Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling WinesVizetelly, Henry
History
Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines
Vizetelly, Henry
Champagne (Wine); Sparkling wines; Wine and wine making
The buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard comprise a large
packing-hall, celliers where the wine is finished off, and rooms where
corks and such-like things are stored. Here, too, is the entrance to the
cellars, of which there are three tiers, all lofty and well-ventilated
galleries, very regular in their construction, and faced with either
stone or brick. In these extensive vaults are casks of fine reserved
wines for blending with youthful vintages, and bottles of _vin brut_,
built up in solid stacks, that may be reckoned by their hundreds of
thousands. At Messrs. Giesler’s the disgorging of the wine is
accomplished in a small cellier partially underground, and the
temperature of which is very cool and equable. The _dégorgeurs_,
isolated from the rest of the workpeople, are carrying on their
operations here by candlelight. So soon as the sediment is removed the
bottles are raised in baskets to the cellier above, where the
liqueuring, re-corking, stringing, and wiring are successively
accomplished. By pursuing this plan the loss sustained by the
disgorgement is believed to be reduced to a minimum.
Extensive as these premises are they are still insufficient for the
requirements of the firm, and across the road is a spacious building
where new bottles are stored and the washing of the bottles in
preparation for the tirage takes place. By the aid of the machinery
provided, sixteen women, assisted by a couple of men, commonly wash some
fifteen or sixteen thousand bottles in the course of a day. Here, too,
stands one of the two large presses with which at the epoch of the
vintage a hundred pièces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty
hours. The remaining press is installed in a cellier at the farther end
of the garden on the other side of the road. Messrs. Giesler possess
additional presses at their vendangeoir at Bouzy, and during the vintage
have the command of presses at Ay, Verzenay, Vertus, Le Mesnil, &c., it
being a rule of theirs always to press the grapes within a few hours
after they are gathered to obviate their becoming bruised by their own
weight and imparting a dark colour to the wine, a contingency difficult
to guard against in seasons when the fruit is over-ripe. The firm own
vineyards at Avize, and have agreements with vine-proprietors at Ay,
Bouzy, Verzenay, and elsewhere, to purchase their crops regularly every
year. Messrs. Giesler’s brand has secured its existing high repute
solely through the fine quality of the wines shipped by the house--wines
which are known and appreciated by all real connoisseurs of champagne.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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