1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Chwmpagne and Other Sparlcling Wines.

-dominates the slope, and its t erraced gardens, with their fan– t astically-clipped trees and geometric parterres, rise tier above tier up the face of the picturesque height that overlooks the broad fertile valley, with its gardens, cultivated fields, patches -0f woodland, and wide stretches of green pasture which, fringed with willows and poplars, border the swollen waters of the Loire. Where the . river Brenne empties itself into the Cise the Coteau -de Vouvray slopes off towards the north, and there rise up the vine-clad heights of Vernou, yielding a similar but inferior wine io that of Vouvray. The village of V ernou is nestled under the hill, and near the porch of its quaint little church a venerable .elm tree is pointed out as having been planted by Sully, H enry IV.'s able Minister. H ere, too, an ancient wall, pierced with curious ar ched windows, and forming part of a modern build– ing, is regarded by popular tradition as belonging to the palace in which P epin-le-Bref, father of Charlemagne, lived at Vernou. The communes of Dampierre, Souzay, and P arnay, in the n eighbourhood of Saumur, produce still red wines· rivalling those of Champigny, besides which all the finest white wines .are vintaged hereabouts-in the P erriere, the Poilleux, and the Clos Mora.in vineyards, and in the Rotissans vineyard at Tur– quant. Wines of very fair quality are also grown on the more favourable slopes extending southwards along the valley of the Thouet, anJ. comprised in the communes of Yarrains, Chace, St. Cyr-en-Bourg, and Breze. The whole of this district, by the way, abounds with interesting archffiological remains. While visiting the vineyards of Yarrains and Chace we came upon a ·couple of dolmens-vestiges of the ancient Celtic population of the valley of the Loire singularly abundant heoreabouts. Breze, the marquisate of which formerly belonged to Louis XVI.'s famo us .grand master of the ceremonies-immortalized by the rebuff h e received from Mirabeau-boasts a noble chateau on the site of an ancient fortress, in connection with which there are .contemporary excavations in the neighbouring limestone, designed for a garrison of 500 or 600 men. Beyond the vine– .yards of Saint-Florent, westward of Saumur and on the banks