1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Concl-udilng Facts and Hints.

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palatable dry champagne, emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best vin bnit, to which neces– sarily an exceedingly small percentage of liqueur will be added. On the other hand, a sweet champagne can be produced from the most ordinary raw wine-the ~ankees even claim to have evolved it from petroleum-as the amount of liqueur it receives completely masks its original character and flavour. This excess of syrup, it should be remarked, contributes materially to the wine's explosive force and temporary effervescence, but shortly after the bottle has been uncorked the wine becomes disagre~ably flat. A fine dry wine, indebted as ~t is for its sparkling properties to the natural sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent effervescence. It continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after being poured into the glass owing to the carbonic acid having been absorbed by the wine itself instead of being accumulated in the vacant space between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that have been highly liqueured. Even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted a good champagne will preservE;i its fine flavour, which the effeTvescence will have assisted to conceal. Champagne, it sh~uld be noted, sparkles best in tall tapering glasses; still these have their disadvantages, promoting as they do an excess of froth when the wine is poured into them, and almost preventing any bouquet which the wine possesses from being recognised. :Manufacturers of champagneandothersparklingwines prepare them dry or sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are designed. The sweet wines go to Russia and Germany, the sweet-toothed Muscovite regarding M. Louis Roederer's syrupy product as the beau-id6al of champagne, and the Germans demanding wines with 20 or more per cent. of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quantity that is contained in the average champagnes shipped to England. France consumes light and moderately sweet wines; the United States gives a preference to the intermediate qualities; China, India, and other hot countries stipulate for light d1:y wines; while the very strong