PART III.

I. /Sparkling Saumur and Sparkling Sauternes./ The sparkling wines of the Loire often palmed off as Champagne--The finer qualities improve with age--Anjou the cradle of the Plantagenet kings--Saumur and its dominating feudal Château and antique Hôtel de Ville--Its sinister Rue des Payens and steep tortuous Grande Rue--The vineyards of the Coteau of Saumur--Abandoned stone-quarries converted into dwellings--The vintage in progress--Old-fashioned pressoirs--The making of the wine--Touraine the favourite residence of the earlier French monarchs--After a night's carouse at the epoch of the Renaissance--The Vouvray vineyards--Balzac's picture of La Vallée Coquette--The village of Vouvray and the Château of Moncontour--Vernou, with its reminiscences of Sully and Pépin-le-Bref--The vineyards around Saumur--Remarkable ancient Dolmens--Ackerman-Laurance's establishment at Saint-Florent--Their extensive cellars, ancient and modern--Treatment of the newly-vintaged wine--The cuvée--Proportions of wine from black and white grapes--The bottling and disgorging of the wine and finishing operations--The Château of Varrains and the establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné--His cellars a succession of gloomy galleries--The disgorging of the wine accomplished in a melodramatic-looking cave--M. Duvau's vineyard--His sparkling Saumur of various ages--Marked superiority of the more matured samples--M. E. Normandin's sparkling Sauternes manufactory at Châteauneuf--Angoulême and its ancient fortifications--Vin de Colombar--M. Normandin's sparkling Sauternes cuvée--His cellars near Châteauneuf--Recognition accorded to the wine at the Concours Régional d'Angoulême. [Illustration] After the Champagne, Anjou is the French province which ranks next in importance for its production of sparkling wines. Vintaged on the banks of the Loire, these are largely consigned to the English and other markets, labelled Crême de Bouzy, Sillery and Ay Mousseux, Cartes Noires and Blanches, and the like; while their corks are branded with the names of phantom firms, supposed to be located at Reims and Epernay. As a rule, these wines come from around Saumur; but they are not necessarily the worse on that account, for the district produces capital sparkling wines, the finer qualities of which improve greatly by being kept for a few years. One curious thing shown to us at Saumur was the album of a manufacturer of sparkling wines containing examples of the many hundred labels ticketed with which his produce had for years past been sold. Not one of these labels assigned to the wines the name of their real maker or their true birthplace, but introduced them under the auspices of mythical dukes and counts, as being manufactured at châteaux which are so many 'castles in Spain,' and as coming from Ay, Bouzy, Châlons, Epernay, Reims, and Verzenay, but never by any chance from Saumur. Being produced from robuster growths than the sparkling wines of the Department of the Marne, sparkling Saumur will always lack that excessive lightness which is the crowning grace of fine Champagne; still, it has only to be kept for a few years, instead of being drunk shortly after its arrival from the wine-merchant, for its quality to become greatly improved and its intrinsic value to be considerably enhanced. We have drunk sparkling Saumur that had been in bottle for nearly twenty years, and found the wine not only remarkably delicate, but, singular to say, with plenty of effervescence. [Illustration: STATUE OF RICHARD C[OE]UR DE LION AT FONTEVRAULT.] To an Englishman Anjou is one of the most interesting of the ancient provinces of France. It was the cradle of the Plantagenet kings, and only ten miles from Saumur still repose the bones of Henry, the first Plantagenet, and Richard of the Lion Heart, beneath their elaborate coloured and gilt effigies, in the so-called Cimetière des Rois of the historic Abbey of Fontevrault. The famous vineyards of the Coteau de Saumur, eastward of the town and bordering the Loire, extend as far as here, and include the communes of Dampierre, Souzay, Varrains, Chacé, Parnay, Turquant, and Montsoreau, the last-named within three miles of Fontevrault, and chiefly remarkable through its seigneur of ill-fame, Jean de Chambes, who instigated his wife to lure Bussy d'Amboise to an assignation in order that he might the more surely poignard him. Saumur is picturesquely placed at the foot of this bold range of heights, near where the little river Thouet runs into the broad and rapid Loire. A massive-looking old château, perched on the summit of an isolated crag, stands out grandly against the clear sky and dominates the town, the older houses of which crouch at the foot of the lofty hill and climb its steepest sides. The restored antique Hôtel de Ville, in the Pointed style, with its elegant windows, graceful belfry, and florid wrought-iron balconies, stands back from the quay bordering the Loire. In the rear is the Rue des Payens, whither the last of the Huguenots of this 'metropolis of Protestantism,' as it was formerly styled, retired, converting their houses into so many fortresses to guard against being surprised by their Catholic adversaries. Adjacent is the steep tortuous Grande Rue, of which Balzac--himself a Tourangeau--has given such a graphic picture in his _Eugénie Grandet_, the scene of which is laid at Saumur. To-day, however, only a few of its ancient carved-timber houses, quaint overhanging corner turrets, and fantastically studded massive oak doors, have escaped demolition. The vineyards of the Coteau de Saumur, yielding the finest wines, are reached by the road skirting the river, the opposite low banks of which are fringed with willows and endless rows of poplars, which at the time of our visit were already golden with the fading tints of autumn. Numerous fantastic windmills crown the heights, the summit of which is covered with vines, varied by dense patches of woodland. Here, as elsewhere along the banks of the Loire, the many abandoned quarries along the face of the hill have been turned by the peasants into cosy dwellings by simply walling-up the entrances, while leaving, of course, the necessary apertures for doors and windows. Dampierre, the first village reached, has many of these cave-dwellings, and numbers of its houses are picturesquely perched up the sides of the slope. The holiday costumes of the peasant women encountered in the neighbourhood of Saumur are exceedingly quaint, their elaborate and varied headdresses being counterparts of _coiffures_ in vogue so far back as three and four centuries ago. [Illustration: PEASANT WOMEN OF THE ENVIRONS OF SAUMUR.] Quitting the banks of the river, we ascend a steep tortuous road, shut in on either side by high stone walls--for hereabouts all the best vineyards are scrupulously enclosed--and finally reach the summit of the heights, whence a view is gained over what the Saumurois proudly style the grand valley of the Loire. Everywhere around the vintage is going on. The vines are planted rather more than a yard apart, and those yielding black grapes are trained, as a rule, up tall stakes, although some few are trained espalier fashion. Women dexterously detach the bunches with pruning-knives and throw them into the _seilles_--small squat buckets with wooden handles--the contents of which are emptied from time to time into baskets--the counterpart of the chiffonnier's _hotte_, and coated with pitch inside so as to close all the crevices of the wickerwork--which the _portes-bastes_ carry slung to their backs. When white wine is being made from black grapes for sparkling Saumur, the grapes are conveyed in these baskets to the underground pressoirs in the neighbouring villages before their skins get at all broken, in order that the wine may be as pale as possible in colour. The black grape yielding the best wine in the Saumur district is the breton, said to be the same as the carbinet-sauvignon, the leading variety in the grand vineyards of the Médoc. Other species of black grapes cultivated around Saumur are the varennes, yielding a soft and insipid wine of no kind of value, and the liverdun, or large gamay, the prevalent grape in the Mâconnais, and the same which in the days of Philippe-le-Hardi the _parlements_ of Metz and Dijon interdicted the planting and cultivation of. The prevalent white grapes are the large and small pineau blanc, the bunches of the former being of an intermediate size, broad and pyramidal in shape, and with the berries close together. These have fine skins, are oblong in shape, and of a transparent yellowish-green hue tinged with red, are very sweet and juicy, and as a rule ripen late. As for the small pineau, the bunches are less compact, the berries are round and of a golden tint, are finer as well as sweeter in flavour, and ripen somewhat earlier than the fruit of the larger variety. We noticed as we drove through the villages of Champigny and Varrains--the former celebrated for its fine red wines, and more especially its cru of the Clos des Cordeliers--that hardly any of the houses had windows looking on to the narrow street, but that all were provided with low openings for shooting the grapes into the cellar, where, when making red wine, they are trodden, but when making white wine, whether from black or white grapes, they are invariably pressed. Each of the houses had its ponderous porte-cochère and low narrow portal leading into the large enclosed yard at its side, and over the high blank walls vines were frequently trained, pleasantly varying their dull gray monotony. The grapes on being shot into the openings just mentioned fall through a kind of tunnel into a reservoir adjacent to the heavy press, which is invariably of wood and of the old-fashioned cumbersome type. They are forthwith placed beneath the press and usually subjected to five separate squeezes, the must from the first three being reserved for sparkling wine, while that from the two latter, owing to its being more or less deeply tinted, only serves for table-wine. The must is at once run off into casks, in order that it may not ferment on the grape-skins and imbibe any portion of their colouring matter. Active fermentation speedily sets in, and lasts for a fortnight or three weeks, according to whether the temperature chances to be high or low. The vintaging of the white grapes takes place about a fortnight later than the black grapes, and is commonly a compound operation, the best and ripest bunches being first of all gathered just as the berries begin to get shrivelled and show symptoms of approaching rottenness. It is these selected grapes that yield the best wine. The second gathering, which follows shortly after the first, includes all the grapes remaining on the vines, and yields a wine perceptibly inferior in quality. The grapes on their arrival at the press-house are generally pressed immediately, and the must is run off into tuns to ferment. At the commencement these tuns are filled up every three or four days to replace the fermenting must which has flowed over; afterwards any waste is made good at the interval of a week, and then once a fortnight, the bungholes of the casks being securely closed towards the end of the year, by which time the first fermentation is over. It should be noted that the Saumur sparkling wine manufacturers draw considerable supplies of the white wine, required to impart lightness and effervescence to their _vin préparé_, from the Vouvray vineyards. Vouvray borders the Loire a few miles from the pleasant city of Tours, which awakens sinister recollections of truculent Louis XI., shut up in his fortified castle of Plessis-lez-Tours, around which Scott has thrown the halo of his genius in his novel of _Quentin Durward_. A succession of vineyard slopes stretch from one to another of the many historic châteaux along this portion of the Loire, the romantic associations of which render the Touraine one of the most interesting provinces of France. Near Tours, besides the vineyards of Saint-Cyr are those of Joué and Saint-Avertin; the two last situate on the opposite bank of the Cher, where the little town of Joué, perched on the summit of a hill in the midst of vineyards, looks over a vast plain known by the country-people as the Landes de Charlemagne, the scene, according to local tradition, of Charles Martel's great victory over the Saracens. The Saint-Avertin vineyards extend towards the east, stretching almost to the forest of Larçay, on the borders of the Cher, where Paul Louis Courier, the famous vigneron pamphleteer of the Restoration, noted alike for his raillery, wit, and satire, fell beneath the balls of an assassin. A noticeable cru in the neighbourhood of Tours is that of Cinq Mars, the ruined château of which survives as a memorial of the vengeance of Cardinal Richelieu, who, after having sent its owner to the scaffold, commanded its massive walls and towers to be razed '_à hauteur d'infamie_,' as we see them now. Touraine, from its central position, its pleasant air, and its fertile soil, was ever a favourite residence of the earlier French monarchs, and down to the days of the Bourbons the seat of government continually vacillated between the banks of the Seine and those of the Loire. The vintages that ripen along the river have had their day of court favour too; for if Henri of Andelys sneeringly describes the wine of Tours as turning sour, in his famous poem of the _Bataille des Vins_, the sweet white wines of Anjou were greatly esteemed throughout the Middle Ages, and, with those of Orleans, were highly appreciated in Paris down to the seventeenth century. The cult of the 'dive Bouteille' and the fashion of Pantagruelic repasts have always found favour in the fat and fertile 'garden of France;' and the spectacle of citizens, courtiers, and monks staggering fraternally along, 'waggling their heads,' as Rabelais describes them, after a night of it at the tavern, was no uncommon one in the streets of its old historic towns during the period of the Renaissance. [Illustration: TAVERN ROYSTERERS AT EARLY MORNING IN THE TOURAINE.] On proceeding to Vouvray from Tours, we skirt a succession of poplar-fringed meadows, stretching eastward in the direction of Amboise along the right bank of the Loire; and after a time a curve in the river discloses to view a range of vine-clad heights, extending some distance beyond the village of Vouvray. Our route lies past the picturesque ruins of the abbey of Marmoûtier, immortalised in the piquant pages of the _Contes Drôlatiques_, and the Château des Roches--one of the most celebrated castles of the Loire--the numerous excavations in the soft limestone ridge on which they are perched being converted as usual into houses, magazines, and wine-cellars. We proceed through the village of Rochecorbon, and along a road winding among the spurs of the Vouvray range, past hamlets, half of whose inhabitants live in these primitive dwellings hollowed out of the cliff, and finally enter the charming Vallé Coquette, hemmed in on all sides with vine-clad slopes. Here a picturesque old house, half château, half homestead, was pointed out to us as a favourite place of sojourn of Balzac, who held the wine of Vouvray in high esteem, and who speaks of this rocky ridge as 'inhabited by a population of vine-dressers, their houses of several stories being hollowed out in the face of the cliff, and connected by dangerous staircases hewn in the soft stone. Smoke curls from most of the chimneys which peep above the green crest of vines, while the blows of the cooper's hammer resound in several of the cellars. A young girl trips to her garden over the roofs of these primitive dwellings, and an old woman, tranquilly seated on a ledge of projecting rock, supported solely by straggling roots of ivy spreading itself over the disjointed stones, leisurely turns her spinning-wheel, regardless of her dangerous position.' The foregoing picture, sketched by the author of _La Comédie Humaine_ forty years ago, has scarcely changed at the present day. At the point where the village of Vouvray climbs half-way up the vine-crested ridge the rapid-winding Cise throws itself into the Loire, and on crossing the bridge that spans the tributary stream we discern on the western horizon, far beyond the verdant islets studding the swollen Loire, the tall campaniles of Tours Cathedral, which seem to rise out of the water like a couple of Venetian towers. Vouvray is a trim little place, clustered round about with numerous pleasant villas in the midst of charming gardens. The modern château of Moncontour here dominates the slope, and its terraced gardens, with their fantastically-clipped trees and geometric parterres, rise tier above tier up the face of the picturesque height that overlooks the broad fertile valley, with its gardens, cultivated fields, patches of woodland, and wide stretches of green pasture which, fringed with willows and poplars, border the swollen waters of the Loire. Where the river Brenne empties itself into the Cise the Coteau de Vouvray slopes off towards the north, and there rise up the vine-clad heights of Vernou, yielding a similar but inferior wine to that of Vouvray. The village of Vernou is nestled under the hill, and near the porch of its quaint little church a venerable elm-tree is pointed out as having been planted by Sully, Henry IV.'s able Minister. Here, too, an ancient wall, pierced with curious arched windows, and forming part of a modern building, is regarded by popular tradition as belonging to the palace in which Pépin-le-Bref, father of Charlemagne, lived at Vernou. The communes of Dampierre, Souzay, and Parnay, in the neighbourhood of Saumur, produce still red wines rivalling those of Champigny, besides which all the finest white wines are vintaged hereabouts--in the Perrière, the Poilleux, and the Clos Morain vineyards, and in the Rotissans vineyard at Turquant. Wines of very fair quality are also grown on the more favourable slopes extending southwards along the valley of the Thouet, and comprised in the communes of Varrains, Chacé, St. Cyr-en-Bourg, and Brézé. The whole of this district, by the way, abounds with interesting archæological remains. While visiting the vineyards of Varrains and Chacé we came upon a couple of dolmens--vestiges of the ancient Celtic population of the valley of the Loire singularly abundant hereabouts. Brézé, the marquisate of which formerly belonged to Louis XVI.'s famous grand master of the ceremonies--immortalised by the rebuff he received from Mirabeau--boasts a noble château on the site of an ancient fortress, in connection with which there are contemporary excavations in the neighbouring limestone, designed for a garrison of 500 or 600 men. Beyond the vineyards of Saint-Florent, westward of Saumur and on the banks of the Thouet, is an extensive plateau, partially overgrown with vines, where may be traced the remains of a Roman camp. Moreover, in the southern environs of Saumur, in the midst of vineyards producing exclusively white wines, is one of the most remarkable dolmens known. This imposing structure, perfect in all respects save that one of the four enormous stones which roof it in has been split in two, and requires to be supported, is no less than 65 feet in length, 23 feet in width, and 10 feet high. [Illustration: DOLMEN AT BAGNEUX, NEAR SAUMUR.] At Saint-Florent, the pleasant little suburb of Saumur, skirting the river Thouet, and sheltered by steep hills formed of soft limestone, which offers great facilities for the excavation of extensive cellars, the largest manufacturer of Saumur sparkling wines has his establishment. Externally this offers but little to strike the eye. A couple of pleasant country houses, half hidden by spreading foliage, stand at the two extremities of a spacious and well-kept garden, beyond which one catches a glimpse of some outbuildings sheltered by the vine-crowned cliff, in which a labyrinth of gloomy galleries has been hollowed out. Here M. Ackerman-Laurance, the extent of whose business ranks him as second among the sparkling wine manufacturers of the world, stores something like 10,000 casks and several million bottles of wine. At the commencement of the present century, in the days when, as Balzac relates in his _Eugénie Grandet_, the Belgians bought up entire vintages of Saumur wine, then largely in demand with them for sacramental purposes, the founder of the Saint-Florent house commenced to deal in the ordinary still wines of the district. Nearly half a century ago he was led to attempt the manufacture of sparkling wines, but his efforts to bring them into notice failed; and he was on the point of abandoning his enterprise, when an order for one hundred cases revived his hopes, and led to the foundation of the present vast establishment. As already mentioned, for many miles all the heights along the Loire have been more or less excavated for stone for building purposes, so that every one hereabouts who grows wine or deals in it has any amount of cellar accommodation ready to hand. It was the vast extent of the galleries which M. Ackerman _père_ discovered already excavated at Saint-Florent that induced him to settle there in preference to Saumur. Extensive, however, as the original vaults were, considerable additional excavations have from time to time been found necessary; and to-day the firm is still further increasing the area of its cellars, which already comprise three principal avenues, each the third of a mile long, and no fewer than sixty transverse galleries, the total length of which is several miles. One great advantage is that the whole are on the ordinary level. Ranged against the black uneven walls of the more tortuous ancient vaults which give access to these labyrinthine corridors are thousands of casks of wine--some in single rows, others in triple tiers--forming the reserve stock of the establishment. As may be supposed, a powerful vinous odour permeates these vaults, in which the fumes of wine have been accumulating for the best part of a century. After passing beneath a massive stone arch which separates the old cellars from the new, a series of broad and regularly proportioned galleries are reached, having bottles stacked in their tens of thousands on either side. Overhead the roof is perforated at regular intervals with circular shafts, affording both light and ventilation, and enabling the temperature to be regulated to a nicety. In these lateral and transverse galleries millions of bottles of wine in various stages of preparation are stacked. [Illustration: THE CELLARS OF M. ACKERMAN-LAURANCE AT SAINT-FLORENT. LABELLING AND PACKING SPARKLING SAUMUR.] We have explained that in the Champagne it is the custom for the manufacturers of sparkling wine to purchase considerable quantities of grapes from the surrounding growers, and to press these themselves, or have them pressed under their own superintendence. At Saumur only those firms possessing vineyards make their own _vin brut_, the bulk of the wine used for conversion into sparkling wine being purchased from the neighbouring growers. On the newly-expressed must arriving at M. Ackerman-Laurance's cellars it is allowed to rest until the commencement of the ensuing year, when half of it is mixed with wine in stock belonging to last year's vintage, and the remaining half is reserved for mingling with the must of the ensuing vintage. The blending is accomplished in a couple of colossal vats hewn out of the rock, and coated on the inside with cement. Each of these vats is provided with 200 paddles for thoroughly mixing the wine, and with five pipes for drawing it off when the amalgamation is complete. Usually the cuvée will embrace 1600 hogsheads, or 80,000 gallons of wine, almost sufficient for half a million bottles. A fourth of this quantity can be mixed in each vat at a single operation, and this mixing is repeated again and again until the last gallon run off is of precisely the same type as the first. For the finer qualities of sparkling Saumur the proportion of wine from the black grapes to that from white is generally at the rate of three or four to one. For the inferior qualities more wine from white than from black grapes is invariably used. Only in the wine from white grapes is the effervescent principle retained to any particular extent; but, on the other hand, the wine from black grapes imparts both quality and vinous character to the blend. The blending having been satisfactorily accomplished, the wine is stored in casks, never perfectly filled, yet with their bungholes tightly closed, and slowly continues its fermentation, eating up its sugar, purging itself, and letting fall its lees. Three months later it is fined. It is rarely kept in the wood for more than a year, though sometimes the superior qualities remain for a couple of years in cask. Occasionally it is even bottled in the spring following the vintage; still, as a rule, the bottling of sparkling Saumur takes place during the ensuing summer months, when the temperature is at the highest, as this insures to it a greater degree of effervescence. At the time of bottling its saccharine strength is raised to a given degree by the addition of the finest sugar-candy, and henceforward the wine is subjected to precisely the same treatment as is pursued with regard to Champagne. It is in a broad but sombre gallery of the more ancient vaults--the roughly-hewn walls of which are black from the combined action of alcohol and carbonic acid gas--that the processes of disgorging the wine of its sediment, adding the syrup, filling up the bottles with wine to replace that which gushes out when the disgorging operation is performed, together with the re-corking, stringing, and wiring of the bottles, are carried on. The one or two adjacent shafts impart very little light, but a couple of resplendent metal reflectors, which at a distance one might fancy to be some dragon's flaming eyes, combined with the lamps placed near the people at work, effectually illuminate the spot. [Illustration: THE CELLARS OF M. LOUIS DUVAU AÎNÉ AT THE CHÂTEAU OF VARRAINS.] Another considerable manufacturer of sparkling Saumur is M. Louis Duvau aîné, owner of the château of Varrains, in the village of the same name, at no great distance from the Coteau de Saumur. His cellars adjoin the château, a picturesque but somewhat neglected structure of the last century, with sculptured medallions in high relief above the lower windows, and florid vases surmounting the mansards in the roof. In front is a large rambling court shaded with acacia and lime trees, and surrounded by outbuildings, prominent among which is a picturesque dovecot, massive at the base as a martello tower, and having an elegant open stone lantern springing from its bell-shaped roof. The cellars are entered down a steep incline under a low stone arch, the masonry above which is overgrown with ivy in large clusters and straggling creeping plants. We soon come upon a deep recess to the right, wherein stands a unique cumbersome screw-press, needing ten or a dozen men to work the unwieldy capstan which sets the juice flowing from the crushed grapes into the adjacent shallow trough. On our left hand are a couple of ancient reservoirs, formed out of huge blocks of stone, with the entrance to a long vaulted cellar filled with wine in cask. We advance slowly in the uncertain light along a succession of gloomy galleries, with moisture oozing from their blackened walls and roofs, picking our way between bottles of wine stacked in huge square piles and rows of casks raised in tiers. Suddenly a broad flood of light shooting down a lofty shaft throws a Rembrandtish effect across a spacious and most melodramatic-looking cave, roughly hewn out of the rock, and towards which seven dimly-lighted galleries converge. On all sides a scene of bustling animation presents itself. From one gallery men keep arriving with baskets of wine ready for the disgorger; while along another bottles of wine duly dosed with syrup are being borne off to be decorated with metal foil and their distinctive labels. Groups of workmen are busily engaged disgorging, dosing, and re-corking the newly-arrived bottles of wine; corks fly out with a succession of loud reports, suggestive of the irregular fire of a party of skirmishers; a fizzing, spurting, and spluttering of the wine next ensues, and is followed by the incessant clicking of the various apparatus employed in the corking and wiring of the bottles. Gradual inclines conduct to the two lower tiers of galleries, for the cellars of M. Duvau consist of as many as three stories. Down below there is naturally less light, and the temperature, too, is sensibly colder. Advantage is taken of this latter circumstance to remove the newly-bottled wine to these lower vaults whenever an excessive development of carbonic acid threatens the bursting of an undue proportion of bottles, a casualty which among the Saumur sparkling wine manufacturers ranges far higher than with the manufacturers of Champagne. For the economy of time and labour, a lift, raised and lowered by means of a capstan worked by horses, is employed to transfer the bottles of wine from one tier of cellars to another. [Illustration] The demand for sparkling Saumur is evidently on the increase, for M. Duvau, at the time of our visit, was excavating extensive additional cellarage. The subsoil at Varrains being largely composed of marl, which is much softer than the tufa of the Saint-Florent coteau, necessitated the roofs of the new galleries being worked in a particular form in order to avoid having recourse to either brickwork or masonry. Tons of this excavated marl were being spread over the soil of M. Duvau's vineyard in the rear of the château, greatly, it was said, to the benefit of the vines, whose grapes were all of the black variety; indeed, scarcely any wine is vintaged from white grapes in the commune of Varrains. At M. Duvau's we went through a complete scale of sparkling Saumurs, commencing with the younger and less matured samples, and ascending step by step to wines a dozen and more years old. Every year seemed to produce an improvement in the wine, the older varieties gaining greatly in delicacy and softening very perceptibly in flavour. Finding that sparkling wines were being made in most of the wine-producing districts of France, where the growths were sufficiently light and of the requisite quality, Messrs. E. Normandin & Co. conceived the idea of laying the famous Bordeaux district under contribution for a similar purpose, and, aided by a staff of experienced workmen from Epernay, they have succeeded in producing a sparkling Sauternes. Sauternes, as is well known, is one of the finest of white wines, soft, delicate, and of beautiful flavour, and its transformation into a sparkling wine has been very successfully accomplished. Messrs. Normandin's head-quarters are in the thriving little town of Châteauneuf, in the pleasant valley of the Charente, and within fifteen miles of Angoulême, a famous old French town, encompassed by ancient ramparts and crumbling corner-towers; and which, dominated by the lofty belfry of its restored semi-Byzantine cathedral, rising in a series of open arcades, spreads itself picturesquely out along a precipitous height, watered at its base by the rivers Anguienne and Charente. Between Angoulême and Châteauneuf vineyard plots dotted over with walnut-trees, or simple rows of vines divided by strips of ripening maize, and broken up at intervals by bright green pastures, line both banks of the river Charente. The surrounding country is undulating and picturesque. Poplars and elms fringe the roadsides, divide the larger fields and vineyards, and screen the cosy-looking red-roofed farmhouses, which present to the eyes of the passing tourist a succession of pictures of quiet rural prosperity. Châteauneuf communicates with the Sauternes district by rail, so that supplies of wine from there are readily obtainable. Vin de Colombar--a famous white growth which English and Dutch cruisers used to ascend the Charente to obtain cargoes of when the Jerez wines were shut out from England by the Spanish War of Succession--vintaged principally at Montignac-le-Coq, also enters largely into Messrs. Normandin & Co.'s sparkling Sauternes cuvée. This colombar grape is simply the semillon--one of the leading varieties of the Sauternes district--transported to the Charente. The remarkably cool cellars where the firm store their wine, whether in wood or bottle, have been formed from some vast subterranean galleries whence centuries ago stone was quarried, and which are situated about a quarter of an hour's drive from Châteauneuf, in the midst of vineyards and cornfields. The wine is invariably bottled in a cellier at the head establishment, but it is in these cellars where it goes through the course of careful treatment similar to that pursued with regard to Champagne. [Illustration] In order that the delicate flavour of the wine may be preserved, the liqueur is prepared with the finest old Sauternes, without any addition of spirit, and the dose is administered with the most improved modern appliance, constructed of silver, and provided with crystal taps. At the Concours Régional d'Angoulême of 1877, the jury, after recording that they had satisfied themselves by the aid of a chemical analysis that the samples of sparkling Sauternes submitted to their judgment were free from any foreign ingredient, awarded to Messrs. Normandin & Co. the only gold medal given in the Group of Alimentary Products. Encouraged, no doubt, by the success obtained by Messrs. Normandin & Co. with their sparkling Sauternes, the house of Lermat-Robert & Co., of Bordeaux, introduced a few years ago a sparkling Barsac, samples of which were submitted to the jury at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. [Illustration] [Illustration: VINTAGER OF THE CÔTE D'OR.] [Illustration: VINTAGER OF THE JURA.] II. /The Sparkling Wines of Burgundy, the Jura, and the South of France./ Sparkling wines of the Côte d'Or at the Paris Exhibition of 1878--Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot--Burgundy wines and vines formerly presents from princes--Vintaging sparkling Burgundies--Their after-treatment in the cellars--Excess of breakage--Similarity of proceeding to that followed in the Champagne--Principal manufacturers of sparkling Burgundies--Sparkling wines of Tonnerre, the birthplace of the Chevalier d'Eon--The Vin d'Arbanne of Bar-sur-Aube--Death there of the Bastard de Bourbon--Madame de la Motte's ostentatious display and arrest there--Sparkling wines of the Beaujolais--The Mont-Brouilly vineyards--Ancient reputation of the wines of the Jura--The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri Quatre--Rhymes by him in its honour--Lons-le-Saulnier--Vineyards yielding the sparkling Jura wines--Their vintaging and subsequent treatment--Their high alcoholic strength and general drawbacks--Sparkling wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné, and Languedoc--Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the South--Valence, with its reminiscences of Pius VI. and Napoleon I.--The 'Horns of Crussol' on the banks of the Rhône--Vintage scene at Saint-Péray--The vines and vineyards producing sparkling wine--Manipulation of sparkling Saint-Péray--Its abundance of natural sugar--The cellars of M. de Saint-Prix, and samples of his wines--Sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage--Annual production and principal markets of sparkling Saint-Péray--Clairette de Die--The Porte Rouge of Die Cathedral--How the Die wine is made--The sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of Die--Sparkling wines of Vercheny and Lagrasse--Barnave and the royal flight to Varennes--Narbonne formerly a miniature Rome, now noted merely for its wine and honey--Fête of the Black Virgin at Limoux--Preference given to the new wine over the miraculous water--Blanquette of Limoux, and how it is made--Characteristics of this overrated wine. [Illustration] Sparkling wines are made to a considerable extent in Burgundy, notably at Beaune, Nuits, and Dijon; and though as a rule heavier and more potent than the subtile and delicate-flavoured wines of the Marne, still some of the higher qualities, both of the red and white varieties, exhibit a degree of refinement which those familiar only with the commoner kinds can scarcely form an idea of. At the Paris Exhibition of 1878 we tasted, among a large collection of the sparkling wines of the Côte d'Or, samples of Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot, of the highest order. Although red wines, they had the merit of being deficient in that body which forms such an objectionable feature in sparkling wines of a deep shade of colour. M. Regnier, the exhibitor of sparkling red Vougeot, sent, moreover, a white sparkling wine, from the species of grape known locally as the clos blanc de Vougeot. These wines, as well as the Chambertin, came from the Côte de Nuits, the growths of which are generally considered of too vigorous a type for successful conversion into sparkling wine, preference being usually given to the produce of the Côte de Beaune. Among the sparkling Burgundies from the last-named district were samples from Savigny, Chassagne, and Meursault, all famous for their fine white wines. Burgundy ranks as one of the oldest viticultural regions of Central Europe, and for centuries its wines have been held in the highest renown. In the Middle Ages both the wines and vines of this favoured province passed as presents from one royal personage to another, just as grand _cordons_ are exchanged between them nowadays. The fabrication of sparkling wine, however, dates no further back than some sixty years or so. The system of procedure is much the same as in the Champagne, and, as there, the wine is mainly the produce of the pineau noir and pineau blanc varieties of grape. At the vintage, in order to avoid bruising the ripened fruit and to guard against premature fermentation, the grapes are conveyed to the pressoirs in baskets, instead of the large oval vats termed _balonges_, common to the district. They are placed beneath the press as soon as possible, and for superior sparkling wines only the juice resulting from the first pressure, and known as the _mère goutte_, or mother drop, is employed. For the ordinary wines, that expressed at the second squeezing of the fruit is mingled with the other. The must is at once run off into casks, which have been previously sulphured, to check, in a measure, the ardour of the first fermentation, and lighten the colour of the newly-made wine. Towards the end of October, when this first fermentation is over, the wine is removed to the cellars, or to some other cool place, and in December it is racked into other casks. In the April following it is again racked, to insure its being perfectly clear at the epoch of bottling in the month of May. The sulphuring of the original casks having had the effect of slightly checking the fermentation and retaining a certain amount of saccharine in the wine, it is only on exceptional occasions that the latter is artificially sweetened previous to being bottled. A fortnight after the tirage the wine commonly attains the stage known as _grand mousseux_, and by the end of September the breakage will have amounted to between 5 and 8 per cent, which necessitates the taking down the stacks of bottles and piling them up anew. The wine as a rule remains in the cellars for fully a couple of years from the time of bottling until it is shipped. Posing the bottles _sur pointe_, agitating them daily, together with the disgorging and liqueuring of the wine, are accomplished precisely as in the Champagne. Among the principal manufacturers of sparkling Burgundies are Messrs. André & Voillot, of Beaune, whose sparkling white Romanée, Nuits, and Volnay are well and favourably known in England; M. Louis Latour, also of Beaune, and equally noted for his sparkling red Volnay, Nuits, and Chambertin, as for his sparkling white varieties; Messrs. Maire et Fils, likewise of Beaune; M. Labouré-Goutard and Messrs. Geisweiller et Fils, of Nuits; Messrs. Marey & Liger-Belair, of Nuits and Vosne; and M. Regnier, of Dijon. In the department of the Yonne--that is, in Lower Burgundy--sparkling wines somewhat alcoholic in character have been made for the last half century at Tonnerre, where the Chevalier d'Eon, that enigma of his epoch, was born. The Tonnerre vineyards are of high antiquity, and for sparkling wines the produce of the black and white pineau and the white morillon varieties of grape is had recourse to. The vintaging is accomplished with great care, and only the juice which flows from the first pressure is employed. This is run off immediately into casks, which are hermetically closed when the fermentation has subsided. The after-treatment of the wine is the same as in the Champagne. Sparkling wines are likewise made at Epineuil, a village in the neighbourhood of Tonnerre, and at Chablis, so famous for its white wines, about ten miles distant. An effervescing wine known as the Vin d'Arbanne is made at Bar-sur-Aube, some fifty miles north-east of Tonnerre, on the borders of Burgundy, but actually in the province of Champagne, although far beyond the limits to which the famed viticultural district extends. It was at Bar-sur-Aube where the Bastard de Bourbon, chief of the sanguinary gang of _écorcheurs_ (flayers), was sewn up in a sack and flung over the parapet of the old stone bridge into the river beneath, by order of Charles VII.; and here, too, Madame de la Motte, of Diamond Necklace notoriety, was married, and in after years made a parade of the ill-gotten wealth she had acquired by successfully fooling that infatuated libertine the Cardinal Prince de Rohan, until her ostentatious display was cut short by her arrest. This Vin d'Arbanne is produced from pineaux and white gamay grapes, which, after being gathered with care at the moment the dew falls, are forthwith pressed. The wine is left on its lees until the following February, when it is racked and fined, the bottling taking place when the moon is at the full in March. Red and white sparkling wines are made to a small extent at Saint-Lager, in the Beaujolais, from wine vintaged in the Mont-Brouilly vineyards, one of the best known of the Beaujolais crus. Mont-Brouilly is a lofty hill near the village of Cercie, and is covered from base to summit on all its sides with vines of the gamay species, rarely trained at all, but left to trail along the ground at their own sweet will. At the vintage, as we witnessed it, men and women--young, middle-aged, and old--accompanied by troops of children, were roaming all over the slopes dexterously nipping off the bunches of grapes with their thumb and finger nails, and flinging them into the little wooden tubs with which they were provided. The pressing of the grapes and the after-treatment of the wine destined to become sparkling are the same in the Beaujolais as in Upper and Lower Burgundy. The red, straw, and yellow wines of the Jura have long had a high reputation in the East of France, and the _Vin Jaune_ of Arbois, an ancient fortified town on the banks of the Cuisance, besieged and sacked in turn by Charles of Amboise, Henri IV., and Louis XIV., was one of the favourite beverages of the tippling Béarnais who styled himself Seigneur of Ay and Gonesse, and who acquired his liking for it while sojourning during the siege of Arbois at the old Château des Arsures. In one of Henri Quatre's letters to his minister Sully we find him observing, 'I send you two bottles of Vin d'Arbois, for I know you do not detest it.' A couple of other bottles of the same wine are said to have cemented the king's reconciliation with Mayenne, the leader of the League; and the lover of La Belle Gabrielle is moreover credited with having composed at his mistress's table some doggrel rhymes in honour of the famous Jura cru: 'Come, little page, serve us aright, The crown is often heavy to bear; So fill up my goblet large and light Whenever you find a vacancy there. This wine is surely no Christian wight, And yet you never complaint will hear That it's not baptised with water clear. Down my throat I pour The old Arbois; And now, my lords, let us our voices raise, And sing of Silenus and Bacchus the praise!' In more modern times the Jura, not content with the fame of the historic yellow wines of Arbois and the deservedly-esteemed straw wines of Château-Châlon, has produced large quantities of sparkling wine, the original manufacture of which commenced as far back as a century ago. To-day the principal seats of the manufacture are at Arbois and Lons-le-Saulnier, the latter town the capital of the department, and one of the most ancient towns of France. Originally founded by the Gauls on the banks of the Vallière, in a little valley bordered by lofty hills, which are to-day covered with vines, it was girded round with fortifications by the Romans. Subsequently the Huns and the Vandals pillaged it; then the French and the Burgundians repeatedly contested its possession, and it was only definitively acquired by France during the reign of Louis XIV. Rouget de l'Isle, the famous author of the 'Marseillaise,' was born at Lons-le-Saulnier, and here also Marshal Ney assembled and harangued his troops before marching to join Napoleon, whom he had promised Louis XVIII. to bring back to Paris in an iron cage. The vineyards whence the principal supplies for these sparkling wines are derived are grouped at varying distances around Lons-le-Saulnier at L'Etoile, Quintigny, Salins, Arbois, St. Laurent-la-Roche, and Pupillin, with the Jura chain of mountains rising up grandly on the east. The best vineyards at L'Etoile--which lies some couple of miles from Lons-le-Saulnier, surrounded by hills, planted from base to summit with vines--are La Vigne Blanche, Montmorin, and Montgenest. At Quintigny, the wines of which are less potent than those of Arbois, and only retain their effervescent properties for a couple of years, the Paridis, Prémelan, and Montmorin vineyards are held in most repute, while at Pupillin, where a soft agreeable wine is vintaged, the principal vineyards are the Faille and the Clos. The vines cultivated for the production of sparkling wines are chiefly the savagnin, or white pineau, the melon of Poligny, and the poulsard, a black variety of grape held locally in much esteem. At the vintage, which commences towards the end of October and lasts until the middle of the following month, all the rotten or unripe grapes are carefully set aside, and the sound ones only submitted to the action of a screw-press. After the must has flowed for about half an hour, the grapes are newly collected under the press and the screw again applied. The produce of this double operation is poured into a vat termed a _sapine_, where it remains until bubbles are seen escaping through the _chapeau_ that forms on the surface of the liquid. The must is then drawn off--sometimes after being fined--into casks, which the majority of wine-growers previously impregnate with the fumes of sulphur. When in cask the wine is treated in one of two ways; either the casks are kept constantly filled to the bunghole, causing the foam which rises to the surface during the fermentation to flow over, and thereby leave the wine comparatively clear, or else the casks are not completely filled, in which case the wine requires to be racked several times before it is in a condition for fining. This latter operation is effected about the commencement of February, and a second fining follows if the first one fails to render the wine perfectly clear. At the bottling, which invariably takes place in April, the Jura wines rarely require any addition of sugar to insure an ample effervescence. Subsequently they are treated in exactly the same manner as the vintages of the Marne are treated by the great Champagne manufacturers. In addition to white sparkling wine, a pink variety, with natural effervescent properties, is made by mixing with the savagnin and melon grapes a certain proportion of the poulsard species, from which the best red wines of the Jura are produced. One of the principal sparkling wine establishments at Lons-le-Saulnier is that of M. Auguste Devaux, founded in the year 1860. He manufactures both sweet and dry wines, which are sold largely in France and elsewhere on the Continent, and have lately been introduced into England. Their alcoholic strength is equivalent to from 25° to 26° of proof spirit, being largely above the dry sparkling wines of the Champagne, which the Jura manufacturers regard as a positive advantage rather than a decided drawback, which it most undoubtedly is. Besides being too spirituous, the sparkling wines of the Jura are deficient in refinement and delicacy. The commoner kinds, indeed, frequently have a pronounced unpleasant flavour, due to the nature of the soil, to careless vinification, or to the inferior quality of liqueur with which the wines have been dosed. Out of some fifty samples of all ages and varieties which in my capacity of juror I tasted at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, I cannot call to mind one that a real connoisseur of sparkling wines would care to admit to his table. Sparkling wines are made after a fashion in several of the southern provinces of France--in Auvergne, at Clermont-Ferrand, under the shadow of the lofty Puy de Dôme; in Guienne, at Astaffort, the scene of a bloody engagement during the Wars of Religion, in which the Protestant army was cut to pieces when about to cross the Garonne; at Nérac, where frail Marguerite de Valois kept her dissolute Court, and Catherine de Médicis brought her flying squadron of fascinating maids-of-honour to gain over the Huguenot leaders to the Catholic cause; and at Cahors, the Divina, or divine fountain of the Celts, and the birthplace of Pope John XXII., of Clement Marot, the early French poet, and of Léon Gambetta; in Dauphiné, at Die, Saint-Chef, Saint-Péray, and Largentière--so named after some abandoned silver mines--and where the vines are cultivated against low walls rising in a series of terraces from the base to the summit of the lofty hills; and in Languedoc, at Brioude, where St. Vincent, the patron saint of the vine-dressers, suffered martyrdom, and where it is the practice to expose the must of the future sparkling wine for several nights to the dew in order to rid it of its reddish colour; also at Linardie, and, more southward still, at Limoux, whence comes the well-known effervescing Blanquette. Principal among the foregoing is the excellent wine of Saint-Péray, commonly characterised as the Champagne of the South of France. The Saint-Péray vineyards border the Rhone some ten miles below the Hermitage coteau--the vines of which are to-day well-nigh destroyed by the phylloxera--but are on the opposite bank of the river. Our visit to Saint-Péray was made from Valence, in which dull southern city we had loitered in order to glance at the vast Hôtel du Gouvernement--where octogenarian Pius VI., after being spirited away a prisoner from Rome and hurried over the Alps in a litter by order of the French Directory, drew his last breath while silently gazing across the rushing river at the view he so much admired--and to discover the house in the Grande Rue, numbered 4, in an attic of which history records that Napoleon I., when a sub-lieutenant of artillery in garrison at Valence, resided, and which he quitted owing three and a half francs to his pastrycook. We crossed the Rhone over one of its hundred flimsy suspension-bridges, on the majority of which a notice warns you neither to smoke nor run, and were soon skirting the base of a lofty, bare, precipitous rock, with the 'horns of Crussol,' as the peasants term two tall pointed gables of a ruined feudal château, perched at the dizzy edge, and having a perpendicular fall of some five or six hundred feet below. The château, which formerly belonged to the Dukes of Uzès, recognised by virtue of the extent of their domains as _premiers pairs de France_, was not originally erected in close proximity to any such formidable precipice. The crag on which it stands had, it seems, been blasted from time to time for the sake of the stone, until on one unlucky occasion, when too heavy a charge of powder was employed, the entire side of the rock, together with a considerable portion of the château itself, were sent flying into the air. The authorities, professing to regard what remained of the edifice as an historical monument of the Middle Ages, hereupon stepped in and prohibited the quarry being worked for the future. [Illustration: CONVEYING GRAPES TO THE PRESS AT SAINT-PÉRAY.] Passing beneath the cliff, one wound round to the left and dived into a picturesque wooded dell at the entrance to a mountain pass, then crossed the rocky bed of a dried-up stream, and drove along an avenue of mulberry-trees, which in a few minutes conducted us to Saint-Péray, where one found the vintage in full operation. Carts laden with tubs filled with white and purple grapes, around which wasps without number swarmed, were arriving from all points of the environs and crowding the narrow streets. Any quantity of grapes were seemingly to be had for the asking, for all the pretty girls in the place were gorging themselves with the luscious-looking fruit. In the coopers' yards brand-new casks were ranged in rows in readiness for the newly-made wine, and through open doorways, and in all manner of dim recesses, one caught sight of sturdy men energetically trampling the gushing grapes under their bare feet, and of huge creaking winepresses reeking with the purple juice. It was chiefly common red wine, of an excellent flavour, however, that was being made in these nooks and corners, the sparkling white wine known as Saint-Péray being manufactured in larger establishments, and on more scientific principles. It is from a white species of grape known as the petite and grosse rousette--the same which yields the white Hermitage--that the Champagne of the south is produced; and the vineyards where they are cultivated occupy all the more favourable slopes immediately outside the village, the most noted being the Coteau-Gaillard, Solignacs, Thioulet, and Hungary. Although there is a close similarity between the manufacture of Champagne and the effervescing wine of Saint-Péray, there are still one or two noteworthy variations. For a wine to be sparkling it is requisite that it should ferment in the bottle, a result obtained by bottling it while it contains a certain undeveloped proportion of alcohol and carbonic acid, represented by so much sugar, of which they are the component parts. This ingredient has frequently to be added to the Champagne wines to render them sparkling, but the wine of Saint-Péray in its natural state contains so much sugar that any addition would be deleterious. This excess of saccharine enables the manufacturer to dispense with some of the operations necessary to the fabrication of Champagne, which, after fermenting in the cask, requires a second fermentation to be provoked in the bottle, whereas the Saint-Péray wine ferments only once, being bottled immediately it comes from the wine-press. The deposit in the wine after being impelled towards the neck of the bottle is got rid of by following the same system as is pursued in the Champagne, but no liqueur whatever is subsequently added to the wine. On the other hand, it is a common practice to reduce the over-sweetness of sparkling Saint-Péray in years when the grapes are more than usually ripe by mixing with it some old dry white wine. At Saint-Péray we visited the cellars of M. de Saint-Prix, one of the principal wine-growers of the district. The samples of effervescing wine which he produced for us to taste were of a pale golden colour, of a slightly nutty flavour, and with a decided suggestion of the spirituous essence known to be concentrated in the wine, one glass of which will go quite as far towards elevating a person as three glasses of Champagne. Keeping the wine for a few years is said materially to improve its quality, to the sacrifice, however, of its effervescing properties. M. de Saint-Prix informed us that he manufactured every year a certain quantity of sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé, and Hermitage. The principal markets for the Saint-Péray sparkling wines--the production of which falls considerably short of a million bottles per annum--are England, Germany, Russia, Holland, and Belgium. [Illustration] The other side of the Rhone is fruitful in minor sparkling wines, chief among which is the so-called Clairette de Die, made at the town of that name, a place of some splendour, as existing antiquities show, in the days of the Roman dominion in Gaul. Later on, Die was the scene of constant struggles for supremacy between its counts and bishops, one of the latter being massacred by the populace in front of the cathedral doorway--ever since known by the sinister appellation of the Porte Rouge--and Catholics and Huguenots alike devastated the town in the troublesome times of the Reformation. Clairette de Die is made principally from the blanquette or malvoisie variety of grape, which, after the stalks have been removed, is both trodden with the feet and pressed. The must is run off immediately into casks, and four-and-twenty hours later it is racked into other casks, a similar operation being performed every two or three days for the period of a couple of months, when, the fermentation having subsided, the wine is fined and usually bottled in the following March. Newly-made Clairette de Die is a sweet sparkling wine, but it loses its natural effervescence after a couple of years, unless it has been treated in the same manner as Champagne, which is rarely the case. The wine enjoys a reputation altogether beyond its merits. In addition to the well-known Clairette, some of the wine-growers of Die make sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of superior quality, which retain their effervescing properties for several years. A sparkling wine is also made some ten miles from Die, on the road to Saillans, in a district bounded on the one side by the waters of the Drôme, and on the other by strange mountains with helmet-shaped crests. The centre of production is a locality called Vercheny, composed of several hamlets, one of which, named Le Temple, was the original home of the family of Barnave. The impressionable young deputy to the National Assembly formed one of the trio sent to bring back the French royal family from Varennes after their flight from Paris. It will be remembered how, under the influence of Marie Antoinette and Madame Elizabeth, Barnave became transformed during the journey into a faithful partisan of their unhappy cause, and that he eventually paid the penalty of his devotion with his life. In the extreme south of France, and almost under the shadow of the Pyrenees, a sparkling wine of some repute is made at a place called Lagrasse, about five-and-twenty miles westward of Narbonne, the once-famous Mediterranean city, the maritime rival of Marseilles, and in its palmy days, prior to the Christian era, a miniature Rome, with its capitol, its curia, its decemvirs, its consuls, its prætors, its questors, its censors, and its ediles, and which boasted of being the birthplace of three Roman Emperors. To-day Narbonne has to content itself with the humble renown derived from its delicious honey and its characterless full-bodied wines. Limoux, so celebrated for its Blanquette, lies a long way farther to the west, behind the Corbières range of mountains that join on to the Pyrenees, and the jagged peaks, deep barren gorges, and scarred sides of which have been witness of many a desperate struggle during the century and a half when they formed the boundary between France and Spain. We arrived at Limoux just too late for the famous _fête_ of the Black Virgin, which lasts three weeks, and attracts crowds of southern pilgrims to the chapel of Our Lady of Marseilles, perched on a little hill some short distance from the town, with a fountain half-way up, whose water issues drop by drop, and has the credit of possessing unheard-of virtues. The majority of pilgrims, however, exhibit a decided preference for the new-made wine over the miraculous water, and for one-and-twenty days something like a carnival of inebriety prevails at Limoux. Blanquette de Limoux derives its name from the species of grape it is produced from, and which we believe to be identical with the malvoisie, or malmsey. Its long-shaped berries grow in huge bunches, and dry readily on the stalks. The fruit is gathered as tenderly as possible, care being taken that it shall not be in the slightest degree bruised, and is then spread out upon a floor to admit of whatever sugar it contains becoming perfect. The bad grapes having been carefully picked out, and the seeds extracted from the remaining fruit, the latter is now trodden, and the must, after being filtered through a strainer, is placed in casks, where it remains fermenting for about a week, during which time any overflow is daily replenished by other must reserved for the purpose. The wine is again clarified, and placed in fresh casks with the bungholes only lightly closed until all sensible fermentation has ceased, when they are securely fastened up. The bottling takes place in the month of March, and the wine is subsequently treated much after the same fashion as sparkling Saint-Péray, excepting that it is generally found necessary to repeat the operation of _dégorgement_ three, if not as many as four, times. Blanquette de Limoux is a pale white wine, the saccharine properties of which have become completely transformed into carbonic acid gas and alcohol. It is consequently both dry and spirituous, deficient in delicacy, and altogether proves a great disappointment. At its best it may, perhaps, rank with sparkling Saint-Péray, but unquestionably not with an average Champagne. [Illustration: PREPARING THE CHAMPAGNE LIQUEUR.] III. /Facts and Notes respecting Sparkling Wines./ Dry and sweet Champagnes--Their sparkling properties--Form of Champagne glasses--Style of sparkling wines consumed in different countries--The colour and alcoholic strength of Champagne--Champagne approved of by the faculty--Its use in nervous derangements--The icing of Champagne--Scarcity of grand vintages in the Champagne--The quality of the wine has little influence on the price--Prices realised by the Ay and Verzenay crus in grand years--Suggestions for laying down Champagnes of grand vintages--The improvement they develop after a few years--The wine of 1874--The proper kind of cellar in which to lay down Champagne--Advantages of Burrow's patent slider wine-bins--Increase in the consumption of Champagne--Tabular statement of stocks, exports, and home consumption from 1844-5 to 1877-8--When to serve Champagne at a dinner-party--Charles Dickens's dictum that its proper place is at a ball--Advantageous effect of Champagne at an ordinary British dinner-party. [Illustration] In selecting a sparkling wine, one fact should be borne in mind--that just as, according to Sam Weller, it is the seasoning which makes the pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine dry or sweet, light or strong. A really palatable dry Champagne, emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best _vin brut_, to which necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of liqueur will be added. On the other hand, a sweet Champagne can be produced from the most ordinary raw wine--the Yankees even claim to have evolved it from petroleum--as the amount of liqueur it receives completely masks its original character and flavour. This excess of syrup, it should be remarked, contributes materially to the wine's explosive force and temporary effervescence; but shortly after the bottle has been uncorked the wine becomes disagreeably flat. A fine dry wine, indebted as it is for its sparkling properties to the natural sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent effervescence. It continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after being poured into the glass, owing to the carbonic acid having been absorbed by the wine itself instead of being accumulated in the vacant space between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that have been highly liqueured. Even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted, a good Champagne will preserve its fine flavour, which the effervescence will have assisted to conceal. Champagne, it should be noted, sparkles best in tall tapering glasses; still these have their disadvantages, promoting, as they do, an excess of froth when the wine is poured into them, and almost preventing any bouquet which the wine possesses from being recognised. Manufacturers of Champagne and other sparkling wines prepare them dry or sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are designed. The sweet wines go to Russia and Germany--the sweet-toothed Muscovite regarding M. Louis Roederer's syrupy product as the _beau-idéal_ of Champagne, and the Germans demanding wines with twenty or more per cent of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quantity that is contained in the average Champagnes shipped to England. France consumes light and moderately sweet wines; the United States gives a preference to the intermediate qualities; China, India, and other hot countries stipulate for light dry wines; while the very strong ones go to Australia, the Cape, and other places where gold and diamonds and suchlike trifles are from time to time 'prospected.' Not merely the driest, but the very best, wines of the best manufacturers, and commanding of course the highest prices, are invariably reserved for the English market. Foreigners cannot understand the marked preference shown in England for exceedingly dry sparkling wines. They do not consider that as a rule they are drunk during dinner with the _plats_, and not at dessert, with all kinds of sweets, fruits, and ices, as is almost invariably the case abroad. Good Champagne is usually of a pale straw colour, but with nothing of a yellow tinge about it. When its tint is pinkish, this is owing to a portion of the colouring matter having been extracted from the skins of the grapes--a contingency which every pains are taken to avoid, although, since the success achieved by the wine of 1874, slightly pink wines are likely to be the fashion. The positive pink or rose-coloured Champagnes, such as were in fashion some thirty years ago, are simply tinted with a small quantity of deep-red wine. The alcoholic strength of the drier wines ranges from eighteen degrees of proof spirit upwards, or slightly above the ordinary Bordeaux, and under all the better-class Rhine wines. Champagnes, when loaded with a highly alcoholised liqueur, will, however, at times mark as many as thirty degrees of proof spirit. The lighter and drier the sparkling wine, the more wholesome it is, the saccharine element in conjunction with alcohol being not only difficult of digestion, but generally detrimental to health. The faculty are agreed that fine dry Champagnes, consumed in moderation, are among the safest wines that can be partaken of. Any intoxicating effects are rapid but exceedingly transient, and arise from the alcohol suspended in the carbonic acid being applied rapidly and extensively to the surface of the stomach. 'Champagne,' said Curran, 'simply gives a runaway rap at a man's head.' Dr. Druitt, equally distinguished by his studies upon wine and his standing as a physician, pronounces good Champagne to be 'a true stimulant to body and mind alike--rapid, volatile, transitory, and harmless. Amongst the maladies that are benefited by it,' remarks he, 'is the true neuralgia--intermitting fits of excruciating pain running along certain nerves, without inflammation of the affected part, often a consequence of malaria, or of some other low and exhausting causes. To enumerate the cases in which Champagne is of service would be to give a whole nosology. Who does not know the misery, the helplessness of that abominable ailment influenza, whether a severe cold or the genuine epidemic? Let the faculty dispute about the best remedy if they please; but a sensible man with a bottle of Champagne will beat them all. Moreover, whenever there is pain, with exhaustion and lowness, then Dr. Champagne should be had up. There is something excitant in the wine--doubly so in the sparkling wine, which, the moment it touches the lips, sends an electric telegram of comfort to every remote nerve. Nothing comforts and rests the stomach better, or is a greater antidote to nausea.' Champagne of fine quality should never be mixed with ice or iced water; neither should it be iced to the extent Champagnes ordinarily are; for, in the first place, the natural lightness of the wine is such as not to admit of its being diluted without utterly spoiling it, and in the next, excessive cold destroys alike the fragrant bouquet of the wine and its delicate vinous flavour. Really good Champagne should not be iced below a temperature of fifty degrees Fahr.; whereas exceedingly sweet wines will bear icing down almost to freezing point, and be rendered more palatable by the process. The above remarks apply to all sorts of sparkling wine. In the Champagne, what may be termed a really grand vintage commonly occurs only once, and never more than twice, in ten years. During the same period, however, there will generally be one or two other tolerably good vintages. In grand years the crop, besides being of superior quality, is usually abundant, and as a consequence the price of the raw wine is scarcely higher than usual. Apparently from this circumstance the sparkling wine of grand vintages does not command an enhanced value, as is the case with other fine wines. It is only when speculators recklessly outbid each other for the grapes or the _vin brut_, or when stocks are low and the _vin brut_ is really scarce, that the price of Champagne appears to rise. That superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by the amounts paid for the Ay and Verzenay crus in years of grand vintages. During the present century these appear to have been 1802, '06, '11, '18, '22, '25, '34, '42, '46, '57, '65, '68, and '74--that is, thirteen grand vintages in eighty years. Other good vintages, although not equal to the foregoing, occurred in the years 1815, '32, '39, '52, '54, '58, '62, '64, and '70. Confining ourselves to the grand years, we find that the Ay wine of 1834, owing to the crop being plentiful as well as good, only realised from 110 to 140 francs the pièce of 44 gallons, although for two years previously this had fetched them 150 to 200 francs. In 1842 the price ranged from 120 to 150 francs, whereas the vastly inferior wine of the year before had commanded from 210 to 275 francs. In 1846, the crop being a small one, the price of the wine rose, and in 1857 the pièce fetched as much as from 480 to 500 francs; still this was merely a trifle higher than it had realised the two preceding years. In 1865 the price was 380 to 400 francs, and in 1868 about the same, whereas the indifferent vintages of 1871, '72, and '73--the latter eventually proved to be of execrable quality--realised from 500 to 1000 francs the pièce. It was very similar with the wine of Verzenay. In 1834 the price of the pièce ranged from 280 to 325 francs, or about the average of the three preceding years. In 1846, the crop being scarce, the price rose considerably; while in 1857, when the crop was plentiful, it fell to 500 francs, or from 5 to 20 per cent below that of the two previous years, when the yield was both inferior and less abundant. In 1865 the price rose 33 per cent above that of the year before; still, although Verzenay wine of 1865 and 1868 fetched from 420 to 450 francs the pièce, and that of 1874 as much as 900 francs, the greatly inferior vintages of 1872-73 commanded 900 and 1030 francs the pièce. Subsequently the price of the wine fell to 350 and 450 francs the pièce, to rise again, however, in 1878 to 900 francs, which was followed by a fall the following year to 250 francs. In 1880, when the yield was no more than the quarter of an average one, and the quality was as yet undetermined, the Ay and Verzenay wines commanded the high price of 1500 francs and upwards the pièce. Exceptionally high prices were also realised for the wines of the neighbouring localities. Consumers of Champagne, if wise, would profit by the circumstance that quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, and if they were bent upon drinking their favourite wine in perfection, as one meets with it at the dinner-tables of the principal manufacturers, who only put old wine of grand vintages before their guests, they would lay down Champagnes of good years in the same way as the choicer vintages of port, burgundy, and bordeaux are laid down. The Champagne of 1874 was a wine of this description, with all its finer vinous qualities well developed, and consequently needing age to attain not merely the roundness, but the refinement, of flavour pertaining to a high-class sparkling wine. Instead of being drunk a few months after it was shipped in the spring and summer of 1877, as was the fate of much of the wine in question, it needed being kept for three years at the very least to become even moderately round and perfect. In the Champagne one had many opportunities of tasting the grander vintages that had arrived at ten, twelve, or fifteen years of age, and had thereby attained supreme excellence. It is true their effervescence had moderated materially, but their bouquet and flavour were perfect, and their softness and delicacy something marvellous. A great wine like that of 1874 will go on improving for ten years, providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. These are, first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of which should be as low as from 50° to 55° Fahr., or even lower if this is practicable. The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light, scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their sides, to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down Champagne or any kind of sparkling wine, an iron wine-bin is by far the best; and the patent 'slider' bins made by Messrs. W. & J. Burrow, of Malvern, are better adapted to the purpose than any other. In these the bottles rest on horizontal parallel bars of wrought-iron, securely riveted into strong wrought-iron uprights, both at the back and in front. They are especially adapted for laying down Champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and equable. From the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption of Champagne has more than quadrupled since the year 1844-5, a period of six-and-thirty years. A curious fact to note is the immense increase in the exports of the wine during the three years following the Franco-German war, during which contest both the exports and home consumption of Champagne naturally fell off very considerably. No reliable information is available as to the actual quantity of Champagne consumed yearly in England, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four millions of bottles. The consumption of the wine in the United States varies from rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million bottles annually. OFFICIAL RETURN BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AT REIMS OF THE TRADE IN CHAMPAGNE WINES FROM APRIL 1844 TO APRIL 1881. +-----------+--------------+------------+-------------+-------------+ |Years--from| | Number of | Number of | Total | | April |Manufacturers'| Bottles |Bottles sold | Number of | | to April. | Stocks. | exported. | in France. |Bottles sold.| +-----------+--------------+------------+-------------+-------------+ | 1844-45 | 23,285,218 | 4,380,214 | 2,255,438 | 6,635,652 | | 1845-46 | 22,847,971 | 4,505,308 | 2,510,605 | 7,015,913 | | 1846-47 | 18,815,367 | 4,711,915 | 2,355,366 | 7,067,281 | | 1847-48 | 23,122,994 | 4,859,625 | 2,092,571 | 6,952,196 | | 1848-49 | 21,290,185 | 5,686,484 | 1,473,966 | 7,160,450 | | 1849-50 | 20,499,192 | 5,001,044 | 1,705,735 | 6,706,779 | | 1850-51 | 20,444,915 | 5,866,971 | 2,122,569 | 7,989,540 | | 1851-52 | 21,905,479 | 5,957,552 | 2,162,880 | 8,120,432 | | 1852-53 | 19,376,967 | 6,355,574 | 2,385,217 | 8,740,790 | | 1853-54 | 17,757,769 | 7,878,320 | 2,528,719 | 10,407,039 | | 1854-55 | 20,922,959 | 5,895,773 | 2,452,743 | 9,348,516 | | 1855-56 | 15,957,141 | 7,137,001 | 2,562,039 | 9,699,040 | | 1856-57 | 15,228,294 | 8,490,198 | 2,468,818 | 10,959,016 | | 1857-58 | 21,628,778 | 7,368,310 | 2,421,454 | 9,789,764 | | 1858-59 | 28,328,251 | 7,666,633 | 2,805,416 | 10,472,049 | | 1859-60 | 35,648,124 | 8,265,395 | 3,039,621 | 11,305,016 | | 1860-61 | 30,235,260 | 8,488,223 | 2,697,508 | 11,185,731 | | 1861-62 | 30,254,291 | 6,904,915 | 2,592,875 | 9,497,790 | | 1862-63 | 28,013,189 | 7,937,836 | 2,767,371 | 10,705,207 | | 1863-64 | 28,466,975 | 9,851,138 | 2,934,996 | 12,786,134 | | 1864-65 | 33,298,672 | 9,101,441 | 2,801,626 | 11,903,067 | | 1865-66 | 34,175,429 | 10,413,455 | 2,782,777 | 13,196,132 | | 1866-67 | 37,608,716 | 10,283,886 | 3,218,343 | 13,502,229 | | 1867-68 | 37,969,219 | 10,876,585 | 2,924,268 | 13,800,853 | | 1868-69 | 32,490,881 | 12,810,194 | 3,104,496 | 15,914,690 | | 1869-70 | 39,272,562 | 13,858,839 | 3,628,461 | 17,487,300 | | 1870-71 | 39,984,003 | 7,544,323 | 1,633,941 | 9,178,264 | | 1871-72 | 40,099,243 | 17,001,124 | 3,367,537 | 20,368,661 | | 1872-73 | 45,329,490 | 18,917,779 | 3,464,059 | 22,381,838 | | 1873-74 | 46,573,974 | 18,106,310 | 2,491,759 | 20,598,069 | | 1874-75 | 52,733,674 | 15,318,345 | 3,517,182 | 18,835,527 | | 1875-76 | 64,658,767 | 16,705,719 | 2,439,762 | 19,145,481 | | 1876-77 | 71,398,726 | 15,882,964 | 3,127,991 | 19,010,955 | | 1877-78 | 70,183,863 | 15,711,651 | 2,450,983 | 18,162,634 | | 1878-79 | 65,813,194 | 14,844,181 | 2,596,356 | 17,440,537 | | 1879-80 | 68,540,668 | 16,524,593 | 2,665,561 | 19,190,154 | | 1880-81 | 54,505,964 | 18,220,980 | 2,330,924 | 20,551,904 | +-----------+--------------+------------+-------------+-------------+ Distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment when Champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. Dyspeptic Mr. Walker, of 'The Original,' laid it down that Champagne ought to be introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the viands it may chance to accompany. 'Give Champagne,' he says, 'at the beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the guests, after which they will seldom flag. No other wine produces an equal effect in increasing the success of a party--it invariably turns the balance to the favourable side. When Champagne goes rightly, nothing can well go wrong.' These precepts are sound enough; still all dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not invariably mutes. Before Champagne can be properly introduced at a formal dinner, the conventional glass of sherry or madeira should supplement the soup, a white French or a Rhine wine accompany the fish, and a single glass of bordeaux prepare the way with the first _entrée_ for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two, should be served briskly and liberally. A wine introduced thus early at the repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate, moderately so. We certainly do not approve of Mr. Charles Dickens's dictum that Champagne's proper place is not at the dinner-table, but solely at a ball. 'A cavalier,' he said, 'may appropriately offer at propitious intervals a glass now and then to his danceress. There it takes its fitting rank and position amongst feathers, gauzes, lace, embroidery, ribbons, white-satin shoes, and eau-de-Cologne, for Champagne is simply one of the elegant extras of life.' This is all very well; still the advantageous effect of sparkling wine at an ordinary British dinner-party, composed as it frequently is of people brought indiscriminately together in accordance with the exigencies of the hostess's visiting-list, cannot be gainsaid. After the preliminary glowering at each other, _more Britannico_, in the drawing-room, everybody regards it as a relief to be summoned to the repast, which, however, commences as chillily as the soup and as stolidly as the salmon. The soul of the hostess is heavy with the anxiety of prospective dishes, the brow of the host is clouded with the reflection that our rulers are bent upon adding an extra penny to the income-tax. Placed between a young lady just out and a dowager of grimly Gorgonesque aspect, you hesitate how to open a conversation. Your first attempts are singularly ineffectual, only eliciting a dropping fire of monosyllables. You envy the placidly languid young gentleman opposite, limp as his fast-fading camellia, and seated next to Belle Breloques, who is certain, in racing parlance, to make the running for him. But even that damsel seems preoccupied with her fan, and, despite her _aplomb_, hesitates to break the icy silence. The two City friends of the host are lost in mute speculation as to the future price of indigo or Ionian Bank shares, while their wives seem to be mentally summarising the exact cost of each other's toilettes. Their daughters, or somebody else's daughters, are desperately jerking out monosyllabic responses to feeble remarks concerning the weather, the theatres, operatic _débutantes_, the people in the Row, æstheticism, and kindred topics from a couple of F.O. men. Little Snapshot, the wit, on the other side of the Gorgon, has tried to lead up to a story, but has found himself, as it were, frozen in the bud. When lo! the butler softly sibillates in your ear the magic word 'Champagne,' and as it flows, creaming and frothing, into your glass, a change comes over the spirit of your vision. The hostess brightens, the host coruscates. The young lady on your right suddenly develops into a charming girl, with becoming appreciation of your pet topics and an astounding aptness for repartee. The Gorgon thaws, and implores Mr. Snapshot, whose jests are popping as briskly as the corks, not to be so dreadfully funny, or he will positively kill her. Belle Breloques can always talk, and now her tongue rattles faster then ever, till the languid one arouses himself like a giant refreshed, and gives her as good as he gets. The City men expatiate in cabalistic language on the merits of some mysterious speculation, the prospective returns from which increase with each fresh bottle. One of their wives is discussing church decoration with a hitherto silent curate, and the other is jabbering botany to a red-faced warrior. The juniors are in full swing, and ripples of silvery laughter rise in accompaniment to the beaded bubbles all round the table. Gradually, as people drift off from generalities to their own particular line--gastronomy, politics, art, sport, fashion, literature, church matters, theatricals, speculation, scandal, dress, and the like--the scraps of sentences that the ear catches flying about the table present a mosaic somewhat resembling the following: 'Forster should have sent him to Kilmainham--to see that dear delightful Mr. Irving in--ten-inch armour-plating, but could not steer in a sea-way, so--sat down in the saddle and rammed his spurs into--Petsy Prettitoes and half a dozen girls from the Cruralia, who were--ordained last week by the Bishop of London, when his lordship--said there was no doubt who best deserved the vacant Garter, and declared--a dividend of seven per cent for the--comet year with a bouquet--of sunflowers and lilies on satin, which you should--cover with a light crust--of stiff clay, with a rasper on the further side as--the third story of the hotel overlooking--the Euphrates Valley Railway, which would lead to--the loveliest bit of landscape in the Academy--with the finest hair in the world, and eyes like--a boiled cod's head and shoulders--cut low at the neck, with a gold shoulder-strap, and--nothing else to speak of before the House except the Bill for--her photographs, which are in all the shop-windows, beside Mrs. Langtry's--who never ought to have allowed Bismarck to--assist at the consecration of--the Henley course--so the Duke started at once for Aldershot, and reviewed--the two best novels of the season--cut up with tomatoes and a dash of garlic--and was positive he saw them dining together at Richmond on--fourteen brace of birds and five hares in--the loveliest set of embroidered vestments and an altar-cloth worked for--a Conservative majority, which will drive the Government to--take a couple of stalls at Her Majesty's to hear _Carmen_--who gave him the last galop, but he--blundered at his first fence and fell--to seventy-two and a half, whilst the preference shares were--all ordered on foreign service and--heard nothing from the Irish members but--Oscar Wilde's poems bound in red morocco--with a white-satin train and--plenty of body and a good colour--all through riding every morning in--a private box on the upper tier--and that is why Gladstone at once gave orders--for them to be actually shut up together--in the strong room of the Bank of England, with a reserve fund of bullion--from the music in the first act of _Patience_--equal to that of Job when he said--well, only half a glass, then, since you are so pressing.' And all this is due to Champagne, that great unloosener not merely of tongues, but, better still, of purse-strings, as is well known to the secretaries of those charitable institutions which set the exhilarating wine flowing earliest at their anniversary dinners. [Illustration] [Illustration] APPENDIX. THE PRINCIPAL CHAMPAGNE AND OTHER FRENCH SPARKLING WINE BRANDS. [asterism] In this list, whenever a manufacturer has various qualities, the higher qualities are always placed first. The lowest qualities are omitted altogether. CHAMPAGNES. Firms and Wholesale Brands. Qualities. On side of Corks. Agents. AYALA & Co., [Illustration] Extra (Dry) Extra. /Ay/ First (Dry) Première. Ayala & Co., 59 & [Illustration] Second. 60 Great Tower-street, London Runk & Unger, 50 Park-place, New York BINET FILS & Co., [Illustration] Dry Elite Dry Elite. /Reims/ First First quality. Rutherford & Browne, 5 Water-lane, London BOLLINGER, J., [Illustration] Very Dry Extra Very Dry Extra /Ay/ quality. L. Mentzendorf, 6 Dry Extra Dry Extra Idol-lane, quality. London E. & J. Burke, 40 Beaver-street, New York BRUCH-FOUCHER & Co., [Illustration] Carte d'Or. /Mareuil/ First. L. Ehrmann, 34 Great Second. Tower-street, London CLICQUOT-PONSARDIN, [Illustration] Dry England. /Vve., Reims/ Rich " (WERLE & Co.) Fenwick, Parrot, & Co., 124 Fenchurch-street, London Schmidt Bros., New York DE CAZANOVE, C., [Illustration] Vin Monarque Extra. /Avise/ First. J. R. Hunter & Co., Second. 46 Fenchurch-street, London DEUTZ & GELDERMANN, [Illustration] Gold Lack Gold Lack. /Ay/ (Extra Dry J. R. Parkington & and Dry) Co., Crutched Cabinet (Extra Cabinet. Friars, London Dry and Dry) DUCHATEL-OHAUS, [Illustration] Carte Blanche /Reims/ (Dry and Woellworth & Co., Rich). 70 Mark-lane, Verzenay (do.). London Sillery (do.). DUMINY & Co., [Illustration] Extra Maison fondée en /Ay/ 1814. Fickus, Courtenay, & [Illustration] First " Co., St. Dunstan's-buildings, St. Dunstan's-hill, London Anthony Oechs, 51 Warren-street, New York ERNEST IRROY, [Illustration] Carte d'Or, Carte d'Or, Sec. /Reims/ Dry Cuddeford & Smith, Carte d'Or Carte d'Or. 66 Mark-lane, London F. O. de Luze & Co., 18 South William-street, New York FARRE, CHARLES, [Illustration] Cabinet (Grand Cabinet (Grand /Reims/. Vin) Vin). Hornblower & Co., [Illustration] Carte Blanche Carte Blanche. 50 Mark-lane, Carte Noire Carte Noire. London Gilmor & Gibson, Baltimore Mel & Sons, San Francisco Hogg, Robinson, & Co., Melbourne FISSE, THIRION, & [Illustration] Cachet d'Or Cachet d'Or. Co., /Reims/ (Extra Dry Stallard & Smith, and Medium 25 Philpot-lane, Dry) London Carte Blanche Carte Blanche. (Dry, Medium Dry, and Rich) Carte Noire Carte Noire. (Dry and Medium Dry) GÉ-DUFAUT & Co., [Illustration] Vin de Réserve. /Pierry/ Vin de Cabinet. L. Rosenheim & Sons, Bouzy, 1^{er} 7 Union-court, Cru. Old Broad-street, Fleur de London Sillery. GIBERT, GUSTAVE, [Illustration] Vin du Roi /Reims/ (Extra Dry, Cock, Russell, & Co., Dry, or 23 Rood-lane, Rich). London Hays & Co., 40 [Illustration] Extra (Extra Day-street, Dry, Dry, New York or Rich). GIESLER & Co., [Illustration] Extra Extra. /Avize/ Superior F. Giesler & Co., India India. 32 Fenchurch-street, First. London Purdy & Nicholas, [Illustration] 43 Beaver-street Second. New York HEIDSIECK & Co., [Illustration] Dry Monopole. /Reims/. Monopole (Rich). Theodor Satow & Co., Dry Vin 141 Fenchurch-street, Royal. London Grand Vin Schmidt & Peters, Royal (Rich). 20 Beaver-street, New York KRUG & Co., [Illustration] Carte Carte Blanche, /Reims/ Blanche England. Inglis & Cunningham, Private Private Cuvée, 60 Mark-lane, Cuvée England. London A. Rocherau & Co., New York MAX. SUTAINE & Co., [Illustration] Creaming Sillery /Reims/ (Extra Dry). (VEUVE MORELLE & Co.) H. Schultz, 71 Great Creaming Sillery. Tower-st., London Knoepfel & Co., 60 Bouzy (Dry). Liberty-street, Sparkling Sillery. New York MOËT & CHANDON, [Illustration] Brut Imperial, England. /Epernay/ Impérial Simon & Dale, Creaming Creaming, " Old Trinity House, 5 Water-lane, Extra Extra London, Agents for Superior Superior, " Gt. Britain and Extra Dry White Dry, " the Colonies Sillery Renauld, François, White Dry " " , " & Co., 23 Sillery Beaver-street, First England. New York J. Hope & Co., [Illustration] Second. Montreal MONTEBELLO, DUC DE, [Illustration] Cuvée Extra Cuvée Extra. /Mareuil/ Carte Reserve. John Hopkins & Co., Blanche 26 Crutched Friars, London Coyle & Turner, 31 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin MUMM (G. H.) & Co., [Illustration] Vin Brut /Reims/ Extra. W. J. & T. Welch, Carte Carte Blanche. 10 Corn Exchange Blanche Chambers, Extra Dry Extra Dry. Seething-lane, Extra Extra Quality. London F. de Bary & Co., 41 Warren-street, New York MUMM, JULES, & Co., [Illustration] Extra Dry. /Reims/ Dry. J. Mumm & Co., 3 Mark-lane, London PÉRINET & FILS, [Illustration] Cuvée Réservée Cuvée /Reims/ (Extra Dry) Réservée. J. Barnett & Son, White Dry White Dry 36 Mark-lane, Sillery Sillery. London Wood, Pollard, & Co., Boston, U.S. Hooper & Donaldson, San Francisco PERRIER-JOUËT & Co., [Illustration] Cuvée de Réserve Extra. /Epernay/. Pale Dry A. Boursot & Co., Creaming. 9 Hart-st., First. Crutched Friars, London PFUNGST FRÈRES [Illustration] Carte d'Or Carte d'Or. & Cie., /Ay/, (Dry, Extra /Epernay/ Dry, & Brut). J. L. Pfungst & Co., Sillery Crêmant Sillery 23 Crutched (Extra Dry and Crêmant Friars, London Brut) Carte Noire Carte Noire. (Dry, Extra Dry, and Brut) Cordon Blanc Cordon Blanc. (Full, Dry, & Extra Dry) PIPER (H.) & Co., [Illustration] Très-Sec Kunkelmann /Reims/ (Extra Dry) & Co. (KUNKELMANN & Co.) Sec (Very " " Newton & Rivière, Dry) 33 Great Carte Blanche " " Tower-street, (Rich) London John Osborn, Son, & Co., New York POL ROGER & Co., [Illustration] Vin Réservé. /Epernay/ Reuss, Lauteren & Co., 39 Crutched Friars, London POMMERY, VEUVE, [Illustration] Extra Sec Veuve Pommery. /Reims/ (Vin Brut) (POMMERY & GRENO) A. Hubinet, 24 Mark-lane, London Charles Graef, [Illustration] Sec. 65 Broad-street, New York ROEDERER, LOUIS, [Illustration] Carte Blanche Reims, Carte /Reims/ Blanche, Gt. Grainger & Son, 108 Britain. Fenchurch-street, London ROEDERER, THÉOPHILE, [Illustration] Crystal Special & Co. (Maison Champagne, Cuvée. fondée en 1864), Special Cuvée /Reims/ Extra Reserve Reserve Cuvée. J. Ashburner, Cuvée Biart, & Co., 150 Carte Blanche, Carte Blanche. Fenchurch-street, Ex. London Carte Noire, Carte Noire. First Verzenay Verzenay. ROPER FRÈRES & Co., [Illustration] Vin Brut, Vin Brut. /Rilly-la-Montagne/ or Natural 24 Crutched Champagne Friars, London First (Extra Dry) Extra Dry. Do. (Medium Dry) Medium Dry. Second. Crême de Bouzy. RUINART, PÈRE [Illustration] Carte Anglaise. ET FILS, Dry Pale Crêmant. /Reims/ Ex. Dry Ruinart, Père Sparkling. et Fils, 22 St. Carte Blanche, Swithin's-lane, First. London DE SAINT-MARCEAUX [Illustration] Vin Brut Vin Brut. & Co., /Reims/ Carte d'Or Very Dry. (C. ARNOULD (Extra Dry) & HEIDELBERGER) Bouzy Nonpareil Vin Sec. Groves & Co., (Dry) 5 Mark-lane, Carte Blanche London (Medium). Hermann Bätjer & _For America Bro., only_. New York [Illustration] Dry Royal Dry. Extra Dry Extra Dry. Second (Medium) SAUMUR AND SAUTERNES. _Firms and Wholesale _Brands._ _Qualities._ _On side of Corks._ Agents._ ACKERMAN-LAURANCE, [Illustration] Carte d'Or Carte d'Or. /St. Florent, Carte Rose Carte Rose. Saumur/ Carte Bleue Carte Bleue. J. N. Bishop, Carte Noire Carte Noire. 41 Crutched Friars, London D. McDougall jun. & Co., St. George's-place, Glasgow DUVAU, LOUIS, [Illustration] Carte d'Or, /Aîné, Château Ex. Sup. de Varrains,/ Carte d'Argent, near /Saumur/ Ex. Jolivet & Canney, Carte Blanche, 3 Idol-lane, Sup. London Carte Rose, Ord. LORRAIN, JULES, [Illustration] Carte d'Or. /Château Carte Blanche. de la Côte, Carte Rose. Varrains/, Carte Bleue. near /Saumur/ J. Lorrain, 73 Great Tower-st., London ROUSTEAUX, A., [Illustration] Extra. /St. Florent, Saumur/ Cock, Russell, & Co., 63 Great Tower-street, London I. H. Smith's Sons, [Illustration] First. Peck Slip, New York NORMANDIN (E.) [Illustration] Sparkling Sauternes & Co., (Extra Dry and Dry). /Châteauneuf-sur-Charente/ P. A. Maignen, 22 Great Tower-street, London BURGUNDIES. _Firms and Wholesale _Brands._ _Qualities._ _On side of Corks._ Agents._ ANDRÉ & VOILLOT, [Illustration] Romanée (White). /Beaune/ Nuits (do.). Cock, Russell, Volnay (do.). & Co., Saint-Péray. 63 Great Pink and Tower-street, Red Wines. London P. W. Engs & Sons, 131 Front-street, New York LATOUR, LOUIS, [Illustration] Romanée (White). /Beaune/ Nuits (White Reuss, Lauteren, and Red). & Co., Volnay (do.). 39 Crutched Saint-Péray Friars, London (White). Chambertin (Red). LIGER-BELAIR, [Illustration] Carte d'Or COMTE, (White). /Nuits & Carte Vôsne/ Verte (do.). Fenwick, Parrot, Carte Noire & Co., 124 (Red and Fenchurch-street, White). London Carte Blanche (Red). MOËT AND CHANDON'S BRUT IMPÉRIAL DRY CHAMPAGNE. FACSIMILE OF LABEL. [Illustration] BRAND ON CORK. [Illustration] ALSO EXTRA SUPERIOR WHITE DRY SILLERY AND FIRST QUALITY CHAMPAGNES. CHAMPAGNE. PÉRINET & FILS, REIMS. [Illustration: Sectional View of a portion of the Caves in the Rue St. Hilaire.] DEUTZ & GELDERMANN'S 'GOLD LACK.' ================ MORNING POST. 'A Wine for Princes and Senators. The district of Ay has become probably the most celebrated in the ancient province of Champagne for its grapes, and among the noted brands of that famed region not one has gained a greater popularity in this country than that of Deutz & Geldermann. The Wine of this well-known firm is invariably met with on every important occasion; and it is noticed that Deutz & Geldermann's "Gold Lack" was specially selected for the banquet given by the Royal Naval Club at Portsmouth to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales; and some proof of its excellence may be gathered from the fact that this brand was drunk on a former visit of the Prince to the club two years since. Deutz & Geldermann's "Gold Lack" was one of the Champagnes supplied at the late Ministerial Whitebait Dinner at the Trafalgar.' WORLD. 'Deutz & Geldermann's "Gold Lack" is now being preferred by many connoisseurs, and we can bear testimony to its excellence of quality.' --------------- Deutz & Geldermann's 'Gold Lack' Champagne is shipped Brut, Extra Dry, and Medium Dry; and may be obtained of all Wine Merchants. --------------- /Wholesale Agents/: J. R. PARKINGTON & Co. 24 CRUTCHED FRIARS, LONDON, E.C. CHAMPAGNE. DEUX MÉDAILLES D'OR. [Illustration: PRO FIDE FIDES] CH^{ES.} DE CAZANOVE, AVIZE (/Champagne/). ================ VIN MONARQUE. Facsimiles of Medallion [Illustration: CH DE CAZANOVE AVIZE marne VIN MONARQUE] And Label of Extra Quality. [Illustration: PRO FIDE FIDES CH^{ES.} DE CAZANOVE AVIZE, (Champagne.) _Wholesale Agents for the United Kingdom, J. R. HUNTER & Co., 46 Fenchurch Street, London._] ROPER FRÈRES & CO.'S CHAMPAGNE. --------------- First Quality, Extra Dry at 48/- First Quality, Medium Dry at 48/- --------------- _For Luncheons and Wedding Breakfasts, Regimental Messes and Ball Suppers._ --------------- MORNING POST. 'The great feature of all entertainments, public banquets, &c., is ~Champagne~; but the high prices of really good wine naturally deter many a householder of moderate means from indulging in this luxury. /Roper Frères & Co/. are shipping ~a first quality Champagne at =48s.= per dozen~. At this price, it cannot be denied that the acme of cheapness is arrived at.' --------------- SPECIAL NOTICE. _All Wine Merchants can, ~if requested~, supply ROPER FRÈRES & Co.'s CHAMPAGNE at the above Prices; and the Public are therefore cautioned not to allow other Brands at similar prices to be substituted._ In 2 vols. square 8vo, price 32s. in handsome binding, AMERICA REVISITED. _From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific._ By GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, AUTHOR OF 'TWICE ROUND THE CLOCK,' 'PARIS HERSELF AGAIN,' &c. Illustrated with nearly 400 Engravings, many of them from Sketches by the Author. --------------- In crown 8vo, cloth gilt, SIDE-LIGHTS ON ENGLISH SOCIETY; OR _SKETCHES FROM LIFE, SOCIAL & SATIRICAL_. By the late E. C. GRENVILLE MURRAY. 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'Mr. Henry Vizetelly's books about different wines have an importance and a value far greater than will be assigned them by those who look merely at the price at which they are published.'--_Sunday Times_. --------------- Price 1s. 6d. ornamental cover; or 2s. 6d. in elegant cloth binding, FACTS ABOUT PORT AND MADEIRA, With Notes on the Wines Vintaged around Lisbon, and the Wines of Teneriffe, GLEANED DURING A TOUR IN THE AUTUMN OF 1877. By HENRY VIZETELLY, /Wine Juror for Great Britain at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of 1873 and 1878/. _With One Hundred Illustrations from Original Sketches and Photographs._ --------------- ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR, Price 1s. 6d. ornamental cover; or 2s. 6d. in elegant cloth binding, FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE, AND OTHER SPARKLING WINES, COLLECTED DURING NUMEROUS VISITS TO THE CHAMPAGNE AND OTHER VITICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF FRANCE, AND THE PRINCIPAL REMAINING WINE-PRODUCING COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. _With One Hundred and Twelve Engravings from Original Sketches and Photographs._ --------------- Price 1s. ornamental cover; or 1s. 6d. cloth gilt, FACTS ABOUT SHERRY, GLEANED IN THE VINEYARDS AND BODEGAS OF THE JEREZ, SEVILLE, MOGUER, AND MONTILLA DISTRICTS. _Illustrated with numerous Engravings from Original Sketches._ --------------- Price 1s. ornamental cover; or 1s. 6d. cloth gilt, THE WINES OF THE WORLD, CHARACTERISED AND CLASSED; /With some Particulars respecting the Beers of Europe/. --------------- _London: VIZETELLY & Co., 42 Catherine Street, Strand._ FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: Diodorus.] [Footnote 2: Idem.] [Footnote 3: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 4: This arch is said to have been called after the God of War from the circumstance of a temple dedicated to Mars being in the immediate neighbourhood. The sculptures still remaining under the arcades have reference to the months of the year, to Romulus and Remus, and to Jupiter and Leda. Reims formerly abounded with monuments of the Roman domination. According to M. Brunette, an architect of the city, who made its Roman remains his especial study, a vast and magnificent palace formerly stood nigh the spot now known as the Trois Piliers; while on the right of the road leading to the town were the arenas, together with a temple, among the ruins of which various sculptures, vases, and medals were found, and almost immediately opposite, on the site of the present cemetery, an immense theatre, circus, and xystos for athletic exercises. Then came a vast circular space, in the centre of which arose a grand triumphal arch giving entrance into the city. The road led straight to the Forum,--the Place des Marchés of to-day,--and along it were a basilica, a market, and an exedra, now replaced by the Hôtel de Ville. The Forum, bordered by monumental buildings, was of gigantic proportions, extending on the one side from half way down the Rue Colbert to the Place Royale, and on the other from near the Marché à la Laine, parallel with the Rue de Vesle, up to the middle of the Rue des Elus, where it terminated in a vast amphitheatre used for public competitions. Other buildings of less importance were situated here and there: the thermæ along the Rue du Cloître; a palace or a temple on the site of the archiepiscopal palace; another temple at the extremity of the Rue Vauthier le Noir, in the ruins of which a bas-relief and some small antique statues were discovered; a third temple in the Rue du Couchant, in which a votive altar was found. Four triumphal arches were erected at the four gates of the town: one dedicated to Mars; another to Ceres, on the same site as the gate of to-day; a third to Bacchus, in the present Rue de l'Université, in front of the Lycée; and the fourth to Venus, in the Rue de Vesle. Outside the walls, following the Rue du Barbâtre, the road was dotted with numerous graves according to the Roman custom; while on the site of the church of St. Remi there arose a temple and a palace, and on that of St. Nicaise a vast edifice which M. Brunette supposed to be the palace of the Consul Jovinus.] [Footnote 5: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 6: Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_.] [Footnote 7: Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_.] [Footnote 8: According to this document, published in Marlot's _Histoire de Reims_, he leaves to Bishop Lupus the vineyard cultivated by the vine-dresser Enias; to his nephew Agricola, the vineyard planted by Mellaricus at Laon, and also the one cultivated by Bebrimodus; to his nephew Agathimerus, a vineyard he had himself planted at Vindonisæ, and kept up by the labour of his own episcopal hands; to Hilaire the deaconess, the vines adjoining her own vineyard, cultivated by Catusio, and also those at Talpusciaco; and to the priests and deacons of Reims, his vineyard in the suburbs of that city, and the vine-dresser Melanius who cultivated it. The will is also noteworthy for its mention of a locality destined to attain a high celebrity in connection with the wine of Champagne, namely, the town of Sparnacus or Epernay, which a lord named Eulogius, condemned to death for high treason in 499 and saved at the bishop's intercession, had bestowed upon his benefactor, and which the latter left in turn to the church of Reims. To this church he also left estates in the Vosges and beyond the Rhine, on condition of furnishing pitch every year to the religious houses founded by himself or his predecessors to mend their wine-vessels, a trace of the old Roman custom of pitching vessels used for storing wine.] [Footnote 9: Marlot's _Histoire de Reims_.] [Footnote 10: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 11: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 12: Bertin du Rocheret's _Mélanges_.] [Footnote 13: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 14: 'Bien met l'argent qui en bon vin l'emploie.' _Poems of Colin Musset_, 1190 to 1220.] [Footnote 15: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 16: Ibid.] [Footnote 17: Ibid.] [Footnote 18: J. Gondry du Jardinet's _Agréable Visite aux Grands Crûs de France_.] [Footnote 19: 'Chanter me fait bon vin et rejouir.'] [Footnote 20: 'Le vin en tonel, Froit et fort et finandel, Pour boivre à la grant chaleur.'] [Footnote 21: Legrand d'Aussy's _Vie Privée des Français_.] [Footnote 22: 'Espernai dist et Auviler, Argenteuil, trop veus aviler Très-tos les vins de ceste table. Par Dieu, trop t'es fait conestable. Nous passons Chaalons et Reims, Nous ostons la goûte des reins, Nous estaignons totes les rois.' ] [Footnote 23: 'Espernai, trop es desloiaus; Tu n'as droit de parler en cour.' ] [Footnote 24: The 'vin d'Ausois,' or 'vin d'Aussai' (for it is spelt both ways in the poem), is not, as might be supposed, the wine of Auxois, an ancient district of Burgundy now comprised in the arrondissements of Sémur (Côte d'Or) and Avallon (Yonne), and still enjoying a reputation for its viticultural products. MM. J. B. B. de Roquefort and Gigault de la Bedollière, in their notes on Henri d'Andelys' poem, have clearly identified it with the wine of Alsace, that province having been known under the names in question during the Middle Ages. This explains its connection in the present instance with the Moselle.] [Footnote 25: An incidental proof that the English taste for strong wine was an early one. As late as the close of the sixteenth century the Bordeaux wines are described in the _Maison Rustique_ as 'thick, black, and strong.'] [Footnote 26: Probably either Aquila in the Abruzzi, or Aquiliea near Friuli.] [Footnote 27: The 'rouage' was a duty of 2 sous on each cart and 4 sous on each wagon laden with wine purchased by foreign merchants and taken out of the town. It was only one of many dues.] [Footnote 28: The old livre was about equal to the present franc; the sol was the twentieth part of a livre; and the denier the twelfth part of a sol, or about 1/24_d._ English.] [Footnote 29: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 30: The Beaune cost 28 livres the tun of two queues; the St. Pourçain, a wine of the Bourbonnais, very highly esteemed in the Middle Ages, 12 livres the queue; and the wine of the district, white and red, 6 to 10 livres the queue of two poinçons. A poinçon, or demi-queue, of Reims was about 48 old English, or 40 imperial, gallons; while the demi-queue of Burgundy was over 45 imperial gallons.] [Footnote 31: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 32: A few examples of the retail price of wine throughout the century at Reims may here be noted. For instance, a judgment of 1303 provided that all tavern-keepers selling wine at a higher rate than six deniers, or about a farthing per lot, the rate fixed by ancient custom, were to pay a fine of twenty-two sous. The lot or pot, for the two terms are indifferently used, was about the third of an old English gallon, four pots making a septier, and thirty-six septiers a poinçon or demi-queue, equal to about forty-eight gallons. The queue was therefore about ninety-six gallons at Reims, but at Epernay not more than eighty-five gallons. Not only had every district its separate measures,--those of Paris, for instance, differing widely from those of Reims,--but there were actually different measures used in the various lay and ecclesiastical jurisdictions into which Reims was divided. In the accounts of the Echevinage, wine, chiefly for presents to persons of distinction, makes a continual appearance. In 1335 it is noted that 'the presents of this year were made in wine at 16 deniers and 20 deniers the pot,' or about 2-1/4_d._ English per gallon. In 1337-8 prices ranged from 3/4_d._ to 4-1/2_d._ English per gallon, showing a variety in quality; and in 1345 large quantities were purchased at the first-mentioned rate, five quarts of white wine fetching 2_d._ English. In 1352 from a 1_d._ to 2-1/4_d._ was paid per gallon, and five crowns for two queues. In 1363 the citizens, a hot-headed turbulent lot, who were always squabbling with their spiritual and temporal superior and assailing his officers, when not assaulting each other or pulling their neighbours' houses down, successfully resisted the pretensions of the archbishop to regulate the price of wine when the cheapest was worth 12 deniers per pot, or 1-1/2_d._ per gallon. The dispute continued, and in 1367 a royal commission was issued to the bailli of Vermandois, the king's representative, to inquire into the right of the burghers to sell wine by retail at 16 deniers, as they desired. The report of the bailli was that a queue of old French wine being worth about 20 livres, or 16_s._ 8_d._, and wine of Beaune and other better and stronger wines being sold in the town at higher rates, French wine might be sold as high as 3-1/2d. English per gallon, and Beaune at 4-1/2_d._ The great increase in production, and consequent fall in price, is shown by the wine found in Archbishop Richard Pique's cellar in 1389 being valued, on an average, at only 1_s._ 6_d._ per queue.] [Footnote 33: Froissart's _Chronicles_.] [Footnote 34: Idem.] [Footnote 35: Idem.] [Footnote 36: What with one kind of assessment being adopted for wine sold wholesale and another for that disposed of by retail, with one class of dues being levied on wine for export and another on that for home consumption, and with the fact of certain duties being in some cases payable by the buyer and in others by the seller, any attempt to summarise this section of the story of the wines of Reims would be impossible. The difficulty is increased when it is remembered that in the Middle Ages Reims was divided into districts, under the separate jurisdictions of the eschevins, the archbishop, the chapter of the cathedral, the Abbeys of St. Remi and St. Nicaise, and the Priory of St. Maurice, in several of which widely varying measures were employed down to the sixteenth century, and between which there were continual squabbles as to the rights of vinage, rouage, tonnieu, &c.] [Footnote 37: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 38: Froissart's _Chronicles_.] [Footnote 39: Baron Taylor's _Reims; la Ville de Sacres_.] [Footnote 40: Amongst the better known are Chamery, where the archbishop had a house, vineyard, and garden, let for 3_s._ per annum, about five _jours_ of vineyard and two _jours_ of very good vineland; Mareuil, whence he drew ten hogsheads of wine annually; Rilly, Verzenay, Sillery, Attigny, &c. The _jour_ cost from 5 to 8 livres per annum for cultivation, and the stakes for the vines 4 sols, or 2_d._, a hundred.] [Footnote 41: The chapter of the Cathedral, the church of Notre Dame, the abbeys of St. Remi and St. Nicaise, had vineyards or 'droits de vin' at Hermonville, Rounay les Reims, Montigny, Serzy, Villers Aleran, Maineux devant Reims, Mersy, Sapiecourt, Sacy en la Montagne, Flory en la Montagne, Prouilly, Germigny, Saulx, Bremont, Merfaud, Trois Pins, Joucheri sur Vesle, Villers aux Neux, &c.; the last named also possessing a piece of 'vingne gonesse' at 'a place called Mont Valoys in the territory of Reims.'] [Footnote 42: At his château at the Porte Mars were forty-four queues of red and white wine, nineteen of new red and white wine, and four of old wine, valued, on an average, at 36 sols or 1_s._ 6_d._ the queue; at Courville there were fifty queues of new wine (valued at 30 sols the queue), twenty of old wine (worth nothing), and four 'cuves' for wine-making; and at Viellarcy, eighteen tuns of new wine, valued at 60 sols or 2_s._ 6_d._ per tun. To take charge of all these, Jehan le Breton, the defunct prelate's assistant butler, was retained by the executors for half a year, at the wages of 74 sols or 3_s._ 2_d._ At the funeral feast there were consumed three queues of the best wine in the cellars, valued at 2_s._ 7-1/2_d._ per queue, three others at 1_s._ 3_d._, and five pots of Beaune at 1-2/3_d._ English per pot, showing it to have been four times as valuable as native growths.] [Footnote 43: 'En Picardie sont li bourdeur, Et en Champagne li buveur.... Telz n'a vaillant un Angevin Qui chascun jor viant boire vin.' ] [Footnote 44: 'Champagne est la forme de tout bien De blé, de vin, de foin, et de litière.' ] [Footnote 45: Mss. de Rogier, Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_, &c.] [Footnote 46: This wine, no doubt, came from a considerable distance round, for we find P. de la Place, a mercer of Reims, seeking in 1409 to recover the value of five queues and two poinçons 'of wine from the cru of the town of Espernay, on the river of Esparnay,' delivered at Reims to J. Crohin of Hainault, the origin of the same being certified by S. de Laval, a sworn wine-broker, 'who knows and understands the wines of the country around Reims.'] [Footnote 47: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 48: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 49: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_. The Hôtel de la Maison Rouge occupies to-day the site of the old hostelry at which the parents of Jeanne Darc were housed.] [Footnote 50: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 51: The cost of the wine thus presented seems to have averaged from 2-1/4_d._ to 3_d._ per gallon. In 1477 a queue of old wine was valued at no less than 30_s._] [Footnote 52: The twelve peers of France first appear at the coronation of Philip Augustus. There were six lay peers and six ecclesiastical peers: Duke of Burgundy. " Normandy. " Guienne or Aquitaine. Count of Toulouse. " Flanders. " Champagne. Archbishop Duke of Reims. Bishop Duke of Laon. " " Langres. Bishop Count of Beauvais. " " Chalons. " " Noyon. As the titles of the lay peers grew extinct, and their fiefs lapsed to the crown, it became customary for them to be represented by some great nobles at the coronations of the kings of France.] [Footnote 53: The following is the full text of this singular sentence. The injunction at the end, respecting the payment of tithes without fraud, shows that even in a matter like this the Church did not lose sight of its own interests. 'In the name of the Lord, amen. Having seen the prayer or petition on behalf of the inhabitants of Villenauxe, of the diocese of Troyes, made before us, official of Troyes, sitting in judgment upon the _bruhecs_ or _éruches_, or other similar animals, which, according to the evidence of persons worthy of belief and as confirmed by public rumour, have ravaged for a certain number of years, and this year also, the fruit of the vines of this locality, to the great loss of those who inhabit it and of the persons of the neighbourhood,--petition that we warn the above-named animals, and that, using the means at the Church's disposition, we force them to retire from the territory of the said place. Having seen and attentively examined the motives of the prayer or petition above mentioned, and also the answers and allegations furnished in favour of the said _éruches_ or other animals by the councillors chosen by us for that purpose; having heard also on the whole our promoter, and seeing the particular report, furnished at our command by a notary of the said Court of Troyes, on the damage caused by the said animals amongst the vines of the locality of Villenauxe already named; though it would seem that to such damage one can bring no remedy except through the aid of God; however, taking into consideration the humble, frequent, and pressing complaint of the above-mentioned inhabitants; having regard, especially, to the ardour with which, to efface their past great faults, they lately gave, at our invitation, the edifying spectacle of solemn prayers; considering that, as the mercy of God does not drive away the sinners who return to Him with humility, neither should His Church refuse, to those who run to her, succour or consolation,--We, the official above named, no matter how novel the case may be, yielding to the earnestness of these prayers, following in the footsteps of our predecessors presiding at our tribunal, having God before our eyes and full of belief in His mercy and love, after having taken counsel in the proper quarter, we deliver sentence in the following terms: 'In the name and in virtue of the omnipotence of God, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; of the blessed Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ; of the authority of the holy apostles Peter and Paul; and of that with which we ourselves are invested in this affair, we charge by this act the above-named animals--_bruches_, _éruches_, or of any other name by which they may be called--to retire (under penalty of malediction and anathema, within the six days which follow this warning and in accordance with our sentence) from the vines and from the said locality of Villenauxe, and never more to cause, in time to come, any damage, either in this spot or in any other part of the diocese of Troyes; that if, the six days passed, the said animals have not fully obeyed our command, the seventh day, in virtue of the power and authority above mentioned, we pronounce against them by this writing anathema and malediction! Ordering, however, and formally directing the said inhabitants of Villenauxe, no matter of what rank, class, or condition they may be, so as to merit the better from God, all-powerful dispensator of all good and deliverer from all evil, to be released from such a great plague; ordering and directing them to deliver themselves up in concert to good works and pious prayers; to pay, moreover, the tithe without fraud and according to the custom recognised in the locality; and to abstain with care from blaspheming and all other sins, especially from public scandals.--Signed, /N. Hupperoye/, Secretary.'] [Footnote 54: It has been asserted that the Champagne, and notably the town of Troyes, enjoyed the dubious honour of furnishing fools to the court of France. There is certainly a letter of Charles V. to the notables of Troyes, asking them, 'according to custom,' for a fool to replace one named Grand Jehan de Troyes, whom he had had buried in the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and who has been immortalised by Rabelais. But Brusquet was a Provençal; Triboulet, his predecessor, immortalised by Victor Hugo in the 'Roi s'amuse,' a native of Blois; Chicot the Jester, the fool of Henry III., and the favourite hero of Dumas, a Gascon; and Guillaume, his successor, a Norman.] [Footnote 55: The wine of Reims provided at the coronation of Francis II., in 1559, cost from 11_s._ 8_d._ to 15_s._ 10_d._ per queue of ninety-six gallons, and the Burgundy 16_s._ 8_d._ per queue, which, allowing for the cost of transport, would put them about on an equality. At the coronation of Charles IX., in 1561, Reims wine cost from 23_s._ 4_d._ to 28_s._ _4d._; and at that of Henry III., in 1575, from 45_s._ to 62_s._ 6_d._ per queue,--a sufficient proof of the rapidly-increasing estimation in which the wine was held.] [Footnote 56: Paulmier's treatise _De Vino et Pomaceo_ (Paris, 1588).] [Footnote 57: Jehan Pussot's _Mémorial du Temps_.] [Footnote 58: Ibid. Many details respecting the yield of the vines and vineyards of the Mountain and the River are preserved in this _Mémorial_, which extends from 1569 to 1625, and the author of which was a celebrated builder of Reims. During the last thirty years of the century the vines seem to have suffered greatly from frost and wet. Sometimes the wine was so bad that it was sold, as towards the end of 1579, at 5_s._ 6_d._ the queue; at others it was so scarce that it rose, as at the vintage of 1587, to 126_s._ 8_d._ the queue. At the vintage of 1579 the grapes froze on the vines, and were carried to the press in sacks. At the commencement of the vintage the new wine fetched from 12_s._ to 16_s._ the queue, but it turned out so bad that by Christmas it was sold at 5_s._ 6_d._] [Footnote 59: _Maison Rustique_ (1574).] [Footnote 60: Jehan Pussot's _Mémorial du Temps_.] [Footnote 61: During the first twenty-five years of the century Pussot shows the new wine to have averaged from about 23_s._ to 46_s._ the queue, according to quality. In 1600 and 1611 it was as low as 16_s._, and in 1604 fetched from merely 12_s._ to 32_s._ On the other hand, in 1607, it fetched from 57_s._ to 95_s._, and in 1609 from 79_s._ to 95_s._] [Footnote 62: Feillet's _La Misère aux temps de la Fronde_.] [Footnote 63: Dom Guillaume Marlot's _Histoire de Reims_.] [Footnote 64: Pluche's _Spectacle de la Nature_.] [Footnote 65: St. Simon's _Mémoires_.] [Footnote 66: _Mémoire sur la manière de cultiver la vigne et de faire le vin en Champagne._] [Footnote 67: Lavardin, Bishop of Le Mans, and himself a great _gourmet_, was one day at dinner with St. Evremond, and began to rally the latter on the delicacy of himself and his friends the Marquis de Bois Dauphin and the Comte d'Olonne. 'These gentlemen,' said the prelate, 'in seeking refinement in everything carry it to extremes. They can only eat Normandy veal; their partridges must come from Auvergne, and their rabbits from La Roche Guyon, or from Versin; they are not less particular as to fruit; and as to wine, they can only drink that of the good _coteaux_ of Ay, Hautvillers, and Avenay.' St. Evremond having repeated the story, he, the marquis, and the count were nicknamed 'the three coteaux.' Hence Boileau, in one of his satires, describes an epicurean guest as 'profès dans l'ordre des coteaux.'] [Footnote 68: St. Evremond's Works (London, 1714).] [Footnote 69: _L'Art de bien traiter ... mis en lumière_, par L. S. R. (Paris, 1674).] [Footnote 70: Brossette's notes to Boileau's Works (1716). Bertin du Rocheret, in correcting this error in the _Mercure_ of January 1728, points out that neither the family of Colbert nor that of Le Tellier ever owned a single vinestock of the River, and that their holdings on the Mountain were very insignificant.] [Footnote 71: 'Il n'est cité que je préfère à Reims, C'est l'ornement et l'honneur de la France; Car sans conter l'ampoule et les bons vins, Charmants objets y sont en abondance.' _Les Rémois._ ] [Footnote 72: 'Sur quelle vigne à Reims nous avons hypothèque; Vingt muids, rangés chez moi, font ma bibliothèque.' _Le Lutrin_, chant iv. 1674.] [Footnote 73: St. Simon's _Mémoires_.] [Footnote 74: Ibid.] [Footnote 75: Ibid.] [Footnote 76: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_, 1845.] [Footnote 77: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 78: _Æneid_, i. 738.] [Footnote 79: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 80: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 81: --------'Petars de Chaalons, Qui le ventre enfle et les talons.' ] [Footnote 82: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_, 1865.] [Footnote 83: _De Naturali Vinorum Historiâ._ Rome, 1596.] [Footnote 84: _L'Art de bien traiter_, &c.] [Footnote 85: _Maison Rustique_, 1574.] [Footnote 86: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 87: Pluche's _Spectacle de la Nature_.] [Footnote 88: Idem and _Maison Rustique_, 1582. M. Louis Perrier, in his _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_, says that the Ay wines yield but little _mousse_.] [Footnote 89: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 90: St. Evremond's letter to the Comte d'Olonne, already noticed. In another epistle to Lord Galloway, dated 29th August 1701, he observes: 'As to M. de Puisieux (Roger Brulart, Marquis de Puisieux et de Sillery and Governor of Epernay), in my opinion he acts very wisely in falling in with the bad taste now in fashion as regards Champagne wine, in order the better to sell his own. I could never have thought that the wines of Reims could have been changed into wines of Anjou, from their colour and their harshness (_verdeur_). There ought to be a harshness (_vert_) in the wine of Reims, but a harshness with a colour, which turns into a sprightly tartness (_sêve_) when it is ripe; ... and it is not to be drunk till the end of July.... The wines of Sillery and Roncières used to be kept two years, and they were admirable, but for the first four months they were nothing but verjuice. Let M. de Puisieux make a little barrel (_cuve_) after the fashion in which it was made forty years ago, before this depravity of taste, and send it to you.' St. Evremond's Works, English edition of 1728.] [Footnote 91: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 92: Dom Guillaume Harlot's _Histoire de Reims_.] [Footnote 93: Ibid.] [Footnote 94: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 95: Letter of Dom Grossart to M. Dherbès of Ay. The measurement of the arpent varied from an acre to an acre and a half.] [Footnote 96: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 97: Pluche's _Spectacle de la Nature_.] [Footnote 98: Letter of Dom Grossart to M. Dherbès of Ay.] [Footnote 99: Ibid.] [Footnote 100: Ibid.] [Footnote 101: Bertall's _La Vigne_. Paris, 1878.] [Footnote 102: _Mémoire sur la Manière de cultiver la Vigne et de faire le Vin en Champagne._ This work is believed to have been written by Jean Godinot, a canon of Reims, born in 1662. Godinot was at the same time a conscientious Churchman, a skilled viticulturist, and a clever merchant, who enriched himself by disposing of the wine from his vineyards at Bouzy, Taissy, and Verzenay, and distributed his gains amongst the poor. He died in 1747, after publishing an enlarged edition of the _Mémoire_ in 1722, in which the phrase 'for the last three years' becomes 'the last seven or eight years.' Godinot's friend Pluche used the _Mémoire_ as the basis for the section 'Wine' in his _Spectacle de la Nature_.] [Footnote 103: Letter of Dom Grossart to M. Dherbès of Ay.] [Footnote 104: Ibid.] [Footnote 105: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 106: Letter of M. le Pescheur, 1706.] [Footnote 107: Pluche's _Spectacle de la Nature_.] [Footnote 108: In Brossette's notes to his edition of Boileau's Works of 1716.] [Footnote 109: The inscription above given is an exact transcript from the black-marble slab, and any errors in orthography are due either to the original author or to the mason who incised it.] [Footnote 110: The following account of Dom Perignon and his discoveries is contained in a letter dated 25th October 1821, and addressed from Montier-en-Der, Haute Marne, to M. Dherbès of Ay, by Dom Grossart, the last procureur of the Abbey of Hautvillers. Dom Grossart, who had fled from France during the troublous times of the Revolution, was at the date of the letter in his seventy-fourth year. 'You know, sir, that it was the famous Dom Perignon, who was procureur of Hautvillers for forty-seven years, and who died in 1715, who discovered the secret of making sparkling and non-sparkling white wine, and the means of clearing it without being obliged to _dépoter_ the bottles, as is done by our great wine-merchants rather twice than once, and by us never. Before his time one only knew how to make straw-coloured or gray wine. In bottling wine, instead of corks of cork-wood, only tow was made use of, and this species of stopper was saturated with oil. It was in the marriage of our wines that their goodness consisted; and this Dom Perignon towards the end of his days became blind. He had instructed in his secret of fining the wines (_de coller les vins_) a certain Brother Philip, who was for fifty years at the head of the wines of Hautvillers, and who was held in such consideration by M. Le Tellier, Archbishop of Reims, that when this brother went to Reims he made him come and sit at table with him. When the vintage drew near, he (Dom Perignon) said to this brother, "Go and bring me some grapes from the Prières, the Côtes-à-bras, the Barillets, the Quartiers, the Clos Sainte Hélène," &c. Without being told from which vineyard these grapes came, he mentioned it, and added, "the wine of such a vineyard must be married with that of such another," and never made a mistake. To this Brother Philip succeeded a Brother André Lemaire, who was for nearly forty years at the head of the cellars of Hautvillers, that is to say, until the Revolution.... This brother being very ill, and believing himself on the point of death, confided to me the secret of clarifying the wines, for neither prior nor procureur nor monk ever knew it. I declare to you, sir, that we never did put sugar in our wines; you can attest this when you find yourself in company where it is spoken of. Monsieur Moët, who has become one of the _gros bonnets_ of Champagne since 1794, when I used to sell him plenty of little baskets, will not tell you that I put sugar in our wines. I make use of it at present upon some white wines which are vintaged in certain _crûs_ of our wine district. This may have led to the error. 'As it costs much to _dépoter_, I am greatly surprised that no wine-merchant has as yet taken steps to learn the secret of clearing the wine without having to _dépoter_ the bottles when once the wine has been put into them.'] [Footnote 111: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 112: _Mémoire_ of 1718.] [Footnote 113: Ibid. Pluche, in his _Spectacle de la Nature_, 1732, also says: 'If the wine be drawn off towards the end of March, when the sap begins to rise in the vine, it will froth to such a degree as to whiten like milk, to the very bottom of the glass, the moment it is poured out. Wine will sometimes acquire this quality if it be drawn off during the ascent of the sap in August, which makes it evident that the froth is occasioned by the operation of the air and sap, which then act with vigour in the wood of the vine, and likewise in the liquor it produced. This violent ebulition, which is so agreeable to some persons, is thought by connoisseurs to be inconsistent with the goodness of the wine, since the greenest may be made to whiten into a froth, and the most perfect wines seldom discover this quality.' In an article in the _Journal de Verdun_ of November 1726, the following passage occurs: 'A wine merchant of Anjou having written some time back to a celebrated magistrate in Champagne, Bertin du Rocheret, begging him to forward the secret of making _vin mousseux_ during the vintage, the magistrate answered, "That _vin mousseux_ was not made during the vintage; that there was no special soil for it; that the Anjou wines were suitable, since poor wine froths as well as the most excellent, frothing being a property of thin poor wine. That to make wine froth, it was necessary to draw it off as clear as could be done from the lees, if it had not been already racked; to bottle it on a fine clear day in January or February, or in March at the latest; three or four months afterwards the wine will be found effervescent, especially if it has some tartness and a little strength. When the wine works (like the vine) your wine will effervesce more than usual; a taste of vintage and of fermentation will be found in it." The excellent wines of Ay and our good Champagne wines do not froth, or very slightly; they content themselves with sparkling in the glass.'] [Footnote 114: St. Simon's _Mémoires_.] [Footnote 115: Ibid.] [Footnote 116: _Mémoire_ of 1718.] [Footnote 117: Ibid.] [Footnote 118: Antony Réal's _Ce qu'il y a dans une Bouteille de Vin_.] [Footnote 119: Legrand d'Aussy's _Vie Privée des Français_.] [Footnote 120: 'Là le nombre et l'éclat de cent verres bien nets Répare par les yeux la disette des mets; Et la mousse petillante D'un vin délicat et frais D'une fortune brillante Cache à mon souvenir les fragiles attraits.' ] [Footnote 121: 'Quant à la muse de St. Maur Que moins de douceur accompagne. Il lui faut du vin de Champagne Pour lui faire prendre l'essor.' ] [Footnote 122: 'Alors, grand' merveille, sera De voir flûter vin de Champagne.' ] [Footnote 123: 'Sur ce rivage emaillé, Où Neuillé borde la Seine, Reviens au vin d'Hautvillé Mêler les eaux d'Hypocrène.' ] [Footnote 124: 'Phébus adonc va se désabuser De son amour pour la docte fontaine, Et connoîtra que pour bon vers puiser Vin champenois vaut mieux qu'eau d'Hippocrène.' ] [Footnote 125: The father, Adam Bertin du Rocheret, was born in 1662, and died in 1736; his son, Philippe Valentin, the _lieutenant criminel_ at Epernay, was born in 1693, and died in 1762. Both owned vineyards at Epernay, Ay, and Pierry, and were engaged in the wine-trade, and both left a voluminous mass of correspondence, &c., extracts from which have been given by M. Louis Perrier in his _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_. The Marshal was an old customer. At the foot of a letter of his of the 20th December 1705, asking for 'two quartaux of the most excellent vin de Champagne, and a pièce of good for ordinary drinking,' Bertin has written, 'I will send you, as soon as the river, which is strongly flooded, becomes navigable, the wine you ask for, and you will be pleased with it; but as the best new wine is not of a quality to be drunk in all its goodness by the spring, I should think that fifty flasks of old wine, the most exquisite in the kingdom that I can furnish you with, together with fifty other good ones, will suit you instead of one of the two caques.'] [Footnote 126: _Tocane_ was a light wine obtained, like the best Tokay, from the juice allowed to drain from grapes slightly trodden, but not pressed. It had a flavour of _verdeur_, which was regarded as one of its chief merits, and would not keep more than six months. Though at one time very popular, and largely produced in Champagne, it is now no longer made. The wine of Ay enjoyed a high reputation as _tocane_.] [Footnote 127: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 128: Letter of Dom Grossart.] [Footnote 129: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 130: Ample details of the systems of viticulture and wine-making pursued in the Champagne at the commencement of the eighteenth century are to be found in the anonymous _Mémoire_ published in 1718. These are reproduced to a great extent in the _Spectacle de la Nature_ of Noel Antoine Pluche, a native of Reims, who composed this work (published in 1732) for the benefit of the son of Lord Stafford, to whom he was tutor. The Abbé Pluche, after being professor of humanity and rhetoric at the University of Reims, was about to enter into holy orders, but being denounced as an opponent of the Bull Unigenitus, abandoned all ideas of preferment, and devoted himself to private tuition and the composition of his great work, the _Spectacle de la Nature_. This last is a perfect encyclopædia, in the form of a series of dialogues, recalling those in Mrs. Barbauld's _Evenings at Home_, the interlocutors being the Count, the Countess, the Chevalier, and the Prior; and the style may be best judged from the following extracts from the contemporary translation of Mr. Samuel Humphries. In Dialogue XIII. on 'Vines,' the Count remarks that, after studying the methods of viticulture followed in different provinces, he 'could not discover any to be ranked in Competition with those Precautions that have been taken by the Inhabitants of Champaign' in the production of their wine. By 'a long Course of Experience' they had 'acquired the proper Method of tinging it with the Complexion of a Cherry, or the Eye of a Partridge. They could likewise brighten it into the whitest Hue, or deepen it into a perfect Red.' In the succeeding Dialogue on 'Wines,' the Count states that 'Vines vary in their Qualities. Some are planted in a very light and strong Soil, and they yield a bright and fragrant Wine; others are placed in a more nourishing Tract of Land, and they produce a Wine of a greater Body. The reasonable Combination of these different Fruits will produce an exquisite Liquor, that will have all the Advantages of a sufficient Body, a Delicacy of Flavour, a Fragrancy of Scent, and a Liveliness of Colour, and which may be Kept for several Years without the least Alteration. It was the Knowledge of those Effects that result from intermixing the Grapes of three or four Vines of different Qualities, which improved the celebrated Wines of Sillery, Ai, and Hautvillers to the Perfection they have now acquired. Father Parignon, a Benedictine of Hautvillers on the Marne, was the first who made any successful Attempt to intermix the Grapes of the different Vines in this manner, and the Wine of Perignon d'Hautvillers bore the greatest Estimation amongst us till the Practise of this Method became more extensive.' The Count notes that white wines from white grapes being deficient in strength, and apt to grow yellow and degenerate before the next return of summer, had gone out of repute, except for some medicinal prescriptions, whilst 'the grey Wine, which has so bright an Eye and resembles the Complexion of Crystal, is produced by the blackest Grapes.' 'The Wine of a black Grape may be tinged with any Colour we think proper; those who desire to have it perfectly White have recourse to the following Method. The People employed in the Vintage begin their Labours at an early Hour in the Morning; and when they have selected the finest Grapes, they lay them gently in their Baskets, in order to be carried out of the Vineyard; or they place them in large Panniers, without pressing them in the least or wiping off the dewy Moisture or the azure Dye that covers them. Dews and exhaling Mists greatly contribute to the Whiteness of the Wine. 'Tis customary to cover the Baskets with wet Cloths in a hot Sunshine, because the Liquor will be apt to assume a red Tincture if the Grapes should happen to be heated. These Baskets are then placed on the Backs of such Animals as are of a gentle Nature, and carry their Burdens with an easy Motion to the Cellar, where the Grapes continue covered in a cool Air. When the Warmth of the Sun proves moderate, the Labours of the Vintage are not discontinued till Eleven in the Morning; but a glowing Heat makes it necessary for them to cease at Nine.' Yet even these precautions were liable to fail, since 'the Heat of the Sun and the Shocks of the Carriages are sometimes so violent, and produce such strong Effects upon the exterior Coat of the Grapes, that the Fluids contained in that Coat, and which are then in Motion, mix themselves with the Juice of the Pulp at the first Pressing; in consequence of which, the Extraction of a Wine perfectly white is rendered impracticable, and its Colour will resemble the Eye of a Partridge, or perhaps some deeper Hue. The Quality of the Wine is still the same; but it must be either entirely White or Red, in order to prove agreeable to the Taste and Mode which now prevail.' The Count describes the two pressings and five cuttings, the latter term derived from the squaring of the mass of grapes with the cutting peel, and the system of 'glewing' this wine, 'the weight of an _ecu d'or_' of 'Fish Glew, which the Dutch import amongst us from Archangel,' being added to each _pièce_, with the addition sometimes of a pint of spirits of wine or brandy. He then explains the method practised of drawing off the wine without disturbing the barrels, by the aid of a tube and a gigantic pair of bellows. The vessels were connected by the former, and the wine then driven from one to the other by the pressure of air pumped in by means of the latter. A sulphur-match was burnt in the empty vessels, so that it might 'receive a Steam of Spirits capable of promoting the natural Fire and bright Complexion of the Liquor.' Noting that the wines should be again 'glewed' eight days before they are bottled, Pluche says: 'The Month of March is the usual Season for glewing the most tender Wines, such as those of Ai, Epernai, Hautvilliers, and Pieri, whose chief Consumption is in France; but this Operation should not be performed on such strong Wines as those of Sillery, Verzenai, and other Mountain Wines of Reims, till they are twelve Months old, at which Time they are capable of supporting themselves for several Years. When these Wines are bottled off before they have exhaled their impetuous Particles, they burst a Number of Bottles, and are less perfect in their Qualities. The proper Method of bottling Wine consists in leaving the Space of a Finger's Breadth between the Cork and the Liquor, and in binding the Cork down with Packthread; it will also be proper to seal the Mouths of the Bottles with Wax, to prevent Mistakes and Impositions. The Bottles should likewise be reclined on one Side, because if they are placed in an upright Position, the Corks will grow dry in a few Months for want of Moisture, and shrink from their first Dimensions. In Consequence of which a Passage will be opened to the external Air, which will then impart an Acidity to the Wine, and form a white Flower on the Surface, which will be an Evidence of its Corruption.' The _Mémoire_ of 1718 also points out the necessity of leaving a space between the cork and the wine, saying that without this, when the wine began to work at the different seasons of the year, it would break a large number of bottles; and that even despite this precaution large numbers are broken, especially when the wine is a little green. The ordinary bottles for Champagne, styled _flacons_, or flasks, held 'a _pinte de Paris_, less half a glass,' and cost from 12 to 15 francs the hundred; and as wood abounded in the province, several glass-works were established there for their manufacture. As the bottling of the wine, especially in the early years, was mostly to order, many customers had their flasks stamped with their arms, at a cost of about 30 per cent more. The corks--'solid, even, and not worm-eaten'--cost from 50 to 60 sols per hundred. Wire was as yet quite unknown. The cost of bottling a poinçon of wine in 1712 was: for 200 bottles, 30 livres; 200 corks, 3 livres; 2 baskets and packing, 8 livres; bottling, string, and sealing, 3 livres; total, 44 livres, or say 36 shillings. It would appear from the _Mémoire_ that the pernicious practice of icing still Champagne, already noticed, continued in vogue as regards sparkling wine. The wine was recommended to be taken out of the cellar half an hour before it was intended it should be drunk, and put into a bucket of water with two or three pounds of ice. The bottle had to be previously uncorked, and the cork lightly replaced, otherwise it was believed there was danger of the bottle breaking. A short half an hour in the ice was said to bring out the goodness of the wine. Bertin du Rocheret counselled the use of ice to develop the real merits of a vinous wine of Ay.] [Footnote 131: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 132: _Mémoires_ of 1718 and 1722.] [Footnote 133: Ibid.] [Footnote 134: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 135: _Mémoire_ of 1718. The perils to which it was exposed during this transit are pointed at in a letter to the elder Bertin from a customer in Paris in 1689: 'I thought it better to wait before giving you any news of the wine you sent me until it was fit to drink. I tapped it yesterday, and found it poor. I can hardly believe but that the boatmen did not fall-to upon it whenever they had need, and took great care to fill it up again, for it could not have been fuller than they delivered it.'] [Footnote 136: Pluche's _Spectacle de la Nature_, 1732.] [Footnote 137: _Mémoire_ of 1718.] [Footnote 138: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_. In the _Mémoire_ of 1718, Ay, Epernay, Hautvillers, and Cumières are alone classed as _Vins de Rivière_; Pierry, Fleury, Damery, and Venteuil being reckoned only as _Petite Rivière_; and there being no mention of Avize and the neighbouring vineyards.] [Footnote 139: As at Vertus, where the red wine, so highly esteemed by William III. of England, was replaced by sparkling wine.] [Footnote 140: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 141: _Ergo vinum Belnense potuum est suavissimus, ita et saluberrimus._] [Footnote 142: _An vinum Remense sit omnium saluberrimum._] [Footnote 143: Of Ay, Avenay, and Hautvillers (note of Tallemant's editor).] [Footnote 144: Tallemant des Réaux's _Historiettes_.] [Footnote 145: Champagne has been accused of producing not only gout, but stone, gravel, and rheumatism. As to the first-named complaint, Bertin du Rocheret disposes of it by noting, in a list compiled by him of all the deaths of any moment at Epernay, from 1644 downwards, the decease, at the age of seventy-five, on January 1, 1733, of Jeanne Maillard, 'the only person in the district ever attacked by the gout.' His brother-in-law, Dr. Jacques de Reims, in a letter to Helvetius in 1730, asserts that this complaint is only known by name in the Champagne; and that, as regards the stone, not more than ten people were affected therewith within a radius of ten leagues. He maintained that the _non-mousseux_ white wine of the Champagne, drunk at maturity and tempered with water, was the best of all beverages for preserving general health; and the eminent Dr. Camille Falconnet held the same opinion. Arthur Young, moreover, furnishes spontaneous testimony with regard to rheumatism. Extolling the sparkling wine of Reims in 1787, he says, 'I suppose fixed air is good for the rheumatism; I had some writhes of it before I entered Champagne, but the _vin mousseux_ has absolutely banished it;' and on reaching Ove, he regrets that 'the _vin de Champagne_, which is forty sous at Reims, is three livres here, and execrably bad; so there is an end of my physic for the rheumatism' (_Travels in France in 1787-9_).] [Footnote 146: _An vinum Remense Burgundico suavius et salubrius._] [Footnote 147: In his ode entitled _Vinum Burgundum_, the passage aspersing the wines of Reims runs as follows: 'Nam suum Rhemi licet usque Bacchum Jactitent: æstu petulans jocoso Hic quidam fervet cyathis, et aura Limpidus acri. Vellicat nares avidas; venenum At latet: multos facies fefellit, Hic tamen spargat modico secundam Munere mensam.' The French version, by M. de Bellechaume, entitled an 'Ode au Vin de Bourgogne,' and published in his _Recueil des Poésies latines et françaises sur les Vins de Champagne et de Bourgogne_, Paris 1712, is as follows: 'Vante, Champagne ambitieuse, L'odeur et l'éclat de ton vin, Dont la sève pernicieuse Dans ce brillant cache un venin, Tu dois toute ta gloire en France, A cette agréable apparence, Qui nous attire et nous séduit; Qu'à Beaune ta liqueur soumise Dans les repas ne soit admise, Que sagement avec le fruit.' M. de la Monnoye, himself a Burgundian, has rendered this passage somewhat differently in an edition published the same year at Dijon: 'Jusqu'aux cieux le Champagne élève De son vin pétillant la riante liqueur, On sait qu'il brille aux yeux, qu'il chatouille le c[oe]ur, Qu'il pique l'odorat d'une agréable sève. Mais craignons un poison couvert, L'aspic est sous les fleurs, que seulement par grâce; Quand Beaune aura primé, Reims occupant la place, Vienne légèrement amuser le dessert.' ] [Footnote 148: _Campania vindicata; sive laus vini Remensis a poeta Burgundo eleganter quidam, sed immerito culpati._ Offerebat civitati Remensi Carolus Coffin. Anno Domini /MDCCXII/.] [Footnote 149: 'Quantum superbas vitis, humi licet Prorepat, anteit fructibus arbores Tantum, orbe quæ toto premuntur Vina super generosiora Remense surgit. Cedite, Massica Cantata Flacco Silleriis; neque Chio remixtum certet audax Collibus Aïacis Falernum. Cernis micanti concolor ut vitro Latex in auras, gemmeus aspici, Scintellet exultim; utque dulces Naribus illecebras propinet. Succi latentis proditor halitus Ut spuma motu lactea turbido Crystallinum lætis referre Mox oculis properet nitorem.' La Monnoye renders this as follows: 'Autant que, sans porter sa tête dans les cieux, La vigne par son fruit est au-dessus du chêne; Autant, sans affecter une gloire trop vaine, Reims surpasse les vins les plus délicieux. Qu'Horace du Falerne entonne les louanges Que de son vieux Massique il vante les attraits; Tous ces vins fameux n'égaleront jamais Du charmant Silleri les heureux vendanges. Aussi pur que la verre ou la main l'a versé, Les yeux les plus perçants l'en distinguent à peine; Qu'il est doux de sentir l'ambre de son haleine Et de prévoir le goût par l'odeur annoncé, D'abord à petits bonds une mousse argentine Etincelle, petille et bout de toutes parts, Un éclat plus tranquille offre ensuite aux regards D'un liquide miroir la glace cristalline.' ] [Footnote 150: 'Non hæc malignus quidlibet obstrepat Livor; nocentes dissimulant dolos Leni veneno. Vina certant Inguenuos retinere Gentis Campana mores. Non stomacho movent Ægro tumultum; non gravidum caput Fulagine infestant opacâ.' Bellechaume renders these lines in the Recueil as follows: 'Il n'a point, quoiqu'on insinue De poison parmi ses douceurs, Et de sa province ingénue La Champagne a gardé les m[oe]urs. Il n'excite point de tempête Dans les estomacs languissants; Son feu léger monte à la tête, Eveille et réjouit les sens.' La Monnoye gives them thus: 'Taisez-vous envieux dont la langue cruelle Veut qu'ici sous les fleurs se cache le venin; Connaissez la Champagne, et respectez un vin Qui des m[oe]urs du climat est l'image fidèle. Non, ce jus qu'à grand tort vous osez outrager De images fâcheux ne trouble point la tête, Jamais dans l'estomac n'excite de tempête; Il est tendre, il est net, délicat et léger.' ] [Footnote 151: 'Ergo ut secundis (parcere nam decet Karo liquori) se comitem addidit Mensis renidens Testa; frontem, Arbitra lætitiæ, resolvit Austeriorum. Tune cyathos juvat Siccare molles: tunc hilaris jocos Conviva fundit liberales; Tunc procul alterius valere.' Bellechaume has rendered this: 'Sitôt que sur de riches tables De ce nectar avec le fruit On sert les coupes délectables, De joie il s'élève un doux bruit; On voit, même sur le visage Du plus sévère et du plus sage, Un air joyeux et plus serein: Le ris, l'entretien se reveille; Il n'est plus de liqueur pareille A cet élixir souverain.' La Monnoye's version is as follows: 'Vers la fin du repas, à l'approche du fruit, (Car on doit ménager une liqueur si fine), Aussitôt que parait la bouteille divine, Des Grâces à l'instant l'aimable ch[oe]ur la suit Parmi les conviés, s'élève un doux murmure; Le plus stoïque alors se deride le front.' ] [Footnote 152: That of Utrecht, concluded the following year, 1713.] [Footnote 153: _Ad clarissimum virum Guidonem-Crescentium Fagon regi a secretoribus consiliis, archiatrorum comitem; ut suam Burgundo vino prestantiam adversus Campanum vinum asserat._] [Footnote 154: The original lines and the translation, published by Bellechaume the same year in his _Recueil_, prove, as do the extracts already quoted from Coffin, that a sparkling wine was meant. The former run thus-- 'Hinc inversa scyphis tumet, fremitque; Spumasque agglomerat furore mixtas Æstuans, levis, inquies proterva;' Bellechaume's translation is as above-- 'Enflés du même orgueil tous ses vins bondissants N'élèvent que des flots écumeux frémissants Leur liqueur furieuse, inconstante et légère Etincelle, petille, et bout dans la fougère.' ] [Footnote 155: These epigrams and their translation are given anonymously, as follows, in Bellechaume's _Recueil_: 'Quid medicos testa implores Burgunda? Laboras Nemo velit medicam poscere sanus opem. Cur fugis ad doctum, Burgundica testa, Fagonem? Arte valet multa, sed nimis ægra jaces.' 'A ce que je me persuade Sur la qualité des bons vins, Grenan, ta cause est bien malade, Tu consultes les médecins. Quand on s'adresse au médecin C'est qu'on éprouve une souffrance; Bourgogne, vous n'êtes pas sain Puisqu'il vous faut une ordonnance.' ] [Footnote 156: _Decretum medica apud insulam Coon facultatis super poetica lite Campanum inter et Burgundum vinum ortâ post editum a poeta Burgundo libellum supplicem._ By several writers this poem has been ascribed to Grenan; but M. Philibert Milsaud, in his _Procés poétique touchant les Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne_ (Paris, 1866), clearly shows that, although in favour of Burgundy, the judgment is an ironical one, and that the signature C. C. R. stands for Carolus Coffin Remensis.] [Footnote 157: _Ode à Messieurs Coffin et Grenan, Professeurs de Belles Lettres, sur leurs Combats poétiques au sujet des Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne_, in Bellechaume's _Recueil_.] [Footnote 158: 'Pour connaître la différence Du nectar de Beaune et de Reims, Il faut mettre votre science A bien goûter de ces deux vins.' ] [Footnote 159: In an anonymous letter addressed to Grenan on February 1712, and published in the _Recueil_.] [Footnote 160: 'Un franc Bourguignon se fait gloire D'être avec un Remois à boire; Ils sont tous deux bons connaisseurs, Et ne sont pas moins bons buveurs.' ] [Footnote 161: _Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne._ Epernay, 1880. Maucroix died in his ninetieth year in 1708.] [Footnote 162: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 163: In the _Journal des Savants_.] [Footnote 164: 'Vieux Bourguignon, jeune Champagne Font l'agrément de nos festins.' From _La Critique_, an opera of Panard's, produced in 1742. ] [Footnote 165: 'With what vivacity,' he exclaims, with a strange blending of poetry and science, 'does this divine liquid burst forth in sparkling foam-bells! And what an agreeable impression it produces upon the olfactory organs! What a delicious sensation it creates upon the delicate fibres of the palate! ... It is fixed air which, by its impetuous motion, forms and raises up that foam, the whiteness of which, rivalling that of milk, soon offers to our astonished eye the lustre of the most transparent crystal. It is this same air that, by its expansion and the effervescence it produces, develops the action of the vinous spirit of which it is the vehicle, in order that the _papillæ_ of the nerves may more promptly receive the delicious impression.... Vainly calumny spreads the report on all sides that the sparkle of our wines is injurious; vainly it asserts that they have only a hurtful fire and a worthless flavour. Incapable of hiding under an insidious appearance a perfidious venom, they will always present a faithful image of the ingenuousness of their native province.'] [Footnote 166: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 167: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_. Pluche, in his _Spectacle de la Nature_, notices the controversy regarding the respective merits of the wines of the Marne and the Côte d'Or in the following terms: _'Count_: If we will be determined by the finest palates, the Champaign wine is much preferable to Burgundy. _Prior_: It is a sufficient honour for Champaign to be admitted to the same degree of estimation with Burgundy; and it may very well dispense with the priority. I always thought Burgundy had some similitude with a solid understanding, which affects us with lasting impressions, and that Champaign resembles a lively wit, which glitters more upon the imagination, but which is not always serviceable to its possessor. _Count_: If you had made the froth of some Champaign wines and the sallies of a sprightly wit your parallel, I should have thought it unexceptionable; and several pleasant remarks might be made on this sprightliness without solidity. But such a Champaign wine as that of Sillery unites all the vigour of Burgundy, with an agreeable flavour peculiar to itself. _Prior_: I prefer useful qualities to those that are merely agreeable. Burgundy seems to be a more salutary wine than Champaign, and will always be triumphant for that reason. Its colour alone declares it to be a wine of a good body, and I must confess I am apt to be diffident of all dazzling appearances. _Count_: People believe that this deep colour, so esteemed in Burgundy wines, is an indication of their wholesomeness; but it is observable in the grossest wines, and results from an intermixture of the husky parts of the grape. Wine, in proportion to the quantity of these particles blended with it, will be less qualified for digestion. The gout, therefore, and the stone, with which the inhabitants of wine-countries are so frequently afflicted, are distempers hardly known either at Reims or on the banks of the Marne, where the wines are very moderately coloured.... Wines may be made almost as white in Burgundy as they are in Champaign, though not so good; and, on the other hand, the Champenois press a wine as red as the Burgundy growth, and the merchants sell it either as the best species of Burgundy to the wine-conners, who are the first people that are deceived in it, or as red Champaign to the connoisseurs, who prefer it to any other wine. If we may judge of the merit of wines by the price, we shall certainly assign the preference to Champaign, since the finest species of this wine is sold in the vaults of Sillery and Epernai for six, seven, or eight hundred livres, when the same quality of the best Burgundy may be purchased for three hundred. _Countess_: Let me entreat you, gentlemen, to leave this controversy undecided. The equal pretensions that are formed by these two great provinces promote an emulation which is advantageous to us. The partisans for Burgundy and Champaign form two factions in the State; but their contests are very entertaining, and their encounters not at all dangerous. It is very usual to see the zealots of one party maintaining a correspondence with those of the other; they frequently associate together without any reserve, and those who were advocates for Burgundy at the beginning of the entertainment are generally reconciled to Champaign before the appearance of the dessert.'] [Footnote 168: _Letters, &c._ Hamburg and Paris, 1788. The translator adds, as a note, 'People do not any longer get drunk on Champagne.'] [Footnote 169: _Mémoires du Duc de St. Simon._] [Footnote 170: _Journal de Barbier._] [Footnote 171: A curious proof of the popularity of sparkling Champagne, and of the singular system of provincial government into which France was broken up during the reign of Louis XV., is found in a decree of the Council of State, dated May 25, 1728. The decree in question begins by setting forth that, by the _Ordonnance des aides de Normandie_, wine was forbidden to be brought into Rouen or its suburbs in bottles, jugs, or any less vessels than hogsheads and barrels--with the exception of _vin de liqueur_ packed in boxes--under pain of confiscation and one hundred livres' fine, and that carriers were prohibited from conveying wine in bottles in the province without leave from the _fermier des aides_. Nevertheless, petitions had been presented by the _maire_ and _échevins_ of Reims, stating 'that the trade in the gray wines of Champagne had considerably increased for some years past, through the precautions taken at the place of production to bottle them during the first moon of the month of March following the vintage, in order to render them _mousseux_; that those who make use of the gray wine of Champagne prefer that which is _mousseux_ to that which is not; and that this gray wine cannot be transported in casks into the interior of the kingdom or to foreign countries without totally losing its qualities,'--a statement probably intentionally overdrawn, since Bertin du Rocheret used to export it in casks to England. Yet the _fermiers des aides de Normandie_ claimed to prohibit the transport of wines in bottle; and if their pretension held good, the trade in the gray wine of Champagne would be destroyed. 'Shifting the cause, as a lawyer knows how,' the decree recapitulates the plea of the _fermiers_ that the transport of wine in bottles offered facilities for defrauding the revenue, since a carrier with a load could easily leave some of it _en route_ with innkeepers, and these in turn could hide bottles holding a _pinte de Paris_ from the officers in chests, cupboards, &c., and sell them subsequently, to the detriment of the _droits de détail_. The foregoing duly rehearsed, there follows the decree permitting 'to be sent in bottles into the province of Normandy, for the consumption of the said province, gray wine of Champagne in baskets, which must not hold less than one hundred bottles,' but prohibiting the introduction in bottles of any other growth or quality, under the penalty of confiscation and one hundred livres' fine. Permission is also given to pass gray and red wine of Champagne, or of any other _cru_ or quality, in baskets of fifty or one hundred bottles for conveyance into other provinces, or for shipment to foreign parts by the ports of Rouen, Caen, Dieppe, and Havre. The wagoners, however, in all cases are to have certificates signed and countersigned by all manner of authorities, and are only to enter the province by certain specified routes. All wine, too, is to pay the _droit de détail_, except in the case of people not continuously residing in the province, who may be going to their estates, or those bound for the eaux de Forges, a celebrated watering-place, both of whom may take a certain quantity in bottle with them for their own consumption free of duty.] [Footnote 172: 'To be drunk as _nouveau_ or bottled,' says M. Louis Perrier in his _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 173: D'Argenson's _Mémoires_.] [Footnote 174: Bois-Jourdain's _Mélanges Historiques_. The editor of the _Journal de Barbier_ observes in a note to a passage referring to the King's suppers at La Muette with Madame de Mailly, under the date of November 1737: 'These suppers were drinking bouts. It was there that the King acquired a taste for Champagne.'] [Footnote 175: Clauteau's _Relation de ce qui s'est passé au Passage du Roi_. Reims, 1744.] [Footnote 176: Ibid.] [Footnote 177: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 178: Louis Paris' _Histoire de l'Abbaye d'Avenay_.] [Footnote 179: Amongst these may be cited the Abbé Bignon, who, in a letter to Bertin du Rocheret dated January 1734, says: 'The less the wine is _mousseux_ and glittering, and the more, on the contrary, it shows at the outset of what you style _liqueur_, and I, in chemical terms, should rather call balsamic parts, the better I shall think of it.'] [Footnote 180: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 181: 'Chloris, Eglé me versent de leur main D'un vin d'Ay dont la mousse pressée, De la bouteille avec force élancée, Comme un éclair fait voler son bouchon. Il part, on rit; il frappe le plafond: De ce vin frais l'écume pétillante De nos Français est l'image brillante.' ] [Footnote 182: 'De ce vin blanc délicieux Qui mousse et brille dans le verre, Dont les mortels ne boivent guères; Et qu'on ne sert jamais qu'à la table des dieux Ou des grands, pour en parler mieux, Qui sont les seuls dieux de la terre.' ] [Footnote 183: Desaulx, a canon of Reims Cathedral, rendered Lebatteux's ode as follows: 'Ce n'est point sur les monts de Rhodope et de Thrace Que j'irai t'invoquer; ces monts couverts de glace, Sont-ils propres à tes faveurs? Non, Reims te voit régner bien plus sur ses collines; Là je t'offre mes v[oe]ux; de nos côtes voisines Embrases moi de tes ardeurs. Soit que d'un lait mousseux l'écume pétillante, Soit qu'un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante, T'annonce à mes regards surpris, Viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatiente Veut devoir en ce jour les accords qu'elle enfante A la force de tes esprits.' ] [Footnote 184: 'Non, telles gens ne boivent pas De cette sève délectable, L'âme et l'amour de nos repas, Aussi bienfaisante qu'aimable. Leur palais corrompu, gâté, Ne veut que du vin frelaté, De ce poison vert, apprêté, Pour des cervelles frénétiques. Si, tenons-nous pour hérétiques Ceux qui rejettent la bonté De ces _corpusculs balsamiques_ Que jadis Horace a chantés. Non, telles gens ne boivent pas De cette sève délectable, L'âme et l'honneur de nos repas, Aussi bienfaisante qu'aimable. De ce vin blanc délicieux, Qui désarme la plus sévère; Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux Mieux qu'il ne brille dans mon verre. Buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux, Je vous livre une douce guerre; Buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux, De ce nectar délicieux, Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux Mieux qu'il ne brille dans mon verre.' The above was set to music by M. Dormel, organist of St. Geneviève.] [Footnote 185: Marmontel's _Mémoires d'un Père pour l'instruction de ses Enfants_. M. Louis Paris, in his _Histoire de l'Abbaye d'Avenay_, identifies this spot as one known indifferently as Le Fay or Feuilly. He furnishes some interesting details respecting Mademoiselle de Navarre, who, after being the mistress of Marshal Saxe, married the Chevalier de Mirabeau, brother to the _Ami des Hommes_ and uncle of the celebrated orator, and then goes on to say: 'In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the wines of Avenay shared with those of Hautvillers the glory of rivalling the best of Ay. "_Avenay, les bons raisins_," was the popular saying inscribed on the banner of its _chevaliers de l'Arquebuse_ (a corps of local sharpshooters). La Bruyère, St. Evremond, Boileau himself, Coulanges, L'Atteignant, and many others had celebrated the tender and delicate wines of our vineyards; and that of Madame l'Abbesse especially had acquired such a reputation, that several great families, strangers to the locality, thought it the right thing to have a _vendangeoir_ at Avenay, and to pass part of the autumn in the renowned Val d'Or.'] [Footnote 186: 'Vois ce nectar charmant Sauter sous ces beaux doigts; Et partir à l'instant; Je crois bien que l'amour en ferait tout autant. Et quoi sous ces beaux doigts Bouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois? Croyez-vous que l'amour Leur fit un pareil tour?' ] [Footnote 187: 'Le jus que verse Ganimède A Jupiter dans ses repas A ce vin de Champagne cède, Et nous sommes mieux ici bas.' From the edition of his _Poesies_ published in 1757. ] [Footnote 188: 'Et quand je décoiffe un flacon Le liège qui pette Me fait entendre un plus beau son Que tambour et trompette.' Panard's _[OE]uvres_, Paris, 1763. ] [Footnote 189: 'Diaphorus au marchand de vin Vend bien cher un extrait de rivière; Le marchand vend au médecin Du Champagne arrivé de Nanterre, Ce qui prouve encor ce refrain-ci A trompeur, trompeur et demi.' ] [Footnote 190: 'Pour jouir d'un destin plus tranquille et plus doux De ce bruyant séjour, amis, éloignons nous, Allons, dans mon cellier, du Champagne et du Beaune Goûter les doux appas. Les plaisirs n'y sont pas troublés par l'embarras, Et le funeste ennui qui monte jusqu'au trône Dans les caveaux ne descend pas.' ] [Footnote 191: 'C'est alors qu'un joyeux convive, Saississant un flacon scellé, Qui de Reims ou d'Ai tient la liqueur captive, Fait sauter jusqu'à la solive Le liège deficellé; Tout le cercle attentif porte un regard avide Sur cet objet qui les ravit; Ils présentent leur verre vide, Le nectar pétillant aussitôt les remplit. On boit, on goûte, on applaudit, On redouble et par l'assemblée La mousse Champenoise à plein verre est sablée. De là naissent les ris, les transports éclatans, La sève et tout son feu, jusqu'au cerveau montants, Font naître des débats, des querelles polies Qui réveillent l'esprit de tous les assistants.' ] [Footnote 192: An allusion to the _vin gris_ of the Champagne.] [Footnote 193: 'Grâce à la liqueur Qui lave mon c[oe]ur, Nul souci ne me consume. De ce vin gris Que je chéris L'écume, Lorsque j'en boi Quel feu chez moi S'allume! Nectar enchanteur, Tu fais mon bonheur; Viens, mon cher ami! Que j't'hume! Champagne divin, Du plus noir chagrin Tu dissipes l'amertume. Tu sais mûrir, Tu sais guérir Le rhume. Quel goût flatteur Ta douce odeur Parfume! Pour tant de bienfaits Et pour tant d'attraits; Viens, mon cher ami! Que j't'hume!' ] [Footnote 194: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 195: M. Sutaine observes that in 1780 a merchant of Epernay bottled 6000 bottles, and that the importance of this _tirage_ was noted as something remarkable; and this statement has been repeated by every other writer on Champagne. Yet here is a _tirage_ of 6000 bottles taking place thirty-four years previously. The extent of the bottled-wine trade is confirmed by Arthur Young, who in 1787 visited Ay, where M. Lasnier had 60,000 bottles in his cellar, and M. Dorsé from 30,000 to 40,000. Marmontel in 1716 mentions Henin de Navarre's cellars at Avenay as containing 50,000 bottles of Champagne.] [Footnote 196: E. J. Maumené's _Traité du Travail des Vins_, 1874.] [Footnote 197: Ibid. The _casse_ of 1776 has never been forgotten at Epernay; and M. Perrier, in a letter of August 1801, mentions a recent one at Avize amounting to 85 per cent. That of 1842 flooded the cellars throughout the Champagne. Even in 1850 M. Maumené mentions a _casse_ in a Reims cellar which had reached 98 per cent at his visit, and was still continuing.] [Footnote 198: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_. The Abbé Bignon confirms this in a letter of December 20, 1736, to Bertin du Rocheret, respecting wine received from him. 'The wine sealed with a cipher in red wax,' he observes, 'seemed to me very delicate, but having as yet some _liqueur_ which time may get rid of, though after that I am afraid there will not remain much strength. Another, also sealed with red wax, but with a coat-of-arms, seems to have more quality and vinosity, though also very delicate and very light, both _sablant_ perfectly, though they cannot be called _mousseux_. As to that which is sealed with black, the people who esteem foam would bestow the most magnificent eulogies upon it. It would be difficult to find any that carries this beautiful perfection further. Three spoonfuls at the bottom of the glass is surmounted with the strongest foam to the very brim; on the other hand, I found in it a furious _vert_, and not much vinosity.'] [Footnote 199: In 1734 he speaks of his _mousseux sablant_, and forwards to the Marquis de Polignac both _mousseux_ and _petillant_. In 1736 he offers M. Véron de Bussy his choice of _demi-mousseux_, _bon mousseux_, and _saute bouchon_; and the following year distinguishes his Ay _mousseux_ from his _saute bouchon_.] [Footnote 200: Respecting the price of sparkling Champagne during the first half of the eighteenth century, a few instances from the correspondence of Bertin du Rocheret may here he quoted. In 1716 he offers Marshal d'Artagnan 1500 bottles at 35 sols, cash down, and taken at Epernay. In 1725 he offers _flacons blancs mousseux liqueur_ at from 30 to 50 sols, and _ambrés non mousseux, sablant_, at 25 sols. Ten years later _saute bouchon_ is quoted by him at 40 and 45 sols, and in 1736 at 3 livres, _demi-mousseux_ ranging from 36 to 40 sols, and _bon mousseux_ from 45 to 50 sols. The following year _saute bouchon_ fetched 3 livres 6 sols, and _mousseux_ 42 sols. In 1736 he insisted upon his _flacons_ holding a _pinte_; and a royal decree of March 8, 1755, which regulated the weight and capacity of sparkling-wine bottles, required these to weigh 25 ounces, and to hold a _pinte de Paris_, or about 1.64 imperial pint. They were, moreover, to be tied crosswise on the top of the cork, with a string of three strands well twisted. Their cost was 15 livres per hundred in 1734 and 1738, and from 17 to 19 livres in 1754.] [Footnote 201: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 202: It would appear from Bidet that the wines of the Mountain had not been transformed into _vin mousseux_ as late as 1752, as, in his book on wine published during that year, he only includes in the list of places producing sparkling wine Ay, Avenay, Mareuil, Dizy, Hautvillers, Epernay, Pierry, Cramant, Avize, and Le Mesnil.] [Footnote 203: 'Votre palais, usé, perclus Par liqueur inflammable, Préfère de mousseux verjus Au nectar véritable.' ] [Footnote 204: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_. In the thesis in favour of Champagne, written by Dr. Xavier of Reims in 1777, the acidulous character of the wine is confirmed by the author, who naïvely remarks that it is as efficacious in preventing putrefaction as are other acids. He also compares it to acidulated waters.] [Footnote 205: Legrand d'Aussy's _Vie privée des Français_, 1782.] [Footnote 206: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_. The pretended secret of Dom Perignon, quoted from the _Mémoire_ of 1718, and mentioning the addition of sugar to the wine of Hautvillers, is flatly contradicted by Dom Grossart's letter to M. Dherbès (see page 41 _ante_). But it is probable that the suggestion thus made public was acted upon, though at first only timidly.] [Footnote 207: Chaptal's _Art de faire du Vin_. As Minister of the Interior, he forwarded the results of his experiments to the _préfets_, with the recommendation to spread them throughout their departments.] [Footnote 208: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 209: Letter of M. Nicolas Perrier to M. Cadet-Devaux, dated August 1801.] [Footnote 210: As _bourru_, _tocane_, and _en nouveau_.] [Footnote 211: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 212: The letter in which he mentions this is extant, but the secret which was enclosed in it is missing.] [Footnote 213: Dom Grossart, who had retired to Montier-en-Der in 1790, was unacquainted with this plan when he wrote to M. Dherbès in 1821, although it had been practised for twenty years past.] [Footnote 214: In a /MS./ quoted in Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 215: The gifts presented by the municipality on this occasion included flowers, pears, and gingerbread, Reims being as famed for the latter as for its wines. The guild of gingerbread-makers at Reims was established in the sixteenth century, and from that time forward was engaged in continual squabbles with the bakers and pastrycooks of the city, who could not be brought to understand that they had not the right to make gingerbread. Countless reams of paper were scribbled over by the lawyers of the two contending interests; but though the Bailli of Reims on several occasions pronounced a formal verdict, to the effect that no one but a sworn and accepted gingerbread-maker should have act or part in the making of the indigestible delicacy, the contumacious bakers continued to treat his edicts as naught. Eventually a royal edict of 1776, which suppressed the privileges of the majority of the guilds in France, deprived the Reims gingerbread-makers for ever of the right of figuring with swords by their sides and three-cornered hats on their heads at all local ceremonies, civil or religious, and threw their trade open to all. It was at the close of Louis XIV.'s reign that the _pain d'épice_ of Reims reached the summit of its renown. At the coronation of his successor, the _échevins_ of Reims presented the monarch with several baskets of it; and when Maria Leczinska passed through Reims in January 1725, the notables offered her twelve wicker baskets, covered with damask and ornamented with ribbons, containing fresh and dried pears, conserves, preserved lemons, almond-cakes, and a new kind of gingerbread, which received the name of _nonnette à la Reine_.] [Footnote 216: This escutcheon shows the arms of Reims, which at first consisted of _rinçeaux_ or branches; subsequently a cross and a crozier, placed saltire-wise, and a sainte Ampoule, were added. When the government of the city passed from the archbishop, the entwined olive-branches and chief strewn with fleurs de lis were adopted, the old motto, 'Dieu en soit garde,' being retained. The iron gates of the Porte de Paris were removed to their present position in 1843, to allow of the passage of the canal.] [Footnote 217: From the days of Charles VIII. to those of Louis XIV., it was customary on these occasions for the keys to be presented by a young girl styled the Pucelle de Reims; and J. M. C. Leber, in his work _Des Cérémonies du Sacre_, is of opinion that this custom arose in some way from the visit of Joan of Arc. Louis XV. was the first who received them from the lieutenant.] [Footnote 218: Baron Taylor's _Reims, la Ville de Sacres_.] [Footnote 219: N. Menin's _Traité du Sacre et Couronnement des Rois_.] [Footnote 220: P. Tarbé's _Reims, ses Rues et ses Monuments_.] [Footnote 221: H. Taine's _L'Ancien Régime_.] [Footnote 222: Ibid.] [Footnote 223: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in 1787-9_.] [Footnote 224: Ibid. Another grievance alleged against the monasteries was the presence of the innumerable fishponds belonging to them scattered throughout the country. The _Cahier des Plaintes, Doléances, et Remontrances du Tiers Etat du Baillage de Reims_, on the Assembly of the States General under Louis XVI., ask that 'all fishponds situate outside woods and, above all, those which lie close to vineyards, may be suppressed, as hurtful to agriculture.'] [Footnote 225: H. Taine's _L'Ancien Régime_.] [Footnote 226: Instructions of local _directeurs des aides_, quoted from the _Archives Nationales_ by Taine.] [Footnote 227: H. Taine's _L'Ancien Régime_.] [Footnote 228: _Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne_, Epernay, 1880.] [Footnote 229: H. Taine's _L'Ancien Régime_. At Rethel a poinçon of the _jauge de Reims_ paid 50 to 60 francs for the _droit de détail_ alone.] [Footnote 230: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in 1787-9_.] [Footnote 231: H. Taine's _L'Ancien Régime_.] [Footnote 232: Crebillon the younger's _Les Bijoux Indiscrets_.] [Footnote 233: A /MS./ account of the wine culture of Poligny in the Jura states that in 1774 attempts were made to imitate the gray and pink wines of the Champagne, then selling at 3 livres 10 sous the bottle.] [Footnote 234: Erckmann-Chatrian's _Histoire d'un Paysan_.] [Footnote 235: 'Suppose Champagne flowing,' says Carlyle, when describing this banquet in his _French Revolution_.] [Footnote 236: Carlyle's _French Revolution_.] [Footnote 237: The date 'An 1^{er} de la liberté' may possibly refer to the 'Year One' of the Republican calendar (1792), in which Mirabeau fell in a duel at Fribourg. But an earlier edition of the same caricature seems to have been published, according to De Goncourt in the _Journal de la Mode et du Goût_, in May 1790.] [Footnote 238: 'Malgré les calembours, les brocards, les dictons, Je veux à mes repas vuider mes deux flacons,' are the lines assigned to him in _Le Vicomte de Barjoleau, ou le Souper des Noirs_, a two-act comedy of the epoch.] [Footnote 239: [Illustration: LE GOURMAND: AN INCIDENT OF LOUIS XVI.'S FLIGHT FROM PARIS (From a caricature of the period).] This caricature, which is neither signed nor dated, is simply entitled 'Le Gourmand;' though Jaime, in his _Histoire de la Caricature_, states that it represents Louis XVI. at Varennes. According to Carlyle, however, the king reached Varennes at eleven o'clock at night, was at once arrested in his carriage, and taken to Procureur Sausse's house. Here he 'demands refreshments, as is written; gets bread-and-cheese, with a bottle of Burgundy, and remarks that it is the best Burgundy he ever drunk.' At six o'clock the following morning he left Varennes, escorted by ten thousand National Guards. Very likely there may have been a story current at the time to the effect that the arrest was due to the king's halting to gratify his appetite. Or the caricature may represent some incident that occurred, during his return to Paris, as he passed through the Champagne district, and halted at the Hôtel de Rohan at Epernay.] [Footnote 240: De Goncourt's _Société Française pendant la Révolution_.] [Footnote 241: Ibid.] [Footnote 242: St. Aubin's _Expédition de Don Quichotte_.] [Footnote 243: _Aux voleurs! aux voleurs!_ quoted by De Goncourt.] [Footnote 244: _Lettres du Père Duchêne_, quoted by De Goncourt.] [Footnote 245: _Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne_, Epernay, 1880.] [Footnote 246: _Journal de ce qui s'est passé d'intéressant à Reims en 1814._] [Footnote 247: Ibid.] [Footnote 248: G. A. Sala's _Paris Herself Again_.] [Footnote 249: Gronow's _Celebrities of London and Paris_, 1865.] [Footnote 250: Gronow's _Reminiscences_, 1862.] [Footnote 251: 'J'aime mieux les Turcs en campagne Que de voir nos vins de Champagne Profanés par des Allemands.' Béranger's _Chansons_. ] [Footnote 252: 'Rôtis sur la haute montagne Tout flamme et miel, le Médéah, Le Mascara, le Milianah Feront pâlir le gai Champagne.' _Poésies_ de J. Boese, de Blidah. ] [Footnote 253: 'Il a conduit Pomponnette Chez Vachette, Dans le cabinet vingt-deux; Et là, même avant la bisque, Il se risque A lui déclarer ses feux. Elle demeure accoudée, Obsédée, Résolue à résister, Inexorable et charmante Dans sa mante, Qu'elle ne veut pas quitter. Un troisième personnage, A la nage Dans un seau d'argent orné, Se soulève sur la hanche, Tête blanche, Cou de glace environné. C'est le Champagne; il susurre: "Chose sûre! Quand mon bouchon partira, Tout à l'heure, cette belle Si rebelle Mollement s'apaisera. Bientôt tu verras, te dis-je, Ce prodige Cesse d'invoquer l'enfer; Ton courroux est trop facile; Imbécile, Arrache mon fil de fer! Car je suis maître Champagne, Qu'accompagne Le délire aux cent couplets; Je dompte les plus sévères. A moi, verres, Coupes, flûtes et cornets!" Aussi dit le vin superbe, Moins acerbe, La femme se sent capter. C'est une cause que gagne Le Champagne; Son bouchon vient de sauter.' _Le Parfait Vigneron_, Paris, 1870.] [Footnote 254: Titi Livii Foro-Juliensis _Vita Henrici Quinti_. The author was a _protégé_ of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester.] [Footnote 255: Francisque Michel's _Histoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux_. It was not till the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Aquitaine that we began to import Guienne wine from Bordeaux.] [Footnote 256: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 257: Ibid.] [Footnote 258: Victor Fiévet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 259: Francisque Michel's _Histoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux_.] [Footnote 260: Published in 1615.] [Footnote 261: That of 1574. Surflet's translation appeared in 1600.] [Footnote 262: Venner's _Via recta ad longam Vitam_, 1628.] [Footnote 263: Writing to Sir Walter Mildmay in 1569, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had charge of the royal prisoner, complains that his regular allowance of wine duty free is not enough. 'The expenses I have to bear this year on account of the Queen of the Scots are so considerable as to compel me to beg you will kindly consider them. In fact, two butts of wine a month hardly serve for our ordinary use; and besides this, I have to supply what is required by the Princess for her baths and similar uses.'] [Footnote 264: Clarendon's _Memoirs_.] [Footnote 265: Letter of Guy Patin, 1660.] [Footnote 266: Otway's _Soldier's Fortune_, act iv. sc. 1, 1681.] [Footnote 267: Ibid.] [Footnote 268: Redding's _History and Description of Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 269: Otway's _Friendship in Fashion_, 1678.] [Footnote 270: 'Nous parler toujours des vins D'Ay, d'Avenet, et de Reims.' _[OE]uvres de Saint-Evremond._ ] [Footnote 271: 'Perdre le goût de l'huitre et du vin de Champagne Pour revoir la leur d'un débile soleil Et l'humide beauté d'une verte campagne, N'est pas à mon avis un bonheur sans pareil, La faveur de la Marne, hélas, est terminée, Et notre montagne de Reims, Qui fournit tant d'excellens vins, A peu favorisé nostre goût cette année. O triste et pitoyable sort! Faut-il avoir recours aux rives de la Loire, Ou pour le mieux au fameux port, Dont Chapelle nous fait l'histoire! Faut-il se contenter de boire Comme tous les peuples du Nord? Non, non, quelle heureuse nouvelle! Monsieur de Bonrepaus arrive, il est icy, Le Champagne pour lui tousjours se renouvelle, Fuyez, Loire, Bordeaux! fuyez, Cahors, aussy!' _[OE]uvres de Saint-Evremond: Sur la Verdure qu'on met aux cheminées en Angleterre._ In these verses we trace the custom, elsewhere spoken of, of drinking the Marne wines when new. St. Evremond himself, in a passage of his prose works, says that the wines of Ay should not be kept too long, or those of Reims drunk too soon.] [Footnote 272: Sparkling is not used here in the modern sense of effervescing: see page 90.] [Footnote 273: Sir George Etherege's _Man of the Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter_, act iv. sc. 1, 1676.] [Footnote 274: Otway's _Friendship in Fashion_, act ii. sc. 1, 1678.] [Footnote 275: Etherege's _She wou'd if she cou'd_, act iv. sc. 2, 1668.] [Footnote 276: Sir Charles Sedley's _Mulberry Garden_, act ii. sc. 2, 1668.] [Footnote 277: Otway's _Friendship in Fashion_, act i. sc. 1, 1678.] [Footnote 278: Shadwell's _Virtuoso_, act ii. sc. 2, 1676.] [Footnote 279: By Dr. Charleton, and published as late as 1692.] [Footnote 280: Oldham's _Paraphrases from Horace_, book i. ode xxxi., 1684.] [Footnote 281: Oldham's _Works_, &c., 1684.] [Footnote 282: Butler's _Hudibras_, part ii. canto i., 1664. Stum is unfermented wine; and the term brisk applied to Champagne is here employed not to denote effervescence, but to indicate the contrast between the thick immature fluid and the clear carefully-made wines of the Champagne.] [Footnote 283: Butler's _Hudibras_, part iii. canto iii., 1678.] [Footnote 284: Sedley's _The Doctor and his Patients_. No date, but Sedley died in 1701.] [Footnote 285: Thomson's Poems.] [Footnote 286: Cyrus Redding's evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Wine-Duties, 1851.] [Footnote 287: Redding's _French Wines_.] [Footnote 288: Varin's _Archives Administratives de Reims_.] [Footnote 289: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 290: St. Simon's _Mémoires_.] [Footnote 291: Redding's _French Wines_.] [Footnote 292: Farquhar's _Love and a Bottle_, act ii. sc. 2, 1698.] [Footnote 293: An evident allusion to its effervescence; whilst the words 'straw doublet' most likely refer to the covering of the flask.] [Footnote 294: Cibber's _Love makes a Man_, act i. sc. 1, 1700.] [Footnote 295: Farquhar's _The Inconstant, or the Way to win Him_, act i. scene 2, 1703.] [Footnote 296: Epilogue to the _Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee_ of Farquhar, spoken by Wilks in 1700. Locket's tavern, which stood on the site now occupied by Drummond's bank at Charing Cross, was especially famous for its Champagne. In the _Quack Vintners_, a satire against Brooke and Hilliers, published in 1712, we read: 'May Locket still his ancient fame maintain For Ortland dainties and for rich Champaign, Where new-made lords their native clay refine, And into noble blood turn noble wine.' ] [Footnote 297: Farquhar's _Twin Rivals_, act v. sc. 1, 1705.] [Footnote 298: Several other writers, who speak of 'bottles' of other wines, use the word 'flask' when referring to Champagne.] [Footnote 299: Farquhar's _Beaux' Stratagem_, act iii. sc. 3, 1706.] [Footnote 300: _Memoir_, prefixed to Leigh Hunt's edition of Congreve's works.] [Footnote 301: Cunninghame's _History of Britain from the Revolution to the Hanover Succession_.] [Footnote 302: Farquhar's _The Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee_, act v. sc. 1, 1700. M. Francisque Michel, in his _Histoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux_, clearly establishes that from the beginning to the middle of the eighteenth century all the best growths of the Médoc were bought and shipped for England. It was not until after 1755 that any went to Paris.] [Footnote 303: 'Vos, ô Britanni (f[oe]dera nam sinunt Inc[oe]pta pacis) dissociabilem Tranate pontum. Quid cruento Perdere opes juvat usque Marte. Lætis Remensam quam satius fuit Stipare Bacchum navibus; et domum Anferre funestis trophæis Exuvias pretiosiores!' Coffin's _Campania vindicata_, 1712. The force of the reference to England is better understood when it is mentioned that no other nation is alluded to as purchasing the wines of the Champagne.] [Footnote 304: A practice not lost sight of at a later date, to judge from Borachio's observation, 'I turn Alicant into Burgundy and sour cider into Champagne of the first growth of France.' Jephson's _Two Strings to your Bow_, act i. sc. 2.] [Footnote 305: _The Tatler_, No. 131, Feb. 9, 1709.] [Footnote 306: Mrs. Centlivre's _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_, act v. sc. 1, 1718.] [Footnote 307: Gay's poem _On Wine_, published in 1708.] [Footnote 308: Gay's _Welcome from Greece_.] [Footnote 309: Prior's _Alma, or the Progress of the Mind_.] [Footnote 310: Prior's _Alma, or the Progress of the Mind_.] [Footnote 311: Prior's _Bibo and Charon_.] [Footnote 312: Shenstone's _Verses written at a Tavern at Henley_.] [Footnote 313: Vanbrugh's _Journey to London_, act i. sc. 2. Left unfinished at his death in 1726.] [Footnote 314: Swift's _Journal to Stella_, March 12, 1712-13.] [Footnote 315: Ibid. Feb. 20, 1712-13.] [Footnote 316: Ibid. April 9, 1711.] [Footnote 317: Ibid. March 18, 1710.] [Footnote 318: Ibid. March 29, 1711-12.] [Footnote 319: Ibid. Dec. 21, 1711.] [Footnote 320: Ibid. April 7, 1711.] [Footnote 321: Letter to Mr. Congreve, April 7, 1715.] [Footnote 322: Mrs. Centlivre's _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_, act i. sc. 1, 1718.] [Footnote 323: Fielding's _The Miser_, 1732.] [Footnote 324: _The Rake's Progress, or the Humours of Drury Lane_: a poem published in 1735, to accompany a set of prints pirated from Hogarth's.] [Footnote 325: Blunt's _Geneva_: a poem dedicated to Sir R. Walpole, 1729.] [Footnote 326: Hoadley's _Suspicious Husband_, act iv. sc. 1, 1747.] [Footnote 327: This wine, though sometimes sent by way of Dunkirk, was usually forwarded _viâ_ Calais, by the intermediary of a Sieur Labertauche, a commission-agent at that port, the cost of transport from Epernay to Calais being from 70 to 75 livres per queue. A _bobillon_ of wine was sent with each lot of casks for filling up. Moreover, from 1731 Bertin annually despatches a certain quantity of cream of tartar, destined to cure the ropiness to which all white wines were especially subject before the discovery that tannin destroys the principle engendering this disease.] [Footnote 328: Chabane appears to have been fully cognisant of the method of _collage_ and _soutirage_ (fining and racking) practised in the Champagne; and Bertin, in one of his letters dated July 1752, mentions the enclosure of a receipt for a kind of _collage_, by following which all necessity to _dépoter_ the bottles is obviated. This enclosure is unfortunately lost.] [Footnote 329: Ms. correspondence of Bertin du Rocheret, quoted by M. Louis Perrier in his _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_. M. Perrier states that the prohibition was removed by an act of the 1st Nov. 1745; and a letter of Bertin to Chabane, the following year, bears this out. It is therefore singular to find the following entry in Bubb Doddington's _Diary_, under the date of Feb. 1, 1753: 'Went to the House to vote for liberty to import Champaign in bottles. Lord Hillsborough moved it; Mr. Fox seconded it. We lost the Motion. Ayes, 74; Noes, 141.'] [Footnote 330: Letter to Sir Horace Mann, June 18, 1751.] [Footnote 331: Jesse's _Selwyn and his Contemporaries_. It is very probable that the name printed as Prissieux is really Puissieux, a title of the Sillery family.] [Footnote 332: Lady Mary Wortley Montague's _Letter from Arthur Grey, the Footman, to Mrs. Murray_. Written in the autumn of 1721.] [Footnote 333: Lady M. W. Montague's _The Lover_. This is generally designated 'a ballad to Mr. Congreve,' but is headed in Lady Mary's note-book, 'To Molly,' and, as Mr. Moy Thomas has suggested, was probably addressed to Lord Hervey, Pope's 'Lord Fanny.'] [Footnote 334: Note to his _Letter on Bowles_.] [Footnote 335: _Westminster Magazine_, 1774.] [Footnote 336: Grainger's _The Sugar Cane_, 1764.] [Footnote 337: Coleman and Garrick's _Clandestine Marriage_, act i. sc. 2, 1766.] [Footnote 338: Garrick's _Bon Ton, or High Life above Stairs_, act i. sc. 2, 1775.] [Footnote 339: Ibid.] [Footnote 340: Ibid. act ii. sc. 1.] [Footnote 341: Townley's _High Life below Stairs_, act ii. sc. 1, 1759.] [Footnote 342: So in Mrs. Cowley's _Which is the Man?_ Burgundy is extolled and 'vile Port' denounced; and in Cumberland's _The Fashionable Lover_ (1772) a sneer is levelled at a 'paltry Port-drinking club.' Burgundy, too, is in favour in Holcroft's _The Road to Ruin_, 1792.] [Footnote 343: Foote's _The Lame Lover_, act iii. sc. 1, 1770.] [Footnote 344: Garrick's _The Country Girl_, act v. sc. 1.] [Footnote 345: Foote's _The Fair Maid of Bath_, act i. sc. 1, 1771.] [Footnote 346: Holcroft's _The Road to Ruin_, act iv. sc. 2, 1792.] [Footnote 347: Sir Edward Barry's _Observations, Historical, Critical, and Medical, on the Wines of the Ancients, and the analogy between them and Modern Wines_, 1775.] [Footnote 348: Tickell's _Poems_.] [Footnote 349: Timbs' _Clubs and Club Life_.] [Footnote 350: In the _Encyclopédie Méthodique_.] [Footnote 351: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in the Years 1787-9_.] [Footnote 352: Sheen's _Wine and other fermented Liquors_.] [Footnote 353: Amongst other English customers of the firm in 1788, 1789, and 1790 were 'Milords' Farnham and Findlater, the latter of whom was supplied with 120 bottles of the vintage of 1788; Manning, of the St. Alban's Tavern, London, who ordered 130 bottles of vin de Champagne, at 3 livres or 2_s._ the bottle, to be delivered in the autumn by M. Caurette; Messrs. Felix Calvert & Sylvin, who took two sample bottles at 5_s._; and Mr. Lockhart, banker, of 36 Pall Mall, who in 1790 paid 3_s._ per bottle for 360 bottles of the vintage of 1788. The high rate of exchange in our favour is shown by the 54_l._ covering this transaction being taken as 1495 livres 7 sols 9 deniers, or about 28 livres per pound sterling.] [Footnote 354: Walker's _The Original_.] [Footnote 355: 'The Fair of Britain's Isle' (_Convivial Songster_, 1807).] [Footnote 356: _Diary of Mrs. Colonel St. George, written during her Sojourn amongst the German Courts in 1799 and 1800._] [Footnote 357: Moore's _The Twopenny Post-bag_, 1813.] [Footnote 358: Moore's _Parody of a Celebrated Letter_.] [Footnote 359: The compound known as 'the Regent's Punch' was made out of 3 bottles of Champagne, 2 of Madeira, 1 of hock, 1 of curaçoa, 1 quart of brandy, 1 pint of rum, and 2 bottles of seltzer-water, flavoured with 4 lbs. bloom raisins, Seville oranges, lemons, white sugar-candy, and diluted with iced green tea instead of water (Tovey's _British and Foreign Spirits_).] [Footnote 360: Captain Gronow's _Reminiscences_.] [Footnote 361: Ibid.] [Footnote 362: Prince Puckler Muskau's _Letters_.] [Footnote 363: Miss Burney's _Memoirs_.] [Footnote 364: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_, 1824. Henderson, who appears to have visited the Champagne in 1822, remarks of the remaining _crûs_ of the province: 'The wines of the neighbouring territories of Mareuil and Dizy are of similar quality to those of Ay, and are often sold as such. Those of Hautvillers, on the other hand, which formerly equalled, if not surpassed, the growths just named, have been declining in repute since the suppression of the monastery, to which the principal vineyard belonged.'] [Footnote 365: Moore's _The Fudge Family Abroad_, 1818.] [Footnote 366: Moore's _The Sceptic_.] [Footnote 367: Moore's _Illustration of a Bore_.] [Footnote 368: Moore's _The Summer Fête_, 1831.] [Footnote 369: Ibid.] [Footnote 370: Ibid.] [Footnote 371: Moore's _Diary_, June 1819.] [Footnote 372: Lockhart's _Life of Sir Walter Scott_.] [Footnote 373: Scott's _Diary_, November 15, 1826.] [Footnote 374: Byron's _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, 1808.] [Footnote 375: Byron's _Don Juan_, canto xv. stanza lxv., 1821.] [Footnote 376: Ibid. canto xvi. stanza ix.] [Footnote 377: Ibid. canto xiii. stanzas xxxvii., xxxviii.] [Footnote 378: According to recent statistics issued by the Chamber of Commerce of Reims, the department of the Marne contains 16,500 hectares of vineyards (40,755 acres), of which 2465 hectares are situated in the district of Vitry-le-François; 555 hectares in that of Châlons; 700 in that of Sainte Menehould; 7624 in that of Reims; and 5587 in the Epernay district, where the finest qualities of Champagne are grown. The value of the wine produced annually in these districts exceeds 60,000,000 francs (nearly 2-1/2 millions sterling). During the last thirty years, the value of these vineyards has increased fourfold. The 'population vigneronne' of the department is 16,093 inhabitants.] [Footnote 379: In the year 1871.] [Footnote 380: The blending of black and white grapes together, although its advantages had been recognised in the _Maison Rustique_ of 1574, appears not to have been successfully carried out at Ay till the days of Dom Perignon. 'Formerly,' remarks Pluche, 'it was very difficult to preserve the wine of Ay longer than one year. When the juice of the white grapes, whose quantity was very great in that vineyard, began to assume a yellowish hue, it became predominant, and created a change in all the wine; but ever since the white grapes have been disused, the Marne wines may be easily kept for the space of four or five years' (_Spectacle de la Nature_, 1732).] [Footnote 381: From time immemorial the vineyards of Ay and Dizy paid tithes to the Abbey of Hautvillers, the former a sixtieth and the latter an eleventh of their produce. These dues were, by a decree of 1670, levied at the gate of Ay. In 1772, Tirant de Flavigny, a large wine-grower, who farmed, amongst other vineyards, 'Les Quartiers' at Hautvillers, insisted on leaving the tithe of grapes at the foot of the vine for collection by the abbey tithe-collectors. The Abbot Alexandre Ange de Talleyrand Périgord refused to accept them, and insisted in turn that the whole of the grapes should either be brought to the gate of Hautvillers or converted into wine in the vineyard, and the eleventh part of this wine handed to his representative. From a _procès verbal_ drawn up by the Mayor of Ay, it seems that the inhabitants were willing to pay a monetary commutation, as was the prevailing custom, or to leave the abbot's share of grapes in the vineyards; but objected to the tithe being taken, usually with considerable delay, on each basket, whereby the remaining grapes were bruised, and the possibility of bright white wine being made from them rendered exceedingly doubtful. It was not till 1787 that it was finally settled that the tithes should be paid in money at the rate of so much per arpent, and it is plain that the abbot's chief object was to throw as much difficulty as he could in the way of rival makers of fine wines.] [Footnote 382: This curse is alluded to in the following verse from a sixteenth-century ballad written against the men of Ay: 'Tu n'auras ni chien ni chat Pour te chanter _Libera_, Et tu mourras mau-chrétien, Toi qu'a maudit Saint Trézain.' The fountain of St. Tresain, which enjoys the reputation of curing diseases, and in the water of which it is pretended stolen food cannot be cooked, still exists at Mareuil.] [Footnote 383: The yield from the Ay vineyards averages five pièces, or 220 gallons per acre. Arthur Young, writing in 1787, estimated that the arpent (rather more than the acre) produced from two to six pièces of wine, or an average of four pièces, two of which sold for 200 livres, one for 150 livres, and one for 50 livres. He valued the arpent of vines at from 3000 to 6000 livres. Henderson, in his _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_, says that in 1822 there were a thousand arpents on the hill immediately behind the village of Ay valued at from 10,000 to 12,000 francs the arpent, and that one plot had shortly before fetched 15,000 francs per arpent.] [Footnote 384: In 1873, two years later, the price mounted as high as 1000 francs; while in 1880, owing to the yield being far below an average one and the quality promising to be exceedingly good, the wine was bought up before the grapes were pressed at prices ranging from 1100 to 1400 francs the pièce.] [Footnote 385: In one of these, dated 1243, mention is made of the 'vinea parva' belonging to the Abbey of Avenay, and of the 'vineam Warneri in loco qui dicetur Monswarins,' perhaps the existing clos Warigny. In another of Philip the Fair, dated 1300, and confirming the abbey in the possession of property purchased from Jeanne de Sapigneul, we read of 'unam vineam dictam la grant vigne domine Aelidis sitam en Perrelles' and 'unam vineam dictam a la Perriere.' In charters of the fourteenth century vineyards are mentioned at Avenay and Mutigny, under the titles of Les Perches, Haut-Bonnet, Praëlles, Les Foissets, Fond de Bonnet, Berard, Chassant, &c. One sold to the abbey in 1334 by Guillaume de Valenciennes was at a spot then, as now, styled Plantelles. In 1336 the justices at Château-Thierry confirmed the Abbess, Madame Clémence, in the 'droit de ban vin'--that is, the right of selling her wine before any one else in the territory of Avenay. This was again confirmed in 1344 by the Bailly of Sézanne, who held that she alone had the right of selling during the month after Christmas, the month after Easter, and the month after Pentecost. Amongst other records is one noting the condemnation of Perresson Legris, clerk, of Avenay, who was sentenced in 1460 by the Bailly of Epernay to a fine of 60 sols, for selling his wine during the month after Christmas without permission of the Dames d'Avenay. The charters of the fifteenth century also abound in references to vineyards, or 'droits de vinage,' appertaining to the abbey at Les Coutures, Champ Bernard, Auches, Bois de Brousse, Thonnay, &c., in the territory of Avenay, and Les Charmières, Torchamp, Saussaye, &c., at Mutigny.] [Footnote 386: In 1668, an epoch at which the wines of Avenay had acquired a high reputation, the abbey owned 43 arpents of vineland at Avenay, Mutigny, and Mareuil, yielding the preceding year 200 poinçons of wine, the sale of which produced 6000 livres. It also had 13 pressoirs banaux, which were farmed for 50 poinçons of wine, and tithes of wine at Mareuil amounting to 14 poinçons and 460 livres in money, and at Ambonnay amounting to 3 poinçons, the total of 67 poinçons fetching 1206 livres. The valet who looked after the vines had 50 livres per annum, and the cooper who looked after the wines, 40 livres. The total cost of stakes, manure, culture, pruning, wine-making, and casks was 2700 livres per annum. Ten pièces of wine 'of the best of the abbey, and worth 300 livres,' were annually given away in caques and bottles to 'persons of quality and friends of the house, and travellers of condition who pass;' whilst 120 poinçons, valued at 3000 livres, were consumed at the abbey itself. The abbey was partially destroyed by fire in 1754; and its destruction was completed during the Revolution, at which epoch its vineyards yielded a net revenue of 2500 livres.] [Footnote 387: In addition to Madame de la Marck, who was connected, by the marriage of one of her brothers to a princess of the house of Bourbon, with Henri Quatre, and to whose influence with that monarch the execution of the 'Traité des Vendanges' was mainly due, the roll of the Abbesses of Avenay comprises several illustrious personages, amongst them St. Bertha; Bertha II., daughter of the Emperor Lothaire; the ex-Empress Teutberga; Bénédicte de Gonzague, daughter of the Duke de Nevers, and sister of the Princess Palatine, who took such an active part during the troubles of the Fronde; and ladies of the illustrious families of Saulx Tavannes, Craon, Levis, Beauvillers, Brulart de Sillery, Boufflers, &c. M. Louis Paris, in his _Histoire de l'Abbaye d'Avenay_, gives some curious instances of the exercise of the 'haut et basse justice' possessed by these ladies. In 1587, under the rule of Madame de la Marck, we find the Bailly of Avenay, acting as 'first magistrate of Madame l'Abbesse,' sentencing one man and four women 'to be hung, strangled, and burnt, and the goods belonging to them confiscated to the profit of the Lady Justiciary,' for the crime of sorcery. In 1645 we find a 'sentence of the Bailly of Avenay against Simeon Delacoste, accused and convicted of the crime of homicide committed upon the person of Jean Bernier, and for this condemned to be hung and strangled by the executioner on a gallows erected in the public market-place, with confiscation of 300 livres, to be levied on his goods, to the profit of the Lady Justiciary.' When the criminal could not be caught, as was the case with Nicholas Thimot, vine-grower at Avenay in 1555, the sentence ran that he should 'be hung in effigy, and his goods confiscated to the profit of Madame.'] [Footnote 388: The following lines, quoted by M. Philibert Milsand in his _Procès poétique touchant les Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne_, may be taken as referring either to the wine or the scenery: 'Si quis in hoc mundo vult vivere corde jocoso, Vadat Cumerias sumere delicias.' ] [Footnote 389: In Arthur Young's time (1787-9) an arpent of vineyard at Hautvillers, valued at 4000 livres, yielded from two to four pièces, or hogsheads, of wine, which sold from 700 to 900 livres the queue (two pièces). This is more than the wine would ordinarily realise to-day, although in years of scarcity it has fetched 700 francs the pièce, and in 1880 as much as 1000 francs.] [Footnote 390: Cazotte, ex-Commissary-General of the Navy and author of the _Diable Amoureux_, who was guillotined as a Royalist in 1792, had a magnificently fitted mansion at Pierry. He distinguished himself by his opposition to the pretensions of the Abbey of Hautvillers, which in 1775 claimed the right of taking tithes at Pierry not only in the vineyards, but on the wine in the cellars. Cazotte argued that unless the monks chose to take their due proportion of grapes left for them at the foot of each vine, all they were entitled to was a monetary commutation of the tithe; for the wine being usually made of grapes from a dozen different sources, many of them beyond their domain, it would be impossible to ascertain the proportion that was their due. The Parliament of Paris decided, however, that the abbey might take the fortieth of the wine a month after it was barrelled, unless the vine-growers preferred to give them the fortieth part of all the grapes brought to the press. The fact was that the monks really wished to check the practice of mixing grapes from different districts at the press, for fear wine equal to their own should result from this plan, first satisfactorily put in practice by Dom Perignon. Arthur Young mentions that an arpent of vines at Pierry was valued at 2000 livres, half the price the same extent commanded at Hautvillers.] [Footnote 391: M. Armand Bourgeois, in his work on _Le Sourdon et sa Vallée_, mentions a local tradition to the effect that Saint Remi, who from his will is shown to have owned vinelands of some extent in a part of this district still known as the Evêché, installed a hermit in this said grotto of the Pierre de Saint Mamert to supervise his vineyards.] [Footnote 392: Bertin du Rocheret writes thus in 1744, and adds that the aspect of Avize had at that epoch become entirely changed by the numerous fine 'maisons de vendange' erected there.] [Footnote 393: In 1205 Gilbert Belon conferred an annual gift on the Abbey of St. Martin of seven hogsheads of _vinage_ derived from the vineyards of Oger.] [Footnote 394: 'Je fus jadis de terre vertueuse Nez de Virtuz, pais renommé, Où il avait ville très gracieuse, Dont li bon vin sont en maints lieux nommés.' Eustache Deschamps' poem on the Burning of Vertus. ] [Footnote 395: 'Quant vient de si noble racine Come du droit plan de Beaune, Qui ne porte pas couleur jaune Mais vermeille, franche, plaisant, Qui fait tout autre odeur taisant, Quand elle est aportée en place.' Deschamps' _La Charte des Bons Enfans de Vertus_. ] [Footnote 396: 'Si vous alez au benefice Mieulx vous vauldra que ung clistère.'--Ibid. ] [Footnote 397: In 1880 the Vertus wine realised the remarkably high price of from 1200 to 1400 francs the pièce.] [Footnote 398: St. Evremond's _Letters_ (London, 1728).] [Footnote 399: St. Simon's _Mémoires_.] [Footnote 400: Bertin du Rocheret's /MS./ extracts from the _Registre des Assemblées du peuple de la ville d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 401: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.] [Footnote 402: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in 1787-8-9_.] [Footnote 403: Anonymous _Journal de ce qui s'est passé d'intéressant à Reims en 1814_.] [Footnote 404: Dom Chatelain, in his /MS./ notes on the _History of Reims_, relates that Henri Quatre, being one day at Sully's, asked the Minister for some breakfast, and after drinking a glass or two of wine, exclaimed, 'Ventre Saint Gris, this is a grand wine; it beats mine of Ay and all others. I should like to know where it comes from.' ''Tis my friend Taissy,' answered Sully, 'who sends it to me.' 'Then I must be introduced to him,' said the King; which was accordingly done. The wines of Taissy had a high reputation as late as the eighteenth century. They were classed by St. Evremond and Brossette, the commentator of Boileau, amongst the best vintages of the Champagne, and their reputation was maintained by the care bestowed by the Abbé Godinot on the vineyards which he owned here.] [Footnote 405: 'Qu'Horace du Falerne entonne les louanges, Que de son vieux Massique il vante les attraits; Tous ces vins si fameux n'égaleront jamais Du charmant Sillery les heureuses vendanges!' Translation by Le Monnoye in the _Recueil des Poésies Latines et Françaises_, &c., Paris, 1712.] [Footnote 406: The wine of Verzenay, like that of Bouzy, owes much of its reputation to the example set in the eighteenth century by the Abbé Godinot, author of the _Mémoire_ on the cultivation of the grape and the manufacture of wine in the Champagne, published in 1711. He owned extensive vineyards at Verzenay and Bouzy, and his prolonged investigations as to the species of vines and composts best suited to the district led to a complete revolution in the system of culture and mode of pressing the fruit. Bertin du Rocheret praises 'the excellent wine of Verzenay' served at the banquets celebrating the conclusion of the assembly of the Etats de Vitry, held at Châlons in 1744.] [Footnote 407: The value in 1880 of a hectare of vines, equivalent to nearly two and a half acres, was as follows: At Verzy, Verzenay, and Sillery, 35 to 38,000 francs. " Bouzy and Ambonnay, 38 " 40,000 " " Ay and Dizy, 40 " 45,000 " " Hautvillers, 20 " 22,000 " " Pierry, 18,000 " " Cramant and Avize, 38 " 40,000 " " Le Mesnil, 22 " 25,000 " ] [Footnote 408: This was far from being the first appearance of the pest in this district. From 1779 to 1785 similar ravages drove the vignerons to despair; but the weather during the last-named year suddenly turning wet and cold, just at the epoch of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalids, the evil disappeared as though by enchantment, an event duly acknowledged by parochial rejoicings and religious processions. In 1816 similar ravages took place; and from 1820 to 1830 the pyrale also caused great devastation. In the year 1613, Jehan Pussot, the local chronicler of Reims, notes that a large proportion of the vines were destroyed by 'a great concourse of worms,' which attacked those plants which the frost had spared. This would establish that either the pyrale or the cochylis was known to the Champenois viticulturists at the commencement of the seventeenth century.] [Footnote 409: In 1873, in all the higher-class vineyards, as much as two francs and a quarter per kilogramme (11_d._ per lb.) were paid, being more than treble the average price. And yet the vintage was a most unsatisfactory one, owing to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet throughout the summer. The market, however, was in great need of wine, and the fruit while still ungathered was bought up at most exorbitant prices by the _spéculateurs_ who supply the _vin brut_ to the Champagne manufacturers. In 1874 the grapes of the Mountain sold from at 55 to 160 francs the caque, according to the crus; and those of the Côte d'Avize at from 1 f. 25 c. to 2 f. per kilogramme. In 1875, on the other hand, grapes could be obtained at Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay, and Bouzy at from 45 to 55 francs the caque; and at Vertus, Le Mesnil, Oger, Grauves, Cramant, and Avize, at from 40 to 70 centimes the kilogramme. By far the highest price secured by the growers for their grapes was in 1880, when the produce of the grand crus of the Mountain fetched as much as 220 f. the caque, equal to nearly 3 f. 60 c. the kilogramme, or about 1_s._ 5_d._ per lb. It was, as usual, scarcity rather than quality that caused this unprecedented rise in price.] [Footnote 410: M. Mauméné relates in his _Traité du Travail des Vins_ that on one occasion, when, as an experiment, 3000 first-class bottles, which had already been used, were employed anew, only fifteen or sixteen of the whole number resisted the pressure. Moreover, if much broken glass is remelted down and used in the manufacture, the bottles do not turn out well, the second fusion of silicates never having the same cohesion as the first. The glass-works of Sèvres and Bercy, which melt down most of the broken glass collected in Paris, have never been able to supply bottles strong enough for sparkling wines.] [Footnote 411: Loivre is about seven miles from Reims on the road to Laon.] [Footnote 412: It is calculated that wine, the grape sugar in which yields ten per cent of alcohol, according to the average in Champagne, would, if bottled immediately after pressing, produce enough carbonic acid gas to develop a pressure of thirty-two atmospheres. But such a pressure is never developed, as the wine is not bottled directly it leaves the press; besides which no bottle could stand it. From four to six atmospheres insure a lively explosion and a brisk creamy foam. It is necessary, therefore, that fermentation should have been carried on till at least three-fourths of the sugar have been converted into alcohol and carbonic acid gas before the wine is drawn off for bottling, for even the very best bottles burst under a pressure of eight atmospheres. A few words on the origin and development of the effervescent properties of Champagne will not be out of place here. These are due, as already explained, to the presence of a large quantity of carbonic acid gas, the evolution of which has been prevented by the bottling of the wine prior to the end of the alcoholic fermentation. The source of carbonic acid gas exists in all wines, and they may be all rendered sparkling by the same method of treatment. Still, no effervescent wine can compare with the finest growths of the Champagne, for these possess the especial property of retaining a large portion of their sugar during, and even after, fermentation; besides which, the soil imparts a native bouquet that no other wine can match. Carbonic acid gas is one of the two products of the fermentation of grape sugar, the other being alcohol. In wine fermented in casks it rises to the surface, and escapes through the bunghole left open for the purpose. The case is different with wine fermenting in bottles tightly secured by corks. Part of the gas developed rises into the chamber or vacant space left in the bottle, where, mingling with the atmospheric air, it exercises a constantly increasing pressure on the surface of the wine. This pressure at length becomes so strong as to keep all the gas subsequently formed dissolved in the wine itself, which it saturates, as it were, and thereby converts into sparkling wine. Upon the bottle being opened, the gas accumulated in the chamber rushes into the air, producing a slight explosion, or pop, and freeing from pressure the gas which had remained dissolved in the wine, and which in turn escapes in the shape of numberless tiny bubbles, forming the foam so pleasing to the eye on rising to the surface. Sometimes on opening a bottle of Champagne the pop is loud, but the effervescence feeble and transitory; and, on the other hand, there is merely a slight explosion, and yet the wine froths and sparkles vigorously and continuously. The two bottles may contain the same quantity of gas, but in the one there is more in the chamber and less dissolved in the wine, and hence the loud pop and slight sparkle; while in the other the pressure is low, and the explosion consequently slighter, but there is more gas in the wine itself, and the effervescence is proportionately greater and more lasting. In the former case the wine has received the addition of, or has contained from the outset, some matter calculated to diminish its power of dissolving carbonic acid gas, and is unsuitable for making good sparkling wine. The nature of the effervescence is one of the best tests of the quality of the wine. Gas naturally dissolved does not all escape at once on the removal of the pressure, but, on the contrary, about two-thirds of it are retained by the viscidity of the wine. The better and more natural the wine, the more intimately the carbonic acid gas remains dissolved in it, and the finer its bubbles. The form of the glass out of which Champagne is drunk has an influence on its effervescence. The wine sparkles far better in a glass terminating in a point, like the old-fashioned _flûte_, or the modern goblet or patera, with a hollow stem, than in one with a rounded bottom. The reason is that any point formed around the liquid, as instanced in the pointed bottoms of these glasses, or in the liquid, as may be proved by putting the end of a pointed glass rod into the wine, favours the disengagement of the gas. Powder of any kind presents a number of tiny points, and hence the dropping of a little powdered sugar into Champagne excites effervescence. Porous bodies like bread-crumbs produce the same effect. Even dust has a similar action; and the wine will froth better in a badly-wiped glass than in one perfectly clean, though it would hardly do to put forward such an excuse as this for using dirty goblets. The lively pop of the cork is less esteemed in England than in certain circles in France, where many hosts would be sadly disappointed if the wine they put before their guests did not go off with a loud bang, causing the ladies to scream and the gentlemen to laugh. A brisk foam, too, is absolutely necessary for the prestige of the wine, and 'grand mousseux' is a quality much sought after by the general public on the other side of the Channel. It is not rare to meet with wines of a high class in which the removal of the cork produces a loud explosion; but unfortunately the brisk report and sharp but transitory rush of foam are features easily imparted by artificial means. The ordinary white wines of Lorraine and other provinces receive a certain addition of spirit and liqueur, and are then artificially charged with carbonic acid gas obtained from carbonate of lime, chalk, and similar materials, after the fashion in which soda-water is made. These wines, sold as Champagne, eject their corks with a loud pop, but three-fourths of the carbonic acid gas escape at the same time, and the wine soon becomes flat and dead; whereas a naturally sparkling wine of good quality left open for three hours and then recorked will be found fresh and drinkable the next day. Both the explosion and the subsequent effervescence are aided by a high temperature, which assists the development of the gas. Cold has the opposite effect, and iced wine neither pops nor sparkles. It, however, retains, if genuine, the whole of the carbonic acid gas held dissolved, which is not the case with the imitations spoken of. Were it not that the question has been seriously started on more than one occasion, and only solved to the satisfaction of the questioner by a chemico-anatomical explanation, it would hardly be worth while touching upon the supposed hurtfulness of the carbonic acid gas contained in sparkling wines. The fact of accidents frequently occurring in breweries, distilleries, wine-presses, &c., from the accumulation of this gas, to breathe which for a few seconds is mortal, has led some people to wonder how Champagne, whilst containing so large a proportion of it, can be swallowed with impunity. The gas, however, which produces fatal results when inhaled into the lungs, by depriving the blood of the oxygen which it should find there, has in the stomach a beneficial effect, serving to promote digestion. In drinking Champagne it is conveyed direct to this latter region, so that no danger whatever exists, any more than in the mineral waters.--Mainly condensed from E. J. Mauméné's _Traité du Travail des Vins_.] [Footnote 413: For a long time the most erroneous ideas as to the cause of such breakage and the means of preventing it prevailed. Tasting, which was most relied on for ascertaining how far fermentation had gone, could not be depended upon with accuracy, though the rule of thumb laid down by some makers was that the time to bottle with the least risk of breakage was when the sweet taste had disappeared, and vinous flavour developed itself. The aerometers subsequently introduced failed to answer the purpose, because the saccharine matter was not the only thing capable of influencing them. The result usually was either the bottling of a must so full of effervescence as to break the bottles, or of wine already completely fermented and incapable of effervescing at all.] [Footnote 414: In some establishments tables made after the same fashion replace the racks, whilst another plan of coaxing the sediment down towards the cork is to stack the bottles at the outset in double rows, with their necks inclining downwards, laths placed between each layer maintaining them in their position. This method effects a great economy of time and space, the bottles requiring on an average only a few days on the racks prior to shipment to thoroughly complete the operation.] [Footnote 415: As the real origin of this system is a matter which has excited no small amount of controversy, and as several claimants to the honour of its discovery have had their names put forward by different writers, the following extracts from a letter from M. Alfred Werlé, of the house founded by Madame Clicquot, may serve to render honour where it is really due: 'Already, in 1806 (I am unable to speak of an earlier period with absolute certainty), the bottles were placed on tables, like to-day, with their heads downwards; each bottle being taken out of its hole, raised in the air, and shaken with the hand, so as to cause the cream of tartar and the deposit it contained to fall upon the cork, the holes being round, and the bottles placed straight downwards. This lasted till 1818, when a man named Müller, an employé of Madame Clicquot, suggested to her that the bottles should be left in the table whilst being shaken, and that the holes should be cut obliquely, so that the bottles might remain inclined. He maintained that one would thus obtain a wine of far greater limpidity. The trial was made, and every day, with a view of keeping this new process a secret, Müller and Madame Clicquot shut themselves up alone in the cellars, and shook the bottles unperceived. In 1821 Müller was assisted by a workman named Mathieu Binder; and in 1823 or 1824, Madame Clicquot having purchased from M. Morizet a _cuvée_ of wine which was shaken and prepared in this merchant's cellars, one of his employés named Thomassin became acquainted with the new method, and resolved to practise it; since when it gradually spread, and eventually was generally adopted. M. Werlé senior recollects perfectly well that when he arrived at Madame Clicquot's in 1821 it was only at her establishment that the bottles were shaken in this manner. The practice of shaking the bottles was a very old one, and no more invented by Müller than by Thomassin; but the former certainly effected great improvements by employing the system of oblique holes, and shaking the bottles in the table and not in the air.'] [Footnote 416: M. Mauméné has pointed out that if a solution of tannin or alum has been added to the _cuvée_ at the time of fining, the deposit is certain to be granular and non-adherent. But he justly remarks that these solutions, especially the latter, though doing good to the wine, have a precisely opposite effect upon the human stomach that consumes it.] [Footnote 417: The Regiment de Champagne was one of the most famous of the _vieux corps_, and claimed to be the second oldest regiment in the French army.] [Footnote 418: The system of dosing the wine does not appear to have been practised prior to the present century.] [Footnote 419: The high favour in which sugar-candy is held for mixing with this Champagne liqueur dates from the latter part of the last century, when there was a perfect mania for everything in a crystallised form, as being the height of condensation and purity. The competition between the first houses of Reims and Epernay to secure the largest and finest crystals was very keen, and it was considered disgraceful for any firm of standing to make use of sugar-candy of a yellow tinge or in small crystals. Latterly it has been demonstrated that these expensive crystals contain more water and less saccharine matter than an equal weight of loaf-sugar, and that they sometimes contain a glutinous element capable of imparting an insipid flavour to the wine.--Mauméné's _Traité du Travail des Vins_.] [Footnote 420: Instances have been known of additions of 25 and even 30 per cent of liqueur, though the average may be taken to be for Germany and France, 15 to 18 per cent; America, 10 to 15 per cent; England, 2 to 6 per cent.] [Footnote 421: The corrosive action of rust upon the wire has led to several attempts to replace it, and some Champagne houses have adopted more or less ingenious appliances of metal, &c. Tinned iron wire has been found to resist rust, but is too expensive; whilst an experiment with galvanised wire resulted in serious illness amongst the workmen handling it, owing to the poisonous fumes evolved by the zinc when acted upon by the acids of the wine.] [Footnote 422: M. Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire raisonné de l'Architecture du Vme au XVIme Siècle_.] [Footnote 423: An engraving of this tower, removed while the present work was passing through the press, will be found on p. 50.] [Footnote 424: See the engraving on p. 16.] [Footnote 425: Read before the Academy of Reims in February 1845, printed by them in their Transactions, and subsequently republished in volume form.] [Footnote 426: It is generally supposed that the gate took its name from a hospital standing a short distance without the walls, and destined for the reception either of lepers or of pilgrims arriving after nightfall. The prevalent opinion is that it bore the inscription _Dei merito_, translated as Dieu le mérite, which became corrupted into Dieu-Lumière. Under Louis XI. it certainly figures as Di Merito.] [Footnote 427: A curious old engraving copied from an ancient tapestry represents the entry of the royal procession into Reims through the Porte Dieu-Lumière. Joan of Arc, beside the king and in company with the Dukes of Bourbon and Alençon, bears the banner of France; whilst her father and mother are seen arriving with the king's baggage by another road.] [Footnote 428: /A.D./ 499.] [Footnote 429: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 430: M. A. Nicaise's _Epernay et l'Abbaye de St. Martin_.] [Footnote 431: Ibid.] [Footnote 432: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_. In December 1540, when the eschevins fixed the 'vinage,' the queue of wine was valued at eight to nine livres.] [Footnote 433: The partiality of Charles V. for the wine of Ay has been elsewhere spoken of. The vendangeoir mentioned was in existence in 1726.] [Footnote 434: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 435: M. A. Nicaise's _Epernay et l'Abbaye de St. Martin_.] [Footnote 436: Ibid.] [Footnote 437: The thoroughfare at Epernay known as the Rempart de la Tour Biron commemorates the above event.] [Footnote 438: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 439: 'Ce diable à quatre A le triple talent De boire et de battre, Et d'être vert-galant.' ] [Footnote 440: 'On lui verse le vin de la côte voisine, Pétillant, savoureux qui soudain l'illumine D'étincelants rayons de joie et de gaîté; Redevenant poëte, il chante la beauté Qui l'aide à conquérir doucement la Champagne.' M. Camille Blondiot's _Henri IV. au Siège d'Epernay_. ] [Footnote 441: 'Viens aurore, Je t'implore, Je suis gai quand je te voi; La bergère Qui m'est chère Est vermeille comme toi. Elle est blonde, Sans seconde, Elle a la taille à la main; Sa prunelle Etincelle Comme l'astre du matin. De rosée, Arrosée, La rose a moins de fraîcheur; Une hermine Est moins fine, Le lis a moins de blancheur. D'ambroisie, Bien choisie, Dupuis se nourrit à part; Et sa bouche Quand j'y touche Me parfume de nectar.' ] [Footnote 442: From the _Extrait du Registre et Papiers des Assemblés du Peuple de la Ville d'Epernay_, preserved in the /MSS./ of Bertin du Rocheret.] [Footnote 443: Bertin du Rocheret's /MSS./] [Footnote 444: Ibid.] [Footnote 445: _Mémoire concernant la Ville d'Epernay_, by Maître François Stapart, notaire au bailliage, published in 1749.] [Footnote 446: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 447: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in the Years 1787-8-9_.] [Footnote 448: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_. In the list of expenses incurred on the passage of Louis XVI. and his family, four hundred livres are set down to 'the Sieur Memmie Cousin, innkeeper and merchant at Epernay, for the dinner of the king, the queen, and the royal family, as well as for an indemnity for the furniture broken at the said Cousin's.' As regards the price of the wines of the River during the Revolutionary epoch, an old account-book of Messrs. Moët & Chandon shows that in 1797 the firm paid for the white wine of Epernay and Avize 200 francs, for that of Chouilly 180 francs, and for that of Pierry and Cramant 150 francs per pièce; whilst that of Ay cost from 565 to 600 francs the queue. Bottles in 1790 only cost 16 livres 10 sols the hundred.] [Footnote 449: The Clos St. Pierre is now the property of M. Charles Porquet, and the ancient seignorial residence of the monks of St. Pierre, at Pierry, is occupied by M. Papelart. Both these gentlemen are wine-merchants.] [Footnote 450: Cazotte, writing in October 1791, speaks of the village as peopled with 'gros propriétaires;' and in November, that it had 'thirty-two households of well-to-do people.' Amongst its inhabitants were the Marquis Tirant de Flavigny, Dubois de Livry, Quatresols de la Motte, De Lastre d'Aubigny, De Lantage, &c., most of whose residences are still extant. In October 1792 several accusations were made against soldiers for picking and eating grapes in the vineyards of Pierry and Moussy, belonging to Cazotte, De la Motte, De Lantage, D'Aubigny, &c.] [Footnote 451: Part of it now serves as the 'maison communale' and school-house of the village.] [Footnote 452: Arrested at Pierry in August 1792, in consequence of the discovery, on the sacking of the Tuileries, of a new plan of escape for the royal family, sent by him to his friend Ponteau, secretary of the Civil List, Cazotte was brought to Paris and immured, in company with his daughter Elizabeth, in the prison of the Abbaye. Arraigned before the self-constituted tribunal presided over by the butcher Maillard, on the night of the 3d September, the fatal words 'To La Force,' equivalent to a sentence of death, were pronounced; and Cazotte was about to fall beneath the sabres already raised against him, when Elizabeth covered his body with her own, and by her heroic appeals induced the assassins to forego their prey. She even had the courage to drink with them to the Republic, and with her father was escorted home in triumph. A few days later, however, he was rearrested, condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and on the 25th September ascended the scaffold, from whence he cried with a firm voice to the multitude, 'I die as I have lived, faithful to God and my king.' Under date of the 10 Prairial An II. (1793), the citizen Bourbon was appointed by the municipality of Pierry to cultivate the vineyards 'du gillotiné (_sic_) Cazotte.'] [Footnote 453: In 1775 the Abbot of Hautvillers, as _décimateur_ of Pierry, claimed to take tithe of a fortieth of all wines in the cellars of the village. This claim being rejected by the baillage of Epernay in 1777, he appealed to the Parliament of Paris. Cazotte undertook the case of his fellow-proprietors, pleading that the abbey, which, according to strict law, was bound to take the tithe in the shape of grapes left at the foot of each vine, had long since replaced this by a monetary commutation; and that the inhabitants of Pierry, like the other wine-growers of the Champagne, being 'obliged, in order to obtain perfection in their wines, to mix the grapes of several crus and different tithings, it would be impossible to tithe the wine itself.' He also argued that the question had been settled by a decision on the same point in favour of the inhabitants of Ay and Dizy. However, the monks obtained a decree from parliament authorising them to take the fortieth of the vintage a month after the wines had been barrelled, unless the wine-growers preferred 'to pay the tithe at the wine-press, in form of the fortieth load of grapes free from all mixture.' The inhabitants appealed in 1780, pleading the impossibility of this plan of tithing at the press, on account of the expense and of the difficulty of sorting out the grapes from those brought from Moussy, Vinay, Monthelon, Cuis, Epernay, and other districts in which they had also vineyards. The Revolution cut the Gordian knot of this affair, which really arose from the wish of the monks to hinder as much as possible that plan of mixing grapes from different sources, to which the perfection of their own wine was due.] [Footnote 454: In January 1790 the inhabitants of Pierry unanimously elected Cazotte their first mayor under the new _régime_. A decree signed by him in this capacity, and dated April 11, 1790, fixes the price for a day's work in the vineyards at 12 sols. In 1793 the municipality of the adjoining district of Moussy fixed the day's hire of the vintager at 25 sous, of horses employed in the vintage at 7 livres 10 sous, and of asses at 5 livres. As regards the price of the local cru, amongst the items of the accounts of the syndic of Moussy for the years 1787-8 is the following: 'For thirteen bottles of stringed wine (vin fisselé) sent to Paris to the procureur of the community (Failly lawsuit), 13 livres.' The community were then engaged in a lawsuit with the Count de Failly respecting a wood. During the Revolutionary epoch it was decreed by the municipality of Pierry that a vineyard known as les Rennes should, on account of the resemblance to les Reines, be in future styled les Sans-culottes. It has since resumed its old name.] [Footnote 455: The story of Cazotte prophesying not only his own fate, but that of the king and queen, Condorcet, Bailly, Malesherbes, Nicolai, the Duchess de Grammont, and others who perished during the Terror, at a dinner given at an Academician's in 1788, has been proved to be a mere invention on the part of La Harpe. Nevertheless there seems but little doubt that he distinctly foresaw many coming evils; and a native of Pierry, M. Armand Bourgeois, asserts that his maternal grandfather was one day at Cazotte's house in the village, when the entire company were completely upset by their host's prophecies of a coming revolution.] [Footnote 456: P. Jannet's _Recueil des Poésies françaises des 15me et 16me Siècles_.] [Footnote 457: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 458: St. Evremond's _Letters_, &c. (London, 1714).] [Footnote 459: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 460: Bertin du Rocheret's /MSS./ _Histoire d'Epernay_.] [Footnote 461: 'Ay produit les meilleurs vins-- J'en prends à témoin tout le monde; Mais vous préférez ceux de Reims, Ay produit les meilleurs vins. Ce sont les premiers, les plus fins, Et Saint Evremont me seconde. Ay produit les meilleurs vins-- J'en prends à témoin tout le monde. Charles Quint s'y connoissoit bien Il en faisoit la différence; Et mieux que son maître Adrien, Charles Quint s'y connoissoit bien, Pour en boire, il ne tint a rien Qu'il ne vînt demeurer en France. Charles Quint s'y connoissoit bien Il en faisoit la différence. Pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger, Et que sa table fût complète, Lui même faisoit vendanger, Pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger. Léon craignant même danger, D'un pressoir d'Ay fit emplète, Pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger, Et que sa table fût complète.' The Adrien mentioned in the second verse was Pope Adrian VI., who had been the Emperor's preceptor, and who by his influence obtained the tiara on the death of Leo X. Unlike his predecessor, he was very simple in his habits.] [Footnote 462: _Maison Rustique_, edition of 1574.] [Footnote 463: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 464: An allusion to the curse pronounced by St. Tresain against the men of Ay.] [Footnote 465: _Maison Rustique_ (1582), translated by Richard Surflet (London, 1600).] [Footnote 466: Ibid.] [Footnote 467: Ibid.] [Footnote 468: Paulmier's treatise, _De Vino et Pomaceo_ (1588).] [Footnote 469: _Maison Rustique_ (1582).] [Footnote 470: Legrand d'Aussy's _Vie privée des Français_.] [Footnote 471: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.] [Footnote 472: _Recueil des Poésies latines et françaises sur le Vin de Champagne_ (Paris, 1712). Gonesse, a village of the department of Seine-et-Oise, about ten miles to the north of Paris, had a high reputation for its bread for several centuries.] [Footnote 473: 'Notre bon roi, le grand Henry, En régaloit sa belle hôtesse, Quand il couchoit à Damery, Notre bon roi, le grand Henry, C'étoit-là son jus favori; Et son pain, celui de Gonesse, Notre bon roi, le grand Henry, En régaloit sa belle hôtesse.' Published in the _Mercure_ of January 1728. Henry was accustomed to speak of the Présidente as his 'belle hôtesse.'] [Footnote 474: Circa 1590.] [Footnote 475: _Théâtre de l'Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs_ (1600).] [Footnote 476: Published at Orleans, 1605. As regards the price of the newly-made wine of Ay at this epoch, Jehan Pussot says that, in 1604, it fetched from 25 to 45 livres; in 1605, from 60 livres upwards; and in 1609, from 100 to 120 livres, at the epoch of the vintage.] [Footnote 477: Chaulieu says that St. Evremond 'Ne chante dans ses vers heureux Que l'inconstance et la Tocane'-- Tocane being usually made of the wine of Ay.] [Footnote 478: St. Evremond's _Works_ (London, 1714).] [Footnote 479: Chaulieu extols the Tocane of Ay, and some verses of Voltaire have been quoted on p. 61.] [Footnote 480: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in the Years 1787-8-9_.] [Footnote 481: CHAMPAGNE. Less for thy grace and glory, land of ours, Than for thy dolour, dear, Let the grief go; and here-- Here's to thy skies, thy women, and thy flowers! France, take the toast, thy women and thy roses; France, to thy wine, more wealth unto thy store! And let the lips a grievous memory closes Smile their proud smile once more! Swarthy Falernian, Massica the Red, Were ye the nectars poured At the great gods' broad board? No, poor old wines, all but in name long dead, Nectar's Champagne--the sparkling soul of mirth, That, bubbling o'er with laughing gas, Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass, And like our flag goes proudly round the earth. 'I am the blood Burgundian sunshine makes; A fine old feudal knight, Of bluff and boisterous might, Whose casque feels--ah, so heavy when one wakes!' 'And I, the dainty Bordeaux, violets' Perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize; My subtile savour gets In partridge wings its daintiest allies.' Ah, potent chiefs, Bordeaux and Burgundy, If we must answer make, This sober counsel take: Messeigneurs, sing your worth less haughtily, For 'tis Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth, That, bubbling o'er with laughing gas, Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass, And like our flag goes proudly round the earth. Ay, 'tis the true, the typic wine of France; Ay, 'tis our heart that sparkles in our eyes, And higher beats for every dire mischance. It was the wit that made our fathers wise, That made their valour gallant, gay, When plumes were stirred by winds of waving swords, And chivalry's defiance spoke the words: 'A vous, Messieurs les Anglais, les premiers!' Let the dull beer-apostle till he's hoarse Vent his small spleen and spite-- Fate fill his sleepless night With nightmares of invincible remorse! We sing Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth, That, bubbling o'er with laughing gas, Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass, And like our flag goes proudly round the earth. ] End of Project Gutenberg's A History of Champagne, by Henry Vizetelly *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF CHAMPAGNE, WITH NOTES ON THE OTHER SPARKLING WINES OF FRANCE *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. 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