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12

Wines.

Champagne

an

expensive

wine.

Champagne

in-

tended

for

the

English

market

is

much

drier

than

that

intended

for

the

American

and

Russian.

The

French

take

wine

excessively

iced,

and

drink

Cham-

pagne

towards

the

close

of

dinner.

This

wine

first

attained

the

great

celebrity

it

still

enjoys

in

the

seventeenth

century,

but

it

was

noted

as

a

first-

class

wine

in

the

thirteenth

century

(see

Bataille

des

Vins).

Adjoining

the

district

of

Champagne,

in

the

South

(and

indeed

a

continuation

of

the

same wine

tract),

is

the

ancient

province

of

the

Dukes

of

Burgundy

—

les

princes

des

bons

vins.

Its

vineyards

produce

the

glorious

wine

known

as

Burgundy

—

“

with

all

its

sunlight

glow.”

This

wine

during

the

last

century

provoked

a

redoubtable

controversy

between

the

professors

of

physic

and

men

of

science

of

the

time.

The

dis-

pute,

which

related

to

the

comparative

merits

of

Burgundy

and

Champagne,

lasted

for

nearly

a

cen-

tury,

when

a

solemn

decree

was

pronounced

by

the

Faculty

of

Medicine

in

favour

of

Champagne

;

a

verdict

which

certainly

was

not

agreed

to

by

the

great

Napoleon,

whose

favourite

drink

was

Cham-

bertin,

a

celebrated

kind

of

Burgundy.

Some

of

the

vines

in

the

celebrated

vineyard

of

Clos-de-

Yougeot,

are

said

to

be

300

years

old.

This

wine,