1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Sparkling Saumiw and S2Jarlcling S auternes.

of fine champagne; still it has only 'to be kept for a few years instead of being drunk shortly after its arrival from t he wine– merchant for its quality to become greatly improved and its in– trinsic value to be considerably enhanced. We have di·unk sparkling saumur that had been in bottle for nearly twenty years, and found the wine i1ot o"nly remarkably delicate, but, singular to say, with plenty of effervescence. To an Englishman Anjou is one of the most interesting of the ancient provinces of France. It was the cradle of the Plan– tagenet kings, and only ten miles from Saumur still repose the bones of H enry, the first Phntagenet, and Richard of the Lion H eart, in the so-called Cimetiere de~ Rois of the historic abbey of Fontevrault. The famous vine-yards of the Coteau de Saumur, eastward of the town and bordering the Loire, extend as far as here, and include the communes of Dampierre, Souzay, Varrains, Chace, Parnay, Turquant, and Montsoreau, the last-named within three· miles of Fontevrault, and chiefly r emaTkable through its seigneur of ill-fame, J ean de Chambes, who instigated his wife to lure Boissy d'Amboise to an assi()'nation in order • 0 that he might more surely poignard him. Saumur is pic- turesquely placed at the foot of this bold r ange of heights near where the little river Thouet runs into the broad and rapid Loire. A massive-looking old chftteau perched on the summit of an isolated crag stands out grandly against the clear sky and 1 dominates the town, the older houses of which crouch at the foot of the lofty hill and climb its steepest sides. The restored antique Hotel de Ville, in the pointed style, with its elegant windows, graceful belfry, and florid wrought-iron balconies, stands back from the quay bordering the Loire. In the rear is the Rue des Payens, whither the last of the Huguenots of t his "metropolis of Protestantism,'' as it was formerly styled, retired, converting their houses into so many fortresses to guard against being surprised by their Catholic adversaries. Adjacent is the steep tortuous Grande Rue, of which Balzac-himself a Tou– mngeau-has given such a graphic picture in his Eiigenie Granclet, the scene of which is laid at Saumur: To-day, however,