1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne and Other Sparlcling Wines.

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freres. There are, moreover, sparkling wine manufactories at In the Canton of Neuchatel the best Swiss .red wines are produced– notably Cortaillod and Faverge of a ruby hue and Burgundy– like flavour-and the sparI;:ling wine manufacturers of the dis– trict wisely blend a considerable proportion of wine from black grapes with that from white when making their ciivies. Vaud, on the other hand, being noted for white wines bearing some resemblance to certain Rhine growths, it is of these that spark– ling wines are exclusively made at Vevay. The Vevay vineyards occupy the heights which skirt the Lake of Geneva on its northern side. The innumerable terraces, steep and difficult of access to the toiling vine-dresser, on which the vines are planted, are the result of centuries of patient labour. Here the vine seems to flourish at an altitude of more than 1,800 feet above the sea level. To compensate for the deficiency of sunshine the leaves are largely etripped from the vines so as to expose the fruit, and thereby assist its ripening. The sparkling wine factory at Sion, bordering the river Rhone, in the Canton of the Valais, was established in 1872 by MM. de Riedmatten and De Quay, who derive their raw wine from vineyards in the immediate neighbourhood, almost all of which have a southern exposure, and occupy gentle slopes. The soil chiefly consists of a decomposed limestone schist, locally termed" brise." In these vineyards, and more especially the district known as the Clavaux, some of the best and most alcoholic wines in Switzerland are produced. The firm originally experimented with the choicer and more powerful growths, and, as may be imagined, soon discovered they were not well adapted for conversion into sparkling w,ines. To-day they limit themselves to wines produced from what is known as the "fondant" variety of grape, said by some to be identical with the German riesling, and by others to be of the same t ype as the French chasselas. The vintage in the Valais is the Earliest in Switzerland, taking place in favourable years at the close of September, but ordinarily in the course of Vevay in the Vaud Canton, and at Sion in the Valais.