Los Angeles herald., 1890-03-30
A look at these tables vii

" 1879. .-... l59,261 1SSS $3.50
A look at these tables will show how
champagne importations decreased
hardly one-fourth afterthe panic of 1878,
while after the scare of 1888 they dropped
fully one-third, and still, III the first
case, it took over seven years to reach
the former total, while after 1883 it only
took six years to far overreach it; show
ing that the recuperative powers of this
country are fast increasing.
Is Besides genuine champagnes these
importations also include sparkling
wines, so-called champagnes, from Ger
many, Hungary, Switzerland, etc., OF
which a few cases have been shipped to
this country in the last two or three
years. But these wines are in no way
superior to what is produced here, and
instead Of injuring the genuine cham
payne, they rather serve to prove by
contrast that no sparkling wine. has yet
been found to compare with the real
champagne of the land of Dom Per-
ignon.
Seeing this noted increase in the con-
sumption of this wine, people will
naturally wonder if the production will
ever run short, and probably repeat the
old exploded version, that very little
genuine champagne is imported to the
United States, the OUTPUT being hardly
sufficient to supply the crowned heads
of Europe. If this were so, there would
be no stronger plea in favor of a republic
against monarchy.
Happily, we know better, as may be
testified to by the numerous American
tourists who yearly visit the Cham
pagne. Our genial editor, Colonel Fitz-
gerald himself, well acquainted as he
now is with the spacious cellars of the
Due de Montebello, at Mareuil-Sur-Ay,
where he makes a devout pilgrimage
every summer, to drink to the eternal
felicity of the good monk, Dom Perig-
non, has yet failed to notice any dimin-
ution in the several million bottles
stock which they contain, and that de-
spite the continually increasing demand
for that brand and the liberal use he
makes of it himself.
1t is a fact that since the day when
Dom Perignon, at the Monastery of
Hautvillers, discovered that a few
bottles which he had filled a few days
previously had naturally become spark
ling, this proving to be the first cham
pagne made, the production of that wine
has always kept up with the demand,
and so, indeed, has its value-and, from
official returns published by the Cham
Der Of Commerce of Reims, it is seen that
while in 1854 the number of bottles in
the hands of wholesale merchants in
France was II ,757, ,769, in 1886 that stock
had reached 83, 1866, ,952 bottles. Our inn
portations last year having been $780,
SIG bottles 1925, SOS cases), it is plain
hot OH a1,,,, q
famine yet
1t is a noteworthy fact that while
these importations come from thirty or
forty different houses in the Champagne,
who are all trying their best to gain the
favor of the American public, still con-
siderably more than half of those inn
pertations are from only three of the
most popular brands, and the third one
alone is what may be called cheap
wine. This forcibly illustrates two
American people; that is, their'servility
to the fashion and the lack OF
confidence they have in their own
Judgment. as far as drinking cham
payne is concerned; but still they
are generally pretty good judges, as no
amount of money has ever succeeded in
of time an inferior brand. However, it
champagne houses ship here their best
that many brands little known here
have for years enjoyed a European rep
utation, and are equal, if not superior,
to many of the more popular ones. This
will be easily understood, if we con-
o.; ;Jo- +I,o+ ~, fbo ~ har ciIa oh q
wine is a staple article, like sugar or
vineyards that the sun does not shine
especially for anybody in particular, and
that whoever paws for the best quality
gets it. On the other hand, as cham
pagne wine, in order to retain enough
acids to ferment in the bottle, must be
bottled in the first year after it is
pressed, and as, for the same reasons
one cannot use more than one-tliird OF
an old wine, reserve aged in casks, it is
absolutely necessary to keep it at least
three or four years in the cellars to in
sure perfect ripeness. But when brand
suddenly becomes fashionable and
doubles its sales every year, how can
this be done? Only by shipping
the wine from twelve to eighteen
months before it is really fit to drink,
and such is the blind faith people put in
fashion, that they still praise these same
brands until they mistake an unripe
acid wine for dry wine. Or, if they
notice that the quality of the fashionable
brand is not any more what it used to
be, they will not dare say so, and at the
next dinner they give they will still
offer the fashionable brand even against
their own convictiOnS
Years ago, when so many limitations
were made in this country, there was
some excuse for man refusing to drink
any other than well-known brand
but today this is not the case any more,
and anybody who has any confidence in
his own taste may try almost any brand
on the market and judge of the quality
himself
And that is how, quite recently, in
London, forty-two members of the wine
trade assembled at Agricultural hall to
attend competitive tasting of the best
known brands of champagne upon the
market. Twenty brands were adjudi-
Gated upon, being designated only by
numbers and poured in colored glasses.
They were first tasted in four sections
of five brands each then out of the three
best brands of each section they formed
two sections of six brands each; then,
ont of tho fhraa host brands of theee two