1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Oluimpagne and Other Sparlcling Wines.

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"Rhine of America"-until, ceasP-lessly attacked by rot, mildew, and leaf- blight, it was found necessary in many places to sup– plant it by more robust varieties. Mr. Longworth, about the year 1837, among his numerous experiments at Cincinnati, included that of making sparkling wines from the catawba, isabella, and other varieties ofgrapes, and to-day there are several manufactories of sparkling catawba and other wines .in the capital of Ohio-the self-named "Queen city," which its detractors have jocularly dubbed Porcopolis on account of the immense trade done there in smoked and salted pork. The chief sparkling wine establishments at Cincinnati are those of Messr~. ·werk and Sons, whose sparkling catawba obtained a medal tor progress at the Vienna Exhibition iu 1873, and who 1 have, moreover, largely experimented with ives' and virginia seedlings, delaware and other grapes, in making effervescent wines, though only with doubtful success. Another Cincinnati :fiTm is that of Me!'lsrs. George Bogen and Co., whose sparkling wines also met with r ecognition at Vienna. The reader will Temember Longfellow's well-known sui1g ex– tolling catawba wine, which, wit h more than a poet's licence, he ranks above the best of the Old World vintages :-

"There grows no vine By the haunted Rhine, By Danupe or Guadalquivir, Nott on island nor C'ape, That bears such a grape .A.s grows by the Beautiful Ri,,cr. , "Very good in its way Is the Verzenny, Or the Sillery, soft and creamy, But Catawba wine Hns a tnste more divine, More duket, delicious, and dreamy."

On Kelley's Island, Erie county, also in the State of Ohio, a wine company, established iu 1866, and trading principally in still wines, makes sparkling wines upon a considerable scale exclusively from the catawba vai;iety of grape,which is cultivated in its highest perfection both on the islands of Lake Erie and along a narrow