1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The Sparl,ling Wines of the United S tates.

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slip of territory not two miles long bordering the southern shore of the lake, and also in the vicinity of Lake Keuka, near H ammondsport, N.Y. The Kelley Island Wine Company, as it_ is styled, presses the grapes between the middle of October and the end of November, and bottles from al:5out the 20th May until the commencement of July in the year following. Its brands are Island Queen, Nonpai;eil, and Carte: Blanche. Ninety-five per cent. of the wines are dry, and the t endency of the market is in favour of a still drier article. Shipments are principally confined to the United States, thn great centre of the trn,de being St. Louis, on the Mississippi, w:hich has its own sparkling wine establishments, and t o-day disputes with Chicago the title of Queen of the W est. The company k~ep some 100,000 bottles of sparkling wines in stock, and possess facilities for bottling five times that quantity whenever the demand might warrant such a step being t aken . Of r ecent years, however, economy has been the rule in American society, and the market for native sparkling wines at any r ate is to-day a r educed one. At H ammondsport, south of Lake Keuka-in other words, Crooked Lake- and in the State of NewYork, the est ablishments of the Pleasant Valley and Urbana wine companies, devoting their at tention to both still and sparkling wines, are installed. The r egion, which enthusiastic writers now term the Cham– pagne of America, was colonised in 1793, and vines of the catawba and isabella varieties were first planted for the purpose of making wine in 1854. At the present time there are about 8,000 acres under cultivation with all the better species of vines. The produce from black and white grapes is mingled for the sparkling wines of t he district. Of the former but two kinds are considered suitable, the concord and the isabella, both being varieties of the indigenous labrusca, or so-called foxy– fl.a,vow-ed grape. The concord is a hardy and productive plant, producing lar ge and compact bunches of large r ound sweet g rapes, yielding a wine of the obnoxious foxy flavour. The isabella is an equ