THE AMERICAN CHAMPAGNE DISTRICT. 745 



The straw- white wine from the Champagne district, especially 

 from Hautevillers, became famous during the reign of Louis XIV. 

 The king contributed to bring the new wine into fashion by hav- 

 ing it on the royal table. The great wine connoisseur of the day, 

 Marquis de Sillery, at a souper d'Anet, introduced champagne in 

 flower-wreathed bottles, which, at a given signal, a dozen bloom- 

 ing damsels in the guise of Bacchanals placed upon the table. 



Thus heralded, champagne became par excellence the wine of 

 civilization. So Talleyrand in his epigrammatic way called it, 

 "" vin civilisateur par excellence." In England, at the beginning 

 of the present century, champagne was the necessary adjunct to 

 all public and private banquets. No formal affair was complete 

 without it. And yet, ninety, eighty, seventy, or sixty years ago 

 the amount of champagne made and required was comparatively 

 small. Indeed, it is only within the last forty or fifty years that 

 the consumption of champagne has increased by " leaps and 

 bounds." It has increased fourfold within thirty years ; it has 

 doubled within the past fifteen years ; and in this connection, it 

 is significant to note that the growing demand for champagne has 

 come, not from France, but from foreign countries, principally 

 from Russia, England, and America. Five times as much cham- 

 pagne is required outside of France as is used for home con- 

 sumption. 



The extraordinary demand for champagne stimulated the 

 wine-makers of other grape-growing districts and of other coun- 

 tries to produce a genuine vin mousseux. The result is, there 

 are many sparkling wines for example, the sparkling wines of 

 Germany and Austria but only one kind of champagne, and 

 that is made in the Champagne district of France. 



The earliest attempt at the manufacture of champagne on a 

 commercial scale in the United States was made in Ohio about 

 the year 1850. At that time there were extensive vineyards in 

 the Ohio Valley. The pioneer and promoter of an American 

 champagne industry was .the Hon. Nicholas Longworth, of Cin- 

 cinnati. He procured expert and capable wine-makers, and im- 

 ported improved machinery and appliances from the Champagne 

 district of France. He was fairly successful in making a spark- 

 ling Catawba wine. For several seasons that is, from 1862 to 

 1865 the vines were attacked by pests and fungoid diseases ; the 

 vineyards of the Ohio Valley were destroyed, and the champagne 

 business ruined. Since then the grape and wine industry has 

 been transferred to the northern part of Ohio, along the shores of 

 Lake Erie, and a small amount of champagne is now made at 

 Kelley's Island, Toledo, and Sandusky ; also at St. Louis, Mo. 



Meanwhile the lake region of central New York was rapidly 

 coming to the front as the land of vineyards. We refer to the 



