href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@46953@[email protected]#ChapterIII_I" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">I.
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

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

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