84 ECHOES CF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



I was surprised to find that they grew chieflx' a black 

 grape, the vine being trained close to the ground, and 

 looking very different to the vine\'ards of Bordeaux, 

 Avhere the vines are carefully trained upwards of seven 

 feet high, the bunches reminding }'ou of an English 

 liot-house ; but at Epernay the bunches are small and 

 hard, and are like the grap:s grown on the walls of 

 cottages in our country. The grapes from which the 

 "white dry Sillery" is made are white, but the juice is 

 blended with a small portion of the black grape. 



We next visited the buildings where the wine was 

 made, an operation quite different from that employed 

 at Bordeaux. Here the grapes, being put into a press, 

 the juice is squeezed out, the skins remaining behind, 

 and as the colouring matter is derived from the skin, 

 the wine is of a slight pink colour, in many instances 

 only a pale amber. It would need too long a descrip- 

 tion to give seriatim the various processes the wine 

 undergoes before it reaches the consumer. With the 

 best classes of champagne it takes three years before it 

 is fit for consumption ; the manipulating and disgorging 

 in the second year, the corking, wiring, stringing, tin- 

 foiling, or waxing — all this costing infinite care and 

 labour^ and this is in addition to that most essentia! 

 operation, the preparation and mixing of the liqueur- 

 Whatever may be said of "Brut" wnne, I believe every 

 bottle made has a certain amount of liqueur in it, even 

 as low as I per cent. ; the generality has about 3 

 per cent., and the richer wines, still preferred by some 

 people, have 5 per cent., whilst the wines consumed by 

 the French people themselves and the Germans have 



