1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The Vintage in the Vineyard.s of the Rive:r.

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daughter, the Comtesse de Mortemart, to-day resides. They then follow the course of the river, and after winding round behind Epernay diverge towards the south-west. The vines produce only black grapes, and many of the vineyards are of great antiquity, one at Epernay, known a~ the Closet, having been bequeathed under that name six and a half centuries ago to a neighbouring Abbey of St. Martin. 4- short drive along the high road leading from Epernay to Troyes brings us to the village of Pierry cosily nestling amongst groves of poplars in the valley of the Cubry, with some half-score of chateaux of the last century belonging to well-to-do wine-groV:ers of the neighbourhood, screened from the road by umbrageous gardens. Vines mount the slopes that ' rise around, the higher summits being crowned with forest, while here and there some pleasant village shelters itself under the brow of a lofty hill. Near Pierry many cellars have been excavated in the chalky soil, to the flints pr(:)valent in which the vill~ge is

said to qwe its name. The entrances to these cellars are closed by iron gateways, and on the skirts of the vineyards we come upon whole rows of them picturesquely overgrown with ivy.