1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne ancl Other Spa1·lcling Wines.

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the vin brut, or when stocks are low and the vin brut is really scarce, that the price of champagne appears to rise. That superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by the amounts paid for the .A.y and Verzenay crus in years of grand vintages. During the present century these -appear. to have been 1802, '06, '11, '18, '22,_ '25, '34, '42, '46, '57, ' 65, '68, and '74- that is, thirteen grand vintages in ne~rly eighty years. Other good vintages, although not equal to the foregoing, occurred in the years 1815, '32, '39, '52, '54, '58, '62, '64, and '70. Confining ourselves to the grand years, we find that the .A.y wine of 1834, owing to the crop being plentiful as well as good, only realised from 110 to 140 francs the piece of 44 gallons, although for two years previously this had fetched from 150 to 200 francs. In 1842 the price ranged from 120 to 150 francs, whereas the vastly inferior wine of the year before bad commanded from 210 to 275 francs. In 1846, the crop being a small one, the price of the wine rose, and in 1857 the piece fetched as much as from 480 to 500 francs, still this was m.erely a trifle higher than it had realised the two preceding years. In 1865 the price was 380 to 400 francs, and in 1868 about the same, whereas the indifferent vintages of 1871, '72, and '73 realised from 500 to 1,000 francs the piece. It was very, similar with the wine of Verzenay. In 1834 the price of the piece ranged -from 280 to 325 francs, or about the average of the three preceding years. In 1846, the crop being scarce, the price rose considerably, while in 1857, when the crop was plentiful, it fell to 500 francs, or from 5 to 20 per cent. below that of the two prnvious years, when the yield was both inferior and less .abundant. In 1865 the price rose 33 per cent. above' that of the year before ; still, although Verzenay wine of 1865 and 1868 fetched from 420 to 450 francs the piece, and that of 1874 as much as 900 francs, the greatly inferior vintages of 1872-73 commanded 900 and 1,030 francs the piece. Consumers of champagne, if wise, would profit by the circum– stance that quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, .and if they were bent upon drinking their favourite wine in per-