1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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Charnpagne wnd Othe:r Sparlcling Wines.

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In some establishments the dose is administered ·with a tin can or ladle ; but more generally an ingenious machine of pure silver and glass which regulates the percentage of liqueur to a nicety is employed. The dosage accomplished, the bottle passes to another workman known as the egaliseU?·, who fills it up with pure wine. Should a pink champagne be required, the wine thus added will be r ed, although manufacturers of questionable reputation sometimes employ the solution known as teinte de Fismes. The egaliseur in turn hands the bottle to the corker, who places it under a machine furnished with a pair of claws, which compress the cork to a size sufficiently small to n,llow it to enter the neck of the bottle, and a suspended weight, which in falling drives it home. These corks, which are principally ob– tained from Catalonia and Andalucia, cost more than two1)ence each, and are delivered in huge sacks r esembling hop-pockets. Before they are used they have been either boiled in wine, soaked in a solution of tartar, or else steamed by the cork merchants, both to prevent their imparting a bad flavour to the wine and to hinder any leakage. They are commonly handed warm to the corker , who dips them into a small vessel of wine before making use of them. Some firms, however, prepare their corks by subj ecting them to cold water clouches a day or two beforehand. The ficeleU?· receives the bottle from the corker, a.nd with a twist of the :fingers secures the cork with string, at the same time r ounding its hitherto fl t top. The rnetteur ~e fil next affixes the wire with like celerity; and then the final oper a– tion is performed by a workman seizing a couple of bottles by the neck and whirling them r ound his h ead, as though engaged in the Indian-club exercise, in order to secure a perfect amalga– mation of the wine and the liqueur. The :final manipulation accomplished, the agitated course of existence through which the wine has been passing of late comes to an end, and the bottles are conveyed to another part 0f the establishment, where they repose for several days, or eve,n weeks, in order that the mutual action of the wine and the liqueur upon each other may be complete. When t he time arrives for de-