Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-15
IN THE CHHAMPAGNE FIELDS.
Some Idea oTthe PreductEveness of the Epernay District.

ltTOUl LIo LOuNOu 1llucS.I
 The quantity of wine shipped or sent of from Rheims and Epernay is almost incredi-
 ble. We hear great deal of nonsense on this point We are gravely told that more champagne is drunk in Russia alone than all the vineyards in France put together could supply-the fact being that it is very diffi- cult to smuggle champagne into Russia, that every bottle pays a duty of 4f to the Russian Government, and so the precise number of bottles imported is known, and the quantity is mere fraction of what is sent from the district. England and America are much larger consumers than Russia; the home consumption in France is large, and so is the export to Germany, 1atly, India and the colonies But the supply is equal to even
 larger demand. The average export from one house alone at Rheims, and of high class
 wines alone, averages 100000 bottles. No other house may have quite so large oasl-
 ness as this, but there are many well-known
 houses where the exports are very large, and
 it is matter not of guess work, but Of care ful calculation founded upon official returns
 and the collection of revenue, upon the man
 ufacture ot bottles, the supply Of eorks,
 railway returns and similar facts, by which tolerably close approximation to the truth
 may be ascartained, when it is believed that
 at least 90, 900, 900 bottles are now exported or are sent from the Champagne District for home consumption every year. The quantity has fully doubled in the last 30 years, or from 10, ,472, ,049 bottles in 185S-9 to 20, ,534, 324 bottles in 1SS7-S: the exports having been F, ,267, ,684 and the home consumption 3,076 639 These are the statistics furnished l by the Rheims Chamber of Commerce.
 When the visitor walks around one of the vineyards which cover the slopes of the hills along the banks of the Marne, and is told 1 that the land varies in value from 9oO0 up l to G1, 200 an acre, that the expenses Of man uring and cultivation on a yearly average 1 from 935 to e45 sterling; that in soIoe years 1 the crops are scanty or poor; that enly about 1 once in five years is the crop full ana me | and then when one reflects upon the cost I of borrowing out the cellars from the solid | chalk and of the expenses in the wine l pressing, of cost of the casks and vats of the bottles, corks and wire, of the labol | in the bottling and disgorging, of the losi I of interest on capital while the wine i! maturing, of the loss by bursting of bottles | one wonders not that good champagne, attel | paying duty and carriage to England, shoulc | cost los or 12s. bottle, but that it should l leave profit to the producer even at thai 1 price, And when it is known that really 1 good pure wine-not of choice or fanclfu | vintage and of the brand of weli-knoWI | or first class house, but a real, genuine 1 wholesome, pleasant wine-can be supplied | at a profit from Epernay and bought ln Lon ] don for half a crown bottle, even now tna | the additional five shillings dozen IS pale 1 upon imported chnmpagnes, one IS lost ln as 1 tonishment as to how 1t can be done Som' | people say it cannot be done, that such chesl l stuff must be sort of Ringerbeer or zoedone But visit to the Champagne District dispell the doubt