1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The Sparlding Wines of the South of France.

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We arrived at Limoux: just too fate for the famous fCte of the Black Virgin, which lasts three weeks, and attracts crowds of southern pilgrims to the chapel of Our L ady of Marseilles, perched on a little hill some short distance from the town, with a foun– tara h alf-way up it, whose water issues drop by drop, and has the credit of possessing unheard-of virtues. The majority of pilgrims, however, exhibit a decided preference for the ne~made wine over the miraculous water, and for one-and-twenty days something like a carnival of inebriety prevails at Limoux. Blanquette de Limoux derives its name from the specieso f grape it is produced from, and which we believe to be identical with the malvoisie, or malmsey. Its long-shaped berries grow in huge bunches, and dry r eadily on the stalks. The fruit is gathered as tenderly as possible, care being t aken that it shall not b e iu the slightest degree bruised, after which it is spread out upon a floor to admit of the sugar it contains b ecoming per fect. The bad grapes having been carefully picked out, and the pips extracted from the remaining fruit, the latter is now trodden, when the must, after being filter ed through a strainer, is placed iu casks, where it r emains f ermenting for about a week, during which time any overflow is daily re– plenished by other must reserved for the purpose. The wine is again clarified and placed in fresh casks with the bungholes only lightly closed until all sensible fermentation has ceased, when they are securely fastened up. The bottling takes place in the month of March, and the wine is subsequently treat ed much after the same fashion as sparkling Saint-Peray, excepting that it is generally found necessary to repeat the operation of cleg01·gement three, if not as many as four times. Blanquette de Limoux is a pale white wine, the saccharine· properties of which have b ecome completely transformed into carbonic acid gas and alcohol. It is, consequently, both dry and spirituous, deficient in delicacy, and altogether proves a. great disappointment. At its best it may, perhaps, r ank with sparkling Saint-Peray, but unquestionably not with any average champagne.