1916 Jack's Manual by J A Grohusko (4th edition)

The best vintages have been 1874, 1880, 1887 and 1889. The London Champagne buyers whenever there is a choice vintage, buy it and take it to London, so that the greater portions of good Champagne are only to be found there. Heretofore the wines shipped to America have been much sweeter than those used in London, but now Extra Dry or Brut Wines are becoming more popular here every day. Champagnes on the English market, and generally called Brut, contain from one to two per cent, liqueur. These wines are largely impregnated with carbonic acid, engendered by an after-fermentation in the closed bottle by means of added sugar. This originated in Champagne, where the best spark- ling wines are produced, and whence it has spread to the Rhine, the Moselle and other districts. As champagne which contains relatively little sugar is called "dry," it is chiefly this kind which is imported into Great Britain, where cham- pagne is used habitually as a dinner wine principally ; in France* a sweet wine is preferred. At the present day, wine is practically a European product, although a certain quan- tity is made in the United States, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in Australia. France shows today and has during several isolated sea- sons the past twenty years shown herself to be the most remarkable wine-producing country in the world's history, and this in face of the fact that the United States and Italy, with more territory suitable to grape-growing, and with wonderful natural advantages — and why? Because she has taken advantage of her fitness of soil to the wine; her meteorological conditions; her geographical position as re- gards the European markets, and incidentally those of the world, and partly to the aptitude of its inhabitants. Spain is second only in reputation to France among wine- growing countries; its white wine known as Sherry, first brought it into prominence. Sherry, so-called from the island of Jesez (Xeras) de la Frontera, the headquarters of this industry. In our own country the cultivation of the vine has made rapid progress of late years, and American wines are steadily taking the place of the foreign product. The soil and climate of the Pacific Coast seem best adapted to the growth of the vine, and wine-making is very likely to become one of the leading industries of California. The Mission grape (being the first) is supposed to have been imported from Mexico by the Franciscan fathers about the year 1769. Subsequently varieties of French, German and Spanish wines were intro- duced into the state. In Ohio upon the shores of Lake Erie and along the Ohio River the vine is extensively cultivated. New York, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania are like- wise large producing states, the largest wine manufacturing establishment being in New York State, Steuben County.

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