1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

88

Champagne and Othe1· Sparlcling Wines.

At Mareuil and

vines covering au area of nearly 86 acres.

Avenay h owns some twenty-five a<:res, 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 slopeE.i of Bouzy possessing a s.mthern aspect, and he has followed their example with such success both at Bouzy and Ambonnay that in 1873 the Reims Agri cultural 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 ex.: cellent cottages for "his labourers. He has also constructed a substantial bridge over the ravine which, formE:d 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 S')me 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 cuvees 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. 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 oppo– site side of the way to the principal esta- lishment 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 R eims and Epernay markets, where their cuvees were h eld in high repute, and only of recent years have they applied themselves to the shipping trade. Their establish– ment has two entrances, one in the Rue de la Justice, and the other in the Boulevard du Champ de Mars. On passing through