1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

67

The R ei1ns Charnpagne E stablislmum;f,s.

shaking. Instead of these racks being, as they commonly are, at almost upright angles, they are perfectly horizontal, which, in M. Werle's opinion, offers a material advantage, ina~much 'as the bottles are all in readiness for disgorging at. the same time instead of the lower ones being ready before those above, as is the case when the ancient system is followed, owing to the up– permost bottles getting less shaken than the others. After performing the round of the celliers- we descend into the caves, a complete.labyrinth of gloomy underground corridors excavated in the bed of chalk which underlies the city, and roofed and walled with solid masomy, more or less blackened by age. In one of these cellars we cat ch sight of rows of work– people engaged in the operation of dosing, corking, securing, and shaking the bottles of wine which have just left the hands of the degorgeur by the dim light of half-a-dozen tallow candles. The latest invention for liqueuring the wine is being employed. Formerly, to prevent the carbonic acid gas escaping from the bottles while the process of liqueuring was going on, it was neces– sary to press a gutta-percha ball connected with the machine, in order to force the escaping gas back. The new machine, how– ever, renders this unnecessary, the gas by its own power and composition forcing itself back into the wine. . In the adjoining cellar of St. Charles are stacks of bottles awaiting the manipulation of the degorgeur, while in that of St. Ferdinand men are engaged in examining other bottles before lighted candles to make certain that t he sediment is thoroughly dislodged and the wine perfectly clear before the disgorgement is effected. Here, too, the corking" wiring, and stringing of the newly-disgorged wine are going on. Another flight ofsteps leads to the second tier ofcellar s, where themoisture trickles down the dank dingy walls, and save the dim light thrown out by the candles we carried, and by some other far-off :fl.ickeTing taper stuck in a cleft stick to direct the workmen, who with dexterous turns of their wrists give a twist to the b'ottles, all is darkness. On every side bottles are reposing in various attitudes, the majority in huge square piles on their sides, others in racks