The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-30
CHAMPAGNE IN ENGLAND.
1t Is Better and Costs Half as Much
as in America.
[From the New York Recordar1

From the New York Recorder.1
With characteristic thoroughness, the
Briton has cultivated and perfected
tastes till it can we'll be said that the
buying, the keeping, the serving and
the drinking of wine have become an
art with him. This is particularly evil
dent in the Importance the English give
to the purchase and trea tment of
champagne. Not satisfied if the label
bears merely the name of one of the
We'll known champagne houses, the
Englishman gravely sets about to in
vestigate the merits of the different
brands and vintages offered to him, and
will have none but the best Thus each
year, when the great champagne firms
send their vintages to the English auc-
tons. which are such a notable feature
of the English wine trade, the leading
wine merchants and the purchasers
with established regulations for fine
palates meet in solemn conclave and
after many hastings, decide as to which
wine the palm should be given. So sub
tie is their knowledge and judgment
that their opinion is final, and finds it's
expression in the prices paid for the
different brands at these sales, which
give the keynote for prices throughout
the English markets
The English wine drinker is always
willing to pay the highest price for
what he considers the best wine, but
even at that he gets his champagne
much cheaper than Americans can get
the same thing. The same brands cost
the American consumer in his home
market nearly double the price paid in
England, a fact largely due, of course,
to our duties on champagnes. But an
other peculiar thing about the cham
payne market in America is the lack
of distinction in price in purchasing.
The consumer here pays about the same
price for all brands of reputable cham
payne, and thereby creates the impress
sion that one wine is about the same
as another to him so long as it is a
reputable champagne.
And yet we have in our country as
good connisseurs as there are in Eng
land. But the average American wine
drinker will rarely take the time and
| the trouble to try the relative merits
of the different brands, and too often
| leaves it to the knight of the bar or the
! garcon, who not infrequently permits
itself interest to influence the choice of
| the brand.
| The Englishman, once in the posses
sion of the brand he prefers, stores it
with punctilious care in his cellar,
which is admirably adapted for keep
| ing the wine for years in the best of
condition. The English climate also
favors wine preservation. Any good
cellar in England will not show a
| greater variation in temperature than a
! few degrees throughout the year. In
American we are at a disadvantage. II
our climate, even in the best of cellars
the temperature varies thirty degrees
and more This makes it impossible
to keep so delicate an article as cham
payne from leaking.
The Englishman also serves cham
payne differently from the manner il
which it is served in our country. True
to our prediction for ice cold drinks
we insist upon the bottle being as colo
! as Greenland, and some even go so fal
as to have the champagne trapped
and are not satisfied unless the Liquid
is turned into frozen mass. To the
Englishman this process seems wrong
done to the subtle flavor of the wine
which is destroyed by intense cold. HIS
is careful to leave the champagne in the
ice cooler only short time before il
is consumed and believes that thus hi
loses none of the delicate bouquet OF
this prince of beverages.