1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

15

The Origin of OhO/lnpagne.

Pe1·ignon 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 r emnauts of the cloisters, and a couple of ancient gateways, marking the limits of the abbey precincts, are all that r emain 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 pil– grimage to Hautvillers across the.swollen wat ers 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 diver ged sharply to the left and we commenced ascending the vine-clad hills, on a nari·ow plateau of which the church and abbey r emains are picturesquely perched. Vines climb the undulating slopes to the summit of the plateau, and wooded heights rise up beyond, afford– ing 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 bran'Ch 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 1 to the cellars beneath, is alive with workmen unloadingwaggons densely packed with new champagne bottles, while under a neighbouring s,hed is a crowd of women actively engaged in washing the bottles as they are brought to them. The large apartment aboveground, ·known as the celli8'1·, con– tains wine in cask already blended, and to bottle which prepara– tions 'are now being made. On descending into the cellars, which, excavated in the chalk and of regular construction, com– prise a series of lpng, 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