1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

. 61

P1·eparation of Champagne.

spatching them they are confided to femi– nine hands to have their dainty toilettes made, and are taste– fully labelled and either capsuled, or else have their corks and necks imbedded in sealing-wax, or swathed in gold or silver foil, whereby they are rendered presentable at the best-appointed ta– bles. Thus completed champagne sets out on its beneficial pil– grimage to promote the spread of mirtn

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and lighthearteclness, to drive away dull care and foment good– fellowship, to comfort the sick and cheer the sound. Wherever civilisation penetrates, champagne sooner or later is sure to follow; and if Queen Victoria's morning drum beats round the world, its beat is certain to be echoed before the day is over by the popping of champagne-corks. Now-a-days the exhilarating wine graces not merely princely but middle-class dinner-tables, and is the needful adjunct at every petit soitper in all the gayer capitals of 'the world. It gives a flush to beauty at garden-parties and picnics, sustains the energies of the votaries of Terpsichore until the hour of dawn, and imparts to many a young gallant the necessary courage to declare his passion. It enlivens the dullest of rrf.tinions, brings smiles to the lips of the sternest cynics, softens the most irascible tempers, and loosens the most taciturn tongues.