The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-10
IN A CHAMPAGNE CELLAR.
4 visit TO the GFottos in which the
Great Wine is stored.

From To-Day.
people 90 TO Rheims to see. two things
Ill. cathedral and the champage cellars.
watch Of these two sights is the more IN
Testing Is a matter Of indiYidual taste.
IN either case, you go TO the cathedral
f-st. II you prefer It, you go for that
reason. II you do not. you go TO get it
ar-r and be done with it. Rheims is a
Crv dull town. evidently very industri-
s evidenaN very intent on its own bus
mess. Champagne is its business, and il
IS ra ther strange THAT its light and spark
III sparkle to the city which is its head
Quarters. CroWning the kings OF France
-sed TO be the business Of Rheims; per
fsus IL feels Il has its dignity to keep up,
md refuses q be made frivolous, even by
-hampagne. Some of the streets are old
and some are new, but the old ones have
none Of the charm of antiquity, and the
new ones none Of the brightness OF youth.
The hotel, which bears an old name and
sn honorable reputation, is dirty and
dugy. The only two agreeable points
about IL are the very engaging black
noodle, who RESIDES in il. and the view
nom its windows Of the beautiful facade
u the cathedral, with lovely Celebrations
The Champagne cellar we are to visit is
pommery K GrenO's. The cellars are hol-
lowed out of the chalk rock, and are so
deep down that they have uniform tenn
5srature, summer ana winter, Of about
Il degrees centigrade (abOut 90 degrees
y
no difference down here; in winter IL
strikes warm ard in summer cold. The
cellar consist OF 1nnumerable long tunnels,
.rossing and reCrOssing, and leading in
and out Of each other in the most puz-
cling fashion. They are all lit up with
electric light. The tunnels are fanked on
zach side with high stacks OF bottles-hun-
dreds and thousands OF them-an full or
the precious liquid. When our guide
thinks we are sufficiently impressed, he
iurns US back, through more tunnels, lined
.-1~ he arc mo
cradle of the champagne. 1t is in the be-
ginning simply white wine, which is pour
ri into the casks and allowed TO remain
there for year. Nothing Is added to II.
But on the other hand, nothing 1t taken
away from It, as is the case with still
wines. Stall wine is poured off, three or
four times, into other casks, to free II
from the sediment which always forms
In wine 1t is just this sediment, which
develops sugar and carbonic acid gas,
that, remaining in the wine, makes it
champagne. The champagne, then, lies
IN It's cask for a year, or sometimes two
years. Sometimes II is mixed with some
Of the next years wine of the same char
acter, sometimes not. Finally sediment
and all it is bottled, and the bottles are
stacked, lying on their sides, in great
frames.
The upper side of each bottle is mark
ed with a dab of white paint, and the
bottles are turned way round every few
days. 1t can be easily seen, by the white
mark, when a complete revolution has
been made. This is done so that the sedi-
ment may not all collect In one place.
There is also another, and a more drastic,
process for shaking the sediment about.
We hear loud. hollow, rythmical, re,
verberatlng noise. Our guide takes us
round a corner, and there we see a row
or six men, their faces covered with black
wire masks, a bottle held by the neck in
each of their hands. With military pre-
Cision they follow their leader. lone, .
be cries, and bang, bang, bang, bang, they
all hammer their bottles on the board in
front of them. TWO and all the bottles
are raised in the air, and waved back
wards and forwards. Three and the
men change their hold from the neck to
the body of the bottle, and bang, bang,
bang, bang, go the other ends on the
board. 1t looks, and sounds, as If every
bottle must be smashed to pieces. As a
masks prevent these from flying in the
mems faces.
When the wine has been lying long
enough, and all the thick part has gather
ed against the cork for the bottles are
tipped a. little to allow of this), the cork is
taken out and the wine in the neck of
the bottle CONTAINING the sediment flies
man VINO. with a very ingenious machine
by which several bottles can be worked
at once. adds to the wine a little sweet
liquor to replace the sugar which has
shot out in the sediment. For the diest
champagne only 1 per cent. of LIQUOR is
bottles then go to the corker, who, with
another ingenious little machine, drives
in tremendous corks as large round as a
child's fist. He then passes them to the
Werer, who, with third machine, wires
down the corks at the rate of 100 an hour
The bottles are then given a necklace OF
gold or silver foil, and the champagne is
finished