1895 Mixed Drinks by Herbert W Green

104

MIXED DRINKS.

sunk througk solid chalk. From the main shaft there ar« three lateral galleries which connect with each other by staircases. These galleries hold the millions of hot- ties of champagne which are the necessary equipment of a first-rate modern Reims house. The vertical shaft, is of course for mechanical purposes only. Here is a machine and an endless chain, which lift the wine to the surface in cases. The wine is made (if the word may be used where 'fabricated' would not do equally well) below,and packed for exporation above. "The temperature in these gloomy corridors cut in the native rock never variesfrom about 46° Fahrenheit. In winter the men enjoy it for its mildness, but in sum mer it seems far from genial. The excessive dampness, too, must be prejudicial in many cases. If you touch the heavy canvas screens which divide the galleries, you feel that you could squeeze quarts of water from them, and the walls of course reek with moisture. Yet there is really not a degree too much of cold, nor one drop too much of humidity,in the cellars. All this is neces sary to tame the high spirits of the champagne wine. The loss by bursting bottles is enormous,even under these conditions of discomfort for moi'tals and restraint for wine. . "There is electric light in the cellars, but its lustre