1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne Establish1nents at .Avize and Ri lly.

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a small cellier partially underground, and the t emperature of which is very cool and equable. The degq1·gewrs, isolat ed from the rest of the workpeople, are carrying on their opera– tions here by candlelight. So soon as the sediment is removecl the bottles are raised in basket s to the cellier above, where the liqueuring, re-corking, stringing, and wiring are successively accomplished. By pursuing this plan the loss sust ained by the disgorgement is.believed to be r educed t o a' minimum. · Extensive as these premises are they are still insufficient for the requirements of the firm , and across the r oad is a spacious building where new bottles a re stored aind the wacshing of the bottles in preparation for the tirage takes place. By the aid of the machinery provided, sixteen women, assist ed by a couple of men, commonly wash some fifteen or sixt een thousand bottles in the course of a day. H ere, t oo, st ands one of the two large presses with which at the epoch of the vintage a hundred pieces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty hours. The r emaining press is inst alled in a cellier at the farther end of the garden on the other side of the r oad. Messrs. Giesler possess additional presses at their vendangeoir at Bouzy, and during the vintage h ave the command of presses at Ay, Verzenay, Vertus, Le Mesnil, &c. , it being a rule of theirs always to press the grapes within a few h ours after they are gathered to obviate their becoming bruised by their own weight and imparting a dark colour t o the wine, a cont ingency difficult to guar d against in seasons when the fruit is over-ripe. The firm own vineyards at Avize, and h ave agreements with vine-proprietors at Ay, Bouzy, Ver zenay, and elsewhere, t o purchase their crops regularly every year. Messr s. Giesler's brand h as secured its existing high repute solely through the fine quality of the wines shipped by the h ouse– wines which are known and appreciat ed by all real connoisseurs. of champagne. From Messrs. Giesler's it is merely a short walk to the establishment of M. Charles de Cazanove, situat ed in the prin– cipal street of A vize. On ent ering the court we encounter ed a t ame young boar engaged in the lively pursuit of chasing some

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