1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Champagne ancl Other Sparlcling Wines.

Cellars, Ancient and Modern-Treatment of the Newly-Vintngcd Wine– Thc Cuvee-Proportions of Wine from Black and White Grap€s-The Bottling and Disgorging of the Wine and Finishing Operations-The Chilteau of Varrains ancl the E stablishment of M. Louis Duvau :line-His Cellars a succession of Gloomy Gall~ries-The Disgorging of the Wine accomplished in a M.eloclramatic-lookiug Cave-M. Duvau's Vineyard– His Sparkling Saumur of Vnrious Ages-Marked Superiority of the more Matured Samples- M. Alfred Rousteaux's Establishments at Saint– Florent and Saint-Cyr-His convenient Celliers and extensive Cellars– Mingling of Wine from the Champagne with the finer Sparkling Saumur -His Vineyard at La Perriere- M. E. Normandin's ·Sparkling Sauterne!l Manufactory at Chilteauneuf-Angoul~me nnd its Ancient Fortifications– Vin cle Colombar-M.Normandin's Sparkling Sauternes Cuvee-His Cellars near Chilteanneuf-High recognition accorded to the Wine at the Concours Regional d'.A.ngournme. AFTER the Champagne Anj ou is the French province which ranks next in importance for its production of sparkling wines. Vintaged on the banks of the Loire, these are largely con– signed to the English and other markets, labelled Crcme de Bouzy, Sillery and Ay Mousseux, Cartes Noires and Blanches, and the like, while their corks are branded with the names of phantom firms, supposed to be locat ed at Reims and Epernay. A s a rule these wines come from around Saumur, but they are not necessarily the worse on that account, for the district produces capital sparkling wines, the finer qualities of which improve greatly by being kept for a few years. One curious thing shown to u s at Saumur was the album of a manufacturer of sparkling wines containing examples of the many hundred labels ticketed with which his produce had for years past been sold. Not one of these labels assig:o.ed to the wines the name of their real maker or their true birthplace, but introduced them under the auspices of mythical dukes and counts, as being manufactured at chttteaux which are so many "castles in Spain," and as coming from Ay, Bouzy, Chttlons, Epernay, Reims, and Verzenay, but never by any chance from Saumur. . Being produced from robuster growths than the sparkling wines of the Department of the Marne, sparkling saumur will always lack that excessive lightness which is the crowning grace