Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-14
HENRY COMPTON

y
payne sparkled on the YbkkBlN :
boards of Popes and lE5t2!2 -.
monarchs in the Middle -
Ages, sitting at meat ~
amid their mail clad 49,
chivalry, and quafhng
mighty beakers to the Confusion of the pagan.
The most delightful season to visit the Cham
payne is of course during the harvest when
crowds of women and children are picking
grapes in the vineyards. They come from far
town of Ay, as their fathers did before them;
and in the crowd you may old man,
hale and hearty, about to take part in his
ffty-hrst vintage.
The pay is a franc and half day with
food, or two and half francs without. At
such times the road from Epernay to Dizzy is
crowded with workers on their way to the
vineyards, and Ay and Epernay awake as
early as three o'clock in the morning. Over
| seers and master vine dressers then appear
with thick overcoatS over their blue blouSeS
| to distribute cabbage soup to the gangs that
feast until the sun rises beyond Mareuil.
Picking forthwith begins. Vintagers say that
grapes gathered at sunrise produce the hghtest
| ing the grapes when the early morning sun is
| upon them, they are believed to yield fourth
| more juice.
Care from the Beginning
THE grapes are detached with scissors or
| hooked knives known as serpettes; and all
damaged, decayed, or unripe fruit is removed
from the punches before they are placed in
the baskets. Large carts with rallied open
sides pass back and forth. picking up the full
| baskets and soon drive slowly to the press
| house that the grapes may not be shaken.
| Extreme indeed is the care taken with every
stage in the process of champagne making
From dawn to sunset there is hustle and
dinarily quiet as tomb, one hears perpetual
pattering OF sabots, rafting and humping
| of wheels over roughly paved streets. Carts
piled with baskets Jostle the low railroad cars
| laden with brand new casks; and dotting the
| steep slopes like Swarms of ants are blue
| bloused men, stalwart women, and busy chill
dren carrying baskets to and fro their heads
| protected by unbleached straw bonnets of the
| despised coal scutte kind.
| In some vineyards one comes upon parties
/ of girls sorting and pruning by the wayside;
for one bad grape will infect all its companions
when the whole mass is heaped up in the wine
press. Over all, like generals in the field, ride
overseers on horseback, marshaling their
forces, giving sharp orders to officers of vari-
Gus ranks. At noon comes light lunch
among the shady vines.
In the press house ten thousand pounds of
grapes will be put in each press which. worked
by an enormous fly wheel, will produce one
hundred and fifty gallons of must at the first
squeeze. A second and third combined will
produce an equal quantity, and the whole
mixed forms what is termed a euUee of some
four hundred and fifty gallons The men at
| the press houses are often at work all night
watching the precious liquor as it is pumped
through silver lined pipes into the watts.
High Price for Grapes
THEIR work over for the day, some old fellow
L will produce violin, another cornet, and
| third flute; and in few minutes both youth
| and old age meet to chase the glowing hours
with flying feet" Curiously enough, man of
| the Champagne will crush his own grapes even
| though he owns only single acre of vines; but
the small cultivators always sell to the greater
people or to middlemen, at an average price
of about eight cents a pound. In 1882 how
| ever, prices were exceptionally high, for the
crop was at once extremely small yet exquis-
lite in quality; and manufacturers on the spot
| found it cost them over three hundred dollars
for hogshead of forty-four gallons.
Between Ay and Mareuil the grapes are con-
veyed to the press houses in baskets slung
across mules and donkeys, which on account
of their known partiality for the ripe fruit are
always muzzled. These slopes look across to
the famous vineyards of Sillery, which are so
valuable that fifty acres of vines here belong
ing to the Vicomte de Brimont are worth over
eighty thousand dollars