1910 Jack's Manual by J A Grohusko

The best known cheaper qualities are Macon, Baune and Beaujolais, and their names indicate generally the district of their growth. The better wines are Romanee, Canti, Pommard, Chambertin, Nuits and Clos De Vougot, and the best known white wines are the Chablis. The red burgundies are recommended as blood-making wines, especially in cases of general or local anaemia. How to Serve Burgundy Wines. Red burgundies should be served just as clarets, at the dining-room temperature, having been brought from the cellar several hours before the meal, after having decanted them off their sediment, or by using special baskets in which the bottles are laid just as they lay in the bin. Burgundy wines in bottle form a sediment, owing to maturing, which is more or less abundant, according to the growths and ages. This sediment does not impair the quality of the wine, provided the bottle is uncorked carefully and not shaken so as to disturb the sediment. The cork having been drawn, the wine should be carefully decanted while holding the bottle up against the light in the same position as it was when stored in the cellar. As soon as the sediment is nearing the neck of the bottle the decanting must be stopped, for the mixing of the sediment with the wine will deprive the latter of its bouquet and render it bitter. Bottles should never be left uncorked, for the better the quality of the wine the more apt it is to become flat. White wines should be left in the cellar until needed. Sparkling wines should be iced. Forming the Sparkle. The ferments which existed at the time of the vintage and had become dormant during the winter, revive with the first warmth of spring, and commence to act afresh. They de- compose the natural sugar still remaining from the vintage and transform it, as also the cane sugar added at the time of bottling, into a supplementary amount of alcohol and carbonic acid gas; but this time the gas cannot escape be- cause the bottle is hermetically sealed; instead, it mixes thor- oughly with the wine, producing that elegant sparkle so well known. This fermentation in the corked bottles generates a deposit which settles on the lower side of the bottle and must be got rid of. This is effected by two operations. These are the "mise sur pointe" and the "disgorgement." The Mise Sur Pointe. The bottles are placed head downward through an in- clined plank pierced with holes at an angle of 70 degrees. Every day for at- least three months a cellerman, specially trained for this kind of work, shakes the bottles lightly against the plank with a wrist movement quick and sharp. The deposit slowly descends and collects on the cork.