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
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 now-a-days. 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
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