The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-05-19


ted in violent disturbances and
the destruction Of enormous
quantities of champagne, was the re-
suit of the suffering of the people in
the Department of Marine which the
wine growers there attributed to the
extensive manufacture of adulterated
and counterfeited wine.
To protect the growers of real
champagne the French government in
1907 instituted an investigation. AS
the result Of a years work Of the in
vestigating committee the govern
ment secured the passage of a law
which provided an official label for
real champagne and requiring hat no
wine should bear this label unless it
were wholly the production of a spe-
cific district-a region within the linn
Its Of the Department of Marine.
From the start the law delimiting
the champagne country was unpopu-
lar, there being numerous complaints
that 1t was not rigidly enforced. Dis
satisfaction led to meetings of pro-
test, the wine growers asserting that
wine YES imported into Marine where
it was bottled and marked with the
government label. Counter-demon-
strations were begun in the Depart
ment of Aube, where the wine grow
ers clamored to have their department
included in the delimited champagne
district.
Taking ~cogniZance of the Aube
growers the French senate, after a
long discussion, adopted a resolution
April II in favor of the suppression Of
all territorial delimitation. AS soon
as the news of the senate's action
reached the Marine region, where it
was regarded as a deadly blow to
their interests and a concession to
the rival and neighboring Department
of Aube, the exasperated Marine wine
growers rose in arms and burned and
sacked every Aube wine depot they
could reach.
Rheims and Epernay, in the Depart
ment Of Marine, are the centers Of the
champagne trade. Each town is about
two hours by rail southwest Of Paris.
The department covers only about
forty thousand acres. This depart
ment lies in the old Province Of
Champagne, from which the wine
takes it's name.
The soil is of a chalky formation
that retains the suns heat and pre-
vents heavy dews, thus giving the
grape a fine chance to mature. The
rolling hill country provides a good
natural drainage, and there Is about
the same yield year after a with
out any necessity for enriching or re-
newing the soil. The vines are grown
on small poles and are cut back every
second or third year. In June, for
miles around, one gets the fragrant
odor Of the young grape blossoms !;
and in October, in the vintage season,
masses of small purple and white
grapes, heaped in p%rofusion every
where, are a picturesque sight
The wine is stored In immense
caves in Rheims and at Epernay, 16
miles distant. Some of the caves ex-
tend for miles under the city, and
parts of Rheims are literally honey.
combed. Often the caves are three
stories deep, sc as to vary the tenn.
perature. One descends to them by a
splendid flight of 116 steps cut out
of the chalk soil. The caves are more
than ten miles long and are constant.
ly being added to. There are about
two hundred large rooms in them, and
some of the corridors are more than
a quarter OF a mile in length.
1t is not unusual to have as much
$ 10000 900 to $4,000, 900 bottles
stored in these cellars at one time
The wine cellars everywhere are as
spotlessly clean and fresh as a New
England housekeeper's kitchen. In
several rooms fine bas-reliefs are
sculptured in the chalk.
The yorkmen are all well paid: and
each receives, besides, a bottle of red
wine in the morning and another In
the afternoon, to keep the blood warm
while working beneath the earth. as
they do most of the day.
Before the cork was discovered real
champagne did not exist. Without it
no sparkling wine could be brought to
perfection, requiring, as it does, the
peculiar process of fermentation after
being bottled.
Only the Juice from the first press.
ing of the grape is for champagne. the
second and third DRESSINGS being left
for inferior wine. The juice remains
in these watts from October until Jan
,,ary, when the mixing takes place
CHS is a secret in each establishment
s sach wine-master has his owl