466 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



man enlers by the small opening left in ilie end of 

 the vals, and washes out, wiih a brush and cold 

 water, any lees which may have been deposited. 

 The Burgundy ol'ihe Cios Vougeot receives no other 

 preparation, and ii is treated in this manner as of- 

 ten as may be judged requisite, till it is disposed 

 of. They commence selling it when three and 

 four years old, but the wiiie of very favorable sea- 

 sons is retained by the proprietor till it is ten or a 

 dozen years old, when it isboliled, and sold at the 

 rale of six francs a bottle. The price of the wine 

 ol" ordinary viniaijes, from three to lour year^ old, 

 is from 500 to GOO francs the hogshead, but sea- 

 sons occasionally occur when the wine is not bet- 

 ter than the vin ordinaire of the country. The 

 wine of lb24 was given to the laborers as their 

 ordinary drink ; that of 1825 is now ripening in the 

 large vats, and will be worth, in thiee or lour 

 years more, six Irancs a bottle. The wine has 

 Ijeen found by experience to be of better quality, 

 and to preserve its perfume better, in these large 

 vais than in casks. 



For making the white wine, the process here, 

 as elsewhere, is diiferent. The grapes are pressed 

 without being trodden ; the must, as it flows from 

 the press, is conveyed to the small casks, where 

 it is left to ferntient, the casks being occasionally 

 filled up to allovi^ the scum to escape. The fer- 

 mentation of the white wine lasts from 10 to 15, 

 or even 20 days. At the end ol' three weeks, or a 

 mon!h, the white wine is drawn off the gross lees 

 which it has deposited, into clean casks. In the 

 spring it is again drawn off into sulphured casks. 

 M. L'Ecrivain, M. Ouvrard's steward, knows the 

 use of spirit of wine, instead of sulphur, but they 

 US3 the latter from economical motives; the sulphur 

 for a (;ask costs only a sous, the alcohol to produce 

 the same eifeci would cost six sous. Th^y do not 

 tlnd that the sulphur tastes the wine. They are 

 getting rid of the vvliite grapes in the Clos Vou- 

 geot, Ii3r the vines not oidy produce less, but the 

 price of white wine never rises so high as the red 

 wines. It is no uncommon thing lor a hogshead 

 of the lallet to bring from 1,250 to 1,500 francs, 

 but the white wine never rises above 600 francs 

 the hogshead. The average produce of the Clos 

 Vougeot, that is lo say, the average of twenty 

 years, is about 100 queues, of two hogsheads each, 

 or about eiyht hogsheads per hectare, someihing 

 less than 3| hogsheads per English acre. They 

 never manure the vines, and ihey have no other 

 varieties of the black grape than the Pineau, or 

 of the white, than the White Pineau, and the 

 Chaudenay, which resembles it so much that the 

 two kinds are confounded. M. L'Ecrivain said, 

 that if he knew of a plant of the game in ilie 

 vineyard, he would have it immediately dug out. 

 Every year they cairy up a quaiUJly of the strong 

 soil li^om the bottom of the vineyard, which, as 

 before observed, coiisiats of a yellow clay, to mis 

 v:\\h the lighter soil of the higher part. Tiiey 

 also mix the. wine produced on the higher part oi' 

 the vineyard with what is produced at the bottom, 

 to make a perfect wine. The wine of the higher 

 part is by ilsell'too dry and ppiriiuous, and requires 

 the mixture irom the lower part to give it body. I he 

 substratum is in some places marl, and in other 

 places decayed C/Jourri) rock. The cultivation is 

 mucli the same as deKcribed for Chambertin. JM. 

 D'Ecrivain considers that the vineyard is ol'the pro- 

 per degree of fulns^e whca the planta are fifteen 



inches apart in every d;rec!ion. In the course ot' 

 from 12 to 15 years, ail the pl.uits in the vineyard 

 will underiio the process of provignage ; but the 

 winter belbre last appears, )rom all accounts, lo 

 have injured the vines exceedingly, and ihey are 

 every where digging out many of them which 

 have not recovered I'rom the eilec's ot the Irost. 

 M. Ouvrard, ihe proprietor of Clos Vougeot. also 

 possesses a portion ot Chamberiin, and h'i.< proba- 

 ble that to this circumstance the latter is indebted 

 lor being brought inio notice ; lor it appears to me 

 indubitable that it only requires similar treatment 

 to make a very large portion ol'the Cote d'Or pro- 

 duce wines equal to those of Vougeot and Cliam- 

 bertin. But it requires a large capital to ellecc 

 this, and a knowledge of commerce to make it 

 profiiable; and the smaller proprietors appear in 

 general to endeavor to makeup t)y the quantity, lor 

 what they sacrifice in the qualiiy, of their wines. 

 From ("ther accounts I ant inclined lo believe that 

 the produce of a vineyard planted vviih ihe game, 

 and manured, as staled to me at Dijon, viz. about 

 1000 gallons per English iicre, was not much ex- 

 aggerated. Alter having received Irom M.L'Ecn- 

 vaiii a small bundle of each of the kinds of vines 

 cultivated in the Clos-Vougeot, and thanking him 

 lor his kindness, I look my leave, and arrived at 

 Dijon at rather a late hour. 



Wednesday, 21s/ December, Pheims. — After 

 having quitted the Cote d'Or, theseat of the famous 

 vineyards of Burgundy, there appeared little to be 

 worthy of my attention till I should reach Cham- 

 pagne ; and I therelbre made the best of my way 

 lor ihis (own, the centre of the district, in as liir at 

 least as the chief trade in Champagne wines is 

 concentrated there. For the last two days I had 

 travelled through a bare, uninteresiing country, 

 consisting almost exclusively of a chalk subsoil, 

 with a thin layer of vegetable mould on the sur- 

 face. After quitting Dijon, lew vines were to be 

 seen lill alter having passed Chalons-sur-Marne, 

 between which and Rheims are situated the Sillery 

 vineyards, which produce ttie himous still wmes 

 of ihat name. The range of hills lies to the lelt 

 of the road, and has an eastern exposure, in some 

 places even lo the north of east. The small town 

 of Sillery is three or four miles from the nearest of 

 ihem. Duiing part of the journey from Dijon to 

 Rheims, I travelled in company with an officer of 

 artillery, who had gone to Algiers with the expe- 

 dition, and had only returned to France about a 

 month before. Tiie French colony there remains 

 almost stationary ; owing to the insecurity of the 

 settlers, there is little or no emigration. There 

 are now 1,500 French troops in the country, and 

 it would require not fewer than 40,000 to protect 

 the settlers within 25 miles of Algiers. Allot- 

 menis of land are only made to actual laborers, 

 and not to a greaterexteni than li^om 8 lo20 acres 

 each, and there is generally also a house and gar- 

 den. The land granted by ihe French govern- 

 ment was the property of those who abandoned 

 their homes on the French taking possession ; 

 those who remained were undisturbed in iheir pro- 

 perty. There are also extensive domains which 

 lielonged to the dey or the governraeni. Merino 

 sheep are plentiful, and in laige flocks ; the mutton 

 is excellent. ^Q.e\' is not so good. The French 

 have made excellent wine from very delicious 

 grape?. The civil courts of justice are siili pre- 

 served as before and ibe same cfHcera employed. 



