1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne wnd Other Sparlclvng Wines.

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black and white grapes is blended to~ether, only a small pro-. portion of the former entering into the composition of true sparkling hock, which should r etain in a marked degree the– subtile and fragrant perfume of the riesling grape. The process pursued in the manufacture of sparkling hocks is the same as that followed with r egard to champagnes. The– quantity of grape sugar generated in these Northern German latitudes being far from large, both hocks and moselles invariably need a small addition of saccharine, previous to their being put into bottle, t'o insure the requisite effervescence, whereas in the Champagne the practice of adding sugar with this object is. not the uniform rule. After the wine is bottled it remains. in a cool cellar for eighteen months or a couple of years, being constantly shaken during this period, in the same way as cham– pagne1in order to force the sediment to deposit itself near t0> the cork. By this time the added as well as the natural sugar contained in the wine has become converted into alcohol a:p.d carbonic acid; and after the sediment has been expelled from the bottle the operation of dosing, or flavouring, the wine takes. place. Sparkling hocks intended both for the German and Russian markets are frequently almost cloying in their sweet– ness, as much as one-fifth of syrup being often added to four-. fifths of wine. The sparkling moselles, too, for Russia, and not unfrequently for England also, are largely dosed with the preparation of elder-flowers, which imparts to them their well- 1.-nown muscatel flavour and perfume. The manufacturers say they are doing their best to abandon this absurd practice or artificially perfuming sparkling moselles ; but many of their cus– tomers, and especially those in the English provinces, stipulate for the scented varieties, possibly from an erroneous belief in their superiority. Effervescing Rhine wines of the highest class. have a marked and refined flavour, together with a very decided natural bouquet. Moreover, they r etain their effervescent pro– perties for a considerable time after being uncorked, and appear· to the taste as light, if not precisely as delicate, as the finer·