The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-18
CHAMPAGNES OF ALL
SORTS AND PRICES

From the New York Press.
The importation of champagnes into this
country In the year 1898 reached the enor-
nous total of 242,OO0 cases. This wine
comes in, duty paid for about $40 to $22 a
case. The duty on quarts is S7.36, and on
pints $7.72. The wholesale price to consum-
ers is from $2S to $S2 a case. New York
city alone drinks half of the champagne
imported
Champagne is nearly as cheap water
in France In the districts surrounding
Rheims and Epernay the crude product of
the vineyard is purchased by the great
champagne houses at from ten to twenty
cents a gallon. Those of us who pay 81 a
bottle-short quarts-over here should be
amazed at this statement, because it
sounds ridiculous. Yet all men must know
that it is the doctoring, charging, handling,
changing ,corking and sealing of champagne
that makes it costly. The original is no
better than the red wines of Bordeaux, no
more difficult to grow and market. and
we have known Bordeaux to go begging all
over France at l cent d bottle.
The expense of introducing and pushing
a brand of champagne is extraordinary
One firm allowed its American agent $780,
900 year for advertising at a time when
its sales here amounted to only 5000 cases.
He proved clever and industrious, and in a
short time was importing 5000 cases an
nually thousand dollars have been paid
to social directors for putting a certain
brand Of wine at the head Of the list on the
occasion of a grand ball. Goodness knows
how much Ward McAllister made out of
champagne men! Usually about three
brands are allowed on the menu and the
poldest advertised must pay hand
somely.
Dinner committees representing assem-
blies, clubs and get-togethers must know
the ways of champagne men in order to OBJ
tain much for nothing. At such balls as the
Arion and cercle Francois de rHarmonie
the agents meet in lively competition. each
paying from $500 to $500 for a box, where
wine is opened ad libitum. We have known
these boxes to be ankle deep in the spark
ling fluid. Twenty cases are given to the
managers of the ball. or the cash value of
twenty cases, for the privilege of introduce
ing brand on the floor. And this without
any sort of guarantee that the ball commit
tee will do any pushing.
When every man and woman is drunk or
tipsy at great public function caution is
thrown to the. winds. Men of the world
usually require walters to exhibit the cork
that is drawn from bottle OF champagne,
to prove its genuineness, but in the small
hours of the morning this habit is cast Off
The walters, taking advantage of the situ-
at1on ring in cheap American champagnes
the bottles minus labels, and still preserv-
ing the corks clear for their own account
81 a quart. The corkage, as you know, is
fifteen cents for pints and twenty for
quarts.
Any champagne agent will redeem his
corks. If his brand is burned on the bottom
ne willingly parts with the customary 10
and 20 cents. This rule of the trade is taken
advantage OF by shrewd walters, who ring
in on DRINKS and disorderlies the American
brands They slice off the end of the cneap
cork and, having a stamp for the purpose,
forge the brand of a genuine imported
wine. Detection is virtually impossible. I
know an agent who lost in one day $500 on
forged corks The story is told that GER
tain dignified ball manager instead of per-
hitting walters to save the corks-generally
regarded as walters perquisite-had every
one deposited in a trunk in his office and
redeemed the lot for something like $3.50,
as over 200 cases of wine were opened.
There Is one celebrated brand of cham
payne that attained an annual sale here of
$1,000 cases without the investment of one
dollar for introducing and gushing. The
situation was anomalous. When Germany's
troops held the Champagne District in the
Franco-German war of 1870, the widow of
a wine manufacturer asked Bismarck If she
would be permitted to continue the purchase
of crude wines. 1t was most desirable as
the vintage was the finest known up to that
tlme Consent and protection were granted
and the result was that when the Prince of
Wales visited Paris a few years later he
drank some of the wine and pronounced it
mt Tor the royal court. General john a.
Dix, who had been minister to France in
1860, and was an excellent judge of cham
pagnes, got mold of a small consignment
and persuaded his old friend Corwin, the
Broadway grocer, to place the brand on
sale. The fashionables readily ordered it,
and its name was talked about in homes
and clubs. An enterprising agent agreed TO
handle the brand at 50 cents case for ten
years, anu mace Il handsome fortune, AT
$1,000 cases annually his income was 49,, 50O
Impecunious young swells about town US
ually represent some kind of champagne
and put the agencies at tremendous expense
while giving them practically no return. The
average annual expenses of large agencies
are 100000. Wine is given away prodigally
Sampling in offices is carried to an ex-
IRENE. Men hired by society "play both
ends against the middle as the phrase
goes. The struts and heavies of not few
clubs make all their cigar money by push
ing wines, and pay for all their WHISTLES
with the proceeds of their Recommended
tions." Ward McAllister, Berry Wall, Ed
ward Gibbs Murphy, AL Claggett, Rutgers
Van Brunt and numerous others were, or
are, what might be termed professional
pushers. Champagne eats a mans vitals
out Twenty drinks of whisky a day are
nothing, but ten bottles-well, iron will
wear out. George Reed died at Saratoga Of
champagne drinking, and dear old Frank
Pommer went off in the same way.