V I T 
V I T 
The white Grapes don’t come into this cuvee ; they 
leave them upon the flock till toward All Saints-dayl 
or fometimes till toward the eighth or tenth of No 
vember,(at which time the mornings are cold) to make 
of it a vin bourra, as they call it, i. e. a new and 
fweet white wine that has not worked, which they fel ! 
while it is quite hot. 
This wine is frill the better when the Grapes have been 
pinched by the white frofts of October and November, 
or at leaft very cold mornings. A little rottennefs in 
thefe Grapes does no harm ; you need only take care 
to give the wine time to throw out the filth by the fer- 
ment, and purify. 
This white wine may be mixed with the wine of the 
taille, if you pleafe, when you have an opportunity of 
felling it prefently after it is boiled. This makes a 
very good wine to drink, is pretty pale, and has. a 
good body. 
All thefe fine wines ought to be put into a new cafk, 
as alfo fnould thofe of the taille ; but the red wines, 
the green, and thole of the prefs, may be put into an 
old cafk, but it ought to be a very good one. 
You muft never rub the tuns over with brimftone, you 
ihould only wafh them in common water a little while 
before they are filled, and give them time to drain 
well : fome handfuls of flowers or Peach leaves may 
be mingled with the water, and they pretend that 
this will do the wine good. 
In Champaign they rarely put it in any thing but 
pieces, cateaux and cades. 
The river meafure is different from that of the moun- 
tains : the pieces of the rivers contain about two hun- 
dred and ten Paris pints (a Paris pint is equal to an 
Englifh quart;) the carteau a hundred and ten ; the 
pieces of the mountains contain about two hundred 
and forty pints, at the leaft two hundred and thirty 
Paris meafure ; and the carteau a hundred and fifteen, 
or a hundred and twenty. 
They mark regularly with chalk every piece, and eve- 
ry carteau, to denote the firft, fecond, or third cu- 
vee ; the wine of the cutting of the prefs, the white 
wine, and the green they alfo write the name of the 
vineyard from whence the Grapes came. 
A few years fince, fome private perfons in Cham- 
paign attempted to make wine as red as that of Bur- 
gundy, and they fucceeded pretty well as to the co- 
lour : but in my opinion thefe forts of wines do not 
come up to thofe of Burgundy, in that they are not 
fo foft, nor fo agreeable to the palate : neverthelefs 
many perfons call for thefe wines, and fome efteem 
them the beft. 
And as thofe gray wines are a little fallen, there has 
been made fome years paft, a great deal of red Cham- 
paign. Thefe wines do well for Flanders, where they 
are frequently fold for thofe of Burgundy. 
Of all thefe wines, there is none better for health, nor 
more agreeable to the palate, than the gray wine of 
Champaign, of the colour of a partridge^ eye, or the 
wines of the two firft tailles of a firft prefling in pretty 
hot years. 
This wine has a body, a tartnefs, a headinefs, a bal- 
famicknefs or perfume, a quicknefs and delicatenefs, 
that exceeds all the moft exquifite ones of Burgundy. 
And that which fhould engage one to drink it, is its 
lightnefs, which makes it ftrain and pafs quicker thro’ 
the body than any other wine in the kingdom. It is a 
miftake to be of opinion, that the wine of Champaign 
can give the gout. I have fcarce ever feen one gouty 
perfon in this whole province, and there need be no 
better proof. 
To make good red wine in Champaign, the black 
Grapes ought to be gathered in the heat°of the day ; 
care is to be taken to chufe them well, and not to 
mingle with them the Grapes of the tall Vines, nor 
the green ones, or thofe that are partly rotten ; to 
let them be two days in one tub, where the liq'uor 
grows red by the heat that it con trails there : fome 
hours before it is put into the prefs, it ought to be 
trampled with the feet, and the juice to be mingled 
with the marc j without this the wine will not be of 
a fufficient rednefs. If it be let Hand more than two 
days in the tub, it will tafte too much of the ftone. 
If it be mingled with the wine of the prefs, it will be 
too thick, too hard, and too unpleafant. 
The wine of the firft prefling being finifhed, and the 
veflels marked, they let them in a row in a cellar or 
court yard : thofe who have a great deal of wine and 
are good ceconomifts, take great care to gather the 
fcum that comes out of every veflel, while the wines 
ferment, by the means of a kind of tin funnel, made 
bending downwards, which lets the fcum fall into a 
wooden bowl, which is placed between two calks ; 
they afterwards put thefe fcums into the wines of the 
prefs, but neverthelefs there are but few that ufe this 
piece of ceconomy. 
They let thefe gray wines Hand to ferment in the calks 
ten or twelve days, becaufe thefe wines throw out 
their ferment fo much the more or lefs flowly, by how 
much they have more or lefs warmth, or as the years 
are more or lefs hot. 
After the wine has done fermenting, they flop up the 
veflels at the great bung- hole, and leave on the fore- 
fide an opening, about the bignefs of a French far- 
thing, by which one may put in his finger ; this they 
call le broqueleaur ; and they flop this up ten or 
twelve days after, with a wooden peg, about two 
inches long, for the more readily taking it out, and 
putting it in. 
All the while the wines are fermenting, the veflels 
are to be kept full, to give them an opportunity of 
calling out all that is impure. In order for this, they 
muft be filled up every two or three days, within a 
finger’s breadth of the bung ; after they have been 
bunged up, they muft be filled up every eighth day, 
at the little hole, for the fpace of two or three weeks 
more ; and after that, once a week for a month or 
two ; and after that once in every two months, as 
long as the wine remains in the vault, if it be there 
for years. 
When the wines have not body enough, or are too 
green, as it often happens in moift cold years, and 
when they have too much liquor, as in hot and dry 
years, three weeks after the wines have been made, 
hey muft be rolled in the calks five or fix turns to 
mix them well with the lees ; and this muft be con- 
tinued every eight days for three or four weeeks. 
This mixing of the lee with the wine being repeat- 
ed, will ftrengthen it, foften it, ripen it, render it 
more forward, and make it fit to drink in as fhort a 
time as if it had been tranfported from one place to 
another. 
The wines muft be let Hand in the cellar till toward 
the loth of April, when they carry them down into 
the vault ; but as foon as it begins to be cold in au- 
tumn, they are to be carried up again into the cellar : 1 
it is of confequence to be obferved upon this fubjedl, 
that the wines ought always to be in cool places, and 
never to fuffer heat ; and as the vaults are cooler in 
fummer, and warmer in winter than the external air, 
as foon as it begins to be hot, the wines muft be carried 
down, whether they be in pieces or in bottles, into 
the vaults ; and when it begins to be cold, they muft 
be carried up into the cellar. 
There has been nothing better invented and more ufe- 
ful, than the manner of drawing off wines. Certain 
experience convinces, that it is the lee that fpoil 
wines ; and that they are never better and more live- 
ly, than when they have been well drawn off- whe- 
ther you would bottle it, or keep it in pieces, it 
ought always to be drawn off, out of one veflel into 
another, at leaft twice into another veflel well walked, 
leaving the lee in the former. 
You fnould draw off the wines the firft time towards 
the^ middle of December, the fecond towards the 
middle of February, and to fine them in March and 
April, eight days or thereabouts before you bottle it. 
For every piece of wine, you muft have of ifinglafs, 
that is the whiteft, of the weight of a crown of gold', 
weighing two deniers fifteen grains, or fixty-three 
grains. They take fo many times the weight of a 
crown 
