1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Champagne Establishments at .Avize and Rilly.

··light, delicate, and fragrant wines of the Marne which tb.i·ow ·out the true aroma of the flower of the vine. M. de Cazanove, who is distinguished for his lmowledge of viticulture, occupies .an influential position at Avize, being Vice-President of the Horticultural Society of the JYiarne, and a member of the ·committee charged with guarding t he Ch::tmpagne vineyards .against the invasion of the phylloxera. His own vines include ·only those fine varieties to which the crus of the Marne owe their great renown. H e possesses an excellent vineyard at Grauves, near Avize, and his mother-in-law, Madame Poultier, of Pierry, is one of the principal vine-growers of the district. M. de Cazanove's wines ar e much appr eciated in P aris, where his business is very extensive. His shipmefi.ts to England are .also considerable, but from the circumstance of some of his principal customers importing the wine under special b rands of their own, the brand of the house is not so widely known -as we should bave expected. From M . de Oazanove's t erraced garden in the r ear of his -establishment a fine view is obtained of one of the most famous viticultural districts of the Champagne, yielding wines of re– markable ~elicacy and exquisite bouquet. On the left hand rises •up the mountain of Avize, it s summit fringed with dense woods, where in winter the wild boar has bis lair. In front stretch -the long vine-clad slopes of Cramant, with orchards at their base, and the housetops of the village and the spirn of the quaint ·old church just peeping over the ln·ow of the hill. To the right towers the bold forest-crowned h eight of Sn,ran with M. Moet's ·chateau perched half-way up its north-eastern slope, and fading away in the h azy distance are the monotonous plains of the ·Champagne. W e h ave already explained that the wines of Avize and Dramant rank as premiers crus of the white grape district, ancl that every champagne manufacturer of r epute mingles one or ·the other in his cuvee. The white grapes are u sually gathered a fortnight or thr ee weeks later than the black varieties, but in ·oth er respects t he vintaging of them is the same. The grapes