THE AMERICAN CHAMPAGNE DISTRICT. 755 



placed upon clearing tables, or racks, the necks pointing obliquely 

 downward, in order that the sediment which has been formed 

 during fermentation may work down upon the cork. Twice a day 

 for three or four weeks the workmen give the bottles a quick lit- 

 tle shake, and turn them partly around and down. At the end of 

 this time the sediment is in the neck of the bottle, while the body 

 of the wine is clear. 



Now the bottles are taken to the finishing room, cork down, 

 and the sediment is "disgorged." The workman cuts the cord 

 holding the cork, and zip ! out shoots the sediment with a report. 

 The bottle is quickly placed on a machine and supplied with 

 a temporary cork. 



The wine in this state is raw vin 'brut without any liqueur. 

 It is sharp and not cloying to the taste. It must be sweetened. 

 So the bottle is placed in a machine, and a spoonful of liqueur is 

 injected into it from a graduated glass tube or reservoir. This 

 " dosage," as it is called, is simply pure sugar crystal dissolved in 

 old wine or fine brandy. The dry champagne which the English 

 and Americans like contains from four to eight per cent of 

 liqueur ; the Russians like sweet champagne, which has from fif- 

 teen to twenty per cent of liqueur.* 



The bottle is permanently corked, and passed to a workman 

 who ties in the cork and fastens wire around it. An ingenious 

 capping machine puts on the pretty gold and silver foil that 

 decorates the bottle, and finally the label is pasted on and the 

 wine cased. 



Such, in brief, are the successive stages through which cham- 

 pagne must pass ere it reaches the table with a bird and is called 

 a "cold bottle." During these processes each bottle has been 

 handled about two hundred times, and the transition from the 

 grape to the finished product has taken two years and a half of 

 time. There is, however, a short cut to champagne. Man does in 

 a few days or a week what it takes Nature to accomplish in two 

 years. He forces carbonic gas into the wine, and he even imi- 

 tates closely the different bouquets. All is not champagne that 

 sparkles, t 



Champagne ! There is an indescribable charm over, around, 

 and about thee. The very word suggests glitter and bubble and 



* The word " dry " is used by wine-growers to indicate natural- juice wine, such as claret 

 or Rhine wine, in which no sugar is left after fermentation. As applied to champagnes, 

 " dry " is used to indicate the degree of sweetness, as " dry " and " extra dry " or " special 

 dry." We do not undertake to pass on the comparative merits of the French and American 

 champagnes. 



\ The apparatus for charging wine and formulas for imitating bouquets are given in 

 Antonio dal Piaz's book. Die Champagner-Fabrikation und Erzeugung impragnirter Schaum- 

 weiue. Wien, 1892. 



