1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The R einis E stablishments.

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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 chm-eh, from which a troop of Remish urchins in the charge of some Freres de la Doctrine Ohretierme emerge as we pass by. . The Oour St. J acques, where M. Duchatel'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'ceuvre. 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 r etirement and prayer, dun– geons for the punishment of r ecreant 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. Duchatel's, in which a considerable stock of the fine wine of 1874 is stored, are fn•m two to three centuries old, and probably belonged to the dures of St. Jacques. They are of considerable extent, are well ventilated, and are walled and roofed with stone. M. Duchatel's remaining stock reposes in some new cellars- cer- tain transformed chalk quarries outside the Porte Dieu-Lumiere, comprising broad lofty galleries and vast circular chambers- fifty feet or so in height and well lighted from above. . At M. Duchatel-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.