear of the Rue du Commerce is the well-ordered
+establishment of Messrs. Roussillon and Co., the extension of whose
+business of late has necessitated their removal to these capacious
+premises. The wines of the firm enjoy a high reputation in England,
+France, and Russia, and have secured favourable recognition at the
+Paris, Philadelphia, and other Exhibitions. Their stock includes
+considerable quantities of the older vintages, it being a rule of the
+house never to ship crude young wines. It is on their dry varieties that
+Messrs. Roussillon and Co. especially pride themselves, and some of the
+fine wine of 1874 that was here shown to us was as remarkable for its
+delicacy as for its fragrance.
+
+In a side street at the farther end of the Rue du Commerce stands a
+château of red brick, overlooking on the one side an extensive
+pleasure-garden, and on the other a spacious courtyard, bounded by
+celliers, stables, and bottle-sheds, all of modern construction and on a
+most extensive scale. These form the establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger
+and Co., settled for many years at Epernay, and known throughout the
+Champagne for their large purchases at the epoch of the vintage. From
+the knowledge they possess of the best crûs, and their relations with
+the leading vineyard proprietors, they are enabled whenever the wine is
+good to acquire large stocks of it. Having bottled a considerable
+quantity of the fine wine of 1874, they resolved to profit by the
+exceptional quality of this vintage to commence shipping champagne to
+England, where their agents, Messrs. Reuss, Lauteren, and Co., have
+successfully introduced the new brand.
+
+Passing through a large open gateway we enter the vast courtyard of the
+establishment, which, with arriving and departing carts--the first
+loaded with wine in cask or with new bottles, and the others with cases
+of champagne--presents rather an animated scene. Under a roof projecting
+from the wall of the vast cellier on the right hand a tribe of
+“Sparnaciennes�--as the feminine inhabitants of Epernay are termed--are
+occupied in washing bottles in readiness for the coming tirage. The
+surrounding buildings, most substantially constructed, are not destitute
+of architectural pretensions.
+
+The extensive cellier, the area of which is 23,589 square feet, is
+understood to be the largest single construction of the kind in the
+Champagne district. Built entirely of iron, stone and brick, its
+framework is a perfect marvel of lightness. The roof, consisting of rows
+of brick arches, is covered above with a layer of Portland cement, in
+order to keep it cool in summer and protect it against the winter cold,
+two most desirable objects in connection with the manipulation of
+champagne. Here an endless chain of a new pattern enables wine in bottle
+to be lowered and raised with great rapidity to or from the cellars
+beneath--lofty and capacious excavations of two stories, the lowest of
+which is reached by a flight of no less than 170 steps.
+
+Epernay, unlike Reims, has little of general interest to attract the
+stranger. Frequently besieged and pillaged during the Middle Ages, and
+burnt to the ground by the dauphin, son of François I., the town,
+although of some note as far back as the time of Clovis, exhibits to-day
+no evidence whatever of its great antiquity. The thoroughfare termed the
+Rempart de la Tour Biron recalls a memorable incident which transpired
+during the siege of the town by Henri IV. While the king was
+reconnoitring the defences a cannon-ball aimed at his waving white plume
+took off the head of the Maréchal Biron at the moment Henri’s hand was
+resting familiarly on the maréchal’s shoulder. Strange to say, the king
+himself escaped unhurt.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VIEW OF AY FROM THE BANKS OF THE MARNE CANAL. (p. 117.)]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VENDANGEOIR OF HENRI QUATRE.]
+
+XI.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AY AND MAREUIL.
+
+The Establishment of Deutz and Geldermann-- Drawing off the Cuvée--
+  Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Champagne-- The Firm’s New
+  Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoir-- The old Château of Ay and its
+  Terraced Garden-- The Gambling Propensities of Balthazar Constance
+  Dangé-Dorçay, a former Owner of the Château-- The Picturesque
+  Situation and Aspect of Messrs. Ayala’s Establishment-- A Promenade
+  through their Cellars-- M. Duminy’s Cellars and Wines-- His new
+  Model Construction-- The House Founded in 1814-- Messrs. Bollinger’s
+  Establishment-- Their Vineyard of La Grange-- The Tirage in
+  Progress-- The Fine Cellars of the Firm-- Messrs. Pfungst’s frères
+  and Co.’s Cellars-- Their Dry Champagnes of 1868, ’70, ’72, and
+  ’74-- The Old Church of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and
+  Vineleaves-- The Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre-- The Montebello
+  Establishment at Mareuil-- The Château formerly the Property of the
+  Dukes of Orleans-- A Titled Champagne Firm-- The Brilliant Career of
+  Marshal Lannes-- A Promenade through the Montebello Establishment--
+  The Press House, the Cuvée Vat, the Packing-Room, the Offices, and
+  the Cellars-- Portraits and Relics at the Château-- The
+  Establishment of Bruch-Foucher and Co.-- The handsome Carved
+  Gigantic Cuvée Tun-- The Cellars and their Lofty Shafts-- The Wines
+  of the Firm.
+
+
+The historic _bourgade_ of Ay is within a short walk of the station on
+the line of railway connecting Epernay with Reims. The road lies across
+the light bridge spanning the Marne canal, the tall trees fringing which
+hide for a time the clustering houses; still we catch sight of the
+tapering steeple of the antique church rising sharply against the green
+vine-covered slopes and the fleecy-clouded summer sky. We soon reach the
+Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, and continuing onward in the direction of the
+steep hills which shelter the town on the north, come to a
+massive-looking corner house in front of the broad _porte-cochère_ of
+which some railway carts laden with cases of champagne are standing.
+Passing through the gateway we find ourselves in an open court, with a
+dwelling-house to the right and a range of buildings in front where the
+offices of Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann are installed. This is the
+central establishment of the firm, whose Extra Dry “Gold Lack� and
+“Cabinet� champagnes have long been favourably known in England. Here
+are spacious celliers for disgorging and finishing off the wine, a large
+packing-hall, and rooms where bales of corks and other accessories of
+the trade are stored, the operations of making the _cuvées_ and bottling
+being accomplished in an establishment some little distance off.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DRAWING OFF THE CUVÉE AT DEUTZ & GELDERMANN’S, AY. (p. 118)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  EXCAVATING DEUTZ & GELDERMANN’S NEW CELLARS, AY. (p. 119)]
+
+Proceeding thither, we find an elegant château with a charming terraced
+garden, lying at the very foot of the vine-clad slopes, and on the
+opposite side of the road some large celliers where wine in wood is
+stored, and where the _cuvées_ of the firm, consisting usually of
+upwards of 50,000 gallons each, are made in a vat of gigantic
+proportions, furnished with a raised platform at one end for the
+accommodation of the workman who agitates the customary paddles. When
+the wine is completely blended it is drawn off into casks disposed for
+the purpose in the cellar below, as shown in the accompanying engraving,
+and after being fined it rests for about a month to clear itself. To
+each of these casks of newly-blended wine a portion of old wine is added
+separately, and at the moment of bottling the whole is newly
+amalgamated.
+
+Adjoining M. Deutz’s château is the principal entrance to the extensive
+cellars of the firm, to which, at the time of our visit, considerable
+additions were being made. In excavating a gallery the workmen commence
+by rounding off the roof, and then proceed to work gradually downwards,
+extracting the chalk, whenever practicable, in blocks suitable for
+building purposes, which being worth from three to four shillings the
+square yard help to reduce the cost of the excavation. When any serious
+flaws present themselves in the sides or roof of the galleries, they are
+invariably made good with masonry.
+
+This range of cellars now comprises eight long and lofty galleries no
+less than 17 feet wide, and the same number of feet in height, and of
+the aggregate length of 2,200 yards. These spacious vaults, which run
+parallel with each other, and communicate by means of cross passages,
+underlie the street, the château, the garden, and the vineyard slopes
+beyond, and possess the great advantage of being always dry. They are
+capable, we were informed, of containing several million bottles of
+champagne in addition to a large quantity of wine in cask.
+
+Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann possess vineyards at Ay, and own a large
+vendangeoir at Verzenay, where in good years they usually press 500
+pièces of wine. They, moreover, make large purchases of grapes at Bouzy,
+Cramant, Le Mesnil, Pierry, &c, and invariably have these pressed under
+their own superintendence. Beyond large shipments to England, Messrs.
+Deutz and Geldermann transact a considerable business with other
+countries, and more especially with Germany, where their brand has been
+for years one of the most popular, and is to-day the favourite at
+numerous regimental messes and the principal hotels.
+
+The old château of Ay, which dates from the early part of the last
+century, belongs to-day to the Count de Mareuil, a member of the firm of
+Ayala and Co., one of the leading establishments of the famous
+Marne-side crû. Perched half-way up the slope, covered with “golden
+plants,� which rises in the rear of the village, the château, with its
+long façade of windows, commands the valley of the Marne for miles, and
+from the stately terraced walk, planted with ancient lime-trees,
+geometrically clipped in the fashion of the last century, a splendid
+view of the distant vineyards of Avize, Cramant, Epernay, and Chouilly
+is obtained. The château formed one of a quartette of seignorial
+residences which at the commencement of the present century belonged to
+Balthazar Constance Dangé-Dorçay, whose ancestors had been lords of
+Chouilly under the _ancien régime_. Dorçay had inherited from an aunt
+the châteaux of Ay, Mareuil, Boursault, and Chouilly, together with a
+large patrimony in land and money; but a mania for gambling brought him
+to utter ruin, and he dispossessed himself of money, lands, and châteaux
+in succession, and was reduced, in his old age, to earn a meagre
+pittance as a violin-player at the Paris Opera House. The old château of
+Boursault, which still exists contiguous to the stately edifice raised
+by Mme. Clicquot on the summit of the hill, was risked and lost on a
+single game at cards by this pertinacious gamester, whose pressing
+pecuniary difficulties compelled him to sell the remaining châteaux one
+by one. That of Ay was purchased by M. Froc de la Boulaye, and by him
+bequeathed to his cousin the Count de Mareuil, whose granddaughter
+became the wife of one of the Messrs. Ayala, and whose son is to-day
+their partner.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. AYALA & CO.’S ESTABLISHMENT AT AY. (p. 121)]
+
+The offices of the firm adjoin the château, and rather higher up the
+hill is their very complete establishment, picturesquely situated in a
+hollow formed by some excavations, with the thickly-planted vine-slopes
+rising above its red-tiled roof. The boldly-designed basement, the
+ascending sweep conducting to the extensive celliers and the little
+centre belfry give a character of originality to the building. Carts
+laden with cases of champagne are leaving for the railway station, casks
+of wine are being transferred from one part of the establishment to
+another, bottles are being got ready for the approaching tirage, and in
+the packing department, installed in one of the three celliers into
+which the story aboveground is divided, quite an animated scene presents
+itself. Iron columns support the roofs of this and its companion
+celliers, where the firm make their _cuvée_, and the bottling of the
+wine takes place. On descending into the basement beneath, the popping
+of corks and the continual clatter of machinery intimate that the
+disgorging and re-corking of the wine are being accomplished, and in the
+dim light we discern groups of workmen engaged in the final manipulation
+which champagne has to undergo, while fresh relays of wine are arriving
+from the cellars by the aid of endless chains. There are two stories of
+these cellars which, excavated in the chalk, extend under the road and
+wind round beneath the château, the more modern galleries being broad,
+lofty, and admirably ventilated, and provided with supports of masonry
+wherever the instability of the chalk rendered this requisite. After a
+lengthened promenade through them we come to the ancient vaults
+extending immediately under the grounds of the château, where every
+particle of available space is utilised, and some difficulty is found in
+passing between the serried piles of bottles of _vin brut_--mostly the
+fine wine of 1874--which rise continuously on either side.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Within a hundred yards of the open space, surrounded by houses of
+different epochs and considerable diversity of design, where the Ay
+market is weekly held, and in one of the narrow winding streets common
+to the town, an escutcheon, with a bunch of grapes for device,
+surmounting a lofty gateway, attracts attention. Within, a trim
+courtyard, girt round with orange-trees in bright green boxes, and
+clipped in orthodox fashion, affords access to the handsome residence
+and offices of M. Duminy, well-known in England and America as a shipper
+of high-class champagnes, and whose Parisian connection is extensive. On
+the right-hand side of the courtyard is the packing-room, and through
+the cellars, which have an entrance here, one can reach the celliers in
+an adjoining street, where the _cuvée_ is made and the bottling of the
+wine accomplished.
+
+M. Duminy’s cellars are remarkably old, and consequently of somewhat
+irregular construction, being at times rather low and narrow, as well as
+on different levels. In addition, however, to these venerable vaults,
+packed with wines of 1869, ’70, ’72, and ’74, M. Duminy has various
+subterranean adjuncts in other parts of Ay, and is at present engaged in
+constructing, at the foot of his vineyards up the mountain slope,
+a noble establishment which includes a vast court, upwards of a thousand
+square yards in extent, wherein are installed capacious bottle-racks and
+bottle-washing machines of the latest improved manufacture. Here are
+also handsome and extensive celliers, together with immense underground
+cellars, comprising broad and lofty galleries of regular design, the
+whole being constructed with a completeness and studied regard for
+convenience which bid fair to render this establishment when finished
+the model one of the Champagne district.
+
+The house was originally founded so far back as 1814 by
+M. Taverne-Richard, who was intimately connected with the principal
+vineyard proprietors of the district. In 1842 this gentleman took his
+son-in-law, M. Duminy, father of the present proprietor of the
+establishment, into partnership, and after the retirement of M. Taverne
+he gave a great impetus to the business, and succeeded in introducing
+his light and delicate wines into the principal Paris hotels and
+restaurants. During its two-thirds of a century of existence the house
+has invariably confined itself to first-class wines, taking particular
+pride in shipping fully-matured growths. Besides its own large reserve
+of these, it holds considerable stocks long since disposed of, and now
+merely awaiting the purchasers’ orders to be shipped.
+
+A few paces beyond M. Duminy’s we come upon an antiquated,
+decrepit-looking timber house, with its ancient gable bulging over as
+though the tough oak brackets on which it rests were at last grown weary
+of supporting their unwieldy burthen. Judging from the quaint carved
+devices, this house was doubtless the residence of an individual of some
+importance in the days when the principal European potentates had their
+commissioners installed at Ay to secure them the finest vintages.
+Continuing our walk along the same narrow winding street, we soon reach
+the establishment of Messrs. Bollinger, whose house, founded in the year
+1829, claims to be the first among the Ay firms who shipped wines to
+foreign countries generally, including England, where the brand has long
+been held in high repute. Messrs. Bollinger, besides being shippers of
+champagne, are extensive vineyard proprietors, owning vinelands at
+Bouzy, Verzenay, and Dizy. A vineyard of theirs at the latter place,
+known as “La Grange,� is said to have formerly belonged to the monks who
+founded the abbey of St. Peter at Hautvillers, the legend connected with
+which we have already related.
+
+A couple of large gateways offer access to the spacious courtyard of
+Messrs. Bollinger’s establishment; a handsome dwelling-house standing on
+the right, and a small pavilion, in which the offices are installed,
+while on the left hand and in the rear of the courtyard rises a range of
+buildings of characteristic aspect, appropriated to the business of the
+firm. In one of the celliers, which has its open-raftered roof supported
+by slim metal columns, we found the tirage going on, the gang of workmen
+engaged in it filling, corking, and lowering into the cellars some
+20,000 bottles a day. In one corner of the apartment stood the large
+_cuvée_ tun--capable of holding some 50 hogsheads--in which the blending
+of the wine is effected, and in an adjoining cellier women were briskly
+labelling and wrapping up the completed bottles of champagne. The
+cellars, constructed some fifty years ago at a cost of nearly £12 the
+superficial yard, are faced entirely with stone, and are alike wide and
+lofty; this is especially the case with four of the more modern
+galleries excavated in 1848, and each 160 feet in length. Besides the
+foregoing, Messrs. Bollinger possess other cellars in Ay, where they
+store their reserve wines both in bottle and in the wood.
+
+On the northern side of Ay, some little distance from the vineyard owned
+by them, the firm of Pfungst frères & Cie. have their cellars, the
+entrance to which lies just under the lofty vine-clad ridge. Messrs.
+Pfungst frères lay themselves out exclusively for the shipment of
+high-class champagnes, and the excellent growths of the Ay district
+necessarily form an important element in their carefully-composed
+_cuvées_. A considerable portion of their stock consists of reserves of
+old wine, and we tasted here a variety of samples of finely-matured
+champagnes of 1868 and ’70, as well as the vintages of 1872 and ’74. All
+of these wines were of superior quality, combining delicacy and
+fragrance with dryness, the latter being their especial feature. In
+addition to their business with England, Messrs. Pfungst frères ship
+largely to India and the United States.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+It is on this side of the town that the fine old Gothic church, dating
+as far back as the twelfth century, is situated. Many of the mouldings
+and the capitals of the columns both inside and outside the building are
+covered over with grape-laden vine-branches, and the sculptured figure
+of a boy bearing a basket of grapes upon his head surmounts the handsome
+Renaissance doorway, seemingly to indicate the honour in which the
+vine--the source of all the prosperity of the little town--was held both
+by the mediæval and later architects of the edifice. Nigh to the church
+stands the old house with its obliterated carved escutcheons, known
+traditionally as the Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre. This monarch loved the
+wine of the place almost as well as his favourite vintage of Arbois, and
+dubbed himself, as we have already mentioned, Seigneur of Ay, whose
+inhabitants he sought to gratify by confirming the charter which
+centuries before had been granted to the town.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Within half-an-hour’s walk of Ay, in an easterly direction, is the
+village of Mareuil, a long straight street of straggling houses, bounded
+by trees and garden-plats, with vine-clad hills rising abruptly behind
+on the one side, and the Marne canal flowing placidly by on the other.
+The archaic church, a mixture of the Romanesque and Early Gothic, stands
+at the farther end of the village, and some little distance on this side
+of it is a massive-looking eighteenth-century building, spacious enough
+to accommodate a regiment of horse, but conventual rather than
+barrack-like in aspect, from the paucity of windows looking on to the
+road. A broad gateway leads into a spacious courtyard to the left of
+which stands a grand château, while on the right there rises an ornate
+round tower of three stories, from the gallery on the summit of which a
+fine view over the valley of the Marne is obtained. The buildings
+inclosing the court on three sides comprise press-houses, celliers, and
+packing-rooms, an antiquated sundial marking the hour on the blank space
+above the vines that climb beside the entrance gateway. The more ancient
+of these tenements formed the vendangeoir of the Dukes of Orleans at the
+time they owned the château of Mareuil, purchased in 1830 by the Duke de
+Montebello, son of the famous Marshal Lannes, and minister and
+ambassador of Louis Philippe and Napoleon III.
+
+The acquisition of this property, to which were attached some important
+vineyards, led, several years later, to the duke’s founding, in
+conjunction with his brothers, the Marquis and General Count de
+Montebello, a champagne firm, whose brand speedily acquired a notable
+popularity. To-day the business is carried on by their sons and heirs,
+for all the original partners in the house have followed their valiant
+father to the grave. Struck down by an Austrian cannon-ball in the
+zenith of his fame, the career of Marshal Lannes, brief as it was,
+furnishes one of the most brilliant pages in French military annals.
+Joining the army of Italy as a volunteer in 1796, he was made a colonel
+on the battle-field in the gorges of Millesimo, when Augereau’s bold
+advance opened Piedmont to the French. He fought at Bassano and Lodi,
+took part in the assault of Pavia and the siege of Mantua, and at
+Arcola, when Napoleon dashed flag in hand upon the bridge, Lannes was
+seriously wounded whilst shielding his general from danger. He
+afterwards distinguished himself in Egypt, and led the van of the French
+army across the Alps, displaying his accustomed bravery both at
+Montebello and Marengo. At Austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing
+of the army, he greatly contributed to the victory, and at Jena,
+Friedland, and Eylau his valour was again conspicuous. Sent to Spain,
+he defeated the Spaniards at Tudela, and took part in the operations
+against Saragossa. Wounded at the battle of Essling, when the Archduke
+Charles inflicted upon Napoleon I. the first serious repulse he had met
+with on the field of battle, the valiant Lannes expired a few days
+afterwards in the Emperor’s arms.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE MONTEBELLO ESTABLISHMENT AT MAREUIL. (p. 126)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  CHÂTEAU OF MAREUIL, BELONGING TO THE DUKE OF MONTEBELLO. (p. 127.)]
+
+We were met at Mareuil, on the occasion of our visit, by Count Alfred
+Ferdinand de Montebello, the present manager of the house, and conducted
+by him over the establishment. In the press-house, to the left of the
+courtyard, were two of the ponderous presses used in the Champagne, for,
+like all other large firms, the house makes its own wine. Grapes grown
+in the Mareuil vineyards arrive here in baskets slung across the backs
+of mules, muzzled so that while awaiting their loads they may not devour
+the fruit within reach. In a cellier adjoining the press-house stands a
+large vat, capable of holding 50 pièces of wine, with a crane beside it
+for hauling up the casks when the _cuvée_ is made. Here the tirage
+likewise takes place, and in the range of buildings, roofed with glass,
+in the rear of the tower, the bottled wine is labelled, capped with
+foil, and packed in cases for transmission to Paris, England, and other
+places abroad.
+
+A double flight of steps, decorated with lamps and vases, leads to the
+handsome offices of the firm, situated on the first floor of the tower,
+while above is an apartment with a panelled ceiling, gracefully
+decorated with groups of Cupids engaged in the vintage and the various
+operations which the famous wines of the Mountain and the River undergo
+during their conversion into champagne. On the ground floor of the tower
+a low doorway conducts to the spacious cellars, which, owing to the
+proximity of the Marne, are all on the same level as well as constructed
+in masonry. The older vaults, where the Marquis de Pange, a former owner
+of the château, stored the wine which he used to sell to the champagne
+manufacturers, are somewhat low and tortuous compared with the broad and
+lofty galleries of more recent date, which have been constructed as the
+growing connection of the firm obliged them to increase their stocks.
+Spite, however, of numerous additions, portions of their reserves have
+to be stored in other cellars in Mareuil. Considerable stocks of each of
+the four qualities of wine supplied by the firm are being got ready for
+disgorgement, including Cartes Noires and Bleues, with the refined Carte
+Blanche and the delicate Crêmant, which challenge comparison with brands
+of the highest repute.
+
+In the adjacent château, the gardens of which slope down to the Marne
+canal, there are various interesting portraits, with one or two relics
+of the distinguished founder of the Montebello family, notably Marshal
+Lannes’s gold-embroidered velvet saddle trappings, his portrait and that
+of Marshal Gerard, as well as one of Napoleon I., by David, with a
+handsome clock and candelabra of Egyptian design, a bust of Augustus
+Cæsar, and a portrait of the Regent d’Orléans.
+
+Another champagne house of standing at Mareuil is that of Bruch-Foucher
+and Co., whose establishment is situated near the village mairie.
+Entering by a lofty porte-cochère, we notice on the left hand a spacious
+packing-room, where men and women are expeditiously completing some
+shipping order, while beyond are the offices, looking on to a terraced
+garden whence a pleasant view is gained of the verdant valley of the
+Marne. From the packing-room a broad staircase leads to the cellars
+beneath, which can also be reached from a venerable range of buildings
+on the opposite side of the road, where young wines and old cognac
+spirit, used in the preparation of the liqueur, are stored in the wood.
+
+In one of these ancient celliers is a vast tun, capable of containing
+nearly 5,000 gallons, carved over with an elaborate device of vineleaves
+and bunches of grapes entwined around overflowing cornucopia and bottles
+of champagne. This handsome cask, in which the firm make their _cuvée_,
+is a worthy rival of the sole antique ornamental tun that still reposes
+in the Royal cellars at Wurzburg. In Messrs. Bruch-Foucher and Co.’s
+capacious cellars, faced and vaulted with stone, from eight to nine
+hundred thousand bottles of wine are stored. The cellars form a single
+story, and extend partly under the adjacent vineyard slopes, deriving
+light and ventilation from numerous shafts which are occasionally no
+less than 150 feet in height. Messrs. Bruch-Foucher and Co., who are
+owners of vineyards at Mareuil, ship three qualities of champagne, the
+finest being their Carte d’Or and their Monogram Carte Blanche. Their
+chief business is with England, Germany, and the United States, where
+their brands enjoy considerable repute.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DOORWAY OF AVIZE CHURCH.]
+
+XII.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AVIZE AND RILLY.
+
+Avize the Centre of the White Grape District-- Its Situation and
+  Aspect-- The Establishment of Giesler and Co.-- The Tirage and the
+  Cuvée-- Vin Brut in Racks and on Tables-- The Packing-Hall, the
+  Extensive Cellars, and the Disgorging Cellier-- Bottle Stores and
+  Bottle-Washing Machines-- Messrs. Giesler’s Wine-Presses at Avize
+  and Vendangeoir at Bouzy-- Their Vineyards and their Purchases of
+  Grapes-- Reputation of the Giesler Brand-- The Establishment of
+  M. Charles de Cazanove-- A Tame Young Boar-- Boar-Hunting in the
+  Champagne-- M. de Cazanove’s Commodious Cellars and
+  Carefully-Selected Wines-- Vineyards Owned by Him and His Family--
+  Reputation of his Wines in Paris and their Growing Popularity in
+  England-- Interesting View from M. de Cazanove’s Terraced Garden--
+  The Vintaging of the White Grapes in the Champagne-- Roper frères’
+  Establishment at Rilly-la-Montagne-- Their Cellars Penetrated by
+  Roots of Trees-- Some Samples of Fine Old Champagnes-- The Principal
+  Châlons Establishments-- Poem on Champagne by M. Amaury de Cazanove.
+
+
+Avize, situated in the heart of the Champagne white grape district, may
+be reached from Epernay by road through Pierry and Cramant or by the
+Châlons Railway to Oiry Junction, between which station and Romilly
+there runs a local line, jocularly termed the _chemin de fer de
+famille_, from the general disregard displayed by the officials for
+anything approaching to punctuality. Avize can scarcely be styled a
+town, and yet its growing proportions are beyond those of an ordinary
+village. It lies pleasantly nestled among the vines, sheltered by bold
+ridges on the north-west, with the monotonous plains of La Champagne
+pouilleuse, unsuited to the cultivation of the vine, stretching away
+eastward in the direction of Châlons. Avize cannot pretend to the same
+antiquity as its neighbour Vertus, and lacks the many picturesque
+vestiges of which the latter can boast. Its church dates back only to
+the 15th century, although the principal doorway in the Romanesque style
+evidently belongs to a much earlier epoch. There is a general air of
+trim prosperity about the place, and the villagers have that well-to-do
+appearance common to the inhabitants of the French wine districts. Only
+at vintage time, however, are there any particular outdoor signs of
+activity, although half a score of champagne firms have their
+establishments here, giving employment to the bulk of the population,
+and sending forth their two or three million bottles of the sparkling
+wine of the Marne annually.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MAKING THE CUVÉE AT MESSRS. GIESLER’S, AT AVIZE. (p.131)]
+
+Proceeding along the straight level road leading from the station to the
+village we encounter on our right hand the premises of Messrs. Giesler
+and Co., the reputation of whose brand is universal. When M. Giesler
+quitted the firm of P. A. Mumm, Giesler, and Co., at Reims, in 1838,
+he removed to Avize and founded the present extensive establishment.
+Entering through a large open gateway we find ourselves within a
+spacious courtyard with a handsome dwelling-house in the rear, and all
+the signs of a champagne business of magnitude apparent. A spiral
+staircase conducts to the counting-house on the first story of a range
+of buildings on the left hand, the ground floor of which is divided into
+celliers. Passing through a door by the side of this staircase we enter
+a large hall where the operation of bottling the wine is going on. Four
+tuns, each holding five ordinary pièces of wine, and raised upon large
+blocks of wood, are standing here, and communicating with them are
+bottling syphons of the type commonly employed in the Champagne. Messrs.
+Giesler do not usually consign the newly-bottled wine at once to the
+cellars, but retain it aboveground for about a fortnight in order that
+it may develop its effervescent qualities more perfectly. We find many
+thousands of these bottles stacked horizontally in the adjoining
+celliers, in one of which stands the great _cuvée_ tun wherein some
+fifty hogsheads of the finest Champagne growths are blended together at
+one time, two hundred hogsheads being thus mingled daily while the
+_cuvées_ are in progress. The casks of wine having been hoisted from the
+cellars to the first floor by a crane, and run on to a trough, their
+bungs are removed, and the wine flows through an aperture in the floor
+into the huge tun beneath, its amalgamation being accomplished by the
+customary fan-shaped appliances, set in motion by the turning of a
+wheel. In an adjacent room is the machine used for mixing the liqueur
+which Messrs. Giesler add so sparingly to their light and fragrant
+wines.
+
+There are a couple of floors above these celliers, the uppermost of
+which is used as a general store, while in the one beneath many
+thousands of bottles of _vin brut_ repose _sur pointe_, either in racks
+or on tables as at the Clicquot-Werlé establishment. This latter system
+requires ample space, for as the _remueur_, or workman who shakes the
+bottles, is only able to use one hand, the operation of dislodging the
+sediment necessarily occupies a much longer time than is requisite when
+the bottles rest in racks.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  PREPARING THE LIQUEUR AT MESSRS. GIESLER’S.]
+
+The buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard comprise a large
+packing-hall, celliers where the wine is finished off, and rooms where
+corks and such-like things are stored. Here, too, is the entrance to the
+cellars, of which there are three tiers, all lofty and well-ventilated
+galleries, very regular in their construction, and faced with either
+stone or brick. In these extensive vaults are casks of fine reserved
+wines for blending with youthful vintages, and bottles of _vin brut_,
+built up in solid stacks, that may be reckoned by their hundreds of
+thousands. At Messrs. Giesler’s the disgorging of the wine is
+accomplished in a small cellier partially underground, and the
+temperature of which is very cool and equable. The _dégorgeurs_,
+isolated from the rest of the workpeople, are carrying on their
+operations here by candlelight. So soon as the sediment is removed the
+bottles are raised in baskets to the cellier above, where the
+liqueuring, re-corking, stringing, and wiring are successively
+accomplished. By pursuing this plan the loss sustained by the
+disgorgement is believed to be reduced to a minimum.
+
+Extensive as these premises are they are still insufficient for the
+requirements of the firm, and across the road is a spacious building
+where new bottles are stored and the washing of the bottles in
+preparation for the tirage takes place. By the aid of the machinery
+provided, sixteen women, assisted by a couple of men, commonly wash some
+fifteen or sixteen thousand bottles in the course of a day. Here, too,
+stands one of the two large presses with which at the epoch of the
+vintage a hundred pièces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty
+hours. The remaining press is installed in a cellier at the farther end
+of the garden on the other side of the road. Messrs. Giesler possess
+additional presses at their vendangeoir at Bouzy, and during the vintage
+have the command of presses at Ay, Verzenay, Vertus, Le Mesnil, &c., it
+being a rule of theirs always to press the grapes within a few hours
+after they are gathered to obviate their becoming bruised by their own
+weight and imparting a dark colour to the wine, a contingency difficult
+to guard against in seasons when the fruit is over-ripe. The firm own
+vineyards at Avize, and have agreements with vine-proprietors at Ay,
+Bouzy, Verzenay, and elsewhere, to purchase their crops regularly every
+year. Messrs. Giesler’s brand has secured its existing high repute
+solely through the fine quality of the wines shipped by the house--wines
+which are known and appreciated by all real connoisseurs of champagne.
+
+From Messrs. Giesler’s it is merely a short walk to the establishment of
+M. Charles de Cazanove, situated in the principal street of Avize. On
+entering the court we encountered a tame young boar engaged in the
+lively pursuit of chasing some terrified hens, while a trio of
+boarhounds, basking on the sunny flagstones, contemplated his
+proceedings with lazy indifference. Boars abound in the woods
+hereabouts, and hunting them is a favourite pastime with the residents,
+and the young boar we had noticed proved to be one of the recent
+captures of the sons of M. de Cazanove, who are among the warmest
+partisans of the exciting sport. Many of the boars found in the woods
+around Reims journey thither, it is said, by night from the famous
+forest of the Ardennes--the scene of Rosalind’s wanderings and
+Touchstone’s eccentricities as set forth in _As You Like It_, and whose
+gloomy depths and tangled glens shelter to-day not merely boars but
+wolves as well.
+
+In the Champagne it is no longer the fashion
+
+  “With javelin’s point a churlish swine to gore,�
+
+nor to hunt the boar on horseback, as is still the case in Burgundy.
+When the presence of one or more of these animals is signalled in the
+neighbourhood, a party starts off accompanied by dogs and armed with
+double-barrelled rifles. A circle having been formed round the boar’s
+lair the dogs are set to draw him out, while the _chasseurs_ keep on the
+alert so as not to allow him to escape through their circle alive. In
+this manner a few score of boars are killed every year in the woods
+round about Reims and Epernay.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINEYARDS OF AVIZE AND CRAMANT FROM THE GARDEN OF M. C. DE CAZANOVE.
+  (p. 135.)]
+
+The house of M. Charles de Cazanove was established in 1843 by its
+present proprietor on the foundation of a business which had been in
+existence since 1811. Compared with the monumental grandeur of some of
+the great Reims and Epernay establishments the premises present a simple
+and modest aspect, nevertheless they are capacious and commodious,
+besides which the growing business of the house has led to the
+acquisition of additional cellarage in other parts of Avize. More
+important than all, however, is the quality of the wine with which these
+cellars are stocked, and following the rule observed by champagne firms
+of the highest repute, it has been a leading principle with M. de
+Cazanove always to rely upon the choicer growths--those light, delicate,
+and fragrant wines of the Marne which throw out the true aroma of the
+flower of the vine. M. de Cazanove, who is distinguished for his
+knowledge of viticulture, occupies an influential position at Avize,
+being Vice-President of the Horticultural Society of the Marne, and a
+member of the committee charged with guarding the Champagne vineyards
+against the invasion of the phylloxera. His own vines include only those
+fine varieties to which the crûs of the Marne owe their great renown.
+He possesses an excellent vineyard at Grauves, near Avize, and his
+mother-in-law, Madame Poultier, of Pierry, is one of the principal
+vine-growers of the district.
+
+M. de Cazanove’s wines are much appreciated in Paris, where his business
+is very extensive. His shipments to England are also considerable, but
+from the circumstance of some of his principal customers importing the
+wine under special brands of their own, the brand of the house is not so
+widely known as we should have expected.
+
+From M. de Cazanove’s terraced garden in the rear of his establishment a
+fine view is obtained of one of the most famous viticultural districts
+of the Champagne, yielding wines of remarkable delicacy and exquisite
+bouquet. On the left hand rises up the mountain of Avize, its summit
+fringed with dense woods, where in winter the wild boar has his lair.
+In front stretch the long vine-clad slopes of Cramant, with orchards at
+their base, and the housetops of the village and the spire of the quaint
+old church just peeping over the brow of the hill. To the right towers
+the bold forest-crowned height of Saran with M. Moët’s château perched
+half-way up its north-eastern slope, and fading away in the hazy
+distance are the monotonous plains of the Champagne.
+
+We have already explained that the wines of Avize and Cramant rank as
+_premiers crûs_ of the white grape district, and that every champagne
+manufacturer of repute mingles one or the other in his _cuvée_. The
+white grapes are usually gathered a fortnight or three weeks later than
+the black varieties, but in other respects the vintaging of them is the
+same. The grapes undergo the customary minute examination by the
+_éplucheuses_, and all unripe, damaged, and rotten berries being thrown
+aside, the fruit is conveyed with due care to the press-houses in the
+large baskets known as _paniers mannequins_. The pressing takes place
+under exactly the same conditions as the pressing of the black grapes;
+the must, too, is drawn off into hogsheads to ferment, and by the end of
+the year, when the active fermentation has terminated, the wine is
+usually clear and limpid.
+
+At Rilly-la-Montagne, on the line of railway between Reims and Epernay,
+Roper frères & Cie., late of Epernay, now have their establishment.
+Starting from the latter place we pass Ay and Avenay, and then the
+little village of Germaine in the midst of the forest, and nigh the
+summit of the mountain of Reims, with its “Rendezvous des Chasseurs� in
+immediate proximity to the station. Finally we arrive at Rilly, which,
+spite of its isolated situation, has about it that aspect of prosperity
+common to the more favourable wine districts of France. This is scarcely
+surprising when the quality of its wines is taken into consideration.
+The still red wine of Rilly has long enjoyed a high local reputation,
+and to-day the Rilly growths are much sought after for conversion into
+champagne. White wine of 1874 from black grapes fetched, we were
+informed, as much as from 600 to 700 francs the pièce, while the finer
+qualities from white grapes realised from 300 to 400 francs. Messrs.
+Roper frères & Cie. are the owners of some productive vineyards situated
+on the high road to Chigny and Ludes.
+
+The establishment of Roper frères is adjacent to a handsome modern house
+standing back from the road in a large and pleasant garden, bounded by
+vineyards on two of its sides. In the celliers all the conveniences
+pertaining to a modern champagne establishment are to be found, while
+extending beneath the garden are the extensive cellars of the firm,
+comprising two stories of long and spacious galleries excavated in the
+chalk, their walls and roofs being supported whenever necessary by
+masonry. A curious feature about these cellars is that the roots of the
+larger trees in the garden above have penetrated through the roof of the
+upper story and hang pendent overhead like innumerable stalactites. Here
+after the comparatively new wine of 1874 had been shown to us--including
+samples of the _Vin Brut_ or natural champagne of which the firm make a
+speciality at a moderate price--some choice old champagnes were brought
+forth, including the fine vintages of 1865, 1857, and 1846. The latter
+wine had of course preserved very little of its effervescence, still its
+flavour was exceedingly fine, being soft and delicate to a degree. At
+the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 and the London Exhibition of 1874 the
+collection of champagnes exhibited by Roper frères met with favourable
+recognition from the international juries.
+
+Our tour through the Champagne vineyards and wine-cellars here comes to
+an end. It is true there are important establishments at Châlons,
+notably those of Jacquesson et fils, the Perriers, Freminet et fils, and
+Jacquard frères, the cellars of the first-named being, perhaps,
+unrivalled in the Champagne. As, however, any description of these
+establishments would be little else than a recapitulation of something
+we have already said, we content ourselves with merely notifying their
+existence, and bring our Facts about Champagne to a close with the
+translation of a poem from the pen of M. Amaury de Cazanove of Avize:--
+
+CHAMPAGNE.
+
+  Less for thy grace and glory, land of ours,
+        Than for thy dolour, dear;
+        Let the grief go, and here--
+  Here’s to thy skies, thy women and thy flowers!
+  France! take the toast, thy women and thy roses,
+    France! to thy wine, more wealth unto thy store!
+  And let the lips a grievous memory closes
+    Smile their proud smile once more!
+
+  Swarthy Falernian, Massica the Red,
+        Were ye the nectars poured
+        At the great gods’ broad board?
+  No, poor old wines, all but in name long dead,
+  Nectar’s Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
+    That bubbling o’er with laughing gas,
+    Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
+  And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
+
+  “I am the blood Burgundian sunshine makes;
+        A fine old feudal knight
+        Of bluff and boisterous might,
+  Whose casque feels--ah, so heavy when one wakes!�
+  “And I, the dainty Bordeaux, violets’
+    Perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize.
+  My subtile savour gets
+    In partridge wings its daintiest allies.�
+
+  Ah, potent chiefs, Bordeaux and Burgundy.
+        If we must answer make,
+        This sober counsel take:
+  Messeigneurs, sing your worth less haughtily,
+  For ’tis Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
+    That bubbling o’er with laughing gas,
+    Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
+  And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
+
+  Aye, ’tis the true, the typic wine of France;
+    Aye, ’tis our heart that sparkles in our eyes,
+  And higher beats for every dire mischance;
+    It was the wit that made our fathers wise,
+      That made their valour gallant, gay,
+  When plumes were stirr’d by winds of waving swords,
+  And chivalry’s defiance spoke the words:
+        “À vous, Messieurs les Anglais, les premiers!�
+
+  Let the dull beer-apostle till he’s hoarse
+        Vent his small spleen and spite,
+        Fate fill his sleepless night
+  With nightmares of invincible remorse!
+  We sing Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
+    That bubbling o’er with laughing gas,
+    Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
+  And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  PEASANT WOMEN OF THE ENVIRONS OF SAUMUR.]
+
+XIII.--SPARKLING SAUMUR AND SPARKLING SAUTERNES.
+
+The Sparkling Wines of the Loire often palmed off as Champagnes--
+  The Finer qualities Improve with Age-- Anjou the Cradle of the
+  Plantagenet Kings-- Saumur and its Dominating Feudal Château and
+  Antique Hôtel de Ville-- Its Sinister Rue des Payens and Steep
+  Tortuous Grande Rue-- The Vineyards of the Coteau of Saumur--
+  Abandoned Stone Quarries converted into Dwellings-- The Vintage in
+  Progress-- Old-fashioned Pressoirs-- The Making of the Wine-- The
+  Vouvray Vineyards-- Balzac’s Picture of La Vallée Coquette-- The
+  Village of Vouvray and the Château of Moncontour-- Vernou with its
+  Reminiscences of Sully and Pépin-le-Bref-- The Vineyards around
+  Saumur-- Remarkable Ancient Dolmens-- Ackerman-Laurance’s
+  Establishment at Saint-Florent-- Their Extensive Cellars, Ancient
+  and Modern-- Treatment of the Newly-Vintaged Wine-- The Cuvée--
+  Proportions of Wine from Black and White Grapes-- The Bottling and
+  Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing Operations-- The Château of
+  Varrains and the Establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné-- His Cellars
+  a succession of Gloomy Galleries-- The Disgorging of the Wine
+  accomplished in a Melodramatic-looking Cave-- M. Duvau’s Vineyard--
+  His Sparkling Saumur of Various Ages-- Marked Superiority of the
+  more Matured Samples-- M. Alfred Rousteaux’s Establishments at
+  Saint-Florent and Saint-Cyr-- His convenient Celliers and extensive
+  Cellars-- Mingling of Wine from the Champagne with the finer
+  Sparkling Saumur-- His Vineyard at La Perrière-- M. E. Normandin’s
+  Sparkling Sauternes Manufactory at Châteauneuf-- Angoulême and its
+  Ancient Fortifications-- Vin de Colombar-- M. Normandin’s Sparkling
+  Sauternes Cuvée-- His Cellars near Châteauneuf-- High recognition
+  accorded to the Wine at the Concours Régional d’Angoulême.
+
+
+After the Champagne Anjou is the French province which ranks next in
+importance for its production of sparkling wines. Vintaged on the banks
+of the Loire, these are largely consigned to the English and other
+markets, labelled Crême de Bouzy, Sillery and Ay Mousseux, Cartes Noires
+and Blanches, and the like, while their corks are branded with the names
+of phantom firms, supposed to be located at Reims and Epernay. As a rule
+these wines come from around Saumur, but they are not necessarily the
+worse on that account, for the district produces capital sparkling
+wines, the finer qualities of which improve greatly by being kept for a
+few years. One curious thing shown to us at Saumur was the album of a
+manufacturer of sparkling wines containing examples of the many hundred
+labels ticketed with which his produce had for years past been sold. Not
+one of these labels assigned to the wines the name of their real maker
+or their true birthplace, but introduced them under the auspices of
+mythical dukes and counts, as being manufactured at châteaux which are
+so many “castles in Spain,� and as coming from Ay, Bouzy, Châlons,
+Epernay, Reims, and Verzenay, but never by any chance from Saumur.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS OF THE COTEAU DE SAUMUR. (p. 141)]
+
+Being produced from robuster growths than the sparkling wines of the
+Department of the Marne, sparkling saumur will always lack that
+excessive lightness which is the crowning grace of fine champagne, still
+it has only to be kept for a few years instead of being drunk shortly
+after its arrival from the wine-merchant for its quality to become
+greatly improved and its intrinsic value to be considerably enhanced. We
+have drunk sparkling saumur that had been in bottle for nearly twenty
+years, and found the wine not only remarkably delicate, but, singular to
+say, with plenty of effervescence.
+
+To an Englishman Anjou is one of the most interesting of the ancient
+provinces of France. It was the cradle of the Plantagenet Kings, and
+only ten miles from Saumur still repose the bones of Henry, the first
+Plantagenet, and Richard of the Lion Heart, in the so-called Cimetière
+des Rois of the historic abbey of Fontevrault. The famous vineyards of
+the Coteau de Saumur, eastward of the town and bordering the Loire,
+extend as far as here, and include the communes of Dampierre, Souzay,
+Varrains, Chacé, Parnay, Turquant, and Montsoreau, the last-named within
+three miles of Fontevrault, and chiefly remarkable through its seigneur
+of ill-fame, Jean de Chambes, who instigated his wife to lure Boissy
+d’Amboise to an assignation in order that he might more surely poignard
+him. Saumur is picturesquely placed at the foot of this bold range of
+heights near where the little river Thouet runs into the broad and rapid
+Loire. A massive-looking old château perched on the summit of an
+isolated crag stands out grandly against the clear sky and dominates the
+town, the older houses of which crouch at the foot of the lofty hill and
+climb its steepest sides. The restored antique Hôtel de Ville, in the
+pointed style, with its elegant windows, graceful belfry, and florid
+wrought-iron balconies, stands back from the quay bordering the Loire.
+In the rear is the Rue des Payens, whither the last of the Huguenots of
+this “metropolis of Protestantism,� as it was formerly styled, retired,
+converting their houses into so many fortresses to guard against being
+surprised by their Catholic adversaries. Adjacent is the steep tortuous
+Grande Rue, of which Balzac--himself a Tourangeau--has given such a
+graphic picture in his _Eugénie Grandet_, the scene of which is laid at
+Saumur. To-day, however, only a few of its ancient carved timber houses,
+quaint overhanging corner turrets, and fantastically-studded massive oak
+doors have escaped demolition.
+
+The vineyards of the Coteau de Saumur, yielding the finest wines, are
+reached by the road skirting the river, the opposite low banks of which
+are fringed with willows and endless rows of poplars, which at the time
+of our visit were already golden with the fading tints of autumn.
+Numerous fantastic windmills crown the heights, the summit of which is
+covered with vines, varied by dense patches of woodland. Here, as
+elsewhere along the banks of the Loire, the many abandoned quarries
+along the face of the hill have been turned by the peasants into cosy
+dwellings by simply walling-up the entrances while leaving, of course,
+the necessary apertures for doors and windows. Dampierre, the first
+village reached, has many of these cave-dwellings, and numbers of its
+houses are picturesquely perched up the sides of the slope. The holiday
+costumes of the peasant women encountered in the neighbourhood of Saumur
+are exceedingly quaint, their elaborate and varied head-dresses being
+counterparts of _coiffures_ in vogue so far back as three and four
+centuries ago.
+
+Quitting the banks of the river, we ascend a steep tortuous road shut in
+on either side by high stone walls--for hereabouts all the best
+vineyards are scrupulously inclosed--and finally reach the summit of the
+heights, whence a view is gained over what the Saumurois proudly style
+the grand valley of the Loire. Everywhere around the vintage is going
+on. The vines are planted rather more than a yard apart, and those
+yielding black grapes are trained, as a rule, up tall stakes, although
+some few are trained espalier fashion. Women dexterously detach the
+bunches with pruning-knives and throw them into the _seilles_--small
+squat buckets with wooden handles--the contents of which are emptied
+from time to time into baskets--the counterpart of the chiffonnier’s
+_hotte_, and coated with pitch inside so as to close all the crevices of
+the wickerwork--which the _portes-bastes_ carry slung to their backs.
+When white wine is being made from black grapes for sparkling saumur the
+grapes are conveyed in these baskets forthwith to the underground
+pressoirs in the neighbouring villages before their skins get at all
+broken in order that the wine may be as pale as possible in colour.
+
+The black grape yielding the best wine in the Saumur district is the
+breton, said to be the same as the carbinet-sauvignon, the leading
+variety in the grand vineyards of the Médoc. Other species of black
+grapes cultivated around Saumur are the varennes, yielding a soft and
+insipid wine of no kind of value, and the liverdun, or large gamay, the
+prevalent grape in the Mâconnais, and the same which in the days of
+Philippe-le-Hardi the _parlements_ of Metz and Dijon interdicted the
+planting and cultivation of. The prevalent white grapes are the large
+and small pineau blanc, the bunches of the former being of an
+intermediate size, broad and pyramidal in shape, and with the berries
+close together. These have fine skins, are oblong in shape, and of a
+transparent yellowish-green hue tinged with red, are very sweet and
+juicy, and as a rule ripen late. As for the small pineau, the bunches
+are less compact, the berries are round and of a golden tint, are finer
+as well as sweeter in flavour, and ripen somewhat earlier than the fruit
+of the larger variety.
+
+We noticed as we drove through the villages of Champigny and
+Varrains--the former celebrated for its fine red wines, and more
+especially its crû of the Clos des Cordeliers--that hardly any of the
+houses had windows looking on to the narrow street, but that all were
+provided with low openings for shooting the grapes into the cellar
+where, when making red wine, they are trodden, but when making white
+wine, whether from black or white grapes, they are invariably pressed.
+Each of the houses had its ponderous porte-cochère and low narrow portal
+leading into the large inclosed yard at its side, and over the high
+blank walls vines were frequently trained and pleasantly varied their
+dull grey monotony.
+
+The grapes on being shot into the openings just mentioned fall through a
+kind of tunnel into a reservoir adjacent to the heavy press, which is
+invariably of wood and of the old-fashioned cumbersome type. They are
+forthwith placed beneath the press and usually subjected to five
+separate squeezes, the must from the first three being reserved for
+sparkling wine, while that from the two latter, owing to its being more
+or less deeply tinted, only serves for table wine. The must is at once
+run off into casks in order that it may not ferment on the grape-skins
+and imbibe any portion of their colouring matter. Active fermentation
+speedily sets in and lasts for a fortnight or three weeks according to
+whether the temperature chances to be high or low.
+
+The vintaging of the white grapes takes place about a fortnight later
+than the black grapes, and is commonly a compound operation, the best
+and ripest bunches being first of all gathered just as the berries begin
+to get shrivelled and show symptoms of approaching rottenness. It is
+these selected grapes that yield the best wine. The second gathering,
+which follows shortly after the first, includes all the grapes remaining
+on the vines, and yields a wine perceptibly inferior in quality. The
+grapes on their arrival at the press-house are generally pressed
+immediately and the must is run off into tuns to ferment. At the
+commencement these tuns are filled up every three or four days to
+replace the fermenting must which has flowed over; afterwards any waste
+is made good at the interval of a week, and then once a fortnight, the
+bungholes of the casks being securely closed towards the end of the
+year, by which time the first fermentation is over.
+
+It should be noted that the Saumur sparkling wine manufacturers draw
+considerable supplies of the white wine required to impart lightness and
+effervescence to their _vin préparé_ from the Vouvray vineyards. Vouvray
+borders the Loire a few miles from the pleasant city of Tours, which
+awakens sinister recollections of truculent Louis XI., shut up in his
+fortified castle of Plessis-lez-Tours, around which Scott has thrown the
+halo of his genius in his novel of _Quentin Durward_. On proceeding to
+Vouvray from Tours we skirt a succession of poplar-fringed meadows
+stretching eastward in the direction of Amboise along the right bank of
+the Loire; and after a time a curve in the river discloses to view a
+range of vine-clad heights extending some distance beyond the village of
+Vouvray. Our route lies past the picturesque ruins of the abbey of
+Marmoûtier and the Château des Roches--one of the most celebrated
+castles of the Loire--the numerous excavations in the soft limestone
+ridge on which they are perched being converted as usual into houses,
+magazines, and wine-cellars. We proceed through the village of
+Rochecorbon, and along a road winding among the spurs of the Vouvray
+range, past hamlets, half of whose inhabitants live in these primitive
+dwellings hollowed out of the cliff, and finally enter the charming
+Vallée Coquette, hemmed in on all sides with vine-clad slopes. Here a
+picturesque old house, half château half homestead, was pointed out to
+us as a favourite place of sojourn of Balzac, who speaks of this rocky
+ridge as “inhabited by a population of vine-dressers, their houses of
+several stories being hollowed out in the face of the cliff, and
+connected by dangerous staircases hewn in the soft stone. Smoke curls
+from most of the chimneys which peep above the green crest of vines,
+while the blows of the cooper’s hammer resound in several of the
+cellars. A young girl trips to her garden over the roofs of these
+primitive dwellings, and an old woman, tranquilly seated on a ledge of
+projecting rock, supported solely by the thick straggling roots of the
+ivy which spreads itself over the disjointed stones, leisurely turns her
+spinning-wheel regardless of her dangerous position.� The picture
+sketched by the author of _La Comédie Humaine_, some forty years ago,
+has scarcely changed at the present day.
+
+At the point where the village of Vouvray climbs half-way up the
+vine-crested ridge the rapid-winding Cise throws itself into the Loire,
+and on crossing the bridge that spans the tributary stream we discern on
+the western horizon, far beyond the verdant islets studding the swollen
+Loire, the tall campaniles of Tours Cathedral, which seem to rise out of
+the water like a couple of Venetian towers. Vouvray is a trim little
+place, clustered round about with numerous pleasant villas in the midst
+of charming gardens. The modern château of Moncontour here dominates the
+slope, and its terraced gardens, with, their fantastically-clipped trees
+and geometric parterres, rise tier above tier up the face of the
+picturesque height that overlooks the broad fertile valley, with its
+gardens, cultivated fields, patches of woodland, and wide stretches of
+green pasture which, fringed with willows and poplars, border the
+swollen waters of the Loire. Where the river Brenne empties itself into
+the Cise the Coteau de Vouvray slopes off towards the north, and there
+rise up the vine-clad heights of Vernou, yielding a similar but inferior
+wine to that of Vouvray. The village of Vernou is nestled under the
+hill, and near the porch of its quaint little church a venerable elm
+tree is pointed out as having been planted by Sully, Henry IV.’s able
+Minister. Here, too, an ancient wall, pierced with curious arched
+windows, and forming part of a modern building, is regarded by popular
+tradition as belonging to the palace in which Pépin-le-Bref, father of
+Charlemagne, lived at Vernou.
+
+The communes of Dampierre, Souzay, and Parnay, in the neighbourhood of
+Saumur, produce still red wines rivalling those of Champigny, besides
+which all the finest white wines are vintaged hereabouts--in the
+Perrière, the Poilleux, and the Clos Morain vineyards, and in the
+Rotissans vineyard at Turquant. Wines of very fair quality are also
+grown on the more favourable slopes extending southwards along the
+valley of the Thouet, and comprised in the communes of Varrains, Chacé,
+St. Cyr-en-Bourg, and Brézé. The whole of this district, by the way,
+abounds with interesting archæological remains. While visiting the
+vineyards of Varrains and Chacé we came upon a couple of
+dolmens--vestiges of the ancient Celtic population of the valley of the
+Loire singularly abundant hereabouts. Brézé, the marquisate of which
+formerly belonged to Louis XVI.’s famous grand master of the
+ceremonies--immortalized by the rebuff he received from Mirabeau--boasts
+a noble château on the site of an ancient fortress, in connection with
+which there are contemporary excavations in the neighbouring limestone,
+designed for a garrison of 500 or 600 men. Beyond the vineyards of
+Saint-Florent, westward of Saumur and on the banks of the Thouet, is an
+extensive plateau partially overgrown with vines, where may be traced
+the remains of a Roman camp. Moreover, in the southern environs of
+Saumur, in the midst of vineyards producing exclusively white wines,
+is one of the most remarkable dolmens known. This imposing structure,
+perfect in all respects save that one of the four enormous stones which
+roof it in has been split in two, and requires to be supported, is no
+less than 65 feet in length, 23 feet in width, and 10 feet high.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DOLMEN AT BAGNEUX, NEAR SAUMUR.]
+
+At Saint-Florent, the pleasant little suburb of Saumur, skirting the
+river Thouet, and sheltered by steep hills formed of soft limestone,
+offering great facilities for the excavation of extensive cellars, the
+largest manufacturer of Saumur sparkling wines has his establishment.
+Externally this offers but little to strike the eye. A couple of
+pleasant country houses, half hidden by spreading foliage, stand at the
+two extremities of a spacious and well-kept garden, beyond which one
+catches a glimpse of some outbuildings sheltered by the vine-crowned
+cliff, in which a labyrinth of gloomy galleries has been hollowed out.
+Here M. Ackerman-Laurance, the extent of whose business ranks him as
+second among the sparkling wine manufacturers of the world, stores
+something like 10,000 casks and several million bottles of wine.
+
+At the commencement of the present century, in the days when, as Balzac
+relates in his _Eugénie Grandet_, the Belgians bought up entire vintages
+of Saumur wine, then largely in demand with them for sacramental
+purposes, the founder of the Saint-Florent house commenced to deal in
+the ordinary still wines of the district. Nearly half a century ago he
+was led to attempt the manufacture of sparkling wines, but his efforts
+to bring them into notice failed, and he was on the point of abandoning
+his enterprise when an order for one hundred cases revived his hopes,
+and led to the foundation of the present vast establishment. As already
+mentioned, for many miles all the heights along the Loire have been more
+or less excavated for stone for building purposes, so that every one
+hereabouts who grows wine or deals in it has any amount of cellar
+accommodation ready to hand. It was the vast extent of the galleries
+which M. Ackerman _père_ discovered already excavated at Saint-Florent
+that induced him to settle there in preference to Saumur. Extensive,
+however, as the original vaults were, considerable additional
+excavations have from time to time been found necessary; and to-day the
+firm is still further increasing the area of its cellars, which already
+comprise three principal avenues, each the third of a mile long, and no
+fewer than sixty transverse galleries, the total length of which is
+several miles. One great advantage is that the whole are on the ordinary
+level.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLARS OF M. ACKERMAN-LAURANCE AT SAINT-FLORENT.
+  LABELLING AND PACKING SPARKLING SAUMUR. (p. 150.)]
+
+Ranged against the black uneven walls of the more tortuous ancient
+vaults which give access to these labyrinthine corridors are thousands
+of casks of wine--some in single rows, others in triple tiers--forming
+the reserve stock of the establishment. As may be supposed, a powerful
+vinous odour permeates these vaults, in which the fumes of wine have
+been accumulating for the best part of a century. After passing beneath
+a massive stone arch which separates the old cellars from the new,
+a series of broad and regularly-proportioned galleries are reached,
+having bottles stacked in their tens of thousands on either side.
+Overhead the roof is perforated at regular intervals with circular
+shafts, affording both light and ventilation, and enabling the
+temperature to be regulated to a nicety. In these lateral and transverse
+galleries millions of bottles of wine in various stages of preparation
+are stacked.
+
+We have explained that in the Champagne it is the custom for the
+manufacturers of sparkling wine to purchase considerable quantities of
+grapes from the surrounding growers, and to press these themselves, or
+have them pressed under their own superintendence. At Saumur only those
+firms possessing vineyards make their own _vin brut_, the bulk of the
+wine used for conversion into sparkling wine being purchased from the
+neighbouring growers. On the newly-expressed must arriving at
+M. Ackerman-Laurance’s cellars it is allowed to rest until the
+commencement of the ensuing year, when half of it is mixed with wine in
+stock belonging to last year’s vintage, and the remaining half is
+reserved for mingling with the must of the ensuing vintage. The blending
+is accomplished in a couple of colossal vats hewn out of the rock, and
+coated on the inside with cement. Each of these vats is provided with
+200 paddles for thoroughly mixing the wine, and with five pipes for
+drawing it off when the amalgamation is complete. Usually the _cuvée_
+will embrace 1,600 hogsheads, or 80,000 gallons of wine, almost
+sufficient for half a million bottles. A fourth of this quantity can be
+mixed in each vat at a single operation, and this mixing is repeated
+again and again until the last gallon run off is of precisely the same
+type as the first. For the finer qualities of sparkling saumur the
+proportion of wine from the black grapes to that from white is generally
+at the rate of three or four to one. For the inferior qualities more
+wine from white than from black grapes is invariably used. Only in the
+wine from white grapes is the effervescent principle retained to any
+particular extent; but, on the other hand, the wine from black grapes
+imparts both quality and vinous character to the blend.
+
+The blending having been satisfactorily accomplished, the wine is stored
+in casks, never perfectly filled, yet with their bungholes tightly
+closed, and slowly continues its fermentation, eating up its sugar,
+purging itself, and letting fall its lees. Three months later it is
+fined. It is rarely kept in the wood for more than a year, though
+sometimes the superior qualities remain for a couple of years in cask.
+Occasionally it is even bottled in the spring following the vintage;
+still, as a rule, the bottling of sparkling saumur takes place during
+the ensuing summer months, when the temperature is at the highest as
+this insures to it a greater degree of effervescence. At the time of
+bottling its saccharine strength is raised to a given degree by the
+addition of the finest sugar-candy, and henceforward the wine is
+subjected to precisely the same treatment as is pursued with regard to
+champagne.
+
+It is in a broad but sombre gallery of the more ancient vaults--the
+roughly-hewn walls of which are black from the combined action of
+alcohol and carbonic acid gas--that the processes of disgorging the wine
+of its sediment, adding the syrup, filling up the bottles with wine to
+replace that which gushes out when the disgorging operation is
+performed, together with the re-corking, stringing, and wiring of the
+bottles, are carried on. The one or two adjacent shafts impart very
+little light, but a couple of resplendent metal reflectors, which at a
+distance one might fancy to be some dragon’s flaming eyes, combined with
+the lamps placed near the people at work, effectually illuminate the
+spot.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLARS OF M. LOUIS DUVAU AÎNÉ AT THE CHÂTEAU OF VARRAINS.]
+
+Another considerable manufacturer of sparkling saumur is M. Louis Duvau
+aîné, owner of the château of Varrains, in the village of the same name,
+at no great distance from the Coteau de Saumur. His cellars adjoin the
+château, a picturesque but somewhat neglected structure of the last
+century, with sculptured medallions in high relief above the lower
+windows, and florid vases surmounting the mansards in the roof. In front
+is a large rambling court shaded with acacia and lime trees, and
+surrounded by outbuildings, prominent among which is a picturesque
+dovecote, massive at the base as a martello tower, and having an elegant
+open stone lantern springing from its bell-shaped roof. The cellars are
+entered down a steep incline under a low stone arch, the masonry above
+which is overgrown with ivy in large clusters and straggling creeping
+plants. We soon come upon a deep recess to the right, wherein stands a
+unique cumbersome screw-press, needing ten or a dozen men to work the
+unwieldy capstan which sets the juice flowing from the crushed grapes
+into the adjacent shallow trough. On our left hand are a couple of
+ancient reservoirs, formed out of huge blocks of stone, with the
+entrance to a long vaulted cellar filled with wine in cask. We advance
+slowly in the uncertain light along a succession of gloomy galleries
+with moisture oozing from their blackened walls and roofs, picking our
+way between bottles of wine stacked in huge square piles and rows of
+casks ranged in tiers. Suddenly a broad flood of light shooting down a
+lofty shaft throws a Rembrandtish effect across a spacious and most
+melodramatic-looking cave, roughly hewn out of the rock, and towards
+which seven dimly-lighted galleries converge. On all sides a scene of
+bustling animation presents itself. From one gallery men keep arriving
+with baskets of wine ready for the disgorger; while along another
+bottles of wine duly dosed with syrup are being borne off to be
+decorated with metal foil and their distinctive labels. Groups of
+workmen are busily engaged disgorging, dosing, and re-corking the
+newly-arrived bottles of wine; corks fly out with a succession of loud
+reports suggestive of the irregular fire of a party of skirmishers;
+a fizzing, spurting, and spluttering of the wine next ensues, and is
+followed by the incessant clicking of the various apparatus employed in
+the corking and wiring of the bottles.
+
+Gradual inclines conduct to the two lower tiers of galleries, for the
+cellars of M. Duvau consist of as many as three stories. Down below
+there is naturally less light, and the temperature, too, is sensibly
+colder. Advantage is taken of this latter circumstance to remove the
+newly-bottled wine to these lower vaults whenever an excessive
+development of carbonic acid threatens the bursting of an undue
+proportion of bottles, a casualty which among the Saumur sparkling wine
+manufacturers ranges far higher than with the manufacturers of
+champagne. For the economy of time and labour a lift, raised and lowered
+by means of a capstan worked by horses, is employed to transfer the
+bottles of wine from one tier of cellars to another.
+
+The demand for sparkling saumur is evidently on the increase, for
+M. Duvau, at the time of our visit, was excavating extensive additional
+cellarage. The subsoil at Varrains being largely composed of marl, which
+is much softer than the tufa of the Saint-Florent coteau, necessitated
+the roofs of the new galleries being worked in a particular form in
+order to avoid having recourse to either brickwork or masonry. Tons of
+this excavated marl were being spread over the soil of M. Duvau’s
+vineyard in the rear of the château, greatly, it was said, to the
+benefit of the vines, whose grapes were all of the black variety;
+indeed, scarcely any wine is vintaged from white grapes in the commune
+of Varrains.
+
+At M. Duvau’s we went through a complete scale of sparkling saumurs,
+commencing with the younger and less matured samples, and ascending step
+by step to wines a dozen and more years old. Every year seemed to
+produce an improvement in the wine, the older varieties gaining greatly
+in delicacy and softening very perceptibly in flavour.
+
+Another sparkling saumur manufacturer of note is M. Alfred Rousteaux,
+to-day the sole proprietor of the well-known brand of Morlet and
+Rousteaux, a firm established for many years at Saint-Florent.
+M. Rousteaux’s cellars here are excavated in the tufa cliff which rises
+behind the little suburban village, and are all on one level. The
+galleries, though somewhat winding and irregular, are broad and roomy,
+and in them about 400,000 bottles of wine undergoing the necessary
+treatment are piled up in stacks or placed _sur pointe_. The original
+firm had only been in existence a few years when they found that their
+Saint-Florent establishment was inadequate to the requirements of a
+largely-increasing business, and they started the branch establishment
+of La Perrière at Saint-Cyr, near Tours, but on the opposite bank of the
+Loire. Here are a handsome residence and gardens, a spacious court, and
+convenient celliers where the bottling of the wine is effected, together
+with extensive and well-constructed cellars in which a like quantity of
+wine to that contained in the cellars at Saint-Florent is stored. With
+his finer sparkling wines M. Rousteaux mixes a certain proportion of
+wine from the Champagne district, and thus secures a degree of lightness
+unattainable when the _cuvée_ is exclusively composed of Saumur
+vintages. At La Perrière M. Rousteaux has a vineyard of upwards of sixty
+acres, yielding the best wine of the district, which is noted, by the
+way, for its excellent growths. Hereabouts a succession of vineyard
+slopes stretch from one to another of the many historic châteaux along
+this portion of the Loire, the romantic associations of which render the
+Touraine one of the most interesting provinces of France. Near Tours
+besides the vineyards of Saint-Cyr are those of Joué and Saint-Avertin;
+the two last situate on the opposite bank of the Cher, where the little
+town of Joué, perched on the summit of a hill in the midst of vineyards,
+looks over a vast plain known by the country people as the Landes de
+Charlemagne, the scene, according to local tradition, of Charles
+Martel’s great victory over the Saracens. The Saint-Avertin vineyards
+extend towards the east, stretching almost to the forest of Larçay, on
+the borders of the Cher, where Paul Louis Courier, the famous vigneron
+pamphleteer of the Restoration, noted alike for his raillery, wit, and
+satire, fell beneath the balls of an assassin. A noticeable crû in the
+neighbourhood of Tours is that of Cinq Mars, the ruined château of which
+survives as a memorial of the vengeance of Cardinal Richelieu, who,
+after having sent its owner to the scaffold, commanded its massive walls
+and towers to be razed “_à hauteur d’infamie_� as we see them now.
+
+Finding that sparkling wines were being made in most of the
+wine-producing districts of France, where the growths were sufficiently
+light and of the requisite quality, Messrs. E. Normandin and Co.
+conceived the idea of laying the famous Bordeaux district under
+contribution for a similar purpose, and, aided by a staff of experienced
+workmen from Epernay, they have succeeded in producing a sparkling
+sauternes. Sauternes, as is well known, is one of the finest of white
+wines, soft, delicate, and of beautiful flavour, and its transformation
+into a sparkling wine has been very successfully accomplished. Messrs.
+Normandin’s head-quarters are in the thriving little town of
+Châteauneuf, in the pleasant valley of the Charente, and within fifteen
+miles of Angoulême, a famous old French town, encompassed by ancient
+ramparts and crumbling corner towers, and which, dominated by the lofty
+belfry of its restored semi-Byzantine cathedral, rising in a series of
+open arcades, spreads itself picturesquely out along a precipitous
+height, watered at its base by the rivers Anguienne and Charente.
+Between Angoulême and Châteauneuf vineyard plots dotted over with walnut
+trees, or simple rows of vines divided by strips of ripening maize, and
+broken up at intervals by bright green pastures, line both banks of the
+river Charente. The surrounding country is undulating and picturesque.
+Poplars and elms fringe the roadsides, divide the larger fields and
+vineyards, and screen the cosy-looking red-roofed farmhouses, which
+present to the eyes of the passing tourist a succession of pictures of
+quiet rural prosperity.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Châteauneuf communicates with the Sauternes district by rail, so that
+supplies of wine from there are readily obtainable. Vin de
+Colombar--a famous white growth which English and Dutch cruisers used to
+ascend the Charente to obtain cargoes of when the Jerez wines were shut
+out from England by the Spanish War of Succession--vintaged principally
+at Montignac-le-Coq, also enters largely into Messrs. Normandin and
+Co.’s sparkling sauternes _cuvée_. This colombar grape is simply the
+semillon--one of the leading varieties of the Sauternes
+district--transported to the Charente. The remarkably cool cellars where
+the firm store their wine, whether in wood or bottle, have been formed
+from some vast subterranean galleries whence centuries ago stone was
+quarried, and which are situated about a quarter of an hour’s drive from
+Châteauneuf, in the midst of vineyards and cornfields. The wine is
+invariably bottled in a cellier at the head establishment, but it is in
+these cellars where it goes through the course of careful treatment
+similar to that pursued with regard to champagne.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+In order that the delicate flavour of the wine may be preserved the
+liqueur is prepared with the finest old sauternes, without any addition
+of spirit, and the dose is administered with the most improved modern
+appliance, constructed of silver, and provided with crystal taps. At the
+Concours Régional d’Angoulême of 1877, the jury, after recording that
+they had satisfied themselves by the aid of a chemical analysis that the
+samples of sparkling sauternes submitted to their judgment were free
+from any foreign ingredient, awarded to Messrs. Normandin and Co. the
+only gold medal given in the Group of Alimentary Products.
+
+Encouraged, no doubt, by the success obtained by Messrs. Normandin and
+Co. with their sparkling sauternes, the house of Lermat-Robert and Co.,
+of Bordeaux, have recently introduced a sparkling barsac, samples of
+which were submitted to the jury at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINTAGER OF THE CÔTE D’OR]
+
+XIV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF BURGUNDY AND THE JURA.
+
+Sparkling Wines of the Côte d’Or at the Paris Exhibition--
+  Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot-- Burgundy Wines and Vines formerly
+  the Presents of Princes-- Vintaging Sparkling Burgundies-- Their
+  After-Treatment in the Cellars-- Excess of Breakage-- Similarity of
+  Proceeding to that followed in the Champagne-- Principal
+  Manufacturers of Sparkling Burgundies-- Sparkling Wines of Tonnerre,
+  the birthplace of the Chevalier d’Eon-- The Vin d’Arbanne of
+  Bar-sur-Aube-- Death there of the Bastard de Bourbon-- Madame de la
+  Motte’s Ostentatious Display and Arrest there-- Sparkling Wines of
+  the Beaujolais-- The Mont-Brouilly Vineyards-- Ancient Reputation of
+  the Wines of the Jura-- The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri
+  Quatre-- Rhymes by him in its Honour-- Lons-le-Saulnier-- Vineyards
+  yielding the Sparkling Jura Wines-- Their Vintaging and Subsequent
+  Treatment-- Their High Alcoholic Strength and General Drawbacks.
+
+
+Sparkling wines are made to a considerable extent in Burgundy, notably
+at Beaune, Nuits, and Dijon, and though as a rule heavier and more
+potent than the subtile and delicate-flavoured wines of the Marne, still
+some of the higher qualities, both of the red and white varieties,
+exhibit a degree of refinement which those familiar only with the
+commoner kinds can scarcely form an idea of. At the Paris Exhibition of
+1878 we tasted, among a large collection of the sparkling wines of the
+Côte d’Or, samples of Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot of the highest
+order. Although red wines, they had the merit of being deficient in that
+body which forms such an objectionable feature in sparkling wines of a
+deep shade of colour. M. Regnier, the exhibitor of sparkling red
+vougeot, sent, moreover, a white sparkling wine from the species of
+grape known locally as the clos blanc de Vougeot. These wines, as well
+as the Chambertin, came from the Côte de Nuits, the growths of which are
+generally considered of too vigorous a type for successful conversion
+into sparkling wine, preference being usually given to the produce of
+the Côte de Beaune. Among the sparkling burgundies from the last-named
+district were samples from Savigny, Chassagne, and Meursault, all famous
+for their fine white wines.
+
+Burgundy ranks as one of the oldest viticultural regions of Central
+Europe, and for centuries its wines have been held in the highest
+renown. In the Middle Ages both the wines and vines of this favoured
+province passed as presents from one royal personage to another, just as
+grand _cordons_ are exchanged between them now-a-days. The fabrication
+of sparkling wine, however, dates no further back than some sixty years
+or so. The system of procedure is much the same as in the Champagne,
+and, as there, the wine is mainly the produce of the pineau noir and
+pineau blanc varieties of grape. At the vintage, in order to avoid
+bruising the ripened fruit and to guard against premature fermentation,
+the grapes are conveyed to the pressoirs in baskets instead of the large
+oval vats termed _balonges_, common to the district. They are placed
+beneath the press as soon as possible, and for superior sparkling wines
+only the juice resulting from the first pressure and known as the _mère
+goutte_, or mother drop, is employed. For the ordinary wines that
+expressed at the second squeezing of the fruit is mingled with the
+other. The must is at once run off into casks which have been previously
+sulphured to check, in a measure, the ardour of the first fermentation
+and lighten the colour of the newly-made wine. Towards the end of
+October, when this first fermentation is over, the wine is removed to
+the cellars, or to some other cool place, and in December it is racked
+into other casks. In the April following it is again racked to insure
+its being perfectly clear at the epoch of bottling in the month of May.
+The sulphuring of the original casks having had the effect of slightly
+checking the fermentation and retaining a certain amount of saccharine
+in the wine, it is only on exceptional occasions that the latter is
+artificially sweetened previous to being bottled.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+A fortnight after the tirage the wine commonly attains the stage known
+as _grand mousseux_, and by the end of September the breakage will have
+amounted to between 5 and 8 per cent., which necessitates the taking
+down the stacks of bottles and piling them up anew. The wine as a rule
+remains in the cellars for fully a couple of years from the time of
+bottling until it is shipped. Posing the bottles _sur pointe_, agitating
+them daily, together with the disgorging and liqueuring of the wine, is
+accomplished precisely as in the Champagne.
+
+Among the principal manufacturers of sparkling burgundies are Messrs.
+André and Voillot, of Beaune, whose sparkling white Romanée, Nuits, and
+Volnay are well and favourably known in England; M. Louis Latour, also
+of Beaune, and equally noted for his sparkling red Volnay, Nuits, and
+Chambertin, as for his sparkling white varieties; Messrs. Maire et fils,
+likewise of Beaune; M. Labouré-Goutard and Messrs. Geisweiller et fils,
+of Nuits; Messrs. Marey and Liger-Belair, of Nuits and Vôsne; and
+M. Regnier, of Dijon.
+
+In the department of the Yonne--that is, in Lower Burgundy--sparkling
+wines somewhat alcoholic in character have been made for the last
+half-century at Tonnerre, where the Chevalier d’Eon, that enigma of his
+epoch, was born. The Tonnerre vineyards are of high antiquity, and for
+sparkling wines the produce of the black and white pineau and the white
+morillon varieties of grape is had recourse to. The vintaging is
+accomplished with great care, and only the juice which flows from the
+first pressure is employed. This is run off immediately into casks which
+are hermetically closed when the fermentation has subsided. The
+after-treatment of the wine is the same as in the Champagne. Sparkling
+wines are likewise made at Epineuil, a village in the neighbourhood of
+Tonnerre, and at Chablis, so famous for its white wines, about ten miles
+distant.
+
+An effervescing wine known as the Vin d’Arbanne is made at Bar-sur-Aube,
+some fifty miles north-east of Tonnerre, on the borders of Burgundy, but
+actually in the province of Champagne, although far beyond the limits to
+which the famed viticultural district extends. It was at Bar-sur-Aube
+where the Bastard de Bourbon, chief of the sanguinary gang of
+_écorcheurs_ (flayers), was sewn up in a sack and flung over the parapet
+of the old stone bridge into the river beneath by order of Charles VII.;
+and here, too, Madame de la Motte, of Diamond Necklace notoriety, was
+married, and in after years made a parade of the ill-gotten wealth she
+had acquired by successfully fooling that infatuated libertine the
+Cardinal Prince de Rohan, until her ostentatious display was cut short
+by her arrest. This Vin d’Arbanne is produced from pineaux and white
+gamay grapes, which, after being gathered with care at the moment the
+dew falls, are forthwith pressed. The wine is left on its lees until the
+following February, when it is racked and fined, the bottling taking
+place when the moon is at the full in March.
+
+Red and white sparkling wines are made to a small extent at Saint-Lager,
+in the Beaujolais, from wine vintaged in the Mont-Brouilly vineyards,
+one of the best known of the Beaujolais crûs. Mont-Brouilly is a lofty
+hill near the village of Cercie, and is covered from base to summit on
+all its sides with vines of the gamay species, rarely trained at all,
+but left to trail along the ground at their own sweet will. At the
+vintage, as we witnessed it, men and women--young, middle-aged, and
+old--accompanied by troops of children, were roaming all over the slopes
+dexterously nipping off the bunches of grapes with their thumb and
+finger nails and flinging them into the little wooden tubs with which
+they were provided. The pressing of the grapes and the after-treatment
+of the wine destined to become sparkling are the same in the Beaujolais
+as in Upper and Lower Burgundy.
+
+The red, straw, and yellow wines of the Jura have long had a high
+reputation in the East of France, and the _vin jaune_ of Arbois, an
+ancient fortified town on the banks of the Cuisance, besieged and sacked
+in turn by Charles of Amboise, Henri IV., and Louis XIV., was one of the
+favourite beverages of the tippling Béarnais who styled himself Seigneur
+of Ay and Gonesse, and who acquired his liking for it while sojourning
+during the siege of Arbois at the old Château des Arsures. In one of
+Henri Quatre’s letters to his minister Sully we find him observing,
+“I send you two bottles of Vin d’Arbois, for I know you do not detest
+it.� A couple of other bottles of the same wine are said to have
+cemented the king’s reconciliation with Mayenne, the leader of the
+League, and the lover of La Belle Gabrielle is moreover credited with
+having composed at his mistress’s table some doggrel rhymes in honour of
+the famous Jura crû:--
+
+  “Come, little page, serve us aright,
+    The crown is often heavy to bear;
+  So fill up my goblet large and light
+    Whenever you find a vacancy there.
+  This wine is surely no Christian wight,
+    And yet you never complaint will hear
+    That it’s not baptised with water clear.
+        Down my throat I pour
+        The old Arbois;
+  And now, my lords, let us our voices raise,
+  And sing of Silenus and Bacchus the praise!�
+
+In more modern times the Jura, not content with the fame of the historic
+yellow wines of Arbois and the deservedly-esteemed straw wines of
+Château-Châlon, has produced large quantities of sparkling wine, the
+original manufacture of which commenced as far back as a century ago.
+To-day the principal seats of the manufacture are at Arbois and
+Lons-le-Saulnier, the latter town the capital of the department and one
+of the most ancient towns of France. Originally founded by the Gauls on
+the banks of the Vallière, in a little valley bordered by lofty hills,
+which are to-day covered with vines, it was girded round with
+fortifications by the Romans. Subsequently the Huns and the Vandals
+pillaged it; then the French and the Burgundians repeatedly contested
+its possession, and it was only definitively acquired by France during
+the reign of Louis XIV. Rouget de l’Isle, the famous author of the
+“Marseillaise,� was born at Lons-le-Saulnier, and here also Marshal Ney
+assembled and harangued his troops before marching to join Napoleon,
+whom he had promised Louis XVIII. to bring back to Paris in an iron
+cage.
+
+The vineyards whence the principal supplies for these sparkling wines
+are derived are grouped at varying distances around Lons-le-Saulnier at
+L’Etoile, Quintigny, Salins, Arbois, St. Laurent-la-Roche, and Pupillin,
+with the Jura chain of mountains rising up grandly on the east. The best
+vineyards at L’Etoile--which lies some couple of miles from
+Lons-le-Saulnier, surrounded by hills, planted from base to summit with
+vines--are La Vigne Blanche, Montmorin, and Montgenest. At Quintigny,
+the wines of which are less potent than those of Arbois, and only retain
+their effervescent properties for a couple of years, the Paridis,
+Prémelan, and Montmorin vineyards are held in most repute, while at
+Pupillin, where a soft agreeable wine is vintaged, the principal
+vineyards are the Faille and the Clos. The vine cultivated for the
+production of sparkling wines are chiefly the savagnin, or white pineau,
+the melon of Poligny, and the poulsard, a black variety of grape held
+locally in much esteem.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+At the vintage, which commences towards the end of October and lasts
+until the middle of the following month, all the rotten or unripe grapes
+are carefully set aside and the sound ones only submitted to the action
+of a screw-press. After the must has flowed for about half-an-hour the
+grapes are newly collected under the press and the screw again applied.
+The produce of this double operation is poured into a vat termed a
+_sapine_, where it remains until bubbles are seen escaping through the
+_chapeau_ that forms on the surface of the liquid. The must is then
+drawn off--sometimes after being fined--into casks, which the majority
+of wine-growers previously impregnate with the fumes of sulphur. When in
+cask the wine is treated in one of two ways; either the casks are kept
+constantly filled to the bunghole, causing the foam which rises to the
+surface during the fermentation to flow over, and thereby leave the wine
+comparatively clear, or else the casks are not completely filled, in
+which case the wine requires to be racked several times before it is in
+a condition for fining. This latter operation is effected about the
+commencement of February, and a second fining follows if the first one
+fails to render the wine perfectly clear. At the tirage, which
+invariably takes place in April, the Jura wines rarely require any
+addition of sugar to insure an ample effervescence. After bottling they
+are treated in exactly the same manner as the vintages of the Marne are
+treated by the great champagne manufacturers. In addition to white
+sparkling wine a pink variety, with natural effervescent properties, is
+made by mixing with the savagnin and melon grapes a certain proportion
+of the poulsard species, from which the best red wines of the Jura are
+produced.
+
+One of the principal sparkling wine establishments at Lons-le-Saulnier
+is that of M. Auguste Devaux, founded in the year 1860. He manufactures
+both sweet and dry wines, which are sold largely in France and elsewhere
+on the Continent, and have lately been introduced into England. Their
+alcoholic strength is equivalent to from 25° to 26° of proof spirit,
+being largely above the dry sparkling wines of the Champagne, which the
+Jura manufacturers regard as a positive advantage rather than an obvious
+drawback. M. Devaux’s principal brand is the Fleur de l’Etoile, of
+which, he has white, pink, and amber-coloured varieties, quoted by him
+at merely three francs the bottle for the grand years.
+
+Besides being too spirituous, the sparkling wines of the Jura are
+deficient in refinement and delicacy. The commoner kinds, indeed,
+frequently have a pronounced unpleasant flavour, due to the nature of
+the soil, to careless vinification, or to the inferior quality of
+liqueur with which the wines have been dosed. Out of some fifty samples
+of all ages and varieties which in my capacity of juror I tasted at the
+Paris Exhibition I cannot call to mind one that a real connoisseur of
+sparkling wines would care to admit to his table.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  CONVEYING GRAPES TO THE PRESS AT SAINT-PÉRAY.]
+
+XV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
+
+Sparkling Wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and Languedoc--
+  Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the South-- Valence with its
+  Reminiscences of Pius VI. and Napoleon I.-- The “Horns of Crussol�
+  on the Banks of the Rhône-- Vintage Scene at Saint-Péray-- The Vines
+  and Vineyards Producing Sparkling Wine-- Manipulation of Sparkling
+  Saint-Péray-- Its Abundance of Natural Sugar-- The Cellars of M. de
+  Saint-Prix and Samples of his Wines-- Sparkling Côte-Rotie,
+  Château-Grille, and Hermitage-- Annual Production and Principal
+  Markets of Sparkling Saint-Péray-- Clairette de Die-- The Porte
+  Rouge of Die Cathedral-- How the Die Wine is Made-- The Sparkling
+  White and Rose-Coloured Muscatels of Die-- Sparkling Wines of
+  Vercheny and Lagrasse-- Barnave and the Royal Flight to Varennes--
+  Narbonne formerly a Miniature Rome, now Noted merely for its Wine
+  and Honey-- Fête of the Black Virgin at Limoux-- Preference given to
+  the New Wine over the Miraculous Water-- Blanquette of Limoux and
+  How it is Made-- Characteristics of this Overrated Wine.
+
+
+Sparkling wines are made after a fashion in several of the southern
+provinces of France--in Auvergne, at Clermont-Ferrand, under the shadow
+of the lofty Puy de Dôme; in Guienne, at Astaffort, the scene of a
+bloody engagement during the Wars of Religion in which the Protestant
+army was cut to pieces when about to cross the Garonne; at Nérac, where
+frail Marguerite de Valois kept her dissolute Court, and Catherine de
+Médicis brought her flying squadron of fascinating maids of honour to
+gain over the Huguenot leaders to the Catholic cause; and at Cahors, the
+Divina, or divine fountain of the Celts, and the birthplace of Pope John
+XXII., of Clement Marot, the early French poet, and of Léon Gambetta; in
+Dauphiné, at Die, Saint-Chef, Saint-Péray, and Largentière, so named
+after some abandoned silver mines, and where the vines are cultivated
+against low walls rising in a series of terraces from the base to the
+summit of the lofty hills; and in Languedoc, at Brioude, where St.
+Vincent, the patron saint of the vinedressers, suffered martyrdom, and
+where it is the practice to expose the must of the future sparkling wine
+for several nights to the dew in order to rid it of its reddish colour;
+also at Linardie, and, more southward still, at Limoux, whence comes the
+well-known effervescing Blanquette.
+
+Principal among the foregoing is the excellent wine of Saint-Péray,
+commonly characterised as the champagne of the South of France. The
+Saint-Péray vineyards border the Rhône some ten miles below the
+Hermitage coteau--the vines of which are to-day well-nigh destroyed by
+the phylloxera--but are on the opposite bank of the river. Our visit to
+Saint-Péray was made from Valence, in which dull southern city we had
+loitered in order to glance at the vast Hôtel du Gouvernement--where
+octogenarian Pius VI., after being spirited away a prisoner from Rome
+and hurried over the Alps in a litter by order of the French Directory,
+drew his last breath while silently gazing across the rushing river at
+the view he so much admired--and to discover the house in the Grande
+Rue, numbered 4, in an attic of which history records that Napoleon I.,
+when a sub-lieutenant of artillery in garrison at Valence, resided, and
+which he quitted owing three and a-half francs to his pastrycook.
+
+We crossed the Rhône over one of its hundred flimsy suspension bridges,
+on the majority of which a notice warns you neither to smoke nor run,
+and were soon skirting the base of a lofty, bare, precipitous rock, with
+the “horns of Crussol,� as the peasants term two tall pointed gables of
+a ruined feudal château, perched at the dizzy edge, and having a
+perpendicular fall of some five or six hundred feet below. The château,
+which formerly belonged to the Dukes of Uzès, recognised by virtue of
+the extent of their domains as _premiers pairs de France_, was not
+originally erected in close proximity to any such formidable precipice.
+The crag on which it stands had, it seems, been blasted from time to
+time for the sake of the stone, until on one unlucky occasion when too
+heavy a charge of powder was employed, the entire side of the rock,
+together with a considerable portion of the château itself, were sent
+flying into the air. The authorities, professing to regard what remained
+of the edifice as an historical monument of the Middle Ages, hereupon
+stepped in and prohibited the quarry being worked for the future.
+
+Passing beneath the cliff, one wound round to the left and dived into a
+picturesque wooded dell at the entrance to a mountain pass, then crossed
+the rocky bed of a dried-up stream and drove along an avenue of
+mulberry-trees, which in a few minutes conducted us to Saint-Péray,
+where one found the vintage in full operation. Carts laden with tubs
+filled with white and purple grapes, around which wasps without number
+swarmed, were arriving from all points of the environs and crowding the
+narrow streets. Any quantity of grapes were seemingly to be had for the
+asking, for all the pretty girls in the place were gorging themselves
+with the luscious-looking fruit. In the coopers’ yards bran-new casks
+were ranged in rows in readiness for the newly-made wine, and through
+open doorways, and in all manner of dim recesses, one caught sight of
+sturdy men energetically trampling the gushing grapes under their bare
+feet, and of huge creaking wine-presses reeking with the purple juice.
+It was chiefly common red wine, of an excellent flavour, however, that
+was being made in these nooks and corners, the sparkling white wine,
+known as Saint-Péray, being manufactured in larger establishments, and
+on more scientific principles. It is from a white species of grape known
+as the petite and grosse rousette--the same which yields the white
+Hermitage--that the champagne of the south is produced, and the
+vineyards where they are cultivated occupy all the more favourable
+slopes immediately outside the village, the most noted being the
+Coteau-Gaillard, Solignaes, Thioulet, and Hungary.
+
+Although there is a close similarity between the manufacture of
+champagne and the effervescing wine of Saint-Péray, there are still one
+or two noteworthy variations. For a wine to be sparkling it is requisite
+that it should ferment in the bottle, a result obtained by bottling it
+while it contains a certain undeveloped proportion of alcohol and
+carbonic acid, represented by so much sugar, of which they are the
+component parts. This ingredient has frequently to be added to the
+Champagne wines to render them sparkling, but the wine of Saint-Péray in
+its natural state contains so much sugar that any addition would be
+deleterious. This excess of saccharine enables the manufacturer to
+dispense with some of the operations necessary to the fabrication of
+champagne, which, after fermenting in the cask, requires a second
+fermentation to be provoked in the bottle, whereas the Saint-Péray wine
+ferments only once, being bottled immediately it comes from the
+wine-press.
+
+The deposit in the wine after being impelled towards the neck of the
+bottle is got rid of by following the same system as is pursued in the
+Champagne, but no liqueur whatever is subsequently added to the wine. On
+the other hand, it is a common practice to reduce the over-sweetness of
+sparkling Saint-Péray in years when the grapes are more than usually
+ripe by mixing with it some old dry white wine.
+
+At Saint-Péray we visited the cellars of M. de Saint-Prix, one of the
+principal wine-growers of the district. The samples of effervescing wine
+which he produced for us to taste were of a pale golden colour, of a
+slightly nutty flavour, and with a decided suggestion of the spirituous
+essence known to be concentrated in the wine, one glass of which will go
+quite as far towards elevating a person as three glasses of champagne.
+Keeping the wine for a few years is said materially to improve its
+quality, to the sacrifice, however, of its effervescent properties.
+M. de Saint-Prix informed us that he manufactured every year a certain
+quantity of sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage. The
+principal markets for the Saint-Péray sparkling wines--the production of
+which falls considerably short of a million bottles per annum--are
+England, Germany, Russia, Holland, and Belgium.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The other side of the Rhône is fruitful in minor sparkling wines, chief
+amongst which is the so-called Clairette de Die, made at the town of
+that name, a place of some splendour, as existing antiquities show, in
+the days of the Roman dominion in Gaul. Later on, Die was the scene of
+constant struggles for supremacy between its counts and bishops, one of
+the latter having been massacred by the populace in front of the
+cathedral doorway--ever since known by the sinister appellation of the
+Porte Rouge--and Catholics and Huguenots alike devastated the town in
+the troublesome times of the Reform. Clairette de Die is made
+principally from the blanquette or malvoisie variety of grape, which,
+after the stalks have been removed, is both trodden with the feet and
+pressed. The must is run off immediately into casks, and four-and-twenty
+hours later it is racked into other casks, a similar operation being
+performed every two or three days for the period of a couple of months,
+when the fermentation having subsided the wine is fined and usually
+bottled in the following March. Newly-made Clairette de Die is a sweet
+sparkling wine, but it loses its natural effervescence after a couple of
+years, unless it has been treated in the same manner as champagne, which
+is rarely the case. The wine enjoys a reputation altogether beyond its
+merits.
+
+In addition to the well-known Clairette, some of the wine-growers of Die
+make sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of superior quality,
+which retain their effervescent properties for several years.
+A sparkling wine is also made some ten miles from Die, on the road to
+Saillans, in a district bounded on the one side by the waters of the
+Drôme, and on the other by strange mountains with helmet-shaped crests.
+The centre of production is a locality called Vercheny, composed of
+several hamlets, one of which, named Le Temple, was the original home of
+the family of Barnave. The impressionable young deputy to the National
+Assembly formed one of the trio sent to bring back the French royal
+family from Varennes after their flight from Paris. It will be
+remembered how, under the influence of Marie Antoinette and Madame
+Elizabeth, Barnave became transformed during the journey into a faithful
+partisan of their unhappy cause, and that he eventually paid the penalty
+of his devotion with his life.
+
+In the extreme south of France, and almost under the shadow of the
+Pyrenees, a sparkling wine of some repute is made at a place called
+Lagrasse, about five-and-twenty miles westward of Narbonne, the
+once-famous Mediterranean city, the maritime rival of Marseilles, and in
+its palmy days, prior to the Christian era, a miniature Rome, with its
+capitol, its curia, its decemvirs, its consuls, its prætors, its
+questors, its censors, and its ediles, and which boasted of being the
+birthplace of three Roman Emperors. To-day Narbonne has to content
+itself with the humble renown derived from its delicious honey and its
+characterless full-bodied red wines. Limoux, so celebrated for its
+Blanquette, lies a long way farther to the west, behind the Corbières
+range of mountains that join on to the Pyrenees, and the jagged peaks,
+deep barren gorges, and scarred sides of which have been witness of many
+a desperate struggle during the century and a half when they formed the
+boundary between France and Spain.
+
+We arrived at Limoux just too late for the famous fête of the Black
+Virgin, which lasts three weeks, and attracts crowds of southern
+pilgrims to the chapel of Our Lady of Marseilles, perched on a little
+hill some short distance from the town, with a fountain half-way up it,
+whose water issues drop by drop, and has the credit of possessing
+unheard-of virtues. The majority of pilgrims, however, exhibit a decided
+preference for the new-made wine over the miraculous water, and for
+one-and-twenty days something like a carnival of inebriety prevails at
+Limoux.
+
+Blanquette de Limoux derives its name from the species of grape it is
+produced from, and which we believe to be identical with the malvoisie,
+or malmsey. Its long-shaped berries grow in huge bunches, and dry
+readily on the stalks. The fruit is gathered as tenderly as possible,
+care being taken that it shall not be in the slightest degree bruised,
+after which it is spread out upon a floor to admit of the sugar it
+contains becoming perfect. The bad grapes having been carefully picked
+out, and the pips extracted from the remaining fruit, the latter is now
+trodden, when the must, after being filtered through a strainer, is
+placed in casks, where it remains fermenting for about a week, during
+which time any overflow is daily replenished by other must reserved for
+the purpose. The wine is again clarified and placed in fresh casks with
+the bungholes only lightly closed until all sensible fermentation has
+ceased, when they are securely fastened up. The bottling takes place in
+the month of March, and the wine is subsequently treated much after the
+same fashion as sparkling Saint-Péray, excepting that it is generally
+found necessary to repeat the operation of _dégorgement_ three, if not
+as many as four times.
+
+Blanquette de Limoux is a pale white wine, the saccharine properties of
+which have become completely transformed into carbonic acid gas and
+alcohol. It is, consequently, both dry and spirituous, deficient in
+delicacy, and altogether proves a great disappointment. At its best it
+may, perhaps, rank with sparkling Saint-Péray, but unquestionably not
+with any average champagne.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+XVI.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY.
+
+Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle-- Sparkling German Wines First
+  Made on the Neckar-- Heilbronn, and Gotz von Berlichingen of the
+  Iron Hand-- Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn their
+  attention to Sparkling Wines-- Change of late years in the Character
+  of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- Difference between them and
+  Moussirender Rheinwein-- Vintaging of Black and White Grapes for
+  Sparkling Wine-- The Treatment which German Sparkling Wines
+  Undergo-- Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
+  Moselles-- Fine Natural Bouquet of High Class Sparkling Hocks--
+  Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines during
+  the Franco-German War-- Annual Production-- Deinhard and Co.’s
+  Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz-- The Firm’s Collection of Choice
+  Rhine and Moselle Wines-- Their Trade in German Sparkling Wines--
+  Their Sources of Supply-- The Vintaging and After-Treatment of their
+  Wines-- Characteristics of their Sparkling Hocks and Moselles.
+
+
+The reader is by this time aware that sparkling wines are not indebted
+for their effervescent properties to any particular variety of vine or
+quality of soil, although some species of grapes yield a wine possessing
+a higher degree of effervescence than others. Any wine, in fact, can be
+rendered sparkling, although only wines of a certain lightness of body
+and which are at the same time delicate and clean to the taste--being
+devoid of anything approaching to a _goût de terroir_--are really suited
+to the purpose. Given a wine containing sufficient saccharine, either
+natural or applied, and duly regulate its temperature, and it is easy
+enough to render it sparkling. The Germans discovered this long ago when
+they first transformed the acidulous wines of the Rhine into what we
+term sparkling hocks.
+
+The rise of this industry dates from the epoch of the final downfall of
+Napoleon I., when the officers of the armies of occupation acquired more
+than a passing liking for the exhilarating products of Clicquot and
+Moët, carrying it, in fact, home with them, and so disseminating a taste
+for the sparkling wines of France throughout the North of Europe. In
+Germany the wealthy few only were able to indulge in it, and the
+consumption was for a long time exceedingly limited. When, however,
+after many years of peace, riches began to accumulate, some shrewd men
+set themselves to ascertain whether the German wines could not be
+rendered sparkling like the French. This was satisfactorily and speedily
+settled in the affirmative; but the great difficulty was to find the
+requisite capital for the large preliminary investment necessary to the
+establishment of a manufactory of sparkling wine on even a moderate
+scale, and from which no return could be counted on for the first three
+years. Eventually this was overcome; but the new wines, being in the
+first instance altogether different in character from champagne, found
+but little favour in the country of their production. It was different,
+however, in England, where they speedily succeeded in establishing
+themselves under the designations of sparkling hock and sparkling
+moselle, and from this time forward they have retained their position in
+the English market.
+
+It is generally asserted that sparkling wines were first manufactured in
+Germany more than half a century ago from the inferior Neckar grape both
+at Esslingen and Heilbronn--the latter rendered memorable by the
+exploits of Götz von Berlichingen, whose iron hand distributed blows
+which effectually “cured headache, toothache, and every other human
+malady.� Subsequently, towards 1830, a former _chef de cave_ at Madame
+Clicquot’s establishment at Reims came to Herr Lauteren, of Mayence, and
+suggested to him to engage in the manufacture of sparkling Rhine wines,
+a proposal which the latter soon afterwards profited by; and eight years
+later Herr Rambs, of Trèves, vineyard proprietor and wine-merchant,
+aided by a French cellarman, made the earliest attempt to manufacture
+sparkling moselles, their first trials in this direction resulting in a
+breakage amounting to fifty per cent.
+
+For some years the great anxiety of manufacturers of sparkling hocks was
+to render their wines as much as possible like champagne, which was only
+to be accomplished by disguising their true flavour and dosing them
+largely with syrup. In this form they satisfied, and indeed still
+satisfy, their German and Russian consumers; but of late years England
+has set the example of a decided preference for the drier kinds of
+sparkling wines, the result being that the character of the wines
+destined for the English market has undergone a complete change.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE AHR VALLEY.]
+
+Next to its sweetness the principal difference between German champagne,
+or Moussirender Rheinwein as it is usually called, for Continental
+consumption, and sparkling hocks designed for the English and other
+markets, consists in the former being made principally from black
+grapes, pressed immediately they are gathered and not allowed to ferment
+in their skins, while the latter are made almost exclusively from white
+grapes. The vineyards yielding the black grapes used for these sparkling
+wines are mainly situated at Ingelheim, midway between Bingen and
+Mayence, and in the Ahr valley, between Coblenz and Cologne. At the
+black grape vintage, which precedes the gathering of the white varieties
+by some three or four weeks, the fruit is conveyed to the press in high
+tubs, carried on men’s backs, and holding about 40lbs. apiece. The old
+wooden presses are mostly employed, although of late small transportable
+presses with iron screws, and of French manufacture, are coming into
+use. In order that the wine may be pale in colour, the grapes, which,
+like those of the Champagne, are of the pineau variety, are pressed as
+soon as possible after the gathering; the pressure applied is, moreover,
+rapid and not too strong, and the must is separated forthwith from the
+skins and stalks. On the other hand, the white grapes used in the making
+of German sparkling wine, and which are almost exclusively of the
+far-famed riesling species, are treated precisely as when making still
+Rhine wine--that is, they are crushed in the vineyards by means of
+grape-mills, and afterwards pressed in the usual way. The must for
+sparkling wines, whether from black or white grapes, is run at once into
+casks to ferment. If possible it is conveyed in large casks known as
+stucks--immediately after the pressing, and before fermentation
+begins--to the manufacturer’s cellars in town; but if this cannot be
+accomplished it remains in the cellars of the district until the first
+fermentation is over, which is in December or January. It is then racked
+off its lees, and the produce of black and white grapes is blended
+together, only a small proportion of the former entering into the
+composition of true sparkling hock, which should retain in a marked
+degree the subtile and fragrant perfume of the riesling grape.
+
+The process pursued in the manufacture of sparkling hocks is the same as
+that followed with regard to champagnes. The quantity of grape sugar
+generated in these Northern German latitudes being far from large, both
+hocks and moselles invariably need a small addition of saccharine,
+previous to their being put into bottle, to insure the requisite
+effervescence, whereas in the Champagne the practice of adding sugar
+with this object is not the uniform rule. After the wine is bottled it
+remains in a cool cellar for eighteen months or a couple of years, being
+constantly shaken during this period, in the same way as champagne, in
+order to force the sediment to deposit itself near to the cork. By this
+time the added as well as the natural sugar contained in the wine has
+become converted into alcohol and carbonic acid; and after the sediment
+has been expelled from the bottle the operation of dosing, or
+flavouring, the wine takes place.
+
+Sparkling hocks intended both for the German and Russian markets are
+frequently almost cloying in their sweetness, as much as one-fifth of
+syrup being often added to four-fifths of wine. The sparkling moselles,
+too, for Russia, and not unfrequently for England also, are largely
+dosed with the preparation of elder-flowers, which imparts to them their
+well-known muscatel flavour and perfume. The manufacturers say they are
+doing their best to abandon this absurd practice of artificially
+perfuming sparkling moselles; but many of their customers, and
+especially those in the English provinces, stipulate for the scented
+varieties, possibly from an erroneous belief in their superiority.
+Effervescing Rhine wines of the highest class have a marked and refined
+flavour, together with a very decided natural bouquet. Moreover, they
+retain their effervescent properties for a considerable time after being
+uncorked, and appear to the taste as light, if not precisely as
+delicate, as the finer champagnes, although in reality such is not the
+case; for all sparkling hocks possess greater body than even the
+heaviest champagnes, and cannot, therefore, be drunk with equal freedom.
+
+Great impetus was given to the manufacture of German sparkling wines
+during the war of 1870, when the Champagne was in a measure closed to
+the outside world. At this epoch the less scrupulous manufacturers,
+instigated by dishonest speculators, boldly forged both the brands on
+the corks and the labels on the bottles of the great Reims and Epernay
+firms, and sent forth sparkling wines of their own production to the
+four quarters of the globe as veritable champagnes of the highest class.
+The respectable houses acted more honestly, and, as it turned out, with
+better policy, for by maintaining their own labels and brands they
+extended the market for their produce, causing German sparkling wines to
+be introduced under their true names into places where they had never
+penetrated before, the result being a considerable increase in the
+annual demand, even after the stores of the champagne manufacturers were
+again open to all the world.
+
+Owing to this increased demand, and the deficient supply of suitable
+Rhine wines at a moderate price, the manufacturers of sparkling hocks
+are reduced to buy much of their raw wine at a distance, and are to-day
+large purchasers of the growths of the Palatinate, which are less
+delicate than the vintages of the Rheingau, besides being deficient in
+that fine aroma which distinguishes genuine hock. A leading manufacturer
+computes that between four-and-a-half and five million bottles of
+sparkling wine are made annually in Germany, where there are no fewer
+than fifty manufacturing establishments. The principal market is Great
+Britain, which consumes some two millions of bottles annually; a million
+bottles are drunk at home; while the remainder is divided among the
+North of Europe, the United States, India, Australia, China, and Japan.
+The cheapness of these wines is, no doubt, largely in their favour.
+
+At Coblenz, the capital of Rhenish Prussia, and one of the strongest
+fortresses in the world, the so-called blue Moselle mingles its waters
+with those of the Rhine, and hence the original Roman name of
+Confluentia. With so favourable a situation it is not surprising that
+the city should be the abode of several important firms trading in the
+wines of the two rivers. At the head of these is the well-known house of
+Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent still
+vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-class sparkling
+wines of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius Wegeler,
+I was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the Wine Jury of
+the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over their
+establishment on the Clemens Platz--one of the most perfect and
+admirably appointed in Germany. The firm was founded in 1798 by Herr
+F. Deinhard, who in 1806, when Coblenz was in the hands of the French,
+secured a ninety-nine years’ lease of some cellars under an old convent
+at the low rental of 30 francs per annum, and to-day this curious
+document exists amongst the archives of the firm. Rents of wine-cellars
+were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril, when commerce
+was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the course of
+warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 francs a year of
+course no very extensive entrepôt could have been rented. To-day Messrs.
+Deinhard’s new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area of
+nearly 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other vaults
+stored with wine in various quarters of the city, the whole giving
+employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers. Their
+Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of 1875,
+when it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress Augusta, who
+left behind her the following graceful memento of her visit:--
+
+  “In grateful attachment to Coblenz, in full appreciation of a work
+  which does honour to the town and to the firm, I wish continued
+  prosperity to both.
+
+      AUGUSTA,
+
+    “German Empress and Queen of Prussia.�
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. DEINHARD & CO.’S NEW ESTABLISHMENT AT COBLENZ. (p. 178)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. DEINHARD & CO.’S NEW CELLARS AT COBLENZ. (p. 179.)]
+
+The proximity of the establishment to the Rhine did not allow of the
+cellars being excavated to a greater depth than 30 feet below the
+surface--a mere trifle when compared with the depth of many vaults in
+the Champagne. Any lower excavation, however, would have been attended
+with danger, and as it is, when the Rhine rose to an unusual height in
+March, 1876, the water percolated through the soil and inundated the
+lower cellars to a height of 5 feet. Above these vaults is a
+corresponding range of buildings of picturesque design and substantial
+construction, divided like the cellars into three aisles, each 210 feet
+in length and 23 feet broad. One of the arches of the façade looking on
+to the courtyard is decorated with a graceful and characteristic
+bas-relief, an engraving of which is subjoined.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The cellars, containing 1,400 stucks, as they are termed, of still
+wines--the stuck being equal to 1,500 bottles--present a striking
+appearance with their long vistas of vaulted arcades, admirably built of
+brick, and illuminated by innumerable gas jets, aided by powerful
+reflectors at the extremities of the three aisles. The capacious
+elliptical-headed casks, ranged side by side in uninterrupted sequence,
+contain the choicest German vintages, including the grand wines of the
+Rheingau--Johannisberger, Steinberger, Rudesheimer, Rauenthaler, and the
+like; the red growths of Assmannshausen and Walporzheim; Deidesheimers,
+with rare bouquets and of tender tonical flavour; Liebfrauenmilch, of
+flowery perfume; the finest Moselles from Josefshof and Scharzhofberg,
+Brauneberg and Berncastel, with other growths too numerous to mention,
+of grand years, and from the best situations.
+
+The sparkling wines stored in separate vaults form to-day an important
+item in Messrs. Deinhard’s business. In 1843 the firm made their first
+cuvée, consisting of less than 10,000 bottles. Four years later their
+cuvée amounted to over 50,000 bottles. A falling off was shown during
+the revolutionary epoch, and business only recovered its normal
+condition in 1851, since which time it has gradually increased as the
+wines have grown in favour, until in 1875 the tirage of 1874 vintage
+wines exceeded half a million bottles.
+
+Messrs. Deinhard draw their supplies of wine from white grapes, for
+conversion into sparkling wines, from the Rhine, the Main, the Moselle,
+and the Palatinate, giving preference to the produce of the riesling
+grape, as to this the wine is indebted for its natural bouquet. The
+proportion of wine from black grapes, mingled with the other wines, is
+vintaged by themselves in the Ahr valley and at Ingelheim on the Rhine.
+The Ahr, in summer a rippling streamlet and in winter a rushing torrent,
+falls into the Rhine about twenty miles below Coblenz. The soil of the
+neighbouring hills seems peculiarly adapted for the growth of black
+grapes, one of the best of German red wines being produced in the
+vineyards adjacent to the village of Walporzheim. In order that the wine
+may be as pale as possible, the black grapes are pressed as soon after
+gathering as they can be, and only the juice resulting from the first
+pressure is reserved, the subsequently extracted must being sold to the
+small growers of the neighbourhood. The newly-made wine is brought in
+casks to Coblenz, and rests for eight weeks while completing its
+fermentation. It is then racked into stucks and double stucks, and is
+blended in casks of the latter capacity during the early part of the
+following year, great care being taken to preserve the bouquet of the
+white grapes, with which view, contrary to the practice followed in the
+Champagne, only a moderate proportion of wine from black grapes enters
+into the blend.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINEYARDS IN THE AHR VALLEY.]
+
+Next comes the fining, and four weeks afterwards the wine is newly
+racked. The bottling takes place during May or June, when any deficiency
+of natural saccharine in the wine is supplied by the addition of pure
+sugar-candy. At Messrs. Deinhard’s the wine is bottled at a temperature
+of 72° Fahr., and the bottles remain resting on large stone tables until
+the fermentation is completed, and the saccharine is converted into
+alcohol and carbonic acid gas. This result is commonly obtained in
+ordinary hot weather in eight days’ time, most of the breakage taking
+place during this interval. If on being tested with a manometer the wine
+should indicate too high a pressure, it is at once removed to a cool
+cellar, consequently the average total breakage rarely exceeds 2¼ per
+cent. The wine is now left quiet for at least a year, and if possible
+for two years, after which the bottles are placed on stands in the
+customary inverted position, and shaken daily for a period of six weeks,
+in order to dislodge the sediment and force it against the cork. German
+workmen are far less expert at this operation than their fellows in the
+Champagne, as few of the former can manage more than their
+four-and-twenty thousand bottles per diem. The disgorgement and
+liqueuring of the wine is accomplished at Messrs. Deinhard’s and other
+German establishments in precisely the same fashion as is followed in
+the Champagne.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  ON THE BRIDGE AT RECH, AHR VALLEY.]
+
+The dry sparkling hocks we tasted here had the real riesling flavour and
+the fine natural perfume common to this grape. In preparing them no
+attempt had been made to imitate champagne; but, on the other hand,
+every care had been taken to preserve the true hock character with its
+distinguishing freshness of taste combined with a lightness which wines
+containing liqueur in excess could never have exhibited. The sparkling
+moselles, too, depended not on any imparted muscatel flavour and
+perfume, but on their own natural bouquet and the flavour they derive
+from the schistous soil in which these wines are grown.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  LIEBENSTEIN AND STERRENBERG.]
+
+XVII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY (_continued_).
+
+From Coblenz to Rüdesheim-- Ewald and Co.’s Establishment and its
+  Pleasant Situation-- Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and Convenient
+  Accessories-- Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the most favoured
+  Localities-- The Celebrated Vineyards of the Rheingau-- Eltville and
+  the extensive Establishment of Matheus Müller-- His Vast Stocks of
+  Still and Sparkling German Wines-- The Vineyards laid under
+  contribution for the latter-- M. Müller’s Sparkling Johannisberger,
+  Champagne, and Red Sparkling Assmannshauser-- The Site of
+  Gutenberg’s Birthplace at Mayence occupied by the Offices and
+  Wine-cellars of Lauteren Sohn-- The Sparkling Wine Establishment of
+  the Firm, and their Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles-- The
+  Hochheim Sparkling Wine Association-- Foundation of the
+  Establishment-- Its Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- The
+  Sparkling Wine Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the
+  Nahe Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of
+  M. Oppmann at Wurzburg-- The Historic Cellars of the King of Bavaria
+  beneath the Residenz-- The Establishment of F. A. Siligmüller.
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  STOLZENFELS.]
+
+Ascending the Rhine from Coblenz--past many an ancient ruined castle,
+past restored Stolzenfels, the historic Königs-stuhl, the romantic
+Liebenstein and Sterrenberg, the legendary Lurlei, the tribute-exacting
+Pfalz, and the old town of Bacharach, famous in the Middle Ages for its
+wine mart--we eventually come to Lorch, where the Wisper brook flows
+into the Rhine, and the grand wine-producing district known as the
+Rheingau begins. A few miles higher up are the vineyards of
+Assmannshausen, dominated by the Niederwald, and yielding the finest red
+wine in all Germany. Then passing by Bishop Hatto’s legendary tower we
+emerge from the gorge of the Rhine and soon reach Rüdesheim, crouched at
+the foot of lofty terraced vineyards, which, according to doubtful
+tradition, were planted with Burgundy and Orleans vines by Charlemagne.
+Rüdesheim, like other antiquated little Rhine-side towns, boasts its
+ancient castle with its own poetical legend, while many modern houses
+have sprung up there of late years, and signs of further development are
+apparent on all sides. In the outskirts of the town there are a couple
+of sparkling wine establishments, the one nigh the railway station on
+the western side belonging to Messrs. Dietrich and Co., while eastwards
+on a picturesque slope overlooking the Rhine, and in the midst of
+extensive pleasure-grounds, is the establishment of Messrs. Ewald and
+Co., who date from the year 1858, and rank to-day amongst the leading
+shippers of sparkling hocks and moselles to England.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. EWALD & CO.’S ESTABLISHMENT AT RÜDESHEIM. (p. 185)]
+
+Here are handsome and capacious buildings aboveground, and two floors of
+cellars comprising five vaults, each 160 feet in length and 30 feet
+broad. The lower vaults, 40 feet from the surface, are arched over and
+walled with stone, while the upper ones are faced with brick, both being
+floored with concrete and slanting towards the centre to allow of the
+wine from bottles that have burst running off. Each range of cellars is
+separately ventilated by shafts, generally kept open in winter and
+closed in the summer so as to maintain a temperature not exceeding 47°
+Fahr. in the lower cellars and under 52° in those above. Moreover, with
+the view of conducing to this result the cellars have an ice well
+communicating with them.
+
+Late in the spring, when the newly-bottled wine indicates a sufficient
+number of atmospheres to insure a satisfactory effervescence, it is
+deposited in the lower vaults, the upper ones being devoted to reserve
+wines in wood and wines awaiting the process of disgorgement, or
+undergoing their daily shaking in order to force the deposit against the
+cork. Aboveground there are rooms for storing the liqueur, the corks,
+and the packing-cases, and in a spacious apartment, provided with three
+lifts for communicating with the cellars beneath, the wine is blended
+and bottled, and in due time disgorged and packed. In very warm weather,
+however, it is found preferable for the disgorging and its attendant
+operations to be performed in the cooler temperature of the cellars.
+Messrs. Ewald formerly tested the strength of their bottles with a
+manometer before using them, but for some time past they have given up
+the practice, feeling convinced that it was productive of more harm than
+good. Glass is an amorphous and unelastic substance which, although it
+will stand a high pressure once, often succumbs when put to a second
+test by the action of the fermenting wine. The firm calculate their
+annual breakage at from 2½ to 3 per cent.
+
+Messrs. Ewald being installed almost in the heart or the Rheingau can
+readily draw their supplies of wine from the most favoured localities.
+Johannisberg is within a few miles of Rüdesheim, and in those years
+when, owing to the grapes not having thoroughly ripened, the wine is
+only of intermediate value as a still wine, it serves admirably for
+conversion into sparkling wine, retaining as it does its powerful
+bouquet. Ingelheim, too, noted for its vineyards of black grapes, whose
+produce is much sought after for blending with the finer sparkling Rhine
+wines, is only a few miles higher up the river, on the opposite bank.
+The drier varieties of sparkling hocks and moselles shipped by Messrs.
+Ewald to England have the merit of retaining all the fine flavour and
+natural perfume of the higher-class growths from which, as a rule, these
+wines are prepared.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MATHEUS MÃœLLER AT ELTVILLE. (p. 186)]
+
+Above Rüdesheim the waters of the Rhine expand, the left bank of the
+river, if still lofty, is no longer precipitous, while the right
+continues almost flat so soon as the Rochusberg is left behind. Between
+here and Eltville all the more celebrated vineyards of the Rheingau are
+passed in rapid succession--Geisenheim-Rothenberg, Johannisberg,
+Steinberg, Marcobrunn, Kiedrich-Grafenberg, Rauenthal, and others. At
+Eltville--the former capital of the Rheingau, and where Gunther, of
+Schwarzburg, resigned his crown to Charles IV., and died poisoned, it is
+said, by his successful rival--we find one of the most extensive wine
+establishments in Germany, that of Matheus Müller, who enjoys a high
+reputation in England both for his still and sparkling hocks and
+moselles. His stock ordinarily consists of from 800 to 1,000
+stuck--equivalent to a quarter of a million gallons--of still Rhine and
+Moselle wines, much of it of the best years, and from vineyards of
+repute, together with nearly a million bottles of sparkling wines stored
+in his cellars at Eltville and on the road to Erbach, the aggregate
+length of which is some 3,400 feet. The sparkling wines repose in long
+cool vaulted galleries similar to many cellars in the Champagne, while
+the still wines are stored in capacious subterranean halls each 100
+yards in length.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+For his higher-class sparkling hocks Herr Müller derives his principal
+supplies from the Rheingau, partly from his own vineyards at Eltville,
+Rauenthal, and Hattenheim, and partly by purchases at Erbach,
+Hallgarten, Å’strich, Winkel, Johannisberg, Geisenheim, and Rudesheim;
+while for his best sparkling moselles, Berncastel, Graach, Trèves, and
+the Saar districts are laid under contribution. The Palatinate growths
+of Dürkheim, Deidesheim, Mussbach, Haardt, Rhodt, &c., serve as the
+basis for the medium and cheaper sparkling hocks, and for sparkling
+moselles of a corresponding character such wines as Zeltinger,
+Rachtiger, Erdener, Aldegonder, Winninger, &c., are used. Ingelheim and
+Heidesheim furnish the wine from black grapes necessary in a subordinate
+degree to all sparkling hocks, and very freely had recourse to when it
+is desired to impart a champagne character to the wine, as is commonly
+the case when this is intended for consumption in Germany. Herr Müller
+invariably presses the black grapes himself, in order that the wine may
+be as light in colour as possible. As the house annually lays down large
+stocks of _vin brut_ it is under no necessity of drawing upon them until
+they have attained the requisite maturity and developed all their finer
+qualities.
+
+The dry sparkling hocks and moselles, such as are shipped by Herr Müller
+to England and its colonies, receive a large addition of liqueur when
+destined for the Russian market. His sparkling Johannisberger and
+high-class sparkling moselle from Rheingau and Moselle wines of superior
+vintages are of delicate flavour and great softness, and are frequently
+shipped without any liqueur whatever. Besides Moussirender Rheinwein of
+a champagne character, and largely consumed in Germany and Belgium, Herr
+Müller makes a veritable champagne from wine imported by him from the
+Champagne district. His shipments also include red sparkling
+Assmannshauser--the result of a blend of Assmannshauser, Ingelheimer,
+and other red Rhenish wines--aromatic and full-bodied, and dry or
+moderately sweet according to the country to which it is intended to be
+exported.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  ENTRANCE TO LAUTEREN SOHN’S ESTABLISHMENT, MAYENCE. (p. 188)]
+
+The trade in German sparkling wines has numerous representatives at
+Mayence--the sec of St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, and the
+birthplace of Gutenberg, whose fame is universal. The pioneer of
+printing was born in a house at the corner of the Emmerans and Pfandhaus
+gasse, the site of which is to-day occupied by the residence of three
+members of the firm of C. Lauteren Sohn, established at Mayence so far
+back as 1794, and one of the first in Germany to devote itself to the
+manufacture of sparkling wines. In 1830 the firm profited by an offer
+made to them by a cellarman who had been for many years in the service
+of Madame Clicquot at Reims. The Emmerans-gasse, where the chief
+establishment of the firm is situated, is in the older quarter of
+Mayence--in the midst of a network of intricate winding streets bordered
+by picturesque tall gabled houses and edifices of the Spanish type where
+ornamental oriel windows with quaint supports, medallions, and
+bas-reliefs of varied design continually catch the eye, and saints look
+down upon one from almost every corner. Passing under the gateway of the
+house where Gutenberg was born, and in the rear of which Lauteren Sohn
+have their offices, cooperage, and cellars for still wines, we notice on
+our left hand a tablet commemorating the birth of the inventor of
+printing in these terms:--
+
+  “Gensfleisch House. Family residence of the inventor of the art of
+  printing, John Gensfleisch of Gutenberg, who in the year 1398 was
+  here born. Christian Lauteren has dedicated on the site of the
+  ancient house this memorial to the immortal inventor, Jan. 29, 1825.�
+
+Messrs. Lauteren’s cellars for sparkling wines extend mainly under an
+old monastery, and comprise a succession of large vaulted galleries
+connected by narrow passages with arched entrances. Here are stacked
+some 800,000 bottles of wine in varying conditions of maturity. Messrs.
+Lauteren bottle their wines in August, instead of fully two months
+earlier according to the usual practice, in the belief that the system
+they pursue is more conducive to perfect effervescence, besides being
+attended with less breakage, owing to the newly-bottled wine escaping
+the heat of the summer. All the arrangements at this establishment are
+very complete. There is a place for everything, and everything is to be
+found in its place. Adjoining the courtyard, where new bottles are
+stacked beneath open ornamental sheds, are the tasting-room and the
+apartment where the operations of disgorging, dosing, and re-corking are
+performed. The liqueur added by the firm to their sparkling wines is
+kept in bottle from three to five years before being used. In the
+tasting-room we were shown a variety of sparkling hocks and moselles,
+the former with all the distinguishing characteristics of fine Rhine
+wine, the older samples having gained considerably in softness. A dry
+Cabinet specimen submitted to us exhibited a fine bouquet and much
+delicacy of flavour. The moselles we found particularly interesting,
+made as they were of genuine wines from some of the best vineyards of
+the Moselle district.
+
+The largest German sparkling wine establishment is at Hochheim, which,
+although, situated on the banks of the Main, and several miles distant
+from its confluence with the Rhine, has curiously enough supplied us
+with a generic name under which we inconsistently class the entire
+produce of the Rhine vineyards. Behind the Hochheim railway station
+there rises a long low slope, planted from base to summit with vines,
+a portion of which are screened on the north by a plain-looking church
+and a weather-stained deanery. The vines thus sheltered yield the famous
+Dom Dechanei, the finest Hochheimer known. Some short distance off in a
+westerly direction are the extensive premises of the Hochheim Sparkling
+Wine Association, whose brands are well known in England. The firm of
+Burgeff and Co., whose business the association acquired in 1858 and
+subsequently considerably extended, was founded in 1837. At this
+establishment all the arrangements are of the most perfect character.
+The bottles are cleaned by a machine employing ten persons, and turning
+out several thousand bottles a day. All the bottles moreover, before
+being used, have their strength tested by an ingenious apparatus which
+subjects them to three or four times the pressure they are likely to
+undergo when filled with wine. Pumps, bottle-washing machine, and the
+revolving casks in which the sugar is dissolved for the liqueur, are all
+moved by steam, and the association even manufactures the gas used for
+lighting up the establishment. We tasted here several sparkling hocks
+distinguished by their high flavour and refinement, with sparkling
+moselles vintaged in the best localities and equally excellent in
+quality.
+
+Sparkling hocks and moselles are made by Messrs. Stock and Sons at
+Creuznach, a favourite watering-place in the romantic Nahe valley, noted
+for the picturesque porphyry cliffs which occasionally rise
+precipitously at the river’s edge. Creuznach, where a capital wine is
+vintaged, on the southern slopes of the Schlossberg, is at no great
+distance from Bingen. Messrs. Stock and Sons’ establishment dates from
+1862, and their sparkling wines are mainly made from white grapes, only
+about one-eighth of white wine from black grapes entering into their
+composition. The latter is vintaged at Ingelheim, the grapes being
+pressed under the firm’s own superintendence, and only the must
+resulting from the first squeeze of the press being used. The wine from
+riesling grapes is usually from the Rhine, and with it is mingled a
+certain quantity of wine vintaged on the Hessian plain. The vintage
+generally occurs at the end of October, and the firm remove the new wine
+to their cellars at Creuznach early in the ensuing spring, and bottle it
+in the May or June following. They make both dry and sweet varieties of
+sparkling wines, and their principal markets are England, Germany, the
+East and West Indies, the United States, and Australia.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  BINGEN.]
+
+The establishment of G. C. Kessler and Co. at Esslingen--formerly one of
+the most important of the free imperial cities, and picturesquely
+situated on the Neckar--was founded as far back as 1826, and claims to
+be the oldest sparkling wine factory in Germany. The wine employed comes
+from vineyards in the vicinity of Heilbronn, and others in the Rheingau
+and the Grand Duchy of Baden, and is more or less a blend of the
+clevener, traminer, rulander, riesling, and elbling varieties of grape.
+The vintage takes place in October, and the bottling of the wine is
+effected during the following summer. Messrs. Kessler and Co. treat
+their wines after the system pursued at the Clicquot champagne
+establishment, in which the founder of the Esslingen house held an
+important position for a period of nearly twenty years. The wines are
+prepared sweet or dry according to the market they are destined for. The
+principal business of the firm is with Germany, but they also export to
+England, the United States, the East Indies, and Australia. Their wines
+have met with favourable recognition at various exhibitions, notably
+that of Paris in 1867, when a silver medal was awarded them; and at
+Vienna in 1873, where they received a medal for progress.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE NECKAR AT HEIDELBERG.]
+
+Wurzburg, one of the most antiquated and picturesque of German cities,
+is noted for its sparkling Franconian wines vintaged partly in the
+vineyards that overspread the tall chalk hills which close in around the
+quaint old university town. The most famous of these vineyards are the
+Leist and the Stein, the first-named sloping downward towards the Main
+from the foot of the picturesque Marienberg fort, which, perched on the
+summit of a commanding height, dominates the city and forms so
+conspicuous an object in all the views of it. The extensive buildings of
+the fort not only shield the vines from the winds, but reflect the sun’s
+rays upon them, thereby materially conducing to the perfect ripening of
+the grapes at a much earlier period than is customary. The Stein
+vineyard is situated on the opposite side of the Main, and when viewed
+from the picturesque bridge, studded with incongruous colossal
+statues--such as Joseph and the Virgin Mary in close proximity to
+Charlemagne and Pépin--seems to rise up as an immense rampart behind the
+city. Here the river acts as a reflector, throwing back the sun’s rays
+on the lower portions of the slope, where the finest wine is naturally
+vintaged. An altogether inferior growth is produced on the hill to the
+north, known as the Middle Stein, and also in the Harfe vineyard,
+situated in the rear of the latter. The prevalent vines in the Würzburg
+district are the riesling, the traminer, the elbling, and the rulander,
+or pineau gris.
+
+The first sparkling wine establishment at Würzburg was founded in 1842
+by Herr Oppmann, the Royal cellar-master, who died in 1866. The position
+held by this individual was one of considerable importance, for the King
+of Bavaria is the largest wine-grower in his own dominions, and stores
+the produce of his vineyards in the famous cellars extending beneath one
+of the wings of the deserted Residenz, erected at an epoch when Würzburg
+was subject to episcopal rule. These cellars, vaulted in stone, are on a
+vast scale, and possibly unequalled in the world. You descend a broad
+flight of steps, flanked by ornamental iron balustrades, and encounter
+half-way down a miniature tun, guarded by the Bavarian lions posted in a
+niche in the wall. Following your guide with lighted candles, you pass
+between rows upon rows of capacious casks filled with the wine last
+vintaged, and various wines of recent years; large metal
+chandeliers--fantastically adorned with innumerable coloured bottles and
+glasses, and designed to light up the cellars on festive occasions--here
+and there descending from the arched roof. Eventually you arrive at a
+gallery where huge casks are poised on massive wooden frames in double
+tiers one above the other. These cellars are said to be capable of
+holding upwards of 500 casks, but at the time of our visit there were
+scarcely half that number, and only a mere fraction of these were filled
+with wine. The cellars no longer contain any of that archaic wine
+vintaged in 1546, for which they were formerly celebrated. Indeed, all
+the historic vintages, once their boast, were removed some years ago to
+Munich and deposited in the Royal cellars there. Of the ancient
+ornamental tuns holding their ten thousand gallons each, which the
+Würzburg cellars formerly contained, only a single one remains,
+constructed in the year 1784. This tun, carved on the front with the
+Bavarian arms, is about the dimensions of a fair-sized apartment, and
+being no longer filled with wine, a Diogenes of the period might take up
+his abode in it with perfect comfort. Herr Michael Oppmann, who has
+succeeded to the establishment founded by his father, prepares several
+varieties of white sparkling Franconian wine, with two kinds of red, and
+also sparkling hocks and moselles. The first-named wines are vintaged in
+the best vineyards of Lower Franconia, in the valley of the Main, and
+the Baden Oberland, the finer qualities being principally produced from
+the black clevener grape, usually vintaged the first or second week in
+October. The white grape vintage occurs some fortnight or more later,
+and the wine is bottled either late in the spring or during the coming
+summer. Its after-manipulation differs in no respect from that pursued
+with reference to champagne. Herr Oppmann, whose wines have met with
+favourable recognition at various foreign and home Exhibitions, prepares
+both sweet and dry varieties. Their chief market is Germany, although
+they are exported in fair quantities to Belgium, England, and Northern
+Europe.
+
+Another sparkling wine establishment was founded at Würzburg by Herr
+F. A. Siligmuller in 1843. The wine from white grapes employed by him is
+vintaged partly in his own vineyards on the Stein and the Harfe, and
+partly in other Main vineyards, at Randersacker, Escheradorf, &c., the
+wine used by him from red grapes coming from the Baden Oberland around
+the so-called Kaisers-stuhl--an isolated vine-clad dolerite mountain
+bordering the Rhine, and on the verge almost of the Black Forest--and
+from the neighbourhood of Offenburg, one of the ancient imperial free
+towns, which has lately raised a statue to Sir Francis Drake, “the
+introducer,� as the inscription says, “of the potato into Europe.� The
+vintage here, which commences fully a fortnight earlier than around
+Würzburg, usually takes place about the beginning of October, and the
+wine is bottled in the height of the following summer. Herr
+Siligmuller’s wines, of which there are four qualities, were awarded a
+medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  AT AHRWEILER.]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  A SPANISH VINTAGE SCENE.]
+
+XVIII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY,
+SPAIN, RUSSIA, &c.
+
+Sparkling Voslauer-- The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of Graz--
+  Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers-- Vintaging and Treatment of
+  Styrian Champagnes-- Sparkling Red, Rose, and White Wines of
+  Hungary-- The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at Pressburg--
+  Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, the
+  Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat-- Neuchâtel Champagne-- Sparkling
+  Wine Factories at Vevay and Sion-- The Vevay Vineyards--
+  Establishment of De Riedmatten and De Quay-- Sparkling Muscatel,
+  Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo, and Lacryma Christi of Italy--
+  Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece, Algeria, and Russia-- The Krimski
+  and Donski Champagnes-- The Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great
+  Russian Fairs.
+
+
+Sparkling wines are made in various parts of Austria and Hungary, and of
+late years their produce has been largely on the increase. At Voslau, in
+the vicinity of the picturesque and fashionable summer watering-place of
+Baden, about twenty miles south of Vienna, Herr R. Schlumberger, one of
+my colleagues on the wine jury at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of
+1873 and ’8, makes a white sparkling Voslauer--introduced into England
+some years since--from the blue portuguese, the burgundy (the pineau
+noir), the rulander (the pineau gris), and the riesling varieties of
+grape. It is, however, at Graz, the capital of Styria, picturesquely
+situated on the river Mur, and surrounded by lofty mountains, where
+sparkling wines are made upon the largest scale and with the most
+success. By far the principal manufactory is that of Kleinoscheg
+Brothers, founded in the year 1850, at an epoch when the larger Styrian
+wine-growers were directing their attention to the general improvement
+of their vineyards. The firm gained their knowledge of sparkling wines
+by practical experience acquired in the Champagne itself, and to-day
+they unquestionably produce some of the best sparkling wines that are
+made out of France. They possess extensive vineyards of their own, and
+are also large purchasers of wines from the best districts, including
+Pettau, Radkersburg, the Picherergebirge, and Luttenberg, the latter
+yielding the finest wine which Styria produces, vintaged from the mosler
+or furmint--that is, the Tokay variety of grape.
+
+White wine from the clevener grape, understood to be identical with the
+pineau noir of Burgundy and the Champagne, and vintaged early in
+October, forms the basis of the sparkling wines manufactured by
+Kleinoscheg Brothers. The produce of several other grapes, however,
+enters in a limited degree into the blend, including the riesling, the
+rulander or pineau gris, and the portuguese, the gathering of which is
+usually delayed several weeks later, and is sometimes even deferred
+until the end of November. The first and second pressings of the black
+grapes yield a white must as in the Champagne, while the third and
+fourth give a pink wine of which the firm make a speciality.
+
+The wines, which are treated precisely after the system pursued in the
+Champagne, are bottled during the months of July and August, and are
+made either sweet or dry according to the country they are destined for.
+Considerable shipments of the dry pale Styrian champagne take place to
+England, where the firm also send a delicate sparkling muscatel and a
+sparkling red burgundy, which will favourably compare with the best
+sparkling wines of the Côte d’Or. They have also a large market for
+their wines in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, and export to
+British North America, the East Indies, China, Japan, and Australia.
+From the year 1855 up to the present time the firm of Kleinoscheg
+Brothers have been awarded no less than sixteen medals for their
+sparkling wines at various important home and foreign exhibitions.
+
+At Marburg on the river Drave, in the vicinity of the Bacher Mountains,
+which stretch far into Carinthia, and have their lower slopes covered
+with vines, Herr F. Auchmann has established a successful sparkling wine
+manufactory. The raw wine comes from the vineyards around Marburg and
+from Pettau, some ten or twelve miles lower down the Drave. The vintage
+commonly lasts from the middle of October until the middle of November.
+Black grapes of the clevener and portuguese varieties are pressed as in
+the Champagne, so as to yield a white must, with which a certain portion
+of white wine from the mosler or furmint grape is subsequently mingled.
+The bottling takes place as early as April or May. The wines are
+principally consumed in Austria, but are also exported to Russia, Italy,
+Egypt, the Danubian Principalities, Australia, &c.
+
+Sparkling wines seem to be made in various parts of Hungary, judging
+from the samples sent to the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions from Pesth,
+Pressburg, Oedenburg, Pécs, Velencze, and Kolozsvár. Rose-colour wines
+are evidently much in favour with the respective manufacturers, several
+of whom make sparkling red wines as well, but with none of the success
+of their Styrian neighbours. The best Hungarian sparkling wines we have
+met with are those of Hubert and Habermann, made at Pressburg, the
+former capital of Hungary, where its kings, after being crowned, used to
+ride up the Königsberg brandishing the sword of St. Stephen towards the
+four points of the compass in token of their determination to defend the
+kingdom against all enemies. The white sparkling wines are made
+exclusively from white grapes grown in the neighbouring vineyards of
+Bösing, Geñnau, and St. Georgen, but the firm make red sparkling wines
+as well from the produce of the Ratzersdorf and Wainor vineyards. The
+vintage takes place some time in October, and the wines are bottled both
+in the spring and autumn, but never until they are fully twelve months
+old. With these variations the system pursued with regard to the wines
+is the same as is followed in the Champagne. There are several other
+sparkling wine manufacturers at Pressburg, and the principal market for
+these wines is Austro-Hungary, but shipments of them are made to
+England, the United States, India, Roumania, and Servia. The production
+of sparkling wine in Hungary is now estimated to amount to one million
+bottles annually.
+
+In Croatia Prince Lippe-Schaumburg has established a sparkling
+wine manufactory at Slatina, where he produces a so-called
+Riesling-Champagner, and it would appear from the collection of
+Austro-Hungarian sparkling wines exhibited at Vienna by Herr Bogdan Hoff
+of Cracow, that these wines are also made at Melnik, in Bohemia, at
+Bisenz in Moravia, at Sebenicodi Maraschino in Dalmatia, at Botzen in
+the Tyrol, at Tasnad in Transylvania, and at Weiss-Kirchen in the Banat.
+All these wines had been submitted to examination at the Imperial
+Å“no-chemical laboratory at Klosterneuberg, and one was not surprised to
+find that the majority were pronounced to be of too robust a character
+for transformation into sparkling wines.
+
+Switzerland long since turned its attention to the manufacture of
+sparkling wines, not, however, to meet the requirements of its own
+population, but those of the many tourists with well-lined purses who
+annually explore its valleys, lakes, and mountains. Neuchâtel champagne
+has met with a certain amount of success, and at the present time there
+are a couple of establishments devoted to its production, the best known
+being that of Bouvier frères. There are, moreover, sparkling wine
+manufactories at Vevay in the Vaud Canton, and at Sion in the Valais. In
+the Canton of Neuchâtel the best Swiss red wines are produced--notably
+Cortaillod and Faverge of a ruby hue and Burgundy-like flavour--and the
+sparkling wine manufacturers of the district wisely blend a considerable
+proportion of wine from black grapes with that from white when making
+their _cuvées_. Vaud, on the other hand, being noted for white wines
+bearing some resemblance to certain Rhine growths, it is of these that
+sparkling wines are exclusively made at Vevay.
+
+The Vevay vineyards occupy the heights which skirt the Lake of Geneva on
+its northern side. The innumerable terraces, steep and difficult of
+access to the toiling vine-dresser, on which the vines are planted, are
+the result of centuries of patient labour. Here the vine seems to
+flourish at an altitude of more than 1,800 feet above the sea level.
+To compensate for the deficiency of sunshine the leaves are largely
+stripped from the vines so as to expose the fruit, and thereby assist
+its ripening.
+
+The sparkling wine factory at Sion, bordering the river Rhône, in the
+Canton of the Valais, was established in 1872 by MM. de Riedmatten and
+De Quay, who derive their raw wine from vineyards in the immediate
+neighbourhood, almost all of which have a southern exposure, and occupy
+gentle slopes. The soil chiefly consists of a decomposed limestone
+schist, locally termed “brisé.� In these vineyards, and more especially
+the district known as the Clavaux, some of the best and most alcoholic
+wines in Switzerland are produced.
+
+The firm originally experimented with the choicer and more powerful
+growths, and, as may be imagined, soon discovered they were not well
+adapted for conversion into sparkling wines. To-day they limit
+themselves to wines produced from what is known as the “fendant� variety
+of grape, said by some to be identical with the German riesling, and by
+others to be of the same type as the French chasselas. The vintage in
+the Valais is the earliest in Switzerland, taking place in favourable
+years at the close of September, but ordinarily in the course of
+October. Some fine white candy syrup is added to the wine at the epoch
+of bottling, in order to provoke the requisite effervescence, which it
+does so effectually that the tirage is obliged to take place some time
+between November and May, as at any other period the temperature would
+be too high and the bottles would burst. MM. Riedmatten and De Quay have
+two varieties of sparkling wine--their Carte Blanche, which goes under
+the name of Mont Blanc, and is rather sweet, and their Carte Verte known
+as Glacier de Rhône, a drier variety and finding a readier sale.
+
+Of late years, since many improvements have been effected in Italy both
+in the cultivation of the vineyards and the vintaging of the wine,
+numerous attempts have been made, although on the whole with but
+indifferent success, to produce a good sparkling wine. The principal
+seat of the manufacture is Asti, where the Societa Unione Enofila make
+considerable quantities of a common strong sweet sparkling wine, as well
+as a sparkling muscatel. Alessandria, Ancona, Bologna, Castagnolo,
+Genoa, Modena, Naples, Palermo, and Treviso also profess to make
+sparkling wines, but only in insignificant quantities. Alessandria
+produces sparkling malmsey and red sparkling brachetto; and on the
+Marquis Della Stufa’s estate of Castagnolo a sparkling wine is
+manufactured from the currajola variety of grape, one of the best in the
+Tuscan vineyards. The vines at Castagnolo are cultivated in accordance
+with the French system, and at the vintage all unripe and unsound grapes
+are thrown aside. There is an evident flavour of the muscat grape in the
+Castagnolo sparkling wine, which has the merit of lightness and of being
+well made. The alcoholic strength is equivalent to rather more than 20°
+of proof spirit, and the highest quality wine is remarkable for its
+excessive dryness in comparison with all other samples of Italian
+sparkling wines that we have met with. Naples appears to confine itself
+to producing sparkling white lacryma christi, for which, as a curiosity,
+there exists a certain demand.
+
+Spain of late years has shown itself equally ambitious with Italy to
+achieve distinction in the production of sparkling wines, and at the
+Paris Exhibition of 1878 there were samples from the majority of the
+wine centres skirting the Mediterranean coast, including Gerona,
+Barcelona, Tarragona, and Valencia. Other samples come from Logroño,
+in the north of Spain; and years ago sparkling wine used to be made at
+Villaviciosa, on the Bay of Biscay. To Paris there were also sent
+samples of sparkling orange wine, an agreeable beverage, and
+unquestionably preferable to the majority of Spanish sparkling wines
+composed of the juice of the grape.
+
+Greek sparkling wines, said to be of very fair quality, are made at
+Athens, Corinth, and Tripoliza, and are exported in moderate quantities
+to Russia. Algeria, too, is turning its attention to the production of
+sparkling wines, but solely for home consumption, and at the Paris
+Exhibition there was a sparkling wine from Uruguay, but of execrable
+quality.
+
+The sparkling wines of the Crimea and the Don, known in Russia
+respectively as Krimski and Donski champagnes, are described as being
+superior to much of the wine which passes in England under the name of
+champagne. In Russia it is the fashion to speak contemptuously of them,
+just as rhubarb and gooseberry champagne is spoken of in England, still
+these Crimean and Don products are genuine wines, and, though somewhat
+sweet, may be drunk with satisfaction and in moderate quantities with
+impunity. One of the best Donski brands is that of Abrahamof, and as
+much as six roubles per bottle is demanded for the finer qualities at
+Novoi Tscherkash. About a million bottles of the Donski champagne are
+exported annually, but the wine finds its principal market at the great
+Russian fairs, where almost every important bargain is “wetted� with
+sparkling Donski.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINTAGE SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES.]
+
+XIX.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America-- Failures to Acclimatise
+  European Vines-- Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers and the Mission
+  Fathers-- The Yield of the Mission Vineyards-- The Monster Vine of
+  the Montecito Valley-- The Catawba Vine and its General
+  Cultivation-- Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of American
+  Viticulture-- Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at Cincinnati--
+  Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures there-- Longfellow’s Song in
+  Praise of Catawba-- The Kelley Island Wine Company-- Vintaging and
+  Treatment of their Sparkling Wines-- Decrease of Consumption-- The
+  Vineyards of Hammondsport-- Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling
+  Wines-- The Vintage-- After-Treatment of the Wines-- The Pleasant
+  Valley and Urbana Wine Companies and their Various Brands--
+  Californian Sparkling Wines-- The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society
+  of San Francisco-- Its Early Failures and Eventual Success in
+  Manufacturing Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage in California-- Chinese
+  Vintagers-- How the Wine is Made-- American Spurious Sparkling
+  Wines.
+
+
+From the earliest period of the colonisation of America the vine appears
+to have attracted the attention of the settlers, and it is said that as
+early as 1564 wine was made from the native grape in Florida. The first
+attempts to establish a regular vineyard date, however, from 1620, and
+would seem to have been made in Virginia with European vines, the
+prospects having become sufficiently encouraging in 1630 for the
+colonists to send for French vine-dressers to tend their plants. The
+latter were subsequently accused of ruining the vines by their bad
+treatment, but most likely this was an error, it having since been made
+evident that European vines cannot be successfully cultivated east of
+the Rocky Mountains, where the phylloxera vastatrix prevails. It was in
+vain that William Penn made repeated attempts to acclimatise European
+vines in Pennsylvania, that the Swiss emigrants--vine-growers from the
+Lake of Geneva--made similar trials, they having expended ten thousand
+dollars to no purpose. In vain, in Jessamine county, Kentucky, Pierre
+Legaud laboured in the environs of Philadelphia, and Lakanal, the member
+of the French Convention, experimented in Tennessee, Ohio, and Alabama;
+all their efforts to introduce the Old World vines proved futile. The
+attempts that were made by Swiss settlers at Vevay, in Indiana, with the
+indigenous plants were more successful, and after a time they managed to
+produce some palatable wine from the Schuylkill muscatel.
+
+Towards the latter part of the 18th century the Mission Fathers had
+succeeded in planting vineyards in California. It is known that in 1771
+the vine was cultivated there, and the San Gabriel Mission in the county
+of Los Angeles, some 300 miles S.E. of San Francisco, is said to have
+possessed the first vineyard. A prevalent belief is, that the vines were
+from roots or cuttings obtained from either Spain or Mexico, but it is
+also conjectured that they were some of the wild varieties known to be
+scattered over the country, while a third theory suggests that as
+attempts to make wine from the wild grapes would most likely have proved
+a failure, the Fathers planted the seeds of raisins which had come from
+Spain. The culture must have progressed rapidly, if, as stated, there
+were planted at San Gabriel in a single spring no fewer than 40,000
+vines. These mission vines were mainly of two sorts, the one yielding a
+white grape with a musky flavour, and the other a dark blue fruit. The
+latter was the favourite, doubtless from its produce bearing some
+resemblance to the red wines of Old Castile.
+
+From San Gabriel the planting of the vine extended from mission to
+mission until each owned its patch of vineland. At the time of the
+arrival of the Americans in 1846 the smallest of these was five acres in
+extent, and others as many as thirty acres, and it is calculated the
+average yield was from 700 to 1,000 gallons of wine per acre. This was
+owing first to the exceeding richness of the soil, and secondly to its
+being well irrigated. If the celebrated mission vine grown on one of the
+sunny slopes overlooking the lovely Montecito valley near Santa Barbara
+on the blue Pacific had many fellows in the Fathers’ vineyards, the
+above estimate can hardly be an exaggerated one. The stem of this vine,
+which is four feet four inches in circumference at the ground, rises
+eight feet before branching out. The branches, under which the country
+people are fond of dancing, and which are supported by fifty-two
+trellises, extend over more than 5,000 square feet. This monster vine
+produces annually from five to six tons of grapes, and one year it
+yielded no fewer than 7,000 bunches, each from one to four pounds in
+weight. It is irrigated by water from the hot springs, situated a few
+miles distant, and is believed to be from half to three-quarters of a
+century old.
+
+Viticulture and vinification languished in the United States until
+attention was called in 1826 to the catawba vine by Major Adlum,
+of Georgetown, near Washington, who thought that by so doing he was
+conferring a greater benefit on his country than if he had liquidated
+its national debt. This vine, which is derived from the wild _Vitis
+labrusca_, was first planted on an extensive scale by Nicholas
+Longworth, justly looked upon as one of the founders of American
+viticulture, and gradually supplanted all others, remaining for many
+years the principal plant cultivated along the banks of the Ohio--the
+so-called “Rhine of America�--until, ceaselessly attacked by rot,
+mildew, and leaf-blight, it was found necessary in many places to
+supplant it by more robust varieties.
+
+Mr. Longworth, about the year 1837, among his numerous experiments at
+Cincinnati, included that of making sparkling wines from the catawba,
+isabella, and other varieties of grapes, and to-day there are several
+manufactories of sparkling catawba and other wines in the capital of
+Ohio--the self-named “Queen city,� which its detractors have jocularly
+dubbed Porcopolis on account of the immense trade done there in smoked
+and salted pork. The chief sparkling wine establishments at Cincinnati
+are those of Messrs. Werk and Sons, whose sparkling catawba obtained a
+medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and who have,
+moreover, largely experimented with ives’ and virginia seedlings,
+delaware and other grapes, in making effervescent wines, though only
+with doubtful success. Another Cincinnati firm is that of Messrs. George
+Bogen and Co., whose sparkling wines also met with recognition at
+Vienna.
+
+The reader will remember Longfellow’s well-known song extolling catawba
+wine, which, with more than a poet’s licence, he ranks above the best of
+the Old World vintages:--
+
+    “There grows no vine
+    By the haunted Rhine,
+  By Danube or Guadalquivir,
+    Nor on island nor cape,
+    That bears such a grape
+  As grows by the Beautiful River.
+
+    “Very good in its way
+    Is the Verzenay,
+  Or the Sillery, soft and creamy,
+    But Catawba wine
+    Has a taste more divine,
+  More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy.�
+
+On Kelley’s Island, Erie county, also in the State of Ohio, a wine
+company, established in 1866, and trading principally in still wines,
+makes sparkling wines upon a considerable scale exclusively from the
+catawba variety of grape, which is cultivated in its highest perfection
+both on the islands of Lake Erie and along a narrow slip of territory
+not two miles long bordering the southern shore of the lake, and also in
+the vicinity of Lake Keuka, near Hammondsport, N.Y. The Kelley Island
+Wine Company, as it is styled, presses the grapes between the middle of
+October and the end of November, and bottles from about the 20th May
+until the commencement of July in the year following. Its brands are
+Island Queen, Nonpareil, and Carte Blanche. Ninety-five per cent. of the
+wines are dry, and the tendency of the market is in favour of a still
+drier article. Shipments are principally confined to the United States,
+the great centre of the trade being St. Louis, on the Mississippi, which
+has its own sparkling wine establishments, and to-day disputes with
+Chicago the title of Queen of the West. The company keep some 100,000
+bottles of sparkling wines in stock, and possess facilities for bottling
+five times that quantity whenever the demand might warrant such a step
+being taken. Of recent years, however, economy has been the rule in
+American society, and the market for native sparkling wines at any rate
+is to-day a reduced one.
+
+At Hammondsport, south of Lake Keuka--in other words, Crooked Lake--and
+in the State of New York, the establishments of the Pleasant Valley and
+Urbana wine companies, devoting their attention to both still and
+sparkling wines, are installed. The region, which enthusiastic writers
+now term the Champagne of America, was colonised in 1793, and vines of
+the catawba and isabella varieties were first planted for the purpose of
+making wine in 1854. At the present time there are about 8,000 acres
+under cultivation with all the better species of vines. The produce from
+black and white grapes is mingled for the sparkling wines of the
+district. Of the former but two kinds are considered suitable, the
+concord and the isabella, both being varieties of the indigenous
+labrusca, or so-called foxy-flavoured grape. The concord is a hardy and
+productive plant, producing large and compact bunches of large round
+sweet grapes, yielding a wine of the obnoxious foxy flavour. The
+isabella is an equally hardy and productive variety, and its bunches are
+of good size, although not compact. Its berries, too, are large, oval,
+and juicy, and marked by a strong musky aroma.
+
+Of the white, or rather pale-coloured grapes--for their hue is usually a
+reddish one--used for sparkling wines, the principal is the catawba,
+also of the labrusca variety. The branches are large and tolerably
+compact; the berries, too, are above the medium size, and have a rich
+vinous and pronounced musky flavour. Other so-called white species of
+grapes are the diana and the iona, both, of them seedlings of the
+catawba; the delaware, the bunches of which are rather small but
+compact, the berries round, extremely juicy and fresh-tasting, but sweet
+and aromatic, the wine produced from which is noted for its fragrant
+bouquet; and, lastly, the walter, a variety obtained by crossing the
+delaware with the diana. The bunches and berries of the walter are of
+medium size; the flavour, like that of the delaware, is sweet and
+aromatic; and the grape is, moreover, remarkable for its agreeable
+bouquet.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The vintage usually commences about the end of September or the
+commencement of October, and the grapes, after being carefully sorted,
+are run through a small mill, which breaks the skins, and admits of the
+juice running the more readily out when the fruit is placed beneath the
+press. The latter is worked with a metal screw, and the must is
+conducted through pipes or hose to casks holding from two to four
+thousand gallons each, in which it ferments. During the following May
+the wine is carefully blended, and the operation of bottling commences
+and lasts for about two or three months. The newly-bottled wine is at
+first stored in a warm place in order to start the fermentation again,
+and when the bottles commence to burst it is removed to the subterranean
+vaults, where it remains stacked in a horizontal fashion until the time
+arrives to force the sediment down upon the corks. This is accomplished
+precisely as in the Champagne, the subsequent disgorging and liqueuring
+being also effected according to the orthodox French system. Altogether
+a couple of years elapse between the epoch of bottling and shipment, and
+during this interval each bottle is handled upwards of two hundred
+times.
+
+The Pleasant Valley Wine Company, established in 1860 for the commerce
+of still wines, in which it continues to do an extensive business,
+commenced five years later to make sparkling wines. It grows its own
+grapes and consumes annually about 1,500 tons of fruit, bottling from
+200,000 to 300,000 bottles of sparkling wine in the course of the year.
+Its brands are the Great Western, of which there is a dry and an extra
+dry variety, the Carte Blanche, and the Pleasant Valley. Even the extra
+dry variety of the first-named wine tastes sweet in comparison with a
+moderately dry champagne, in addition to which its flavour, though
+agreeable, is certainly too pronounced for a sparkling wine of high
+quality. The wines, which secured a medal for progress at the Vienna
+Exhibition of 1873, are sold in every city in the United States, and the
+company also does a small but increasing trade with England and South
+America.
+
+The Urbana Wine Company, also established at Hammondsport at the same
+epoch as its rival, deals, like the latter, in still wines as well. It
+has three brands--the Gold Seal, of which there is an extra dry variety,
+the Imperial, and the Royal Rose. At Vienna a diploma of merit was
+awarded to these wines, for which a considerable market is found
+throughout the United States and in the West Indies and South America.
+The Urbana Wine Company produces excellent sparkling wines of singular
+lightness and of delicate though distinctive flavour. In our judgment
+the drier varieties are greatly to be preferred. The prices of all the
+American sparkling wines are certainly high, being almost equivalent to
+the price of first-class champagnes taken at Reims and Epernay.
+
+In California the manufacture of sparkling wines is carried on with
+considerable success, and at the Vienna Exhibition the Buena Vista
+Vinicultural Society of San Francisco was awarded a medal for progress
+for the excellent samples it sent there. The society was originally
+organised by Colonel Haraszthy, the pioneer in recent times of
+Californian viticulture. It commenced manufacturing sparkling wines with
+the assistance of experienced workmen from Epernay and Ay; but the
+endeavours, extending over some three or four years, were attended with
+but indifferent success, very few _cuvées_ proving of fair quality,
+whilst with the majority the wine had to be emptied from the bottles and
+distilled into brandy. The son of Colonel Haraszthy subsequently
+succeeded, in conjunction with Mr. Isidor Landsberger, of San Francisco,
+in discovering the cause of these failures, and for ten years past the
+wine has been constantly improving in quality owing to the increased use
+of foreign grapes, which yield a _vin brut_ with a delicate bouquet and
+flavour approaching in character to the finer champagnes. The wine is
+perfectly pure, no flavouring extracts or spirit being employed in the
+composition of the liqueur, which, is composed merely of sugar-candy
+dissolved in fine old wine. A French connoisseur pronounces sparkling
+Sonoma to be the best of American sparkling wines, “clean and fresh,
+tasting, with the flavour of a middle-class Ay growth, as well as
+remarkably light and delicate, and possessed of considerable
+effervescence.� The Sonoma valley vineyards produce the lightest wines
+of all the Californian growths, some of the white varieties indicating
+merely 15° of proof spirit, and the red ones no more than 17½°.
+
+The vintage takes place towards the end of October, and the grapes are
+gathered by Chinamen, who will each pick his 12 to 14 cwt. of grapes a
+day for the wage of a dollar. Light wooden boxes are used for holding
+the grapes, which are stripped from their stalks on their arrival at the
+press-house, and then partially crushed by a couple of revolving
+rollers. An inclined platform beneath receives them, and after the
+expressed juice has been run off into cask they are removed to the
+press, and the must subsequently extracted is added to that forced out
+by the rollers. When white wine is being made from black grapes the
+pressure is less continuous, and the must is of course separated at once
+from the skins. The fermentation, which is violent for some ten or
+twelve hours, ceases in about a fortnight, providing a temperature of
+from 70° to 75° Fahr. is maintained in the vaults. The wine is racked at
+the new year, and again before the blending and bottling of it in the
+spring.
+
+The Californian sparkling wines not only find a market in the eastern
+States, but are sent across the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands, Japan,
+China, and even to wine-producing Australia, which has not yet succeeded
+in producing sparkling wines of its own.
+
+The manufacture of spurious sparkling wines is carried on to some extent
+in the United States. The raw wine is cleared by fining it with albumen
+or gelatine and with alum; the latter substance imparting to it great
+brilliancy. After being dosed with a flavoured syrup the wine is charged
+like soda-water with carbonic acid gas by placing the bottles under a
+fountain, and as this gas is derived from marble dust and sulphuric
+acid, it is liable to be impregnated with both lead and copper, which
+have the effect of disorganising alike the wine and the consumers of
+it--nausea, headache, and other ills resulting from drinking sparkling
+wines made under such conditions.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+XX.--CONCLUDING FACTS AND HINTS.
+
+Dry and Sweet Champagnes-- Their Sparkling Properties-- Form of
+  Champagne Glasses-- Style of Sparkling Wines Consumed in Different
+  Countries-- The Colour and Alcoholic Strength of Champagne--
+  Champagne Approved of by the Faculty-- Its Use in Nervous
+  Derangements-- The Icing of Champagne-- Scarcity of Grand Vintages
+  in the Champagne-- The Quality of the Wine has little influence on
+  the Price-- Prices realised by the Ay and Verzenay Crûs in Grand
+  Years-- Suggestions for Laying down Champagnes of Grand Vintages--
+  The Improvement they Develop after a few Years-- The Wine of 1874--
+  The proper kind of Cellar to lay down Champagne in-- Advantages of
+  Burrow’s Patent Slider Wine Bins-- Increase in the Consumption of
+  Champagne-- Tabular Statement of Stocks, Exports, and Home
+  Consumption from 1844-5 to 1877-8-- When to Serve Champagne at a
+  Dinner Party-- Charles Dickens’s dictum that its proper place is at
+  a Ball-- Advantageous Effect of Champagne at an ordinary British
+  Dinner Party-- Sparkling Wine Cups.
+
+
+When selecting a sparkling wine one fact should be borne in mind--that
+just as, according to Sam Weller, it is the seasoning which makes the
+pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine
+dry or sweet, light or strong. A really palatable dry champagne,
+emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine
+quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best
+_vin brut_, to which necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of
+liqueur will be added. On the other hand, a sweet champagne can be
+produced from the most ordinary raw wine--the Yankees even claim to have
+evolved it from petroleum--as the amount of liqueur it receives
+completely masks its original character and flavour. This excess of
+syrup, it should be remarked, contributes materially to the wine’s
+explosive force and temporary effervescence, but shortly after the
+bottle has been uncorked the wine becomes disagreeably flat. A fine dry
+wine, indebted as it is for its sparkling properties to the natural
+sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent
+effervescence. It continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after
+being poured into the glass owing to the carbonic acid having been
+absorbed by the wine itself instead of being accumulated in the vacant
+space between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that
+have been highly liqueured. Even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted
+a good champagne will preserve its fine flavour, which the effervescence
+will have assisted to conceal. Champagne, it should be noted, sparkles
+best in tall tapering glasses; still these have their disadvantages,
+promoting as they do an excess of froth when the wine is poured into
+them, and almost preventing any bouquet which the wine possesses from
+being recognised.
+
+Manufacturers of champagne and other sparkling wines prepare them dry or
+sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are
+designed. The sweet wines go to Russia and Germany, the sweet-toothed
+Muscovite regarding M. Louis Roederer’s syrupy product as the
+_beau-idéal_ of champagne, and the Germans demanding wines with 20 or
+more per cent. of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quantity that is
+contained in the average champagnes shipped to England. France consumes
+light and moderately sweet wines; the United States gives a preference
+to the intermediate qualities; China, India, and other hot countries
+stipulate for light dry wines; while the very strong ones go to
+Australia, the Cape, and other places where gold and diamonds and
+such-like trifles are from time to time “prospected.� Not merely the
+driest but the very best wines of the best manufacturers, and commanding
+of course the highest prices, are invariably reserved for the English
+market. Foreigners cannot understand the marked preference shown in
+England for exceedingly dry sparkling wines. They do not consider that
+as a rule they are drunk during dinner with the _plats_, and not at
+dessert, with all kinds of sweets, fruits, and ices, as is almost
+invariably the case abroad.
+
+Good champagne is usually of a pale straw colour, but with nothing of a
+yellow tinge about it. When its tint is pinkish this is owing to a
+portion of the colouring matter having been extracted from the skins of
+the grapes--a contingency which every pains are taken to avoid,
+although, since the success achieved by the wine of 1874, slightly pink
+wines are likely to be the fashion. The positive pink or rose-coloured
+champagnes, such as were in fashion some thirty years ago, are simply
+tinted with a small quantity of deep red wine. The alcoholic strength of
+the drier wines ranges from 18° of proof spirit upwards, or slightly
+above the ordinary Bordeaux, and under all the better-class Rhine wines.
+Champagnes when loaded with a highly alcoholized liqueur will, however,
+at times mark 30 degrees of proof spirit. The lighter and drier the
+sparkling wine the more wholesome it is, the saccharine element in
+conjunction with alcohol being not only difficult of digestion, but
+generally detrimental to health.
+
+The faculty are agreed that fine dry champagnes are among the safest
+wines that can be partaken of. Any intoxicating effects are rapid but
+exceedingly transient, and arise from the alcohol suspended in the
+carbonic acid being applied rapidly and extensively to the surface of
+the stomach. “Champagne,� said Curran, “simply gives a runaway rap at a
+man’s head.� Dr. Druitt, equally distinguished by his studies upon wine
+and his standing as a physician, pronounces good champagne to be “a true
+stimulant to body and mind alike, rapid, volatile, transitory, and
+harmless. Amongst the maladies which are benefited by it,� remarks he,
+“is the true neuralgia, intermitting fits of excruciating pain running
+along certain nerves, without inflammation of the affected part, often a
+consequence of malaria, or of some other low and exhausting causes. To
+enumerate the cases in which champagne is of service would be to give a
+whole nosology. Who does not know the misery, the helplessness of that
+abominable ailment, influenza, whether a severe cold or the genuine
+epidemic? Let the faculty dispute about the best remedy if they please;
+but a sensible man with a bottle of champagne will beat them all.
+Moreover, whenever there is pain, with exhaustion and lowness, then
+Dr. Champagne should be had up. There is something excitant in the wine;
+doubly so in the sparkling wine, which the moment it touches the lips
+sends an electric telegram of comfort to every remote nerve. Nothing
+comforts and rests the stomach better, or is a greater antidote to
+nausea.�
+
+Champagne of fine quality should never be mixed with ice or iced water;
+neither should it be iced to the extent champagnes ordinarily are, for,
+in the first place, the natural lightness of the wine is such as not to
+admit of its being diluted without utterly spoiling it, and in the next,
+excessive cold destroys alike the fragrant bouquet of the wine and its
+delicate vinous flavour. Really good champagne should not be iced below
+a temperature of 50° Fahr., whereas exceedingly sweet wines will bear
+icing down almost to freezing point, and be rendered more palatable by
+the process. The above remarks apply to all kinds of sparkling wine.
+
+In the Champagne what may be termed a really grand vintage commonly
+occurs only once, and never more than twice, in ten years. During the
+same period, however, there will generally be one or two other tolerably
+good vintages. In grand years the crop, besides being of superior
+quality, is usually abundant, and as a consequence the price of the raw
+wine is scarcely higher than usual. Apparently from this circumstance
+the sparkling wine of grand vintages does not command an enhanced value,
+as is the case with other fine wines. It is only when speculators
+recklessly outbid each other for the grapes or the _vin brut_, or when
+stocks are low and the _vin brut_ is really scarce, that the price of
+champagne appears to rise.
+
+That superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by the
+amounts paid for the Ay and Verzenay crûs in years of grand vintages.
+During the present century these appear to have been 1802, ’06, ’11,
+’18, ’22, ’25, ’34, ’42, ’46, ’57, ’65, ’68, and ’74--that is, thirteen
+grand vintages in nearly eighty years. Other good vintages, although not
+equal to the foregoing, occurred in the years 1815, ’32, ’39, ’52, ’54,
+’58, ’62, ’64, and ’70. Confining ourselves to the grand years, we find
+that the Ay wine of 1834, owing to the crop being plentiful as well as
+good, only realised from 110 to 140 francs the pièce of 44 gallons,
+although for two years previously this had fetched from 150 to 200
+francs. In 1842 the price ranged from 120 to 150 francs, whereas the
+vastly inferior wine of the year before had commanded from 210 to 275
+francs. In 1846, the crop being a small one, the price of the wine rose,
+and in 1857 the pièce fetched as much as from 480 to 500 francs, still
+this was merely a trifle higher than it had realised the two preceding
+years. In 1865 the price was 380 to 400 francs, and in 1868 about the
+same, whereas the indifferent vintages of 1871, ’72, and ’73 realised
+from 500 to 1,000 francs the pièce. It was very similar with the wine of
+Verzenay. In 1834 the price of the pièce ranged from 280 to 325 francs,
+or about the average of the three preceding years. In 1846, the crop
+being scarce, the price rose considerably, while in 1857, when the crop
+was plentiful, it fell to 500 francs, or from 5 to 20 per cent. below
+that of the two previous years, when the yield was both inferior and
+less abundant. In 1865 the price rose 33 per cent. above that of the
+year before; still, although Verzenay wine of 1865 and 1868 fetched from
+420 to 450 francs the pièce, and that of 1874 as much as 900 francs, the
+greatly inferior vintages of 1872-73 commanded 900 and 1,030 francs the
+pièce.
+
+Consumers of champagne, if wise, would profit by the circumstance that
+quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, and if they were
+bent upon drinking their favourite wine in perfection, as one meets with
+it at the dinner-tables of the principal manufacturers, who only put old
+wine of grand vintages before their guests, they would lay down
+champagnes of good years in the same way as the choicer vintages of
+port, burgundy, and bordeaux are laid down. Champagne of 1874 was a wine
+of this description, with all its finer vinous qualities well developed,
+and consequently needing age to attain not merely the roundness but the
+refinement of flavour pertaining to a high-class sparkling wine. Instead
+of being drunk a few months after it was shipped in the spring and
+summer of 1877, as was the fate of much of the wine in question, it
+needed being kept for three years at the very least to become even
+moderately round and perfect. In the Champagne one had many
+opportunities of tasting the grander vintages that had arrived at ten,
+twelve, or fifteen years of age, and had thereby attained supreme
+excellence. It is true their effervescence had moderated materially, but
+their bouquet and flavour were perfect, and their softness and delicacy
+something marvellous.
+
+A great wine like that of 1874 will go on improving for ten years,
+providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. These are,
+first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of
+which should be as low as from 50° to 55° Fahr., or even lower if this
+is practicable. The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light,
+scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be
+continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their
+sides to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the
+carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down champagne
+or any kind of sparkling wine an iron wine-bin is by far the best.
+I much prefer the patent “slider� bins made by Messrs. W. and J. Burrow,
+of Malvern, they being better adapted to the purpose than any other I am
+acquainted with. In these the bottles rest on horizontal parallel bars
+of wrought-iron, securely riveted into strong wrought-iron uprights,
+both at the back and in front. The bins can be obtained of any
+size--that is, to hold as few as two or as many as forty dozen--and they
+can be had furnished with lattice doors, secured by a lock. One great
+advantage is that with them there is no waste of space, for individual
+compartments can be at once refilled with fresh bottles after the other
+bottles have been removed. These “slider� bins are especially adapted
+for laying down champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely
+around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil
+round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and
+equable.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  WINE-CELLAR FITTED WITH BURROW’S PATENT SLIDER BINS.]
+
+When binning the wine the bottles are held by their necks and slid into
+their places with such ease and safety that a child might be entrusted
+with the work. The bottles can be withdrawn from the bin with equal or
+even greater facility. Breakage is avoided from each bottle having an
+independent bearing, which prevents the upper bottles from either
+falling or weighing down upon those below, and thereby crashing
+together. The larger engraving shows a wine-cellar fitted up entirely
+with. Burrow’s patent “slider� wine-bins, while the smaller represents a
+bin adapted to laying down twenty dozens of champagne, and the
+dimensions of which are merely 5 feet 8 inches by 3 feet.
+
+Official Return by the Chamber of Commerce at Reims of The Trade in
+Champagne Wines From April, 1844, To April, 1878.
+
+                                   Number of    Number of   Total number
+  Years, from     Manufacturers’   Bottles    Bottles sold  of Bottles
+  April to April.     Stocks.      Exported.    in France.      Sold.
+
+  1844-45           23,285,218     4,380,214     2,255,438    6,635,652
+  1845-46           22,847,971     4,505,308     2,510,605    7,015,913
+  1846-47           18,815,367     4,711,915     2,355,366    7,067,281
+  1847-48           23,122,994     4,859,625     2,092,571    6,952,196
+  1848-49           21,290,185     5,686,484     1,473,966    7,160,450
+  1849-50           20,499,192     5,001,044     1,705,735    6,706,779
+  1850-51           20,444,915     5,866,971     2,122,569    7,989,540
+  1851-52           21,905,479     5,957,552     2,162,880    8,120,432
+  1852-53           19,376,967     6,355,574     2,385,217    8,740,790
+  1853-54           17,757,769     7,878,320     2,528,719   10,407,039
+  1854-55           20,922,959     6,895,773     2,452,743    9,348,516
+  1855-56           15,957,141     7,137,001     2,562,039    9,699,040
+  1856-57           15,228,294     8,490,198     2,468,818   10,959,016
+  1857-58           21,628,778     7,368,310     2,421,454    9,789,764
+  1858-59           28,328,251     7,666,633     2,805,416   10,472,049
+  1859-60           35,648,124     8,265,395     3,039,621   11,305,016
+  1860-61           30,235,260     8,488,223     2,697,508   11,185,731
+  1861-62           30,254,291     6,904,915     2,592,875    9,497,790
+  1862-63           28,013,189     7,937,836     2,767,371   10,705,207
+  1863-64           28,466,975     9,851,138     2,934,996   12,786,134
+  1864-65           33,298,672     9,101,441     2,801,626   11,903,067
+  1865-66           34,175,429    10,413,455     2,782,777   13,196,132
+  1866-67           37,608,716    10,283,886     3,218,343   13,502,229
+  1867-68           37,969,219    10,876,585     2,924,268   13,800,853
+  1868-69           32,490,881    12,810,194     3,104,496   15,914,690
+  1869-70           39,272,562    13,858,839     3,628,461   17,487,300
+  1870-71           39,984,003     7,544,323     1,633,941    9,178,264
+  1871-72           40,099,243    17,001,124     3,367,537   20,368,661
+  1872-73           45,329,490    18,917,779     3,464,059   22,381,838
+  1873-74           46,573,974    18,106,310     2,491,759   20,598,069
+  1874-75           52,733,674    15,318,345     3,517,182   18,835,527
+  1875-76           64,658,767    16,705,719     2,439,762   19,145,481
+  1876-77           71,398,726    15,882,964     3,127,991   19,010,955
+  1877-78           70,183,863    15,711,651     2,450,983   18,162,634
+
+From the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption of
+champagne has almost trebled since the year 1844-5, a period of little
+more than thirty years. Another curious fact to note is the immense
+increase in the exports of the wine during the three years following the
+Franco-German war, when naturally both the exports and home consumption
+of champagne fell off very considerably. No reliable information is
+available as to the actual quantity of champagne consumed yearly in
+England, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four millions
+of bottles. The consumption of the wine in the United States varies from
+rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million bottles
+annually.
+
+Distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment
+when champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. Dyspeptic
+Mr. Walker, of “The Original,� laid it down that champagne ought to be
+introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the
+viands it may chance to accompany. “Give champagne,� he says, “at the
+beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the
+guests, after which they will seldom flag. No other wine produces an
+equal effect in increasing the success of a party--it invariably turns
+the balance to the favourable side. When champagne goes rightly nothing
+can well go wrong.� These precepts are sound enough, still all
+dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not
+invariably mutes. Before champagne can be properly introduced at a
+formal dinner the conventional glass of sherry or madeira should
+supplement the soup, a white French or a Rhine wine accompany the fish,
+and a single glass of bordeaux prepare the way with the first _entrée_
+for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two, should be
+served, briskly and liberally. A wine introduced thus early at the
+repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate, moderately so.
+
+We certainly do not approve of Mr. Charles Dickens’s dictum that
+champagne’s proper place is not at the dinner-table, but solely at a
+ball. “A cavalier,� he said, “may appropriately offer at propitious
+intervals a glass now and then to his danceress. There it takes its
+fitting rank and position amongst feathers, gauzes, lace, embroidery,
+ribbons, white satin, shoes, and eau-de-Cologne, for champagne is simply
+one of the elegant extras of life.� This is all very well, still the
+advantageous effect of sparkling wine at an ordinary British
+dinner-party, composed as it frequently is of people pitchforked
+together in accordance with the exigencies of the hostess’s
+visiting-list, cannot be gainsayed. After the preliminary glowering at
+each other, _more Britannico_, in the drawing-room, everybody regards it
+as a relief to be summoned to the repast, which, however, commences as
+chillily as the soup and as stolidly as the salmon. The soul of the
+hostess is heavy with the anxiety of prospective dishes, the brow of the
+host is clouded with the reflection that our rulers are bent upon
+dragging us into war. Placed between a young lady just out and a dowager
+of grimly Gorgonesque aspect, you hesitate how to open a conversation.
+Your first attempts, like those of the Russian batteries on the Danube,
+are singularly ineffectual, only eliciting a dropping fire of
+monosyllables. You envy the placidly languid young gentleman opposite,
+limp as his fast-fading camellia, and seated next to Belle Breloques,
+who is certain, in racing parlance, to make the running for him. But
+even that damsel seems preoccupied with her fan, and, despite her
+_aplomb_, hesitates to break the icy silence. The two City friends of
+the host are lost in mute speculation as to the future price of indigo
+or Ionian Bank shares, while their wives seem to be mentally summarising
+the exact cost of each other’s toilettes. Their daughters, or somebody
+else’s daughters, are desperately jerking out monosyllabic responses to
+feeble remarks concerning the weather, lawn tennis, operatic
+_débutantes_, the gravel in the Row, the ill-health of the Princess, and
+kindred topics from a couple of F.O. men. Little Snapshot, the wit, on
+the other side of the Gorgon, has tried to lead up to a story, but has
+found himself, as it were, frozen in the bud. When lo! the butler softly
+sibillates in your ear the magic word “champagne,� and as it flows,
+creaming and frothing, into your glass, a change comes over the spirit
+of your vision.
+
+The hostess brightens, the host coruscates. The young lady on your right
+suddenly develops into a charming girl, with becoming appreciation of
+your pet topics and an astounding aptness for repartee. The Gorgon
+thaws, and implores Mr. Snapshot, whose jests are popping as briskly as
+the corks, not to be so dreadfully funny, or he will positively kill
+her. Belle Breloques can always talk, and now her tongue rattles faster
+than ever, till the languid one arouses himself like a giant refreshed,
+and gives her as good as he gets. The City men expatiate in cabalistic
+language on the merits of some mysterious speculation, the prospective
+returns from which increase with each fresh bottle. One of their wives
+is discussing the E.C.U. and the S.S.C. with a hitherto silent curate,
+and the other is jabbering botany to a red-faced warrior. The juniors
+are in full swing, and ripples of silvery laughter rise in accompaniment
+to the beaded bubbles all round the table. And all this is due to
+champagne, that great unloosener not merely of tongues but of
+purse-strings, as is well known to the secretaries of those charitable
+institutions which set the wine flowing earliest at their anniversary
+dinners.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few recipes for sparkling wine cups gathered from various sources will
+conclude our work. Not having personally tested these we leave the
+responsibility of them to their respective authors--Soyer, Tovey,
+Terrington (“Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks�), &c.--premising that it is
+the merest folly to use a high-class champagne or a fine sparkling hock
+for a beverage of this description. Sparkling saumur, or the
+newly-introduced sparkling sauternes, and the cheaper hocks and
+moselles, will do equally well at a greatly reduced cost. In all cases,
+too, the kind of liqueur, the amount of sugar, and the flavouring with
+borage, verbena, pine-apple, or cucumber, may be varied to suit
+individual tastes. For soda or seltzer water we have invariably
+substituted Apollinaris, which is far better adapted for effervescent
+drinks of this description by reason of its purity and softness, its
+freedom from any distinct flavour, and above all its powerful natural
+effervescence.
+
+Soyer’s elaborate recipe for champagne cup for a large party is as
+follows:--
+
+  Prepare three ounces of oleo-saccharine by rubbing some lumps of
+  sugar against the outside of a lemon or Seville orange and scraping
+  away the sugar as it absorbs the essential oil contained in the rind
+  of the fruit. Put the oleo-saccharine with the juice of four lemons
+  in a vessel, add a quart bottle of Apollinaris water (Soyer says
+  soda-water, but Apollinaris is certainly preferable), and stir well
+  together until the sugar is dissolved. Then pour in one quart of
+  syrup of orgeat and whip the mixture up well with an egg whisk in
+  order to whiten it. Next add a pint of cognac brandy, a quarter of a
+  pint of Jamaica rum and half a pint of maraschino; strain the whole
+  into a bowl, adding plenty of pounded ice if the weather is warm,
+  and pour in three bottles of champagne, stirring the mixture well
+  with the ladle while doing so in order to render the cup creamy and
+  mellow.
+
+A less potent and pretentious beverage, and better suited for a summer
+drink, is the subjoined:--
+
+  Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar in a quart of
+  Apollinaris water. Add a wineglass of curaçoa, a sprig of green
+  borage or a couple of slices of cucumber with the juice and fine
+  shavings of the outside peel of a lemon, and a pound of bruised ice.
+  After the whole has been well stirred pour in the champagne and
+  serve.
+
+Other recipes are as follows:--
+
+  Prepare an ounce of oleo-saccharine, add to it a large wineglass of
+  maraschino, a liqueur glass of cognac, and the juice of half a
+  lemon. Mix well together, and add several slices of pine-apple, and
+  a large lump or two of ice. On to this pour first a large bottle of
+  Apollinaris water, and next a bottle of sparkling wine.
+
+  Mix with the contents of a bottle of chablis or sauternes a liqueur
+  glass of chartreuse and a tablespoonful or two of powdered loaf
+  sugar. When the latter is dissolved throw in a pound and a half of
+  pounded ice and a sprig of borage. Pour over these a quart of
+  Apollinaris water and a bottle of sparkling saumur. For the chablis
+  or sauternes half a bottle of light claret may be substituted.
+
+  To a gill of good pale sherry add a liqueur glass of maraschino and
+  a few lumps of sugar which have been well rubbed over the rind of a
+  Seville orange, the juice of which is also to be added to the
+  mixture. After the sugar is dissolved throw in a sprig of borage or
+  a slice or two of cucumber and some pounded ice. Then add a quart
+  bottle of Apollinaris water and a bottle of champagne or some other
+  sparkling wine.
+
+The following cup for a party of twenty is said to be of Russian
+inspiration:--
+
+  Pour on to some sprigs of borage or a few slices of cucumber a pint
+  of sherry and half a pint of brandy, then rub off the fine outside
+  peel of a lemon with a few lumps of sugar, and add these with the
+  strained juice of the lemon and of three oranges. Pour into the
+  mixture half a pint of curaçoa, a wineglass of noyau, a couple of
+  bottles of German seltzer-water, three bottles of soda-water, and
+  three bottles of champagne. Sweeten and ice to taste.
+
+Here is a recipe for a cup made with chablis and sparkling red
+burgundy:--
+
+  With a bottle of chablis mix a liqueur-glass of chartreuse and then
+  dissolve in it some powdered sugar. Add two pounds of ice in largish
+  lumps, a slice or two of cucumber, and a sprig of lemon-scented
+  verbena, or substitute for these a few slices of pine-apple. Pour in
+  a quart bottle of Apollinaris water, mix well together, and add a
+  bottle of sparkling burgundy just before serving.
+
+The following refer to sparkling hock and moselle cups:--
+
+  To a bottle of sparkling hock add a quarter of a pint of lemon water
+  ice and a liqueur glass of pine-apple syrup. After mixing them add a
+  slice of cucumber, a lump or two of ice, and a bottle of Apollinaris
+  water.
+
+  Add to the strained juice of a couple of lemons an ounce and a half
+  or more of powdered loaf sugar and a wineglass of maraschino. Mix
+  well, and pour in a couple of bottles of iced sparkling hock and a
+  large bottle of iced Apollinaris water.
+
+  Dissolve a couple of ounces of sugar in a gill of dry sherry, add
+  the thin peel of half an orange, a few slices of pine-apple,
+  peaches, or apricots, with some pounded ice, and then pour in a
+  bottle of sparkling moselle and a bottle of Apollinaris water.
+
+  With half a pint of lemon water ice mix a bottle of iced sparkling
+  moselle, add a few drops of elder-flower water and a bottle of iced
+  Apollinaris water. Instead of the lemon ice half the quantity of
+  pine-apple ice may be used with the juice of half a lemon, and the
+  elder-flower water may be dispensed with.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCIPAL SPARKLING WINE BRANDS.
+
+*** _In this list whenever a manufacturer has various qualities the
+higher qualities are always placed first._
+
+  [Transcriber’s Note:
+
+  In the original text the tables were laid out in four columns:
+    _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._ [Impress of Cork Design]
+    _Qualities._
+    _On side of Corks._
+  For this e-text, the table has been changed to a list format, with
+  the columns represented by levels of indentation. The “Brands� are
+  indicated by the bracketed word [Cork]; the “Side of Cork� text--if
+  any--is given in the same line as its associated Quality.
+
+  The book included an errata sheet for the tables. It is shown here
+  immediately after the tables themselves. The changes and corrections
+  listed have _not_ been made in the text.]
+
+
++CHAMPAGNES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+    _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  AYALA & CO., Ay
+  Ayala, 7, Little Tower Street, London
+  Rinck & Unger, 50, Park Place, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Extra.
+    Carte Noire / Première.
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+
+  BINET FILS & CO., Reims
+  Rutherford & Browne, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London.
+    [Cork]
+    Extra
+    First
+    Second / Binet fils & Cie. [_all varieties_]
+
+  BOLLINGER, J., Ay
+  L. Mentzendorf, 6, Idol Lane, London.
+  E. and J. Burke, 40, Beaver Street, New York.
+    [Cork]
+    Very Dry Extra / Very Dry Extra quality.
+    Dry Extra / Dry Extra quality.
+
+  BRUCH-FOUCHER & CO., Mareuil
+  L. Ehrmann, 34, Gt. Tower Street, London.
+    [Cork]
+    Carte D’Or
+    First
+    Second
+
+  CLICQUOT-PONSARDIN, Veuve, Reims (WERLE & CO.)
+  Fenwick, Parrot, & Co., 124, Fenchurch Street, London.
+  Schmidt Bros., New York.
+    [Cork]
+    Dry
+    Rich / England. [_both varieties_]
+
+  DE CAZANOVE, C., Avize
+  J. R. Hunter, 46, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Extra / Extra qualité.
+    First
+    Second
+    Third
+    Fourth
+    [Cork]
+    Fifth
+
+  DEUTZ & GELDERMANN, Ay
+  J. R. Parkington & Co., 21, Crutched Friars, London.
+    [Cork]
+    Gold Lack (Extra Dry and Dry) / Gold Lack.
+    Cabinet (Extra Dry and Dry) / Cabinet.
+
+  DUCHATEL-OHAUS, Reims
+  Woellworth & Co., 70, Mark Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche (Dry and Rich)
+    Verzenay (Dry and Rich)
+    Sillery (Dry and Rich)
+
+  DUMINY & CO., Ay
+  Mogford, Courtenay, & Co., 16, Mark Lane, London
+  Anthony Oechs, New Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Extra / Maison fondée en 1814. [_both brands_]
+    [Cork]
+    First / Maison fondée en 1814. [_both brands_]
+
+  FARRE, CHARLES, Reims
+  Hornblower & Co., 50, Mark Lane, London
+  Gilmore & Gibson, Baltimore
+  Mel & Sons, San Francisco
+    [Cork]
+    Cabinet (Grand Vin) / Cabinet Grand Vin.
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Carte Blanche.
+    Carte Noire / Carte Noire.
+    [Cork]
+    Sillery Sec / Sillery Sec.
+    [Cork]
+    Sillery / Sillery.
+    [Cork]
+    Ay Mousseux / Ay.
+
+  FISSE, THIRION, & Co., Reims
+  Stallard and Smith, 25, Philpot Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Cachet d’Or (Extra Dry and Medium Dry) / Cachet d’Or.
+    Carte Blanche (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich) / Carte Blanche.
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Noire (Dry and Medium Dry). / Carte Noire.
+
+  GIBERT, GUSTAVE, Reims
+  Cock, Russell, & Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London
+  Hays & Co., 40, Day Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Vin du Roi
+    [Cork]
+    Extra
+    [Cork]
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+  All these wines are prepared Extra Dry, Dry, or Rich.
+
+  GIESLER & CO., Avize
+  F. Giesler & Co., 32, Fenchurch Street, London.
+  Purdy & Nicholas, 43, Beaver Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Extra Superior
+    India / India.
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+
+  HEIDSIECK & CO., Reims.
+  Theodor Satow & Co., 141, Fenchurch Street, London
+  Schmidt & Peters, 20, Beaver Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Dry Monopole.
+    Monopole (Rich)
+    Dry Vin Royal
+    Grand Vin Royal (Rich)
+
+  IRROY, ERNEST, Reims.
+  Cuddeford & Smith, 66, Mark Lane, London
+  O. de Saye, 18, South William Street, New York
+  W. E. Hepp, 101, Gravier Street, New Orleans
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d’Or, Dry / Carte d’Or, Sec.
+    Carte d’Or / Carte d’Or.
+
+  KRUG & Co., Reims
+  Inglis and Cunningham, 60, Mark Lane, London
+  A. Rocherau & Co., New York
+  Hillman Bros. & Co., San Francisco
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Carte Blanche, England.
+    Private Cuvée / Private Cuvée, England.
+    [Cork]
+    First / England.
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+
+  MOËT & CHANDON, Epernay
+  Simon & Dale, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London, Agents
+      for Great Britain and the Colonies
+  Renauld, François, & Co., 23, Beaver Street, New York
+  J. Hope & Co., Montreal
+    [Cork]
+    Brut / Imperial, England.
+    Creaming / Creaming, England.
+    Extra Superior / Extra Superior, England.
+    Extra Dry Sillery
+    White Dry Sillery / White Dry, England.
+    [Cork]
+    First Quality / England.
+    Second Quality
+
+  MONTEBELLO, DUC DE, Mareuil-sur-Ay
+  John Hopkins & Co., 26, Crutched Friars, London
+  Cazade, Crooks, & Reynaud, 25, South William St., N.Y.
+    [Cork]
+    Cuvée Extra / Cuvée Extra.
+    Carte Blanche / Reserve.
+    Carte Bleue / Cte. Bleue.
+    Carte Noire / Cte. Noire.
+
+  MUMM, G. H., & CO., Reims
+  W. J. and T. Welch, 10, Corn Exchange Chambers, Seething Lane, London
+  F. de Bary & Co., 41 and 43, Warren Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Cuvée Extra.
+    Extra Dry / Extra Dry.
+    Extra / Extra.
+    First / First.
+    _For America only._
+    Cordon Rouge / Cordon Rouge.
+    Extra Dry / Extra Dry.
+    Dry Verzenay / Dry Verzenay.
+
+  MUMM, JULES, & CO., Reims
+  Jules Mumm & Co., 3 & 4, Mark Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Extra Dry
+    Dry
+
+  PÉRINET & FILS, Reims
+  John Barnett & Son, 36, Mark Lane, London
+  Wood, Pollard, & Co., Boston, U.S.
+  Hooper and Donaldson, San Francisco
+    [Cork]
+    Cuvée Réservée (Extra Dry) / Cuvée Reservée.
+    White Dry Sillery / White Dry Sillery.
+
+  PERRIER-JOUËT & CO., Epernay
+  A. Boursot & Co., 9, Hart Street, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Cuvée de Réserve / Extra
+    Pale Dry Creaming
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+
+  PIPER, H., & CO., Reims (KUNKELMANN & CO.)
+  W. Foster Newton & Son, 3, Maiden Lane, E.C., London
+  John Osborn, Son, & Co., New York and Montreal
+    [Cork]
+    Très-Sec (Extra Dry) / Kunkelmann & Co. [_all varieties_]
+    Sec (Very Dry)
+    Carte Blanche (Rich)
+
+  PFUNGST FRÈRES & CIE., Ay, Epernay
+  J. L. Pfungst & Co., 23, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d’Or (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut) / Carte d’Or.
+    Sillery Crêmant (Extra Dry and Brut) / Sillery Crêmant.
+    Carte Noire (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut) / Carte Noire.
+    Cordon Blanc (Full, Dry, and Extra Dry) / Cordon Blanc.
+
+  POL ROGER & CO., Epernay
+  Reuss, Lauteren, & Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Vin Réservé.
+
+  POMMERY, VEUVE, Reims (POMMERY & GRENO)
+  A. Hubinet, 24, Mark Lane, London
+  Charles Graef, 65, Broad Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Extra Sec (Vin Brut) / Veuve Pommery.
+    [Cork]
+    Sec
+
+  ROEDERER, LOUIS, Reims
+  Grainger & Son, 108, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Reims, Carte Blanche, Gt.-Britain.
+
+  ROEDERER, THÉOPHILE, & CO., MAISON FONDÉE EN 1861, Reims
+  Théophile Roederer & Co., 150, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Crystal Champagne, Special Cuvée / Special Cuvée.
+    Extra Reserve / Cuvée / Reserve Cuvée.
+    Extra Superior Carte Blanche Dorée / Carte Blanche Dorée
+    Extra Quality Carte Blanche / Carte Blanche.
+    First Quality Carte Noire / Carte Noire.
+    Verzenay / Verzenay.
+
+  ROUSSILLON, J., & CO., Epernay
+  J. Roussillon & Co., 15, New Broad Street, London
+  D. St. Amant & Son, 13, South William Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    First Cuvée
+    Second Cuvée
+    Dry Verzenay
+    Sillery Sec / 1874 Extra Sec.
+
+
+  RUINART, PÈRE ET FILS, Reims
+  Ruinart, Père et Fils, 22, St. Swithin’s Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Anglaise
+    Dry Pale Crêmant
+    Extra Dry Sparkling
+    Carte Blanche First
+
+  DE SAINT-MARCEAUX & CO., Reims
+  Groves &, Co., 5, Mark Lane, London
+  Hermann Batjer & Bro., New York
+    [Cork]
+    Vin Brut
+    Carte d’Or (Extra Dry) / Very dry.
+    Bouzy Nonpareil (Dry) / Vin Sec.
+    Carte Blanche (Medium)
+    [Cork]
+    Second (Medium)
+    [Cork]
+    Third (_id._)
+    _For America only._
+    Dry Royal
+
+
++SAUMUR AND SAUTERNES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+    _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  ACKERMAN-LAURANCE, St. Florent, Saumur
+  J. N. Bishop, 41, Crutched Friars, London
+  Timothy Stevens, 29, Beaver Street, New York
+  Chapin and Gore, 70, Monroe Street, Chicago
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d’Or / Carte d’Or.
+    Carte Rose / Carte Rose.
+    Carte Bleue / Carte Bleue.
+    Carte Noire / Carte Noire.
+
+  DUVAU, LOUIS, Aîné, Château de Varrains, Saumur
+  Jolivet and Canney, 3, Idol Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d’Or, Extra Superior
+    Carte d’Argent, Extra
+    Carte Blanche, Superior
+    Carte Rose, Ordinary
+
+  LORRAIN, JULES, Château De la Côte, Varrains, near Saumur
+  J. Lorrain, 73, Great Tower Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d’Or
+    Carte Blanche
+    Carte Rose
+    Carte Bleue
+
+  ROUSTEAUX, A., St. Florent, Saumur
+  Cock, Russell, & Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London
+  I. H. Smith’s Sons, Peck Slip, New York
+  Law, Young, & Co., Montreal
+    [Cork]
+    Extra
+    [Cork]
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+    Sparkling Vouvray, Superior
+    Sparkling Vouvray
+
+  NORMANDIN, E., & CO., Châteauneuf-sur-Charente
+  P. A. Maignen, 22, Great Tower Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Sauternes (Extra Dry)
+    Sparkling Sauternes (Dry)
+
+
++BURGUNDIES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+    _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  ANDRÉ & VOILLOT, Beaune
+  Cock, Russell, & Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London
+  P. W. Engs and Sons, 131, Front Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Romanée (White)
+    Nuits (do.)
+    Volnay (do.)
+    Saint-Péray
+    Pink and Red Wines
+
+  LATOUR, LOUIS, Beaune
+  Reuss, Lauteren, & Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Romanée (White)
+    Nuits (do.)
+    Volnay (do.)
+    Saint-Péray (do.)
+    Chambertin (Red)
+    Nuits (do.)
+    Volnay (do.)
+
+  LIGER-BELAIR, COMTE, Nuits and Vôsne
+  Fenwick, Parrot, & Co., 124, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d’Or (White)
+    Carte Noire (do.)
+    Carte Verte (do.)
+    Carte Noire (Red)
+    Carte Blanche (do.)
+
+
++HOCKS AND MOSELLES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+      _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  DEINHARD & CO., Coblenz
+  Deinhard & Co., 6, Idol Lane, London
+  H. G. Schmidt & Co., 38, Beaver Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+
+  EWALD & CO., Rudesheim-on-Rhine
+  Simon and Dale, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Hock
+    Nonpareil (Extra Dry and Dry)
+    Sparkling Moselle Muscatel Nonp. (Dry)
+    Sparkling Moselle (Nonp.)
+    Scharzberg (Dry)
+
+  HOCHHEIM ASSOCIATION, Hochheim-on-Maine
+  F. Class & Co., 31, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling and Creaming Johannisberg
+    Hochheim First (White or Red)
+    Do. Second (do.)
+    Do. Third (do.)
+    Do. Fourth (do.)
+  Hocks and Moselles
+    Nonpareil
+    First
+    Second
+    Third
+    [Cork]
+    Fourth
+
+  KESSLER, G. C., & CO., Esslingen
+  George Saurmann, 7, Cross Lane, St. Mary-at-Hill, London
+    [Cork]
+    Kaiser Wein
+    Sparkling Hock
+    Do. Neckar
+
+  LAUTEREN, C. SOHN, Mayence
+  Reuss, Lauteren, & Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Johannisberg
+    Hock No. 1
+    Do. No. 2
+    Do. No. 3
+    Moselle, Dry, No. 1
+    Do. No. 2
+    Do. No. 3
+    Moselle, Muscatel, No. 1
+    Do. No. 2
+    Do. No. 3
+
+  MÃœLLER, MATHEUS, Eltville
+  M. Muller, 15, Philpot Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Flower of Sparkling Johannisberg
+    Sparkling Johannisberg
+    Pearl of the Moselle
+    Extra Superior Moselle
+    Nonpareil Sparkling Moselle
+    Nonpareil Sparkling Hock
+    Fine Sparkling do.
+    Fine Sparkling Moselle
+    Sparkling Assmannshäuser, Superior (Red)
+    Sparkling Assmannshäuser (do.)
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Hock (Ordinary)
+    Sparkling Moselle (do.)
+
+  OPPMANN, MICHAEL, Würzburg
+    [Cork]
+    Franconia Wine:
+    Nonpareil
+    Stein Wine
+    Blue Label
+    White Label
+    Sparkling Moselle, First
+    Do. do., Second
+    Do. Hock, First
+    Do. do., Second
+
+  SILIGMÜLLER, F. A., Würzburg
+    [Cork]
+    Cabinet / Cabinet.
+    Carte d’Or
+    Carte Blanche
+    Carte Noire
+
+  STÖCK, JOS, & SÖHNE, Creuznach
+  John Barnett & Son, 36, Mark Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Johnnnisberg, supr.
+    Scharzberg, do.
+    Johannisberg, ordin.
+    Scharzberg, do.
+    Hock, superior
+    Moselle, do.
+    Hock, ordin.
+    Moselle, do.
+    Red Hock, First
+    Do., Second
+    Do., Third
+    Do., Fourth
+
+
++STYRIAN, HUNGARIAN, AND SWISS WINES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+      _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  KLEINOSCHEG BROTHERS, Graz, Styria
+  Davis and Littlewood, 4 and 5, Botolph Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Dry Pale Styrian Muscat Champagne.
+    Dry Pale Styrian Champagne
+    Sparkling Burgundy (Red)
+
+  HUBERT & HABERMANN, Pressburg, Hungary
+  C. O. Pattenhausen, 40, Great Tower Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling White
+    Sparkling Red (Carlovitz)
+
+  DE RIEDMATTEN, DE QUAY, & CIE., Sion, Valais, Switzerland
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Verte, Glacier du Rhône
+    Carte Blanche, Mont-Blanc
+
+
++AMERICAN WINES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+      _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  KELLEY’S ISLAND WINE CO., Kelley’s Island, Ohio
+    [Cork]
+    Island Queen
+    Nonpareil
+    Carte Blanche
+
+  PLEASANT VALLEY WINE CO., Hammondsport, N.Y.
+    [Cork]
+    Great Western (Dry and Extra Dry)
+    Carte Blanche
+    Pleasant Valley
+    Paris Exposition
+
+  URBANA WINE CO., Hammondsport, N.Y.
+    [Cork]
+    Gold Seal (Extra Dry)
+    Gold Seal
+    Imperial
+    Royal Rose
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  [Author’s errata sheet, first part]
+
+_The subjoined corrections are necessary in the following brands
+(See pages 226 and 227):--_
+
+  FISSE, THIRION, & Co., Reims
+  Stallard and Smith, 25, Philpot Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Cachet d’Or. (Extra Dry and Medium Dry) / Cachet d’Or.
+    Carte Blanche. (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich) / Carte Blanche.
+    Carte Noire. (Dry and Medium Dry). / Carte Noire.
+  N.B.--The brand on the corks is an _anchor_ instead of an _eagle_.
+
+  GIBERT, GUSTAVE, Reims.
+  Cock, Russell, and Co.’s address is 23, Rood Lane, London.
+
+  GIESLER & CO., Avize.
+  The corks of the firm’s Extra Superior quality wine are branded
+  “Extra Superior� on the side.
+
+  IRROY, ERNEST, Reims.
+  The New York agent is F. O. de Luze, 18, South William Street,
+  New York.
+  W. E. Hepp is no longer M. Irroy’s agent for New Orleans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  [Author’s errata sheet, second part]
+
+  The following are the correct brands of MM. de Saint-Marceaux & Co.:--
+
+  DE SAINT-MARCEAUX & CO., Reims
+  Groves & Co., 5, Mark Lane, London
+  Hermann Bätjer & Bro., New York
+    [Cork]
+    Vin Brut
+    Carte d’Or (Extra Dry) / Very dry.
+    Bouzy Nonpareil (Dry) / Vin Sec.
+    Carte Blanche (Medium)
+    _For America only._
+    Dry Royal
+    [Cork]
+    Second (Medium)
+    [Cork]
+    Third (_id._)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Errata:
+
+Missing or incorrect punctuation in the List of Brands has been silently
+regularized.
+
+Expressions such as “132lbs.� were consistently printed without space.
+
+A number of words were printed both with and without umlaut. These have
+generally been left unchanged:
+  Wurzburg / Würzburg
+  Rudesheim / Rüdesheim
+  Muller / Müller (also Siligmüller / -muller)
+Three occurrences of “Moët� were printed without dieresis. It has been
+silently supplied.
+
+
+Table of Contents:
+II.--THE VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. ... 20
+  _last digit of page number invisible_
+the future _roues_ of the Regency
+  _accent on “roués� missing in original_
+Baume’s aerometer
+  _first “e� in “aerometer� illegible_
+the Champenois winegrowers
+  _printed at midline without usual hyphen_
+Chapter V, first page _through_ “... the bulk of the new-made�
+  _left edge of text missing:_
+    manu/[fac]ture only just... (_at line break_)
+    [en]ds.
+    [res]ervoirs ...
+    [bei]ng allowed ...
+    [for]ty-four gallons ... (_number supplied from other passages_)
+loosens the _agrafe_ securing the cork, Bang goes the latter
+  _comma in original may be intentional_
+from one to three per cent. of liqueur.
+  _text has comma for period_
+St. Marceaux and Co.’s New Establishment
+  _text reads “Co.’�_
+Those magnates of the champagne trade, Messrs. Moët and Chandon
+  _text reads “Mesrs.�_
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon give a banquet or a ball
+  _period (full stop) invisible_
+resting familiarly on the maréchal’s shoulder
+  _period (full stop) invisible_
+bounded by trees and garden-plats
+  _text unchanged: probably correct_
+the liqueur which Messrs. Giesler add so sparingly
+  _text reads “Griesler�_
+[Illustration:
+THE CELLARS OF M. ACKERMAN-LAURANCE AT SAINT-FLORENT.
+LABELLING AND PACKING SPARKLING SAUMUR. (p. 150.)]
+  _opening parenthesis missing_
+having composed at his mistress’s table some doggrel rhymes
+  _spelling unchanged_
+restored Stolzenfels, the historic Königs-stuhl
+  _text reads “Konigs-stuhl�_
+vineyards of Bösing, Geñnau, and St. Georgen
+  _spelling unchanged_
+Societa Unione Enofila
+  _accent missing in original_
+cannot be gainsayed.
+  _spelling unchanged_
+curaçoa
+  _spelling unchanged (two occurrences)_
+
+_List of Brands_POMMERY, VEUVE, Reims
+    _final “s� missing_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts About Champagne and Other
+Sparkling Wines, by Henry Vizetelly
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling
+Wines, by Henry Vizetelly
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines
+
+Author: Henry Vizetelly
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2007 [EBook #20889]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Transcriber's Note:
+
+  This text file comes in several versions. The unicode/utf-8 version
+  (file name ending in -0) is "best" and should be used if your text
+  reader or browser can handle it. The latin-1 version (file name ending
+  in 8) is similar but not as precise. The ASCII-7 version (file name
+  without extra numeral) should be used only as a last resort.
+
+  Errors are listed at the end of the text.]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE DISGORGING, LIQUEURING, CORKING, STRINGING, AND WIRING
+  OF CHAMPAGNE (Frontispiece)]
+
+
+
+
+  FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE
+
+  and
+
+  OTHER SPARKLING WINES,
+
+
+  Collected During Numerous Visits to the Champagne
+  and Other Viticultural Districts of France,
+  and the Principal Remaining
+  Wine-Producing Countries of Europe.
+
+
+  by
+
+  HENRY VIZETELLY,
+
+  _Chevalier of the Order of Franz Josef._
+  _Wine Juror for Great Britain at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions
+    of 1873 and 1878._
+  _Author of "The Wines of the World Characterized and Classed," &c._
+
+
+  WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS,
+  Drawn by Jules Pelcoq, W. Prater, Bertall, etc.,
+  From Original Sketches.
+
+
+  London:
+  Ward, Lock, and Co., Salisbury Square.
+  1879.
+
+
+
+
+This little book scarcely needs a preface, as it speaks sufficiently for
+itself. It is for the most part the result of studies on the spot of
+everything of interest connected with the various sparkling wines which
+it professes to describe. Neither pains nor expense have been spared to
+render it both accurate and complete, and the large number of authentic
+engravings with which it is illustrated will conduce, it is hoped, to
+its value.
+
+
+
+
+  Uniform with the present work and the Author's "Facts About Sherry,"
+
+  FACTS ABOUT PORT
+  AND MADEIRA,
+
+  Including Chapters on the Wines Vintaged Around Lisbon
+  and the Wines of Teneriffe.
+
+  Illustrated with 80 Engravings from Original Sketches.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                                   PAGE.
+I.--THE ORIGIN OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+The Early Vineyards of the Champagne-- Their Produce esteemed by
+  Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates-- Controversy regarding
+  the rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne--
+  Dom Perignon's happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine-- Its Patrons
+  under Louis Quatorze and the Regency-- The Ancient Church and
+  Abbey of Hautvillers-- Farre and Co.'s Champagne Cellars-- The
+  Abbey of St. Peter now a Farm-- Existing Remains of the Monastic
+  Buildings-- The Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient Church--
+  The Last Resting-Place of Dom Perignon-- The Legend of the Holy
+  Dove-- Good Champagne the Result of Labour, Skill, Minute
+  Precaution, and Careful Observation                                  9
+
+II.--THE VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. THE VINEYARDS OF THE RIVER.
+
+Ay, the Vineyard of Golden Plants-- Summoning the Vintagers by
+  Beat of Drum-- Excitement in the Surrounding Villages-- The
+  Pickers at Work-- Sorting the Grapes-- Grapes Gathered at
+  Sunrise the Best-- Varieties of Vines in the Ay Vineyards-- Few
+  of the Growers in the Champagne Crush their own Grapes--
+  Squeezing the Grapes in the "Pressoir" and Drawing off the
+  Must-- Cheerful Glasses Round-- The Vintage at Mareuil--
+  Bringing in the Grapes on Mules and Donkeys-- The Vineyards of
+  Avenay, Mutigny, and Cumières-- Damery and Adrienne Lecouvreur,
+  Maréchal de Saxe, and the obese Anna Iwanowna-- The Vineyards of
+  the Côte d'Epernay-- Boursault and its Château-- Pierry and its
+  Vineyard Cellars-- The Clos St. Pierre-- Moussy and Vinay--
+  A Hermit's Cave and a Miraculous Fountain-- Ablois St. Martin--
+  The Côte d'Avize-- The Grand Premier Crû of Cramant-- Avize and
+  its Wines-- The Vineyards of Oger and Le Mesnil-- The Old Town
+  of Vertus and its Vine-clad Slopes-- Their Red Wine formerly
+  celebrated                                                          20
+
+III.--THE VINEYARDS OF THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+The Wine of Sillery-- Origin of its Renown-- The Maréchale
+  d'Estrées a successful Marchande de Vin-- From Reims to
+  Sillery-- Failure of the Jacquesson Vineyards-- Château of
+  Sillery-- Wine Making at M. Fortel's-- Sillery sec-- The Vintage
+  and Vendangeoirs at Verzenay-- The Verzy Vineyards-- Edward III.
+  at the Abbey of St. Basle-- From Reims to Bouzy-- The Herring
+  Procession at St. Remi-- Rilly, Chigny, and Ludes-- The Knights
+  Templars' "Pot" of Wine-- Mailly and the View over the Plains of
+  the Champagne-- Wine Making at Mailly-- The Village in the
+  Wood-- Village and Château of Louvois-- Louis-le-Grand's War
+  Minister-- Bouzy, its Vineyards and Church Steeple, and the
+  Lottery of the Great Gold Ingot-- MM. Werlé's and Moët and
+  Chandon's Vendangeoirs-- Pressing the Grapes-- Still Red Bouzy--
+  Ambonnay-- A Peasant Proprietor-- The Vineyards of
+  Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville, and St. Thierry-- The
+  Still Red Wine of the latter                                        32
+
+IV.--THE VINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE AND THE SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION.
+
+The Vines chiefly of the Pineau Variety-- The Plant doré of Ay,
+  the Plant vert doré, the Plant gris, and the Epinette-- The Soil
+  of the Vineyards-- Close Mode of Plantation-- The Operation of
+  Provinage-- The Stems of the Vines never more than Three Years
+  Old-- Fixing the Stakes to the Vines-- Manuring and General
+  Cultivation-- Spring Frosts in the Champagne-- Various Modes of
+  Protecting the Vines against them-- Dr. Guyot's System-- The
+  Parasites that Prey upon the Vines                                  42
+
+V.--PREPARATION OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+Treatment of Champagne after it comes from the Wine-Press--
+  Racking and Blending of the Wine-- Deficiency and Excess of
+  Effervescence-- Strength and Form of Champagne Bottles-- The
+  "Tirage" or Bottling of the Wine-- The Process of Gas-making
+  commences-- Inevitable Breakage follows-- Wine Stacked in
+  Piles-- Formation of Sediment-- Bottles placed "sur pointe" and
+  Daily Shaken-- Effect of this occupation on those incessantly
+  engaged in it-- "Claws" and "Masks"-- Champagne Cellars-- Their
+  Construction and Aspect-- Transforming the "vin brut" into
+  Champagne-- Disgorging and Liqueuring the Wine-- The Corking,
+  Stringing, Wiring, and Amalgamating-- The Wine's Agitated
+  Existence comes to an End-- The Bottles have their Toilettes
+  made-- Champagne sets out on its beneficial Pilgrimage              48
+
+VI.--THE REIMS CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Messrs. Werlé and Co., successors to the Veuve
+  Clicquot-Ponsardin-- Their Offices and Cellars on the site of a
+  Former Commanderie of the Templars-- Origin of the Celebrity of
+  Madame Clicquot's Wines-- M. Werlé and his Son-- The Forty-five
+  Cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé Establishment-- Our Tour of
+  Inspection-- Ingenious Liqueuring Machine-- An Explosion and its
+  Consequences-- M. Werlé's Gallery of Paintings-- Madame
+  Clicquot's Renaissance House and its Picturesque Bas-reliefs--
+  The Werlé Vineyards and Vendangeoirs-- M. Louis Roederer's
+  Establishment-- Heidsieck and Co. and their Famous "Monopole"
+  Brand-- The Firm Founded in the Last Century-- Their various
+  Establishments Inside and Outside Reims-- The Matured Wines
+  Shipped by them                                                     63
+
+VII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+The Firm of G. H. Mumm and Co.-- Their Large Shipments to the
+  United States-- Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the
+  Rue Coquebert-- Bottle-Washing with Glass Beads-- The Cuvée and
+  the Tirage-- G. H. Mumm and Co.'s Vendangeoirs at Verzenay--
+  Their Various Wines-- The Gate of Mars-- The Establishment of
+  M. Gustave Gibert on the Site of the Château des Archevêques--
+  His Cellars in the Vaults of St. Peter's Abbey and beneath the
+  old Hôtel des Fermes in the Place Royale-- Louis XV. and Jean
+  Baptiste Colbert-- M. Gibert's Wines-- Jules Mumm and Co., and
+  Ruinart père et fils-- House of the Musicians-- The Counts de la
+  Marck-- The Brotherhood of Minstrels of Reims-- Establishment of
+  Périnet et fils-- Their Cellars of Three Stories in Solid
+  Masonry-- Their Soft, Light, and Delicate Wines-- A Rare Still
+  Verzenay-- M. Duchâtel-Ohaus's Establishment and Renaissance
+  House-- His Cellars in the Cour St. Jacques and Outside the
+  Porte Dieu-Lumière                                        74
+
+VIII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+M. Ernest Irroy's Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoirs--
+  Recognition by the Reims Agricultural Association of his
+  Plantations of Vines-- His Wines and their Popularity at the
+  best London Clubs-- Messrs. Binet fils and Co.'s Establishment--
+  Wines Sold by the Firm to Shippers-- Their Cellars-- Samples of
+  Fine Still Ay and Bouzy-- Their Still Sillery, Vintage 1857, and
+  their Creaming Vin Brut, Vintage 1865-- The Offices and Cellars
+  of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co.-- Testing the Wine before
+  Bottling-- A Promenade between Bottles in Piles and Racks--
+  Repute in which these Wines are held in England and on the
+  Continent-- The New Establishment of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. in
+  the Place de Betheny-- Its Construction exclusively in Stone,
+  Brick, and Iron-- The Vast Celliers of Two Stories-- Bottling
+  the Wine by the Aid of Machinery-- The Cool and Lofty Cellars--
+  Ingenious Method of Securing the Corks, rendering the Uncorking
+  exceedingly simple-- The Wines Shipped by the Firm                  86
+
+IX.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_concluded_).
+
+La Prison de Bonne Semaine-- Mary Queen of Scots at Reims--
+  Messrs. Pommery and Greno's Offices-- A Fine Collection of
+  Faïence-- The Rue des Anglais a former Refuge of English
+  Catholics-- Remains of the Old University of Reims-- Ancient
+  Roman Tower and Curious Grotto-- The handsome Castellated
+  Pommery Establishment-- The Spacious Cellier and Huge Carved
+  Cuvée Tun-- The Descent to the Cellars-- Their Great Extent--
+  These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally Quarries-- Ancient
+  Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the Protestants--
+  Madame Pommery's Splendid Cuvée of 1868-- Messrs. de St.
+  Marceaux and Co.'s New Establishment in the Avenue de Sillery--
+  Its Garden-Court and Circular Shaft-- Animated Scene in the
+  Large Packing Hall-- Lowering Bottled Wine to the Cellars--
+  Great Depth and Extent of these Cellars-- Messrs. de St.
+  Marceaux and Co.'s Various Wines                                    93
+
+X.--EPERNAY CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Early Records of the Moët Family at Reims and Epernay-- Jean
+  Remi Moët Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines-- Extracts
+  from the Old Account-Books of the Moëts-- First Sales of
+  Sparkling Wines-- Sales to England in 1788-- "Milords" Farnham
+  and Findlater-- Jean Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon,
+  Josephine, and the King of Westphalia-- The Firm of Moët and
+  Chandon Constituted-- Their Establishment in the Rue du
+  Commerce-- Delivering and Washing the New Bottles-- The Numerous
+  Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm-- Making the Cuvée in
+  Vats of 12,000 Gallons-- The Bottling of the Wine by 200 Hands--
+  A Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily-- 20,000 Francs'
+  worth of Broken Glass in Two Years-- A Subterranean City, with
+  miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open Spaces, Tramways, and
+  Stations-- The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults-- Tablet
+  Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon I.-- Millions of Bottles
+  of Champagne in Piles and Racks-- The Original Vaults known as
+  Siberia-- Scene in the Packing Hall-- Messrs. Moët and Chandon's
+  Large and Complete Staff-- Provision for Illness and Old Age--
+  Annual Fête Given by the Firm-- Their Famous "Star" Brand--
+  M. Perrier-Jouët, the lucky Grandson of a little Epernay
+  Grocer-- His Offices and Cellars-- His Wine Classed according to
+  its Deserts-- Messrs. Roussillon and Co.'s Establishment-- The
+  Recognition accorded to their Wines-- Their Stock of Old
+  Vintages-- The Extensive Establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger and
+  Co.-- Their Large Stock of the Fine 1874 Vintage-- Preparations
+  for the Tirage-- Their Vast Fireproof Cellier and its Admirable
+  Temperature-- Their Lofty and Capacious Cellars of Two Stories     101
+
+XI.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AY AND MAREUIL.
+
+The Establishment of Deutz and Geldermann-- Drawing off the
+  Cuvée-- Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Champagne-- The Firm's
+  New Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoir-- The old Château of Ay
+  and its Terraced Garden-- The Gambling Propensities of Balthazar
+  Constance Dangé-Dorçay, a former Owner of the Château-- The
+  Picturesque Situation and Aspect of Messrs. Ayala's
+  Establishment-- A Promenade through their Cellars-- M. Duminy's
+  Cellars and Wines-- His new Model Construction-- The House
+  Founded in 1814-- Messrs. Bollinger's Establishment-- Their
+  Vineyard of La Grange-- The Tirage in Progress-- The Fine
+  Cellars of the Firm-- Messrs. Pfungst frères and Co.'s Cellars--
+  Their Dry Champagnes of 1868, '70, '72, and '74-- The Old Church
+  of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and Vineleaves-- The
+  Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre-- The Montebello Establishment at
+  Mareuil-- The Château formerly the Property of the Dukes of
+  Orleans-- A Titled Champagne Firm-- The Brilliant Career of
+  Marshal Lannes-- A Promenade through the Montebello
+  Establishment-- The Press House, the Cuvée Vat, the
+  Packing-Room, the Offices, and the Cellars-- Portraits and
+  Relics at the Château-- The Establishment of Bruch-Foucher and
+  Co.-- The handsome Carved Gigantic Cuvée Tun-- The Cellars and
+  their Lofty Shafts-- The Wines of the Firm                         117
+
+XII.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT ATIZE AND RILLY.
+
+Avize the Centre of the White Grape District-- Its Situation and
+  Aspect-- The Establishment of Giesler and Co.-- The Tirage and
+  the Cuvée-- Vin Brut in Racks and on Tables-- The Packing-Hall,
+  the Extensive Cellars, and the Disgorging Cellier-- Bottle
+  Stores and Bottle-Washing Machines-- Messrs. Giesler's
+  Wine-Presses at Avize and Vendangeoir at Bouzy-- Their Vineyards
+  and their Purchases of Grapes-- Reputation of the Giesler
+  Brand-- The Establishment of M. Charles de Cazanove-- A Tame
+  Young Boar-- Boar-Hunting in the Champagne-- M. de Cazanove's
+  Commodious Cellars and Carefully-Selected Wines-- Vineyards
+  Owned by Him and His Family-- Reputation of his Wines in Paris
+  and their Growing Popularity in England-- Interesting View from
+  M. de Cazanove's Terraced Garden-- The Vintaging of the White
+  Grapes in the Champagne-- Roper frères' Establishment at
+  Rilly-la-Montague-- Their Cellars Penetrated by Roots of Trees--
+  Some Samples of Fine Old Champagnes-- The Principal Châlons
+  Establishments-- Poem on Champagne by M. Amaury de Cazanove        129
+
+XIII.--SPARKLING SAUMUR AND SPARKLING SAUTERNES.
+
+The Sparkling Wines of the Loire often palmed off as
+  Champagnes-- The Finer qualities Improve with Age-- Anjou the
+  Cradle of the Plantagenet Kings-- Saumur and its Dominating
+  Feudal Château und Antique Hôtel de Ville-- Its Sinister Rue des
+  Payens and Steep Tortuons Grande Rue-- The Vineyards of the
+  Coteau of Saumur-- Abandoned Stone Quarries converted into
+  Dwellings-- The Vintage in Progress-- Old-fashioned Pressoirs--
+  The Making of the Wine-- The Vouvray Vineyards-- Balzac's
+  Picture of La Vallée Coquette-- The Village of Vouvray and the
+  Château of Moucontour-- Vernou with its Reminiscences of Sully
+  and Pépin-le-Bref-- The Vineyards around Saumur-- Remarkable
+  Ancient Dolmens-- Ackerman-Laurance's Establishment at
+  Saint-Florent-- Their Extensive Cellars, Ancient and Modern--
+  Treatment of the Newly-Vintaged Wine-- The Cuvée-- Proportions
+  of Wine from Black and White Grapes-- The Bottling and
+  Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing Operations-- The Château of
+  Varrains and the Establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné-- His
+  Cellars a succession of Gloomy Galleries-- The Disgorging of the
+  Wine accomplished in a Melodramatic-looking Cave-- M. Duvau's
+  Vineyard-- His Sparkling Saumur of Various Ages-- Marked
+  Superiority of the more Matured Samples-- M. Alfred Ronsteaux's
+  Establishments at Saint-Florent and Saint-Cyr-- His convenient
+  Celliers and extensive Cellars-- Mingling of Wine from the
+  Champagne with the finer Sparkling Saumur-- His Vineyard at La
+  Perrière-- M. E. Normandin's Sparkling Sauternes Manufactory at
+  Châteauneuf-- Angoulême and its Ancient Fortifications-- Vin de
+  Colombar-- M. Normandin's Sparkling Sauternes Cuvée-- His
+  Cellars near Châteauneuf-- High recognition accorded to the Wine
+  at the Concours Régional d'Angoulême                               139
+
+XIV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF BURGUNDY AND THE JURA.
+
+Sparkling Wines of the Côte d'Or at the Paris Exhibition--
+  Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot-- Burgundy Wines and Vines
+  formerly the Presents of Princes-- Vintaging Sparkling
+  Burgundies-- Their After-Treatment in the Cellars-- Excess of
+  Breakage-- Similarity of Proceeding to that followed in the
+  Champagne-- Principal Manufacturers of Sparkling Burgundies--
+  Sparkling Wines of Tonnerre, the birthplace of the Chevalier
+  d'Eon-- The Vin d'Arbanne of Bar-sur-Aube-- Death there of the
+  Bastard de Bourbon-- Madame de la Motto's Ostentatious Display
+  and Arrest there-- Sparkling Wines of the Beaujolais-- The
+  Mont-Bronilly Vineyards-- Ancient Reputation of the Wines of the
+  Jura-- The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri Quatre-- Rhymes
+  by him in its Honour-- Lons-le-Saulnier-- Vineyards yielding the
+  Sparkling Jura Wines-- Their Vintaging and Subsequent
+  Treatment-- Their High Alcoholic Strength and General Drawbacks    157
+
+XV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
+
+Sparkling Wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and Languedoc--
+  Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the South-- Valence with
+  its Reminiscences of Pius VI. and Napoleon I.-- The "Horns of
+  Crussol" on the Banks of the Rhône-- Vintage Scene at
+  Saint-Péray-- The Vines and Vineyards Producing Sparkling Wine--
+  Manipulation of Sparkling Saint-Péray-- Its Abundance of Natural
+  Sugar-- The Cellars of M. de Saint-Prix and Samples of his
+  Wines-- Sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage--
+  Annual Production and Principal Markets of Sparkling
+  Saint-Péray-- Clairette de Die-- The Porte Rouge of Die
+  Cathedral-- How the Die Wine is Made-- The Sparkling White and
+  Rose-Coloured Muscatels of Die-- Sparkling Wines of Vercheny and
+  Lagrasse-- Barnave and the Royal Flight to Varennes-- Narbonne
+  formerly a Miniature Rome, now Noted merely for its Wine and
+  Honey-- Fête of the Black Virgin at Limoux-- Preference given to
+  the New Wine over the Miraculous Water-- Blanquette of Limoux
+  and How it is Made-- Characteristics of this Overrated Wine        165
+
+XVI.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY.
+
+Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle-- Sparkling German Wines
+  First Made on the Neckar-- Heilbronn, and Götz von Berlichingen
+  of the Iron Hand-- Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn
+  their attention to Sparkling Wines-- Change of late years in the
+  Character of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- Difference between
+  them and Moussirender Rheinwein-- Vintaging of Black and White
+  Grapes for Sparkling Wine-- The Treatment which German Sparkling
+  Wines Undergo-- Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
+  Moselles-- Fine Natural Bouquet of High-Class Sparkling Hocks--
+  Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines
+  during the Franco-German War-- Annual Production-- Deinhard and
+  Co.'s Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz-- The Firm's Collection of
+  Choice Rhine and Moselle Wines-- Their Trade in German Sparkling
+  Wines-- Their Sources of Supply-- The Vintaging and
+  After-Treatment of their Wines-- Characteristics of their
+  Sparkling Hocks and Moselles                                       172
+
+XVII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY (_continued_).
+
+From Coblenz to Rüdesheim-- Ewald and Co.'s Establishment and
+  its Pleasant Situation-- Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and
+  Convenient Accessories-- Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the
+  most favoured Localities-- The Celebrated Vineyards of the
+  Rheingau-- Eltville and the extensive Establishment of Matheus
+  Müller-- His Vast Stocks of Still and Sparkling German Wines--
+  The Vineyards laid under contribution for the latter--
+  M. Müller's Sparkling Johannisberger, Champagne, and Red
+  Sparkling Assmannshauser-- The Site of Gutenberg's Birthplace at
+  Mayence occupied by the Offices and Wine-cellars of Lauteren
+  Sohn-- The Sparkling Wine Establishment of the Firm and their
+  Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles-- The Hochheim Sparkling
+  Wine Association-- Foundation of the Establishment-- Its
+  Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- The Sparkling Wine
+  Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the Nahe
+  Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of
+  M. Oppmann at Würzburg-- The Historic Cellars of the King of
+  Bavaria beneath the Residenz-- The Establishment of F. A.
+  Siligmüller                                                        183
+
+XVIII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY,
+  SPAIN, RUSSIA, &C.
+
+Sparkling Voslauer-- The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of Graz--
+  Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers-- Vintaging and Treatment
+  of Styrian Champagnes-- Sparkling Red, Rose, and White Wines of
+  Hungary-- The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at
+  Pressburg-- Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia,
+  Moravia, Dalmatia, the Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat--
+  Neuchâtel Champagne-- Sparkling Wine Factories at Vevay and
+  Sion-- The Vevay Vineyards-- Establishment of De Riedmatten and
+  De Quay-- Sparkling Muscatel, Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo,
+  and Lacryma Christi of Italy-- Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece,
+  Algeria, and Russia-- The Krimski and Donski Champagnes-- The
+  Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great Russian Fairs                 196
+
+XIX.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America-- Failures to
+  Acclimatise European Vines-- Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers
+  and the Mission Fathers-- The Yield of the Mission Vineyards--
+  The Monster Vine of the Montecito Valley-- The Catawba Vine and
+  its General Cultivation-- Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of
+  American Viticulture-- Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at
+  Cincinnati-- Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures there--
+  Longfellow's Song in Praise of Catawba-- The Kelley Island Wine
+  Company-- Vintaging and Treatment of their Sparkling Wines--
+  Decrease of Consumption-- The Vineyards of Hammondsport--
+  Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage--
+  After Treatment of the Wines-- The Pleasant Valley and Urbana
+  Wine Companies and their Various Brands-- Californian Sparkling
+  Wines-- The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society of San Francisco--
+  Its Early Failures and Eventual Success in Manufacturing
+  Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage in California-- Chinese
+  Vintagers-- How the Wine is Made-- American Spurious Sparkling
+  Wines                                                              203
+
+XX.--CONCLUDING FACTS AND HINTS.
+
+Dry and Sweet Champagnes-- Their Sparkling Properties-- Form of
+  Champagne Glasses-- Style of Sparkling Wines Consumed in
+  Different Countries-- The Colour and Alcoholic Strength of
+  Champagne-- Champagne Approved of by the Faculty-- Its Use in
+  Nervous Derangements-- The Icing of Champagne-- Scarcity of
+  Grand Vintages in the Champagne-- The Quality of the Wine has
+  little influence on the Price-- Prices realised by the Ay and
+  Verzenay Crûs in Grand Years-- Suggestions for laying down
+  Champagnes of Grand Vintages-- The Improvement they Develop
+  after a few Years-- The Wine of 1874-- The proper kind of Cellar
+  to lay down Champagne in-- Advantages of Burrow's Patent Slider
+  Wine Bins-- Increase in the Consumption of Champagne-- Tabular
+  Statement of Stocks, Exports, and Home Consumption from 1844-5
+  to 1877-8-- When to Serve Champagne at a Dinner Party-- Charles
+  Dickens's dictum that its proper place is at a Ball--
+  Advantageous Effect of Champagne at an Ordinary British Dinner
+  Party-- Sparkling Wine Cups                                        212
+
+THE PRINCIPAL SPARKLING WINE BRANDS                                  225
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustrated Text:]
+
+  FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE
+  AND
+  OTHER SPARKLING WINES.
+
+
+
+
+I.--THE ORIGIN OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+The Early Vineyards of the Champagne-- Their Produce esteemed by
+  Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates-- Controversy regarding the
+  rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne-- Dom
+  Perignon's happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine-- Its Patrons under
+  Louis Quatorze and the Regency-- The Ancient Church and Abbey of
+  Hautvillers-- Farre and Co.'s Champagne Cellars-- The Abbey of St.
+  Peter now a Farm-- Existing Remains of the Monastic Buildings-- The
+  Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient Church-- The Last Resting-Place
+  of Dom Perignon--The Legend of the Holy Dove-- Good Champagne the
+  Result of Labour, Skill, Minute Precaution, and Careful Observation.
+
+
+Strong men, we know, lived before Agamemnon; and strong wine was made in
+the fair province of Champagne long before the days of the sagacious Dom
+Perignon, to whom we are indebted for the sparkling vintage known under
+the now familiar name. The chalky slopes that border the Marne were
+early recognised as offering special advantages for the culture of the
+vine. The priests and monks, whose vows of sobriety certainly did not
+lessen their appreciation of the good things of this life, and the
+produce of whose vineyards usually enjoyed a higher reputation than that
+of their lay neighbours, were clever enough to seize upon the most
+eligible sites, and quick to spread abroad the fame of their wines. St.
+Remi, baptiser of Clovis, the first Christian king in France, at the end
+of the fifth century left by will, to various churches, the vineyards
+which he owned at Reims and Laon, together with the "vilains" employed
+in their cultivation. Some three and a half centuries later we find
+worthy Bishop Pardulus of Laon imitating Paul's advice to Timothy, and
+urging Archbishop Hincmar to drink of the wines of Epernay and Reims for
+his stomach's sake. The crusade-preaching Pope, Urban II., who was born
+among the vineyards of the Champagne, dearly loved the wine of Ay; and
+his energetic appeals to the princes of Europe to take up arms for the
+deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre may have owed some of their eloquence
+to his favourite beverage.
+
+The red wine of the Champagne sparkled on the boards of monarchs in the
+Middle Ages when they sat at meat amidst their mailclad chivalry, and
+quaffed mighty beakers to the confusion of the Paynim. Henry of Andely
+has sung in his _fabliau_ of the "Bataille des Vins," how, when stout
+Philip Augustus and his chaplain constituted themselves the earliest
+known wine-jury, the _crûs_ of Espernai, Auviler, Chaalons, and Reims
+were amongst those which found most favour in their eyes, though nearly
+a couple of centuries elapsed before Eustace Deschamps recorded in verse
+the rival merits of those of Cumières and Ay. King Wenceslaus of
+Bohemia, a mighty toper, got so royally drunk day after day upon the
+vintages of the Champagne, that he forgot all about the treaty with
+Charles VI., that had formed the pretext of his visit to France, and
+would probably have lingered, goblet in hand, in the old cathedral city
+till the day of his death, but for the presentation of a little account
+for wine consumed, which sobered him to repentance and led to his abrupt
+departure. Dunois, Lahire, Xaintrailles, and their fellows, when they
+rode with Joan of Arc to the coronation of Charles VII., drank the same
+generous fluid, through helmets barred, to the speedy expulsion of the
+detested English from the soil of France.
+
+The vin d'Ay--_vinum Dei_ as Dominicus Baudoin punningly styled it--was,
+according to old Paulmier, the ordinary drink of the kings and princes
+of his day. It fostered bluff King Hal's fits of passion and the tenth
+Leo's artistic extravagance; consoled Francis I. for the field of Pavia,
+and solaced his great rival in his retirement at St. Just. All of them
+had their commissioners at Ay to secure the best wine for their own
+consumption. Henri Quatre, whose _vendangeoir_ is still shown in the
+village, held the wine in such honour that he was wont to style himself
+the Seigneur d'Ay, just as James of Scotland was known as the Gudeman of
+Ballangeich. When his son, Louis XIII., was crowned, the wines of the
+Champagne were the only growths allowed to grace the board at the royal
+banquet. Freely too did they flow at the coronation feast of the Grand
+Monarque, when the crowd of assembled courtiers, who quaffed them in his
+honour, hailed them as the finest wines of the day.
+
+But the wines which drew forth all these encomiums were far from
+resembling the champagne of modern times. They were not, as has been
+asserted, all as red as burgundy and as flat as port; for at the close
+of the sixteenth, century some of them were of a _fauve_ or yellowish
+hue, and of the intermediate tint between red and white which the French
+call _clairet_, and which our old writers translate as the "complexion
+of a cherry" or the "colour of a partridge's eye." But, as a rule, the
+wines of the Champagne up to this period closely resembled those
+produced in the adjacent province, where Charles the Bold had once held
+sway; a resemblance, no doubt, having much to do with the great medical
+controversy regarding their respective merits which arose in 1652. In
+that year a young medical student, hard pressed for the subject of his
+inaugural thesis, and in the firm faith that
+
+  "None but a clever dialectician
+  Can hope to become a good physician,
+  And that logic plays an important part
+  In the mystery of the healing art,"
+
+propounded the theory that the wines of Burgundy were preferable to
+those of the Champagne, and that the latter were irritating to the
+nerves and conducive to gout. The faculty of medicine at Reims naturally
+rose in arms at this insolent assertion. They seized their pens and
+poured forth a deluge of French and Latin in defence of the wines of
+their province, eulogising alike their purity, their brilliancy of
+colour, their exquisite flavour and perfume, their great keeping powers,
+and, in a word, their general superiority to the Burgundy growths. The
+partisans of the latter were equally prompt in rallying in their
+defence, and the faculty of medicine of Beaune, having put their learned
+periwigs together, enunciated their views and handled their opponents
+without mercy. The dispute spread to the entire medical profession, and
+the champions went on pelting each other with pamphlets in prose and
+tractates in verse, until in 1778--long after the bones of the original
+disputants were dust and their lancets rust--the faculty of Paris, to
+whom the matter was referred, gave a final and formal decision in favour
+of the wines of the Champagne.
+
+Meanwhile an entirely new kind of wine, which was to carry the name of
+the province producing it to the uttermost corners of the earth, had
+been introduced. On the picturesque slopes of the Marne, about fifteen
+miles from Reims, and some four or five miles from Epernay, stands the
+little hamlet of Hautvillers, which, in pre-revolutionary days, was a
+mere dependency upon a spacious abbey dedicated to St. Peter. Here the
+worthy monks of the order of St. Benedict had lived in peace and
+prosperity for several hundred years, carefully cultivating the acres of
+vineland extending around the abbey, and religiously exacting a tithe of
+all the other wine pressed in their district. The revenue of the
+community thus depending in no small degree upon the vintage, it was
+natural that the post of "celerer" should be one of importance. It
+happened that about the year 1688 this office was conferred upon a
+worthy monk named Perignon. Poets and roasters, we know, are born, and
+not made; and the monk in question seems to have been a heaven-born
+cellarman, with a strong head and a discriminating palate. The wine
+exacted from the neighbouring cultivators was of all qualities--good,
+bad, and indifferent; and with the spirit of a true Benedictine, Dom
+Perignon hit upon the idea of "marrying" the produce of one vineyard
+with that of another. He had noted that one kind of soil imparted
+fragrance and another generosity, and discovered that a white wine could
+be made from the blackest grapes, which would keep good, instead of
+turning yellow and degenerating like the wine obtained from white ones.
+Moreover, the happy thought occurred to him that a piece of cork was a
+much more suitable stopper for a bottle than the flax dipped in oil
+which had heretofore served that purpose.
+
+The white, or, as it was sometimes styled, the grey wine of the
+Champagne grew famous, and the manufacture spread throughout the
+province, but that of Hautvillers held the predominance. To Dom Perignon
+the abbey's well-stocked cellar was a far cheerfuller place than the
+cell. Nothing delighted him more than
+
+  "To come down among this brotherhood
+  Dwelling for ever underground,
+  Silent, contemplative, round and sound,
+  Each one old and brown with mould,
+  But filled to the lips with the ardour of youth,
+  With the latent power and love of truth,
+  And with virtues fervent and manifold."
+
+Ever busy among his vats and presses, barrels and bottles, Perignon
+alighted upon a discovery destined to be most important in its results.
+He found out the way of making an effervescent wine--a wine that burst
+out of the bottle and overflowed the glass, that was twice as dainty to
+the taste, and twice as exhilarating in its effects. It was at the close
+of the seventeenth century that this discovery was made--when the glory
+of the Roi Soleil was on the wane, and with it the splendour of the
+Court of Versailles. Louis XIV., for whose especial benefit liqueurs had
+been invented, recovered a gleam of his youthful energy as he sipped the
+creamy foaming vintage that enlivened his dreary _têtes-à-têtes_ with
+the widow of Scarron. It found its chief patrons however, amongst the
+bands of gay young roysterers, the future _roues_ of the Regency, whom
+the Duc d'Orléans and the Duc de Vendôme had gathered round them, at the
+Palais Royal and at Anet. It was at one of the famous _soupers_ d'Anet
+that the Marquis de Sillery--who had turned his sword into a
+pruning-knife, and applied himself to the cultivation of his paternal
+vineyards on the principles inculcated by the celerer of St.
+Peter's--first introduced the sparkling wine bearing his name. The
+flower-wreathed bottles, which, at a given signal, a dozen of blooming
+young damsels scantily draped in the guise of Bacchanals placed upon the
+table, were hailed with rapture, and thenceforth sparkling wine was an
+indispensable adjunct at all the _petits soupers_ of the period. In the
+highest circles the popping of champagne-corks seemed to ring the knell
+of sadness, and the victories of Marlborough were in a measure
+compensated for by this happy discovery.
+
+Why the wine foamed and sparkled was a mystery even to the very makers
+themselves; for as yet Baume's aerometer was unknown, and the connection
+between sugar and carbonic acid undreamt of. The general belief was that
+the degree of effervescence depended upon the time of year at which the
+wine was bottled, and that the rising of the sap in the vine had
+everything to do with it. Certain wiseacres held that it was influenced
+by the age of the moon at the time of bottling; whilst others thought
+the effervescence could be best secured by the addition of spirit, alum,
+and various nastinesses. It was this belief in the use and efficacy of
+drugs that led to a temporary reaction against the wine about 1715, in
+which year Dom Perignon departed this life. In his latter days he had
+grown blind, but his discriminating taste enabled him to discharge his
+duties with unabated efficiency to the end. Many of the tall tapering
+glasses invented by him have been emptied to the memory of the old
+Benedictine, whose remains repose beneath a black marble slab in the
+chancel of the archaic abbey church of Hautvillers.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS AND ABBEY OF HAUTVILLERS. (p. 14)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS. CHARLES FARRE & CO., AT HAUTVILLERS.
+  (p. 15)]
+
+Time and the iconoclasts of the great Revolution have spared but little
+of the royal abbey of St. Peter where Dom Perignon lighted upon his
+happy discovery of the effervescent quality of champagne. The quaint old
+church, scraps of which date back to the 12th century, the remnants of
+the cloisters, and a couple of ancient gateways, marking the limits of
+the abbey precincts, are all that remain to testify to the grandeur of
+its past. It was the proud boast of the brotherhood that it had given
+nine archbishops to the see of Reims, and two-and-twenty abbots to
+various celebrated monasteries, but this pales beside the enduring fame
+it has acquired from having been the cradle of the sparkling vintage of
+the Champagne.
+
+It was in the budding springtime when we made our pilgrimage to
+Hautvillers across the swollen waters of the Marne at Epernay. Our way
+lay for a time along a straight level poplar-bordered road, with verdant
+meadows on either hand, then diverged sharply to the left and we
+commenced ascending the vine-clad hills, on a narrow plateau of which
+the church and abbey remains are picturesquely perched. Vines climb the
+undulating slopes to the summit of the plateau, and wooded heights rise
+up beyond, affording shelter from the bleak winds sweeping over from the
+north. As we near the village of Hautvillers we notice on our left hand
+a couple of isolated buildings overlooking a small ravine with their
+bright tiled roofs flashing in the sunlight. These prove to be a branch
+establishment of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co., a well-known champagne
+firm having its head-quarters at Reims. The grassy space beyond, dotted
+over with low stone shafts giving light and ventilation to the cellars
+beneath, is alive with workmen unloading waggons densely packed with new
+champagne bottles, while under a neighbouring shed is a crowd of women
+actively engaged in washing the bottles as they are brought to them. The
+large apartment aboveground, known as the _cellier_, contains wine in
+cask already blended, and to bottle which preparations are now being
+made. On descending into the cellars, which, excavated in the chalk and
+of regular construction, comprise a series of long, lofty, and
+well-ventilated galleries, we find them stocked with bottles of fine
+wine reposing in huge compact piles ready for transport to the head
+establishment, where they will undergo their final manipulation. The
+cellars consist of two stories, the lowermost of which has an iron gate
+communicating with the ravine already mentioned. On passing out here and
+looking up behind we see the buildings perched some hundred feet above
+us, hemmed in on every side with budding vines.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PORTE DES PRESSOIRS, HAUTVILLERS.]
+
+The church of Hautvillers and the remains of the neighbouring abbey are
+situated at the farther extremity of the village, at the end of its one
+long street, named, pertinently enough, the Rue de Bacchus. Passing
+through an unpretentious gateway we find ourselves in a spacious
+courtyard, bounded by buildings somewhat complex in character. On our
+right rises the tower of the church with the remains of the old
+cloisters, now walled-in and lighted by small square windows, and
+propped up by heavy buttresses. To the left stands the residence of the
+bailiff, and beyond it an 18th-century château on the site of the
+abbot's house, the abbey precincts being bounded on this side by a
+picturesque gateway tower leading to the vineyards, and known as the
+"porte des pressoirs," from its contiguity to the existing wine-presses.
+Huge barn-like buildings, stables, and cart-sheds inclose the court on
+its remaining sides, and roaming about are numerous live stock,
+indicating that what remains of the once-famous royal abbey of St. Peter
+has degenerated into an ordinary farm. To-day the abbey buildings and
+certain of its lands are the property of Messrs. Moët and Chandon, the
+great champagne manufacturers of Epernay, who maintain them as a farm,
+keeping some six-and-thirty cows there with the object of securing the
+necessary manure for the numerous vineyards which they own hereabouts.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The dilapidated cloisters, littered with old casks, farm implements, and
+the like, preserve ample traces of their former architectural character,
+and the Louis Quatorze gateway on the northern side of the inclosure
+still displays above its arch a grandiose carved shield, with
+surrounding palm-branches and half-obliterated bearings. Vine-leaves and
+bunches of grapes decorate some of the more ancient columns inside the
+church, and grotesque mediæval monsters, such as monkish architects
+habitually delighted in, entwine themselves around the capitals of
+others. The stalls of the choir are elaborately carved with cherubs'
+heads, medallions and figures of saints, cupids supporting shields, and
+free and graceful arabesques of the epoch of the Renaissance. In the
+chancel, close by the altar steps, are a couple of black marble slabs,
+with Latin inscriptions of dubious orthography, the one to Johannes
+Royer, who died in 1527, and the other setting forth the virtues and
+merits of Dom Petrus Perignon, the discoverer of champagne. In the
+central aisle a similar slab marks the resting-place of Dom Thedoricus
+Ruynart--obit 1709--an ancestor of the Reims Ruinarts, and little square
+stones interspersed among the tiles with which the side aisles of the
+church are paved record the deaths of other members of the Benedictine
+brotherhood during the 17th and 18th centuries. Several large pictures
+grace the walls of the church, the most interesting one representing St.
+Nivard, Bishop of Reims, and his friend, St. Berchier, designating to
+some mediæval architect the site the contemplated abbey of St. Peter was
+to occupy. There was a monkish legend that about the middle of the 7th
+century this pair of saints set out in search of a suitable site for the
+future monastery. The way was long, the day was warm, and St. Nivard and
+St. Berchier as yet were simply mortal. Weary and faint, they sat them
+down to rest at a spot identified by tradition with a vineyard at Dizy,
+belonging to-day to the Messrs. Bollinger, but at that period forming
+part of the forest of the Marne. St. Nivard fell asleep with his head on
+his companion's lap, and the one in a dream, and the other with waking
+eyes, saw a snow-white dove--the same, firm believers in miracles
+suggested, which had brought down the holy oil for the anointment of
+Clovis at his coronation at Reims--flutter through the wood, and finally
+alight on the stump of a tree.
+
+In those superstitious times such a significant omen was not to be
+disregarded, the site thus miraculously indicated was at once decided
+upon, the high altar of the abbey church being erected upon the precise
+spot where the tree stood on which the snow-white dove had alighted.
+
+The celerer of St. Peter's found worthy successors, and thenceforward
+the manufacture and the popularity of champagne went on steadily
+increasing, until to-day its production is carried on upon a scale and
+with an amount of painstaking care that would astonish its originator.
+For good champagne does not rain down from the clouds, or gush out from
+the rocks, but is the result of incessant labour, patient skill, minute
+precaution, and careful observation. In the first place, the soil
+imparts to the natural wine a special quality which it has been found
+impossible to imitate in any other quarter of the globe. To the wine of
+Ay it lends a flavour of peaches, and to that of Avenay the savour of
+strawberries; the vintage of Hautvillers, though fallen from its former
+high estate, is yet marked by an unmistakably nutty taste; while that of
+Pierry smacks of the locally-abounding flint, the well-known _pierre à
+fusil_ flavour. So on the principle that a little leaven leavens the
+whole lump, the produce of grapes grown in the more favoured vineyards
+is added in certain proportions to secure certain special
+characteristics, as well as to maintain a fixed standard of excellence.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+II.--THE VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. THE VINEYARDS OF THE RIVER.
+
+Ay, the Vineyard of Golden Plants-- Summoning the Vintagers by Beat
+  of Drum-- Excitement in the Surrounding Villages-- The Pickers at
+  Work-- Sorting the Grapes-- Grapes Gathered at Sunrise the Best--
+  Varieties of Vines in the Ay Vineyards-- Few of the Growers in the
+  Champagne Crush their own Grapes-- Squeezing the Grapes in the
+  "Pressoir" and Drawing off the Must-- Cheerful Glasses Round-- The
+  Vintage at Mareuil-- Bringing in the Grapes on Mules and Donkeys--
+  The Vineyards of Avenay, Mutigny, and Cumières-- Damery and Adrienne
+  Lecouvreur, Maréchal de Saxe, and the obese Anna Iwanowna-- The
+  Vineyards of the Côte d'Epernay-- Boursault and its Château-- Pierry
+  and its Vineyard Cellars-- The Clos St. Pierre-- Moussy and Vinay--
+  A Hermit's Cave and a Miraculous Fountain-- Ablois St. Martin-- The
+  Côte d'Avize-- The Grand Premier Crû of Cramant-- Avize and its
+  Wines-- The Vineyards of Oger and Le Mesnil-- The Old Town of Vertus
+  and its Vine-clad Slopes-- Their Red Wine formerly celebrated.
+
+
+With the exception of certain famous vineyards of the Rhône, the
+vinelands of the Champagne may, perhaps, be classed among the most
+picturesque of the more notable vine districts of France. Between Paris
+and Epernay even, the banks of the Marne present a series of scenes of
+quiet beauty. The undulating ground is everywhere cultivated like a
+garden. Handsome châteaux and charming country houses peep out from amid
+luxuriant foliage. Picturesque antiquated villages line the river's bank
+or climb the hill sides, and after leaving La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, the
+cradle of the Condés, all the more favoured situations commence to be
+covered with vines.
+
+This is especially the case in the vicinity of Château-Thierry--the
+birthplace of La Fontaine--where the view is shut in on all sides by
+vine-clad slopes, which the spring frosts seldom spare. Hence merely one
+good vintage out of four gladdens the hearts of the peasant proprietors,
+who find eager purchasers for their produce among the lower-class
+manufacturers of champagne. In the same way the _petit vin de Chierry_,
+dexterously prepared and judiciously mingled with other growths, often
+figures as "Fleur de Sillery" or "Ay Mousseux." In reality it is not
+until we have passed the ornate modern Gothic château of Boursault,
+erected in her declining years by the wealthy Veuve Clicquot, by far the
+shrewdest manipulator of the sparkling products of Ay and Bouzy of her
+day, and the many towers and turrets of which, rising above umbrageous
+trees, crown the loftiest height within eyeshot of Epernay, that we find
+ourselves within that charmed circle of vineyards whence champagne--the
+wine, not merely of princes, as it has been somewhat obsequiously
+termed, but essentially the _vin de société_--is derived.
+
+The vinelands in the vicinity of Epernay, and consequently near the
+Marne, are commonly known as the "Vineyards of the River," whilst those
+covering the slopes in the neighbourhood of Reims are termed the
+"Vineyards of the Mountain." The Vineyards of the River comprise three
+distinct divisions--first, those lining the right bank of the Marne and
+enjoying a southern and south-eastern aspect, among which are Ay,
+Hautvillers, Cumières, Dizy, and Mareuil; secondly, the Côte d'Epernay
+on the left bank of the river, of which Pierry, Moussy, and Vinay form
+part; and thirdly, the Côte d'Avize (the region _par excellence_ of
+white grapes), which stretches towards the south-east, and includes the
+vinelands of Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil, and Vertus. The entire
+vineyard area is upwards of 40,000 acres.
+
+The Champagne vineyards most widely celebrated abroad are those of Ay
+and Sillery, although the last-named are really the smallest in the
+Champagne district. Ay, distant only a few minutes by rail from Epernay,
+is in the immediate centre of the vinelands of the river, having Mareuil
+and Avenay on the east, and Dizy, Hautvillers, and Cumières on the west.
+Sillery, on the other hand, lies at the foot of the so-called Mountain
+of Reims, and within an hour's drive of the old cathedral city.
+
+The pleasantest season of the year to visit the Champagne is certainly
+during the vintage. When this is about to commence, the vintagers--some
+of whom come from Sainte Menehould, forty miles distant, while others
+hail from as far as Lorraine--are summoned at daybreak by beat of drum
+in the market-places of the villages adjacent to the vineyards, and then
+and there a price is made for the day's labour. This is generally either
+a franc and a half, with food consisting of three meals, or two francs
+and a half without food, children being paid a franc and a half. The
+rate of wage satisfactorily arranged, the gangs start off to the
+vineyards, headed by their overseers.
+
+It was on one of those occasional sunshiny days in the early part of
+October (1871) when I first visited Ay, the vineyard of golden plants,
+the unique _premier crû_ of the Wines of the River. The road lay between
+two rows of closely-planted poplar-trees reaching almost to the village
+of Dizy, whose quaint grey church tower, with its gabled roof, is
+dominated by the neighbouring vine-clad slopes, which extend from Avenay
+to Venteuil, some few miles beyond Hautvillers, the cradle, so to speak,
+of the _vin mousseux_ of the Champagne.
+
+Everywhere was bustle and excitement; every one was big with the
+business in hand. In these ordinarily quiet little villages the majority
+of the inhabitants were afoot, the feeble feminine half with the
+juveniles threading their way through the rows of vines half-way up the
+mountain, basket on arm, while the sturdy masculine portion were mostly
+passing to and fro between the press-houses and the wine-shops. Carts
+piled up with baskets, or crowded with peasants from a distance on their
+way to the vineyards, jostled the low railway trucks laden with bran-new
+casks, and the somewhat rickety cabriolets of the agents of the big
+champagne houses, reduced to clinch their final bargain for a hundred or
+more _pièces_ of the peerless wine of Ay, beside the reeking wine-press.
+
+There was a pleasant air of jollity over all, for in the wine-producing
+districts every one participates in the interest excited by the vintage,
+which influences the takings of all the artificers and all the
+tradespeople, bringing grist to the mill of the baker and the bootmaker,
+as well as to the café and the cabaret. The various contending interests
+were singularly satisfied, the vintagers getting their two francs and a
+half a day, and the men at the pressoirs their three francs and their
+food. The plethoric _commissionaires-en-vins_ wiped their perspiring
+foreheads with satisfaction at having at last secured the full number of
+hogsheads they had been instructed to buy--at a high figure it was true,
+still this was no disadvantage to them, as their commission mounted up
+all the higher. And, as regarded the small vine proprietors, even the
+thickest-skulled among them, who make all their calculations on their
+fingers, could see at a glance that they were gainers, for, although the
+crop was no more than half an average one, yet, thanks to the
+ill-disguised anxiety of the agents to secure all the wine they
+required, prices had gradually crept up until they doubled those of
+ordinary years, and this with only half the work in the vineyard and at
+the wine-press to be done.
+
+On leaving Dizy the road runs immediately at the base of the vine-clad
+slopes, broken up by an occasional conical peak detaching itself from
+the mass, and tinted from base to summit with richly-variegated hues,
+in which deep purple, yellow, green, grey, and crimson by turns
+predominate. Dotting these slopes like a swarm of huge ants are a crowd
+of men, women, and children, intent on stripping the vines of their
+luscious-looking fruit. The men are mostly in blue blouses, and the
+women in closely-fitting neat white caps, or wearing old-fashioned
+unbleached straw-bonnets of the contemned coal-scuttle type. They detach
+the grapes with scissors or hooked knives, technically termed
+"serpettes," and in some vineyards proceed to remove all damaged,
+decayed, or unripe fruit from the bunches before placing them in the
+baskets hanging on their arms, the contents of which are from time to
+time emptied into a larger basket resembling a deep clothes-basket in
+shape, numbers of these being dispersed about the vineyard for the
+purpose, and invariably in the shade. When filled they are carried by a
+couple of men to the roadside, along which dwarf stones carved with
+initials, and indicating the boundaries of the respective properties,
+are encountered every eight or ten yards, into such narrow strips are
+the vineyards divided. Large carts with railed open sides are
+continually passing backwards and forwards to pick these baskets up, and
+when one of them has secured its load it is driven slowly--in order that
+the grapes may not be shaken--to the neighbouring pressoir, so extreme
+is the care observed throughout every stage of the process of champagne
+manufacture.
+
+In many of the vineyards the grapes are inspected in bulk instead of in
+detail before being sent to the wine-press. The hand-baskets, when
+filled, are all brought to a particular spot, where their contents are
+minutely examined by some half-dozen men and women, who pluck off all
+the bruised, rotten, and unripe berries, and fling them aside into a
+separate basket. In one vineyard we came upon a party of girls,
+congregated round a wicker sieve perched on the top of a large tub by
+the roadside, who were busy sorting the grapes, pruning away the
+diseased stalks, and picking off all the doubtful berries, and letting
+the latter fall through the interstices of the sieve, the sound fruit
+being deposited in large baskets standing by their side, which, as soon
+as filled, were conveyed to the pressoir.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  A VINTAGE SCENE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. (p. 24)]
+
+The picking ordinarily commences with daylight, and the vintagers assert
+that the grapes gathered at sunrise always produce the lightest and most
+limpid wine. Moreover by plucking the grapes when the early morning sun
+is upon them they are believed to yield a fourth more juice. Later on in
+the day, too, spite of all precautions, it is impossible to prevent some
+of the detached grapes from partially fermenting, which frequently
+suffices to give a slight excess of colour to the must, a thing
+especially to be avoided--no matter how rich and ripe the fruit may
+be--in a high-class champagne. When the grapes have to be transported in
+open baskets for some distance to the press-house, jolting along the
+road either in carts or on the backs of mules, and exposed to the torrid
+rays of a bright autumnal sun, the juice expressed from the fruit,
+however gently the latter may be squeezed, is occasionally of a positive
+purple tinge, and consequently useless for conversion into champagne.
+
+On the right of the road leading from Dizy to Ay we pass a vineyard
+called Le Léon, which tradition asserts to be the one whence Pope Leo
+the Magnificent, the patron of Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Da Vinci,
+drew his supply of Ay wine. The village of Ay lies right before us at
+the foot of the vine-clad slopes, with the tapering spire of its ancient
+church rising above the neighbouring hills and cutting sharply against
+the bright blue sky. The vineyards, which spread themselves over a
+calcareous declivity, have mostly a full southern aspect, and the
+predominating vines are those known as golden plants, the fruit of which
+is of a deep purple colour. After these comes the _plant vert doré_, and
+then a moderate proportion of the _plant gris_, the latter a white
+variety, as its name implies. A limited quantity of wine from white
+grapes is likewise made in the neighbouring vineyards of Dizy.
+
+We visited the pressoir of the principal producer of _vin brut_ at Ay,
+who, although the owner of merely five hectares, or about twelve and a
+half acres of vines, expected to make as many as 1,500 pièces of wine
+that year, mainly of course from grapes purchased from other growers.
+One peculiarity of the Champagne district is that, contrary to the
+prevailing practice in the other wine-producing regions of France, where
+the owner of even a single acre of vines will crush his grapes himself,
+only a limited number of vine-proprietors press their own grapes. The
+large champagne houses, possessing vineyards, always have their
+pressoirs in the neighbourhood, and other large vine-proprietors will
+press the grapes they grow, but the multitude of small cultivators
+invariably sell the produce of their vineyards to one or other of the
+former at a certain rate, either by weight or else per caque, a measure
+estimated to hold sixty kilogrammes (equal to 132lbs.) of grapes. The
+price which the fruit fetches varies of course according to the quality
+of the vintage and the requirements of the manufacturers. In 1873, in
+all the higher-class vineyards, as much as two francs and a quarter per
+kilogramme (10d. per lb.) were paid, or between treble and quadruple the
+average price. And yet the vintage was a most unsatisfactory one owing
+to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet throughout the summer. The
+market, however, was in great need of wine, and the fruit while still
+ungathered was bought up at most exorbitant prices by the _spéculateurs_
+who supply the _vin brut_ to the champagne manufacturers.
+
+Carts laden with grapes were continually arriving at the pressoir, and
+after discharging their loads, and having them weighed, kept driving off
+for fresh ones. Four powerful presses of recent invention, each worked
+by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, were in
+operation. The grapes were spread over the floor of the press in a
+compact mass, and on being subjected to pressure--again and again
+repeated, the first squeeze only giving a high-class wine--the must
+filtered through a wicker basket into the reservoir beneath, whence,
+after remaining a certain time to allow of its ridding itself of the
+grosser lees, it is pumped through a gutta-percha tube into the casks.
+The wooden stoppers of the bungholes, instead of being fixed tightly in
+the apertures, are simply laid over them, and after the lapse of ten or
+twelve days fermentation usually commences, and during its progress the
+must, which is originally of a pale pink tint, fades to a light straw
+colour. The wine usually remains undisturbed until Christmas, when it is
+drawn off into fresh casks, and delivered to the purchaser.
+
+On our way from Ay to Mareuil, along the lengthy Rue de Châlons, we
+looked in at the little auberge at the corner of the Boulevard du Sud,
+where we found a crowd of coopers and others connected in some way with
+the vintage taking their cheerful glasses round. The walls of the room
+were appropriately enough decorated with capering bacchanals squeezing
+bunches of purple grapes and flourishing their thyrsi about in a very
+tipsy fashion. All the talk--and there was an abundance of it--had
+reference to the yield of this particular vintage and the high rate the
+Ay wine had realised. Eight hundred francs the pièce of two hundred
+litres, equal to forty-four gallons, appeared to be the price fixed by
+the agents of the great champagne houses, and at this figure the bulk of
+the vintage was disposed of before a single grape passed through the
+wine-press.
+
+At Mareuil, which is scarcely more than a mile from Ay, owing to the
+steepness of the slopes and to the roads through the vineyards being
+impracticable for carts, the grapes were being conveyed to the
+press-houses in baskets slung across the backs of mules and donkeys,
+who, on account of their known partiality for the ripe fruit, were most
+of them muzzled while thus employed. The _vin brut_ here, inferior of
+course to that of Ay, found a ready market at from five to six hundred
+francs the pièce.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+From Mareuil we proceeded to Avenay, a tumbledown little village in the
+direction of Reims, and the vineyards of which were of greater repute in
+the 13th century than they are to-day. Its best wine, extolled by Saint
+Evremond, the epicurean Frenchman, who emigrated to the gay court of
+Charles II. at Whitehall to escape a gloomy cell in the Bastille, is
+vintaged up the slopes of Mont Hurlé. At Avenay we found the yield had
+been little more than the third of an average one, and that the wine
+from the first pressure of the grapes had been sold for five hundred
+francs the pièce. Here we tasted some very fair still red wine, made
+from the same grapes as champagne, remarkably deep in colour, full of
+body, and with that slight sweet bitterish flavour characteristic of
+certain of the better-class growths of the south of France. On leaving
+Avenay we ascended the hills to Mutigny, and wound round thence to
+Cumières, on the banks of the Marne, finding the vintage in full
+operation all throughout the route. The vineyards of Cumières--classed
+as a second crû--join those of Hautvillers on the one side and Damery on
+the other--the latter a cosy little river-side village, where the "_bon
+Roi Henri_" sought relaxation from the turmoils of war in the society of
+the fair Anne du Puy--"_sa belle hôtesse_," as the gallant Béarnais was
+wont to style her. Damery too claims to be the birthplace of Adrienne
+Lecouvreur, the celebrated actress of the Regency, and mistress of the
+Maréchal de Saxe who coaxed her out of her £30,000 of savings to enable
+him to prosecute his suit with the obese Anna Iwanowna, niece of Peter
+the Great, which, had he only been successful in, would have secured the
+future hero of Fontenoy the coveted dukedom of Courland.
+
+The vineyards of the Côte d'Epernay, south of the Marne, extend eastward
+from beyond Boursault, on whose wooded height Madame Clicquot built her
+fine château, in which her granddaughter, the Comtesse de Mortemart,
+to-day resides. They then follow the course of the river, and after
+winding round behind Epernay diverge towards the south-west. The vines
+produce only black grapes, and many of the vineyards are of great
+antiquity, one at Epernay, known as the Closet, having been bequeathed
+under that name six and a half centuries ago to a neighbouring Abbey of
+St. Martin. A short drive along the high road leading from Epernay to
+Troyes brings us to the village of Pierry cosily nestling amongst groves
+of poplars in the valley of the Cubry, with some half-score of châteaux
+of the last century belonging to well-to-do wine-growers of the
+neighbourhood, screened from the road by umbrageous gardens. Vines mount
+the slopes that rise around, the higher summits being crowned with
+forest, while here and there some pleasant village shelters itself under
+the brow of a lofty hill. Near Pierry many cellars have been excavated
+in the chalky soil, to the flints prevalent in which the village is said
+to owe its name.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The entrances to these cellars are closed by iron gateways, and on the
+skirts of the vineyards we come upon whole rows of them picturesquely
+overgrown with ivy. Early in the last century the wine vintaged in the
+Clos St. Pierre, belonging to an abbey of this name at Châlons, acquired
+a high reputation through the care bestowed upon it by Brother Jean
+Oudart, whose renown almost rivalled that of Dom Perignon himself, and
+to-day the Pierry vineyards, producing exclusively black grapes, hold a
+high rank among the second-class crûs of the Marne.
+
+Crossing the Sourdon, a little stream which, bubbling up in the midst of
+huge rocks in the forest of Epernay, rushes down the hills and mingles
+its waters with that of the Cubry, we soon reach Moussy, where the
+vineyards, spite of their long pedigree and southern aspect, also rank
+as a second crû. Still skirting the vine-clad slopes we come to Vinay,
+noted for an ancient grotto--the comfortless abode of some rheumatic
+anchorite--and a pretended miraculous spring to which fever-stricken
+pilgrims to-day credulously resort. The water may possibly merit its
+renown, but the wine here produced is very inferior, due no doubt to the
+class of vines, the meunier being the leading variety cultivated. At
+Ablois St. Martin, picturesquely perched partway up a slope in the midst
+of hills covered with vines and crowned with forest trees, the Côte
+d'Epernay ends, and the produce becomes of a choicer character.
+
+The Côte d'Avize lies to the south-east, so that we have to retrace our
+steps to Pierry and follow the road which there branches off, leaving
+the vineyards of Chavot, Monthelon, and Grauves, of no particular note,
+on our right hand. We pass through Cuis, where the slopes, planted with
+both black and white varieties of vines, are extremely abrupt, and
+eventually reach Cramant, one of the grand _premiers crûs_ of the
+Champagne. From the vineyards around this picturesque little village,
+and extending along the somewhat precipitous Côte de Saran--a prominent
+object on which is M. Moët's handsome château--there is vintaged a wine
+from white grapes especially remarkable for lightness and delicacy and
+the richness of its bouquet, and an admixture of which is essential to
+every first-class champagne _cuvée_.
+
+From Cramant the road runs direct to Avize, a large thriving village,
+lying at the foot of vineyard slopes, where numerous champagne firms
+have established themselves. Its prosperity dates from the commencement
+of the last century, when the Count de Lhery cleared away the remains of
+its ancient ramparts, filled up the moat, and planted the ground with
+vines, the produce of which was found admirably suited for the sparkling
+wines then coming into vogue. To-day the light delicate wine of Avize is
+classed, like that of Cramant, as a _premier crû_. It is the same with
+the wine of Oger, lying a little to the south, while the neighbouring
+growths of Le Mesnil hold a slightly inferior rank. The latter village
+and its grey Gothic church lie under the hill in the midst of vines that
+almost climb the forest-crowned summit. The stony soil hereabouts is
+said to be better adapted to the cultivation of white than of black
+grapes, besides which the wines of Le Mesnil are remarkable for their
+effervescent properties.
+
+Vertus forms the southern limit of the Côte d'Avize, and the vineyard
+slopes subsiding at their base into a broad expanse of fertile fields,
+and crested as usual with dense forest, rise up behind the picturesque
+old town which the English assailed and partly burnt five centuries ago,
+spite of its fortifications, of which to-day a dilapidated gateway alone
+remains. The church is ancient and curious, and a few quaint old houses
+are here and there met with, notably one with a florid Gothic window
+enriched with a moulding of grapes and vine-leaves. The vineyards of
+Vertus were originally planted with vines from Burgundy, and in the 14th
+century yielded a red wine held in high repute, while later on the
+Vertus growths formed the favourite beverage of William III. of England.
+To-day the growers find it more profitable to make white instead of red
+wine from their crops of black grapes, the former commanding a good
+price for conversion into _vin mousseux_, it being in the opinion of
+some manufacturers especially valuable for binding a _cuvée_ together.
+The wine of Vertus ranks among the second-class champagne crûs.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  CHATEAU OF SILLERY.]
+
+III.--THE VINEYARDS OF THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+The Wine of Sillery-- Origin of its Renown-- The Marechale d'Estrées
+  a successful Marchande de Vin-- From Reims to Sillery-- Failure of
+  the Jacquesson Vineyards-- Château of Sillery-- Wine Making at
+  M. Fortel's-- Sillery sec-- The Vintage and Vendangeoirs at
+  Verzenay-- The Verzy Vineyards-- Edward III. at the Abbey of St.
+  Basle-- From Reims to Bouzy-- The Herring Procession at St. Remi--
+  Rilly, Chigny, and Ludes-- The Knights Templars' "Pot" of Wine--
+  Mailly and the View over the Plains of the Champagne-- Wine Making
+  at Mailly-- The Village in the Wood-- Village and Château of
+  Louvois-- Louis le Grand's War Minister-- Bouzy, its Vineyards and
+  Church Steeple, and the Lottery of the Great Gold Ingot-- MM.
+  Werlé's and Moët and Chandon's Vendangeoirs-- Pressing the Grapes--
+  Still Red Bouzy-- Ambonnay-- A Peasant Proprietor-- The Vineyards of
+  Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville, and St. Thierry-- The Still
+  Red Wine of the latter.
+
+
+The smallest of the Champagne vineyards are those of Sillery, and yet no
+wine of the Marne enjoys a greater renown, due originally to the
+intelligence and energy of the Maréchale d'Estrées, the clever daughter
+of a Jew financier, who brought the wine of Sillery prominently into
+notice during the latter half of the seventeenth century. She had
+vineyards at Mailly, Verzy, and Verzenay, as well as at Sillery, and
+concentrated their produce in the capacious cellars of her château,
+afterwards sending it forth with her own guarantee, under the general
+name of Sillery, which, like Aaron's serpent, thus swallowed up the
+others. The Maréchale's social position enabled her to secure for her
+wines the recognition they really merited, added to which she was a keen
+woman of business. She also possessed much taste, and whenever she gave
+one of her rare entertainments nothing could be more exquisite or more
+magnificent. At the same time, she was so sordid that when her daughter,
+who was covered with jewels, fell down at a ball, her first cry was, not
+like Shylock's, "my daughter," but "my diamonds," as rushing forward she
+strove to pick up, not the fallen dancer, but her scattered gems.
+
+The drive from Reims to Sillery has nothing attractive about it. A long,
+straight, level road bordered by trees intersects a broad tract of open
+country, skirted on the right by the Petite Montagne of Reims, with
+antiquated villages nestled among the dense woodland. After crossing the
+Châlons line of railway--near where one of the new forts constructed for
+the defence of Reims rises up behind the villages and vineyards of
+Cernay and Nogent l'Abbesse--the country becomes more undulating.
+Poplars border the broad Marne canal, and a low fringe of foliage marks
+the course of the languid river Vesle, on the banks of which is Taissy,
+famous in the old days for its wines, great favourites with Sully, and
+which almost lured Henri Quatre from his allegiance to the vintages of
+Ay and Arbois that he loved so well.
+
+To the left rises Mont de la Pompelle, where the first Christians of
+Reims suffered martyrdom, and where in 1658 the Spaniards under Montal,
+when attempting to ravage the vineyards of the district, were repulsed
+with terrible slaughter by the Remois militia, led on by Grandpré.
+A quarter of a century ago the low ground on our right near Sillery was
+planted with vines by M. Jacquesson, the owner of the Sillery estate,
+and a large champagne manufacturer at Châlons, who was anxious to
+resuscitate the ancient reputation of the domain. Under the advice of
+Dr. Guyot, the well-known writer on viticulture, he planted the vines in
+deep trenches, which led to the vineyards being punningly termed
+Jacquesson's _celery_ beds. To shield the vines from hailstorms
+prevalent in the district, and the more dangerous spring frosts,
+so fatal to vines planted in low-lying situations, long rolls of
+straw-matting were stored close at hand with which to roof them over
+when needful. These precautions were scarcely needed, however; the vines
+languished through moisture at the roots, and eventually were mostly
+rooted up.
+
+After again crossing the railway, we pass the trim, restored turrets of
+the famous château of Sillery, with its gateways, moats, and
+drawbridges, flanked by trees and floral parterres. It was here that the
+Maréchale d'Estrées carried on her successful business as a _marchande
+de vins_, and the pragmatic and pedantic Comtesse de Genlis, governess
+of the Orleans princes, spent, as she tells us, the happiest days of her
+life. The few thriving vineyards of Sillery cover a gentle eminence
+which rises out of the plain, and present on the one side an eastern and
+on the other a western aspect. To-day the Vicomte de Brimont and
+M. Fortel of Reims, the latter of whom cultivates about forty acres of
+vines, yielding ordinarily about 300 hogsheads, are the only
+wine-growers at Sillery. Before pressing his grapes--of course for
+sparkling wine--M. Fortel has them thrown into a trough, at the bottom
+of which are a couple of grooved cylinders, each about eight inches in
+diameter, and revolving in contrary directions, the effect of which,
+when set in motion, is to disengage the grapes partially from their
+stalks. Grapes and stalks are then placed under the press, which is on
+the old cyder-press principle, and the must runs into a reservoir
+beneath, whence it is pumped into large vats, each holding from 250 to
+500 gallons. Here it remains from six to eight hours, and is then run
+off into casks, the spigots of which are merely laid lightly over the
+holes, and in the course of twelve days the wine begins to ferment. It
+now rests until the end of the year, when it is drawn off into new casks
+and delivered to the buyer, invariably one or other of the great
+champagne houses, who willingly pay an exceptionally high price for it.
+The second and third pressures of the grapes yield an inferior wine, and
+from the husks and stalks _eau-de-vie_, worth about five shillings a
+gallon, is distilled.
+
+The wine known as Sillery sec is a full, dry, pleasant-flavoured, and
+somewhat spirituous amber-coloured wine. Very little of it is made
+now-a-days, and most that is comes from the adjacent vineyards of
+Verzenay and Mailly, and is principally reserved by the growers for
+their own consumption. One of these candidly admitted to me that the old
+reputation of the wine had exploded, and that better white Bordeaux and
+Burgundy wines were to be obtained for less money. In making dry
+Sillery, which locally is esteemed as a valuable tonic, it is essential
+that the grapes should be subjected to only slight pressure, while to
+have it in perfection it is equally essential that the wine should be
+kept for ten years in the wood according to some, and eight years in
+bottle according to others, to which circumstance its high price is in
+all probability to be attributed. In course of time it forms a deposit,
+and has the disadvantage common to all the finer still wines of the
+Champagne district of not travelling well.
+
+Beyond Sillery the vineyards of Verzenay unfold themselves, spreading
+over the extensive slopes and stretching to the summit of the steep
+height to the right, where a windmill or two is perched. Everywhere the
+vintagers are busy detaching the grapes with their little hook-shaped
+_serpettes_, the women all wearing projecting, close-fitting bonnets, as
+though needlessly careful of their anything but blonde complexions. Long
+carts laden with baskets of grapes block the narrow roads, and donkeys,
+duly muzzled, with baskets slung across their backs, toil up and down
+the steeper slopes. Half way up the principal hill, backed by a dense
+wood and furrowed with deep trenches, whence soil has been removed for
+manuring the vineyards, is the village of Verzenay, overlooking a
+veritable sea of vines. Rising up in front of the old grey cottages,
+encompassed by orchards or gardens, are the white walls and long red
+roofs of the vendangeoirs belonging to the great champagne houses--Moët
+and Chandon, Clicquot, G. H. Mumm, Roederer, Deutz and Geldermann, and
+others--all teeming with bustle and excitement, and with the vines
+almost reaching to their very doors. Moët and Chandon have as many as
+eight presses in full work, and own no less than 120 acres of vines on
+the neighbouring slopes, besides the Clos de Romont--in the direction of
+Sillery, and yielding a wine of the Sillery type--belonging to M. Moët
+Romont. At Messrs. G. H. Mumm's the newly-delivered grapes are either
+being weighed and emptied into one of the pressoirs, or else receiving
+their first gentle squeeze. Verzenay ranks as a _premier crû_, and for
+three years in succession--1872, 3, and 4--its wines fetched a higher
+price than either those of Ay or Bouzy. In 1873 the _vin brut_ commanded
+the exceptionally large sum of 1,030 francs the hogshead of 44 gallons.
+All the inhabitants of Verzenay are vine proprietors, and several
+million francs are annually received by them for the produce of their
+vineyards from the manufacturers of champagne. The wine of Verzenay,
+remarkable for its body and vinosity, has always been held in high
+repute, which is more than can be said for the probity of the
+inhabitants, for according to an old Champagne saying--"Whenever at
+Verzenay 'Stop thief' is cried every one takes to his heels."
+
+Just over the mountain of Reims is the village of Verzy, the vineyards
+of which adjoin those of Verzenay, and are almost exclusively planted
+with white grapes, the only instance of the kind to be met with in the
+district. In the clos St. Basse, however--taking its name from the abbey
+of St. Basle, of which the village was a dependency, and where Edward
+III. of England had his head-quarters during the siege of Reims--black
+grapes alone are grown, and its produce is almost on a par with the
+wines of Verzenay. Southwards of Verzy are the third-class crûs of
+Villers-Marmery and Trépail.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS OF VERZENAY. (p. 36.)]
+
+On leaving Reims on our excursion to the vineyards of Bouzy we pass the
+quaint old church of St. Remi, one of the sights of the Champagne
+capital, and notable among other things for its magnificent ancient
+stained-glass windows, and the handsome modern tomb of the popular
+Remois saint. It was here in the middle ages that that piece of priestly
+mummery, the procession of the herrings, used to take place at dusk on
+the Wednesday before Easter. Preceded by a cross the canons of the
+church marched in double file up the aisles, each trailing a cord after
+him, with a herring attached. Every one's object was to tread on the
+herring in front of him, and prevent his own herring from being trodden
+upon by the canon who followed behind--a difficult enough proceeding
+which, if it did not edify, certainly afforded much amusement to the
+lookers-on.
+
+Soon after crossing the canal and the river Vesle we leave the grey
+antiquated-looking village of Cormontreuil on our left, and traverse a
+wide stretch of cultivated country streaked with patches of woodland.
+Occasional windmills dot the distant heights, while villages nestle
+among the trees up the mountain sides and in the quiet hollows. Soon a
+few vineyards occupying the lower slopes, and thronged by bands of
+vintagers, come in sight, and the country too gets more picturesque. We
+pass successively on our right hand Rilly, producing a capital red wine,
+then Chigny, and afterwards Ludes, all three more or less up the
+mountain, with vines in all directions, relieved by a dark background of
+forest trees. In the old days the Knights Templars of the Commanderie of
+Reims had the right of _vinage_ at Ludes, and exacted their modest "pot"
+(about half a gallon) per pièce on all the wine the village produced. On
+our left hand is Mailly, the vineyards of which join those of Verzenay,
+and yield a wine noted for _finesse_ and bouquet. From the wooded knolls
+hereabouts a view is gained of the broad plains of the Champagne, dotted
+with white villages and scattered homesteads among the poplars and the
+limes, the winding Vesle glittering in the sunlight, and the dark towers
+of Notre Dame de Reims, with all their rich Gothic fretwork, rising
+majestically above the distant city.
+
+At one vendangeoir we visited at Mailly between 350 and 400 pièces of
+wine were being made at the rate of some thirty pièces during the long
+day of twenty hours, five men being engaged in working the old-fashioned
+press, closely resembling a cyder press, and applying its pressure
+longitudinally. The must was emptied into large vats, holding about 450
+gallons, and remained there for two or three days before being drawn off
+into casks. Of the above thirty pièces, twenty resulting from the first
+pressure were of the finest quality, four produced by the second
+pressure were partly reserved to replace what the first might lose
+during fermentation, the residue serving for second-class champagne. The
+six pièces which came from the final pressure, after being mixed with
+common wine of the district, were converted into champagne of inferior
+quality.
+
+We now cross the mountain, sight Ville-en-Selve--the village in the
+wood--among the distant trees, and eventually reach Louvois, whence the
+Grand Monarque's domineering war minister derived his marquisate, and
+where his château, a plain but capacious edifice, may still be seen
+nestled in a picturesque and fertile valley, and surrounded by lordly
+pleasure grounds. Soon afterwards the vineyards of Bouzy appear in
+sight, with the prosperous-looking little village rising out of the
+plain at the foot of the vine-clad slopes stretching to Ambonnay, and
+the glittering Marne streaking the hazy distance. The commodious new
+church was indebted for its spire, we were told, to the lucky
+gainer--who chanced to be a native of Bouzy--of the great gold ingot
+lottery prize, value £16,000, drawn some years ago. The Bouzy vineyards
+occupy a series of gentle inclines, and have the advantage of a full
+southern aspect. The soil, which is of the customary calcareous
+formation, has a marked ruddy tinge, indicative of the presence of iron,
+to which the wine is in some degree indebted for its distinguishing
+characteristics--its delicacy, spirituousness, and pleasant bouquet.
+Vintagers are passing slowly in between the vines, and carts laden with
+grapes come rolling over the dusty roads. The mountain which rises
+behind is scored up its sides and fringed with foliage at its summit,
+and a small stone bridge crosses the deep ravine formed by the swift
+descending winter torrents.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS OF BOUZY. (p. 38.)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  PRESSING GRAPES AT M. WERLÉ'S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 39)]
+
+The principal vineyard proprietors at Bouzy, which ranks, of course, as
+a _premier crû_, are M. Werlé, M. Irroy, and Messrs. Moët and Chandon,
+the first and last of whom have capacious vendangeoirs here, M. Irroy's
+pressing-house being in the neighbouring village of Ambonnay. M. Werlé
+possesses at Bouzy from forty to fifty acres of the finest vines,
+forming a considerable proportion of the entire vineyard area. At the
+Clicquot-Werlé vendangeoir, containing as many as eight presses, about
+1,000 pièces of wine are made annually. At the time of our visit, grapes
+gathered that morning were in course of delivery, the big basketfuls
+being measured off in caques--wooden receptacles, holding two-and-twenty
+gallons--while the florid-faced foreman ticked them off with a piece of
+chalk on the head of an adjacent cask.
+
+As soon as the contents of some half-hundred or so of these baskets had
+been emptied on to the floor of the press, the grapes undetached from
+their stalks were smoothed compactly down, and a moderate pressure was
+applied to them by turning a huge wheel, which caused the screw of the
+press to act--a gradual squeeze rather than a powerful one, and given
+all at once, coaxing out, it was said, the finer qualities of the fruit.
+The operation was repeated as many as six times; the yield from the
+three first pressures being reserved for conversion into champagne,
+while the result of the fourth squeeze would be applied to replenishing
+the loss, averaging 7½ per cent., sustained by the must during
+fermentation. Whatever comes from the fifth pressure is sold to make an
+inferior champagne. The grapes are subsequently well raked about, and
+then subjected to a couple of final squeezes, known as the _rébêche_,
+and yielding a sort of _piquette_, given to the workmen employed at the
+pressoir to drink.
+
+The small quantity of still red Bouzy wine made by M. Werlé at the same
+vendangeoir only claims to be regarded as a wine of especial mark in
+good years. The grapes before being placed beneath the press are allowed
+to remain in a vat for as many as eight days. The must undergoes a long
+fermentation, and after being drawn off into casks is left undisturbed
+for a couple of years. In bottle, where, by the way, it invariably
+deposits a sediment, which is indeed the case with all the wines of the
+Champagne, still or sparkling, it will outlive, we were told, any
+Burgundy.
+
+Still red Bouzy has a marked and agreeable bouquet and a most delicate
+flavour, is deliciously smooth to the palate, and to all appearances as
+light as a wine of Bordeaux, while in reality it is quite as strong as
+Burgundy, to the finer crûs of which it bears a slight resemblance. It
+was, I learnt, most susceptible to travelling, a mere journey to Paris
+being, it was said, sufficient to sicken it, and impart such a shock to
+its delicate constitution that it was unlikely to recover from it. To
+attain perfection, this wine, which is what the French term a _vin vif_,
+penetrating into the remotest corners of the organ of taste, requires to
+be kept a couple of years in wood and half-a-dozen or more years in
+bottle.
+
+From Bouzy it was only a short distance along the base of the vine
+slopes to Ambonnay, where there are merely two or three hundred acres of
+vines, and where we found the vintage almost over. The village is girt
+with fir trees, and surrounded by rising ground fringed with solid belts
+or slender strips of foliage. An occasional windmill cuts against the
+horizon, which is bounded here and there by scattered trees. Inquiring
+for the largest vine proprietor we were directed to an open
+porte-cochère, and on entering the large court encountered half-a-dozen
+labouring men engaged in various farm occupations. Addressing one whom
+we took to be the foreman, he referred us to a wiry little old man, in
+shirt-sleeves and sabots, absorbed in the refreshing pursuit of turning
+over a big heap of rich manure with a fork. He proved to be M. Oury, the
+owner of I forget how many acres of vines, and a remarkably intelligent
+peasant, considering what dunderheads the French peasants as a rule are,
+who had raised himself to the position of a large vine proprietor.
+Doffing his sabots and donning a clean blouse, he conducted us into his
+little salon, a freshly-painted apartment about eight feet square, of
+which the huge fireplace occupied fully one-third, and submitted
+patiently to our catechizing.
+
+At Ambonnay, as at Bouzy, they had that year, M. Oury said, only half an
+average crop; the caque of grapes had, moreover, sold for exactly the
+same price at both places, and the wine had realised about 800 francs
+the pièce. Each hectare (2½ acres) of vines had yielded 45 caques of
+grapes, weighing some 2¾ tons, which produced 6½ pièces, equal to 286
+gallons of wine, or at the rate of 110 gallons per acre. Here the grapes
+were pressed four times, the yield from the second pressure being used
+principally to make good the loss which the first sustained during its
+fermentation. As the squeezes given were powerful ones, all the best
+qualities of the grapes were by this time extracted, and the yield from
+the third and fourth pressures would not command more than 80 francs the
+pièce. The vintagers who came from a distance received either a franc
+and a half per day and their food, consisting of three meals, or two
+francs and a half without food, the children being paid thirty sous.
+M. Oury further informed us that every year vineyards came into the
+market, and found ready purchasers at from fifteen to twenty thousand
+francs the hectare, equal to an average price of £300 the acre. Owing to
+the properties being divided into such infinitesimal portions, they were
+rarely bought up by the large champagne houses, who preferred not to be
+embarrassed with the cultivation of such tiny plots, but to buy the
+produce from their owners.
+
+There are other vineyards of lesser note in the neighbourhood of Reims
+producing very fair wines which enter more or less into the composition
+of champagne. Noticeable among these are Ville-Dommange and Sacy,
+south-west of Reims, and Hermonville and St. Thierry--where the Black
+Prince took up his quarters during the siege of Reims--north-west of the
+city. The still red wine of St. Thierry, which recalls the growths of
+the Médoc by its tannin, and those of the Côte d'Or by its vinosity, is
+to-day almost a thing of the past, it being found here as elsewhere more
+profitable to press the grapes for sparkling in preference to still
+wine.
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+IV.--THE VINES OF THE CHAMPAGNE AND THE SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION.
+
+The Vines chiefly of the Pineau Variety-- The Plant doré of Ay, the
+  Plant vert doré, the Plant gris, and the Epinette-- The Soil of the
+  Vineyards-- Close Mode of Plantation-- The Operation of Provinage--
+  The Stems of the Vines never more than Three Years Old-- Fixing the
+  Stakes to the Vines-- Manuring and General Cultivation-- Spring
+  Frosts in the Champagne-- Various Modes of Protecting the Vines
+  against them-- Dr. Guyot's System-- The Parasites that Prey upon the
+  Vines.
+
+
+In the Champagne the old rule holds good--poor soil, rich product; grand
+wine in moderate quantity. Four descriptions of vines are chiefly
+cultivated, three of them yielding black grapes, and all belonging to
+the Pineau variety, from which the grand Burgundy wines are produced,
+and so styled from the clusters taking the conical form of the pine. The
+first is the franc pineau, the plant doré of Ay, producing small round
+grapes, with thickish skins of a bluish black tint, and sweet and
+refined in flavour. The next is the plant vert doré, more robust and
+more productive than the former, but yielding a less generous wine, and
+the berries of which are dark and oval, very thin skinned and remarkably
+sweet and juicy. The third variety is the plant gris, or burot, as it is
+styled in the Côte d'Or, a somewhat delicate vine, whose fruit has a
+brownish tinge, and yields a light and perfumed wine. The remaining
+species is a white grape known as the épinette, a variety of the pineau
+blanc, and supposed by some to be identical with the chardonnet of
+Burgundy, which yields the famous wine of Montrachet. It is met with all
+along the Côte d'Avize, notably at Cramant, the delicate and elegant
+wine of which ranks immediately after that of Ay and Verzenay. The
+épinette is a prolific bearer, and its round transparent golden berries,
+which hang in no very compact clusters, are both juicy and sweet. It
+ripens, however, much later than either of the black varieties.
+
+There are several other species of vines cultivated in the Champagne
+vineyards, notably the common meunier, or miller, bearing black grapes,
+and prevalent in the valley of Epernay, and which takes its name from
+the circumstance of the young leaves appearing to have been sprinkled
+with flour. There are also the black and white gouais, the meslier,
+a prolific white variety yielding a wine of fair quality, the black and
+white gamais, the leading grape in the Mâconnais, and chiefly found in
+the Vertus vineyards, together with the tourlon, the marmot, and half a
+score of others.
+
+The soil of the Champagne vineyards is chalk, with a mixture of silica
+and light clay, combined with a varying proportion of oxide of iron. The
+vines are almost invariably planted on rising ground, the lower slopes
+which usually escape the spring frosts producing the best wines. The new
+vines are placed very close together, there often being as many as six
+within a square yard. When two or three years old they are ready for the
+operation of provinage universally practised in the Champagne, and which
+consists in burying in a trench, from 6 to 8 inches deep, dug on one
+side of the plant, the two lowest buds of the two principal shoots, left
+when the vine was pruned for this especial purpose. The shoots thus laid
+underground are dressed with a light manure, and in course of time take
+root and form new vines, which bear during their second year. This
+operation is performed in the spring, and is annually repeated until the
+vine is five years old, the plants thus being in a state of continual
+progression, a system which accounts for the juvenescent aspect of the
+Champagne vineyards, where none of the wood of the vines showing
+aboveground is more than three years old. When the vine has attained its
+fifth year it is allowed to rest for a couple of years, and then the
+pruning is resumed, the shoots being dispersed in any direction
+throughout the vineyard. The plants remain in this condition
+henceforward, merely requiring to be renewed from time to time by
+judicious provining.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The vines are supported by stakes, when of oak costing sixty francs the
+thousand; and as in the Champagne a close system of plantation is
+followed, no less than 24,000 stakes are required on every acre of land,
+making the cost per acre of propping up the vines upwards of £57, or
+double what it is in the Médoc and quadruple what it is in Burgundy.
+These stakes are set up in the spring of the year by men or women, the
+former of whom force them into the ground by pressing against them with
+their chest, which is protected with a shield of stout leather. The
+women use a mallet, or have recourse to a special appliance, in working
+which the foot plays the principal part. The latter method is the least
+fatiguing, and in some localities is practised by the men. An expert
+labourer will set up as many as 5,000 of these stakes in the course of
+the day. After the vines have been hoed around their roots they are
+secured to the stakes, and the tops are broken off at a shoot to prevent
+them from growing above the regulation height, which is ordinarily from
+30 to 33 inches. They are liberally manured with a kind of compost
+formed of the loose friable soil dug out from the sides of the mountain,
+and of supposed volcanic origin, mixed with animal and vegetable refuse.
+The vines are shortened back while in flower, and in the course of the
+summer the ground is hoed a second and a third time, the object being,
+first, to destroy the superficial roots of the vines and force the
+plants to live solely on their deep roots; and, secondly, to remove all
+pernicious weeds from round about them. After the third hoeing, which
+takes place in the middle of August, the vines are left to themselves
+until the period of the vintage. When this is over the stakes supporting
+the vines are pulled up and stacked in compact masses, with their ends
+out of the ground, the vine, which is left curled up in a heap,
+remaining undisturbed until the winter, when the earth around it is
+loosened. In the month of February it is pruned and sunk into the earth,
+as already described, so as to leave only the new wood aboveground.
+Owing to the vines being planted so closely together they starve one
+another, and numbers of them perish. When this is the case, or the stems
+get broken during the vintage, their places are filled up by provining.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The vignerons of the Champagne regard the numerous stakes which support
+the vines as affording some protection against the white frosts of the
+spring. To guard against the dreaded effects of these frosts, which
+invariably occur between early dawn and sunrise, and the loss arising
+from which is estimated to amount annually to 25 per cent. some of the
+cultivators place heaps of hay, faggots, dead leaves, &c., about twenty
+yards apart, taking care to keep them moderately damp. When a frost is
+feared the heaps on the side of the vineyard whence the wind blows are
+set light to, whereupon the dense smoke which rises spreads horizontally
+over the vines, producing the same result as an actual cloud,
+intercepting the rays of the sun, warming the atmosphere, and converting
+the frost into dew. Among other methods adopted to shield the vines from
+frosts is the joining of branches of broom together in the form of a
+fan, and afterwards fastening them to the end of a pole, which is placed
+obliquely in the ground, so that the fan may incline over the vine and
+protect it from the sun's rays. A single labourer can plant, it is said,
+as many as eight thousand of these fans in the ground in the course of a
+long day.
+
+Dr. Guyot's system of roofing the vines with straw matting, to protect
+them alike against frost and hailstorms, is very generally followed in
+low situations in the Champagne, the value of the wine admitting of so
+considerable an expense being incurred. This matting, which is about a
+foot and a half in width, and in rolls of great length, is fastened
+either with twine or wire to the vine stakes, and it is estimated that
+half-a-dozen men can fix nearly 11,000 yards of it, or sufficient to
+roof over 2½ acres of vines, during an ordinary day.
+
+Owing to the system of cultivation by rejuvenescence, and the constant
+replenishing of the soil by well-compounded manures, the Champenois
+winegrowers entertain great hopes that their vineyards will escape the
+ravages of the phylloxera vastatrix. According to Dr. Plonquet of Ay
+they are already the prey of no less than fifteen varieties of insects,
+which feed upon the leaves, stalks, roots, or fruit of the vines.
+Between 1850 and 1860 the vineyards of Ay were devastated by the pyrale,
+a species of caterpillar, which feeds on the young leaves and shoots
+until the vine is left completely bare. The insect eventually becomes
+transformed into a small white butterfly, and deposits its eggs either
+in the crevices of the stakes or in the stalks of the vine. All the
+efforts made to rid the vineyards of this scourge proved ineffectual
+until the wet and cold weather of 1860 put a stop to the insect's
+ravages. More recently it has been discovered that its attacks can be
+checked by sulphurous acid.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+V.--PREPARATION OF CHAMPAGNE.
+
+Treatment of Champagne after it comes from the Wine-Press-- Racking
+  and Blending of the Wine-- Deficiency and Excess of Effervescence--
+  Strength and Form of Champagne Bottles-- The "Tirage" or Bottling of
+  the Wine-- The Process of Gas-making commences-- Inevitable Breakage
+  follows-- Wine Stacked in Piles-- Formation of Sediment-- Bottles
+  placed "sur pointe" and Daily Shaken-- Effect of this occupation on
+  those incessantly engaged in it-- "Claws" and "Masks"-- Champagne
+  Cellars-- Their Construction and Aspect-- Transforming the "vin
+  brut" into Champagne-- Disgorging and Liqueuring the Wine-- The
+  Corking, Stringing, Wiring, and Amalgamating-- The Wine's Agitated
+  Existence comes to an End-- The Bottles have their Toilettes made--
+  Champagne sets out on its beneficial Pilgrimage.
+
+
+The special characteristic of champagne is that its manufacture only
+just commences where that of other wines ordinarily ends. The must flows
+direct from the press into capacious reservoirs, whence it is drawn off
+into large vats, and after being allowed to clear, is transferred to
+casks holding some forty-four gallons each. Although the bulk of the
+new-made wine is left to repose at the vendangeoirs until the
+commencement of the following year, still when the vintage is over
+numbers of long narrow carts laden with casks of it are to be seen
+rolling along the dusty highways leading to those towns and villages in
+the Marne where the manufacture of champagne is carried on. Chief
+amongst these is the cathedral city of Reims, after which comes the
+rising town of Epernay, stretching to the very verge of the river, then
+Ay, nestled between the vine-clad slopes and the Marne canal, with the
+neighbouring village of Mareuil, and finally Avize, in the centre of the
+white grape district southwards of Epernay. Châlons, owing to its
+distance from the vineyards, would scarcely draw its supply of wine
+until the new year. The first fermentation lasts from a fortnight to a
+month, according as to whether the wine be _mou_--that is, rich in
+sugar--or the reverse. In the former case fermentation naturally lasts
+much longer than when the wine is _vert_ or green. This active
+fermentation is converted into latent fermentation by transferring the
+wine to a cooler cellar, as it is essential it should retain a large
+proportion of its natural saccharine to ensure its future effervescence.
+The casks have previously been completely filled, and their bungholes
+tightly stopped, a necessary precaution to guard the wine from absorbing
+oxygen, the effect of which would be to turn it yellow and cause it to
+lose some of its lightness and perfume. After being racked and fined,
+the produce of the different vineyards is now ready for mixing together
+in accordance with the traditional theories of the various
+manufacturers, and should the vintage have been an indifferent one a
+certain proportion of old reserved wine of a good year enters into the
+blend.
+
+The mixing is usually effected in gigantic vats holding at times as many
+as 12,000 gallons each, and having fan-shaped appliances inside, which,
+on being worked by handles, ensure a complete amalgamation of the wine.
+This process of marrying wine on a gigantic scale is technically known
+as making the _cuvée_. Usually four-fifths of wine from black grapes are
+tempered by one-fifth of the juice of white ones. It is necessary that
+the first should comprise a more or less powerful dash of the finer
+growths both of the Mountain of Reims and of the River, while, as
+regards the latter, one or other of the delicate vintages of the Côte
+d'Avize is essential to the perfect _cuvée_. The aim is to combine and
+develop the special qualities of the respective crûs, body and vinosity
+being secured by the red vintages of Bouzy and Verzenay, softness and
+roundness by those of Ay and Dizy, and lightness, delicacy, and
+effervescence by the white growths of Avize and Cramant. The proportions
+are never absolute, but vary according to the manufacturer's style of
+wine and the taste of the countries which form his principal markets.
+The wine at this period being imperfectly fermented and crude, the
+reader may imagine the delicacy and discrimination of palate requisite
+to judge of the flavour, finesse, and bouquet which the _cuvée_ is
+likely eventually to develop.
+
+These, however, are not the only matters to be considered. There is,
+above everything, the effervescence, which depends upon the quantity of
+carbonic acid gas the wine contains, and this, in turn, upon the amount
+of its natural saccharine. If the gas be present in excess, there will
+be a shattering of bottles and a flooding of cellars; and if there be a
+paucity the corks will refuse to pop, and the wine to sparkle aright in
+the glass. Therefore the amount of saccharine in the _cuvée_ has to be
+accurately ascertained by means of a glucometer; and if it fails to
+reach the required standard, the deficiency is made up by the addition
+of the purest sugar-candy. If, on the other hand, there be an excess of
+saccharine, the only thing to be done is to defer the final blending and
+bottling until the superfluous saccharine matter has been absorbed by
+fermentation in the cask.
+
+The _cuvée_ completed, the blended wine, now resembling in taste and
+colour an ordinary acrid white wine, and giving to the uninitiated
+palate no promise of the exquisite delicacy and aroma it is destined to
+develop, is drawn off again into casks for further treatment. This
+comprises fining with some gelatinous substance, and, as a precaution
+against ropiness and other maladies, liquid tannin is at the same time
+frequently added to supply the place of the natural tannin which has
+departed from the wine with its reddish hue at the epoch of its first
+fermentation.
+
+The operation of bottling the wine next ensues, when the Scriptural
+advice not to put new wine into old bottles is rigorously followed. For
+the tremendous pressure of the gas engendered during the subsequent
+fermentation of the wine is such that the bottle becomes weakened and
+can never be safely trusted again. It is because of this pressure that
+the champagne bottle is one of the strongest made, as indicated by its
+weight, which is almost a couple of pounds. To ensure this unusual
+strength it is necessary that its sides should be of equal thickness and
+the bottom of a uniform solidity throughout, in order that no particular
+expansion may ensue from sudden changes of temperature. The neck must,
+moreover, be perfectly round and widen gradually towards the shoulder.
+In addition--and this is of the utmost consequence--the inside ought to
+be perfectly smooth, as a rough interior causes the gas to make efforts
+to escape, and thus renders an explosion imminent. The composition of
+the glass, too, is not without its importance, as a manufactory
+established for the production of glass by a new process turned out
+champagne bottles charged with alkaline sulphurets, and the consequence
+was that an entire _cuvée_ was ruined by their use, through the
+reciprocal action of the wine and these sulphurets. The acids of the
+former disengaged hydrosulphuric acid, and instead of champagne the
+result was a new species of mineral water.
+
+Most of the bottles used for champagnes come from the factories of
+Loivre (which supplies the largest quantity), Folembray, Vauxrot, and
+Quiquengrogne, and cost on the average from 28 to 30 francs the hundred.
+They are generally tested by a practised hand, who, by knocking them
+sharply together, professes to be able to tell from the sound that they
+give the substance of the glass and its temper. The washing of the
+bottles is invariably performed by women, who at the larger
+establishments accomplish it with the aid of machines, sometimes
+provided with a revolving brush, although small glass beads are more
+generally used by preference. After being washed every bottle is
+minutely examined to make certain of its perfect purity.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+With the different champagne houses the mode of bottling the wine, which
+may take place any time between April and August, varies in some
+measure, still the _tirage_, as this operation is called, is ordinarily
+effected as follows:--The wine is emptied from the casks into vats or
+tuns of varying capacity, whence it flows through pipes into oblong
+reservoirs, each provided with a row of syphon taps, on to which the
+bottles are slipped, and from which the wine ceases to flow directly the
+bottles become filled. Men or lads remove the full bottles, replacing
+them by empty ones, while other hands convey them to the corkers, whose
+guillotine machines are incessantly in motion; next the _agrafeurs_
+secure the corks by means of an iron staple, termed an agrafe; and then
+the bottles are conveyed either to a capacious apartment aboveground,
+known as a cellier, or to a cool cellar, according to the number of
+atmospheres the wine may indicate. It should be explained that air
+compressed to half its volume acquires twice its ordinary force, and to
+a quarter of its volume quadruple this force--hence the phrase of two,
+four, or more atmospheres. The exact degree of pressure is readily
+ascertained by means of a manometer, an instrument resembling a pressure
+gauge, with a hollow screw at the base which is driven through the cork
+of the bottle. A pressure of 5¾ atmospheres constitutes what is styled a
+"grand mousseux," and the wine exhibiting it may be safely conveyed to
+the coolest subterranean depths, for no doubt need be entertained as to
+its future effervescent properties. Should the pressure, however,
+scarcely exceed 4 atmospheres, it is advisable to keep the wine in a
+cellier aboveground that it may more rapidly acquire the requisite
+sparkling qualities. If fewer than 4 atmospheres are indicated it would
+be necessary to pour the wine back into the casks again, and add a
+certain amount of cane sugar to it, but such an eventuality very rarely
+happens, thanks to the scientific formulas and apparatus which enable
+the degree of pressure the wine will show to be determined beforehand to
+a nicety. Still mistakes are sometimes made, and there are instances
+where charcoal fires have had to be lighted in the cellars to encourage
+the effervescence to develop itself.
+
+The bottles are placed in a horizontal position and stacked in rows of
+varying length and depth, one above the other, to about the height of a
+man, and with narrow laths between them. Thus they will spend the summer
+providing all goes well, but in about three weeks' time the process of
+gas-making inside the bottles is at its height, and may cause an undue
+number of them to burst. The glucometer notwithstanding, it is
+impossible to check a certain amount of breakage, especially when a hot
+season has caused the grapes, and consequently the raw wine, to be
+sweeter than usual. Moreover when once _casse_ or breakage sets in on a
+large scale, the temperature of the cellar is raised by the volume of
+carbonic acid gas let loose, which is not without its effect on the
+remaining bottles. The only remedy is at once to remove the wine to a
+lower temperature when this is practicable. A manufacturer of the
+pre-scientific days of the last century relates how one year, when the
+wine was rich and strong, he only preserved 120 out of 6,000 bottles;
+and it is not long since that 120,000 out of 200,000 were destroyed in
+the cellars of a well-known champagne firm. Over-knowing purchasers
+still affect to select a wine which has exploded in the largest
+proportion as being well up to the mark as regards its effervescence,
+and profess to make inquiries as to its performances in this direction.
+
+It is evident that in spite of the teachings of science the bursting of
+champagne bottles has not yet been reduced to a minimum, for whereas in
+some cellars it averages 7 and 8 per cent., in others it rarely exceeds
+2½ or 3. In the month of October, the first and severest breakage being
+over, the newly-bottled wine is definitively stacked in the cellars in
+piles from two to half-a-dozen bottles deep, from six to seven feet
+high, and frequently a hundred feet or upwards in length. Usually the
+bottles remain in their horizontal position for about eighteen or twenty
+months, though some firms, who pride themselves upon shipping perfectly
+matured wines, leave them thus for double this space of time. All this
+while the temperature to which the wine is exposed is, as far as
+practicable, carefully regulated; for the risk of breakage, though
+greatly diminished, is never entirely at an end.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+By this time the fermentation is over, but in the interval, commencing
+from a few days after the bottling of the wine, a loose dark-brown
+sediment has been forming which has now settled on the lower side of the
+bottle, and to get rid of which is a delicate and tedious task. The
+bottles are placed _sur pointe_, as it is termed--that is to say,
+slantingly in racks with their necks downwards, the inclination being
+increased from time to time to one more abrupt. The object of this
+change in their position is to cause the sediment to leave the side of
+the bottle where it has gathered; it afterwards becomes necessary to
+twist and turn it, and coagulate it, as it were, until it forms a kind
+of muddy ball, and eventually to get it well down into the neck of the
+bottle, so that it may be finally expelled with a bang when the
+temporary cork is removed and the proper one adjusted. To accomplish
+this the bottles are sharply turned in one direction every day for at
+least a month or six weeks, the time being indefinitely extended until
+the sediment shows a disposition to settle near the cork. The younger
+the wine the longer the period necessary for the bottles to be shaken,
+new wine often requiring as much as three months. Only a thoroughly
+practised hand can give the right amount of revolution and the requisite
+degree of slope; and in some of the cellars that we visited men were
+pointed out to us who had acquired such dexterity as to be able at a
+pinch to shake with their two hands as many as 50,000 bottles in a
+single day.
+
+Some of these men have spent thirty or forty years of their lives
+engaged in this perpetual task. Fancy being entombed all alone day after
+day in vaults which are invariably dark and gloomy, and often cold and
+dank, and being obliged to twist sixty to seventy of these bottles every
+minute throughout the day of twelve hours. Why the treadmill and the
+crank with their periodical respites must be pastime compared to this
+maddeningly monotonous occupation, which combines hard labour, with the
+wrist at any rate, with next to solitary confinement. One can understand
+these men becoming gloomy and taciturn, and affirming that they
+sometimes see devils hovering over the bottle-racks and frantically
+shaking the bottles beside them, or else grinning at them as they pursue
+their humdrum task. Still it may be taken for granted that the men who
+reach this stage are accustomed to drink freely of raw spirits, and
+merely pay the penalty resulting from over-indulgence.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+In former times the bottles used to be placed with their heads downwards
+on tables pierced with holes, from which they had to be removed and
+agitated. In 1818, however, a man named Muller, in the employment of
+Madame Clicquot, suggested that the bottles should remain in the tables
+whilst being shaken, and further that the holes should be cut obliquely
+so that the bottles might recline at varying angles. His suggestions
+were privately adopted by Madame Clicquot, but eventually the improved
+plan got wind, and the system now prevails throughout the Champagne.
+When the bottles have gone through their regular course of shaking they
+are examined before a lighted candle to ascertain whether the deposit
+has fallen and the wine become perfectly clear. Sometimes it happens
+that, twist these men never so wisely, the deposit refuses to stir, and
+takes the shape of a bunch of thread technically called a "claw," or an
+adherent mass styled a "mask." When this is the case an attempt is made
+to start it by tapping the part to which it adheres with a piece of
+iron, the result being frequently the sudden explosion of the bottle. As
+a precaution, therefore, the workman protects his face with a wire-mask
+or gigantic wire spectacles, which give to him a ghoul-like aspect.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The cellars of the champagne manufacturers are very varied in character.
+The wine that has been grown on the chalky hills undergoes development
+in vaults burrowed out of the calcareous strata underlying the entire
+district. In excavating these cellars the sides and roofs are frequently
+worked smooth and regular as finished masonry. The larger ones are
+composed of a number of spacious and lofty galleries, sometimes parallel
+with each other, but often ramifying in various directions, and
+evidently constructed on no definite plan. They are of one, two, and, in
+rare instances, of three stories, and now and then consist of a series
+of parallel galleries communicating with each other, lined with masonry,
+and with their stone walls and vaulted roofs resembling the crypt of
+some conventual building. Others of ancient date are less regular in
+their form, being merely so many narrow low winding corridors, varied,
+perhaps, by recesses hewn roughly out of the chalk, and resembling the
+brigands' cave of the melodrama, while a certain number of the larger
+cellars at Reims are simply abandoned quarries, the broad and lofty
+arches of which are suggestive of the nave and aisles of some Gothic
+church. In these varied vaults, lighted by solitary lamps in front of
+metal reflectors, or by the flickering tallow candles which we carry in
+our hands, we pass rows of casks filled with last year's vintage or
+reserved wine of former years, and piles after piles of bottles of _vin
+brut_ in seemingly endless sequence--squares, so to speak, of raw
+champagne recruits awaiting their turn to be thoroughly drilled and
+disciplined. These are varied by bottles reposing necks downwards in
+racks at different degrees of inclination according to the progress
+their education has attained. Reports caused by exploding bottles now
+and then assail the ear, and as the echo dies away it becomes mingled
+with the rush of the escaping wine, cascading down the pile and finding
+its way across the sloping sides of the floor to the narrow gutter in
+the centre. The dampness of the floor and the shattered fragments of
+glass strewn about show the frequency of this kind of accident. The
+spilt wine, which flows along the gutter into reservoirs, is usually
+thrown away, though there is a story current to the effect that the head
+of one Epernay firm cooks nearly everything consumed in his house in the
+fluid thus let loose in his cellars.
+
+In these subterranean galleries we frequently come upon parties of
+workmen engaged in transforming the perfected _vin brut_ into champagne.
+Viewed at a distance while occupied in their monotonous task, they
+present in the semi-obscurity a series of picturesque Rembrandt-like
+studies. One of the end figures in each group is engaged in the
+important process of _dégorgement_, which is performed when the deposit,
+of which we have already spoken, has satisfactorily settled in the neck
+of the bottle. Baskets full of bottles with their necks downwards are
+placed beside the operator, who stands before an apparatus resembling a
+cask divided vertically down the middle. This nimble-figured manipulator
+seizes a bottle, holds it for a moment before the light to test the
+clearness of the wine and the subsidence of the deposit; brings it,
+still neck downwards, over a small tub at the bottom of the apparatus
+already mentioned; and with a jerk of the steel hook which he holds in
+his right hand loosens the _agrafe_ securing the cork, Bang goes the
+latter, and with it flies out the sediment and a small glassful or so of
+wine, further flow being checked by the workman's finger, which also
+serves to remove any sediment yet remaining in the bottle's neck. Like
+many other clever tricks, this looks very easy when adroitly performed,
+though a novice would probably empty the bottle by the time he had
+discovered that the cork was out. Occasionally a bottle bursts in the
+_dégorgeur's_ hand, and his face is sometimes scarred from such
+explosions. The sediment removed, he slips a temporary cork into the
+bottle, and the wine is ready for the important operation of the
+_dosage_, upon the nature and amount of which the character of the
+perfected wine, whether it be dry or sweet, light or strong, very much
+depends.
+
+Different manufacturers have different recipes, more or less complex in
+character, and varying with the quality of the wine and the country for
+which it is intended; but the genuine liqueur consists of nothing but
+old wine of the best quality, to which a certain amount of sugar-candy
+and perhaps a dash of the finest cognac spirit has been added. The
+saccharine addition varies according to the market for which the wine is
+destined: thus the high-class English buyer demands a dry champagne, the
+Russian a wine sweet and strong as "ladies' grog," and the Frenchman and
+German a sweet light wine. To the extra-dry champagnes a modicum dose is
+added, while the so-called "_brut_" wines receive no more than from one
+to three per cent. of liqueur.
+
+In some establishments the dose is administered with a tin can or ladle;
+but more generally an ingenious machine of pure silver and glass which
+regulates the percentage of liqueur to a nicety is employed. The
+_dosage_ accomplished, the bottle passes to another workman known as the
+_égaliseur_, who fills it up with pure wine. Should a pink champagne be
+required, the wine thus added will be red, although manufacturers of
+questionable reputation sometimes employ the solution known as _teinte
+de Fismes_. The _égaliseur_ in turn hands the bottle to the corker, who
+places it under a machine furnished with a pair of claws, which compress
+the cork to a size sufficiently small to allow it to enter the neck of
+the bottle, and a suspended weight, which in falling drives it home.
+These corks, which are principally obtained from Catalonia and
+Andalucia, cost more than twopence each, and are delivered in huge sacks
+resembling hop-pockets. Before they are used they have been either
+boiled in wine, soaked in a solution of tartar, or else steamed by the
+cork merchants, both to prevent their imparting a bad flavour to the
+wine and to hinder any leakage. They are commonly handed warm to the
+corker, who dips them into a small vessel of wine before making use of
+them. Some firms, however, prepare their corks by subjecting them to
+cold water _douches_ a day or two beforehand. The _ficeleur_ receives
+the bottle from the corker, and with a twist of the fingers secures the
+cork with string, at the same time rounding its hitherto flat top. The
+_metteur de fil_ next affixes the wire with like celerity; and then the
+final operation is performed by a workman seizing a couple of bottles by
+the neck and whirling them round his head, as though engaged in the
+Indian-club exercise, in order to secure a perfect amalgamation of the
+wine and the liqueur.
+
+The final manipulation accomplished, the agitated course of existence
+through which the wine has been passing of late comes to an end, and the
+bottles are conveyed to another part of the establishment, where they
+repose for several days, or even weeks, in order that the mutual action
+of the wine and the liqueur upon each other may be complete. When the
+time arrives for despatching them they are confided to feminine hands to
+have their dainty toilettes made, and are tastefully labelled and either
+capsuled, or else have their corks and necks imbedded in sealing-wax, or
+swathed in gold or silver foil, whereby they are rendered presentable at
+the best-appointed tables.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Thus completed champagne sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage to
+promote the spread of mirth and lightheartedness, to drive away dull
+care and foment good-fellowship, to comfort the sick and cheer the
+sound. Wherever civilisation penetrates, champagne sooner or later is
+sure to follow; and if Queen Victoria's morning drum beats round the
+world, its beat is certain to be echoed before the day is over by the
+popping of champagne-corks. Now-a-days the exhilarating wine graces not
+merely princely but middle-class dinner-tables, and is the needful
+adjunct at every _petit souper_ in all the gayer capitals of the world.
+It gives a flush to beauty at garden-parties and picnics, sustains the
+energies of the votaries of Terpsichore until the hour of dawn, and
+imparts to many a young gallant the necessary courage to declare his
+passion. It enlivens the dullest of _réunions_, brings smiles to the
+lips of the sternest cynics, softens the most irascible tempers, and
+loosens the most taciturn tongues. The grim Berliner and the gay
+Viennese both acknowledge its enlivening influence. It sparkles in
+crystal goblets in the great capital of the North, and the Moslem wipes
+its creamy foam from his beard beneath the very shadow of the mosque of
+St. Sophia; for the Prophet has only forbidden the use of wine, and of a
+surety--Allah be praised!--this strangely-sparkling delicious liquor,
+which gives to the true believer a foretaste of the joys of Paradise,
+cannot be wine. At the diamond-fields of South Africa and the diggings
+of Australia the brawny miner who has hit upon a big bit of crystallised
+carbon, or a nugget of virgin ore, strolls to the "saloon" and shouts
+for champagne. The mild Hindoo imbibes it quietly, but approvingly, as
+he watches the evolutions of the Nautch girls, and his partiality for it
+has already enriched the Anglo-Bengalee vocabulary and London slang with
+the word "simkin." It is transported on camel-backs across the deserts
+of Central Asia, and in frail canoes up the mighty Amazon. The
+two-sworded Daimio calls for it in the tea-gardens of Yokohama, and the
+New Yorker, when not rinsing his stomach by libations of iced-water,
+imbibes it freely at Delmonico's. Wherever civilised man has set his
+foot--at the base of the Pyramids and at the summit of the Cordilleras,
+in the mangrove swamps of Ashantee and the gulches of the Great Lone
+Land, in the wilds of the Amoor and on the desert isles of the
+Pacific--he has left traces of his presence in the shape of the empty
+bottles that were once full of the sparkling vintage of the Champagne.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DEVICES FROM THE COMMANDERIE AT REIMS.]
+
+VI.--THE REIMS CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Messrs. Werlé and Co., successors to the Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin--
+  Their Offices and Cellars on the site of a Former Commanderie of the
+  Templars-- Origin of the Celebrity of Madame Clicquot's Wines--
+  M. Werlé and his Son-- The Forty-five Cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé
+  Establishment-- Our Tour of Inspection-- Ingenious Liqueuring
+  Machine-- An Explosion and its Consequences-- M. Werlé's Gallery of
+  Paintings-- Madame Clicquot's Renaissance House and its Picturesque
+  Bas-reliefs-- The Werlé Vineyards and Vendangeoirs-- M. Louis
+  Roederer's Establishment-- Heidsieck and Co. and their Famous
+  "Monopole" Brand-- The Firm Founded in the Last Century-- Their
+  various Establishments Inside and Outside Reims-- The Matured Wines
+  Shipped by them.
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The cellars of the great champagne manufacturers of Reims are scattered
+in all directions over the historical old city. They undermine its
+narrowest and most insignificant streets, its broad and handsome
+boulevards, and on the eastern side extend to its more distant
+outskirts. Messrs. Werlé and Co., the successors of the famous Veuve
+Clicquot-Ponsardin, have their offices and cellars on the site of a
+former Commanderie of the Templars in an ancient quarter of the city,
+and strangers passing by the spot would scarcely imagine that under
+their feet hundreds of busy hands are incessantly at work, disgorging,
+dosing, shaking, corking, storing, wiring, labelling, capsuling, waxing,
+tinfoiling, and packing hundreds of thousands of bottles of champagne
+destined for all parts of the civilised world.
+
+The house of Clicquot, established in the year 1798 by the husband of La
+Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, who died in 1866, in her 89th year, was
+indebted for much of the celebrity of its wine to the lucky accident of
+the Russians occupying Reims in 1814 and 1815, and freely requisitioning
+the sweet champagne stored in the widow's capacious cellars. Madame
+Clicquot's wines were slightly known in Russia prior to this date, but
+the officers of the invading army, on their return home, proclaimed
+their merits throughout the length and breadth of the Muscovite Empire,
+and the fortune of the house was made. Madame Clicquot, as every one
+knows, amassed enormous wealth, and succeeded in marrying both her
+daughter and granddaughter to counts of the _ancien régime_.
+
+The present head of the firm is M. Werlé, who comes of an old Lorraine
+family although born in the ancient free imperial town of Wetzlar on the
+Lahn, where Goethe lays the scene of his "Sorrows of Werther," the
+leading incidents of which really occurred here. M. Werlé entered the
+establishment, which he has done so much to raise to its existing
+position, so far back as the year 1821. His care and skill, exercised
+over more than half a century, have largely contributed to obtain for
+the Clicquot brand that high repute which it enjoys to-day all over the
+world. M. Werlé, who has long been naturalised in France, was for many
+years Mayor of Reims and President of its Chamber of Commerce, as well
+as one of the deputies of the Marne to the Corps Législatif. He enjoys
+the reputation of being the richest man in Reims, and, like his late
+partner, Madame Clicquot, he has also succeeded in securing brilliant
+alliances for his children, his son, M. Alfred Werlé, having married the
+daughter of the Duc de Montebello, while his daughter espoused the son
+of M. Magne, Minister of Finance under the Second Empire.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MADAME VEUVE CLICQUOT AT EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE.
+  (_From the Painting by Léon Coignet_.) (p. 64)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CLICQUOT-WERLÉ ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 65)]
+
+Half-way down the narrow tortuous Rue du Temple is an ancient gateway,
+on which may be traced the half-effaced sculptured heads of Phoebus and
+Bacchus. Immediately in front is a green _porte-cochère_ forming the
+entrance to the Clicquot-Werlé establishment, and conducting to a
+spacious trim-kept courtyard, set off with a few trees, with some
+extensive stabling and cart-sheds on the left, and on the right hand the
+entrance to the cellars. Facing us is an unpretending-looking edifice,
+where the firm has its counting-houses, with a little corner tower
+surmounted by a characteristic weathercock consisting of a figure of
+Bacchus seated astride a cask beneath a vine-branch, and holding up a
+bottle in one hand and a goblet in the other. The old Remish Commanderie
+of the Knights Templars existed until the epoch of the Great Revolution,
+and to-day a few fragments of the ancient buildings remain adjacent to
+the "celliers" of the establishment, which are reached through a pair of
+folding-doors and down a flight of stone steps, and whence, after being
+furnished with lighted candles, we set out on our tour of inspection,
+entering first of all the vast cellar of St. Paul, where the thousands
+of bottles requiring to be daily shaken are reposing necks downwards on
+the large perforated tables which crowd the apartment. It is a
+peculiarity of the Clicquot-Werlé establishment that each of the
+cellars--forty-five in number, and the smallest a vast apartment--has
+its special name. In the adjoining cellar of St. Matthew other bottles
+are similarly arranged, and here wine in cask is likewise stored. We
+pass rows of huge tuns, each holding its twelve or thirteen hundred
+gallons of fine reserved wine designed for blending with more youthful
+growths; next are threading our way between seemingly endless piles of
+hogsheads filled with later vintages, and anon are passing smaller casks
+containing the syrup with which the _vin préparé_ is dosed. At intervals
+we come upon some square opening in the floor through which bottles of
+wine are being hauled up from the cellars beneath in readiness to
+receive their requisite adornment before being packed in baskets or
+cases according to the country to which they are destined to be
+despatched. To Russia the Clicquot champagne is sent in cases containing
+sixty bottles, while the cases for China contain as many as double that
+number.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  REMAINS OF THE COMMANDERIE AT REIMS.]
+
+The ample cellarage which the house possesses has enabled M. Werlé to
+make many experiments which firms with less space at their command would
+find it difficult to carry out on the same satisfactory scale. Such, for
+instance, is the system of racks in which the bottles repose while the
+wine undergoes its diurnal shaking. Instead of these racks being, as
+they commonly are, at almost upright angles, they are perfectly
+horizontal, which, in M. Werlé's opinion, offers a material advantage,
+inasmuch as the bottles are all in readiness for disgorging at the same
+time instead of the lower ones being ready before those above, as is the
+case when the ancient system is followed, owing to the uppermost bottles
+getting less shaken than the others.
+
+After performing the round of the celliers we descend into the _caves_,
+a complete labyrinth of gloomy underground corridors excavated in the
+bed of chalk which underlies the city, and roofed and walled with solid
+masonry, more or less blackened by age. In one of these cellars we catch
+sight of rows of work-people engaged in the operation of dosing,
+corking, securing, and shaking the bottles of wine which have just left
+the hands of the _dégorgeur_ by the dim light of half-a-dozen tallow
+candles. The latest invention for liqueuring the wine is being employed.
+Formerly, to prevent the carbonic acid gas escaping from the bottles
+while the process of liqueuring was going on, it was necessary to press
+a gutta-percha ball connected with the machine, in order to force the
+escaping gas back. The new machine, however, renders this unnecessary,
+the gas by its own power and composition forcing itself back into the
+wine.
+
+In the adjoining cellar of St. Charles are stacks of bottles awaiting
+the manipulation of the _dégorgeur_, while in that of St. Ferdinand men
+are engaged in examining other bottles before lighted candles to make
+certain that the sediment is thoroughly dislodged and the wine perfectly
+clear before the disgorgement is effected. Here, too, the corking,
+wiring, and stringing of the newly-disgorged wine are going on. Another
+flight of steps leads to the second tier of cellars, where the moisture
+trickles down the dank dingy walls, and save the dim light thrown out by
+the candles we carried, and by some other far-off flickering taper stuck
+in a cleft stick to direct the workmen, who with dexterous turns of
+their wrists give a twist to the bottles, all is darkness. On every side
+bottles are reposing in various attitudes, the majority in huge square
+piles on their sides, others in racks slightly tilted, others, again,
+almost standing on their heads, while some, which through over-inflation
+have come to grief, litter the floor and crunch beneath our feet.
+Tablets are hung against each stack of wine indicating its age, and from
+time to time a bottle is held up before the light to show us how the
+sediment commences to form, or explain how it eventually works its way
+down the neck of the bottle, and finally settles on the cork. Suddenly
+we are startled by a loud report resembling a pistol-shot, which
+reverberates through the vaulted chamber, as a bottle close at hand
+explodes, dashing out its heavy bottom as neatly as though it had been
+cut by a diamond, and dislocating the necks and pounding in the sides of
+its immediate neighbours. The wine trickles down, and eventually finds
+its way along the sloping sides of the slippery floor to the narrow
+gutter in the centre.
+
+Ventilating shafts pass from one tier of cellars to the other, enabling
+the temperature in a certain measure to be regulated, and thereby
+obviate an excess of breakage. M. Werlé estimates that the loss in this
+respect during the first eighteen months of a _cuvée_ amounts to 7 per
+cent., but subsequently is considerably less. In 1862 one champagne
+manufacturer lost as much as 45 per cent. of his wine by breakages. The
+Clicquot _cuvée_ is made in the cave of St. William, where 120 hogsheads
+of wine are hauled up by means of a crane and discharged into the vat
+daily as long as the operation lasts. The _tirage_ or bottling of the
+wine ordinarily commences in the middle of May, and occupies fully a
+month.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  RENAISSANCE HOUSE AT REIMS, IN WHICH MADAME CLICQUOT RESIDED. (p. 69)]
+
+M. Werlé's private residence is close to the establishment in the Rue du
+Temple, and here he has collected a small gallery of high-class modern
+paintings by French and other artists, including Meissonnier's
+"Card-players," Delaroche's "Beatrice Cenci on her way to Execution,"
+Fleury's "Charles V. picking up the brush of Titian," various works by
+the brothers Scheffer, Knaus's highly-characteristic _genre_ picture,
+"His Highness on a Journey," and several fine portraits, among which is
+one of Madame Clicquot, painted by Léon Coignet, when she was eighty
+years of age, and another of M. Werlé by the same artist, regarded as a
+_chef-d'oeuvre_. Before her father's death Madame Clicquot used to reside
+in the Rue de Marc, some short distance from the cellars in which her
+whole existence centered, in a handsome Renaissance house, said to have
+had some connection with the row of palaces that at one time lined the
+neighbouring and then fashionable Rue du Tambour. This, however, is
+extremely doubtful. A number of interesting and well-preserved
+bas-reliefs decorate one of the façades of the house looking on to the
+court. The figures are of the period of François Premier and his son
+Henri II., who inaugurated his reign with a comforting edict for the
+Protestants, ordaining that blasphemers were to have their tongues
+pierced with red-hot irons, and heretics to be burnt alive, and who had
+the ill-luck to lose his eye and life through a lance-thrust of the
+Comte de Montgomerie, captain of his Scotch guards, whilst jousting with
+him at a tournament held in honour of the marriage of his daughter
+Isabelle with the gloomy widower of Queen Mary of England, of sanguinary
+fame.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The first of these bas-reliefs represents two soldiers of the Swiss
+guard, the next a Turk and a Slav tilting at each other, and then comes
+a scroll entwined round a thistle, and inscribed with this enigmatical
+motto: "Giane le sur ou rien." In the third bas-relief a couple of
+passionate Italians are winding up a gambling dispute with a
+hand-to-hand combat, in the course of which table, cards, and dice have
+got cantered over; the fourth presenting us with two French knights,
+armed _cap-à-pie_, engaged in a tourney; while in the fifth and last a
+couple of German lansquenets essay their gladiatorial skill with their
+long and dangerous weapons. Several years back a tablet was discovered
+in one of the cellars of the house, inscribed "Ci-gist vénérable
+religieux maîstre Pierre Derclé, docteur en théologie, jadis prieur de
+céans. Priez Dieu pour luy. 1486," which would almost indicate that the
+house had originally a religious character, although the warlike spirit
+of the bas-reliefs decorating it renders any such supposition with
+regard to the existing building untenable.
+
+The Messrs. Werlé own numerous acres of vineyards, comprising the very
+finest situations in the well-known districts of Verzenay, Bouzy, Le
+Mesnil, and Oger, at all of which places they have vendangeoirs or
+pressing-houses of their own. Their establishment at Verzenay contains
+seven presses, that at Bouzy eight, at Le Mesnil six, and at Oger two,
+in addition to which grapes are pressed under their own supervision at
+Ay, Avize, and Cramant in vendangeoirs belonging to their friends.
+
+Since the death of Madame Clicquot the legal style of the firm has been
+Werlé and Co., successors to Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, the mark, of
+which M. Werlé and his son are the sole proprietors, still remaining
+"Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin," while the corks of the bottles are branded
+with the words "V. Clicquot-P. Werlé," encircling the figure of a comet.
+The style of the wine--light, delicate, elegant, and fragrant--is
+familiar to all connoisseurs of champagne. What, however, is not equally
+well known is that within the last few years the firm, in obedience to
+the prevailing taste, have introduced a perfectly dry wine of
+corresponding quality to the richer wine which made the fortune of the
+house.
+
+The house of M. Louis Roederer, founded by a plodding German named
+Schreider, pursued the sleepy tenor of its way for years, until all at
+once it felt prompted to lay siege to the Muscovite connection of La
+Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and secure a market for its wine at Moscow and
+St. Petersburg. It next opened up the United States, and finally
+introduced its brand into England. The house possesses cellars in
+various parts of Reims, and has its offices in one of the oldest
+quarters of the city--namely, the Rue des Élus, or ancient Rue des
+Juifs, records of which date as far back as 1103. These offices are at
+the farther end of a courtyard beyond which is a second court, where
+carts being laden with cases of champagne seemed to indicate that some
+portion of the shipping business of the house is here carried on.
+M. Louis Roederer refused our request for permission to visit his
+establishments, so that it is only of their external appearance that
+we are able to speak. One of them--the façade of which is rather
+imposing, and which has a carved head of Bacchus surmounting the
+_porte-cochère_--is situated in the Boulevard du Temple, while the
+principal establishment, a picturesque range of buildings of
+considerable extent, is in the neighbouring Rue de la Justice.
+
+The old-established firm of Heidsieck and Co., which has secured a
+reputation in both hemispheres for its famous Monopole and Dry Monopole
+brands, has its cellars scattered about Reims, the central ones, where
+the wine is prepared and packed, being situated in the narrow winding
+Rue Sedan, at no great distance from the Clicquot-Werlé establishment.
+The original firm dates back to 1785, when France was struggling with
+those financial difficulties that a few years later culminated in that
+great social upheaving which kept Europe in a state of turmoil for more
+than a quarter of a century. Among the archives of the firm is a patent,
+bearing the signature of the Minister of the Prussian Royal Household,
+appointing Heidsieck and Co. purveyors of champagne to Friedrich William
+III. The champagne-drinking Hohenzollern _par excellence_, however, was
+the son and successor of the preceding, who, from habitual
+over-indulgence in the exhilarating sparkling beverage during the last
+few years of his reign, acquired the _sobriquet_ of King Clicquot.
+
+On passing through the large _porte-cochère_ giving entrance to Messrs.
+Heidsieck's principal establishment, one finds oneself in a small
+courtyard with the surrounding buildings overgrown with ivy and
+venerable vines. On the left is a dwelling-house enriched with elaborate
+mouldings and cornices, and at the farther end of the court is the
+entrance to the cellars, surmounted by a sun-dial bearing the date 1829.
+The latter, however, is no criterion of the age of the buildings
+themselves, as these were occupied by the firm at its foundation,
+towards the close of the last century. We are first conducted into an
+antiquated-looking low cellier, the roof of which is sustained with rude
+timber supports, and here bottles of wine are being labelled and packed,
+although this is but a mere adjunct to the adjacent spacious
+packing-room provided with its loading platform and communicating
+directly with the public road. At the time of our visit this hall was
+gaily decorated with flags and inscriptions, the day before having been
+the fête of St. Jean, when the firm entertain the people in their employ
+with a banquet and a ball, at which the choicest wine of the house
+liberally flows. From the packing-room we descend into the cellars,
+which, like all the more ancient vaults in Reims, have been constructed
+on no regular plan. Here we thread our way between piles after piles of
+bottles, many of which having passed through the hands of the disgorger
+are awaiting their customary adornment. The lower tier of cellars is
+mostly stored with _vin sur pointe_, and bottles with their necks
+downwards are encountered in endless monotony along a score or more of
+long galleries. The only variation in our lengthened promenade is when
+we come upon some solitary workman engaged in his monotonous task of
+shaking his 30,000 or 40,000 bottles per diem.
+
+The disgorging at Messrs. Heidsieck's takes place, in accordance with
+the good old rule, in the cellars underground, where we noticed large
+stocks of wine three and five years old, the former in the first stage
+of _sur-pointe_, and the latter awaiting shipment. It is a speciality of
+the house to ship only matured wine, which is necessarily of a higher
+character than the ordinary youthful growths, for a few years have a
+wonderful influence in developing the finer qualities of champagne. At
+the time of our visit, in the spring of 1877, when the English market
+was being glutted with the crude, full-bodied wine of 1874, Messrs.
+Heidsieck were continuing to ship wines of 1870 and 1872, beautifully
+rounded by keeping and of fine flavour and great delicacy of perfume,
+and of which the firm estimated they had fully a year's consumption
+still on hand.
+
+Messrs. Heidsieck and Co. have a handsome modern establishment in the
+Rue Coquebert--a comparatively new quarter of the city where champagne
+establishments are the rule--the courtyard of which, alive with workmen
+at the time of our visit, is broad and spacious, while the surrounding
+buildings are light and airy, and the cellars lofty, regular, and well
+ventilated. In a large cellier here, where the tuns are ranged side by
+side between the rows of iron columns supporting the roof, the firm make
+their _cuvée_; here too the bottling of their wine takes place, and
+considerable stocks of high-class reserve wines and more youthful
+growths are stored ready for removal when required by the central
+establishment. The bulk of Messrs. Heidsieck's reserve wines, however,
+repose in the outskirts of Reims, near the Porte Dieu-Lumière, in one of
+the numerous abandoned chalk quarries, which of late years the champagne
+manufacturers have discovered are capable of being transformed into
+admirable cellars.
+
+In addition to shipping a rich and a dry variety of the Monopole brand,
+of which they are sole proprietors, Messrs. Heidsieck export to this
+country a rich and a dry Grand Vin Royal. It is, however, to their
+famous Monopole wine, and especially to the dry variety, which must
+necessarily comprise the finest growths, that the firm owe their
+principal celebrity.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  STATUE OF LOUIS XIII. ON THE REIMS HÔTEL DE VILLE]
+
+VII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+The Firm of G. H. Mumm and Co.-- Their Large Shipments to the United
+  States-- Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the Rue
+  Coquebert-- Bottle-Washing with Glass Beads-- The Cuvée and the
+  Tirage-- G. H. Mumm and Co.'s Vendangeoirs at Verzenay-- Their
+  Various Wines-- The Gate of Mars-- The Establishment of M. Gustave
+  Gibert on the Site of the Château des Archevêques-- His Cellars in
+  the Vaults of St. Peter's Abbey and beneath the old Hôtel des Fermes
+  in the Place Royale-- Louis XV. and Jean Baptiste Colbert--
+  M. Gibert's Wines-- Jules Mumm and Co., and Ruinart père et fils--
+  House of the Musicians-- The Counts de la Marck-- The Brotherhood of
+  Minstrels of Reims-- Establishment of Périnet et fils-- Their
+  Cellars of Three Stories in Solid Masonry-- Their Soft, Light, and
+  Delicate Wines-- A Rare Still Verzenay-- M. Duchâtel-Ohaus's
+  Establishment and Renaissance House-- His Cellars in the Cour St.
+  Jacques and Outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière.
+
+
+Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. have their chief establishment in the Rue
+Andrieux, in an open quarter of the city, facing the garden attached to
+the premises of M. Werlé, and only a short distance from the grand
+triumphal arch known as the Gate of Mars, by far the most important
+Roman remain of which the Champagne can boast. The head of the firm,
+Mr. G. H. Mumm, is the grandson of the well-known P. A. Mumm, the large
+shipper of hocks and moselles, and is the only surviving partner in the
+champagne house of Mumm and Co., established at Reims in 1825, and
+joined by Mr. G. H. Mumm so far back as the year 1838. The firm not only
+ship their wine largely to England, but head the list of shipments to
+the United States, where their brand is held in high repute, with nearly
+half a million bottles, being more than twice the quantity shipped by
+M. Louis Roederer--who comes third on the list in question--and a fourth
+of the entire shipments of champagne to the United States.
+
+The establishment of Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co., in the Rue Andrieux, is
+of comparatively modern construction. A large _porte-cochère_ conducts
+to a spacious courtyard, bordered with sheds, beneath which huge stacks
+of new bottles are piled and having a pleasant garden lying beyond. On
+the left is a large vaulted cellier, where the operations of disgorging,
+liqueuring, and corking the wine are performed, and which communicates
+with the vast adjoining packing department. From this cellier entrance
+is gained to the cellars beneath, containing a million bottles of _vin
+brut_ in various stages of development. This forms, however, merely a
+portion of the firm's stock, they having another three millions of
+bottles stored in the cellars of their establishment in the Rue
+Coquebert, where a scene of great animation presented itself at the time
+of our visit, several scores of women being engaged in washing bottles
+for the _tirage_, which, although it was early in May, had already
+commenced. The bottles, filled with water, and containing a certain
+quantity of glass beads in lieu of the customary shot, which frequently
+leave minute particles of lead--deleterious alike to health and the
+flavour of the wine--adhering to the inside surface of the glass, are
+placed horizontally in a frame, and by means of four turns of a handle
+are made to perform sixty-four rapid revolutions. The beads are then
+transferred to other bottles, which are subjected in their turn to the
+same revolving process.
+
+The _cuvée_, commonly composed of from two to three thousand casks of
+wine from various vineyards, with a due proportion of high-class
+vintages, is made in a vat holding 4,400 gallons. The _tirage_ or
+bottling is effected by means of two large tuns placed side by side, and
+holding twelve hogsheads of wine each. Pipes from these tuns communicate
+with a couple of small reservoirs, each of them provided with
+half-a-dozen self-acting syphon taps, by means of which a like number of
+bottles are simultaneously filled. Only one set of these taps are set
+running at a time, as while the wine is being drawn off from one tun the
+other is being refilled from the casks containing the _cuvée_ by means
+of a pump and leathern hose, which empties a cask in little more than a
+couple of minutes. Three gangs of eight men each can fill, cork, and
+secure with _agrafes_ from 35,000 to 40,000 bottles during the day. The
+labour is performed partly by men regularly employed by the house and
+partly by hands engaged for the purpose, who work, however, under the
+constant inspection of overseers appointed by the firm.
+
+At Messrs. G. H. Mumm's the champagne destined for shipment has the
+heads of the corks submerged in a kind of varnish, with the object of
+protecting them from the ravages of insects, and preventing the string
+and wire from becoming mouldy for several years. In damp weather, when
+this varnish takes a long time to dry, after the bottles have been
+placed in a rack with their heads downwards to allow of any superfluous
+varnish draining from the corks, the latter are subjected to a moderate
+heat in a machine pierced with sufficient holes to contain 500 bottles,
+and provided with a warming apparatus in the centre. Here the bottles
+remain for about twenty minutes.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE TIRAGE OR BOTTLING OF CHAMPAGNE
+  AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS. G. H. MUMM & CO. (p. 76.)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. G. H. MUMM & CO.'S VENDANGEOIR AT VERZENAY. (p. 77)]
+
+Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. have a capacious vendangeoir at Verzenay,
+near the entrance to the village when approaching it from Reims. The
+building contains four presses, three of which are worked with large
+fly-wheels requiring several men to turn them, while the fourth acts
+with a screw applied by means of a long pole. At the vintage 3,600
+kilogrammes, or nearly 8,000lbs., of grapes are put under each press,
+a quantity sufficient to yield eight to ten hogsheads of wine of
+forty-four gallons each, suitable for sparkling wine, besides three or
+four hogsheads of inferior wine given to the workmen to drink. The
+pressing commences daily at six in the morning, and lasts until
+midnight; yet the firm are often constrained to keep their grapes in the
+baskets under a cool shed for a period of two days. This cannot,
+however, be done when they are very ripe, as the colouring matter from
+the skins would become extracted and give a dark and objectionable tint
+to the wine.
+
+Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. ship four descriptions of champagne--Carte
+Blanche, a pale, delicate, fragrant wine of great softness and refined
+flavour; a perfectly dry variety of the foregoing, known as their Extra
+Dry; also an Extra Quality and a First Quality--both high-class wines,
+though somewhat lower in price than the two preceding.
+
+Within a few minutes' walk of Messrs. G. H. Mumm's--past the imposing
+Gate of Mars, in the midst of lawns, parterres, and gravel-walks, where
+coquettish nursemaids and their charges stroll, accompanied by the
+proverbial _piou-piou_--is the principal establishment of M. Gustave
+Gibert, whose house claims to-day half a century of existence. On this
+spot formerly stood the feudal castle of the Archbishops of Reims,
+demolished nearly three centuries ago. By whom this stronghold was
+erected is somewhat uncertain. The local chronicles state that a château
+was built at Reims by Suelf, son of Hincmar, in 922, and restored by
+Archbishop Henri de France two and a half centuries later. War or other
+causes, however, seems to have rendered the speedy rebuilding of this
+castle necessary, as a new Château des Archevêques appears to have been
+erected at Reims by Henri de Braine between 1228 and 1230. The
+circumstance of the Archbishops of Reims being dukes and peers as well
+as primates of the capital of the Champagne accounts for their
+preference for a fortified place of residence at this turbulent epoch.
+
+On the investiture of a new archbishop it was the custom for him to
+proceed in great pomp from the château to the church of Saint Remi, with
+a large armed guard and a splendid retinue of ecclesiastical, civil, and
+military dignitaries escorting him. The pride of the newly-created "duke
+and peer" having been thus gratified, the "prelate" had to humble
+himself, and on the morrow walked barefooted from the church of St. Remi
+to the cathedral. After the religious wars the château was surrendered
+to Henri IV., and in 1595 the Remois, anxious to be rid of so formidable
+a fortress, which, whether held by king or archbishop, was calculated to
+enforce a state of passive obedience galling to their pride, purchased
+from the king the privilege to demolish it for the sum of 8,000 crowns.
+Tradition asserts that the Remish Bastille was destroyed in a single
+day, but this is exceedingly improbable. Its ruins certainly were not
+cleared away until the close of the century.
+
+When the old fortress was razed to the ground its extensive vaults were
+not interfered with, but many long years afterwards were transformed
+into admirable cellars for the storage of champagne. Above them are two
+stories of capacious celliers where the wine is blended, bottled, and
+packed, the vaults themselves comprising two tiers of cellars which
+contain wine both in cask and bottle. M. Gibert's remaining stocks are
+stored in the ancient vaults of the abbey of St. Peter, in the heart of
+the city, and in the roomy cellars which underlie the old Hôtel des
+Fermes in the Place Royale, where in the days of the _ancien régime_ the
+farmers-general of the province used to receive its revenues. On the
+pediment of this edifice is a bas-relief with Mercury, the god of
+commerce, seated beside a nymph and surrounded by children engaged with
+the vintage and with bales of wool, and evidently intended to symbolise
+the staple trades of the capital of the Champagne. A bronze statue rises
+in the centre of the Place which from its Roman costume and martial
+bearing might be taken for some hero of antiquity did not the
+inscription on the pedestal apprise us that it is intended for the
+"wise, virtuous, and magnanimous Louis XV.," a misuse of terms which has
+caused a transatlantic Republican to characterise the monument as a
+brazen lie. Leading out of the Place Royale is the Rue de Cérès, in
+which there is a modernised 16th-century house claiming to be the
+birthplace of Jean Baptiste Colbert, son of a Reims wool-merchant, and
+the famous minister who did so much to consolidate the finances which
+the royal voluptuary, masquerading at Reims in Roman garb, afterwards
+made such dreadful havoc of.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLIERS AND CELLARS OF M. GUSTAVE GIBERT.
+  (_Near the Porte de Mars, Reims_.) (p. 78.)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PLACE ROYALE AT REIMS,
+  SHOWING THE ENTRANCE TO THE CELLARS OF M. GUSTAVE GIBERT. (p. 79)]
+
+M. Gustave Gibert possesses pressing-houses at Ay and Bouzy, and has
+moreover at both these places accommodation for large reserve stocks of
+wine in wood. As all the wines which he sends into the market are
+vintaged by himself, he can ensure their being of uniform high quality.
+His _Vin du Roi_ is notable for perfume, delicacy, perfect
+effervescence, and that fine flavour of the grape which characterises
+the grand wines of the Champagne. It is a great favourite with the King
+of Sweden and Norway, and the labels on the bottles bear his name and
+arms. M. Gibert's brand has acquired a high reputation in the North of
+Europe, and having of late years been introduced into England, is
+rapidly making its way there. The merits of the wines have been again
+and again publicly recognised, no less than ten medals having been
+successively awarded M. Gibert at the Exhibitions of Toulouse in 1858,
+Bordeaux in 1859, Besançon in 1860, Metz and Nantes in 1861, London in
+1862, Bayonne and Linz in 1864, and Oporto and Dublin in 1865. This long
+list of awards has led to the wines being placed "_hors concours_,"
+nevertheless M. Gibert continues to submit them to competition whenever
+any Exhibition of importance takes place. The wines are shipped to
+England, Germany, Russia, and Northern Europe, Spain and Portugal,
+Calcutta, Java, Melbourne, and Hong-Kong, besides being largely in
+request for the Paris market.
+
+On quitting M. Gibert's central establishment we proceed along the
+winding, ill-paved Rue de Mars, past the premises of Messrs. Jules Mumm
+and Co., an offshoot from the once famous firm of P. A. Mumm and Co., to
+the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, in one corner of which stands a massive
+and somewhat pretentious-looking house, dating back to the time of Louis
+Quatorze. Here are the offices of Ruinart père et fils, who claim to
+rank as the oldest existing house in the Champagne. The head of the
+firm, the Vicomte de Brimont, is a collateral descendant of the Dom
+Ruinart, whose remains repose nigh to those of the illustrious Dom
+Perignon in the abbey church of Hautvillers. From the Place de l'Hôtel
+de Ville we proceed through the narrow Rue du Tambour, originally a
+Roman thoroughfare, and during the Middle Ages the locality where the
+nobility of Reims principally had their abodes. Half-way up this street,
+in the direction of the Place des Marchés, stands the famous House of
+the Musicians, one of the most interesting architectural relics of which
+the capital of the Champagne can boast. It evidently dates from the
+early part of the fourteenth century, but by whom it was erected is
+unknown. Some ascribe it to the Knights Templars, others to the Counts
+of Champagne, while others suppose it to have been the residence of the
+famous Counts de la Marck, who in later times diverged into three
+separate branches, the first furnishing Dukes of Cleves and Julich to
+Germany and Dukes of Nevers and Counts of Eu to France, while the second
+became Dukes of Bouillon and Princes of Sedan, titles which passed to
+the Turennes when Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne,
+married the surviving heiress of the house. The third branch comprised
+the Barons of Lumain, allied to the Hohenzollerns. Their most famous
+member slew Louis de Bourbon, Archbishop of Liège, and flung his body
+into the Meuse, and subsequently became celebrated as the Wild Boar of
+the Ardennes, of whom all readers of _Quentin Durward_ will retain a
+lively recollection.
+
+To return, however, to the House of the Musicians. A probable conjecture
+ascribes the origin of the quaint mediæval structure to the Brotherhood
+of Minstrels of Reims, who in the thirteenth century enjoyed a
+considerable reputation, not merely in the Champagne, but throughout the
+North of France. The house takes its present name from five seated
+statues of musicians, larger than life-size, occupying the Gothic niches
+between the first-floor windows, and resting upon brackets ornamented
+with grotesque heads. It is thought that the partially-damaged figure on
+the left-hand side was originally playing a drum and a species of
+clarionet. The next one evidently has the remnants of a harp in his
+raised hands. The third or central figure is supposed merely to have
+held a hawk upon his wrist; whilst the fourth seeks to extract harmony
+from a dilapidated bagpipe; and the fifth, with crossed legs, strums
+complacently away upon the fiddle. The ground floor of the quaint old
+tenement is to-day an oil and colour shop, the front of which is covered
+with chequers in all the tints of the rainbow.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Leading from the Rue du Tambour is the Rue de la Belle Image, thus named
+from a handsome statuette of the Virgin which formerly decorated a
+corner niche; and beyond is the Rue St. Hilaire, where Messrs. Barnett
+et fils, trading under the designation of Périnet et fils, and the only
+English house engaged in the manufacture of champagne, have an
+establishment which is certainly as perfect as any to be found in Reims.
+Aboveground are several large store-rooms, where vintage casks and the
+various utensils common to a champagne establishment are kept, and a
+capacious cellier, upwards of 150 feet in length, with its roof resting
+on huge timber supports. Here new wine is stored preparatory to being
+blended and bottled, and in the huge tun, holding nearly 3,000 gallons,
+standing at the further end, the firm make their _cuvée_, while adjacent
+is a room where stocks of corks and labels, metal foil, and the like are
+kept.
+
+There are three stories of cellars--an exceedingly rare thing anywhere
+in the Champagne--all constructed in solid masonry on a uniform
+plan--namely, two wide galleries running parallel with each other and
+connected by means of transverse passages. Spite of the great depth to
+which these cellars descend they are perfectly dry; the ventilation,
+too, is excellent, and their different temperatures render them
+especially suitable for the storage of champagne, the temperature of the
+lowest cellar being 6° Centigrade (43° Fahrenheit), or one degree
+Centigrade below the cellar immediately above, which, in its turn is two
+degrees below the uppermost one of all. The advantage of this is that
+when the wine develops an excess of effervescence any undue proportion
+of breakages can be checked by removing the bottles to a lower cellar
+and consequently into a lower temperature.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLIER AND CELLARS OF PÉRINET ET FILS AT REIMS. (p. 82)]
+
+The first cellars we enter are closely stacked with wine in bottle,
+which is gradually clearing itself by the formation of a deposit, while
+in an adjoining cellar on the same level the operations of disgorging,
+liqueuring, and corking are going on. In the cellars immediately beneath
+bottles of wine repose in solid stacks ready for the _dégorgeur_, while
+others rest in racks in order that they may undergo their daily shaking.
+In the lowest cellars reserved wine in cask is stored, as it best
+retains its natural freshness and purity in a very cool place. All air
+is carefully excluded from the casks, any ullage is immediately checked,
+and as evaporation is continually going on the casks are examined every
+fortnight, when any deficiency is at once replenished. At Messrs.
+Périnet et fils', as at all the first-class establishments, the _vin
+brut_ is a _mélange_ comprising the produce of some of the best
+vineyards, and has every possible attention paid to it during its
+progressive stages of development.
+
+Champagnes of different years were here shown to us, all of them soft,
+light, and delicate, and with that fine flavour and full perfume which
+the best growths of the Marne alone exhibit. Among several curiosities
+submitted to us was a still Verzenay of the year 1857, one of the most
+delicate red wines it was ever our fortune to taste. Light in body, rich
+in colour, of a singularly novel and refined flavour, and with a
+magnificent yet indefinable bouquet, the wine was in every respect
+perfect. Not only was the year of the vintage a grand one, but the wine
+must have been made with the greatest possible care and from the most
+perfect grapes for so delicate a growth to have retained its flavour in
+such perfection, and preserved its brilliant ruby colour for such a
+length of time.
+
+From the samples shown to us of Périnet et fils' champagne, we were
+prepared to find that at some recent tastings in London, the particulars
+of which have been made public, their Extra Sec took the first place at
+each of the three severe competitions to which it was subjected.
+
+M. Duchâtel-Ohaus's central establishment is in the Rue des Deux Anges,
+one of the most ancient streets of Reims, running from the Rue des Élus
+to the Rue de Vesle, and having every window secured by iron gratings,
+and every door thickly studded with huge nails. These prison-like
+façades succeed each other in gloomy monotony along either side of the
+way, the portion of M. Duchâtel-Ohaus's residence which faces the street
+being no exception to the general rule. Once within its court, however,
+and quite a different scene presents itself. Before us is a pleasant
+little flower-garden with a small but charming Renaissance house looking
+on to it, the windows ornamented with elaborate mouldings, and
+surmounted by graceful sculptured heads, while at one corner rises a
+tower with a sun-dial displayed on its front. Here and in an adjoining
+house the canons of the Cathedral were accustomed to reside in the days
+when four-fifths of Reims belonged to the Church.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+From the garden we enter a capacious cellier where the blending and
+bottling of the wine takes place, and in the neighbouring packing-room
+encounter a score of workpeople filling, securing, and branding a number
+of cases about to be despatched by rail. From the cellier we pass to the
+cellars situated immediately underneath, and which, capacious though
+they are, do not suffice for M. Duchâtel's stock, portions of which are
+stored in some ancient vaults near the market-place, and in the Rue de
+Vesle behind the church of St. Jacques. This church, originally built at
+the close of the twelfth century, is hemmed in on all sides by old
+houses, above which rises its tapering steeple surmounted by a medieval
+weathercock in the form of an angel. A life-size statue of the patron
+saint decorates the Gothic gateway leading to the church, from which a
+troop of Remish urchins in the charge of some Frères de la Doctrine
+Chrétienne emerge as we pass by.
+
+The Cour St. Jacques, where M. Duchâtel's cellars are situated, may be
+reached by passing through the church, the interior of which presents a
+curious jumble of architectural styles from early Gothic to late
+Renaissance. One noteworthy object of art which it contains is a
+life-size crucifix carved by Pierre Jacques, a Remish sculptor of the
+days of the Good King Henri, and from an anatomical point of view a
+perfect _chef-d'oeuvre_. The cellars we have come to inspect are two
+stories deep, and comprise numerous ancient cavernous compartments, such
+as are found in all the older quarters of Reims, and usually in the
+vicinity of some church, convent, or clerical abode. It has been
+suggested that they were either crypts for sacred retirement and prayer,
+dungeons for the punishment of recreant brethren, or tombs for the dead;
+but it is far more probable that in the majority of instances they
+served then as now simply for the storage of the choice vintages of the
+Marne, for we all know the monks of old were tipplers of no ordinary
+capacity, who usually contrived to secure the best that the district
+provided. These vaults of M. Duchâtel's, in which a considerable stock
+of the fine wine of 1874 is stored, are from two to three centuries old,
+and probably belonged to the curés of St. Jacques. They are of
+considerable extent, are well ventilated, and are walled and roofed with
+stone. M. Duchâtel's remaining stock reposes in some new
+cellars--certain transformed chalk quarries outside the Porte
+Dieu-Lumière, comprising broad lofty galleries and vast circular
+chambers--fifty feet or so in height and well lighted from above.
+
+At M. Duchâtel-Ohaus's we tasted a variety of fine samples of his brand,
+including a beautiful wine of 1868 and an almost equally good one of
+1870, with some of the excellent vintage of 1874, which was then being
+prepared for shipment.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+VIII.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_).
+
+M. Ernest Irroy's Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoirs-- Recognition
+  by the Reims Agricultural Association of his Plantations of Vines--
+  His Wines and their Popularity at the best London Clubs-- Messrs.
+  Binet fils and Co.'s Establishment-- Wines Sold by the Firm to
+  Shippers-- Their Cellars-- Samples of Fine Still Ay and Bouzy--
+  Their Still Sillery, Vintage 1857, and their Creaming Vin Brut,
+  Vintage 1865-- The Offices and Cellars of Messrs. Charles Farre and
+  Co.-- Testing the Wine before Bottling-- A Promenade between Bottles
+  in Piles and Racks-- Repute in which these Wines are held in England
+  and on the Continent-- The New Establishment of Fisse, Thirion, and
+  Co. in the Place de Betheny-- Its Construction exclusively in Stone,
+  Brick, and Iron-- The Vast Celliers of Two Stories-- Bottling the
+  Wine by the Aid of Machinery-- The Cool and Lofty Cellars--
+  Ingenious Method of Securing the Corks, rendering the Uncorking
+  exceedingly simple-- The Wines Shipped by the Firm.
+
+
+Few large manufacturing towns like Reims--one of the most important of
+those engaged in the woollen manufacture in France--can boast of such
+fine promenades and such handsome boulevards as the capital of the
+Champagne. As the ancient fortifications of the city were from time to
+time razed, their site was levelled and generally planted with trees,
+so that the older quarters of Reims are almost encircled by broad and
+handsome thoroughfares, separating the city, as it were, from its
+outlying suburbs. In or close to the broad Boulevard du Temple, which
+takes its name from its proximity to the site of the ancient Commanderie
+of the Templars, various champagne manufacturers, including M. Louis
+Roederer, M. Ernest Irroy, and M. Charles Heidsieck, have their
+establishments, while but a few paces off, in the neighbouring Rue
+Coquebert, are the large and handsome premises of Messrs. Krug and Co.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  M. ERNEST IRROY'S ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 87)]
+
+The offices of M. Ernest Irroy, who is known in Reims not merely as a
+large champagne grower and shipper, but also as a distinguished amateur
+of the fine arts, taking a leading part in originating local exhibitions
+and the like, are attached to his private residence, a handsome mansion
+flanked by a large and charming garden in the Boulevard du Temple. The
+laying out of this sylvan oasis is due to M. Vadré, the head gardener of
+the city of Paris, who contributed so largely to the picturesque
+embellishment of the Bois de Boulogne. M. Irroy's establishment, which
+comprises a considerable range of buildings grouped around two
+courtyards, is immediately adjacent, although its principal entrance is
+in the Rue de la Justice. The vast celliers, covering an area of upwards
+of 3,000 square yards, and either stocked with wine in cask or used for
+packing and similar purposes, afford the requisite space for carrying on
+a most extensive business. The cellars beneath comprise three stories,
+two of which are solidly roofed and lined with masonry, while the
+lowermost one is excavated in the chalk. They are admirably constructed
+on a symmetrical plan, and their total surface is very little short of
+7,000 square yards. Spite of the great depth to which these cellars
+descend they are perfectly dry, the ventilation is good, and their
+temperature moreover is remarkably cool, one result of which is that
+M. Irroy's loss from breakage never exceeds four per cent. per annum.
+M. Irroy holds a high position as a vineyard-proprietor in the
+Champagne, his vines covering an area of nearly 86 acres. At Mareuil and
+Avenay he owns some twenty-five acres, at Verzenay and Verzy about
+fifteen, and at Ambonnay and Bouzy forty-six acres. His father and his
+uncle, whose properties he inherited or purchased, commenced some thirty
+years ago to plant vines on certain slopes of Bouzy possessing a
+southern aspect, and he has followed their example with such success
+both at Bouzy and Ambonnay that in 1873 the Reims Agricultural
+Association conferred upon him a silver-gilt medal for his plantations
+of vines. M. Irroy owns _vendangeoirs_ at Verzenay, Avenay, and
+Ambonnay; and at Bouzy, where his largest vineyards are, he has built
+some excellent cottages for his labourers. He has also constructed a
+substantial bridge over the ravine which, formed by winter torrents from
+the hills, intersects the principal vineyard slopes of Bouzy.
+
+M. Ernest Irroy's wines, prepared with scrupulous care and rare
+intelligence, have been known in England for some years past, and are
+steadily increasing in popularity. They are emphatically connoisseurs'
+wines. The best West-end clubs, such as White's, Arthur's, the old
+Carlton, and the like, lay down the _cuvées_ of this house in good years
+as they lay down their vintage ports and finer clarets, and drink them,
+not in a crude state, but when they are in perfection--that is, in five
+to ten years' time. M. Irroy exports to the British colonies and to the
+United States the same fine wines which he ships to England.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  LABOURERS AT WORK IN M. ERNEST IRROY'S BOUZY VINEYARDS. (p. 88.)]
+
+From M. Irroy's we proceeded to Messrs. Binet fils and Co., whose
+establishment in the Rue de la Justice is separated from that of
+M. Irroy merely by a narrow path, and occupies the opposite side of the
+way to the principal establishment of M. Louis Roederer. The firm of
+Binet fils and Co. was founded many years ago, but for a long time they
+sold their wines principally to other shippers on the Reims and Epernay
+markets, where their cuvées were held in high repute, and only of recent
+years have they applied themselves to the shipping trade. Their
+establishment has two entrances, one in the Rue de la Justice, and the
+other in the Boulevard du Champ de Mars. On passing through the former
+we find ourselves in a courtyard of considerable area, with a range of
+celliers in the rear and a low building on the left, in which the
+offices are installed. In the first cellier we encounter cases and
+baskets of champagne all ready to be despatched by rail, with women and
+men busily engaged in labelling and packing other bottles which continue
+to arrive from the cellars below in baskets secured to an endless chain.
+Beyond this range of celliers is another courtyard of smaller dimensions
+where there are additional celliers in which wines of recent vintages in
+casks are stored.
+
+The vaults, which are reached by a winding stone staircase, are
+spacious, and consist of a series of parallel and uniform galleries hewn
+in the chalk without either masonry supports or facings. Among the solid
+piles of bottles which here hem us in on all sides are a considerable
+number of magnums and imperial pints reserved for particular
+customers--the former more especially for certain military messes, at
+which the brand of Binet fils and Co. is held in deserved esteem. We
+tasted here--in addition to several choice sparkling wines, including a
+grand _vin brut_, vintage 1865--a still Ay of the year 1870, and some
+still Bouzy of 1874. The former, a remarkably light and elegant wine,
+was already in fine condition for drinking, while the latter, which was
+altogether more vinous, deeper in colour, and fuller in body needed the
+ripening influence of time to bring it to perfection. Through their
+agents, Rutherford, Drury, and Co., Messrs. Binet fils and Co. achieved
+a great success in England with their still Sillery, vintage 1857, and
+subsequently with their superb creaming _vin brut_, vintage 1865, of
+which we have just spoken, and which is still to be met with at London
+clubs of repute.
+
+Some short distance from and parallel with the Rue de la Justice is the
+Rue Jacquart, where Messrs. Charles Farre and Co., of whose
+establishment at Hautvillers we have already spoken, have their offices
+and cellars. We enter a large courtyard, where several railway vans are
+being laden with cases of wine from the packing-hall beyond, and in the
+tasting-room adjoining find wine being tested prior to bottling, to
+ascertain the amount of saccharine it contains. This was accomplished by
+reducing a certain quantity of wine by boiling down to one-sixth, when
+the saccharometer should indicate 13° of sugar to ensure each bottle
+containing the requisite quantity of compressed carbonic acid gas.
+
+Messrs. Farre's cellars, comprising eighteen parallel galleries disposed
+in two stories, are both lofty and commodious, and are mainly of recent
+construction, the upper ones being solidly walled with masonry, while
+those below are simply excavated in the chalk. Here, as elsewhere, one
+performed a lengthened promenade between piles after piles of bottles of
+the finer vintages and a seemingly endless succession of racks, at which
+workmen were engaged in dislodging the sediment in the wine by the dim
+light of a tallow candle. It was here that we were assured the more
+experienced of these men were capable, when working with both hands, of
+shaking the enormous number of 50,000 bottles a day, or at the rate of
+seventy to the minute.
+
+The fine wines of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co. have long enjoyed a
+well-deserved celebrity, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 the firm
+secured the highest medal awarded to champagnes. The high repute in
+which the brand is held on the Continent is evidenced by the fact that
+the Prussian and other courts are consumers of Messrs. Farre's wines.
+The firm not only number England, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Northern
+Europe, and, as a matter of course, France, among their customers, but
+also several of the British colonies and North and South America as
+well.
+
+The new establishment of Messrs. Fisse, Thirion, and Co., in the
+erection of which they have largely profited by their experience and the
+various resources of modern science, is situated in the Place de
+Betheny, in the vicinity of the railway goods station and the local
+shooting range, largely resorted to at certain seasons of the year, when
+the crack shots of the Champagne capital compete with distinguished
+amateurs from different parts of France and the other side of the
+Channel.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. FISSE, THIRION & CO.'S ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 91)]
+
+On entering the courtyard through the iron gate to the right of the
+dwelling-houses of the resident partners--flanked by gardens brilliant
+with flowers and foliage--we first reach the offices and tasting-rooms,
+and then the entrance to the cellars. A speciality of this important
+pile of building is that everything employed in its construction is of
+stone, brick, or iron, wood having been rigorously excluded from it.
+In the rear of the courtyard, which presents that aspect of animation
+common to flourishing establishments in the Champagne, is the principal
+cellier, with a small building in front, where a steam-pump for pumping
+up water from the chalk is installed, while at right angles with the
+cellier are the stables and bottle-sheds. The large cellier, which is 20
+feet high and 80 feet broad, will be no less than 260 feet in length
+when completed. It contains two stories, the floors of both of which are
+cemented, the lower story being roofed with small brick arches connected
+by iron girders, and the upper one with tiles resting on iron supports.
+The cement keeps the temperature remarkably cool in the lower cellier
+where wine in cask is stored, the upper cellier being appropriated to
+wine in racks _sur pointe_, bales of corks, and the wicker-baskets and
+cases in which the wine is packed.
+
+The preparation of the wines in cask and the bottling take place in the
+lower of the two celliers, a mere lad being enabled, by the aid of the
+mechanism provided, to bottle from six to eight thousand bottles a day.
+A single workman can cork about 4,500 bottles, which a second workman
+secures with metal agrafes before they are lowered into the cellars. The
+latter are of two stories, each being divided into three long parallel
+galleries 20 feet high and 23 feet wide, vaulted with stone and floored
+with cement. Bordering the endless stacks of bottles are small gutters,
+into which the wine flows from the exploded bottles. Lofty, well
+ventilated, and beautifully cool, the temperature invariably ranging
+from 45° to 47° Fahrenheit, these capitally-constructed cellars combine
+all that is required for a champagne establishment of the first class.
+The breakage has never exceeded 3 per cent., whereas in some old cellars
+which the firm formerly occupied in the centre of the city, their
+breakage on one occasion amounted to ten times this quantity.
+
+At Fisse, Thirion, and Co.'s, after the wine has been disgorged and
+liqueured, the corks are secured neither with string nor wire, but a
+special metal fastener is employed for the purpose. This consists of a
+triple-branched agrafe, provided with a kind of hinge. A tiny toy
+needle-gun suspended to the agrafe is pulled outwards and turned over
+the top of the bottle, whereupon the fastening becomes instantly
+disengaged, and anything like trouble, uncleanliness, or annoyance is
+entirely avoided. The operation is so easy that a mere child can open a
+bottle of champagne, secured by this patent fastener, as easily and
+rapidly as a grown-up man.
+
+The firm of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. succeeded that of Fisse, Fraiquin,
+and Co.--established originally at Reims in 1821--in 1864, when the
+brand of the house was already well known on the Continent, more
+especially in Belgium and Holland. Since that time the wines have been
+largely introduced into England and the United States, and the firm, who
+have secured medals at many of the recent exhibitions, to-day have
+agents in the English and Dutch Indies and the various European
+settlements in China. Several descriptions of wine are shipped by the
+house, the finest being their dry Cuvée Reservèe and their fragrant
+soft-tasting Cachet d'Or.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  OLD HOUSE IN THE RUE DES ANGLAIS, REIMS.]
+
+IX.--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_concluded_).
+
+La Prison de Bonne Semaine-- Mary Queen of Scots at Reims-- Messrs.
+  Pommery and Greno's Offices-- A Fine Collection of Faïence-- The Rue
+  des Anglais a former Refuge of English Catholics-- Remains of the
+  Old University of Reims-- Ancient Roman Tower and Curious Grotto--
+  The handsome Castellated Pommery Establishment-- The Spacious
+  Cellier and Huge Carved Cuvée Tun-- The Descent to the Cellars--
+  Their Great Extent-- These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally
+  Quarries-- Ancient Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the
+  Protestants-- Madame Pommery's Splendid Cuvée of 1868-- Messrs. de
+  St. Marceaux and Co.'s New Establishment in the Avenue de Sillery--
+  Its Garden-Court and Circular Shaft-- Animated Scene in the Large
+  Packing Hall-- Lowering Bottled Wine to the Cellars-- Great Depth
+  and Extent of these Cellars-- Messrs. de St. Marceaux and Co.'s
+  Various Wines.
+
+
+Nigh the cathedral of Reims and in the rear of the archiepiscopal palace
+there runs a short narrow street known as the Rue Vauthier le Noir, and
+frequently mentioned in old works relating to the capital of the
+Champagne. The discovery of various pillars and statues, together with a
+handsome Gallo-Roman altar, whilst digging some foundations in 1837,
+points to the fact that a Pagan temple formerly occupied the site. The
+street is supposed to have taken its name, however, from some celebrated
+gaoler, for in mediæval times here stood "la prison de bonne semaine."
+On the site of this prison a château was subsequently built where Mary
+Queen of Scots is said to have resided in the days when her uncle,
+Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, was Lord Archbishop of Reims. Temple,
+prison, and palace have alike disappeared, and where they stood there
+now rises midway between court and garden a handsome mansion, the
+residence of Madame Pommery, head of the well-known firm of Pommery and
+Greno. To the left of the courtyard, which is entered through a
+monumental gateway, are some old buildings bearing the sculptured
+escutcheon of the beautiful and luckless Stuart Queen, while to the
+right are the offices, with the manager's sanctum, replete with artistic
+curiosities, the walls being completely covered with remarkable
+specimens of faïence, including Rouen, Gien, Palissy, Delft, and
+majolica, collected in the majority of instances by Madame Pommery in
+the villages around Reims. Here we were received by M. Vasnier, who at
+once volunteered to accompany us to the cellars of the firm outside the
+city. Messrs. Pommery and Greno originally carried on business in the
+Rue Vauthier le Noir, where there are extensive cellars, but their
+rapidly-increasing connection long since compelled them to emigrate
+beyond the walls of Reims.
+
+In close proximity to the Rue Vauthier le Noir is the Rue des Anglais,
+so named from the English Catholic refugees who, flying from the
+persecutions of our so-called Good Queen Bess, here took up their abode
+and established a college and a seminary. They rapidly acquired great
+influence in Reims, and one of their number, William Gifford, was even
+elected archbishop. At the end of this street, nigh to Madame Pommery's,
+there stands an old house with a corner tower and rather handsome
+Renaissance window, which formerly belonged to some of the clergy of the
+cathedral, and subsequently became the "Bureau Général de la Loterie de
+France," abolished by the National Convention in 1793.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The Rue des Anglais conducts into the Rue de l'Université, where a few
+remnants of the old University, founded by Cardinal Charles de Lorraine
+(1538-74), attract attention, notably a conical-capped corner tower, the
+sculptured ornaments at the base of which have crumbled into dust
+beneath the corroding tooth of Time. From the Rue de l'Université our
+way lies along the Boulevard du Temple to the Porte Gerbert, about a
+mile beyond which there rises up the curious castellated structure in
+which the Pommery establishment is installed, and whose tall towers
+command a view of the whole of Reims and its environs. As we drive up
+the Avenue Gerbert we espy on the right an isolated crumbling Roman
+tower, a remnant of the days when Reims disputed with Trèves the honour
+of being the capital of Belgic Gaul. Close at hand, and almost under the
+walls of the old fortifications, is a grotto to which an ancient origin
+is likewise ascribed. In another minute we reach the open iron gates of
+Messrs. Pommery's establishment, flanked by a picturesque porter's
+lodge, and proceeding up a broad drive alight under a Gothic portico at
+the entrance to the spacious and lofty cellier. Iron columns support the
+roof of this vast hall, at one end of which is the office and
+tasting-room, provided with a telegraphic apparatus by means of which
+communication is carried on with the Reims bureaux. Stacked up on every
+side of the cellier, and when empty often in eight tiers, are rows upon
+rows of casks, 4,000 of which contain wine of the last vintage,
+sufficient for a million bottles of champagne. The temperature of this
+hall is carefully regulated; the windows are high up near the roof, the
+sun's rays are rigidly excluded, so that a pleasant coolness pervades
+the apartment. On the left-hand side stands the huge tun, capable of
+containing 5,500 gallons of wine, in which the firm make their _cuvée_,
+with the monogram P and G, surmounting the arms of Reims, carved on its
+head. A platform, access to which is gained by a staircase in a side
+aisle, runs round this tonneau; and boys stand here when the wine is
+being blended, and by means of a handle protruding above the cask work
+the paddle-wheels placed inside, thereby securing the complete
+amalgamation of the wine, which has been hoisted up in casks and poured
+through a metal trough into the tonneau. Adjoining are the chains and
+lifts worked by steam by means of which wine is raised and lowered from
+and to the cellars beneath, one lift raising or lowering eight casks,
+whether full or empty, in the space of a minute.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE POMMERY ESTABLISHMENT, IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF REIMS. (p. 96)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  HEAD OVERSEER AT POMMERY AND GRENO'S.]
+
+At the farther end of the hall a Gothic door, decorated with ornamental
+ironwork, leads to the long broad flight of steps 116 in number and
+nearly twelve feet in width, conducting to the suite of lofty
+subterranean chambers where bottles of _vin brut_ repose in their
+hundreds of thousands in slanting racks or solid piles, passing
+leisurely through those stages of development necessary to fit them for
+the _dégorgeur_. Altogether there are thirty large shafts, which were
+originally quarries, and are now connected by spacious galleries. This
+side of Reims abounds with similar quarries, which are believed to have
+served as places of refuge for the Protestants at the time of the League
+and after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and it is even
+conjectured that the early Christians, the followers of St. Sixtus and
+St. Sinicus, here hid themselves from their persecutors. Since the
+cellars within the city have no longer sufficed for the storage of the
+immense stocks required through the development of the champagne trade,
+these vast subterranean galleries have been successfully utilised by
+various firms. Messrs. Pommery, after pumping out the water with which
+the chambers were filled, proceeded to excavate the intersecting
+tunnels, shore up the cracking arches, and repair the flaws in the chalk
+with masonry, finally converting these abandoned quarries into
+magnificent cellars for the storage of champagne. No less than £60,000
+was spent upon them and the castellated structure aboveground. The
+underground area is almost 240,000 square feet, and a million bottles of
+champagne can be stored in these capacious vaults.
+
+Madame Pommery made a great mark with her splendid _cuvée_ of 1868, and
+since this time her brand has become widely popular, the Pommery Sec
+especially being highly appreciated by connoisseurs.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PACKING HALL OF MESSRS. DE SAINT-MARCEAUX AT REIMS. (p. 99)]
+
+On leaving Messrs. Pommery's we retrace our steps down the Avenue
+Gerbert, bordered on either side with rows of plane-trees, until we
+reach the treeless Avenue de Sillery, where Messrs. de Saint Marceaux
+and Co.'s new and capacious establishment is installed. The principal
+block of building is flanked by two advanced wings inclosing a
+garden-court, set off with flowers and shrubs, and from the centre of
+which rises a circular shaft, covered in with glass, admitting light and
+air to the cellars below. In the building to the left the wine is
+received on its arrival from the vineyard, and here are ranged hundreds
+of casks replete with the choice _crûs_ of Verzenay, Ay, Cramant, and
+Bouzy, while some thousands of bottles ready for labelling are stocked
+in massive piles at the end of the packing-hall in the corresponding
+wing of the establishment. Here, too, a tribe of workpeople are arraying
+the bottles with gold and silver headdresses and robing them in pink
+paper, while others are filling, securing, marking, and addressing the
+cases or baskets to Hong-Kong, San Francisco, Yokohama, Bombay, London,
+New York, St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Paris.
+
+The wine in cask, stored in the left-hand wing, after having been duly
+blended in a vast vat holding over 2,400 gallons, is drawn off into
+bottles, which are then lowered down a shaft to the second tier of
+cellars by means of an endless chain, on to which the baskets of bottles
+are swiftly hooked. The workman engaged in this duty, in order to
+prevent his falling down the shaft, has a leather belt strapped round
+his waist, by means of which he is secured to an adjoining iron column.
+We descend into the lower cellars down a flight of ninety-three broad
+steps--a depth equal to the height of an ordinary six-storied house--and
+find no less than four-and-twenty galleries excavated in the chalk,
+without any masonry supports, and containing upwards of a million
+bottles of champagne. The length of these galleries varies, but they are
+of a uniform breadth, allowing either a couple of racks with wine _sur
+pointe_, or stacks of bottles, in four rows on either side, with an
+ample passage down the centre.
+
+The upper range of cellars comprises two large arched galleries of
+considerable breadth, one of which contains wine in wood and wine _sur
+pointe_, while the other is stocked with bottles of wine heads downward,
+ready to be delivered into the hands of the _dégorgeur_.
+
+MM. de St. Marceaux and Co. have the honour of supplying the King of the
+Belgians, the President of the French Republic, and several German
+potentates, with an exceedingly delicate champagne known as the Royal
+St. Marceaux. The same wine is popular in Russia and other parts of
+Europe, just as the Dry Royal of the firm is much esteemed in the United
+States. The brand of the house most appreciated in this country is its
+Carte d'Or, a very dry wine which, in conjunction with the firm's Extra
+Quality, secured the first place at a recent champagne competition in
+England.
+
+In the neighbourhood of the Pommery and de St. Marceaux establishments
+numerous other champagne manufacturers have their cellars formed from
+the abandoned quarries so numerous on this side of the city. Of some of
+these firms we have already spoken, but there remain to be mentioned
+Messrs. Kunklemann and Co., Ruinart père et fils, George Goulet, Jules
+Champion, Théophile Roederer, &c. The cellars of the three last-named
+are immediately outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière, near which is a house
+with a curious bas-relief on its face, the subject of which has been a
+source of much perplexity to local antiquaries.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  BAS-RELIEF NEAR THE PORTE DIEU-LUMIÈRE.]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  JEAN REMI MOET.]
+
+X.--EPERNAY CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+Early Records of the Moët Family at Reims and Epernay-- Jean Remi
+  Moët Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines-- Extracts from the
+  Old Account-Books of the Moëts-- First Sales of Sparkling Wines--
+  Sales to England in 1788-- "Milords" Farnham and Findlater-- Jean
+  Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon, Josephine, and the King of
+  Westphalia-- The Firm of Moët and Chandon Constituted-- Their
+  Establishment in the Rue du Commerce-- Delivering and Washing the
+  New Bottles-- The Numerous Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm--
+  Making the Cuvée in Vats of 12,000 Gallons-- The Bottling of the
+  Wine by 200 Hands-- A Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily--
+  20,000 Francs' worth of Broken Glass in Two Years-- A Subterranean
+  City, with miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open Spaces, Tramways, and
+  Stations-- The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults-- Tablet
+  Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon I.-- Millions of Bottles of
+  Champagne in Piles and Racks-- The Original Vaults known as
+  Siberia-- Scene in the Packing Hall-- Messrs. Moët and Chandon's
+  Large and Complete Staff-- Provision for Illness and Old Age--
+  Annual Fête Given by the Firm-- Their Famous "Star" Brand--
+  M. Perrier-Jouët, the lucky Grandson of a little Epernay Grocer--
+  His Offices and Cellars-- His Wine Classed according to its
+  Deserts-- Messrs. Roussillon and Co.'s Establishment-- The
+  Recognition accorded to their Wines-- Their Stock of Old Vintages--
+  The Extensive Establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger and Co.-- Their
+  Large Stock of the Fine 1874 Vintage-- Preparations for the Tirage--
+  Their Vast Fireproof Cellier and its Admirable Temperature-- Their
+  Lofty and Capacious Cellars of Two Stories.
+
+
+Those magnates of the champagne trade, Messrs. Moët and Chandon, whose
+famous "star" brand is familiar in every part of the civilised globe,
+and whose half-score miles of cellars contain as many million bottles of
+champagne as there are millions of inhabitants in most of the secondary
+European states, have their head-quarters at Epernay in a spacious
+château--in that street of châteaux named the Rue du Commerce, but
+commonly known as the Faubourg de la Folie--which is approached through
+handsome iron gates, and has beautiful gardens in the rear extending in
+the direction of the River Marne. The existing firm dates from the year
+1833, but the family of Moët--conjectured to have originally come from
+the Low Countries--had already been associated with the champagne wine
+trade for well-nigh a century previously. If the Moëts came from Holland
+they must have established themselves in the Champagne at a very early
+date, for the annals of Reims record that in the fifteenth century Jean
+and Nicolas Moët were _échevins_ of the city. A Moët was present in that
+capacity at the coronation of Charles VII. in 1429, when Joan of Arc
+stood erect by the principal altar of the cathedral with her sacred
+banner in her hand, and for having contributed to repulse an attempt on
+the part of the English to prevent the entrance of the Royal party into
+the city, the Moëts were subsequently ennobled by the same monarch.
+A mural tablet in the church of St. Remi records the death of D. G.
+Moët, Grand Prior, in 1554, and nine years later we find Nicol Moët
+claiming exemption at Epernay from the payment of _tailles_ on the
+ground of his being a noble. An old commercial book preserved in the
+family archives shows that in the year 1743--at the epoch when the
+rashness of the Duc de Grammont saved the English army under George II.
+from being cut to pieces at Dettingen--a descendant of the foregoing,
+one Claude Louis Nicolas Moët, who owned considerable vineyard property
+in the vicinity of Epernay, decided upon embarking in the wine trade.
+It is his son, however, Jean Remi Moët, born in 1758, who may be looked
+upon as the veritable founder of the present commerce in Champagne
+wines, which, thanks to his efforts, received a wonderful impulse, so
+that instead of the consumption of the vintages of the Marne being
+limited as heretofore to the privileged few, it spread all over the
+civilised world.
+
+At Messrs. Moët and Chandon's we had the opportunity of inspecting some
+of the old account-books of the firm, and more particularly those
+recording the transactions of Jean Remi Moët and his father. The first
+sales of sparkling wine, on May 23rd, 1743, comprised 301 bottles of the
+vintage of 1741 to Pierre Joly, wine-merchant, _bon des douze chez le
+Roi_, whatever that may mean, at Paris; 120 bottles to Pierre Gabriel
+Baudoin, also _bon des douze_, at Paris; and a similar quantity to the
+Sieur Compoin, keeping the "hotellerie ditte la pestitte Escurie," Rue
+du Port Maillart, at Nantes in Brittany. The entry specifies that the
+wine for Nantes is to be left at Choisy-le-Roi, and taken by land to
+Orleans by the carters of that town, who are to be found at the Ecu
+d'Orléans, Porte St. Michel, Paris, the carriage as far as Choisy being
+4 livres 10 deniers (about 4 francs) for the two half-baskets, and to
+Paris 3 livres 15 deniers the basket.
+
+Between 1750 and '60, parcels of wine were despatched to Warsaw, Vienna,
+Berlin, Königsberg, Dantzig, Stettin, Brussels, and Amsterdam; but one
+found no mention of any sales to England till the year 1788, when the
+customers of the firm included "Milord" Farnham, of London, and Messrs.
+Felix Calvert and Sylvin, who had a couple of sample bottles sent to
+them, for which they were charged five shillings. In the same year
+Messrs. Carbonnell, Moody, and Walker (predecessors of the well-known
+existing firm of Carbonnell and Co.) wrote in French for two baskets,
+of ten dozens each, of _vin de champagne_ "of good body, not too charged
+with liqueur, but of excellent taste, and _not at all sparkling_!" while
+the Chevalier Colebrook, writing from Bath, requests that 72 bottles of
+champagne may be sent to his friend the Hon. John Butler, Molesworth
+Street, Dublin, "who if contented with the wine will become a good
+customer, he being rich, keeping a good house, and receiving many
+amateurs of _vin de champagne_." Shortly afterwards the chevalier
+himself receives 50 bottles of still wine, vintage 1783. In 1789 120
+bottles of champagne, vintage 1788, are supplied to "Milord" Findlater,
+of London--an ancestor, no doubt, of the wine-merchants of the same name
+carrying on business to-day, and whom the Moëts in their simplicity
+dubbed a "Milord"--and in 1790 the customers of the house include Power
+and Michel, of 44, Lamb Street, London, and Manning, of the St. Alban
+Tavern, the latter of whom is supplied on March 30th with 130 bottles of
+champagne at three livres, or two "schillings," per bottle; while a
+month later Mr. Lockart, banker, of 36, Pall Mall, is debited with 360
+bottles, vintage 1788, at three shillings.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  WASHING BOTTLES AT MESSRS. MOËT & CHANDON'S, EPERNAY. (p. 105)]
+
+In this same year M. Moët despatches a traveller to England named
+Jeanson, and his letters, some two hundred in number, are all preserved
+in the archives of the house. On the 17th May, 1790, he writes from
+London as follows:--"As yet I have only gone on preparatory and often
+useless errands. I have distributed samples of which I have no news.
+Patience is necessary, and I endeavour to provide myself with it. How
+the taste of this country has changed since ten years ago! Almost
+everywhere they ask for dry wine, but at the same time require it so
+vinous and so strong that there is scarcely any other than the wine of
+Sillery which can satisfy them.... To-morrow I dine five miles from
+here, at M. Macnamara's. We shall uncork four bottles of our wine, which
+will probably be all right." In May, 1792, Jean Remi Moët is married,
+and thenceforward assumes the full management of the house. On December
+20 of the year following, when the Reign of Terror was fairly
+inaugurated, we find the accounts in the ledger opened to this or the
+other "citoyen." The orthodox Republican formula, however, did not long
+continue, and "sieur" and "monsieur" resumed their accustomed places,
+showing that Jean Remi Moët had no sympathy with the Jacobin faction of
+the day. In 1805 he became Mayor of Epernay, and between this time and
+the fall of the Empire received Napoleon several times at his residence,
+as well as the Empress Josephine and the King of Westphalia. The
+Emperor, after recapturing Reims from the Allies, came on to Epernay,
+on which occasion he presented M. Moët with the cross of the Legion of
+Honour. In 1830 the latter was arbitrarily dismissed from his mayoralty
+by Charles X., but was speedily reinstated by Louis Philippe, though he
+did not retain his office for long, his advanced age compelling him to
+retire from active life in the course of 1833. At this epoch the firm,
+which, since 1807 had been known as Moët and Co., was remodelled under
+the style of Moët and Chandon, the two partners being M. Victor Moët,
+son of the outgoing partner, and M. P. G. Chandon, the descendant of an
+old ennobled family of the Mâconnais, who had married M. Jean Remi
+Moët's eldest daughter. The descendants of these gentlemen are to-day at
+the head of the business, the partners being on the one hand M. Victor
+Moët-Romont and M. C. J. V. Auban Moët-Romont; and on the other, MM.
+Paul and Raoul Chandon de Briailles.
+
+Facing Messrs. Moët and Chandon's offices at Epernay is a range of
+comparatively new buildings, with its white façade ornamented with the
+well-known monogram M. and C., surmounted by the familiar star. It is
+here that the business of blending and bottling the wine is carried on.
+Passing through the arched gateway access is obtained to a spacious
+courtyard, where carts laden with bottles are being expeditiously
+lightened of their fragile contents by the busy hands of numerous
+workmen. Another gateway on the left leads into the spacious
+bottle-washing room, which from the middle of May until the middle of
+July presents a scene of extraordinary animation. Bottle-washing
+apparatus, supplied by a steam-engine with 20,000 gallons of water per
+diem, are ranged in fifteen rows down the entire length of this hall,
+and nearly 200 women strive to excel each other in diligence and
+celerity in their management, a practised hand washing from 900 to 1,000
+bottles in the course of the day. To the right of this _salle de
+rinçage_, as it is styled, bottles are stacked in their tens of
+thousands, and lads furnished with barrows, known as _diables_, hurry to
+and fro, conveying these to the washers, or removing the clean bottles
+to the adjacent courtyard, where they are allowed to drain, prior to
+being taken to the _salle de tirage_ or bottling room.
+
+Before, however, the washing of bottles on this gigantic scale
+commences, the "marrying" or blending of the wine is accomplished in a
+vast apartment, 250 feet in length and 100 feet broad, during the early
+spring. The casks of newly-vintaged wine which have been stowed away
+during the winter months, in the extensive range of cellars hewn out of
+the chalk underlying Epernay, where they have slowly fermented, are
+mixed together in due proportions in huge vats, each holding upwards of
+12,000 gallons. Some of this wine is the growth of Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon's own vineyards, of which they possess as many as 900 acres
+(giving constant employment to 800 labourers and vinedressers) at Ay,
+Avenay, Bouzy, Cramant, Champillon, Chouilly, Dizy, Epernay, Grauves,
+Hautvillers, Le Mesnil, Moussy, Pierry, Saran, St. Martin, Verzy, and
+Verzenay, and the average annual cost of cultivating which is about £40
+per acre. At Ay the firm own 210 acres of vineyards; at Cramant and
+Chouilly, nearly 180 acres; at Verzy and Verzenay, 120 acres; at Pierry
+and Grauves, upwards of 100 acres; at Hautvillers, 90 acres; at Le
+Mesnil, 80 acres; at Epernay, nearly 60 acres; and at Bouzy, 55 acres.
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon, moreover, possess vendangeoirs, or
+pressing-houses, at Ay, Bouzy, Cramant, Epernay, Hautvillers, Le Mesnil,
+Pierry, Saran, and Verzenay, in which the large number of 40 presses are
+installed. At these vendangeoirs no less than 5,450 pièces of fine white
+wine, sufficient for 1,360,000 bottles of champagne, are annually
+made--that is, 1,200 pièces at Ay, 1,100 at Cramant and Saran, 800 at
+Verzy and Verzenay, and smaller quantities at the remaining
+establishments. All these establishments have their celliers and their
+cellars, together with cottages for the accommodation of the numerous
+vinedressers in the employment of the firm.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. MOËT & CHANDON'S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 106)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  BOTTLING CHAMPAGNE AT MESSRS. MOËT & CHANDON'S, EPERNAY. (p. 107)]
+
+Extensive as are the vineyards owned by Messrs. Moët and Chandon, the
+yield from them is utterly inadequate to the enormous demand which the
+great Epernay firm are annually called upon to supply, and large
+purchases have to be made by their agents from the growers throughout
+the Champagne. The wine thus secured, as well as that grown by the firm,
+is duly mixed together in such proportions as will ensure lightness with
+the requisite vinosity, and fragrance combined with effervescence,
+a thorough amalgamation being effected by stirring up the wine with long
+poles provided with fan-shaped ends. If the vintage be indifferent in
+quality the firm have scores of huge tuns filled with the yield of more
+favoured seasons to fall back upon to ensure any deficiencies of
+character and flavour being supplied.
+
+The casks of wine to be blended are raised from the cellars, half a
+dozen at a time, by means of a lift provided with an endless chain, and
+worked by the steam-engine of which we have already spoken. They are
+emptied, through traps in the floor of the room above, into the huge
+vats which, standing upon a raised platform, reach almost to the
+ceiling. From these vats the fluid is allowed to flow through hose into
+rows of casks stationed below. Before being bottled the wine reposes for
+a certain time, is next duly racked and again blended, and is eventually
+conveyed through silver-plated pipes into oblong reservoirs, each fitted
+with a dozen syphon-taps, so arranged that directly the bottle slipped
+on to one of them becomes full the wine ceases to flow.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Upwards of 200 workpeople are employed in the _salle de tirage_ at
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon's, which, while the operation of bottling is
+going on, presents a scene of bewildering activity. Men and lads are
+gathered round the syphon-taps briskly removing the bottles as they
+become filled, and supplanting them by empty ones. Other lads hasten to
+transport the filled bottles on trucks to the corkers, whose so-called
+"guillotine" machines send the corks home with a sudden thud. The corks
+being secured with _agrafes_ the bottles are placed in large flat
+baskets called _manettes_, and wheeled away on tracks, the quarts being
+deposited in the cellars by means of lifts, while the pints slide down
+an inclined plane by the aid of an endless chain, which raises the
+trucks with the empty baskets at the same time the full ones make their
+descent into the cellars. What with the incessant thud of the corking
+machines, the continual rolling of iron-wheeled trucks over the concrete
+floor, the rattling and creaking of the machinery working the lifts, the
+occasional sharp report of a bursting bottle, and the loudly-shouted
+orders of the foremen, who display the national partiality for making a
+noise to perfection, the din becomes at times all but unbearable. The
+number of bottles filled in the course of the day naturally varies,
+still Messrs. Moët and Chandon reckon that during the month of June a
+daily average of 100,000 are taken in the morning from the stacks in the
+_salle de rinçage_, washed, dried, filled, corked, wired, lowered into
+the cellars and carefully arranged in symmetrical order. This represents
+a total of two and a half million bottles during that month alone.
+
+The bottles on being lowered into the cellars, either by means of the
+incline or the lifts, are placed in a horizontal position, and with
+their uppermost side daubed with white chalk, are stacked in layers from
+two to half-a-dozen bottles deep with narrow oak laths between. The
+stacks are usually about six or seven feet high and 100 feet and upwards
+in length. Whilst the wine is thus reposing in a temperature of about
+55° Fahrenheit, fermentation sets in, and the ensuing month is one of
+much anxiety. Thanks, however, to the care bestowed, Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon's annual loss from bottles bursting rarely exceeds three per
+cent., though fifteen was once regarded as a respectable and
+satisfactory average. The broken glass is a perquisite of the workmen,
+the money arising from its sale, which at the last distribution amounted
+to no less than 20,000 francs, being divided amongst them every couple
+of years.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The usual entrance to Messrs. Moët and Chandon's Epernay cellars--which,
+burrowed out in all directions, are of the aggregate length of nearly
+seven miles, and have usually between 11,000,000 and 12,000,000 bottles
+and 25,000 casks of wine stored therein--is through a wide and imposing
+portal, and down a long and broad flight of steps. It is, however, by
+the ancient and less imposing entrance, through which more than one
+crowned head has condescended to pass, that we set forth on our
+lengthened tour through these intricate underground galleries--this
+subterranean city with its miles of streets, crossroads, open spaces,
+tramways, and stations devoted solely to champagne. A gilt inscription
+on a black marble tablet testifies that "on the 26th July, 1807,
+Napoleon the Great, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector
+of the Confederation of the Rhine, honoured commerce by visiting the
+cellars of Jean Rémi Moët, Mayor of Epernay, President of the Canton,
+and Member of the General Council of the Department," within three weeks
+of the signature of the treaty of Tilsit. Passing down the flight of
+steep slippery steps traversed by the victor of Eylau and Jena, access
+is gained to the upper range of vaults, brilliantly illuminated by the
+glare of gas, or dimly lighted by the flickering flame of
+tallow-candles, upwards of 60,000lbs. of which are annually consumed.
+Here group after group of the small army of 350 workmen employed in
+these subterranean galleries are encountered engaged in the process of
+transforming the _vin brut_ into champagne. At Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon's the all-important operation of liqueuring the wine is effected
+by aid of machines of the latest construction, which regulate the
+quantity administered to the utmost nicety. The corks are branded by
+being pressed against steel dies heated by gas, by women who can turn
+out 3,000 per day apiece, the quantity of string used to secure them
+amounting to nearly ten tons in the course of the year.
+
+There is another and a lower depth of cellars to be explored to which
+access is gained by trapholes in the floor--through which the barrels
+and baskets of wine are raised and lowered--and by flights of steps.
+From the foot of the latter there extends an endless vista of lofty and
+spacious passages hewn out of the chalk, the walls of which, smooth as
+finished masonry, are lined with thousands of casks of raw wine, varied
+at intervals by gigantic vats. Miles of long, dark-brown,
+dampish-looking galleries stretch away to the right and left, and though
+devoid of the picturesque festoons of fungi which decorate the London
+Dock vaults, exhibit a sufficient degree of mouldiness to give them an
+air of respectable antiquity. These multitudinous galleries, lit up by
+petroleum-lamps, are mostly lined with wine in bottles stacked in
+compact masses to a height of six or seven feet, only room enough for a
+single person to pass being left. Millions of bottles are thus arranged,
+the majority on their sides, in huge piles, with tablets hung up against
+each stack to note its age and quality; and the rest, which are
+undergoing daily evolutions at the hands of the twister, at various
+angles of inclination. In these cellars there are nearly 11,000 racks in
+which the bottles of _vin brut_ rest _sur pointe_, as many as 600,000
+bottles being commonly twisted daily.
+
+The way runs on between regiments of bottles of the same size and shape,
+save where at intervals pints take the place of quarts; and the visitor,
+gazing into the black depths of the transverse passages to the right and
+left, becomes conscious of a feeling that if his guide were suddenly to
+desert him he would feel as hopelessly lost as in the catacombs of Rome.
+There are two galleries, each 650 feet in length, containing about
+650,000 bottles, and connected by 32 transverse galleries, with an
+aggregate length of 4,000 feet, in which nearly 1,500,000 bottles are
+stored. There are, further, eight galleries, each 500 feet in length,
+and proportionably stocked; also the extensive new vaults, excavated
+some five or six years back, in the rear of the then-existing cellarage,
+and a considerable number of smaller vaults. The different depths and
+varying degrees of moisture afford a choice of temperature of which the
+experienced owners know how to take advantage. The original vaults,
+wherein more than a century ago the first bottles of champagne made by
+the infant firm were stowed away, bear the name of Siberia, on account
+of their exceeding coldness. This section consists of several
+roughly-excavated low winding galleries, resembling natural caverns, and
+affording a striking contrast to the broad, lofty, and regular-shaped
+corridors of more recent date.
+
+When the proper period arrives for the bottles to emerge once more into
+the upper air they are conveyed to the packing-room, a spacious hall 180
+feet long and 60 feet broad. In front of its three large double doors
+waggons are drawn up ready to receive their loads. The seventy men and
+women employed here easily foil, label, wrap, and pack up some 10,000
+bottles a day. Cases and baskets are stacked in different parts of this
+vast hall, at one end of which numerous trusses of straw used in the
+packing are piled. Seated at tables ranged along one side of the
+apartment women are busily occupied in pasting on labels or encasing the
+necks of bottles in gold or silver foil, whilst elsewhere men, seated on
+three-legged stools in front of smoking caldrons of molten sealing-wax
+of a deep green hue, are coating the necks of other bottles by plunging
+them into the boiling fluid. When labelled and decorated with either wax
+or foil the bottles pass on to other women, who swathe them in pink
+tissue-paper and set them aside for the packers, by whom, after being
+deftly wrapped round with straw, they are consigned to baskets or cases,
+to secure which last no less than 10,000lbs. of nails are annually used.
+England and Russia are partial to gold foil, pink paper, and wooden
+cases holding a dozen or a couple of dozen bottles of the exhilarating
+fluid, whereas other nations prefer waxed necks, disdain pink paper, and
+insist on being supplied in wicker baskets containing fifty bottles
+each.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE PACKING HALL AT MESSRS. MOËT AND CHANDON'S, EPERNAY. (p. 112)]
+
+Some idea of the complex character of so vast an establishment as that
+of Messrs. Moët and Chandon may be gathered from a mere enumeration of
+their staff, which, in addition to twenty clerks and 350 cellarmen
+proper, includes numerous agrafe-makers and corkcutters, packers and
+carters, wheelwrights and saddlers, carpenters, masons, slaters and
+tilers, tinmen, firemen, needlewomen, &c., while the inventory of
+objects used by this formidable array of workpeople comprises no fewer
+than 1,500 distinct heads. A medical man attached to the establishment
+gives gratuitous advice to all those employed, and a chemist dispenses
+drugs and medicines without charge. While suffering from illness the men
+receive half-pay, but should they be laid up by an accident met with in
+the course of their work full salary is invariably awarded to them. As
+may be supposed, so vast an establishment as this is not without a
+provision for those past work, and all the old hands receive liberal
+pensions from the firm upon retiring. Every year Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon give a banquet or a ball to the people in their employ--usually
+after the bottling of the wine is completed--when the hall in which the
+entertainment takes place is handsomely decorated and illuminated with
+myriads of coloured lamps.
+
+It is needless to particularise Messrs. Moët and Chandon's wines, which
+are familiar to all drinkers of champagne. Their famous "star" brand is
+known in all societies, figures equally at clubs and mess-tables, at
+garden parties and picnics, dinners and _soirées_, and has its place in
+hotel _cartes_ all over the world. One of the best proofs of the wine's
+universal popularity is found in the circumstance that as many as 1,000
+visitors from all parts of the world come annually to Epernay and make
+the tour of Messrs. Moët and Chandon's spacious cellars.
+
+A little beyond Messrs. Moët and Chandon's, in the broad Rue du
+Commerce, we encounter a heavy, ornate, pretentious-looking château, the
+residence of M. Perrier-Jouët, which presents a striking contrast to the
+almost mean-looking premises opposite, where the business of the firm is
+carried on. M. Perrier-Jouët is the fortunate grandson of the Sieur
+Perrier Fissier, a little Epernay grocer, who some eighty years or so
+ago used to supply corks, candles, and string to the firm of Moët and
+Co., and who, when the profits arising from this connection warranted
+his doing so, discarded his grocer's sleeves and apron and blossomed
+forth as a competitor in the champagne trade. Perrier-Jouët and Co.'s
+offices are situated on the left-hand side of a courtyard surrounded by
+low buildings, which serve as celliers, store-houses, packing-rooms, and
+the like. From an inner courtyard where piles of bottles are stacked
+under open sheds, the cellars themselves are reached. Previous to
+descending into these we passed through the various buildings, in one of
+which a party of men were engaged in disgorging and preparing wine for
+shipment. In another we noticed one of those heavy beam presses for
+pressing the grapes which the more intelligent manufacturers regard as
+obsolete, while in a third was the _cuvée_ vat, holding no more than
+2,200 gallons. In making their _cuvée_ the firm commonly mix one part of
+old wine to three parts of new. An indifferent vintage, however,
+necessitates the admixture of a larger proportion of the older growth.
+The cellars, like all the more ancient ones at Epernay, are somewhat
+straggling and irregular, still they are remarkably cool, and on the
+lower floor remarkably damp as well. This, however, would appear to be
+no disadvantage, as the breakage in them is calculated never to exceed
+2½ per cent.
+
+The firm have no less than five qualities of champagne, and at one of
+the recent champagne competitions at London, where the experts engaged
+had no means of identifying the brands submitted to their judgment,
+Messrs. Perrier-Jouët's First Quality got classed below a cheaper wine
+of their neighbours Messrs. Pol Roger and Co., and very considerably
+below the Extra Sec of Messrs. Périnet et fils, and inferior even to a
+wine of De Venoge's, the great Epernay manufacturer of common class
+champagnes.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  COURTYARD OF MESSRS. POL ROGER'S ESTABLISHMENT AT EPERNAY. (p. 115)]
+
+Champagne establishments, combined with the handsome residences of the
+manufacturers, line both sides of the long, imposing Rue du Commerce at
+Epernay. On the left hand is a succession of fine châteaux, commencing
+with one belonging to M. Auban Moët, whose terraced gardens overlook the
+valley of the Marne, and command views of the vine-clad heights of
+Cumières, Hautvillers, Ay, and Mareuil, and the more distant slopes of
+Ambonnay and Bouzy, while on the other side of the famous Epernay
+thoroughfare we encounter beyond the establishments of Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon and Perrier-Jouët the ornate monumental façade which the firm of
+Piper and Co.--of whom Messrs. Kunkelmann and Co. are to-day the
+successors--raised some years since above their extensive cellars.
+A little in the rear of the Rue du Commerce is the well-ordered
+establishment of Messrs. Roussillon and Co., the extension of whose
+business of late has necessitated their removal to these capacious
+premises. The wines of the firm enjoy a high reputation in England,
+France, and Russia, and have secured favourable recognition at the
+Paris, Philadelphia, and other Exhibitions. Their stock includes
+considerable quantities of the older vintages, it being a rule of the
+house never to ship crude young wines. It is on their dry varieties that
+Messrs. Roussillon and Co. especially pride themselves, and some of the
+fine wine of 1874 that was here shown to us was as remarkable for its
+delicacy as for its fragrance.
+
+In a side street at the farther end of the Rue du Commerce stands a
+château of red brick, overlooking on the one side an extensive
+pleasure-garden, and on the other a spacious courtyard, bounded by
+celliers, stables, and bottle-sheds, all of modern construction and on a
+most extensive scale. These form the establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger
+and Co., settled for many years at Epernay, and known throughout the
+Champagne for their large purchases at the epoch of the vintage. From
+the knowledge they possess of the best crûs, and their relations with
+the leading vineyard proprietors, they are enabled whenever the wine is
+good to acquire large stocks of it. Having bottled a considerable
+quantity of the fine wine of 1874, they resolved to profit by the
+exceptional quality of this vintage to commence shipping champagne to
+England, where their agents, Messrs. Reuss, Lauteren, and Co., have
+successfully introduced the new brand.
+
+Passing through a large open gateway we enter the vast courtyard of the
+establishment, which, with arriving and departing carts--the first
+loaded with wine in cask or with new bottles, and the others with cases
+of champagne--presents rather an animated scene. Under a roof projecting
+from the wall of the vast cellier on the right hand a tribe of
+"Sparnaciennes"--as the feminine inhabitants of Epernay are termed--are
+occupied in washing bottles in readiness for the coming tirage. The
+surrounding buildings, most substantially constructed, are not destitute
+of architectural pretensions.
+
+The extensive cellier, the area of which is 23,589 square feet, is
+understood to be the largest single construction of the kind in the
+Champagne district. Built entirely of iron, stone and brick, its
+framework is a perfect marvel of lightness. The roof, consisting of rows
+of brick arches, is covered above with a layer of Portland cement, in
+order to keep it cool in summer and protect it against the winter cold,
+two most desirable objects in connection with the manipulation of
+champagne. Here an endless chain of a new pattern enables wine in bottle
+to be lowered and raised with great rapidity to or from the cellars
+beneath--lofty and capacious excavations of two stories, the lowest of
+which is reached by a flight of no less than 170 steps.
+
+Epernay, unlike Reims, has little of general interest to attract the
+stranger. Frequently besieged and pillaged during the Middle Ages, and
+burnt to the ground by the dauphin, son of François I., the town,
+although of some note as far back as the time of Clovis, exhibits to-day
+no evidence whatever of its great antiquity. The thoroughfare termed the
+Rempart de la Tour Biron recalls a memorable incident which transpired
+during the siege of the town by Henri IV. While the king was
+reconnoitring the defences a cannon-ball aimed at his waving white plume
+took off the head of the Maréchal Biron at the moment Henri's hand was
+resting familiarly on the maréchal's shoulder. Strange to say, the king
+himself escaped unhurt.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VIEW OF AY FROM THE BANKS OF THE MARNE CANAL. (p. 117.)]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VENDANGEOIR OF HENRI QUATRE.]
+
+XI.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AY AND MAREUIL.
+
+The Establishment of Deutz and Geldermann-- Drawing off the Cuvée--
+  Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Champagne-- The Firm's New
+  Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoir-- The old Château of Ay and its
+  Terraced Garden-- The Gambling Propensities of Balthazar Constance
+  Dangé-Dorçay, a former Owner of the Château-- The Picturesque
+  Situation and Aspect of Messrs. Ayala's Establishment-- A Promenade
+  through their Cellars-- M. Duminy's Cellars and Wines-- His new
+  Model Construction-- The House Founded in 1814-- Messrs. Bollinger's
+  Establishment-- Their Vineyard of La Grange-- The Tirage in
+  Progress-- The Fine Cellars of the Firm-- Messrs. Pfungst's frères
+  and Co.'s Cellars-- Their Dry Champagnes of 1868, '70, '72, and
+  '74-- The Old Church of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and
+  Vineleaves-- The Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre-- The Montebello
+  Establishment at Mareuil-- The Château formerly the Property of the
+  Dukes of Orleans-- A Titled Champagne Firm-- The Brilliant Career of
+  Marshal Lannes-- A Promenade through the Montebello Establishment--
+  The Press House, the Cuvée Vat, the Packing-Room, the Offices, and
+  the Cellars-- Portraits and Relics at the Château-- The
+  Establishment of Bruch-Foucher and Co.-- The handsome Carved
+  Gigantic Cuvée Tun-- The Cellars and their Lofty Shafts-- The Wines
+  of the Firm.
+
+
+The historic _bourgade_ of Ay is within a short walk of the station on
+the line of railway connecting Epernay with Reims. The road lies across
+the light bridge spanning the Marne canal, the tall trees fringing which
+hide for a time the clustering houses; still we catch sight of the
+tapering steeple of the antique church rising sharply against the green
+vine-covered slopes and the fleecy-clouded summer sky. We soon reach the
+Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, and continuing onward in the direction of the
+steep hills which shelter the town on the north, come to a
+massive-looking corner house in front of the broad _porte-cochère_ of
+which some railway carts laden with cases of champagne are standing.
+Passing through the gateway we find ourselves in an open court, with a
+dwelling-house to the right and a range of buildings in front where the
+offices of Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann are installed. This is the
+central establishment of the firm, whose Extra Dry "Gold Lack" and
+"Cabinet" champagnes have long been favourably known in England. Here
+are spacious celliers for disgorging and finishing off the wine, a large
+packing-hall, and rooms where bales of corks and other accessories of
+the trade are stored, the operations of making the _cuvées_ and bottling
+being accomplished in an establishment some little distance off.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DRAWING OFF THE CUVÉE AT DEUTZ & GELDERMANN'S, AY. (p. 118)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  EXCAVATING DEUTZ & GELDERMANN'S NEW CELLARS, AY. (p. 119)]
+
+Proceeding thither, we find an elegant château with a charming terraced
+garden, lying at the very foot of the vine-clad slopes, and on the
+opposite side of the road some large celliers where wine in wood is
+stored, and where the _cuvées_ of the firm, consisting usually of
+upwards of 50,000 gallons each, are made in a vat of gigantic
+proportions, furnished with a raised platform at one end for the
+accommodation of the workman who agitates the customary paddles. When
+the wine is completely blended it is drawn off into casks disposed for
+the purpose in the cellar below, as shown in the accompanying engraving,
+and after being fined it rests for about a month to clear itself. To
+each of these casks of newly-blended wine a portion of old wine is added
+separately, and at the moment of bottling the whole is newly
+amalgamated.
+
+Adjoining M. Deutz's château is the principal entrance to the extensive
+cellars of the firm, to which, at the time of our visit, considerable
+additions were being made. In excavating a gallery the workmen commence
+by rounding off the roof, and then proceed to work gradually downwards,
+extracting the chalk, whenever practicable, in blocks suitable for
+building purposes, which being worth from three to four shillings the
+square yard help to reduce the cost of the excavation. When any serious
+flaws present themselves in the sides or roof of the galleries, they are
+invariably made good with masonry.
+
+This range of cellars now comprises eight long and lofty galleries no
+less than 17 feet wide, and the same number of feet in height, and of
+the aggregate length of 2,200 yards. These spacious vaults, which run
+parallel with each other, and communicate by means of cross passages,
+underlie the street, the château, the garden, and the vineyard slopes
+beyond, and possess the great advantage of being always dry. They are
+capable, we were informed, of containing several million bottles of
+champagne in addition to a large quantity of wine in cask.
+
+Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann possess vineyards at Ay, and own a large
+vendangeoir at Verzenay, where in good years they usually press 500
+pièces of wine. They, moreover, make large purchases of grapes at Bouzy,
+Cramant, Le Mesnil, Pierry, &c, and invariably have these pressed under
+their own superintendence. Beyond large shipments to England, Messrs.
+Deutz and Geldermann transact a considerable business with other
+countries, and more especially with Germany, where their brand has been
+for years one of the most popular, and is to-day the favourite at
+numerous regimental messes and the principal hotels.
+
+The old château of Ay, which dates from the early part of the last
+century, belongs to-day to the Count de Mareuil, a member of the firm of
+Ayala and Co., one of the leading establishments of the famous
+Marne-side crû. Perched half-way up the slope, covered with "golden
+plants," which rises in the rear of the village, the château, with its
+long façade of windows, commands the valley of the Marne for miles, and
+from the stately terraced walk, planted with ancient lime-trees,
+geometrically clipped in the fashion of the last century, a splendid
+view of the distant vineyards of Avize, Cramant, Epernay, and Chouilly
+is obtained. The château formed one of a quartette of seignorial
+residences which at the commencement of the present century belonged to
+Balthazar Constance Dangé-Dorçay, whose ancestors had been lords of
+Chouilly under the _ancien régime_. Dorçay had inherited from an aunt
+the châteaux of Ay, Mareuil, Boursault, and Chouilly, together with a
+large patrimony in land and money; but a mania for gambling brought him
+to utter ruin, and he dispossessed himself of money, lands, and châteaux
+in succession, and was reduced, in his old age, to earn a meagre
+pittance as a violin-player at the Paris Opera House. The old château of
+Boursault, which still exists contiguous to the stately edifice raised
+by Mme. Clicquot on the summit of the hill, was risked and lost on a
+single game at cards by this pertinacious gamester, whose pressing
+pecuniary difficulties compelled him to sell the remaining châteaux one
+by one. That of Ay was purchased by M. Froc de la Boulaye, and by him
+bequeathed to his cousin the Count de Mareuil, whose granddaughter
+became the wife of one of the Messrs. Ayala, and whose son is to-day
+their partner.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. AYALA & CO.'S ESTABLISHMENT AT AY. (p. 121)]
+
+The offices of the firm adjoin the château, and rather higher up the
+hill is their very complete establishment, picturesquely situated in a
+hollow formed by some excavations, with the thickly-planted vine-slopes
+rising above its red-tiled roof. The boldly-designed basement, the
+ascending sweep conducting to the extensive celliers and the little
+centre belfry give a character of originality to the building. Carts
+laden with cases of champagne are leaving for the railway station, casks
+of wine are being transferred from one part of the establishment to
+another, bottles are being got ready for the approaching tirage, and in
+the packing department, installed in one of the three celliers into
+which the story aboveground is divided, quite an animated scene presents
+itself. Iron columns support the roofs of this and its companion
+celliers, where the firm make their _cuvée_, and the bottling of the
+wine takes place. On descending into the basement beneath, the popping
+of corks and the continual clatter of machinery intimate that the
+disgorging and re-corking of the wine are being accomplished, and in the
+dim light we discern groups of workmen engaged in the final manipulation
+which champagne has to undergo, while fresh relays of wine are arriving
+from the cellars by the aid of endless chains. There are two stories of
+these cellars which, excavated in the chalk, extend under the road and
+wind round beneath the château, the more modern galleries being broad,
+lofty, and admirably ventilated, and provided with supports of masonry
+wherever the instability of the chalk rendered this requisite. After a
+lengthened promenade through them we come to the ancient vaults
+extending immediately under the grounds of the château, where every
+particle of available space is utilised, and some difficulty is found in
+passing between the serried piles of bottles of _vin brut_--mostly the
+fine wine of 1874--which rise continuously on either side.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Within a hundred yards of the open space, surrounded by houses of
+different epochs and considerable diversity of design, where the Ay
+market is weekly held, and in one of the narrow winding streets common
+to the town, an escutcheon, with a bunch of grapes for device,
+surmounting a lofty gateway, attracts attention. Within, a trim
+courtyard, girt round with orange-trees in bright green boxes, and
+clipped in orthodox fashion, affords access to the handsome residence
+and offices of M. Duminy, well-known in England and America as a shipper
+of high-class champagnes, and whose Parisian connection is extensive. On
+the right-hand side of the courtyard is the packing-room, and through
+the cellars, which have an entrance here, one can reach the celliers in
+an adjoining street, where the _cuvée_ is made and the bottling of the
+wine accomplished.
+
+M. Duminy's cellars are remarkably old, and consequently of somewhat
+irregular construction, being at times rather low and narrow, as well as
+on different levels. In addition, however, to these venerable vaults,
+packed with wines of 1869, '70, '72, and '74, M. Duminy has various
+subterranean adjuncts in other parts of Ay, and is at present engaged in
+constructing, at the foot of his vineyards up the mountain slope,
+a noble establishment which includes a vast court, upwards of a thousand
+square yards in extent, wherein are installed capacious bottle-racks and
+bottle-washing machines of the latest improved manufacture. Here are
+also handsome and extensive celliers, together with immense underground
+cellars, comprising broad and lofty galleries of regular design, the
+whole being constructed with a completeness and studied regard for
+convenience which bid fair to render this establishment when finished
+the model one of the Champagne district.
+
+The house was originally founded so far back as 1814 by
+M. Taverne-Richard, who was intimately connected with the principal
+vineyard proprietors of the district. In 1842 this gentleman took his
+son-in-law, M. Duminy, father of the present proprietor of the
+establishment, into partnership, and after the retirement of M. Taverne
+he gave a great impetus to the business, and succeeded in introducing
+his light and delicate wines into the principal Paris hotels and
+restaurants. During its two-thirds of a century of existence the house
+has invariably confined itself to first-class wines, taking particular
+pride in shipping fully-matured growths. Besides its own large reserve
+of these, it holds considerable stocks long since disposed of, and now
+merely awaiting the purchasers' orders to be shipped.
+
+A few paces beyond M. Duminy's we come upon an antiquated,
+decrepit-looking timber house, with its ancient gable bulging over as
+though the tough oak brackets on which it rests were at last grown weary
+of supporting their unwieldy burthen. Judging from the quaint carved
+devices, this house was doubtless the residence of an individual of some
+importance in the days when the principal European potentates had their
+commissioners installed at Ay to secure them the finest vintages.
+Continuing our walk along the same narrow winding street, we soon reach
+the establishment of Messrs. Bollinger, whose house, founded in the year
+1829, claims to be the first among the Ay firms who shipped wines to
+foreign countries generally, including England, where the brand has long
+been held in high repute. Messrs. Bollinger, besides being shippers of
+champagne, are extensive vineyard proprietors, owning vinelands at
+Bouzy, Verzenay, and Dizy. A vineyard of theirs at the latter place,
+known as "La Grange," is said to have formerly belonged to the monks who
+founded the abbey of St. Peter at Hautvillers, the legend connected with
+which we have already related.
+
+A couple of large gateways offer access to the spacious courtyard of
+Messrs. Bollinger's establishment; a handsome dwelling-house standing on
+the right, and a small pavilion, in which the offices are installed,
+while on the left hand and in the rear of the courtyard rises a range of
+buildings of characteristic aspect, appropriated to the business of the
+firm. In one of the celliers, which has its open-raftered roof supported
+by slim metal columns, we found the tirage going on, the gang of workmen
+engaged in it filling, corking, and lowering into the cellars some
+20,000 bottles a day. In one corner of the apartment stood the large
+_cuvée_ tun--capable of holding some 50 hogsheads--in which the blending
+of the wine is effected, and in an adjoining cellier women were briskly
+labelling and wrapping up the completed bottles of champagne. The
+cellars, constructed some fifty years ago at a cost of nearly £12 the
+superficial yard, are faced entirely with stone, and are alike wide and
+lofty; this is especially the case with four of the more modern
+galleries excavated in 1848, and each 160 feet in length. Besides the
+foregoing, Messrs. Bollinger possess other cellars in Ay, where they
+store their reserve wines both in bottle and in the wood.
+
+On the northern side of Ay, some little distance from the vineyard owned
+by them, the firm of Pfungst frères & Cie. have their cellars, the
+entrance to which lies just under the lofty vine-clad ridge. Messrs.
+Pfungst frères lay themselves out exclusively for the shipment of
+high-class champagnes, and the excellent growths of the Ay district
+necessarily form an important element in their carefully-composed
+_cuvées_. A considerable portion of their stock consists of reserves of
+old wine, and we tasted here a variety of samples of finely-matured
+champagnes of 1868 and '70, as well as the vintages of 1872 and '74. All
+of these wines were of superior quality, combining delicacy and
+fragrance with dryness, the latter being their especial feature. In
+addition to their business with England, Messrs. Pfungst frères ship
+largely to India and the United States.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+It is on this side of the town that the fine old Gothic church, dating
+as far back as the twelfth century, is situated. Many of the mouldings
+and the capitals of the columns both inside and outside the building are
+covered over with grape-laden vine-branches, and the sculptured figure
+of a boy bearing a basket of grapes upon his head surmounts the handsome
+Renaissance doorway, seemingly to indicate the honour in which the
+vine--the source of all the prosperity of the little town--was held both
+by the mediæval and later architects of the edifice. Nigh to the church
+stands the old house with its obliterated carved escutcheons, known
+traditionally as the Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre. This monarch loved the
+wine of the place almost as well as his favourite vintage of Arbois, and
+dubbed himself, as we have already mentioned, Seigneur of Ay, whose
+inhabitants he sought to gratify by confirming the charter which
+centuries before had been granted to the town.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Within half-an-hour's walk of Ay, in an easterly direction, is the
+village of Mareuil, a long straight street of straggling houses, bounded
+by trees and garden-plats, with vine-clad hills rising abruptly behind
+on the one side, and the Marne canal flowing placidly by on the other.
+The archaic church, a mixture of the Romanesque and Early Gothic, stands
+at the farther end of the village, and some little distance on this side
+of it is a massive-looking eighteenth-century building, spacious enough
+to accommodate a regiment of horse, but conventual rather than
+barrack-like in aspect, from the paucity of windows looking on to the
+road. A broad gateway leads into a spacious courtyard to the left of
+which stands a grand château, while on the right there rises an ornate
+round tower of three stories, from the gallery on the summit of which a
+fine view over the valley of the Marne is obtained. The buildings
+inclosing the court on three sides comprise press-houses, celliers, and
+packing-rooms, an antiquated sundial marking the hour on the blank space
+above the vines that climb beside the entrance gateway. The more ancient
+of these tenements formed the vendangeoir of the Dukes of Orleans at the
+time they owned the château of Mareuil, purchased in 1830 by the Duke de
+Montebello, son of the famous Marshal Lannes, and minister and
+ambassador of Louis Philippe and Napoleon III.
+
+The acquisition of this property, to which were attached some important
+vineyards, led, several years later, to the duke's founding, in
+conjunction with his brothers, the Marquis and General Count de
+Montebello, a champagne firm, whose brand speedily acquired a notable
+popularity. To-day the business is carried on by their sons and heirs,
+for all the original partners in the house have followed their valiant
+father to the grave. Struck down by an Austrian cannon-ball in the
+zenith of his fame, the career of Marshal Lannes, brief as it was,
+furnishes one of the most brilliant pages in French military annals.
+Joining the army of Italy as a volunteer in 1796, he was made a colonel
+on the battle-field in the gorges of Millesimo, when Augereau's bold
+advance opened Piedmont to the French. He fought at Bassano and Lodi,
+took part in the assault of Pavia and the siege of Mantua, and at
+Arcola, when Napoleon dashed flag in hand upon the bridge, Lannes was
+seriously wounded whilst shielding his general from danger. He
+afterwards distinguished himself in Egypt, and led the van of the French
+army across the Alps, displaying his accustomed bravery both at
+Montebello and Marengo. At Austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing
+of the army, he greatly contributed to the victory, and at Jena,
+Friedland, and Eylau his valour was again conspicuous. Sent to Spain,
+he defeated the Spaniards at Tudela, and took part in the operations
+against Saragossa. Wounded at the battle of Essling, when the Archduke
+Charles inflicted upon Napoleon I. the first serious repulse he had met
+with on the field of battle, the valiant Lannes expired a few days
+afterwards in the Emperor's arms.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE MONTEBELLO ESTABLISHMENT AT MAREUIL. (p. 126)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  CHÂTEAU OF MAREUIL, BELONGING TO THE DUKE OF MONTEBELLO. (p. 127.)]
+
+We were met at Mareuil, on the occasion of our visit, by Count Alfred
+Ferdinand de Montebello, the present manager of the house, and conducted
+by him over the establishment. In the press-house, to the left of the
+courtyard, were two of the ponderous presses used in the Champagne, for,
+like all other large firms, the house makes its own wine. Grapes grown
+in the Mareuil vineyards arrive here in baskets slung across the backs
+of mules, muzzled so that while awaiting their loads they may not devour
+the fruit within reach. In a cellier adjoining the press-house stands a
+large vat, capable of holding 50 pièces of wine, with a crane beside it
+for hauling up the casks when the _cuvée_ is made. Here the tirage
+likewise takes place, and in the range of buildings, roofed with glass,
+in the rear of the tower, the bottled wine is labelled, capped with
+foil, and packed in cases for transmission to Paris, England, and other
+places abroad.
+
+A double flight of steps, decorated with lamps and vases, leads to the
+handsome offices of the firm, situated on the first floor of the tower,
+while above is an apartment with a panelled ceiling, gracefully
+decorated with groups of Cupids engaged in the vintage and the various
+operations which the famous wines of the Mountain and the River undergo
+during their conversion into champagne. On the ground floor of the tower
+a low doorway conducts to the spacious cellars, which, owing to the
+proximity of the Marne, are all on the same level as well as constructed
+in masonry. The older vaults, where the Marquis de Pange, a former owner
+of the château, stored the wine which he used to sell to the champagne
+manufacturers, are somewhat low and tortuous compared with the broad and
+lofty galleries of more recent date, which have been constructed as the
+growing connection of the firm obliged them to increase their stocks.
+Spite, however, of numerous additions, portions of their reserves have
+to be stored in other cellars in Mareuil. Considerable stocks of each of
+the four qualities of wine supplied by the firm are being got ready for
+disgorgement, including Cartes Noires and Bleues, with the refined Carte
+Blanche and the delicate Crêmant, which challenge comparison with brands
+of the highest repute.
+
+In the adjacent château, the gardens of which slope down to the Marne
+canal, there are various interesting portraits, with one or two relics
+of the distinguished founder of the Montebello family, notably Marshal
+Lannes's gold-embroidered velvet saddle trappings, his portrait and that
+of Marshal Gerard, as well as one of Napoleon I., by David, with a
+handsome clock and candelabra of Egyptian design, a bust of Augustus
+Cæsar, and a portrait of the Regent d'Orléans.
+
+Another champagne house of standing at Mareuil is that of Bruch-Foucher
+and Co., whose establishment is situated near the village mairie.
+Entering by a lofty porte-cochère, we notice on the left hand a spacious
+packing-room, where men and women are expeditiously completing some
+shipping order, while beyond are the offices, looking on to a terraced
+garden whence a pleasant view is gained of the verdant valley of the
+Marne. From the packing-room a broad staircase leads to the cellars
+beneath, which can also be reached from a venerable range of buildings
+on the opposite side of the road, where young wines and old cognac
+spirit, used in the preparation of the liqueur, are stored in the wood.
+
+In one of these ancient celliers is a vast tun, capable of containing
+nearly 5,000 gallons, carved over with an elaborate device of vineleaves
+and bunches of grapes entwined around overflowing cornucopia and bottles
+of champagne. This handsome cask, in which the firm make their _cuvée_,
+is a worthy rival of the sole antique ornamental tun that still reposes
+in the Royal cellars at Wurzburg. In Messrs. Bruch-Foucher and Co.'s
+capacious cellars, faced and vaulted with stone, from eight to nine
+hundred thousand bottles of wine are stored. The cellars form a single
+story, and extend partly under the adjacent vineyard slopes, deriving
+light and ventilation from numerous shafts which are occasionally no
+less than 150 feet in height. Messrs. Bruch-Foucher and Co., who are
+owners of vineyards at Mareuil, ship three qualities of champagne, the
+finest being their Carte d'Or and their Monogram Carte Blanche. Their
+chief business is with England, Germany, and the United States, where
+their brands enjoy considerable repute.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DOORWAY OF AVIZE CHURCH.]
+
+XII.--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AVIZE AND RILLY.
+
+Avize the Centre of the White Grape District-- Its Situation and
+  Aspect-- The Establishment of Giesler and Co.-- The Tirage and the
+  Cuvée-- Vin Brut in Racks and on Tables-- The Packing-Hall, the
+  Extensive Cellars, and the Disgorging Cellier-- Bottle Stores and
+  Bottle-Washing Machines-- Messrs. Giesler's Wine-Presses at Avize
+  and Vendangeoir at Bouzy-- Their Vineyards and their Purchases of
+  Grapes-- Reputation of the Giesler Brand-- The Establishment of
+  M. Charles de Cazanove-- A Tame Young Boar-- Boar-Hunting in the
+  Champagne-- M. de Cazanove's Commodious Cellars and
+  Carefully-Selected Wines-- Vineyards Owned by Him and His Family--
+  Reputation of his Wines in Paris and their Growing Popularity in
+  England-- Interesting View from M. de Cazanove's Terraced Garden--
+  The Vintaging of the White Grapes in the Champagne-- Roper frères'
+  Establishment at Rilly-la-Montagne-- Their Cellars Penetrated by
+  Roots of Trees-- Some Samples of Fine Old Champagnes-- The Principal
+  Châlons Establishments-- Poem on Champagne by M. Amaury de Cazanove.
+
+
+Avize, situated in the heart of the Champagne white grape district, may
+be reached from Epernay by road through Pierry and Cramant or by the
+Châlons Railway to Oiry Junction, between which station and Romilly
+there runs a local line, jocularly termed the _chemin de fer de
+famille_, from the general disregard displayed by the officials for
+anything approaching to punctuality. Avize can scarcely be styled a
+town, and yet its growing proportions are beyond those of an ordinary
+village. It lies pleasantly nestled among the vines, sheltered by bold
+ridges on the north-west, with the monotonous plains of La Champagne
+pouilleuse, unsuited to the cultivation of the vine, stretching away
+eastward in the direction of Châlons. Avize cannot pretend to the same
+antiquity as its neighbour Vertus, and lacks the many picturesque
+vestiges of which the latter can boast. Its church dates back only to
+the 15th century, although the principal doorway in the Romanesque style
+evidently belongs to a much earlier epoch. There is a general air of
+trim prosperity about the place, and the villagers have that well-to-do
+appearance common to the inhabitants of the French wine districts. Only
+at vintage time, however, are there any particular outdoor signs of
+activity, although half a score of champagne firms have their
+establishments here, giving employment to the bulk of the population,
+and sending forth their two or three million bottles of the sparkling
+wine of the Marne annually.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MAKING THE CUVÉE AT MESSRS. GIESLER'S, AT AVIZE. (p.131)]
+
+Proceeding along the straight level road leading from the station to the
+village we encounter on our right hand the premises of Messrs. Giesler
+and Co., the reputation of whose brand is universal. When M. Giesler
+quitted the firm of P. A. Mumm, Giesler, and Co., at Reims, in 1838,
+he removed to Avize and founded the present extensive establishment.
+Entering through a large open gateway we find ourselves within a
+spacious courtyard with a handsome dwelling-house in the rear, and all
+the signs of a champagne business of magnitude apparent. A spiral
+staircase conducts to the counting-house on the first story of a range
+of buildings on the left hand, the ground floor of which is divided into
+celliers. Passing through a door by the side of this staircase we enter
+a large hall where the operation of bottling the wine is going on. Four
+tuns, each holding five ordinary pièces of wine, and raised upon large
+blocks of wood, are standing here, and communicating with them are
+bottling syphons of the type commonly employed in the Champagne. Messrs.
+Giesler do not usually consign the newly-bottled wine at once to the
+cellars, but retain it aboveground for about a fortnight in order that
+it may develop its effervescent qualities more perfectly. We find many
+thousands of these bottles stacked horizontally in the adjoining
+celliers, in one of which stands the great _cuvée_ tun wherein some
+fifty hogsheads of the finest Champagne growths are blended together at
+one time, two hundred hogsheads being thus mingled daily while the
+_cuvées_ are in progress. The casks of wine having been hoisted from the
+cellars to the first floor by a crane, and run on to a trough, their
+bungs are removed, and the wine flows through an aperture in the floor
+into the huge tun beneath, its amalgamation being accomplished by the
+customary fan-shaped appliances, set in motion by the turning of a
+wheel. In an adjacent room is the machine used for mixing the liqueur
+which Messrs. Giesler add so sparingly to their light and fragrant
+wines.
+
+There are a couple of floors above these celliers, the uppermost of
+which is used as a general store, while in the one beneath many
+thousands of bottles of _vin brut_ repose _sur pointe_, either in racks
+or on tables as at the Clicquot-Werlé establishment. This latter system
+requires ample space, for as the _remueur_, or workman who shakes the
+bottles, is only able to use one hand, the operation of dislodging the
+sediment necessarily occupies a much longer time than is requisite when
+the bottles rest in racks.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  PREPARING THE LIQUEUR AT MESSRS. GIESLER'S.]
+
+The buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard comprise a large
+packing-hall, celliers where the wine is finished off, and rooms where
+corks and such-like things are stored. Here, too, is the entrance to the
+cellars, of which there are three tiers, all lofty and well-ventilated
+galleries, very regular in their construction, and faced with either
+stone or brick. In these extensive vaults are casks of fine reserved
+wines for blending with youthful vintages, and bottles of _vin brut_,
+built up in solid stacks, that may be reckoned by their hundreds of
+thousands. At Messrs. Giesler's the disgorging of the wine is
+accomplished in a small cellier partially underground, and the
+temperature of which is very cool and equable. The _dégorgeurs_,
+isolated from the rest of the workpeople, are carrying on their
+operations here by candlelight. So soon as the sediment is removed the
+bottles are raised in baskets to the cellier above, where the
+liqueuring, re-corking, stringing, and wiring are successively
+accomplished. By pursuing this plan the loss sustained by the
+disgorgement is believed to be reduced to a minimum.
+
+Extensive as these premises are they are still insufficient for the
+requirements of the firm, and across the road is a spacious building
+where new bottles are stored and the washing of the bottles in
+preparation for the tirage takes place. By the aid of the machinery
+provided, sixteen women, assisted by a couple of men, commonly wash some
+fifteen or sixteen thousand bottles in the course of a day. Here, too,
+stands one of the two large presses with which at the epoch of the
+vintage a hundred pièces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty
+hours. The remaining press is installed in a cellier at the farther end
+of the garden on the other side of the road. Messrs. Giesler possess
+additional presses at their vendangeoir at Bouzy, and during the vintage
+have the command of presses at Ay, Verzenay, Vertus, Le Mesnil, &c., it
+being a rule of theirs always to press the grapes within a few hours
+after they are gathered to obviate their becoming bruised by their own
+weight and imparting a dark colour to the wine, a contingency difficult
+to guard against in seasons when the fruit is over-ripe. The firm own
+vineyards at Avize, and have agreements with vine-proprietors at Ay,
+Bouzy, Verzenay, and elsewhere, to purchase their crops regularly every
+year. Messrs. Giesler's brand has secured its existing high repute
+solely through the fine quality of the wines shipped by the house--wines
+which are known and appreciated by all real connoisseurs of champagne.
+
+From Messrs. Giesler's it is merely a short walk to the establishment of
+M. Charles de Cazanove, situated in the principal street of Avize. On
+entering the court we encountered a tame young boar engaged in the
+lively pursuit of chasing some terrified hens, while a trio of
+boarhounds, basking on the sunny flagstones, contemplated his
+proceedings with lazy indifference. Boars abound in the woods
+hereabouts, and hunting them is a favourite pastime with the residents,
+and the young boar we had noticed proved to be one of the recent
+captures of the sons of M. de Cazanove, who are among the warmest
+partisans of the exciting sport. Many of the boars found in the woods
+around Reims journey thither, it is said, by night from the famous
+forest of the Ardennes--the scene of Rosalind's wanderings and
+Touchstone's eccentricities as set forth in _As You Like It_, and whose
+gloomy depths and tangled glens shelter to-day not merely boars but
+wolves as well.
+
+In the Champagne it is no longer the fashion
+
+  "With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore,"
+
+nor to hunt the boar on horseback, as is still the case in Burgundy.
+When the presence of one or more of these animals is signalled in the
+neighbourhood, a party starts off accompanied by dogs and armed with
+double-barrelled rifles. A circle having been formed round the boar's
+lair the dogs are set to draw him out, while the _chasseurs_ keep on the
+alert so as not to allow him to escape through their circle alive. In
+this manner a few score of boars are killed every year in the woods
+round about Reims and Epernay.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINEYARDS OF AVIZE AND CRAMANT FROM THE GARDEN OF M. C. DE CAZANOVE.
+  (p. 135.)]
+
+The house of M. Charles de Cazanove was established in 1843 by its
+present proprietor on the foundation of a business which had been in
+existence since 1811. Compared with the monumental grandeur of some of
+the great Reims and Epernay establishments the premises present a simple
+and modest aspect, nevertheless they are capacious and commodious,
+besides which the growing business of the house has led to the
+acquisition of additional cellarage in other parts of Avize. More
+important than all, however, is the quality of the wine with which these
+cellars are stocked, and following the rule observed by champagne firms
+of the highest repute, it has been a leading principle with M. de
+Cazanove always to rely upon the choicer growths--those light, delicate,
+and fragrant wines of the Marne which throw out the true aroma of the
+flower of the vine. M. de Cazanove, who is distinguished for his
+knowledge of viticulture, occupies an influential position at Avize,
+being Vice-President of the Horticultural Society of the Marne, and a
+member of the committee charged with guarding the Champagne vineyards
+against the invasion of the phylloxera. His own vines include only those
+fine varieties to which the crûs of the Marne owe their great renown.
+He possesses an excellent vineyard at Grauves, near Avize, and his
+mother-in-law, Madame Poultier, of Pierry, is one of the principal
+vine-growers of the district.
+
+M. de Cazanove's wines are much appreciated in Paris, where his business
+is very extensive. His shipments to England are also considerable, but
+from the circumstance of some of his principal customers importing the
+wine under special brands of their own, the brand of the house is not so
+widely known as we should have expected.
+
+From M. de Cazanove's terraced garden in the rear of his establishment a
+fine view is obtained of one of the most famous viticultural districts
+of the Champagne, yielding wines of remarkable delicacy and exquisite
+bouquet. On the left hand rises up the mountain of Avize, its summit
+fringed with dense woods, where in winter the wild boar has his lair.
+In front stretch the long vine-clad slopes of Cramant, with orchards at
+their base, and the housetops of the village and the spire of the quaint
+old church just peeping over the brow of the hill. To the right towers
+the bold forest-crowned height of Saran with M. Moët's château perched
+half-way up its north-eastern slope, and fading away in the hazy
+distance are the monotonous plains of the Champagne.
+
+We have already explained that the wines of Avize and Cramant rank as
+_premiers crûs_ of the white grape district, and that every champagne
+manufacturer of repute mingles one or the other in his _cuvée_. The
+white grapes are usually gathered a fortnight or three weeks later than
+the black varieties, but in other respects the vintaging of them is the
+same. The grapes undergo the customary minute examination by the
+_éplucheuses_, and all unripe, damaged, and rotten berries being thrown
+aside, the fruit is conveyed with due care to the press-houses in the
+large baskets known as _paniers mannequins_. The pressing takes place
+under exactly the same conditions as the pressing of the black grapes;
+the must, too, is drawn off into hogsheads to ferment, and by the end of
+the year, when the active fermentation has terminated, the wine is
+usually clear and limpid.
+
+At Rilly-la-Montagne, on the line of railway between Reims and Epernay,
+Roper frères & Cie., late of Epernay, now have their establishment.
+Starting from the latter place we pass Ay and Avenay, and then the
+little village of Germaine in the midst of the forest, and nigh the
+summit of the mountain of Reims, with its "Rendezvous des Chasseurs" in
+immediate proximity to the station. Finally we arrive at Rilly, which,
+spite of its isolated situation, has about it that aspect of prosperity
+common to the more favourable wine districts of France. This is scarcely
+surprising when the quality of its wines is taken into consideration.
+The still red wine of Rilly has long enjoyed a high local reputation,
+and to-day the Rilly growths are much sought after for conversion into
+champagne. White wine of 1874 from black grapes fetched, we were
+informed, as much as from 600 to 700 francs the pièce, while the finer
+qualities from white grapes realised from 300 to 400 francs. Messrs.
+Roper frères & Cie. are the owners of some productive vineyards situated
+on the high road to Chigny and Ludes.
+
+The establishment of Roper frères is adjacent to a handsome modern house
+standing back from the road in a large and pleasant garden, bounded by
+vineyards on two of its sides. In the celliers all the conveniences
+pertaining to a modern champagne establishment are to be found, while
+extending beneath the garden are the extensive cellars of the firm,
+comprising two stories of long and spacious galleries excavated in the
+chalk, their walls and roofs being supported whenever necessary by
+masonry. A curious feature about these cellars is that the roots of the
+larger trees in the garden above have penetrated through the roof of the
+upper story and hang pendent overhead like innumerable stalactites. Here
+after the comparatively new wine of 1874 had been shown to us--including
+samples of the _Vin Brut_ or natural champagne of which the firm make a
+speciality at a moderate price--some choice old champagnes were brought
+forth, including the fine vintages of 1865, 1857, and 1846. The latter
+wine had of course preserved very little of its effervescence, still its
+flavour was exceedingly fine, being soft and delicate to a degree. At
+the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 and the London Exhibition of 1874 the
+collection of champagnes exhibited by Roper frères met with favourable
+recognition from the international juries.
+
+Our tour through the Champagne vineyards and wine-cellars here comes to
+an end. It is true there are important establishments at Châlons,
+notably those of Jacquesson et fils, the Perriers, Freminet et fils, and
+Jacquard frères, the cellars of the first-named being, perhaps,
+unrivalled in the Champagne. As, however, any description of these
+establishments would be little else than a recapitulation of something
+we have already said, we content ourselves with merely notifying their
+existence, and bring our Facts about Champagne to a close with the
+translation of a poem from the pen of M. Amaury de Cazanove of Avize:--
+
+CHAMPAGNE.
+
+  Less for thy grace and glory, land of ours,
+        Than for thy dolour, dear;
+        Let the grief go, and here--
+  Here's to thy skies, thy women and thy flowers!
+  France! take the toast, thy women and thy roses,
+    France! to thy wine, more wealth unto thy store!
+  And let the lips a grievous memory closes
+    Smile their proud smile once more!
+
+  Swarthy Falernian, Massica the Red,
+        Were ye the nectars poured
+        At the great gods' broad board?
+  No, poor old wines, all but in name long dead,
+  Nectar's Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
+    That bubbling o'er with laughing gas,
+    Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
+  And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
+
+  "I am the blood Burgundian sunshine makes;
+        A fine old feudal knight
+        Of bluff and boisterous might,
+  Whose casque feels--ah, so heavy when one wakes!"
+  "And I, the dainty Bordeaux, violets'
+    Perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize.
+  My subtile savour gets
+    In partridge wings its daintiest allies."
+
+  Ah, potent chiefs, Bordeaux and Burgundy.
+        If we must answer make,
+        This sober counsel take:
+  Messeigneurs, sing your worth less haughtily,
+  For 'tis Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
+    That bubbling o'er with laughing gas,
+    Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
+  And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
+
+  Aye, 'tis the true, the typic wine of France;
+    Aye, 'tis our heart that sparkles in our eyes,
+  And higher beats for every dire mischance;
+    It was the wit that made our fathers wise,
+      That made their valour gallant, gay,
+  When plumes were stirr'd by winds of waving swords,
+  And chivalry's defiance spoke the words:
+        "À vous, Messieurs les Anglais, les premiers!"
+
+  Let the dull beer-apostle till he's hoarse
+        Vent his small spleen and spite,
+        Fate fill his sleepless night
+  With nightmares of invincible remorse!
+  We sing Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
+    That bubbling o'er with laughing gas,
+    Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
+  And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  PEASANT WOMEN OF THE ENVIRONS OF SAUMUR.]
+
+XIII.--SPARKLING SAUMUR AND SPARKLING SAUTERNES.
+
+The Sparkling Wines of the Loire often palmed off as Champagnes--
+  The Finer qualities Improve with Age-- Anjou the Cradle of the
+  Plantagenet Kings-- Saumur and its Dominating Feudal Château and
+  Antique Hôtel de Ville-- Its Sinister Rue des Payens and Steep
+  Tortuous Grande Rue-- The Vineyards of the Coteau of Saumur--
+  Abandoned Stone Quarries converted into Dwellings-- The Vintage in
+  Progress-- Old-fashioned Pressoirs-- The Making of the Wine-- The
+  Vouvray Vineyards-- Balzac's Picture of La Vallée Coquette-- The
+  Village of Vouvray and the Château of Moncontour-- Vernou with its
+  Reminiscences of Sully and Pépin-le-Bref-- The Vineyards around
+  Saumur-- Remarkable Ancient Dolmens-- Ackerman-Laurance's
+  Establishment at Saint-Florent-- Their Extensive Cellars, Ancient
+  and Modern-- Treatment of the Newly-Vintaged Wine-- The Cuvée--
+  Proportions of Wine from Black and White Grapes-- The Bottling and
+  Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing Operations-- The Château of
+  Varrains and the Establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné-- His Cellars
+  a succession of Gloomy Galleries-- The Disgorging of the Wine
+  accomplished in a Melodramatic-looking Cave-- M. Duvau's Vineyard--
+  His Sparkling Saumur of Various Ages-- Marked Superiority of the
+  more Matured Samples-- M. Alfred Rousteaux's Establishments at
+  Saint-Florent and Saint-Cyr-- His convenient Celliers and extensive
+  Cellars-- Mingling of Wine from the Champagne with the finer
+  Sparkling Saumur-- His Vineyard at La Perrière-- M. E. Normandin's
+  Sparkling Sauternes Manufactory at Châteauneuf-- Angoulême and its
+  Ancient Fortifications-- Vin de Colombar-- M. Normandin's Sparkling
+  Sauternes Cuvée-- His Cellars near Châteauneuf-- High recognition
+  accorded to the Wine at the Concours Régional d'Angoulême.
+
+
+After the Champagne Anjou is the French province which ranks next in
+importance for its production of sparkling wines. Vintaged on the banks
+of the Loire, these are largely consigned to the English and other
+markets, labelled Crême de Bouzy, Sillery and Ay Mousseux, Cartes Noires
+and Blanches, and the like, while their corks are branded with the names
+of phantom firms, supposed to be located at Reims and Epernay. As a rule
+these wines come from around Saumur, but they are not necessarily the
+worse on that account, for the district produces capital sparkling
+wines, the finer qualities of which improve greatly by being kept for a
+few years. One curious thing shown to us at Saumur was the album of a
+manufacturer of sparkling wines containing examples of the many hundred
+labels ticketed with which his produce had for years past been sold. Not
+one of these labels assigned to the wines the name of their real maker
+or their true birthplace, but introduced them under the auspices of
+mythical dukes and counts, as being manufactured at châteaux which are
+so many "castles in Spain," and as coming from Ay, Bouzy, Châlons,
+Epernay, Reims, and Verzenay, but never by any chance from Saumur.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE VINEYARDS OF THE COTEAU DE SAUMUR. (p. 141)]
+
+Being produced from robuster growths than the sparkling wines of the
+Department of the Marne, sparkling saumur will always lack that
+excessive lightness which is the crowning grace of fine champagne, still
+it has only to be kept for a few years instead of being drunk shortly
+after its arrival from the wine-merchant for its quality to become
+greatly improved and its intrinsic value to be considerably enhanced. We
+have drunk sparkling saumur that had been in bottle for nearly twenty
+years, and found the wine not only remarkably delicate, but, singular to
+say, with plenty of effervescence.
+
+To an Englishman Anjou is one of the most interesting of the ancient
+provinces of France. It was the cradle of the Plantagenet Kings, and
+only ten miles from Saumur still repose the bones of Henry, the first
+Plantagenet, and Richard of the Lion Heart, in the so-called Cimetière
+des Rois of the historic abbey of Fontevrault. The famous vineyards of
+the Coteau de Saumur, eastward of the town and bordering the Loire,
+extend as far as here, and include the communes of Dampierre, Souzay,
+Varrains, Chacé, Parnay, Turquant, and Montsoreau, the last-named within
+three miles of Fontevrault, and chiefly remarkable through its seigneur
+of ill-fame, Jean de Chambes, who instigated his wife to lure Boissy
+d'Amboise to an assignation in order that he might more surely poignard
+him. Saumur is picturesquely placed at the foot of this bold range of
+heights near where the little river Thouet runs into the broad and rapid
+Loire. A massive-looking old château perched on the summit of an
+isolated crag stands out grandly against the clear sky and dominates the
+town, the older houses of which crouch at the foot of the lofty hill and
+climb its steepest sides. The restored antique Hôtel de Ville, in the
+pointed style, with its elegant windows, graceful belfry, and florid
+wrought-iron balconies, stands back from the quay bordering the Loire.
+In the rear is the Rue des Payens, whither the last of the Huguenots of
+this "metropolis of Protestantism," as it was formerly styled, retired,
+converting their houses into so many fortresses to guard against being
+surprised by their Catholic adversaries. Adjacent is the steep tortuous
+Grande Rue, of which Balzac--himself a Tourangeau--has given such a
+graphic picture in his _Eugénie Grandet_, the scene of which is laid at
+Saumur. To-day, however, only a few of its ancient carved timber houses,
+quaint overhanging corner turrets, and fantastically-studded massive oak
+doors have escaped demolition.
+
+The vineyards of the Coteau de Saumur, yielding the finest wines, are
+reached by the road skirting the river, the opposite low banks of which
+are fringed with willows and endless rows of poplars, which at the time
+of our visit were already golden with the fading tints of autumn.
+Numerous fantastic windmills crown the heights, the summit of which is
+covered with vines, varied by dense patches of woodland. Here, as
+elsewhere along the banks of the Loire, the many abandoned quarries
+along the face of the hill have been turned by the peasants into cosy
+dwellings by simply walling-up the entrances while leaving, of course,
+the necessary apertures for doors and windows. Dampierre, the first
+village reached, has many of these cave-dwellings, and numbers of its
+houses are picturesquely perched up the sides of the slope. The holiday
+costumes of the peasant women encountered in the neighbourhood of Saumur
+are exceedingly quaint, their elaborate and varied head-dresses being
+counterparts of _coiffures_ in vogue so far back as three and four
+centuries ago.
+
+Quitting the banks of the river, we ascend a steep tortuous road shut in
+on either side by high stone walls--for hereabouts all the best
+vineyards are scrupulously inclosed--and finally reach the summit of the
+heights, whence a view is gained over what the Saumurois proudly style
+the grand valley of the Loire. Everywhere around the vintage is going
+on. The vines are planted rather more than a yard apart, and those
+yielding black grapes are trained, as a rule, up tall stakes, although
+some few are trained espalier fashion. Women dexterously detach the
+bunches with pruning-knives and throw them into the _seilles_--small
+squat buckets with wooden handles--the contents of which are emptied
+from time to time into baskets--the counterpart of the chiffonnier's
+_hotte_, and coated with pitch inside so as to close all the crevices of
+the wickerwork--which the _portes-bastes_ carry slung to their backs.
+When white wine is being made from black grapes for sparkling saumur the
+grapes are conveyed in these baskets forthwith to the underground
+pressoirs in the neighbouring villages before their skins get at all
+broken in order that the wine may be as pale as possible in colour.
+
+The black grape yielding the best wine in the Saumur district is the
+breton, said to be the same as the carbinet-sauvignon, the leading
+variety in the grand vineyards of the Médoc. Other species of black
+grapes cultivated around Saumur are the varennes, yielding a soft and
+insipid wine of no kind of value, and the liverdun, or large gamay, the
+prevalent grape in the Mâconnais, and the same which in the days of
+Philippe-le-Hardi the _parlements_ of Metz and Dijon interdicted the
+planting and cultivation of. The prevalent white grapes are the large
+and small pineau blanc, the bunches of the former being of an
+intermediate size, broad and pyramidal in shape, and with the berries
+close together. These have fine skins, are oblong in shape, and of a
+transparent yellowish-green hue tinged with red, are very sweet and
+juicy, and as a rule ripen late. As for the small pineau, the bunches
+are less compact, the berries are round and of a golden tint, are finer
+as well as sweeter in flavour, and ripen somewhat earlier than the fruit
+of the larger variety.
+
+We noticed as we drove through the villages of Champigny and
+Varrains--the former celebrated for its fine red wines, and more
+especially its crû of the Clos des Cordeliers--that hardly any of the
+houses had windows looking on to the narrow street, but that all were
+provided with low openings for shooting the grapes into the cellar
+where, when making red wine, they are trodden, but when making white
+wine, whether from black or white grapes, they are invariably pressed.
+Each of the houses had its ponderous porte-cochère and low narrow portal
+leading into the large inclosed yard at its side, and over the high
+blank walls vines were frequently trained and pleasantly varied their
+dull grey monotony.
+
+The grapes on being shot into the openings just mentioned fall through a
+kind of tunnel into a reservoir adjacent to the heavy press, which is
+invariably of wood and of the old-fashioned cumbersome type. They are
+forthwith placed beneath the press and usually subjected to five
+separate squeezes, the must from the first three being reserved for
+sparkling wine, while that from the two latter, owing to its being more
+or less deeply tinted, only serves for table wine. The must is at once
+run off into casks in order that it may not ferment on the grape-skins
+and imbibe any portion of their colouring matter. Active fermentation
+speedily sets in and lasts for a fortnight or three weeks according to
+whether the temperature chances to be high or low.
+
+The vintaging of the white grapes takes place about a fortnight later
+than the black grapes, and is commonly a compound operation, the best
+and ripest bunches being first of all gathered just as the berries begin
+to get shrivelled and show symptoms of approaching rottenness. It is
+these selected grapes that yield the best wine. The second gathering,
+which follows shortly after the first, includes all the grapes remaining
+on the vines, and yields a wine perceptibly inferior in quality. The
+grapes on their arrival at the press-house are generally pressed
+immediately and the must is run off into tuns to ferment. At the
+commencement these tuns are filled up every three or four days to
+replace the fermenting must which has flowed over; afterwards any waste
+is made good at the interval of a week, and then once a fortnight, the
+bungholes of the casks being securely closed towards the end of the
+year, by which time the first fermentation is over.
+
+It should be noted that the Saumur sparkling wine manufacturers draw
+considerable supplies of the white wine required to impart lightness and
+effervescence to their _vin préparé_ from the Vouvray vineyards. Vouvray
+borders the Loire a few miles from the pleasant city of Tours, which
+awakens sinister recollections of truculent Louis XI., shut up in his
+fortified castle of Plessis-lez-Tours, around which Scott has thrown the
+halo of his genius in his novel of _Quentin Durward_. On proceeding to
+Vouvray from Tours we skirt a succession of poplar-fringed meadows
+stretching eastward in the direction of Amboise along the right bank of
+the Loire; and after a time a curve in the river discloses to view a
+range of vine-clad heights extending some distance beyond the village of
+Vouvray. Our route lies past the picturesque ruins of the abbey of
+Marmoûtier and the Château des Roches--one of the most celebrated
+castles of the Loire--the numerous excavations in the soft limestone
+ridge on which they are perched being converted as usual into houses,
+magazines, and wine-cellars. We proceed through the village of
+Rochecorbon, and along a road winding among the spurs of the Vouvray
+range, past hamlets, half of whose inhabitants live in these primitive
+dwellings hollowed out of the cliff, and finally enter the charming
+Vallée Coquette, hemmed in on all sides with vine-clad slopes. Here a
+picturesque old house, half château half homestead, was pointed out to
+us as a favourite place of sojourn of Balzac, who speaks of this rocky
+ridge as "inhabited by a population of vine-dressers, their houses of
+several stories being hollowed out in the face of the cliff, and
+connected by dangerous staircases hewn in the soft stone. Smoke curls
+from most of the chimneys which peep above the green crest of vines,
+while the blows of the cooper's hammer resound in several of the
+cellars. A young girl trips to her garden over the roofs of these
+primitive dwellings, and an old woman, tranquilly seated on a ledge of
+projecting rock, supported solely by the thick straggling roots of the
+ivy which spreads itself over the disjointed stones, leisurely turns her
+spinning-wheel regardless of her dangerous position." The picture
+sketched by the author of _La Comédie Humaine_, some forty years ago,
+has scarcely changed at the present day.
+
+At the point where the village of Vouvray climbs half-way up the
+vine-crested ridge the rapid-winding Cise throws itself into the Loire,
+and on crossing the bridge that spans the tributary stream we discern on
+the western horizon, far beyond the verdant islets studding the swollen
+Loire, the tall campaniles of Tours Cathedral, which seem to rise out of
+the water like a couple of Venetian towers. Vouvray is a trim little
+place, clustered round about with numerous pleasant villas in the midst
+of charming gardens. The modern château of Moncontour here dominates the
+slope, and its terraced gardens, with, their fantastically-clipped trees
+and geometric parterres, rise tier above tier up the face of the
+picturesque height that overlooks the broad fertile valley, with its
+gardens, cultivated fields, patches of woodland, and wide stretches of
+green pasture which, fringed with willows and poplars, border the
+swollen waters of the Loire. Where the river Brenne empties itself into
+the Cise the Coteau de Vouvray slopes off towards the north, and there
+rise up the vine-clad heights of Vernou, yielding a similar but inferior
+wine to that of Vouvray. The village of Vernou is nestled under the
+hill, and near the porch of its quaint little church a venerable elm
+tree is pointed out as having been planted by Sully, Henry IV.'s able
+Minister. Here, too, an ancient wall, pierced with curious arched
+windows, and forming part of a modern building, is regarded by popular
+tradition as belonging to the palace in which Pépin-le-Bref, father of
+Charlemagne, lived at Vernou.
+
+The communes of Dampierre, Souzay, and Parnay, in the neighbourhood of
+Saumur, produce still red wines rivalling those of Champigny, besides
+which all the finest white wines are vintaged hereabouts--in the
+Perrière, the Poilleux, and the Clos Morain vineyards, and in the
+Rotissans vineyard at Turquant. Wines of very fair quality are also
+grown on the more favourable slopes extending southwards along the
+valley of the Thouet, and comprised in the communes of Varrains, Chacé,
+St. Cyr-en-Bourg, and Brézé. The whole of this district, by the way,
+abounds with interesting archæological remains. While visiting the
+vineyards of Varrains and Chacé we came upon a couple of
+dolmens--vestiges of the ancient Celtic population of the valley of the
+Loire singularly abundant hereabouts. Brézé, the marquisate of which
+formerly belonged to Louis XVI.'s famous grand master of the
+ceremonies--immortalized by the rebuff he received from Mirabeau--boasts
+a noble château on the site of an ancient fortress, in connection with
+which there are contemporary excavations in the neighbouring limestone,
+designed for a garrison of 500 or 600 men. Beyond the vineyards of
+Saint-Florent, westward of Saumur and on the banks of the Thouet, is an
+extensive plateau partially overgrown with vines, where may be traced
+the remains of a Roman camp. Moreover, in the southern environs of
+Saumur, in the midst of vineyards producing exclusively white wines,
+is one of the most remarkable dolmens known. This imposing structure,
+perfect in all respects save that one of the four enormous stones which
+roof it in has been split in two, and requires to be supported, is no
+less than 65 feet in length, 23 feet in width, and 10 feet high.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  DOLMEN AT BAGNEUX, NEAR SAUMUR.]
+
+At Saint-Florent, the pleasant little suburb of Saumur, skirting the
+river Thouet, and sheltered by steep hills formed of soft limestone,
+offering great facilities for the excavation of extensive cellars, the
+largest manufacturer of Saumur sparkling wines has his establishment.
+Externally this offers but little to strike the eye. A couple of
+pleasant country houses, half hidden by spreading foliage, stand at the
+two extremities of a spacious and well-kept garden, beyond which one
+catches a glimpse of some outbuildings sheltered by the vine-crowned
+cliff, in which a labyrinth of gloomy galleries has been hollowed out.
+Here M. Ackerman-Laurance, the extent of whose business ranks him as
+second among the sparkling wine manufacturers of the world, stores
+something like 10,000 casks and several million bottles of wine.
+
+At the commencement of the present century, in the days when, as Balzac
+relates in his _Eugénie Grandet_, the Belgians bought up entire vintages
+of Saumur wine, then largely in demand with them for sacramental
+purposes, the founder of the Saint-Florent house commenced to deal in
+the ordinary still wines of the district. Nearly half a century ago he
+was led to attempt the manufacture of sparkling wines, but his efforts
+to bring them into notice failed, and he was on the point of abandoning
+his enterprise when an order for one hundred cases revived his hopes,
+and led to the foundation of the present vast establishment. As already
+mentioned, for many miles all the heights along the Loire have been more
+or less excavated for stone for building purposes, so that every one
+hereabouts who grows wine or deals in it has any amount of cellar
+accommodation ready to hand. It was the vast extent of the galleries
+which M. Ackerman _père_ discovered already excavated at Saint-Florent
+that induced him to settle there in preference to Saumur. Extensive,
+however, as the original vaults were, considerable additional
+excavations have from time to time been found necessary; and to-day the
+firm is still further increasing the area of its cellars, which already
+comprise three principal avenues, each the third of a mile long, and no
+fewer than sixty transverse galleries, the total length of which is
+several miles. One great advantage is that the whole are on the ordinary
+level.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLARS OF M. ACKERMAN-LAURANCE AT SAINT-FLORENT.
+  LABELLING AND PACKING SPARKLING SAUMUR. (p. 150.)]
+
+Ranged against the black uneven walls of the more tortuous ancient
+vaults which give access to these labyrinthine corridors are thousands
+of casks of wine--some in single rows, others in triple tiers--forming
+the reserve stock of the establishment. As may be supposed, a powerful
+vinous odour permeates these vaults, in which the fumes of wine have
+been accumulating for the best part of a century. After passing beneath
+a massive stone arch which separates the old cellars from the new,
+a series of broad and regularly-proportioned galleries are reached,
+having bottles stacked in their tens of thousands on either side.
+Overhead the roof is perforated at regular intervals with circular
+shafts, affording both light and ventilation, and enabling the
+temperature to be regulated to a nicety. In these lateral and transverse
+galleries millions of bottles of wine in various stages of preparation
+are stacked.
+
+We have explained that in the Champagne it is the custom for the
+manufacturers of sparkling wine to purchase considerable quantities of
+grapes from the surrounding growers, and to press these themselves, or
+have them pressed under their own superintendence. At Saumur only those
+firms possessing vineyards make their own _vin brut_, the bulk of the
+wine used for conversion into sparkling wine being purchased from the
+neighbouring growers. On the newly-expressed must arriving at
+M. Ackerman-Laurance's cellars it is allowed to rest until the
+commencement of the ensuing year, when half of it is mixed with wine in
+stock belonging to last year's vintage, and the remaining half is
+reserved for mingling with the must of the ensuing vintage. The blending
+is accomplished in a couple of colossal vats hewn out of the rock, and
+coated on the inside with cement. Each of these vats is provided with
+200 paddles for thoroughly mixing the wine, and with five pipes for
+drawing it off when the amalgamation is complete. Usually the _cuvée_
+will embrace 1,600 hogsheads, or 80,000 gallons of wine, almost
+sufficient for half a million bottles. A fourth of this quantity can be
+mixed in each vat at a single operation, and this mixing is repeated
+again and again until the last gallon run off is of precisely the same
+type as the first. For the finer qualities of sparkling saumur the
+proportion of wine from the black grapes to that from white is generally
+at the rate of three or four to one. For the inferior qualities more
+wine from white than from black grapes is invariably used. Only in the
+wine from white grapes is the effervescent principle retained to any
+particular extent; but, on the other hand, the wine from black grapes
+imparts both quality and vinous character to the blend.
+
+The blending having been satisfactorily accomplished, the wine is stored
+in casks, never perfectly filled, yet with their bungholes tightly
+closed, and slowly continues its fermentation, eating up its sugar,
+purging itself, and letting fall its lees. Three months later it is
+fined. It is rarely kept in the wood for more than a year, though
+sometimes the superior qualities remain for a couple of years in cask.
+Occasionally it is even bottled in the spring following the vintage;
+still, as a rule, the bottling of sparkling saumur takes place during
+the ensuing summer months, when the temperature is at the highest as
+this insures to it a greater degree of effervescence. At the time of
+bottling its saccharine strength is raised to a given degree by the
+addition of the finest sugar-candy, and henceforward the wine is
+subjected to precisely the same treatment as is pursued with regard to
+champagne.
+
+It is in a broad but sombre gallery of the more ancient vaults--the
+roughly-hewn walls of which are black from the combined action of
+alcohol and carbonic acid gas--that the processes of disgorging the wine
+of its sediment, adding the syrup, filling up the bottles with wine to
+replace that which gushes out when the disgorging operation is
+performed, together with the re-corking, stringing, and wiring of the
+bottles, are carried on. The one or two adjacent shafts impart very
+little light, but a couple of resplendent metal reflectors, which at a
+distance one might fancy to be some dragon's flaming eyes, combined with
+the lamps placed near the people at work, effectually illuminate the
+spot.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE CELLARS OF M. LOUIS DUVAU AÎNÉ AT THE CHÂTEAU OF VARRAINS.]
+
+Another considerable manufacturer of sparkling saumur is M. Louis Duvau
+aîné, owner of the château of Varrains, in the village of the same name,
+at no great distance from the Coteau de Saumur. His cellars adjoin the
+château, a picturesque but somewhat neglected structure of the last
+century, with sculptured medallions in high relief above the lower
+windows, and florid vases surmounting the mansards in the roof. In front
+is a large rambling court shaded with acacia and lime trees, and
+surrounded by outbuildings, prominent among which is a picturesque
+dovecote, massive at the base as a martello tower, and having an elegant
+open stone lantern springing from its bell-shaped roof. The cellars are
+entered down a steep incline under a low stone arch, the masonry above
+which is overgrown with ivy in large clusters and straggling creeping
+plants. We soon come upon a deep recess to the right, wherein stands a
+unique cumbersome screw-press, needing ten or a dozen men to work the
+unwieldy capstan which sets the juice flowing from the crushed grapes
+into the adjacent shallow trough. On our left hand are a couple of
+ancient reservoirs, formed out of huge blocks of stone, with the
+entrance to a long vaulted cellar filled with wine in cask. We advance
+slowly in the uncertain light along a succession of gloomy galleries
+with moisture oozing from their blackened walls and roofs, picking our
+way between bottles of wine stacked in huge square piles and rows of
+casks ranged in tiers. Suddenly a broad flood of light shooting down a
+lofty shaft throws a Rembrandtish effect across a spacious and most
+melodramatic-looking cave, roughly hewn out of the rock, and towards
+which seven dimly-lighted galleries converge. On all sides a scene of
+bustling animation presents itself. From one gallery men keep arriving
+with baskets of wine ready for the disgorger; while along another
+bottles of wine duly dosed with syrup are being borne off to be
+decorated with metal foil and their distinctive labels. Groups of
+workmen are busily engaged disgorging, dosing, and re-corking the
+newly-arrived bottles of wine; corks fly out with a succession of loud
+reports suggestive of the irregular fire of a party of skirmishers;
+a fizzing, spurting, and spluttering of the wine next ensues, and is
+followed by the incessant clicking of the various apparatus employed in
+the corking and wiring of the bottles.
+
+Gradual inclines conduct to the two lower tiers of galleries, for the
+cellars of M. Duvau consist of as many as three stories. Down below
+there is naturally less light, and the temperature, too, is sensibly
+colder. Advantage is taken of this latter circumstance to remove the
+newly-bottled wine to these lower vaults whenever an excessive
+development of carbonic acid threatens the bursting of an undue
+proportion of bottles, a casualty which among the Saumur sparkling wine
+manufacturers ranges far higher than with the manufacturers of
+champagne. For the economy of time and labour a lift, raised and lowered
+by means of a capstan worked by horses, is employed to transfer the
+bottles of wine from one tier of cellars to another.
+
+The demand for sparkling saumur is evidently on the increase, for
+M. Duvau, at the time of our visit, was excavating extensive additional
+cellarage. The subsoil at Varrains being largely composed of marl, which
+is much softer than the tufa of the Saint-Florent coteau, necessitated
+the roofs of the new galleries being worked in a particular form in
+order to avoid having recourse to either brickwork or masonry. Tons of
+this excavated marl were being spread over the soil of M. Duvau's
+vineyard in the rear of the château, greatly, it was said, to the
+benefit of the vines, whose grapes were all of the black variety;
+indeed, scarcely any wine is vintaged from white grapes in the commune
+of Varrains.
+
+At M. Duvau's we went through a complete scale of sparkling saumurs,
+commencing with the younger and less matured samples, and ascending step
+by step to wines a dozen and more years old. Every year seemed to
+produce an improvement in the wine, the older varieties gaining greatly
+in delicacy and softening very perceptibly in flavour.
+
+Another sparkling saumur manufacturer of note is M. Alfred Rousteaux,
+to-day the sole proprietor of the well-known brand of Morlet and
+Rousteaux, a firm established for many years at Saint-Florent.
+M. Rousteaux's cellars here are excavated in the tufa cliff which rises
+behind the little suburban village, and are all on one level. The
+galleries, though somewhat winding and irregular, are broad and roomy,
+and in them about 400,000 bottles of wine undergoing the necessary
+treatment are piled up in stacks or placed _sur pointe_. The original
+firm had only been in existence a few years when they found that their
+Saint-Florent establishment was inadequate to the requirements of a
+largely-increasing business, and they started the branch establishment
+of La Perrière at Saint-Cyr, near Tours, but on the opposite bank of the
+Loire. Here are a handsome residence and gardens, a spacious court, and
+convenient celliers where the bottling of the wine is effected, together
+with extensive and well-constructed cellars in which a like quantity of
+wine to that contained in the cellars at Saint-Florent is stored. With
+his finer sparkling wines M. Rousteaux mixes a certain proportion of
+wine from the Champagne district, and thus secures a degree of lightness
+unattainable when the _cuvée_ is exclusively composed of Saumur
+vintages. At La Perrière M. Rousteaux has a vineyard of upwards of sixty
+acres, yielding the best wine of the district, which is noted, by the
+way, for its excellent growths. Hereabouts a succession of vineyard
+slopes stretch from one to another of the many historic châteaux along
+this portion of the Loire, the romantic associations of which render the
+Touraine one of the most interesting provinces of France. Near Tours
+besides the vineyards of Saint-Cyr are those of Joué and Saint-Avertin;
+the two last situate on the opposite bank of the Cher, where the little
+town of Joué, perched on the summit of a hill in the midst of vineyards,
+looks over a vast plain known by the country people as the Landes de
+Charlemagne, the scene, according to local tradition, of Charles
+Martel's great victory over the Saracens. The Saint-Avertin vineyards
+extend towards the east, stretching almost to the forest of Larçay, on
+the borders of the Cher, where Paul Louis Courier, the famous vigneron
+pamphleteer of the Restoration, noted alike for his raillery, wit, and
+satire, fell beneath the balls of an assassin. A noticeable crû in the
+neighbourhood of Tours is that of Cinq Mars, the ruined château of which
+survives as a memorial of the vengeance of Cardinal Richelieu, who,
+after having sent its owner to the scaffold, commanded its massive walls
+and towers to be razed "_à hauteur d'infamie_" as we see them now.
+
+Finding that sparkling wines were being made in most of the
+wine-producing districts of France, where the growths were sufficiently
+light and of the requisite quality, Messrs. E. Normandin and Co.
+conceived the idea of laying the famous Bordeaux district under
+contribution for a similar purpose, and, aided by a staff of experienced
+workmen from Epernay, they have succeeded in producing a sparkling
+sauternes. Sauternes, as is well known, is one of the finest of white
+wines, soft, delicate, and of beautiful flavour, and its transformation
+into a sparkling wine has been very successfully accomplished. Messrs.
+Normandin's head-quarters are in the thriving little town of
+Châteauneuf, in the pleasant valley of the Charente, and within fifteen
+miles of Angoulême, a famous old French town, encompassed by ancient
+ramparts and crumbling corner towers, and which, dominated by the lofty
+belfry of its restored semi-Byzantine cathedral, rising in a series of
+open arcades, spreads itself picturesquely out along a precipitous
+height, watered at its base by the rivers Anguienne and Charente.
+Between Angoulême and Châteauneuf vineyard plots dotted over with walnut
+trees, or simple rows of vines divided by strips of ripening maize, and
+broken up at intervals by bright green pastures, line both banks of the
+river Charente. The surrounding country is undulating and picturesque.
+Poplars and elms fringe the roadsides, divide the larger fields and
+vineyards, and screen the cosy-looking red-roofed farmhouses, which
+present to the eyes of the passing tourist a succession of pictures of
+quiet rural prosperity.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Châteauneuf communicates with the Sauternes district by rail, so that
+supplies of wine from there are readily obtainable. Vin de
+Colombar--a famous white growth which English and Dutch cruisers used to
+ascend the Charente to obtain cargoes of when the Jerez wines were shut
+out from England by the Spanish War of Succession--vintaged principally
+at Montignac-le-Coq, also enters largely into Messrs. Normandin and
+Co.'s sparkling sauternes _cuvée_. This colombar grape is simply the
+semillon--one of the leading varieties of the Sauternes
+district--transported to the Charente. The remarkably cool cellars where
+the firm store their wine, whether in wood or bottle, have been formed
+from some vast subterranean galleries whence centuries ago stone was
+quarried, and which are situated about a quarter of an hour's drive from
+Châteauneuf, in the midst of vineyards and cornfields. The wine is
+invariably bottled in a cellier at the head establishment, but it is in
+these cellars where it goes through the course of careful treatment
+similar to that pursued with regard to champagne.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+In order that the delicate flavour of the wine may be preserved the
+liqueur is prepared with the finest old sauternes, without any addition
+of spirit, and the dose is administered with the most improved modern
+appliance, constructed of silver, and provided with crystal taps. At the
+Concours Régional d'Angoulême of 1877, the jury, after recording that
+they had satisfied themselves by the aid of a chemical analysis that the
+samples of sparkling sauternes submitted to their judgment were free
+from any foreign ingredient, awarded to Messrs. Normandin and Co. the
+only gold medal given in the Group of Alimentary Products.
+
+Encouraged, no doubt, by the success obtained by Messrs. Normandin and
+Co. with their sparkling sauternes, the house of Lermat-Robert and Co.,
+of Bordeaux, have recently introduced a sparkling barsac, samples of
+which were submitted to the jury at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINTAGER OF THE CÔTE D'OR]
+
+XIV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF BURGUNDY AND THE JURA.
+
+Sparkling Wines of the Côte d'Or at the Paris Exhibition--
+  Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot-- Burgundy Wines and Vines formerly
+  the Presents of Princes-- Vintaging Sparkling Burgundies-- Their
+  After-Treatment in the Cellars-- Excess of Breakage-- Similarity of
+  Proceeding to that followed in the Champagne-- Principal
+  Manufacturers of Sparkling Burgundies-- Sparkling Wines of Tonnerre,
+  the birthplace of the Chevalier d'Eon-- The Vin d'Arbanne of
+  Bar-sur-Aube-- Death there of the Bastard de Bourbon-- Madame de la
+  Motte's Ostentatious Display and Arrest there-- Sparkling Wines of
+  the Beaujolais-- The Mont-Brouilly Vineyards-- Ancient Reputation of
+  the Wines of the Jura-- The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri
+  Quatre-- Rhymes by him in its Honour-- Lons-le-Saulnier-- Vineyards
+  yielding the Sparkling Jura Wines-- Their Vintaging and Subsequent
+  Treatment-- Their High Alcoholic Strength and General Drawbacks.
+
+
+Sparkling wines are made to a considerable extent in Burgundy, notably
+at Beaune, Nuits, and Dijon, and though as a rule heavier and more
+potent than the subtile and delicate-flavoured wines of the Marne, still
+some of the higher qualities, both of the red and white varieties,
+exhibit a degree of refinement which those familiar only with the
+commoner kinds can scarcely form an idea of. At the Paris Exhibition of
+1878 we tasted, among a large collection of the sparkling wines of the
+Côte d'Or, samples of Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot of the highest
+order. Although red wines, they had the merit of being deficient in that
+body which forms such an objectionable feature in sparkling wines of a
+deep shade of colour. M. Regnier, the exhibitor of sparkling red
+vougeot, sent, moreover, a white sparkling wine from the species of
+grape known locally as the clos blanc de Vougeot. These wines, as well
+as the Chambertin, came from the Côte de Nuits, the growths of which are
+generally considered of too vigorous a type for successful conversion
+into sparkling wine, preference being usually given to the produce of
+the Côte de Beaune. Among the sparkling burgundies from the last-named
+district were samples from Savigny, Chassagne, and Meursault, all famous
+for their fine white wines.
+
+Burgundy ranks as one of the oldest viticultural regions of Central
+Europe, and for centuries its wines have been held in the highest
+renown. In the Middle Ages both the wines and vines of this favoured
+province passed as presents from one royal personage to another, just as
+grand _cordons_ are exchanged between them now-a-days. The fabrication
+of sparkling wine, however, dates no further back than some sixty years
+or so. The system of procedure is much the same as in the Champagne,
+and, as there, the wine is mainly the produce of the pineau noir and
+pineau blanc varieties of grape. At the vintage, in order to avoid
+bruising the ripened fruit and to guard against premature fermentation,
+the grapes are conveyed to the pressoirs in baskets instead of the large
+oval vats termed _balonges_, common to the district. They are placed
+beneath the press as soon as possible, and for superior sparkling wines
+only the juice resulting from the first pressure and known as the _mère
+goutte_, or mother drop, is employed. For the ordinary wines that
+expressed at the second squeezing of the fruit is mingled with the
+other. The must is at once run off into casks which have been previously
+sulphured to check, in a measure, the ardour of the first fermentation
+and lighten the colour of the newly-made wine. Towards the end of
+October, when this first fermentation is over, the wine is removed to
+the cellars, or to some other cool place, and in December it is racked
+into other casks. In the April following it is again racked to insure
+its being perfectly clear at the epoch of bottling in the month of May.
+The sulphuring of the original casks having had the effect of slightly
+checking the fermentation and retaining a certain amount of saccharine
+in the wine, it is only on exceptional occasions that the latter is
+artificially sweetened previous to being bottled.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+A fortnight after the tirage the wine commonly attains the stage known
+as _grand mousseux_, and by the end of September the breakage will have
+amounted to between 5 and 8 per cent., which necessitates the taking
+down the stacks of bottles and piling them up anew. The wine as a rule
+remains in the cellars for fully a couple of years from the time of
+bottling until it is shipped. Posing the bottles _sur pointe_, agitating
+them daily, together with the disgorging and liqueuring of the wine, is
+accomplished precisely as in the Champagne.
+
+Among the principal manufacturers of sparkling burgundies are Messrs.
+André and Voillot, of Beaune, whose sparkling white Romanée, Nuits, and
+Volnay are well and favourably known in England; M. Louis Latour, also
+of Beaune, and equally noted for his sparkling red Volnay, Nuits, and
+Chambertin, as for his sparkling white varieties; Messrs. Maire et fils,
+likewise of Beaune; M. Labouré-Goutard and Messrs. Geisweiller et fils,
+of Nuits; Messrs. Marey and Liger-Belair, of Nuits and Vôsne; and
+M. Regnier, of Dijon.
+
+In the department of the Yonne--that is, in Lower Burgundy--sparkling
+wines somewhat alcoholic in character have been made for the last
+half-century at Tonnerre, where the Chevalier d'Eon, that enigma of his
+epoch, was born. The Tonnerre vineyards are of high antiquity, and for
+sparkling wines the produce of the black and white pineau and the white
+morillon varieties of grape is had recourse to. The vintaging is
+accomplished with great care, and only the juice which flows from the
+first pressure is employed. This is run off immediately into casks which
+are hermetically closed when the fermentation has subsided. The
+after-treatment of the wine is the same as in the Champagne. Sparkling
+wines are likewise made at Epineuil, a village in the neighbourhood of
+Tonnerre, and at Chablis, so famous for its white wines, about ten miles
+distant.
+
+An effervescing wine known as the Vin d'Arbanne is made at Bar-sur-Aube,
+some fifty miles north-east of Tonnerre, on the borders of Burgundy, but
+actually in the province of Champagne, although far beyond the limits to
+which the famed viticultural district extends. It was at Bar-sur-Aube
+where the Bastard de Bourbon, chief of the sanguinary gang of
+_écorcheurs_ (flayers), was sewn up in a sack and flung over the parapet
+of the old stone bridge into the river beneath by order of Charles VII.;
+and here, too, Madame de la Motte, of Diamond Necklace notoriety, was
+married, and in after years made a parade of the ill-gotten wealth she
+had acquired by successfully fooling that infatuated libertine the
+Cardinal Prince de Rohan, until her ostentatious display was cut short
+by her arrest. This Vin d'Arbanne is produced from pineaux and white
+gamay grapes, which, after being gathered with care at the moment the
+dew falls, are forthwith pressed. The wine is left on its lees until the
+following February, when it is racked and fined, the bottling taking
+place when the moon is at the full in March.
+
+Red and white sparkling wines are made to a small extent at Saint-Lager,
+in the Beaujolais, from wine vintaged in the Mont-Brouilly vineyards,
+one of the best known of the Beaujolais crûs. Mont-Brouilly is a lofty
+hill near the village of Cercie, and is covered from base to summit on
+all its sides with vines of the gamay species, rarely trained at all,
+but left to trail along the ground at their own sweet will. At the
+vintage, as we witnessed it, men and women--young, middle-aged, and
+old--accompanied by troops of children, were roaming all over the slopes
+dexterously nipping off the bunches of grapes with their thumb and
+finger nails and flinging them into the little wooden tubs with which
+they were provided. The pressing of the grapes and the after-treatment
+of the wine destined to become sparkling are the same in the Beaujolais
+as in Upper and Lower Burgundy.
+
+The red, straw, and yellow wines of the Jura have long had a high
+reputation in the East of France, and the _vin jaune_ of Arbois, an
+ancient fortified town on the banks of the Cuisance, besieged and sacked
+in turn by Charles of Amboise, Henri IV., and Louis XIV., was one of the
+favourite beverages of the tippling Béarnais who styled himself Seigneur
+of Ay and Gonesse, and who acquired his liking for it while sojourning
+during the siege of Arbois at the old Château des Arsures. In one of
+Henri Quatre's letters to his minister Sully we find him observing,
+"I send you two bottles of Vin d'Arbois, for I know you do not detest
+it." A couple of other bottles of the same wine are said to have
+cemented the king's reconciliation with Mayenne, the leader of the
+League, and the lover of La Belle Gabrielle is moreover credited with
+having composed at his mistress's table some doggrel rhymes in honour of
+the famous Jura crû:--
+
+  "Come, little page, serve us aright,
+    The crown is often heavy to bear;
+  So fill up my goblet large and light
+    Whenever you find a vacancy there.
+  This wine is surely no Christian wight,
+    And yet you never complaint will hear
+    That it's not baptised with water clear.
+        Down my throat I pour
+        The old Arbois;
+  And now, my lords, let us our voices raise,
+  And sing of Silenus and Bacchus the praise!"
+
+In more modern times the Jura, not content with the fame of the historic
+yellow wines of Arbois and the deservedly-esteemed straw wines of
+Château-Châlon, has produced large quantities of sparkling wine, the
+original manufacture of which commenced as far back as a century ago.
+To-day the principal seats of the manufacture are at Arbois and
+Lons-le-Saulnier, the latter town the capital of the department and one
+of the most ancient towns of France. Originally founded by the Gauls on
+the banks of the Vallière, in a little valley bordered by lofty hills,
+which are to-day covered with vines, it was girded round with
+fortifications by the Romans. Subsequently the Huns and the Vandals
+pillaged it; then the French and the Burgundians repeatedly contested
+its possession, and it was only definitively acquired by France during
+the reign of Louis XIV. Rouget de l'Isle, the famous author of the
+"Marseillaise," was born at Lons-le-Saulnier, and here also Marshal Ney
+assembled and harangued his troops before marching to join Napoleon,
+whom he had promised Louis XVIII. to bring back to Paris in an iron
+cage.
+
+The vineyards whence the principal supplies for these sparkling wines
+are derived are grouped at varying distances around Lons-le-Saulnier at
+L'Etoile, Quintigny, Salins, Arbois, St. Laurent-la-Roche, and Pupillin,
+with the Jura chain of mountains rising up grandly on the east. The best
+vineyards at L'Etoile--which lies some couple of miles from
+Lons-le-Saulnier, surrounded by hills, planted from base to summit with
+vines--are La Vigne Blanche, Montmorin, and Montgenest. At Quintigny,
+the wines of which are less potent than those of Arbois, and only retain
+their effervescent properties for a couple of years, the Paridis,
+Prémelan, and Montmorin vineyards are held in most repute, while at
+Pupillin, where a soft agreeable wine is vintaged, the principal
+vineyards are the Faille and the Clos. The vine cultivated for the
+production of sparkling wines are chiefly the savagnin, or white pineau,
+the melon of Poligny, and the poulsard, a black variety of grape held
+locally in much esteem.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+At the vintage, which commences towards the end of October and lasts
+until the middle of the following month, all the rotten or unripe grapes
+are carefully set aside and the sound ones only submitted to the action
+of a screw-press. After the must has flowed for about half-an-hour the
+grapes are newly collected under the press and the screw again applied.
+The produce of this double operation is poured into a vat termed a
+_sapine_, where it remains until bubbles are seen escaping through the
+_chapeau_ that forms on the surface of the liquid. The must is then
+drawn off--sometimes after being fined--into casks, which the majority
+of wine-growers previously impregnate with the fumes of sulphur. When in
+cask the wine is treated in one of two ways; either the casks are kept
+constantly filled to the bunghole, causing the foam which rises to the
+surface during the fermentation to flow over, and thereby leave the wine
+comparatively clear, or else the casks are not completely filled, in
+which case the wine requires to be racked several times before it is in
+a condition for fining. This latter operation is effected about the
+commencement of February, and a second fining follows if the first one
+fails to render the wine perfectly clear. At the tirage, which
+invariably takes place in April, the Jura wines rarely require any
+addition of sugar to insure an ample effervescence. After bottling they
+are treated in exactly the same manner as the vintages of the Marne are
+treated by the great champagne manufacturers. In addition to white
+sparkling wine a pink variety, with natural effervescent properties, is
+made by mixing with the savagnin and melon grapes a certain proportion
+of the poulsard species, from which the best red wines of the Jura are
+produced.
+
+One of the principal sparkling wine establishments at Lons-le-Saulnier
+is that of M. Auguste Devaux, founded in the year 1860. He manufactures
+both sweet and dry wines, which are sold largely in France and elsewhere
+on the Continent, and have lately been introduced into England. Their
+alcoholic strength is equivalent to from 25° to 26° of proof spirit,
+being largely above the dry sparkling wines of the Champagne, which the
+Jura manufacturers regard as a positive advantage rather than an obvious
+drawback. M. Devaux's principal brand is the Fleur de l'Etoile, of
+which, he has white, pink, and amber-coloured varieties, quoted by him
+at merely three francs the bottle for the grand years.
+
+Besides being too spirituous, the sparkling wines of the Jura are
+deficient in refinement and delicacy. The commoner kinds, indeed,
+frequently have a pronounced unpleasant flavour, due to the nature of
+the soil, to careless vinification, or to the inferior quality of
+liqueur with which the wines have been dosed. Out of some fifty samples
+of all ages and varieties which in my capacity of juror I tasted at the
+Paris Exhibition I cannot call to mind one that a real connoisseur of
+sparkling wines would care to admit to his table.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  CONVEYING GRAPES TO THE PRESS AT SAINT-PÉRAY.]
+
+XV.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
+
+Sparkling Wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and Languedoc--
+  Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the South-- Valence with its
+  Reminiscences of Pius VI. and Napoleon I.-- The "Horns of Crussol"
+  on the Banks of the Rhône-- Vintage Scene at Saint-Péray-- The Vines
+  and Vineyards Producing Sparkling Wine-- Manipulation of Sparkling
+  Saint-Péray-- Its Abundance of Natural Sugar-- The Cellars of M. de
+  Saint-Prix and Samples of his Wines-- Sparkling Côte-Rotie,
+  Château-Grille, and Hermitage-- Annual Production and Principal
+  Markets of Sparkling Saint-Péray-- Clairette de Die-- The Porte
+  Rouge of Die Cathedral-- How the Die Wine is Made-- The Sparkling
+  White and Rose-Coloured Muscatels of Die-- Sparkling Wines of
+  Vercheny and Lagrasse-- Barnave and the Royal Flight to Varennes--
+  Narbonne formerly a Miniature Rome, now Noted merely for its Wine
+  and Honey-- Fête of the Black Virgin at Limoux-- Preference given to
+  the New Wine over the Miraculous Water-- Blanquette of Limoux and
+  How it is Made-- Characteristics of this Overrated Wine.
+
+
+Sparkling wines are made after a fashion in several of the southern
+provinces of France--in Auvergne, at Clermont-Ferrand, under the shadow
+of the lofty Puy de Dôme; in Guienne, at Astaffort, the scene of a
+bloody engagement during the Wars of Religion in which the Protestant
+army was cut to pieces when about to cross the Garonne; at Nérac, where
+frail Marguerite de Valois kept her dissolute Court, and Catherine de
+Médicis brought her flying squadron of fascinating maids of honour to
+gain over the Huguenot leaders to the Catholic cause; and at Cahors, the
+Divina, or divine fountain of the Celts, and the birthplace of Pope John
+XXII., of Clement Marot, the early French poet, and of Léon Gambetta; in
+Dauphiné, at Die, Saint-Chef, Saint-Péray, and Largentière, so named
+after some abandoned silver mines, and where the vines are cultivated
+against low walls rising in a series of terraces from the base to the
+summit of the lofty hills; and in Languedoc, at Brioude, where St.
+Vincent, the patron saint of the vinedressers, suffered martyrdom, and
+where it is the practice to expose the must of the future sparkling wine
+for several nights to the dew in order to rid it of its reddish colour;
+also at Linardie, and, more southward still, at Limoux, whence comes the
+well-known effervescing Blanquette.
+
+Principal among the foregoing is the excellent wine of Saint-Péray,
+commonly characterised as the champagne of the South of France. The
+Saint-Péray vineyards border the Rhône some ten miles below the
+Hermitage coteau--the vines of which are to-day well-nigh destroyed by
+the phylloxera--but are on the opposite bank of the river. Our visit to
+Saint-Péray was made from Valence, in which dull southern city we had
+loitered in order to glance at the vast Hôtel du Gouvernement--where
+octogenarian Pius VI., after being spirited away a prisoner from Rome
+and hurried over the Alps in a litter by order of the French Directory,
+drew his last breath while silently gazing across the rushing river at
+the view he so much admired--and to discover the house in the Grande
+Rue, numbered 4, in an attic of which history records that Napoleon I.,
+when a sub-lieutenant of artillery in garrison at Valence, resided, and
+which he quitted owing three and a-half francs to his pastrycook.
+
+We crossed the Rhône over one of its hundred flimsy suspension bridges,
+on the majority of which a notice warns you neither to smoke nor run,
+and were soon skirting the base of a lofty, bare, precipitous rock, with
+the "horns of Crussol," as the peasants term two tall pointed gables of
+a ruined feudal château, perched at the dizzy edge, and having a
+perpendicular fall of some five or six hundred feet below. The château,
+which formerly belonged to the Dukes of Uzès, recognised by virtue of
+the extent of their domains as _premiers pairs de France_, was not
+originally erected in close proximity to any such formidable precipice.
+The crag on which it stands had, it seems, been blasted from time to
+time for the sake of the stone, until on one unlucky occasion when too
+heavy a charge of powder was employed, the entire side of the rock,
+together with a considerable portion of the château itself, were sent
+flying into the air. The authorities, professing to regard what remained
+of the edifice as an historical monument of the Middle Ages, hereupon
+stepped in and prohibited the quarry being worked for the future.
+
+Passing beneath the cliff, one wound round to the left and dived into a
+picturesque wooded dell at the entrance to a mountain pass, then crossed
+the rocky bed of a dried-up stream and drove along an avenue of
+mulberry-trees, which in a few minutes conducted us to Saint-Péray,
+where one found the vintage in full operation. Carts laden with tubs
+filled with white and purple grapes, around which wasps without number
+swarmed, were arriving from all points of the environs and crowding the
+narrow streets. Any quantity of grapes were seemingly to be had for the
+asking, for all the pretty girls in the place were gorging themselves
+with the luscious-looking fruit. In the coopers' yards bran-new casks
+were ranged in rows in readiness for the newly-made wine, and through
+open doorways, and in all manner of dim recesses, one caught sight of
+sturdy men energetically trampling the gushing grapes under their bare
+feet, and of huge creaking wine-presses reeking with the purple juice.
+It was chiefly common red wine, of an excellent flavour, however, that
+was being made in these nooks and corners, the sparkling white wine,
+known as Saint-Péray, being manufactured in larger establishments, and
+on more scientific principles. It is from a white species of grape known
+as the petite and grosse rousette--the same which yields the white
+Hermitage--that the champagne of the south is produced, and the
+vineyards where they are cultivated occupy all the more favourable
+slopes immediately outside the village, the most noted being the
+Coteau-Gaillard, Solignaes, Thioulet, and Hungary.
+
+Although there is a close similarity between the manufacture of
+champagne and the effervescing wine of Saint-Péray, there are still one
+or two noteworthy variations. For a wine to be sparkling it is requisite
+that it should ferment in the bottle, a result obtained by bottling it
+while it contains a certain undeveloped proportion of alcohol and
+carbonic acid, represented by so much sugar, of which they are the
+component parts. This ingredient has frequently to be added to the
+Champagne wines to render them sparkling, but the wine of Saint-Péray in
+its natural state contains so much sugar that any addition would be
+deleterious. This excess of saccharine enables the manufacturer to
+dispense with some of the operations necessary to the fabrication of
+champagne, which, after fermenting in the cask, requires a second
+fermentation to be provoked in the bottle, whereas the Saint-Péray wine
+ferments only once, being bottled immediately it comes from the
+wine-press.
+
+The deposit in the wine after being impelled towards the neck of the
+bottle is got rid of by following the same system as is pursued in the
+Champagne, but no liqueur whatever is subsequently added to the wine. On
+the other hand, it is a common practice to reduce the over-sweetness of
+sparkling Saint-Péray in years when the grapes are more than usually
+ripe by mixing with it some old dry white wine.
+
+At Saint-Péray we visited the cellars of M. de Saint-Prix, one of the
+principal wine-growers of the district. The samples of effervescing wine
+which he produced for us to taste were of a pale golden colour, of a
+slightly nutty flavour, and with a decided suggestion of the spirituous
+essence known to be concentrated in the wine, one glass of which will go
+quite as far towards elevating a person as three glasses of champagne.
+Keeping the wine for a few years is said materially to improve its
+quality, to the sacrifice, however, of its effervescent properties.
+M. de Saint-Prix informed us that he manufactured every year a certain
+quantity of sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage. The
+principal markets for the Saint-Péray sparkling wines--the production of
+which falls considerably short of a million bottles per annum--are
+England, Germany, Russia, Holland, and Belgium.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The other side of the Rhône is fruitful in minor sparkling wines, chief
+amongst which is the so-called Clairette de Die, made at the town of
+that name, a place of some splendour, as existing antiquities show, in
+the days of the Roman dominion in Gaul. Later on, Die was the scene of
+constant struggles for supremacy between its counts and bishops, one of
+the latter having been massacred by the populace in front of the
+cathedral doorway--ever since known by the sinister appellation of the
+Porte Rouge--and Catholics and Huguenots alike devastated the town in
+the troublesome times of the Reform. Clairette de Die is made
+principally from the blanquette or malvoisie variety of grape, which,
+after the stalks have been removed, is both trodden with the feet and
+pressed. The must is run off immediately into casks, and four-and-twenty
+hours later it is racked into other casks, a similar operation being
+performed every two or three days for the period of a couple of months,
+when the fermentation having subsided the wine is fined and usually
+bottled in the following March. Newly-made Clairette de Die is a sweet
+sparkling wine, but it loses its natural effervescence after a couple of
+years, unless it has been treated in the same manner as champagne, which
+is rarely the case. The wine enjoys a reputation altogether beyond its
+merits.
+
+In addition to the well-known Clairette, some of the wine-growers of Die
+make sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of superior quality,
+which retain their effervescent properties for several years.
+A sparkling wine is also made some ten miles from Die, on the road to
+Saillans, in a district bounded on the one side by the waters of the
+Drôme, and on the other by strange mountains with helmet-shaped crests.
+The centre of production is a locality called Vercheny, composed of
+several hamlets, one of which, named Le Temple, was the original home of
+the family of Barnave. The impressionable young deputy to the National
+Assembly formed one of the trio sent to bring back the French royal
+family from Varennes after their flight from Paris. It will be
+remembered how, under the influence of Marie Antoinette and Madame
+Elizabeth, Barnave became transformed during the journey into a faithful
+partisan of their unhappy cause, and that he eventually paid the penalty
+of his devotion with his life.
+
+In the extreme south of France, and almost under the shadow of the
+Pyrenees, a sparkling wine of some repute is made at a place called
+Lagrasse, about five-and-twenty miles westward of Narbonne, the
+once-famous Mediterranean city, the maritime rival of Marseilles, and in
+its palmy days, prior to the Christian era, a miniature Rome, with its
+capitol, its curia, its decemvirs, its consuls, its prætors, its
+questors, its censors, and its ediles, and which boasted of being the
+birthplace of three Roman Emperors. To-day Narbonne has to content
+itself with the humble renown derived from its delicious honey and its
+characterless full-bodied red wines. Limoux, so celebrated for its
+Blanquette, lies a long way farther to the west, behind the Corbières
+range of mountains that join on to the Pyrenees, and the jagged peaks,
+deep barren gorges, and scarred sides of which have been witness of many
+a desperate struggle during the century and a half when they formed the
+boundary between France and Spain.
+
+We arrived at Limoux just too late for the famous fête of the Black
+Virgin, which lasts three weeks, and attracts crowds of southern
+pilgrims to the chapel of Our Lady of Marseilles, perched on a little
+hill some short distance from the town, with a fountain half-way up it,
+whose water issues drop by drop, and has the credit of possessing
+unheard-of virtues. The majority of pilgrims, however, exhibit a decided
+preference for the new-made wine over the miraculous water, and for
+one-and-twenty days something like a carnival of inebriety prevails at
+Limoux.
+
+Blanquette de Limoux derives its name from the species of grape it is
+produced from, and which we believe to be identical with the malvoisie,
+or malmsey. Its long-shaped berries grow in huge bunches, and dry
+readily on the stalks. The fruit is gathered as tenderly as possible,
+care being taken that it shall not be in the slightest degree bruised,
+after which it is spread out upon a floor to admit of the sugar it
+contains becoming perfect. The bad grapes having been carefully picked
+out, and the pips extracted from the remaining fruit, the latter is now
+trodden, when the must, after being filtered through a strainer, is
+placed in casks, where it remains fermenting for about a week, during
+which time any overflow is daily replenished by other must reserved for
+the purpose. The wine is again clarified and placed in fresh casks with
+the bungholes only lightly closed until all sensible fermentation has
+ceased, when they are securely fastened up. The bottling takes place in
+the month of March, and the wine is subsequently treated much after the
+same fashion as sparkling Saint-Péray, excepting that it is generally
+found necessary to repeat the operation of _dégorgement_ three, if not
+as many as four times.
+
+Blanquette de Limoux is a pale white wine, the saccharine properties of
+which have become completely transformed into carbonic acid gas and
+alcohol. It is, consequently, both dry and spirituous, deficient in
+delicacy, and altogether proves a great disappointment. At its best it
+may, perhaps, rank with sparkling Saint-Péray, but unquestionably not
+with any average champagne.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+XVI.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY.
+
+Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle-- Sparkling German Wines First
+  Made on the Neckar-- Heilbronn, and Gotz von Berlichingen of the
+  Iron Hand-- Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn their
+  attention to Sparkling Wines-- Change of late years in the Character
+  of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- Difference between them and
+  Moussirender Rheinwein-- Vintaging of Black and White Grapes for
+  Sparkling Wine-- The Treatment which German Sparkling Wines
+  Undergo-- Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
+  Moselles-- Fine Natural Bouquet of High Class Sparkling Hocks--
+  Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines during
+  the Franco-German War-- Annual Production-- Deinhard and Co.'s
+  Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz-- The Firm's Collection of Choice
+  Rhine and Moselle Wines-- Their Trade in German Sparkling Wines--
+  Their Sources of Supply-- The Vintaging and After-Treatment of their
+  Wines-- Characteristics of their Sparkling Hocks and Moselles.
+
+
+The reader is by this time aware that sparkling wines are not indebted
+for their effervescent properties to any particular variety of vine or
+quality of soil, although some species of grapes yield a wine possessing
+a higher degree of effervescence than others. Any wine, in fact, can be
+rendered sparkling, although only wines of a certain lightness of body
+and which are at the same time delicate and clean to the taste--being
+devoid of anything approaching to a _goût de terroir_--are really suited
+to the purpose. Given a wine containing sufficient saccharine, either
+natural or applied, and duly regulate its temperature, and it is easy
+enough to render it sparkling. The Germans discovered this long ago when
+they first transformed the acidulous wines of the Rhine into what we
+term sparkling hocks.
+
+The rise of this industry dates from the epoch of the final downfall of
+Napoleon I., when the officers of the armies of occupation acquired more
+than a passing liking for the exhilarating products of Clicquot and
+Moët, carrying it, in fact, home with them, and so disseminating a taste
+for the sparkling wines of France throughout the North of Europe. In
+Germany the wealthy few only were able to indulge in it, and the
+consumption was for a long time exceedingly limited. When, however,
+after many years of peace, riches began to accumulate, some shrewd men
+set themselves to ascertain whether the German wines could not be
+rendered sparkling like the French. This was satisfactorily and speedily
+settled in the affirmative; but the great difficulty was to find the
+requisite capital for the large preliminary investment necessary to the
+establishment of a manufactory of sparkling wine on even a moderate
+scale, and from which no return could be counted on for the first three
+years. Eventually this was overcome; but the new wines, being in the
+first instance altogether different in character from champagne, found
+but little favour in the country of their production. It was different,
+however, in England, where they speedily succeeded in establishing
+themselves under the designations of sparkling hock and sparkling
+moselle, and from this time forward they have retained their position in
+the English market.
+
+It is generally asserted that sparkling wines were first manufactured in
+Germany more than half a century ago from the inferior Neckar grape both
+at Esslingen and Heilbronn--the latter rendered memorable by the
+exploits of Götz von Berlichingen, whose iron hand distributed blows
+which effectually "cured headache, toothache, and every other human
+malady." Subsequently, towards 1830, a former _chef de cave_ at Madame
+Clicquot's establishment at Reims came to Herr Lauteren, of Mayence, and
+suggested to him to engage in the manufacture of sparkling Rhine wines,
+a proposal which the latter soon afterwards profited by; and eight years
+later Herr Rambs, of Trèves, vineyard proprietor and wine-merchant,
+aided by a French cellarman, made the earliest attempt to manufacture
+sparkling moselles, their first trials in this direction resulting in a
+breakage amounting to fifty per cent.
+
+For some years the great anxiety of manufacturers of sparkling hocks was
+to render their wines as much as possible like champagne, which was only
+to be accomplished by disguising their true flavour and dosing them
+largely with syrup. In this form they satisfied, and indeed still
+satisfy, their German and Russian consumers; but of late years England
+has set the example of a decided preference for the drier kinds of
+sparkling wines, the result being that the character of the wines
+destined for the English market has undergone a complete change.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE AHR VALLEY.]
+
+Next to its sweetness the principal difference between German champagne,
+or Moussirender Rheinwein as it is usually called, for Continental
+consumption, and sparkling hocks designed for the English and other
+markets, consists in the former being made principally from black
+grapes, pressed immediately they are gathered and not allowed to ferment
+in their skins, while the latter are made almost exclusively from white
+grapes. The vineyards yielding the black grapes used for these sparkling
+wines are mainly situated at Ingelheim, midway between Bingen and
+Mayence, and in the Ahr valley, between Coblenz and Cologne. At the
+black grape vintage, which precedes the gathering of the white varieties
+by some three or four weeks, the fruit is conveyed to the press in high
+tubs, carried on men's backs, and holding about 40lbs. apiece. The old
+wooden presses are mostly employed, although of late small transportable
+presses with iron screws, and of French manufacture, are coming into
+use. In order that the wine may be pale in colour, the grapes, which,
+like those of the Champagne, are of the pineau variety, are pressed as
+soon as possible after the gathering; the pressure applied is, moreover,
+rapid and not too strong, and the must is separated forthwith from the
+skins and stalks. On the other hand, the white grapes used in the making
+of German sparkling wine, and which are almost exclusively of the
+far-famed riesling species, are treated precisely as when making still
+Rhine wine--that is, they are crushed in the vineyards by means of
+grape-mills, and afterwards pressed in the usual way. The must for
+sparkling wines, whether from black or white grapes, is run at once into
+casks to ferment. If possible it is conveyed in large casks known as
+stucks--immediately after the pressing, and before fermentation
+begins--to the manufacturer's cellars in town; but if this cannot be
+accomplished it remains in the cellars of the district until the first
+fermentation is over, which is in December or January. It is then racked
+off its lees, and the produce of black and white grapes is blended
+together, only a small proportion of the former entering into the
+composition of true sparkling hock, which should retain in a marked
+degree the subtile and fragrant perfume of the riesling grape.
+
+The process pursued in the manufacture of sparkling hocks is the same as
+that followed with regard to champagnes. The quantity of grape sugar
+generated in these Northern German latitudes being far from large, both
+hocks and moselles invariably need a small addition of saccharine,
+previous to their being put into bottle, to insure the requisite
+effervescence, whereas in the Champagne the practice of adding sugar
+with this object is not the uniform rule. After the wine is bottled it
+remains in a cool cellar for eighteen months or a couple of years, being
+constantly shaken during this period, in the same way as champagne, in
+order to force the sediment to deposit itself near to the cork. By this
+time the added as well as the natural sugar contained in the wine has
+become converted into alcohol and carbonic acid; and after the sediment
+has been expelled from the bottle the operation of dosing, or
+flavouring, the wine takes place.
+
+Sparkling hocks intended both for the German and Russian markets are
+frequently almost cloying in their sweetness, as much as one-fifth of
+syrup being often added to four-fifths of wine. The sparkling moselles,
+too, for Russia, and not unfrequently for England also, are largely
+dosed with the preparation of elder-flowers, which imparts to them their
+well-known muscatel flavour and perfume. The manufacturers say they are
+doing their best to abandon this absurd practice of artificially
+perfuming sparkling moselles; but many of their customers, and
+especially those in the English provinces, stipulate for the scented
+varieties, possibly from an erroneous belief in their superiority.
+Effervescing Rhine wines of the highest class have a marked and refined
+flavour, together with a very decided natural bouquet. Moreover, they
+retain their effervescent properties for a considerable time after being
+uncorked, and appear to the taste as light, if not precisely as
+delicate, as the finer champagnes, although in reality such is not the
+case; for all sparkling hocks possess greater body than even the
+heaviest champagnes, and cannot, therefore, be drunk with equal freedom.
+
+Great impetus was given to the manufacture of German sparkling wines
+during the war of 1870, when the Champagne was in a measure closed to
+the outside world. At this epoch the less scrupulous manufacturers,
+instigated by dishonest speculators, boldly forged both the brands on
+the corks and the labels on the bottles of the great Reims and Epernay
+firms, and sent forth sparkling wines of their own production to the
+four quarters of the globe as veritable champagnes of the highest class.
+The respectable houses acted more honestly, and, as it turned out, with
+better policy, for by maintaining their own labels and brands they
+extended the market for their produce, causing German sparkling wines to
+be introduced under their true names into places where they had never
+penetrated before, the result being a considerable increase in the
+annual demand, even after the stores of the champagne manufacturers were
+again open to all the world.
+
+Owing to this increased demand, and the deficient supply of suitable
+Rhine wines at a moderate price, the manufacturers of sparkling hocks
+are reduced to buy much of their raw wine at a distance, and are to-day
+large purchasers of the growths of the Palatinate, which are less
+delicate than the vintages of the Rheingau, besides being deficient in
+that fine aroma which distinguishes genuine hock. A leading manufacturer
+computes that between four-and-a-half and five million bottles of
+sparkling wine are made annually in Germany, where there are no fewer
+than fifty manufacturing establishments. The principal market is Great
+Britain, which consumes some two millions of bottles annually; a million
+bottles are drunk at home; while the remainder is divided among the
+North of Europe, the United States, India, Australia, China, and Japan.
+The cheapness of these wines is, no doubt, largely in their favour.
+
+At Coblenz, the capital of Rhenish Prussia, and one of the strongest
+fortresses in the world, the so-called blue Moselle mingles its waters
+with those of the Rhine, and hence the original Roman name of
+Confluentia. With so favourable a situation it is not surprising that
+the city should be the abode of several important firms trading in the
+wines of the two rivers. At the head of these is the well-known house of
+Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent still
+vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-class sparkling
+wines of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius Wegeler,
+I was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the Wine Jury of
+the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over their
+establishment on the Clemens Platz--one of the most perfect and
+admirably appointed in Germany. The firm was founded in 1798 by Herr
+F. Deinhard, who in 1806, when Coblenz was in the hands of the French,
+secured a ninety-nine years' lease of some cellars under an old convent
+at the low rental of 30 francs per annum, and to-day this curious
+document exists amongst the archives of the firm. Rents of wine-cellars
+were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril, when commerce
+was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the course of
+warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 francs a year of
+course no very extensive entrepôt could have been rented. To-day Messrs.
+Deinhard's new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area of
+nearly 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other vaults
+stored with wine in various quarters of the city, the whole giving
+employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers. Their
+Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of 1875,
+when it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress Augusta, who
+left behind her the following graceful memento of her visit:--
+
+  "In grateful attachment to Coblenz, in full appreciation of a work
+  which does honour to the town and to the firm, I wish continued
+  prosperity to both.
+
+      AUGUSTA,
+
+    "German Empress and Queen of Prussia."
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. DEINHARD & CO.'S NEW ESTABLISHMENT AT COBLENZ. (p. 178)]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. DEINHARD & CO.'S NEW CELLARS AT COBLENZ. (p. 179.)]
+
+The proximity of the establishment to the Rhine did not allow of the
+cellars being excavated to a greater depth than 30 feet below the
+surface--a mere trifle when compared with the depth of many vaults in
+the Champagne. Any lower excavation, however, would have been attended
+with danger, and as it is, when the Rhine rose to an unusual height in
+March, 1876, the water percolated through the soil and inundated the
+lower cellars to a height of 5 feet. Above these vaults is a
+corresponding range of buildings of picturesque design and substantial
+construction, divided like the cellars into three aisles, each 210 feet
+in length and 23 feet broad. One of the arches of the façade looking on
+to the courtyard is decorated with a graceful and characteristic
+bas-relief, an engraving of which is subjoined.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The cellars, containing 1,400 stucks, as they are termed, of still
+wines--the stuck being equal to 1,500 bottles--present a striking
+appearance with their long vistas of vaulted arcades, admirably built of
+brick, and illuminated by innumerable gas jets, aided by powerful
+reflectors at the extremities of the three aisles. The capacious
+elliptical-headed casks, ranged side by side in uninterrupted sequence,
+contain the choicest German vintages, including the grand wines of the
+Rheingau--Johannisberger, Steinberger, Rudesheimer, Rauenthaler, and the
+like; the red growths of Assmannshausen and Walporzheim; Deidesheimers,
+with rare bouquets and of tender tonical flavour; Liebfrauenmilch, of
+flowery perfume; the finest Moselles from Josefshof and Scharzhofberg,
+Brauneberg and Berncastel, with other growths too numerous to mention,
+of grand years, and from the best situations.
+
+The sparkling wines stored in separate vaults form to-day an important
+item in Messrs. Deinhard's business. In 1843 the firm made their first
+cuvée, consisting of less than 10,000 bottles. Four years later their
+cuvée amounted to over 50,000 bottles. A falling off was shown during
+the revolutionary epoch, and business only recovered its normal
+condition in 1851, since which time it has gradually increased as the
+wines have grown in favour, until in 1875 the tirage of 1874 vintage
+wines exceeded half a million bottles.
+
+Messrs. Deinhard draw their supplies of wine from white grapes, for
+conversion into sparkling wines, from the Rhine, the Main, the Moselle,
+and the Palatinate, giving preference to the produce of the riesling
+grape, as to this the wine is indebted for its natural bouquet. The
+proportion of wine from black grapes, mingled with the other wines, is
+vintaged by themselves in the Ahr valley and at Ingelheim on the Rhine.
+The Ahr, in summer a rippling streamlet and in winter a rushing torrent,
+falls into the Rhine about twenty miles below Coblenz. The soil of the
+neighbouring hills seems peculiarly adapted for the growth of black
+grapes, one of the best of German red wines being produced in the
+vineyards adjacent to the village of Walporzheim. In order that the wine
+may be as pale as possible, the black grapes are pressed as soon after
+gathering as they can be, and only the juice resulting from the first
+pressure is reserved, the subsequently extracted must being sold to the
+small growers of the neighbourhood. The newly-made wine is brought in
+casks to Coblenz, and rests for eight weeks while completing its
+fermentation. It is then racked into stucks and double stucks, and is
+blended in casks of the latter capacity during the early part of the
+following year, great care being taken to preserve the bouquet of the
+white grapes, with which view, contrary to the practice followed in the
+Champagne, only a moderate proportion of wine from black grapes enters
+into the blend.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINEYARDS IN THE AHR VALLEY.]
+
+Next comes the fining, and four weeks afterwards the wine is newly
+racked. The bottling takes place during May or June, when any deficiency
+of natural saccharine in the wine is supplied by the addition of pure
+sugar-candy. At Messrs. Deinhard's the wine is bottled at a temperature
+of 72° Fahr., and the bottles remain resting on large stone tables until
+the fermentation is completed, and the saccharine is converted into
+alcohol and carbonic acid gas. This result is commonly obtained in
+ordinary hot weather in eight days' time, most of the breakage taking
+place during this interval. If on being tested with a manometer the wine
+should indicate too high a pressure, it is at once removed to a cool
+cellar, consequently the average total breakage rarely exceeds 2¼ per
+cent. The wine is now left quiet for at least a year, and if possible
+for two years, after which the bottles are placed on stands in the
+customary inverted position, and shaken daily for a period of six weeks,
+in order to dislodge the sediment and force it against the cork. German
+workmen are far less expert at this operation than their fellows in the
+Champagne, as few of the former can manage more than their
+four-and-twenty thousand bottles per diem. The disgorgement and
+liqueuring of the wine is accomplished at Messrs. Deinhard's and other
+German establishments in precisely the same fashion as is followed in
+the Champagne.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  ON THE BRIDGE AT RECH, AHR VALLEY.]
+
+The dry sparkling hocks we tasted here had the real riesling flavour and
+the fine natural perfume common to this grape. In preparing them no
+attempt had been made to imitate champagne; but, on the other hand,
+every care had been taken to preserve the true hock character with its
+distinguishing freshness of taste combined with a lightness which wines
+containing liqueur in excess could never have exhibited. The sparkling
+moselles, too, depended not on any imparted muscatel flavour and
+perfume, but on their own natural bouquet and the flavour they derive
+from the schistous soil in which these wines are grown.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  LIEBENSTEIN AND STERRENBERG.]
+
+XVII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY (_continued_).
+
+From Coblenz to Rüdesheim-- Ewald and Co.'s Establishment and its
+  Pleasant Situation-- Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and Convenient
+  Accessories-- Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the most favoured
+  Localities-- The Celebrated Vineyards of the Rheingau-- Eltville and
+  the extensive Establishment of Matheus Müller-- His Vast Stocks of
+  Still and Sparkling German Wines-- The Vineyards laid under
+  contribution for the latter-- M. Müller's Sparkling Johannisberger,
+  Champagne, and Red Sparkling Assmannshauser-- The Site of
+  Gutenberg's Birthplace at Mayence occupied by the Offices and
+  Wine-cellars of Lauteren Sohn-- The Sparkling Wine Establishment of
+  the Firm, and their Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles-- The
+  Hochheim Sparkling Wine Association-- Foundation of the
+  Establishment-- Its Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- The
+  Sparkling Wine Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the
+  Nahe Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of
+  M. Oppmann at Wurzburg-- The Historic Cellars of the King of Bavaria
+  beneath the Residenz-- The Establishment of F. A. Siligmüller.
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  STOLZENFELS.]
+
+Ascending the Rhine from Coblenz--past many an ancient ruined castle,
+past restored Stolzenfels, the historic Königs-stuhl, the romantic
+Liebenstein and Sterrenberg, the legendary Lurlei, the tribute-exacting
+Pfalz, and the old town of Bacharach, famous in the Middle Ages for its
+wine mart--we eventually come to Lorch, where the Wisper brook flows
+into the Rhine, and the grand wine-producing district known as the
+Rheingau begins. A few miles higher up are the vineyards of
+Assmannshausen, dominated by the Niederwald, and yielding the finest red
+wine in all Germany. Then passing by Bishop Hatto's legendary tower we
+emerge from the gorge of the Rhine and soon reach Rüdesheim, crouched at
+the foot of lofty terraced vineyards, which, according to doubtful
+tradition, were planted with Burgundy and Orleans vines by Charlemagne.
+Rüdesheim, like other antiquated little Rhine-side towns, boasts its
+ancient castle with its own poetical legend, while many modern houses
+have sprung up there of late years, and signs of further development are
+apparent on all sides. In the outskirts of the town there are a couple
+of sparkling wine establishments, the one nigh the railway station on
+the western side belonging to Messrs. Dietrich and Co., while eastwards
+on a picturesque slope overlooking the Rhine, and in the midst of
+extensive pleasure-grounds, is the establishment of Messrs. Ewald and
+Co., who date from the year 1858, and rank to-day amongst the leading
+shippers of sparkling hocks and moselles to England.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  MESSRS. EWALD & CO.'S ESTABLISHMENT AT RÜDESHEIM. (p. 185)]
+
+Here are handsome and capacious buildings aboveground, and two floors of
+cellars comprising five vaults, each 160 feet in length and 30 feet
+broad. The lower vaults, 40 feet from the surface, are arched over and
+walled with stone, while the upper ones are faced with brick, both being
+floored with concrete and slanting towards the centre to allow of the
+wine from bottles that have burst running off. Each range of cellars is
+separately ventilated by shafts, generally kept open in winter and
+closed in the summer so as to maintain a temperature not exceeding 47°
+Fahr. in the lower cellars and under 52° in those above. Moreover, with
+the view of conducing to this result the cellars have an ice well
+communicating with them.
+
+Late in the spring, when the newly-bottled wine indicates a sufficient
+number of atmospheres to insure a satisfactory effervescence, it is
+deposited in the lower vaults, the upper ones being devoted to reserve
+wines in wood and wines awaiting the process of disgorgement, or
+undergoing their daily shaking in order to force the deposit against the
+cork. Aboveground there are rooms for storing the liqueur, the corks,
+and the packing-cases, and in a spacious apartment, provided with three
+lifts for communicating with the cellars beneath, the wine is blended
+and bottled, and in due time disgorged and packed. In very warm weather,
+however, it is found preferable for the disgorging and its attendant
+operations to be performed in the cooler temperature of the cellars.
+Messrs. Ewald formerly tested the strength of their bottles with a
+manometer before using them, but for some time past they have given up
+the practice, feeling convinced that it was productive of more harm than
+good. Glass is an amorphous and unelastic substance which, although it
+will stand a high pressure once, often succumbs when put to a second
+test by the action of the fermenting wine. The firm calculate their
+annual breakage at from 2½ to 3 per cent.
+
+Messrs. Ewald being installed almost in the heart or the Rheingau can
+readily draw their supplies of wine from the most favoured localities.
+Johannisberg is within a few miles of Rüdesheim, and in those years
+when, owing to the grapes not having thoroughly ripened, the wine is
+only of intermediate value as a still wine, it serves admirably for
+conversion into sparkling wine, retaining as it does its powerful
+bouquet. Ingelheim, too, noted for its vineyards of black grapes, whose
+produce is much sought after for blending with the finer sparkling Rhine
+wines, is only a few miles higher up the river, on the opposite bank.
+The drier varieties of sparkling hocks and moselles shipped by Messrs.
+Ewald to England have the merit of retaining all the fine flavour and
+natural perfume of the higher-class growths from which, as a rule, these
+wines are prepared.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MATHEUS MÜLLER AT ELTVILLE. (p. 186)]
+
+Above Rüdesheim the waters of the Rhine expand, the left bank of the
+river, if still lofty, is no longer precipitous, while the right
+continues almost flat so soon as the Rochusberg is left behind. Between
+here and Eltville all the more celebrated vineyards of the Rheingau are
+passed in rapid succession--Geisenheim-Rothenberg, Johannisberg,
+Steinberg, Marcobrunn, Kiedrich-Grafenberg, Rauenthal, and others. At
+Eltville--the former capital of the Rheingau, and where Gunther, of
+Schwarzburg, resigned his crown to Charles IV., and died poisoned, it is
+said, by his successful rival--we find one of the most extensive wine
+establishments in Germany, that of Matheus Müller, who enjoys a high
+reputation in England both for his still and sparkling hocks and
+moselles. His stock ordinarily consists of from 800 to 1,000
+stuck--equivalent to a quarter of a million gallons--of still Rhine and
+Moselle wines, much of it of the best years, and from vineyards of
+repute, together with nearly a million bottles of sparkling wines stored
+in his cellars at Eltville and on the road to Erbach, the aggregate
+length of which is some 3,400 feet. The sparkling wines repose in long
+cool vaulted galleries similar to many cellars in the Champagne, while
+the still wines are stored in capacious subterranean halls each 100
+yards in length.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+For his higher-class sparkling hocks Herr Müller derives his principal
+supplies from the Rheingau, partly from his own vineyards at Eltville,
+Rauenthal, and Hattenheim, and partly by purchases at Erbach,
+Hallgarten, OEstrich, Winkel, Johannisberg, Geisenheim, and Rudesheim;
+while for his best sparkling moselles, Berncastel, Graach, Trèves, and
+the Saar districts are laid under contribution. The Palatinate growths
+of Dürkheim, Deidesheim, Mussbach, Haardt, Rhodt, &c., serve as the
+basis for the medium and cheaper sparkling hocks, and for sparkling
+moselles of a corresponding character such wines as Zeltinger,
+Rachtiger, Erdener, Aldegonder, Winninger, &c., are used. Ingelheim and
+Heidesheim furnish the wine from black grapes necessary in a subordinate
+degree to all sparkling hocks, and very freely had recourse to when it
+is desired to impart a champagne character to the wine, as is commonly
+the case when this is intended for consumption in Germany. Herr Müller
+invariably presses the black grapes himself, in order that the wine may
+be as light in colour as possible. As the house annually lays down large
+stocks of _vin brut_ it is under no necessity of drawing upon them until
+they have attained the requisite maturity and developed all their finer
+qualities.
+
+The dry sparkling hocks and moselles, such as are shipped by Herr Müller
+to England and its colonies, receive a large addition of liqueur when
+destined for the Russian market. His sparkling Johannisberger and
+high-class sparkling moselle from Rheingau and Moselle wines of superior
+vintages are of delicate flavour and great softness, and are frequently
+shipped without any liqueur whatever. Besides Moussirender Rheinwein of
+a champagne character, and largely consumed in Germany and Belgium, Herr
+Müller makes a veritable champagne from wine imported by him from the
+Champagne district. His shipments also include red sparkling
+Assmannshauser--the result of a blend of Assmannshauser, Ingelheimer,
+and other red Rhenish wines--aromatic and full-bodied, and dry or
+moderately sweet according to the country to which it is intended to be
+exported.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  ENTRANCE TO LAUTEREN SOHN'S ESTABLISHMENT, MAYENCE. (p. 188)]
+
+The trade in German sparkling wines has numerous representatives at
+Mayence--the sec of St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, and the
+birthplace of Gutenberg, whose fame is universal. The pioneer of
+printing was born in a house at the corner of the Emmerans and Pfandhaus
+gasse, the site of which is to-day occupied by the residence of three
+members of the firm of C. Lauteren Sohn, established at Mayence so far
+back as 1794, and one of the first in Germany to devote itself to the
+manufacture of sparkling wines. In 1830 the firm profited by an offer
+made to them by a cellarman who had been for many years in the service
+of Madame Clicquot at Reims. The Emmerans-gasse, where the chief
+establishment of the firm is situated, is in the older quarter of
+Mayence--in the midst of a network of intricate winding streets bordered
+by picturesque tall gabled houses and edifices of the Spanish type where
+ornamental oriel windows with quaint supports, medallions, and
+bas-reliefs of varied design continually catch the eye, and saints look
+down upon one from almost every corner. Passing under the gateway of the
+house where Gutenberg was born, and in the rear of which Lauteren Sohn
+have their offices, cooperage, and cellars for still wines, we notice on
+our left hand a tablet commemorating the birth of the inventor of
+printing in these terms:--
+
+  "Gensfleisch House. Family residence of the inventor of the art of
+  printing, John Gensfleisch of Gutenberg, who in the year 1398 was
+  here born. Christian Lauteren has dedicated on the site of the
+  ancient house this memorial to the immortal inventor, Jan. 29, 1825."
+
+Messrs. Lauteren's cellars for sparkling wines extend mainly under an
+old monastery, and comprise a succession of large vaulted galleries
+connected by narrow passages with arched entrances. Here are stacked
+some 800,000 bottles of wine in varying conditions of maturity. Messrs.
+Lauteren bottle their wines in August, instead of fully two months
+earlier according to the usual practice, in the belief that the system
+they pursue is more conducive to perfect effervescence, besides being
+attended with less breakage, owing to the newly-bottled wine escaping
+the heat of the summer. All the arrangements at this establishment are
+very complete. There is a place for everything, and everything is to be
+found in its place. Adjoining the courtyard, where new bottles are
+stacked beneath open ornamental sheds, are the tasting-room and the
+apartment where the operations of disgorging, dosing, and re-corking are
+performed. The liqueur added by the firm to their sparkling wines is
+kept in bottle from three to five years before being used. In the
+tasting-room we were shown a variety of sparkling hocks and moselles,
+the former with all the distinguishing characteristics of fine Rhine
+wine, the older samples having gained considerably in softness. A dry
+Cabinet specimen submitted to us exhibited a fine bouquet and much
+delicacy of flavour. The moselles we found particularly interesting,
+made as they were of genuine wines from some of the best vineyards of
+the Moselle district.
+
+The largest German sparkling wine establishment is at Hochheim, which,
+although, situated on the banks of the Main, and several miles distant
+from its confluence with the Rhine, has curiously enough supplied us
+with a generic name under which we inconsistently class the entire
+produce of the Rhine vineyards. Behind the Hochheim railway station
+there rises a long low slope, planted from base to summit with vines,
+a portion of which are screened on the north by a plain-looking church
+and a weather-stained deanery. The vines thus sheltered yield the famous
+Dom Dechanei, the finest Hochheimer known. Some short distance off in a
+westerly direction are the extensive premises of the Hochheim Sparkling
+Wine Association, whose brands are well known in England. The firm of
+Burgeff and Co., whose business the association acquired in 1858 and
+subsequently considerably extended, was founded in 1837. At this
+establishment all the arrangements are of the most perfect character.
+The bottles are cleaned by a machine employing ten persons, and turning
+out several thousand bottles a day. All the bottles moreover, before
+being used, have their strength tested by an ingenious apparatus which
+subjects them to three or four times the pressure they are likely to
+undergo when filled with wine. Pumps, bottle-washing machine, and the
+revolving casks in which the sugar is dissolved for the liqueur, are all
+moved by steam, and the association even manufactures the gas used for
+lighting up the establishment. We tasted here several sparkling hocks
+distinguished by their high flavour and refinement, with sparkling
+moselles vintaged in the best localities and equally excellent in
+quality.
+
+Sparkling hocks and moselles are made by Messrs. Stock and Sons at
+Creuznach, a favourite watering-place in the romantic Nahe valley, noted
+for the picturesque porphyry cliffs which occasionally rise
+precipitously at the river's edge. Creuznach, where a capital wine is
+vintaged, on the southern slopes of the Schlossberg, is at no great
+distance from Bingen. Messrs. Stock and Sons' establishment dates from
+1862, and their sparkling wines are mainly made from white grapes, only
+about one-eighth of white wine from black grapes entering into their
+composition. The latter is vintaged at Ingelheim, the grapes being
+pressed under the firm's own superintendence, and only the must
+resulting from the first squeeze of the press being used. The wine from
+riesling grapes is usually from the Rhine, and with it is mingled a
+certain quantity of wine vintaged on the Hessian plain. The vintage
+generally occurs at the end of October, and the firm remove the new wine
+to their cellars at Creuznach early in the ensuing spring, and bottle it
+in the May or June following. They make both dry and sweet varieties of
+sparkling wines, and their principal markets are England, Germany, the
+East and West Indies, the United States, and Australia.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  BINGEN.]
+
+The establishment of G. C. Kessler and Co. at Esslingen--formerly one of
+the most important of the free imperial cities, and picturesquely
+situated on the Neckar--was founded as far back as 1826, and claims to
+be the oldest sparkling wine factory in Germany. The wine employed comes
+from vineyards in the vicinity of Heilbronn, and others in the Rheingau
+and the Grand Duchy of Baden, and is more or less a blend of the
+clevener, traminer, rulander, riesling, and elbling varieties of grape.
+The vintage takes place in October, and the bottling of the wine is
+effected during the following summer. Messrs. Kessler and Co. treat
+their wines after the system pursued at the Clicquot champagne
+establishment, in which the founder of the Esslingen house held an
+important position for a period of nearly twenty years. The wines are
+prepared sweet or dry according to the market they are destined for. The
+principal business of the firm is with Germany, but they also export to
+England, the United States, the East Indies, and Australia. Their wines
+have met with favourable recognition at various exhibitions, notably
+that of Paris in 1867, when a silver medal was awarded them; and at
+Vienna in 1873, where they received a medal for progress.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  THE NECKAR AT HEIDELBERG.]
+
+Wurzburg, one of the most antiquated and picturesque of German cities,
+is noted for its sparkling Franconian wines vintaged partly in the
+vineyards that overspread the tall chalk hills which close in around the
+quaint old university town. The most famous of these vineyards are the
+Leist and the Stein, the first-named sloping downward towards the Main
+from the foot of the picturesque Marienberg fort, which, perched on the
+summit of a commanding height, dominates the city and forms so
+conspicuous an object in all the views of it. The extensive buildings of
+the fort not only shield the vines from the winds, but reflect the sun's
+rays upon them, thereby materially conducing to the perfect ripening of
+the grapes at a much earlier period than is customary. The Stein
+vineyard is situated on the opposite side of the Main, and when viewed
+from the picturesque bridge, studded with incongruous colossal
+statues--such as Joseph and the Virgin Mary in close proximity to
+Charlemagne and Pépin--seems to rise up as an immense rampart behind the
+city. Here the river acts as a reflector, throwing back the sun's rays
+on the lower portions of the slope, where the finest wine is naturally
+vintaged. An altogether inferior growth is produced on the hill to the
+north, known as the Middle Stein, and also in the Harfe vineyard,
+situated in the rear of the latter. The prevalent vines in the Würzburg
+district are the riesling, the traminer, the elbling, and the rulander,
+or pineau gris.
+
+The first sparkling wine establishment at Würzburg was founded in 1842
+by Herr Oppmann, the Royal cellar-master, who died in 1866. The position
+held by this individual was one of considerable importance, for the King
+of Bavaria is the largest wine-grower in his own dominions, and stores
+the produce of his vineyards in the famous cellars extending beneath one
+of the wings of the deserted Residenz, erected at an epoch when Würzburg
+was subject to episcopal rule. These cellars, vaulted in stone, are on a
+vast scale, and possibly unequalled in the world. You descend a broad
+flight of steps, flanked by ornamental iron balustrades, and encounter
+half-way down a miniature tun, guarded by the Bavarian lions posted in a
+niche in the wall. Following your guide with lighted candles, you pass
+between rows upon rows of capacious casks filled with the wine last
+vintaged, and various wines of recent years; large metal
+chandeliers--fantastically adorned with innumerable coloured bottles and
+glasses, and designed to light up the cellars on festive occasions--here
+and there descending from the arched roof. Eventually you arrive at a
+gallery where huge casks are poised on massive wooden frames in double
+tiers one above the other. These cellars are said to be capable of
+holding upwards of 500 casks, but at the time of our visit there were
+scarcely half that number, and only a mere fraction of these were filled
+with wine. The cellars no longer contain any of that archaic wine
+vintaged in 1546, for which they were formerly celebrated. Indeed, all
+the historic vintages, once their boast, were removed some years ago to
+Munich and deposited in the Royal cellars there. Of the ancient
+ornamental tuns holding their ten thousand gallons each, which the
+Würzburg cellars formerly contained, only a single one remains,
+constructed in the year 1784. This tun, carved on the front with the
+Bavarian arms, is about the dimensions of a fair-sized apartment, and
+being no longer filled with wine, a Diogenes of the period might take up
+his abode in it with perfect comfort. Herr Michael Oppmann, who has
+succeeded to the establishment founded by his father, prepares several
+varieties of white sparkling Franconian wine, with two kinds of red, and
+also sparkling hocks and moselles. The first-named wines are vintaged in
+the best vineyards of Lower Franconia, in the valley of the Main, and
+the Baden Oberland, the finer qualities being principally produced from
+the black clevener grape, usually vintaged the first or second week in
+October. The white grape vintage occurs some fortnight or more later,
+and the wine is bottled either late in the spring or during the coming
+summer. Its after-manipulation differs in no respect from that pursued
+with reference to champagne. Herr Oppmann, whose wines have met with
+favourable recognition at various foreign and home Exhibitions, prepares
+both sweet and dry varieties. Their chief market is Germany, although
+they are exported in fair quantities to Belgium, England, and Northern
+Europe.
+
+Another sparkling wine establishment was founded at Würzburg by Herr
+F. A. Siligmuller in 1843. The wine from white grapes employed by him is
+vintaged partly in his own vineyards on the Stein and the Harfe, and
+partly in other Main vineyards, at Randersacker, Escheradorf, &c., the
+wine used by him from red grapes coming from the Baden Oberland around
+the so-called Kaisers-stuhl--an isolated vine-clad dolerite mountain
+bordering the Rhine, and on the verge almost of the Black Forest--and
+from the neighbourhood of Offenburg, one of the ancient imperial free
+towns, which has lately raised a statue to Sir Francis Drake, "the
+introducer," as the inscription says, "of the potato into Europe." The
+vintage here, which commences fully a fortnight earlier than around
+Würzburg, usually takes place about the beginning of October, and the
+wine is bottled in the height of the following summer. Herr
+Siligmuller's wines, of which there are four qualities, were awarded a
+medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  AT AHRWEILER.]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  A SPANISH VINTAGE SCENE.]
+
+XVIII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY,
+SPAIN, RUSSIA, &c.
+
+Sparkling Voslauer-- The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of Graz--
+  Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers-- Vintaging and Treatment of
+  Styrian Champagnes-- Sparkling Red, Rose, and White Wines of
+  Hungary-- The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at Pressburg--
+  Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, the
+  Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat-- Neuchâtel Champagne-- Sparkling
+  Wine Factories at Vevay and Sion-- The Vevay Vineyards--
+  Establishment of De Riedmatten and De Quay-- Sparkling Muscatel,
+  Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo, and Lacryma Christi of Italy--
+  Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece, Algeria, and Russia-- The Krimski
+  and Donski Champagnes-- The Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great
+  Russian Fairs.
+
+
+Sparkling wines are made in various parts of Austria and Hungary, and of
+late years their produce has been largely on the increase. At Voslau, in
+the vicinity of the picturesque and fashionable summer watering-place of
+Baden, about twenty miles south of Vienna, Herr R. Schlumberger, one of
+my colleagues on the wine jury at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of
+1873 and '8, makes a white sparkling Voslauer--introduced into England
+some years since--from the blue portuguese, the burgundy (the pineau
+noir), the rulander (the pineau gris), and the riesling varieties of
+grape. It is, however, at Graz, the capital of Styria, picturesquely
+situated on the river Mur, and surrounded by lofty mountains, where
+sparkling wines are made upon the largest scale and with the most
+success. By far the principal manufactory is that of Kleinoscheg
+Brothers, founded in the year 1850, at an epoch when the larger Styrian
+wine-growers were directing their attention to the general improvement
+of their vineyards. The firm gained their knowledge of sparkling wines
+by practical experience acquired in the Champagne itself, and to-day
+they unquestionably produce some of the best sparkling wines that are
+made out of France. They possess extensive vineyards of their own, and
+are also large purchasers of wines from the best districts, including
+Pettau, Radkersburg, the Picherergebirge, and Luttenberg, the latter
+yielding the finest wine which Styria produces, vintaged from the mosler
+or furmint--that is, the Tokay variety of grape.
+
+White wine from the clevener grape, understood to be identical with the
+pineau noir of Burgundy and the Champagne, and vintaged early in
+October, forms the basis of the sparkling wines manufactured by
+Kleinoscheg Brothers. The produce of several other grapes, however,
+enters in a limited degree into the blend, including the riesling, the
+rulander or pineau gris, and the portuguese, the gathering of which is
+usually delayed several weeks later, and is sometimes even deferred
+until the end of November. The first and second pressings of the black
+grapes yield a white must as in the Champagne, while the third and
+fourth give a pink wine of which the firm make a speciality.
+
+The wines, which are treated precisely after the system pursued in the
+Champagne, are bottled during the months of July and August, and are
+made either sweet or dry according to the country they are destined for.
+Considerable shipments of the dry pale Styrian champagne take place to
+England, where the firm also send a delicate sparkling muscatel and a
+sparkling red burgundy, which will favourably compare with the best
+sparkling wines of the Côte d'Or. They have also a large market for
+their wines in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, and export to
+British North America, the East Indies, China, Japan, and Australia.
+From the year 1855 up to the present time the firm of Kleinoscheg
+Brothers have been awarded no less than sixteen medals for their
+sparkling wines at various important home and foreign exhibitions.
+
+At Marburg on the river Drave, in the vicinity of the Bacher Mountains,
+which stretch far into Carinthia, and have their lower slopes covered
+with vines, Herr F. Auchmann has established a successful sparkling wine
+manufactory. The raw wine comes from the vineyards around Marburg and
+from Pettau, some ten or twelve miles lower down the Drave. The vintage
+commonly lasts from the middle of October until the middle of November.
+Black grapes of the clevener and portuguese varieties are pressed as in
+the Champagne, so as to yield a white must, with which a certain portion
+of white wine from the mosler or furmint grape is subsequently mingled.
+The bottling takes place as early as April or May. The wines are
+principally consumed in Austria, but are also exported to Russia, Italy,
+Egypt, the Danubian Principalities, Australia, &c.
+
+Sparkling wines seem to be made in various parts of Hungary, judging
+from the samples sent to the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions from Pesth,
+Pressburg, Oedenburg, Pécs, Velencze, and Kolozsvár. Rose-colour wines
+are evidently much in favour with the respective manufacturers, several
+of whom make sparkling red wines as well, but with none of the success
+of their Styrian neighbours. The best Hungarian sparkling wines we have
+met with are those of Hubert and Habermann, made at Pressburg, the
+former capital of Hungary, where its kings, after being crowned, used to
+ride up the Königsberg brandishing the sword of St. Stephen towards the
+four points of the compass in token of their determination to defend the
+kingdom against all enemies. The white sparkling wines are made
+exclusively from white grapes grown in the neighbouring vineyards of
+Bösing, Geñnau, and St. Georgen, but the firm make red sparkling wines
+as well from the produce of the Ratzersdorf and Wainor vineyards. The
+vintage takes place some time in October, and the wines are bottled both
+in the spring and autumn, but never until they are fully twelve months
+old. With these variations the system pursued with regard to the wines
+is the same as is followed in the Champagne. There are several other
+sparkling wine manufacturers at Pressburg, and the principal market for
+these wines is Austro-Hungary, but shipments of them are made to
+England, the United States, India, Roumania, and Servia. The production
+of sparkling wine in Hungary is now estimated to amount to one million
+bottles annually.
+
+In Croatia Prince Lippe-Schaumburg has established a sparkling
+wine manufactory at Slatina, where he produces a so-called
+Riesling-Champagner, and it would appear from the collection of
+Austro-Hungarian sparkling wines exhibited at Vienna by Herr Bogdan Hoff
+of Cracow, that these wines are also made at Melnik, in Bohemia, at
+Bisenz in Moravia, at Sebenicodi Maraschino in Dalmatia, at Botzen in
+the Tyrol, at Tasnad in Transylvania, and at Weiss-Kirchen in the Banat.
+All these wines had been submitted to examination at the Imperial
+oeno-chemical laboratory at Klosterneuberg, and one was not surprised to
+find that the majority were pronounced to be of too robust a character
+for transformation into sparkling wines.
+
+Switzerland long since turned its attention to the manufacture of
+sparkling wines, not, however, to meet the requirements of its own
+population, but those of the many tourists with well-lined purses who
+annually explore its valleys, lakes, and mountains. Neuchâtel champagne
+has met with a certain amount of success, and at the present time there
+are a couple of establishments devoted to its production, the best known
+being that of Bouvier frères. There are, moreover, sparkling wine
+manufactories at Vevay in the Vaud Canton, and at Sion in the Valais. In
+the Canton of Neuchâtel the best Swiss red wines are produced--notably
+Cortaillod and Faverge of a ruby hue and Burgundy-like flavour--and the
+sparkling wine manufacturers of the district wisely blend a considerable
+proportion of wine from black grapes with that from white when making
+their _cuvées_. Vaud, on the other hand, being noted for white wines
+bearing some resemblance to certain Rhine growths, it is of these that
+sparkling wines are exclusively made at Vevay.
+
+The Vevay vineyards occupy the heights which skirt the Lake of Geneva on
+its northern side. The innumerable terraces, steep and difficult of
+access to the toiling vine-dresser, on which the vines are planted, are
+the result of centuries of patient labour. Here the vine seems to
+flourish at an altitude of more than 1,800 feet above the sea level.
+To compensate for the deficiency of sunshine the leaves are largely
+stripped from the vines so as to expose the fruit, and thereby assist
+its ripening.
+
+The sparkling wine factory at Sion, bordering the river Rhône, in the
+Canton of the Valais, was established in 1872 by MM. de Riedmatten and
+De Quay, who derive their raw wine from vineyards in the immediate
+neighbourhood, almost all of which have a southern exposure, and occupy
+gentle slopes. The soil chiefly consists of a decomposed limestone
+schist, locally termed "brisé." In these vineyards, and more especially
+the district known as the Clavaux, some of the best and most alcoholic
+wines in Switzerland are produced.
+
+The firm originally experimented with the choicer and more powerful
+growths, and, as may be imagined, soon discovered they were not well
+adapted for conversion into sparkling wines. To-day they limit
+themselves to wines produced from what is known as the "fendant" variety
+of grape, said by some to be identical with the German riesling, and by
+others to be of the same type as the French chasselas. The vintage in
+the Valais is the earliest in Switzerland, taking place in favourable
+years at the close of September, but ordinarily in the course of
+October. Some fine white candy syrup is added to the wine at the epoch
+of bottling, in order to provoke the requisite effervescence, which it
+does so effectually that the tirage is obliged to take place some time
+between November and May, as at any other period the temperature would
+be too high and the bottles would burst. MM. Riedmatten and De Quay have
+two varieties of sparkling wine--their Carte Blanche, which goes under
+the name of Mont Blanc, and is rather sweet, and their Carte Verte known
+as Glacier de Rhône, a drier variety and finding a readier sale.
+
+Of late years, since many improvements have been effected in Italy both
+in the cultivation of the vineyards and the vintaging of the wine,
+numerous attempts have been made, although on the whole with but
+indifferent success, to produce a good sparkling wine. The principal
+seat of the manufacture is Asti, where the Societa Unione Enofila make
+considerable quantities of a common strong sweet sparkling wine, as well
+as a sparkling muscatel. Alessandria, Ancona, Bologna, Castagnolo,
+Genoa, Modena, Naples, Palermo, and Treviso also profess to make
+sparkling wines, but only in insignificant quantities. Alessandria
+produces sparkling malmsey and red sparkling brachetto; and on the
+Marquis Della Stufa's estate of Castagnolo a sparkling wine is
+manufactured from the currajola variety of grape, one of the best in the
+Tuscan vineyards. The vines at Castagnolo are cultivated in accordance
+with the French system, and at the vintage all unripe and unsound grapes
+are thrown aside. There is an evident flavour of the muscat grape in the
+Castagnolo sparkling wine, which has the merit of lightness and of being
+well made. The alcoholic strength is equivalent to rather more than 20°
+of proof spirit, and the highest quality wine is remarkable for its
+excessive dryness in comparison with all other samples of Italian
+sparkling wines that we have met with. Naples appears to confine itself
+to producing sparkling white lacryma christi, for which, as a curiosity,
+there exists a certain demand.
+
+Spain of late years has shown itself equally ambitious with Italy to
+achieve distinction in the production of sparkling wines, and at the
+Paris Exhibition of 1878 there were samples from the majority of the
+wine centres skirting the Mediterranean coast, including Gerona,
+Barcelona, Tarragona, and Valencia. Other samples come from Logroño,
+in the north of Spain; and years ago sparkling wine used to be made at
+Villaviciosa, on the Bay of Biscay. To Paris there were also sent
+samples of sparkling orange wine, an agreeable beverage, and
+unquestionably preferable to the majority of Spanish sparkling wines
+composed of the juice of the grape.
+
+Greek sparkling wines, said to be of very fair quality, are made at
+Athens, Corinth, and Tripoliza, and are exported in moderate quantities
+to Russia. Algeria, too, is turning its attention to the production of
+sparkling wines, but solely for home consumption, and at the Paris
+Exhibition there was a sparkling wine from Uruguay, but of execrable
+quality.
+
+The sparkling wines of the Crimea and the Don, known in Russia
+respectively as Krimski and Donski champagnes, are described as being
+superior to much of the wine which passes in England under the name of
+champagne. In Russia it is the fashion to speak contemptuously of them,
+just as rhubarb and gooseberry champagne is spoken of in England, still
+these Crimean and Don products are genuine wines, and, though somewhat
+sweet, may be drunk with satisfaction and in moderate quantities with
+impunity. One of the best Donski brands is that of Abrahamof, and as
+much as six roubles per bottle is demanded for the finer qualities at
+Novoi Tscherkash. About a million bottles of the Donski champagne are
+exported annually, but the wine finds its principal market at the great
+Russian fairs, where almost every important bargain is "wetted" with
+sparkling Donski.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+  VINTAGE SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES.]
+
+XIX.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America-- Failures to Acclimatise
+  European Vines-- Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers and the Mission
+  Fathers-- The Yield of the Mission Vineyards-- The Monster Vine of
+  the Montecito Valley-- The Catawba Vine and its General
+  Cultivation-- Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of American
+  Viticulture-- Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at Cincinnati--
+  Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures there-- Longfellow's Song in
+  Praise of Catawba-- The Kelley Island Wine Company-- Vintaging and
+  Treatment of their Sparkling Wines-- Decrease of Consumption-- The
+  Vineyards of Hammondsport-- Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling
+  Wines-- The Vintage-- After-Treatment of the Wines-- The Pleasant
+  Valley and Urbana Wine Companies and their Various Brands--
+  Californian Sparkling Wines-- The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society
+  of San Francisco-- Its Early Failures and Eventual Success in
+  Manufacturing Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage in California-- Chinese
+  Vintagers-- How the Wine is Made-- American Spurious Sparkling
+  Wines.
+
+
+From the earliest period of the colonisation of America the vine appears
+to have attracted the attention of the settlers, and it is said that as
+early as 1564 wine was made from the native grape in Florida. The first
+attempts to establish a regular vineyard date, however, from 1620, and
+would seem to have been made in Virginia with European vines, the
+prospects having become sufficiently encouraging in 1630 for the
+colonists to send for French vine-dressers to tend their plants. The
+latter were subsequently accused of ruining the vines by their bad
+treatment, but most likely this was an error, it having since been made
+evident that European vines cannot be successfully cultivated east of
+the Rocky Mountains, where the phylloxera vastatrix prevails. It was in
+vain that William Penn made repeated attempts to acclimatise European
+vines in Pennsylvania, that the Swiss emigrants--vine-growers from the
+Lake of Geneva--made similar trials, they having expended ten thousand
+dollars to no purpose. In vain, in Jessamine county, Kentucky, Pierre
+Legaud laboured in the environs of Philadelphia, and Lakanal, the member
+of the French Convention, experimented in Tennessee, Ohio, and Alabama;
+all their efforts to introduce the Old World vines proved futile. The
+attempts that were made by Swiss settlers at Vevay, in Indiana, with the
+indigenous plants were more successful, and after a time they managed to
+produce some palatable wine from the Schuylkill muscatel.
+
+Towards the latter part of the 18th century the Mission Fathers had
+succeeded in planting vineyards in California. It is known that in 1771
+the vine was cultivated there, and the San Gabriel Mission in the county
+of Los Angeles, some 300 miles S.E. of San Francisco, is said to have
+possessed the first vineyard. A prevalent belief is, that the vines were
+from roots or cuttings obtained from either Spain or Mexico, but it is
+also conjectured that they were some of the wild varieties known to be
+scattered over the country, while a third theory suggests that as
+attempts to make wine from the wild grapes would most likely have proved
+a failure, the Fathers planted the seeds of raisins which had come from
+Spain. The culture must have progressed rapidly, if, as stated, there
+were planted at San Gabriel in a single spring no fewer than 40,000
+vines. These mission vines were mainly of two sorts, the one yielding a
+white grape with a musky flavour, and the other a dark blue fruit. The
+latter was the favourite, doubtless from its produce bearing some
+resemblance to the red wines of Old Castile.
+
+From San Gabriel the planting of the vine extended from mission to
+mission until each owned its patch of vineland. At the time of the
+arrival of the Americans in 1846 the smallest of these was five acres in
+extent, and others as many as thirty acres, and it is calculated the
+average yield was from 700 to 1,000 gallons of wine per acre. This was
+owing first to the exceeding richness of the soil, and secondly to its
+being well irrigated. If the celebrated mission vine grown on one of the
+sunny slopes overlooking the lovely Montecito valley near Santa Barbara
+on the blue Pacific had many fellows in the Fathers' vineyards, the
+above estimate can hardly be an exaggerated one. The stem of this vine,
+which is four feet four inches in circumference at the ground, rises
+eight feet before branching out. The branches, under which the country
+people are fond of dancing, and which are supported by fifty-two
+trellises, extend over more than 5,000 square feet. This monster vine
+produces annually from five to six tons of grapes, and one year it
+yielded no fewer than 7,000 bunches, each from one to four pounds in
+weight. It is irrigated by water from the hot springs, situated a few
+miles distant, and is believed to be from half to three-quarters of a
+century old.
+
+Viticulture and vinification languished in the United States until
+attention was called in 1826 to the catawba vine by Major Adlum,
+of Georgetown, near Washington, who thought that by so doing he was
+conferring a greater benefit on his country than if he had liquidated
+its national debt. This vine, which is derived from the wild _Vitis
+labrusca_, was first planted on an extensive scale by Nicholas
+Longworth, justly looked upon as one of the founders of American
+viticulture, and gradually supplanted all others, remaining for many
+years the principal plant cultivated along the banks of the Ohio--the
+so-called "Rhine of America"--until, ceaselessly attacked by rot,
+mildew, and leaf-blight, it was found necessary in many places to
+supplant it by more robust varieties.
+
+Mr. Longworth, about the year 1837, among his numerous experiments at
+Cincinnati, included that of making sparkling wines from the catawba,
+isabella, and other varieties of grapes, and to-day there are several
+manufactories of sparkling catawba and other wines in the capital of
+Ohio--the self-named "Queen city," which its detractors have jocularly
+dubbed Porcopolis on account of the immense trade done there in smoked
+and salted pork. The chief sparkling wine establishments at Cincinnati
+are those of Messrs. Werk and Sons, whose sparkling catawba obtained a
+medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and who have,
+moreover, largely experimented with ives' and virginia seedlings,
+delaware and other grapes, in making effervescent wines, though only
+with doubtful success. Another Cincinnati firm is that of Messrs. George
+Bogen and Co., whose sparkling wines also met with recognition at
+Vienna.
+
+The reader will remember Longfellow's well-known song extolling catawba
+wine, which, with more than a poet's licence, he ranks above the best of
+the Old World vintages:--
+
+    "There grows no vine
+    By the haunted Rhine,
+  By Danube or Guadalquivir,
+    Nor on island nor cape,
+    That bears such a grape
+  As grows by the Beautiful River.
+
+    "Very good in its way
+    Is the Verzenay,
+  Or the Sillery, soft and creamy,
+    But Catawba wine
+    Has a taste more divine,
+  More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy."
+
+On Kelley's Island, Erie county, also in the State of Ohio, a wine
+company, established in 1866, and trading principally in still wines,
+makes sparkling wines upon a considerable scale exclusively from the
+catawba variety of grape, which is cultivated in its highest perfection
+both on the islands of Lake Erie and along a narrow slip of territory
+not two miles long bordering the southern shore of the lake, and also in
+the vicinity of Lake Keuka, near Hammondsport, N.Y. The Kelley Island
+Wine Company, as it is styled, presses the grapes between the middle of
+October and the end of November, and bottles from about the 20th May
+until the commencement of July in the year following. Its brands are
+Island Queen, Nonpareil, and Carte Blanche. Ninety-five per cent. of the
+wines are dry, and the tendency of the market is in favour of a still
+drier article. Shipments are principally confined to the United States,
+the great centre of the trade being St. Louis, on the Mississippi, which
+has its own sparkling wine establishments, and to-day disputes with
+Chicago the title of Queen of the West. The company keep some 100,000
+bottles of sparkling wines in stock, and possess facilities for bottling
+five times that quantity whenever the demand might warrant such a step
+being taken. Of recent years, however, economy has been the rule in
+American society, and the market for native sparkling wines at any rate
+is to-day a reduced one.
+
+At Hammondsport, south of Lake Keuka--in other words, Crooked Lake--and
+in the State of New York, the establishments of the Pleasant Valley and
+Urbana wine companies, devoting their attention to both still and
+sparkling wines, are installed. The region, which enthusiastic writers
+now term the Champagne of America, was colonised in 1793, and vines of
+the catawba and isabella varieties were first planted for the purpose of
+making wine in 1854. At the present time there are about 8,000 acres
+under cultivation with all the better species of vines. The produce from
+black and white grapes is mingled for the sparkling wines of the
+district. Of the former but two kinds are considered suitable, the
+concord and the isabella, both being varieties of the indigenous
+labrusca, or so-called foxy-flavoured grape. The concord is a hardy and
+productive plant, producing large and compact bunches of large round
+sweet grapes, yielding a wine of the obnoxious foxy flavour. The
+isabella is an equally hardy and productive variety, and its bunches are
+of good size, although not compact. Its berries, too, are large, oval,
+and juicy, and marked by a strong musky aroma.
+
+Of the white, or rather pale-coloured grapes--for their hue is usually a
+reddish one--used for sparkling wines, the principal is the catawba,
+also of the labrusca variety. The branches are large and tolerably
+compact; the berries, too, are above the medium size, and have a rich
+vinous and pronounced musky flavour. Other so-called white species of
+grapes are the diana and the iona, both, of them seedlings of the
+catawba; the delaware, the bunches of which are rather small but
+compact, the berries round, extremely juicy and fresh-tasting, but sweet
+and aromatic, the wine produced from which is noted for its fragrant
+bouquet; and, lastly, the walter, a variety obtained by crossing the
+delaware with the diana. The bunches and berries of the walter are of
+medium size; the flavour, like that of the delaware, is sweet and
+aromatic; and the grape is, moreover, remarkable for its agreeable
+bouquet.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The vintage usually commences about the end of September or the
+commencement of October, and the grapes, after being carefully sorted,
+are run through a small mill, which breaks the skins, and admits of the
+juice running the more readily out when the fruit is placed beneath the
+press. The latter is worked with a metal screw, and the must is
+conducted through pipes or hose to casks holding from two to four
+thousand gallons each, in which it ferments. During the following May
+the wine is carefully blended, and the operation of bottling commences
+and lasts for about two or three months. The newly-bottled wine is at
+first stored in a warm place in order to start the fermentation again,
+and when the bottles commence to burst it is removed to the subterranean
+vaults, where it remains stacked in a horizontal fashion until the time
+arrives to force the sediment down upon the corks. This is accomplished
+precisely as in the Champagne, the subsequent disgorging and liqueuring
+being also effected according to the orthodox French system. Altogether
+a couple of years elapse between the epoch of bottling and shipment, and
+during this interval each bottle is handled upwards of two hundred
+times.
+
+The Pleasant Valley Wine Company, established in 1860 for the commerce
+of still wines, in which it continues to do an extensive business,
+commenced five years later to make sparkling wines. It grows its own
+grapes and consumes annually about 1,500 tons of fruit, bottling from
+200,000 to 300,000 bottles of sparkling wine in the course of the year.
+Its brands are the Great Western, of which there is a dry and an extra
+dry variety, the Carte Blanche, and the Pleasant Valley. Even the extra
+dry variety of the first-named wine tastes sweet in comparison with a
+moderately dry champagne, in addition to which its flavour, though
+agreeable, is certainly too pronounced for a sparkling wine of high
+quality. The wines, which secured a medal for progress at the Vienna
+Exhibition of 1873, are sold in every city in the United States, and the
+company also does a small but increasing trade with England and South
+America.
+
+The Urbana Wine Company, also established at Hammondsport at the same
+epoch as its rival, deals, like the latter, in still wines as well. It
+has three brands--the Gold Seal, of which there is an extra dry variety,
+the Imperial, and the Royal Rose. At Vienna a diploma of merit was
+awarded to these wines, for which a considerable market is found
+throughout the United States and in the West Indies and South America.
+The Urbana Wine Company produces excellent sparkling wines of singular
+lightness and of delicate though distinctive flavour. In our judgment
+the drier varieties are greatly to be preferred. The prices of all the
+American sparkling wines are certainly high, being almost equivalent to
+the price of first-class champagnes taken at Reims and Epernay.
+
+In California the manufacture of sparkling wines is carried on with
+considerable success, and at the Vienna Exhibition the Buena Vista
+Vinicultural Society of San Francisco was awarded a medal for progress
+for the excellent samples it sent there. The society was originally
+organised by Colonel Haraszthy, the pioneer in recent times of
+Californian viticulture. It commenced manufacturing sparkling wines with
+the assistance of experienced workmen from Epernay and Ay; but the
+endeavours, extending over some three or four years, were attended with
+but indifferent success, very few _cuvées_ proving of fair quality,
+whilst with the majority the wine had to be emptied from the bottles and
+distilled into brandy. The son of Colonel Haraszthy subsequently
+succeeded, in conjunction with Mr. Isidor Landsberger, of San Francisco,
+in discovering the cause of these failures, and for ten years past the
+wine has been constantly improving in quality owing to the increased use
+of foreign grapes, which yield a _vin brut_ with a delicate bouquet and
+flavour approaching in character to the finer champagnes. The wine is
+perfectly pure, no flavouring extracts or spirit being employed in the
+composition of the liqueur, which, is composed merely of sugar-candy
+dissolved in fine old wine. A French connoisseur pronounces sparkling
+Sonoma to be the best of American sparkling wines, "clean and fresh,
+tasting, with the flavour of a middle-class Ay growth, as well as
+remarkably light and delicate, and possessed of considerable
+effervescence." The Sonoma valley vineyards produce the lightest wines
+of all the Californian growths, some of the white varieties indicating
+merely 15° of proof spirit, and the red ones no more than 17½°.
+
+The vintage takes place towards the end of October, and the grapes are
+gathered by Chinamen, who will each pick his 12 to 14 cwt. of grapes a
+day for the wage of a dollar. Light wooden boxes are used for holding
+the grapes, which are stripped from their stalks on their arrival at the
+press-house, and then partially crushed by a couple of revolving
+rollers. An inclined platform beneath receives them, and after the
+expressed juice has been run off into cask they are removed to the
+press, and the must subsequently extracted is added to that forced out
+by the rollers. When white wine is being made from black grapes the
+pressure is less continuous, and the must is of course separated at once
+from the skins. The fermentation, which is violent for some ten or
+twelve hours, ceases in about a fortnight, providing a temperature of
+from 70° to 75° Fahr. is maintained in the vaults. The wine is racked at
+the new year, and again before the blending and bottling of it in the
+spring.
+
+The Californian sparkling wines not only find a market in the eastern
+States, but are sent across the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands, Japan,
+China, and even to wine-producing Australia, which has not yet succeeded
+in producing sparkling wines of its own.
+
+The manufacture of spurious sparkling wines is carried on to some extent
+in the United States. The raw wine is cleared by fining it with albumen
+or gelatine and with alum; the latter substance imparting to it great
+brilliancy. After being dosed with a flavoured syrup the wine is charged
+like soda-water with carbonic acid gas by placing the bottles under a
+fountain, and as this gas is derived from marble dust and sulphuric
+acid, it is liable to be impregnated with both lead and copper, which
+have the effect of disorganising alike the wine and the consumers of
+it--nausea, headache, and other ills resulting from drinking sparkling
+wines made under such conditions.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+XX.--CONCLUDING FACTS AND HINTS.
+
+Dry and Sweet Champagnes-- Their Sparkling Properties-- Form of
+  Champagne Glasses-- Style of Sparkling Wines Consumed in Different
+  Countries-- The Colour and Alcoholic Strength of Champagne--
+  Champagne Approved of by the Faculty-- Its Use in Nervous
+  Derangements-- The Icing of Champagne-- Scarcity of Grand Vintages
+  in the Champagne-- The Quality of the Wine has little influence on
+  the Price-- Prices realised by the Ay and Verzenay Crûs in Grand
+  Years-- Suggestions for Laying down Champagnes of Grand Vintages--
+  The Improvement they Develop after a few Years-- The Wine of 1874--
+  The proper kind of Cellar to lay down Champagne in-- Advantages of
+  Burrow's Patent Slider Wine Bins-- Increase in the Consumption of
+  Champagne-- Tabular Statement of Stocks, Exports, and Home
+  Consumption from 1844-5 to 1877-8-- When to Serve Champagne at a
+  Dinner Party-- Charles Dickens's dictum that its proper place is at
+  a Ball-- Advantageous Effect of Champagne at an ordinary British
+  Dinner Party-- Sparkling Wine Cups.
+
+
+When selecting a sparkling wine one fact should be borne in mind--that
+just as, according to Sam Weller, it is the seasoning which makes the
+pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine
+dry or sweet, light or strong. A really palatable dry champagne,
+emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine
+quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best
+_vin brut_, to which necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of
+liqueur will be added. On the other hand, a sweet champagne can be
+produced from the most ordinary raw wine--the Yankees even claim to have
+evolved it from petroleum--as the amount of liqueur it receives
+completely masks its original character and flavour. This excess of
+syrup, it should be remarked, contributes materially to the wine's
+explosive force and temporary effervescence, but shortly after the
+bottle has been uncorked the wine becomes disagreeably flat. A fine dry
+wine, indebted as it is for its sparkling properties to the natural
+sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent
+effervescence. It continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after
+being poured into the glass owing to the carbonic acid having been
+absorbed by the wine itself instead of being accumulated in the vacant
+space between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that
+have been highly liqueured. Even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted
+a good champagne will preserve its fine flavour, which the effervescence
+will have assisted to conceal. Champagne, it should be noted, sparkles
+best in tall tapering glasses; still these have their disadvantages,
+promoting as they do an excess of froth when the wine is poured into
+them, and almost preventing any bouquet which the wine possesses from
+being recognised.
+
+Manufacturers of champagne and other sparkling wines prepare them dry or
+sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are
+designed. The sweet wines go to Russia and Germany, the sweet-toothed
+Muscovite regarding M. Louis Roederer's syrupy product as the
+_beau-idéal_ of champagne, and the Germans demanding wines with 20 or
+more per cent. of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quantity that is
+contained in the average champagnes shipped to England. France consumes
+light and moderately sweet wines; the United States gives a preference
+to the intermediate qualities; China, India, and other hot countries
+stipulate for light dry wines; while the very strong ones go to
+Australia, the Cape, and other places where gold and diamonds and
+such-like trifles are from time to time "prospected." Not merely the
+driest but the very best wines of the best manufacturers, and commanding
+of course the highest prices, are invariably reserved for the English
+market. Foreigners cannot understand the marked preference shown in
+England for exceedingly dry sparkling wines. They do not consider that
+as a rule they are drunk during dinner with the _plats_, and not at
+dessert, with all kinds of sweets, fruits, and ices, as is almost
+invariably the case abroad.
+
+Good champagne is usually of a pale straw colour, but with nothing of a
+yellow tinge about it. When its tint is pinkish this is owing to a
+portion of the colouring matter having been extracted from the skins of
+the grapes--a contingency which every pains are taken to avoid,
+although, since the success achieved by the wine of 1874, slightly pink
+wines are likely to be the fashion. The positive pink or rose-coloured
+champagnes, such as were in fashion some thirty years ago, are simply
+tinted with a small quantity of deep red wine. The alcoholic strength of
+the drier wines ranges from 18° of proof spirit upwards, or slightly
+above the ordinary Bordeaux, and under all the better-class Rhine wines.
+Champagnes when loaded with a highly alcoholized liqueur will, however,
+at times mark 30 degrees of proof spirit. The lighter and drier the
+sparkling wine the more wholesome it is, the saccharine element in
+conjunction with alcohol being not only difficult of digestion, but
+generally detrimental to health.
+
+The faculty are agreed that fine dry champagnes are among the safest
+wines that can be partaken of. Any intoxicating effects are rapid but
+exceedingly transient, and arise from the alcohol suspended in the
+carbonic acid being applied rapidly and extensively to the surface of
+the stomach. "Champagne," said Curran, "simply gives a runaway rap at a
+man's head." Dr. Druitt, equally distinguished by his studies upon wine
+and his standing as a physician, pronounces good champagne to be "a true
+stimulant to body and mind alike, rapid, volatile, transitory, and
+harmless. Amongst the maladies which are benefited by it," remarks he,
+"is the true neuralgia, intermitting fits of excruciating pain running
+along certain nerves, without inflammation of the affected part, often a
+consequence of malaria, or of some other low and exhausting causes. To
+enumerate the cases in which champagne is of service would be to give a
+whole nosology. Who does not know the misery, the helplessness of that
+abominable ailment, influenza, whether a severe cold or the genuine
+epidemic? Let the faculty dispute about the best remedy if they please;
+but a sensible man with a bottle of champagne will beat them all.
+Moreover, whenever there is pain, with exhaustion and lowness, then
+Dr. Champagne should be had up. There is something excitant in the wine;
+doubly so in the sparkling wine, which the moment it touches the lips
+sends an electric telegram of comfort to every remote nerve. Nothing
+comforts and rests the stomach better, or is a greater antidote to
+nausea."
+
+Champagne of fine quality should never be mixed with ice or iced water;
+neither should it be iced to the extent champagnes ordinarily are, for,
+in the first place, the natural lightness of the wine is such as not to
+admit of its being diluted without utterly spoiling it, and in the next,
+excessive cold destroys alike the fragrant bouquet of the wine and its
+delicate vinous flavour. Really good champagne should not be iced below
+a temperature of 50° Fahr., whereas exceedingly sweet wines will bear
+icing down almost to freezing point, and be rendered more palatable by
+the process. The above remarks apply to all kinds of sparkling wine.
+
+In the Champagne what may be termed a really grand vintage commonly
+occurs only once, and never more than twice, in ten years. During the
+same period, however, there will generally be one or two other tolerably
+good vintages. In grand years the crop, besides being of superior
+quality, is usually abundant, and as a consequence the price of the raw
+wine is scarcely higher than usual. Apparently from this circumstance
+the sparkling wine of grand vintages does not command an enhanced value,
+as is the case with other fine wines. It is only when speculators
+recklessly outbid each other for the grapes or the _vin brut_, or when
+stocks are low and the _vin brut_ is really scarce, that the price of
+champagne appears to rise.
+
+That superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by the
+amounts paid for the Ay and Verzenay crûs in years of grand vintages.
+During the present century these appear to have been 1802, '06, '11,
+'18, '22, '25, '34, '42, '46, '57, '65, '68, and '74--that is, thirteen
+grand vintages in nearly eighty years. Other good vintages, although not
+equal to the foregoing, occurred in the years 1815, '32, '39, '52, '54,
+'58, '62, '64, and '70. Confining ourselves to the grand years, we find
+that the Ay wine of 1834, owing to the crop being plentiful as well as
+good, only realised from 110 to 140 francs the pièce of 44 gallons,
+although for two years previously this had fetched from 150 to 200
+francs. In 1842 the price ranged from 120 to 150 francs, whereas the
+vastly inferior wine of the year before had commanded from 210 to 275
+francs. In 1846, the crop being a small one, the price of the wine rose,
+and in 1857 the pièce fetched as much as from 480 to 500 francs, still
+this was merely a trifle higher than it had realised the two preceding
+years. In 1865 the price was 380 to 400 francs, and in 1868 about the
+same, whereas the indifferent vintages of 1871, '72, and '73 realised
+from 500 to 1,000 francs the pièce. It was very similar with the wine of
+Verzenay. In 1834 the price of the pièce ranged from 280 to 325 francs,
+or about the average of the three preceding years. In 1846, the crop
+being scarce, the price rose considerably, while in 1857, when the crop
+was plentiful, it fell to 500 francs, or from 5 to 20 per cent. below
+that of the two previous years, when the yield was both inferior and
+less abundant. In 1865 the price rose 33 per cent. above that of the
+year before; still, although Verzenay wine of 1865 and 1868 fetched from
+420 to 450 francs the pièce, and that of 1874 as much as 900 francs, the
+greatly inferior vintages of 1872-73 commanded 900 and 1,030 francs the
+pièce.
+
+Consumers of champagne, if wise, would profit by the circumstance that
+quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, and if they were
+bent upon drinking their favourite wine in perfection, as one meets with
+it at the dinner-tables of the principal manufacturers, who only put old
+wine of grand vintages before their guests, they would lay down
+champagnes of good years in the same way as the choicer vintages of
+port, burgundy, and bordeaux are laid down. Champagne of 1874 was a wine
+of this description, with all its finer vinous qualities well developed,
+and consequently needing age to attain not merely the roundness but the
+refinement of flavour pertaining to a high-class sparkling wine. Instead
+of being drunk a few months after it was shipped in the spring and
+summer of 1877, as was the fate of much of the wine in question, it
+needed being kept for three years at the very least to become even
+moderately round and perfect. In the Champagne one had many
+opportunities of tasting the grander vintages that had arrived at ten,
+twelve, or fifteen years of age, and had thereby attained supreme
+excellence. It is true their effervescence had moderated materially, but
+their bouquet and flavour were perfect, and their softness and delicacy
+something marvellous.
+
+A great wine like that of 1874 will go on improving for ten years,
+providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. These are,
+first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of
+which should be as low as from 50° to 55° Fahr., or even lower if this
+is practicable. The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light,
+scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be
+continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their
+sides to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the
+carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down champagne
+or any kind of sparkling wine an iron wine-bin is by far the best.
+I much prefer the patent "slider" bins made by Messrs. W. and J. Burrow,
+of Malvern, they being better adapted to the purpose than any other I am
+acquainted with. In these the bottles rest on horizontal parallel bars
+of wrought-iron, securely riveted into strong wrought-iron uprights,
+both at the back and in front. The bins can be obtained of any
+size--that is, to hold as few as two or as many as forty dozen--and they
+can be had furnished with lattice doors, secured by a lock. One great
+advantage is that with them there is no waste of space, for individual
+compartments can be at once refilled with fresh bottles after the other
+bottles have been removed. These "slider" bins are especially adapted
+for laying down champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely
+around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil
+round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and
+equable.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration:
+  WINE-CELLAR FITTED WITH BURROW'S PATENT SLIDER BINS.]
+
+When binning the wine the bottles are held by their necks and slid into
+their places with such ease and safety that a child might be entrusted
+with the work. The bottles can be withdrawn from the bin with equal or
+even greater facility. Breakage is avoided from each bottle having an
+independent bearing, which prevents the upper bottles from either
+falling or weighing down upon those below, and thereby crashing
+together. The larger engraving shows a wine-cellar fitted up entirely
+with. Burrow's patent "slider" wine-bins, while the smaller represents a
+bin adapted to laying down twenty dozens of champagne, and the
+dimensions of which are merely 5 feet 8 inches by 3 feet.
+
+Official Return by the Chamber of Commerce at Reims of The Trade in
+Champagne Wines From April, 1844, To April, 1878.
+
+                                   Number of    Number of   Total number
+  Years, from     Manufacturers'   Bottles    Bottles sold  of Bottles
+  April to April.     Stocks.      Exported.    in France.      Sold.
+
+  1844-45           23,285,218     4,380,214     2,255,438    6,635,652
+  1845-46           22,847,971     4,505,308     2,510,605    7,015,913
+  1846-47           18,815,367     4,711,915     2,355,366    7,067,281
+  1847-48           23,122,994     4,859,625     2,092,571    6,952,196
+  1848-49           21,290,185     5,686,484     1,473,966    7,160,450
+  1849-50           20,499,192     5,001,044     1,705,735    6,706,779
+  1850-51           20,444,915     5,866,971     2,122,569    7,989,540
+  1851-52           21,905,479     5,957,552     2,162,880    8,120,432
+  1852-53           19,376,967     6,355,574     2,385,217    8,740,790
+  1853-54           17,757,769     7,878,320     2,528,719   10,407,039
+  1854-55           20,922,959     6,895,773     2,452,743    9,348,516
+  1855-56           15,957,141     7,137,001     2,562,039    9,699,040
+  1856-57           15,228,294     8,490,198     2,468,818   10,959,016
+  1857-58           21,628,778     7,368,310     2,421,454    9,789,764
+  1858-59           28,328,251     7,666,633     2,805,416   10,472,049
+  1859-60           35,648,124     8,265,395     3,039,621   11,305,016
+  1860-61           30,235,260     8,488,223     2,697,508   11,185,731
+  1861-62           30,254,291     6,904,915     2,592,875    9,497,790
+  1862-63           28,013,189     7,937,836     2,767,371   10,705,207
+  1863-64           28,466,975     9,851,138     2,934,996   12,786,134
+  1864-65           33,298,672     9,101,441     2,801,626   11,903,067
+  1865-66           34,175,429    10,413,455     2,782,777   13,196,132
+  1866-67           37,608,716    10,283,886     3,218,343   13,502,229
+  1867-68           37,969,219    10,876,585     2,924,268   13,800,853
+  1868-69           32,490,881    12,810,194     3,104,496   15,914,690
+  1869-70           39,272,562    13,858,839     3,628,461   17,487,300
+  1870-71           39,984,003     7,544,323     1,633,941    9,178,264
+  1871-72           40,099,243    17,001,124     3,367,537   20,368,661
+  1872-73           45,329,490    18,917,779     3,464,059   22,381,838
+  1873-74           46,573,974    18,106,310     2,491,759   20,598,069
+  1874-75           52,733,674    15,318,345     3,517,182   18,835,527
+  1875-76           64,658,767    16,705,719     2,439,762   19,145,481
+  1876-77           71,398,726    15,882,964     3,127,991   19,010,955
+  1877-78           70,183,863    15,711,651     2,450,983   18,162,634
+
+From the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption of
+champagne has almost trebled since the year 1844-5, a period of little
+more than thirty years. Another curious fact to note is the immense
+increase in the exports of the wine during the three years following the
+Franco-German war, when naturally both the exports and home consumption
+of champagne fell off very considerably. No reliable information is
+available as to the actual quantity of champagne consumed yearly in
+England, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four millions
+of bottles. The consumption of the wine in the United States varies from
+rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million bottles
+annually.
+
+Distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment
+when champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. Dyspeptic
+Mr. Walker, of "The Original," laid it down that champagne ought to be
+introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the
+viands it may chance to accompany. "Give champagne," he says, "at the
+beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the
+guests, after which they will seldom flag. No other wine produces an
+equal effect in increasing the success of a party--it invariably turns
+the balance to the favourable side. When champagne goes rightly nothing
+can well go wrong." These precepts are sound enough, still all
+dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not
+invariably mutes. Before champagne can be properly introduced at a
+formal dinner the conventional glass of sherry or madeira should
+supplement the soup, a white French or a Rhine wine accompany the fish,
+and a single glass of bordeaux prepare the way with the first _entrée_
+for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two, should be
+served, briskly and liberally. A wine introduced thus early at the
+repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate, moderately so.
+
+We certainly do not approve of Mr. Charles Dickens's dictum that
+champagne's proper place is not at the dinner-table, but solely at a
+ball. "A cavalier," he said, "may appropriately offer at propitious
+intervals a glass now and then to his danceress. There it takes its
+fitting rank and position amongst feathers, gauzes, lace, embroidery,
+ribbons, white satin, shoes, and eau-de-Cologne, for champagne is simply
+one of the elegant extras of life." This is all very well, still the
+advantageous effect of sparkling wine at an ordinary British
+dinner-party, composed as it frequently is of people pitchforked
+together in accordance with the exigencies of the hostess's
+visiting-list, cannot be gainsayed. After the preliminary glowering at
+each other, _more Britannico_, in the drawing-room, everybody regards it
+as a relief to be summoned to the repast, which, however, commences as
+chillily as the soup and as stolidly as the salmon. The soul of the
+hostess is heavy with the anxiety of prospective dishes, the brow of the
+host is clouded with the reflection that our rulers are bent upon
+dragging us into war. Placed between a young lady just out and a dowager
+of grimly Gorgonesque aspect, you hesitate how to open a conversation.
+Your first attempts, like those of the Russian batteries on the Danube,
+are singularly ineffectual, only eliciting a dropping fire of
+monosyllables. You envy the placidly languid young gentleman opposite,
+limp as his fast-fading camellia, and seated next to Belle Breloques,
+who is certain, in racing parlance, to make the running for him. But
+even that damsel seems preoccupied with her fan, and, despite her
+_aplomb_, hesitates to break the icy silence. The two City friends of
+the host are lost in mute speculation as to the future price of indigo
+or Ionian Bank shares, while their wives seem to be mentally summarising
+the exact cost of each other's toilettes. Their daughters, or somebody
+else's daughters, are desperately jerking out monosyllabic responses to
+feeble remarks concerning the weather, lawn tennis, operatic
+_débutantes_, the gravel in the Row, the ill-health of the Princess, and
+kindred topics from a couple of F.O. men. Little Snapshot, the wit, on
+the other side of the Gorgon, has tried to lead up to a story, but has
+found himself, as it were, frozen in the bud. When lo! the butler softly
+sibillates in your ear the magic word "champagne," and as it flows,
+creaming and frothing, into your glass, a change comes over the spirit
+of your vision.
+
+The hostess brightens, the host coruscates. The young lady on your right
+suddenly develops into a charming girl, with becoming appreciation of
+your pet topics and an astounding aptness for repartee. The Gorgon
+thaws, and implores Mr. Snapshot, whose jests are popping as briskly as
+the corks, not to be so dreadfully funny, or he will positively kill
+her. Belle Breloques can always talk, and now her tongue rattles faster
+than ever, till the languid one arouses himself like a giant refreshed,
+and gives her as good as he gets. The City men expatiate in cabalistic
+language on the merits of some mysterious speculation, the prospective
+returns from which increase with each fresh bottle. One of their wives
+is discussing the E.C.U. and the S.S.C. with a hitherto silent curate,
+and the other is jabbering botany to a red-faced warrior. The juniors
+are in full swing, and ripples of silvery laughter rise in accompaniment
+to the beaded bubbles all round the table. And all this is due to
+champagne, that great unloosener not merely of tongues but of
+purse-strings, as is well known to the secretaries of those charitable
+institutions which set the wine flowing earliest at their anniversary
+dinners.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few recipes for sparkling wine cups gathered from various sources will
+conclude our work. Not having personally tested these we leave the
+responsibility of them to their respective authors--Soyer, Tovey,
+Terrington ("Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks"), &c.--premising that it is
+the merest folly to use a high-class champagne or a fine sparkling hock
+for a beverage of this description. Sparkling saumur, or the
+newly-introduced sparkling sauternes, and the cheaper hocks and
+moselles, will do equally well at a greatly reduced cost. In all cases,
+too, the kind of liqueur, the amount of sugar, and the flavouring with
+borage, verbena, pine-apple, or cucumber, may be varied to suit
+individual tastes. For soda or seltzer water we have invariably
+substituted Apollinaris, which is far better adapted for effervescent
+drinks of this description by reason of its purity and softness, its
+freedom from any distinct flavour, and above all its powerful natural
+effervescence.
+
+Soyer's elaborate recipe for champagne cup for a large party is as
+follows:--
+
+  Prepare three ounces of oleo-saccharine by rubbing some lumps of
+  sugar against the outside of a lemon or Seville orange and scraping
+  away the sugar as it absorbs the essential oil contained in the rind
+  of the fruit. Put the oleo-saccharine with the juice of four lemons
+  in a vessel, add a quart bottle of Apollinaris water (Soyer says
+  soda-water, but Apollinaris is certainly preferable), and stir well
+  together until the sugar is dissolved. Then pour in one quart of
+  syrup of orgeat and whip the mixture up well with an egg whisk in
+  order to whiten it. Next add a pint of cognac brandy, a quarter of a
+  pint of Jamaica rum and half a pint of maraschino; strain the whole
+  into a bowl, adding plenty of pounded ice if the weather is warm,
+  and pour in three bottles of champagne, stirring the mixture well
+  with the ladle while doing so in order to render the cup creamy and
+  mellow.
+
+A less potent and pretentious beverage, and better suited for a summer
+drink, is the subjoined:--
+
+  Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar in a quart of
+  Apollinaris water. Add a wineglass of curaçoa, a sprig of green
+  borage or a couple of slices of cucumber with the juice and fine
+  shavings of the outside peel of a lemon, and a pound of bruised ice.
+  After the whole has been well stirred pour in the champagne and
+  serve.
+
+Other recipes are as follows:--
+
+  Prepare an ounce of oleo-saccharine, add to it a large wineglass of
+  maraschino, a liqueur glass of cognac, and the juice of half a
+  lemon. Mix well together, and add several slices of pine-apple, and
+  a large lump or two of ice. On to this pour first a large bottle of
+  Apollinaris water, and next a bottle of sparkling wine.
+
+  Mix with the contents of a bottle of chablis or sauternes a liqueur
+  glass of chartreuse and a tablespoonful or two of powdered loaf
+  sugar. When the latter is dissolved throw in a pound and a half of
+  pounded ice and a sprig of borage. Pour over these a quart of
+  Apollinaris water and a bottle of sparkling saumur. For the chablis
+  or sauternes half a bottle of light claret may be substituted.
+
+  To a gill of good pale sherry add a liqueur glass of maraschino and
+  a few lumps of sugar which have been well rubbed over the rind of a
+  Seville orange, the juice of which is also to be added to the
+  mixture. After the sugar is dissolved throw in a sprig of borage or
+  a slice or two of cucumber and some pounded ice. Then add a quart
+  bottle of Apollinaris water and a bottle of champagne or some other
+  sparkling wine.
+
+The following cup for a party of twenty is said to be of Russian
+inspiration:--
+
+  Pour on to some sprigs of borage or a few slices of cucumber a pint
+  of sherry and half a pint of brandy, then rub off the fine outside
+  peel of a lemon with a few lumps of sugar, and add these with the
+  strained juice of the lemon and of three oranges. Pour into the
+  mixture half a pint of curaçoa, a wineglass of noyau, a couple of
+  bottles of German seltzer-water, three bottles of soda-water, and
+  three bottles of champagne. Sweeten and ice to taste.
+
+Here is a recipe for a cup made with chablis and sparkling red
+burgundy:--
+
+  With a bottle of chablis mix a liqueur-glass of chartreuse and then
+  dissolve in it some powdered sugar. Add two pounds of ice in largish
+  lumps, a slice or two of cucumber, and a sprig of lemon-scented
+  verbena, or substitute for these a few slices of pine-apple. Pour in
+  a quart bottle of Apollinaris water, mix well together, and add a
+  bottle of sparkling burgundy just before serving.
+
+The following refer to sparkling hock and moselle cups:--
+
+  To a bottle of sparkling hock add a quarter of a pint of lemon water
+  ice and a liqueur glass of pine-apple syrup. After mixing them add a
+  slice of cucumber, a lump or two of ice, and a bottle of Apollinaris
+  water.
+
+  Add to the strained juice of a couple of lemons an ounce and a half
+  or more of powdered loaf sugar and a wineglass of maraschino. Mix
+  well, and pour in a couple of bottles of iced sparkling hock and a
+  large bottle of iced Apollinaris water.
+
+  Dissolve a couple of ounces of sugar in a gill of dry sherry, add
+  the thin peel of half an orange, a few slices of pine-apple,
+  peaches, or apricots, with some pounded ice, and then pour in a
+  bottle of sparkling moselle and a bottle of Apollinaris water.
+
+  With half a pint of lemon water ice mix a bottle of iced sparkling
+  moselle, add a few drops of elder-flower water and a bottle of iced
+  Apollinaris water. Instead of the lemon ice half the quantity of
+  pine-apple ice may be used with the juice of half a lemon, and the
+  elder-flower water may be dispensed with.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCIPAL SPARKLING WINE BRANDS.
+
+*** _In this list whenever a manufacturer has various qualities the
+higher qualities are always placed first._
+
+  [Transcriber's Note:
+
+  In the original text the tables were laid out in four columns:
+    _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._ [Impress of Cork Design]
+    _Qualities._
+    _On side of Corks._
+  For this e-text, the table has been changed to a list format, with
+  the columns represented by levels of indentation. The "Brands" are
+  indicated by the bracketed word [Cork]; the "Side of Cork" text--if
+  any--is given in the same line as its associated Quality.
+
+  The book included an errata sheet for the tables. It is shown here
+  immediately after the tables themselves. The changes and corrections
+  listed have _not_ been made in the text.]
+
+
++CHAMPAGNES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+    _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  AYALA & CO., Ay
+  Ayala, 7, Little Tower Street, London
+  Rinck & Unger, 50, Park Place, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Extra.
+    Carte Noire / Première.
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+
+  BINET FILS & CO., Reims
+  Rutherford & Browne, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London.
+    [Cork]
+    Extra
+    First
+    Second / Binet fils & Cie. [_all varieties_]
+
+  BOLLINGER, J., Ay
+  L. Mentzendorf, 6, Idol Lane, London.
+  E. and J. Burke, 40, Beaver Street, New York.
+    [Cork]
+    Very Dry Extra / Very Dry Extra quality.
+    Dry Extra / Dry Extra quality.
+
+  BRUCH-FOUCHER & CO., Mareuil
+  L. Ehrmann, 34, Gt. Tower Street, London.
+    [Cork]
+    Carte D'Or
+    First
+    Second
+
+  CLICQUOT-PONSARDIN, Veuve, Reims (WERLE & CO.)
+  Fenwick, Parrot, & Co., 124, Fenchurch Street, London.
+  Schmidt Bros., New York.
+    [Cork]
+    Dry
+    Rich / England. [_both varieties_]
+
+  DE CAZANOVE, C., Avize
+  J. R. Hunter, 46, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Extra / Extra qualité.
+    First
+    Second
+    Third
+    Fourth
+    [Cork]
+    Fifth
+
+  DEUTZ & GELDERMANN, Ay
+  J. R. Parkington & Co., 21, Crutched Friars, London.
+    [Cork]
+    Gold Lack (Extra Dry and Dry) / Gold Lack.
+    Cabinet (Extra Dry and Dry) / Cabinet.
+
+  DUCHATEL-OHAUS, Reims
+  Woellworth & Co., 70, Mark Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche (Dry and Rich)
+    Verzenay (Dry and Rich)
+    Sillery (Dry and Rich)
+
+  DUMINY & CO., Ay
+  Mogford, Courtenay, & Co., 16, Mark Lane, London
+  Anthony Oechs, New Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Extra / Maison fondée en 1814. [_both brands_]
+    [Cork]
+    First / Maison fondée en 1814. [_both brands_]
+
+  FARRE, CHARLES, Reims
+  Hornblower & Co., 50, Mark Lane, London
+  Gilmore & Gibson, Baltimore
+  Mel & Sons, San Francisco
+    [Cork]
+    Cabinet (Grand Vin) / Cabinet Grand Vin.
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Carte Blanche.
+    Carte Noire / Carte Noire.
+    [Cork]
+    Sillery Sec / Sillery Sec.
+    [Cork]
+    Sillery / Sillery.
+    [Cork]
+    Ay Mousseux / Ay.
+
+  FISSE, THIRION, & Co., Reims
+  Stallard and Smith, 25, Philpot Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Cachet d'Or (Extra Dry and Medium Dry) / Cachet d'Or.
+    Carte Blanche (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich) / Carte Blanche.
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Noire (Dry and Medium Dry). / Carte Noire.
+
+  GIBERT, GUSTAVE, Reims
+  Cock, Russell, & Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London
+  Hays & Co., 40, Day Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Vin du Roi
+    [Cork]
+    Extra
+    [Cork]
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+  All these wines are prepared Extra Dry, Dry, or Rich.
+
+  GIESLER & CO., Avize
+  F. Giesler & Co., 32, Fenchurch Street, London.
+  Purdy & Nicholas, 43, Beaver Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Extra Superior
+    India / India.
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+
+  HEIDSIECK & CO., Reims.
+  Theodor Satow & Co., 141, Fenchurch Street, London
+  Schmidt & Peters, 20, Beaver Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Dry Monopole.
+    Monopole (Rich)
+    Dry Vin Royal
+    Grand Vin Royal (Rich)
+
+  IRROY, ERNEST, Reims.
+  Cuddeford & Smith, 66, Mark Lane, London
+  O. de Saye, 18, South William Street, New York
+  W. E. Hepp, 101, Gravier Street, New Orleans
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d'Or, Dry / Carte d'Or, Sec.
+    Carte d'Or / Carte d'Or.
+
+  KRUG & Co., Reims
+  Inglis and Cunningham, 60, Mark Lane, London
+  A. Rocherau & Co., New York
+  Hillman Bros. & Co., San Francisco
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Carte Blanche, England.
+    Private Cuvée / Private Cuvée, England.
+    [Cork]
+    First / England.
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+
+  MOËT & CHANDON, Epernay
+  Simon & Dale, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London, Agents
+      for Great Britain and the Colonies
+  Renauld, François, & Co., 23, Beaver Street, New York
+  J. Hope & Co., Montreal
+    [Cork]
+    Brut / Imperial, England.
+    Creaming / Creaming, England.
+    Extra Superior / Extra Superior, England.
+    Extra Dry Sillery
+    White Dry Sillery / White Dry, England.
+    [Cork]
+    First Quality / England.
+    Second Quality
+
+  MONTEBELLO, DUC DE, Mareuil-sur-Ay
+  John Hopkins & Co., 26, Crutched Friars, London
+  Cazade, Crooks, & Reynaud, 25, South William St., N.Y.
+    [Cork]
+    Cuvée Extra / Cuvée Extra.
+    Carte Blanche / Reserve.
+    Carte Bleue / Cte. Bleue.
+    Carte Noire / Cte. Noire.
+
+  MUMM, G. H., & CO., Reims
+  W. J. and T. Welch, 10, Corn Exchange Chambers, Seething Lane, London
+  F. de Bary & Co., 41 and 43, Warren Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Cuvée Extra.
+    Extra Dry / Extra Dry.
+    Extra / Extra.
+    First / First.
+    _For America only._
+    Cordon Rouge / Cordon Rouge.
+    Extra Dry / Extra Dry.
+    Dry Verzenay / Dry Verzenay.
+
+  MUMM, JULES, & CO., Reims
+  Jules Mumm & Co., 3 & 4, Mark Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Extra Dry
+    Dry
+
+  PÉRINET & FILS, Reims
+  John Barnett & Son, 36, Mark Lane, London
+  Wood, Pollard, & Co., Boston, U.S.
+  Hooper and Donaldson, San Francisco
+    [Cork]
+    Cuvée Réservée (Extra Dry) / Cuvée Reservée.
+    White Dry Sillery / White Dry Sillery.
+
+  PERRIER-JOUËT & CO., Epernay
+  A. Boursot & Co., 9, Hart Street, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Cuvée de Réserve / Extra
+    Pale Dry Creaming
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+
+  PIPER, H., & CO., Reims (KUNKELMANN & CO.)
+  W. Foster Newton & Son, 3, Maiden Lane, E.C., London
+  John Osborn, Son, & Co., New York and Montreal
+    [Cork]
+    Très-Sec (Extra Dry) / Kunkelmann & Co. [_all varieties_]
+    Sec (Very Dry)
+    Carte Blanche (Rich)
+
+  PFUNGST FRÈRES & CIE., Ay, Epernay
+  J. L. Pfungst & Co., 23, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d'Or (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut) / Carte d'Or.
+    Sillery Crêmant (Extra Dry and Brut) / Sillery Crêmant.
+    Carte Noire (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut) / Carte Noire.
+    Cordon Blanc (Full, Dry, and Extra Dry) / Cordon Blanc.
+
+  POL ROGER & CO., Epernay
+  Reuss, Lauteren, & Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Vin Réservé.
+
+  POMMERY, VEUVE, Reims (POMMERY & GRENO)
+  A. Hubinet, 24, Mark Lane, London
+  Charles Graef, 65, Broad Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Extra Sec (Vin Brut) / Veuve Pommery.
+    [Cork]
+    Sec
+
+  ROEDERER, LOUIS, Reims
+  Grainger & Son, 108, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Blanche / Reims, Carte Blanche, Gt.-Britain.
+
+  ROEDERER, THÉOPHILE, & CO., MAISON FONDÉE EN 1861, Reims
+  Théophile Roederer & Co., 150, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Crystal Champagne, Special Cuvée / Special Cuvée.
+    Extra Reserve / Cuvée / Reserve Cuvée.
+    Extra Superior Carte Blanche Dorée / Carte Blanche Dorée
+    Extra Quality Carte Blanche / Carte Blanche.
+    First Quality Carte Noire / Carte Noire.
+    Verzenay / Verzenay.
+
+  ROUSSILLON, J., & CO., Epernay
+  J. Roussillon & Co., 15, New Broad Street, London
+  D. St. Amant & Son, 13, South William Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    First Cuvée
+    Second Cuvée
+    Dry Verzenay
+    Sillery Sec / 1874 Extra Sec.
+
+
+  RUINART, PÈRE ET FILS, Reims
+  Ruinart, Père et Fils, 22, St. Swithin's Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Anglaise
+    Dry Pale Crêmant
+    Extra Dry Sparkling
+    Carte Blanche First
+
+  DE SAINT-MARCEAUX & CO., Reims
+  Groves &, Co., 5, Mark Lane, London
+  Hermann Batjer & Bro., New York
+    [Cork]
+    Vin Brut
+    Carte d'Or (Extra Dry) / Very dry.
+    Bouzy Nonpareil (Dry) / Vin Sec.
+    Carte Blanche (Medium)
+    [Cork]
+    Second (Medium)
+    [Cork]
+    Third (_id._)
+    _For America only._
+    Dry Royal
+
+
++SAUMUR AND SAUTERNES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+    _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  ACKERMAN-LAURANCE, St. Florent, Saumur
+  J. N. Bishop, 41, Crutched Friars, London
+  Timothy Stevens, 29, Beaver Street, New York
+  Chapin and Gore, 70, Monroe Street, Chicago
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d'Or / Carte d'Or.
+    Carte Rose / Carte Rose.
+    Carte Bleue / Carte Bleue.
+    Carte Noire / Carte Noire.
+
+  DUVAU, LOUIS, Aîné, Château de Varrains, Saumur
+  Jolivet and Canney, 3, Idol Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d'Or, Extra Superior
+    Carte d'Argent, Extra
+    Carte Blanche, Superior
+    Carte Rose, Ordinary
+
+  LORRAIN, JULES, Château De la Côte, Varrains, near Saumur
+  J. Lorrain, 73, Great Tower Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d'Or
+    Carte Blanche
+    Carte Rose
+    Carte Bleue
+
+  ROUSTEAUX, A., St. Florent, Saumur
+  Cock, Russell, & Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London
+  I. H. Smith's Sons, Peck Slip, New York
+  Law, Young, & Co., Montreal
+    [Cork]
+    Extra
+    [Cork]
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+    Sparkling Vouvray, Superior
+    Sparkling Vouvray
+
+  NORMANDIN, E., & CO., Châteauneuf-sur-Charente
+  P. A. Maignen, 22, Great Tower Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Sauternes (Extra Dry)
+    Sparkling Sauternes (Dry)
+
+
++BURGUNDIES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+    _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  ANDRÉ & VOILLOT, Beaune
+  Cock, Russell, & Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London
+  P. W. Engs and Sons, 131, Front Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    Romanée (White)
+    Nuits (do.)
+    Volnay (do.)
+    Saint-Péray
+    Pink and Red Wines
+
+  LATOUR, LOUIS, Beaune
+  Reuss, Lauteren, & Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Romanée (White)
+    Nuits (do.)
+    Volnay (do.)
+    Saint-Péray (do.)
+    Chambertin (Red)
+    Nuits (do.)
+    Volnay (do.)
+
+  LIGER-BELAIR, COMTE, Nuits and Vôsne
+  Fenwick, Parrot, & Co., 124, Fenchurch Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Carte d'Or (White)
+    Carte Noire (do.)
+    Carte Verte (do.)
+    Carte Noire (Red)
+    Carte Blanche (do.)
+
+
++HOCKS AND MOSELLES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+      _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  DEINHARD & CO., Coblenz
+  Deinhard & Co., 6, Idol Lane, London
+  H. G. Schmidt & Co., 38, Beaver Street, New York
+    [Cork]
+    First
+    [Cork]
+    Second
+    [Cork]
+    Third
+
+  EWALD & CO., Rudesheim-on-Rhine
+  Simon and Dale, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Hock
+    Nonpareil (Extra Dry and Dry)
+    Sparkling Moselle Muscatel Nonp. (Dry)
+    Sparkling Moselle (Nonp.)
+    Scharzberg (Dry)
+
+  HOCHHEIM ASSOCIATION, Hochheim-on-Maine
+  F. Class & Co., 31, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling and Creaming Johannisberg
+    Hochheim First (White or Red)
+    Do. Second (do.)
+    Do. Third (do.)
+    Do. Fourth (do.)
+  Hocks and Moselles
+    Nonpareil
+    First
+    Second
+    Third
+    [Cork]
+    Fourth
+
+  KESSLER, G. C., & CO., Esslingen
+  George Saurmann, 7, Cross Lane, St. Mary-at-Hill, London
+    [Cork]
+    Kaiser Wein
+    Sparkling Hock
+    Do. Neckar
+
+  LAUTEREN, C. SOHN, Mayence
+  Reuss, Lauteren, & Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Johannisberg
+    Hock No. 1
+    Do. No. 2
+    Do. No. 3
+    Moselle, Dry, No. 1
+    Do. No. 2
+    Do. No. 3
+    Moselle, Muscatel, No. 1
+    Do. No. 2
+    Do. No. 3
+
+  MÜLLER, MATHEUS, Eltville
+  M. Muller, 15, Philpot Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Flower of Sparkling Johannisberg
+    Sparkling Johannisberg
+    Pearl of the Moselle
+    Extra Superior Moselle
+    Nonpareil Sparkling Moselle
+    Nonpareil Sparkling Hock
+    Fine Sparkling do.
+    Fine Sparkling Moselle
+    Sparkling Assmannshäuser, Superior (Red)
+    Sparkling Assmannshäuser (do.)
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling Hock (Ordinary)
+    Sparkling Moselle (do.)
+
+  OPPMANN, MICHAEL, Würzburg
+    [Cork]
+    Franconia Wine:
+    Nonpareil
+    Stein Wine
+    Blue Label
+    White Label
+    Sparkling Moselle, First
+    Do. do., Second
+    Do. Hock, First
+    Do. do., Second
+
+  SILIGMÜLLER, F. A., Würzburg
+    [Cork]
+    Cabinet / Cabinet.
+    Carte d'Or
+    Carte Blanche
+    Carte Noire
+
+  STÖCK, JOS, & SÖHNE, Creuznach
+  John Barnett & Son, 36, Mark Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Johnnnisberg, supr.
+    Scharzberg, do.
+    Johannisberg, ordin.
+    Scharzberg, do.
+    Hock, superior
+    Moselle, do.
+    Hock, ordin.
+    Moselle, do.
+    Red Hock, First
+    Do., Second
+    Do., Third
+    Do., Fourth
+
+
++STYRIAN, HUNGARIAN, AND SWISS WINES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+      _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  KLEINOSCHEG BROTHERS, Graz, Styria
+  Davis and Littlewood, 4 and 5, Botolph Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Dry Pale Styrian Muscat Champagne.
+    Dry Pale Styrian Champagne
+    Sparkling Burgundy (Red)
+
+  HUBERT & HABERMANN, Pressburg, Hungary
+  C. O. Pattenhausen, 40, Great Tower Street, London
+    [Cork]
+    Sparkling White
+    Sparkling Red (Carlovitz)
+
+  DE RIEDMATTEN, DE QUAY, & CIE., Sion, Valais, Switzerland
+    [Cork]
+    Carte Verte, Glacier du Rhône
+    Carte Blanche, Mont-Blanc
+
+
++AMERICAN WINES.+
+
+  _Firms and Wholesale Agents._
+    _Brands._
+      _Qualities._ / _On side of Corks._
+
+  KELLEY'S ISLAND WINE CO., Kelley's Island, Ohio
+    [Cork]
+    Island Queen
+    Nonpareil
+    Carte Blanche
+
+  PLEASANT VALLEY WINE CO., Hammondsport, N.Y.
+    [Cork]
+    Great Western (Dry and Extra Dry)
+    Carte Blanche
+    Pleasant Valley
+    Paris Exposition
+
+  URBANA WINE CO., Hammondsport, N.Y.
+    [Cork]
+    Gold Seal (Extra Dry)
+    Gold Seal
+    Imperial
+    Royal Rose
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  [Author's errata sheet, first part]
+
+_The subjoined corrections are necessary in the following brands
+(See pages 226 and 227):--_
+
+  FISSE, THIRION, & Co., Reims
+  Stallard and Smith, 25, Philpot Lane, London
+    [Cork]
+    Cachet d'Or. (Extra Dry and Medium Dry) / Cachet d'Or.
+    Carte Blanche. (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich) / Carte Blanche.
+    Carte Noire. (Dry and Medium Dry). / Carte Noire.
+  N.B.--The brand on the corks is an _anchor_ instead of an _eagle_.
+
+  GIBERT, GUSTAVE, Reims.
+  Cock, Russell, and Co.'s address is 23, Rood Lane, London.
+
+  GIESLER & CO., Avize.
+  The corks of the firm's Extra Superior quality wine are branded
+  "Extra Superior" on the side.
+
+  IRROY, ERNEST, Reims.
+  The New York agent is F. O. de Luze, 18, South William Street,
+  New York.
+  W. E. Hepp is no longer M. Irroy's agent for New Orleans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  [Author's errata sheet, second part]
+
+  The following are the correct brands of MM. de Saint-Marceaux & Co.:--
+
+  DE SAINT-MARCEAUX & CO., Reims
+  Groves & Co., 5, Mark Lane, London
+  Hermann Bätjer & Bro., New York
+    [Cork]
+    Vin Brut
+    Carte d'Or (Extra Dry) / Very dry.
+    Bouzy Nonpareil (Dry) / Vin Sec.
+    Carte Blanche (Medium)
+    _For America only._
+    Dry Royal
+    [Cork]
+    Second (Medium)
+    [Cork]
+    Third (_id._)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Errata:
+
+Missing or incorrect punctuation in the List of Brands has been silently
+regularized.
+
+Expressions such as "132lbs." were consistently printed without space.
+
+A number of words were printed both with and without umlaut. These have
+generally been left unchanged:
+  Wurzburg / Würzburg
+  Rudesheim / Rüdesheim
+  Muller / Müller (also Siligmüller / -muller)
+Three occurrences of "Moët" were printed without dieresis. It has been
+silently supplied.
+
+
+Table of Contents:
+II.--THE VINTAGE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. ... 20
+  _last digit of page number invisible_
+the future _roues_ of the Regency
+  _accent on "roués" missing in original_
+Baume's aerometer
+  _first "e" in "aerometer" illegible_
+the Champenois winegrowers
+  _printed at midline without usual hyphen_
+Chapter V, first page _through_ "... the bulk of the new-made"
+  _left edge of text missing:_
+    manu/[fac]ture only just... (_at line break_)
+    [en]ds.
+    [res]ervoirs ...
+    [bei]ng allowed ...
+    [for]ty-four gallons ... (_number supplied from other passages_)
+loosens the _agrafe_ securing the cork, Bang goes the latter
+  _comma in original may be intentional_
+from one to three per cent. of liqueur.
+  _text has comma for period_
+St. Marceaux and Co.'s New Establishment
+  _text reads "Co.'"_
+Those magnates of the champagne trade, Messrs. Moët and Chandon
+  _text reads "Mesrs."_
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon give a banquet or a ball
+  _period (full stop) invisible_
+resting familiarly on the maréchal's shoulder
+  _period (full stop) invisible_
+bounded by trees and garden-plats
+  _text unchanged: probably correct_
+the liqueur which Messrs. Giesler add so sparingly
+  _text reads "Griesler"_
+[Illustration:
+THE CELLARS OF M. ACKERMAN-LAURANCE AT SAINT-FLORENT.
+LABELLING AND PACKING SPARKLING SAUMUR. (p. 150.)]
+  _opening parenthesis missing_
+having composed at his mistress's table some doggrel rhymes
+  _spelling unchanged_
+restored Stolzenfels, the historic Königs-stuhl
+  _text reads "Konigs-stuhl"_
+vineyards of Bösing, Geñnau, and St. Georgen
+  _spelling unchanged_
+Societa Unione Enofila
+  _accent missing in original_
+cannot be gainsayed.
+  _spelling unchanged_
+curaçoa
+  _spelling unchanged (two occurrences)_
+
+_List of Brands_POMMERY, VEUVE, Reims
+    _final "s" missing_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts About Champagne and Other
+Sparkling Wines, by Henry Vizetelly
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE ***
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling
+Wines, by Henry Vizetelly
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines
+
+Author: Henry Vizetelly
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2007 [EBook #20889]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<!-- png 001 -->
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic001.jpg" width = "441" height = "286"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE DISGORGING, LIQUEURING, CORKING, STRINGING, AND WIRING OF CHAMPAGNE
+(Frontispiece)</p>
+
+
+<div class = "titlepage">
+
+<!-- png 002 -->
+<h2>FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE</h2>
+
+<h6>AND</h6>
+
+<h3>OTHER SPARKLING WINES,</h3>
+
+<h5>COLLECTED DURING NUMEROUS VISITS TO THE CHAMPAGNE<br>
+AND OTHER VITICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF FRANCE,</h5>
+<h6>AND THE PRINCIPAL REMAINING</h6>
+<h5>WINE-PRODUCING COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.</h5>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6>BY</h6>
+
+<h4>HENRY VIZETELLY,</h4>
+
+<h6><i>Chevalier of the Order of Franz Josef.</i><br>
+<i>Wine Juror for Great Britain at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of
+1873 and 1878.</i><br>
+<i>Author of “The Wines of the World Characterized and Classed,�
+&amp;c.</i></h6>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h5>WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS,</h5>
+<h6>DRAWN BY JULES PELCOQ, W. PRATER, BERTALL, ETC.,<br>
+FROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES.</h6>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h5><span class = "extended">LONDON:<br>
+WARD, LOCK, AND CO., SALISBURY SQUARE.</span><br>
+1879.</h5>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class = "mynote">
+
+<h5><a name = "short_toc" id = "short_toc">
+<b>Shorter Table of Contents</b></a><br>
+<i>added by transcriber</i></h5>
+
+<table class = "toc short" summary = "contents">
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td><p><a href = "#contents">
+Table of Contents (full)</a></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapI">I.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Origin of Champagne.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapII">II.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Vintage in the Champagne. The Vineyards of the
+River.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapIII">III.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Vineyards of the Mountain.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapIV">IV.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Vines of the Champagne and the System of
+Cultivation.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapV">V.</a></td>
+<td><p>Preparation of Champagne.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapVI">VI.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Reims Champagne Establishments.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapVII">VII.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Reims Establishments (<i>continued</i>).</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapVIII">VIII.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Reims Establishments (<i>continued</i>).</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapIX">IX.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Reims Establishments (<i>concluded</i>).</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapX">X.</a></td>
+<td><p>Epernay Champagne Establishments.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXI">XI.</a></td>
+<td><p>Champagne Establishments at Ay and Mareuil.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXII">XII.</a></td>
+<td><p>Champagne Establishments at Atize and Rilly.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXIII">XIII.</a></td>
+<td><p>Sparkling Saumur and Sparkling Sauternes.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXIV">XIV.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Sparkling Wines Of Burgundy and the Jura.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXV">XV.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Sparkling Wines of the South of France.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXVI">XVI.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Sparkling Wines of Germany.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXVII">XVII.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Sparkling Wines of Germany (<i>continued</i>).</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXVIII">XVIII.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Sparkling Wines of Austro-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Spain,
+Russia, &amp;c.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXIX">XIX.</a></td>
+<td><p>The Sparkling Wines of the United States.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "item"><a href = "#chapXX">XX.</a></td>
+<td><p>Concluding Facts and Hints.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td><p><a href = "#stats">
+Statistical Table, 1844-1878</a></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td><p><a href = "#recipes">
+Recipes for Wine Cups</a></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td><p><a href = "#brands">
+The Principal Sparkling Wine Brands</a></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- png 003 -->
+<!-- png 004 -->
+
+<p class = "preface">
+<span class = "firstletter">T</span>HIS little book scarcely needs a
+preface, as it speaks sufficiently for itself. It is for the most part
+the result of studies on the spot of everything of interest connected
+with the various sparkling wines which it professes to describe. Neither
+pains nor expense have been spared to render it both accurate and
+complete, and the large number of authentic engravings with which it is
+illustrated will conduce, it is hoped, to its value.</p>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<div class = "page">
+
+<!-- png 005 -->
+
+<h5>Uniform with the present work and the Author’s “Facts About
+Sherry,�</h5>
+
+<h3 class = "extended">FACTS ABOUT PORT</h3>
+
+<h4>AND MADEIRA,</h4>
+
+<h4 class = "smallcaps">
+Including Chapters on the Wines Vintaged Around Lisbon<br>
+and the Wines of Teneriffe.</h4>
+
+<h5>Illustrated with 80 Engravings from Original Sketches.</h5>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<!-- png 006 -->
+
+<h4 class = "extended"><a name = "contents" id = "contents">
+CONTENTS.</a></h4>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<table class = "toc" summary = "full table of contents">
+<tr>
+<td class = "number" colspan = "2">
+<span class = "smallroman">PAGE.</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapI">
+I.&mdash;The Origin of Champagne.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+The Early Vineyards of the Champagne&mdash;Their Produce esteemed by
+Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates&mdash;Controversy regarding the
+rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne&mdash;Dom
+Perignon’s happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine&mdash;Its Patrons under
+Louis Quatorze and the Regency&mdash;The Ancient Church and Abbey of
+Hautvillers&mdash;Farre and Co.’s Champagne Cellars&mdash;The Abbey of
+St. Peter now a Farm&mdash;Existing Remains of the Monastic
+Buildings&mdash;The Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient
+Church&mdash;The Last Resting-Place of Dom Perignon&mdash;The Legend of
+the Holy Dove&mdash;Good Champagne the Result of Labour, Skill, Minute
+Precaution, and Careful Observation</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapII">
+II.&mdash;The Vintage in the Champagne. The Vineyards of the
+River.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Ay, the Vineyard of Golden Plants&mdash;Summoning the Vintagers by Beat
+of Drum&mdash;Excitement in the Surrounding Villages&mdash;The Pickers
+at Work&mdash;Sorting the Grapes&mdash;Grapes Gathered at Sunrise the
+Best&mdash;Varieties of Vines in the Ay Vineyards&mdash;Few of the
+Growers in the Champagne Crush their own Grapes&mdash;Squeezing the
+Grapes in the “Pressoir� and Drawing off the Must&mdash;Cheerful Glasses
+Round&mdash;The Vintage at Mareuil&mdash;Bringing in the Grapes on Mules
+and Donkeys&mdash;The Vineyards of Avenay, Mutigny, and
+Cumières&mdash;Damery and Adrienne Lecouvreur, Maréchal de Saxe, and the
+obese Anna Iwanowna&mdash;The Vineyards of the Côte
+d’Epernay&mdash;Boursault and its Château&mdash;Pierry and its Vineyard
+Cellars&mdash;The Clos St. Pierre&mdash;Moussy and
+Vinay&mdash;A&nbsp;Hermit’s Cave and a Miraculous Fountain&mdash;Ablois
+St. Martin&mdash;The Côte d’Avize&mdash;The Grand Premier Crû of
+Cramant&mdash;Avize and its Wines&mdash;The Vineyards of Oger and Le
+Mesnil&mdash;The Old Town of Vertus and its Vine-clad Slopes&mdash;Their
+Red Wine formerly celebrated</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">
+<ins class = "mycorr" title = "‘0’ invisible">20</ins></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<!-- png 007 -->
+<p class = "chaphead">
+<a href = "#chapIII">III.&mdash;The Vineyards of the Mountain.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+The Wine of Sillery&mdash;Origin of its Renown&mdash;The Maréchale
+d’Estrées a successful Marchande de Vin&mdash;From Reims to
+Sillery&mdash;Failure of the Jacquesson Vineyards&mdash;Château of
+Sillery&mdash;Wine Making at M.&nbsp;Fortel’s&mdash;Sillery
+sec&mdash;The Vintage and Vendangeoirs at Verzenay&mdash;The Verzy
+Vineyards&mdash;Edward III. at the Abbey of St. Basle&mdash;From Reims
+to Bouzy&mdash;The Herring Procession at St. Remi&mdash;Rilly, Chigny,
+and Ludes&mdash;The Knights Templars’ “Pot� of Wine&mdash;Mailly and the
+View over the Plains of the Champagne&mdash;Wine Making at
+Mailly&mdash;The Village in the Wood&mdash;Village and Château of
+Louvois&mdash;Louis-le-Grand’s War Minister&mdash;Bouzy, its Vineyards
+and Church Steeple, and the Lottery of the Great Gold
+Ingot&mdash;MM.&nbsp;Werlé’s and Moët and Chandon’s
+Vendangeoirs&mdash;Pressing the Grapes&mdash;Still Red
+Bouzy&mdash;Ambonnay&mdash;A&nbsp;Peasant Proprietor&mdash;The Vineyards
+of Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville, and St. Thierry&mdash;The Still
+Red Wine of the latter</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">32</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapIV">
+IV.&mdash;The Vines of the Champagne and the System of
+Cultivation.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+The Vines chiefly of the Pineau Variety&mdash;The Plant doré of Ay, the
+Plant vert doré, the Plant gris, and the Epinette&mdash;The Soil of the
+Vineyards&mdash;Close Mode of Plantation&mdash;The Operation of
+Provinage&mdash;The Stems of the Vines never more than Three Years
+Old&mdash;Fixing the Stakes to the Vines&mdash;Manuring and General
+Cultivation&mdash;Spring Frosts in the Champagne&mdash;Various Modes of
+Protecting the Vines against them&mdash;Dr. Guyot’s System&mdash;The
+Parasites that Prey upon the Vines</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">42</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapV">
+V.&mdash;Preparation of Champagne.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Treatment of Champagne after it comes from the Wine-Press&mdash;Racking
+and Blending of the Wine&mdash;Deficiency and Excess of
+Effervescence&mdash;Strength and Form of Champagne Bottles&mdash;The
+“Tirage� or Bottling of the Wine&mdash;The Process of Gas-making
+commences&mdash;Inevitable Breakage follows&mdash;Wine Stacked in
+Piles&mdash;Formation of Sediment&mdash;Bottles placed “sur pointe� and
+Daily Shaken&mdash;Effect of this occupation on those incessantly
+engaged in it&mdash;“Claws� and “Masks�&mdash;Champagne
+Cellars&mdash;Their Construction and Aspect&mdash;Transforming the “vin
+brut� into Champagne&mdash;Disgorging and Liqueuring the Wine&mdash;The
+Corking, Stringing, Wiring, and Amalgamating&mdash;The Wine’s Agitated
+Existence comes to an End&mdash;The Bottles have their Toilettes
+made&mdash;Champagne sets out on its beneficial Pilgrimage</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">48</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapVI">
+VI.&mdash;The Reims Champagne Establishments.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Messrs. Werlé and Co., successors to the Veuve
+Clicquot-Ponsardin&mdash;Their Offices and Cellars on the site of a
+Former Commanderie of the Templars&mdash;Origin of the Celebrity of
+Madame Clicquot’s Wines&mdash;M.&nbsp;Werlé and his Son&mdash;The
+Forty-five Cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé Establishment&mdash;Our Tour of
+Inspection&mdash;Ingenious Liqueuring Machine&mdash;An Explosion and its
+Consequences&mdash;M.&nbsp;Werlé’s Gallery of
+<!-- png 008 -->
+Paintings&mdash;Madame Clicquot’s Renaissance House and its Picturesque
+Bas-reliefs&mdash;The Werlé Vineyards and
+Vendangeoirs&mdash;M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer’s
+Establishment&mdash;Heidsieck and Co. and their Famous “Monopole�
+Brand&mdash;The Firm Founded in the Last Century&mdash;Their various
+Establishments Inside and Outside Reims&mdash;The Matured Wines Shipped
+by them</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">63</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead plain"><a href = "#chapVII">
+<span class = "smallcaps">VII.&mdash;The Reims Establishments</span>
+(<i>continued</i>).</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+The Firm of G. H. Mumm and Co.&mdash;Their Large Shipments to the United
+States&mdash;Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the Rue
+Coquebert&mdash;Bottle-Washing with Glass Beads&mdash;The Cuvée and the
+Tirage&mdash;G.&nbsp;H. Mumm and Co.’s Vendangeoirs at
+Verzenay&mdash;Their Various Wines&mdash;The Gate of Mars&mdash;The
+Establishment of M.&nbsp;Gustave Gibert on the Site of the Château des
+Archevêques&mdash;His Cellars in the Vaults of St. Peter’s Abbey and
+beneath the old Hôtel des Fermes in the Place Royale&mdash;Louis XV. and
+Jean Baptiste Colbert&mdash;M.&nbsp;Gibert’s Wines&mdash;Jules Mumm and
+Co., and Ruinart père et fils&mdash;House of the Musicians&mdash;The
+Counts de la Marck&mdash;The Brotherhood of Minstrels of
+Reims&mdash;Establishment of Périnet et fils&mdash;Their Cellars of
+Three Stories in Solid Masonry&mdash;Their Soft, Light, and Delicate
+Wines&mdash;A&nbsp;Rare Still Verzenay&mdash;M.&nbsp;Duchâtel-Ohaus’s
+Establishment and Renaissance House&mdash;His Cellars in the Cour St.
+Jacques and Outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">74</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead plain"><a href = "#chapVIII">
+<span class = "smallcaps">VIII.&mdash;The Reims Establishments</span>
+(<i>continued</i>).</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+M. Ernest Irroy’s Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoirs&mdash;Recognition
+by the Reims Agricultural Association of his Plantations of
+Vines&mdash;His Wines and their Popularity at the best London
+Clubs&mdash;Messrs. Binet fils and Co.’s Establishment&mdash;Wines Sold
+by the Firm to Shippers&mdash;Their Cellars&mdash;Samples of Fine Still
+Ay and Bouzy&mdash;Their Still Sillery, Vintage 1857, and their Creaming
+Vin Brut, Vintage 1865&mdash;The Offices and Cellars of Messrs. Charles
+Farre and Co.&mdash;Testing the Wine before
+Bottling&mdash;A&nbsp;Promenade between Bottles in Piles and
+Racks&mdash;Repute in which these Wines are held in England and on the
+Continent&mdash;The New Establishment of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. in the
+Place de Betheny&mdash;Its Construction exclusively in Stone, Brick, and
+Iron&mdash;The Vast Celliers of Two Stories&mdash;Bottling the Wine by
+the Aid of Machinery&mdash;The Cool and Lofty Cellars&mdash;Ingenious
+Method of Securing the Corks, rendering the Uncorking exceedingly
+simple&mdash;The Wines Shipped by the Firm</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">86</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead plain"><a href = "#chapIX">
+<span class = "smallcaps">IX.&mdash;The Reims Establishments</span>
+(<i>concluded</i>).</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+La Prison de Bonne Semaine&mdash;Mary Queen of Scots at
+Reims&mdash;Messrs. Pommery and Greno’s Offices&mdash;A&nbsp;Fine
+Collection of Faïence&mdash;The Rue des Anglais a former Refuge of
+English Catholics&mdash;Remains of the Old University of
+Reims&mdash;Ancient Roman Tower and Curious Grotto&mdash;The handsome
+Castellated Pommery Establishment&mdash;The Spacious Cellier and Huge
+Carved Cuvée Tun&mdash;The Descent to the Cellars&mdash;
+<!-- png 009 -->
+Their Great Extent&mdash;These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally
+Quarries&mdash;Ancient Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the
+Protestants&mdash;Madame Pommery’s Splendid Cuvée of 1868&mdash;Messrs.
+de St. Marceaux and Co.’s New Establishment in the Avenue de
+Sillery&mdash;Its Garden-Court and Circular Shaft&mdash;Animated Scene
+in the Large Packing Hall&mdash;Lowering Bottled Wine to the
+Cellars&mdash;Great Depth and Extent of these Cellars&mdash;Messrs. de
+St. Marceaux and Co.’s Various Wines</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">93</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapX">
+X.&mdash;Epernay Champagne Establishments.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Early Records of the Moët Family at Reims and Epernay&mdash;Jean Remi
+Moët Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines&mdash;Extracts from the
+Old Account-Books of the Moëts&mdash;First Sales of Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;Sales to England in 1788&mdash;“Milords� Farnham and
+Findlater&mdash;Jean Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon, Josephine,
+and the King of Westphalia&mdash;The Firm of Moët and Chandon
+Constituted&mdash;Their Establishment in the Rue du
+Commerce&mdash;Delivering and Washing the New Bottles&mdash;The Numerous
+Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm&mdash;Making the Cuvée in Vats of
+12,000 Gallons&mdash;The Bottling of the Wine by 200
+Hands&mdash;A&nbsp;Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily&mdash;20,000
+Francs’ worth of Broken Glass in Two Years&mdash;A&nbsp;Subterranean
+City, with miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open Spaces, Tramways, and
+Stations&mdash;The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults&mdash;Tablet
+Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon&nbsp;I.&mdash;Millions of Bottles
+of Champagne in Piles and Racks&mdash;The Original Vaults known as
+Siberia&mdash;Scene in the Packing Hall&mdash;Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s
+Large and Complete Staff&mdash;Provision for Illness and Old
+Age&mdash;Annual Fête Given by the Firm&mdash;Their Famous “Star�
+Brand&mdash;M.&nbsp;Perrier-Jouët, the lucky Grandson of a little
+Epernay Grocer&mdash;His Offices and Cellars&mdash;His Wine Classed
+according to its Deserts&mdash;Messrs. Roussillon and Co.’s
+Establishment&mdash;The Recognition accorded to their Wines&mdash;Their
+Stock of Old Vintages&mdash;The Extensive Establishment of Messrs. Pol
+Roger and Co.&mdash;Their Large Stock of the Fine 1874
+Vintage&mdash;Preparations for the Tirage&mdash;Their Vast Fireproof
+Cellier and its Admirable Temperature&mdash;Their Lofty and Capacious
+Cellars of Two Stories</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">101</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXI">
+XI.&mdash;Champagne Establishments at Ay and Mareuil.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+The Establishment of Deutz and Geldermann&mdash;Drawing off the
+Cuvée&mdash;Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Champagne&mdash;The Firm’s
+New Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoir&mdash;The old Château of Ay and
+its Terraced Garden&mdash;The Gambling Propensities of Balthazar
+Constance Dangé-Dorçay, a&nbsp;former Owner of the Château&mdash;The
+Picturesque Situation and Aspect of Messrs. Ayala’s
+Establishment&mdash;A&nbsp;Promenade through their
+Cellars&mdash;M.&nbsp;Duminy’s Cellars and Wines&mdash;His new Model
+Construction&mdash;The House Founded in 1814&mdash;Messrs. Bollinger’s
+Establishment&mdash;Their Vineyard of La Grange&mdash;The Tirage in
+Progress&mdash;The Fine Cellars of the Firm&mdash;Messrs. Pfungst frères
+and Co.’s Cellars&mdash;Their Dry Champagnes of 1868, ’70, ’72, and
+’74&mdash;The Old Church of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and
+Vineleaves&mdash;The
+<!-- png 010 -->
+Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre&mdash;The Montebello Establishment at
+Mareuil&mdash;The Château formerly the Property of the Dukes of
+Orleans&mdash;A&nbsp;Titled Champagne Firm&mdash;The Brilliant Career of
+Marshal Lannes&mdash;A&nbsp;Promenade through the Montebello
+Establishment&mdash;The Press House, the Cuvée Vat, the Packing-Room,
+the Offices, and the Cellars&mdash;Portraits and Relics at the
+Château&mdash;The Establishment of Bruch-Foucher and Co.&mdash;The
+handsome Carved Gigantic Cuvée Tun&mdash;The Cellars and their Lofty
+Shafts&mdash;The Wines of the Firm</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">117</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXII">
+XII.&mdash;Champagne Establishments at Atize and Rilly.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Avize the Centre of the White Grape District&mdash;Its Situation and
+Aspect&mdash;The Establishment of Giesler and Co.&mdash;The Tirage and
+the Cuvée&mdash;Vin Brut in Racks and on Tables&mdash;The Packing-Hall,
+the Extensive Cellars, and the Disgorging Cellier&mdash;Bottle Stores
+and Bottle-Washing Machines&mdash;Messrs. Giesler’s Wine-Presses at
+Avize and Vendangeoir at Bouzy&mdash;Their Vineyards and their Purchases
+of Grapes&mdash;Reputation of the Giesler Brand&mdash;The Establishment
+of M.&nbsp;Charles de Cazanove&mdash;A&nbsp;Tame Young
+Boar&mdash;Boar-Hunting in the Champagne&mdash;M.&nbsp;de Cazanove’s
+Commodious Cellars and Carefully-Selected Wines&mdash;Vineyards Owned by
+Him and His Family&mdash;Reputation of his Wines in Paris and their
+Growing Popularity in England&mdash;Interesting View from M.&nbsp;de
+Cazanove’s Terraced Garden&mdash;The Vintaging of the White Grapes in
+the Champagne&mdash;Roper frères’ Establishment at
+Rilly-la-Montague&mdash;Their Cellars Penetrated by Roots of
+Trees&mdash;Some Samples of Fine Old Champagnes&mdash;The Principal
+Châlons Establishments&mdash;Poem on Champagne by M.&nbsp;Amaury de
+Cazanove</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">129</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXIII">
+XIII.&mdash;Sparkling Saumur and Sparkling Sauternes.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+The Sparkling Wines of the Loire often palmed off as
+Champagnes&mdash;The Finer qualities Improve with Age&mdash;Anjou the
+Cradle of the Plantagenet Kings&mdash;Saumur and its Dominating Feudal
+Château und Antique Hôtel de Ville&mdash;Its Sinister Rue des Payens and
+Steep Tortuons Grande Rue&mdash;The Vineyards of the Coteau of
+Saumur&mdash;Abandoned Stone Quarries converted into Dwellings&mdash;The
+Vintage in Progress&mdash;Old-fashioned Pressoirs&mdash;The Making of
+the Wine&mdash;The Vouvray Vineyards&mdash;Balzac’s Picture of La Vallée
+Coquette&mdash;The Village of Vouvray and the Château of
+Moucontour&mdash;Vernou with its Reminiscences of Sully and
+Pépin-le-Bref&mdash;The Vineyards around Saumur&mdash;Remarkable Ancient
+Dolmens&mdash;Ackerman-Laurance’s Establishment at
+Saint-Florent&mdash;Their Extensive Cellars, Ancient and
+Modern&mdash;Treatment of the Newly-Vintaged Wine&mdash;The
+Cuvée&mdash;Proportions of Wine from Black and White Grapes&mdash;The
+Bottling and Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing Operations&mdash;The
+Château of Varrains and the Establishment of M.&nbsp;Louis Duvau
+aîné&mdash;His Cellars a succession of Gloomy Galleries&mdash;The
+Disgorging of the Wine accomplished in a Melodramatic-looking
+Cave&mdash;M.&nbsp;Duvau’s Vineyard&mdash;His Sparkling Saumur of
+Various Ages&mdash;Marked Superiority of the more Matured
+Samples&mdash;M.&nbsp;Alfred Ronsteaux’s Establishments at Saint-Florent
+and Saint-Cyr&mdash;His convenient Celliers and extensive
+Cellars&mdash;Mingling of
+<!-- png 011 -->
+Wine from the Champagne with the finer Sparkling Saumur&mdash;His
+Vineyard at La Perrière&mdash;M.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;Normandin’s Sparkling
+Sauternes Manufactory at Châteauneuf&mdash;Angoulême and its Ancient
+Fortifications&mdash;Vin de Colombar&mdash;M.&nbsp;Normandin’s Sparkling
+Sauternes Cuvée&mdash;His Cellars near Châteauneuf&mdash;High
+recognition accorded to the Wine at the Concours Régional
+d’Angoulême</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">139</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXIV">
+XIV.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines Of Burgundy and the Jura.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Sparkling Wines of the Côte d’Or at the Paris
+Exhibition&mdash;Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot&mdash;Burgundy Wines
+and Vines formerly the Presents of Princes&mdash;Vintaging Sparkling
+Burgundies&mdash;Their After-Treatment in the Cellars&mdash;Excess of
+Breakage&mdash;Similarity of Proceeding to that followed in the
+Champagne&mdash;Principal Manufacturers of Sparkling
+Burgundies&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Tonnerre, the birthplace of the
+Chevalier d’Eon&mdash;The Vin d’Arbanne of Bar-sur-Aube&mdash;Death
+there of the Bastard de Bourbon&mdash;Madame de la Motto’s Ostentatious
+Display and Arrest there&mdash;Sparkling Wines of the
+Beaujolais&mdash;The Mont-Bronilly Vineyards&mdash;Ancient Reputation of
+the Wines of the Jura&mdash;The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri
+Quatre&mdash;Rhymes by him in its
+Honour&mdash;Lons-le-Saulnier&mdash;Vineyards yielding the Sparkling
+Jura Wines&mdash;Their Vintaging and Subsequent Treatment&mdash;Their
+High Alcoholic Strength and General Drawbacks</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">157</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXV">
+XV.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of the South of France.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Sparkling Wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and
+Languedoc&mdash;Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the
+South&mdash;Valence with its Reminiscences of Pius VI. and
+Napoleon&nbsp;I.&mdash;The “Horns of Crussol� on the Banks of the
+Rhône&mdash;Vintage Scene at Saint-Péray&mdash;The Vines and Vineyards
+Producing Sparkling Wine&mdash;Manipulation of Sparkling
+Saint-Péray&mdash;Its Abundance of Natural Sugar&mdash;The Cellars of
+M.&nbsp;de Saint-Prix and Samples of his Wines&mdash;Sparkling
+Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage&mdash;Annual Production and
+Principal Markets of Sparkling Saint-Péray&mdash;Clairette de
+Die&mdash;The Porte Rouge of Die Cathedral&mdash;How the Die Wine is
+Made&mdash;The Sparkling White and Rose-Coloured Muscatels of
+Die&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Vercheny and Lagrasse&mdash;Barnave and the
+Royal Flight to Varennes&mdash;Narbonne formerly a Miniature Rome, now
+Noted merely for its Wine and Honey&mdash;Fête of the Black Virgin at
+Limoux&mdash;Preference given to the New Wine over the Miraculous
+Water&mdash;Blanquette of Limoux and How it is
+Made&mdash;Characteristics of this Overrated Wine</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">165</td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXVI">
+XVI.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of Germany.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle&mdash;Sparkling German Wines First
+Made on the Neckar&mdash;Heilbronn, and Götz von Berlichingen of the
+Iron Hand&mdash;Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn their
+attention to Sparkling Wines&mdash;Change of late years in the Character
+<!-- png 012 -->
+of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles&mdash;Difference between them and
+Moussirender Rheinwein&mdash;Vintaging of Black and White Grapes for
+Sparkling Wine&mdash;The Treatment which German Sparkling Wines
+Undergo&mdash;Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
+Moselles&mdash;Fine Natural Bouquet of High-Class Sparkling
+Hocks&mdash;Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines
+during the Franco-German War&mdash;Annual Production&mdash;Deinhard and
+Co.’s Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz&mdash;The Firm’s Collection of
+Choice Rhine and Moselle Wines&mdash;Their Trade in German Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;Their Sources of Supply&mdash;The Vintaging and
+After-Treatment of their Wines&mdash;Characteristics of their Sparkling
+Hocks and Moselles</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">172</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead plain"><a href = "#chapXVII">
+<span class = "smallcaps">XVII.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of
+Germany</span> (<i>continued</i>).</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+From Coblenz to Rüdesheim&mdash;Ewald and Co.’s Establishment and its
+Pleasant Situation&mdash;Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and Convenient
+Accessories&mdash;Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the most favoured
+Localities&mdash;The Celebrated Vineyards of the Rheingau&mdash;Eltville
+and the extensive Establishment of Matheus Müller&mdash;His Vast Stocks
+of Still and Sparkling German Wines&mdash;The Vineyards laid under
+contribution for the latter&mdash;M.&nbsp;Müller’s Sparkling
+Johannisberger, Champagne, and Red Sparkling Assmannshauser&mdash;The
+Site of Gutenberg’s Birthplace at Mayence occupied by the Offices and
+Wine-cellars of Lauteren Sohn&mdash;The Sparkling Wine Establishment of
+the Firm and their Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles&mdash;The
+Hochheim Sparkling Wine Association&mdash;Foundation of the
+Establishment&mdash;Its Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles&mdash;The
+Sparkling Wine Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the Nahe
+Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of
+M.&nbsp;Oppmann at Würzburg&mdash;The Historic Cellars of the King of
+Bavaria beneath the Residenz&mdash;The Establishment of F.&nbsp;A.
+Siligmüller</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">183</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXVIII">
+XVIII.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of Austro-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy,
+Spain, Russia, &amp;c.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Sparkling Voslauer&mdash;The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of
+Graz&mdash;Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers&mdash;Vintaging and
+Treatment of Styrian Champagnes&mdash;Sparkling Red, Rose, and White
+Wines of Hungary&mdash;The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at
+Pressburg&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia, Moravia,
+Dalmatia, the Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat&mdash;Neuchâtel
+Champagne&mdash;Sparkling Wine Factories at Vevay and Sion&mdash;The
+Vevay Vineyards&mdash;Establishment of De Riedmatten and De
+Quay&mdash;Sparkling Muscatel, Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo, and
+Lacryma Christi of Italy&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece,
+Algeria, and Russia&mdash;The Krimski and Donski Champagnes&mdash;The
+Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great Russian Fairs</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">196</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXIX">
+XIX.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of the United States.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America&mdash;Failures to Acclimatise
+European Vines&mdash;Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers and the Mission
+<!-- png 013 -->
+Fathers&mdash;The Yield of the Mission Vineyards&mdash;The Monster Vine
+of the Montecito Valley&mdash;The Catawba Vine and its General
+Cultivation&mdash;Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of American
+Viticulture&mdash;Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at
+Cincinnati&mdash;Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures
+there&mdash;Longfellow’s Song in Praise of Catawba&mdash;The Kelley
+Island Wine Company&mdash;Vintaging and Treatment of their Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;Decrease of Consumption&mdash;The Vineyards of
+Hammondsport&mdash;Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;The Vintage&mdash;After Treatment of the Wines&mdash;The
+Pleasant Valley and Urbana Wine Companies and their Various
+Brands&mdash;Californian Sparkling Wines&mdash;The Buena Vista
+Vinicultural Society of San Francisco&mdash;Its Early Failures and
+Eventual Success in Manufacturing Sparkling Wines&mdash;The Vintage in
+California&mdash;Chinese Vintagers&mdash;How the Wine is
+Made&mdash;American Spurious Sparkling Wines</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">203</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "chaphead"><a href = "#chapXX">
+XX.&mdash;Concluding Facts and Hints.</a></p>
+<p class = "hanging">
+Dry and Sweet Champagnes&mdash;Their Sparkling Properties&mdash;Form of
+Champagne Glasses&mdash;Style of Sparkling Wines Consumed in Different
+Countries&mdash;The Colour and Alcoholic Strength of
+Champagne&mdash;Champagne Approved of by the Faculty&mdash;Its Use in
+Nervous Derangements&mdash;The Icing of Champagne&mdash;Scarcity of
+Grand Vintages in the Champagne&mdash;The Quality of the Wine has little
+influence on the Price&mdash;Prices realised by the Ay and Verzenay Crûs
+in Grand Years&mdash;Suggestions for laying down Champagnes of Grand
+Vintages&mdash;The Improvement they Develop after a few Years&mdash;The
+Wine of 1874&mdash;The proper kind of Cellar to lay down Champagne
+in&mdash;Advantages of Burrow’s Patent Slider Wine Bins&mdash;Increase
+in the Consumption of Champagne&mdash;Tabular Statement of Stocks,
+Exports, and Home Consumption from 1844-5 to 1877-8&mdash;When to Serve
+Champagne at a Dinner Party&mdash;Charles Dickens’s dictum that its
+proper place is at a Ball&mdash;Advantageous Effect of Champagne at an
+Ordinary British Dinner Party&mdash;Sparkling Wine Cups</p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">212</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "smallcaps"><a href = "#brands">
+The Principal Sparkling Wine Brands</a></p>
+</td>
+<td class = "number">225</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class = "maintext">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">9</span>
+<!-- png 014 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic014.png" width = "355" height = "208"
+alt = "FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE" title = "FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE">
+
+<h6>AND</h6>
+
+<h3>OTHER SPARKLING WINES.</h3>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<h4><a name = "chapI" id = "chapI">
+I.&mdash;The Origin of Champagne.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+The Early Vineyards of the Champagne&mdash;Their Produce esteemed by
+Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates&mdash;Controversy regarding the
+rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne&mdash;Dom
+Perignon’s happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine&mdash;Its Patrons under
+Louis Quatorze and the Regency&mdash;The Ancient Church and Abbey of
+Hautvillers&mdash;Farre and Co.’s Champagne Cellars&mdash;The Abbey of
+St. Peter now a Farm&mdash;Existing Remains of the Monastic
+Buildings&mdash;The Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient
+Church&mdash;The Last Resting-Place of Dom Perignon&mdash;The Legend of
+the Holy Dove&mdash;Good Champagne the Result of Labour, Skill, Minute
+Precaution, and Careful Observation.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Strong</span> men, we know, lived before
+Agamemnon; and strong wine was made in the fair province of Champagne
+long before the days of the sagacious Dom Perignon, to whom we are
+indebted for the sparkling vintage known under the now familiar name.
+The chalky slopes that border the Marne were early recognised as
+offering special advantages for the culture of the vine. The priests and
+monks, whose vows of sobriety certainly did not lessen their
+appreciation of the good things of this life,
+<span class = "pagenum">10</span>
+<!-- png 015 -->
+and the produce of whose vineyards usually enjoyed a higher reputation
+than that of their lay neighbours, were clever enough to seize upon the
+most eligible sites, and quick to spread abroad the fame of their wines.
+St. Remi, baptiser of Clovis, the first Christian king in France, at the
+end of the fifth century left by will, to various churches, the
+vineyards which he owned at Reims and Laon, together with the “vilains�
+employed in their cultivation. Some three and a half centuries later we
+find worthy Bishop Pardulus of Laon imitating Paul’s advice to Timothy,
+and urging Archbishop Hincmar to drink of the wines of Epernay and Reims
+for his stomach’s sake. The crusade-preaching Pope, Urban&nbsp;II., who
+was born among the vineyards of the Champagne, dearly loved the wine of
+Ay; and his energetic appeals to the princes of Europe to take up arms
+for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre may have owed some of their
+eloquence to his favourite beverage.</p>
+
+<p>The red wine of the Champagne sparkled on the boards of monarchs in
+the Middle Ages when they sat at meat amidst their mailclad chivalry,
+and quaffed mighty beakers to the confusion of the Paynim. Henry of
+Andely has sung in his <i>fabliau</i> of the “Bataille des Vins,� how,
+when stout Philip Augustus and his chaplain constituted themselves the
+earliest known wine-jury, the <i>crûs</i> of Espernai, Auviler,
+Chaalons, and Reims were amongst those which found most favour in their
+eyes, though nearly a couple of centuries elapsed before Eustace
+Deschamps recorded in verse the rival merits of those of Cumières and
+Ay. King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, a&nbsp;mighty toper, got so royally
+drunk day after day upon the vintages of the Champagne, that he forgot
+all about the treaty with Charles VI., that had formed the pretext of
+his visit to France, and would probably have lingered, goblet in hand,
+in the old cathedral city till the day of his death, but for the
+presentation of a little account for wine consumed, which sobered him to
+repentance and led to his abrupt departure. Dunois, Lahire,
+Xaintrailles, and their fellows, when they rode with Joan of Arc to the
+coronation of Charles VII., drank the same generous fluid, through
+helmets
+<span class = "pagenum">11</span>
+<!-- png 016 -->
+barred, to the speedy expulsion of the detested English from the soil of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>The vin d’Ay&mdash;<i>vinum Dei</i> as Dominicus Baudoin punningly
+styled it&mdash;was, according to old Paulmier, the ordinary drink of
+the kings and princes of his day. It fostered bluff King Hal’s fits of
+passion and the tenth Leo’s artistic extravagance; consoled
+Francis&nbsp;I. for the field of Pavia, and solaced his great rival in
+his retirement at St. Just. All of them had their commissioners at Ay to
+secure the best wine for their own consumption. Henri Quatre, whose
+<i>vendangeoir</i> is still shown in the village, held the wine in such
+honour that he was wont to style himself the Seigneur d’Ay, just as
+James of Scotland was known as the Gudeman of Ballangeich. When his son,
+Louis XIII., was crowned, the wines of the Champagne were the only
+growths allowed to grace the board at the royal banquet. Freely too did
+they flow at the coronation feast of the Grand Monarque, when the crowd
+of assembled courtiers, who quaffed them in his honour, hailed them as
+the finest wines of the day.</p>
+
+<p>But the wines which drew forth all these encomiums were far from
+resembling the champagne of modern times. They were not, as has been
+asserted, all as red as burgundy and as flat as port; for at the close
+of the sixteenth, century some of them were of a <i>fauve</i> or
+yellowish hue, and of the intermediate tint between red and white which
+the French call <i>clairet</i>, and which our old writers translate as
+the “complexion of a cherry� or the “colour of a partridge’s eye.� But,
+as a rule, the wines of the Champagne up to this period closely
+resembled those produced in the adjacent province, where Charles the
+Bold had once held sway; a&nbsp;resemblance, no doubt, having much to do
+with the great medical controversy regarding their respective merits
+which arose in 1652. In that year a young medical student, hard pressed
+for the subject of his inaugural thesis, and in the firm faith that</p>
+
+<p class = "verse last">
+“None but a clever dialectician<br>
+Can hope to become a good physician,<br>
+And that logic plays an important part<br>
+In the mystery of the healing art,�</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">12</span>
+<!-- png 017 -->
+
+<p>propounded the theory that the wines of Burgundy were preferable to
+those of the Champagne, and that the latter were irritating to the
+nerves and conducive to gout. The faculty of medicine at Reims naturally
+rose in arms at this insolent assertion. They seized their pens and
+poured forth a deluge of French and Latin in defence of the wines of
+their province, eulogising alike their purity, their brilliancy of
+colour, their exquisite flavour and perfume, their great keeping powers,
+and, in a word, their general superiority to the Burgundy growths. The
+partisans of the latter were equally prompt in rallying in their
+defence, and the faculty of medicine of Beaune, having put their learned
+periwigs together, enunciated their views and handled their opponents
+without mercy. The dispute spread to the entire medical profession, and
+the champions went on pelting each other with pamphlets in prose and
+tractates in verse, until in 1778&mdash;long after the bones of the
+original disputants were dust and their lancets rust&mdash;the faculty
+of Paris, to whom the matter was referred, gave a final and formal
+decision in favour of the wines of the Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile an entirely new kind of wine, which was to carry the name
+of the province producing it to the uttermost corners of the earth, had
+been introduced. On the picturesque slopes of the Marne, about fifteen
+miles from Reims, and some four or five miles from Epernay, stands the
+little hamlet of Hautvillers, which, in pre-revolutionary days, was a
+mere dependency upon a spacious abbey dedicated to St. Peter. Here the
+worthy monks of the order of St. Benedict had lived in peace and
+prosperity for several hundred years, carefully cultivating the acres of
+vineland extending around the abbey, and religiously exacting a tithe of
+all the other wine pressed in their district. The revenue of the
+community thus depending in no small degree upon the vintage, it was
+natural that the post of “celerer� should be one of importance. It
+happened that about the year 1688 this office was conferred upon a
+worthy monk named Perignon. Poets and roasters, we know, are born, and
+not made; and the monk in question seems to have been a heaven-born
+cellarman, with a
+<span class = "pagenum">13</span>
+<!-- png 018 -->
+strong head and a discriminating palate. The wine exacted from the
+neighbouring cultivators was of all qualities&mdash;good, bad, and
+indifferent; and with the spirit of a true Benedictine, Dom Perignon hit
+upon the idea of “marrying� the produce of one vineyard with that of
+another. He had noted that one kind of soil imparted fragrance and
+another generosity, and discovered that a white wine could be made from
+the blackest grapes, which would keep good, instead of turning yellow
+and degenerating like the wine obtained from white ones. Moreover, the
+happy thought occurred to him that a piece of cork was a much more
+suitable stopper for a bottle than the flax dipped in oil which had
+heretofore served that purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The white, or, as it was sometimes styled, the grey wine of the
+Champagne grew famous, and the manufacture spread throughout the
+province, but that of Hautvillers held the predominance. To Dom Perignon
+the abbey’s well-stocked cellar was a far cheerfuller place than the
+cell. Nothing delighted him more than</p>
+
+<p class = "verse last">
+“To come down among this brotherhood<br>
+Dwelling for ever underground,<br>
+Silent, contemplative, round and sound,<br>
+Each one old and brown with mould,<br>
+But filled to the lips with the ardour of youth,<br>
+With the latent power and love of truth,<br>
+And with virtues fervent and manifold.�</p>
+
+<p>Ever busy among his vats and presses, barrels and bottles, Perignon
+alighted upon a discovery destined to be most important in its results.
+He found out the way of making an effervescent wine&mdash;a&nbsp;wine
+that burst out of the bottle and overflowed the glass, that was twice as
+dainty to the taste, and twice as exhilarating in its effects. It was at
+the close of the seventeenth century that this discovery was
+made&mdash;when the glory of the Roi Soleil was on the wane, and with it
+the splendour of the Court of Versailles. Louis XIV., for whose especial
+benefit liqueurs had been invented, recovered a gleam of his youthful
+energy as he sipped the creamy foaming vintage that enlivened his dreary
+<i>têtes-à-têtes</i> with the widow of Scarron. It found its chief
+patrons
+<span class = "pagenum">14</span>
+<!-- png 019 -->
+however, amongst the bands of gay young roysterers, the future <ins
+class = "mycorr" title = "printed without accent"><i>roues</i></ins> of
+the Regency, whom the Duc d’Orléans and the Duc de Vendôme had gathered
+round them, at the Palais Royal and at Anet. It was at one of the famous
+<i>soupers</i> d’Anet that the Marquis de Sillery&mdash;who had turned
+his sword into a pruning-knife, and applied himself to the cultivation
+of his paternal vineyards on the principles inculcated by the celerer of
+St. Peter’s&mdash;first introduced the sparkling wine bearing his name.
+The flower-wreathed bottles, which, at a given signal, a&nbsp;dozen of
+blooming young damsels scantily draped in the guise of Bacchanals placed
+upon the table, were hailed with rapture, and thenceforth sparkling wine
+was an indispensable adjunct at all the <i>petits soupers</i> of the
+period. In the highest circles the popping of champagne-corks seemed to
+ring the knell of sadness, and the victories of Marlborough were in a
+measure compensated for by this happy discovery.</p>
+
+<p>Why the wine foamed and sparkled was a mystery even to the very
+makers themselves; for as yet Baume’s <ins class = "mycorr" title =
+"first ‘e’ unreadable">aerometer</ins> was unknown, and the connection
+between sugar and carbonic acid undreamt of. The general belief was that
+the degree of effervescence depended upon the time of year at which the
+wine was bottled, and that the rising of the sap in the vine had
+everything to do with it. Certain wiseacres held that it was influenced
+by the age of the moon at the time of bottling; whilst others thought
+the effervescence could be best secured by the addition of spirit, alum,
+and various nastinesses. It was this belief in the use and efficacy of
+drugs that led to a temporary reaction against the wine about 1715, in
+which year Dom Perignon departed this life. In his latter days he had
+grown blind, but his discriminating taste enabled him to discharge his
+duties with unabated efficiency to the end. Many of the tall tapering
+glasses invented by him have been emptied to the memory of the old
+Benedictine, whose remains repose beneath a black marble slab in the
+chancel of the archaic abbey church of Hautvillers.</p>
+
+<!-- png 020 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic020.jpg" width = "442" height = "278"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE VINEYARDS AND ABBEY OF HAUTVILLERS. (p. 14)</p>
+
+<p>Time and the iconoclasts of the great Revolution have spared but
+little of the royal abbey of St. Peter where Dom
+<span class = "pagenum">15</span>
+<!-- png 022 -->
+Perignon lighted upon his happy discovery of the effervescent quality of
+champagne. The quaint old church, scraps of which date back to the 12th
+century, the remnants of the cloisters, and a couple of ancient
+gateways, marking the limits of the abbey precincts, are all that remain
+to testify to the grandeur of its past. It was the proud boast of the
+brotherhood that it had given nine archbishops to the see of Reims, and
+two-and-twenty abbots to various celebrated monasteries, but this pales
+beside the enduring fame it has acquired from having been the cradle of
+the sparkling vintage of the Champagne.</p>
+
+<!-- png 021 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic021.jpg" width = "445" height = "284"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS. CHARLES FARRE &amp; CO., AT HAUTVILLERS.
+(p.&nbsp;15)</p>
+
+<p>It was in the budding springtime when we made our pilgrimage to
+Hautvillers across the swollen waters of the Marne at Epernay. Our way
+lay for a time along a straight level poplar-bordered road, with verdant
+meadows on either hand, then diverged sharply to the left and we
+commenced ascending the vine-clad hills, on a narrow plateau of which
+the church and abbey remains are picturesquely perched. Vines climb the
+undulating slopes to the summit of the plateau, and wooded heights rise
+up beyond, affording shelter from the bleak winds sweeping over from the
+north. As we near the village of Hautvillers we notice on our left hand
+a couple of isolated buildings overlooking a small ravine with their
+bright tiled roofs flashing in the sunlight. These prove to be a branch
+establishment of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co., a&nbsp;well-known
+champagne firm having its head-quarters at Reims. The grassy space
+beyond, dotted over with low stone shafts giving light and ventilation
+to the cellars beneath, is alive with workmen unloading waggons densely
+packed with new champagne bottles, while under a neighbouring shed is a
+crowd of women actively engaged in washing the bottles as they are
+brought to them. The large apartment aboveground, known as the
+<i>cellier</i>, contains wine in cask already blended, and to bottle
+which preparations are now being made. On descending into the cellars,
+which, excavated in the chalk and of regular construction, comprise a
+series of long, lofty, and well-ventilated galleries, we find them
+stocked with bottles of fine wine reposing in huge compact piles ready
+for transport to the head establishment, where they
+<span class = "pagenum">16</span>
+<!-- png 023 -->
+will undergo their final manipulation. The cellars consist of two
+stories, the lowermost of which has an iron gate communicating with the
+ravine already mentioned. On passing out here and looking up behind we
+see the buildings perched some hundred feet above us, hemmed in on every
+side with budding vines.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic023.png" width = "369" height = "316"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE PORTE DES PRESSOIRS, HAUTVILLERS.</p>
+
+<p>The church of Hautvillers and the remains of the neighbouring abbey
+are situated at the farther extremity of the village, at the end of its
+one long street, named, pertinently enough, the Rue de Bacchus. Passing
+through an unpretentious gateway we find ourselves in a spacious
+courtyard, bounded by buildings somewhat complex in character. On our
+right rises the tower of the church with the remains of the old
+cloisters, now walled-in and lighted by small square windows, and
+propped up by heavy buttresses. To the left stands the residence of the
+bailiff, and beyond it an 18th-century château on the site of the
+<span class = "pagenum">17</span>
+<!-- png 024 -->
+abbot’s house, the abbey precincts being bounded on this side by a
+picturesque gateway tower leading to the vineyards, and known as the
+“porte des pressoirs,� from its contiguity to the existing wine-presses.
+Huge barn-like buildings, stables, and cart-sheds inclose the court on
+its remaining sides, and roaming about are numerous live stock,
+indicating that what remains of the once-famous royal abbey of St. Peter
+has degenerated into an ordinary farm. To-day the abbey buildings and
+certain of its lands are the property of Messrs. <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "dieresis missing in original">Moët</ins> and Chandon, the great
+champagne manufacturers of Epernay, who maintain them as a farm, keeping
+some six-and-thirty cows there with the object of securing the necessary
+manure for the numerous vineyards which they own hereabouts.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic024.png" width = "383" height = "255"
+alt = "see text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The dilapidated cloisters, littered with old casks, farm implements,
+and the like, preserve ample traces of their former architectural
+character, and the Louis Quatorze gateway on the northern side of the
+inclosure still displays above its arch a grandiose carved shield, with
+surrounding palm-branches and half-obliterated bearings. Vine-leaves and
+bunches of grapes
+<span class = "pagenum">18</span>
+<!-- png 025 -->
+decorate some of the more ancient columns inside the church, and
+grotesque mediæval monsters, such as monkish architects habitually
+delighted in, entwine themselves around the capitals of others. The
+stalls of the choir are elaborately carved with cherubs’ heads,
+medallions and figures of saints, cupids supporting shields, and free
+and graceful arabesques of the epoch of the Renaissance. In the chancel,
+close by the altar steps, are a couple of black marble slabs, with Latin
+inscriptions of dubious orthography, the one to Johannes Royer, who died
+in 1527, and the other setting forth the virtues and merits of Dom
+Petrus Perignon, the discoverer of champagne. In the central aisle a
+similar slab marks the resting-place of Dom Thedoricus
+Ruynart&mdash;obit 1709&mdash;an ancestor of the Reims Ruinarts, and
+little square stones interspersed among the tiles with which the side
+aisles of the church are paved record the deaths of other members of the
+Benedictine brotherhood during the 17th and 18th centuries. Several
+large pictures grace the walls of the church, the most interesting one
+representing St. Nivard, Bishop of Reims, and his friend, St. Berchier,
+designating to some mediæval architect the site the contemplated abbey
+of St. Peter was to occupy. There was a monkish legend that about the
+middle of the 7th century this pair of saints set out in search of a
+suitable site for the future monastery. The way was long, the day was
+warm, and St. Nivard and St. Berchier as yet were simply mortal. Weary
+and faint, they sat them down to rest at a spot identified by tradition
+with a vineyard at Dizy, belonging to-day to the Messrs. Bollinger, but
+at that period forming part of the forest of the Marne. St. Nivard fell
+asleep with his head on his companion’s lap, and the one in a dream, and
+the other with waking eyes, saw a snow-white dove&mdash;the same, firm
+believers in miracles suggested, which had brought down the holy oil for
+the anointment of Clovis at his coronation at Reims&mdash;flutter
+through the wood, and finally alight on the stump of a tree.</p>
+
+<p>In those superstitious times such a significant omen was not to be
+disregarded, the site thus miraculously indicated was at once decided
+upon, the high altar of the abbey church being
+<span class = "pagenum">19</span>
+<!-- png 026 -->
+erected upon the precise spot where the tree stood on which the
+snow-white dove had alighted.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic026.png" width = "251" height = "164"
+alt = "monk with oversized champagne bottle">
+</p>
+
+<p>The celerer of St. Peter’s found worthy successors, and thenceforward
+the manufacture and the popularity of champagne went on steadily
+increasing, until to-day its production is carried on upon a scale and
+with an amount of painstaking care that would astonish its originator.
+For good champagne does not rain down from the clouds, or gush out from
+the rocks, but is the result of incessant labour, patient skill, minute
+precaution, and careful observation. In the first place, the soil
+imparts to the natural wine a special quality which it has been found
+impossible to imitate in any other quarter of the globe. To the wine of
+Ay it lends a flavour of peaches, and to that of Avenay the savour of
+strawberries; the vintage of Hautvillers, though fallen from its former
+high estate, is yet marked by an unmistakably nutty taste; while that of
+Pierry smacks of the locally-abounding flint, the well-known <i>pierre à
+fusil</i> flavour. So on the principle that a little leaven leavens the
+whole lump, the produce of grapes grown in the more favoured vineyards
+is added in certain proportions to secure certain special
+characteristics, as well as to maintain a fixed standard of
+excellence.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">20</span>
+<!-- png 027 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic027.png" width = "372" height = "255"
+alt = "see text">
+</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapII" id = "chapII">
+II.&mdash;The Vintage in the Champagne. The Vineyards of the
+River.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Ay, the Vineyard of Golden Plants&mdash;Summoning the Vintagers by Beat
+of Drum&mdash;Excitement in the Surrounding Villages&mdash;The Pickers
+at Work&mdash;Sorting the Grapes&mdash;Grapes Gathered at Sunrise the
+Best&mdash;Varieties of Vines in the Ay Vineyards&mdash;Few of the
+Growers in the Champagne Crush their own Grapes&mdash;Squeezing the
+Grapes in the “Pressoir� and Drawing off the Must&mdash;Cheerful Glasses
+Round&mdash;The Vintage at Mareuil&mdash;Bringing in the Grapes on Mules
+and Donkeys&mdash;The Vineyards of Avenay, Mutigny, and
+Cumières&mdash;Damery and Adrienne Lecouvreur, Maréchal de Saxe, and the
+obese Anna Iwanowna&mdash;The Vineyards of the Côte
+d’Epernay&mdash;Boursault and its Château&mdash;Pierry and its Vineyard
+Cellars&mdash;The Clos St. Pierre&mdash;Moussy and
+Vinay&mdash;A&nbsp;Hermit’s Cave and a Miraculous Fountain&mdash;Ablois
+St. Martin&mdash;The Côte d’Avize&mdash;The Grand Premier Crû of
+Cramant&mdash;Avize and its Wines&mdash;The Vineyards of Oger and Le
+Mesnil&mdash;The Old Town of Vertus and its Vine-clad Slopes&mdash;Their
+Red Wine formerly celebrated.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">With</span>
+the exception of certain famous vineyards of the Rhône, the vinelands of
+the Champagne may, perhaps, be classed among the most picturesque of the
+more notable vine districts of France. Between Paris and Epernay even,
+the banks of the Marne present
+<span class = "pagenum">21</span>
+<!-- png 028 -->
+a series of scenes of quiet beauty. The undulating ground is everywhere
+cultivated like a garden. Handsome châteaux and charming country houses
+peep out from amid luxuriant foliage. Picturesque antiquated villages
+line the river’s bank or climb the hill sides, and after leaving La
+Ferté-sous-Jouarre, the cradle of the Condés, all the more favoured
+situations commence to be covered with vines.</p>
+
+<p>This is especially the case in the vicinity of
+Château-Thierry&mdash;the birthplace of La Fontaine&mdash;where the view
+is shut in on all sides by vine-clad slopes, which the spring frosts
+seldom spare. Hence merely one good vintage out of four gladdens the
+hearts of the peasant proprietors, who find eager purchasers for their
+produce among the lower-class manufacturers of champagne. In the same
+way the <i>petit vin de Chierry</i>, dexterously prepared and
+judiciously mingled with other growths, often figures as “Fleur de
+Sillery� or “Ay Mousseux.� In reality it is not until we have passed the
+ornate modern Gothic château of Boursault, erected in her declining
+years by the wealthy Veuve Clicquot, by far the shrewdest manipulator of
+the sparkling products of Ay and Bouzy of her day, and the many towers
+and turrets of which, rising above umbrageous trees, crown the loftiest
+height within eyeshot of Epernay, that we find ourselves within that
+charmed circle of vineyards whence champagne&mdash;the wine, not merely
+of princes, as it has been somewhat obsequiously termed, but essentially
+the <i>vin de société</i>&mdash;is derived.</p>
+
+<p>The vinelands in the vicinity of Epernay, and consequently near the
+Marne, are commonly known as the “Vineyards of the River,� whilst those
+covering the slopes in the neighbourhood of Reims are termed the
+“Vineyards of the Mountain.� The Vineyards of the River comprise three
+distinct divisions&mdash;first, those lining the right bank of the Marne
+and enjoying a southern and south-eastern aspect, among which are Ay,
+Hautvillers, Cumières, Dizy, and Mareuil; secondly, the Côte d’Epernay
+on the left bank of the river, of which Pierry, Moussy, and Vinay form
+part; and thirdly, the Côte d’Avize (the region <i>par excellence</i> of
+white grapes), which stretches towards the south-east, and
+<span class = "pagenum">22</span>
+<!-- png 029 -->
+includes the vinelands of Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil, and Vertus.
+The entire vineyard area is upwards of 40,000 acres.</p>
+
+<p>The Champagne vineyards most widely celebrated abroad are those of Ay
+and Sillery, although the last-named are really the smallest in the
+Champagne district. Ay, distant only a few minutes by rail from Epernay,
+is in the immediate centre of the vinelands of the river, having Mareuil
+and Avenay on the east, and Dizy, Hautvillers, and Cumières on the west.
+Sillery, on the other hand, lies at the foot of the so-called Mountain
+of Reims, and within an hour’s drive of the old cathedral city.</p>
+
+<p>The pleasantest season of the year to visit the Champagne is
+certainly during the vintage. When this is about to commence, the
+vintagers&mdash;some of whom come from Sainte Menehould, forty miles
+distant, while others hail from as far as Lorraine&mdash;are summoned at
+daybreak by beat of drum in the market-places of the villages adjacent
+to the vineyards, and then and there a price is made for the day’s
+labour. This is generally either a franc and a half, with food
+consisting of three meals, or two francs and a half without food,
+children being paid a franc and a half. The rate of wage satisfactorily
+arranged, the gangs start off to the vineyards, headed by their
+overseers.</p>
+
+<p>It was on one of those occasional sunshiny days in the early part of
+October (1871) when I first visited Ay, the vineyard of golden plants,
+the unique <i>premier crû</i> of the Wines of the River. The road lay
+between two rows of closely-planted poplar-trees reaching almost to the
+village of Dizy, whose quaint grey church tower, with its gabled roof,
+is dominated by the neighbouring vine-clad slopes, which extend from
+Avenay to Venteuil, some few miles beyond Hautvillers, the cradle, so to
+speak, of the <i>vin mousseux</i> of the Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere was bustle and excitement; every one was big with the
+business in hand. In these ordinarily quiet little villages the majority
+of the inhabitants were afoot, the feeble feminine half with the
+juveniles threading their way through the rows of vines half-way up the
+mountain, basket on arm, while the sturdy masculine portion were mostly
+passing to and fro between
+<span class = "pagenum">23</span>
+<!-- png 030 -->
+the press-houses and the wine-shops. Carts piled up with baskets, or
+crowded with peasants from a distance on their way to the vineyards,
+jostled the low railway trucks laden with bran-new casks, and the
+somewhat rickety cabriolets of the agents of the big champagne houses,
+reduced to clinch their final bargain for a hundred or more
+<i>pièces</i> of the peerless wine of Ay, beside the reeking
+wine-press.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pleasant air of jollity over all, for in the
+wine-producing districts every one participates in the interest excited
+by the vintage, which influences the takings of all the artificers and
+all the tradespeople, bringing grist to the mill of the baker and the
+bootmaker, as well as to the café and the cabaret. The various
+contending interests were singularly satisfied, the vintagers getting
+their two francs and a half a day, and the men at the pressoirs their
+three francs and their food. The plethoric
+<i>commissionaires-en-vins</i> wiped their perspiring foreheads with
+satisfaction at having at last secured the full number of hogsheads they
+had been instructed to buy&mdash;at a high figure it was true, still
+this was no disadvantage to them, as their commission mounted up all the
+higher. And, as regarded the small vine proprietors, even the
+thickest-skulled among them, who make all their calculations on their
+fingers, could see at a glance that they were gainers, for, although the
+crop was no more than half an average one, yet, thanks to the
+ill-disguised anxiety of the agents to secure all the wine they
+required, prices had gradually crept up until they doubled those of
+ordinary years, and this with only half the work in the vineyard and at
+the wine-press to be done.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving Dizy the road runs immediately at the base of the
+vine-clad slopes, broken up by an occasional conical peak detaching
+itself from the mass, and tinted from base to summit with
+richly-variegated hues, in which deep purple, yellow, green, grey, and
+crimson by turns predominate. Dotting these slopes like a swarm of huge
+ants are a crowd of men, women, and children, intent on stripping the
+vines of their luscious-looking fruit. The men are mostly in blue
+blouses, and the women in closely-fitting neat white caps, or wearing
+old-fashioned
+<span class = "pagenum">24</span>
+<!-- png 031 -->
+unbleached straw-bonnets of the contemned coal-scuttle type. They detach
+the grapes with scissors or hooked knives, technically termed
+“serpettes,� and in some vineyards proceed to remove all damaged,
+decayed, or unripe fruit from the bunches before placing them in the
+baskets hanging on their arms, the contents of which are from time to
+time emptied into a larger basket resembling a deep clothes-basket in
+shape, numbers of these being dispersed about the vineyard for the
+purpose, and invariably in the shade. When filled they are carried by a
+couple of men to the roadside, along which dwarf stones carved with
+initials, and indicating the boundaries of the respective properties,
+are encountered every eight or ten yards, into such narrow strips are
+the vineyards divided. Large carts with railed open sides are
+continually passing backwards and forwards to pick these baskets up, and
+when one of them has secured its load it is driven slowly&mdash;in order
+that the grapes may not be shaken&mdash;to the neighbouring pressoir, so
+extreme is the care observed throughout every stage of the process of
+champagne manufacture.</p>
+
+<p>In many of the vineyards the grapes are inspected in bulk instead of
+in detail before being sent to the wine-press. The hand-baskets, when
+filled, are all brought to a particular spot, where their contents are
+minutely examined by some half-dozen men and women, who pluck off all
+the bruised, rotten, and unripe berries, and fling them aside into a
+separate basket. In one vineyard we came upon a party of girls,
+congregated round a wicker sieve perched on the top of a large tub by
+the roadside, who were busy sorting the grapes, pruning away the
+diseased stalks, and picking off all the doubtful berries, and letting
+the latter fall through the interstices of the sieve, the sound fruit
+being deposited in large baskets standing by their side, which, as soon
+as filled, were conveyed to the pressoir.</p>
+
+<!-- png 032 -->
+<!-- png 033 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic032.jpg" width = "447" height = "284"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+A VINTAGE SCENE IN THE CHAMPAGNE. (p. 24)</p>
+
+<p>The picking ordinarily commences with daylight, and the vintagers
+assert that the grapes gathered at sunrise always produce the lightest
+and most limpid wine. Moreover by plucking the grapes when the early
+morning sun is upon them they are
+<span class = "pagenum">25</span>
+<!-- png 034 -->
+believed to yield a fourth more juice. Later on in the day, too, spite
+of all precautions, it is impossible to prevent some of the detached
+grapes from partially fermenting, which frequently suffices to give a
+slight excess of colour to the must, a&nbsp;thing especially to be
+avoided&mdash;no matter how rich and ripe the fruit may be&mdash;in a
+high-class champagne. When the grapes have to be transported in open
+baskets for some distance to the press-house, jolting along the road
+either in carts or on the backs of mules, and exposed to the torrid rays
+of a bright autumnal sun, the juice expressed from the fruit, however
+gently the latter may be squeezed, is occasionally of a positive purple
+tinge, and consequently useless for conversion into champagne.</p>
+
+<p>On the right of the road leading from Dizy to Ay we pass a vineyard
+called Le Léon, which tradition asserts to be the one whence Pope Leo
+the Magnificent, the patron of Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Da Vinci,
+drew his supply of Ay wine. The village of Ay lies right before us at
+the foot of the vine-clad slopes, with the tapering spire of its ancient
+church rising above the neighbouring hills and cutting sharply against
+the bright blue sky. The vineyards, which spread themselves over a
+calcareous declivity, have mostly a full southern aspect, and the
+predominating vines are those known as golden plants, the fruit of which
+is of a deep purple colour. After these comes the <i>plant vert
+doré</i>, and then a moderate proportion of the <i>plant gris</i>, the
+latter a white variety, as its name implies. A&nbsp;limited quantity of
+wine from white grapes is likewise made in the neighbouring vineyards of
+Dizy.</p>
+
+<p>We visited the pressoir of the principal producer of <i>vin brut</i>
+at Ay, who, although the owner of merely five hectares, or about twelve
+and a half acres of vines, expected to make as many as 1,500 pièces of
+wine that year, mainly of course from grapes purchased from other
+growers. One peculiarity of the Champagne district is that, contrary to
+the prevailing practice in the other wine-producing regions of France,
+where the owner of even a single acre of vines will crush his grapes
+himself, only a limited number of vine-proprietors press their own
+grapes. The
+<span class = "pagenum">26</span>
+<!-- png 035 -->
+large champagne houses, possessing vineyards, always have their
+pressoirs in the neighbourhood, and other large vine-proprietors will
+press the grapes they grow, but the multitude of small cultivators
+invariably sell the produce of their vineyards to one or other of the
+former at a certain rate, either by weight or else per caque,
+a&nbsp;measure estimated to hold sixty kilogrammes (equal to <ins class
+= "mycorr" title = "spacing typical for this text">132lbs.</ins>) of
+grapes. The price which the fruit fetches varies of course according to
+the quality of the vintage and the requirements of the manufacturers. In
+1873, in all the higher-class vineyards, as much as two francs and a
+quarter per kilogramme (10d. per lb.) were paid, or between treble and
+quadruple the average price. And yet the vintage was a most
+unsatisfactory one owing to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet
+throughout the summer. The market, however, was in great need of wine,
+and the fruit while still ungathered was bought up at most exorbitant
+prices by the <i>spéculateurs</i> who supply the <i>vin brut</i> to the
+champagne manufacturers.</p>
+
+<p>Carts laden with grapes were continually arriving at the pressoir,
+and after discharging their loads, and having them weighed, kept driving
+off for fresh ones. Four powerful presses of recent invention, each
+worked by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, were
+in operation. The grapes were spread over the floor of the press in a
+compact mass, and on being subjected to pressure&mdash;again and again
+repeated, the first squeeze only giving a high-class wine&mdash;the must
+filtered through a wicker basket into the reservoir beneath, whence,
+after remaining a certain time to allow of its ridding itself of the
+grosser lees, it is pumped through a gutta-percha tube into the casks.
+The wooden stoppers of the bungholes, instead of being fixed tightly in
+the apertures, are simply laid over them, and after the lapse of ten or
+twelve days fermentation usually commences, and during its progress the
+must, which is originally of a pale pink tint, fades to a light straw
+colour. The wine usually remains undisturbed until Christmas, when it is
+drawn off into fresh casks, and delivered to the purchaser.</p>
+
+<p>On our way from Ay to Mareuil, along the lengthy Rue de
+<span class = "pagenum">27</span>
+<!-- png 036 -->
+Châlons, we looked in at the little auberge at the corner of the
+Boulevard du Sud, where we found a crowd of coopers and others connected
+in some way with the vintage taking their cheerful glasses round. The
+walls of the room were appropriately enough decorated with capering
+bacchanals squeezing bunches of purple grapes and flourishing their
+thyrsi about in a very tipsy fashion. All the talk&mdash;and there was
+an abundance of it&mdash;had reference to the yield of this particular
+vintage and the high rate the Ay wine had realised. Eight hundred francs
+the pièce of two hundred litres, equal to forty-four gallons, appeared
+to be the price fixed by the agents of the great champagne houses, and
+at this figure the bulk of the vintage was disposed of before a single
+grape passed through the wine-press.</p>
+
+<p>At Mareuil, which is scarcely more than a mile from Ay, owing to the
+steepness of the slopes and to the roads through the vineyards being
+impracticable for carts, the grapes were being conveyed to the
+press-houses in baskets slung across the backs of mules and donkeys,
+who, on account of their known partiality for the ripe fruit, were most
+of them muzzled while thus employed. The <i>vin brut</i> here, inferior
+of course to that of Ay, found a ready market at from five to six
+hundred francs the pièce.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic037.png" width = "305" height = "284"
+alt = "man leading donkey with panniers of grapes">
+</p>
+
+<p>From Mareuil we proceeded to Avenay, a tumbledown little village in
+the direction of Reims, and the vineyards of which were of greater
+repute in the 13th century than they are to-day. Its best wine, extolled
+by Saint Evremond, the epicurean Frenchman, who emigrated to the gay
+court of Charles&nbsp;II. at Whitehall to escape a gloomy cell in the
+Bastille, is vintaged up the slopes of Mont Hurlé. At Avenay we found
+the yield had been little more than the third of an average one, and
+that the wine from the first pressure of the grapes had been sold for
+five hundred francs the pièce. Here we tasted some very fair still red
+wine, made from the same grapes as champagne, remarkably deep in colour,
+full of body, and with that slight sweet bitterish flavour
+characteristic of certain of the better-class growths of the south of
+France. On leaving Avenay we ascended the hills to Mutigny, and wound
+<span class = "pagenum">28</span>
+<!-- png 037 -->
+round thence to Cumières, on the banks of the Marne, finding the vintage
+in full operation all throughout the route. The vineyards of
+Cumières&mdash;classed as a second crû&mdash;join those of Hautvillers
+on the one side and Damery on the other&mdash;the latter a cosy little
+river-side village, where the “<i>bon Roi Henri</i>� sought relaxation
+from the turmoils of war in the society of the fair Anne du
+Puy&mdash;“<i>sa belle hôtesse</i>,� as the gallant Béarnais was wont to
+style her. Damery too claims to be the birthplace of Adrienne
+Lecouvreur, the celebrated actress of the Regency, and mistress of the
+Maréchal de Saxe who coaxed her out of her £30,000 of savings to enable
+him to prosecute his suit with the obese Anna Iwanowna, niece of Peter
+the Great, which, had he only been successful in, would have secured the
+future hero of Fontenoy the coveted dukedom of Courland.</p>
+
+<p>The vineyards of the Côte d’Epernay, south of the Marne, extend
+eastward from beyond Boursault, on whose wooded height Madame Clicquot
+built her fine château, in which her granddaughter,
+<span class = "pagenum">29</span>
+<!-- png 038 -->
+the Comtesse de Mortemart, to-day resides. They then follow the course
+of the river, and after winding round behind Epernay diverge towards the
+south-west. The vines produce only black grapes, and many of the
+vineyards are of great antiquity, one at Epernay, known as the Closet,
+having been bequeathed under that name six and a half centuries ago to a
+neighbouring Abbey of St. Martin. A&nbsp;short drive along the high road
+leading from Epernay to Troyes brings us to the village of Pierry cosily
+nestling amongst groves of poplars in the valley of the Cubry, with some
+half-score of châteaux of the last century belonging to well-to-do
+wine-growers of the neighbourhood, screened from the road by umbrageous
+gardens. Vines mount the slopes that rise around, the higher summits
+being crowned with forest, while here and there some pleasant village
+shelters itself under the brow of a lofty hill. Near Pierry many cellars
+have been excavated in the chalky soil, to the flints prevalent in which
+the village is said to owe its name.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic038.png" width = "368" height = "236"
+alt = "see following text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The entrances to these cellars are closed by iron gateways, and on
+the skirts of the vineyards we come upon whole rows of them
+picturesquely overgrown with ivy.
+<span class = "pagenum">30</span>
+<!-- png 039 -->
+Early in the last century the wine vintaged in the Clos St. Pierre,
+belonging to an abbey of this name at Châlons, acquired a high
+reputation through the care bestowed upon it by Brother Jean Oudart,
+whose renown almost rivalled that of Dom Perignon himself, and to-day
+the Pierry vineyards, producing exclusively black grapes, hold a high
+rank among the second-class crûs of the Marne.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the Sourdon, a little stream which, bubbling up in the midst
+of huge rocks in the forest of Epernay, rushes down the hills and
+mingles its waters with that of the Cubry, we soon reach Moussy, where
+the vineyards, spite of their long pedigree and southern aspect, also
+rank as a second crû. Still skirting the vine-clad slopes we come to
+Vinay, noted for an ancient grotto&mdash;the comfortless abode of some
+rheumatic anchorite&mdash;and a pretended miraculous spring to which
+fever-stricken pilgrims to-day credulously resort. The water may
+possibly merit its renown, but the wine here produced is very inferior,
+due no doubt to the class of vines, the meunier being the leading
+variety cultivated. At Ablois St. Martin, picturesquely perched partway
+up a slope in the midst of hills covered with vines and crowned with
+forest trees, the Côte d’Epernay ends, and the produce becomes of a
+choicer character.</p>
+
+<p>The Côte d’Avize lies to the south-east, so that we have to retrace
+our steps to Pierry and follow the road which there branches off,
+leaving the vineyards of Chavot, Monthelon, and Grauves, of no
+particular note, on our right hand. We pass through Cuis, where the
+slopes, planted with both black and white varieties of vines, are
+extremely abrupt, and eventually reach Cramant, one of the grand
+<i>premiers crûs</i> of the Champagne. From the vineyards around this
+picturesque little village, and extending along the somewhat precipitous
+Côte de Saran&mdash;a&nbsp;prominent object on which is M.&nbsp;Moët’s
+handsome château&mdash;there is vintaged a wine from white grapes
+especially remarkable for lightness and delicacy and the richness of its
+bouquet, and an admixture of which is essential to every first-class
+champagne <i>cuvée</i>.</p>
+
+<p>From Cramant the road runs direct to Avize, a large thriving
+<span class = "pagenum">31</span>
+<!-- png 040 -->
+village, lying at the foot of vineyard slopes, where numerous champagne
+firms have established themselves. Its prosperity dates from the
+commencement of the last century, when the Count de Lhery cleared away
+the remains of its ancient ramparts, filled up the moat, and planted the
+ground with vines, the produce of which was found admirably suited for
+the sparkling wines then coming into vogue. To-day the light delicate
+wine of Avize is classed, like that of Cramant, as a <i>premier crû</i>.
+It is the same with the wine of Oger, lying a little to the south, while
+the neighbouring growths of Le Mesnil hold a slightly inferior rank. The
+latter village and its grey Gothic church lie under the hill in the
+midst of vines that almost climb the forest-crowned summit. The stony
+soil hereabouts is said to be better adapted to the cultivation of white
+than of black grapes, besides which the wines of Le Mesnil are
+remarkable for their effervescent properties.</p>
+
+<p>Vertus forms the southern limit of the Côte d’Avize, and the vineyard
+slopes subsiding at their base into a broad expanse of fertile fields,
+and crested as usual with dense forest, rise up behind the picturesque
+old town which the English assailed and partly burnt five centuries ago,
+spite of its fortifications, of which to-day a dilapidated gateway alone
+remains. The church is ancient and curious, and a few quaint old houses
+are here and there met with, notably one with a florid Gothic window
+enriched with a moulding of grapes and vine-leaves. The vineyards of
+Vertus were originally planted with vines from Burgundy, and in the 14th
+century yielded a red wine held in high repute, while later on the
+Vertus growths formed the favourite beverage of William III. of England.
+To-day the growers find it more profitable to make white instead of red
+wine from their crops of black grapes, the former commanding a good
+price for conversion into <i>vin mousseux</i>, it being in the opinion
+of some manufacturers especially valuable for binding a <i>cuvée</i>
+together. The wine of Vertus ranks among the second-class champagne
+crûs.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">32</span>
+<!-- png 041 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic041.png" width = "347" height = "384"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+CHATEAU OF SILLERY.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapIII" id = "chapIII">
+III.&mdash;The Vineyards of the Mountain.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+The Wine of Sillery&mdash;Origin of its Renown&mdash;The Marechale
+d’Estrées a successful Marchande de Vin&mdash;From Reims to
+Sillery&mdash;Failure of the Jacquesson Vineyards&mdash;Château of
+Sillery&mdash;Wine Making at M.&nbsp;Fortel’s&mdash;Sillery
+sec&mdash;The Vintage and Vendangeoirs at Verzenay&mdash;The Verzy
+Vineyards&mdash;Edward III. at the Abbey of St. Basle&mdash;From Reims
+to Bouzy&mdash;The Herring Procession at St. Remi&mdash;Rilly, Chigny,
+and Ludes&mdash;The Knights Templars’ “Pot� of Wine&mdash;Mailly and the
+View over the Plains of the Champagne&mdash;Wine Making at
+Mailly&mdash;The Village in the Wood&mdash;Village and Château of
+Louvois&mdash;Louis le Grand’s War Minister&mdash;Bouzy, its Vineyards
+and Church Steeple, and the Lottery of the Great Gold
+Ingot&mdash;MM.&nbsp;Werlé’s and <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "dieresis missing in original">Moët</ins> and Chandon’s
+Vendangeoirs&mdash;Pressing the Grapes&mdash;Still Red
+Bouzy&mdash;Ambonnay&mdash;A&nbsp;Peasant Proprietor&mdash;The Vineyards
+of Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville, and St. Thierry&mdash;The Still
+Red Wine of the latter.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">33</span>
+<!-- png 042 -->
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span>
+smallest of the Champagne vineyards are those of Sillery, and yet no
+wine of the Marne enjoys a greater renown, due originally to the
+intelligence and energy of the Maréchale d’Estrées, the clever daughter
+of a Jew financier, who brought the wine of Sillery prominently into
+notice during the latter half of the seventeenth century. She had
+vineyards at Mailly, Verzy, and Verzenay, as well as at Sillery, and
+concentrated their produce in the capacious cellars of her château,
+afterwards sending it forth with her own guarantee, under the general
+name of Sillery, which, like Aaron’s serpent, thus swallowed up the
+others. The Maréchale’s social position enabled her to secure for her
+wines the recognition they really merited, added to which she was a keen
+woman of business. She also possessed much taste, and whenever she gave
+one of her rare entertainments nothing could be more exquisite or more
+magnificent. At the same time, she was so sordid that when her daughter,
+who was covered with jewels, fell down at a ball, her first cry was, not
+like Shylock’s, “my daughter,� but “my diamonds,� as rushing forward she
+strove to pick up, not the fallen dancer, but her scattered gems.</p>
+
+<p>The drive from Reims to Sillery has nothing attractive about it.
+A&nbsp;long, straight, level road bordered by trees intersects a broad
+tract of open country, skirted on the right by the Petite Montagne of
+Reims, with antiquated villages nestled among the dense woodland. After
+crossing the Châlons line of railway&mdash;near where one of the new
+forts constructed for the defence of Reims rises up behind the villages
+and vineyards of Cernay and Nogent l’Abbesse&mdash;the country becomes
+more undulating. Poplars border the broad Marne canal, and a low fringe
+of foliage marks the course of the languid river Vesle, on the banks of
+which is Taissy, famous in the old days for its wines, great favourites
+with Sully, and which almost lured Henri Quatre from his allegiance to
+the vintages of Ay and Arbois that he loved so well.</p>
+
+<p>To the left rises Mont de la Pompelle, where the first Christians of
+Reims suffered martyrdom, and where in 1658 the Spaniards under Montal,
+when attempting to ravage the vineyards of the district, were repulsed
+with terrible slaughter by the Remois
+<span class = "pagenum">34</span>
+<!-- png 043 -->
+militia, led on by Grandpré. A&nbsp;quarter of a century ago the low
+ground on our right near Sillery was planted with vines by
+M.&nbsp;Jacquesson, the owner of the Sillery estate, and a large
+champagne manufacturer at Châlons, who was anxious to resuscitate the
+ancient reputation of the domain. Under the advice of Dr. Guyot, the
+well-known writer on viticulture, he planted the vines in deep trenches,
+which led to the vineyards being punningly termed Jacquesson’s
+<i>celery</i> beds. To shield the vines from hailstorms prevalent in the
+district, and the more dangerous spring frosts, so fatal to vines
+planted in low-lying situations, long rolls of straw-matting were stored
+close at hand with which to roof them over when needful. These
+precautions were scarcely needed, however; the vines languished through
+moisture at the roots, and eventually were mostly rooted&nbsp;up.</p>
+
+<p>After again crossing the railway, we pass the trim, restored turrets
+of the famous château of Sillery, with its gateways, moats, and
+drawbridges, flanked by trees and floral parterres. It was here that the
+Maréchale d’Estrées carried on her successful business as a <i>marchande
+de vins</i>, and the pragmatic and pedantic Comtesse de Genlis,
+governess of the Orleans princes, spent, as she tells us, the happiest
+days of her life. The few thriving vineyards of Sillery cover a gentle
+eminence which rises out of the plain, and present on the one side an
+eastern and on the other a western aspect. To-day the Vicomte de Brimont
+and M.&nbsp;Fortel of Reims, the latter of whom cultivates about forty
+acres of vines, yielding ordinarily about 300 hogsheads, are the only
+wine-growers at Sillery. Before pressing his grapes&mdash;of course for
+sparkling wine&mdash;M.&nbsp;Fortel has them thrown into a trough, at
+the bottom of which are a couple of grooved cylinders, each about eight
+inches in diameter, and revolving in contrary directions, the effect of
+which, when set in motion, is to disengage the grapes partially from
+their stalks. Grapes and stalks are then placed under the press, which
+is on the old cyder-press principle, and the must runs into a reservoir
+beneath, whence it is pumped into large vats, each holding from 250 to
+500 gallons. Here it remains from six to eight hours, and is then run
+off into casks, the spigots
+<span class = "pagenum">35</span>
+<!-- png 044 -->
+of which are merely laid lightly over the holes, and in the course of
+twelve days the wine begins to ferment. It now rests until the end of
+the year, when it is drawn off into new casks and delivered to the
+buyer, invariably one or other of the great champagne houses, who
+willingly pay an exceptionally high price for it. The second and third
+pressures of the grapes yield an inferior wine, and from the husks and
+stalks <i>eau-de-vie</i>, worth about five shillings a gallon, is
+distilled.</p>
+
+<p>The wine known as Sillery sec is a full, dry, pleasant-flavoured, and
+somewhat spirituous amber-coloured wine. Very little of it is made
+now-a-days, and most that is comes from the adjacent vineyards of
+Verzenay and Mailly, and is principally reserved by the growers for
+their own consumption. One of these candidly admitted to me that the old
+reputation of the wine had exploded, and that better white Bordeaux and
+Burgundy wines were to be obtained for less money. In making dry
+Sillery, which locally is esteemed as a valuable tonic, it is essential
+that the grapes should be subjected to only slight pressure, while to
+have it in perfection it is equally essential that the wine should be
+kept for ten years in the wood according to some, and eight years in
+bottle according to others, to which circumstance its high price is in
+all probability to be attributed. In course of time it forms a deposit,
+and has the disadvantage common to all the finer still wines of the
+Champagne district of not travelling well.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond Sillery the vineyards of Verzenay unfold themselves, spreading
+over the extensive slopes and stretching to the summit of the steep
+height to the right, where a windmill or two is perched. Everywhere the
+vintagers are busy detaching the grapes with their little hook-shaped
+<i>serpettes</i>, the women all wearing projecting, close-fitting
+bonnets, as though needlessly careful of their anything but blonde
+complexions. Long carts laden with baskets of grapes block the narrow
+roads, and donkeys, duly muzzled, with baskets slung across their backs,
+toil up and down the steeper slopes. Half way up the principal hill,
+backed by a dense wood and furrowed with deep trenches, whence soil has
+been removed for manuring the vineyards, is the
+<span class = "pagenum">36</span>
+<!-- png 045 -->
+village of Verzenay, overlooking a veritable sea of vines. Rising up in
+front of the old grey cottages, encompassed by orchards or gardens, are
+the white walls and long red roofs of the vendangeoirs belonging to the
+great champagne houses&mdash;Moët and Chandon, Clicquot, G.&nbsp;H.
+Mumm, Roederer, Deutz and Geldermann, and others&mdash;all teeming with
+bustle and excitement, and with the vines almost reaching to their very
+doors. Moët and Chandon have as many as eight presses in full work, and
+own no less than 120 acres of vines on the neighbouring slopes, besides
+the Clos de Romont&mdash;in the direction of Sillery, and yielding a
+wine of the Sillery type&mdash;belonging to M.&nbsp;Moët Romont. At
+Messrs. G.&nbsp;H. Mumm’s the newly-delivered grapes are either being
+weighed and emptied into one of the pressoirs, or else receiving their
+first gentle squeeze. Verzenay ranks as a <i>premier crû</i>, and for
+three years in succession&mdash;1872, 3, and&nbsp;4&mdash;its wines
+fetched a higher price than either those of Ay or Bouzy. In 1873 the
+<i>vin brut</i> commanded the exceptionally large sum of 1,030 francs
+the hogshead of 44 gallons. All the inhabitants of Verzenay are vine
+proprietors, and several million francs are annually received by them
+for the produce of their vineyards from the manufacturers of champagne.
+The wine of Verzenay, remarkable for its body and vinosity, has always
+been held in high repute, which is more than can be said for the probity
+of the inhabitants, for according to an old Champagne
+saying&mdash;“Whenever at Verzenay ‘Stop thief’ is cried every one takes
+to his heels.�</p>
+
+<!-- png 046 -->
+<!-- png 047 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic046.jpg" width = "448" height = "279"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE VINEYARDS OF VERZENAY. (p. 36.)</p>
+
+<p>Just over the mountain of Reims is the village of Verzy, the
+vineyards of which adjoin those of Verzenay, and are almost exclusively
+planted with white grapes, the only instance of the kind to be met with
+in the district. In the clos St. Basse, however&mdash;taking its name
+from the abbey of St. Basle, of which the village was a dependency, and
+where Edward III. of England had his head-quarters during the siege of
+Reims&mdash;black grapes alone are grown, and its produce is almost on a
+par with the wines of Verzenay. Southwards of Verzy are the third-class
+crûs of Villers-Marmery and Trépail.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">37</span>
+<!-- png 048 -->
+On leaving Reims on our excursion to the vineyards of Bouzy we pass the
+quaint old church of St. Remi, one of the sights of the Champagne
+capital, and notable among other things for its magnificent ancient
+stained-glass windows, and the handsome modern tomb of the popular
+Remois saint. It was here in the middle ages that that piece of priestly
+mummery, the procession of the herrings, used to take place at dusk on
+the Wednesday before Easter. Preceded by a cross the canons of the
+church marched in double file up the aisles, each trailing a cord after
+him, with a herring attached. Every one’s object was to tread on the
+herring in front of him, and prevent his own herring from being trodden
+upon by the canon who followed behind&mdash;a&nbsp;difficult enough
+proceeding which, if it did not edify, certainly afforded much amusement
+to the lookers-on.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after crossing the canal and the river Vesle we leave the grey
+antiquated-looking village of Cormontreuil on our left, and traverse a
+wide stretch of cultivated country streaked with patches of woodland.
+Occasional windmills dot the distant heights, while villages nestle
+among the trees up the mountain sides and in the quiet hollows. Soon a
+few vineyards occupying the lower slopes, and thronged by bands of
+vintagers, come in sight, and the country too gets more picturesque. We
+pass successively on our right hand Rilly, producing a capital red wine,
+then Chigny, and afterwards Ludes, all three more or less up the
+mountain, with vines in all directions, relieved by a dark background of
+forest trees. In the old days the Knights Templars of the Commanderie of
+Reims had the right of <i>vinage</i> at Ludes, and exacted their modest
+“pot� (about half a gallon) per pièce on all the wine the village
+produced. On our left hand is Mailly, the vineyards of which join those
+of Verzenay, and yield a wine noted for <i>finesse</i> and bouquet. From
+the wooded knolls hereabouts a view is gained of the broad plains of the
+Champagne, dotted with white villages and scattered homesteads among the
+poplars and the limes, the winding Vesle glittering in the sunlight, and
+the dark towers of Notre Dame de Reims, with all their rich Gothic
+fretwork, rising majestically above the distant city.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">38</span>
+<!-- png 049 -->
+At one vendangeoir we visited at Mailly between 350 and 400 pièces of
+wine were being made at the rate of some thirty pièces during the long
+day of twenty hours, five men being engaged in working the old-fashioned
+press, closely resembling a cyder press, and applying its pressure
+longitudinally. The must was emptied into large vats, holding about 450
+gallons, and remained there for two or three days before being drawn off
+into casks. Of the above thirty pièces, twenty resulting from the first
+pressure were of the finest quality, four produced by the second
+pressure were partly reserved to replace what the first might lose
+during fermentation, the residue serving for second-class champagne. The
+six pièces which came from the final pressure, after being mixed with
+common wine of the district, were converted into champagne of inferior
+quality.</p>
+
+<p>We now cross the mountain, sight Ville-en-Selve&mdash;the village in
+the wood&mdash;among the distant trees, and eventually reach Louvois,
+whence the Grand Monarque’s domineering war minister derived his
+marquisate, and where his château, a&nbsp;plain but capacious edifice,
+may still be seen nestled in a picturesque and fertile valley, and
+surrounded by lordly pleasure grounds. Soon afterwards the vineyards of
+Bouzy appear in sight, with the prosperous-looking little village rising
+out of the plain at the foot of the vine-clad slopes stretching to
+Ambonnay, and the glittering Marne streaking the hazy distance. The
+commodious new church was indebted for its spire, we were told, to the
+lucky gainer&mdash;who chanced to be a native of Bouzy&mdash;of the
+great gold ingot lottery prize, value £16,000, drawn some years ago. The
+Bouzy vineyards occupy a series of gentle inclines, and have the
+advantage of a full southern aspect. The soil, which is of the customary
+calcareous formation, has a marked ruddy tinge, indicative of the
+presence of iron, to which the wine is in some degree indebted for its
+distinguishing characteristics&mdash;its delicacy, spirituousness, and
+pleasant bouquet. Vintagers are passing slowly in between the vines, and
+carts laden with grapes come rolling over the dusty roads. The mountain
+which rises behind is scored up its sides and fringed with foliage at
+its
+<span class = "pagenum">39</span>
+<!-- png 052 -->
+summit, and a small stone bridge crosses the deep ravine formed by the
+swift descending winter torrents.</p>
+
+<!-- png 050 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic050.jpg" width = "447" height = "259"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE VINEYARDS OF BOUZY. (p. 38.)</p>
+
+<p>The principal vineyard proprietors at Bouzy, which ranks, of course,
+as a <i>premier crû</i>, are M.&nbsp;Werlé, M.&nbsp;Irroy, and Messrs.
+Moët and Chandon, the first and last of whom have capacious vendangeoirs
+here, M.&nbsp;Irroy’s pressing-house being in the neighbouring village
+of Ambonnay. M.&nbsp;Werlé possesses at Bouzy from forty to fifty acres
+of the finest vines, forming a considerable proportion of the entire
+vineyard area. At the Clicquot-Werlé vendangeoir, containing as many as
+eight presses, about 1,000 pièces of wine are made annually. At the time
+of our visit, grapes gathered that morning were in course of delivery,
+the big basketfuls being measured off in caques&mdash;wooden
+receptacles, holding two-and-twenty gallons&mdash;while the florid-faced
+foreman ticked them off with a piece of chalk on the head of an adjacent
+cask.</p>
+
+<!-- png 051 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic051.jpg" width = "449" height = "286"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+PRESSING GRAPES AT M. WERLÉ’S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 39)</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the contents of some half-hundred or so of these baskets
+had been emptied on to the floor of the press, the grapes undetached
+from their stalks were smoothed compactly down, and a moderate pressure
+was applied to them by turning a huge wheel, which caused the screw of
+the press to act&mdash;a&nbsp;gradual squeeze rather than a powerful
+one, and given all at once, coaxing out, it was said, the finer
+qualities of the fruit. The operation was repeated as many as six times;
+the yield from the three first pressures being reserved for conversion
+into champagne, while the result of the fourth squeeze would be applied
+to replenishing the loss, averaging 7½ per cent., sustained by the must
+during fermentation. Whatever comes from the fifth pressure is sold to
+make an inferior champagne. The grapes are subsequently well raked
+about, and then subjected to a couple of final squeezes, known as the
+<i>rébêche</i>, and yielding a sort of <i>piquette</i>, given to the
+workmen employed at the pressoir to drink.</p>
+
+<p>The small quantity of still red Bouzy wine made by M. Werlé at the
+same vendangeoir only claims to be regarded as a wine of especial mark
+in good years. The grapes before being placed beneath the press are
+allowed to remain in a vat for as many as
+<span class = "pagenum">40</span>
+<!-- png 053 -->
+eight days. The must undergoes a long fermentation, and after being
+drawn off into casks is left undisturbed for a couple of years. In
+bottle, where, by the way, it invariably deposits a sediment, which is
+indeed the case with all the wines of the Champagne, still or sparkling,
+it will outlive, we were told, any Burgundy.</p>
+
+<p>Still red Bouzy has a marked and agreeable bouquet and a most
+delicate flavour, is deliciously smooth to the palate, and to all
+appearances as light as a wine of Bordeaux, while in reality it is quite
+as strong as Burgundy, to the finer crûs of which it bears a slight
+resemblance. It was, I&nbsp;learnt, most susceptible to travelling,
+a&nbsp;mere journey to Paris being, it was said, sufficient to sicken
+it, and impart such a shock to its delicate constitution that it was
+unlikely to recover from it. To attain perfection, this wine, which is
+what the French term a <i>vin vif</i>, penetrating into the remotest
+corners of the organ of taste, requires to be kept a couple of years in
+wood and half-a-dozen or more years in bottle.</p>
+
+<p>From Bouzy it was only a short distance along the base of the vine
+slopes to Ambonnay, where there are merely two or three hundred acres of
+vines, and where we found the vintage almost over. The village is girt
+with fir trees, and surrounded by rising ground fringed with solid belts
+or slender strips of foliage. An occasional windmill cuts against the
+horizon, which is bounded here and there by scattered trees. Inquiring
+for the largest vine proprietor we were directed to an open
+porte-cochère, and on entering the large court encountered half-a-dozen
+labouring men engaged in various farm occupations. Addressing one whom
+we took to be the foreman, he referred us to a wiry little old man, in
+shirt-sleeves and sabots, absorbed in the refreshing pursuit of turning
+over a big heap of rich manure with a fork. He proved to be
+M.&nbsp;Oury, the owner of I forget how many acres of vines, and a
+remarkably intelligent peasant, considering what dunderheads the French
+peasants as a rule are, who had raised himself to the position of a
+large vine proprietor. Doffing his sabots and donning a clean blouse, he
+conducted us into his little salon, a&nbsp;freshly-painted apartment
+about eight
+<span class = "pagenum">41</span>
+<!-- png 054 -->
+feet square, of which the huge fireplace occupied fully one-third, and
+submitted patiently to our catechizing.</p>
+
+<p>At Ambonnay, as at Bouzy, they had that year, M. Oury said, only half
+an average crop; the caque of grapes had, moreover, sold for exactly the
+same price at both places, and the wine had realised about 800 francs
+the pièce. Each hectare (2½ acres) of vines had yielded 45 caques of
+grapes, weighing some 2¾ tons, which produced 6½ pièces, equal to 286
+gallons of wine, or at the rate of 110 gallons per acre. Here the grapes
+were pressed four times, the yield from the second pressure being used
+principally to make good the loss which the first sustained during its
+fermentation. As the squeezes given were powerful ones, all the best
+qualities of the grapes were by this time extracted, and the yield from
+the third and fourth pressures would not command more than 80 francs the
+pièce. The vintagers who came from a distance received either a franc
+and a half per day and their food, consisting of three meals, or two
+francs and a half without food, the children being paid thirty sous.
+M.&nbsp;Oury further informed us that every year vineyards came into the
+market, and found ready purchasers at from fifteen to twenty thousand
+francs the hectare, equal to an average price of £300 the acre. Owing to
+the properties being divided into such infinitesimal portions, they were
+rarely bought up by the large champagne houses, who preferred not to be
+embarrassed with the cultivation of such tiny plots, but to buy the
+produce from their owners.</p>
+
+<p>There are other vineyards of lesser note in the neighbourhood of
+Reims producing very fair wines which enter more or less into the
+composition of champagne. Noticeable among these are Ville-Dommange and
+Sacy, south-west of Reims, and Hermonville and St. Thierry&mdash;where
+the Black Prince took up his quarters during the siege of
+Reims&mdash;north-west of the city. The still red wine of St. Thierry,
+which recalls the growths of the Médoc by its tannin, and those of the
+Côte d’Or by its vinosity, is to-day almost a thing of the past, it
+being found here as elsewhere more profitable to press the grapes for
+sparkling in preference to still wine.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">42</span>
+<!-- png 055 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic055.png" width = "379" height = "284"
+alt = "man and boy placing vine stakes">
+</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapIV" id = "chapIV">
+IV.&mdash;The Vines of the Champagne and the System of
+Cultivation.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+The Vines chiefly of the Pineau Variety&mdash;The Plant doré of Ay, the
+Plant vert doré, the Plant gris, and the Epinette&mdash;The Soil of the
+Vineyards&mdash;Close Mode of Plantation&mdash;The Operation of
+Provinage&mdash;The Stems of the Vines never more than Three Years
+Old&mdash;Fixing the Stakes to the Vines&mdash;Manuring and General
+Cultivation&mdash;Spring Frosts in the Champagne&mdash;Various Modes of
+Protecting the Vines against them&mdash;Dr. Guyot’s System&mdash;The
+Parasites that Prey upon the Vines.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">In</span>
+the Champagne the old rule holds good&mdash;poor soil, rich product;
+grand wine in moderate quantity. Four descriptions of vines are chiefly
+cultivated, three of them yielding black grapes, and all belonging to
+the Pineau variety, from which the grand Burgundy wines are produced,
+and so styled from the clusters taking the conical form of the pine. The
+first is the franc pineau, the plant doré of Ay, producing small round
+grapes, with thickish skins of a bluish black tint, and sweet and
+refined in flavour. The next is the plant vert doré, more robust and
+more productive than
+<span class = "pagenum">43</span>
+<!-- png 056 -->
+the former, but yielding a less generous wine, and the berries of which
+are dark and oval, very thin skinned and remarkably sweet and juicy. The
+third variety is the plant gris, or burot, as it is styled in the Côte
+d’Or, a&nbsp;somewhat delicate vine, whose fruit has a brownish tinge,
+and yields a light and perfumed wine. The remaining species is a white
+grape known as the épinette, a&nbsp;variety of the pineau blanc, and
+supposed by some to be identical with the chardonnet of Burgundy, which
+yields the famous wine of Montrachet. It is met with all along the Côte
+d’Avize, notably at Cramant, the delicate and elegant wine of which
+ranks immediately after that of Ay and Verzenay. The épinette is a
+prolific bearer, and its round transparent golden berries, which hang in
+no very compact clusters, are both juicy and sweet. It ripens, however,
+much later than either of the black varieties.</p>
+
+<p>There are several other species of vines cultivated in the Champagne
+vineyards, notably the common meunier, or miller, bearing black grapes,
+and prevalent in the valley of Epernay, and which takes its name from
+the circumstance of the young leaves appearing to have been sprinkled
+with flour. There are also the black and white gouais, the meslier,
+a&nbsp;prolific white variety yielding a wine of fair quality, the black
+and white gamais, the leading grape in the Mâconnais, and chiefly found
+in the Vertus vineyards, together with the tourlon, the marmot, and half
+a score of others.</p>
+
+<p>The soil of the Champagne vineyards is chalk, with a mixture of
+silica and light clay, combined with a varying proportion of oxide of
+iron. The vines are almost invariably planted on rising ground, the
+lower slopes which usually escape the spring frosts producing the best
+wines. The new vines are placed very close together, there often being
+as many as six within a square yard. When two or three years old they
+are ready for the operation of provinage universally practised in the
+Champagne, and which consists in burying in a trench, from 6 to 8 inches
+deep, dug on one side of the plant, the two lowest buds of the two
+principal shoots, left when the vine was pruned for this especial
+purpose. The shoots thus laid underground are dressed with a light
+<span class = "pagenum">44</span>
+<!-- png 057 -->
+manure, and in course of time take root and form new vines, which bear
+during their second year. This operation is performed in the spring, and
+is annually repeated until the vine is five years old, the plants thus
+being in a state of continual progression, a&nbsp;system which accounts
+for the juvenescent aspect of the Champagne vineyards, where none of the
+wood of the vines showing aboveground is more than three years old. When
+the vine has attained its fifth year it is allowed to rest for a couple
+of years, and then the pruning is resumed, the shoots being dispersed in
+any direction throughout the vineyard. The plants remain in this
+condition henceforward, merely requiring to be renewed from time to time
+by judicious provining.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic057.png" width = "278" height = "172"
+alt = "three vines">
+</p>
+
+<p>The vines are supported by stakes, when of oak costing sixty francs
+the thousand; and as in the Champagne a close system of plantation is
+followed, no less than 24,000 stakes are required on every acre of land,
+making the cost per acre of propping up the vines upwards of £57, or
+double what it is in the Médoc and quadruple what it is in Burgundy.
+These stakes are set up in the spring of the year by men or women, the
+former of whom force them into the ground by pressing against them with
+their chest, which is protected with a shield of stout leather. The
+women use a mallet, or have recourse to a special appliance, in working
+which the foot plays the principal part. The latter method is the least
+fatiguing, and in some localities
+<span class = "pagenum">45</span>
+<!-- png 058 -->
+is practised by the men. An expert labourer will set up as many as 5,000
+of these stakes in the course of the day. After the vines have been hoed
+around their roots they are secured to the stakes, and the tops are
+broken off at a shoot to prevent them from growing above the regulation
+height, which is ordinarily from 30 to 33 inches. They are liberally
+manured with a kind of compost formed of the loose friable soil dug out
+from the sides of the mountain, and of supposed volcanic origin, mixed
+with animal and vegetable refuse. The vines are shortened back while in
+flower, and in the course of the summer the ground is hoed a second and
+a third time, the object being, first, to destroy the superficial roots
+of the vines and force the plants to live solely on their deep roots;
+and, secondly, to remove all pernicious weeds from round about them.
+After the third hoeing, which takes place in the middle of August, the
+vines are left to themselves until the period of the vintage. When this
+is over the stakes supporting the vines are pulled up and stacked
+<span class = "pagenum">46</span>
+<!-- png 059 -->
+in compact masses, with their ends out of the ground, the vine, which is
+left curled up in a heap, remaining undisturbed until the winter, when
+the earth around it is loosened. In the month of February it is pruned
+and sunk into the earth, as already described, so as to leave only the
+new wood aboveground. Owing to the vines being planted so closely
+together they starve one another, and numbers of them perish. When this
+is the case, or the stems get broken during the vintage, their places
+are filled up by provining.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic058.png" width = "369" height = "287"
+alt = "boy with donkey placing hay around vines">
+</p>
+
+<p>The vignerons of the Champagne regard the numerous stakes which
+support the vines as affording some protection against the white frosts
+of the spring. To guard against the dreaded effects of these frosts,
+which invariably occur between early dawn and sunrise, and the loss
+arising from which is estimated to amount annually to 25 per cent. some
+of the cultivators place heaps of hay, faggots, dead leaves, &amp;c.,
+about twenty yards apart, taking care to keep them moderately damp. When
+a frost is feared the heaps on the side of the vineyard whence the wind
+blows are set light to, whereupon the dense smoke which rises spreads
+horizontally over the vines, producing the same result as an actual
+cloud, intercepting the rays of the sun, warming the atmosphere, and
+converting the frost into dew. Among other methods adopted to shield the
+vines from frosts is the joining of branches of broom together in the
+form of a fan, and afterwards fastening them to the end of a pole, which
+is placed obliquely in the ground, so that the fan may incline over the
+vine and protect it from the sun’s rays. A&nbsp;single labourer can
+plant, it is said, as many as eight thousand of these fans in the ground
+in the course of a long day.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Guyot’s system of roofing the vines with straw matting, to
+protect them alike against frost and hailstorms, is very generally
+followed in low situations in the Champagne, the value of the wine
+admitting of so considerable an expense being incurred. This matting,
+which is about a foot and a half in width, and in rolls of great length,
+is fastened either with twine or wire to the vine stakes, and it is
+estimated that half-a-dozen
+<span class = "pagenum">47</span>
+<!-- png 060 -->
+men can fix nearly 11,000 yards of it, or sufficient to roof over
+2½&nbsp;acres of vines, during an ordinary day.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic060.png" width = "283" height = "176"
+alt = "stack of vine stakes">
+</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the system of cultivation by rejuvenescence, and the
+constant replenishing of the soil by well-compounded manures, the
+Champenois <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "no hyphen in original">winegrowers</ins>
+entertain great hopes that their vineyards
+will escape the ravages of the phylloxera vastatrix. According to Dr.
+Plonquet of Ay they are already the prey of no less than fifteen
+varieties of insects, which feed upon the leaves, stalks, roots, or
+fruit of the vines. Between 1850 and 1860 the vineyards of Ay were
+devastated by the pyrale, a&nbsp;species of caterpillar, which feeds on
+the young leaves and shoots until the vine is left completely bare. The
+insect eventually becomes transformed into a small white butterfly, and
+deposits its eggs either in the crevices of the stakes or in the stalks
+of the vine. All the efforts made to rid the vineyards of this scourge
+proved ineffectual until the wet and cold weather of 1860 put a stop to
+the insect’s ravages. More recently it has been discovered that its
+attacks can be checked by sulphurous acid.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">48</span>
+<!-- png 061 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic061.png" width = "233" height = "304"
+alt = "see text">
+</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapV" id = "chapV">
+V.&mdash;Preparation of Champagne.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Treatment of Champagne after it comes from the Wine-Press&mdash;Racking
+and Blending of the Wine&mdash;Deficiency and Excess of
+Effervescence&mdash;Strength and Form of Champagne Bottles&mdash;The
+“Tirage� or Bottling of the Wine&mdash;The Process of Gas-making
+commences&mdash;Inevitable Breakage follows&mdash;Wine Stacked in
+Piles&mdash;Formation of Sediment&mdash;Bottles placed “sur pointe� and
+Daily Shaken&mdash;Effect of this occupation on those incessantly
+engaged in it&mdash;“Claws� and “Masks�&mdash;Champagne
+Cellars&mdash;Their Construction and Aspect&mdash;Transforming the “vin
+brut� into Champagne&mdash;Disgorging and Liqueuring the Wine&mdash;The
+Corking, Stringing, Wiring, and Amalgamating&mdash;The Wine’s Agitated
+Existence comes to an End&mdash;The Bottles have their Toilettes
+made&mdash;Champagne sets out on its beneficial Pilgrimage.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span>
+special characteristic of champagne is that its manufacture only just
+commences where that of other wines ordinarily ends. The must flows
+direct from the press into capacious reservoirs, whence it is drawn off
+into large vats, and after being allowed to clear, is transferred to
+casks holding some forty-four<a class = "tag" name = "tagA" id = "tagA"
+href = "#noteA">A</a> gallons each. Although the bulk of the new-made
+<span class = "pagenum">49</span>
+<!-- png 062 -->
+wine is left to repose at the vendangeoirs until the commencement of the
+following year, still when the vintage is over numbers of long narrow
+carts laden with casks of it are to be seen rolling along the dusty
+highways leading to those towns and villages in the Marne where the
+manufacture of champagne is carried on. Chief amongst these is the
+cathedral city of Reims, after which comes the rising town of Epernay,
+stretching to the very verge of the river, then Ay, nestled between the
+vine-clad slopes and the Marne canal, with the neighbouring village of
+Mareuil, and finally Avize, in the centre of the white grape district
+southwards of Epernay. Châlons, owing to its distance from the
+vineyards, would scarcely draw its supply of wine until the new year.
+The first fermentation lasts from a fortnight to a month, according as
+to whether the wine be <i>mou</i>&mdash;that is, rich in sugar&mdash;or
+the reverse. In the former case fermentation naturally lasts much longer
+than when the wine is <i>vert</i> or green. This active fermentation is
+converted into latent fermentation by transferring the wine to a cooler
+cellar, as it is essential it should retain a large proportion of its
+natural saccharine to ensure its future effervescence. The casks have
+previously been completely filled, and their bungholes tightly stopped,
+a&nbsp;necessary precaution to guard the wine from absorbing oxygen, the
+effect of which would be to turn it yellow and cause it to lose some of
+its lightness and perfume. After being racked and fined, the produce of
+the different vineyards is now ready for mixing together in accordance
+with the traditional theories of the various manufacturers, and should
+the vintage have been an indifferent one a certain proportion of old
+reserved wine of a good year enters into the blend.</p>
+
+<p>The mixing is usually effected in gigantic vats holding at times as
+many as 12,000 gallons each, and having fan-shaped appliances inside,
+which, on being worked by handles, ensure a complete amalgamation of the
+wine. This process of marrying wine on a gigantic scale is technically
+known as making the <i>cuvée</i>. Usually four-fifths of wine from black
+grapes are tempered by one-fifth of the juice of white ones. It is
+necessary that the
+<span class = "pagenum">50</span>
+<!-- png 063 -->
+first should comprise a more or less powerful dash of the finer growths
+both of the Mountain of Reims and of the River, while, as regards the
+latter, one or other of the delicate vintages of the Côte d’Avize is
+essential to the perfect <i>cuvée</i>. The aim is to combine and develop
+the special qualities of the respective crûs, body and vinosity being
+secured by the red vintages of Bouzy and Verzenay, softness and
+roundness by those of Ay and Dizy, and lightness, delicacy, and
+effervescence by the white growths of Avize and Cramant. The proportions
+are never absolute, but vary according to the manufacturer’s style of
+wine and the taste of the countries which form his principal markets.
+The wine at this period being imperfectly fermented and crude, the
+reader may imagine the delicacy and discrimination of palate requisite
+to judge of the flavour, finesse, and bouquet which the <i>cuvée</i> is
+likely eventually to develop.</p>
+
+<p>These, however, are not the only matters to be considered. There is,
+above everything, the effervescence, which depends upon the quantity of
+carbonic acid gas the wine contains, and this, in turn, upon the amount
+of its natural saccharine. If the gas be present in excess, there will
+be a shattering of bottles and a flooding of cellars; and if there be a
+paucity the corks will refuse to pop, and the wine to sparkle aright in
+the glass. Therefore the amount of saccharine in the <i>cuvée</i> has to
+be accurately ascertained by means of a glucometer; and if it fails to
+reach the required standard, the deficiency is made up by the addition
+of the purest sugar-candy. If, on the other hand, there be an excess of
+saccharine, the only thing to be done is to defer the final blending and
+bottling until the superfluous saccharine matter has been absorbed by
+fermentation in the cask.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>cuvée</i> completed, the blended wine, now resembling in taste
+and colour an ordinary acrid white wine, and giving to the uninitiated
+palate no promise of the exquisite delicacy and aroma it is destined to
+develop, is drawn off again into casks for further treatment. This
+comprises fining with some gelatinous substance, and, as a precaution
+against ropiness and other maladies, liquid tannin is at the same time
+frequently added to supply
+<span class = "pagenum">51</span>
+<!-- png 064 -->
+the place of the natural tannin which has departed from the wine with
+its reddish hue at the epoch of its first fermentation.</p>
+
+<p>The operation of bottling the wine next ensues, when the Scriptural
+advice not to put new wine into old bottles is rigorously followed. For
+the tremendous pressure of the gas engendered during the subsequent
+fermentation of the wine is such that the bottle becomes weakened and
+can never be safely trusted again. It is because of this pressure that
+the champagne bottle is one of the strongest made, as indicated by its
+weight, which is almost a couple of pounds. To ensure this unusual
+strength it is necessary that its sides should be of equal thickness and
+the bottom of a uniform solidity throughout, in order that no particular
+expansion may ensue from sudden changes of temperature. The neck must,
+moreover, be perfectly round and widen gradually towards the shoulder.
+In addition&mdash;and this is of the utmost consequence&mdash;the inside
+ought to be perfectly smooth, as a rough interior causes the gas to make
+efforts to escape, and thus renders an explosion imminent. The
+composition of the glass, too, is not without its importance, as a
+manufactory established for the production of glass by a new process
+turned out champagne bottles charged with alkaline sulphurets, and the
+consequence was that an entire <i>cuvée</i> was ruined by their use,
+through the reciprocal action of the wine and these sulphurets. The
+acids of the former disengaged hydrosulphuric acid, and instead of
+champagne the result was a new species of mineral water.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic065-1.png" width = "218" height = "211"
+alt = "women washing champagne bottles">
+</p>
+
+<p>Most of the bottles used for champagnes come from the factories of
+Loivre (which supplies the largest quantity), Folembray, Vauxrot, and
+Quiquengrogne, and cost on the average from 28 to 30 francs the hundred.
+They are generally tested by a practised hand, who, by knocking them
+sharply together, professes to be able to tell from the sound that they
+give the substance of the glass and its temper. The washing of the
+bottles is invariably performed by women, who at the larger
+establishments accomplish it with the aid of machines, sometimes
+provided with a revolving brush, although small glass beads
+<span class = "pagenum">52</span>
+<!-- png 065 -->
+are more generally used by preference. After being washed every bottle
+is minutely examined to make certain of its perfect purity.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic065-2.png" width = "236" height = "247"
+alt = "women examining clean bottles">
+</p>
+
+<p>With the different champagne houses the mode of bottling the wine,
+which may take place any time between April and August, varies in some
+measure, still the <i>tirage</i>, as this operation is called, is
+ordinarily effected as follows:&mdash;The wine is emptied from the casks
+into vats or tuns of varying capacity, whence it flows through pipes
+into oblong reservoirs, each provided with a row of syphon taps, on to
+which the bottles are slipped, and from which the wine ceases to flow
+directly the bottles become filled. Men or lads remove the full bottles,
+replacing them by empty ones, while other hands convey them to the
+corkers, whose guillotine machines are incessantly in motion; next the
+<i>agrafeurs</i> secure the corks by means of an iron staple, termed an
+agrafe; and then the bottles are conveyed either to a capacious
+apartment aboveground, known as a cellier, or to a cool cellar,
+according
+<span class = "pagenum">53</span>
+<!-- png 066 -->
+to the number of atmospheres the wine may indicate. It should be
+explained that air compressed to half its volume acquires twice its
+ordinary force, and to a quarter of its volume quadruple this
+force&mdash;hence the phrase of two, four, or more atmospheres. The
+exact degree of pressure is readily ascertained by means of a manometer,
+an instrument resembling a pressure gauge, with a hollow screw at the
+base which is driven through the cork of the bottle. A&nbsp;pressure of
+5¾&nbsp;atmospheres constitutes what is styled a “grand mousseux,� and
+the wine exhibiting it may be safely conveyed to the coolest
+subterranean depths, for no doubt need be entertained as to its future
+effervescent properties. Should the pressure, however, scarcely exceed
+4&nbsp;atmospheres, it is advisable to keep the wine in a cellier
+aboveground that it may more rapidly acquire the requisite sparkling
+qualities. If fewer than 4&nbsp;atmospheres are indicated it would be
+necessary to pour the wine back into the casks again, and add a certain
+amount of cane sugar to it, but such an eventuality very rarely happens,
+thanks to the scientific formulas and apparatus which enable the degree
+of pressure the wine will show to be determined beforehand to a nicety.
+Still mistakes are sometimes made, and there are instances where
+charcoal fires have had to be lighted in the cellars to encourage the
+effervescence to develop itself.</p>
+
+<p>The bottles are placed in a horizontal position and stacked in rows
+of varying length and depth, one above the other, to about the height of
+a man, and with narrow laths between them. Thus they will spend the
+summer providing all goes well, but in about three weeks’ time the
+process of gas-making inside the bottles is at its height, and may cause
+an undue number of them to burst. The glucometer notwithstanding, it is
+impossible to check a certain amount of breakage, especially when a hot
+season has caused the grapes, and consequently the raw wine, to be
+sweeter than usual. Moreover when once <i>casse</i> or breakage sets in
+on a large scale, the temperature of the cellar is raised by the volume
+of carbonic acid gas let loose, which is not without its effect on the
+remaining bottles. The only remedy is at once
+<span class = "pagenum">54</span>
+<!-- png 067 -->
+to remove the wine to a lower temperature when this is practicable.
+A&nbsp;manufacturer of the pre-scientific days of the last century
+relates how one year, when the wine was rich and strong, he only
+preserved 120 out of 6,000 bottles; and it is not long since that
+120,000 out of 200,000 were destroyed in the cellars of a well-known
+champagne firm. Over-knowing purchasers still affect to select a wine
+which has exploded in the largest proportion as being well up to the
+mark as regards its effervescence, and profess to make inquiries as to
+its performances in this direction.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident that in spite of the teachings of science the bursting
+of champagne bottles has not yet been reduced to a minimum, for whereas
+in some cellars it averages 7 and 8 per cent., in others it rarely
+exceeds 2½ or&nbsp;3. In the month of October, the first and severest
+breakage being over, the newly-bottled wine is definitively stacked in
+the cellars in piles from two to half-a-dozen bottles deep, from six to
+seven feet high, and frequently a hundred feet or upwards in length.
+Usually the bottles remain in their horizontal position for about
+eighteen or twenty months, though some firms, who pride themselves upon
+shipping perfectly matured wines, leave them thus for double this space
+of time. All this while the temperature to which the wine is exposed is,
+as far as practicable, carefully regulated; for the risk of breakage,
+though greatly diminished, is never entirely at an end.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic067.png" width = "183" height = "269"
+alt = "man turning bottle: see text">
+</p>
+
+<p>By this time the fermentation is over, but in the interval,
+commencing from a few days after the bottling of the wine, a&nbsp;loose
+dark-brown sediment has been forming which has now settled on the lower
+<span class = "pagenum">55</span>
+<!-- png 068 -->
+side of the bottle, and to get rid of which is a delicate and tedious
+task. The bottles are placed <i>sur pointe</i>, as it is
+termed&mdash;that is to say, slantingly in racks with their necks
+downwards, the inclination being increased from time to time to one more
+abrupt. The object of this change in their position is to cause the
+sediment to leave the side of the bottle where it has gathered; it
+afterwards becomes necessary to twist and turn it, and coagulate it, as
+it were, until it forms a kind of muddy ball, and eventually to get it
+well down into the neck of the bottle, so that it may be finally
+expelled with a bang when the temporary cork is removed and the proper
+one adjusted. To accomplish this the bottles are sharply turned in one
+direction every day for at least a month or six weeks, the time being
+indefinitely extended until the sediment shows a disposition to settle
+near the cork. The younger the wine the longer the period necessary for
+the bottles to be shaken, new wine often requiring as much as three
+months. Only a thoroughly practised hand can give the right amount of
+revolution and the requisite degree of slope; and in some of the cellars
+that we visited men were pointed out to us who had acquired such
+dexterity as to be able at a pinch to shake with their two hands as many
+as 50,000 bottles in a single day.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these men have spent thirty or forty years of their lives
+engaged in this perpetual task. Fancy being entombed all alone day after
+day in vaults which are invariably dark and gloomy, and often cold and
+dank, and being obliged to twist sixty to seventy of these bottles every
+minute throughout the day of twelve hours. Why the treadmill and the
+crank with their periodical respites must be pastime compared to this
+maddeningly monotonous occupation, which combines hard labour, with the
+wrist at any rate, with next to solitary confinement. One can understand
+these men becoming gloomy and taciturn, and affirming that they
+sometimes see devils hovering over the bottle-racks and frantically
+shaking the bottles beside them, or else grinning at them as they pursue
+their humdrum task. Still it may be taken for granted that the men who
+reach
+<span class = "pagenum">56</span>
+<!-- png 069 -->
+this stage are accustomed to drink freely of raw spirits, and merely pay
+the penalty resulting from over-indulgence.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic069.png" width = "298" height = "291"
+alt = "ladies watching man turning table: see text">
+</p>
+
+<p>In former times the bottles used to be placed with their heads
+downwards on tables pierced with holes, from which they had to be
+removed and agitated. In 1818, however, a&nbsp;man named Muller, in the
+employment of Madame Clicquot, suggested that the bottles should remain
+in the tables whilst being shaken, and further that the holes should be
+cut obliquely so that the bottles might recline at varying angles. His
+suggestions were privately adopted by Madame Clicquot, but eventually
+the improved plan got wind, and the system now prevails throughout the
+Champagne. When the bottles have gone through their regular course of
+shaking they are examined before a lighted candle to ascertain whether
+the deposit has fallen and the wine become perfectly clear. Sometimes it
+happens that, twist these men never so wisely, the deposit refuses to
+stir, and takes the shape of a bunch of thread technically called a
+“claw,� or an adherent mass styled a “mask.� When this is the case an
+<span class = "pagenum">57</span>
+<!-- png 070 -->
+attempt is made to start it by tapping the part to which it adheres with
+a piece of iron, the result being frequently the sudden explosion of the
+bottle. As a precaution, therefore, the workman protects his face with a
+wire-mask or gigantic wire spectacles, which give to him a ghoul-like
+aspect.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic070.jpg" width = "347" height = "360"
+alt = "workmen in heavy spectacles: see preceding text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The cellars of the champagne manufacturers are very varied in
+character. The wine that has been grown on the chalky hills undergoes
+development in vaults burrowed out of the calcareous strata underlying
+the entire district. In excavating these cellars the sides and roofs are
+frequently worked smooth and regular as finished masonry. The larger
+ones are composed of a number of spacious and lofty galleries, sometimes
+parallel with
+<span class = "pagenum">58</span>
+<!-- png 071 -->
+each other, but often ramifying in various directions, and evidently
+constructed on no definite plan. They are of one, two, and, in rare
+instances, of three stories, and now and then consist of a series of
+parallel galleries communicating with each other, lined with masonry,
+and with their stone walls and vaulted roofs resembling the crypt of
+some conventual building. Others of ancient date are less regular in
+their form, being merely so many narrow low winding corridors, varied,
+perhaps, by recesses hewn roughly out of the chalk, and resembling the
+brigands’ cave of the melodrama, while a certain number of the larger
+cellars at Reims are simply abandoned quarries, the broad and lofty
+arches of which are suggestive of the nave and aisles of some Gothic
+church. In these varied vaults, lighted by solitary lamps in front of
+metal reflectors, or by the flickering tallow candles which we carry in
+our hands, we pass rows of casks filled with last year’s vintage or
+reserved wine of former years, and piles after piles of bottles of
+<i>vin brut</i> in seemingly endless sequence&mdash;squares, so to
+speak, of raw champagne recruits awaiting their turn to be thoroughly
+drilled and disciplined. These are varied by bottles reposing necks
+downwards in racks at different degrees of inclination according to the
+progress their education has attained. Reports caused by exploding
+bottles now and then assail the ear, and as the echo dies away it
+becomes mingled with the rush of the escaping wine, cascading down the
+pile and finding its way across the sloping sides of the floor to the
+narrow gutter in the centre. The dampness of the floor and the shattered
+fragments of glass strewn about show the frequency of this kind of
+accident. The spilt wine, which flows along the gutter into reservoirs,
+is usually thrown away, though there is a story current to the effect
+that the head of one Epernay firm cooks nearly everything consumed in
+his house in the fluid thus let loose in his cellars.</p>
+
+<p>In these subterranean galleries we frequently come upon parties of
+workmen engaged in transforming the perfected <i>vin brut</i> into
+champagne. Viewed at a distance while occupied in their monotonous task,
+they present in the semi-obscurity a series of picturesque
+Rembrandt-like studies. One of the end
+<span class = "pagenum">59</span>
+<!-- png 072 -->
+figures in each group is engaged in the important process of
+<i>dégorgement</i>, which is performed when the deposit, of which we
+have already spoken, has satisfactorily settled in the neck of the
+bottle. Baskets full of bottles with their necks downwards are placed
+beside the operator, who stands before an apparatus resembling a cask
+divided vertically down the middle. This nimble-figured manipulator
+seizes a bottle, holds it for a moment before the light to test the
+clearness of the wine and the subsidence of the deposit; brings it,
+still neck downwards, over a small tub at the bottom of the apparatus
+already mentioned; and with a jerk of the steel hook which he holds in
+his right hand loosens the <i>agrafe</i> securing the <ins class =
+"mycorr" title = "comma in original: possibly intentional">cork,
+Bang</ins> goes the latter, and with it flies out the sediment and a
+small glassful or so of wine, further flow being checked by the
+workman’s finger, which also serves to remove any sediment yet remaining
+in the bottle’s neck. Like many other clever tricks, this looks very
+easy when adroitly performed, though a novice would probably empty the
+bottle by the time he had discovered that the cork was out. Occasionally
+a bottle bursts in the <i>dégorgeur’s</i> hand, and his face is
+sometimes scarred from such explosions. The sediment removed, he slips a
+temporary cork into the bottle, and the wine is ready for the important
+operation of the <i>dosage</i>, upon the nature and amount of which the
+character of the perfected wine, whether it be dry or sweet, light or
+strong, very much depends.</p>
+
+<p>Different manufacturers have different recipes, more or less complex
+in character, and varying with the quality of the wine and the country
+for which it is intended; but the genuine liqueur consists of nothing
+but old wine of the best quality, to which a certain amount of
+sugar-candy and perhaps a dash of the finest cognac spirit has been
+added. The saccharine addition varies according to the market for which
+the wine is destined: thus the high-class English buyer demands a dry
+champagne, the Russian a wine sweet and strong as “ladies’ grog,� and
+the Frenchman and German a sweet light wine. To the extra-dry champagnes
+a modicum dose is added, while the so-called “<i>brut</i>� wines receive
+no more than from one to three per cent. of liqueur<ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "text has comma">.</ins></p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">60</span>
+<!-- png 073 -->
+In some establishments the dose is administered with a tin can or ladle;
+but more generally an ingenious machine of pure silver and glass which
+regulates the percentage of liqueur to a nicety is employed. The
+<i>dosage</i> accomplished, the bottle passes to another workman known
+as the <i>égaliseur</i>, who fills it up with pure wine. Should a pink
+champagne be required, the wine thus added will be red, although
+manufacturers of questionable reputation sometimes employ the solution
+known as <i>teinte de Fismes</i>. The <i>égaliseur</i> in turn hands the
+bottle to the corker, who places it under a machine furnished with a
+pair of claws, which compress the cork to a size sufficiently small to
+allow it to enter the neck of the bottle, and a suspended weight, which
+in falling drives it home. These corks, which are principally obtained
+from Catalonia and Andalucia, cost more than twopence each, and are
+delivered in huge sacks resembling hop-pockets. Before they are used
+they have been either boiled in wine, soaked in a solution of tartar, or
+else steamed by the cork merchants, both to prevent their imparting a
+bad flavour to the wine and to hinder any leakage. They are commonly
+handed warm to the corker, who dips them into a small vessel of wine
+before making use of them. Some firms, however, prepare their corks by
+subjecting them to cold water <i>douches</i> a day or two beforehand.
+The <i>ficeleur</i> receives the bottle from the corker, and with a
+twist of the fingers secures the cork with string, at the same time
+rounding its hitherto flat top. The <i>metteur de fil</i> next affixes
+the wire with like celerity; and then the final operation is performed
+by a workman seizing a couple of bottles by the neck and whirling them
+round his head, as though engaged in the Indian-club exercise, in order
+to secure a perfect amalgamation of the wine and the liqueur.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic074.png" width = "229" height = "320"
+alt = "waiter with champagne bottle">
+</p>
+
+<p>The final manipulation accomplished, the agitated course of existence
+through which the wine has been passing of late comes to an end, and the
+bottles are conveyed to another part of the establishment, where they
+repose for several days, or even weeks, in order that the mutual action
+of the wine and the liqueur upon each other may be complete. When the
+time arrives for despatching
+<span class = "pagenum">61</span>
+<!-- png 074 -->
+them they are confided to feminine hands to have their dainty toilettes
+made, and are tastefully labelled and either capsuled, or else have
+their corks and necks imbedded in sealing-wax, or swathed in gold or
+silver foil, whereby they are rendered presentable at the best-appointed
+tables.</p>
+
+<p>Thus completed champagne sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage to
+promote the spread of mirth and lightheartedness, to drive away dull
+care and foment good-fellowship, to comfort the sick and cheer the
+sound. Wherever civilisation penetrates, champagne sooner or later is
+sure to follow; and if Queen Victoria’s morning drum beats round the
+world, its beat is certain to be echoed before the day is over by the
+popping of champagne-corks. Now-a-days the exhilarating wine graces not
+merely princely but middle-class dinner-tables, and is the needful
+adjunct at every <i>petit souper</i> in all the gayer capitals of the
+world. It gives a flush to beauty at garden-parties and picnics,
+sustains the energies of the votaries of Terpsichore until the hour of
+dawn, and imparts to many a young gallant the necessary courage to
+declare his passion. It enlivens the dullest of <i>réunions</i>, brings
+smiles to the lips of the sternest cynics, softens the most irascible
+tempers, and loosens the most taciturn tongues.
+<span class = "pagenum">62</span>
+<!-- png 075 -->
+The grim Berliner and the gay Viennese both acknowledge its enlivening
+influence. It sparkles in crystal goblets in the great capital of the
+North, and the Moslem wipes its creamy foam from his beard beneath the
+very shadow of the mosque of St. Sophia; for the Prophet has only
+forbidden the use of wine, and of a surety&mdash;Allah be
+praised!&mdash;this strangely-sparkling delicious liquor, which gives to
+the true believer a foretaste of the joys of Paradise, cannot be wine.
+<span class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic075.png" width = "169" height = "148"
+alt = "champagne bottle">
+</span>
+At the diamond-fields of South Africa and the diggings of Australia the
+brawny miner who has hit upon a big bit of crystallised carbon, or a
+nugget of virgin ore, strolls to the “saloon� and shouts for champagne.
+The mild Hindoo imbibes it quietly, but approvingly, as he watches the
+evolutions of the Nautch girls, and his partiality for it has already
+enriched the Anglo-Bengalee vocabulary and London slang with the word
+“simkin.� It is transported on camel-backs across the deserts of Central
+Asia, and in frail canoes up the mighty Amazon. The two-sworded Daimio
+calls for it in the tea-gardens of Yokohama, and the New Yorker, when
+not rinsing his stomach by libations of iced-water, imbibes it freely at
+Delmonico’s. Wherever civilised man has set his foot&mdash;at the base
+of the Pyramids and at the summit of the Cordilleras, in the mangrove
+swamps of Ashantee and the gulches of the Great Lone Land, in the wilds
+of the Amoor and on the desert isles of the Pacific&mdash;he has left
+traces of his presence in the shape of the empty bottles that were once
+full of the sparkling vintage of the Champagne.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">63</span>
+<!-- png 076 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic076-1.png" width = "364" height = "136"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+DEVICES FROM THE COMMANDERIE AT REIMS.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapVI" id = "chapVI">
+VI.&mdash;The Reims Champagne Establishments.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Messrs. Werlé and Co., successors to the Veuve
+Clicquot-Ponsardin&mdash;Their Offices and Cellars on the site of a
+Former Commanderie of the Templars&mdash;Origin of the Celebrity of
+Madame Clicquot’s Wines&mdash;M.&nbsp;Werlé and his Son&mdash;The
+Forty-five Cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé Establishment&mdash;Our Tour of
+Inspection&mdash;Ingenious Liqueuring Machine&mdash;An Explosion and its
+Consequences&mdash;M.&nbsp;Werlé’s Gallery of Paintings&mdash;Madame
+Clicquot’s Renaissance House and its Picturesque Bas-reliefs&mdash;The
+Werlé Vineyards and Vendangeoirs&mdash;M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer’s
+Establishment&mdash;Heidsieck and Co. and their Famous “Monopole�
+Brand&mdash;The Firm Founded in the Last Century&mdash;Their various
+Establishments Inside and Outside Reims&mdash;The Matured Wines Shipped
+by them.</p>
+
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic076-2.png" width = "127" height = "161"
+alt = "wood carving of drinker and vines">
+</p>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span>
+cellars of the great champagne manufacturers of Reims are scattered in
+all directions over the historical old city. They undermine its
+narrowest and most insignificant streets, its broad and handsome
+boulevards, and on the eastern side extend to its more distant
+outskirts. Messrs. Werlé and Co., the successors of the famous Veuve
+Clicquot-Ponsardin, have their offices and cellars on the site of a
+former Commanderie of the Templars in an ancient quarter of the city,
+and strangers passing by the spot would scarcely imagine that under
+their feet hundreds of busy hands are incessantly at work, disgorging,
+dosing, shaking, corking, storing, wiring, labelling, capsuling, waxing,
+tinfoiling,
+<span class = "pagenum">64</span>
+<!-- png 077 -->
+and packing hundreds of thousands of bottles of champagne destined for
+all parts of the civilised world.</p>
+
+<p>The house of Clicquot, established in the year 1798 by the husband of
+La Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, who died in 1866, in her 89th year, was
+indebted for much of the celebrity of its wine to the lucky accident of
+the Russians occupying Reims in 1814 and 1815, and freely requisitioning
+the sweet champagne stored in the widow’s capacious cellars. Madame
+Clicquot’s wines were slightly known in Russia prior to this date, but
+the officers of the invading army, on their return home, proclaimed
+their merits throughout the length and breadth of the Muscovite Empire,
+and the fortune of the house was made. Madame Clicquot, as every one
+knows, amassed enormous wealth, and succeeded in marrying both her
+daughter and granddaughter to counts of the <i>ancien régime</i>.</p>
+
+<!-- png 078 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic078.jpg" width = "275" height = "401"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MADAME VEUVE CLICQUOT AT EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE.<br>
+(<i>From the Painting by Léon Coignet</i>.) (p. 64)</p>
+
+<p>The present head of the firm is M. Werlé, who comes of an old
+Lorraine family although born in the ancient free imperial town of
+Wetzlar on the Lahn, where Goethe lays the scene of his “Sorrows of
+Werther,� the leading incidents of which really occurred here.
+M.&nbsp;Werlé entered the establishment, which he has done so much to
+raise to its existing position, so far back as the year 1821. His care
+and skill, exercised over more than half a century, have largely
+contributed to obtain for the Clicquot brand that high repute which it
+enjoys to-day all over the world. M.&nbsp;Werlé, who has long been
+naturalised in France, was for many years Mayor of Reims and President
+of its Chamber of Commerce, as well as one of the deputies of the Marne
+to the Corps Législatif. He enjoys the reputation of being the richest
+man in Reims, and, like his late partner, Madame Clicquot, he has also
+succeeded in securing brilliant alliances for his children, his son,
+M.&nbsp;Alfred Werlé, having married the daughter of the Duc de
+Montebello, while his daughter espoused the son of M.&nbsp;Magne,
+Minister of Finance under the Second Empire.</p>
+
+<!-- png 079 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic079.jpg" width = "446" height = "282"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE CLICQUOT-WERLÉ ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 65)</p>
+
+<p>Half-way down the narrow tortuous Rue du Temple is an ancient
+gateway, on which may be traced the half-effaced sculptured heads of
+Phœbus and Bacchus. Immediately in front is a
+<span class = "pagenum">65</span>
+<!-- png 080 -->
+green <i>porte-cochère</i> forming the entrance to the Clicquot-Werlé
+establishment, and conducting to a spacious trim-kept courtyard, set off
+with a few trees, with some extensive stabling and cart-sheds on the
+left, and on the right hand the entrance to the cellars. Facing us is an
+unpretending-looking edifice, where the
+<span class = "pagenum">66</span>
+<!-- png 081 -->
+firm has its counting-houses, with a little corner tower surmounted by a
+characteristic weathercock consisting of a figure of Bacchus seated
+astride a cask beneath a vine-branch, and holding up a bottle in one
+hand and a goblet in the other. The old Remish Commanderie of the
+Knights Templars existed until the epoch of the Great Revolution, and
+to-day a few fragments of the ancient buildings remain adjacent to the
+“celliers� of the establishment, which are reached through a pair of
+folding-doors and down a flight of stone steps, and whence, after being
+furnished with lighted candles, we set out on our tour of inspection,
+entering first of all the vast cellar of St. Paul, where the thousands
+of bottles requiring to be daily shaken are reposing necks downwards on
+the large perforated tables which crowd the apartment. It is a
+peculiarity of the Clicquot-Werlé establishment that each of the
+cellars&mdash;forty-five in number, and the smallest a vast
+apartment&mdash;has its special name. In the adjoining cellar of St.
+Matthew other bottles are similarly arranged, and here wine in cask is
+likewise stored. We pass rows of huge tuns, each holding its twelve or
+thirteen hundred gallons of fine reserved wine designed for blending
+with more youthful growths; next are threading our way between seemingly
+endless piles of hogsheads filled with later vintages, and anon are
+passing smaller casks containing the syrup with which the <i>vin
+préparé</i> is dosed. At intervals we come upon some square opening in
+the floor through which bottles of wine are being hauled up from the
+cellars beneath in readiness to receive their requisite adornment before
+being packed in baskets or cases according to the country to which they
+are destined to be despatched. To Russia the Clicquot champagne is sent
+in cases containing sixty bottles, while the cases for China contain as
+many as double that number.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic080.jpg" width = "316" height = "472"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+REMAINS OF THE COMMANDERIE AT REIMS.</p>
+
+<p>The ample cellarage which the house possesses has enabled
+M.&nbsp;Werlé to make many experiments which firms with less space at
+their command would find it difficult to carry out on the same
+satisfactory scale. Such, for instance, is the system of racks in which
+the bottles repose while the wine undergoes its diurnal
+<span class = "pagenum">67</span>
+<!-- png 082 -->
+shaking. Instead of these racks being, as they commonly are, at almost
+upright angles, they are perfectly horizontal, which, in M.&nbsp;Werlé’s
+opinion, offers a material advantage, inasmuch as the bottles are all in
+readiness for disgorging at the same time instead of the lower ones
+being ready before those above, as is the case when the ancient system
+is followed, owing to the uppermost bottles getting less shaken than the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>After performing the round of the celliers we descend into the
+<i>caves</i>, a&nbsp;complete labyrinth of gloomy underground corridors
+excavated in the bed of chalk which underlies the city, and roofed and
+walled with solid masonry, more or less blackened by age. In one of
+these cellars we catch sight of rows of work-people engaged in the
+operation of dosing, corking, securing, and shaking the bottles of wine
+which have just left the hands of the <i>dégorgeur</i> by the dim light
+of half-a-dozen tallow candles. The latest invention for liqueuring the
+wine is being employed. Formerly, to prevent the carbonic acid gas
+escaping from the bottles while the process of liqueuring was going on,
+it was necessary to press a gutta-percha ball connected with the
+machine, in order to force the escaping gas back. The new machine,
+however, renders this unnecessary, the gas by its own power and
+composition forcing itself back into the wine.</p>
+
+<p>In the adjoining cellar of St. Charles are stacks of bottles awaiting
+the manipulation of the <i>dégorgeur</i>, while in that of St. Ferdinand
+men are engaged in examining other bottles before lighted candles to
+make certain that the sediment is thoroughly dislodged and the wine
+perfectly clear before the disgorgement is effected. Here, too, the
+corking, wiring, and stringing of the newly-disgorged wine are going on.
+Another flight of steps leads to the second tier of cellars, where the
+moisture trickles down the dank dingy walls, and save the dim light
+thrown out by the candles we carried, and by some other far-off
+flickering taper stuck in a cleft stick to direct the workmen, who with
+dexterous turns of their wrists give a twist to the bottles, all is
+darkness. On every side bottles are reposing in various attitudes, the
+majority in huge square piles on their sides, others in racks
+<span class = "pagenum">68</span>
+<!-- png 083 -->
+slightly tilted, others, again, almost standing on their heads, while
+some, which through over-inflation have come to grief, litter the floor
+and crunch beneath our feet. Tablets are hung against each stack of wine
+indicating its age, and from time to time a bottle is held up before the
+light to show us how the sediment commences to form, or explain how it
+eventually works its way down the neck of the bottle, and finally
+settles on the cork. Suddenly we are startled by a loud report
+resembling a pistol-shot, which reverberates through the vaulted
+chamber, as a bottle close at hand explodes, dashing out its heavy
+bottom as neatly as though it had been cut by a diamond, and dislocating
+the necks and pounding in the sides of its immediate neighbours. The
+wine trickles down, and eventually finds its way along the sloping sides
+of the slippery floor to the narrow gutter in the centre.</p>
+
+<p>Ventilating shafts pass from one tier of cellars to the other,
+enabling the temperature in a certain measure to be regulated, and
+thereby obviate an excess of breakage. M.&nbsp;Werlé estimates that the
+loss in this respect during the first eighteen months of a <i>cuvée</i>
+amounts to 7&nbsp;per cent., but subsequently is considerably less. In
+1862 one champagne manufacturer lost as much as 45 per cent. of his wine
+by breakages. The Clicquot <i>cuvée</i> is made in the cave of St.
+William, where 120 hogsheads of wine are hauled up by means of a crane
+and discharged into the vat daily as long as the operation lasts. The
+<i>tirage</i> or bottling of the wine ordinarily commences in the middle
+of May, and occupies fully a month.</p>
+
+<!-- png 084 -->
+<!-- png 085 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic085.jpg" width = "446" height = "280"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+RENAISSANCE HOUSE AT REIMS, IN WHICH MADAME CLICQUOT RESIDED.
+(p.&nbsp;69)</p>
+
+<p>M. Werlé’s private residence is close to the establishment in the Rue
+du Temple, and here he has collected a small gallery of high-class
+modern paintings by French and other artists, including Meissonnier’s
+“Card-players,� Delaroche’s “Beatrice Cenci on her way to Execution,�
+Fleury’s “Charles&nbsp;V. picking up the brush of Titian,� various works
+by the brothers Scheffer, Knaus’s highly-characteristic <i>genre</i>
+picture, “His Highness on a Journey,� and several fine portraits, among
+which is one of Madame Clicquot, painted by Léon Coignet, when she was
+<span class = "pagenum">69</span>
+<!-- png 086 -->
+eighty years of age, and another of M.&nbsp;Werlé by the same artist,
+regarded as a <i>chef-d’œuvre</i>. Before her father’s death Madame
+Clicquot used to reside in the Rue de Marc, some short distance from the
+cellars in which her whole existence centered, in a handsome Renaissance
+house, said to have had some connection with the row of palaces that at
+one time lined the neighbouring and then fashionable Rue du Tambour.
+This, however, is extremely doubtful. A&nbsp;number of interesting and
+well-preserved bas-reliefs decorate one of the façades of the house
+looking on to the court. The figures are of the period of François
+Premier and his son Henri&nbsp;II., who inaugurated his reign with a
+comforting edict for the Protestants, ordaining that blasphemers were to
+have their tongues pierced with red-hot irons, and heretics to be burnt
+alive, and who had the ill-luck to lose his eye and life through a
+lance-thrust of the Comte de Montgomerie, captain of his Scotch guards,
+whilst jousting with him at a tournament held in honour of the marriage
+of his daughter Isabelle with the gloomy widower of Queen Mary of
+England, of sanguinary fame.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic086.png" width = "318" height = "167"
+alt = "bas-relief: see following text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The first of these bas-reliefs represents two soldiers of the Swiss
+guard, the next a Turk and a Slav tilting at each other, and then comes
+a scroll entwined round a thistle, and inscribed with this enigmatical
+motto: “Giane le sur ou rien.� In the third bas-relief a couple of
+passionate Italians are winding up a
+<span class = "pagenum">70</span>
+<!-- png 087 -->
+gambling dispute with a hand-to-hand combat, in the course of which
+table, cards, and dice have got cantered over; the fourth presenting us
+with two French knights, armed <i>cap-à-pie</i>, engaged in a tourney;
+while in the fifth and last a couple of German lansquenets essay their
+gladiatorial skill with their long and dangerous weapons. Several years
+back a tablet was discovered in one of the cellars of the house,
+inscribed “Ci-gist vénérable religieux maîstre Pierre Derclé, docteur en
+théologie, jadis prieur de céans. Priez Dieu pour luy. 1486,� which
+would almost indicate that the house had originally a religious
+character, although the warlike spirit of the bas-reliefs decorating it
+renders any such supposition with regard to the existing building
+untenable.</p>
+
+<p>The Messrs. Werlé own numerous acres of vineyards, comprising the
+very finest situations in the well-known districts of Verzenay, Bouzy,
+Le Mesnil, and Oger, at all of which places they have vendangeoirs or
+pressing-houses of their own. Their establishment at Verzenay contains
+seven presses, that at Bouzy eight, at Le Mesnil six, and at Oger two,
+in addition to which grapes are pressed under their own supervision at
+Ay, Avize, and Cramant in vendangeoirs belonging to their friends.</p>
+
+<p>Since the death of Madame Clicquot the legal style of the firm has
+been Werlé and Co., successors to Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, the mark, of
+which M.&nbsp;Werlé and his son are the sole proprietors, still
+remaining “Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin,� while the corks of the bottles are
+branded with the words “V.&nbsp;Clicquot-P.&nbsp;Werlé,� encircling the
+figure of a comet. The style of the wine&mdash;light, delicate, elegant,
+and fragrant&mdash;is familiar to all connoisseurs of champagne. What,
+however, is not equally well known is that within the last few years the
+firm, in obedience to the prevailing taste, have introduced a perfectly
+dry wine of corresponding quality to the richer wine which made the
+fortune of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The house of M. Louis Roederer, founded by a plodding German named
+Schreider, pursued the sleepy tenor of its way for years, until all at
+once it felt prompted to lay siege to the
+<span class = "pagenum">71</span>
+<!-- png 088 -->
+Muscovite connection of La Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and secure a market
+for its wine at Moscow and St. Petersburg. It next opened up the United
+States, and finally introduced its brand into England. The house
+possesses cellars in various parts of Reims, and has its offices in one
+of the oldest quarters of the city&mdash;namely, the Rue des Élus, or
+ancient Rue des Juifs, records of which date as far back as 1103. These
+offices are at the farther end of a courtyard beyond which is a second
+court, where carts being laden with cases of champagne seemed to
+indicate that some portion of the shipping business of the house is here
+carried on. M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer refused our request for permission to
+visit his establishments, so that it is only of their external
+appearance that we are able to speak. One of them&mdash;the façade of
+which is rather imposing, and which has a carved head of Bacchus
+surmounting the <i>porte-cochère</i>&mdash;is situated in the Boulevard
+du Temple, while the principal establishment, a&nbsp;picturesque range
+of buildings of considerable extent, is in the neighbouring Rue de la
+Justice.</p>
+
+<p>The old-established firm of Heidsieck and Co., which has secured a
+reputation in both hemispheres for its famous Monopole and Dry Monopole
+brands, has its cellars scattered about Reims, the central ones, where
+the wine is prepared and packed, being situated in the narrow winding
+Rue Sedan, at no great distance from the Clicquot-Werlé establishment.
+The original firm dates back to 1785, when France was struggling with
+those financial difficulties that a few years later culminated in that
+great social upheaving which kept Europe in a state of turmoil for more
+than a quarter of a century. Among the archives of the firm is a patent,
+bearing the signature of the Minister of the Prussian Royal Household,
+appointing Heidsieck and Co. purveyors of champagne to Friedrich William
+III. The champagne-drinking Hohenzollern <i>par excellence</i>, however,
+was the son and successor of the preceding, who, from habitual
+over-indulgence in the exhilarating sparkling beverage during the last
+few years of his reign, acquired the <i>sobriquet</i> of King
+Clicquot.</p>
+
+<p>On passing through the large <i>porte-cochère</i> giving entrance to
+<span class = "pagenum">72</span>
+<!-- png 089 -->
+Messrs. Heidsieck’s principal establishment, one finds oneself in a
+small courtyard with the surrounding buildings overgrown with ivy and
+venerable vines. On the left is a dwelling-house enriched with elaborate
+mouldings and cornices, and at the farther end of the court is the
+entrance to the cellars, surmounted by a sun-dial bearing the date 1829.
+The latter, however, is no criterion of the age of the buildings
+themselves, as these were occupied by the firm at its foundation,
+towards the close of the last century. We are first conducted into an
+antiquated-looking low cellier, the roof of which is sustained with rude
+timber supports, and here bottles of wine are being labelled and packed,
+although this is but a mere adjunct to the adjacent spacious
+packing-room provided with its loading platform and communicating
+directly with the public road. At the time of our visit this hall was
+gaily decorated with flags and inscriptions, the day before having been
+the fête of St. Jean, when the firm entertain the people in their employ
+with a banquet and a ball, at which the choicest wine of the house
+liberally flows. From the packing-room we descend into the cellars,
+which, like all the more ancient vaults in Reims, have been constructed
+on no regular plan. Here we thread our way between piles after piles of
+bottles, many of which having passed through the hands of the disgorger
+are awaiting their customary adornment. The lower tier of cellars is
+mostly stored with <i>vin sur pointe</i>, and bottles with their necks
+downwards are encountered in endless monotony along a score or more of
+long galleries. The only variation in our lengthened promenade is when
+we come upon some solitary workman engaged in his monotonous task of
+shaking his 30,000 or 40,000 bottles per diem.</p>
+
+<p>The disgorging at Messrs. Heidsieck’s takes place, in accordance with
+the good old rule, in the cellars underground, where we noticed large
+stocks of wine three and five years old, the former in the first stage
+of <i>sur-pointe</i>, and the latter awaiting shipment. It is a
+speciality of the house to ship only matured wine, which is necessarily
+of a higher character than the ordinary youthful growths, for a few
+years have a wonderful influence in
+<span class = "pagenum">73</span>
+<!-- png 090 -->
+developing the finer qualities of champagne. At the time of our visit,
+in the spring of 1877, when the English market was being glutted with
+the crude, full-bodied wine of 1874, Messrs. Heidsieck were continuing
+to ship wines of 1870 and 1872, beautifully rounded by keeping and of
+fine flavour and great delicacy of perfume, and of which the firm
+estimated they had fully a year’s consumption still on hand.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Heidsieck and Co. have a handsome modern establishment in the
+Rue Coquebert&mdash;a&nbsp;comparatively new quarter of the city where
+champagne establishments are the rule&mdash;the courtyard of which,
+alive with workmen at the time of our visit, is broad and spacious,
+while the surrounding buildings are light and airy, and the cellars
+lofty, regular, and well ventilated. In a large cellier here, where the
+tuns are ranged side by side between the rows of iron columns supporting
+the roof, the firm make their <i>cuvée</i>; here too the bottling of
+their wine takes place, and considerable stocks of high-class reserve
+wines and more youthful growths are stored ready for removal when
+required by the central establishment. The bulk of Messrs. Heidsieck’s
+reserve wines, however, repose in the outskirts of Reims, near the Porte
+Dieu-Lumière, in one of the numerous abandoned chalk quarries, which of
+late years the champagne manufacturers have discovered are capable of
+being transformed into admirable cellars.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to shipping a rich and a dry variety of the Monopole
+brand, of which they are sole proprietors, Messrs. Heidsieck export to
+this country a rich and a dry Grand Vin Royal. It is, however, to their
+famous Monopole wine, and especially to the dry variety, which must
+necessarily comprise the finest growths, that the firm owe their
+principal celebrity.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">74</span>
+<!-- png 091 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic091.png" width = "334" height = "283"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+STATUE OF LOUIS XIII. ON THE REIMS HÔTEL DE VILLE</p>
+
+<h4 class = "plain"><a name = "chapVII" id = "chapVII">
+<span class = "smallcaps">
+VII.&mdash;The Reims Establishments</span> (<i>continued</i>).</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+The Firm of G. H. Mumm and Co.&mdash;Their Large Shipments to the United
+States&mdash;Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the Rue
+Coquebert&mdash;Bottle-Washing with Glass Beads&mdash;The Cuvée and the
+Tirage&mdash;G.&nbsp;H. Mumm and Co.’s Vendangeoirs at
+Verzenay&mdash;Their Various Wines&mdash;The Gate of Mars&mdash;The
+Establishment of M.&nbsp;Gustave Gibert on the Site of the Château des
+Archevêques&mdash;His Cellars in the Vaults of St. Peter’s Abbey and
+beneath the old Hôtel des Fermes in the Place Royale&mdash;Louis XV. and
+Jean Baptiste Colbert&mdash;M.&nbsp;Gibert’s Wines&mdash;Jules Mumm and
+Co., and Ruinart père et fils&mdash;House of the Musicians&mdash;The
+Counts de la Marck&mdash;The Brotherhood of Minstrels of
+Reims&mdash;Establishment of Périnet et fils&mdash;Their Cellars of
+Three Stories in Solid Masonry&mdash;Their Soft, Light, and Delicate
+Wines&mdash;A&nbsp;Rare Still Verzenay&mdash;M.&nbsp;Duchâtel-Ohaus’s
+Establishment and Renaissance House&mdash;His Cellars in the Cour St.
+Jacques and Outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co.</span>
+have their chief establishment in the Rue Andrieux, in an open quarter
+of the city, facing the garden attached to the premises of
+M.&nbsp;Werlé, and only a short distance from the grand triumphal arch
+known as the Gate of Mars, by far the most important Roman remain of
+which the
+<span class = "pagenum">75</span>
+<!-- png 092 -->
+Champagne can boast. The head of the firm, Mr. G.&nbsp;H. Mumm, is the
+grandson of the well-known P.&nbsp;A. Mumm, the large shipper of hocks
+and moselles, and is the only surviving partner in the champagne house
+of Mumm and Co., established at Reims in 1825, and joined by Mr.
+G.&nbsp;H. Mumm so far back as the year 1838. The firm not only ship
+their wine largely to England, but head the list of shipments to the
+United States, where their brand is held in high repute, with nearly
+half a million bottles, being more than twice the quantity shipped by
+M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer&mdash;who comes third on the list in
+question&mdash;and a fourth of the entire shipments of champagne to the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The establishment of Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co., in the Rue Andrieux,
+is of comparatively modern construction. A&nbsp;large
+<i>porte-cochère</i> conducts to a spacious courtyard, bordered with
+sheds, beneath which huge stacks of new bottles are piled and having a
+pleasant garden lying beyond. On the left is a large vaulted cellier,
+where the operations of disgorging, liqueuring, and corking the wine are
+performed, and which communicates with the vast adjoining packing
+department. From this cellier entrance is gained to the cellars beneath,
+containing a million bottles of <i>vin brut</i> in various stages of
+development. This forms, however, merely a portion of the firm’s stock,
+they having another three millions of bottles stored in the cellars of
+their establishment in the Rue Coquebert, where a scene of great
+animation presented itself at the time of our visit, several scores of
+women being engaged in washing bottles for the <i>tirage</i>, which,
+although it was early in May, had already commenced. The bottles, filled
+with water, and containing a certain quantity of glass beads in lieu of
+the customary shot, which frequently leave minute particles of
+lead&mdash;deleterious alike to health and the flavour of the
+wine&mdash;adhering to the inside surface of the glass, are placed
+horizontally in a frame, and by means of four turns of a handle are made
+to perform sixty-four rapid revolutions. The beads are then transferred
+to other bottles, which are subjected in their turn to the same
+revolving process.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>cuvée</i>, commonly composed of from two to three thousand
+<span class = "pagenum">76</span>
+<!-- png 093 -->
+casks of wine from various vineyards, with a due proportion of
+high-class vintages, is made in a vat holding 4,400 gallons. The
+<i>tirage</i> or bottling is effected by means of two large tuns placed
+side by side, and holding twelve hogsheads of wine each. Pipes from
+these tuns communicate with a couple of small reservoirs, each of them
+provided with half-a-dozen self-acting syphon taps, by means of which a
+like number of bottles are simultaneously filled. Only one set of these
+taps are set running at a time, as while the wine is being drawn off
+from one tun the other is being refilled from the casks containing the
+<i>cuvée</i> by means of a pump and leathern hose, which empties a cask
+in little more than a couple of minutes. Three gangs of eight men each
+can fill, cork, and secure with <i>agrafes</i> from 35,000 to 40,000
+bottles during the day. The labour is performed partly by men regularly
+employed by the house and partly by hands engaged for the purpose, who
+work, however, under the constant inspection of overseers appointed by
+the firm.</p>
+
+<!-- png 094 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic094.jpg" width = "447" height = "288"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE TIRAGE OR BOTTLING OF CHAMPAGNE<br>
+<span class = "smallroman">AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS. G.&nbsp;H.
+MUMM &amp; CO. (p.&nbsp;76.)</span></p>
+
+<p>At Messrs. G. H. Mumm’s the champagne destined for shipment has the
+heads of the corks submerged in a kind of varnish, with the object of
+protecting them from the ravages of insects, and preventing the string
+and wire from becoming mouldy for several years. In damp weather, when
+this varnish takes a long time to dry, after the bottles have been
+placed in a rack with their heads downwards to allow of any superfluous
+varnish draining from the corks, the latter are subjected to a moderate
+heat in a machine pierced with sufficient holes to contain 500 bottles,
+and provided with a warming apparatus in the centre. Here the bottles
+remain for about twenty minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. have a capacious vendangeoir at Verzenay,
+near the entrance to the village when approaching it from Reims. The
+building contains four presses, three of which are worked with large
+fly-wheels requiring several men to turn them, while the fourth acts
+with a screw applied by means of a long pole. At the vintage 3,600
+kilogrammes, or nearly 8,000lbs., of grapes are put under each press,
+a&nbsp;quantity sufficient to yield eight to ten hogsheads of wine of
+forty-four
+<span class = "pagenum">77</span>
+<!-- png 096 -->
+gallons each, suitable for sparkling wine, besides three or four
+hogsheads of inferior wine given to the workmen to drink. The pressing
+commences daily at six in the morning, and lasts until midnight; yet the
+firm are often constrained to keep their grapes in the baskets under a
+cool shed for a period of two days. This cannot, however, be done when
+they are very ripe, as the colouring matter from the skins would become
+extracted and give a dark and objectionable tint to the wine.</p>
+
+<!-- png 095 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic095.jpg" width = "446" height = "289"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. G. H. MUMM &amp; CO.’S VENDANGEOIR AT VERZENAY. (p. 77)</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. G. H. Mumm and Co. ship four descriptions of
+champagne&mdash;Carte Blanche, a&nbsp;pale, delicate, fragrant wine of
+great softness and refined flavour; a&nbsp;perfectly dry variety of the
+foregoing, known as their Extra Dry; also an Extra Quality and a First
+Quality&mdash;both high-class wines, though somewhat lower in price than
+the two preceding.</p>
+
+<p>Within a few minutes’ walk of Messrs. G. H. Mumm’s&mdash;past the
+imposing Gate of Mars, in the midst of lawns, parterres, and
+gravel-walks, where coquettish nursemaids and their charges stroll,
+accompanied by the proverbial <i>piou-piou</i>&mdash;is the principal
+establishment of M.&nbsp;Gustave Gibert, whose house claims to-day half
+a century of existence. On this spot formerly stood the feudal castle of
+the Archbishops of Reims, demolished nearly three centuries ago. By whom
+this stronghold was erected is somewhat uncertain. The local chronicles
+state that a château was built at Reims by Suelf, son of Hincmar, in
+922, and restored by Archbishop Henri de France two and a half centuries
+later. War or other causes, however, seems to have rendered the speedy
+rebuilding of this castle necessary, as a new Château des Archevêques
+appears to have been erected at Reims by Henri de Braine between 1228
+and 1230. The circumstance of the Archbishops of Reims being dukes and
+peers as well as primates of the capital of the Champagne accounts for
+their preference for a fortified place of residence at this turbulent
+epoch.</p>
+
+<p>On the investiture of a new archbishop it was the custom for him to
+proceed in great pomp from the château to the church of Saint Remi, with
+a large armed guard and a splendid retinue of ecclesiastical, civil, and
+military dignitaries escorting him.
+<span class = "pagenum">78</span>
+<!-- png 097 -->
+The pride of the newly-created “duke and peer� having been thus
+gratified, the “prelate� had to humble himself, and on the morrow walked
+barefooted from the church of St. Remi to the cathedral. After the
+religious wars the château was surrendered to Henri IV., and in 1595 the
+Remois, anxious to be rid of so formidable a fortress, which, whether
+held by king or archbishop, was calculated to enforce a state of passive
+obedience galling to their pride, purchased from the king the privilege
+to demolish it for the sum of 8,000 crowns. Tradition asserts that the
+Remish Bastille was destroyed in a single day, but this is exceedingly
+improbable. Its ruins certainly were not cleared away until the close of
+the century.</p>
+
+<!-- png 098 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic098.jpg" width = "296" height = "421"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE CELLIERS AND CELLARS OF M. GUSTAVE GIBERT.<br>
+(<i>Near the Porte de Mars, Reims</i>.) (p. 78.)</p>
+
+<p>When the old fortress was razed to the ground its extensive vaults
+were not interfered with, but many long years afterwards were
+transformed into admirable cellars for the storage of champagne. Above
+them are two stories of capacious celliers where the wine is blended,
+bottled, and packed, the vaults themselves comprising two tiers of
+cellars which contain wine both in cask and bottle. M.&nbsp;Gibert’s
+remaining stocks are stored in the ancient vaults of the abbey of St.
+Peter, in the heart of the city, and in the roomy cellars which underlie
+the old Hôtel des Fermes in the Place Royale, where in the days of the
+<i>ancien régime</i> the farmers-general of the province used to receive
+its revenues. On the pediment of this edifice is a bas-relief with
+Mercury, the god of commerce, seated beside a nymph and surrounded by
+children engaged with the vintage and with bales of wool, and evidently
+intended to symbolise the staple trades of the capital of the Champagne.
+A&nbsp;bronze statue rises in the centre of the Place which from its
+Roman costume and martial bearing might be taken for some hero of
+antiquity did not the inscription on the pedestal apprise us that it is
+intended for the “wise, virtuous, and magnanimous Louis XV.,�
+a&nbsp;misuse of terms which has caused a transatlantic Republican to
+characterise the monument as a brazen lie. Leading out of the Place
+Royale is the Rue de Cérès, in which there is a modernised 16th-century
+house claiming to be the birthplace of Jean
+<span class = "pagenum">79</span>
+<!-- png 100 -->
+Baptiste Colbert, son of a Reims wool-merchant, and the famous minister
+who did so much to consolidate the finances which the royal voluptuary,
+masquerading at Reims in Roman garb, afterwards made such dreadful
+havoc&nbsp;of.</p>
+
+<!-- png 099 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic099.jpg" width = "444" height = "286"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE PLACE ROYALE AT REIMS,<br>
+<span class = "smallroman">SHOWING THE ENTRANCE TO THE CELLARS OF
+M.&nbsp;GUSTAVE GIBERT. (p.&nbsp;79)</span></p>
+
+<p>M. Gustave Gibert possesses pressing-houses at Ay and Bouzy, and has
+moreover at both these places accommodation for large reserve stocks of
+wine in wood. As all the wines which he sends into the market are
+vintaged by himself, he can ensure their being of uniform high quality.
+His <i>Vin du Roi</i> is notable for perfume, delicacy, perfect
+effervescence, and that fine flavour of the grape which characterises
+the grand wines of the Champagne. It is a great favourite with the King
+of Sweden and Norway, and the labels on the bottles bear his name and
+arms. M.&nbsp;Gibert’s brand has acquired a high reputation in the North
+of Europe, and having of late years been introduced into England, is
+rapidly making its way there. The merits of the wines have been again
+and again publicly recognised, no less than ten medals having been
+successively awarded M.&nbsp;Gibert at the Exhibitions of Toulouse in
+1858, Bordeaux in 1859, Besançon in 1860, Metz and Nantes in 1861,
+London in 1862, Bayonne and Linz in 1864, and Oporto and Dublin in 1865.
+This long list of awards has led to the wines being placed “<i>hors
+concours</i>,� nevertheless M.&nbsp;Gibert continues to submit them to
+competition whenever any Exhibition of importance takes place. The wines
+are shipped to England, Germany, Russia, and Northern Europe, Spain and
+Portugal, Calcutta, Java, Melbourne, and Hong-Kong, besides being
+largely in request for the Paris market.</p>
+
+<p>On quitting M. Gibert’s central establishment we proceed along the
+winding, ill-paved Rue de Mars, past the premises of Messrs. Jules Mumm
+and Co., an offshoot from the once famous firm of P.&nbsp;A. Mumm and
+Co., to the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, in one corner of which stands a
+massive and somewhat pretentious-looking house, dating back to the time
+of Louis Quatorze. Here are the offices of Ruinart père et fils, who
+claim to rank as the oldest existing house in the Champagne. The head of
+the firm, the Vicomte de Brimont, is a collateral descendant
+<span class = "pagenum">80</span>
+<!-- png 101 -->
+of the Dom Ruinart, whose remains repose nigh to those of the
+illustrious Dom Perignon in the abbey church of Hautvillers. From the
+Place de l’Hôtel de Ville we proceed through the narrow Rue du Tambour,
+originally a Roman thoroughfare, and during the Middle Ages the locality
+where the nobility of Reims principally had their abodes. Half-way up
+this street, in the direction of the Place des Marchés, stands the
+famous House of the Musicians, one of the most interesting architectural
+relics of which the capital of the Champagne can boast. It evidently
+dates from the early part of the fourteenth century, but by whom it was
+erected is unknown. Some ascribe it to the Knights Templars, others to
+the Counts of Champagne, while others suppose it to have been the
+residence of the famous Counts de la Marck, who in later times diverged
+into three separate branches, the first furnishing Dukes of Cleves and
+Julich to Germany and Dukes of Nevers and Counts of Eu to France, while
+the second became Dukes of Bouillon and Princes of Sedan, titles which
+passed to the Turennes when Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de
+Turenne, married the surviving heiress of the house. The third branch
+comprised the Barons of Lumain, allied to the Hohenzollerns. Their most
+famous member slew Louis de Bourbon, Archbishop of Liège, and flung his
+body into the Meuse, and subsequently became celebrated as the Wild Boar
+of the Ardennes, of whom all readers of <i>Quentin Durward</i> will
+retain a lively recollection.</p>
+
+<p>To return, however, to the House of the Musicians. A probable
+conjecture ascribes the origin of the quaint mediæval structure to the
+Brotherhood of Minstrels of Reims, who in the thirteenth century enjoyed
+a considerable reputation, not merely in the Champagne, but throughout
+the North of France. The house takes its present name from five seated
+statues of musicians, larger than life-size, occupying the Gothic niches
+between the first-floor windows, and resting upon brackets ornamented
+with grotesque heads. It is thought that the partially-damaged figure on
+the left-hand side was originally playing a drum and a species of
+clarionet. The next one evidently has the
+<span class = "pagenum">81</span>
+<!-- png 102 -->
+remnants of a harp in his raised hands. The third or central figure is
+supposed merely to have held a hawk upon his wrist; whilst the fourth
+seeks to extract harmony from a dilapidated bagpipe; and the fifth, with
+crossed legs, strums complacently away upon the fiddle. The ground floor
+of the quaint old tenement is to-day an oil and colour shop, the front
+of which is covered with chequers in all the tints of the rainbow.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic102.png" width = "374" height = "383"
+alt = "House of the Musicians: see preceding text">
+</p>
+
+<p>Leading from the Rue du Tambour is the Rue de la Belle Image, thus
+named from a handsome statuette of the Virgin which formerly decorated a
+corner niche; and beyond is the Rue St. Hilaire, where Messrs. Barnett
+et fils, trading under the
+<span class = "pagenum">82</span>
+<!-- png 103 -->
+designation of Périnet et fils, and the only English house engaged in
+the manufacture of champagne, have an establishment which is certainly
+as perfect as any to be found in Reims. Aboveground are several large
+store-rooms, where vintage casks and the various utensils common to a
+champagne establishment are kept, and a capacious cellier, upwards of
+150 feet in length, with its roof resting on huge timber supports. Here
+new wine is stored preparatory to being blended and bottled, and in the
+huge tun, holding nearly 3,000 gallons, standing at the further end, the
+firm make their <i>cuvée</i>, while adjacent is a room where stocks of
+corks and labels, metal foil, and the like are kept.</p>
+
+<p>There are three stories of cellars&mdash;an exceedingly rare thing
+anywhere in the Champagne&mdash;all constructed in solid masonry on a
+uniform plan&mdash;namely, two wide galleries running parallel with each
+other and connected by means of transverse passages. Spite of the great
+depth to which these cellars descend they are perfectly dry; the
+ventilation, too, is excellent, and their different temperatures render
+them especially suitable for the storage of champagne, the temperature
+of the lowest cellar being 6° Centigrade (43° Fahrenheit), or one degree
+Centigrade below the cellar immediately above, which, in its turn is two
+degrees below the uppermost one of all. The advantage of this is that
+when the wine develops an excess of effervescence any undue proportion
+of breakages can be checked by removing the bottles to a lower cellar
+and consequently into a lower temperature.</p>
+
+<!-- png 104 -->
+<!-- png 105 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic104.jpg" width = "275" height = "451"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE CELLIER AND CELLARS OF PÉRINET ET FILS AT REIMS. (p. 82)</p>
+
+<p>The first cellars we enter are closely stacked with wine in bottle,
+which is gradually clearing itself by the formation of a deposit, while
+in an adjoining cellar on the same level the operations of disgorging,
+liqueuring, and corking are going on. In the cellars immediately beneath
+bottles of wine repose in solid stacks ready for the <i>dégorgeur</i>,
+while others rest in racks in order that they may undergo their daily
+shaking. In the lowest cellars reserved wine in cask is stored, as it
+best retains its natural freshness and purity in a very cool place. All
+air is carefully excluded from the casks, any ullage is immediately
+checked, and as evaporation is continually going on the casks
+<span class = "pagenum">83</span>
+<!-- png 106 -->
+are examined every fortnight, when any deficiency is at once
+replenished. At Messrs. Périnet et fils’, as at all the first-class
+establishments, the <i>vin brut</i> is a <i>mélange</i> comprising the
+produce of some of the best vineyards, and has every possible attention
+paid to it during its progressive stages of development.</p>
+
+<p>Champagnes of different years were here shown to us, all of them
+soft, light, and delicate, and with that fine flavour and full perfume
+which the best growths of the Marne alone exhibit. Among several
+curiosities submitted to us was a still Verzenay of the year 1857, one
+of the most delicate red wines it was ever our fortune to taste. Light
+in body, rich in colour, of a singularly novel and refined flavour, and
+with a magnificent yet indefinable bouquet, the wine was in every
+respect perfect. Not only was the year of the vintage a grand one, but
+the wine must have been made with the greatest possible care and from
+the most perfect grapes for so delicate a growth to have retained its
+flavour in such perfection, and preserved its brilliant ruby colour for
+such a length of time.</p>
+
+<p>From the samples shown to us of Périnet et fils’ champagne, we were
+prepared to find that at some recent tastings in London, the particulars
+of which have been made public, their Extra Sec took the first place at
+each of the three severe competitions to which it was subjected.</p>
+
+<p>M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s central establishment is in the Rue des Deux
+Anges, one of the most ancient streets of Reims, running from the Rue
+des Élus to the Rue de Vesle, and having every window secured by iron
+gratings, and every door thickly studded with huge nails. These
+prison-like façades succeed each other in gloomy monotony along either
+side of the way, the portion of M.&nbsp;Duchâtel-Ohaus’s residence which
+faces the street being no exception to the general rule. Once within its
+court, however, and quite a different scene presents itself. Before us
+is a pleasant little flower-garden with a small but charming Renaissance
+house looking on to it, the windows ornamented with elaborate mouldings,
+and surmounted by graceful sculptured heads, while at one corner rises a
+tower with a sun-dial displayed on its front.
+<span class = "pagenum">84</span>
+<!-- png 107 -->
+Here and in an adjoining house the canons of the Cathedral were
+accustomed to reside in the days when four-fifths of Reims belonged to
+the Church.</p>
+
+<!-- <p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic107.png" width = "" height = ""
+alt = "house described in preceding text">
+</p> -->
+
+<p class = "leftfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic107a.gif" width = "192" height = "153"
+alt = "">
+</p>
+<p class = "leftfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic107b.gif" width = "369" height = "294"
+alt = "house described in accompanying text">
+</p>
+
+<p>From the garden we enter a capacious cellier where the blending and
+bottling of the wine takes place, and in the neighbouring packing-room
+encounter a score of workpeople filling, securing, and branding a number
+of cases about to be despatched by rail. From the cellier we pass to the
+cellars situated immediately underneath, and which, capacious though
+they are, do not suffice for M.&nbsp;Duchâtel’s stock, portions of which
+are stored in some ancient vaults near the market-place, and in the Rue
+de Vesle behind the church of St. Jacques. This church, originally built
+<span class = "pagenum">85</span>
+<!-- png 108 -->
+at the close of the twelfth century, is hemmed in on all sides by old
+houses, above which rises its tapering steeple surmounted by a medieval
+weathercock in the form of an angel. A&nbsp;life-size statue of the
+patron saint decorates the Gothic gateway leading to the church, from
+which a troop of Remish urchins in the charge of some Frères de la
+Doctrine Chrétienne emerge as we pass&nbsp;by.</p>
+
+<p>The Cour St. Jacques, where M. Duchâtel’s cellars are situated, may
+be reached by passing through the church, the interior of which presents
+a curious jumble of architectural styles from early Gothic to late
+Renaissance. One noteworthy object of art which it contains is a
+life-size crucifix carved by Pierre Jacques, a&nbsp;Remish sculptor of
+the days of the Good King Henri, and from an anatomical point of view a
+perfect <i>chef-d’œuvre</i>. The cellars we have come to inspect are two
+stories deep, and comprise numerous ancient cavernous compartments, such
+as are found in all the older quarters of Reims, and usually in the
+vicinity of some church, convent, or clerical abode. It has been
+suggested that they were either crypts for sacred retirement and prayer,
+dungeons for the punishment of recreant brethren, or tombs for the dead;
+but it is far more probable that in the majority of instances they
+served then as now simply for the storage of the choice vintages of the
+Marne, for we all know the monks of old were tipplers of no ordinary
+capacity, who usually contrived to secure the best that the district
+provided. These vaults of M.&nbsp;Duchâtel’s, in which a considerable
+stock of the fine wine of 1874 is stored, are from two to three
+centuries old, and probably belonged to the curés of St. Jacques. They
+are of considerable extent, are well ventilated, and are walled and
+roofed with stone. M.&nbsp;Duchâtel’s remaining stock reposes in some
+new cellars&mdash;certain transformed chalk quarries outside the Porte
+Dieu-Lumière, comprising broad lofty galleries and vast circular
+chambers&mdash;fifty feet or so in height and well lighted from
+above.</p>
+
+<p>At M. Duchâtel-Ohaus’s we tasted a variety of fine samples of his
+brand, including a beautiful wine of 1868 and an almost equally good one
+of 1870, with some of the excellent vintage of 1874, which was then
+being prepared for shipment.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">86</span>
+<!-- png 109 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic109.png" width = "255" height = "300"
+alt = "man with rack of champagne bottles">
+</p>
+
+<h4 class = "plain"><a name = "chapVIII" id = "chapVIII">
+<span class = "smallcaps">
+VIII.&mdash;The Reims Establishments</span> (<i>continued</i>).</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+M. Ernest Irroy’s Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoirs&mdash;Recognition
+by the Reims Agricultural Association of his Plantations of
+Vines&mdash;His Wines and their Popularity at the best London
+Clubs&mdash;Messrs. Binet fils and Co.’s Establishment&mdash;Wines Sold
+by the Firm to Shippers&mdash;Their Cellars&mdash;Samples of Fine Still
+Ay and Bouzy&mdash;Their Still Sillery, Vintage 1857, and their Creaming
+Vin Brut, Vintage 1865&mdash;The Offices and Cellars of Messrs. Charles
+Farre and Co.&mdash;Testing the Wine before
+Bottling&mdash;A&nbsp;Promenade between Bottles in Piles and
+Racks&mdash;Repute in which these Wines are held in England and on the
+Continent&mdash;The New Establishment of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. in the
+Place de Betheny&mdash;Its Construction exclusively in Stone, Brick, and
+Iron&mdash;The Vast Celliers of Two Stories&mdash;Bottling the Wine by
+the Aid of Machinery&mdash;The Cool and Lofty Cellars&mdash;Ingenious
+Method of Securing the Corks, rendering the Uncorking exceedingly
+simple&mdash;The Wines Shipped by the Firm.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Few</span>
+large manufacturing towns like Reims&mdash;one of the most important of
+those engaged in the woollen manufacture in France&mdash;can boast of
+such fine promenades and such handsome boulevards as the capital of the
+Champagne. As the ancient
+<span class = "pagenum">87</span>
+<!-- png 112 -->
+fortifications of the city were from time to time razed, their site was
+levelled and generally planted with trees, so that the older quarters of
+Reims are almost encircled by broad and handsome thoroughfares,
+separating the city, as it were, from its outlying suburbs. In or close
+to the broad Boulevard du Temple, which takes its name from its
+proximity to the site of the ancient Commanderie of the Templars,
+various champagne manufacturers, including M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer,
+M.&nbsp;Ernest Irroy, and M.&nbsp;Charles Heidsieck, have their
+establishments, while but a few paces off, in the neighbouring Rue
+Coquebert, are the large and handsome premises of Messrs. Krug
+and&nbsp;Co.</p>
+
+<!-- png 110 -->
+<!-- png 111 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic111.jpg" width = "451" height = "285"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+M. ERNEST IRROY’S ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS. (p. 87)</p>
+
+<p>The offices of M. Ernest Irroy, who is known in Reims not merely as a
+large champagne grower and shipper, but also as a distinguished amateur
+of the fine arts, taking a leading part in originating local exhibitions
+and the like, are attached to his private residence, a&nbsp;handsome
+mansion flanked by a large and charming garden in the Boulevard du
+Temple. The laying out of this sylvan oasis is due to M.&nbsp;Vadré, the
+head gardener of the city of Paris, who contributed so largely to the
+picturesque embellishment of the Bois de Boulogne. M.&nbsp;Irroy’s
+establishment, which comprises a considerable range of buildings grouped
+around two courtyards, is immediately adjacent, although its principal
+entrance is in the Rue de la Justice. The vast celliers, covering an
+area of upwards of 3,000 square yards, and either stocked with wine in
+cask or used for packing and similar purposes, afford the requisite
+space for carrying on a most extensive business. The cellars beneath
+comprise three stories, two of which are solidly roofed and lined with
+masonry, while the lowermost one is excavated in the chalk. They are
+admirably constructed on a symmetrical plan, and their total surface is
+very little short of 7,000 square yards. Spite of the great depth to
+which these cellars descend they are perfectly dry, the ventilation is
+good, and their temperature moreover is remarkably cool, one result of
+which is that M.&nbsp;Irroy’s loss from breakage never exceeds four per
+cent. per annum. M.&nbsp;Irroy holds a high position as a
+vineyard-proprietor in the Champagne, his
+<span class = "pagenum">88</span>
+<!-- png 113 -->
+vines covering an area of nearly 86 acres. At Mareuil and Avenay he owns
+some twenty-five acres, at Verzenay and Verzy about fifteen, and at
+Ambonnay and Bouzy forty-six acres. His father and his uncle, whose
+properties he inherited or purchased, commenced some thirty years ago to
+plant vines on certain slopes of Bouzy possessing a southern aspect, and
+he has followed their example with such success both at Bouzy and
+Ambonnay that in 1873 the Reims Agricultural Association conferred upon
+him a silver-gilt medal for his plantations of vines. M.&nbsp;Irroy owns
+<i>vendangeoirs</i> at Verzenay, Avenay, and Ambonnay; and at Bouzy,
+where his largest vineyards are, he has built some excellent cottages
+for his labourers. He has also constructed a substantial bridge over the
+ravine which, formed by winter torrents from the hills, intersects the
+principal vineyard slopes of Bouzy.</p>
+
+<p>M. Ernest Irroy’s wines, prepared with scrupulous care and rare
+intelligence, have been known in England for some years past, and are
+steadily increasing in popularity. They are emphatically connoisseurs’
+wines. The best West-end clubs, such as White’s, Arthur’s, the old
+Carlton, and the like, lay down the <i>cuvées</i> of this house in good
+years as they lay down their vintage ports and finer clarets, and drink
+them, not in a crude state, but when they are in perfection&mdash;that
+is, in five to ten years’ time. M.&nbsp;Irroy exports to the British
+colonies and to the United States the same fine wines which he ships to
+England.</p>
+
+<!-- png 114 -->
+<!-- png 115 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic114.jpg" width = "448" height = "288"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+LABOURERS AT WORK IN M. ERNEST IRROY’S BOUZY VINEYARDS. (p. 88.)</p>
+
+<p>From M. Irroy’s we proceeded to Messrs. Binet fils and Co., whose
+establishment in the Rue de la Justice is separated from that of
+M.&nbsp;Irroy merely by a narrow path, and occupies the opposite side of
+the way to the principal establishment of M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer. The
+firm of Binet fils and Co. was founded many years ago, but for a long
+time they sold their wines principally to other shippers on the Reims
+and Epernay markets, where their cuvées were held in high repute, and
+only of recent years have they applied themselves to the shipping trade.
+Their establishment has two entrances, one in the Rue de la Justice, and
+the other in the Boulevard du Champ de Mars. On passing through
+<span class = "pagenum">89</span>
+<!-- png 116 -->
+the former we find ourselves in a courtyard of considerable area, with a
+range of celliers in the rear and a low building on the left, in which
+the offices are installed. In the first cellier we encounter cases and
+baskets of champagne all ready to be despatched by rail, with women and
+men busily engaged in labelling and packing other bottles which continue
+to arrive from the cellars below in baskets secured to an endless chain.
+Beyond this range of celliers is another courtyard of smaller dimensions
+where there are additional celliers in which wines of recent vintages in
+casks are stored.</p>
+
+<p>The vaults, which are reached by a winding stone staircase, are
+spacious, and consist of a series of parallel and uniform galleries hewn
+in the chalk without either masonry supports or facings. Among the solid
+piles of bottles which here hem us in on all sides are a considerable
+number of magnums and imperial pints reserved for particular
+customers&mdash;the former more especially for certain military messes,
+at which the brand of Binet fils and Co. is held in deserved esteem. We
+tasted here&mdash;in addition to several choice sparkling wines,
+including a grand <i>vin brut</i>, vintage 1865&mdash;a&nbsp;still Ay of
+the year 1870, and some still Bouzy of 1874. The former,
+a&nbsp;remarkably light and elegant wine, was already in fine condition
+for drinking, while the latter, which was altogether more vinous, deeper
+in colour, and fuller in body needed the ripening influence of time to
+bring it to perfection. Through their agents, Rutherford, Drury, and
+Co., Messrs. Binet fils and Co. achieved a great success in England with
+their still Sillery, vintage 1857, and subsequently with their superb
+creaming <i>vin brut</i>, vintage 1865, of which we have just spoken,
+and which is still to be met with at London clubs of repute.</p>
+
+<p>Some short distance from and parallel with the Rue de la Justice is
+the Rue Jacquart, where Messrs. Charles Farre and Co., of whose
+establishment at Hautvillers we have already spoken, have their offices
+and cellars. We enter a large courtyard, where several railway vans are
+being laden with cases of wine from the packing-hall beyond, and in the
+tasting-room adjoining find wine being tested prior to bottling, to
+ascertain the amount of saccharine
+<span class = "pagenum">90</span>
+<!-- png 117 -->
+it contains. This was accomplished by reducing a certain quantity of
+wine by boiling down to one-sixth, when the saccharometer should
+indicate 13° of sugar to ensure each bottle containing the requisite
+quantity of compressed carbonic acid gas.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Farre’s cellars, comprising eighteen parallel galleries
+disposed in two stories, are both lofty and commodious, and are mainly
+of recent construction, the upper ones being solidly walled with
+masonry, while those below are simply excavated in the chalk. Here, as
+elsewhere, one performed a lengthened promenade between piles after
+piles of bottles of the finer vintages and a seemingly endless
+succession of racks, at which workmen were engaged in dislodging the
+sediment in the wine by the dim light of a tallow candle. It was here
+that we were assured the more experienced of these men were capable,
+when working with both hands, of shaking the enormous number of 50,000
+bottles a day, or at the rate of seventy to the minute.</p>
+
+<p>The fine wines of Messrs. Charles Farre and Co. have long enjoyed a
+well-deserved celebrity, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 the firm
+secured the highest medal awarded to champagnes. The high repute in
+which the brand is held on the Continent is evidenced by the fact that
+the Prussian and other courts are consumers of Messrs. Farre’s wines.
+The firm not only number England, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Northern
+Europe, and, as a matter of course, France, among their customers, but
+also several of the British colonies and North and South America as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>The new establishment of Messrs. Fisse, Thirion, and Co., in the
+erection of which they have largely profited by their experience and the
+various resources of modern science, is situated in the Place de
+Betheny, in the vicinity of the railway goods station and the local
+shooting range, largely resorted to at certain seasons of the year, when
+the crack shots of the Champagne capital compete with distinguished
+amateurs from different parts of France and the other side of the
+Channel.</p>
+
+<!-- png 118 -->
+<!-- png 119 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic119.jpg" width = "452" height = "279"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. FISSE, THIRION &amp; CO.’S ESTABLISHMENT AT REIMS.
+(p.&nbsp;91)</p>
+
+<p>On entering the courtyard through the iron gate to the right of the
+dwelling-houses of the resident partners&mdash;flanked by
+<span class = "pagenum">91</span>
+<!-- png 120 -->
+gardens brilliant with flowers and foliage&mdash;we first reach the
+offices and tasting-rooms, and then the entrance to the cellars.
+A&nbsp;speciality of this important pile of building is that everything
+employed in its construction is of stone, brick, or iron, wood having
+been rigorously excluded from it. In the rear of the courtyard, which
+presents that aspect of animation common to flourishing establishments
+in the Champagne, is the principal cellier, with a small building in
+front, where a steam-pump for pumping up water from the chalk is
+installed, while at right angles with the cellier are the stables and
+bottle-sheds. The large cellier, which is 20 feet high and 80 feet
+broad, will be no less than 260 feet in length when completed. It
+contains two stories, the floors of both of which are cemented, the
+lower story being roofed with small brick arches connected by iron
+girders, and the upper one with tiles resting on iron supports. The
+cement keeps the temperature remarkably cool in the lower cellier where
+wine in cask is stored, the upper cellier being appropriated to wine in
+racks <i>sur pointe</i>, bales of corks, and the wicker-baskets and
+cases in which the wine is packed.</p>
+
+<p>The preparation of the wines in cask and the bottling take place in
+the lower of the two celliers, a&nbsp;mere lad being enabled, by the aid
+of the mechanism provided, to bottle from six to eight thousand bottles
+a day. A&nbsp;single workman can cork about 4,500 bottles, which a
+second workman secures with metal agrafes before they are lowered into
+the cellars. The latter are of two stories, each being divided into
+three long parallel galleries 20 feet high and 23 feet wide, vaulted
+with stone and floored with cement. Bordering the endless stacks of
+bottles are small gutters, into which the wine flows from the exploded
+bottles. Lofty, well ventilated, and beautifully cool, the temperature
+invariably ranging from 45° to 47° Fahrenheit, these
+capitally-constructed cellars combine all that is required for a
+champagne establishment of the first class. The breakage has never
+exceeded 3&nbsp;per cent., whereas in some old cellars which the firm
+formerly occupied in the centre of the city, their breakage on one
+occasion amounted to ten times this quantity.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">92</span>
+<!-- png 121 -->
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic121.png" width = "146" height = "209"
+alt = "lady with champagne glass">
+</p>
+
+<p>At Fisse, Thirion, and Co.’s, after the wine has been disgorged and
+liqueured, the corks are secured neither with string nor wire, but a
+special metal fastener is employed for the purpose. This consists of a
+triple-branched agrafe, provided with a kind of hinge. A&nbsp;tiny toy
+needle-gun suspended to the agrafe is pulled outwards and turned over
+the top of the bottle, whereupon the fastening becomes instantly
+disengaged, and anything like trouble, uncleanliness, or annoyance is
+entirely avoided. The operation is so easy that a mere child can open a
+bottle of champagne, secured by this patent fastener, as easily and
+rapidly as a grown-up man.</p>
+
+<p>The firm of Fisse, Thirion, and Co. succeeded that of Fisse,
+Fraiquin, and Co.&mdash;established originally at Reims in 1821&mdash;in
+1864, when the brand of the house was already well known on the
+Continent, more especially in Belgium and Holland. Since that time the
+wines have been largely introduced into England and the United States,
+and the firm, who have secured medals at many of the recent exhibitions,
+to-day have agents in the English and Dutch Indies and the various
+European settlements in China. Several descriptions of wine are shipped
+by the house, the finest being their dry Cuvée Reservèe and their
+fragrant soft-tasting Cachet d’Or.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">93</span>
+<!-- png 122 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic122.png" width = "353" height = "352"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+OLD HOUSE IN THE RUE DES ANGLAIS, REIMS.</p>
+
+<h4 class = "plain"><a name = "chapIX" id = "chapIX">
+<span class = "smallcaps">
+IX.&mdash;The Reims Establishments</span> (<i>concluded</i>).</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+La Prison de Bonne Semaine&mdash;Mary Queen of Scots at
+Reims&mdash;Messrs. Pommery and Greno’s Offices&mdash;A&nbsp;Fine
+Collection of Faïence&mdash;The Rue des Anglais a former Refuge of
+English Catholics&mdash;Remains of the Old University of
+Reims&mdash;Ancient Roman Tower and Curious Grotto&mdash;The handsome
+Castellated Pommery Establishment&mdash;The Spacious Cellier and Huge
+Carved Cuvée Tun&mdash;The Descent to the Cellars&mdash;Their Great
+Extent&mdash;These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally
+Quarries&mdash;Ancient Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the
+Protestants&mdash;Madame Pommery’s Splendid Cuvée of 1868&mdash;Messrs.
+de St. Marceaux and <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "final ‘s’ missing in original">Co.’s</ins>
+New Establishment in the Avenue de
+Sillery&mdash;Its Garden-Court and Circular Shaft&mdash;Animated Scene
+in the Large Packing Hall&mdash;Lowering Bottled Wine to the
+Cellars&mdash;Great Depth and Extent of these Cellars&mdash;Messrs. de
+St. Marceaux and Co.’s Various Wines.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Nigh</span>
+the cathedral of Reims and in the rear of the archiepiscopal palace
+there runs a short narrow street known as the Rue
+<span class = "pagenum">94</span>
+<!-- png 123 -->
+Vauthier le Noir, and frequently mentioned in old works relating to the
+capital of the Champagne. The discovery of various pillars and statues,
+together with a handsome Gallo-Roman altar, whilst digging some
+foundations in 1837, points to the fact that a Pagan temple formerly
+occupied the site. The street is supposed to have taken its name,
+however, from some celebrated gaoler, for in mediæval times here stood
+“la prison de bonne semaine.� On the site of this prison a château was
+subsequently built where Mary Queen of Scots is said to have resided in
+the days when her uncle, Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, was Lord
+Archbishop of Reims. Temple, prison, and palace have alike disappeared,
+and where they stood there now rises midway between court and garden a
+handsome mansion, the residence of Madame Pommery, head of the
+well-known firm of Pommery and Greno. To the left of the courtyard,
+which is entered through a monumental gateway, are some old buildings
+bearing the sculptured escutcheon of the beautiful and luckless Stuart
+Queen, while to the right are the offices, with the manager’s sanctum,
+replete with artistic curiosities, the walls being completely covered
+with remarkable specimens of faïence, including Rouen, Gien, Palissy,
+Delft, and majolica, collected in the majority of instances by Madame
+Pommery in the villages around Reims. Here we were received by
+M.&nbsp;Vasnier, who at once volunteered to accompany us to the cellars
+of the firm outside the city. Messrs. Pommery and Greno originally
+carried on business in the Rue Vauthier le Noir, where there are
+extensive cellars, but their rapidly-increasing connection long since
+compelled them to emigrate beyond the walls of Reims.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic124.png" width = "376" height = "313"
+alt = "ruins">
+</p>
+
+<p>In close proximity to the Rue Vauthier le Noir is the Rue des
+Anglais, so named from the English Catholic refugees who, flying from
+the persecutions of our so-called Good Queen Bess, here took up their
+abode and established a college and a seminary. They rapidly acquired
+great influence in Reims, and one of their number, William Gifford, was
+even elected archbishop. At the end of this street, nigh to Madame
+Pommery’s, there stands an old house with a corner tower and rather
+handsome
+<span class = "pagenum">95</span>
+<!-- png 124 -->
+Renaissance window, which formerly belonged to some of the clergy of the
+cathedral, and subsequently became the “Bureau Général de la Loterie de
+France,� abolished by the National Convention in 1793.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic125.png" width = "356" height = "355"
+alt = "old wall with vines">
+</p>
+
+<p>The Rue des Anglais conducts into the Rue de l’Université, where a
+few remnants of the old University, founded by Cardinal Charles de
+Lorraine (1538-74), attract attention, notably a conical-capped corner
+tower, the sculptured ornaments at the base of which have crumbled into
+dust beneath the corroding tooth of Time. From the Rue de l’Université
+our way lies along the Boulevard du Temple to the Porte Gerbert, about a
+mile beyond which there rises up the curious castellated structure in
+which the Pommery establishment is installed, and whose tall towers
+command a view of the whole of Reims and its environs. As we drive up
+the Avenue Gerbert we espy on the right an isolated crumbling Roman
+tower, a&nbsp;remnant of the days when Reims disputed with Trèves the
+honour of being
+<span class = "pagenum">96</span>
+<!-- png 125 -->
+the capital of Belgic Gaul. Close at hand, and almost under the walls of
+the old fortifications, is a grotto to which an ancient origin is
+likewise ascribed. In another minute we reach the open iron gates of
+Messrs. Pommery’s establishment, flanked by a picturesque porter’s
+lodge, and proceeding up a broad drive alight under a Gothic portico at
+the entrance to the spacious and lofty cellier. Iron columns support the
+roof of this vast hall, at one end of which is the office and
+tasting-room, provided with a telegraphic apparatus by means of which
+communication is carried on with the Reims bureaux. Stacked up on every
+side of the cellier, and when empty often in eight tiers, are rows upon
+rows of casks, 4,000 of which contain wine of the last vintage,
+sufficient for a million bottles of champagne.
+<span class = "pagenum">97</span>
+<!-- png 128 -->
+The temperature of this hall is carefully regulated; the windows are
+high up near the roof, the sun’s rays are rigidly excluded, so that a
+pleasant coolness pervades the apartment. On the left-hand side stands
+the huge tun, capable of containing 5,500 gallons of wine, in which the
+firm make their <i>cuvée</i>, with the monogram P and G, surmounting the
+arms of Reims, carved on its head. A&nbsp;platform, access to which is
+gained by a staircase in a side aisle, runs round this tonneau; and boys
+stand here when the wine is being blended, and by means of a handle
+protruding above the cask work the paddle-wheels placed inside, thereby
+securing the complete amalgamation of the wine, which has been hoisted
+up in casks and poured through a metal trough into the tonneau.
+Adjoining are the chains and lifts worked by steam by means of which
+wine is raised and lowered from and to the cellars beneath, one lift
+raising or lowering eight casks, whether full or empty, in the space of
+a minute.</p>
+
+<!-- png 126 -->
+<!-- png 127 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic126.jpg" width = "445" height = "289"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE POMMERY ESTABLISHMENT, IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF REIMS. (p. 96)</p>
+
+<p>At the farther end of the hall a Gothic door, decorated with
+ornamental ironwork, leads to the long broad flight of steps 116 in
+number and nearly twelve feet in width, conducting to the suite of lofty
+subterranean chambers where bottles of <i>vin brut</i> repose in their
+hundreds of thousands in slanting racks or solid
+<span class = "pagenum">98</span>
+<!-- png 129 -->
+piles, passing leisurely through those stages of development necessary
+to fit them for the <i>dégorgeur</i>. Altogether there are thirty large
+shafts, which were originally quarries, and are now connected by
+spacious galleries. This side of Reims abounds with similar quarries,
+which are believed to have served as places of refuge for the
+Protestants at the time of the League and after the revocation of the
+Edict of Nantes, and it is even conjectured that the early Christians,
+the followers of St. Sixtus and St. Sinicus, here hid themselves from
+their persecutors. Since the cellars within the city have no longer
+sufficed for the storage of the immense stocks required through the
+development of the champagne trade, these vast subterranean galleries
+have been successfully utilised by various firms. Messrs. Pommery, after
+pumping out the water with which the chambers were filled, proceeded to
+excavate the intersecting tunnels, shore up the cracking arches, and
+repair the flaws in the chalk with masonry, finally converting these
+abandoned quarries into magnificent cellars for the storage of
+champagne. No less than £60,000 was spent upon them and the castellated
+structure aboveground. The underground area is almost 240,000 square
+feet, and a million bottles of champagne can be stored in these
+capacious vaults.</p>
+
+<table class = "float right" summary = "illustration, see caption">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic128.png" width = "213" height = "321"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption">
+HEAD OVERSEER AT<br>
+POMMERY AND GRENO’S.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Madame Pommery made a great mark with her splendid <i>cuvée</i> of
+1868, and since this time her brand has become widely popular, the
+Pommery Sec especially being highly appreciated by connoisseurs.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving Messrs. Pommery’s we retrace our steps down the Avenue
+Gerbert, bordered on either side with rows of plane-trees, until we
+reach the treeless Avenue de Sillery, where Messrs. de Saint Marceaux
+and Co.’s new and capacious establishment is installed. The principal
+block of building is flanked by two advanced wings inclosing a
+garden-court, set off with flowers and shrubs, and from the centre of
+which rises a circular shaft, covered in with glass, admitting light and
+air to the cellars below. In the building to the left the wine is
+received on its arrival from the vineyard, and here are ranged hundreds
+of casks replete with the choice <i>crûs</i> of Verzenay, Ay, Cramant,
+and Bouzy, while
+<span class = "pagenum">99</span>
+<!-- png 132 -->
+some thousands of bottles ready for labelling are stocked in massive
+piles at the end of the packing-hall in the corresponding wing of the
+establishment. Here, too, a&nbsp;tribe of workpeople are arraying the
+bottles with gold and silver headdresses and robing them in pink paper,
+while others are filling, securing, marking, and addressing the cases or
+baskets to Hong-Kong, San Francisco, Yokohama, Bombay, London, New York,
+St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Paris.</p>
+
+<!-- png 130 -->
+<!-- png 131 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic131.jpg" width = "445" height = "289"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE PACKING HALL OF MESSRS. DE SAINT-MARCEAUX AT REIMS. (p. 99)</p>
+
+<p>The wine in cask, stored in the left-hand wing, after having been
+duly blended in a vast vat holding over 2,400 gallons, is drawn off into
+bottles, which are then lowered down a shaft to the second tier of
+cellars by means of an endless chain, on to which the baskets of bottles
+are swiftly hooked. The workman engaged in this duty, in order to
+prevent his falling down the shaft, has a leather belt strapped round
+his waist, by means of which he is secured to an adjoining iron column.
+We descend into the lower cellars down a flight of ninety-three broad
+steps&mdash;a&nbsp;depth equal to the height of an ordinary six-storied
+house&mdash;and find no less than four-and-twenty galleries excavated in
+the chalk, without any masonry supports, and containing upwards of a
+million bottles of champagne. The length of these galleries varies, but
+they are of a uniform breadth, allowing either a couple of racks with
+wine <i>sur pointe</i>, or stacks of bottles, in four rows on either
+side, with an ample passage down the centre.</p>
+
+<p>The upper range of cellars comprises two large arched galleries of
+considerable breadth, one of which contains wine in wood and wine <i>sur
+pointe</i>, while the other is stocked with bottles of wine heads
+downward, ready to be delivered into the hands of the
+<i>dégorgeur</i>.</p>
+
+<table class = "float right" summary = "illustration, see caption">
+<!-- printed at chapter end -->
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic133.png" width = "163" height = "283"
+alt = "see caption and following text">
+</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption">
+BAS-RELIEF NEAR THE<br>
+PORTE DIEU-LUMIÈRE.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>MM. de St. Marceaux and Co. have the honour of supplying the King of
+the Belgians, the President of the French Republic, and several German
+potentates, with an exceedingly delicate champagne known as the Royal
+St. Marceaux. The same wine is popular in Russia and other parts of
+Europe, just as the Dry Royal of the firm is much esteemed in the United
+States.
+<span class = "pagenum">100</span>
+<!-- png 133 -->
+The brand of the house most appreciated in this country is its Carte
+d’Or, a&nbsp;very dry wine which, in conjunction with the firm’s Extra
+Quality, secured the first place at a recent champagne competition in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>In the neighbourhood of the Pommery and de St. Marceaux
+establishments numerous other champagne manufacturers have their cellars
+formed from the abandoned quarries so numerous on this side of the city.
+Of some of these firms we have already spoken, but there remain to be
+mentioned Messrs. Kunklemann and Co., Ruinart père et fils, George
+Goulet, Jules Champion, Théophile Roederer, &amp;c. The cellars of the
+three last-named are immediately outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière, near
+which is a house with a curious bas-relief on its face, the subject of
+which has been a source of much perplexity to local antiquaries.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">101</span>
+<!-- png 134 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic134.png" width = "291" height = "295"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+JEAN REMI MOET.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapX" id = "chapX">
+X.&mdash;Epernay Champagne Establishments.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Early Records of the Moët Family at Reims and Epernay&mdash;Jean Remi
+Moët Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines&mdash;Extracts from the
+Old Account-Books of the Moëts&mdash;First Sales of Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;Sales to England in 1788&mdash;“Milords� Farnham and
+Findlater&mdash;Jean Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon, Josephine,
+and the King of Westphalia&mdash;The Firm of Moët and Chandon
+Constituted&mdash;Their Establishment in the Rue du
+Commerce&mdash;Delivering and Washing the New Bottles&mdash;The Numerous
+Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm&mdash;Making the Cuvée in Vats of
+12,000 Gallons&mdash;The Bottling of the Wine by 200
+Hands&mdash;A&nbsp;Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily&mdash;20,000
+Francs’ worth of Broken Glass in Two Years&mdash;A&nbsp;Subterranean
+City, with miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open Spaces, Tramways, and
+Stations&mdash;The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults&mdash;Tablet
+Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon&nbsp;I.&mdash;Millions of Bottles
+of Champagne in Piles and Racks&mdash;The Original Vaults known as
+Siberia&mdash;Scene in the Packing Hall&mdash;Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s
+Large and Complete Staff&mdash;Provision for Illness and Old
+Age&mdash;Annual Fête Given by the Firm&mdash;Their Famous “Star�
+Brand&mdash;M.&nbsp;Perrier-Jouët, the lucky Grandson of a little
+Epernay Grocer&mdash;His Offices and Cellars&mdash;His Wine Classed
+according to its Deserts&mdash;Messrs. Roussillon and Co.’s
+Establishment&mdash;The Recognition accorded to their Wines&mdash;
+<span class = "pagenum">102</span>
+<!-- png 135 -->
+Their Stock of Old Vintages&mdash;The Extensive Establishment of Messrs.
+Pol Roger and Co.&mdash;Their Large Stock of the Fine 1874
+Vintage&mdash;Preparations for the Tirage&mdash;Their Vast Fireproof
+Cellier and its Admirable Temperature&mdash;Their Lofty and Capacious
+Cellars of Two Stories.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Those</span>
+magnates of the champagne trade, <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "text reads ‘Mesrs.’">Messrs.</ins>
+Moët and Chandon, whose famous “star�
+brand is familiar in every part of the civilised globe, and whose
+half-score miles of cellars contain as many million bottles of champagne
+as there are millions of inhabitants in most of the secondary European
+states, have their head-quarters at Epernay in a spacious
+château&mdash;in that street of châteaux named the Rue du Commerce, but
+commonly known as the Faubourg de la Folie&mdash;which is approached
+through handsome iron gates, and has beautiful gardens in the rear
+extending in the direction of the River Marne. The existing firm dates
+from the year 1833, but the family of Moët&mdash;conjectured to have
+originally come from the Low Countries&mdash;had already been associated
+with the champagne wine trade for well-nigh a century previously. If the
+Moëts came from Holland they must have established themselves in the
+Champagne at a very early date, for the annals of Reims record that in
+the fifteenth century Jean and Nicolas Moët were <i>échevins</i> of the
+city. A&nbsp;Moët was present in that capacity at the coronation of
+Charles VII. in 1429, when Joan of Arc stood erect by the principal
+altar of the cathedral with her sacred banner in her hand, and for
+having contributed to repulse an attempt on the part of the English to
+prevent the entrance of the Royal party into the city, the Moëts were
+subsequently ennobled by the same monarch. A&nbsp;mural tablet in the
+church of St. Remi records the death of D.&nbsp;G. Moët, Grand Prior, in
+1554, and nine years later we find Nicol Moët claiming exemption at
+Epernay from the payment of <i>tailles</i> on the ground of his being a
+noble. An old commercial book preserved in the family archives shows
+that in the year 1743&mdash;at the epoch when the rashness of the Duc de
+Grammont saved the English army under George&nbsp;II. from being cut to
+pieces at Dettingen&mdash;a&nbsp;descendant of the foregoing, one Claude
+Louis Nicolas Moët, who owned considerable vineyard
+<span class = "pagenum">103</span>
+<!-- png 136 -->
+property in the vicinity of Epernay, decided upon embarking in the wine
+trade. It is his son, however, Jean Remi Moët, born in 1758, who may be
+looked upon as the veritable founder of the present commerce in
+Champagne wines, which, thanks to his efforts, received a wonderful
+impulse, so that instead of the consumption of the vintages of the Marne
+being limited as heretofore to the privileged few, it spread all over
+the civilised world.</p>
+
+<p>At Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s we had the opportunity of inspecting
+some of the old account-books of the firm, and more particularly those
+recording the transactions of Jean Remi Moët and his father. The first
+sales of sparkling wine, on May 23rd, 1743, comprised 301 bottles of the
+vintage of 1741 to Pierre Joly, wine-merchant, <i>bon des douze chez le
+Roi</i>, whatever that may mean, at Paris; 120 bottles to Pierre Gabriel
+Baudoin, also <i>bon des douze</i>, at Paris; and a similar quantity to
+the Sieur Compoin, keeping the “hotellerie ditte la pestitte Escurie,�
+Rue du Port Maillart, at Nantes in Brittany. The entry specifies that
+the wine for Nantes is to be left at Choisy-le-Roi, and taken by land to
+Orleans by the carters of that town, who are to be found at the Ecu
+d’Orléans, Porte St. Michel, Paris, the carriage as far as Choisy being
+4&nbsp;livres 10 deniers (about 4&nbsp;francs) for the two half-baskets,
+and to Paris 3&nbsp;livres 15 deniers the basket.</p>
+
+<p>Between 1750 and ’60, parcels of wine were despatched to Warsaw,
+Vienna, Berlin, Königsberg, Dantzig, Stettin, Brussels, and Amsterdam;
+but one found no mention of any sales to England till the year 1788,
+when the customers of the firm included “Milord� Farnham, of London, and
+Messrs. Felix Calvert and Sylvin, who had a couple of sample bottles
+sent to them, for which they were charged five shillings. In the same
+year Messrs. Carbonnell, Moody, and Walker (predecessors of the
+well-known existing firm of Carbonnell and Co.) wrote in French for two
+baskets, of ten dozens each, of <i>vin de champagne</i> “of good body,
+not too charged with liqueur, but of excellent taste, and <i>not at all
+sparkling</i>!� while the Chevalier Colebrook, writing from Bath,
+requests that 72 bottles of champagne may
+<span class = "pagenum">104</span>
+<!-- png 137 -->
+be sent to his friend the Hon. John Butler, Molesworth Street, Dublin,
+“who if contented with the wine will become a good customer, he being
+rich, keeping a good house, and receiving many amateurs of <i>vin de
+champagne</i>.� Shortly afterwards the chevalier himself receives 50
+bottles of still wine, vintage 1783. In 1789 120 bottles of champagne,
+vintage 1788, are supplied to “Milord� Findlater, of London&mdash;an
+ancestor, no doubt, of the wine-merchants of the same name carrying on
+business to-day, and whom the <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "dieresis missing in original">Moëts</ins>
+in their simplicity dubbed a
+“Milord�&mdash;and in 1790 the customers of the house include Power and
+Michel, of 44, Lamb Street, London, and Manning, of the St. Alban
+Tavern, the latter of whom is supplied on March 30th with 130 bottles of
+champagne at three livres, or two “schillings,� per bottle; while a
+month later Mr. Lockart, banker, of 36, Pall Mall, is debited with 360
+bottles, vintage 1788, at three shillings.</p>
+
+<!-- png 138 -->
+<!-- png 139 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic139.jpg" width = "447" height = "292"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+WASHING BOTTLES AT MESSRS. MOËT &amp; CHANDON’S, EPERNAY.
+(p.&nbsp;105)</p>
+
+<p>In this same year M. Moët despatches a traveller to England named
+Jeanson, and his letters, some two hundred in number, are all preserved
+in the archives of the house. On the 17th May, 1790, he writes from
+London as follows:&mdash;“As yet I have only gone on preparatory and
+often useless errands. I&nbsp;have distributed samples of which I have
+no news. Patience is necessary, and I endeavour to provide myself with
+it. How the taste of this country has changed since ten years ago!
+Almost everywhere they ask for dry wine, but at the same time require it
+so vinous and so strong that there is scarcely any other than the wine
+of Sillery which can satisfy them.... To-morrow I dine five miles from
+here, at M.&nbsp;Macnamara’s. We shall uncork four bottles of our wine,
+which will probably be all right.� In May, 1792, Jean Remi Moët is
+married, and thenceforward assumes the full management of the house. On
+December 20 of the year following, when the Reign of Terror was fairly
+inaugurated, we find the accounts in the ledger opened to this or the
+other “citoyen.� The orthodox Republican formula, however, did not long
+continue, and “sieur� and “monsieur� resumed their accustomed places,
+showing that Jean Remi Moët had no sympathy with the Jacobin faction of
+the day. In 1805 he became
+<span class = "pagenum">105</span>
+<!-- png 140 -->
+Mayor of Epernay, and between this time and the fall of the Empire
+received Napoleon several times at his residence, as well as the Empress
+Josephine and the King of Westphalia. The Emperor, after recapturing
+Reims from the Allies, came on to Epernay, on which occasion he
+presented M.&nbsp;Moët with the cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1830
+the latter was arbitrarily dismissed from his mayoralty by Charles X.,
+but was speedily reinstated by Louis Philippe, though he did not retain
+his office for long, his advanced age compelling him to retire from
+active life in the course of 1833. At this epoch the firm, which, since
+1807 had been known as Moët and Co., was remodelled under the style of
+Moët and Chandon, the two partners being M.&nbsp;Victor Moët, son of the
+outgoing partner, and M.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;G. Chandon, the descendant of an
+old ennobled family of the Mâconnais, who had married M.&nbsp;Jean Remi
+Moët’s eldest daughter. The descendants of these gentlemen are to-day at
+the head of the business, the partners being on the one hand
+M.&nbsp;Victor Moët-Romont and M.&nbsp;C.&nbsp;J.&nbsp;V. Auban
+Moët-Romont; and on the other, MM.&nbsp;Paul and Raoul Chandon de
+Briailles.</p>
+
+<p>Facing Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s offices at Epernay is a range of
+comparatively new buildings, with its white façade ornamented with the
+well-known monogram M.&nbsp;and&nbsp;C., surmounted by the familiar
+star. It is here that the business of blending and bottling the wine is
+carried on. Passing through the arched gateway access is obtained to a
+spacious courtyard, where carts laden with bottles are being
+expeditiously lightened of their fragile contents by the busy hands of
+numerous workmen. Another gateway on the left leads into the spacious
+bottle-washing room, which from the middle of May until the middle of
+July presents a scene of extraordinary animation. Bottle-washing
+apparatus, supplied by a steam-engine with 20,000 gallons of water per
+diem, are ranged in fifteen rows down the entire length of this hall,
+and nearly 200 women strive to excel each other in diligence and
+celerity in their management, a&nbsp;practised hand washing from 900 to
+1,000 bottles in the course of the day. To the right of this <i>salle de
+rinçage</i>, as it is styled,
+<span class = "pagenum">106</span>
+<!-- png 141 -->
+bottles are stacked in their tens of thousands, and lads furnished with
+barrows, known as <i>diables</i>, hurry to and fro, conveying these to
+the washers, or removing the clean bottles to the adjacent courtyard,
+where they are allowed to drain, prior to being taken to the <i>salle de
+tirage</i> or bottling room.</p>
+
+<!-- png 142 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic142.jpg" width = "445" height = "274"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. MOËT &amp; CHANDON’S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 106)</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, the washing of bottles on this gigantic scale
+commences, the “marrying� or blending of the wine is accomplished in a
+vast apartment, 250 feet in length and 100 feet broad, during the early
+spring. The casks of newly-vintaged wine which have been stowed away
+during the winter months, in the extensive range of cellars hewn out of
+the chalk underlying Epernay, where they have slowly fermented, are
+mixed together in due proportions in huge vats, each holding upwards of
+12,000 gallons. Some of this wine is the growth of Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon’s own vineyards, of which they possess as many as 900 acres
+(giving constant employment to 800 labourers and vinedressers) at Ay,
+Avenay, Bouzy, Cramant, Champillon, Chouilly, Dizy, Epernay, Grauves,
+Hautvillers, Le Mesnil, Moussy, Pierry, Saran, St. Martin, Verzy, and
+Verzenay, and the average annual cost of cultivating which is about £40
+per acre. At Ay the firm own 210 acres of vineyards; at Cramant and
+Chouilly, nearly 180 acres; at Verzy and Verzenay, 120 acres; at Pierry
+and Grauves, upwards of 100 acres; at Hautvillers, 90 acres; at Le
+Mesnil, 80 acres; at Epernay, nearly 60 acres; and at Bouzy, 55 acres.
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon, moreover, possess vendangeoirs, or
+pressing-houses, at Ay, Bouzy, Cramant, Epernay, Hautvillers, Le Mesnil,
+Pierry, Saran, and Verzenay, in which the large number of 40 presses are
+installed. At these vendangeoirs no less than 5,450 pièces of fine white
+wine, sufficient for 1,360,000 bottles of champagne, are annually
+made&mdash;that is, 1,200 pièces at Ay, 1,100 at Cramant and Saran, 800
+at Verzy and Verzenay, and smaller quantities at the remaining
+establishments. All these establishments have their celliers and their
+cellars, together with cottages for the accommodation of the numerous
+vinedressers in the employment of the firm.</p>
+
+<!-- png 143 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic143.jpg" width = "446" height = "295"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+BOTTLING CHAMPAGNE AT MESSRS. MOËT &amp; CHANDON’S, EPERNAY.
+(p.&nbsp;107)</p>
+
+<p>Extensive as are the vineyards owned by Messrs. Moët and
+<span class = "pagenum">107</span>
+<!-- png 144 -->
+Chandon, the yield from them is utterly inadequate to the enormous
+demand which the great Epernay firm are annually called upon to supply,
+and large purchases have to be made by their agents from the growers
+throughout the Champagne. The wine thus secured, as well as that grown
+by the firm, is duly mixed together in such proportions as will ensure
+lightness with the requisite vinosity, and fragrance combined with
+effervescence, a&nbsp;thorough amalgamation being effected by stirring
+up the wine with long poles provided with fan-shaped ends. If the
+vintage be indifferent in quality the firm have scores of huge tuns
+filled with the yield of more favoured seasons to fall back upon to
+ensure any deficiencies of character and flavour being supplied.</p>
+
+<p>The casks of wine to be blended are raised from the cellars, half a
+dozen at a time, by means of a lift provided with an endless chain, and
+worked by the steam-engine of which we have already spoken. They are
+emptied, through traps in the floor of the room above, into the huge
+vats which, standing upon a raised platform, reach almost to the
+ceiling. From these vats the fluid is allowed to flow through hose into
+rows of casks stationed below. Before being bottled the wine reposes for
+a certain time, is next duly racked and again blended, and is eventually
+conveyed through silver-plated pipes into oblong reservoirs, each fitted
+with a dozen syphon-taps, so arranged that directly the bottle slipped
+on to one of them becomes full the wine ceases to flow.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic145.png" width = "367" height = "314"
+alt = "transport of filled bottles: see following text">
+</p>
+
+<p>Upwards of 200 workpeople are employed in the <i>salle de tirage</i>
+at Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s, which, while the operation of bottling is
+going on, presents a scene of bewildering activity. Men and lads are
+gathered round the syphon-taps briskly removing the bottles as they
+become filled, and supplanting them by empty ones. Other lads hasten to
+transport the filled bottles on trucks to the corkers, whose so-called
+“guillotine� machines send the corks home with a sudden thud. The corks
+being secured with <i>agrafes</i> the bottles are placed in large flat
+baskets called <i>manettes</i>, and wheeled away on tracks, the quarts
+being deposited in the cellars by means of lifts, while the pints slide
+<span class = "pagenum">108</span>
+<!-- png 145 -->
+down an inclined plane by the aid of an endless chain, which raises the
+trucks with the empty baskets at the same time the full ones make their
+descent into the cellars. What with the incessant thud of the corking
+machines, the continual rolling of iron-wheeled trucks over the concrete
+floor, the rattling and creaking of the machinery working the lifts, the
+occasional sharp report of a bursting bottle, and the loudly-shouted
+orders of the foremen, who display the national partiality for making a
+noise to perfection, the din becomes at times all but unbearable. The
+number of bottles filled in the course of the day naturally varies,
+still Messrs. Moët and Chandon reckon that during the month of June a
+daily average of 100,000 are taken in the morning from the stacks in the
+<i>salle de rinçage</i>, washed, dried, filled, corked, wired, lowered
+into the cellars and carefully arranged in symmetrical order. This
+represents a
+<span class = "pagenum">109</span>
+<!-- png 146 -->
+total of two and a half million bottles during that month alone.</p>
+
+<p>The bottles on being lowered into the cellars, either by means of the
+incline or the lifts, are placed in a horizontal position, and with
+their uppermost side daubed with white chalk, are stacked in layers from
+two to half-a-dozen bottles deep with narrow oak laths between. The
+stacks are usually about six or seven feet high and 100 feet and upwards
+in length. Whilst the wine is thus reposing in a temperature of about
+55° Fahrenheit, fermentation sets in, and the ensuing month is one of
+much anxiety. Thanks, however, to the care bestowed, Messrs. Moët and
+Chandon’s annual loss from bottles bursting rarely exceeds three per
+cent., though fifteen was once regarded as a respectable and
+satisfactory average. The broken glass is a perquisite of the workmen,
+the money arising from its sale, which at the last distribution amounted
+to no less than 20,000 francs, being divided amongst them every couple
+of years.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic147.png" width = "321" height = "411"
+alt = "portal to cellars: see following text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The usual entrance to Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s Epernay
+cellars&mdash;which, burrowed out in all directions, are of the
+aggregate length of nearly seven miles, and have usually between
+11,000,000 and 12,000,000 bottles and 25,000 casks of wine stored
+therein&mdash;is through a wide and imposing portal, and down a long and
+broad flight of steps. It is, however, by the ancient and less imposing
+entrance, through which more than one crowned head has condescended to
+pass, that we set forth on our lengthened tour through these intricate
+underground galleries&mdash;this subterranean city with its miles of
+streets, crossroads, open spaces, tramways, and stations devoted solely
+to champagne. A&nbsp;gilt inscription on a black marble tablet testifies
+that “on the 26th July, 1807, Napoleon the Great, Emperor of the French,
+King of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, honoured
+commerce by visiting the cellars of Jean Rémi Moët, Mayor of Epernay,
+President of the Canton, and Member of the General Council of the
+Department,� within three weeks of the signature of the treaty of
+Tilsit. Passing down the flight of steep slippery steps traversed by the
+victor of
+<span class = "pagenum">110</span>
+<!-- png 147 -->
+Eylau and Jena, access is gained to the upper range of vaults,
+brilliantly illuminated by the glare of gas, or dimly lighted by the
+flickering flame of tallow-candles, upwards of 60,000lbs. of which are
+annually consumed. Here group after group of the small army of 350
+workmen employed in these subterranean galleries are encountered engaged
+in the process of transforming the <i>vin brut</i> into champagne. At
+Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s the all-important operation of liqueuring the
+wine is effected by aid of machines of the latest construction, which
+regulate the quantity administered to the utmost nicety. The corks are
+<span class = "pagenum">111</span>
+<!-- png 148 -->
+branded by being pressed against steel dies heated by gas, by women who
+can turn out 3,000 per day apiece, the quantity of string used to secure
+them amounting to nearly ten tons in the course of the year.</p>
+
+<p>There is another and a lower depth of cellars to be explored to which
+access is gained by trapholes in the floor&mdash;through which the
+barrels and baskets of wine are raised and lowered&mdash;and by flights
+of steps. From the foot of the latter there extends an endless vista of
+lofty and spacious passages hewn out of the chalk, the walls of which,
+smooth as finished masonry, are lined with thousands of casks of raw
+wine, varied at intervals by gigantic vats. Miles of long, dark-brown,
+dampish-looking galleries stretch away to the right and left, and though
+devoid of the picturesque festoons of fungi which decorate the London
+Dock vaults, exhibit a sufficient degree of mouldiness to give them an
+air of respectable antiquity. These multitudinous galleries, lit up by
+petroleum-lamps, are mostly lined with wine in bottles stacked in
+compact masses to a height of six or seven feet, only room enough for a
+single person to pass being left. Millions of bottles are thus arranged,
+the majority on their sides, in huge piles, with tablets hung up against
+each stack to note its age and quality; and the rest, which are
+undergoing daily evolutions at the hands of the twister, at various
+angles of inclination. In these cellars there are nearly 11,000 racks in
+which the bottles of <i>vin brut</i> rest <i>sur pointe</i>, as many as
+600,000 bottles being commonly twisted daily.</p>
+
+<p>The way runs on between regiments of bottles of the same size and
+shape, save where at intervals pints take the place of quarts; and the
+visitor, gazing into the black depths of the transverse passages to the
+right and left, becomes conscious of a feeling that if his guide were
+suddenly to desert him he would feel as hopelessly lost as in the
+catacombs of Rome. There are two galleries, each 650 feet in length,
+containing about 650,000 bottles, and connected by 32 transverse
+galleries, with an aggregate length of 4,000 feet, in which nearly
+1,500,000 bottles are stored. There are, further, eight galleries, each
+500 feet in
+<span class = "pagenum">112</span>
+<!-- png 149 -->
+length, and proportionably stocked; also the extensive new vaults,
+excavated some five or six years back, in the rear of the then-existing
+cellarage, and a considerable number of smaller vaults. The different
+depths and varying degrees of moisture afford a choice of temperature of
+which the experienced owners know how to take advantage. The original
+vaults, wherein more than a century ago the first bottles of champagne
+made by the infant firm were stowed away, bear the name of Siberia, on
+account of their exceeding coldness. This section consists of several
+roughly-excavated low winding galleries, resembling natural caverns, and
+affording a striking contrast to the broad, lofty, and regular-shaped
+corridors of more recent date.</p>
+
+<!-- png 150 -->
+<!-- png 151 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic150.jpg" width = "447" height = "293"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE PACKING HALL AT MESSRS. MOËT AND CHANDON’S, EPERNAY. (p. 112)</p>
+
+<p>When the proper period arrives for the bottles to emerge once more
+into the upper air they are conveyed to the packing-room,
+a&nbsp;spacious hall 180 feet long and 60 feet broad. In front of its
+three large double doors waggons are drawn up ready to receive their
+loads. The seventy men and women employed here easily foil, label, wrap,
+and pack up some 10,000 bottles a day. Cases and baskets are stacked in
+different parts of this vast hall, at one end of which numerous trusses
+of straw used in the packing are piled. Seated at tables ranged along
+one side of the apartment women are busily occupied in pasting on labels
+or encasing the necks of bottles in gold or silver foil, whilst
+elsewhere men, seated on three-legged stools in front of smoking
+caldrons of molten sealing-wax of a deep green hue, are coating the
+necks of other bottles by plunging them into the boiling fluid. When
+labelled and decorated with either wax or foil the bottles pass on to
+other women, who swathe them in pink tissue-paper and set them aside for
+the packers, by whom, after being deftly wrapped round with straw, they
+are consigned to baskets or cases, to secure which last no less than
+10,000lbs. of nails are annually used. England and Russia are partial to
+gold foil, pink paper, and wooden cases holding a dozen or a couple of
+dozen bottles of the exhilarating fluid, whereas other nations prefer
+waxed necks, disdain pink paper,
+<span class = "pagenum">113</span>
+<!-- png 152 -->
+and insist on being supplied in wicker baskets containing fifty bottles
+each.</p>
+
+<p>Some idea of the complex character of so vast an establishment as
+that of Messrs. Moët and Chandon may be gathered from a mere enumeration
+of their staff, which, in addition to twenty clerks and 350 cellarmen
+proper, includes numerous agrafe-makers and corkcutters, packers and
+carters, wheelwrights and saddlers, carpenters, masons, slaters and
+tilers, tinmen, firemen, needlewomen, &amp;c., while the inventory of
+objects used by this formidable array of workpeople comprises no fewer
+than 1,500 distinct heads. A&nbsp;medical man attached to the
+establishment gives gratuitous advice to all those employed, and a
+chemist dispenses drugs and medicines without charge. While suffering
+from illness the men receive half-pay, but should they be laid up by an
+accident met with in the course of their work full salary is invariably
+awarded to them. As may be supposed, so vast an establishment as this is
+not without a provision for those past work, and all the old hands
+receive liberal pensions from the firm upon retiring. Every year Messrs.
+Moët and Chandon give a banquet or a ball to the people in their
+employ&mdash;usually after the bottling of the wine is
+completed&mdash;when the hall in which the entertainment takes place is
+handsomely decorated and illuminated with myriads of coloured lamps.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to particularise Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s wines,
+which are familiar to all drinkers of champagne. Their famous “star�
+brand is known in all societies, figures equally at clubs and
+mess-tables, at garden parties and picnics, dinners and <i>soirées</i>,
+and has its place in hotel <i>cartes</i> all over the world. One of the
+best proofs of the wine’s universal popularity is found in the
+circumstance that as many as 1,000 visitors from all parts of the world
+come annually to Epernay and make the tour of Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s
+spacious cellars.</p>
+
+<p>A little beyond Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s, in the broad Rue du
+Commerce, we encounter a heavy, ornate, pretentious-looking château, the
+residence of M.&nbsp;Perrier-Jouët, which presents a striking contrast
+to the almost mean-looking premises opposite,
+<span class = "pagenum">114</span>
+<!-- png 153 -->
+where the business of the firm is carried on. M.&nbsp;Perrier-Jouët is
+the fortunate grandson of the Sieur Perrier Fissier, a&nbsp;little
+Epernay grocer, who some eighty years or so ago used to supply corks,
+candles, and string to the firm of Moët and Co., and who, when the
+profits arising from this connection warranted his doing so, discarded
+his grocer’s sleeves and apron and blossomed forth as a competitor in
+the champagne trade. Perrier-Jouët and Co.’s offices are situated on the
+left-hand side of a courtyard surrounded by low buildings, which serve
+as celliers, store-houses, packing-rooms, and the like. From an inner
+courtyard where piles of bottles are stacked under open sheds, the
+cellars themselves are reached. Previous to descending into these we
+passed through the various buildings, in one of which a party of men
+were engaged in disgorging and preparing wine for shipment. In another
+we noticed one of those heavy beam presses for pressing the grapes which
+the more intelligent manufacturers regard as obsolete, while in a third
+was the <i>cuvée</i> vat, holding no more than 2,200 gallons. In making
+their <i>cuvée</i> the firm commonly mix one part of old wine to three
+parts of new. An indifferent vintage, however, necessitates the
+admixture of a larger proportion of the older growth. The cellars, like
+all the more ancient ones at Epernay, are somewhat straggling and
+irregular, still they are remarkably cool, and on the lower floor
+remarkably damp as well. This, however, would appear to be no
+disadvantage, as the breakage in them is calculated never to exceed 2½
+per cent.</p>
+
+<p>The firm have no less than five qualities of champagne, and at one of
+the recent champagne competitions at London, where the experts engaged
+had no means of identifying the brands submitted to their judgment,
+Messrs. Perrier-Jouët’s First Quality got classed below a cheaper wine
+of their neighbours Messrs. Pol Roger and Co., and very considerably
+below the Extra Sec of Messrs. Périnet et fils, and inferior even to a
+wine of De Venoge’s, the great Epernay manufacturer of common class
+champagnes.</p>
+
+<p>Champagne establishments, combined with the handsome residences of
+the manufacturers, line both sides of the long,
+<span class = "pagenum">115</span>
+<!-- png 156 -->
+imposing Rue du Commerce at Epernay. On the left hand is a succession of
+fine châteaux, commencing with one belonging to M.&nbsp;Auban Moët,
+whose terraced gardens overlook the valley of the Marne, and command
+views of the vine-clad heights of Cumières, Hautvillers, Ay, and
+Mareuil, and the more distant slopes of Ambonnay and Bouzy, while on the
+other side of the famous Epernay thoroughfare we encounter beyond the
+establishments of Messrs. Moët and Chandon and Perrier-Jouët the ornate
+monumental façade which the firm of Piper and Co.&mdash;of whom Messrs.
+Kunkelmann and Co. are to-day the successors&mdash;raised some years
+since above their extensive cellars. A&nbsp;little in the rear of the
+Rue du Commerce is the well-ordered establishment of Messrs. Roussillon
+and Co., the extension of whose business of late has necessitated their
+removal to these capacious premises. The wines of the firm enjoy a high
+reputation in England, France, and Russia, and have secured favourable
+recognition at the Paris, Philadelphia, and other Exhibitions. Their
+stock includes considerable quantities of the older vintages, it being a
+rule of the house never to ship crude young wines. It is on their dry
+varieties that Messrs. Roussillon and Co. especially pride themselves,
+and some of the fine wine of 1874 that was here shown to us was as
+remarkable for its delicacy as for its fragrance.</p>
+
+<!-- png 154 -->
+<!-- png 155 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic155.jpg" width = "446" height = "289"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+COURTYARD OF MESSRS. POL ROGER’S ESTABLISHMENT AT EPERNAY.
+(p.&nbsp;115)</p>
+
+<p>In a side street at the farther end of the Rue du Commerce stands a
+château of red brick, overlooking on the one side an extensive
+pleasure-garden, and on the other a spacious courtyard, bounded by
+celliers, stables, and bottle-sheds, all of modern construction and on a
+most extensive scale. These form the establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger
+and Co., settled for many years at Epernay, and known throughout the
+Champagne for their large purchases at the epoch of the vintage. From
+the knowledge they possess of the best crûs, and their relations with
+the leading vineyard proprietors, they are enabled whenever the wine is
+good to acquire large stocks of it. Having bottled a considerable
+quantity of the fine wine of 1874, they resolved to profit by the
+exceptional quality of this vintage to commence shipping champagne to
+England, where their agents,
+<span class = "pagenum">116</span>
+<!-- png 157 -->
+Messrs. Reuss, Lauteren, and Co., have successfully introduced the new
+brand.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through a large open gateway we enter the vast courtyard of
+the establishment, which, with arriving and departing carts&mdash;the
+first loaded with wine in cask or with new bottles, and the others with
+cases of champagne&mdash;presents rather an animated scene. Under a roof
+projecting from the wall of the vast cellier on the right hand a tribe
+of “Sparnaciennes�&mdash;as the feminine inhabitants of Epernay are
+termed&mdash;are occupied in washing bottles in readiness for the coming
+tirage. The surrounding buildings, most substantially constructed, are
+not destitute of architectural pretensions.</p>
+
+<p>The extensive cellier, the area of which is 23,589 square feet, is
+understood to be the largest single construction of the kind in the
+Champagne district. Built entirely of iron, stone and brick, its
+framework is a perfect marvel of lightness. The roof, consisting of rows
+of brick arches, is covered above with a layer of Portland cement, in
+order to keep it cool in summer and protect it against the winter cold,
+two most desirable objects in connection with the manipulation of
+champagne. Here an endless chain of a new pattern enables wine in bottle
+to be lowered and raised with great rapidity to or from the cellars
+beneath&mdash;lofty and capacious excavations of two stories, the lowest
+of which is reached by a flight of no less than 170 steps.</p>
+
+<p>Epernay, unlike Reims, has little of general interest to attract the
+stranger. Frequently besieged and pillaged during the Middle Ages, and
+burnt to the ground by the dauphin, son of François&nbsp;I., the town,
+although of some note as far back as the time of Clovis, exhibits to-day
+no evidence whatever of its great antiquity. The thoroughfare termed the
+Rempart de la Tour Biron recalls a memorable incident which transpired
+during the siege of the town by Henri IV. While the king was
+reconnoitring the defences a cannon-ball aimed at his waving white plume
+took off the head of the Maréchal Biron at the moment Henri’s hand was
+resting familiarly on the maréchal’s shoulder. Strange to say, the king
+himself escaped unhurt.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">117</span>
+<!-- png 160 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic160.png" width = "361" height = "346"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE VENDANGEOIR OF HENRI QUATRE.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXI" id = "chapXI">
+XI.&mdash;Champagne Establishments at Ay and Mareuil.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+The Establishment of Deutz and Geldermann&mdash;Drawing off the
+Cuvée&mdash;Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Champagne&mdash;The Firm’s
+New Cellars, Vineyards, and Vendangeoir&mdash;The old Château of Ay and
+its Terraced Garden&mdash;The Gambling Propensities of Balthazar
+Constance Dangé-Dorçay, a&nbsp;former Owner of the Château&mdash;The
+Picturesque Situation and Aspect of Messrs. Ayala’s
+Establishment&mdash;A&nbsp;Promenade through their
+Cellars&mdash;M.&nbsp;Duminy’s Cellars and Wines&mdash;His new Model
+Construction&mdash;The House Founded in 1814&mdash;Messrs. Bollinger’s
+Establishment&mdash;Their Vineyard of La Grange&mdash;The Tirage in
+Progress&mdash;The Fine Cellars of the Firm&mdash;Messrs. Pfungst’s
+frères and Co.’s Cellars&mdash;Their Dry Champagnes of 1868, ’70, ’72,
+and ’74&mdash;The Old Church of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and
+Vineleaves&mdash;The Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre&mdash;The Montebello
+Establishment at Mareuil&mdash;The Château formerly the Property of the
+Dukes of Orleans&mdash;A&nbsp;Titled Champagne Firm&mdash;The Brilliant
+Career of Marshal Lannes&mdash;A&nbsp;Promenade through the Montebello
+Establishment&mdash;
+<span class = "pagenum">118</span>
+<!-- png 161 -->
+The Press House, the Cuvée Vat, the Packing-Room, the Offices, and the
+Cellars&mdash;Portraits and Relics at the Château&mdash;The
+Establishment of Bruch-Foucher and Co.&mdash;The handsome Carved
+Gigantic Cuvée Tun&mdash;The Cellars and their Lofty Shafts&mdash;The
+Wines of the Firm.
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span>
+historic <i>bourgade</i> of Ay is within a short walk of the station on
+the line of railway connecting Epernay with Reims. The road lies across
+the light bridge spanning the Marne canal, the tall trees fringing which
+hide for a time the clustering houses; still we catch sight of the
+tapering steeple of the antique church rising sharply against the green
+vine-covered slopes and the fleecy-clouded summer sky. We soon reach the
+Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, and continuing onward in the direction of the
+steep hills which shelter the town on the north, come to a
+massive-looking corner house in front of the broad <i>porte-cochère</i>
+of which some railway carts laden with cases of champagne are standing.
+Passing through the gateway we find ourselves in an open court, with a
+dwelling-house to the right and a range of buildings in front where the
+offices of Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann are installed. This is the
+central establishment of the firm, whose Extra Dry “Gold Lack� and
+“Cabinet� champagnes have long been favourably known in England. Here
+are spacious celliers for disgorging and finishing off the wine,
+a&nbsp;large packing-hall, and rooms where bales of corks and other
+accessories of the trade are stored, the operations of making the
+<i>cuvées</i> and bottling being accomplished in an establishment some
+little distance off.</p>
+
+<!-- png 158 -->
+<!-- png 159 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic159.jpg" width = "447" height = "267"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+VIEW OF AY FROM THE BANKS OF THE MARNE CANAL. (p. 117.)</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding thither, we find an elegant château with a charming
+terraced garden, lying at the very foot of the vine-clad slopes, and on
+the opposite side of the road some large celliers where wine in wood is
+stored, and where the <i>cuvées</i> of the firm, consisting usually of
+upwards of 50,000 gallons each, are made in a vat of gigantic
+proportions, furnished with a raised platform at one end for the
+accommodation of the workman who agitates the customary paddles. When
+the wine is completely blended it is drawn off into casks disposed for
+the purpose in the cellar below, as shown in the accompanying engraving,
+and after being fined it rests for about a month to clear itself. To
+each of these
+<span class = "pagenum">119</span>
+<!-- png 164 -->
+casks of newly-blended wine a portion of old wine is added separately,
+and at the moment of bottling the whole is newly amalgamated.</p>
+
+<!-- png 162 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic162.jpg" width = "284" height = "441"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+DRAWING OFF THE CUVÉE AT DEUTZ &amp; GELDERMANN’S, AY. (p. 118)</p>
+
+<p>Adjoining M. Deutz’s château is the principal entrance to the
+extensive cellars of the firm, to which, at the time of our visit,
+considerable additions were being made. In excavating a gallery the
+workmen commence by rounding off the roof, and then proceed to work
+gradually downwards, extracting the chalk, whenever practicable, in
+blocks suitable for building purposes, which being worth from three to
+four shillings the square yard help to reduce the cost of the
+excavation. When any serious flaws present themselves in the sides or
+roof of the galleries, they are invariably made good with masonry.</p>
+
+<!-- png 163 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic163.jpg" width = "398" height = "266"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+EXCAVATING DEUTZ &amp; GELDERMANN’S NEW CELLARS, AY. (p. 119)</p>
+
+<p>This range of cellars now comprises eight long and lofty galleries no
+less than 17 feet wide, and the same number of feet in height, and of
+the aggregate length of 2,200 yards. These spacious vaults, which run
+parallel with each other, and communicate by means of cross passages,
+underlie the street, the château, the garden, and the vineyard slopes
+beyond, and possess the great advantage of being always dry. They are
+capable, we were informed, of containing several million bottles of
+champagne in addition to a large quantity of wine in cask.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann possess vineyards at Ay, and own a large
+vendangeoir at Verzenay, where in good years they usually press 500
+pièces of wine. They, moreover, make large purchases of grapes at Bouzy,
+Cramant, Le Mesnil, Pierry, &amp;c, and invariably have these pressed
+under their own superintendence. Beyond large shipments to England,
+Messrs. Deutz and Geldermann transact a considerable business with other
+countries, and more especially with Germany, where their brand has been
+for years one of the most popular, and is to-day the favourite at
+numerous regimental messes and the principal hotels.</p>
+
+<p>The old château of Ay, which dates from the early part of the last
+century, belongs to-day to the Count de Mareuil, a&nbsp;member of the
+firm of Ayala and Co., one of the leading establishments
+<span class = "pagenum">120</span>
+<!-- png 165 -->
+of the famous Marne-side crû. Perched half-way up the slope, covered
+with “golden plants,� which rises in the rear of the village, the
+château, with its long façade of windows, commands the valley of the
+Marne for miles, and from the stately terraced walk, planted with
+ancient lime-trees, geometrically clipped in the fashion of the last
+century, a&nbsp;splendid view of the distant vineyards of Avize,
+Cramant, Epernay, and Chouilly is obtained. The château formed one of a
+quartette of seignorial residences which at the commencement of the
+present century belonged to Balthazar Constance Dangé-Dorçay, whose
+ancestors had been lords of Chouilly under the <i>ancien régime</i>.
+Dorçay had inherited from an aunt the châteaux of Ay, Mareuil,
+Boursault, and Chouilly, together with a large patrimony in land and
+money; but a mania for gambling brought him to utter ruin, and he
+dispossessed himself of money, lands, and châteaux in succession, and
+was reduced, in his old age, to earn a meagre pittance as a
+violin-player at the Paris Opera House. The old château of Boursault,
+which still exists contiguous to the stately edifice raised by Mme.
+Clicquot on the summit of the hill, was risked and lost on a single game
+at cards by this pertinacious gamester, whose pressing pecuniary
+difficulties compelled him to sell the remaining châteaux one by one.
+That of Ay was purchased by M.&nbsp;Froc de la Boulaye, and by him
+bequeathed to his cousin the Count de Mareuil, whose granddaughter
+became the wife of one of the Messrs. Ayala, and whose son is to-day
+their partner.</p>
+
+<!-- png 166 -->
+<!-- png 167 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic167.jpg" width = "450" height = "288"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. AYALA &amp; CO.’S ESTABLISHMENT AT AY. (p. 121)</p>
+
+<p>The offices of the firm adjoin the château, and rather higher up the
+hill is their very complete establishment, picturesquely situated in a
+hollow formed by some excavations, with the thickly-planted vine-slopes
+rising above its red-tiled roof. The boldly-designed basement, the
+ascending sweep conducting to the extensive celliers and the little
+centre belfry give a character of originality to the building. Carts
+laden with cases of champagne are leaving for the railway station, casks
+of wine are being transferred from one part of the establishment to
+another, bottles are being got ready for the approaching tirage, and in
+<span class = "pagenum">121</span>
+<!-- png 168 -->
+the packing department, installed in one of the three celliers into
+which the story aboveground is divided, quite an animated scene presents
+itself. Iron columns support the roofs of this and its companion
+celliers, where the firm make their <i>cuvée</i>, and the bottling of
+the wine takes place. On descending into the basement beneath, the
+popping of corks and the continual clatter of machinery intimate that
+the disgorging and re-corking of the wine are being accomplished, and in
+the dim light we discern groups of workmen engaged in the final
+manipulation which champagne has to undergo, while fresh relays of wine
+are arriving from the cellars by the aid of endless chains. There are
+two stories of these cellars which, excavated in the chalk, extend under
+the road and wind round beneath the château, the more modern galleries
+being broad, lofty, and admirably ventilated, and provided with supports
+of masonry wherever the instability of the chalk rendered this
+requisite. After a lengthened promenade through them we come to the
+ancient vaults extending immediately under the grounds of the château,
+where every particle of available space is utilised, and some difficulty
+is found in passing between the serried piles of bottles of <i>vin
+brut</i>&mdash;mostly the fine wine of 1874&mdash;which rise
+continuously on either side.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic168.png" width = "159" height = "178"
+alt = "ornament">
+</p>
+
+<p>Within a hundred yards of the open space, surrounded by houses of
+different epochs and considerable diversity of design, where the Ay
+market is weekly held, and in one of the narrow winding streets common
+to the town, an escutcheon, with a bunch of grapes for device,
+surmounting a lofty gateway, attracts attention. Within, a&nbsp;trim
+courtyard, girt round with orange-trees in bright green boxes, and
+clipped in orthodox fashion, affords access to the handsome residence
+and offices of M.&nbsp;Duminy, well-known in England
+<span class = "pagenum">122</span>
+<!-- png 169 -->
+and America as a shipper of high-class champagnes, and whose Parisian
+connection is extensive. On the right-hand side of the courtyard is the
+packing-room, and through the cellars, which have an entrance here, one
+can reach the celliers in an adjoining street, where the <i>cuvée</i> is
+made and the bottling of the wine accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>M. Duminy’s cellars are remarkably old, and consequently of somewhat
+irregular construction, being at times rather low and narrow, as well as
+on different levels. In addition, however, to these venerable vaults,
+packed with wines of 1869, ’70, ’72, and ’74, M.&nbsp;Duminy has various
+subterranean adjuncts in other parts of Ay, and is at present engaged in
+constructing, at the foot of his vineyards up the mountain slope,
+a&nbsp;noble establishment which includes a vast court, upwards of a
+thousand square yards in extent, wherein are installed capacious
+bottle-racks and bottle-washing machines of the latest improved
+manufacture. Here are also handsome and extensive celliers, together
+with immense underground cellars, comprising broad and lofty galleries
+of regular design, the whole being constructed with a completeness and
+studied regard for convenience which bid fair to render this
+establishment when finished the model one of the Champagne district.</p>
+
+<p>The house was originally founded so far back as 1814 by
+M.&nbsp;Taverne-Richard, who was intimately connected with the principal
+vineyard proprietors of the district. In 1842 this gentleman took his
+son-in-law, M.&nbsp;Duminy, father of the present proprietor of the
+establishment, into partnership, and after the retirement of
+M.&nbsp;Taverne he gave a great impetus to the business, and succeeded
+in introducing his light and delicate wines into the principal Paris
+hotels and restaurants. During its two-thirds of a century of existence
+the house has invariably confined itself to first-class wines, taking
+particular pride in shipping fully-matured growths. Besides its own
+large reserve of these, it holds considerable stocks long since disposed
+of, and now merely awaiting the purchasers’ orders to be shipped.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">123</span>
+<!-- png 170 -->
+A few paces beyond M. Duminy’s we come upon an antiquated,
+decrepit-looking timber house, with its ancient gable bulging over as
+though the tough oak brackets on which it rests were at last grown weary
+of supporting their unwieldy burthen. Judging from the quaint carved
+devices, this house was doubtless the residence of an individual of some
+importance in the days when the principal European potentates had their
+commissioners installed at Ay to secure them the finest vintages.
+Continuing our walk along the same narrow winding street, we soon reach
+the establishment of Messrs. Bollinger, whose house, founded in the year
+1829, claims to be the first among the Ay firms who shipped wines to
+foreign countries generally, including England, where the brand has long
+been held in high repute. Messrs. Bollinger, besides being shippers of
+champagne, are extensive vineyard proprietors, owning vinelands at
+Bouzy, Verzenay, and Dizy. A&nbsp;vineyard of theirs at the latter
+place, known as “La Grange,� is said to have formerly belonged to the
+monks who founded the abbey of St. Peter at Hautvillers, the legend
+connected with which we have already related.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of large gateways offer access to the spacious courtyard of
+Messrs. Bollinger’s establishment; a&nbsp;handsome dwelling-house
+standing on the right, and a small pavilion, in which the offices are
+installed, while on the left hand and in the rear of the courtyard rises
+a range of buildings of characteristic aspect, appropriated to the
+business of the firm. In one of the celliers, which has its
+open-raftered roof supported by slim metal columns, we found the tirage
+going on, the gang of workmen engaged in it filling, corking, and
+lowering into the cellars some 20,000 bottles a day. In one corner of
+the apartment stood the large <i>cuvée</i> tun&mdash;capable of holding
+some 50 hogsheads&mdash;in which the blending of the wine is effected,
+and in an adjoining cellier women were briskly labelling and wrapping up
+the completed bottles of champagne. The cellars, constructed some fifty
+years ago at a cost of nearly £12 the superficial yard, are faced
+entirely with stone, and are
+<span class = "pagenum">124</span>
+<!-- png 171 -->
+alike wide and lofty; this is especially the case with four of the more
+modern galleries excavated in 1848, and each 160 feet in length. Besides
+the foregoing, Messrs. Bollinger possess other cellars in Ay, where they
+store their reserve wines both in bottle and in the wood.</p>
+
+<p>On the northern side of Ay, some little distance from the vineyard
+owned by them, the firm of Pfungst frères &amp; Cie. have their cellars,
+the entrance to which lies just under the lofty vine-clad ridge. Messrs.
+Pfungst frères lay themselves out exclusively for the shipment of
+high-class champagnes, and the excellent growths of the Ay district
+necessarily form an important element in their carefully-composed
+<i>cuvées</i>. A&nbsp;considerable portion of their stock consists of
+reserves of old wine, and we tasted here a variety of samples of
+finely-matured champagnes of 1868 and ’70, as well as the vintages of
+1872 and ’74. All of these wines were of superior quality, combining
+delicacy and fragrance with dryness, the latter being their especial
+feature. In addition to their business with England, Messrs. Pfungst
+frères ship largely to India and the United States.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<!-- sequence reversed -->
+<img src = "images/pic172.png" width = "177" height = "300"
+alt = "sculpture on church: see adjoining text">
+</p>
+
+<p>It is on this side of the town that the fine old Gothic church,
+dating as far back as the twelfth century, is situated. Many of the
+mouldings and the capitals of the columns both inside and outside the
+building are covered over with grape-laden vine-branches, and the
+sculptured figure of a boy bearing a basket of grapes upon his head
+surmounts the handsome Renaissance doorway, seemingly to indicate the
+honour in which the
+<span class = "pagenum">125</span>
+<!-- png 172 -->
+vine&mdash;the source of all the prosperity of the little town&mdash;was
+held both by the mediæval and later architects of the edifice. Nigh to
+the church stands the old house with its obliterated carved escutcheons,
+known traditionally as the Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre. This monarch
+loved the wine of the place almost as well as his favourite vintage of
+Arbois, and dubbed himself, as we have already mentioned, Seigneur of
+Ay, whose inhabitants he sought to gratify by confirming the charter
+which centuries before had been granted to the town.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<!-- sequence reversed -->
+<img src = "images/pic171.png" width = "275" height = "133"
+alt = "detail of decorated capital">
+</p>
+
+<p>Within half-an-hour’s walk of Ay, in an easterly direction, is the
+village of Mareuil, a&nbsp;long straight street of straggling houses,
+bounded by trees and <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "text unchanged">garden-plats</ins>,
+with vine-clad hills rising abruptly
+behind on the one side, and the Marne canal flowing placidly by on the
+other. The archaic church, a&nbsp;mixture of the Romanesque and Early
+Gothic, stands at the farther end of the village, and some little
+distance on this side of it is a massive-looking eighteenth-century
+building, spacious enough to accommodate a regiment of horse, but
+conventual rather than barrack-like in aspect, from the paucity of
+windows looking on to the road. A&nbsp;broad gateway leads into a
+spacious courtyard to the left of which stands a grand château, while on
+the right there rises an ornate round tower of three stories, from the
+gallery on the summit of which a fine view over the valley of the Marne
+is obtained. The buildings inclosing the court on three sides comprise
+press-houses, celliers, and packing-rooms,
+<span class = "pagenum">126</span>
+<!-- png 173 -->
+an antiquated sundial marking the hour on the blank space above the
+vines that climb beside the entrance gateway. The more ancient of these
+tenements formed the vendangeoir of the Dukes of Orleans at the time
+they owned the château of Mareuil, purchased in 1830 by the Duke de
+Montebello, son of the famous Marshal Lannes, and minister and
+ambassador of Louis Philippe and Napoleon III.</p>
+
+<!-- png 174 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic174.jpg" width = "447" height = "291"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE MONTEBELLO ESTABLISHMENT AT MAREUIL. (p. 126)</p>
+
+<p>The acquisition of this property, to which were attached some
+important vineyards, led, several years later, to the duke’s founding,
+in conjunction with his brothers, the Marquis and General Count de
+Montebello, a&nbsp;champagne firm, whose brand speedily acquired a
+notable popularity. To-day the business is carried on by their sons and
+heirs, for all the original partners in the house have followed their
+valiant father to the grave. Struck down by an Austrian cannon-ball in
+the zenith of his fame, the career of Marshal Lannes, brief as it was,
+furnishes one of the most brilliant pages in French military annals.
+Joining the army of Italy as a volunteer in 1796, he was made a colonel
+on the battle-field in the gorges of Millesimo, when Augereau’s bold
+advance opened Piedmont to the French. He fought at Bassano and Lodi,
+took part in the assault of Pavia and the siege of Mantua, and at
+Arcola, when Napoleon dashed flag in hand upon the bridge, Lannes was
+seriously wounded whilst shielding his general from danger. He
+afterwards distinguished himself in Egypt, and led the van of the French
+army across the Alps, displaying his accustomed bravery both at
+Montebello and Marengo. At Austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing
+of the army, he greatly contributed to the victory, and at Jena,
+Friedland, and Eylau his valour was again conspicuous. Sent to Spain, he
+defeated the Spaniards at Tudela, and took part in the operations
+against Saragossa. Wounded at the battle of Essling, when the Archduke
+Charles inflicted upon Napoleon&nbsp;I. the first serious repulse he had
+met with on the field of battle, the valiant Lannes expired a few days
+afterwards in the Emperor’s arms.</p>
+
+<!-- png 175 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic175.jpg" width = "442" height = "278"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+CHÂTEAU OF MAREUIL, BELONGING TO THE DUKE OF MONTEBELLO. (p. 127.)</p>
+
+<p>We were met at Mareuil, on the occasion of our visit, by
+<span class = "pagenum">127</span>
+<!-- png 176 -->
+Count Alfred Ferdinand de Montebello, the present manager of the house,
+and conducted by him over the establishment. In the press-house, to the
+left of the courtyard, were two of the ponderous presses used in the
+Champagne, for, like all other large firms, the house makes its own
+wine. Grapes grown in the Mareuil vineyards arrive here in baskets slung
+across the backs of mules, muzzled so that while awaiting their loads
+they may not devour the fruit within reach. In a cellier adjoining the
+press-house stands a large vat, capable of holding 50 pièces of wine,
+with a crane beside it for hauling up the casks when the <i>cuvée</i> is
+made. Here the tirage likewise takes place, and in the range of
+buildings, roofed with glass, in the rear of the tower, the bottled wine
+is labelled, capped with foil, and packed in cases for transmission to
+Paris, England, and other places abroad.</p>
+
+<p>A double flight of steps, decorated with lamps and vases, leads to
+the handsome offices of the firm, situated on the first floor of the
+tower, while above is an apartment with a panelled ceiling, gracefully
+decorated with groups of Cupids engaged in the vintage and the various
+operations which the famous wines of the Mountain and the River undergo
+during their conversion into champagne. On the ground floor of the tower
+a low doorway conducts to the spacious cellars, which, owing to the
+proximity of the Marne, are all on the same level as well as constructed
+in masonry. The older vaults, where the Marquis de Pange, a&nbsp;former
+owner of the château, stored the wine which he used to sell to the
+champagne manufacturers, are somewhat low and tortuous compared with the
+broad and lofty galleries of more recent date, which have been
+constructed as the growing connection of the firm obliged them to
+increase their stocks. Spite, however, of numerous additions, portions
+of their reserves have to be stored in other cellars in Mareuil.
+Considerable stocks of each of the four qualities of wine supplied by
+the firm are being got ready for disgorgement, including Cartes Noires
+and Bleues, with the refined Carte Blanche and the delicate Crêmant,
+which challenge comparison with brands of the highest repute.</p>
+
+<p>In the adjacent château, the gardens of which slope down
+<span class = "pagenum">128</span>
+<!-- png 177 -->
+to the Marne canal, there are various interesting portraits, with one or
+two relics of the distinguished founder of the Montebello family,
+notably Marshal Lannes’s gold-embroidered velvet saddle trappings, his
+portrait and that of Marshal Gerard, as well as one of Napoleon&nbsp;I.,
+by David, with a handsome clock and candelabra of Egyptian design,
+a&nbsp;bust of Augustus Cæsar, and a portrait of the Regent
+d’Orléans.</p>
+
+<p>Another champagne house of standing at Mareuil is that of
+Bruch-Foucher and Co., whose establishment is situated near the village
+mairie. Entering by a lofty porte-cochère, we notice on the left hand a
+spacious packing-room, where men and women are expeditiously completing
+some shipping order, while beyond are the offices, looking on to a
+terraced garden whence a pleasant view is gained of the verdant valley
+of the Marne. From the packing-room a broad staircase leads to the
+cellars beneath, which can also be reached from a venerable range of
+buildings on the opposite side of the road, where young wines and old
+cognac spirit, used in the preparation of the liqueur, are stored in the
+wood.</p>
+
+<p>In one of these ancient celliers is a vast tun, capable of containing
+nearly 5,000 gallons, carved over with an elaborate device of vineleaves
+and bunches of grapes entwined around overflowing cornucopia and bottles
+of champagne. This handsome cask, in which the firm make their
+<i>cuvée</i>, is a worthy rival of the sole antique ornamental tun that
+still reposes in the Royal cellars at Wurzburg. In Messrs. Bruch-Foucher
+and Co.’s capacious cellars, faced and vaulted with stone, from eight to
+nine hundred thousand bottles of wine are stored. The cellars form a
+single story, and extend partly under the adjacent vineyard slopes,
+deriving light and ventilation from numerous shafts which are
+occasionally no less than 150 feet in height. Messrs. Bruch-Foucher and
+Co., who are owners of vineyards at Mareuil, ship three qualities of
+champagne, the finest being their Carte d’Or and their Monogram Carte
+Blanche. Their chief business is with England, Germany, and the United
+States, where their brands enjoy considerable repute.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">129</span>
+<!-- png 178 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic178.png" width = "234" height = "335"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+DOORWAY OF AVIZE CHURCH.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXII" id = "chapXII">
+XII.&mdash;Champagne Establishments at Avize and Rilly.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Avize the Centre of the White Grape District&mdash;Its Situation and
+Aspect&mdash;The Establishment of Giesler and Co.&mdash;The Tirage and
+the Cuvée&mdash;Vin Brut in Racks and on Tables&mdash;The Packing-Hall,
+the Extensive Cellars, and the Disgorging Cellier&mdash;Bottle Stores
+and Bottle-Washing Machines&mdash;Messrs. Giesler’s Wine-Presses at
+Avize and Vendangeoir at Bouzy&mdash;Their Vineyards and their Purchases
+of Grapes&mdash;Reputation of the Giesler Brand&mdash;The Establishment
+of M.&nbsp;Charles de Cazanove&mdash;A&nbsp;Tame Young
+Boar&mdash;Boar-Hunting in the Champagne&mdash;M.&nbsp;de Cazanove’s
+Commodious Cellars and Carefully-Selected Wines&mdash;Vineyards Owned by
+Him and His Family&mdash;Reputation of his Wines in Paris and their
+Growing Popularity in England&mdash;Interesting View from M.&nbsp;de
+Cazanove’s Terraced Garden&mdash;The Vintaging of the White Grapes in
+the Champagne&mdash;Roper frères’ Establishment at
+Rilly-la-Montagne&mdash;Their Cellars Penetrated by Roots of
+Trees&mdash;Some Samples of Fine Old Champagnes&mdash;The Principal
+Châlons Establishments&mdash;Poem on Champagne by M.&nbsp;Amaury de
+Cazanove.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">130</span>
+<!-- png 179 -->
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Avize,</span>
+situated in the heart of the Champagne white grape district, may be
+reached from Epernay by road through Pierry and Cramant or by the
+Châlons Railway to Oiry Junction, between which station and Romilly
+there runs a local line, jocularly termed the <i>chemin de fer de
+famille</i>, from the general disregard displayed by the officials for
+anything approaching to punctuality. Avize can scarcely be styled a
+town, and yet its growing proportions are beyond those of an ordinary
+village. It lies pleasantly nestled among the vines, sheltered by bold
+ridges on the north-west, with the monotonous plains of La Champagne
+pouilleuse, unsuited to the cultivation of the vine, stretching away
+eastward in the direction of Châlons. Avize cannot pretend to the same
+antiquity as its neighbour Vertus, and lacks the many picturesque
+vestiges of which the latter can boast. Its church dates back only to
+the 15th century, although the principal doorway in the Romanesque style
+evidently belongs to a much earlier epoch. There is a general air of
+trim prosperity about the place, and the villagers have that well-to-do
+appearance common to the inhabitants of the French wine districts. Only
+at vintage time, however, are there any particular outdoor signs of
+activity, although half a score of champagne firms have their
+establishments here, giving employment to the bulk of the population,
+and sending forth their two or three million bottles of the sparkling
+wine of the Marne annually.</p>
+
+<!-- png 180 -->
+<!-- png 181 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic181.jpg" width = "429" height = "290"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MAKING THE CUVÉE AT MESSRS. GIESLER’S, AT AVIZE. (p.131)</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding along the straight level road leading from the station to
+the village we encounter on our right hand the premises of Messrs.
+Giesler and Co., the reputation of whose brand is universal. When
+M.&nbsp;Giesler quitted the firm of P.&nbsp;A. Mumm, Giesler, and Co.,
+at Reims, in 1838, he removed to Avize and founded the present extensive
+establishment. Entering through a large open gateway we find ourselves
+within a spacious courtyard with a handsome dwelling-house in the rear,
+and all the signs of a champagne business of magnitude apparent.
+A&nbsp;spiral staircase conducts to the counting-house on the first
+story of a range of buildings on the left hand, the ground floor of
+which is divided into celliers. Passing through
+<span class = "pagenum">131</span>
+<!-- png 182 -->
+a door by the side of this staircase we enter a large hall where the
+operation of bottling the wine is going on. Four tuns, each holding five
+ordinary pièces of wine, and raised upon large blocks of wood, are
+standing here, and communicating with them are bottling syphons of the
+type commonly employed in the Champagne. Messrs. Giesler do not usually
+consign the newly-bottled wine at once to the cellars, but retain it
+aboveground for about a fortnight in order that it may develop its
+effervescent qualities more perfectly. We find many thousands of these
+bottles stacked horizontally in the adjoining celliers, in one of which
+stands the great <i>cuvée</i> tun wherein some fifty hogsheads of the
+finest Champagne growths are blended together at one time, two hundred
+hogsheads being thus mingled daily while the <i>cuvées</i> are in
+progress. The casks of wine having been hoisted from the cellars to the
+first floor by a crane, and run on to a trough, their bungs are removed,
+and the wine flows through an aperture in the floor into the huge tun
+beneath, its amalgamation being accomplished by the customary fan-shaped
+appliances, set in motion by the turning of a wheel. In an adjacent room
+is the machine used for mixing the liqueur which Messrs. <ins class =
+"mycorr" title = "text reads ‘Griesler’">Giesler</ins> add so sparingly
+to their light and fragrant wines.</p>
+
+<p>There are a couple of floors above these celliers, the uppermost of
+which is used as a general store, while in the one beneath many
+thousands of bottles of <i>vin brut</i> repose <i>sur pointe</i>, either
+in racks or on tables as at the Clicquot-Werlé establishment. This
+latter system requires ample space, for as the <i>remueur</i>, or
+workman who shakes the bottles, is only able to use one hand, the
+operation of dislodging the sediment necessarily occupies a much longer
+time than is requisite when the bottles rest in racks.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">132</span>
+<!-- png 183 -->
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic183.png" width = "339" height = "468"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+PREPARING THE LIQUEUR AT MESSRS. GIESLER’S.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard comprise a large
+packing-hall, celliers where the wine is finished off, and rooms where
+corks and such-like things are stored. Here, too, is the entrance to the
+cellars, of which there are three tiers, all lofty and well-ventilated
+galleries, very regular in their construction, and faced with either
+stone or brick. In these extensive vaults are casks of fine reserved
+wines for blending with youthful vintages, and bottles of <i>vin
+brut</i>, built up in solid stacks, that may be reckoned by their
+hundreds of thousands. At Messrs. Giesler’s the disgorging of the wine
+is accomplished in
+<span class = "pagenum">133</span>
+<!-- png 184 -->
+a small cellier partially underground, and the temperature of which is
+very cool and equable. The <i>dégorgeurs</i>, isolated from the rest of
+the workpeople, are carrying on their operations here by candlelight. So
+soon as the sediment is removed the bottles are raised in baskets to the
+cellier above, where the liqueuring, re-corking, stringing, and wiring
+are successively accomplished. By pursuing this plan the loss sustained
+by the disgorgement is believed to be reduced to a minimum.</p>
+
+<p>Extensive as these premises are they are still insufficient for the
+requirements of the firm, and across the road is a spacious building
+where new bottles are stored and the washing of the bottles in
+preparation for the tirage takes place. By the aid of the machinery
+provided, sixteen women, assisted by a couple of men, commonly wash some
+fifteen or sixteen thousand bottles in the course of a day. Here, too,
+stands one of the two large presses with which at the epoch of the
+vintage a hundred pièces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty
+hours. The remaining press is installed in a cellier at the farther end
+of the garden on the other side of the road. Messrs. Giesler possess
+additional presses at their vendangeoir at Bouzy, and during the vintage
+have the command of presses at Ay, Verzenay, Vertus, Le Mesnil, &amp;c.,
+it being a rule of theirs always to press the grapes within a few hours
+after they are gathered to obviate their becoming bruised by their own
+weight and imparting a dark colour to the wine, a&nbsp;contingency
+difficult to guard against in seasons when the fruit is over-ripe. The
+firm own vineyards at Avize, and have agreements with vine-proprietors
+at Ay, Bouzy, Verzenay, and elsewhere, to purchase their crops regularly
+every year. Messrs. Giesler’s brand has secured its existing high repute
+solely through the fine quality of the wines shipped by the
+house&mdash;wines which are known and appreciated by all real
+connoisseurs of champagne.</p>
+
+<p>From Messrs. Giesler’s it is merely a short walk to the establishment
+of M.&nbsp;Charles de Cazanove, situated in the principal street of
+Avize. On entering the court we encountered a tame young boar engaged in
+the lively pursuit of chasing some
+<span class = "pagenum">134</span>
+<!-- png 185 -->
+terrified hens, while a trio of boarhounds, basking on the sunny
+flagstones, contemplated his proceedings with lazy indifference. Boars
+abound in the woods hereabouts, and hunting them is a favourite pastime
+with the residents, and the young boar we had noticed proved to be one
+of the recent captures of the sons of M.&nbsp;de Cazanove, who are among
+the warmest partisans of the exciting sport. Many of the boars found in
+the woods around Reims journey thither, it is said, by night from the
+famous forest of the Ardennes&mdash;the scene of Rosalind’s wanderings
+and Touchstone’s eccentricities as set forth in <i>As You Like It</i>,
+and whose gloomy depths and tangled glens shelter to-day not merely
+boars but wolves as well.</p>
+
+<p>In the Champagne it is no longer the fashion</p>
+
+<p class = "verse last">
+“With javelin’s point a churlish swine to gore,�
+</p>
+
+<p>nor to hunt the boar on horseback, as is still the case in Burgundy.
+When the presence of one or more of these animals is signalled in the
+neighbourhood, a&nbsp;party starts off accompanied by dogs and armed
+with double-barrelled rifles. A&nbsp;circle having been formed round the
+boar’s lair the dogs are set to draw him out, while the <i>chasseurs</i>
+keep on the alert so as not to allow him to escape through their circle
+alive. In this manner a few score of boars are killed every year in the
+woods round about Reims and Epernay.</p>
+
+<!-- png 186 -->
+<!-- png 187 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic187.jpg" width = "462" height = "267"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+VINEYARDS OF AVIZE AND CRAMANT FROM THE GARDEN OF M. C. DE CAZANOVE.
+(p.&nbsp;135.)</p>
+
+<p>The house of M. Charles de Cazanove was established in 1843 by its
+present proprietor on the foundation of a business which had been in
+existence since 1811. Compared with the monumental grandeur of some of
+the great Reims and Epernay establishments the premises present a simple
+and modest aspect, nevertheless they are capacious and commodious,
+besides which the growing business of the house has led to the
+acquisition of additional cellarage in other parts of Avize. More
+important than all, however, is the quality of the wine with which these
+cellars are stocked, and following the rule observed by champagne firms
+of the highest repute, it has been a leading principle with M.&nbsp;de
+Cazanove always to rely upon the choicer growths&mdash;those
+<span class = "pagenum">135</span>
+<!-- png 188 -->
+light, delicate, and fragrant wines of the Marne which throw out the
+true aroma of the flower of the vine. M.&nbsp;de Cazanove, who is
+distinguished for his knowledge of viticulture, occupies an influential
+position at Avize, being Vice-President of the Horticultural Society of
+the Marne, and a member of the committee charged with guarding the
+Champagne vineyards against the invasion of the phylloxera. His own
+vines include only those fine varieties to which the crûs of the Marne
+owe their great renown. He possesses an excellent vineyard at Grauves,
+near Avize, and his mother-in-law, Madame Poultier, of Pierry, is one of
+the principal vine-growers of the district.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Cazanove’s wines are much appreciated in Paris, where his
+business is very extensive. His shipments to England are also
+considerable, but from the circumstance of some of his principal
+customers importing the wine under special brands of their own, the
+brand of the house is not so widely known as we should have
+expected.</p>
+
+<p>From M. de Cazanove’s terraced garden in the rear of his
+establishment a fine view is obtained of one of the most famous
+viticultural districts of the Champagne, yielding wines of remarkable
+delicacy and exquisite bouquet. On the left hand rises up the mountain
+of Avize, its summit fringed with dense woods, where in winter the wild
+boar has his lair. In front stretch the long vine-clad slopes of
+Cramant, with orchards at their base, and the housetops of the village
+and the spire of the quaint old church just peeping over the brow of the
+hill. To the right towers the bold forest-crowned height of Saran with
+M.&nbsp;Moët’s château perched half-way up its north-eastern slope, and
+fading away in the hazy distance are the monotonous plains of the
+Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>We have already explained that the wines of Avize and Cramant rank as
+<i>premiers crûs</i> of the white grape district, and that every
+champagne manufacturer of repute mingles one or the other in his
+<i>cuvée</i>. The white grapes are usually gathered a fortnight or three
+weeks later than the black varieties, but in other respects the
+vintaging of them is the same. The grapes
+<span class = "pagenum">136</span>
+<!-- png 189 -->
+undergo the customary minute examination by the <i>éplucheuses</i>, and
+all unripe, damaged, and rotten berries being thrown aside, the fruit is
+conveyed with due care to the press-houses in the large baskets known as
+<i>paniers mannequins</i>. The pressing takes place under exactly the
+same conditions as the pressing of the black grapes; the must, too, is
+drawn off into hogsheads to ferment, and by the end of the year, when
+the active fermentation has terminated, the wine is usually clear and
+limpid.</p>
+
+<p>At Rilly-la-Montagne, on the line of railway between Reims and
+Epernay, Roper frères &amp; Cie., late of Epernay, now have their
+establishment. Starting from the latter place we pass Ay and Avenay, and
+then the little village of Germaine in the midst of the forest, and nigh
+the summit of the mountain of Reims, with its “Rendezvous des Chasseurs�
+in immediate proximity to the station. Finally we arrive at Rilly,
+which, spite of its isolated situation, has about it that aspect of
+prosperity common to the more favourable wine districts of France. This
+is scarcely surprising when the quality of its wines is taken into
+consideration. The still red wine of Rilly has long enjoyed a high local
+reputation, and to-day the Rilly growths are much sought after for
+conversion into champagne. White wine of 1874 from black grapes fetched,
+we were informed, as much as from 600 to 700 francs the pièce, while the
+finer qualities from white grapes realised from 300 to 400 francs.
+Messrs. Roper frères &amp; Cie. are the owners of some productive
+vineyards situated on the high road to Chigny and Ludes.</p>
+
+<p>The establishment of Roper frères is adjacent to a handsome modern
+house standing back from the road in a large and pleasant garden,
+bounded by vineyards on two of its sides. In the celliers all the
+conveniences pertaining to a modern champagne establishment are to be
+found, while extending beneath the garden are the extensive cellars of
+the firm, comprising two stories of long and spacious galleries
+excavated in the chalk, their walls and roofs being supported whenever
+necessary by masonry. A&nbsp;curious feature about these cellars is that
+the roots of the larger trees in the garden above have penetrated
+through
+<span class = "pagenum">137</span>
+<!-- png 190 -->
+the roof of the upper story and hang pendent overhead like innumerable
+stalactites. Here after the comparatively new wine of 1874 had been
+shown to us&mdash;including samples of the <i>Vin Brut</i> or natural
+champagne of which the firm make a speciality at a moderate
+price&mdash;some choice old champagnes were brought forth, including the
+fine vintages of 1865, 1857, and 1846. The latter wine had of course
+preserved very little of its effervescence, still its flavour was
+exceedingly fine, being soft and delicate to a degree. At the Vienna
+Exhibition of 1873 and the London Exhibition of 1874 the collection of
+champagnes exhibited by Roper frères met with favourable recognition
+from the international juries.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic191.png" width = "109" height = "135"
+alt = "cherub with champagne bottle">
+</p>
+
+<p>Our tour through the Champagne vineyards and wine-cellars here comes
+to an end. It is true there are important establishments at Châlons,
+notably those of Jacquesson et fils, the Perriers, Freminet et fils, and
+Jacquard frères, the cellars of the first-named being, perhaps,
+unrivalled in the Champagne. As, however, any description of these
+establishments would be little else than a recapitulation of something
+we have already said, we content ourselves with merely notifying their
+existence, and bring our Facts about Champagne to a close with the
+translation of a poem from the pen of M.&nbsp;Amaury de Cazanove of
+Avize:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h5>CHAMPAGNE.</h5>
+
+<p class = "verse">
+<span class = "firstword">Less</span> for thy grace and glory, land of
+ours,</p>
+<p class = "verse in4">
+Than for thy dolour, dear;<br>
+Let the grief go, and here&mdash;</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+Here’s to thy skies, thy women and thy flowers!<br>
+France! take the toast, thy women and thy roses,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+France! to thy wine, more wealth unto thy store!</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+And let the lips a grievous memory closes</p>
+<p class = "verse last in2">
+Smile their proud smile once more!</p>
+
+<p class = "verse">
+Swarthy Falernian, Massica the Red,</p>
+<p class = "verse in4">
+Were ye the nectars poured<br>
+At the great gods’ broad board?</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+No, poor old wines, all but in name long dead,<br>
+Nectar’s Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+That bubbling o’er with laughing gas,<br>
+Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,</p>
+<p class = "verse last">
+And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">138</span>
+<!-- png 191 -->
+
+<p class = "verse">
+“I am the blood Burgundian sunshine makes;</p>
+<p class = "verse in4">
+A fine old feudal knight<br>
+Of bluff and boisterous might,</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+Whose casque feels&mdash;ah, so heavy when one wakes!�<br>
+“And I, the dainty Bordeaux, violets’</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+Perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize.</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+My subtile savour gets</p>
+<p class = "verse last in2">
+In partridge wings its daintiest allies.�</p>
+
+<p class = "verse">
+Ah, potent chiefs, Bordeaux and Burgundy.</p>
+<p class = "verse in4">
+If we must answer make,<br>
+This sober counsel take:</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+Messeigneurs, sing your worth less haughtily,<br>
+For ’tis Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+That bubbling o’er with laughing gas,<br>
+Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,</p>
+<p class = "verse last">
+And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.</p>
+
+<p class = "verse">
+Aye, ’tis the true, the typic wine of France;</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+Aye, ’tis our heart that sparkles in our eyes,</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+And higher beats for every dire mischance;</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+It was the wit that made our fathers wise,</p>
+<p class = "verse in3">
+That made their valour gallant, gay,</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+When plumes were stirr’d by winds of waving swords,<br>
+And chivalry’s defiance spoke the words:</p>
+<p class = "verse last in4">
+“À vous, Messieurs les Anglais, les premiers!�</p>
+
+<p class = "verse">
+Let the dull beer-apostle till he’s hoarse</p>
+<p class = "verse in4">
+Vent his small spleen and spite,<br>
+Fate fill his sleepless night</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+With nightmares of invincible remorse!<br>
+We sing Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+That bubbling o’er with laughing gas,<br>
+Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,</p>
+<p class = "verse last">
+And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">139</span>
+<!-- png 192 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic192.png" width = "370" height = "377"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+PEASANT WOMEN OF THE ENVIRONS OF SAUMUR.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXIII" id = "chapXIII">
+XIII.&mdash;Sparkling Saumur and Sparkling Sauternes.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+The Sparkling Wines of the Loire often palmed off as
+Champagnes&mdash;The Finer qualities Improve with Age&mdash;Anjou the
+Cradle of the Plantagenet Kings&mdash;Saumur and its Dominating Feudal
+Château and Antique Hôtel de Ville&mdash;Its Sinister Rue des Payens and
+Steep Tortuous Grande Rue&mdash;The Vineyards of the Coteau of
+Saumur&mdash;Abandoned Stone Quarries converted into Dwellings&mdash;The
+Vintage in Progress&mdash;Old-fashioned Pressoirs&mdash;The Making of
+the Wine&mdash;The Vouvray Vineyards&mdash;Balzac’s Picture of La Vallée
+Coquette&mdash;The Village of Vouvray and the Château of
+Moncontour&mdash;Vernou with its Reminiscences of Sully and
+Pépin-le-Bref&mdash;The Vineyards around Saumur&mdash;Remarkable Ancient
+Dolmens&mdash;Ackerman-Laurance’s Establishment at
+Saint-Florent&mdash;Their Extensive
+<span class = "pagenum">140</span>
+<!-- png 193 -->
+Cellars, Ancient and Modern&mdash;Treatment of the Newly-Vintaged
+Wine&mdash;The Cuvée&mdash;Proportions of Wine from Black and White
+Grapes&mdash;The Bottling and Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing
+Operations&mdash;The Château of Varrains and the Establishment of
+M.&nbsp;Louis Duvau aîné&mdash;His Cellars a succession of Gloomy
+Galleries&mdash;The Disgorging of the Wine accomplished in a
+Melodramatic-looking Cave&mdash;M.&nbsp;Duvau’s Vineyard&mdash;His
+Sparkling Saumur of Various Ages&mdash;Marked Superiority of the more
+Matured Samples&mdash;M.&nbsp;Alfred Rousteaux’s Establishments at
+Saint-Florent and Saint-Cyr&mdash;His convenient Celliers and extensive
+Cellars&mdash;Mingling of Wine from the Champagne with the finer
+Sparkling Saumur&mdash;His Vineyard at La
+Perrière&mdash;M.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;Normandin’s Sparkling Sauternes
+Manufactory at Châteauneuf&mdash;Angoulême and its Ancient
+Fortifications&mdash;Vin de Colombar&mdash;M.&nbsp;Normandin’s Sparkling
+Sauternes Cuvée&mdash;His Cellars near Châteauneuf&mdash;High
+recognition accorded to the Wine at the Concours Régional
+d’Angoulême.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">After</span>
+the Champagne Anjou is the French province which ranks next in
+importance for its production of sparkling wines. Vintaged on the banks
+of the Loire, these are largely consigned to the English and other
+markets, labelled Crême de Bouzy, Sillery and Ay Mousseux, Cartes Noires
+and Blanches, and the like, while their corks are branded with the names
+of phantom firms, supposed to be located at Reims and Epernay. As a rule
+these wines come from around Saumur, but they are not necessarily the
+worse on that account, for the district produces capital sparkling
+wines, the finer qualities of which improve greatly by being kept for a
+few years. One curious thing shown to us at Saumur was the album of a
+manufacturer of sparkling wines containing examples of the many hundred
+labels ticketed with which his produce had for years past been sold. Not
+one of these labels assigned to the wines the name of their real maker
+or their true birthplace, but introduced them under the auspices of
+mythical dukes and counts, as being manufactured at châteaux which are
+so many “castles in Spain,� and as coming from Ay, Bouzy, Châlons,
+Epernay, Reims, and Verzenay, but never by any chance from Saumur.</p>
+
+<!-- png 194 -->
+<!-- png 195 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic195.jpg" width = "444" height = "291"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE VINEYARDS OF THE COTEAU DE SAUMUR. (p. 141)</p>
+
+<p>Being produced from robuster growths than the sparkling wines of the
+Department of the Marne, sparkling saumur will always lack that
+excessive lightness which is the crowning grace
+<span class = "pagenum">141</span>
+<!-- png 196 -->
+of fine champagne, still it has only to be kept for a few years instead
+of being drunk shortly after its arrival from the wine-merchant for its
+quality to become greatly improved and its intrinsic value to be
+considerably enhanced. We have drunk sparkling saumur that had been in
+bottle for nearly twenty years, and found the wine not only remarkably
+delicate, but, singular to say, with plenty of effervescence.</p>
+
+<p>To an Englishman Anjou is one of the most interesting of the ancient
+provinces of France. It was the cradle of the Plantagenet Kings, and
+only ten miles from Saumur still repose the bones of Henry, the first
+Plantagenet, and Richard of the Lion Heart, in the so-called Cimetière
+des Rois of the historic abbey of Fontevrault. The famous vineyards of
+the Coteau de Saumur, eastward of the town and bordering the Loire,
+extend as far as here, and include the communes of Dampierre, Souzay,
+Varrains, Chacé, Parnay, Turquant, and Montsoreau, the last-named within
+three miles of Fontevrault, and chiefly remarkable through its seigneur
+of ill-fame, Jean de Chambes, who instigated his wife to lure Boissy
+d’Amboise to an assignation in order that he might more surely poignard
+him. Saumur is picturesquely placed at the foot of this bold range of
+heights near where the little river Thouet runs into the broad and rapid
+Loire. A&nbsp;massive-looking old château perched on the summit of an
+isolated crag stands out grandly against the clear sky and dominates the
+town, the older houses of which crouch at the foot of the lofty hill and
+climb its steepest sides. The restored antique Hôtel de Ville, in the
+pointed style, with its elegant windows, graceful belfry, and florid
+wrought-iron balconies, stands back from the quay bordering the Loire.
+In the rear is the Rue des Payens, whither the last of the Huguenots of
+this “metropolis of Protestantism,� as it was formerly styled, retired,
+converting their houses into so many fortresses to guard against being
+surprised by their Catholic adversaries. Adjacent is the steep tortuous
+Grande Rue, of which Balzac&mdash;himself a Tourangeau&mdash;has given
+such a graphic picture in his <i>Eugénie Grandet</i>, the scene of which
+is laid at Saumur. To-day, however,
+<span class = "pagenum">142</span>
+<!-- png 197 -->
+only a few of its ancient carved timber houses, quaint overhanging
+corner turrets, and fantastically-studded massive oak doors have escaped
+demolition.</p>
+
+<p>The vineyards of the Coteau de Saumur, yielding the finest wines, are
+reached by the road skirting the river, the opposite low banks of which
+are fringed with willows and endless rows of poplars, which at the time
+of our visit were already golden with the fading tints of autumn.
+Numerous fantastic windmills crown the heights, the summit of which is
+covered with vines, varied by dense patches of woodland. Here, as
+elsewhere along the banks of the Loire, the many abandoned quarries
+along the face of the hill have been turned by the peasants into cosy
+dwellings by simply walling-up the entrances while leaving, of course,
+the necessary apertures for doors and windows. Dampierre, the first
+village reached, has many of these cave-dwellings, and numbers of its
+houses are picturesquely perched up the sides of the slope. The holiday
+costumes of the peasant women encountered in the neighbourhood of Saumur
+are exceedingly quaint, their elaborate and varied head-dresses being
+counterparts of <i>coiffures</i> in vogue so far back as three and four
+centuries ago.</p>
+
+<p>Quitting the banks of the river, we ascend a steep tortuous road shut
+in on either side by high stone walls&mdash;for hereabouts all the best
+vineyards are scrupulously inclosed&mdash;and finally reach the summit
+of the heights, whence a view is gained over what the Saumurois proudly
+style the grand valley of the Loire. Everywhere around the vintage is
+going on. The vines are planted rather more than a yard apart, and those
+yielding black grapes are trained, as a rule, up tall stakes, although
+some few are trained espalier fashion. Women dexterously detach the
+bunches with pruning-knives and throw them into the
+<i>seilles</i>&mdash;small squat buckets with wooden handles&mdash;the
+contents of which are emptied from time to time into baskets&mdash;the
+counterpart of the chiffonnier’s <i>hotte</i>, and coated with pitch
+inside so as to close all the crevices of the wickerwork&mdash;which the
+<i>portes-bastes</i> carry slung to their backs. When white wine is
+being made from black
+<span class = "pagenum">143</span>
+<!-- png 198 -->
+grapes for sparkling saumur the grapes are conveyed in these baskets
+forthwith to the underground pressoirs in the neighbouring villages
+before their skins get at all broken in order that the wine may be as
+pale as possible in colour.</p>
+
+<p>The black grape yielding the best wine in the Saumur district is the
+breton, said to be the same as the carbinet-sauvignon, the leading
+variety in the grand vineyards of the Médoc. Other species of black
+grapes cultivated around Saumur are the varennes, yielding a soft and
+insipid wine of no kind of value, and the liverdun, or large gamay, the
+prevalent grape in the Mâconnais, and the same which in the days of
+Philippe-le-Hardi the <i>parlements</i> of Metz and Dijon interdicted
+the planting and cultivation of. The prevalent white grapes are the
+large and small pineau blanc, the bunches of the former being of an
+intermediate size, broad and pyramidal in shape, and with the berries
+close together. These have fine skins, are oblong in shape, and of a
+transparent yellowish-green hue tinged with red, are very sweet and
+juicy, and as a rule ripen late. As for the small pineau, the bunches
+are less compact, the berries are round and of a golden tint, are finer
+as well as sweeter in flavour, and ripen somewhat earlier than the fruit
+of the larger variety.</p>
+
+<p>We noticed as we drove through the villages of Champigny and
+Varrains&mdash;the former celebrated for its fine red wines, and more
+especially its crû of the Clos des Cordeliers&mdash;that hardly any of
+the houses had windows looking on to the narrow street, but that all
+were provided with low openings for shooting the grapes into the cellar
+where, when making red wine, they are trodden, but when making white
+wine, whether from black or white grapes, they are invariably pressed.
+Each of the houses had its ponderous porte-cochère and low narrow portal
+leading into the large inclosed yard at its side, and over the high
+blank walls vines were frequently trained and pleasantly varied their
+dull grey monotony.</p>
+
+<p>The grapes on being shot into the openings just mentioned fall
+through a kind of tunnel into a reservoir adjacent to the heavy press,
+which is invariably of wood and of the old-fashioned
+<span class = "pagenum">144</span>
+<!-- png 199 -->
+cumbersome type. They are forthwith placed beneath the press and usually
+subjected to five separate squeezes, the must from the first three being
+reserved for sparkling wine, while that from the two latter, owing to
+its being more or less deeply tinted, only serves for table wine. The
+must is at once run off into casks in order that it may not ferment on
+the grape-skins and imbibe any portion of their colouring matter. Active
+fermentation speedily sets in and lasts for a fortnight or three weeks
+according to whether the temperature chances to be high or low.</p>
+
+<p>The vintaging of the white grapes takes place about a fortnight later
+than the black grapes, and is commonly a compound operation, the best
+and ripest bunches being first of all gathered just as the berries begin
+to get shrivelled and show symptoms of approaching rottenness. It is
+these selected grapes that yield the best wine. The second gathering,
+which follows shortly after the first, includes all the grapes remaining
+on the vines, and yields a wine perceptibly inferior in quality. The
+grapes on their arrival at the press-house are generally pressed
+immediately and the must is run off into tuns to ferment. At the
+commencement these tuns are filled up every three or four days to
+replace the fermenting must which has flowed over; afterwards any waste
+is made good at the interval of a week, and then once a fortnight, the
+bungholes of the casks being securely closed towards the end of the
+year, by which time the first fermentation is over.</p>
+
+<p>It should be noted that the Saumur sparkling wine manufacturers draw
+considerable supplies of the white wine required to impart lightness and
+effervescence to their <i>vin préparé</i> from the Vouvray vineyards.
+Vouvray borders the Loire a few miles from the pleasant city of Tours,
+which awakens sinister recollections of truculent Louis XI., shut up in
+his fortified castle of Plessis-lez-Tours, around which Scott has thrown
+the halo of his genius in his novel of <i>Quentin Durward</i>. On
+proceeding to Vouvray from Tours we skirt a succession of poplar-fringed
+meadows stretching eastward in the direction of Amboise along
+<span class = "pagenum">145</span>
+<!-- png 200 -->
+the right bank of the Loire; and after a time a curve in the river
+discloses to view a range of vine-clad heights extending some distance
+beyond the village of Vouvray. Our route lies past the picturesque ruins
+of the abbey of Marmoûtier and the Château des Roches&mdash;one of the
+most celebrated castles of the Loire&mdash;the numerous excavations in
+the soft limestone ridge on which they are perched being converted as
+usual into houses, magazines, and wine-cellars. We proceed through the
+village of Rochecorbon, and along a road winding among the spurs of the
+Vouvray range, past hamlets, half of whose inhabitants live in these
+primitive dwellings hollowed out of the cliff, and finally enter the
+charming Vallée Coquette, hemmed in on all sides with vine-clad slopes.
+Here a picturesque old house, half château half homestead, was pointed
+out to us as a favourite place of sojourn of Balzac, who speaks of this
+rocky ridge as “inhabited by a population of vine-dressers, their houses
+of several stories being hollowed out in the face of the cliff, and
+connected by dangerous staircases hewn in the soft stone. Smoke curls
+from most of the chimneys which peep above the green crest of vines,
+while the blows of the cooper’s hammer resound in several of the
+cellars. A&nbsp;young girl trips to her garden over the roofs of these
+primitive dwellings, and an old woman, tranquilly seated on a ledge of
+projecting rock, supported solely by the thick straggling roots of the
+ivy which spreads itself over the disjointed stones, leisurely turns her
+spinning-wheel regardless of her dangerous position.� The picture
+sketched by the author of <i>La Comédie Humaine</i>, some forty years
+ago, has scarcely changed at the present day.</p>
+
+<p>At the point where the village of Vouvray climbs half-way up the
+vine-crested ridge the rapid-winding Cise throws itself into the Loire,
+and on crossing the bridge that spans the tributary stream we discern on
+the western horizon, far beyond the verdant islets studding the swollen
+Loire, the tall campaniles of Tours Cathedral, which seem to rise out of
+the water like a couple of Venetian towers. Vouvray is a trim little
+place, clustered round about with numerous pleasant villas in the midst
+of charming gardens. The modern château of Moncontour here
+<span class = "pagenum">146</span>
+<!-- png 201 -->
+dominates the slope, and its terraced gardens, with, their
+fantastically-clipped trees and geometric parterres, rise tier above
+tier up the face of the picturesque height that overlooks the broad
+fertile valley, with its gardens, cultivated fields, patches of
+woodland, and wide stretches of green pasture which, fringed with
+willows and poplars, border the swollen waters of the Loire. Where the
+river Brenne empties itself into the Cise the Coteau de Vouvray slopes
+off towards the north, and there rise up the vine-clad heights of
+Vernou, yielding a similar but inferior wine to that of Vouvray. The
+village of Vernou is nestled under the hill, and near the porch of its
+quaint little church a venerable elm tree is pointed out as having been
+planted by Sully, Henry IV.’s able Minister. Here, too, an ancient wall,
+pierced with curious arched windows, and forming part of a modern
+building, is regarded by popular tradition as belonging to the palace in
+which Pépin-le-Bref, father of Charlemagne, lived at Vernou.</p>
+
+<p>The communes of Dampierre, Souzay, and Parnay, in the neighbourhood
+of Saumur, produce still red wines rivalling those of Champigny, besides
+which all the finest white wines are vintaged hereabouts&mdash;in the
+Perrière, the Poilleux, and the Clos Morain vineyards, and in the
+Rotissans vineyard at Turquant. Wines of very fair quality are also
+grown on the more favourable slopes extending southwards along the
+valley of the Thouet, and comprised in the communes of Varrains, Chacé,
+St. Cyr-en-Bourg, and Brézé. The whole of this district, by the way,
+abounds with interesting archæological remains. While visiting the
+vineyards of Varrains and Chacé we came upon a couple of
+dolmens&mdash;vestiges of the ancient Celtic population of the valley of
+the Loire singularly abundant hereabouts. Brézé, the marquisate of which
+formerly belonged to Louis XVI.’s famous grand master of the
+ceremonies&mdash;immortalized by the rebuff he received from
+Mirabeau&mdash;boasts a noble château on the site of an ancient
+fortress, in connection with which there are contemporary excavations in
+the neighbouring limestone, designed for a garrison of 500 or 600 men.
+Beyond the vineyards of Saint-Florent, westward of Saumur and on the
+banks
+<span class = "pagenum">147</span>
+<!-- png 202 -->
+of the Thouet, is an extensive plateau partially overgrown with vines,
+where may be traced the remains of a Roman camp. Moreover, in the
+southern environs of Saumur, in the midst of vineyards producing
+exclusively white wines, is one of the most remarkable dolmens known.
+This imposing structure, perfect in all respects save that one of the
+four enormous stones which roof it in has been split in two, and
+requires to be supported, is no less than 65 feet in length, 23 feet in
+width, and 10 feet high.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic202.png" width = "369" height = "245"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+DOLMEN AT BAGNEUX, NEAR SAUMUR.</p>
+
+<p>At Saint-Florent, the pleasant little suburb of Saumur, skirting the
+river Thouet, and sheltered by steep hills formed of soft limestone,
+offering great facilities for the excavation of extensive cellars, the
+largest manufacturer of Saumur sparkling wines has his establishment.
+Externally this offers but little to strike the eye. A&nbsp;couple of
+pleasant country houses, half hidden by spreading foliage, stand at the
+two extremities of a spacious and well-kept garden, beyond which one
+catches a glimpse of some outbuildings sheltered by the vine-crowned
+cliff, in which a labyrinth of gloomy galleries has been hollowed out.
+Here
+<span class = "pagenum">148</span>
+<!-- png 203 -->
+M.&nbsp;Ackerman-Laurance, the extent of whose business ranks him as
+second among the sparkling wine manufacturers of the world, stores
+something like 10,000 casks and several million bottles of wine.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of the present century, in the days when, as
+Balzac relates in his <i>Eugénie Grandet</i>, the Belgians bought up
+entire vintages of Saumur wine, then largely in demand with them for
+sacramental purposes, the founder of the Saint-Florent house commenced
+to deal in the ordinary still wines of the district. Nearly half a
+century ago he was led to attempt the manufacture of sparkling wines,
+but his efforts to bring them into notice failed, and he was on the
+point of abandoning his enterprise when an order for one hundred cases
+revived his hopes, and led to the foundation of the present vast
+establishment. As already mentioned, for many miles all the heights
+along the Loire have been more or less excavated for stone for building
+purposes, so that every one hereabouts who grows wine or deals in it has
+any amount of cellar accommodation ready to hand. It was the vast extent
+of the galleries which M.&nbsp;Ackerman <i>père</i> discovered already
+excavated at Saint-Florent that induced him to settle there in
+preference to Saumur. Extensive, however, as the original vaults were,
+considerable additional excavations have from time to time been found
+necessary; and to-day the firm is still further increasing the area of
+its cellars, which already comprise three principal avenues, each the
+third of a mile long, and no fewer than sixty transverse galleries, the
+total length of which is several miles. One great advantage is that the
+whole are on the ordinary level.</p>
+
+<p>Ranged against the black uneven walls of the more tortuous ancient
+vaults which give access to these labyrinthine corridors are thousands
+of casks of wine&mdash;some in single rows, others in triple
+tiers&mdash;forming the reserve stock of the establishment. As may be
+supposed, a&nbsp;powerful vinous odour permeates these vaults, in which
+the fumes of wine have been accumulating for the best part of a century.
+After passing beneath a massive stone arch which separates the old
+cellars from the new, a&nbsp;series of
+<span class = "pagenum">149</span>
+<!-- png 206 -->
+broad and regularly-proportioned galleries are reached, having bottles
+stacked in their tens of thousands on either side. Overhead the roof is
+perforated at regular intervals with circular shafts, affording both
+light and ventilation, and enabling the temperature to be regulated to a
+nicety. In these lateral and transverse galleries millions of bottles of
+wine in various stages of preparation are stacked.</p>
+
+<!-- png 204 -->
+<!-- png 205 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic204.jpg" width = "270" height = "399"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE CELLARS OF M. ACKERMAN-LAURANCE AT SAINT-FLORENT.<br>
+<span class = "smallroman">LABELLING AND PACKING SPARKLING SAUMUR.<ins
+class = "mycorr" title = "parenthesis missing"> (</ins>p.
+150.)</span></p>
+
+<p>We have explained that in the Champagne it is the custom for the
+manufacturers of sparkling wine to purchase considerable quantities of
+grapes from the surrounding growers, and to press these themselves, or
+have them pressed under their own superintendence. At Saumur only those
+firms possessing vineyards make their own <i>vin brut</i>, the bulk of
+the wine used for conversion into sparkling wine being purchased from
+the neighbouring growers. On the newly-expressed must arriving at
+M.&nbsp;Ackerman-Laurance’s cellars it is allowed to rest until the
+commencement of the ensuing year, when half of it is mixed with wine in
+stock belonging to last year’s vintage, and the remaining half is
+reserved for mingling with the must of the ensuing vintage. The blending
+is accomplished in a couple of colossal vats hewn out of the rock, and
+coated on the inside with cement. Each of these vats is provided with
+200 paddles for thoroughly mixing the wine, and with five pipes for
+drawing it off when the amalgamation is complete. Usually the
+<i>cuvée</i> will embrace 1,600 hogsheads, or 80,000 gallons of wine,
+almost sufficient for half a million bottles. A&nbsp;fourth of this
+quantity can be mixed in each vat at a single operation, and this mixing
+is repeated again and again until the last gallon run off is of
+precisely the same type as the first. For the finer qualities of
+sparkling saumur the proportion of wine from the black grapes to that
+from white is generally at the rate of three or four to one. For the
+inferior qualities more wine from white than from black grapes is
+invariably used. Only in the wine from white grapes is the effervescent
+principle retained to any particular extent; but, on the other hand, the
+wine from black grapes imparts both quality and vinous character to the
+blend.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">150</span>
+<!-- png 207 -->
+The blending having been satisfactorily accomplished, the wine is stored
+in casks, never perfectly filled, yet with their bungholes tightly
+closed, and slowly continues its fermentation, eating up its sugar,
+purging itself, and letting fall its lees. Three months later it is
+fined. It is rarely kept in the wood for more than a year, though
+sometimes the superior qualities remain for a couple of years in cask.
+Occasionally it is even bottled in the spring following the vintage;
+still, as a rule, the bottling of sparkling saumur takes place during
+the ensuing summer months, when the temperature is at the highest as
+this insures to it a greater degree of effervescence. At the time of
+bottling its saccharine strength is raised to a given degree by the
+addition of the finest sugar-candy, and henceforward the wine is
+subjected to precisely the same treatment as is pursued with regard to
+champagne.</p>
+
+<p>It is in a broad but sombre gallery of the more ancient
+vaults&mdash;the roughly-hewn walls of which are black from the combined
+action of alcohol and carbonic acid gas&mdash;that the processes of
+disgorging the wine of its sediment, adding the syrup, filling up the
+bottles with wine to replace that which gushes out when the disgorging
+operation is performed, together with the re-corking, stringing, and
+wiring of the bottles, are carried on. The one or two adjacent shafts
+impart very little light, but a couple of resplendent metal reflectors,
+which at a distance one might fancy to be some dragon’s flaming eyes,
+combined with the lamps placed near the people at work, effectually
+illuminate the spot.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic208.png" width = "359" height = "268"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE CELLARS OF M. LOUIS DUVAU AÎNÉ AT THE CHÂTEAU OF VARRAINS.</p>
+
+<p>Another considerable manufacturer of sparkling saumur is
+M.&nbsp;Louis Duvau aîné, owner of the château of Varrains, in the
+village of the same name, at no great distance from the Coteau de
+Saumur. His cellars adjoin the château, a&nbsp;picturesque but somewhat
+neglected structure of the last century, with sculptured medallions in
+high relief above the lower windows, and florid vases surmounting the
+mansards in the roof. In front is a large rambling court shaded with
+acacia and lime trees, and surrounded by outbuildings, prominent among
+which is a picturesque
+<span class = "pagenum">151</span>
+<!-- png 208 -->
+dovecote, massive at the base as a martello tower, and having an elegant
+open stone lantern springing from its bell-shaped roof. The cellars are
+entered down a steep incline under a low stone arch, the masonry above
+which is overgrown with ivy in large clusters and straggling creeping
+plants. We soon come upon a deep recess to the right, wherein stands a
+unique cumbersome screw-press, needing ten or a dozen men to work the
+unwieldy capstan which sets the juice flowing from the crushed grapes
+into the adjacent shallow trough. On our left hand are a couple of
+ancient reservoirs, formed out of huge blocks of stone, with the
+entrance to a long vaulted cellar filled with wine in cask. We advance
+slowly in the uncertain light along a succession of gloomy galleries
+with moisture oozing from their blackened walls and roofs, picking our
+way between bottles of wine stacked in huge square piles and rows of
+casks ranged in tiers. Suddenly a broad flood of light shooting down a
+lofty shaft throws a Rembrandtish effect across a spacious and most
+melodramatic-looking cave, roughly hewn out of the rock, and
+<span class = "pagenum">152</span>
+<!-- png 209 -->
+towards which seven dimly-lighted galleries converge. On all sides a
+scene of bustling animation presents itself. From one gallery men keep
+arriving with baskets of wine ready for the disgorger; while along
+another bottles of wine duly dosed with syrup are being borne off to be
+decorated with metal foil and their distinctive labels. Groups of
+workmen are busily engaged disgorging, dosing, and re-corking the
+newly-arrived bottles of wine; corks fly out with a succession of loud
+reports suggestive of the irregular fire of a party of skirmishers;
+a&nbsp;fizzing, spurting, and spluttering of the wine next ensues, and
+is followed by the incessant clicking of the various apparatus employed
+in the corking and wiring of the bottles.</p>
+
+<p>Gradual inclines conduct to the two lower tiers of galleries, for the
+cellars of M.&nbsp;Duvau consist of as many as three stories. Down below
+there is naturally less light, and the temperature, too, is sensibly
+colder. Advantage is taken of this latter circumstance to remove the
+newly-bottled wine to these lower vaults whenever an excessive
+development of carbonic acid threatens the bursting of an undue
+proportion of bottles, a&nbsp;casualty which among the Saumur sparkling
+wine manufacturers ranges far higher than with the manufacturers of
+champagne. For the economy of time and labour a lift, raised and lowered
+by means of a capstan worked by horses, is employed to transfer the
+bottles of wine from one tier of cellars to another.</p>
+
+<p>The demand for sparkling saumur is evidently on the increase, for
+M.&nbsp;Duvau, at the time of our visit, was excavating extensive
+additional cellarage. The subsoil at Varrains being largely composed of
+marl, which is much softer than the tufa of the Saint-Florent coteau,
+necessitated the roofs of the new galleries being worked in a particular
+form in order to avoid having recourse to either brickwork or masonry.
+Tons of this excavated marl were being spread over the soil of
+M.&nbsp;Duvau’s vineyard in the rear of the château, greatly, it was
+said, to the benefit of the vines, whose grapes were all of the black
+variety; indeed, scarcely any wine is vintaged from white grapes in the
+commune of Varrains.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">153</span>
+<!-- png 210 -->
+At M. Duvau’s we went through a complete scale of sparkling saumurs,
+commencing with the younger and less matured samples, and ascending step
+by step to wines a dozen and more years old. Every year seemed to
+produce an improvement in the wine, the older varieties gaining greatly
+in delicacy and softening very perceptibly in flavour.</p>
+
+<p>Another sparkling saumur manufacturer of note is M. Alfred Rousteaux,
+to-day the sole proprietor of the well-known brand of Morlet and
+Rousteaux, a&nbsp;firm established for many years at Saint-Florent.
+M.&nbsp;Rousteaux’s cellars here are excavated in the tufa cliff which
+rises behind the little suburban village, and are all on one level. The
+galleries, though somewhat winding and irregular, are broad and roomy,
+and in them about 400,000 bottles of wine undergoing the necessary
+treatment are piled up in stacks or placed <i>sur pointe</i>. The
+original firm had only been in existence a few years when they found
+that their Saint-Florent establishment was inadequate to the
+requirements of a largely-increasing business, and they started the
+branch establishment of La Perrière at Saint-Cyr, near Tours, but on the
+opposite bank of the Loire. Here are a handsome residence and gardens,
+a&nbsp;spacious court, and convenient celliers where the bottling of the
+wine is effected, together with extensive and well-constructed cellars
+in which a like quantity of wine to that contained in the cellars at
+Saint-Florent is stored. With his finer sparkling wines
+M.&nbsp;Rousteaux mixes a certain proportion of wine from the Champagne
+district, and thus secures a degree of lightness unattainable when the
+<i>cuvée</i> is exclusively composed of Saumur vintages. At La Perrière
+M.&nbsp;Rousteaux has a vineyard of upwards of sixty acres, yielding the
+best wine of the district, which is noted, by the way, for its excellent
+growths. Hereabouts a succession of vineyard slopes stretch from one to
+another of the many historic châteaux along this portion of the Loire,
+the romantic associations of which render the Touraine one of the most
+interesting provinces of France. Near Tours besides the vineyards of
+Saint-Cyr are those of Joué and Saint-Avertin; the two last situate on
+the opposite
+<span class = "pagenum">154</span>
+<!-- png 211 -->
+bank of the Cher, where the little town of Joué, perched on the summit
+of a hill in the midst of vineyards, looks over a vast plain known by
+the country people as the Landes de Charlemagne, the scene, according to
+local tradition, of Charles Martel’s great victory over the Saracens.
+The Saint-Avertin vineyards extend towards the east, stretching almost
+to the forest of Larçay, on the borders of the Cher, where Paul Louis
+Courier, the famous vigneron pamphleteer of the Restoration, noted alike
+for his raillery, wit, and satire, fell beneath the balls of an
+assassin. A&nbsp;noticeable crû in the neighbourhood of Tours is that of
+Cinq Mars, the ruined château of which survives as a memorial of the
+vengeance of Cardinal Richelieu, who, after having sent its owner to the
+scaffold, commanded its massive walls and towers to be razed “<i>à
+hauteur d’infamie</i>� as we see them now.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that sparkling wines were being made in most of the
+wine-producing districts of France, where the growths were sufficiently
+light and of the requisite quality, Messrs. E.&nbsp;Normandin and Co.
+conceived the idea of laying the famous Bordeaux district under
+contribution for a similar purpose, and, aided by a staff of experienced
+workmen from Epernay, they have succeeded in producing a sparkling
+sauternes. Sauternes, as is well known, is one of the finest of white
+wines, soft, delicate, and of beautiful flavour, and its transformation
+into a sparkling wine has been very successfully accomplished. Messrs.
+Normandin’s head-quarters are in the thriving little town of
+Châteauneuf, in the pleasant valley of the Charente, and within fifteen
+miles of Angoulême, a&nbsp;famous old French town, encompassed by
+ancient ramparts and crumbling corner towers, and which, dominated by
+the lofty belfry of its restored semi-Byzantine cathedral, rising in a
+series of open arcades, spreads itself picturesquely out along a
+precipitous height, watered at its base by the rivers Anguienne and
+Charente. Between Angoulême and Châteauneuf vineyard plots dotted over
+with walnut trees, or simple rows of vines divided by strips of ripening
+maize, and broken up at intervals by bright green pastures, line both
+banks of the river Charente. The surrounding country is
+<span class = "pagenum">155</span>
+<!-- png 212 -->
+undulating and picturesque. Poplars and elms fringe the roadsides,
+divide the larger fields and vineyards, and screen the cosy-looking
+red-roofed farmhouses, which present to the eyes of the passing tourist
+a succession of pictures of quiet rural prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic212.png" width = "292" height = "326"
+alt = "woman picking grapes">
+</p>
+
+<p>Châteauneuf communicates with the Sauternes district by rail, so that
+supplies of wine from there are readily obtainable. Vin de
+Colombar&mdash;a&nbsp;famous white growth which English and Dutch
+cruisers used to ascend the Charente to obtain cargoes of when the Jerez
+wines were shut out from England by the Spanish War of
+Succession&mdash;vintaged principally at Montignac-le-Coq, also enters
+largely into Messrs. Normandin and Co.’s sparkling sauternes
+<i>cuvée</i>. This colombar grape is simply the semillon&mdash;one of
+the leading varieties of the Sauternes district&mdash;transported to the
+Charente. The remarkably cool cellars
+<span class = "pagenum">156</span>
+<!-- png 213 -->
+where the firm store their wine, whether in wood or bottle, have been
+formed from some vast subterranean galleries whence centuries ago stone
+was quarried, and which are situated about a quarter of an hour’s drive
+from Châteauneuf, in the midst of vineyards and cornfields. The wine is
+invariably bottled in a cellier at the head establishment, but it is in
+these cellars where it goes through the course of careful treatment
+similar to that pursued with regard to champagne.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic213.png" width = "219" height = "318"
+alt = "woman with basket">
+</p>
+
+<p>In order that the delicate flavour of the wine may be preserved the
+liqueur is prepared with the finest old sauternes, without any addition
+of spirit, and the dose is administered with the most improved modern
+appliance, constructed of silver, and provided with crystal taps. At the
+Concours Régional d’Angoulême of 1877, the jury, after recording that
+they had satisfied themselves by the aid of a chemical analysis that the
+samples of sparkling sauternes submitted to their judgment were free
+from any foreign ingredient, awarded to Messrs. Normandin and Co. the
+only gold medal given in the Group of Alimentary Products.</p>
+
+<p>Encouraged, no doubt, by the success obtained by Messrs. Normandin
+and Co. with their sparkling sauternes, the house of Lermat-Robert and
+Co., of Bordeaux, have recently introduced a sparkling barsac, samples
+of which were submitted to the jury at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">157</span>
+<!-- png 214 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic214.png" width = "300" height = "324"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+VINTAGER OF THE CÔTE D’OR</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXIV" id = "chapXIV">
+XIV.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of Burgundy and the Jura.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Sparkling Wines of the Côte d’Or at the Paris
+Exhibition&mdash;Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot&mdash;Burgundy Wines
+and Vines formerly the Presents of Princes&mdash;Vintaging Sparkling
+Burgundies&mdash;Their After-Treatment in the Cellars&mdash;Excess of
+Breakage&mdash;Similarity of Proceeding to that followed in the
+Champagne&mdash;Principal Manufacturers of Sparkling
+Burgundies&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Tonnerre, the birthplace of the
+Chevalier d’Eon&mdash;The Vin d’Arbanne of Bar-sur-Aube&mdash;Death
+there of the Bastard de Bourbon&mdash;Madame de la Motte’s Ostentatious
+Display and Arrest there&mdash;Sparkling Wines of the
+Beaujolais&mdash;The Mont-Brouilly Vineyards&mdash;Ancient Reputation of
+the Wines of the Jura&mdash;The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri
+Quatre&mdash;Rhymes by him in its
+Honour&mdash;Lons-le-Saulnier&mdash;Vineyards yielding the Sparkling
+Jura Wines&mdash;Their Vintaging and Subsequent Treatment&mdash;Their
+High Alcoholic Strength and General Drawbacks.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Sparkling</span>
+wines are made to a considerable extent in Burgundy, notably at Beaune,
+Nuits, and Dijon, and though as a
+<span class = "pagenum">158</span>
+<!-- png 215 -->
+rule heavier and more potent than the subtile and delicate-flavoured
+wines of the Marne, still some of the higher qualities, both of the red
+and white varieties, exhibit a degree of refinement which those familiar
+only with the commoner kinds can scarcely form an idea of. At the Paris
+Exhibition of 1878 we tasted, among a large collection of the sparkling
+wines of the Côte d’Or, samples of Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot of
+the highest order. Although red wines, they had the merit of being
+deficient in that body which forms such an objectionable feature in
+sparkling wines of a deep shade of colour. M.&nbsp;Regnier, the
+exhibitor of sparkling red vougeot, sent, moreover, a&nbsp;white
+sparkling wine from the species of grape known locally as the clos blanc
+de Vougeot. These wines, as well as the Chambertin, came from the Côte
+de Nuits, the growths of which are generally considered of too vigorous
+a type for successful conversion into sparkling wine, preference being
+usually given to the produce of the Côte de Beaune. Among the sparkling
+burgundies from the last-named district were samples from Savigny,
+Chassagne, and Meursault, all famous for their fine white wines.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic216.png" width = "208" height = "211"
+alt = "man with basket of grapes on his back">
+</p>
+
+<p>Burgundy ranks as one of the oldest viticultural regions of Central
+Europe, and for centuries its wines have been held in the highest
+renown. In the Middle Ages both the wines and vines of this favoured
+province passed as presents from one royal personage to another, just as
+grand <i>cordons</i> are exchanged between them now-a-days. The
+fabrication of sparkling wine, however, dates no further back than some
+sixty years or so. The system of procedure is much the same as in the
+Champagne, and, as there, the wine is mainly the produce of the pineau
+noir and pineau blanc varieties of grape. At the vintage, in order to
+avoid bruising the ripened fruit and to guard against premature
+fermentation, the grapes are conveyed to the pressoirs in baskets
+instead of the large oval vats termed <i>balonges</i>, common to the
+district. They are placed beneath the press as soon as possible, and for
+superior sparkling wines only the juice resulting from the first
+pressure and known as the <i>mère goutte</i>, or mother drop, is
+employed. For the ordinary
+<span class = "pagenum">159</span>
+<!-- png 216 -->
+wines that expressed at the second squeezing of the fruit is mingled
+with the other. The must is at once run off into casks which have been
+previously sulphured to check, in a measure, the ardour of the first
+fermentation and lighten the colour of the newly-made wine. Towards the
+end of October, when this first fermentation is over, the wine is
+removed to the cellars, or to some other cool place, and in December it
+is racked into other casks. In the April following it is again racked to
+insure its being perfectly clear at the epoch of bottling in the month
+of May. The sulphuring of the original casks having had the effect of
+slightly checking the fermentation and retaining a certain amount of
+saccharine in the wine, it is only on exceptional occasions that the
+latter is artificially sweetened previous to being bottled.</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight after the tirage the wine commonly attains the stage
+known as <i>grand mousseux</i>, and by the end of September the breakage
+will have amounted to between 5 and 8 per cent., which necessitates the
+taking down the stacks of bottles and piling them up anew. The wine as a
+rule remains in the cellars for fully a couple of years from the time of
+bottling until it is shipped. Posing the bottles <i>sur pointe</i>,
+agitating them daily, together with the disgorging and liqueuring of the
+wine, is accomplished precisely as in the Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>Among the principal manufacturers of sparkling burgundies are Messrs.
+André and Voillot, of Beaune, whose sparkling white Romanée, Nuits, and
+Volnay are well and favourably known in England; M.&nbsp;Louis Latour,
+also of Beaune, and equally noted for his sparkling red Volnay, Nuits,
+and Chambertin, as for his
+<span class = "pagenum">160</span>
+<!-- png 217 -->
+sparkling white varieties; Messrs. Maire et fils, likewise of Beaune;
+M.&nbsp;Labouré-Goutard and Messrs. Geisweiller et fils, of Nuits;
+Messrs. Marey and Liger-Belair, of Nuits and Vôsne; and M.&nbsp;Regnier,
+of Dijon.</p>
+
+<p>In the department of the Yonne&mdash;that is, in Lower
+Burgundy&mdash;sparkling wines somewhat alcoholic in character have been
+made for the last half-century at Tonnerre, where the Chevalier d’Eon,
+that enigma of his epoch, was born. The Tonnerre vineyards are of high
+antiquity, and for sparkling wines the produce of the black and white
+pineau and the white morillon varieties of grape is had recourse to. The
+vintaging is accomplished with great care, and only the juice which
+flows from the first pressure is employed. This is run off immediately
+into casks which are hermetically closed when the fermentation has
+subsided. The after-treatment of the wine is the same as in the
+Champagne. Sparkling wines are likewise made at Epineuil, a&nbsp;village
+in the neighbourhood of Tonnerre, and at Chablis, so famous for its
+white wines, about ten miles distant.</p>
+
+<p>An effervescing wine known as the Vin d’Arbanne is made at
+Bar-sur-Aube, some fifty miles north-east of Tonnerre, on the borders of
+Burgundy, but actually in the province of Champagne, although far beyond
+the limits to which the famed viticultural district extends. It was at
+Bar-sur-Aube where the Bastard de Bourbon, chief of the sanguinary gang
+of <i>écorcheurs</i> (flayers), was sewn up in a sack and flung over the
+parapet of the old stone bridge into the river beneath by order of
+Charles VII.; and here, too, Madame de la Motte, of Diamond Necklace
+notoriety, was married, and in after years made a parade of the
+ill-gotten wealth she had acquired by successfully fooling that
+infatuated libertine the Cardinal Prince de Rohan, until her
+ostentatious display was cut short by her arrest. This Vin d’Arbanne is
+produced from pineaux and white gamay grapes, which, after being
+gathered with care at the moment the dew falls, are forthwith pressed.
+The wine is left on its lees until the following February, when it is
+racked and fined, the bottling taking place when the moon is at the full
+in March.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">161</span>
+<!-- png 218 -->
+Red and white sparkling wines are made to a small extent at Saint-Lager,
+in the Beaujolais, from wine vintaged in the Mont-Brouilly vineyards,
+one of the best known of the Beaujolais crûs. Mont-Brouilly is a lofty
+hill near the village of Cercie, and is covered from base to summit on
+all its sides with vines of the gamay species, rarely trained at all,
+but left to trail along the ground at their own sweet will. At the
+vintage, as we witnessed it, men and women&mdash;young, middle-aged, and
+old&mdash;accompanied by troops of children, were roaming all over the
+slopes dexterously nipping off the bunches of grapes with their thumb
+and finger nails and flinging them into the little wooden tubs with
+which they were provided. The pressing of the grapes and the
+after-treatment of the wine destined to become sparkling are the same in
+the Beaujolais as in Upper and Lower Burgundy.</p>
+
+<p>The red, straw, and yellow wines of the Jura have long had a high
+reputation in the East of France, and the <i>vin jaune</i> of Arbois, an
+ancient fortified town on the banks of the Cuisance, besieged and sacked
+in turn by Charles of Amboise, Henri IV., and Louis XIV., was one of the
+favourite beverages of the tippling Béarnais who styled himself Seigneur
+of Ay and Gonesse, and who acquired his liking for it while sojourning
+during the siege of Arbois at the old Château des Arsures. In one of
+Henri Quatre’s letters to his minister Sully we find him observing,
+“I&nbsp;send you two bottles of Vin d’Arbois, for I know you do not
+detest it.� A&nbsp;couple of other bottles of the same wine are said to
+have cemented the king’s reconciliation with Mayenne, the leader of the
+League, and the lover of La Belle Gabrielle is moreover credited with
+having composed at his mistress’s table some <ins class = "mycorr" title
+= "spelling unchanged">doggrel</ins> rhymes in honour of the famous Jura
+crû:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "verse">
+“Come, little page, serve us aright,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+The crown is often heavy to bear;</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+So fill up my goblet large and light</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+Whenever you find a vacancy there.</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+This wine is surely no Christian wight,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+And yet you never complaint will hear<br>
+That it’s not baptised with water clear.</p>
+<p class = "verse in4">
+<span class = "pagenum">162</span>
+<!-- png 219 -->
+Down my throat I pour<br>
+The old Arbois;</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+And now, my lords, let us our voices raise,<br>
+And sing of Silenus and Bacchus the praise!�</p>
+
+<p>In more modern times the Jura, not content with the fame of the
+historic yellow wines of Arbois and the deservedly-esteemed straw wines
+of Château-Châlon, has produced large quantities of sparkling wine, the
+original manufacture of which commenced as far back as a century ago.
+To-day the principal seats of the manufacture are at Arbois and
+Lons-le-Saulnier, the latter town the capital of the department and one
+of the most ancient towns of France. Originally founded by the Gauls on
+the banks of the Vallière, in a little valley bordered by lofty hills,
+which are to-day covered with vines, it was girded round with
+fortifications by the Romans. Subsequently the Huns and the Vandals
+pillaged it; then the French and the Burgundians repeatedly contested
+its possession, and it was only definitively acquired by France during
+the reign of Louis XIV. Rouget de l’Isle, the famous author of the
+“Marseillaise,� was born at Lons-le-Saulnier, and here also Marshal Ney
+assembled and harangued his troops before marching to join Napoleon,
+whom he had promised Louis XVIII. to bring back to Paris in an iron
+cage.</p>
+
+<p>The vineyards whence the principal supplies for these sparkling wines
+are derived are grouped at varying distances around Lons-le-Saulnier at
+L’Etoile, Quintigny, Salins, Arbois, St. Laurent-la-Roche, and Pupillin,
+with the Jura chain of mountains rising up grandly on the east. The best
+vineyards at L’Etoile&mdash;which lies some couple of miles from
+Lons-le-Saulnier, surrounded by hills, planted from base to summit with
+vines&mdash;are La Vigne Blanche, Montmorin, and Montgenest. At
+Quintigny, the wines of which are less potent than those of Arbois, and
+only retain their effervescent properties for a couple of years, the
+Paridis, Prémelan, and Montmorin vineyards are held in most repute,
+while at Pupillin, where a soft agreeable wine is vintaged, the
+principal vineyards are the Faille and the Clos. The vine cultivated for
+the production of sparkling wines are chiefly the
+<span class = "pagenum">163</span>
+<!-- png 220 -->
+savagnin, or white pineau, the melon of Poligny, and the poulsard,
+a&nbsp;black variety of grape held locally in much esteem.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic220.png" width = "217" height = "323"
+alt = "woman grape-picker leaning against wall">
+</p>
+
+<p>At the vintage, which commences towards the end of October and lasts
+until the middle of the following month, all the rotten or unripe grapes
+are carefully set aside and the sound ones only submitted to the action
+of a screw-press. After the must has flowed for about half-an-hour the
+grapes are newly collected under the press and the screw again applied.
+The produce of this double operation is poured into a vat termed a
+<i>sapine</i>, where it remains until bubbles are seen escaping through
+the <i>chapeau</i> that forms on the surface of the liquid. The must is
+then drawn off&mdash;sometimes after being fined&mdash;into casks, which
+the majority of wine-growers previously impregnate with the fumes of
+sulphur. When in cask the wine is treated in one of two ways; either the
+casks are kept constantly filled to the bunghole, causing the foam which
+rises to the surface during the fermentation to flow over, and thereby
+leave the wine comparatively clear, or else the casks are not completely
+filled, in which case the wine requires to be racked several times
+before it is in a condition for fining. This latter operation is
+effected about the commencement of February, and a second fining follows
+if the first one fails to render the wine perfectly clear. At the
+tirage, which invariably takes place in
+<span class = "pagenum">164</span>
+<!-- png 221 -->
+April, the Jura wines rarely require any addition of sugar to insure an
+ample effervescence. After bottling they are treated in exactly the same
+manner as the vintages of the Marne are treated by the great champagne
+manufacturers. In addition to white sparkling wine a pink variety, with
+natural effervescent properties, is made by mixing with the savagnin and
+melon grapes a certain proportion of the poulsard species, from which
+the best red wines of the Jura are produced.</p>
+
+<p>One of the principal sparkling wine establishments at
+Lons-le-Saulnier is that of M.&nbsp;Auguste Devaux, founded in the year
+1860. He manufactures both sweet and dry wines, which are sold largely
+in France and elsewhere on the Continent, and have lately been
+introduced into England. Their alcoholic strength is equivalent to from
+25° to 26° of proof spirit, being largely above the dry sparkling wines
+of the Champagne, which the Jura manufacturers regard as a positive
+advantage rather than an obvious drawback. M.&nbsp;Devaux’s principal
+brand is the Fleur de l’Etoile, of which, he has white, pink, and
+amber-coloured varieties, quoted by him at merely three francs the
+bottle for the grand years.</p>
+
+<p>Besides being too spirituous, the sparkling wines of the Jura are
+deficient in refinement and delicacy. The commoner kinds, indeed,
+frequently have a pronounced unpleasant flavour, due to the nature of
+the soil, to careless vinification, or to the inferior quality of
+liqueur with which the wines have been dosed. Out of some fifty samples
+of all ages and varieties which in my capacity of juror I tasted at the
+Paris Exhibition I cannot call to mind one that a real connoisseur of
+sparkling wines would care to admit to his table.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">165</span>
+<!-- png 222 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic222.png" width = "258" height = "268"
+alt = "two men carrying basket">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+CONVEYING GRAPES TO THE PRESS AT SAINT-PÉRAY.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXV" id = "chapXV">
+XV.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of the South of France.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Sparkling Wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and
+Languedoc&mdash;Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the
+South&mdash;Valence with its Reminiscences of Pius VI. and
+Napoleon&nbsp;I.&mdash;The “Horns of Crussol� on the Banks of the
+Rhône&mdash;Vintage Scene at Saint-Péray&mdash;The Vines and Vineyards
+Producing Sparkling Wine&mdash;Manipulation of Sparkling
+Saint-Péray&mdash;Its Abundance of Natural Sugar&mdash;The Cellars of
+M.&nbsp;de Saint-Prix and Samples of his Wines&mdash;Sparkling
+Côte-Rotie, Château-Grille, and Hermitage&mdash;Annual Production and
+Principal Markets of Sparkling Saint-Péray&mdash;Clairette de
+Die&mdash;The Porte Rouge of Die Cathedral&mdash;How the Die Wine is
+Made&mdash;The Sparkling White and Rose-Coloured Muscatels of
+Die&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Vercheny and Lagrasse&mdash;Barnave and the
+Royal Flight to Varennes&mdash;Narbonne formerly a Miniature Rome, now
+Noted merely for its Wine and Honey&mdash;Fête of the Black Virgin at
+Limoux&mdash;Preference given to the New Wine over the Miraculous
+Water&mdash;Blanquette of Limoux and How it is
+Made&mdash;Characteristics of this Overrated Wine.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Sparkling</span>
+wines are made after a fashion in several of the southern provinces of
+France&mdash;in Auvergne, at Clermont-Ferrand, under the shadow of the
+lofty Puy de Dôme; in Guienne, at Astaffort, the scene of a bloody
+engagement during the
+<span class = "pagenum">166</span>
+<!-- png 223 -->
+Wars of Religion in which the Protestant army was cut to pieces when
+about to cross the Garonne; at Nérac, where frail Marguerite de Valois
+kept her dissolute Court, and Catherine de Médicis brought her flying
+squadron of fascinating maids of honour to gain over the Huguenot
+leaders to the Catholic cause; and at Cahors, the Divina, or divine
+fountain of the Celts, and the birthplace of Pope John XXII., of Clement
+Marot, the early French poet, and of Léon Gambetta; in Dauphiné, at Die,
+Saint-Chef, Saint-Péray, and Largentière, so named after some abandoned
+silver mines, and where the vines are cultivated against low walls
+rising in a series of terraces from the base to the summit of the lofty
+hills; and in Languedoc, at Brioude, where St. Vincent, the patron saint
+of the vinedressers, suffered martyrdom, and where it is the practice to
+expose the must of the future sparkling wine for several nights to the
+dew in order to rid it of its reddish colour; also at Linardie, and,
+more southward still, at Limoux, whence comes the well-known
+effervescing Blanquette.</p>
+
+<p>Principal among the foregoing is the excellent wine of Saint-Péray,
+commonly characterised as the champagne of the South of France. The
+Saint-Péray vineyards border the Rhône some ten miles below the
+Hermitage coteau&mdash;the vines of which are to-day well-nigh destroyed
+by the phylloxera&mdash;but are on the opposite bank of the river. Our
+visit to Saint-Péray was made from Valence, in which dull southern city
+we had loitered in order to glance at the vast Hôtel du
+Gouvernement&mdash;where octogenarian Pius VI., after being spirited
+away a prisoner from Rome and hurried over the Alps in a litter by order
+of the French Directory, drew his last breath while silently gazing
+across the rushing river at the view he so much admired&mdash;and to
+discover the house in the Grande Rue, numbered&nbsp;4, in an attic of
+which history records that Napoleon&nbsp;I., when a sub-lieutenant of
+artillery in garrison at Valence, resided, and which he quitted owing
+three and a-half francs to his pastrycook.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the Rhône over one of its hundred flimsy suspension
+bridges, on the majority of which a notice warns you
+<span class = "pagenum">167</span>
+<!-- png 224 -->
+neither to smoke nor run, and were soon skirting the base of a lofty,
+bare, precipitous rock, with the “horns of Crussol,� as the peasants
+term two tall pointed gables of a ruined feudal château, perched at the
+dizzy edge, and having a perpendicular fall of some five or six hundred
+feet below. The château, which formerly belonged to the Dukes of Uzès,
+recognised by virtue of the extent of their domains as <i>premiers pairs
+de France</i>, was not originally erected in close proximity to any such
+formidable precipice. The crag on which it stands had, it seems, been
+blasted from time to time for the sake of the stone, until on one
+unlucky occasion when too heavy a charge of powder was employed, the
+entire side of the rock, together with a considerable portion of the
+château itself, were sent flying into the air. The authorities,
+professing to regard what remained of the edifice as an historical
+monument of the Middle Ages, hereupon stepped in and prohibited the
+quarry being worked for the future.</p>
+
+<p>Passing beneath the cliff, one wound round to the left and dived into
+a picturesque wooded dell at the entrance to a mountain pass, then
+crossed the rocky bed of a dried-up stream and drove along an avenue of
+mulberry-trees, which in a few minutes conducted us to Saint-Péray,
+where one found the vintage in full operation. Carts laden with tubs
+filled with white and purple grapes, around which wasps without number
+swarmed, were arriving from all points of the environs and crowding the
+narrow streets. Any quantity of grapes were seemingly to be had for the
+asking, for all the pretty girls in the place were gorging themselves
+with the luscious-looking fruit. In the coopers’ yards bran-new casks
+were ranged in rows in readiness for the newly-made wine, and through
+open doorways, and in all manner of dim recesses, one caught sight of
+sturdy men energetically trampling the gushing grapes under their bare
+feet, and of huge creaking wine-presses reeking with the purple juice.
+It was chiefly common red wine, of an excellent flavour, however, that
+was being made in these nooks and corners, the sparkling white wine,
+known as Saint-Péray, being manufactured in larger establishments, and
+on more scientific principles. It
+<span class = "pagenum">168</span>
+<!-- png 225 -->
+is from a white species of grape known as the petite and grosse
+rousette&mdash;the same which yields the white Hermitage&mdash;that the
+champagne of the south is produced, and the vineyards where they are
+cultivated occupy all the more favourable slopes immediately outside the
+village, the most noted being the Coteau-Gaillard, Solignaes, Thioulet,
+and Hungary.</p>
+
+<p>Although there is a close similarity between the manufacture of
+champagne and the effervescing wine of Saint-Péray, there are still one
+or two noteworthy variations. For a wine to be sparkling it is requisite
+that it should ferment in the bottle, a&nbsp;result obtained by bottling
+it while it contains a certain undeveloped proportion of alcohol and
+carbonic acid, represented by so much sugar, of which they are the
+component parts. This ingredient has frequently to be added to the
+Champagne wines to render them sparkling, but the wine of Saint-Péray in
+its natural state contains so much sugar that any addition would be
+deleterious. This excess of saccharine enables the manufacturer to
+dispense with some of the operations necessary to the fabrication of
+champagne, which, after fermenting in the cask, requires a second
+fermentation to be provoked in the bottle, whereas the Saint-Péray wine
+ferments only once, being bottled immediately it comes from the
+wine-press.</p>
+
+<p>The deposit in the wine after being impelled towards the neck of the
+bottle is got rid of by following the same system as is pursued in the
+Champagne, but no liqueur whatever is subsequently added to the wine. On
+the other hand, it is a common practice to reduce the over-sweetness of
+sparkling Saint-Péray in years when the grapes are more than usually
+ripe by mixing with it some old dry white wine.</p>
+
+<p>At Saint-Péray we visited the cellars of M. de Saint-Prix, one of the
+principal wine-growers of the district. The samples of effervescing wine
+which he produced for us to taste were of a pale golden colour, of a
+slightly nutty flavour, and with a decided suggestion of the spirituous
+essence known to be concentrated in the wine, one glass of which will go
+quite as far towards elevating a person as three glasses of champagne.
+<span class = "pagenum">169</span>
+<!-- png 226 -->
+Keeping the wine for a few years is said materially to improve its
+quality, to the sacrifice, however, of its effervescent properties.
+M.&nbsp;de Saint-Prix informed us that he manufactured every year a
+certain quantity of sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage.
+The principal markets for the Saint-Péray sparkling wines&mdash;the
+production of which falls considerably short of a million bottles per
+annum&mdash;are England, Germany, Russia, Holland, and Belgium.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic226.png" width = "250" height = "193"
+alt = "grape pickers">
+</p>
+
+<p>The other side of the Rhône is fruitful in minor sparkling wines,
+chief amongst which is the so-called Clairette de Die, made at the town
+of that name, a&nbsp;place of some splendour, as existing antiquities
+show, in the days of the Roman dominion in Gaul. Later on, Die was the
+scene of constant struggles for supremacy between its counts and
+bishops, one of the latter having been massacred by the populace in
+front of the cathedral doorway&mdash;ever since known by the sinister
+appellation of the Porte Rouge&mdash;and Catholics and Huguenots alike
+devastated the town in the troublesome times of the Reform. Clairette de
+Die is made principally from the blanquette or malvoisie variety of
+grape, which, after the stalks have been removed, is both trodden with
+the feet and pressed. The must is run off immediately into casks, and
+four-and-twenty hours later it is racked into other casks,
+a&nbsp;similar operation being performed every two or three days for the
+period of a couple of months, when the fermentation having subsided the
+wine is fined and usually bottled in the following March. Newly-made
+Clairette de Die is a sweet sparkling wine, but it loses its natural
+effervescence after a
+<span class = "pagenum">170</span>
+<!-- png 227 -->
+couple of years, unless it has been treated in the same manner as
+champagne, which is rarely the case. The wine enjoys a reputation
+altogether beyond its merits.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the well-known Clairette, some of the wine-growers of
+Die make sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of superior
+quality, which retain their effervescent properties for several years.
+A&nbsp;sparkling wine is also made some ten miles from Die, on the road
+to Saillans, in a district bounded on the one side by the waters of the
+Drôme, and on the other by strange mountains with helmet-shaped crests.
+The centre of production is a locality called Vercheny, composed of
+several hamlets, one of which, named Le Temple, was the original home of
+the family of Barnave. The impressionable young deputy to the National
+Assembly formed one of the trio sent to bring back the French royal
+family from Varennes after their flight from Paris. It will be
+remembered how, under the influence of Marie Antoinette and Madame
+Elizabeth, Barnave became transformed during the journey into a faithful
+partisan of their unhappy cause, and that he eventually paid the penalty
+of his devotion with his life.</p>
+
+<p>In the extreme south of France, and almost under the shadow of the
+Pyrenees, a&nbsp;sparkling wine of some repute is made at a place called
+Lagrasse, about five-and-twenty miles westward of Narbonne, the
+once-famous Mediterranean city, the maritime rival of Marseilles, and in
+its palmy days, prior to the Christian era, a&nbsp;miniature Rome, with
+its capitol, its curia, its decemvirs, its consuls, its prætors, its
+questors, its censors, and its ediles, and which boasted of being the
+birthplace of three Roman Emperors. To-day Narbonne has to content
+itself with the humble renown derived from its delicious honey and its
+characterless full-bodied red wines. Limoux, so celebrated for its
+Blanquette, lies a long way farther to the west, behind the Corbières
+range of mountains that join on to the Pyrenees, and the jagged peaks,
+deep barren gorges, and scarred sides of which have been witness of many
+a desperate struggle during the century and a half when they formed the
+boundary between France and Spain.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">171</span>
+<!-- png 228 -->
+We arrived at Limoux just too late for the famous fête of the Black
+Virgin, which lasts three weeks, and attracts crowds of southern
+pilgrims to the chapel of Our Lady of Marseilles, perched on a little
+hill some short distance from the town, with a fountain half-way up it,
+whose water issues drop by drop, and has the credit of possessing
+unheard-of virtues. The majority of pilgrims, however, exhibit a decided
+preference for the new-made wine over the miraculous water, and for
+one-and-twenty days something like a carnival of inebriety prevails at
+Limoux.</p>
+
+<p>Blanquette de Limoux derives its name from the species of grape it is
+produced from, and which we believe to be identical with the malvoisie,
+or malmsey. Its long-shaped berries grow in huge bunches, and dry
+readily on the stalks. The fruit is gathered as tenderly as possible,
+care being taken that it shall not be in the slightest degree bruised,
+after which it is spread out upon a floor to admit of the sugar it
+contains becoming perfect. The bad grapes having been carefully picked
+out, and the pips extracted from the remaining fruit, the latter is now
+trodden, when the must, after being filtered through a strainer, is
+placed in casks, where it remains fermenting for about a week, during
+which time any overflow is daily replenished by other must reserved for
+the purpose. The wine is again clarified and placed in fresh casks with
+the bungholes only lightly closed until all sensible fermentation has
+ceased, when they are securely fastened up. The bottling takes place in
+the month of March, and the wine is subsequently treated much after the
+same fashion as sparkling Saint-Péray, excepting that it is generally
+found necessary to repeat the operation of <i>dégorgement</i> three, if
+not as many as four times.</p>
+
+<p>Blanquette de Limoux is a pale white wine, the saccharine properties
+of which have become completely transformed into carbonic acid gas and
+alcohol. It is, consequently, both dry and spirituous, deficient in
+delicacy, and altogether proves a great disappointment. At its best it
+may, perhaps, rank with sparkling Saint-Péray, but unquestionably not
+with any average champagne.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">172</span>
+<!-- png 229 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic229.png" width = "328" height = "343"
+alt = "see text">
+</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXVI" id = "chapXVI">
+XVI.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of Germany.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle&mdash;Sparkling German Wines First
+Made on the Neckar&mdash;Heilbronn, and Gotz von Berlichingen of the
+Iron Hand&mdash;Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn their
+attention to Sparkling Wines&mdash;Change of late years in the Character
+of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles&mdash;Difference between them and
+Moussirender Rheinwein&mdash;Vintaging of Black and White Grapes for
+Sparkling Wine&mdash;The Treatment which German Sparkling Wines
+Undergo&mdash;Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
+Moselles&mdash;Fine Natural Bouquet of High Class Sparkling
+Hocks&mdash;Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines
+during the Franco-German War&mdash;Annual Production&mdash;Deinhard and
+Co.’s Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz&mdash;The Firm’s Collection of
+Choice Rhine and Moselle Wines&mdash;Their Trade in German Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;Their Sources of Supply&mdash;The Vintaging and
+After-Treatment of their Wines&mdash;Characteristics of their Sparkling
+Hocks and Moselles.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">The</span>
+reader is by this time aware that sparkling wines are not indebted for
+their effervescent properties to any particular variety of vine or
+quality of soil, although some species of
+<span class = "pagenum">173</span>
+<!-- png 230 -->
+grapes yield a wine possessing a higher degree of effervescence than
+others. Any wine, in fact, can be rendered sparkling, although only
+wines of a certain lightness of body and which are at the same time
+delicate and clean to the taste&mdash;being devoid of anything
+approaching to a <i>goût de terroir</i>&mdash;are really suited to the
+purpose. Given a wine containing sufficient saccharine, either natural
+or applied, and duly regulate its temperature, and it is easy enough to
+render it sparkling. The Germans discovered this long ago when they
+first transformed the acidulous wines of the Rhine into what we term
+sparkling hocks.</p>
+
+<p>The rise of this industry dates from the epoch of the final downfall
+of Napoleon&nbsp;I., when the officers of the armies of occupation
+acquired more than a passing liking for the exhilarating products of
+Clicquot and Moët, carrying it, in fact, home with them, and so
+disseminating a taste for the sparkling wines of France throughout the
+North of Europe. In Germany the wealthy few only were able to indulge in
+it, and the consumption was for a long time exceedingly limited. When,
+however, after many years of peace, riches began to accumulate, some
+shrewd men set themselves to ascertain whether the German wines could
+not be rendered sparkling like the French. This was satisfactorily and
+speedily settled in the affirmative; but the great difficulty was to
+find the requisite capital for the large preliminary investment
+necessary to the establishment of a manufactory of sparkling wine on
+even a moderate scale, and from which no return could be counted on for
+the first three years. Eventually this was overcome; but the new wines,
+being in the first instance altogether different in character from
+champagne, found but little favour in the country of their production.
+It was different, however, in England, where they speedily succeeded in
+establishing themselves under the designations of sparkling hock and
+sparkling moselle, and from this time forward they have retained their
+position in the English market.</p>
+
+<p>It is generally asserted that sparkling wines were first manufactured
+in Germany more than half a century ago from the
+<span class = "pagenum">174</span>
+<!-- png 231 -->
+inferior Neckar grape both at Esslingen and Heilbronn&mdash;the latter
+rendered memorable by the exploits of Götz von Berlichingen, whose iron
+hand distributed blows which effectually “cured headache, toothache, and
+every other human malady.� Subsequently, towards 1830, a&nbsp;former
+<i>chef de cave</i> at Madame Clicquot’s establishment at Reims came to
+Herr Lauteren, of Mayence, and suggested to him to engage in the
+manufacture of sparkling Rhine wines, a&nbsp;proposal which the latter
+soon afterwards profited by; and eight years later Herr Rambs, of
+Trèves, vineyard proprietor and wine-merchant, aided by a French
+cellarman, made the earliest attempt to manufacture sparkling moselles,
+their first trials in this direction resulting in a breakage amounting
+to fifty per cent.</p>
+
+<p>For some years the great anxiety of manufacturers of sparkling hocks
+was to render their wines as much as possible like champagne, which was
+only to be accomplished by disguising their true flavour and dosing them
+largely with syrup. In this form they satisfied, and indeed still
+satisfy, their German and Russian consumers; but of late years England
+has set the example of a decided preference for the drier kinds of
+sparkling wines, the result being that the character of the wines
+destined for the English market has undergone a complete change.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic232.png" width = "361" height = "241"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE AHR VALLEY.</p>
+
+<p>Next to its sweetness the principal difference between German
+champagne, or Moussirender Rheinwein as it is usually called, for
+Continental consumption, and sparkling hocks designed for the English
+and other markets, consists in the former being made principally from
+black grapes, pressed immediately they are gathered and not allowed to
+ferment in their skins, while the latter are made almost exclusively
+from white grapes. The vineyards yielding the black grapes used for
+these sparkling wines are mainly situated at Ingelheim, midway between
+Bingen and Mayence, and in the Ahr valley, between Coblenz and Cologne.
+At the black grape vintage, which precedes the gathering of the white
+varieties by some three or four weeks, the fruit is conveyed to the
+press in high tubs, carried on men’s backs, and holding about 40lbs.
+apiece. The old wooden presses
+<span class = "pagenum">175</span>
+<!-- png 232 -->
+are mostly employed, although of late small transportable presses with
+iron screws, and of French manufacture, are coming into use. In order
+that the wine may be pale in colour, the grapes, which, like those of
+the Champagne, are of the pineau variety, are pressed as soon as
+possible after the gathering; the pressure applied is, moreover, rapid
+and not too strong, and the must is separated forthwith from the skins
+and stalks. On the other hand, the white grapes used in the making of
+German sparkling wine, and which are almost exclusively of the far-famed
+riesling species, are treated precisely as when making still Rhine
+wine&mdash;that is, they are crushed in the vineyards by means of
+grape-mills, and afterwards pressed in the usual way. The must for
+sparkling wines, whether from black or white grapes, is run at once into
+casks to ferment. If possible it is conveyed in large casks known as
+stucks&mdash;immediately after the pressing, and before fermentation
+begins&mdash;to the manufacturer’s cellars in town; but if this cannot
+be accomplished it remains in the cellars of the district until the
+first fermentation is over, which is in December or January. It is then
+racked off its lees, and the produce of
+<span class = "pagenum">176</span>
+<!-- png 233 -->
+black and white grapes is blended together, only a small proportion of
+the former entering into the composition of true sparkling hock, which
+should retain in a marked degree the subtile and fragrant perfume of the
+riesling grape.</p>
+
+<p>The process pursued in the manufacture of sparkling hocks is the same
+as that followed with regard to champagnes. The quantity of grape sugar
+generated in these Northern German latitudes being far from large, both
+hocks and moselles invariably need a small addition of saccharine,
+previous to their being put into bottle, to insure the requisite
+effervescence, whereas in the Champagne the practice of adding sugar
+with this object is not the uniform rule. After the wine is bottled it
+remains in a cool cellar for eighteen months or a couple of years, being
+constantly shaken during this period, in the same way as champagne, in
+order to force the sediment to deposit itself near to the cork. By this
+time the added as well as the natural sugar contained in the wine has
+become converted into alcohol and carbonic acid; and after the sediment
+has been expelled from the bottle the operation of dosing, or
+flavouring, the wine takes place.</p>
+
+<p>Sparkling hocks intended both for the German and Russian markets are
+frequently almost cloying in their sweetness, as much as one-fifth of
+syrup being often added to four-fifths of wine. The sparkling moselles,
+too, for Russia, and not unfrequently for England also, are largely
+dosed with the preparation of elder-flowers, which imparts to them their
+well-known muscatel flavour and perfume. The manufacturers say they are
+doing their best to abandon this absurd practice of artificially
+perfuming sparkling moselles; but many of their customers, and
+especially those in the English provinces, stipulate for the scented
+varieties, possibly from an erroneous belief in their superiority.
+Effervescing Rhine wines of the highest class have a marked and refined
+flavour, together with a very decided natural bouquet. Moreover, they
+retain their effervescent properties for a considerable time after being
+uncorked, and appear to the taste as light, if not precisely as
+delicate, as the finer
+<span class = "pagenum">177</span>
+<!-- png 234 -->
+champagnes, although in reality such is not the case; for all sparkling
+hocks possess greater body than even the heaviest champagnes, and
+cannot, therefore, be drunk with equal freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Great impetus was given to the manufacture of German sparkling wines
+during the war of 1870, when the Champagne was in a measure closed to
+the outside world. At this epoch the less scrupulous manufacturers,
+instigated by dishonest speculators, boldly forged both the brands on
+the corks and the labels on the bottles of the great Reims and Epernay
+firms, and sent forth sparkling wines of their own production to the
+four quarters of the globe as veritable champagnes of the highest class.
+The respectable houses acted more honestly, and, as it turned out, with
+better policy, for by maintaining their own labels and brands they
+extended the market for their produce, causing German sparkling wines to
+be introduced under their true names into places where they had never
+penetrated before, the result being a considerable increase in the
+annual demand, even after the stores of the champagne manufacturers were
+again open to all the world.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to this increased demand, and the deficient supply of suitable
+Rhine wines at a moderate price, the manufacturers of sparkling hocks
+are reduced to buy much of their raw wine at a distance, and are to-day
+large purchasers of the growths of the Palatinate, which are less
+delicate than the vintages of the Rheingau, besides being deficient in
+that fine aroma which distinguishes genuine hock. A&nbsp;leading
+manufacturer computes that between four-and-a-half and five million
+bottles of sparkling wine are made annually in Germany, where there are
+no fewer than fifty manufacturing establishments. The principal market
+is Great Britain, which consumes some two millions of bottles annually;
+a&nbsp;million bottles are drunk at home; while the remainder is divided
+among the North of Europe, the United States, India, Australia, China,
+and Japan. The cheapness of these wines is, no doubt, largely in their
+favour.</p>
+
+<!-- png 236 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic236.jpg" width = "443" height = "283"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. DEINHARD &amp; CO.’S NEW ESTABLISHMENT AT COBLENZ.
+(p.&nbsp;178)</p>
+
+<p>At Coblenz, the capital of Rhenish Prussia, and one of the strongest
+fortresses in the world, the so-called blue Moselle
+<span class = "pagenum">178</span>
+<!-- png 235 -->
+mingles its waters with those of the Rhine, and hence the original Roman
+name of Confluentia. With so favourable a situation it is not surprising
+that the city should be the abode of several important firms trading in
+the wines of the two rivers. At the head of these is the well-known
+house of Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent
+still vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-class
+sparkling wines of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius
+Wegeler, I&nbsp;was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the
+Wine Jury of the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over
+their establishment on the Clemens Platz&mdash;one of the most perfect
+and admirably appointed in Germany. The firm was founded in 1798 by Herr
+F.&nbsp;Deinhard, who in 1806, when Coblenz was in the hands of the
+French, secured a ninety-nine years’ lease of some cellars under an old
+convent at the low rental of 30 francs per annum, and to-day this
+curious document exists amongst the archives of the firm. Rents of
+wine-cellars were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril,
+when commerce was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the
+course of warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 francs a
+year of course no very extensive entrepôt could have been rented. To-day
+Messrs. Deinhard’s new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area
+of nearly 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other
+vaults stored with wine in various quarters of the city, the whole
+giving employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers.
+Their Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of
+1875, when it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress
+Augusta, who left behind her the following graceful memento of her
+visit:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+“In grateful attachment to Coblenz, in full appreciation of a work which
+does honour to the town and to the firm, I&nbsp;wish continued
+prosperity to both.</p>
+
+<p class = "verse smallcaps" align = "center">
+Augusta,</p>
+
+<p class = "verse" align = "center">
+“German Empress and Queen of Prussia.�</p>
+
+<!-- png 237 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic237.jpg" width = "443" height = "293"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. DEINHARD &amp; CO.’S NEW CELLARS AT COBLENZ. (p. 179.)</p>
+
+<p>The proximity of the establishment to the Rhine did not allow of the
+cellars being excavated to a greater depth than 30
+<span class = "pagenum">179</span>
+<!-- png 238 -->
+feet below the surface&mdash;a&nbsp;mere trifle when compared with the
+depth of many vaults in the Champagne. Any lower excavation, however,
+would have been attended with danger, and as it is, when the Rhine rose
+to an unusual height in March, 1876, the water percolated through the
+soil and inundated the lower cellars to a height of 5&nbsp;feet. Above
+these vaults is a corresponding range of buildings of picturesque design
+and substantial construction, divided like the cellars into three
+aisles, each 210 feet in length and 23 feet broad. One of the arches of
+the façade looking on to the courtyard is decorated with a graceful and
+characteristic bas-relief, an engraving of which is subjoined.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic238.png" width = "377" height = "227"
+alt = "decorated arch: see preceding text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The cellars, containing 1,400 stucks, as they are termed, of still
+wines&mdash;the stuck being equal to 1,500 bottles&mdash;present a
+striking appearance with their long vistas of vaulted arcades, admirably
+built of brick, and illuminated by innumerable gas jets, aided by
+powerful reflectors at the extremities of the three aisles. The
+capacious elliptical-headed casks, ranged side by side in uninterrupted
+sequence, contain the choicest German vintages, including the grand
+wines of the Rheingau&mdash;Johannisberger, Steinberger, Rudesheimer,
+Rauenthaler, and the like; the red growths of Assmannshausen and
+Walporzheim; Deidesheimers,
+<span class = "pagenum">180</span>
+<!-- png 239 -->
+with rare bouquets and of tender tonical flavour; Liebfrauenmilch, of
+flowery perfume; the finest Moselles from Josefshof and Scharzhofberg,
+Brauneberg and Berncastel, with other growths too numerous to mention,
+of grand years, and from the best situations.</p>
+
+<p>The sparkling wines stored in separate vaults form to-day an
+important item in Messrs. Deinhard’s business. In 1843 the firm made
+their first cuvée, consisting of less than 10,000 bottles. Four years
+later their cuvée amounted to over 50,000 bottles. A&nbsp;falling off
+was shown during the revolutionary epoch, and business only recovered
+its normal condition in 1851, since which time it has gradually
+increased as the wines have grown in favour, until in 1875 the tirage of
+1874 vintage wines exceeded half a million bottles.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic240.png" width = "301" height = "320"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+VINEYARDS IN THE AHR VALLEY.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Deinhard draw their supplies of wine from white grapes, for
+conversion into sparkling wines, from the Rhine, the Main, the Moselle,
+and the Palatinate, giving preference to the produce of the riesling
+grape, as to this the wine is indebted for its natural bouquet. The
+proportion of wine from black grapes, mingled with the other wines, is
+vintaged by themselves in the Ahr valley and at Ingelheim on the Rhine.
+The Ahr, in summer a rippling streamlet and in winter a rushing torrent,
+falls into the Rhine about twenty miles below Coblenz. The soil of the
+neighbouring hills seems peculiarly adapted for the growth of black
+grapes, one of the best of German red wines being produced in the
+vineyards adjacent to the village of Walporzheim. In order that the wine
+may be as pale as possible, the black grapes are pressed as soon after
+gathering as they can be, and only the juice resulting from the first
+pressure is reserved, the subsequently extracted must being sold to the
+small growers of the neighbourhood. The newly-made wine is brought in
+casks to Coblenz, and rests for eight weeks while completing its
+fermentation. It is then racked into stucks and double stucks, and is
+blended in casks of the latter capacity during the early part of the
+following year, great care being taken to preserve the bouquet of the
+white grapes, with which view, contrary to the practice followed in the
+<span class = "pagenum">181</span>
+<!-- png 240 -->
+Champagne, only a moderate proportion of wine from black grapes enters
+into the blend.</p>
+
+<table class = "float right" summary = "illustration, see caption">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic241.png" width = "174" height = "298"
+alt = "statue of king: see caption">
+</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption">
+ON THE BRIDGE AT<br>
+RECH, AHR VALLEY.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Next comes the fining, and four weeks afterwards the wine is newly
+racked. The bottling takes place during May or June, when any deficiency
+of natural saccharine in the wine is supplied by the addition of pure
+sugar-candy. At Messrs. Deinhard’s the wine is bottled at a temperature
+of 72° Fahr., and the bottles remain resting on large stone tables until
+the fermentation is completed, and the saccharine is converted into
+alcohol and carbonic acid gas. This result is commonly obtained in
+ordinary hot weather in eight days’ time, most of the breakage taking
+place during this interval. If on being tested with a manometer the wine
+should indicate too high a pressure, it is at once removed to a cool
+cellar, consequently the average total breakage rarely exceeds 2¼
+<span class = "pagenum">182</span>
+<!-- png 241 -->
+per cent. The wine is now left quiet for at least a year, and if
+possible for two years, after which the bottles are placed on stands in
+the customary inverted position, and shaken daily for a period of six
+weeks, in order to dislodge the sediment and force it against the cork.
+German workmen are far less expert at this operation than their fellows
+in the Champagne, as few of the former can manage more than their
+four-and-twenty thousand bottles per diem. The disgorgement and
+liqueuring of the wine is accomplished at Messrs. Deinhard’s and other
+German establishments in precisely the same fashion as is followed in
+the Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>The dry sparkling hocks we tasted here had the real riesling flavour
+and the fine natural perfume common to this grape. In preparing them no
+attempt had been made to imitate champagne; but, on the other hand,
+every care had been taken to preserve the true hock character with its
+distinguishing freshness of taste combined with a lightness which wines
+containing liqueur in excess could never have exhibited. The sparkling
+moselles, too, depended not on any imparted muscatel flavour and
+perfume, but on their own natural bouquet and the flavour they derive
+from the schistous soil in which these wines are grown.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">183</span>
+<!-- png 242 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic242.jpg" width = "332" height = "368"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+LIEBENSTEIN AND STERRENBERG.</p>
+
+<h4 class = "plain"><a name = "chapXVII" id = "chapXVII">
+<span class = "smallcaps">
+XVII.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of Germany</span>
+(<i>continued</i>).</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+From Coblenz to Rüdesheim&mdash;Ewald and Co.’s Establishment and its
+Pleasant Situation&mdash;Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and Convenient
+Accessories&mdash;Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the most favoured
+Localities&mdash;The Celebrated Vineyards of the Rheingau&mdash;Eltville
+and the extensive Establishment of Matheus Müller&mdash;His Vast Stocks
+of Still and Sparkling German Wines&mdash;The Vineyards laid under
+contribution for the latter&mdash;M.&nbsp;Müller’s Sparkling
+Johannisberger, Champagne, and Red Sparkling Assmannshauser&mdash;The
+Site of Gutenberg’s Birthplace at Mayence occupied by the Offices and
+Wine-cellars of Lauteren Sohn&mdash;The Sparkling Wine Establishment of
+the Firm, and their Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles&mdash;The
+Hochheim Sparkling Wine Association&mdash;Foundation of the
+Establishment&mdash;Its Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles&mdash;The
+Sparkling Wine Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the Nahe
+Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of
+<span class = "pagenum">184</span>
+<!-- png 243 -->
+M.&nbsp;Oppmann at Wurzburg&mdash;The Historic Cellars of the King of
+Bavaria beneath the Residenz&mdash;The Establishment of F.&nbsp;A.
+Siligmüller.</p>
+
+<!-- <p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic243.png" width = "" height = ""
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+STOLZENFELS.</p> -->
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic243a.gif" width = "139" height = "85"
+alt = "">
+</p>
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic243b.gif" width = "333" height = "260"
+alt = "see caption">
+<br>
+<span class = "caption">
+STOLZENFELS.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Ascending</span>
+the Rhine from Coblenz&mdash;past many an ancient ruined castle, past
+restored Stolzenfels, the historic <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "umlaut missing in original">Königs-stuhl</ins>,
+the romantic Liebenstein and
+Sterrenberg, the legendary Lurlei, the tribute-exacting Pfalz, and the
+old town of Bacharach, famous in the Middle Ages for its wine
+mart&mdash;we eventually come to Lorch, where the Wisper brook flows
+into the Rhine, and the grand wine-producing district known as the
+Rheingau begins. A&nbsp;few miles higher up are the vineyards of
+Assmannshausen, dominated by the Niederwald, and yielding the finest red
+wine in all Germany. Then passing by Bishop Hatto’s legendary tower we
+emerge from the gorge of the Rhine and soon reach Rüdesheim, crouched at
+the foot of lofty terraced vineyards, which, according to doubtful
+tradition, were planted with Burgundy and Orleans vines by Charlemagne.
+Rüdesheim, like other antiquated little Rhine-side towns, boasts its
+ancient castle with its own poetical
+<span class = "pagenum">185</span>
+<!-- png 246 -->
+legend, while many modern houses have sprung up there of late years, and
+signs of further development are apparent on all sides. In the outskirts
+of the town there are a couple of sparkling wine establishments, the one
+nigh the railway station on the western side belonging to Messrs.
+Dietrich and Co., while eastwards on a picturesque slope overlooking the
+Rhine, and in the midst of extensive pleasure-grounds, is the
+establishment of Messrs. Ewald and Co., who date from the year 1858, and
+rank to-day amongst the leading shippers of sparkling hocks and moselles
+to England.</p>
+
+<!-- png 244 -->
+<!-- png 245 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic245.jpg" width = "402" height = "269"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+MESSRS. EWALD &amp; CO.’S ESTABLISHMENT AT RÜDESHEIM. (p. 185)</p>
+
+<p>Here are handsome and capacious buildings aboveground, and two floors
+of cellars comprising five vaults, each 160 feet in length and 30 feet
+broad. The lower vaults, 40 feet from the surface, are arched over and
+walled with stone, while the upper ones are faced with brick, both being
+floored with concrete and slanting towards the centre to allow of the
+wine from bottles that have burst running off. Each range of cellars is
+separately ventilated by shafts, generally kept open in winter and
+closed in the summer so as to maintain a temperature not exceeding 47°
+Fahr. in the lower cellars and under 52° in those above. Moreover, with
+the view of conducing to this result the cellars have an ice well
+communicating with them.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the spring, when the newly-bottled wine indicates a
+sufficient number of atmospheres to insure a satisfactory effervescence,
+it is deposited in the lower vaults, the upper ones being devoted to
+reserve wines in wood and wines awaiting the process of disgorgement, or
+undergoing their daily shaking in order to force the deposit against the
+cork. Aboveground there are rooms for storing the liqueur, the corks,
+and the packing-cases, and in a spacious apartment, provided with three
+lifts for communicating with the cellars beneath, the wine is blended
+and bottled, and in due time disgorged and packed. In very warm weather,
+however, it is found preferable for the disgorging and its attendant
+operations to be performed in the cooler temperature of the cellars.
+Messrs. Ewald formerly tested the strength of their bottles with a
+manometer before
+<span class = "pagenum">186</span>
+<!-- png 247 -->
+using them, but for some time past they have given up the practice,
+feeling convinced that it was productive of more harm than good. Glass
+is an amorphous and unelastic substance which, although it will stand a
+high pressure once, often succumbs when put to a second test by the
+action of the fermenting wine. The firm calculate their annual breakage
+at from 2½ to 3 per cent.</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Ewald being installed almost in the heart or the Rheingau can
+readily draw their supplies of wine from the most favoured localities.
+Johannisberg is within a few miles of Rüdesheim, and in those years
+when, owing to the grapes not having thoroughly ripened, the wine is
+only of intermediate value as a still wine, it serves admirably for
+conversion into sparkling wine, retaining as it does its powerful
+bouquet. Ingelheim, too, noted for its vineyards of black grapes, whose
+produce is much sought after for blending with the finer sparkling Rhine
+wines, is only a few miles higher up the river, on the opposite bank.
+The drier varieties of sparkling hocks and moselles shipped by Messrs.
+Ewald to England have the merit of retaining all the fine flavour and
+natural perfume of the higher-class growths from which, as a rule, these
+wines are prepared.</p>
+
+<!-- png 248 -->
+<!-- png 249 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic248.jpg" width = "442" height = "285"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MATHEUS MÃœLLER AT ELTVILLE. (p. 186)</p>
+
+<p>Above Rüdesheim the waters of the Rhine expand, the left bank of the
+river, if still lofty, is no longer precipitous, while the right
+continues almost flat so soon as the Rochusberg is left behind. Between
+here and Eltville all the more celebrated vineyards of the Rheingau are
+passed in rapid succession&mdash;Geisenheim-Rothenberg, Johannisberg,
+Steinberg, Marcobrunn, Kiedrich-Grafenberg, Rauenthal, and others. At
+Eltville&mdash;the former capital of the Rheingau, and where Gunther, of
+Schwarzburg, resigned his crown to Charles IV., and died poisoned, it is
+said, by his successful rival&mdash;we find one of the most extensive
+wine establishments in Germany, that of Matheus Müller, who enjoys a
+high reputation in England both for his still and sparkling hocks and
+moselles. His stock ordinarily consists of from 800 to 1,000
+stuck&mdash;equivalent to a quarter of a million gallons&mdash;of still
+Rhine and Moselle wines, much of it of the
+<span class = "pagenum">187</span>
+<!-- png 250 -->
+best years, and from vineyards of repute, together with nearly a million
+bottles of sparkling wines stored in his cellars at Eltville and on the
+road to Erbach, the aggregate length of which is some 3,400 feet. The
+sparkling wines repose in long cool vaulted galleries similar to many
+cellars in the Champagne, while the still wines are stored in capacious
+subterranean halls each 100 yards in length.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic250.png" width = "346" height = "137"
+alt = "vineyard walls">
+</p>
+
+<p>For his higher-class sparkling hocks Herr Müller derives his
+principal supplies from the Rheingau, partly from his own vineyards at
+Eltville, Rauenthal, and Hattenheim, and partly by purchases at Erbach,
+Hallgarten, Å’strich, Winkel, Johannisberg, Geisenheim, and Rudesheim;
+while for his best sparkling moselles, Berncastel, Graach, Trèves, and
+the Saar districts are laid under contribution. The Palatinate growths
+of Dürkheim, Deidesheim, Mussbach, Haardt, Rhodt, &amp;c., serve as the
+basis for the medium and cheaper sparkling hocks, and for sparkling
+moselles of a corresponding character such wines as Zeltinger,
+Rachtiger, Erdener, Aldegonder, Winninger, &amp;c., are used. Ingelheim
+and Heidesheim furnish the wine from black grapes necessary in a
+subordinate degree to all sparkling hocks, and very freely had recourse
+to when it is desired to impart a champagne character to the wine, as is
+commonly the case when this is intended for consumption in Germany. Herr
+Müller invariably presses the black grapes himself, in order that the
+wine may be as light in colour as possible. As the house annually lays
+down large stocks of <i>vin brut</i> it is under no necessity of
+<span class = "pagenum">188</span>
+<!-- png 251 -->
+drawing upon them until they have attained the requisite maturity and
+developed all their finer qualities.</p>
+
+<p>The dry sparkling hocks and moselles, such as are shipped by Herr
+Müller to England and its colonies, receive a large addition of liqueur
+when destined for the Russian market. His sparkling Johannisberger and
+high-class sparkling moselle from Rheingau and Moselle wines of superior
+vintages are of delicate flavour and great softness, and are frequently
+shipped without any liqueur whatever. Besides Moussirender Rheinwein of
+a champagne character, and largely consumed in Germany and Belgium, Herr
+Müller makes a veritable champagne from wine imported by him from the
+Champagne district. His shipments also include red sparkling
+Assmannshauser&mdash;the result of a blend of Assmannshauser,
+Ingelheimer, and other red Rhenish wines&mdash;aromatic and full-bodied,
+and dry or moderately sweet according to the country to which it is
+intended to be exported.</p>
+
+<!-- png 252 -->
+<!-- png 253 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/plates/pic252.jpg" width = "452" height = "284"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+ENTRANCE TO LAUTEREN SOHN’S ESTABLISHMENT, MAYENCE. (p. 188)</p>
+
+<p>The trade in German sparkling wines has numerous representatives at
+Mayence&mdash;the sec of St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, and
+the birthplace of Gutenberg, whose fame is universal. The pioneer of
+printing was born in a house at the corner of the Emmerans and Pfandhaus
+gasse, the site of which is to-day occupied by the residence of three
+members of the firm of C.&nbsp;Lauteren Sohn, established at Mayence so
+far back as 1794, and one of the first in Germany to devote itself to
+the manufacture of sparkling wines. In 1830 the firm profited by an
+offer made to them by a cellarman who had been for many years in the
+service of Madame Clicquot at Reims. The Emmerans-gasse, where the chief
+establishment of the firm is situated, is in the older quarter of
+Mayence&mdash;in the midst of a network of intricate winding streets
+bordered by picturesque tall gabled houses and edifices of the Spanish
+type where ornamental oriel windows with quaint supports, medallions,
+and bas-reliefs of varied design continually catch the eye, and saints
+look down upon one from almost every corner. Passing under the gateway
+of the house where Gutenberg was born, and in the rear of
+<span class = "pagenum">189</span>
+<!-- png 254 -->
+which Lauteren Sohn have their offices, cooperage, and cellars for still
+wines, we notice on our left hand a tablet commemorating the birth of
+the inventor of printing in these terms:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+“Gensfleisch House. Family residence of the inventor of the art of
+printing, John Gensfleisch of Gutenberg, who in the year 1398 was here
+born. Christian Lauteren has dedicated on the site of the ancient house
+this memorial to the immortal inventor, Jan. 29, 1825.�</p>
+
+<p>Messrs. Lauteren’s cellars for sparkling wines extend mainly under an
+old monastery, and comprise a succession of large vaulted galleries
+connected by narrow passages with arched entrances. Here are stacked
+some 800,000 bottles of wine in varying conditions of maturity. Messrs.
+Lauteren bottle their wines in August, instead of fully two months
+earlier according to the usual practice, in the belief that the system
+they pursue is more conducive to perfect effervescence, besides being
+attended with less breakage, owing to the newly-bottled wine escaping
+the heat of the summer. All the arrangements at this establishment are
+very complete. There is a place for everything, and everything is to be
+found in its place. Adjoining the courtyard, where new bottles are
+stacked beneath open ornamental sheds, are the tasting-room and the
+apartment where the operations of disgorging, dosing, and re-corking are
+performed. The liqueur added by the firm to their sparkling wines is
+kept in bottle from three to five years before being used. In the
+tasting-room we were shown a variety of sparkling hocks and moselles,
+the former with all the distinguishing characteristics of fine Rhine
+wine, the older samples having gained considerably in softness.
+A&nbsp;dry Cabinet specimen submitted to us exhibited a fine bouquet and
+much delicacy of flavour. The moselles we found particularly
+interesting, made as they were of genuine wines from some of the best
+vineyards of the Moselle district.</p>
+
+<p>The largest German sparkling wine establishment is at Hochheim,
+which, although, situated on the banks of the Main, and several miles
+distant from its confluence with the Rhine, has curiously enough
+supplied us with a generic name under which we inconsistently class the
+entire produce of the Rhine
+<span class = "pagenum">190</span>
+<!-- png 255 -->
+vineyards. Behind the Hochheim railway station there rises a long low
+slope, planted from base to summit with vines, a&nbsp;portion of which
+are screened on the north by a plain-looking church and a
+weather-stained deanery. The vines thus sheltered yield the famous Dom
+Dechanei, the finest Hochheimer known. Some short distance off in a
+westerly direction are the extensive premises of the Hochheim Sparkling
+Wine Association, whose brands are well known in England. The firm of
+Burgeff and Co., whose business the association acquired in 1858 and
+subsequently considerably extended, was founded in 1837. At this
+establishment all the arrangements are of the most perfect character.
+The bottles are cleaned by a machine employing ten persons, and turning
+out several thousand bottles a day. All the bottles moreover, before
+being used, have their strength tested by an ingenious apparatus which
+subjects them to three or four times the pressure they are likely to
+undergo when filled with wine. Pumps, bottle-washing machine, and the
+revolving casks in which the sugar is dissolved for the liqueur, are all
+moved by steam, and the association even manufactures the gas used for
+lighting up the establishment. We tasted here several sparkling hocks
+distinguished by their high flavour and refinement, with sparkling
+moselles vintaged in the best localities and equally excellent in
+quality.</p>
+
+<p>Sparkling hocks and moselles are made by Messrs. Stock and Sons at
+Creuznach, a&nbsp;favourite watering-place in the romantic Nahe valley,
+noted for the picturesque porphyry cliffs which occasionally rise
+precipitously at the river’s edge. Creuznach, where a capital wine is
+vintaged, on the southern slopes of the Schlossberg, is at no great
+distance from Bingen. Messrs. Stock and Sons’ establishment dates from
+1862, and their sparkling wines are mainly made from white grapes, only
+about one-eighth of white wine from black grapes entering into their
+composition. The latter is vintaged at Ingelheim, the grapes being
+pressed under the firm’s own superintendence, and only the must
+resulting from the first squeeze of the press being used. The wine from
+riesling grapes is usually from the
+<span class = "pagenum">191</span>
+<!-- png 256 -->
+Rhine, and with it is mingled a certain quantity of wine vintaged on the
+Hessian plain. The vintage generally occurs at the end of October, and
+the firm remove the new wine to their cellars at Creuznach early in the
+ensuing spring, and bottle it in the May or June following. They make
+both dry and sweet varieties of sparkling wines, and their principal
+markets are England, Germany, the East and West Indies, the United
+States, and Australia.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic256.png" width = "328" height = "362"
+alt = "framed view of lake and town">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+BINGEN.</p>
+
+<p>The establishment of G. C. Kessler and Co. at
+Esslingen&mdash;formerly one of the most important of the free imperial
+cities, and picturesquely situated on the Neckar&mdash;was founded as
+far back as 1826, and claims to be the oldest sparkling wine factory in
+Germany. The wine employed comes from vineyards
+<span class = "pagenum">192</span>
+<!-- png 257 -->
+in the vicinity of Heilbronn, and others in the Rheingau and the Grand
+Duchy of Baden, and is more or less a blend of the clevener, traminer,
+rulander, riesling, and elbling varieties of grape. The vintage takes
+place in October, and the bottling of the wine is effected during the
+following summer. Messrs. Kessler and Co. treat their wines after the
+system pursued at the Clicquot champagne establishment, in which the
+founder of the Esslingen house held an important position for a period
+of nearly twenty years. The wines are prepared sweet or dry according to
+the market they are destined for. The principal business of the firm is
+with Germany, but they also export to England, the United States, the
+East Indies, and Australia. Their wines have met with favourable
+recognition at various exhibitions, notably that of Paris in 1867, when
+a silver medal was awarded them; and at Vienna in 1873, where they
+received a medal for progress.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic257.png" width = "376" height = "269"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+THE NECKAR AT HEIDELBERG.</p>
+
+<p>Wurzburg, one of the most antiquated and picturesque of German
+cities, is noted for its sparkling Franconian wines vintaged
+<span class = "pagenum">193</span>
+<!-- png 258 -->
+partly in the vineyards that overspread the tall chalk hills which close
+in around the quaint old university town. The most famous of these
+vineyards are the Leist and the Stein, the first-named sloping downward
+towards the Main from the foot of the picturesque Marienberg fort,
+which, perched on the summit of a commanding height, dominates the city
+and forms so conspicuous an object in all the views of it. The extensive
+buildings of the fort not only shield the vines from the winds, but
+reflect the sun’s rays upon them, thereby materially conducing to the
+perfect ripening of the grapes at a much earlier period than is
+customary. The Stein vineyard is situated on the opposite side of the
+Main, and when viewed from the picturesque bridge, studded with
+incongruous colossal statues&mdash;such as Joseph and the Virgin Mary in
+close proximity to Charlemagne and Pépin&mdash;seems to rise up as an
+immense rampart behind the city. Here the river acts as a reflector,
+throwing back the sun’s rays on the lower portions of the slope, where
+the finest wine is naturally vintaged. An altogether inferior growth is
+produced on the hill to the north, known as the Middle Stein, and also
+in the Harfe vineyard, situated in the rear of the latter. The prevalent
+vines in the Würzburg district are the riesling, the traminer, the
+elbling, and the rulander, or pineau gris.</p>
+
+<p>The first sparkling wine establishment at Würzburg was founded in
+1842 by Herr Oppmann, the Royal cellar-master, who died in 1866. The
+position held by this individual was one of considerable importance, for
+the King of Bavaria is the largest wine-grower in his own dominions, and
+stores the produce of his vineyards in the famous cellars extending
+beneath one of the wings of the deserted Residenz, erected at an epoch
+when Würzburg was subject to episcopal rule. These cellars, vaulted in
+stone, are on a vast scale, and possibly unequalled in the world. You
+descend a broad flight of steps, flanked by ornamental iron balustrades,
+and encounter half-way down a miniature tun, guarded by the Bavarian
+lions posted in a niche in the wall. Following your guide with lighted
+candles, you pass between rows upon rows of capacious casks filled with
+the wine last
+<span class = "pagenum">194</span>
+<!-- png 259 -->
+vintaged, and various wines of recent years; large metal
+chandeliers&mdash;fantastically adorned with innumerable coloured
+bottles and glasses, and designed to light up the cellars on festive
+occasions&mdash;here and there descending from the arched roof.
+Eventually you arrive at a gallery where huge casks are poised on
+massive wooden frames in double tiers one above the other. These cellars
+are said to be capable of holding upwards of 500 casks, but at the time
+of our visit there were scarcely half that number, and only a mere
+fraction of these were filled with wine. The cellars no longer contain
+any of that archaic wine vintaged in 1546, for which they were formerly
+celebrated. Indeed, all the historic vintages, once their boast, were
+removed some years ago to Munich and deposited in the Royal cellars
+there. Of the ancient ornamental tuns holding their ten thousand gallons
+each, which the Würzburg cellars formerly contained, only a single one
+remains, constructed in the year 1784. This tun, carved on the front
+with the Bavarian arms, is about the dimensions of a fair-sized
+apartment, and being no longer filled with wine, a&nbsp;Diogenes of the
+period might take up his abode in it with perfect comfort. Herr Michael
+Oppmann, who has succeeded to the establishment founded by his father,
+prepares several varieties of white sparkling Franconian wine, with two
+kinds of red, and also sparkling hocks and moselles. The first-named
+wines are vintaged in the best vineyards of Lower Franconia, in the
+valley of the Main, and the Baden Oberland, the finer qualities being
+principally produced from the black clevener grape, usually vintaged the
+first or second week in October. The white grape vintage occurs some
+fortnight or more later, and the wine is bottled either late in the
+spring or during the coming summer. Its after-manipulation differs in no
+respect from that pursued with reference to champagne. Herr Oppmann,
+whose wines have met with favourable recognition at various foreign and
+home Exhibitions, prepares both sweet and dry varieties. Their chief
+market is Germany, although they are exported in fair quantities to
+Belgium, England, and Northern Europe.</p>
+
+<table class = "float right" summary = "illustration">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic260.png" width = "146" height = "305"
+alt = "corner of old house">
+</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption">
+AT AHRWEILER.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Another sparkling wine establishment was founded at
+<span class = "pagenum">195</span>
+<!-- png 260 -->
+Würzburg by Herr F.&nbsp;A. Siligmuller in 1843. The wine from white
+grapes employed by him is vintaged partly in his own vineyards on the
+Stein and the Harfe, and partly in other Main vineyards, at
+Randersacker, Escheradorf, &amp;c., the wine used by him from red grapes
+coming from the Baden Oberland around the so-called
+Kaisers-stuhl&mdash;an isolated vine-clad dolerite mountain bordering
+the Rhine, and on the verge almost of the Black Forest&mdash;and from
+the neighbourhood of Offenburg, one of the ancient imperial free towns,
+which has lately raised a statue to Sir Francis Drake, “the introducer,�
+as the inscription says, “of the potato into Europe.� The vintage here,
+which commences fully a fortnight earlier than around Würzburg, usually
+takes place about the beginning of October, and the wine is bottled in
+the height of the following summer. Herr Siligmuller’s wines, of which
+there are four qualities, were awarded a medal for progress at the
+Vienna Exhibition of 1873.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">196</span>
+<!-- png 261 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic261.png" width = "365" height = "310"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+A SPANISH VINTAGE SCENE.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXVIII" id = "chapXVIII">
+XVIII.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of Austro-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy,
+Spain, Russia, &amp;c.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Sparkling Voslauer&mdash;The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of
+Graz&mdash;Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers&mdash;Vintaging and
+Treatment of Styrian Champagnes&mdash;Sparkling Red, Rose, and White
+Wines of Hungary&mdash;The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at
+Pressburg&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia, Moravia,
+Dalmatia, the Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat&mdash;Neuchâtel
+Champagne&mdash;Sparkling Wine Factories at Vevay and Sion&mdash;The
+Vevay Vineyards&mdash;Establishment of De Riedmatten and De
+Quay&mdash;Sparkling Muscatel, Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo, and
+Lacryma Christi of Italy&mdash;Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece,
+Algeria, and Russia&mdash;The Krimski and Donski Champagnes&mdash;The
+Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great Russian Fairs.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">Sparkling</span>
+wines are made in various parts of Austria and Hungary, and of late
+years their produce has been largely on the increase. At Voslau, in the
+vicinity of the picturesque and
+<span class = "pagenum">197</span>
+<!-- png 262 -->
+fashionable summer watering-place of Baden, about twenty miles south of
+Vienna, Herr R.&nbsp;Schlumberger, one of my colleagues on the wine jury
+at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of 1873 and ’8, makes a white
+sparkling Voslauer&mdash;introduced into England some years
+since&mdash;from the blue portuguese, the burgundy (the pineau noir),
+the rulander (the pineau gris), and the riesling varieties of grape. It
+is, however, at Graz, the capital of Styria, picturesquely situated on
+the river Mur, and surrounded by lofty mountains, where sparkling wines
+are made upon the largest scale and with the most success. By far the
+principal manufactory is that of Kleinoscheg Brothers, founded in the
+year 1850, at an epoch when the larger Styrian wine-growers were
+directing their attention to the general improvement of their vineyards.
+The firm gained their knowledge of sparkling wines by practical
+experience acquired in the Champagne itself, and to-day they
+unquestionably produce some of the best sparkling wines that are made
+out of France. They possess extensive vineyards of their own, and are
+also large purchasers of wines from the best districts, including
+Pettau, Radkersburg, the Picherergebirge, and Luttenberg, the latter
+yielding the finest wine which Styria produces, vintaged from the mosler
+or furmint&mdash;that is, the Tokay variety of grape.</p>
+
+<p>White wine from the clevener grape, understood to be identical with
+the pineau noir of Burgundy and the Champagne, and vintaged early in
+October, forms the basis of the sparkling wines manufactured by
+Kleinoscheg Brothers. The produce of several other grapes, however,
+enters in a limited degree into the blend, including the riesling, the
+rulander or pineau gris, and the portuguese, the gathering of which is
+usually delayed several weeks later, and is sometimes even deferred
+until the end of November. The first and second pressings of the black
+grapes yield a white must as in the Champagne, while the third and
+fourth give a pink wine of which the firm make a speciality.</p>
+
+<p>The wines, which are treated precisely after the system pursued in
+the Champagne, are bottled during the months of July
+<span class = "pagenum">198</span>
+<!-- png 263 -->
+and August, and are made either sweet or dry according to the country
+they are destined for. Considerable shipments of the dry pale Styrian
+champagne take place to England, where the firm also send a delicate
+sparkling muscatel and a sparkling red burgundy, which will favourably
+compare with the best sparkling wines of the Côte d’Or. They have also a
+large market for their wines in Austria, Germany, Italy, and
+Switzerland, and export to British North America, the East Indies,
+China, Japan, and Australia. From the year 1855 up to the present time
+the firm of Kleinoscheg Brothers have been awarded no less than sixteen
+medals for their sparkling wines at various important home and foreign
+exhibitions.</p>
+
+<p>At Marburg on the river Drave, in the vicinity of the Bacher
+Mountains, which stretch far into Carinthia, and have their lower slopes
+covered with vines, Herr F.&nbsp;Auchmann has established a successful
+sparkling wine manufactory. The raw wine comes from the vineyards around
+Marburg and from Pettau, some ten or twelve miles lower down the Drave.
+The vintage commonly lasts from the middle of October until the middle
+of November. Black grapes of the clevener and portuguese varieties are
+pressed as in the Champagne, so as to yield a white must, with which a
+certain portion of white wine from the mosler or furmint grape is
+subsequently mingled. The bottling takes place as early as April or May.
+The wines are principally consumed in Austria, but are also exported to
+Russia, Italy, Egypt, the Danubian Principalities, Australia,
+&amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Sparkling wines seem to be made in various parts of Hungary, judging
+from the samples sent to the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions from Pesth,
+Pressburg, Oedenburg, Pécs, Velencze, and Kolozsvár. Rose-colour wines
+are evidently much in favour with the respective manufacturers, several
+of whom make sparkling red wines as well, but with none of the success
+of their Styrian neighbours. The best Hungarian sparkling wines we have
+met with are those of Hubert and Habermann, made at Pressburg, the
+former capital of Hungary, where its kings, after being crowned, used to
+ride up the Königsberg brandishing the
+<span class = "pagenum">199</span>
+<!-- png 264 -->
+sword of St. Stephen towards the four points of the compass in token of
+their determination to defend the kingdom against all enemies. The white
+sparkling wines are made exclusively from white grapes grown in the
+neighbouring vineyards of Bösing, <ins class = "mycorr" title =
+"spelling unchanged">Geñnau</ins>, and St. Georgen, but the firm make
+red sparkling wines as well from the produce of the Ratzersdorf and
+Wainor vineyards. The vintage takes place some time in October, and the
+wines are bottled both in the spring and autumn, but never until they
+are fully twelve months old. With these variations the system pursued
+with regard to the wines is the same as is followed in the Champagne.
+There are several other sparkling wine manufacturers at Pressburg, and
+the principal market for these wines is Austro-Hungary, but shipments of
+them are made to England, the United States, India, Roumania, and
+Servia. The production of sparkling wine in Hungary is now estimated to
+amount to one million bottles annually.</p>
+
+<p>In Croatia Prince Lippe-Schaumburg has established a sparkling wine
+manufactory at Slatina, where he produces a so-called
+Riesling-Champagner, and it would appear from the collection of
+Austro-Hungarian sparkling wines exhibited at Vienna by Herr Bogdan Hoff
+of Cracow, that these wines are also made at Melnik, in Bohemia, at
+Bisenz in Moravia, at Sebenicodi Maraschino in Dalmatia, at Botzen in
+the Tyrol, at Tasnad in Transylvania, and at Weiss-Kirchen in the Banat.
+All these wines had been submitted to examination at the Imperial
+Å“no-chemical laboratory at Klosterneuberg, and one was not surprised to
+find that the majority were pronounced to be of too robust a character
+for transformation into sparkling wines.</p>
+
+<p>Switzerland long since turned its attention to the manufacture of
+sparkling wines, not, however, to meet the requirements of its own
+population, but those of the many tourists with well-lined purses who
+annually explore its valleys, lakes, and mountains. Neuchâtel champagne
+has met with a certain amount of success, and at the present time there
+are a couple of establishments devoted to its production, the best known
+being that of Bouvier
+<span class = "pagenum">200</span>
+<!-- png 265 -->
+frères. There are, moreover, sparkling wine manufactories at Vevay in
+the Vaud Canton, and at Sion in the Valais. In the Canton of Neuchâtel
+the best Swiss red wines are produced&mdash;notably Cortaillod and
+Faverge of a ruby hue and Burgundy-like flavour&mdash;and the sparkling
+wine manufacturers of the district wisely blend a considerable
+proportion of wine from black grapes with that from white when making
+their <i>cuvées</i>. Vaud, on the other hand, being noted for white
+wines bearing some resemblance to certain Rhine growths, it is of these
+that sparkling wines are exclusively made at Vevay.</p>
+
+<p>The Vevay vineyards occupy the heights which skirt the Lake of Geneva
+on its northern side. The innumerable terraces, steep and difficult of
+access to the toiling vine-dresser, on which the vines are planted, are
+the result of centuries of patient labour. Here the vine seems to
+flourish at an altitude of more than 1,800 feet above the sea level. To
+compensate for the deficiency of sunshine the leaves are largely
+stripped from the vines so as to expose the fruit, and thereby assist
+its ripening.</p>
+
+<p>The sparkling wine factory at Sion, bordering the river Rhône, in the
+Canton of the Valais, was established in 1872 by MM.&nbsp;de Riedmatten
+and De Quay, who derive their raw wine from vineyards in the immediate
+neighbourhood, almost all of which have a southern exposure, and occupy
+gentle slopes. The soil chiefly consists of a decomposed limestone
+schist, locally termed “brisé.� In these vineyards, and more especially
+the district known as the Clavaux, some of the best and most alcoholic
+wines in Switzerland are produced.</p>
+
+<p>The firm originally experimented with the choicer and more powerful
+growths, and, as may be imagined, soon discovered they were not well
+adapted for conversion into sparkling wines. To-day they limit
+themselves to wines produced from what is known as the “fendant� variety
+of grape, said by some to be identical with the German riesling, and by
+others to be of the same type as the French chasselas. The vintage in
+the Valais is the earliest in Switzerland, taking place in favourable
+years at the close of September, but ordinarily in the course of
+<span class = "pagenum">201</span>
+<!-- png 266 -->
+October. Some fine white candy syrup is added to the wine at the epoch
+of bottling, in order to provoke the requisite effervescence, which it
+does so effectually that the tirage is obliged to take place some time
+between November and May, as at any other period the temperature would
+be too high and the bottles would burst. MM.&nbsp;Riedmatten and De Quay
+have two varieties of sparkling wine&mdash;their Carte Blanche, which
+goes under the name of Mont Blanc, and is rather sweet, and their Carte
+Verte known as Glacier de Rhône, a&nbsp;drier variety and finding a
+readier sale.</p>
+
+<p>Of late years, since many improvements have been effected in Italy
+both in the cultivation of the vineyards and the vintaging of the wine,
+numerous attempts have been made, although on the whole with but
+indifferent success, to produce a good sparkling wine. The principal
+seat of the manufacture is Asti, where the Societa Unione Enofila make
+considerable quantities of a common strong sweet sparkling wine, as well
+as a sparkling muscatel. Alessandria, Ancona, Bologna, Castagnolo,
+Genoa, Modena, Naples, Palermo, and Treviso also profess to make
+sparkling wines, but only in insignificant quantities. Alessandria
+produces sparkling malmsey and red sparkling brachetto; and on the
+Marquis Della Stufa’s estate of Castagnolo a sparkling wine is
+manufactured from the currajola variety of grape, one of the best in the
+Tuscan vineyards. The vines at Castagnolo are cultivated in accordance
+with the French system, and at the vintage all unripe and unsound grapes
+are thrown aside. There is an evident flavour of the muscat grape in the
+Castagnolo sparkling wine, which has the merit of lightness and of being
+well made. The alcoholic strength is equivalent to rather more than 20°
+of proof spirit, and the highest quality wine is remarkable for its
+excessive dryness in comparison with all other samples of Italian
+sparkling wines that we have met with. Naples appears to confine itself
+to producing sparkling white lacryma christi, for which, as a curiosity,
+there exists a certain demand.</p>
+
+<p>Spain of late years has shown itself equally ambitious with
+<span class = "pagenum">202</span>
+<!-- png 267 -->
+Italy to achieve distinction in the production of sparkling wines, and
+at the Paris Exhibition of 1878 there were samples from the majority of
+the wine centres skirting the Mediterranean coast, including Gerona,
+Barcelona, Tarragona, and Valencia. Other samples come from Logroño, in
+the north of Spain; and years ago sparkling wine used to be made at
+Villaviciosa, on the Bay of Biscay. To Paris there were also sent
+samples of sparkling orange wine, an agreeable beverage, and
+unquestionably preferable to the majority of Spanish sparkling wines
+composed of the juice of the grape.</p>
+
+<p>Greek sparkling wines, said to be of very fair quality, are made at
+Athens, Corinth, and Tripoliza, and are exported in moderate quantities
+to Russia. Algeria, too, is turning its attention to the production of
+sparkling wines, but solely for home consumption, and at the Paris
+Exhibition there was a sparkling wine from Uruguay, but of execrable
+quality.</p>
+
+<p>The sparkling wines of the Crimea and the Don, known in Russia
+respectively as Krimski and Donski champagnes, are described as being
+superior to much of the wine which passes in England under the name of
+champagne. In Russia it is the fashion to speak contemptuously of them,
+just as rhubarb and gooseberry champagne is spoken of in England, still
+these Crimean and Don products are genuine wines, and, though somewhat
+sweet, may be drunk with satisfaction and in moderate quantities with
+impunity. One of the best Donski brands is that of Abrahamof, and as
+much as six roubles per bottle is demanded for the finer qualities at
+Novoi Tscherkash. About a million bottles of the Donski champagne are
+exported annually, but the wine finds its principal market at the great
+Russian fairs, where almost every important bargain is “wetted� with
+sparkling Donski.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">203</span>
+<!-- png 268 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic268.png" width = "373" height = "318"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+VINTAGE SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES.</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXIX" id = "chapXIX">
+XIX.&mdash;The Sparkling Wines of the United States.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America&mdash;Failures to Acclimatise
+European Vines&mdash;Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers and the Mission
+Fathers&mdash;The Yield of the Mission Vineyards&mdash;The Monster Vine
+of the Montecito Valley&mdash;The Catawba Vine and its General
+Cultivation&mdash;Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of American
+Viticulture&mdash;Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at
+Cincinnati&mdash;Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures
+there&mdash;Longfellow’s Song in Praise of Catawba&mdash;The Kelley
+Island Wine Company&mdash;Vintaging and Treatment of their Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;Decrease of Consumption&mdash;The Vineyards of
+Hammondsport&mdash;Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling
+Wines&mdash;The Vintage&mdash;After-Treatment of the Wines&mdash;The
+Pleasant Valley and Urbana Wine Companies and their Various
+Brands&mdash;Californian Sparkling Wines&mdash;The Buena Vista
+Vinicultural Society of San Francisco&mdash;Its Early Failures and
+Eventual Success in Manufacturing Sparkling Wines&mdash;The Vintage in
+California&mdash;Chinese Vintagers&mdash;How the Wine is
+Made&mdash;American Spurious Sparkling Wines.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">From</span>
+the earliest period of the colonisation of America the vine appears to
+have attracted the attention of the settlers, and
+<span class = "pagenum">204</span>
+<!-- png 269 -->
+it is said that as early as 1564 wine was made from the native grape in
+Florida. The first attempts to establish a regular vineyard date,
+however, from 1620, and would seem to have been made in Virginia with
+European vines, the prospects having become sufficiently encouraging in
+1630 for the colonists to send for French vine-dressers to tend their
+plants. The latter were subsequently accused of ruining the vines by
+their bad treatment, but most likely this was an error, it having since
+been made evident that European vines cannot be successfully cultivated
+east of the Rocky Mountains, where the phylloxera vastatrix prevails. It
+was in vain that William Penn made repeated attempts to acclimatise
+European vines in Pennsylvania, that the Swiss
+emigrants&mdash;vine-growers from the Lake of Geneva&mdash;made similar
+trials, they having expended ten thousand dollars to no purpose. In
+vain, in Jessamine county, Kentucky, Pierre Legaud laboured in the
+environs of Philadelphia, and Lakanal, the member of the French
+Convention, experimented in Tennessee, Ohio, and Alabama; all their
+efforts to introduce the Old World vines proved futile. The attempts
+that were made by Swiss settlers at Vevay, in Indiana, with the
+indigenous plants were more successful, and after a time they managed to
+produce some palatable wine from the Schuylkill muscatel.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the latter part of the 18th century the Mission Fathers had
+succeeded in planting vineyards in California. It is known that in 1771
+the vine was cultivated there, and the San Gabriel Mission in the county
+of Los Angeles, some 300 miles S.E. of San Francisco, is said to have
+possessed the first vineyard. A&nbsp;prevalent belief is, that the vines
+were from roots or cuttings obtained from either Spain or Mexico, but it
+is also conjectured that they were some of the wild varieties known to
+be scattered over the country, while a third theory suggests that as
+attempts to make wine from the wild grapes would most likely have proved
+a failure, the Fathers planted the seeds of raisins which had come from
+Spain. The culture must have progressed rapidly, if, as stated, there
+were planted at San Gabriel in a
+<span class = "pagenum">205</span>
+<!-- png 270 -->
+single spring no fewer than 40,000 vines. These mission vines were
+mainly of two sorts, the one yielding a white grape with a musky
+flavour, and the other a dark blue fruit. The latter was the favourite,
+doubtless from its produce bearing some resemblance to the red wines of
+Old Castile.</p>
+
+<p>From San Gabriel the planting of the vine extended from mission to
+mission until each owned its patch of vineland. At the time of the
+arrival of the Americans in 1846 the smallest of these was five acres in
+extent, and others as many as thirty acres, and it is calculated the
+average yield was from 700 to 1,000 gallons of wine per acre. This was
+owing first to the exceeding richness of the soil, and secondly to its
+being well irrigated. If the celebrated mission vine grown on one of the
+sunny slopes overlooking the lovely Montecito valley near Santa Barbara
+on the blue Pacific had many fellows in the Fathers’ vineyards, the
+above estimate can hardly be an exaggerated one. The stem of this vine,
+which is four feet four inches in circumference at the ground, rises
+eight feet before branching out. The branches, under which the country
+people are fond of dancing, and which are supported by fifty-two
+trellises, extend over more than 5,000 square feet. This monster vine
+produces annually from five to six tons of grapes, and one year it
+yielded no fewer than 7,000 bunches, each from one to four pounds in
+weight. It is irrigated by water from the hot springs, situated a few
+miles distant, and is believed to be from half to three-quarters of a
+century old.</p>
+
+<p>Viticulture and vinification languished in the United States until
+attention was called in 1826 to the catawba vine by Major Adlum, of
+Georgetown, near Washington, who thought that by so doing he was
+conferring a greater benefit on his country than if he had liquidated
+its national debt. This vine, which is derived from the wild <i>Vitis
+labrusca</i>, was first planted on an extensive scale by Nicholas
+Longworth, justly looked upon as one of the founders of American
+viticulture, and gradually supplanted all others, remaining for many
+years the principal plant cultivated along the banks of the
+Ohio&mdash;the so-called
+<span class = "pagenum">206</span>
+<!-- png 271 -->
+“Rhine of America�&mdash;until, ceaselessly attacked by rot, mildew, and
+leaf-blight, it was found necessary in many places to supplant it by
+more robust varieties.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Longworth, about the year 1837, among his numerous experiments at
+Cincinnati, included that of making sparkling wines from the catawba,
+isabella, and other varieties of grapes, and to-day there are several
+manufactories of sparkling catawba and other wines in the capital of
+Ohio&mdash;the self-named “Queen city,� which its detractors have
+jocularly dubbed Porcopolis on account of the immense trade done there
+in smoked and salted pork. The chief sparkling wine establishments at
+Cincinnati are those of Messrs. Werk and Sons, whose sparkling catawba
+obtained a medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and who
+have, moreover, largely experimented with ives’ and virginia seedlings,
+delaware and other grapes, in making effervescent wines, though only
+with doubtful success. Another Cincinnati firm is that of Messrs. George
+Bogen and Co., whose sparkling wines also met with recognition at
+Vienna.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will remember Longfellow’s well-known song extolling
+catawba wine, which, with more than a poet’s licence, he ranks above the
+best of the Old World vintages:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "verse in2">
+“There grows no vine<br>
+By the haunted Rhine,</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+By Danube or Guadalquivir,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+Nor on island nor cape,<br>
+That bears such a grape</p>
+<p class = "verse last">
+As grows by the Beautiful River.</p>
+
+<p class = "verse in2">
+“Very good in its way<br>
+Is the Verzenay,</p>
+<p class = "verse">
+Or the Sillery, soft and creamy,</p>
+<p class = "verse in2">
+But Catawba wine<br>
+Has a taste more divine,</p>
+<p class = "verse last">
+More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy.�</p>
+
+<p>On Kelley’s Island, Erie county, also in the State of Ohio,
+a&nbsp;wine company, established in 1866, and trading principally in
+still wines, makes sparkling wines upon a considerable scale exclusively
+from the catawba variety of grape, which is cultivated in its highest
+perfection both on the islands of Lake Erie and along a narrow
+<span class = "pagenum">207</span>
+<!-- png 272 -->
+slip of territory not two miles long bordering the southern shore of the
+lake, and also in the vicinity of Lake Keuka, near Hammondsport, N.Y.
+The Kelley Island Wine Company, as it is styled, presses the grapes
+between the middle of October and the end of November, and bottles from
+about the 20th May until the commencement of July in the year following.
+Its brands are Island Queen, Nonpareil, and Carte Blanche. Ninety-five
+per cent. of the wines are dry, and the tendency of the market is in
+favour of a still drier article. Shipments are principally confined to
+the United States, the great centre of the trade being St. Louis, on the
+Mississippi, which has its own sparkling wine establishments, and to-day
+disputes with Chicago the title of Queen of the West. The company keep
+some 100,000 bottles of sparkling wines in stock, and possess facilities
+for bottling five times that quantity whenever the demand might warrant
+such a step being taken. Of recent years, however, economy has been the
+rule in American society, and the market for native sparkling wines at
+any rate is to-day a reduced one.</p>
+
+<p>At Hammondsport, south of Lake Keuka&mdash;in other words, Crooked
+Lake&mdash;and in the State of New York, the establishments of the
+Pleasant Valley and Urbana wine companies, devoting their attention to
+both still and sparkling wines, are installed. The region, which
+enthusiastic writers now term the Champagne of America, was colonised in
+1793, and vines of the catawba and isabella varieties were first planted
+for the purpose of making wine in 1854. At the present time there are
+about 8,000 acres under cultivation with all the better species of
+vines. The produce from black and white grapes is mingled for the
+sparkling wines of the district. Of the former but two kinds are
+considered suitable, the concord and the isabella, both being varieties
+of the indigenous labrusca, or so-called foxy-flavoured grape. The
+concord is a hardy and productive plant, producing large and compact
+bunches of large round sweet grapes, yielding a wine of the obnoxious
+foxy flavour. The isabella is an equally hardy and productive variety,
+and its bunches are of good size, although not compact. Its berries,
+<span class = "pagenum">208</span>
+<!-- png 273 -->
+too, are large, oval, and juicy, and marked by a strong musky aroma.</p>
+
+<p>Of the white, or rather pale-coloured grapes&mdash;for their hue is
+usually a reddish one&mdash;used for sparkling wines, the principal is
+the catawba, also of the labrusca variety. The branches are large and
+tolerably compact; the berries, too, are above the medium size, and have
+a rich vinous and pronounced musky flavour. Other so-called white
+species of grapes are the diana and the iona, both, of them seedlings of
+the catawba; the delaware, the bunches of which are rather small but
+compact, the berries round, extremely juicy and fresh-tasting, but sweet
+and aromatic, the wine produced from which is noted for its fragrant
+bouquet; and, lastly, the walter, a&nbsp;variety obtained by crossing
+the delaware with the diana. The bunches and berries of the walter are
+of medium size; the flavour, like that of the delaware, is sweet and
+aromatic; and the grape is, moreover, remarkable for its agreeable
+bouquet.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic273.png" width = "363" height = "249"
+alt = "grape mill: see following text">
+</p>
+
+<p>The vintage usually commences about the end of September or the
+commencement of October, and the grapes, after being carefully sorted,
+are run through a small mill, which breaks the
+<span class = "pagenum">209</span>
+<!-- png 274 -->
+skins, and admits of the juice running the more readily out when the
+fruit is placed beneath the press. The latter is worked with a metal
+screw, and the must is conducted through pipes or hose to casks holding
+from two to four thousand gallons each, in which it ferments. During the
+following May the wine is carefully blended, and the operation of
+bottling commences and lasts for about two or three months. The
+newly-bottled wine is at first stored in a warm place in order to start
+the fermentation again, and when the bottles commence to burst it is
+removed to the subterranean vaults, where it remains stacked in a
+horizontal fashion until the time arrives to force the sediment down
+upon the corks. This is accomplished precisely as in the Champagne, the
+subsequent disgorging and liqueuring being also effected according to
+the orthodox French system. Altogether a couple of years elapse between
+the epoch of bottling and shipment, and during this interval each bottle
+is handled upwards of two hundred times.</p>
+
+<p>The Pleasant Valley Wine Company, established in 1860 for the
+commerce of still wines, in which it continues to do an extensive
+business, commenced five years later to make sparkling wines. It grows
+its own grapes and consumes annually about 1,500 tons of fruit, bottling
+from 200,000 to 300,000 bottles of sparkling wine in the course of the
+year. Its brands are the Great Western, of which there is a dry and an
+extra dry variety, the Carte Blanche, and the Pleasant Valley. Even the
+extra dry variety of the first-named wine tastes sweet in comparison
+with a moderately dry champagne, in addition to which its flavour,
+though agreeable, is certainly too pronounced for a sparkling wine of
+high quality. The wines, which secured a medal for progress at the
+Vienna Exhibition of 1873, are sold in every city in the United States,
+and the company also does a small but increasing trade with England and
+South America.</p>
+
+<p>The Urbana Wine Company, also established at Hammondsport at the same
+epoch as its rival, deals, like the latter, in still wines as well. It
+has three brands&mdash;the Gold Seal, of which
+<span class = "pagenum">210</span>
+<!-- png 275 -->
+there is an extra dry variety, the Imperial, and the Royal Rose. At
+Vienna a diploma of merit was awarded to these wines, for which a
+considerable market is found throughout the United States and in the
+West Indies and South America. The Urbana Wine Company produces
+excellent sparkling wines of singular lightness and of delicate though
+distinctive flavour. In our judgment the drier varieties are greatly to
+be preferred. The prices of all the American sparkling wines are
+certainly high, being almost equivalent to the price of first-class
+champagnes taken at Reims and Epernay.</p>
+
+<p>In California the manufacture of sparkling wines is carried on with
+considerable success, and at the Vienna Exhibition the Buena Vista
+Vinicultural Society of San Francisco was awarded a medal for progress
+for the excellent samples it sent there. The society was originally
+organised by Colonel Haraszthy, the pioneer in recent times of
+Californian viticulture. It commenced manufacturing sparkling wines with
+the assistance of experienced workmen from Epernay and Ay; but the
+endeavours, extending over some three or four years, were attended with
+but indifferent success, very few <i>cuvées</i> proving of fair quality,
+whilst with the majority the wine had to be emptied from the bottles and
+distilled into brandy. The son of Colonel Haraszthy subsequently
+succeeded, in conjunction with Mr. Isidor Landsberger, of San Francisco,
+in discovering the cause of these failures, and for ten years past the
+wine has been constantly improving in quality owing to the increased use
+of foreign grapes, which yield a <i>vin brut</i> with a delicate bouquet
+and flavour approaching in character to the finer champagnes. The wine
+is perfectly pure, no flavouring extracts or spirit being employed in
+the composition of the liqueur, which, is composed merely of sugar-candy
+dissolved in fine old wine. A&nbsp;French connoisseur pronounces
+sparkling Sonoma to be the best of American sparkling wines, “clean and
+fresh, tasting, with the flavour of a middle-class Ay growth, as well as
+remarkably light and delicate, and possessed of considerable
+effervescence.� The Sonoma valley vineyards produce the lightest wines
+of all the Californian growths, some
+<span class = "pagenum">211</span>
+<!-- png 276 -->
+of the white varieties indicating merely 15° of proof spirit, and the
+red ones no more than 17½°.</p>
+
+<p>The vintage takes place towards the end of October, and the grapes
+are gathered by Chinamen, who will each pick his 12 to 14 cwt. of grapes
+a day for the wage of a dollar. Light wooden boxes are used for holding
+the grapes, which are stripped from their stalks on their arrival at the
+press-house, and then partially crushed by a couple of revolving
+rollers. An inclined platform beneath receives them, and after the
+expressed juice has been run off into cask they are removed to the
+press, and the must subsequently extracted is added to that forced out
+by the rollers. When white wine is being made from black grapes the
+pressure is less continuous, and the must is of course separated at once
+from the skins. The fermentation, which is violent for some ten or
+twelve hours, ceases in about a fortnight, providing a temperature of
+from 70° to 75° Fahr. is maintained in the vaults. The wine is racked at
+the new year, and again before the blending and bottling of it in the
+spring.</p>
+
+<p>The Californian sparkling wines not only find a market in the eastern
+States, but are sent across the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands, Japan,
+China, and even to wine-producing Australia, which has not yet succeeded
+in producing sparkling wines of its own.</p>
+
+<p>The manufacture of spurious sparkling wines is carried on to some
+extent in the United States. The raw wine is cleared by fining it with
+albumen or gelatine and with alum; the latter substance imparting to it
+great brilliancy. After being dosed with a flavoured syrup the wine is
+charged like soda-water with carbonic acid gas by placing the bottles
+under a fountain, and as this gas is derived from marble dust and
+sulphuric acid, it is liable to be impregnated with both lead and
+copper, which have the effect of disorganising alike the wine and the
+consumers of it&mdash;nausea, headache, and other ills resulting from
+drinking sparkling wines made under such conditions.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">212</span>
+<!-- png 277 -->
+
+<p class = "illustration chapter">
+<img src = "images/pic277.png" width = "343" height = "320"
+alt = "lady accepting champagne">
+</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "chapXX" id = "chapXX">
+XX.&mdash;Concluding Facts and Hints.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "summary">
+Dry and Sweet Champagnes&mdash;Their Sparkling Properties&mdash;Form of
+Champagne Glasses&mdash;Style of Sparkling Wines Consumed in Different
+Countries&mdash;The Colour and Alcoholic Strength of
+Champagne&mdash;Champagne Approved of by the Faculty&mdash;Its Use in
+Nervous Derangements&mdash;The Icing of Champagne&mdash;Scarcity of
+Grand Vintages in the Champagne&mdash;The Quality of the Wine has little
+influence on the Price&mdash;Prices realised by the Ay and Verzenay Crûs
+in Grand Years&mdash;Suggestions for Laying down Champagnes of Grand
+Vintages&mdash;The Improvement they Develop after a few Years&mdash;The
+Wine of 1874&mdash;The proper kind of Cellar to lay down Champagne
+in&mdash;Advantages of Burrow’s Patent Slider Wine Bins&mdash;Increase
+in the Consumption of Champagne&mdash;Tabular Statement of Stocks,
+Exports, and Home Consumption from 1844-5 to 1877-8&mdash;When to Serve
+Champagne at a Dinner Party&mdash;Charles Dickens’s dictum that its
+proper place is at a Ball&mdash;Advantageous Effect of Champagne at an
+ordinary British Dinner Party&mdash;Sparkling Wine Cups.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">When</span>
+selecting a sparkling wine one fact should be borne in mind&mdash;that
+just as, according to Sam Weller, it is the seasoning which makes the
+pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine
+dry or sweet, light or strong. A&nbsp;really
+<span class = "pagenum">213</span>
+<!-- png 278 -->
+palatable dry champagne, emitting the fragrant bouquet which
+distinguishes all wines of fine quality, free from added spirit, is
+obliged to be made of the very best <i>vin brut</i>, to which
+necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of liqueur will be added. On
+the other hand, a&nbsp;sweet champagne can be produced from the most
+ordinary raw wine&mdash;the Yankees even claim to have evolved it from
+petroleum&mdash;as the amount of liqueur it receives completely masks
+its original character and flavour. This excess of syrup, it should be
+remarked, contributes materially to the wine’s explosive force and
+temporary effervescence, but shortly after the bottle has been uncorked
+the wine becomes disagreeably flat. A&nbsp;fine dry wine, indebted as it
+is for its sparkling properties to the natural sweetness of the grape,
+does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent effervescence. It continues
+to sparkle, however, for a long time after being poured into the glass
+owing to the carbonic acid having been absorbed by the wine itself
+instead of being accumulated in the vacant space between the liquid and
+the cork, as is the case with wines that have been highly liqueured.
+Even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted a good champagne will
+preserve its fine flavour, which the effervescence will have assisted to
+conceal. Champagne, it should be noted, sparkles best in tall tapering
+glasses; still these have their disadvantages, promoting as they do an
+excess of froth when the wine is poured into them, and almost preventing
+any bouquet which the wine possesses from being recognised.</p>
+
+<p>Manufacturers of champagne and other sparkling wines prepare them dry
+or sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are
+designed. The sweet wines go to Russia and Germany, the sweet-toothed
+Muscovite regarding M.&nbsp;Louis Roederer’s syrupy product as the
+<i>beau-idéal</i> of champagne, and the Germans demanding wines with 20
+or more per cent. of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quantity that is
+contained in the average champagnes shipped to England. France consumes
+light and moderately sweet wines; the United States gives a preference
+to the intermediate qualities; China, India, and other hot countries
+stipulate for light dry wines; while the very strong
+<span class = "pagenum">214</span>
+<!-- png 279 -->
+ones go to Australia, the Cape, and other places where gold and diamonds
+and such-like trifles are from time to time “prospected.� Not merely the
+driest but the very best wines of the best manufacturers, and commanding
+of course the highest prices, are invariably reserved for the English
+market. Foreigners cannot understand the marked preference shown in
+England for exceedingly dry sparkling wines. They do not consider that
+as a rule they are drunk during dinner with the <i>plats</i>, and not at
+dessert, with all kinds of sweets, fruits, and ices, as is almost
+invariably the case abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Good champagne is usually of a pale straw colour, but with nothing of
+a yellow tinge about it. When its tint is pinkish this is owing to a
+portion of the colouring matter having been extracted from the skins of
+the grapes&mdash;a&nbsp;contingency which every pains are taken to
+avoid, although, since the success achieved by the wine of 1874,
+slightly pink wines are likely to be the fashion. The positive pink or
+rose-coloured champagnes, such as were in fashion some thirty years ago,
+are simply tinted with a small quantity of deep red wine. The alcoholic
+strength of the drier wines ranges from 18° of proof spirit upwards, or
+slightly above the ordinary Bordeaux, and under all the better-class
+Rhine wines. Champagnes when loaded with a highly alcoholized liqueur
+will, however, at times mark 30 degrees of proof spirit. The lighter and
+drier the sparkling wine the more wholesome it is, the saccharine
+element in conjunction with alcohol being not only difficult of
+digestion, but generally detrimental to health.</p>
+
+<p>The faculty are agreed that fine dry champagnes are among the safest
+wines that can be partaken of. Any intoxicating effects are rapid but
+exceedingly transient, and arise from the alcohol suspended in the
+carbonic acid being applied rapidly and extensively to the surface of
+the stomach. “Champagne,� said Curran, “simply gives a runaway rap at a
+man’s head.� Dr. Druitt, equally distinguished by his studies upon wine
+and his standing as a physician, pronounces good champagne to be “a true
+stimulant to body and mind alike, rapid, volatile, transitory, and
+harmless. Amongst the maladies which are benefited by
+<span class = "pagenum">215</span>
+<!-- png 280 -->
+it,� remarks he, “is the true neuralgia, intermitting fits of
+excruciating pain running along certain nerves, without inflammation of
+the affected part, often a consequence of malaria, or of some other low
+and exhausting causes. To enumerate the cases in which champagne is of
+service would be to give a whole nosology. Who does not know the misery,
+the helplessness of that abominable ailment, influenza, whether a severe
+cold or the genuine epidemic? Let the faculty dispute about the best
+remedy if they please; but a sensible man with a bottle of champagne
+will beat them all. Moreover, whenever there is pain, with exhaustion
+and lowness, then Dr. Champagne should be had up. There is something
+excitant in the wine; doubly so in the sparkling wine, which the moment
+it touches the lips sends an electric telegram of comfort to every
+remote nerve. Nothing comforts and rests the stomach better, or is a
+greater antidote to nausea.�</p>
+
+<p>Champagne of fine quality should never be mixed with ice or iced
+water; neither should it be iced to the extent champagnes ordinarily
+are, for, in the first place, the natural lightness of the wine is such
+as not to admit of its being diluted without utterly spoiling it, and in
+the next, excessive cold destroys alike the fragrant bouquet of the wine
+and its delicate vinous flavour. Really good champagne should not be
+iced below a temperature of 50° Fahr., whereas exceedingly sweet wines
+will bear icing down almost to freezing point, and be rendered more
+palatable by the process. The above remarks apply to all kinds of
+sparkling wine.</p>
+
+<p>In the Champagne what may be termed a really grand vintage commonly
+occurs only once, and never more than twice, in ten years. During the
+same period, however, there will generally be one or two other tolerably
+good vintages. In grand years the crop, besides being of superior
+quality, is usually abundant, and as a consequence the price of the raw
+wine is scarcely higher than usual. Apparently from this circumstance
+the sparkling wine of grand vintages does not command an enhanced value,
+as is the case with other fine wines. It is only when speculators
+recklessly outbid each other for the grapes or
+<span class = "pagenum">216</span>
+<!-- png 281 -->
+the <i>vin brut</i>, or when stocks are low and the <i>vin brut</i> is
+really scarce, that the price of champagne appears to rise.</p>
+
+<p>That superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by
+the amounts paid for the Ay and Verzenay crûs in years of grand
+vintages. During the present century these appear to have been 1802,
+’06, ’11, ’18, ’22, ’25, ’34, ’42, ’46, ’57, ’65, ’68, and
+’74&mdash;that is, thirteen grand vintages in nearly eighty years. Other
+good vintages, although not equal to the foregoing, occurred in the
+years 1815, ’32, ’39, ’52, ’54, ’58, ’62, ’64, and ’70. Confining
+ourselves to the grand years, we find that the Ay wine of 1834, owing to
+the crop being plentiful as well as good, only realised from 110 to 140
+francs the pièce of 44 gallons, although for two years previously this
+had fetched from 150 to 200 francs. In 1842 the price ranged from 120 to
+150 francs, whereas the vastly inferior wine of the year before had
+commanded from 210 to 275 francs. In 1846, the crop being a small one,
+the price of the wine rose, and in 1857 the pièce fetched as much as
+from 480 to 500 francs, still this was merely a trifle higher than it
+had realised the two preceding years. In 1865 the price was 380 to 400
+francs, and in 1868 about the same, whereas the indifferent vintages of
+1871, ’72, and ’73 realised from 500 to 1,000 francs the pièce. It was
+very similar with the wine of Verzenay. In 1834 the price of the pièce
+ranged from 280 to 325 francs, or about the average of the three
+preceding years. In 1846, the crop being scarce, the price rose
+considerably, while in 1857, when the crop was plentiful, it fell to 500
+francs, or from 5 to 20 per cent. below that of the two previous years,
+when the yield was both inferior and less abundant. In 1865 the price
+rose 33 per cent. above that of the year before; still, although
+Verzenay wine of 1865 and 1868 fetched from 420 to 450 francs the pièce,
+and that of 1874 as much as 900 francs, the greatly inferior vintages of
+1872-73 commanded 900 and 1,030 francs the pièce.</p>
+
+<p>Consumers of champagne, if wise, would profit by the circumstance
+that quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, and if they
+were bent upon drinking their favourite wine in perfection,
+<span class = "pagenum">217</span>
+<!-- png 282 -->
+as one meets with it at the dinner-tables of the principal
+manufacturers, who only put old wine of grand vintages before their
+guests, they would lay down champagnes of good years in the same way as
+the choicer vintages of port, burgundy, and bordeaux are laid down.
+Champagne of 1874 was a wine of this description, with all its finer
+vinous qualities well developed, and consequently needing age to attain
+not merely the roundness but the refinement of flavour pertaining to a
+high-class sparkling wine. Instead of being drunk a few months after it
+was shipped in the spring and summer of 1877, as was the fate of much of
+the wine in question, it needed being kept for three years at the very
+least to become even moderately round and perfect. In the Champagne one
+had many opportunities of tasting the grander vintages that had arrived
+at ten, twelve, or fifteen years of age, and had thereby attained
+supreme excellence. It is true their effervescence had moderated
+materially, but their bouquet and flavour were perfect, and their
+softness and delicacy something marvellous.</p>
+
+<p class = "figfloat">
+<img src = "images/pic283-1.png" width = "135" height = "220"
+alt = "slider bins: see text">
+</p>
+
+<p>A great wine like that of 1874 will go on improving for ten years,
+providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. These are,
+first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of
+which should be as low as from 50° to 55° Fahr., or even lower if this
+is practicable. The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light,
+scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be
+continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their
+sides to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the
+carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down champagne
+or any kind of sparkling wine an iron wine-bin is by far the best.
+I&nbsp;much prefer the patent “slider� bins made by Messrs.
+W.&nbsp;and&nbsp;J. Burrow, of Malvern, they being better adapted to the
+purpose than any other I am acquainted with. In these the bottles rest
+on horizontal parallel bars of wrought-iron, securely riveted into
+strong wrought-iron uprights, both at the back and in front. The bins
+can be obtained of any size&mdash;that is, to hold as few as two or as
+many as forty dozen&mdash;and they
+<span class = "pagenum">218</span>
+<!-- png 283 -->
+can be had furnished with lattice doors, secured by a lock. One great
+advantage is that with them there is no waste of space, for individual
+compartments can be at once refilled with fresh bottles after the other
+bottles have been removed. These “slider� bins are especially adapted
+for laying down champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely
+around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil
+round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and
+equable.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic283-2.png" width = "376" height = "238"
+alt = "see caption">
+</p>
+
+<p class = "caption">
+WINE-CELLAR FITTED WITH BURROW’S PATENT SLIDER BINS.</p>
+
+<p>When binning the wine the bottles are held by their necks and slid
+into their places with such ease and safety that a child might be
+entrusted with the work. The bottles can be withdrawn from the bin with
+equal or even greater facility. Breakage is avoided from each bottle
+having an independent bearing, which prevents the upper bottles from
+either falling
+<span class = "pagenum">219</span>
+<!-- png 284 -->
+or weighing down upon those below, and thereby crashing together. The
+larger engraving shows a wine-cellar fitted up entirely with. Burrow’s
+patent “slider� wine-bins, while the smaller represents a bin adapted to
+laying down twenty dozens of champagne, and the dimensions of which are
+merely 5&nbsp;feet 8&nbsp;inches by 3&nbsp;feet.</p>
+
+<p>From the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption
+<span class = "pagenum">220</span>
+<!-- png 285 -->
+of champagne has almost trebled since the year 1844-5, a&nbsp;period of
+little more than thirty years. Another curious fact to note is the
+immense increase in the exports of the wine during the three years
+following the Franco-German war, when naturally both the exports and
+home consumption of champagne fell off very considerably. No reliable
+information is available as to the actual quantity of champagne consumed
+yearly in England, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four
+millions of bottles. The consumption of the wine in the United States
+varies from rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million
+bottles annually.</p>
+
+
+<table class = "stats" summary = "numbers">
+<!-- from page 219 bottom -->
+<tr>
+<td class = "top smallcaps" colspan = "5">
+<a name = "stats" id = "stats">
+Official Return by the Chamber of Commerce at Reims of The Trade in
+Champagne Wines From April, 1844, To April, 1878.</a>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "Year">Years, from April to April.</th>
+<th abbr = "Stocks">Manufacturers’ Stocks.</th>
+<th abbr = "Exports">Number of Bottles Exported.</th>
+<th abbr = "Sold in France">Number of Bottles sold in France.</th>
+<th abbr = "Total bottles">Total number of Bottles Sold.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1844-45</td>
+<td>23,285,218</td>
+<td>4,380,214</td>
+<td>2,255,438</td>
+<td>6,635,652</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1845-46</td>
+<td>22,847,971</td>
+<td>4,505,308</td>
+<td>2,510,605</td>
+<td>7,015,913</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1846-47</td>
+<td>18,815,367</td>
+<td>4,711,915</td>
+<td>2,355,366</td>
+<td>7,067,281</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1847-48</td>
+<td>23,122,994</td>
+<td>4,859,625</td>
+<td>2,092,571</td>
+<td>6,952,196</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1848-49</td>
+<td>21,290,185</td>
+<td>5,686,484</td>
+<td>1,473,966</td>
+<td>7,160,450</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1849-50</td>
+<td>20,499,192</td>
+<td>5,001,044</td>
+<td>1,705,735</td>
+<td>6,706,779</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1850-51</td>
+<td>20,444,915</td>
+<td>5,866,971</td>
+<td>2,122,569</td>
+<td>7,989,540</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1851-52</td>
+<td>21,905,479</td>
+<td>5,957,552</td>
+<td>2,162,880</td>
+<td>8,120,432</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1852-53</td>
+<td>19,376,967</td>
+<td>6,355,574</td>
+<td>2,385,217</td>
+<td>8,740,790</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1853-54</td>
+<td>17,757,769</td>
+<td>7,878,320</td>
+<td>2,528,719</td>
+<td>10,407,039</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1854-55</td>
+<td>20,922,959</td>
+<td>6,895,773</td>
+<td>2,452,743</td>
+<td>9,348,516</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1855-56</td>
+<td>15,957,141</td>
+<td>7,137,001</td>
+<td>2,562,039</td>
+<td>9,699,040</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1856-57</td>
+<td>15,228,294</td>
+<td>8,490,198</td>
+<td>2,468,818</td>
+<td>10,959,016</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1857-58</td>
+<td>21,628,778</td>
+<td>7,368,310</td>
+<td>2,421,454</td>
+<td>9,789,764</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1858-59</td>
+<td>28,328,251</td>
+<td>7,666,633</td>
+<td>2,805,416</td>
+<td>10,472,049</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1859-60</td>
+<td>35,648,124</td>
+<td>8,265,395</td>
+<td>3,039,621</td>
+<td>11,305,016</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1860-61</td>
+<td>30,235,260</td>
+<td>8,488,223</td>
+<td>2,697,508</td>
+<td>11,185,731</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1861-62</td>
+<td>30,254,291</td>
+<td>6,904,915</td>
+<td>2,592,875</td>
+<td>9,497,790</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1862-63</td>
+<td>28,013,189</td>
+<td>7,937,836</td>
+<td>2,767,371</td>
+<td>10,705,207</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1863-64</td>
+<td>28,466,975</td>
+<td>9,851,138</td>
+<td>2,934,996</td>
+<td>12,786,134</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1864-65</td>
+<td>33,298,672</td>
+<td>9,101,441</td>
+<td>2,801,626</td>
+<td>11,903,067</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1865-66</td>
+<td>34,175,429</td>
+<td>10,413,455</td>
+<td>2,782,777</td>
+<td>13,196,132</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1866-67</td>
+<td>37,608,716</td>
+<td>10,283,886</td>
+<td>3,218,343</td>
+<td>13,502,229</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1867-68</td>
+<td>37,969,219</td>
+<td>10,876,585</td>
+<td>2,924,268</td>
+<td>13,800,853</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1868-69</td>
+<td>32,490,881</td>
+<td>12,810,194</td>
+<td>3,104,496</td>
+<td>15,914,690</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1869-70</td>
+<td>39,272,562</td>
+<td>13,858,839</td>
+<td>3,628,461</td>
+<td>17,487,300</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1870-71</td>
+<td>39,984,003</td>
+<td>7,544,323</td>
+<td>1,633,941</td>
+<td>9,178,264</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1871-72</td>
+<td>40,099,243</td>
+<td>17,001,124</td>
+<td>3,367,537</td>
+<td>20,368,661</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1872-73</td>
+<td>45,329,490</td>
+<td>18,917,779</td>
+<td>3,464,059</td>
+<td>22,381,838</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1873-74</td>
+<td>46,573,974</td>
+<td>18,106,310</td>
+<td>2,491,759</td>
+<td>20,598,069</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1874-75</td>
+<td>52,733,674</td>
+<td>15,318,345</td>
+<td>3,517,182</td>
+<td>18,835,527</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1875-76</td>
+<td>64,658,767</td>
+<td>16,705,719</td>
+<td>2,439,762</td>
+<td>19,145,481</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1876-77</td>
+<td>71,398,726</td>
+<td>15,882,964</td>
+<td>3,127,991</td>
+<td>19,010,955</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1877-78</td>
+<td>70,183,863</td>
+<td>15,711,651</td>
+<td>2,450,983</td>
+<td>18,162,634</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment
+when champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. Dyspeptic Mr.
+Walker, of “The Original,� laid it down that champagne ought to be
+introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the
+viands it may chance to accompany. “Give champagne,� he says, “at the
+beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the
+guests, after which they will seldom flag. No other wine produces an
+equal effect in increasing the success of a party&mdash;it invariably
+turns the balance to the favourable side. When champagne goes rightly
+nothing can well go wrong.� These precepts are sound enough, still all
+dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not
+invariably mutes. Before champagne can be properly introduced at a
+formal dinner the conventional glass of sherry or madeira should
+supplement the soup, a&nbsp;white French or a Rhine wine accompany the
+fish, and a single glass of bordeaux prepare the way with the first
+<i>entrée</i> for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two,
+should be served, briskly and liberally. A&nbsp;wine introduced thus
+early at the repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate,
+moderately&nbsp;so.</p>
+
+<p>We certainly do not approve of Mr. Charles Dickens’s dictum that
+champagne’s proper place is not at the dinner-table, but solely at a
+ball. “A&nbsp;cavalier,� he said, “may appropriately offer at propitious
+intervals a glass now and then to his danceress. There it takes its
+fitting rank and position amongst feathers, gauzes,
+<span class = "pagenum">221</span>
+<!-- png 286 -->
+lace, embroidery, ribbons, white satin, shoes, and eau-de-Cologne, for
+champagne is simply one of the elegant extras of life.� This is all very
+well, still the advantageous effect of sparkling wine at an ordinary
+British dinner-party, composed as it frequently is of people pitchforked
+together in accordance with the exigencies of the hostess’s
+visiting-list, cannot be <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "spelling unchanged">gainsayed</ins>.
+After the preliminary glowering at each
+other, <i>more Britannico</i>, in the drawing-room, everybody regards it
+as a relief to be summoned to the repast, which, however, commences as
+chillily as the soup and as stolidly as the salmon. The soul of the
+hostess is heavy with the anxiety of prospective dishes, the brow of the
+host is clouded with the reflection that our rulers are bent upon
+dragging us into war. Placed between a young lady just out and a dowager
+of grimly Gorgonesque aspect, you hesitate how to open a conversation.
+Your first attempts, like those of the Russian batteries on the Danube,
+are singularly ineffectual, only eliciting a dropping fire of
+monosyllables. You envy the placidly languid young gentleman opposite,
+limp as his fast-fading camellia, and seated next to Belle Breloques,
+who is certain, in racing parlance, to make the running for him. But
+even that damsel seems preoccupied with her fan, and, despite her
+<i>aplomb</i>, hesitates to break the icy silence. The two City friends
+of the host are lost in mute speculation as to the future price of
+indigo or Ionian Bank shares, while their wives seem to be mentally
+summarising the exact cost of each other’s toilettes. Their daughters,
+or somebody else’s daughters, are desperately jerking out monosyllabic
+responses to feeble remarks concerning the weather, lawn tennis,
+operatic <i>débutantes</i>, the gravel in the Row, the ill-health of the
+Princess, and kindred topics from a couple of F.O. men. Little Snapshot,
+the wit, on the other side of the Gorgon, has tried to lead up to a
+story, but has found himself, as it were, frozen in the bud. When lo!
+the butler softly sibillates in your ear the magic word “champagne,� and
+as it flows, creaming and frothing, into your glass, a&nbsp;change comes
+over the spirit of your vision.</p>
+
+<p>The hostess brightens, the host coruscates. The young lady
+<span class = "pagenum">222</span>
+<!-- png 287 -->
+on your right suddenly develops into a charming girl, with becoming
+appreciation of your pet topics and an astounding aptness for repartee.
+The Gorgon thaws, and implores Mr. Snapshot, whose jests are popping as
+briskly as the corks, not to be so dreadfully funny, or he will
+positively kill her. Belle Breloques can always talk, and now her tongue
+rattles faster than ever, till the languid one arouses himself like a
+giant refreshed, and gives her as good as he gets. The City men
+expatiate in cabalistic language on the merits of some mysterious
+speculation, the prospective returns from which increase with each fresh
+bottle. One of their wives is discussing the E.C.U. and the S.S.C. with
+a hitherto silent curate, and the other is jabbering botany to a
+red-faced warrior. The juniors are in full swing, and ripples of silvery
+laughter rise in accompaniment to the beaded bubbles all round the
+table. And all this is due to champagne, that great unloosener not
+merely of tongues but of purse-strings, as is well known to the
+secretaries of those charitable institutions which set the wine flowing
+earliest at their anniversary dinners.</p>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<p><a name = "recipes" id = "recipes">A few recipes</a> for sparkling
+wine cups gathered from various sources will conclude our work. Not
+having personally tested these we leave the responsibility of them to
+their respective authors&mdash;Soyer, Tovey, Terrington (“Cooling Cups
+and Dainty Drinks�), &amp;c.&mdash;premising that it is the merest folly
+to use a high-class champagne or a fine sparkling hock for a beverage of
+this description. Sparkling saumur, or the newly-introduced sparkling
+sauternes, and the cheaper hocks and moselles, will do equally well at a
+greatly reduced cost. In all cases, too, the kind of liqueur, the amount
+of sugar, and the flavouring with borage, verbena, pine-apple, or
+cucumber, may be varied to suit individual tastes. For soda or seltzer
+water we have invariably substituted Apollinaris, which is far better
+adapted for effervescent drinks of this description by reason of its
+purity and softness, its freedom from any distinct flavour, and above
+all its powerful natural effervescence.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">223</span>
+<!-- png 288 -->
+Soyer’s elaborate recipe for champagne cup for a large party is as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Prepare three ounces of oleo-saccharine by rubbing some lumps of sugar
+against the outside of a lemon or Seville orange and scraping away the
+sugar as it absorbs the essential oil contained in the rind of the
+fruit. Put the oleo-saccharine with the juice of four lemons in a
+vessel, add a quart bottle of Apollinaris water (Soyer says soda-water,
+but Apollinaris is certainly preferable), and stir well together until
+the sugar is dissolved. Then pour in one quart of syrup of orgeat and
+whip the mixture up well with an egg whisk in order to whiten it. Next
+add a pint of cognac brandy, a&nbsp;quarter of a pint of Jamaica rum and
+half a pint of maraschino; strain the whole into a bowl, adding plenty
+of pounded ice if the weather is warm, and pour in three bottles of
+champagne, stirring the mixture well with the ladle while doing so in
+order to render the cup creamy and mellow.</p>
+
+<p>A less potent and pretentious beverage, and better suited for a
+summer drink, is the subjoined:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar in a quart of Apollinaris
+water. Add a wineglass of <ins class = "mycorr"
+title = "spelling unchanged">curaçoa</ins>,
+a sprig of green borage or a couple of slices
+of cucumber with the juice and fine shavings of the outside peel of a
+lemon, and a pound of bruised ice. After the whole has been well stirred
+pour in the champagne and serve.</p>
+
+<p>Other recipes are as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Prepare an ounce of oleo-saccharine, add to it a large wineglass of
+maraschino, a&nbsp;liqueur glass of cognac, and the juice of half a
+lemon. Mix well together, and add several slices of pine-apple, and a
+large lump or two of ice. On to this pour first a large bottle of
+Apollinaris water, and next a bottle of sparkling wine.</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Mix with the contents of a bottle of chablis or sauternes a liqueur
+glass of chartreuse and a tablespoonful or two of powdered loaf sugar.
+When the latter is dissolved throw in a pound and a half of pounded ice
+and a sprig of borage. Pour over these a quart of Apollinaris water and
+a bottle of sparkling saumur. For the chablis or sauternes half a bottle
+of light claret may be substituted.</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+To a gill of good pale sherry add a liqueur glass of maraschino and a
+few lumps of sugar which have been well rubbed over the rind of a
+Seville orange, the juice of which is also to be added to the mixture.
+After the sugar is dissolved throw in a sprig of borage or a slice or
+two of cucumber and some pounded ice. Then add a quart bottle of
+Apollinaris water and a bottle of champagne or some other sparkling
+wine.</p>
+
+<p>The following cup for a party of twenty is said to be of Russian
+inspiration:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Pour on to some sprigs of borage or a few slices of cucumber a pint of
+sherry and half a pint of brandy, then rub off the fine outside peel of
+a lemon with a few lumps of sugar, and add these with the strained juice
+of the lemon and of three oranges. Pour into the mixture half a pint of
+<ins class = "mycorr" title = "spelling unchanged">curaçoa</ins>,
+a&nbsp;wineglass of noyau, a&nbsp;couple of bottles of German
+seltzer-water, three bottles of soda-water, and three bottles of
+champagne. Sweeten and ice to taste.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">224</span>
+<!-- png 289 -->
+Here is a recipe for a cup made with chablis and sparkling red
+burgundy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+With a bottle of chablis mix a liqueur-glass of chartreuse and then
+dissolve in it some powdered sugar. Add two pounds of ice in largish
+lumps, a&nbsp;slice or two of cucumber, and a sprig of lemon-scented
+verbena, or substitute for these a few slices of pine-apple. Pour in a
+quart bottle of Apollinaris water, mix well together, and add a bottle
+of sparkling burgundy just before serving.</p>
+
+<p>The following refer to sparkling hock and moselle cups:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+To a bottle of sparkling hock add a quarter of a pint of lemon water ice
+and a liqueur glass of pine-apple syrup. After mixing them add a slice
+of cucumber, a&nbsp;lump or two of ice, and a bottle of Apollinaris
+water.</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Add to the strained juice of a couple of lemons an ounce and a half or
+more of powdered loaf sugar and a wineglass of maraschino. Mix well, and
+pour in a couple of bottles of iced sparkling hock and a large bottle of
+iced Apollinaris water.</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+Dissolve a couple of ounces of sugar in a gill of dry sherry, add the
+thin peel of half an orange, a&nbsp;few slices of pine-apple, peaches,
+or apricots, with some pounded ice, and then pour in a bottle of
+sparkling moselle and a bottle of Apollinaris water.</p>
+
+<p class = "recipe">
+With half a pint of lemon water ice mix a bottle of iced sparkling
+moselle, add a few drops of elder-flower water and a bottle of iced
+Apollinaris water. Instead of the lemon ice half the quantity of
+pine-apple ice may be used with the juice of half a lemon, and the
+elder-flower water may be dispensed with.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/pic289.png" width = "163" height = "144"
+alt = "champagne cooler holding three bottles">
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class = "brands">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">225</span>
+<!-- png 291 -->
+
+<h4><a name = "brands" id = "brands">
+THE PRINCIPAL SPARKLING WINE BRANDS.</a></h4>
+
+<h5>*<sub>*</sub>* <i>In this list whenever a manufacturer has various
+qualities the higher qualities are always placed first.</i></h5>
+
+<div class = "mynote">
+<p>The book included an <a href = "#errata">errata sheet</a> for the
+tables. It is shown here immediately after the tables themselves. The
+changes and corrections listed have <i>not</i> been made in the text,
+but are noted with <ins class = "edcorr" title = "like this">mouse-hover
+popups</ins>.</p>
+
+<p>For this e-text, the “On side of Corks� column has been omitted from
+those groups of wines in which it does not occur.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<h5><a name = "wine_champagne" id = "wine_champagne">
+<b>CHAMPAGNES.</b></a></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "firms"><p>Firms and Wholesale Agents.</p></th>
+<th>Brands.</th>
+<th>Qualities.</th>
+<th abbr = "corks"><p>On side of Corks.</p></th>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "3">
+<p class = "firm">
+AYALA &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Ay</span></p>
+<p>Ayala, 7, Little Tower Street, London</p>
+<p>Rinck &amp; Unger, 50, Park Place, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-1.png" width = "62" height = "63"
+alt = "AYALA &amp; Co / CHÂTEAU dAY">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td>Extra.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Noire</p></td>
+<td>Première.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-2.png" width = "61" height = "62"
+alt = "A&amp;Co">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+BINET FILS &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Rutherford &amp; Browne, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane,
+London.</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-3.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "eagle surrounded by text BINET FILS &amp; CO / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>Extra</td>
+<td><p>Binet fils &amp; Cie.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>First<br>
+Second</td>
+<td> &nbsp; &nbsp; � &nbsp; &nbsp; �</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+BOLLINGER, J., <span class = "smallcaps">Ay.</span></p>
+<p>L. Mentzendorf, 6, Idol Lane, London.</p>
+<p>E. and J. Burke, 40, Beaver Street, New York.</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-4.png" width = "59" height = "57"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text REMAUDIN BOLLINGER &amp; Co.">
+</td>
+<td><p>Very Dry Extra</p></td>
+<td><p>Very Dry Extra quality.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td><td></td>-->
+<td><p>Dry Extra</p></td>
+<td><p>Dry Extra quality.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+BRUCH-FOUCHER &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Mareuil</span></p>
+<p>L. Ehrmann, 34, Gt. Tower Street, London.</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-5.png" width = "59" height = "62"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text BRUCH FOUCHER &amp; Co">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte D’Or</p>
+First<br>
+Second</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+CLICQUOT-PONSARDIN, <span class = "smallcaps">Veuve, Reims</span> (WERLE
+&amp; CO.)</p>
+<p>Fenwick, Parrot, &amp; Co., 124, Fenchurch Street, London.</p>
+<p>Schmidt Bros., New York.</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-6.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text V. CLICQUOT. P / WERLE">
+</td>
+<td>Dry</td>
+<td>England.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>Rich</td>
+<td> &nbsp; &nbsp; �</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "3">
+<p class = "firm">
+DE CAZANOVE, C., <span class = "smallcaps">Avize</span></p>
+<p>J. R. Hunter, 46, Fenchurch Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-7.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "crown surrounded by text CH DE CAZANOVE / AVIZE / marne">
+</td>
+<td>Extra</td>
+<td>
+<p>Extra qualité.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>First<br>
+Second<br>
+Third<br>
+Fourth</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork291-8.png" width = "61" height = "60"
+alt = "crown over text C de C">
+</td>
+<td>Fifth</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<span class = "pagenum">226</span>
+<!-- png 292 -->
+<p class = "firm">DEUTZ &amp; GELDERMANN, <span class =
+"smallcaps">Ay</span></p>
+<p>J. R. Parkington &amp; Co., 21, Crutched Friars, London.</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-1.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text DEUTZ &amp; GELDERMANN">
+</td>
+<td><p>Gold Lack (Extra Dry and Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Gold Lack.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Cabinet (Extra Dry and Dry)</p></td>
+<td>Cabinet.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+DUCHATEL-OHAUS, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Woellworth &amp; Co., 70, Mark Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-2.png" width = "61" height = "61"
+alt = "E DUCHATEL OHAUS / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche (Dry and Rich)</p>
+<p>Verzenay (Dry and Rich)</p>
+<p>Sillery (Dry and Rich)</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+DUMINY &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Ay</span></p>
+<p>Mogford, Courtenay, &amp; Co., 16, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>Anthony Oechs, New Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-3.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "EXTRA / DUMINY &amp; Co. / AY">
+</td>
+<td>Extra</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<p>Maison fondée en 1814.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-4.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "FIRST / DUMINY &amp; Co. / AY">
+</td>
+<td>First</td>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "6">
+<p class = "firm">
+FARRE, CHARLES, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Hornblower &amp; Co., 50, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>Gilmore &amp; Gibson, Baltimore</p>
+<p>Mel &amp; Sons, San Francisco</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-5.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "Ch. Farre / Cabinet / Reims">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cabinet (Grand Vin)</p></td>
+<td><p>Cabinet Grand Vin.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-6.png" width = "60" height = "63"
+alt = "leftward-shooting star surrounded by text Ch. Farre / Reims">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Noire</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-7.png" width = "62" height = "62"
+alt = "Sillery Sec / Ch F / Reims">
+</td>
+<td><p>Sillery Sec</p></td>
+<td><p>Sillery Sec.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-8.png" width = "62" height = "61"
+alt = "Sillery / Ch. F. / Reims">
+</td>
+<td>Sillery</td>
+<td>Sillery.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-9.png" width = "61" height = "62"
+alt = "Ch. F. / AY / Reims">
+</td>
+<td><p>Ay Mousseux</p></td>
+<td>Ay.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+<a name = "brand_fisse" id = "brand_fisse">
+FISSE, THIRION, &amp; Co., <span class =
+"smallcaps">Reims</span></a></p>
+<p>Stallard and Smith, 25, Philpot Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-10.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "eagle surrounded by text FISSE THIRION &amp; Co. / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cachet d’Or (Extra Dry and Medium Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Cachet d’Or.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Blanche (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich)</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class = "sans"><i>See <a href = "#errata">author’s
+correction</a>.</i></p></td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork292-11.png" width = "61" height = "62"
+alt = "FISSE THIRION &amp; Co. / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire (Dry and Medium Dry).</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<span class = "pagenum">227</span>
+<!-- png 293 -->
+<p class = "firm"><a name = "brand_gibert" id = "brand_gibert">
+GIBERT, GUSTAVE, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></a></p>
+<p>Cock, Russell, &amp; Co., <ins class = "edcorr"
+title = "corrected by author to ‘23, Rood Lane’">63,
+Great Tower Street</ins>, London</p>
+<p>Hays &amp; Co., 40, Day Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-1.png" width = "63" height = "63"
+alt = "GUSTAVE GIBERT / VIN DU ROI / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Vin du Roi</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-2.png" width = "63" height = "62"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text GUSTAVE GIBERT / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>Extra</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-3.png" width = "63" height = "63"
+alt = "crown surrounded by text GUSTAVE GIBERT / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>First</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-4.png" width = "62" height = "62"
+alt = "large star surrounded by text GUSTAVE GIBERT / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>All these wines are prepared Extra Dry, Dry, or Rich.</p></td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-5.png" width = "62" height = "63"
+alt = "anchor surrounded by text GUSTAVE GIBERT / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>Third</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "5">
+<p class = "firm">
+GIESLER &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Avize</span></p>
+<p>F. Giesler &amp; Co., 32, Fenchurch Street, London.</p>
+<p>Purdy &amp; Nicholas, 43, Beaver Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "3">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-6.png" width = "55" height = "55"
+alt = "anchor above text GIESLER &amp; Co / AVIZE">
+</td>
+<td><p>Extra Superior</p></td>
+<td><ins class = "edcorr" title =
+"text ‘Extra Superior’ added by author"> &nbsp; &nbsp; </ins></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>India</td>
+<td>India.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>First</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-7.png" width = "54" height = "55"
+alt = "anchor above text G &amp; Co">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-8.png" width = "54" height = "55"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text G &amp; Co">
+</td>
+<td>Third</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+HEIDSIECK &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims.</span></p>
+<p>Theodor Satow &amp; Co., 141, Fenchurch Street, London</p>
+<p>Schmidt &amp; Peters, 20, Beaver Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-9.png" width = "53" height = "53"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text HEIDSIECK &amp; Co / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Dry Monopole.</p>
+<p>Monopole (Rich)</p>
+<p>Dry Vin Royal</p>
+<p>Grand Vin Royal (Rich)</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+IRROY, ERNEST, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims.</span></p>
+<p>Cuddeford &amp; Smith, 66, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p><ins class = "edcorr"
+title = "corrected by author to ‘F. O. de Luze’">O. de Saye</ins>,
+18, South William Street, New York</p>
+<p><ins class = "edcorr" title = "item deleted by author">W. E. Hepp,
+101, Gravier Street, New Orleans</ins></p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork293-10.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "ERNEST IRROY / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or, Dry</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or, Sec.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte d’Or</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<span class = "pagenum">228</span>
+<!-- png 294 -->
+<p class = "firm">
+KRUG &amp; Co., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Inglis and Cunningham, 60, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>A. Rocherau &amp; Co., New York</p>
+<p>Hillman Bros. &amp; Co., San Francisco</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-1.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "crown surrounded by text KRUG &amp; Co / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche, England.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Private Cuvée</p></td>
+<td><p>Private Cuvée, England.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-2.png" width = "61" height = "59"
+alt = "capital A surrounded by text KRUG &amp; Co / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>First</td>
+<td>England.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-3.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "K &amp; C">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "7">
+<p class = "firm">
+MOËT &amp; CHANDON, <span class = "smallcaps">Epernay</span></p>
+<p>Simon &amp; Dale, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London, Agents
+for Great Britain and the Colonies</p>
+<p>Renauld, François, &amp; Co., 23, Beaver Street, New York</p>
+<p>J. Hope &amp; Co., Montreal</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "6">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-4.png" width = "56" height = "55"
+alt = "upward-shooting star above text MOET &amp; CHANDON">
+</td>
+<td>Brut</td>
+<td><p>Imperial, England.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>Creaming</td>
+<td><p>Creaming, England.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Superior</p></td>
+<td><p>Extra Superior, England.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Dry Sillery</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>White Dry Sillery</p></td>
+<td><p>White Dry, England.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>First Quality</p></td>
+<td>England.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-5.png" width = "58" height = "59"
+alt = "star above text M &amp; C">
+</td>
+<td><p>Second Quality</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+MONTEBELLO, DUC DE, <span class = "smallcaps">Mareuil-sur-Ay</span></p>
+<p>John Hopkins &amp; Co., 26, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+<p>Cazade, Crooks, &amp; Reynaud, 25, South William St., N.Y.</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "4">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-6.png" width = "63" height = "60"
+alt = "crowned arms surrounded by text DUC DE MONTEBELLO">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cuvée Extra</p></td>
+<td><p>Cuvée Extra.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td>Reserve.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Bleue</p></td>
+<td><p>Cte. Bleue.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Noire</p></td>
+<td><p>Cte. Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "8">
+<p class = "firm">
+MUMM, G. H., &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>W. J. and T. Welch, 10, Corn Exchange Chambers, Seething Lane,
+London</p>
+<p>F. de Bary &amp; Co., 41 and 43, Warren Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "8">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-7.png" width = "61" height = "60"
+alt = "eagle surrounded by text G H MUMM &amp; Co / G de BARY">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td><p>Cuvée Extra.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Dry</p></td>
+<td><p>Extra Dry.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>Extra</td>
+<td>Extra.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>First</td>
+<td>First.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td colspan = "2">
+<p><i>For America only.</i></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Cordon Rouge</p></td>
+<td><p>Cordon Rouge.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Dry</p></td>
+<td><p>Extra Dry.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Dry Verzenay</p></td>
+<td><p>Dry Verzenay.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+MUMM, JULES, &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Jules Mumm &amp; Co., 3 &amp; 4, Mark Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-8.png" width = "60" height = "59"
+alt = "anchor surrounded by text JULES MUMM &amp; Co">
+</td>
+<td>
+<p>Extra Dry</p>
+Dry</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+PÉRINET &amp; FILS, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>John Barnett &amp; Son, 36, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>Wood, Pollard, &amp; Co., Boston, U.S.</p>
+<p>Hooper and Donaldson, San Francisco</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork294-9.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "large star surrounded by text PERINET &amp; FILS / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cuvée Réservée (Extra Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Cuvée Reservée.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<span class = "pagenum">229</span>
+<!-- png 295 -->
+<p>White Dry Sillery</p></td>
+<td><p>White Dry Sillery.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+PERRIER-JOUËT &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Epernay</span></p>
+<p>A. Boursot &amp; Co., 9, Hart Street, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-1.png" width = "60" height = "59"
+alt = "PERRIER &amp; JOUËT / EPERNAY">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cuvée de Réserve</p></td>
+<td>Extra</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Pale Dry Creaming</p>
+First</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-2.png" width = "61" height = "60"
+alt = "P J &amp; Co. / EPERNAY">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-3.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "anchor surrounded by letters A B">
+</td>
+<td>Third</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+PIPER, H., &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span> (KUNKELMANN
+&amp; CO.)</p>
+<p>W. Foster Newton &amp; Son, 3, Maiden Lane, E.C., London</p>
+<p>John Osborn, Son, &amp; Co., New York and Montreal</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-4.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text H PIPER &amp; Co / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Très-Sec (Extra Dry)</p>
+<p>Sec (Very Dry)</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche (Rich)</p></td>
+<td><p>Kunkelmann &amp; Co.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+PFUNGST FRÈRES &amp; CIE., <span class = "smallcaps">Ay,
+Epernay</span></p>
+<p>J. L. Pfungst &amp; Co., 23, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "4">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-5.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "small upward-shooting star surrounded by text PFUNGST FRES &amp; Cie / AY EPERNAY">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut)</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Sillery Crêmant (Extra Dry and Brut)</p></td>
+<td><p>Sillery Crêmant.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Noire (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut)</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Cordon Blanc (Full, Dry, and Extra Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Cordon Blanc.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+POL ROGER &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Epernay</span></p>
+<p>Reuss, Lauteren, &amp; Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-6.png" width = "61" height = "61"
+alt = "POL ROGER &amp; CIE / EPERNAY">
+</td>
+<td><p>Vin Réservé.</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+POMMERY, VEUVE, <span class = "smallcaps"><ins class = "mycorr" title =
+"‘s’ missing in original">Reims</ins></span> (POMMERY &amp; GRENO)</p>
+<p>A. Hubinet, 24, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>Charles Graef, 65, Broad Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-7.png" width = "58" height = "59"
+alt = "CHAMPAGNE SANS LIQUEUR / NATURE">
+</td>
+<td><p>Extra Sec (Vin Brut)</p></td>
+<td><p>Veuve Pommery.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork295-8.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "POMMERY &amp; GRENO / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td>Sec</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<span class = "pagenum">230</span>
+<!-- png 296 -->
+<p class = "firm">
+ROEDERER, LOUIS, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Grainger &amp; Son, 108, Fenchurch Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-1.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "large upward-shooting star surrounded by text L. ROEDERER">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td><p>Reims, Carte Blanche, G<sup>t</sup>.-Britain.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "6">
+<p class = "firm">
+ROEDERER, THÉOPHILE, &amp; CO., MAISON FONDÉE EN 1861, <span class =
+"smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Théophile Roederer &amp; Co., 150, Fenchurch Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "6">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-2.png" width = "61" height = "61"
+alt = "THEOPHILE ROEDERER &amp; Co. / REIMS / MAISON FONDEE EN 1861">
+</td>
+<td><p>Crystal Champagne, Special Cuvée</p></td>
+<td><p>Special Cuvée.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Reserve Cuvée</p></td>
+<td><p>Reserve Cuvée.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Superior Carte Blanche Dorée</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche Dorée</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Extra Quality Carte Blanche</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>First Quality Carte Noire</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>Verzenay</td>
+<td>Verzenay.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+ROUSSILLON, J., &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Epernay</span></p>
+<p>J. Roussillon &amp; Co., 15, New Broad Street, London</p>
+<p>D. St. Amant &amp; Son, 13, South William Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-3.png" width = "61" height = "59"
+alt = "J ROUSSILLON &amp; Cie / EPERNAY">
+</td>
+<td><p>First Cuvée</p>
+<p>Second Cuvée</p>
+<p>Dry Verzenay</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Sillery Sec</p></td>
+<td><p>1874 Extra Sec.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+RUINART, PÈRE ET FILS, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Ruinart, Père et Fils, 22, St. Swithin’s Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-4.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "large star surrounded by text RUINART / PÈRE &amp; FILS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Anglaise</p>
+<p>Dry Pale Crêmant</p>
+<p>Extra Dry Sparkling</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche First</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "5">
+<p class = "firm"><a name = "brand_stmarceaux" id = "brand_stmarceaux">
+DE SAINT-MARCEAUX &amp; CO., <span class =
+"smallcaps">Reims</span></a></p>
+<p>Groves &, Co., 5, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>Hermann Batjer &amp; Bro., New York</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "4">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-5.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text ST. MARCEAUX">
+</td>
+<td><p>Vin Brut</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte d’Or (Extra Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Very dry.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Bouzy Nonpareil (Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Vin Sec.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Blanche (Medium)</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-6.png" width = "60" height = "59"
+alt = "knight’s head surrounded by text ST. MX. &amp; Co / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Second (Medium)</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "bottomline">
+<td><p class = "sans"><i>See <a href = "#errata">author’s
+corrections</a>.</i></p></td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork296-7.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "knight’s head surrounded by text A. DE PAUL / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Third (<i>id.</i>)</p>
+<p><i>For America only.</i></p>
+<p>Dry Royal</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">231</span>
+<!-- png 298 -->
+
+<h5><a name = "wine_sauterne" id = "wine_sauterne">
+<b>SAUMUR AND SAUTERNES.</b></a></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "firms"><p>Firms and Wholesale Agents.</p></th>
+<th>Brands.</th>
+<th>Qualities.</th>
+<th abbr = "corks"><p>On side of Corks.</p></th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+ACKERMAN-LAURANCE, <span class = "smallcaps">St. Florent,
+Saumur</span></p>
+<p>J. N. Bishop, 41, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+<p>Timothy Stevens, 29, Beaver Street, New York</p>
+<p>Chapin and Gore, 70, Monroe Street, Chicago</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "4">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-1.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "ACKERMAN-LAURANCE">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Rose</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Rose.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Bleue</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Bleue.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Noire</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+DUVAU, LOUIS, <span class = "smallcaps">Aîné, Château de Varrains,
+Saumur</span></p>
+<p>Jolivet and Canney, 3, Idol Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-2.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "DUVAU">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or, Extra Superior</p>
+<p>Carte d’Argent, Extra</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche, Superior</p>
+<p>Carte Rose, Ordinary</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+LORRAIN, JULES, <span class = "smallcaps">Château De la Côte, Varrains,
+near Saumur</span></p>
+<p>J. Lorrain, 73, Great Tower Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-3.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "JULES LORRAIN">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche</p>
+<p>Carte Rose</p>
+<p>Carte Bleue</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+ROUSTEAUX, A., <span class = "smallcaps">St. Florent, Saumur</span></p>
+<p>Cock, Russell, &amp; Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London</p>
+<p>I. H. Smith’s Sons, Peck Slip, New York</p>
+<p>Law, Young, &amp; Co., Montreal</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-4.png" width = "55" height = "54"
+alt = "sword surrounded by text A. ROUSTEAUX">
+</td>
+<td>Extra</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-5.png" width = "56" height = "54"
+alt = "crown surrounded by text A. ROUSTEAUX">
+</td>
+<td>First</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-6.png" width = "55" height = "52"
+alt = "anchor surrounded by text A. ROUSTEAUX">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-7.png" width = "56" height = "53"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text A. ROUSTEAUX">
+</td>
+<td>Third
+<p>Sparkling Vouvray, Superior</p>
+<p>Sparkling Vouvray</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+NORMANDIN, E., &amp; CO., <span class =
+"smallcaps">Châteauneuf-sur-Charente</span></p>
+<p>P. A. Maignen, 22, Great Tower Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork298-8.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "E. NORMANDIN &amp; Co.">
+</td>
+<td><p>Sparkling Sauternes (Extra Dry)</p>
+<p>Sparkling Sauternes (Dry)</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">232</span>
+<!-- png 299 -->
+
+<h5><a name = "wine_burgundy" id = "wine_burgundy">
+<b>BURGUNDIES.</b></a></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "firms"><p>Firms and Wholesale Agents.</p></th>
+<th>Brands.</th>
+<th>Qualities.</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+ANDRÉ &amp; VOILLOT, <span class = "smallcaps">Beaune</span></p>
+<p>Cock, Russell, &amp; Co., 63, Great Tower Street, London</p>
+<p>P. W. Engs and Sons, 131, Front Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-1.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "PH. ANDRE &amp; JH. VOILLOT / BEAUNE">
+</td>
+<td><p>Romanée (White)</p>
+<p>Nuits (do.)</p>
+<p>Volnay (do.)</p>
+<p>Saint-Péray</p>
+<p>Pink and Red Wines</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+LATOUR, LOUIS, <span class = "smallcaps">Beaune</span></p>
+<p>Reuss, Lauteren, &amp; Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-2.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "leftward-shooting star surrounded by text LOUIS LATOUR / BEAUNE">
+</td>
+<td><p>Romanée (White)</p>
+<p>Nuits (do.)</p>
+<p>Volnay (do.)</p>
+<p>Saint-Péray (do.)</p>
+<p>Chambertin (Red)</p>
+<p>Nuits (do.)</p>
+<p>Volnay (do.)</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+LIGER-BELAIR, COMTE, <span class = "smallcaps">Nuits and
+Vôsne</span></p>
+<p>Fenwick, Parrot, &amp; Co., 124, Fenchurch Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-3.png" width = "56" height = "60"
+alt = "crown surrounded by text CTE. LIGER-BELAIR / NUITS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte d’Or (White)</p>
+<p>Carte Noire (do.)</p>
+<p>Carte Verte (do.)</p>
+<p>Carte Noire (Red)</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche (do.)</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "wine_moselle" id = "wine_moselle">
+<b>HOCKS AND MOSELLES.</b></a></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "firms"><p>Firms and Wholesale Agents.</p></th>
+<th>Brands.</th>
+<th>Qualities.</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "3">
+<p class = "firm">
+DEINHARD &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Coblenz</span></p>
+<p>Deinhard &amp; Co., 6, Idol Lane, London</p>
+<p>H. G. Schmidt &amp; Co., 38, Beaver Street, New York</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-4.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "DEINHARD &amp; CO. / COBLENZ">
+</td>
+<td>First</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-5.png" width = "59" height = "58"
+alt = "D &amp; C">
+</td>
+<td>Second</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-6.png" width = "57" height = "56"
+alt = "crown (no text)">
+</td>
+<td>Third</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+EWALD &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Rudesheim-on-Rhine</span></p>
+<p>Simon and Dale, Old Trinity House, 5, Water Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork299-7.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "EWALD &amp; CO / RUDESHEIM">
+</td>
+<td><p>Sparkling Hock</p>
+<p>Nonpareil (Extra Dry and Dry)</p>
+<p>Sparkling Moselle Muscatel Nonp. (Dry)</p>
+<p>Sparkling Moselle (Nonp.)</p>
+<p>Scharzberg (Dry)</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<span class = "pagenum">233</span>
+<!-- png 300 -->
+<p class = "firm">
+HOCHHEIM ASSOCIATION, <span class =
+"smallcaps">Hochheim-on-Maine</span></p>
+<p>F. Class &amp; Co., 31, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork300-1.png" width = "57" height = "56"
+alt = "lion surrounded by text BURGEFF &amp; Co / HOCHHEIM">
+</td>
+<td>
+<p>Sparkling and Creaming Johannisberg</p>
+<p>Hochheim First (White or Red)</p>
+<p>Do. Second (do.)</p>
+<p>Do. Third (do.)</p>
+<p>Do. Fourth (do.)</p>
+<p>Hocks and Moselles</p>
+Nonpareil<br>
+First<br>
+Second<br>
+Third
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork300-2.png" width = "57" height = "57"
+alt = "lion above text B &amp; Co">
+</td>
+<td>Fourth</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+KESSLER, G. C., &amp; CO., <span class =
+"smallcaps">Esslingen</span></p>
+<p>George Saurmann, 7, Cross Lane, St. Mary-at-Hill, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork300-3.png" width = "61" height = "60"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text G. C. KESSLER &amp; CO.">
+</td>
+<td><p>Kaiser Wein</p>
+<p>Sparkling Hock</p>
+<p>Do. Neckar</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+LAUTEREN, C. SOHN, <span class = "smallcaps">Mayence</span></p>
+<p>Reuss, Lauteren, &amp; Co., 39, Crutched Friars, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork300-4.png" width = "58" height = "57"
+alt = "CLS.">
+</td>
+<td><p>Sparkling Johannisberg</p>
+<p>Hock No. 1</p>
+<p>Do. No. 2</p>
+<p>Do. No. 3</p>
+<p>Moselle, Dry, No. 1</p>
+<p>Do. No. 2</p>
+<p>Do. No. 3</p>
+<p>Moselle, Muscatel, No. 1</p>
+<p>Do. No. 2</p>
+<p>Do. No. 3</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+MÃœLLER, MATHEUS, <span class = "smallcaps">Eltville</span></p>
+<p>M. Muller, 15, Philpot Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork300-5.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "large star surrounded by text MATHEUS MÃœLLER / ELTVILLE">
+</td>
+<td>
+<p>Flower of Sparkling Johannisberg</p>
+<p>Sparkling Johannisberg</p>
+<p>Pearl of the Moselle</p>
+<p>Extra Superior Moselle</p>
+<span class = "pagenum">234</span>
+<!-- png 301 -->
+<p>Nonpareil Sparkling Moselle</p>
+<p>Nonpareil Sparkling Hock</p>
+<p>Fine Sparkling do.</p>
+<p>Fine Sparkling Moselle</p>
+<p>Sparkling Assmannshäuser, Superior (Red)</p>
+<p>Sparkling Assmannshäuser (do.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork301-2.png" width = "60" height = "59"
+alt = "decorative initials MM surmounted by crown">
+</td>
+<td><p>Sparkling Hock (Ordinary)</p>
+<p>Sparkling Moselle (do.)</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+OPPMANN, MICHAEL, <span class = "smallcaps">Würzburg</span></p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork301-3.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "banner and stars (no text)">
+</td>
+<td><p>Franconia Wine:</p>
+Nonpareil
+<p>Stein Wine</p>
+<p>Blue Label</p>
+<p>White Label</p>
+<p>Sparkling Moselle, First</p>
+<p>Do. do., Second</p>
+<p>Do. Hock, First</p>
+<p>Do. do., Second</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+SILIGMÜLLER, F. A., <span class = "smallcaps">Würzburg</span></p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork301-4.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "upward-shooting star surrounded by text F. A. SILIGMULLER">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cabinet<br>
+<i>(On side of cork:)</i> Cabinet.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte d’Or</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche</p>
+<p>Carte Noire</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+STÖCK, JOS, &amp; SÖHNE, <span class = "smallcaps">Creuznach</span></p>
+<p>John Barnett &amp; Son, 36, Mark Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork301-5.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "JOS. STOCK &amp; SOHNE / CREUZNACH">
+</td>
+<td><p>Johnnnisberg, supr.</p>
+<p>Scharzberg, do.</p>
+<p>Johannisberg, ordin.</p>
+<p>Scharzberg, do.</p>
+<p>Hock, superior</p>
+<p>Moselle, do.</p>
+<p>Hock, ordin.</p>
+<p>Moselle, do.</p>
+<p>Red Hock, First</p>
+<p>Do., Second</p>
+<p>Do., Third</p>
+<p>Do., Fourth</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">235</span>
+<!-- png 302 -->
+
+<h5><a name = "wine_styrian" id = "wine_styrian">
+<b>STYRIAN, HUNGARIAN, AND SWISS WINES.</b></a></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "firms"><p>Firms and Wholesale Agents.</p></th>
+<th>Brands.</th>
+<th>Qualities.</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+KLEINOSCHEG BROTHERS, <span class = "smallcaps">Graz, Styria</span></p>
+<p>Davis and Littlewood, 4 and 5, Botolph Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork302-1.png" width = "60" height = "60"
+alt = "BRÃœDER KLEINOSCHEG / K. K. HOF / LIEFERANTEN">
+</td>
+<td><p>Dry Pale Styrian Muscat Champagne.</p>
+<p>Dry Pale Styrian Champagne</p>
+<p>Sparkling Burgundy (Red)</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+HUBERT &amp; HABERMANN, <span class = "smallcaps">Pressburg,
+Hungary</span></p>
+<p>C. O. Pattenhausen, 40, Great Tower Street, London</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork302-2.png" width = "61" height = "62"
+alt = "HUBERT &amp; HABERMANN">
+</td>
+<td><p>Sparkling White</p>
+<p>Sparkling Red (Carlovitz)</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+DE RIEDMATTEN, DE QUAY, &amp; CIE., <span class = "smallcaps">Sion,
+Valais, Switzerland</span></p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork302-3.png" width = "60" height = "62"
+alt = "clover surrounded by text DE RIEDMATTEN ET DE QUAY / SION">
+</td>
+<td><p>Carte Verte, Glacier du Rhône</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche, Mont-Blanc</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h5><a name = "wine_american" id = "wine_american">
+<b>AMERICAN WINES.</b></a></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr>
+<th abbr = "firms"><p>Firms and Wholesale Agents.</p></th>
+<th>Brands.</th>
+<th>Qualities.</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+KELLEY’S ISLAND WINE CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Kelley’s Island,
+Ohio</span></p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork302-4.png" width = "61" height = "60"
+alt = "grapes and leaves surrounded by text KELLEY’S ISLAND / WINE CO.">
+</td>
+<td><p>Island Queen</p>
+Nonpareil
+<p>Carte Blanche</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+PLEASANT VALLEY WINE CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Hammondsport,
+N.Y.</span></p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork302-5.png" width = "61" height = "61"
+alt = "PLEASANT VALLEY / WINE / COMPANY">
+</td>
+<td><p>Great Western (Dry and Extra Dry)</p>
+<p>Carte Blanche</p>
+<p>Pleasant Valley</p>
+<p>Paris Exposition</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "firms">
+<p class = "firm">
+URBANA WINE CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Hammondsport, N.Y.</span></p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork302-6.png" width = "60" height = "61"
+alt = "decorative script UWCo">
+</td>
+<td><p>Gold Seal (Extra Dry)</p>
+<p>Gold Seal</p>
+Imperial
+<p>Royal Rose</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<!-- png 290 -->
+
+<p class = "mynote" align = "center">
+<a name = "errata" id = "errata">Author’s Errata</a></p>
+
+<h5><i>The subjoined corrections are necessary in the following brands
+(See pages <a href = "#brand_fisse">226</a> and <a href =
+"#brand_gibert">227</a>):&mdash;</i></h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "2">
+<p class = "firm">
+FISSE, THIRION, &amp; Co., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Stallard and Smith, 25, Philpot Lane, London</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "3">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork290.png" width = "59" height = "60"
+alt = "eagle surrounded by text FISSE THIRION &amp; Co. / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Cachet d’Or (Extra Dry and Medium Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Cachet d’Or.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Blanche (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich)</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Blanche.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>N.B.&mdash;The brand on the corks is an <i>anchor</i> instead of an
+<i>eagle</i>.</td>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Noire (Dry and Medium Dry).</p></td>
+<td><p>Carte Noire.</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" colspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+GIBERT, GUSTAVE, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims.</span></p>
+<p>Cock, Russell, and Co.’s address is 23, Rood Lane, London.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" colspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+GIESLER &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Avize.</span></p>
+<p>The corks of the firm’s Extra Superior quality wine are branded
+“Extra Superior� on the side.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "firms" colspan = "4">
+<p class = "firm">
+IRROY, ERNEST, <span class = "smallcaps">Reims.</span></p>
+<p>The New York agent is F. O. de Luze, 18, South William Street, New
+York.</p>
+<p>W.&nbsp;E. Hepp is no longer M. Irroy’s agent for New Orleans.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<!-- png 297 -->
+<h5>The following are the correct brands of MM. de <a href =
+"#brand_stmarceaux">Saint-Marceaux</a> &amp; Co.:&mdash;</h5>
+
+<table class = "cork" summary = "manufacturers and their brands">
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "firms" rowspan = "5">
+<p class = "firm">
+DE SAINT-MARCEAUX &amp; CO., <span class = "smallcaps">Reims</span></p>
+<p>Groves &, Co., 5, Mark Lane, London</p>
+<p>Hermann Batjer &amp; Bro., New York</p>
+</td>
+<td rowspan = "4">
+<img src = "images/corks/cork297-1.png" width = "59" height = "59"
+alt = "star surrounded by text St. MARCEAUX">
+</td>
+<td>
+<p>Vin Brut</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte d’Or (Extra Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Very dry.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Bouzy Nonpareil (Dry)</p></td>
+<td><p>Vin Sec.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td><p>Carte Blanche (Medium)</p>
+<p><i>For America only.</i></p>
+<p>Dry Royal</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork297-2.png" width = "60" height = "59"
+alt = "knight’s head surrounded by text St. Mx. &amp; Co / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Second (Medium)</p></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "bottomline">
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>
+<img src = "images/corks/cork297-3.png" width = "58" height = "60"
+alt = "knight’s head surrounded by text A. DE PAUL / REIMS">
+</td>
+<td><p>Third (<i>id.</i>)</p></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class = "mynote">
+
+<p><a name = "noteA" id = "noteA" href = "#tagA">A.</a>
+Transcriber’s Note:</p>
+
+<p>The left edge of page 48 was missing. Most words were supplied from
+context; the number “forty-four� (gallons) is mentioned at least four
+other places in the text.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/page48.png" width = "435" height = "111"
+alt = "page image showing reconstructed text">
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts About Champagne and Other
+Sparkling Wines, by Henry Vizetelly
+
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #20889 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20889)