Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines Part 12

When selecting a sparkling wine one fact should be borne in mind--that just as, according to Sam Weller, it is the seasoning which makes the pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine dry or sweet, light or strong. A really palatable dry champagne, emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best _vin brut_, to which necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of liqueur will be added. On the other hand, a sweet champagne can be produced from the most ordinary raw wine--the Yankees even claim to have evolved it from petroleum--as the amount of liqueur it receives completely masks its original character and flavour. This excess of syrup, it should be remarked, contributes materially to the wine's explosive force and temporary effervescence, but shortly after the bottle has been uncorked the wine becomes disagreeably flat. A fine dry wine, indebted as it is for its sparkling properties to the natural sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent effervescence. It continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after being poured into the gla.s.s owing to the carbonic acid having been absorbed by the wine itself instead of being acc.u.mulated in the vacant s.p.a.ce between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that have been highly liqueured. Even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted a good champagne will preserve its fine flavour, which the effervescence will have a.s.sisted to conceal. Champagne, it should be noted, sparkles best in tall tapering gla.s.ses; still these have their disadvantages, promoting as they do an excess of froth when the wine is poured into them, and almost preventing any bouquet which the wine possesses from being recognised.

Manufacturers of champagne and other sparkling wines prepare them dry or sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are designed. The sweet wines go to Russia and Germany, the sweet-toothed Muscovite regarding M. Louis Roederer's syrupy product as the _beau-ideal_ of champagne, and the Germans demanding wines with 20 or more per cent. of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quant.i.ty that is contained in the average champagnes s.h.i.+pped to England. France consumes light and moderately sweet wines; the United States gives a preference to the intermediate qualities; China, India, and other hot countries stipulate for light dry wines; while the very strong ones go to Australia, the Cape, and other places where gold and diamonds and such-like trifles are from time to time "prospected." Not merely the driest but the very best wines of the best manufacturers, and commanding of course the highest prices, are invariably reserved for the English market. Foreigners cannot understand the marked preference shown in England for exceedingly dry sparkling wines. They do not consider that as a rule they are drunk during dinner with the _plats_, and not at dessert, with all kinds of sweets, fruits, and ices, as is almost invariably the case abroad.

Good champagne is usually of a pale straw colour, but with nothing of a yellow tinge about it. When its tint is pinkish this is owing to a portion of the colouring matter having been extracted from the skins of the grapes--a contingency which every pains are taken to avoid, although, since the success achieved by the wine of 1874, slightly pink wines are likely to be the fas.h.i.+on. The positive pink or rose-coloured champagnes, such as were in fas.h.i.+on some thirty years ago, are simply tinted with a small quant.i.ty of deep red wine. The alcoholic strength of the drier wines ranges from 18 of proof spirit upwards, or slightly above the ordinary Bordeaux, and under all the better-cla.s.s Rhine wines.

Champagnes when loaded with a highly alcoholized liqueur will, however, at times mark 30 degrees of proof spirit. The lighter and drier the sparkling wine the more wholesome it is, the saccharine element in conjunction with alcohol being not only difficult of digestion, but generally detrimental to health.

The faculty are agreed that fine dry champagnes are among the safest wines that can be partaken of. Any intoxicating effects are rapid but exceedingly transient, and arise from the alcohol suspended in the carbonic acid being applied rapidly and extensively to the surface of the stomach. "Champagne," said Curran, "simply gives a runaway rap at a man's head." Dr. Druitt, equally distinguished by his studies upon wine and his standing as a physician, p.r.o.nounces good champagne to be "a true stimulant to body and mind alike, rapid, volatile, transitory, and harmless. Amongst the maladies which are benefited by it," remarks he, "is the true neuralgia, intermitting fits of excruciating pain running along certain nerves, without inflammation of the affected part, often a consequence of malaria, or of some other low and exhausting causes. To enumerate the cases in which champagne is of service would be to give a whole nosology. Who does not know the misery, the helplessness of that abominable ailment, influenza, whether a severe cold or the genuine epidemic? Let the faculty dispute about the best remedy if they please; but a sensible man with a bottle of champagne will beat them all.

Moreover, whenever there is pain, with exhaustion and lowness, then Dr. Champagne should be had up. There is something excitant in the wine; doubly so in the sparkling wine, which the moment it touches the lips sends an electric telegram of comfort to every remote nerve. Nothing comforts and rests the stomach better, or is a greater antidote to nausea."

Champagne of fine quality should never be mixed with ice or iced water; neither should it be iced to the extent champagnes ordinarily are, for, in the first place, the natural lightness of the wine is such as not to admit of its being diluted without utterly spoiling it, and in the next, excessive cold destroys alike the fragrant bouquet of the wine and its delicate vinous flavour. Really good champagne should not be iced below a temperature of 50 Fahr., whereas exceedingly sweet wines will bear icing down almost to freezing point, and be rendered more palatable by the process. The above remarks apply to all kinds of sparkling wine.

In the Champagne what may be termed a really grand vintage commonly occurs only once, and never more than twice, in ten years. During the same period, however, there will generally be one or two other tolerably good vintages. In grand years the crop, besides being of superior quality, is usually abundant, and as a consequence the price of the raw wine is scarcely higher than usual. Apparently from this circ.u.mstance the sparkling wine of grand vintages does not command an enhanced value, as is the case with other fine wines. It is only when speculators recklessly outbid each other for the grapes or the _vin brut_, or when stocks are low and the _vin brut_ is really scarce, that the price of champagne appears to rise.

That superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by the amounts paid for the Ay and Verzenay crus in years of grand vintages.

During the present century these appear to have been 1802, '06, '11, '18, '22, '25, '34, '42, '46, '57, '65, '68, and '74--that is, thirteen grand vintages in nearly eighty years. Other good vintages, although not equal to the foregoing, occurred in the years 1815, '32, '39, '52, '54, '58, '62, '64, and '70. Confining ourselves to the grand years, we find that the Ay wine of 1834, owing to the crop being plentiful as well as good, only realised from 110 to 140 francs the piece of 44 gallons, although for two years previously this had fetched from 150 to 200 francs. In 1842 the price ranged from 120 to 150 francs, whereas the vastly inferior wine of the year before had commanded from 210 to 275 francs. In 1846, the crop being a small one, the price of the wine rose, and in 1857 the piece fetched as much as from 480 to 500 francs, still this was merely a trifle higher than it had realised the two preceding years. In 1865 the price was 380 to 400 francs, and in 1868 about the same, whereas the indifferent vintages of 1871, '72, and '73 realised from 500 to 1,000 francs the piece. It was very similar with the wine of Verzenay. In 1834 the price of the piece ranged from 280 to 325 francs, or about the average of the three preceding years. In 1846, the crop being scarce, the price rose considerably, while in 1857, when the crop was plentiful, it fell to 500 francs, or from 5 to 20 per cent. below that of the two previous years, when the yield was both inferior and less abundant. In 1865 the price rose 33 per cent. above that of the year before; still, although Verzenay wine of 1865 and 1868 fetched from 420 to 450 francs the piece, and that of 1874 as much as 900 francs, the greatly inferior vintages of 1872-73 commanded 900 and 1,030 francs the piece.

Consumers of champagne, if wise, would profit by the circ.u.mstance that quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, and if they were bent upon drinking their favourite wine in perfection, as one meets with it at the dinner-tables of the princ.i.p.al manufacturers, who only put old wine of grand vintages before their guests, they would lay down champagnes of good years in the same way as the choicer vintages of port, burgundy, and bordeaux are laid down. Champagne of 1874 was a wine of this description, with all its finer vinous qualities well developed, and consequently needing age to attain not merely the roundness but the refinement of flavour pertaining to a high-cla.s.s sparkling wine. Instead of being drunk a few months after it was s.h.i.+pped in the spring and summer of 1877, as was the fate of much of the wine in question, it needed being kept for three years at the very least to become even moderately round and perfect. In the Champagne one had many opportunities of tasting the grander vintages that had arrived at ten, twelve, or fifteen years of age, and had thereby attained supreme excellence. It is true their effervescence had moderated materially, but their bouquet and flavour were perfect, and their softness and delicacy something marvellous.

A great wine like that of 1874 will go on improving for ten years, providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. These are, first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of which should be as low as from 50 to 55 Fahr., or even lower if this is practicable. The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light, scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their sides to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down champagne or any kind of sparkling wine an iron wine-bin is by far the best.

I much prefer the patent "slider" bins made by Messrs. W. and J. Burrow, of Malvern, they being better adapted to the purpose than any other I am acquainted with. In these the bottles rest on horizontal parallel bars of wrought-iron, securely riveted into strong wrought-iron uprights, both at the back and in front. The bins can be obtained of any size--that is, to hold as few as two or as many as forty dozen--and they can be had furnished with lattice doors, secured by a lock. One great advantage is that with them there is no waste of s.p.a.ce, for individual compartments can be at once refilled with fresh bottles after the other bottles have been removed. These "slider" bins are especially adapted for laying down champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and equable.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WINE-CELLAR FITTED WITH BURROW'S PATENT SLIDER BINS.]

When binning the wine the bottles are held by their necks and slid into their places with such ease and safety that a child might be entrusted with the work. The bottles can be withdrawn from the bin with equal or even greater facility. Breakage is avoided from each bottle having an independent bearing, which prevents the upper bottles from either falling or weighing down upon those below, and thereby cras.h.i.+ng together. The larger engraving shows a wine-cellar fitted up entirely with. Burrow's patent "slider" wine-bins, while the smaller represents a bin adapted to laying down twenty dozens of champagne, and the dimensions of which are merely 5 feet 8 inches by 3 feet.

Official Return by the Chamber of Commerce at Reims of The Trade in Champagne Wines From April, 1844, To April, 1878.

Number of Number of Total number Years, from Manufacturers' Bottles Bottles sold of Bottles April to April. Stocks. Exported. in France. Sold.

1844-45 23,285,218 4,380,214 2,255,438 6,635,652 1845-46 22,847,971 4,505,308 2,510,605 7,015,913 1846-47 18,815,367 4,711,915 2,355,366 7,067,281 1847-48 23,122,994 4,859,625 2,092,571 6,952,196 1848-49 21,290,185 5,686,484 1,473,966 7,160,450 1849-50 20,499,192 5,001,044 1,705,735 6,706,779 1850-51 20,444,915 5,866,971 2,122,569 7,989,540 1851-52 21,905,479 5,957,552 2,162,880 8,120,432 1852-53 19,376,967 6,355,574 2,385,217 8,740,790 1853-54 17,757,769 7,878,320 2,528,719 10,407,039 1854-55 20,922,959 6,895,773 2,452,743 9,348,516 1855-56 15,957,141 7,137,001 2,562,039 9,699,040 1856-57 15,228,294 8,490,198 2,468,818 10,959,016 1857-58 21,628,778 7,368,310 2,421,454 9,789,764 1858-59 28,328,251 7,666,633 2,805,416 10,472,049 1859-60 35,648,124 8,265,395 3,039,621 11,305,016 1860-61 30,235,260 8,488,223 2,697,508 11,185,731 1861-62 30,254,291 6,904,915 2,592,875 9,497,790 1862-63 28,013,189 7,937,836 2,767,371 10,705,207 1863-64 28,466,975 9,851,138 2,934,996 12,786,134 1864-65 33,298,672 9,101,441 2,801,626 11,903,067 1865-66 34,175,429 10,413,455 2,782,777 13,196,132 1866-67 37,608,716 10,283,886 3,218,343 13,502,229 1867-68 37,969,219 10,876,585 2,924,268 13,800,853 1868-69 32,490,881 12,810,194 3,104,496 15,914,690 1869-70 39,272,562 13,858,839 3,628,461 17,487,300 1870-71 39,984,003 7,544,323 1,633,941 9,178,264 1871-72 40,099,243 17,001,124 3,367,537 20,368,661 1872-73 45,329,490 18,917,779 3,464,059 22,381,838 1873-74 46,573,974 18,106,310 2,491,759 20,598,069 1874-75 52,733,674 15,318,345 3,517,182 18,835,527 1875-76 64,658,767 16,705,719 2,439,762 19,145,481 1876-77 71,398,726 15,882,964 3,127,991 19,010,955 1877-78 70,183,863 15,711,651 2,450,983 18,162,634

From the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption of champagne has almost trebled since the year 1844-5, a period of little more than thirty years. Another curious fact to note is the immense increase in the exports of the wine during the three years following the Franco-German war, when naturally both the exports and home consumption of champagne fell off very considerably. No reliable information is available as to the actual quant.i.ty of champagne consumed yearly in England, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four millions of bottles. The consumption of the wine in the United States varies from rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million bottles annually.

Distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment when champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. Dyspeptic Mr. Walker, of "The Original," laid it down that champagne ought to be introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the viands it may chance to accompany. "Give champagne," he says, "at the beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the guests, after which they will seldom flag. No other wine produces an equal effect in increasing the success of a party--it invariably turns the balance to the favourable side. When champagne goes rightly nothing can well go wrong." These precepts are sound enough, still all dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not invariably mutes. Before champagne can be properly introduced at a formal dinner the conventional gla.s.s of sherry or madeira should supplement the soup, a white French or a Rhine wine accompany the fish, and a single gla.s.s of bordeaux prepare the way with the first _entree_ for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two, should be served, briskly and liberally. A wine introduced thus early at the repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate, moderately so.

We certainly do not approve of Mr. Charles d.i.c.kens's dictum that champagne's proper place is not at the dinner-table, but solely at a ball. "A cavalier," he said, "may appropriately offer at propitious intervals a gla.s.s now and then to his danceress. There it takes its fitting rank and position amongst feathers, gauzes, lace, embroidery, ribbons, white satin, shoes, and eau-de-Cologne, for champagne is simply one of the elegant extras of life." This is all very well, still the advantageous effect of sparkling wine at an ordinary British dinner-party, composed as it frequently is of people pitchforked together in accordance with the exigencies of the hostess's visiting-list, cannot be gainsayed. After the preliminary glowering at each other, _more Britannico_, in the drawing-room, everybody regards it as a relief to be summoned to the repast, which, however, commences as chillily as the soup and as stolidly as the salmon. The soul of the hostess is heavy with the anxiety of prospective dishes, the brow of the host is clouded with the reflection that our rulers are bent upon dragging us into war. Placed between a young lady just out and a dowager of grimly Gorgonesque aspect, you hesitate how to open a conversation.

Your first attempts, like those of the Russian batteries on the Danube, are singularly ineffectual, only eliciting a dropping fire of monosyllables. You envy the placidly languid young gentleman opposite, limp as his fast-fading camellia, and seated next to Belle Breloques, who is certain, in racing parlance, to make the running for him. But even that damsel seems preoccupied with her fan, and, despite her _aplomb_, hesitates to break the icy silence. The two City friends of the host are lost in mute speculation as to the future price of indigo or Ionian Bank shares, while their wives seem to be mentally summarising the exact cost of each other's toilettes. Their daughters, or somebody else's daughters, are desperately jerking out monosyllabic responses to feeble remarks concerning the weather, lawn tennis, operatic _debutantes_, the gravel in the Row, the ill-health of the Princess, and kindred topics from a couple of F.O. men. Little Snapshot, the wit, on the other side of the Gorgon, has tried to lead up to a story, but has found himself, as it were, frozen in the bud. When lo! the butler softly sibillates in your ear the magic word "champagne," and as it flows, creaming and frothing, into your gla.s.s, a change comes over the spirit of your vision.

The hostess brightens, the host coruscates. The young lady on your right suddenly develops into a charming girl, with becoming appreciation of your pet topics and an astounding aptness for repartee. The Gorgon thaws, and implores Mr. Snapshot, whose jests are popping as briskly as the corks, not to be so dreadfully funny, or he will positively kill her. Belle Breloques can always talk, and now her tongue rattles faster than ever, till the languid one arouses himself like a giant refreshed, and gives her as good as he gets. The City men expatiate in cabalistic language on the merits of some mysterious speculation, the prospective returns from which increase with each fresh bottle. One of their wives is discussing the E.C.U. and the S.S.C. with a hitherto silent curate, and the other is jabbering botany to a red-faced warrior. The juniors are in full swing, and ripples of silvery laughter rise in accompaniment to the beaded bubbles all round the table. And all this is due to champagne, that great unloosener not merely of tongues but of purse-strings, as is well known to the secretaries of those charitable inst.i.tutions which set the wine flowing earliest at their anniversary dinners.

A few recipes for sparkling wine cups gathered from various sources will conclude our work. Not having personally tested these we leave the responsibility of them to their respective authors--Soyer, Tovey, Terrington ("Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks"), &c.--premising that it is the merest folly to use a high-cla.s.s champagne or a fine sparkling hock for a beverage of this description. Sparkling saumur, or the newly-introduced sparkling sauternes, and the cheaper hocks and moselles, will do equally well at a greatly reduced cost. In all cases, too, the kind of liqueur, the amount of sugar, and the flavouring with borage, verbena, pine-apple, or cuc.u.mber, may be varied to suit individual tastes. For soda or seltzer water we have invariably subst.i.tuted Apollinaris, which is far better adapted for effervescent drinks of this description by reason of its purity and softness, its freedom from any distinct flavour, and above all its powerful natural effervescence.

Soyer's elaborate recipe for champagne cup for a large party is as follows:--

Prepare three ounces of oleo-saccharine by rubbing some lumps of sugar against the outside of a lemon or Seville orange and sc.r.a.ping away the sugar as it absorbs the essential oil contained in the rind of the fruit. Put the oleo-saccharine with the juice of four lemons in a vessel, add a quart bottle of Apollinaris water (Soyer says soda-water, but Apollinaris is certainly preferable), and stir well together until the sugar is dissolved. Then pour in one quart of syrup of orgeat and whip the mixture up well with an egg whisk in order to whiten it. Next add a pint of cognac brandy, a quarter of a pint of Jamaica rum and half a pint of maraschino; strain the whole into a bowl, adding plenty of pounded ice if the weather is warm, and pour in three bottles of champagne, stirring the mixture well with the ladle while doing so in order to render the cup creamy and mellow.

A less potent and pretentious beverage, and better suited for a summer drink, is the subjoined:--

Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar in a quart of Apollinaris water. Add a winegla.s.s of curacoa, a sprig of green borage or a couple of slices of cuc.u.mber with the juice and fine shavings of the outside peel of a lemon, and a pound of bruised ice.

After the whole has been well stirred pour in the champagne and serve.

Other recipes are as follows:--

Prepare an ounce of oleo-saccharine, add to it a large winegla.s.s of maraschino, a liqueur gla.s.s of cognac, and the juice of half a lemon. Mix well together, and add several slices of pine-apple, and a large lump or two of ice. On to this pour first a large bottle of Apollinaris water, and next a bottle of sparkling wine.

Mix with the contents of a bottle of chablis or sauternes a liqueur gla.s.s of chartreuse and a tablespoonful or two of powdered loaf sugar. When the latter is dissolved throw in a pound and a half of pounded ice and a sprig of borage. Pour over these a quart of Apollinaris water and a bottle of sparkling saumur. For the chablis or sauternes half a bottle of light claret may be subst.i.tuted.

To a gill of good pale sherry add a liqueur gla.s.s of maraschino and a few lumps of sugar which have been well rubbed over the rind of a Seville orange, the juice of which is also to be added to the mixture. After the sugar is dissolved throw in a sprig of borage or a slice or two of cuc.u.mber and some pounded ice. Then add a quart bottle of Apollinaris water and a bottle of champagne or some other sparkling wine.

The following cup for a party of twenty is said to be of Russian inspiration:--

Pour on to some sprigs of borage or a few slices of cuc.u.mber a pint of sherry and half a pint of brandy, then rub off the fine outside peel of a lemon with a few lumps of sugar, and add these with the strained juice of the lemon and of three oranges. Pour into the mixture half a pint of curacoa, a winegla.s.s of noyau, a couple of bottles of German seltzer-water, three bottles of soda-water, and three bottles of champagne. Sweeten and ice to taste.

Here is a recipe for a cup made with chablis and sparkling red burgundy:--

With a bottle of chablis mix a liqueur-gla.s.s of chartreuse and then dissolve in it some powdered sugar. Add two pounds of ice in largish lumps, a slice or two of cuc.u.mber, and a sprig of lemon-scented verbena, or subst.i.tute for these a few slices of pine-apple. Pour in a quart bottle of Apollinaris water, mix well together, and add a bottle of sparkling burgundy just before serving.

The following refer to sparkling hock and moselle cups:--

To a bottle of sparkling hock add a quarter of a pint of lemon water ice and a liqueur gla.s.s of pine-apple syrup. After mixing them add a slice of cuc.u.mber, a lump or two of ice, and a bottle of Apollinaris water.

Add to the strained juice of a couple of lemons an ounce and a half or more of powdered loaf sugar and a winegla.s.s of maraschino. Mix well, and pour in a couple of bottles of iced sparkling hock and a large bottle of iced Apollinaris water.

Dissolve a couple of ounces of sugar in a gill of dry sherry, add the thin peel of half an orange, a few slices of pine-apple, peaches, or apricots, with some pounded ice, and then pour in a bottle of sparkling moselle and a bottle of Apollinaris water.

With half a pint of lemon water ice mix a bottle of iced sparkling moselle, add a few drops of elder-flower water and a bottle of iced Apollinaris water. Instead of the lemon ice half the quant.i.ty of pine-apple ice may be used with the juice of half a lemon, and the elder-flower water may be dispensed with.

[Ill.u.s.tration]