1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Chwrnpagne and Otlwr Spa1·7cling Wines.

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manure, and in course of time take root and form new vines, which bear during their second year. This operation is performed in the spring, ·and is annually repeated un,til the vine is five years old, the plants thus being in a state of continual progression, a system which accounts for the juvenescent aspect of the Cham– pagne vineyards, where none of the wood of the vines showing aboveground is more than three years olcl. \Vhen the vine has attained its fifth year it is allowed to rest for a couple of years, and then the pruning is resumed, the shoots being dispersed in any direction throughout the vineyard: The plants r emain in . this condition henceforward, merely requiring to be renewed from t ime to time by judicious provining.

The vines are supported by stakes, when of oak costing sixt.Y. francs the thousand; and as in the Champagne a close system of plantation is followed, no less than 24,000 stakes are required on every acre of land, making the cost per acre of propping up the vines u'pwards of £57, or double what it is in the Medoc and quadruple what it is in Burgundy. These stakes are set up in the spring of the year l!>y men. or women, the former of whom force them rnto