PART I._A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of France

Transcriber's Note:

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This e-text is based on the 1882 edition. The original spelling, as

well as the use of punctuation and quotation marks, have been retained.

The following errors have been corrected:

# p. xi: 'Sauturnes' --> 'Sauternes'

# p. 52: 'which ne declares' --> 'which he declares'

# p. 154: 'its owes' --> 'it owes'

# p. 204: 'Bonaporte' --> 'Bonaparte'

# p. 220: 'histriographer' --> 'historiographer'

# p. 229: 'Reputatiou' --> 'Reputation'

# p. 256: 'Saint-Poray' --> 'Saint-Péray'

# Footnote 412: 'tho gas' --> 'the gas'

The caret symbol (^) characterises subsequent superscript text; [oe] is

the symbol for the oe-ligature. [asterism] depicts a corresponding

typographical symbol. The following text variations have been marked by

special characters:

Italic: underscores (_italic_)

Bold: equals signs (=bold=)

Small caps: forward slashes (/small caps/)

Underlined: tildes (~underlined~)

[Illustration: A SUPPER UNDER THE REGENCY.]

A HISTORY

CHAMPAGNE

WITH NOTES ON

THE OTHER SPARKLING WINES OF FRANCE.

BY HENRY VIZETELLY,

CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF FRANZ-JOSEF, AUTHOR OF 'THE WINES OF THE

WORLD CHARACTERISED AND CLASSED,' 'FACTS ABOUT PORT AND MADEIRA,'

'FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE AND OTHER SPARKLING WINES,' 'FACTS ABOUT

SHERRY,' ETC.

[Illustration]

ILLUSTRATED WITH 350 ENGRAVINGS.

LONDON:

_VIZETELLY & CO., 42 CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. SCRIBNER & WELFORD,

NEW YORK._ 1882.

LONDON:

ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W.

PREFACE.

The present is the first instance in which the history of any wine

has been traced with the same degree of minuteness as the history of

the still and sparkling wines of the Champagne has been traced in the

following pages. And not only have the author's investigations extended

over a very wide range, as will be seen by the references contained in

the footnotes to this volume, but during the past ten years he has paid

frequent visits to the Champagne--to its vineyards and vendangeoirs,

and to the establishments of the chief manufacturers of sparkling wine,

the preparation of which he has witnessed in all its phases. Visits

have, moreover, been made to various other localities where sparkling

wines are produced, and more or less interesting information gathered

regarding the latter. In the pursuit of his researches, the author's

position as wine juror at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions opened up to

him many sources of information inaccessible to others less favourably

circumstanced, and these his general knowledge of wine, acquired during

many years' careful study, enabled him to turn to advantageous account.

The numerous illustrations scattered throughout the present volume

have been derived from every available source that suggested itself.

Ancient /MSS./, early-printed books, pictures and pieces of sculpture,

engravings and caricatures, all of greater or less rarity, have been

laid under contribution; and in addition, nearly two hundred original

sketches have been made under the author's immediate superintendence,

with the object of illustrating the principal localities and their more

picturesque features, and depicting all matters of interest connected

with the growth and manipulation of the various sparkling wines which

are here described.

In the preparation of this work, and more particularly the historical

portions of it, the author has been largely assisted by his nephew, Mr.

Montague Vizetelly, to whom he tenders his warmest acknowledgments for

the valuable services rendered by him.

It should be stated that portions of the volume, relating to the

vintaging and manufacture of sparkling wines generally, have been

previously published under the title of _Facts about Champagne and

other Sparkling Wines_, but they have been subjected to considerable

extension and revision before being permitted to reappear in their

present form.

St. Leonards-on-Sea, February 1882.

CONTENTS.

/Part I./

/Early Renown of the Champagne Wines./

PAGE

The vine in Gaul--Domitian's edict to uproot it--Plantation of

vineyards under Probus--Early vineyards of the Champagne--Ravages

by the Northern tribes repulsed for a time by the Consul

Jovinus--St. Remi and the baptism of Clovis--St. Remi's

vineyards--Simultaneous progress of Christianity and the

cultivation of the vine--The vine a favourite subject of ornament

in the churches of the Champagne--The culture of the vine

interrupted, only to be renewed with increased ardour--Early

distinction between 'Vins de la Rivière' and 'Vins de la

Montagne'--A prelate's counsel respecting the proper wine

to drink--The Champagne desolated by war--Pope Urban II., a

former Canon of Reims Cathedral--His partiality for the wine of

Ay--Bequests of vineyards to religious establishments--Critical

ecclesiastical topers--The wine of the Champagne causes poets to

sing and rejoice--'La Bataille des Vins'--Wines of Auviller and

Espernai le Bacheler 1

II.

/The Wines of the Champagne from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth

Century./

Coronations at Reims and their attendant banquets--Wine

flows profusely at these entertainments--The wine-trade of

Reims--Presents of wine from the Reims municipality--Cultivation

of the vineyards abandoned after the battle of Poitiers--Octroi

levied on wine at Reims--Coronation of Charles V.--Extension

of the Champagne vineyards--Abundance of wine--Visit to Reims

of the royal sot Wenceslaus of Bohemia--The Etape aux Vins at

Reims--Increased consumption of beer during the English occupation

of the city--The Maid of Orleans at Reims--The vineyards and

wine-trade alike suffer--Louis XI. is crowned at Reims--Fresh

taxes upon wine followed by the Mique-Maque revolt--The Rémois

the victims of pillaging foes and extortionate defenders--The

Champagne vineyards attacked by noxious insects--Coronation of

Louis XII.--François Premier, the Emperor Charles V., Bluff King

Hal, and Leo the Magnificent all partial to the wine of Ay--Mary

Queen of Scots at Reims--State kept by the opulent and libertine

Cardinal of Lorraine--Brusquet, the Court Fool--Decrease in the

production of wine around Reims--Gifts of wine to newly-crowned

monarchs--New restrictions on vine cultivation--The wine of the

Champagne crowned at the same time as Louis XIII.--Regulation price

for wine established at Reims--Imposts levied on the vineyards by

the Frondeurs--The country ravaged around Reims--Sufferings of the

peasantry--Presents of wine to Marshal Turenne and Charles II. of

England--Perfection of the Champagne wines during the reign of

Louis XIV.--St. Evremond's high opinion of them--Other contemporary

testimony in their favour--The Archbishop of Reims's niggardly gift

to James II. of England--A poet killed by Champagne--Offerings by

the Rémois to Louis XIV. on his visit to their city 12

III.

/Invention and Development of Sparkling Champagne./

The ancients acquainted with sparkling wines--Tendency of Champagne

wines to effervesce noted at an early period--Obscurity enveloping

the discovery of what we now know as sparkling Champagne--The Royal

Abbey of Hautvillers--Legend of its foundation by St. Nivard and

St. Berchier--Its territorial possessions and vineyards--The monks

the great viticulturists of the Middle Ages--Dom Perignon--He

marries wines differing in character--His discovery of sparkling

white wine--He is the first to use corks to bottles--His secret for

clearing the wine revealed only to his successors Frère Philippe

and Dom Grossart--Result of Dom Perignon's discoveries--The wine

of Hautvillers sold at 1000 livres the queue--Dom Perignon's

memorial in the Abbey-Church--Wine flavoured with peaches--The

effervescence ascribed to drugs, to the period of the moon, and

to the action of the sap in the vine--The fame of sparkling

wine rapidly spreads--The Vin de Perignon makes its appearance

at the Court of the Grand Monarque--Is welcomed by the young

courtiers--It figures at the suppers of Anet and Chantilly, and

at the orgies of the Temple and the Palais Royal--The rapturous

strophes of Chaulieu and Rousseau--Frederick William I. and the

Berlin Academicians--Augustus the Strong and the page who pilfered

his Champagne--Horror of the old-fashioned _gourmets_ at the

innovation--Bertin du Rocheret and the Marshal d'Artagnan--System

of wine-making in the Champagne early in the eighteenth

century--Bottling of the wine in flasks--Icing Champagne with the

corks loosened 34

IV.

/The Battle of the Wines./

Temporary check to the popularity of sparkling Champagne--Doctors

disagree--The champions of Champagne and Burgundy--Péna and his

patient--A young Burgundian student attacks the wine of Reims--The

Faculty of Reims in arms--A local Old Parr cited as an example

in favour of the wines of the Champagne--Salins of Beaune and

Le Pescheur of Reims engage warmly in the dispute--A pelting

with pamphlets--Burgundy sounds a war-note--The Sapphics of

Benigné Grenan--An asp beneath the flowers--The gauntlet picked

up--Carols from a coffin--Champagne extolled as superior to all

other wines--It inspires the heart and stirs the brain--The

apotheosis of Champagne foam--Burgundy, an invalid, seeks a

prescription--Impartially appreciative drinkers of both wines--Bold

Burgundian and stout Rémois, each a jolly tippling fellow--Canon

Maucroix's parallel between Burgundy and Demosthenes and Champagne

and Cicero--Champagne a panacea for gout and stone--Final decision

in favour of Champagne by the medical faculty of Paris--Pluche's

opinion on the controversy--Champagne a lively wit and Burgundy a

solid understanding--Champagne commands double the price of the

best Burgundy--Zealots reconciled at table 47

/Progress and Popularity of Sparkling Champagne./

Sparkling Champagne intoxicates the Regent d'Orléans and the

_roués_ of the Palais Royal--It is drunk by Peter the Great at

Reims--A horse trained on Champagne and biscuits--Decree of Louis

XV. regarding the transport of Champagne--Wine for the _petits

cabinets du Roi_--The _petits soupers_ and Champagne orgies of

the royal household--A bibulous royal mistress--The Well-Beloved

at Reims--Frederick the Great, George II., Stanislas Leczinski,

and Marshal Saxe all drink Champagne--Voltaire sings the praises

of the effervescing wine of Ay--The Commander Descartes and

Lebatteux extol the charms of sparkling Champagne--Bertin

du Rocheret and his balsamic molecules--The Bacchanalian

poet Panard chants the inspiring effects of the vintages of

the Marne--Marmontel is jointly inspired by Mademoiselle de

Navarre and the wine of Avenay--The Abbé de l'Attaignant and

his fair hostesses--Breakages of bottles in the manufacturers'

cellars--Attempts to obviate them--The early sparkling wines

merely _crémant_--_Saute bouchon_ and _demi-mousseux_--Prices

of Champagne in the eighteenth century--Preference given to

light acid wines for sparkling Champagne--Lingering relics

of prejudice against _vin mousseux_--The secret addition of

sugar--Originally the wine not cleared in bottle--Its transfer

to other bottles necessary--Adoption of the present method

of ridding the wine of its deposit--The vine-cultivators the

last to profit by the popularity of sparkling Champagne--Marie

Antoinette welcomed to Reims--Reception and coronation of Louis

XVI. at Reims--'The crown, it hurts me!'--Oppressive dues and

tithes of the _ancien régime_--The Fermiers Généraux and their

hôtel at Reims--Champagne under the Revolution--Napoleon at

Epernay--Champagne included in the equipment of his satraps--The

Allies in the Champagne--Drunkenness and pillaging--Appreciation

of Champagne by the invading troops--The beneficial results which

followed--Universal popularity of Champagne--The wine a favourite

with kings and potentates--Its traces to be met with everywhere 57

VI.

/Champagne in England./

The strong and foaming wine of the Champagne forbidden his troops

by Henry V.--The English carrying off wine when evacuating

Reims on the approach of Jeanne Darc--A legend of the siege

of Epernay--Henry VIII. and his vineyard at Ay--Louis XIV.'s

present of Champagne to Charles II.--The courtiers of the

Merry Monarch retain the taste for French wine acquired in

exile--St. Evremond makes the Champagne flute the glass of

fashion--Still Champagne quaffed by the beaux of the Mall and

the rakes of the Mulberry Gardens--It inspires the poets and

dramatists of the Restoration--Is drank by James II. and William

III.--The advent of sparkling Champagne in England--Farquhar's

_Love and a Bottle_--Mockmode the Country Squire and the witty

liquor--Champagne the source of wit--Port-wine and war combine

against it, but it helps Marlborough's downfall--Coffin's poetical

invitation to the English on the return of peace--A fraternity of

chemical operators who draw Champagne from an apple--The influence

of Champagne in the Augustan age of English literature--Extolled

by Gay and Prior--Shenstone's verses at an inn--Renders Vanbrugh's

comedies lighter than his edifices--Swift preaches temperance

in Champagne to Bolingbroke--Champagne the most fashionable

wine of the eighteenth century--Bertin du Rocheret sends it

in cask and bottle to the King's wine-merchant--Champagne at

Vauxhall in Horace Walpole's day--Old Q. gets Champagne from

M. de Puissieux--Lady Mary's Champagne and chicken--Champagne

plays its part at masquerades and bacchanalian suppers--Becomes

the beverage of the ultra-fashionables above and below

stairs--Figures in the comedies of Foote, Garrick, Coleman, and

Holcroft--Champagne and real pain--Sir Edward Barry's learned

remarks on Champagne--Pitt and Dundas drunk on Jenkinson's

Champagne--Fox and the Champagne from Brooks's--Champagne smuggled

from Jersey--Grown in England--Experiences of a traveller in the

Champagne trade in England at the close of the century--Sillery

the favourite wine--Nelson and the 'fair Emma' under the influence

of Champagne--The Prince Regent's partiality for Champagne

punch--Brummell's Champagne blacking--The Duke of Clarence

overcome by Champagne--Curran and Canning on the wine--Henderson's

praise of Sillery--Tom Moore's summer fête inspired by Pink

Champagne--Scott's Muse dips her wing in Champagne--Byron's

sparkling metaphors--A joint-stock poem in praise of Pink

Champagne--The wheels of social life in England oiled by

Champagne--It flows at public banquets and inaugurations--Plays its

part in the City, on the Turf, and in the theatrical world--Imparts

a charm to the dinners of Belgravia and the suppers of

Bohemia--Champagne the ladies' wine _par excellence_--Its influence

as a matrimonial agent--'O the wildfire wine of France!' 83

/Part II./

/The Champagne Vinelands--The Vineyards of the River./

The vinelands in the neighbourhood of Epernay--Viticultural area

of the Champagne--A visit to the vineyards of 'golden plants'--The

Dizy vineyards--Antiquity of the Ay vineyards--St. Tresain and

the wine-growers of Ay--The Ay vintage of 1871--The Mareuil

vineyards and their produce--Avernay; its vineyards, wines, and

ancient abbey--The vineyards of Mutigny and Cumières--Damery

and 'la belle hôtesse' of Henri Quatre--Adrienne Lecouvreur

and the Maréchal de Saxe's matrimonial schemes--Pilgrimage to

Hautvillers--Remains of the Royal Abbey of St. Peter--The ancient

church--Its quaint decorations and monuments--The view from the

heights of Hautvillers--The abbey vineyards and wine-cellars in the

days of Dom Perignon--The vinelands of the Côte d'Epernay--Pierry

and its vineyard cellars--The Moussy, Vinay, and Ablois St. Martin

vineyards--The Côte d'Avize--Chavot, Monthelon, Grauves, and

Cuis--The vineyards of Cramant and Avize, and their light delicate

white wines--The Oger and Le Mesnil vineyards--Vertus and its

picturesque ancient remains--Its vineyards planted with Burgundy

grapes from Beaune--The red wine of Vertus a favourite beverage of

William III. of England 117

II.

/The Champagne Vinelands--The Vineyards of the Mountain./

The wine of Sillery--Origin of its renown--The Maréchale

d'Estrées a successful Marchande de Vin--The Marquis de Sillery

the greatest wine-farmer in the Champagne--Cossack appreciation

of the Sillery produce--The route from Reims to Sillery--Henri

Quatre and the Taissy wines--Failure of the Jacquesson

system of vine cultivation--Château of Sillery--Wine-making

at M. Fortel's--Sillery sec--The vintage at Verzenay and

the vendangeoirs--Renown of the Verzenay wine--The Verzy

vineyards--Edward III. at the Abbey of St. Basle--Excursion

from Reims to Bouzy--The herring procession at St. Remi--Rilly,

Chigny, and Ludes--The Knights Templars' 'pot' of wine--Mailly and

the view over the Champagne plains--Wine-making at Mailly--The

village in the wood--Château and park of Louvois, Louis le

Grand's War Minister--The vineyards of Bouzy--Its church-steeple,

and the lottery of the great gold ingot--Pressing grapes at

the Werlé vendangeoir--Still red Bouzy--Ambonnay--A pattern

peasant vine-proprietor--The Ambonnay vintage--The vineyards of

Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville and St. Thierry--The still red

wine of the latter 130

III.

/The Vines of the Champagne and the System of Cultivation./

A combination of circumstances essential to the production of

good Champagne--Varieties of vines cultivated in the Champagne

vineyards--Different classes of vine-proprietors--Cost of

cultivation--The soil of the vineyards--Period and system of

planting the vines--The operation of 'provenage'--The 'taille' or

pruning, the 'bêchage' or digging--Fixing the vine-stakes--Great

cost of the latter--Manuring and shortening back the vines--The

summer hoeing around the plants--Removal of the stakes after the

vintage--Precautions adopted against spring frosts--The Guyot

system of roofing the vines with matting--Forms a shelter from

rain, hail, and frost, and aids the ripening of the grapes--Various

pests that prey upon the Champagne vines--Destruction caused

by the Eumolpe, the Chabot, the Bêche, the Cochylus, and the

Pyrale--Attempts made to check the ravages of the latter with the

electric light 140

IV.

/The Vintage in the Champagne./

Period of the Champagne vintage--Vintagers summoned by

beat of drum--Early morning the best time for plucking

the grapes--Excitement in the neighbouring villages at

vintage-time--Vintagers at work--Mules employed to convey the

gathered grapes down the steeper slopes--The fruit carefully

examined before being taken to the wine-press--Arrival of the

grapes at the vendangeoir--They are subjected to three squeezes,

and then to the 'rébêche'--The must is pumped into casks and left

to ferment--Only a few of the vine-proprietors in the Champagne

press their own grapes--The prices the grapes command--Air of

jollity throughout the district during the vintage--Every one

is interested in it, and profits by it--Vintagers' fête on St.

Vincent's-day--Endless philandering between the sturdy sons of toil

and the sunburnt daughters of labour 148

/The Preparation of Champagne./

The treatment of Champagne after it comes from the wine-press--The

racking and blending of the wine--The proportions of red and

white vintages composing the 'cuvée'--Deficiency and excess

of effervescence--Strength and form of Champagne bottles--The

'tirage' or bottling of the wine--The process of gas-making

commences--Details of the origin and development of the

effervescent properties of Champagne--The inevitable breakage of

bottles which ensues--This remedied by transferring the wine

to a lower temperature--The wine stacked in piles--Formation of

sediment--Bottles placed 'sur pointe' and daily shaken to detach

the deposit--Effect of this occupation on those incessantly

engaged in it--The present system originated by a workman of

Madame Clicquot's--'Claws' and 'masks'--Champagne cellars--Their

construction and aspect--Raw recruits for the 'Regiment de

Champagne'--Transforming the 'vin brut' into Champagne--Disgorging

and liqueuring the wine--The composition of the liqueur--Variation

in the quantity added to suit diverse national tastes--The corking,

stringing, wiring, and amalgamating--The wine's agitated existence

comes to an end--The bottles have their toilettes made--Champagne

sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage round the world 154

VI.

/Reims and its Champagne Establishments./

The city of Reims--Its historical associations--The Cathedral--Its

western front one of the most splendid conceptions of the

thirteenth century--The sovereigns crowned within its

walls--Present aspect of the ancient archiepiscopal city--The

woollen manufactures and other industries of Reims--The city

undermined with the cellars of the great Champagne firms--Reims

hotels--Gothic house in the Rue du Bourg St. Denis--Renaissance

house in the Rue de Vesle--Church of St. Jacques: its gateway

and quaint weathercock--The Rue des Tapissiers and the Chapter

Court--The long tapers used at religious processions--The Place

des Marchés and its ancient houses--The Hôtel de Ville--Statue

of Louis XIII.--The Rues de la Prison and du Temple--Messrs.

Werlé & Co., successors to the Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin--Their

offices and cellars on the site of a former Commanderie of the

Templars--Origin of the celebrity of Madame Clicquot's wines--M.

Werlé and his son--Remains of the Commanderie--The forty-five

cellars of the Clicquot-Werlé establishment--Our tour of inspection

through them--Ingenious dosing machine--An explosion and its

consequences--M. Werlé's gallery of paintings--Madame Clicquot's

Renaissance house and its picturesque bas-reliefs--The Werlé

vineyards and vendangeoirs 168

VII.

/Reims and its Champagne Establishments/ (_continued_).

The house of Louis Roederer founded by a plodding German

named Schreider--The central and other establishments of the

firm--Ancient house in the Rue des Elus--The gloomy-looking Rue

des Deux Anges and prison-like aspect of its houses--Inside

their courts the scene changes--Handsome Renaissance house and

garden, a former abode of the canons of the Cathedral--The

Place Royale--The Hôtel des Fermes and the statue of the 'wise,

virtuous, and magnanimous Louis XV.'--Birthplace of Colbert in

the Rue de Cérès--Quaint Adam and Eve gateway in the Rue de

l'Arbalète--Heidsieck & Co.'s central establishment in the Rue de

Sedan--Their famous 'Monopole' brand--The firm founded in the last

century--Their extensive cellars inside and outside Reims--The

matured wines shipped by them--The Boulevard du Temple--M. Ernest

Irroy's cellars, vineyards, and vendangeoirs--Recognition by the

Reims Agricultural Association of his plantations of vines--His

wines and their popularity at the best London clubs--Various

Champagne firms located in this quarter of Reims--The Rue du

Tambour and the famous House of the Musicians--The Counts de la

Marck assumed former occupants of the latter--The Brotherhood of

Minstrels of Reims--Périnet & Fils' establishment in the Rue St.

Hilaire--Their cellars of three stories in solid masonry--Their

soft, light, and delicate wines--A rare still Verzenay--The firm's

high-class Extra Sec 179

VIII.

/Reims and its Champagne Establishments/ (_continued_).

La Prison de Bonne Semaine--Mary Queen of Scots at Reims--Messrs.

Pommery & Greno's offices--A fine collection of faïence--The Rue

des Anglais a former refuge of English Catholics--Remains of the

old University of Reims--Ancient tower and grotto--The handsome

castellated Pommery establishment--The spacious cellier and

huge carved cuvée tuns--The descent to the cellars--Their great

extent--These lofty subterranean chambers originally quarries,

and subsequently places of refuge of the early Christians and

the Protestants--Madame Pommery's splendid cuvées of 1868 and

1874--Messrs. de St. Marceaux & Co.'s new establishment in the

Avenue de Sillery--Its garden-court and circular shaft--Animated

scene in the large packing hall--Lowering bottled wine to the

cellars--Great depth and extent of these cellars--Messrs. de

St. Marceaux & Co.'s various wines--The establishment of Veuve

Morelle & Co., successors to Max Sutaine--The latter's 'Essai sur

le Vin de Champagne'--The Sutaine family formerly of some note at

Reims--Morelle & Co.'s cellars well adapted to the development

of sparkling wines--The various brands of the house--The Porte

Dieu-Lumière 188

IX.

/Epernay./

The connection of Epernay with the production of wine of

remote date--The town repeatedly burnt and plundered--Hugh the

Great carries off all the wine of the neighbourhood--Vineyards

belonging to the Abbey of St. Martin in the eleventh, twelfth,

and thirteenth centuries--Abbot Gilles orders the demolition of

a wine-press which infringes the abbey's feudal rights--Bequests

of vineyards in the fifteenth century--Francis I. bestows Epernay

on Claude Duke of Guise in 1544--The Eschevins send a present

of wine to their new seigneur--Wine levied for the king's camp

at Rethel and the strongholds of the province by the Duc de

Longueville--Epernay sacked and fired on the approach of Charles

V.--The Charles-Fontaine vendangeoir at Avenay--Destruction of

the immense pressoirs of the Abbey of St. Martin--The handsome

Renaissance entrance to the church of Epernay--Plantation of the

'terre de siége' with vines in 1550--Money and wine levied on

Epernay by Condé and the Duke of Guise--Henri Quatre lays siege

to Epernay--Death of Maréchal Biron--Desperate battle amongst the

vineyards--Triple talent of the 'bon Roy Henri' for drinking,

fighting, and love-making--Verses addressed by him to his 'belle

hôtesse' Anne du Puy--The Epernay Town Council make gifts of wine

to various functionaries to secure their good-will--Presents of

wine to Turenne at the coronation of Louis XIV.--Petition to

Louvois to withdraw the Epernay garrison that the vintage may be

gathered in--The Duke and Duchess of Orleans at Epernay--Louis

XIV. partakes of the local vintage at the maison abbatiale on his

way to the army of the Rhine--Increased reputation of the wine of

Epernay at the end of the seventeenth century--Numerous offerings

of it to the Marquis de Puisieux, Governor of the town--The Old

Pretender presented at Epernay with twenty-four bottles of the

best--Sparkling wine sent to the Marquis de Puisieux at Sillery,

and also to his nephew--Further gifts to the Prince de Turenne--The

vintage destroyed by frost in 1740--The Epernay slopes at this

epoch said to produce the most delicious wine in Europe--Vines

planted where houses had formerly stood--The development of the

trade in sparkling wine--A 'tirage' of fifty thousand bottles

in 1787--Arthur Young drinks Champagne at Epernay at forty sous

the bottle--It is surmised that Louis XVI., on his return from

Varennes, is inspired by Champagne at Epernay--Napoleon and his

family enjoy the hospitality of Jean Remi Moët--King Jerome

of Westphalia's true prophecy with regard to the Russians and

Champagne--Disgraceful conduct of the Prussians and Russians

at Epernay in 1814--The Mayor offers them the free run of his

cellars--Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III. accept the

'vin d'honneur' at Epernay--The town occupied by German troops

during the war of 1870-1 195

/The Champagne Establishments of Epernay and Pierry./

Early records of the Moët family at Reims and Epernay--Jean Remi

Moët, the founder of the commerce in Champagne wines--Extracts from

old account-books of the Moëts--Jean Remi Moët receives the Emperor

Napoleon, the Empress Josephine, and the King of Westphalia--The

firm of Moët & Chandon constituted--Their establishment in the

Rue du Commerce--The delivery and washing of new bottles--The

numerous vineyards and vendangeoirs of the firm--Their cuvée made

in vats of 12,000 gallons--The bottling of the wine--A subterranean

city, with miles of streets, cross-roads, open spaces, tramways,

and stations--The ancient entrance to these vaults--Tablet

commemorative of the visit of Napoleon I.--The original vaults

known as Siberia--Scene in the packing-hall--Messrs. Moët &

Chandon's large and complete staff--The famous 'Star' brand of the

firm--Perrier-Jouët's château, offices, and cellars--Classification

of the wine of the house--The establishment of Messrs. Pol

Roger & Co.--Their large stock of the fine 1874 vintage--The

preparations for the tirage--Their vast fireproof cellier and

its temperature--Their lofty and capacious cellars--Pierry

becomes a wine-growing district consequent upon Dom Perignon's

discovery--Esteem in which the growths of the Clos St. Pierre were

held--Cazotte, author of _Le Diable Amoureux_, and guillotined

for planning the escape of Louis XVI. from France, a resident at

Pierry--His contest with the Abbot of Hautvillers with reference

to the abbey tithes of wine--The Château of Pierry--Its owner

demands to have it searched to prove that he is not a forestaller

of corn--The vineyards and Champagne establishment of Gé-Dufaut &

Co.--The reserves of old wines in the cellars of this firm--Honours

secured by them at Vienna and Paris 205

XI.

/Some Champagne Establishments at Ay and Mareuil./

The _bourgade_ of Ay and its eighteenth-century château--Gambling

propensities of a former owner, Balthazar Constance Dangé-Dorçay--

Appreciation of the Ay vintage by Sigismund of Bohemia, Leo X.,

Charles V., Francis I., and Henry VIII.--Bertin du Rocheret

celebrates this partiality in triolets--Estimation of the Ay wine

in the reigns of Charles IX. and Henri III.--Is a favoured drink

with the leaders of the League, and with Henri IV., Catherine de

Medicis, and the courtiers of that epoch--The 'Vendangeoir d'Henri

Quatre' at Ay--The King's pride in his title of Seigneur d'Ay and

Gonesse--Dominicus Baudius punningly suggests that the 'Vin d'Ay'

should be called 'Vinum Dei'--The merits of the wine sung by poets

and extolled by wits--The Ay wine in its palmy days evidently not

sparkling--Arthur Young's visit to Ay in 1787--The establishment of

Deutz & Geldermann--Drawing off the cuvée there--Mode of excavating

cellars in the Champagne--The firm's new cellars, vineyards, and

vendangeoir--M. Duminy's cellars and wines--The house founded

in 1814--The new model Duminy establishment--Picturesque old

house at Ay--Messrs. Pfungst Frères & Co.'s cellars--Their

finely-matured dry Champagnes--The old church of Ay and its

numerous decorations of grapes and vine-leaves--The sculptured

figure above the Renaissance doorway--The Montebello establishment

at Mareuil--The château formerly the property of the Dukes of

Orleans--A titled Champagne firm--The brilliant career of Marshal

Lannes--A promenade through the Montebello establishment--The

press-house, the cuvée-vat, the packing-room, the offices, and the

cellars--Portraits and relics at the château--The establishment of

Bruch-Foucher & Co.--The handsome carved gigantic cuvée-tun--The

cellars and their lofty shafts--The wines of the firm 217

XII.

/Champagne Establishments at Avize and Rilly./

Avize the centre of the white grape district--Its situation and

aspect--The establishment of Giesler & Co.--The tirage and the

cuvée--Vin Brut in racks and on tables--The packing-hall, the

extensive cellars, and the disgorging cellier--Bottle stores and

bottle-washing machines--Messrs. Giesler's wine-presses at Avize

and vendangeoir at Bouzy--Their vineyards and their purchases

of grapes--Reputation of the Giesler brand--The establishment

of M. Charles de Cazanove--A tame young boar--Boar-hunting

in the Champagne--M. de Cazanove's commodious cellars and

carefully-selected wines--Vineyards owned by him and his

family--Reputation of his wines in Paris and their growing

popularity in England--Interesting view of the Avize and Cramant

vineyards from M. de Cazanove's terraced garden--The vintaging of

the white grapes in the Champagne--Roper Frères' establishment

at Rilly-la-Montagne--Their cellars penetrated by roots of

trees--Some samples of fine old Champagnes--The principal Châlons

establishments--Poem on Champagne by M. Amaury de Cazanove 229

XIII.

/Sport in the Champagne./

The Champagne forests the resort of the wild-boar--Departure of

a hunting-party in the early morning to a boar-hunt--Rousing

the boar from his lair--Commencement of the attack--Chasing the

boar--His course is checked by a bullet--The dogs rush on in full

pursuit--The boar turns and stands at bay--A skilful marksman

advances and gives him the _coup de grâce_--Hunting the wild-boar

on horseback in the Champagne--An exciting day's sport with M.

d'Honnincton's boar-hounds--The 'sonnerie du sanglier' and the

'vue'--The horns sound in chorus 'The boar has taken soil'--The

boar leaves the stream, and a spirited chase ensues--Brought to

bay, he seeks the water again--Deathly struggle between the boar

and a full pack of hounds--The fatal shot is at length fired,

and the 'hallali' is sounded--As many as fifteen wild-boars

sometimes killed at a single meet--The vagaries of some tame

young boars--Hounds of all kinds used for hunting the wild-boar

in the Champagne--Damage done by boars to the vineyards and the

crops--Varieties of game common to the Champagne 235

/Part III./

/Sparkling Saumur and Sparkling Sauternes./

The sparkling wines of the Loire often palmed off as

Champagne--The finer qualities improve with age--Anjou the

cradle of the Plantagenet kings--Saumur and its dominating

feudal Château and antique Hôtel de Ville--Its sinister Rue

des Payens and steep tortuous Grande Rue--The vineyards of

the Coteau of Saumur--Abandoned stone-quarries converted into

dwellings--The vintage in progress--Old-fashioned pressoirs--The

making of the wine--Touraine the favourite residence of the

earlier French monarchs--After a night's carouse at the epoch

of the Renaissance--The Vouvray vineyards--Balzac's picture

of La Vallée Coquette--The village of Vouvray and the Château

of Moncontour--Vernou, with its reminiscences of Sully and

Pépin-le-Bref--The vineyards around Saumur--Remarkable ancient

Dolmens--Ackerman-Laurance's establishment at Saint-Florent--Their

extensive cellars, ancient and modern--Treatment of the

newly-vintaged wine--The cuvée--Proportions of wine from black

and white grapes--The bottling and disgorging of the wine

and finishing operations--The Château of Varrains and the

establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné--His cellars a succession

of gloomy galleries--The disgorging of the wine accomplished in

a melodramatic-looking cave--M. Duvau's vineyard--His sparkling

Saumur of various ages--Marked superiority of the more matured

samples--M. E. Normandin's sparkling Sauternes manufactory at

Châteauneuf--Angoulême and its ancient fortifications--Vin de

Colombar--M. Normandin's sparkling Sauternes cuvée--His cellars

near Châteauneuf--Recognition accorded to the wine at the Concours

Régional d'Angoulême 241

II.

/The Sparkling Wines of Burgundy, the Jura, and the South of

France./

Sparkling wines of the Côte d'Or at the Paris Exhibition of

1878--Chambertin, Romanée, and Vougeot--Burgundy wines and

vines formerly presents from princes--Vintaging sparkling

Burgundies--Their after-treatment in the cellars--Excess

of breakage--Similarity of proceeding to that followed

in the Champagne--Principal manufacturers of sparkling

Burgundies--Sparkling wines of Tonnerre, the birthplace of the

Chevalier d'Eon--The Vin d'Arbanne of Bar-sur-Aube--Death there

of the Bastard de Bourbon--Madame de la Motte's ostentatious

display and arrest there--Sparkling wines of the Beaujolais--The

Mont-Brouilly vineyards--Ancient reputation of the wines of the

Jura--The Vin Jaune of Arbois beloved of Henri Quatre--Rhymes

by him in its honour--Lons-le-Saulnier--Vineyards yielding

the sparkling Jura wines--Their vintaging and subsequent

treatment--Their high alcoholic strength and general

drawbacks--Sparkling wines of Auvergne, Guienne, Dauphiné,

and Languedoc--Sparkling Saint-Péray the Champagne of the

South--Valence, with its reminiscences of Pius VI. and Napoleon

I.--The 'Horns of Crussol' on the banks of the Rhône--Vintage

scene at Saint-Péray--The vines and vineyards producing

sparkling wine--Manipulation of sparkling Saint-Péray--Its

abundance of natural sugar--The cellars of M. de Saint-Prix,

and samples of his wines--Sparkling Côte-Rotie, Château-Grillé,

and Hermitage--Annual production and principal markets of

sparkling Saint-Péray--Clairette de Die--The Porte Rouge of Die

Cathedral--How the Die wine is made--The sparkling white and

rose-coloured muscatels of Die--Sparkling wines of Vercheny and

Lagrasse--Barnave and the royal flight to Varennes--Narbonne

formerly a miniature Rome, now noted merely for its wine and

honey--Fête of the Black Virgin at Limoux--Preference given to the

new wine over the miraculous water--Blanquette of Limoux, and how

it is made--Characteristics of this overrated wine 251

III.

/Facts and Notes respecting Sparkling Wines./

Dry and sweet Champagnes--Their sparkling properties--Form

of Champagne glasses--Style of sparkling wines consumed in

different countries--The colour and alcoholic strength of

Champagne--Champagne approved of by the faculty--Its use in

nervous derangements--The icing of Champagne--Scarcity of grand

vintages in the Champagne--The quality of the wine has little

influence on the price--Prices realised by the Ay and Verzenay

crus in grand years--Suggestions for laying down Champagnes of

grand vintages--The improvement they develop after a few years--The

wine of 1874--The proper kind of cellar in which to lay down

Champagne--Advantages of Burrow's patent slider wine-bins--Increase

in the consumption of Champagne--Tabular statement of stocks,

exports, and home consumption from 1844-5 to 1877-8--When to serve

Champagne at a dinner-party--Charles Dickens's dictum that its

proper place is at a ball--Advantageous effect of Champagne at an

ordinary British dinner-party 258

[Illustration]

[Illustration: A

HISTORY OF CHAMPAGNE]

WITH NOTES ON

OTHER SPARKLING WINES.

PART I.

/Early Renown of the Champagne Wines./

The vine in Gaul--Domitian's edict to uproot it--Plantation of

vineyards under Probus--Early vineyards of the Champagne--Ravages

by the Northern tribes repulsed for a time by the Consul

Jovinus--St. Remi and the baptism of Clovis--St. Remi's

vineyards--Simultaneous progress of Christianity and the

cultivation of the vine--The vine a favourite subject of ornament

in the churches of the Champagne--The culture of the vine

interrupted, only to be renewed with increased ardour--Early

distinction between 'Vins de la Rivière' and 'Vins de la

Montagne'--A prelate's counsel respecting the proper wine

to drink--The Champagne desolated by war--Pope Urban II., a

former Canon of Reims Cathedral--His partiality for the wine of

Ay--Bequests of vineyards to religious establishments--Critical

ecclesiastical topers--The wine of the Champagne causes poets to

sing and rejoice--'La Bataille des Vins'--Wines of Auviller and

Espernai le Bacheler.

[Illustration]

Although the date of the introduction of the vine into France is

lost in the mists of antiquity, and though the wines of Marseilles,

Narbonne, and Vienne were celebrated by Roman writers prior to the

Christian era, many centuries elapsed before a vintage was gathered

within the limits of the ancient province of Champagne. Whilst the

vine and olive throve in the sunny soil of the Narbonnese Gaul, the

frigid climate of the as yet uncultivated North forbade the production

of either wine or oil.[1] The 'forest of the Marne,' now renowned

for the vintage it yields, was then indeed a dark and gloomy wood,

the haunt of the wolf and wild boar, the stag and the auroch; and

the tall barbarians of Gallia Comata, who manned the walls of Reims

on the approach of Cæsar, were fain to quaff defiance to the Roman

power in mead and ale.[2] Though Reims became under the Roman dominion

one of the capitals of Belgic Gaul, and acquired an importance to

which numerous relics in the shape of temples, triumphal arches,

baths, arenas, military roads, &c., amply testify; and though the

Gauls were especially distinguished by their quick adoption of Roman

customs, it appears certain that during the sway of the twelve Cæsars

the inhabitants of the present Champagne district were forced to

draw the wine, with which their amphoræ were filled and their pateræ

replenished, from extraneous sources. The vintages of which Pliny and

Columella have written were confined to Gallia Narboniensis, though the

culture of the vine had doubtless made some progress in Aquitaine and

on the banks of the Saône, when the stern edict of the fly-catching

madman Domitian, issued on the plea that the plant of Bacchus usurped

space which would be better filled by that of Ceres, led (/A.D./ 92) to

its total uprooting throughout the Gallic territory.

[Illustration]

For nearly two hundred years this strange edict remained in force,

during which period all the wine consumed in the Gallo-Roman dominions

was imported from abroad. Six generations of men, to whom the cheerful

toil of the vine-dresser was but an hereditary tale, and the joys of

the vintage a half-forgotten tradition, had passed away when, in 282,

the Emperor Probus, a gardener's son, once more granted permission to

cultivate the vine, and even exercised his legions in the laying-out

and planting of vineyards in Gaul.[3] The culture was eagerly resumed,

and, as with the advancement of agriculture and the clearance of

forests the climate had gradually improved, the inhabitants of the

more northern regions sought to emulate their southern neighbours in

the production of wine. This concession of Probus was hailed with

rejoicing; and some antiquaries maintain that the triumphal arch at

Reims, known as the Gate of Mars, was erected during his reign as a

token of gratitude for this permission to replant the vine.[4]

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE GATE OF MARS AT REIMS.]

By the fourth century the banks of the Marne and the Moselle were

clothed with vineyards, which became objects of envy and desire to

the yellow-haired tribes of Germany,[5] and led in no small degree

to the predatory incursions into the territory of Reims so severely

repulsed by Julian the Apostate and the Consul Jovinus, who had aided

Julian to ascend the throne of the Cæsars, and had combatted for him

against the Persians. Julian assembled his forces at Reims in 356,

before advancing against the Alemanni, who had established themselves

in Alsace and Lorraine; and ten years later the Consul Jovinus, after

surprising some of the same nation bathing their large limbs, combing

their long and flaxen hair, and 'swallowing huge draughts of rich and

delicious wine,'[6] on the banks of the Moselle, fought a desperate and

successful battle, lasting an entire summer's day, on the Catalaunian

plains near Châlons, with their comrades, whom the prospect of similar

indulgence had tempted to enter the Champagne. Valerian came to Reims

in 367 to congratulate Jovinus; and the Emperor and the Consul (whose

tomb is to-day preserved in Reims Cathedral) fought their battles o'er

again over their cups in the palace reared by the latter on the spot

occupied in later years by the church of St. Nicaise.

The check administered by Jovinus was but temporary, while the

attraction continued permanent. For nearly half a century, it is

true, the vineyards of the Champagne throve amidst an era of quiet

and prosperity such as had seldom blessed the frontier provinces of

Gaul.[7] But when, in 406, the Vandals spread the flame of war from the

banks of the Rhine to the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the ocean, Reims was

sacked, its fields ravaged, its bishop cut down at the altar, and its

inhabitants slain or made captive; and the same scene of desolation was

repeated when the hostile myriads of Attila swept across north-western

France in 451.

[Illustration: TOMB OF THE CONSUL JOVINUS, PRESERVED IN REIMS

CATHEDRAL.]

Happier times were, however, in store for Reims and its bishops and its

vineyards, the connection between the two last being far more intimate

than might be supposed. When Clovis and his Frankish host passed

through Reims by the road still known as the Grande Barberie, on his

way to attack Syagrius in 486, there was no doubt a little pillaging,

and the famous golden vase which one of the monarch's followers

carried off from the episcopal residence was not left unfilled by its

new owner. But after Syagrius had been crushed at Soissons, and the

theft avenged by a blow from the king's battle-axe, Clovis not only

restored the stolen vase, and made a treaty with the bishop St. Remi

or Remigius, son of Emilius, Count of Laon, but eventually became a

convert to Christianity, and accepted baptism at his hands. Secular

history has celebrated the fight of Tolbiac--the invocation addressed

by the despairing Frank to the God of the Christians; the sudden

rallying of his fainting troops, and the last desperate charge which

swept away for ever the power of the Alemanni as a nation. Saintly

legends have enlarged upon the piety of Queen Clotilda; the ability of

St. Remi; the pomp and ceremony which marked the baptism of Clovis at

Reims in December 496; the memorable injunction of the bishop to his

royal convert to adore the cross he had burnt, and burn the idols he

had hitherto adored; and the miracle of the Sainte Ampoule, a vial of

holy oil said to have been brought direct from heaven by a snow-white

dove in honour of the occasion. A pigeon, however, has always been

a favourite item in the conjuror's paraphernalia from the days of

Apolonius of Tyana and Mahomet down to those of Houdin and Dr. Lynn;

and modern scepticism has suggested that the celestial regions were

none other than the episcopal dovecot. Whether or not the oil was holy,

we may be certain that the wine which flowed freely in honour of the

Frankish monarch's conversion was ambrosial; that the fierce warriors

who had conquered at Soissons and Tolbiac wetted their long moustaches

in the choicest growths that had ripened on the surrounding hills; and

that the Counts and Leudes, and, judging from national habits, the King

himself, got royally drunk upon a _cuvée réservée_ from the vineyard

which St. Remi had planted with his own hands on his hereditary estate

near Laon, or the one which the slave Melanius cultivated for him just

without the walls of Reims.

[Illustration]

For the saint was not only a converter of kings, but, what is of

more moment to us, a cultivator of vineyards and an appreciator of

their produce. Amongst the many miracles which monkish chroniclers

have ascribed to him is one commemorated by a bas-relief on the north

doorway of Reims Cathedral, representing him in the house of one of

his relatives, named Celia, making the sign of the cross over an empty

cask, which, as a matter of course, immediately became filled with

wine. That St. Remi possessed such an ample stock of wine of his own as

to have been under no necessity to repeat this miracle in the episcopal

palace is evident from the will penned by him during his last illness

in 530, as this shows his viticultural and other possessions to have

been sufficiently extensive to have contented a bishop even of the most

pluralistic proclivities.[8]

It is curious to note the connection between the spread of viticulture

and that of Christianity--a connection apparently incongruous, and yet

evident enough, when it is remembered that wine is necessary for the

celebration of the most solemn sacrament of the Church. Christianity

became the established religion of the Roman Empire about the first

decade of the fourth century, and Paganism was prohibited by Theodosius

at its close; and it is during this period that we find the culture of

the grape spreading throughout Gaul, and St. Martin of Tours preaching

the Gospel and planting a vineyard coevally. Chapters and religious

houses especially applied themselves to the cultivation of the vine,

and hence the origin of many famous vineyards, not only of the

Champagne but of France. The old monkish architects, too, showed their

appreciation of the vine by continually introducing sculptured festoons

of vine-leaves, intermingled with massy clusters of grapes, into the

decorations of the churches built by them. The church of St. Remi, for

instance, commenced in the middle of the seventh century, and touched

up by succeeding builders till it has been compared to a school of

progressive architecture, furnishes an example of this in the mouldings

of its principal doorway; and Reims Cathedral offers several instances

of a similar character.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: FROM THE NORTH DOORWAY OF REIMS CATHEDRAL.]

Amidst the anarchy and confusion which marked the feeble sway of the

long-haired Merovingian kings, whom the warlike Franks were wont to

hoist upon their bucklers when investing them with the sovereign power,

we find France relapsing into a state of barbarism; and though the

Salic law enacted severe penalties for pulling up a vine-stock, the

prospect of being liable at any moment to a writ of ejectment, enforced

by the aid of a battle-axe, must have gone far to damp spontaneous

ardour as regards experimental viticulture. The tenants of the Church,

in which category the bulk of the vine-growers of Reims and Epernay

were to be classed, were best off; but neither the threats of bishops

nor the vengeance of saints could restrain acts of sacrilege and

pillage. During the latter half of the sixth century Reims, Epernay,

and the surrounding district were ravaged several times by the

contending armies of Austrasia and Neustria; and Chilperic of Soissons,

on capturing the latter town in 562, put such heavy taxes on the vines

and the serfs that in three years the inhabitants had deserted the

country. Matters improved, however, during the more peaceful days of

the ensuing century, which witnessed the foundation of numerous abbeys,

including those of Epernay, Hautvillers, and Avenay; and the planting

of fresh vineyards in the ecclesiastical domains by Bishop Romulfe and

his successor St. Sonnace, the latter, who died in 637, bequeathing

to the church of St. Remi a vineyard at Villers, and to the monastery

of St. Pierre les Dames one situate at Germaine, in the Mountain of

Reims.[9] The sculptured saint on the exterior of Reims Cathedral, with

his feet resting upon a pedestal wreathed with vine-leaves and bunches

of grapes, may possibly have been intended for one of these numerous

wine-growing prelates.

[Illustration: FROM THE NORTH DOORWAY OF REIMS CATHEDRAL.]

The mighty figure of Charlemagne, overshadowing the whole of Europe

at the commencement of the ninth century, appears in connection with

Reims, where, begirt with paladins and peers, he entertained the

ill-used Pope Leo III. right royally during the 'festes de Noel'

of 805. The monarch who is said to have clothed the steep heights

of Rudesheim with vines was not indifferent to good wine; and the

vintages of the Champagne doubtless mantled in the magic goblet

of Huon de Bordeaux, and brimmed the horns which Roland, Oliver,

Doolin de Mayence, Renaud of Montauban, and Ogier the Dane, drained

before girding on their swords and starting on their deeds of high

emprise--the slaughter of Saracens, the rescue of captive damsels, and

the discomfiture of felon knights--told in the fables of Turpin and the

'chansons de geste.' That the cultivation of the grape, and above all

the making of wine, had been steadily progressing, is clear from the

fact that the distinction between the 'Vins de la Rivière de Marne' and

the 'Vins de la Montagne de Reims' dates from the ninth century.[10]

This era is, moreover, marked by the inauguration of that long series

of coronations which helped to spread the popularity of the Champagne

wines throughout France by the agency of the nobles and prelates taking

part in the ceremony. Sumptuous festivities marked the coronation of

Charlemagne's son Louis in 816; and the officiating Archbishop Ebbon

may have helped to furnish the feast with some of the produce from

the vineyard he had planted at Mont Ebbon, generally identified with

the existing Montebon, near Mardeuil. It is of this vineyard that

Pardulus, Bishop of Laon, speaks in a letter addressed by him to

Ebbon's successor, the virtuous Hincmar, who assumed the crozier in

845, proffering him counsels as to the best method of sustaining his

failing health. After telling him to avoid eating fish on the same day

that it is caught, insisting that salted meat is more wholesome than

fresh, and recommending bacon and beans cooked in fat as an excellent

digestive, he proceeds: 'You must make use of a wine which is neither

too strong nor too weak--prefer, to those produced on the summit of the

mountain or the bottom of the valley, one that is grown on the slopes

of the hills, as towards Epernay, at Mont Ebbon; towards Chaumuzy, at

Rouvesy; towards Reims, at Mersy and Chaumery.' The Champagne vineyards

suffered grievously from the internal convulsions which marked the

period when the sceptre of France was swayed by the feeble hands of

the dregs of the Carlovingian race. The Normans, who threatened Reims

and sacked Epernay in 882, swept over them like devouring locusts; and

their annals during the following century are written in letters of

blood and flame.

Times were indeed bad for the peaceful vine-dressers in the tenth

century, when castles were springing up in every direction; when might

made right, and the rule of the strong hand alone prevailed; and when

the firm belief that the end of the world was to come in the year

1000 led men to live only for the present, and seek to get as much

out of their fellow-creatures as they possibly could. Such natural

calamities as that of 919, when the wine-crop entirely failed in the

neighbourhood of Reims, were bad enough; but the continual incursions

of the Hungarians, whose arrows struck down the peasant at the plough

and the priest at the altar, and the memory of whose pitiless deeds

yet survives in the term 'ogre;' the desperate contest waged for ten

years by Heribert of Vermandois to secure the bishopric of Reims for

his infant son, during which hardly a foot of the disputed territory

remained unstained by blood; the repeated invasions of Otho of Germany;

and the struggle between Hugh Capet and Charles of Lorraine for the

titular crown of France,--left traces harder to be effaced. Reims

underwent four sieges in about sixty years; and Epernay, that most

hapless of towns, was sacked at least half a score of times, and twice

burnt, one of the most conscientiously executed pillagings being that

performed in 947 by Hugh the Great, who, as it was vintage-time,

completely ravaged the whole country, and carried off all the wine.[11]

Under the rule of the Capetian race matters improved as regarded

foreign foes, though the archbishops had in the early part of the

eleventh century to abandon Epernay, Vertus, Fismes, and their

dependencies to the family of Robert of Vermandois, who had assumed the

title of Counts of Champagne, to be held by them as fiefs. The fame

of the schools of Reims, where future popes and embryo emperors met

as class-mates; the festive gatherings which marked the coronation of

Henry I. and Philip I.; the great ecclesiastical council held by Leo

IX., which procured for the city the nickname of 'little Rome;' and the

growing importance of the Champagne fairs, the great meeting-places

throughout the Middle Ages of the merchants of Spain, Italy, and

the Low Countries,--favoured the prosperity of the district and the

production of its wine. Urban II., a native of Châtillon, who wore

the triple crown from 1088 to the close of the century, was, prior

to his elevation to the chair of St. Peter, a canon of Reims, under

the name of Eudes or Odo, and, tippling there in company with his

fellow-clerics, acquired a taste for the wine of Ay, which he preferred

to all others in the world.[12] Pilgrims to Rome found penance light

and pardon easily obtained when they bore with them across the Alps, in

addition to staff and scrip, a huge 'leathern bottel' of that beloved

vintage which warmed the pontiff's heart and whetted his wit for the

delivery of those soul-stirring orations at Placentia and Clermont,

wherein he appealed to the chivalry of Western Europe to hasten to the

rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidel.

The result of these appeals was felt by the vine-cultivators of the

Champagne in more ways than one, and their case recalls that of the

petard-hoisted engineer. The virtuous, the speculative, and the

enthusiastic who followed Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless

to the plains of Asia Minor suffered at the hands of the vicious, the

prudent, and the practical, who remained at home and passed their time

in pillaging the estates of their absent neighbours. The abbatial

vineyards suffered like the others; and the monks of St. Thierry,

in making peace with Gerard de la Roche and Alberic Malet in 1138,

complained bitterly of wine violently extorted during two years from

growers on the ecclesiastical estate and of a levy made upon their

vineyard.[13]

The efforts of Henry of France, a warlike prelate, who built fortresses

and attacked those of the robber-nobles, and of Louis VII., who avenged

the wrongs of the church of Reims on the Counts of Roucy, served to

improve matters; and we may be sure that whenever the monks did get

hold of a repentant or dying sinner, they made him pay pretty dearly

for peace with them and Heaven. Colin Musset, the early Champenois

poet, thought that the best use to which money could be put was to

spend it in good wine.[14] Churchmen, however, managed to secure the

desired commodity without any such outlay, for numerous charters of the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries show lords, sick or about starting

for the crusades, making large gifts to abbeys and monasteries; and

many a strip of fair and fertile vineland was thus added, thanks to

a judicious pressure on the conscience, to the already extensive

possessions of the two great monasteries of Reims, St. Remi and St.

Nicaise, and also to that of St. Thierry. The Templars, too, whose

reputation as wine-bibbers was only inferior to that of the monks, if

we may credit the adage which runs,

'Boire en templier, c'est boire à plein gosier;

Boire en cordelier, c'est vuider le cellier,'

and who, prior to the catastrophe of 1313, had a commandery at Reims,

possessed either vineyards, or _droits de vinage_, at numerous spots,

including Epernay, Hermonville, Ludes, and Verzy; while the separate

community of these 'Red Monks' installed at Orilly had estates at

Ay, Damery, and Mareuil. The hospital of St. Mary at Reims also

reckoned amongst its possessions vineyards at Moussy, bequeathed by

Canon Pontius and Tebaldus Papelenticus. The wine, which in 1215 the

treasurer of the chapter of Reims Cathedral obtained from that body

an acknowledgment of his right to on the anniversaries of the deaths

of Bishops Ebalus and Radulf, and that to which the sub-treasurer and

carpenter were severally entitled, was no doubt in part derived from

the vineyard planted in 1206 by Canon Giles at the Porte Mars and

bequeathed by him to the chapter, and the one which Canon John de Brie

had purchased at Mareuil and had similarly bequeathed.[15] Although

papal bulls and archiepiscopal warrants had forbidden the levying of

the _droit de vinage_ on wine vintaged by religious communities, in

1252 Pope Innocent IV. had to reprove the barons for interfering with

the monastic vintages in the neighbourhood of Reims, and to threaten

them with excommunication if they repeated their offence.[16]

[Illustration: VINE-DRESSERS--THIRTEENTH CENTURY

(From a window of Chartres Cathedral).]

These ecclesiastical topers, as a rule, were sufficiently critical

of the quality of the liquor meted out to them, and an agreement

respecting the dietary of the Abbey of St. Remi, at Reims, drawn up in

1218 between the Abbot Peter and a deputation of six monks representing

the rest of the brethren, provides that the wine procured for the

latter should be improved by two-thirds of the produce of the Clos de

Marigny being set apart for their exclusive use. Ten years later, to

put a stop to further complaints on the part of these worthy rivals of

Rabelais' Frère Jean des Entonnoirs, Abbot Peter was fain to agree that

two hundred hogsheads of wine should be annually brought from Marigny

to the abbey to quench the thirst of his droughty flock, and that if

the spot in question failed to yield the required amount the deficiency

should be made up from his own private and particular vineyards at

Sacy, Villers-Aleran, Chigny, and Hermonville.[17]

We can readily picture these

'jolly fat friars

Sitting round the great roaring fires

With their strong wines;'

or the cellarer quietly chuckling to himself as he loosened the spiggot

of the choicest casks--

'Between this cask and the abbot's lips

Many have been the sips and slips;

Many have been the draughts of wine,

On their way to his, that have stopped at mine.'

[Illustration: GATEWAY OF THE CHAPTER COURT AT REIMS.]

The monks were in the habit of throwing open their monasteries to all

comers, under pretext of letting them taste the wine they had for sale,

until, in 1233, an ecclesiastical council at Beziers prohibited this

practice on account of the scandal it created. Petrarch has accused

the popes of his day of persisting in staying at Avignon when they

could have returned to Rome, simply on account of the goodness of

the wines they found there. Some similar reasons may have led to the

selection of Reims, during the twelfth century, as a place for holding

great ecclesiastical councils presided over by the sovereign pontiff

in person; and no doubt 'Bibimus papaliter' was the motto of Calixtus,

Innocent, and Eugenius when the labours of the day were done, and they

and their cardinals could chorus, _apropos_ of those of the morrow,

'Bonum vinum acuit ingenium

Venite potemus.'

[Illustration]

The kings of France may have preferred the wines of the Orleanais and

the Isle of France, and the monarchs of England have been content to

vary the vintages of their patrimony of Guienne with an occasional

draught of Rhenish; but the wines of the river Marne certainly found

favour at Troyes, where the Counts of Champagne, to whom Epernay had

been ceded as a fief, held a court little inferior in state to that

of a sovereign prince. The native vintage mantled in the goblets and

beakers that graced the board where they sat at meat amidst their

knights and barons, whilst minstrels sang and jongleurs tumbled

and glee-maidens danced at the lower end of the hall. It fired the

fancy of the poet Count Thibault, to whom tradition has ascribed the

introduction of the Cyprus grape into France on his return from the

Crusades,[18] and helped the flow of the amorous strains which he

addressed to Blanche of Castille. Nor was he the only versifier of the

time who could exclaim, with his compatriot Colin Musset, that 'good

wine caused him to sing and rejoice.'[19] Other local songsters, such

as Doete de Troyes, Eustache le Noble, and Guillaume de Machault,

sought inspiration at their native Helicon, and were equally ready with

Colin Musset to appreciate a gift of

'barrelled wine,

Cold, strong, and fine,

To drink in hot weather,'[20]

in return for their rhymes. It was this wine that the gigantic

John Lord of Joinville, Seneschal of Champagne under Thibault, and

chronicler of the Seventh Crusade, was in the habit of consuming warm

and undiluted, by the advice of his physicians, on account, as he

himself mentions, of his 'large head and cold stomach;' a practice

which seems to have scandalised that pious and ascetic monarch St.

Louis, who was careful to temper his own potations with water. The

king was most likely not unacquainted with the wine, as a roll of the

expenses incurred at his coronation at Reims, in 1226, shows that 991

livres were spent in wine on that occasion, when, in consequence of the

vacancy of the archiepiscopal see, the crown was placed upon his head

by Jacques de Bazoche, Bishop of Soissons.

[Illustration]

Henry of Andelys, a compatriot of the engineer Brunel, who flourished,

if a poet can be said to flourish, in the latter half of the thirteenth

century, has extolled the wines of Epernay and Hautvillers, and

mentioned that of Reims, in his poem entitled the 'Bataille des Vins.'

He informs us at the outset that 'the great King Philip Augustus,' whom

state records prove to have had a score of vineyards in different parts

of France,[21] was very fond of 'good white wine.' Anxious to make a

choice of the best, he issued invitations to all the most renowned

_crûs_, French and foreign, and forty-six different vintages responded

to this appeal; amongst them Hautvillers and Epernay, described as

'vin d'Auviler' and 'vin d'Espernai le Bacheler.' The king's chaplain,

an English priest, makes a preliminary examination, resulting in

the summary rejection of many competitors, till at length, as

Argenteuil--'clear as oil'--and Pierrefitte are disputing as to their

respective merits, Epernay and Hautvillers simultaneously exclaim,

'Argenteuil, thou wishest to degrade all the wines at this table. By

God, thou playest too much the part of constable. We excel Châlons and

Reims, remove gout from the loins, and support all kings.'[22] But

lo, up jumps the 'vin d'Ausois,' the 'Osey' of so many of our English

mediæval poets, with the reproach, 'Epernay, thou art too disloyal;

thou hast not the right of speaking in court;'[23] and enumerates

the blessings which he and his demoiselle 'la Mosele' confer upon

the Germans.[24] La Rochelle in turn reproves Ausois, and extols the

strength of his own wines, and those of Angoulême, Bordeaux, Saintes,

and Poitou, and boasts of the welcome accorded to them in the northern

states of Europe, including England, to which the districts he mentions

then belonged.[25]

[Illustration: VINTAGERS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

(From a /MS./ of the Dialogues de St. Grégoire).]

The vintages of the then little kingdom of France put in a

counter-claim for finesse and flavour as opposed to strength, and

maintain that they do not harm those who drink them. The dispute

becomes general, and the wines, heated with argument, exhale a perfume

of 'balsam and amber,' till the hall where they are met resembles a

terrestial paradise. The chaplain, after conscientiously tasting the

whole of them, formally excommunicated with bell, book, and candle all

the beer brewed in England and Flanders, and then went incontinently to

bed, and slept for three days and three nights without intermission.

The king thereupon made an examination himself, and named the wine

of Cyprus pope, and that of Aquilat[26] cardinal, and created of the

remainder three kings, five counts, and twelve peers, the names of

which, unfortunately, have not been preserved.

[Illustration]

II.

/The Wines of the Champagne from the Fourteenth to the

Seventeenth Century./