SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
101 
science, labor, or capital, combined with success to pro- 
duce real champagne except in the beautiful valley of the 
Marne. There are the favorite spots for growing the 
champagne grape — as famous as the vineyards on the 
south side of the island of Madeira, which from the period 
of the Romans, has been known as the chief seat of that 
delicious grape which make Madeira. So, too, along all 
the southern slopes of Spain and Italy, and through the 
extent of the Mediterranean, between the bases and the 
summits of the hills, where neither the moisture of the 
valleys nor the chills of the mountains interfere with the 
genial and delicate process of maturing the luxurious 
grape. 
It is well known that the flavor of all wine, in a natural 
state, depends upon the chemical qualities of the soil, the 
dryness or the moisture, the heat or the cold of the atmos- 
phere, and other natural causes, which in the invisible 
and beautiful operations of chemistry, produce these re- 
sults. The odor of the floweV depends not alone upon 
the species, or even the family to which the plant belongs. 
Some species, by being, transplanted, change their per- 
fume ; and some have been known to lose it altogether. 
It is one of the nicest and most delicate and difficult prob- 
lems in agricultural chemistry, to ascertain how the high- 
est flavor or odor can be infused into the plant, or the 
■flower. 
In the Champagne district, as well as in ^many other 
vineyard regions of France, and other wine countries, the 
grape is cut down, within from two to twelve inches of 
the ground, every year after the vintage is gather ;d, and 
the sap has retired to the root. Our vine-dressers in 
America may learn a lesson from this.* If we would cul- 
tivate these varieties of grapes, this pruning should be 
thoroughly done in the fall. This is true of all grapes 
which produce their fruit from the new growth of the stock 
exclusively, and why all the pruners should cut every- 
thing down to near the suiface, leaving only the eyes, 
from which the germs of the next spring will burst. 
Our American readers must not fancy the Champagne 
district to be one of the warm blushing valleys of the south 
of Italy. This district is in the latitude of Canada, and 
they have cold winters there. So, when the process of 
pruning the grape in the fall is finished, the remaining 
stock is protected someti.mes, and all the grapes that are 
to be grown next year, must come from the new shoots. 
When thus cared for, the grape vine takes to growing in 
the root, and these roots elongate themselves sometimes 
for enormous distances. In Italy, and in some other 
portions of Europe, we have seen grape vines run im- 
mense distances, with branches lopping down and root- 
ing again, and still growing with the utmost luxuriance, 
when the parent stock itself had rotted off above the 
ground from which it grew. Thus it is no uncommon 
thing it Italy to find grape vines that have been in the 
soil, probably for ages, producing from the original root oi 
branches that sprung from it, without transplanting, for a 
period of 500 years. This fact is so well known to stu- 
dents of Oriental history, that it grew into a proverb at 
least four thousand years ego, when in “the good time 
coming” of the prophets of Judea, it was declared that 
every man should “sit under his own vine and fig tree, 
having none to molest or make him afraid.” 
Some grapes attain their perfection in four, five or six 
years. This is the case generally with the champagne 
grape. 
The champagne grape produces from one to half a 
dozen bunches on every stock, except in poor years, as 
they have recently experienced several in France. IBut 
there is no relaxation in setting out new plants, or forcing 
the yield, whether it be a good on bad year. Neither 
•This system of close pruning will not do for oi r nvtive Ameri- 
can Qrapes.— Eds. 
science nor experience has yet been able clearly to ascer- 
tain the causes of failure of the grape crop. 
The champagne grape matures later than many other 
varieties, chiefly bee use it has greater acidity. The 
champagne vintage begins about the 20th of September, 
and ends by the 15th of October Thi. period there, re- 
sembles the season of cotton pictiing in the South, when 
the whole force of the district is called into requisition, 
and they work on night and day. In both cases, the la- 
bor must be done quick, for a heavy storm, or a long 
period of damp weather, would produce ruinous conse- 
quences, leaving the grapes so wet that, even if ripe, they 
would become mouldy and musty, and the exquisite aroma 
be utterly destroyed. 
Great care is taken in the process of getting the juice 
out after the grapes are gathered. They are brought in 
baskets, and, on being delivered, are carefully looked over 
by the hands in the establishment, when the best clusters 
are placed in large tubs, containing one or two hundred 
pounds each. These grapes are purchased by the buyers 
of large establishments, who are always on the spot, with 
their orders or m.oney. When a sufficient quantity is col- 
lected, they are carried to some place in the neighborhood 
where they aVe pressed ; and thus a frir experiment is 
made, and the result known. The juice is then sold to 
the larger dealers. But recently the more common mode 
has been for the large manufacturers of champagne to 
send their agents out through the grape districts, to pur- 
chase the grapes themselves and do their own pressing. 
They thus find that they can produce a greater uniformity 
of quality, and assimilate their different wines intoamore 
perfect compound. The present manner of pressing 
grapes does not differ essentially from what we call, in 
New England, the old fashion cider press On a platform 
of from four to twelve feet square, the grapes are thrown 
into what cider-makers will understand as a cheese; and 
through the orifices in the bottom and in the sides of the 
press, grapes will, by their own weight, exude the first 
juice, which is of course the purest and the best, not be- 
ing mixed with any impurities that come with the clus- 
ters when impregnated with any of the bitter or obnoxi- 
ous flavor of skins or stems. In any vintage the juice 
gained by the first process is the finest. But the juice 
of the grape has to be produced by artificial pressure, 
which forces it out, and although sometimes differing in 
color — the coloring matter being chiefly in the skin of the 
grape, since the juice of nearly all grapes is very much 
alike in appearance — it is perfect. 
Very little of the champagne that we use is made from 
the first quality of juice. It never could be manufactured 
and sold for the prices of a sham article. It is dealt in 
only by houses of the first reputaiion. Most of the cham- 
pagne drunk in America comes from suspicious quarters, 
and we may be very thankful when we get the fruit of 
the grape: for, except in rare cases, we are sure to be-de- 
ceived. 
The juice of the grape being thus collected into a thou- 
sand or ten thousand pipes, the fermentation must first 
take place. This is completed in a few days, when the 
taster of the establishment (no mean personage) goes 
through, and ascertains the amount of acidity on the one 
side, and saccharine matter on the other, in every cask. 
Which ever quality is lacking is supplied at once by add- 
ing sugar in the one case, and wines of a different quality 
in the other. 
It is a nice process to determine and regulate the flavor, 
the bouquet, and the body of the champagne wines. It 
is well known that manufacturers of the greatest experi- 
ence and reputation, have had more faith in learning to 
discriminate in the natural qualities of different vintages 
of the champagne wine, than they have had in the appli- 
(.atioa of chemical ingredients of an artificial description. 
us the wines of different fields, or even different vint- 
