1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

184

Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines.

M. Oppmann at Wiirzburg-The Historic Cellars of the King of Bavaria beneath the Residenz-The Establishment of F . .A.. Siligmiiller. AscENDING the Rhine from Coblenz-past many an ancient ruined c?.stle, past restored Stolzenfels, the historic Ki:inigs-stuhl, the romantic Liebenstein and Sterrenberg, the legenda ry Lurlei, the tribute-exacting Pfalz, and the old town of Bacharach , famous

in the Middle Ages for its wine mart-we even– tually come to Lorch, where the Wisper brook flows into the Rhine, and the grand wine– producing district known as the Rhein– gau begins. A few miles higher up are the vineyards of Assmannshausen,

STOLZENFELS.

dominated by the Niederwald, and yielding the finest r ed wine in all Germany. Then passing by Bishop Hatto's legendary t ower we emerge fTom the gorge of the Rhine and soon r each Riidesheim, crouched at the foot of lofty terraced vineyards, which, according to doubtful tradition, were planted with Burgundy and Orleans vines by Charlemagne. Riidesheim, like other antiquated little Rhine-side towns, boasts its ancient castle with its own poetical