The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-03-17

pany's manufactury. The land is in the
"wine country" of New York, and this COM
pany owns vineyards OF 10 acres, and make
over 100000 bottles of champagne yearly.
The process here is almost exactly identical
with that of the best French manufactures
The juice stands year in the watts, after it
comes from the press, before it is bottled.
Then il Is bottled, taken TO the vaults, and
the bottles set in racks. These racks are
wooden frames, shaped like gable-oof
running froDs near the ground NJ to
as nigh as q man can comfortably reach, aod
flied on each side with lows of Doles to RS
lieve the necks of tie bottles. These holes
are so snaped that they receive and hold fast
the bottle at any degree ofinclination. When
the bottles are first brought to the vaults,
they are set in those holes at very slight
angle from the horizontal, cork down. They
remain here another year, and are shaken
and slightly tipped toward the perpendicu-
lar every day, so that, at the end of the year,
they stand directly upon their corks. This
shaking and tipping is a peculiar motion.
The UrDana company have imported their
men for this work from European establish
ments. Mr.. Schweetzer, the gentlemanly
superintendent despairing of giving me any
idea ofthe operation otherwise, directed one
of these men to shake rack of bottles for
me. He did it as pianist would run the
q
BILE OF a wagon over a distant bridge. had
scarcely lime to get breath, or to get def
mite track of his elbows, and yet he had given
every bottle on one side of the rack the same
twist, and the same imperceptible tip toward
the perpendicular. This man shakes 10000
| bottles in an hour, put to his speed, and av-
erages from 5000 to 5000 through the day.
The object of this immense labor is simply
| to
| CLEAR THE SETTINGS
from the wine. Anything short of this tedi-
Gus process, and a conneisseur would detect
little white cloud soaring towards the
cork when the bottle was shaken, and the
brand would be condemned off hand.
AS soon as the bottles get so they car
"stand Alone" they are taken up stairs, snd
the corks, upon which every particle of in
soluble matter is concentrate are removed
and new ones substituted. This is also
peculiar process, and is done by experts
who make the change with the bottle in
! verted, and without wasting any of tn,
wine. Here also the syrup is added-grounC
f rock -caDdy-the quantity depending upol
whether the brand is to be more or les
;'dry." dry champagne being simply that il
l which there is but little sweetening o
r flavor. After the recorking, comes tn
, wiring, tin.foiling. labelling, stamping
wrapping and packing. The bottles ar
.
: yet been made strong enough for cham
Q pagne-and cost sixteen cents each. Th
= corks are also imported directly b
Q the company, are of the finest quality
Q and cost 81 per gross. The breakag
: is estimated at ten per cent. of tn
9 whole cost. The incessant explosie
Q OF bottles in the vaults suggests th
o musket-firing of skirmishers. When on
70 considers, therefore, the cost of these items
i and / give them only as samples,-tt
3 gether with the labor and the time and cal
II ital employed, it is easy to see how chan
d wines, and yet the manufacturers nc
9 speedily realize colossal fortunes. The Vi
IL bana company make
TWO BRANDS OF CHAMPAGNE,
y {" Imperial and "Gold Seal" The Col
% Seal is made from five varieties of grape
4 viz: Catawba, Isabella, Concord, Delawsr
and Ionia. The Imperial is made from thrt
varitiss: Catawba, Concord, and Delawar
The principal virtue claimed for Europea
champagne is the absence of soil flavor
IS the grapes, and consequently in the wins
IF and the great objection urged by connoi
=. seurs to American champagne, and esp
- cially the California and Kelly Island chan
70 payne, has been their grapy and soil fiavo
Of 1t is claimed, however, that the peculis
N shady formation of this wine country
Steuben county,-the same as that OF IL
best European grspe-lands, -produces
\. perfect grape for a dry champagne. Perhal
10 the greatest difficulty these wines have
y contend with is the enormous msnufactu
70 and sale of the cheap carbonated" chan
10 payne. These are generally wretchedly my
y terious mixtures, whose sparkle is entire
40 due to an injection of carbonic-acid gas in
o the bottles. But they are put up in pac
=, ages, just as apparently innocent and sedu
,e tive as the real, and they cost only half
10 much.
20 REs1EeEp CITY.-Tbe Springfield Uni