1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

134

Champagne and Other Sparl.:,ling Wines.

terrified hens, while a trio of boarhounds, b~skiug on the ..sunny flagstones, cont~mplated his proceedings with lazy indif– ference . Boars abound in the woods hereabouts, and hunting them is a favourite pastime with the residents, and the young "boar we had noticed proved to be one of the recent captures or the sons of M. de Cazanove, who are among the. warmest par– tisans of the exciting sport. Many of the boars found in the woods around Reims journey thither, i:t is said, by night from -the famous forest of the .A.rdennes-the scene of Rosalind's wanderings and Touchstone's eccentricities as set forth in As You -Jtike It, and whose gloomy depths and tangled glens shelter to- -clay not merely boars but wolves as well. In the Champagne it is no longer the fashion -:nor to hunt the boar on horseback, as is still the case in Bur– gundy. When the presence of one or more of these animals is -signalled in the neighbourhood, a party starts off accompanied b y dogs and armed with double-barrelled rifles. .A. circle having been formed round the boar's lair the ·dogs are set to draw him out, while the chasseiirs keep on the alert so as not to· :allow him to escape through their circle alive. In t his manner a few score of boars are killed every year in the woods round about Reims and Epernay. The house of M. Charles de Cazanove was established in 1843 l)y its present proprietor on the foundation of a business which had been in existence since 1811 . Compared with the monumental :grandeur of some of 1!_he great Reims and Epernay establish– ments the premises present a simple and modest aspect, never– theless they are capacious and commodious, besides which the g rowing business of the house has led to the acquisition of addi– tional cellarage in other parts of .A.vize. More important than a ll, however, is the quality of the wine with which these cellars a re stocked, and following the nle observed by champagne firms of the high est repute, it has been a leading principle with M. de Cazanove always to rely upon the choicer growths-those "With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore,"