1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Champagne ancl Other Sparkling Wines.

rule h eavier and more potent t han t"!ie subtile and delicate– flavoured wines of the Marne, still some of the higher qualities, both of the r ed and white variet ies, exhibit a degree of refine– ment which 'those familiar only with the commoner kinds can scarcely form. an idea of. At the P aris E xhibition of 1878 we t asted, among a large collection of the sparkling wines of the Cote d'Or, samples of Cham.ber tin, Roma.nee, and Vougeot of the highest order. Although r ed wines, they had the merit of being deficient in that body which forms such an objectionable feature in sparkling wines of a deep shade of colour. M. Regnier, the exhibitor of sparkling red vougeot, sent, moreover, a white sparkling wine from the species of grape known locally as the clos blanc de Vougeot. These wines, as well as the Chambertin, came from t he Cote de Nuits, the growths of which are generally considered of too vigorous a t ype for successful conver sion int o sparkling wine, preference being usually given to the produce of the Cote de B .;,aune. Among t he sparkling burgundies from t h e last -named district were samples from Savigny, Chassagne, and Meursault, all famous for t heir fine white wines. Burgundy r anks as one of t he oldest vit icultural r egions of Central Europe, and for centuries its wines have been held in t he highest renown. In the Middle Ages both the wines and vines of this favoured province passed as presents from one royal per sonage t o anot her , just as .grand co?'Clons are exchanged bet ween them now-a-days. The fabrication of spark– ling wine, however, dates no .furth er back than some sixty years or so. The syst em of pr ocedure is much t he same as in t he Champagne, and, as there, tli~ wine is mainly the produce of the pineau noir and pineau blanc varieties of grape. At the vint age, in order t o avoid bruising the ripened fruit and to guard against premature fermentation, the grapes are conveyed to t he pressoirs in baskets instead of tbe large oval vats t ermed balonges, common t o the district. They ar e placed beneath the pr ess as soon as possibl~, a.nd for superior sparkling wines only t he juice resulting from the first pressure and known as t h e mere goutte, or mother dr op, is employed. F or the ordinary