1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Champagne and Other Spa1·kling Wines.

lishments of the famous Marne-side cru. Perched half-way up i.he slope, covered with " golden plants," which rises in the rear of the village, the chateau, with its long fa9ade of windows, ·commands the valley of the Marne for miles, and from the .stately terraced walk, planted with ancient lime-trees, geo– metrically clipped in the fashion of the last century, a splendid -view of the distant vineyards of Avize, Cramant, Epernay, and ·Chouilly is obtained. The chateau formed one of a quartette of seignorial residences which at the commencement of the present century belonged to Balthazar Constance Dange-Dor9ay, whose .ancestors had been lords of Chouilly under the ancien regime. Dor9ay had inherited from an aunt the chateaux 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 chateaux in succession, and was re,duced, in his old age, to earn a meagre pittance as a violin-player at the Paris Opera House. The old chateau 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 chateaux 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 grand– -daughter became the wife of one of the Messrs. Ayala, and whose son is to-day their partner. The offices of .the firm adjoin the chateau, and rather higher up the hill is their very comple ·e establishment, picturesquely situated in ·a hollow fo;med by some exc~vations, with the thickly-planted vine-slopes rising above its red-ttled 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 cham– pagne 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