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 usual entrance to Messrs. Moët and Chandon’s Epernay cellars--which,
burrowed out in all directions, are of the aggregate length of nearly
seven miles, and have usually between 11,000,000 and 12,000,000 bottles
and 25,000 casks of wine stored therein--is through a wide and imposing
portal, and down a long and broad flight of steps. It is, however, by
the ancient and less imposing entrance, through which more than one
crowned head has condescended to pass, that we set forth on our
lengthened tour through these intricate underground galleries--this
subterranean city with its miles of streets, crossroads, open spaces,
tramways, and stations devoted solely to champagne. A gilt inscription
on a black marble tablet testifies that “on the 26th July, 1807,
Napoleon the Great, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector
of the Confederation of the Rhine, honoured commerce by visiting the
cellars of Jean Rémi Moët, Mayor of Epernay, President of the Canton,
and Member of the General Council of the Department,” within three weeks
of the signature of the treaty of Tilsit. Passing down the flight of
steep slippery steps traversed by the victor of Eylau and Jena, access
is gained to the upper range of vaults, brilliantly illuminated by the
glare of gas, or dimly lighted by the flickering flame of
tallow-candles, upwards of 60,000lbs. of which are annually consumed.
Here group after group of the small army of 350 workmen employed in
these subterranean galleries are encountered engaged in the process of
transforming the _vin brut_ into champagne. At Messrs. Moët and
Chandon’s the all-important operation of liqueuring the wine is effected
by aid of machines of the latest construction, which regulate the
quantity administered to the utmost nicety. The corks are branded by
being pressed against steel dies heated by gas, by women who can turn
out 3,000 per day apiece, the quantity of string used to secure them
amounting to nearly ten tons in the course of the year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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