Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-04-14
VINE WAR IN
FRANCE REACHES
BITTER POINT
Winters of Real Cham
payne Fighting Against
limitations.

payne country Is seeming like 3 glass
of the bubbly wine which gets its
name from the district. Only the
presence of soldiers has prevented
serious outbreak. Trouble will come
THICK and fast some day unless the
government gets really busy, and
does something to apease the hornet
like population.
Lots of stories have been cabled
to the United States as to the cause
Of this trouble. Some have been
nearly accurate; none have told the
entire truth about 1t.
Wine, as mott people know, ie
good, bad. or indifferent, somewhat
depending upon how It Is made, but
mostly upon the locality which pro-
duces 1t.
Bordeaux and Beaujolais from
Chablis and Chablis, from Sauterne
and Sauterne, from Champagne and
all of these from Rhine wines and
the whole lot from California wines
The wines of Spain and Portugal
and Algeria and Italy are different
still. The grapes from which the
wines are made are different in taste
and the soil upon which the wines
grow are differently composed,
For vineyard Of two and a half
acres, the annual expenses are about
$500. The champagne, on average
years, from this land amounts to per-
haps 100 gallons, sufficient for about
500 so-called quart bottles of cham
payne.
Therefore, bottle of champagne
cannot possibly fsell, even in France,
for less than about six francs or
$1.20. Opinion ON this point differs
but slightly, some authorities saying
a bottle of real champagne, of tt
poorest quality. can sell for 81 in
France. The estimate is never less
than that
However, in Paris q bottle of
champagne" may be had for 80
cents. There are many brands for
40, so, so and 80 cents a bottle
Some of this 80 cents Champagne"
apparently is as good. is packed in
the same manner, has as much gilt
foil, as much wiring and as big corks
as any 81 and S. wine one gets in
America.
And there is where the trouble
lies.
The principle brands such as are
drunk in America are outside the
rumpus altogether. They are real
champagne.
But in the last 20 years, in Cham
payne, scores Of small wine mer
chants and shippers have sprung into
existence and many of these have
grown rich. They make a specially
OF the cheaper champagnes.
Manifestly the fine wine made from
the grapes grown in the district was
too expensive for these shippers to
buy; so they got substitutes.
This wine the dealers brought into
the Champagne country in tanks like
those the Standard Oil hauls over the
railroads.
In the meantime the cellars OF
Champagne wine growers were flllins
up. The growers could not sell what
little wine they made.
The past two years of rain. when
the grape harvest was nil, or nearly
so, added to the misery of these
people. For. contrary to most other
French farmers, these vineyard work.
ers and proprietors even, do not save
their money.
The spirit of Champagne is in the
people are reckless spenders
when they have anything to spend
Now, that two years of bad weather
had hit them, and what wine they
had found no market because the
wineshippers could get an inferior
cheaper wine from another district
they suddenly got together and swoop
ed down on some of the men WHOM
they believed to be engaged in thie
sort of thing, and soon trash and tin
cans and things floated down the
cutters on crests of bubbling cham
payne. They had broken up whole
sale bottles and barrels.
Soldiers were poured into the coun
try in droves. The whole district re-
sembled a state Of siege. Every
grapevine, almost, had a sentinel
standing over it and every wine eel
lar or warehouse was heavily guard
ed.
Wisely enough the wine-growers
decided to cease hostilities. There
came sudden outbreak in another
spot where the soldiers were not
so thick and Immediately troops flock
ed thither. Then all was calm and
serene again.