1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

I30 THE FLOWING BOWL cellar some fifty yards below the level of the street pavements, with occasionally bottles burst ing to right and left of you. These cellars are cut out of the calcareous rock, and were, many of them, inherited from the Romans; and cham pagne is such a sensitive, exacting sort of wine that it must be stored in the very bowels of the earth, where all is peace and quietude, and where neither motion nor vibration can reach the maturing vintages. At least that is what they tell visitors; although the only time I have visited champagne cellars could hardly be called a peaceful experi ence, owing to the almost continuous bombard ment of bursting bottles. And it is said that as a rule at least 10 per cent of the stored wine is wasted in this way ; whilst in seasons of early and unusual heat the percentage may rise to as much as 20, and even 25. Sparkling champagne—and we are not con cerned with the still wine—is the result of a peculiar treatment during fermentation. During the winter months the wine is racked-oif, and fined with isinglass ; and in the early spring it is bottled and tightly corked. In order to collect the sediment in the necks of the bottles these are placed at first in a sloping condition, with the corks downward, for a term. In the second year this sediment requires to be disgorged, or degage-e-A. This feat can only be learnt by long practice, and even then there be workmen who cannot be safely trusted to shift the sediment, without shifting a too-large proportion of the wine itself.