1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The Sparlcling Wines of Germany.

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grapes yield a wine possessing a higher degree of effervescence than others. .AJ:iy wine, in fact, can be rendered sparkling, although only wines of a certain lightness of body and which are at the same time delicate and clean to the taste-being devoid of anything approaching to a goi1t de terroir-are really suited to the purpose. Given a wine containing sufficient sac– charine, either natural or applied, and duly regulate its ··tem– perature, and it is easy enough to r ender it sparkling. The Ger– mans discovered this long ago when they ·first transfqrmi d the acidulous wines of the Rhine into what we term sparkling hocks. The rise of this industry dates from the epoch of the·final downfall of Napoleon I., when the officers of the armies of occu– pation acquired more than a passing liking for the exhilarating products of Clicquot and Moet, carrying. it, in fact, home with them, and so disseminating a taste for the sparkling wines of France throughout the North of Europe. In Germany the wealthy few only were able to indulge in it, and the consump– tion was for a long time exceedingly limited. When, however, after many years of peace, riches began to accumulate, some shrewd men set themselves to ascertain whether tbe German wines could not be rendered sparkling like the French. This was satisfactorily and speedily settled in the affirmative; but the great difficulty was to find the requisite capiLal for the large preliminary investment neces!;:ary to the est ablishment of a manufactory of sparkling wine on even a moderate scale, and from which no r eturn could be counted on for the first three years. Eventually this was overcome ; but the new wines, being in the first instance altogether different in character from champagne, fouud but little favour in the country of their production. It was different, however, in England, where they speedily succeeded in establishing themselves under the designa– tions of sparkling hock and sparkling moselle, and from this time forward they have retained their position in the English market. It is generally asserted that sparkling wines were first manu– factured in Germany more than half a century ago from the