1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Champagne mul Other Sparlding Wines.

mingles its waters with those of the Rhine, and hence the -original Roman name of Confluentia. With so favourable a ·situation it is not surprising that the city should be the abode of ·several important firms trading in the wines of the two riyers . At the h ead of these is the well-known house of Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent still vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-class sparkling wines ·of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius W egeler, I was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the Wine . Jury of°"the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over their establishment on the Clemens Platz-one of the most perfect and admirably appointed in Germany. 'l'he firm was founded in 1798 by Herr F. Deinhard, who in 1806, when Co– :blenz was in the hands of the French, secured a ninety-nine years' lease of some cellars under an old convent at the low rental of -30 francs per annum, arnl to-day this curious document exists .amongst the archives of the firm. R ents of wine-cellars were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril, when commerce was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the course of warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 · francs a year of course no very extensive entrepot could have been rented. To-day Messrs. Deinhard's new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area of n early 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other vaults stored with wine in various -quarters of the city, the whole giving employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers. Their Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of 1875, when· it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress Augusta, who left behind h er the following graceful memento of her visit:- "In grateful attachment to Coblcnz, in foll appreciation of a work which does honour to th e town and to the firm, I wish continuecl prosperity to both. ".AUGUS'l'A, "German Empress and Queen of Prussia." The proximity of the establishment to the Rhine did not allow of the cellars being excavated to a greater depth than 30