GEVRAY AND CHAMBERTIN. 



119 



plants are thus buried, and renewed once in 12 or 14 years; 

 and thus the whole is in a constant state of bearing (the 

 provins yielding a crop the first year), and it is seldom 

 necessary to introduce young vines. All of the small 

 proprietors manure their vines with strong stable dung ; 

 they make no distinction between that of horses and that 

 of cows. 



After quitting the vineyard of Chambertin, I rejoined 

 the cabriolet, and after recovering the main road, pro- 

 ceeded to Clos Vougeot. This vineyard formerly be- 

 longed to a convent, and the buildings are therefore rather 

 extensive. What was the old vineyard is enclosed by a 

 high stone wall, but M. Ouvrard, the present proprietor, 

 has also acquired a considerable portion of the land with- 

 out the wall, and the present extent of the Clos Vougeot 

 is therefore 48 hectares, 112- English acres. 



I mentioned to the steward of M. Ouvrard my disap- 

 pointment regarding my letters of introduction, and my 

 having resolved in consequence to trust to the good nature 

 of the proprietor of Clos Vougeot for a friendly reception. 

 He replied, very heartily, that I had done well. He con- 

 ducted me over the cellars where the wines are made, and 

 subsequently over those where they are kept, explaining 

 the whole process pursued in making the wine, and an- 

 swering all my questions with great exactness. The first 

 cellar forms a square, or rather consists of four parallelo- 

 grams, inclosing a square. In each of the four corners is 

 a large square case, or trough, about 12 feet in diameter ; 

 and above this an immense lever, worked by a wooden 

 screw, similar to those I had seen for pressing the olives 

 in Spain. Along the walls, on each side, are arranged 

 the fermenting vats, which are each of the capacity of 18 

 hogsheads. The vintage is in general soon over, M. 



