1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne ancl Otlier Sparlding W ines.

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inferior N eck ar grape both at Esslingen and H eilbronn-the latter rendered memorable by the exploits of Gut z von Berlichin– gen, whose iron b and distributed blows which effectually " cured h eadach e, toothach e, and every ot her human malady." Subse– quently, towar ds 1830, a former chef de cave at Madame Clicquot's establishment at Reims came to H err Lauteren, of Mayence, and suggested to him to engage in t he manufacture of sparkling Rhine wines, a pTOposal which the l atter soon af terwards profited by; and eight years later H err Rambs, of Treves, vineyar d proprietor and wine-mer chant, aided by a French cellarman, made the earliest attempt to manufacture sparkling moselles, t heir first trials in this direction r esulting in a breakage amount ing t o fift y per cent . F or some years the great anxiety of manufacturers of sparkling hocks was t o r ender their wines as much as possible like champagn e, which was only t o be accomplish~cl by dis– guising t heir t rue flavour and dosing them lar gely with syrup. In t his form t hey satisfied, and indeed still satisfy, t h eir German and Russian consumers ; but of late ye<1r s England has set the example of a decided preference for the drier kinds of sparkling wines, t he result being that the character of the wines destined for t be English market h as under gone a complet e change. Next to its sweetness the principal difference between German ch ampagne, or Moussirender Rheinwein as it is u sually called, for Continental consumption, and sparkling hocks designed for the English and other markets, consists in the former being made principally from black grapes, pr essed immediately they are gath ered and not allowed t o ferment in their skins, while the l atter are made almost exclusively from white grapes. The vine- . yards yielding t he black grapes used for these sparkling wines are mainly situated at Ingelheim, midway between Bingen and Mayence, and in the Ahr valley~ between Coblenz and Cologne. At the black grape vintage, which precedes the gathering of the white varieties by some three or four week s, t he fruit is conveyed t o the press in high t ubs, carried on men's backs, and holding about 40lbs. apiece. The old wooden presses