1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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The Reims Champagne Estahlislvments.

Muscovite connection of La Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and secure ,a market for its wine at Moscow and St . P etersburg. It next opened up the United States, and finally introduced its brand into England. The house possesses cellars in various parts of Reims, and has its offices in one of the oldest quarters of tbe city-namely, the Rue des Elus, or ancient Rue des Juifs, records of which date as far back as 1103. These offices are at the farther end of a courtyard beyond which is a second court, where carts being laden with cases of champagne seemed to indicate that some portion of the shipping business of the house is here carried on. M. Louis Roederer r efused our reques t for permission to visit his establishments, so that it is only of their external appearance that we are able to speak. One of t hem-'-the fa~ade of which is rather imposing, and which has a carved head of Bacchus surmounting the po1-te-cochere-is situated in the Boulevard du Temple, while the principal estab– lishment, a· picturesque range of buildings of considerable extent, is in the neighbouring Rue de la Justice. The old-established firm of H eidsieck and Co., which has secured a reputation in both hemispheres for' its famous Mono– pole and Dry Monopole brands, has its cellars scattered about Reims, the central ones, where the wine is prepared and packed, being situated in the narrow winding Rue Sedan, at no great distance from the Clicquot -Werle establishment. The original firm dates back to 1785, when- France was struggling with those financial difficulties that a few years later culminated in that great social upheaving which kept Europe in a state of turmoil for more than a quarter of a century. Among the archives of the firm is a patent, bearing the signature of the Minister of the Prussian Royal H ousehold, appointing Heidsieck and Co. purveyors of champagne to Friedrich William III. The champagne-drinking ilohenzollern par excellence, however, was the son and successor of the preceding, who, from habitual over– indulgence in the exhilarating sparkling beverage during the last few years of his reign, acquired the sob1·iqiiet of King Clicquot. On passing through the large p o1·te-cochere giving entrance_to