1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines.

April, the Jura wines r ar ely r equire any addition of sugar to insure an ample effervescence. After bottling they are treated in exactly the same manner as t h e vintages of the Marne are treated by the great champagne manufacturers. In addition to white sparkling wine a pink variety, with natural effervescent p roperties, is made by mixing with the s1Lvagnin and melon g rapes a certain proportion of the poulsard species, from which the best r ed wines of the Jura are produced. One of the principal sparkling wine est ablishments at Lons– le-Saulnier is t hat of M. Auguste Devaux, founded in the year 1860.· He manufactures both sweet and dry wines, which are sold largely in France and elsewhere on the Continent, and have lately been introduced into England. Their alcoholic strength i s equivalent t o from 25° to 26° of proof spirit, b eing largely above the dry sparkling wines of the Champagne, which the Jura manufacturers regard as a positive advantage rather tha.11. an obvious drawback. M. D evam::'s principal brand is the Flem· de l'Etoile, of which h e h as white, pink, and amber-coloured varieties, quoted by him at merely thr ee francs the bottle for the grand years. Besides being too spirituous, the sparkling wines of the Jura. are deficient in r efinement and delicacy. 'rhe commoner kinds> indeed, frequently h ave a pronounced unpleasant flavour, due·to the nature of the soil, to careless vinification, or t o the inferior · qualitj of liqueur with which the wines have been dosed. Out of some fifty samples of all ages and varieties which in my capacity of juror I tasted at the Paris Exhibition I cannot call to mind one that a r eal c0nnoisseur of sparkling wines woula: ~are to admit to his t able.