1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

Champagne and Other 82Ja1·kling Wines.

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Messrs. Heidsieck's principal establishment, one finds oneself in a small courtyard with the surrounding buildino-s overo-rown . h t:> t:> wit ivy and venerable vines. On the left is a dwellino--house t:> enriched with elaborate mouldings and cornices, and at the farther end of the court is the entrance to the cellars, surmounted by a sun-dial bearing the date 1829. The latter, however, is no crite~·ion of the age o(the buildings themselves, as these were o.ccupied by the firm at its foundation, towards the close of the last century. We are first conducted into an antiquatcd-looki11g low cellier, the roof of which is sustained with rude timber sup– ports, and here bottles of wine are being labelled and packed, although this is but a mere adjunct t o the adjacent spacious packing-room pl'Oyided with its loading platform and communi– cating directly with 1the public road. At the time of our visit this hall was gaily decorated with flags and inscriptions, the day before having been the fete of St. J ean, when the firm entertain the peopl~ in their employ with a banquet and a ball, at which the choicest wine of the house liberally flows. From the pack– ing-room we descend into the cellars, which, like all the more ancient vaults in Reims, have been constructed on no regular plan. Here we thread our way between piles after piles of bottles, many of which having passed through the hands of the disgorger are awaiting their customary adornment. The lower tier of cellars is mostly stored with vin sur pointe, and bottles with their necks downwards are encountered='n endless mono– tony along a score or more of long galleries. The only variation in our lengthened promenade is when we come upon some solitary workman engaged in his monotonous task of sh~Lking his 30,000 or 40,000 bottles per diem. The disgorging at Messrs. Heidsieck's t akes place, in accord– ance with the good old rule, in the cellars under ground, where we noticed large stocks of wine three and five year s old, the former in the first st age of sur-pointe, and the latter awaiting shipment. It is a speciality ot: the house to ship only matured wine, which is necessarily of a higher charact er than the ordinary youthful growths, for a few years have a wonderful influence in