1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Charwpagne Establishments at Avize and Rilly .

a door by the side of this stall-case we enter a large hall where- ' the operation of bottling the wine is going on. Four tuns, each holding five ordinary pieces of wine, and raised upon large· blocks of wood·, are standing h ere, and communicating with them are bottling syphons of the type commonly employed in the Champagne. Messrs. Giesler do not u sually consign the newly-bottled wine at once to the cellars, but retain it above– ground for about a fortnight in order that it may develop its effervescent qualities more perfectly. We find many thousands. of these bottles stacked horizontally in the --adjoining celliers, · in one of which stands the great c'umee tu11 wherein some fifty hogsheads of the finest Champagne growths are bleudeCl together at one time, two hundred hogsheads being thus mingled daily while the cuvees are in progress. The casks of wine ha.ving· been hoisted from the cellars to the first floor by a crane, and run on to a trough, their bungs are r emoved, and the wine flows through an apertme in the floor into the huge tun beneath, its. amalgamation being accomplished by the custom:µ:y fan-shaped appliances, set in motion by the turning of a wheel. In aii adjacent room is the machine used for mixing the liqueur which Messrs: Giesler add so sparingly to their light and fragrant wines. There are a couple of floors above these celliers, the upper– most of which is used as a general store, while in the one beneath many thousands of bottles of vin brut repese swr pointe, either· in racks or on t ables as at the Clicquot-Werle establishment. This latter system requires ample space, for as the remiieur, 01· · workman who shakes the bottles, is only able to use one hand, the operation of dislodging the sediment necessarily occupies a . much longer time than is r equisite when the bottles rnst in i·acks. ' The buildings on the opposite side of the' courtyard comprise · a large packing-hall, celliers where the wine is finished off, and i·ooms where corks and such-like things are stored. H ere, too, is the entrance to the cellars, of whi~h there are three tiers, all lofty and well-ventilated galleries, very regular in their con-