1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The Spa1·kling Wines of .Aiistro-Hungary, &c.

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'October. Some fine white candy syrup is added to the wine at ·the epoch of bottling, in order to provoke the requisite efferves– cence, which it does so effectually that the tirage is obliged to take place some time between November and May, as at any pther period the temperature would be too high and the bottles -would burst. MM. Riedmatten and De Quay have two varieties of sparkling wine-their Carte Blanche which goes under the name of Mont Blanc, and is' rather sweet, and their Carte Verte lmown as Glacier de Rhone, a dl"ier variety and :finrung a readier sale. Of late years, since many improvements have been effected in italy both in the cultivation of the vineyards and the vintaging ·of the wine, numerous attempts have been made, although on the whole with but indifferent success, to produce a good sparkling -wine. The principal seat of the manufacture is Asti, where the Societa Unione Enofila make considerable quantities of a -common strong sweet sparkling wine, as well as a sparkling muscatel. .A.lessandria, Ancona, Bologna, Castagnolo, Genoa, Modena, Naples, Palermo, and Treviso also profess to make -sparkling wines, but only in insignificant quantities. Ales– ·sandria produces sparkling malmsey and red sparkling bra– ·chetto; and on the Marquis Della Stufa's estate of Castagnolo :a sparkling wine is manufactured from the currajola variety of grape, one of the best in the Tuscan vineyards. The vines at Castagnolo are cultivated in accoraance with the French system, .and at the vintage all unripe and unsound grapes are thrown aside. There is an evident flavour of the muscat grape in the Cast::i,gnolo sparkling wine, which has the merit of lightness and of being well made. The alcoholic strength is equivalent to mther more than 20° of proof spirit, and the highest quality wi_ne is remarkable for its excessive dryness in comparison with all other samples of Italian sparkling wines that we have met with. Naples appears to confine itself to pr oducing ·sparkling white lacryma christi, for which, as a curiosity, there ~xists a certain demand. Spain of late years has shown itself equally ambitious with 0