Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/644

Rh 606 WINE and Vertus. The vineyards of the mountain include those of Verzenav, Sillery, Rilly-en -Montague, and Bouzy. The sparkling champagnes are made from both white and red grapes, carefully pressed, and the wine is of an amber colour, more or less deep ac cording to vintage and to the proportion of black grapes used. The grapes are pressed in a large 2&amp;gt;rcssoir, the first pressing yielding the best quality, whilst the second and third are proportionately in ferior. The wine from the first pressing is about equal in quantity to that of the other two combined. The vintage usually takes place in the first week in October, the young wines being left to ferment in the cask until the winter, when the first racking takes place, which operation is repeated a month later, when the wines are fined previously to being put in bottle. The wines of the various growths are mixed in the proportions desired, and a certain quantity of old wine (preserved in cask) is added. The amount of saccharine in the wine is also ascertained, and if deficient the requisite quantity in the form of refined candied sugar is added to bring it to the necessary degree for producing fermentation in the bottle. The bottles, which are carefully selected, those showing the least flaw being rejected, have sloping shoulders, in order that the sediment may not adhere to the sides in the after-process. The wine, after being corked, is secured by an iron clip, and the bottles are arranged in piles in a horizontal position, in which they remain throughout the summer months. During this time the carbonic acid gas is generated, as is also a sediment, which falls to the side of the bottle. The wines are then stacked away in cellars until required for shipment. Previous to the wine being prepared for this pur pose, the bottles are placed in a slanting position, neck downwards, in cranks made in the shape of the letter A, and are daily shaken very &quot;slightly, so that by degrees the sediment falls into the cork. This operation is very delicate, the slightest twist being disastrous. The incline is gradually increased, so that at last the bottle is almost perpendicular, a process which generally takes from three to six weeks. With the sediment thus on the cork, the iron clip is removed, when the force of the wine sends out the cork together with the sediment. The wine is now subjected to dosage or liqueur- ing, the amount of which depends upon the sweetness required ; the bottles are then filled up with wine, corked, and wired ready for shipment. The liqueur used is made from the finest wine, candied sugar, and cognac, the usual amount of which for wine sent to the United Kingdom is from one to four per cent. For colder countries the percentage of liqueur is much greater, in some cases exceeding twenty per cent. The liqueuring is regulated by a machine, by which the quantity is measured to a nicety ; but in some establishments it is still measured by hand with a small ladle. The principal centres of the champagne trade are Rheims and Epernay, although important establishments exist at Ay, Avize, Chalons, and Dizy. The total production of Marne averages about a million hectolitres annually. A large proportion of this, however, is unsuitecl for making champagne. At the same time the supply is still considerably in excess of the demand, the stock in mer chants cellars in the district having amounted in May 1887 to upwards of 82,000,000 bottles, whilst at least half that quantity existed in cask, the total stock thus eqxialling nearly six years requirements. Saumur. Another district of France which produces large quantities of sparkling white wine is that of Saumur, in the department of Maine-et-Loire. These wines have been known for centuries, but up to 1834 were only used as still wines. At that date a successful attempt was made to convert them into sparkling wines, after which they were principally used to supplement the deficient vintages in Champagne. In 1874 sparkling Saumur was introduced into the United Kingdom in its own name, and has since made con siderable advance in the English market, owing mainly to its good quality and its moderate price. It has a great resemblance to the wines of Champagne, and is very fine and wholesome ; and, although it lacks the body and finesse of the best growths of Marne, it com pares very favourably with the lower grades of these wines, and is also much lower in price, the best descriptions being obtainable by the English consumer at little more than three shillings a bottle. The judges of taste and analysis at the Paris exhibition in 1878 gave the following award : &quot;The wine does not differ from Cham pagne in respect of sweetness and lightness ; it is equally white, clear, and sparkling. It contains in nearly the same proportion the same substances as the wines of Champagne. &quot; The town of Saumur is situated on the banks of the Loire and at the foot of a command ing range of hills, to which latter fact the country in a great measure owes its success as a producer of sparkling wines, as the hills furnish, at a trifling cost and in excellent quality, mile upon mile of the excellent cellarage which is indispensable to their preparation. These cellars are excavations in the hills from which the limestone has been taken, and possess the advantages of easy access and even temperature. The best wines of the district are made from black grapes pressed en blanc, as in Champagne, the usual variety of vine being the Breton. The white grapes employed are the Pineau llanc, which are vintaged a full fortnight later than the red grapes. According to the system of manufacturing sparkling Saumur, one- half of each year s must is put into barrels by itself to ferment and become wine, and is kept to be mixed with one-half of the next year s must. In the following May the mixture is put into bottles to undergo its second fermentation, which is induced in the same manner as in champagne, the wine being treated in precisely the same manner. The sediment is also worked into the neck in a similar way, and is thrown oft by the system of disgorgement. The average yield of Maine-et-Loire for the ten years ended 1887 was about 11,990,000 gallons. Next to those of Medoc, the wines of Burgundy are the best Bur- French red wines known in England. This district comprises the guudy. departments of Cote-d Or, Yonne, and Saone-et-Loire, known in former days as Upper and Lower Burgundy. By far the finest qualities are grown in Cote-d Or, in the two communes of Nuits and Beaune. The former lies in the neighbourhood of Dijon, and comprises some of the choicest growths, merging into Beaune in the south, which in its turn adjoins the Macon district, in the department of Saone-et-Loire. The wines of Cote-d Or are grown on the slopes of a range of hills which traverses the department, the best vineyards lying about half-way up the side, where they get the full rays of the sun, the vine apparently deteriorating as it is planted above or below this altitude. As in the case of Medoc wines, the best growths are kept distinct and have a high reputa tion. The usual classification is as follows : Red Wines. Class I. Romanee-Conti, Chambertin, Clos Vougeot, Richebourg, La Tache. Class II. Musigny, Romance -St- Vivant, Le Clos Saint -Georges, Le Corton, Les Bonnes Mares, Le Clos du Tart. Class III. Arvelets, Rugiens, Beau- Class III. Continued. mont, Cailles, Cras-Murge, Bou- dots, Porrets, Pruliers, Thaurey, Vaucrains, Cailleret, Champans, Clavoillon, Clos Margeot, Clos Tavannes,, Noyer, Bart, part of Corton, Echezaux, Feves, Greves, Fernere, Sautenot. Class I. Montvachet. Class II. Chevalier Montrachet, Batard Montrachet, Charmes, mate Wines. Class II. Continued. Combettes, Genevrieres, Goutte d Or, Charlemagne. The wines of Cote-d Or are full-bodied and of excellent colour ; they are of great reputation on the Continent, especially in Belgium, although till recently not so well known in England, owing to the difficulty experienced in keeping them. But this drawback has now been removed by increased care in their treatment, and by a system of freezing in the young wines, by which a quantity of the natural water is removed and the alcoholic strength of the re mainder thereby increased. One of the principal features of the Cote-d Or is the Hospice de Beaune, a celebrated charitable institu tion and hospital, the revenues of which are principally derived from certain vineyards in Beaune, Corton, Yolnay, and Pommard. The wines of these vineyards are sold every year by auction on the first Sunday in November, and the prices they make serve as standards for the various growths of Burgundy. In Yonne, lying to the north-west of Cote-d Or, a considerable quantity of wine is made, both red and white. The former has good colour and body, with a fair bouquet, but is much inferior to the wines of Burgundy proper. The latter, grown mostly in the commune of Chablis, is Cliablis. of fair quality and is generally known by the name of this district. Saone-et-Loire, which lies to the south of Beaune, produces the wine known as Macon, grown in the neighbourhood of that town, Macon. the best growths being those of Theorine. The wines of Macon have most of the Burgundy characteristics, but are lighter in colour and body, and lack much of their bouquet and flavour. Red and white wines are produced in the arrondissement of Hermit- Valence in the department of Drome. These wines are of excellent age quality and improve greatly in bottle, in which state they will keep for many years. The white wines are especially choice, and have a far greater reputation than the red. They are soft and rich, and are said to have no analogy to any other white wine known. The departments of Charente and Charente-Inferieure, although Charente. their wines are unknown in the United Kingdom, are celebrated on account of the brandy distilled from them. This industry has suffered enormously of late years from the ravages of the Phylloxera, which has destroyed many of the best vineyards in the neighbour hood of Cognac. The wines of fhe district are in themselves common and of little use but for the still, for which purpose they cannot be approached by those of any other department. But the proportion of wine required to make brandy is so high that, unless it can be produced at a moderate price, the cost of the spirit becomes enormous ; hence the proprietors have been unable to obtain a sufficiently high price for their wines to make it worth their while to incur the cost of resisting the plague, and consequently a large quantity of vine-land has gone out of cultivation. In 1874 the produce of the two departments amounted to over 250,000.000 gallons, whereas that of 1887 was little over 14,000,000 gallons. During the last two or three years re-planting has been diligently carried on. The above constitute the principal varieties of French wines known in the United Kingdom ; they form, however, but a small fraction of the entire production of the country. Enormous quan-