99 / 174
MIXED, DRINKS.
99
called"champagne"for short, by the generality who
indulge in it occasionally, but those who have a more
intimate acquaintance with it and who are very exact
in their phraseology, always speak of it as charhpagne^
wine. Specifically it is the efiervescent wine made
within the limits of old Champagne in the northeast of
France,mainly in the neighborhood of Epernay,Reims,
Avize, Ay, and Pierry, in the department of Marne.
The vineyards are situated within a district about
twenty miles long,from Reims on the north,to Yertus
on the south,and are generally classed"of the Hill,"
(montagne,) and"of the River," or along the Marne;
but large quantities of new wine are brought from
other regions, and each manufacturer makes a mixture
or blend according to his own system, and produces a
brand of wine known by his own name. The eflFerves-
cence is artificially produced and is of the nature of an
arrested or incomplete fermentation. The degree of
sweetness of the wine is the result of an addition of
liquor consisting of syrup simple and old wine. The
difl:erent degrees of sweetness are indicated by the
terms sec (dry,) doux (sweet,) and brut,(one to three per
cent,of sweet liqueur.) Brut originally meant the new
or unmanipulated wine. The sweeter wines are gener
ally the more efiervescent.