1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

147

Sparkling Saurnwr ancl Sparkling S auternes.

of the Thouet, is an extensive plateau partially overgrown with -vines, where may be traced the remains of a Roman camp. Moreover, in the southern environs of Saumur, in the midst of -vineyards producing exclusively white wines, is one of the most remarkable dolmens known. This imposing structure, perfect in all respects save that one of the four enormous stones which

DOLMEN A.T B,\.GNEUX, l\EAR S,\.l'llf(Til.

roof it in has been split in two, and requires to be supported, is no less than 65 feet in length, 23 feet in width, and 10 feet high. At Saint-Florent, the pleasant little suburb of Saumur, skirt– j ng the river Thouet, and sheltered by steep hills formed of soft limestone, offering great facilities for the excavation of exten– ·sive cellars, the largest manufacturei: of Saumur sparkling wines bas his establishment. Externally this offers but little to strike the eye. A couple of pleasant country houses, half hidden by spreading foliage, stand at the two extremities of a spacious and well-kept garden, beyond which one catches a glimpse of some outbuildings sheltered by the vine-crowned cliff, in which .a labyrinth of gloomy galleries has been hollowed out. Here