1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

113:

The Epe?'?UtY Establishments.

and insist on being supplied in wicker baskets containing fifty bottles each. Some idea of the complex character of so vast an establish– ment as that of Messrs. Moet and Ohandon 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 yearMessrs Moet and Chandon give a banquet or a ball to the people in· their employ-usually afteT the bottling of the wine is completed -when the hall in wp.ich the entertainment takes place is hand– somely decorated and illuminated withmyriads ofcoloured lamps. It is needless to particulaTise Messrs. Moet and Chandon's. wines, which are familiar to all drinkers of champagne. Their · fa~ous " star" brand is known in all societies, figures equally at. clubs and mess-tables, at garden parties and picnics, dinners and soirees, a,nd 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 ~orld come annually to Epernay and make the tour of' Messr s. Moet and Chandon's spacious cellars. A little beyond Messrs. Mo et and Chand.on' s, in, the broad Rue du Commerce, we encounter a heavy, ornate, pretentious-looking chuteau, the residence of M. Perrier-Jouet, which presents a. striking contrast to the almost mean-looking premises opposite,.