The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-03

as TO become generally available III cases
where this kind of stimulant is needed, and
also as a wine of ordinary consumption at our
tables. We have before expressed a strong
general opipion OF the superiority of light
wines over heavy wines, which we regret to
see is by no means generally shared, as yet,
by the middle classes in this country. But
the people who mistakenly prefer sherry to
claret would still, we think prefer cham
payne to sherry. The practical ques-
tion is whether we may not obtain cham
payne as cheap as sherry. Now, undoubtedly,
many cheap champagnes are obtainaole, and,
so far as fz and foam and carbOnic acid gas
are concerned, these wines can hardly be dis
tinguished by the uninitated from those mag
nfcent wines for which magnificent prices
must be paid. A certain degree of suspicion
belongs to these cheap wines, which is not
unnatural when we consider the enormous
amount of fictitious and adulterated wines
which are in the market. Some time ago
there was trial at law which related to
way of manufacturing champagne in this
country, much the same as soda water is
made, but the process proved unsatisfactory,
and brought its ingenious inventor into
much deserved trouble. 1t is very pro-
hable that similar processes are in a
nros,, ,erous state OF activity in the
metropolis. Still, there is no doubt
that eiiel vesciDg wines may be made
in the champagne country and be imported so
as to be sold at very low prices, and these
cheap champagnes may make pleasant
enough lunch beverage, In one point of view
to be greatly preferred to sherry, especially
when the sherry comes from Hamburg. The
public gain an advantage wheD they deal with
| those houses who have established stores Of
their own in France, where they can command
good vineyards or purchase crops direct from
! the growers, storing their own wines until
| ready for shipment. Thus cheap champagne can
| l,o OF txuan
dozen in some places, which are sold at other
places for thirty or forty.
There is, however, one kind of cheap cham
| pagne which is very little known in England.
This is known in the champagne country as
the "Tissne de Champagne" France is the
land of tisanes, and their greater use in this
country is much to be de1ired. 1t is calcu-
lated that one-bsf Of the cured diseases in
France are cured by the use of tisanes. For
merly the tisane article was well understood
in England, but the good old fashion has
fallen off, though it is pursued still with the
utmost popularity in France. The
author OF an admirable work called
"Wholesome Fare; or, the Cook and
the Doctor, ;" thus speaks Of the, French tisanes
"Tisanes are most largely employed in
France. Without consulting the doctor, and
by kind OF instinct, people have recourse to
them at the slightest indisposition. Often
they form the only treatment. Professional
men prescribe them always. The benefit de-
rived from tisanes, whose use is the result of
the sick mans longing, is fully proved by ex-
perience. They comprise the whole pharma-
ceutical machinery necessary There is o
tisane, of course very different from all the
ordinary thin tisanes, which, for most per-
SONS, is quite distipguishable from champagne.
1t is cheap and excellent, and produces the
best medical results of the best champagne.
1t is very little known, and, as the supply is
always necessarily limited, it is fortu-
nate that there is no large demand for it,
which could be only mot in a spurious wav
OF all the tisanes that have been invented the
champagne tisane is certainly the pleasantest.
The tissne is formed in the following way
1t is well known that there is disengagement
of the sediment in champagne, according to
Madame Clicquot's invention. The space occu-
pied by the fluid displaced is filled up by the
liqueur necessary in the composition Of all
champagne. 1t is, however, necessary to
remove some amount of wine in addition
TO the sediment in order to form room for the
! liqueur, and therefore small quantity OF
champagne is poured OFF from each bottle
which may be bottles of the best possible
wines-intO other bottles which, in their turn,
receive some of the liqueur, and become the
tisane. Thus bottle of tisaue or champagne
really consists OF a mixture of different kinds
OF champagne, carrying the champagne theory
of mixture to the furthest point. 1t is want
ing IN distinctive bouquet, and IN some degree
in carbOnic acid gas, and can claim no name
aud in these wines it is the name that often
costs most-but it is the most wholesome and
genuine kind of champagne that can be sold
cheap. 1t is, in point of fact much more
wholesome than the best champagnes.
1t is a very common thing in Rheims
that persons when they feel i'll
should say that they require some champagne
tisane, which speedily sets them right. 1t
seems to us the cheapest and best wine of a
champagne kind that can be procured 1t is
very rare III this country, as indeed only a
moderate amount is obtained in the different
houses of champagne, / only know it through
NJ. Lafttau, of Jermyn street, the London
agent of Messrs. Koch of Avizs, eminent
growers of the dry wines. have TO thank NJ.
Lafittau for the information and insight which
he has given me generally into the subject.
The best dry wines of champagne, especially
of famous vintages, such as 1865 and as the pre-.
sent year will certainly be, will command that
price which the best of things will always get.
But pleasant wine, and wine preGminently y
wholesome, is to be obtained at a much lower
rate. There is one other wine which should
be mentioned az a cneap equivalent for cham.
payne: this is the Neufchatel champagne
the loss of case of which forms the
basis of Mr. Dickens and Mr.. Collins power.
full story "NO Thoroughfare," and, for most
persons first made known the existence of the
Neufchatel champagne.
A PerpleXed Physician.
n