1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

The Vineyards aj .the MounW..in.

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feet square, of which the huge fheplace occupied fully one-t hird, and submitted patiently to our catechizing.. At .Ambonnay, as at Bouzy, they had t hat yGar , M. Oury said, only half an average crop; t he ~aque of grapes had, more– over, sold for exactly t he same price at both places, and the wine had realised about 800 francs the piece. Each hectare (2l acres) of vines had yielded 45 caques of grapes, weighing some 2! tons, which produced 6t pieces, equal t o 286 gallons of wine, or at t he rate of llO gallons per acre. H ere t he grapes were pressed four t imes, t he yield from the second pressure being used prin– cipally to make good t he loss which t he first sustained during · its fermentation. As t he squeezes given were powerful ones, all the best qualit ies of the grapes were by this t ime extracted, and t he yield from the third and fourth pressures would not command more than 80 francs the piece. The vintager s who came from a distance received either a franc and a half per day and t heir food, consisting of three meals, or two francs and a haif wit hout food, the children being paid thirty sous. M. Oury further info rmed us that every year vineyards came into the market, and found ready purchasers at from fift een to twenty t housand francs the hectare, equal to an average price of £300 t he acre. Owing to the properties being divided into such in– finitesimal portions, they wer e rarely bought up by the lar ge champagne houses, who preferred not to be embarrassed with the cultivation of such tiny plots, but to buy the produce from their owners. There are other vineyards of lesser note in the neighbourhood of Reims producing very fair wines which enter more or less into the composition of champagne. Noticeable among these are Ville-Dommange and Sacy, south-west of Reims, and H ermon– ville and St. Thierry-where the Black Prince took up his quarter s during the siege of Reims-north-west of the city. The still red wine of St. Thierry, which recalls the growths of the Medoc by its tannin, and those of the Cote d'Or by its vinosity, is to-day almost a thing of the past, it being fo und here as elsewhere more profit– able t o press the grapes for sparkling in preference to still wine. D