The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-08-16
FACTS ABOUT CHA HP4 GNF.

Of the thousand who may be describ
ed as champagne drinkers it may be
safely said that by far the greater
number have never doubted that the
wine is obtained exclusively from Il
white grape, whereas at least three
parts of the vines in the Champenose
county bear grapes which the French
call sblack. A small quantity OF
hampagne-m the SiIlery district, fer
instance is really made from Il " hlte
grape, but, speaking generally, cham
payne Is not Il white wine III the sense
that Sautcrne and ChlbIis are. The
small proportion OF light -colored
grapes sometimes mingled with the
red ones in the press would not pre-
vent the wine from being as purple as
Burgundy or Bordeaux If the manner
of dealing "i'h the fruit Were the
same. 1t is absolutely different. In
the case of all red wines the fruit
after being trodden with the foot or
pressed with machine, Is allowed to
ferment with the juice, which thus be-
comes dyed by the coloring matter Of
the skins, but the juice tEat had been
freshly expressed from red grapes is
almost us clear lis it is from white ones
and. if there is faint roSiness, it will
disappear in the process of termen-
tation.
The champagne grapes undergo
three DRESSINGS, the must from each
being k-pt sep rate to be a'terw;.l ds
sold as wine of different qnaly. As
the En-. lish are tn mot G ilcu OF all
champagne drinkers, they get but
little of the wine that is not of the
first pressing When must has
sood a Very few days, fermentation
begings, and the sweet juice of the
grape soon becomes Il decidedly acid
white wine. Nevertheless. it has Il
generous nature, with which much
can be done by education. 1t mas
proper les. derived from the chalky
soil of The department Of the Marine,
that are found in no her VINE. The
climate, too, exercises Il peculiar IN
fuence upon the result, which the
world has learned to appreciate so
well. The mean temperature is not
warm enough in the late autumn to
produce IA complete fermentation Of
the must; consequently there is Il sec
ond and very active fermentation in
the spring when the vines are putting
forth their new leaves and tendrlis
1t is a season when all wine, especially
when it is new, is liable to grow rest
less, but IN the case of still cham
pague the second working in The
spring following the vintage is she
rule, aud it was this that originally
suggested the idae of bottling i'll up
in the sparkling state.
The pioneer was ii monk, Dom
Perignon, cellarer at the Abbey Of
Hautvillers, near Epernay, who about
the year 1870 began to make expert
ments in bottling The wine Of the dis
trict while IN its second state OF fer
mentation. He soon found that the
corks made of creased hemp, which
where then IL general Use, were i'll
suited to hispurpose, and he substitute
ed the bark of that species Of oak now
kaown us the COZ k-tree in England
and the che"e Hcyc i'll France. BY tying
his corks down he succeeded in I'M
prisoning the car5onic acid gas which
in the cause Of ffervescencp, except
when it was stiong enough TO burst
the bottle. Subsequently NJ. Francois
discovered d means of aScertalnlng the
exact quantity Of sugar to 5 cure
sufficient fern, II alton of the wine in
bottle to render it sparkling and not
so much as to burst the bottles.
= But it must not be supposed tat
champagne, us we know it nowadays,
is produced in this apparently simple
manner. 1t would be far cheaper than
than it is If nothing more were done
to it that what has been stated. The
blending of different growths antl of
old with new wine, has been found to
produce the bes5 results: but it can
only be done by those who have been
educated in the art, and in whom IA
naturally refined faculty Of taste has
been brought to abnormal perfection
Even then the wine, after being bottl-
ed from the cask after Dom Peri2non s
method, would be unstable if moth
ing more were done to it. When the
bottled wine has renamed in the Gel
lar long enoug to mature it, the bot
ties are placed in Il anting position,
with their heads downward by means
of a special rack. For SIX weeks they
are moved daily, and replaced with Il
peculiar action Of the arm, which has
the effect of causing all floating paru-
Giles of ma ter to settle upon the cork
When the wine is perfectly Gear, the
workman moves the cork gently until
it is forced from the bottle by the gas
and at the same line the deposit Is got
rid of. Then, when IA new cork has
been put in the bo: tie, it may be sup
posed that the wine, after another
period Of rest in the cellar, is fit for
the market. 1t is indeed fit then for
the taste Of Il limited number Of cham
payne drinkers who are to be found III
different parts Of he British Empire,
but nowhere else: and who can never
iiLd WINE tha- Is to" dry" for their
palates.
This, however is not the cham
payne that suits the taste of he vast
majority Ct those v no drink thu wine.
For them it has TO undergo &c, tair
''doctoring.' III degree Of which /.
regulared to meet the taste Of con-
sumers. Some strip Is added to the
juice of the grape. l here is ii com
mon but quite erroneous notion that
this slrup is variously compounded,
and that each champagne house has
its own mixture, which 1t keeps Il
secret. AS matt-r Of fact, the IN
gradients are simply water and cane
sugar in the form of candy. In this
way the wine is sweetened to suit the
taste Of purchasers. The largest dose
OF syrup goes into the champagne that
is sent to Russia. After the Russians
come the Germans as buyers OF the
sweet champagne: then follow very
close to them the French and the
Belgians. There is still less Sugar in
the wine that goes to The United States