TJic Country Gcntlcwonian 



THE facility with which the green fruit 

 can be procured during spring and early 

 summer affords the only excuse for the 

 practice of imitating champagne wines by a 

 fruit so dissimilar to the] grapes as is the 

 gooseberry. Were grapes more abundant, 

 nothing else ought to be employed in the 

 preparation of British champagne, for green 

 grapes communicate no unpleasant flavour. 

 " It is ascertained," says Dr M'CuUoch, " in 

 the wine countries, that, independently of 

 those causes of briskness in wines which 

 consist in the management, .... this 

 esteemed quality always results from the use of 

 miripc fruit, and is readily produced by mix- 

 ing unripe grapes with ripe ones ; the case is 

 the same with the gooseberr>\" But the ripe 

 gooseberry always coimnunicates a marked, 

 and indeed disagreeable, flavour ; nor is this 

 to be esteemed surprising, if any faith be 

 accorded to the chemical analysis of those 



ENGLISH CHAMPAGNE. 



order to place before our readers the leading 

 principles of the manufacture of genuine 

 foreign champagne in France, as furnishing 

 the surest basis for those operations which 

 can by any means conduce to satisfactory 

 results. It may be proper to observe, that the 

 description of Mr Roberts is derived from a 

 work by Dr Shannon : it differs very little 

 from that of Dr M'Culloch, as the latter 

 is more simply and perspicuously ^\Titten, we 

 give it the preference. 



" In making champagiie, the pattern of all 

 our brisk wines, the grapes are first squeezed 

 by a gentle pressure, and poured into the 

 vat, where they remain for one night only. 

 The next morning the liquor is transferred 

 into casks. If the wine is intended to be 

 red (pink champagne) the fermentation is 

 allowed to continue some little time longer in 

 the husks, till the red colour has been 

 extracted ; but the seeds are carefully 



berries detailed by Johnston. The results of separated, as they communicate a harsh taste 

 his experiments are quoted in a note by Dr 

 IM'CuUoch, at page i6 of his work — the pro- 

 portions of the several ingredients remaining 

 unascertained. They are — water, sugar, as 

 the sweet principle not crystaUizable, super- 

 citrate of lime, supercitrate of potass, super- 

 malate of lime and potass, resin, a modifica- 

 tion of gum, fibrin, ammonia in an unknown 

 state of combination, phosphate of lime, and 

 of magnesia. 



Hence, to say nothing of the components 

 inimical to the pure quality of wine, w^e find 

 a total absence of that essential ingredient, 

 the siipertartrate of potass, or cream of tartar. 

 To avoid, therefore, the bad flavour which 

 must be produced by ripe gooseberries " the 

 fruit," as Dr M'Culloch says, " can scarcely 

 be taken in a state too crude, as at this 

 period the flavouring substance has not been 

 .developed. At the same time, the expressed 

 juice alone should be used ; care being taken 

 to exclude the skins from the fermentation, 

 as being the part in which the flavour princi- 

 pally resides." 



Having thus generalised, we also refer the 

 xeader to the authority of Mr Roberts, in 



The first fermentation in the casks is violent, 

 and the discharge of the yeast is encouraged 

 for ten or twelve days, by keeping them full 

 to the bung-hole. It then becomes more 

 moderate, when the bung is put down, and a 

 gimlet-hole, fitted with a spile, is made by the 

 side of it. When the cask is thus closed, the 

 vent-hole is thus opened every day or two, 

 according to the state of the fermentation, for 

 a space of eight or ten days, to allow the 

 carbonic acid gas to escape. When this state is 

 passed, fresh wine, reserv^ed for the purpose, 

 is poured in at the vent-hole about once a 

 week, for the first three or four weeks, accord- 

 ing to its waste, so as to fill the cask. 



"This operation is then performed at 

 longer intervals, of a month or more, till the 

 end of December, when the wine usually 

 becomes clear. It is afterwards decanted 

 from the lees into a fresh cask, where it is 

 fined with isinglass, in the proportion of half 

 an ounce to a pipe; and this process of 

 decanting is carefully executed in dry, clear, 

 frosty weather. A new fermentation is now 

 excited, by which the wine loses a portion of 

 its sweetness, and becomes .still further 



