1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book

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CHAMPAGNE

vertical. The object of this, of course, is to get all the sediment to settle upon the cork, and finally, when the bottles have actually reached the vertical position, a condition known as ' finished on end,' they are ready for the ' degorgement,' or extraction of the sediment coated cork. Refrigeration has been largely adopted for this purpose, the wine in the neck of the bottle being frozen solid, thus permitting the easy extraction of the cork, to which the deposit is adhering, with out a drop of the wine being spilt. Now comes the operation called 'dosing.' This consists in the adding of a special liquor of pure cane sugar-candy dissolved in high quality wines, and it is the addition of this liquor in varying proportions that gives to the wine the qualifications " Extra Dry," " Drapeau Americain," " Dry," " Demi- Sec " or " Gout Frangais " (sweet). Now the bottle is ready to be stoppered with the ' shipping cork ' with which it is eventually sold. Many people have been puzzled to find a comparatively new cork, upon opening a good branded Champagne that they have been assured is a very old wine. From the foregoing it will be seen how such a circumstance might come about. It merely means that the wine has not been ' cleared ' until shortly before its sale, as very frequently occurs. Whilst touching upon this question of corking, it must be