Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-07

valued at S9,167 ,040 wholesale. The con-
sumers paid about S1S,000,000 for the
pleasure and privilege of drinking it.
Champagne is like awoman's dress-either
in or out OF the fashion. The agent or
manufacturer who is clever enough to gain
for his brand the approval and indorse-
ment of society" is the one who sells the
most popular wine. Just now Pommery
is most in demand. Last year it headed
the list with an importation CT 4,576
cases. There is no telling how soon an
other brand may supersede it. The action
of the Four Hundred will influence the
direction of public taste to considerable
extent 1t was noticed that the cham
pagnes used at Ward McAllister's New
Years ball were Meet & Chandon's Due de
Montebello, 2, 124; Berton Sec, 1877; Eu-
gene Laurent & Co., 100; Eugene Gil
quot, 1927; Cabinet Sekt (German), $40;
Coude Sec, $50; Gordon Rose, $50; F. Due
chatel & Co., 145; Brut Imperial, Louis
Reederer's Vim Brut and Perrier-Jouet
Special Reserve, and you must have OBJ
served the subsequent increase in the de-
mand for those brands.
The most direct way of arriving at an ac-
citrate knowledge of the relative popularity
| of champagnes is to compare their annual
sales. Take 1889, for instance. OF Pom
merry the total importation amounted to
1876 cases: Mumm, 5000; Piper
Heidsieck Sec, 1858; Perrier-Jouet, 49,
SS5; Clicquot, 1860; Meet & Chandon,
1885, Louis Roederer, 1910; Dry
Monopole Extra, 9,S13; Grand Sec Jules
Nfumm & Coz, $3.50; George Goulet,
6,0l6; Delbeck & Co., 5,209; Ernest Irroy
1887; De ST. Marceaux d Co., $685.
Charles Heidsieck, 1854; Giesler & Co.,
1885; Bonche Sec, 2,403
We waste half as much champagne in
this country as we drink. No servants
in the world get as much good wine as
those who serve in the great cities of the
United States, New York in particular.
Go to one of our popular social functions,
New Years ball, great dinner, re-
ception, banquet, and see champagne
flow like water; see bottles opened, hall
emptied and retired, to be finished by the
waiter; see young men about town stag.
gering over the floor with glass in one
hand and a quart bottle in the other,
spilling twice as much as they drink see
the guzzlers guzzle till, surfeited with
guiding, they call for more wine simply
to let it waste its carbonic acid gas on the
wine-soaked air. All, the pity of it
THE QUALITY OF CHAMPAGNE THAT Is
DRUNK HERE.
1t has been said that we in this country
never get the best champagnes; that they
are reserved for the courts OF Europe, the
millionaire noblemen of Russia, Germany
Italy, France and England This is sheer
Tho host oh
featured come to the United States. And
why shouldn't they? Of all people in the
world, the Americans are the most eager
to get the best of everything, and the most
willing to pay fair price for it. Money
will tell. Champagnes, like everything
else nowadays, are adulterated, of course
but there is less of this adulteration than
one would suppose. The agents of the
various brands are usually responsible
men, with an eye to their own welfare, and
they see to it that their respective brands
are not misrepresented. The champagne
trade is entirely in their hands. No one
can buy bottle from the manufacturers
except through them. If an order for one
thousand cases were sent to Pommery &
Greno by dealer in New York, Pommery
4 Greno would respectfully refer the pur-
chaser to their agent in this city. The
agent must have his commission, which is
liberal one. If the agent made only 81
on case he would have an annual income
of $4,000. 1t is generally understood
that he makes more. But there are bad
debts, the bane of the business world,
which will occasionally cut down an agents
profits. Only few weeks ago there was
failure in this city which cost the agent of
certain champagne some $4,000 The
person in difficulties owed him S36, 600.
and settled at fifty cents on the dollar.
The cost of advertising is considerable, all
of which is borne by the agent.
1t is well-nigh impossible to deceive an
experienced agent with an adulterated or
fraudulent wine He will decide at a
single glance, and without tasting, whether
champagne is genuine or not. All he
requires is a good look at the bottle A
few days ago well-known agent in Beaver
street, who sells over 100000 gallons of
wine IN this city annually, was asked to
look at six bottles of champagne placed in
a row, and to tell whether or not they
were genuine. He instantly decided that
they were, and he was right. Six more
bottles were placed before him, and he de-
cided just as quickly that FIVE were gen.
ulne and the other fraudulent. Right
again. The writer asked how he knew
the difference, whereupon he explained
that his judgment was governed entirely
by the presence or absence of ugly paste
spots Cd the bottle. In France the labels
are pasted on the bottles by women, whose
daily earnings are so small that in order
m al-n dp0apt w fhax- ~
work exceedingly fast. Their fingers
soon become covered with paste, and in
handling the bottles the paste adheres in
daubs here and there, giving the glass a
rather unsightly appearance. No atten-
ton is paid to this, however, for there is
no time to wipe or wash the bottles. The
paste hardens and becomes a part of the
bottle-a sort of trademark, as it we're.
\ bottle without the daubs, smooth and
clean, is often an indication CT fraud
French champagne manufacturers do
not concern themselves with American
wines. They seem TO fear no competition
except such as exists among themselves.
The Germans of Alsace and Lorraine have
been trying for years to produce a fine
quality of champagne, but it seems en-
| tirely beyond them to make a light wine.
Everything German is heavy. The French
art of 'blending" has not yet been ac-
quired by any other people, and that is
the secret Of making fine champagne.
California produces champagne that has
been pronounced drinkable, but it lacks
some OF the elements that go to make a
perfect wine. Perhaps it is the quality of
the dosage" used that renders it UNEQUAL
to the product of the Department of the
Marine. Possibly it is true that the cellars
have something to do with the flavor and
quality. 1t is said that the vast "cavesp
excayated in the chalk rock underlying
the country around Reims, Sillery, Eper-
nay, Chalons, Chaumont and other places
in the Department are the only cellars in
the world fit for storing and ,oan,,;r,,l..