CHAMPAGNE WINE is the produce of vineyards in the above-mentioned province of Champagne. There are white and red champagnes; the white is either sparkling or still. Sparkling or effervescent (numsseux) C. is the result of a peculiar treatment dur ing fermentation. In Dec., the wine is racked off, and fined with isinglass, and in liar. it is bottled and tightly corked. The fermentation being incomplete when the wine is bottled, the carbonic acid gas generated in a confined space dissolves in the wine, and communicates the sparkling property to champagne. To clear the wine of sedi ment, the bottles are first placed in a sloping position with the necks downward, so that the sediment may be deposited in the necks of the bottles. When this sediment has been poured off, some portion of a liqueur (a solution of sugar-candy in cognac) is added to the wine, and every bottle is filled up with bright clarified wine, and securely re-corked. The effervescence of the wine thus prepared bursts many bottles, in some cases 10 per cent; and in seasons of early and sudden heat, as many as 20 and 25 per cent have been burst. Wine-buyers estimate the value of wine according to the break age, that which breaks most bottles being Creaming best. Still or non-effervescent C. is first racked off in the Mar. after the vintage. Creamin or slightly effervescent C. has more alcohol, but less carbonic acid gas than sparkling champagne.
The best varieties of this wine are produced at Rheims and Epernay, and generally on a chalky soil. Among white Champagnes of the first class, the best are those of Sillery, which are of a fine amber hue, dry spirituous, and possessing a superior bouquet; those of Ay and Marcuil are less spirituous, but are sparkling, with a pleasant bouquet. Other
white wines of first class are those of Hautvilliers, Dizy, Epernay, and Pierry.
In the first class of red C., or Montague, we have the varieties of Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly, St. Basle, Bouzy, and Thierry• all having fine color, clearness, good body, suffi cient spirit, and a pleasant bouquet. The trade in Champagne wines is chiefly carried on in Rheims, Avise, Epernay, and Chalons-sur-Marnel The cellars in which the vintages are stored are cut out of the calcareous rock. The fact that the sale of C. is very exten sive and lucrative, has naturally given rise to adulterations. Sugar, and the juices of pears or gooseberries, or birch-juice, etc., have been used for making spurious Cham pagne. It may fairly be reckoned that not even a third part of the wine sold for C. in Paris is genuine. The greater part of it is readily manufactured by simply charging other light wines with carbonic acid gas. Recently, the German purveyors have suc ceeded in preparing light wines—such as Rhenish, Main, Neckar, Meissner, and Naum burg—so much like genuine C., as to deceive even the connoisseur. Altogether, it is estimated that the district produces 1,100,000 hectolitres (24,200,000 gallons) of genuine C., of which, however, the finest growths make but a small part.