1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Preparation of Chcumpagne.

wine is left to repose at the vendangeoirs until the commence– ment of the following year, still when the vintage is over mun– bers of long narrow carts laden with casks of it are to be seen rolling along the dusty highways leading to those towns and villages in t he Marne where the manufacture of champagne is carried on. 'Chief amongst t hese is the cathedral city of Reims, after which comes the rising town 0±· Epernay, stretching to the very verge of the river, then Ay, nestled between the vine-clad slopes and the Marne canal, with t he neighbouring village of Mareuil, and finally Avize, in the centre of the white grape district southwards of Epernay. Chfilons, owing to its distance from the vineyards, would scarcely drnw its supply of wine until the new year. The first fermentation lasts from a fort night to a month, according as to whether the wine be moii-that is, rich in sugar-or the reverse. In the former case fermentation naturally lasts much longer tha.n when the wine is v