1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne and Other Spwtlcling Wines.

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large champagne houses, possessing vineyards, always have their pressoirs in the neighbourhood, and other large vine-proprie– _tors will press the grapes ,they grow, but the multitude of small cultivators invariably sell the produce of their vineyards to one or other of the former at a certain ra.te, either by weight or else per caque, a.mea.sure estima.ted to hold sixty kilogrammes (equal to 132lbs.) of grapes. The price which the fruit fetches varies · of course according to the quality of the vintage and the re– quirements of the manufacturers. In 1873, in all the higher– class vineyards, as much as. two francs and a quarter per kilo– g.ramme (lOd. per lb.) were paid~or between treble and quadruple the average price. And yet the vintage was a most unsatisfac– tory one owing to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet throughout the summer. The- market, however, was in great need of wine, and the fruit while still ungathered was bought up at most exorb~tant prices by the spec:ulateiors who supply the v·in br.ut to the cha.mpagne manufacture1·s. Carts laden with grapes were continually arriving at the p.ressoir, and after discharging their loads, and having them weighed, kept driving o:ff for fresh ones. Four powerful presses of recent invention, each worked by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, wete in operation. The grapes were spread over the floor of the press in a compact mass, aud on being subjected to pressure-again and a.gain repeated, the :first squeeze only giving a high-class wine-the must :fil– tered through a wicker basket into,the reservoir beneath, whence, after remaming a certain time to allow of its ridding itself of the grosser lees, it is pumped through a gutta-percha tube into the casks. The wooden stoppers of the bungholes, instead of being fixed tightly in the apertures, are simply laid over them, and after the lapse of ten or twelve days fermentation usually commences, and during its progress the must, which is originally of a pale pink tint, fades to a light straw colour. The wine usually remains undisturbed until Christmas, when it is drawn off into fresh casks, and delivered to the purchaser. On our way from Ay to Mare11il, along the lengthy Rue de