1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Ohwmpagne anrl Other Sparkling. Wines.

this stage are accustomed to drink freely of raw spirits, and merely pay the penalty resulting from over-indulgence. In former times the bottles used to be placed with their heads downwards on tables pierced with holes, from which they had to be removed and agitated. In 1818, however, a man named Muller, in the employment ofMadame Glicquot, suggested that the bottles should r emain in the tables wililst being shaken, and further that the holes should be cut obliquely so that the . bottles might recline at varying angles. His suggestions were privately adopted by Madame Clicquot, but eventually the im– proved plan got wind, and the system now prevails throughout · the Champagne. When the bottles have gone through their regular course of shaking they are examined before a lighted candle to ascertain w hetber the deposit has fallen and the wine become perfectly clP.ar. Sometimes it happens that, t wist these men never so wisely, the deposit refuses to stiT, and takes the shape of a bunch of thread t echnically' called a "claw," or an ~dherent mass styled a "mask." When this is the case an