1895 Mixed Drinks by Herbert W Green

MIXED, DRINKS.

99

called"champagne"for short, by the generality who indulge in it occasionally, but those who have a more intimate acquaintance with it and who are very exact in their phraseology, always speak of it as charhpagne^ wine. Specifically it is the efiervescent wine made within the limits of old Champagne in the northeast of France,mainly in the neighborhood of Epernay,Reims, Avize, Ay, and Pierry, in the department of Marne. The vineyards are situated within a district about twenty miles long,from Reims on the north,to Yertus on the south,and are generally classed"of the Hill," (montagne,) and"of the River," or along the Marne; but large quantities of new wine are brought from other regions, and each manufacturer makes a mixture or blend according to his own system, and produces a brand of wine known by his own name. The eflFerves- cence is artificially produced and is of the nature of an arrested or incomplete fermentation. The degree of sweetness of the wine is the result of an addition of liquor consisting of syrup simple and old wine. The difl:erent degrees of sweetness are indicated by the terms sec (dry,) doux (sweet,) and brut,(one to three per cent,of sweet liqueur.) Brut originally meant the new or unmanipulated wine. The sweeter wines are gener ally the more efiervescent.