St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-21
RlPENING CHAMPAGNE.
cro++os I'm which the Wine Is
Stored and Cared For Before Its
Sale.


Today.
People go to Rheims to see two
things-the cathedral and the cham-
paene cellars. Which of these two
sights is the more interesting is
matter of individual taste. In erther,
case. YOU go to the cathedral hrst-.
If YOU prefer it, you go for that 7rea-
son. If you do not, you go TO II
over and be done with it. Rheims
is a very dull town, evidently very
industrious, evidently very intent
ON it's own business. Champagne
is it's business, and it is rather
strange that its light and sparkling
nature should fail to impart any
light or sparkle to the city which is
it's headquarters. Growing the
kings of France used to be the busl-
ness of Rheims; perhaps 1t feels 1t
has it's dignity to keep. up, and re-
fuses to be made frivolous, even by
champagne. Some of the streets are
old and some are new, but the old
ones have none of the charms of
antiquity, and the new ones none of
the brightness of youth. The hotel,
which bears an old name and an hon
orable reputation, is dirty and dingy.
The only two agreeable points about
1t are the very engaging black
poodle, who resides in it, and the
view from it's windows of the beauti-
full facade of the cathedral, with
lovely elaborations Of stone cary
ingS.
The champagne cellar we are to
visit is Pommery & Greno's. The
cellars are followed out of the chalk
rock, and are so deep down that
they have a uniform temperature,
summer and winter, of about IL de-
grees centigrade (about So degrees
FahrenheiO' Heat or cold above
makes no difference down here; in
winter it strikes warm and in sum-
mer cold. The cellars consist of in
and recressing, and leading in and
out of each other in the most puz-
zling fashion. They are all lit up
with electric light. The tunnels are
aanked on each side with high
stacks of bottles-hundreds and
thousands of them-all full of the
precious liquid. When our guide
thinks we are sufficiently impressed
he turns us back through more tun-
nels lined with huge casks. These
casks are the cradle of the cham
pagne. 1t is in the beginning simply
white wine, which is poured into the
casks and allowed to remain there
for a year. Nothing is added to it.
But, on the other hand, nothing is
taken away from it, as is the case
with still wines. Still wine is poured
off, three or four times, into other
casks, to free it from the sediment
which always forms in wine. It is
just this sediment, which develops
sugar and carbonic acid gas, that.
remaining in the wine, makes it
champagne. The champagne, then.
lies in its cask for year, or some
times two years. Sometimes 1T is
mixed with some of the next years
Wine of the same character, some
times 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
marked with a dab of white paint
and the bottles are turned away round
every few minutes. 1t can be easilv
seen, by the white mark, when a COM
plete revolution has been made. This
is done SO that the sediment may not
all collect in one place. There is also
another, and more drastic, process
for shaking the sediment about. We
hear loud, hollow, rhythmical. re-
verberating noise. Our guide takes us
round a corner, and there we see a.
row Of six men. their faces covered
with black wire masks, a bottle held
by the neck in each of their hands.
With military precision they follow
their leader. 'One," he cries. and
bang, bang, bang, bang, they all. ham,
mer their bottles on the board in front
of them. 1.-TWO" and all the bottles
are raised IN tase air, and waved back