VINE CULTURE AS EXEMPLIFIED AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. 445 



which, it is asserted, although with little solid foundation, can with 

 advantage be placed before the consumer singly. The combinations, 

 which include the juice of both black and white grapes, vary, in propor- 

 tion as well as number, according to the vintage, and according to the 

 judgment or exigencies of the shipper. Run into cuves according to the 

 proportions determined upon, the cuvee, or vatting, has added to it 

 a small amount — about 1 per cent. — of cane sugar, and is then as 

 speedily as possible drawn oft" into bottles, which are temporarily corked 

 and binned away in the cellars. In this position the second fermentation 

 induced by this dosage of sugar takes place, which not only produces the 

 characteristic effervescence, but completely disintegrates the sugar, the 

 wine being at the end of this stage called brut, and indeed sometimes 

 ultimately corked without further addition of liqueur , as the final 

 sweetening is called. During the sojourn in the racks before the final 

 liqueuring and corking, each bottle is carefully examined until the 

 necessary brightness is obtained by the deposit on the end of the 

 temporary cork of all solid bodies produced by the fermentation. 

 Formerly it was the universal practice — in the deft momentary removal 

 of the cork — to " spirt " out this deposit by the pressure of the gas, with 

 just enough of the contents of the bottle to remove the substances which 

 would becloud or damage the wine. Of late years an ingenious freezing 

 machine has been introduced, which freezes solid a thin " wad " next the 

 cork of just the needed thickness to remove all that should not remain 

 and which reduces the waste of wine from some 8 per cent, to 2 per cent. 

 After further rest, and, if need be, further treatment for this necessary 

 clarification, the bottle of Champagne then receives its final dosage of a 

 liqueur made from the finest sugar, and is then, after being corked, corded 

 and wired, fit to reach us in the form which is so well known. While at 

 times we are inclined to kick against the price which, relatively to other 

 wines, the higher grades of Champagne command in the market, we have 

 to bear in mind not only the high price of land in the Champagne district, 

 but that the processes through which the wine must pass before it reaches 

 the consumer are of a nature which involve, both as to labour required 

 and loss during manipulation and from breakage, a far heavier expense 

 than any other wine needs before it is fit for the market. Foremost 

 among the items of cost are the two corks which every bottle of sparkling 

 wine requires, the first when originally bottled and placed in cellar, and 

 the second, a superior cork, at the time of shipment. The outlay on 

 these, in the case of the more moderate-priced productions of Champagne 

 and Saumur, is large in proportion to the cost of the wine itself. 



We must not, however, leave the category of Champagne without 

 turning to an exhibit of a wine the trade in which has of late assumed 

 great dimensions— namely, Saumur, a sparkling wine of real merit, but 

 which only (from the lack of certain characteristics hard to define) just 

 falls short of. the highest excellence in quality which always, in articles 

 of commerce, commands a price out of proportion to the actual superiority 

 which can be discerned. Its rapid progress should be a great encourage- 

 ment to our Colonies to enter upon the sparkling wine industry. 



Saumur, it may, however, be safely asserted, could not have existed as 

 a world-known variety in the French sparkling wine trade if the locality 



