Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines | Page 5

Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of American Viticulture-- Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at Cincinnati-- Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures there-- Longfellow's Song in Praise of Catawba-- The Kelley Island Wine Company-- Vintaging and Treatment of their Sparkling Wines-- Decrease of Consumption-- The Vineyards of Hammondsport-- Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage-- After Treatment of the Wines-- The Pleasant Valley and Urbana Wine Companies and their Various Brands-- Californian Sparkling Wines-- The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society of San Francisco-- Its Early Failures and Eventual Success in Manufacturing Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage in California-- Chinese Vintagers-- How the Wine is Made-- American Spurious Sparkling Wines 203
XX.--CONCLUDING FACTS AND HINTS.
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 Cr?s 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 to lay down Champagne in-- 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-- Sparkling Wine Cups 212
THE PRINCIPAL SPARKLING WINE BRANDS 225

[Illustrated Text:]
FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE AND OTHER SPARKLING WINES.

I.--THE ORIGIN OF CHAMPAGNE.
The Early Vineyards of the Champagne-- Their Produce esteemed by Popes and Kings, Courtiers and Prelates-- Controversy regarding the rival Merits of the Wines of Burgundy and the Champagne-- Dom Perignon's happy Discovery of Sparkling Wine-- Its Patrons under Louis Quatorze and the Regency-- The Ancient Church and Abbey of Hautvillers-- Farre and Co.'s Champagne Cellars-- The Abbey of St. Peter now a Farm-- Existing Remains of the Monastic Buildings-- The Tombs and Decorations of the Ancient Church-- The Last Resting-Place of Dom Perignon--The Legend of the Holy Dove-- Good Champagne the Result of Labour, Skill, Minute Precaution, and Careful Observation.
Strong men, we know, lived before Agamemnon; and strong wine was made in the fair province of Champagne long before the days of the sagacious Dom Perignon, to whom we are indebted for the sparkling vintage known under the now familiar name. The chalky slopes that border the Marne were early recognised as offering special advantages for the culture of the vine. The priests and monks, whose vows of sobriety certainly did not lessen their appreciation of the good things of this life, and the produce of whose vineyards usually enjoyed a higher reputation than that of their lay neighbours, were clever enough to seize upon the most eligible sites, and quick to spread abroad the fame of their wines. St. Remi, baptiser of Clovis, the first Christian king in France, at the end of the fifth century left by will, to various churches, the vineyards which he owned at Reims and Laon, together with the "vilains" employed in their cultivation. Some three and a half centuries later we find worthy Bishop Pardulus of Laon imitating Paul's advice to Timothy, and urging Archbishop Hincmar to drink of the wines of Epernay and Reims for his stomach's sake. The crusade-preaching Pope, Urban II., who was born among the vineyards of the Champagne, dearly loved the wine of Ay; and his energetic appeals to the princes of Europe to take up arms for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre may have owed some of their eloquence to his favourite beverage.
The red wine of the Champagne sparkled on the boards of monarchs in the Middle Ages when they sat at meat amidst their mailclad chivalry, and quaffed mighty beakers to the confusion of the Paynim. Henry of Andely has sung in his fabliau of the "Bataille des Vins," how, when stout Philip Augustus and his chaplain constituted themselves the earliest known wine-jury, the cr?s of Espernai, Auviler, Chaalons, and Reims were amongst those which found most favour in their eyes, though nearly a couple of centuries elapsed before Eustace Deschamps recorded in verse the rival merits of those of Cumières and Ay. King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, a mighty toper, got so royally drunk day after day upon the vintages of the Champagne, that he forgot all about the treaty with Charles VI., that had formed the pretext of his visit to France, and would probably have lingered, goblet in hand, in the old cathedral city till the day of his death, but for the presentation of a little account for