Origin of Sparkling Hock and Moselle-- Sparkling German Wines First
Made on the Neckar-- Heilbronn, and Gotz von Berlichingen of the
Iron Hand-- Lauteren of Mayence and Rambs of Trèves turn their
attention to Sparkling Wines-- Change of late years in the Character
of Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- Difference between them and
Moussirender Rheinwein-- Vintaging of Black and White Grapes for
Sparkling Wine-- The Treatment which German Sparkling Wines
Undergo-- Artificial Flavouring and Perfuming of Sparkling
Moselles-- Fine Natural Bouquet of High Class Sparkling Hocks--
Impetus given to the Manufacture of German Sparkling Wines during
the Franco-German War-- Annual Production-- Deinhard and Co.'s
Splendid New Cellars at Coblenz-- The Firm's Collection of Choice
Rhine and Moselle Wines-- Their Trade in German Sparkling Wines--
Their Sources of Supply-- The Vintaging and After-Treatment of their
Wines-- Characteristics of their Sparkling Hocks and Moselles.
The reader is by this time aware that sparkling wines are not indebted
for their effervescent properties to any particular variety of vine or
quality of soil, although some species of grapes yield a wine possessing
a higher degree of effervescence than others. Any wine, in fact, can be
rendered sparkling, although only wines of a certain lightness of body
and which are at the same time delicate and clean to the taste--being
devoid of anything approaching to a _goût de terroir_--are really suited
to the purpose. Given a wine containing sufficient saccharine, either
natural or applied, and duly regulate its temperature, and it is easy
enough to render it sparkling. The Germans discovered this long ago when
they first transformed the acidulous wines of the Rhine into what we
term sparkling hocks.
The rise of this industry dates from the epoch of the final downfall of
Napoleon I., when the officers of the armies of occupation acquired more
than a passing liking for the exhilarating products of Clicquot and
Moët, carrying it, in fact, home with them, and so disseminating a taste
for the sparkling wines of France throughout the North of Europe. In
Germany the wealthy few only were able to indulge in it, and the
consumption was for a long time exceedingly limited. When, however,
after many years of peace, riches began to accumulate, some shrewd men
set themselves to ascertain whether the German wines could not be
rendered sparkling like the French. This was satisfactorily and speedily
settled in the affirmative; but the great difficulty was to find the
requisite capital for the large preliminary investment necessary to the
establishment of a manufactory of sparkling wine on even a moderate
scale, and from which no return could be counted on for the first three
years. Eventually this was overcome; but the new wines, being in the
first instance altogether different in character from champagne, found
but little favour in the country of their production. It was different,
however, in England, where they speedily succeeded in establishing
themselves under the designations of sparkling hock and sparkling
moselle, and from this time forward they have retained their position in
the English market.
It is generally asserted that sparkling wines were first manufactured in
Germany more than half a century ago from the inferior Neckar grape both
at Esslingen and Heilbronn--the latter rendered memorable by the
exploits of Götz von Berlichingen, whose iron hand distributed blows
which effectually "cured headache, toothache, and every other human
malady." Subsequently, towards 1830, a former _chef de cave_ at Madame
Clicquot's establishment at Reims came to Herr Lauteren, of Mayence, and
suggested to him to engage in the manufacture of sparkling Rhine wines,
a proposal which the latter soon afterwards profited by; and eight years
later Herr Rambs, of Trèves, vineyard proprietor and wine-merchant,
aided by a French cellarman, made the earliest attempt to manufacture
sparkling moselles, their first trials in this direction resulting in a
breakage amounting to fifty per cent.
For some years the great anxiety of manufacturers of sparkling hocks was
to render their wines as much as possible like champagne, which was only
to be accomplished by disguising their true flavour and dosing them
largely with syrup. In this form they satisfied, and indeed still
satisfy, their German and Russian consumers; but of late years England
has set the example of a decided preference for the drier kinds of
sparkling wines, the result being that the character of the wines
destined for the English market has undergone a complete change.
[Illustration:
THE AHR VALLEY.]
Next to its sweetness the principal difference between German champagne,
or Moussirender Rheinwein as it is usually called, for Continental
consumption, and sparkling hocks designed for the English and other
markets, consists in the former being made principally from black
grapes, pressed immediately they are gathered and not allowed to ferment
in their skins, while the latter are made almost exclusively from white
grapes. The vineyards yielding the black grapes used for these sparkling
wines are mainly situated at Ingelheim, midway between Bingen and
Mayence, and in the Ahr valley, between Coblenz and Cologne. At the
black grape vintage, which precedes the gathering of the white varieties
by some three or four weeks, the fruit is conveyed to the press in high
tubs, carried on men's backs, and holding about 40lbs. apiece. The old
wooden presses are mostly employed, although of late small transportable
presses with iron screws, and of French manufacture, are coming into
use. In order that the wine may be pale in colour, the grapes, which,
like those of the Champagne, are of the pineau variety, are pressed as
soon as possible after the gathering; the pressure applied is, moreover,
rapid and not too strong, and the must is separated forthwith from the
skins and stalks. On the other hand, the white grapes used in the making
of German sparkling wine, and which are almost exclusively of the
far-famed riesling species, are treated precisely as when making still
Rhine wine--that is, they are crushed in the vineyards by means of
grape-mills, and afterwards pressed in the usual way. The must for
sparkling wines, whether from black or white grapes, is run at once into
casks to ferment. If possible it is conveyed in large casks known as
stucks--immediately after the pressing, and before fermentation
begins--to the manufacturer's cellars in town; but if this cannot be
accomplished it remains in the cellars of the district until the first
fermentation is over, which is in December or January. It is then racked
off its lees, and the produce of black and white grapes is blended
together, only a small proportion of the former entering into the
composition of true sparkling hock, which should retain in a marked
degree the subtile and fragrant perfume of the riesling grape.
The process pursued in the manufacture of sparkling hocks is the same as
that followed with regard to champagnes. The quantity of grape sugar
generated in these Northern German latitudes being far from large, both
hocks and moselles invariably need a small addition of saccharine,
previous to their being put into bottle, to insure the requisite
effervescence, whereas in the Champagne the practice of adding sugar
with this object is not the uniform rule. After the wine is bottled it
remains in a cool cellar for eighteen months or a couple of years, being
constantly shaken during this period, in the same way as champagne, in
order to force the sediment to deposit itself near to the cork. By this
time the added as well as the natural sugar contained in the wine has
become converted into alcohol and carbonic acid; and after the sediment
has been expelled from the bottle the operation of dosing, or
flavouring, the wine takes place.
Sparkling hocks intended both for the German and Russian markets are
frequently almost cloying in their sweetness, as much as one-fifth of
syrup being often added to four-fifths of wine. The sparkling moselles,
too, for Russia, and not unfrequently for England also, are largely
dosed with the preparation of elder-flowers, which imparts to them their
well-known muscatel flavour and perfume. The manufacturers say they are
doing their best to abandon this absurd practice of artificially
perfuming sparkling moselles; but many of their customers, and
especially those in the English provinces, stipulate for the scented
varieties, possibly from an erroneous belief in their superiority.
Effervescing Rhine wines of the highest class have a marked and refined
flavour, together with a very decided natural bouquet. Moreover, they
retain their effervescent properties for a considerable time after being
uncorked, and appear to the taste as light, if not precisely as
delicate, as the finer champagnes, although in reality such is not the
case; for all sparkling hocks possess greater body than even the
heaviest champagnes, and cannot, therefore, be drunk with equal freedom.
Great impetus was given to the manufacture of German sparkling wines
during the war of 1870, when the Champagne was in a measure closed to
the outside world. At this epoch the less scrupulous manufacturers,
instigated by dishonest speculators, boldly forged both the brands on
the corks and the labels on the bottles of the great Reims and Epernay
firms, and sent forth sparkling wines of their own production to the
four quarters of the globe as veritable champagnes of the highest class.
The respectable houses acted more honestly, and, as it turned out, with
better policy, for by maintaining their own labels and brands they
extended the market for their produce, causing German sparkling wines to
be introduced under their true names into places where they had never
penetrated before, the result being a considerable increase in the
annual demand, even after the stores of the champagne manufacturers were
again open to all the world.
Owing to this increased demand, and the deficient supply of suitable
Rhine wines at a moderate price, the manufacturers of sparkling hocks
are reduced to buy much of their raw wine at a distance, and are to-day
large purchasers of the growths of the Palatinate, which are less
delicate than the vintages of the Rheingau, besides being deficient in
that fine aroma which distinguishes genuine hock. A leading manufacturer
computes that between four-and-a-half and five million bottles of
sparkling wine are made annually in Germany, where there are no fewer
than fifty manufacturing establishments. The principal market is Great
Britain, which consumes some two millions of bottles annually; a million
bottles are drunk at home; while the remainder is divided among the
North of Europe, the United States, India, Australia, China, and Japan.
The cheapness of these wines is, no doubt, largely in their favour.
At Coblenz, the capital of Rhenish Prussia, and one of the strongest
fortresses in the world, the so-called blue Moselle mingles its waters
with those of the Rhine, and hence the original Roman name of
Confluentia. With so favourable a situation it is not surprising that
the city should be the abode of several important firms trading in the
wines of the two rivers. At the head of these is the well-known house of
Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent still
vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-class sparkling
wines of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius Wegeler,
I was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the Wine Jury of
the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over their
establishment on the Clemens Platz--one of the most perfect and
admirably appointed in Germany. The firm was founded in 1798 by Herr
F. Deinhard, who in 1806, when Coblenz was in the hands of the French,
secured a ninety-nine years' lease of some cellars under an old convent
at the low rental of 30 francs per annum, and to-day this curious
document exists amongst the archives of the firm. Rents of wine-cellars
were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril, when commerce
was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the course of
warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 francs a year of
course no very extensive entrepôt could have been rented. To-day Messrs.
Deinhard's new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area of
nearly 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other vaults
stored with wine in various quarters of the city, the whole giving
employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers. Their
Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of 1875,
when it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress Augusta, who
left behind her the following graceful memento of her visit:--
"In grateful attachment to Coblenz, in full appreciation of a work
which does honour to the town and to the firm, I wish continued
prosperity to both.