La Prison de Bonne Semaine-- Mary Queen of Scots at Reims-- Messrs.
Pommery and Greno"s Offices-- A Fine Collection of Faence-- The Rue des Anglais a former Refuge of English Catholics-- Remains of the Old University of Reims-- Ancient Roman Tower and Curious Grotto-- The handsome Castellated Pommery Establishment-- The s.p.a.cious Cellier and Huge Carved Cuvee Tun-- The Descent to the Cellars-- Their Great Extent-- These Lofty Subterranean Chambers Originally Quarries-- Ancient Places of Refuge of the Early Christians and the Protestants-- Madame Pommery"s Splendid Cuvee of 1868-- Messrs. de St. Marceaux and 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 and Co."s Various Wines.
Nigh the cathedral of Reims and in the rear of the archiepiscopal palace there runs a short narrow street known as the Rue Vauthier le Noir, and frequently mentioned in old works relating to the capital of the Champagne. The discovery of various pillars and statues, together with a handsome Gallo-Roman altar, whilst digging some foundations in 1837, points to the fact that a Pagan temple formerly occupied the site. The street is supposed to have taken its name, however, from some celebrated gaoler, for in mediaeval times here stood "la prison de bonne semaine."
On the site of this prison a chateau was subsequently built where Mary Queen of Scots is said to have resided in the days when her uncle, Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, was Lord Archbishop of Reims. Temple, prison, and palace have alike disappeared, and where they stood there now rises midway between court and garden a handsome mansion, the residence of Madame Pommery, head of the well-known firm of Pommery and Greno. To the left of the courtyard, which is entered through a monumental gateway, are some old buildings bearing the sculptured escutcheon of the beautiful and luckless Stuart Queen, while to the right are the offices, with the manager"s sanctum, replete with artistic curiosities, the walls being completely covered with remarkable specimens of faence, including Rouen, Gien, Palissy, Delft, and majolica, collected in the majority of instances by Madame Pommery in the villages around Reims. Here we were received by M. Vasnier, who at once volunteered to accompany us to the cellars of the firm outside the city. Messrs. Pommery and Greno originally carried on business in the Rue Vauthier le Noir, where there are extensive cellars, but their rapidly-increasing connection long since compelled them to emigrate beyond the walls of Reims.
In close proximity to the Rue Vauthier le Noir is the Rue des Anglais, so named from the English Catholic refugees who, flying from the persecutions of our so-called Good Queen Bess, here took up their abode and established a college and a seminary. They rapidly acquired great influence in Reims, and one of their number, William Gifford, was even elected archbishop. At the end of this street, nigh to Madame Pommery"s, there stands an old house with a corner tower and rather handsome Renaissance window, which formerly belonged to some of the clergy of the cathedral, and subsequently became the "Bureau General de la Loterie de France," abolished by the National Convention in 1793.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The Rue des Anglais conducts into the Rue de l"Universite, where a few remnants of the old University, founded by Cardinal Charles de Lorraine (1538-74), attract attention, notably a conical-capped corner tower, the sculptured ornaments at the base of which have crumbled into dust beneath the corroding tooth of Time. From the Rue de l"Universite our way lies along the Boulevard du Temple to the Porte Gerbert, about a mile beyond which there rises up the curious castellated structure in which the Pommery establishment is installed, and whose tall towers command a view of the whole of Reims and its environs. As we drive up the Avenue Gerbert we espy on the right an isolated crumbling Roman tower, a remnant of the days when Reims disputed with Treves the honour of being the capital of Belgic Gaul. Close at hand, and almost under the walls of the old fortifications, is a grotto to which an ancient origin is likewise ascribed. In another minute we reach the open iron gates of Messrs. Pommery"s establishment, flanked by a picturesque porter"s lodge, and proceeding up a broad drive alight under a Gothic portico at the entrance to the s.p.a.cious and lofty cellier. Iron columns support the roof of this vast hall, at one end of which is the office and tasting-room, provided with a telegraphic apparatus by means of which communication is carried on with the Reims bureaux. Stacked up on every side of the cellier, and when empty often in eight tiers, are rows upon rows of casks, 4,000 of which contain wine of the last vintage, sufficient for a million bottles of champagne. The temperature of this hall is carefully regulated; the windows are high up near the roof, the sun"s rays are rigidly excluded, so that a pleasant coolness pervades the apartment. On the left-hand side stands the huge tun, capable of containing 5,500 gallons of wine, in which the firm make their _cuvee_, with the monogram P and G, surmounting the arms of Reims, carved on its head. A platform, access to which is gained by a staircase in a side aisle, runs round this tonneau; and boys stand here when the wine is being blended, and by means of a handle protruding above the cask work the paddle-wheels placed inside, thereby securing the complete amalgamation of the wine, which has been hoisted up in casks and poured through a metal trough into the tonneau. Adjoining are the chains and lifts worked by steam by means of which wine is raised and lowered from and to the cellars beneath, one lift raising or lowering eight casks, whether full or empty, in the s.p.a.ce of a minute.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE POMMERY ESTABLISHMENT, IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF REIMS. (p. 96)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: HEAD OVERSEER AT POMMERY AND GRENO"S.]
At the farther end of the hall a Gothic door, decorated with ornamental ironwork, leads to the long broad flight of steps 116 in number and nearly twelve feet in width, conducting to the suite of lofty subterranean chambers where bottles of _vin brut_ repose in their hundreds of thousands in slanting racks or solid piles, pa.s.sing leisurely through those stages of development necessary to fit them for the _degorgeur_. Altogether there are thirty large shafts, which were originally quarries, and are now connected by s.p.a.cious galleries. This side of Reims abounds with similar quarries, which are believed to have served as places of refuge for the Protestants at the time of the League and after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and it is even conjectured that the early Christians, the followers of St. Sixtus and St. Sinicus, here hid themselves from their persecutors. Since the cellars within the city have no longer sufficed for the storage of the immense stocks required through the development of the champagne trade, these vast subterranean galleries have been successfully utilised by various firms. Messrs. Pommery, after pumping out the water with which the chambers were filled, proceeded to excavate the intersecting tunnels, sh.o.r.e up the cracking arches, and repair the flaws in the chalk with masonry, finally converting these abandoned quarries into magnificent cellars for the storage of champagne. No less than 60,000 was spent upon them and the castellated structure aboveground. The underground area is almost 240,000 square feet, and a million bottles of champagne can be stored in these capacious vaults.
Madame Pommery made a great mark with her splendid _cuvee_ of 1868, and since this time her brand has become widely popular, the Pommery Sec especially being highly appreciated by connoisseurs.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PACKING HALL OF MESSRS. DE SAINT-MARCEAUX AT REIMS. (p. 99)]
On leaving Messrs. Pommery"s we retrace our steps down the Avenue Gerbert, bordered on either side with rows of plane-trees, until we reach the treeless Avenue de Sillery, where Messrs. de Saint Marceaux and Co."s new and capacious establishment is installed. The princ.i.p.al block of building is flanked by two advanced wings inclosing a garden-court, set off with flowers and shrubs, and from the centre of which rises a circular shaft, covered in with gla.s.s, admitting light and air to the cellars below. In the building to the left the wine is received on its arrival from the vineyard, and here are ranged hundreds of casks replete with the choice _crus_ of Verzenay, Ay, Cramant, and Bouzy, while some thousands of bottles ready for labelling are stocked in ma.s.sive piles at the end of the packing-hall in the corresponding wing of the establishment. Here, too, a tribe of workpeople are arraying the bottles with gold and silver headdresses and robing them in pink paper, while others are filling, securing, marking, and addressing the cases or baskets to Hong-Kong, San Francisco, Yokohama, Bombay, London, New York, St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Paris.
The wine in cask, stored in the left-hand wing, after having been duly blended in a vast vat holding over 2,400 gallons, is drawn off into bottles, which are then lowered down a shaft to the second tier of cellars by means of an endless chain, on to which the baskets of bottles are swiftly hooked. The workman engaged in this duty, in order to prevent his falling down the shaft, has a leather belt strapped round his waist, by means of which he is secured to an adjoining iron column.
We descend into the lower cellars down a flight of ninety-three broad steps--a depth equal to the height of an ordinary six-storied house--and find no less than four-and-twenty galleries excavated in the chalk, without any masonry supports, and containing upwards of a million bottles of champagne. The length of these galleries varies, but they are of a uniform breadth, allowing either a couple of racks with wine _sur pointe_, or stacks of bottles, in four rows on either side, with an ample pa.s.sage down the centre.
The upper range of cellars comprises two large arched galleries of considerable breadth, one of which contains wine in wood and wine _sur pointe_, while the other is stocked with bottles of wine heads downward, ready to be delivered into the hands of the _degorgeur_.
MM. de St. Marceaux and Co. have the honour of supplying the King of the Belgians, the President of the French Republic, and several German potentates, with an exceedingly delicate champagne known as the Royal St. Marceaux. The same wine is popular in Russia and other parts of Europe, just as the Dry Royal of the firm is much esteemed in the United States. The brand of the house most appreciated in this country is its Carte d"Or, a very dry wine which, in conjunction with the firm"s Extra Quality, secured the first place at a recent champagne compet.i.tion in England.
In the neighbourhood of the Pommery and de St. Marceaux establishments numerous other champagne manufacturers have their cellars formed from the abandoned quarries so numerous on this side of the city. Of some of these firms we have already spoken, but there remain to be mentioned Messrs. Kunklemann and Co., Ruinart pere et fils, George Goulet, Jules Champion, Theophile Roederer, &c. The cellars of the three last-named are immediately outside the Porte Dieu-Lumiere, near which is a house with a curious bas-relief on its face, the subject of which has been a source of much perplexity to local antiquaries.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BAS-RELIEF NEAR THE PORTE DIEU-LUMIeRE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: JEAN REMI MOET.]
X.--EPERNAY CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS.
Early Records of the Moet Family at Reims and Epernay-- Jean Remi Moet Founder of the Commerce in Champagne Wines-- Extracts from the Old Account-Books of the Moets-- First Sales of Sparkling Wines-- Sales to England in 1788-- "Milords" Farnham and Findlater-- Jean Remi Moet receives the Emperor Napoleon, Josephine, and the King of Westphalia-- The Firm of Moet and Chandon Const.i.tuted-- Their Establishment in the Rue du Commerce-- Delivering and Washing the New Bottles-- The Numerous Vineyards and Vendangeoirs of the Firm-- Making the Cuvee in Vats of 12,000 Gallons-- The Bottling of the Wine by 200 Hands-- A Hundred Thousand Bottles Completed Daily-- 20,000 Francs" worth of Broken Gla.s.s in Two Years-- A Subterranean City, with miles of Streets, Cross Roads, Open s.p.a.ces, Tramways, and Stations-- The Ancient Entrance to these Vaults-- Tablet Commemorative of the Visit of Napoleon I.-- Millions of Bottles of Champagne in Piles and Racks-- The Original Vaults known as Siberia-- Scene in the Packing Hall-- Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s Large and Complete Staff-- Provision for Illness and Old Age-- Annual Fete Given by the Firm-- Their Famous "Star" Brand-- M. Perrier-Jouet, the lucky Grandson of a little Epernay Grocer-- His Offices and Cellars-- His Wine Cla.s.sed according to its Deserts-- Messrs. Roussillon and Co."s Establishment-- The Recognition accorded to their Wines-- Their Stock of Old Vintages-- The Extensive Establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger and Co.-- Their Large Stock of the Fine 1874 Vintage-- Preparations for the Tirage-- Their Vast Fireproof Cellier and its Admirable Temperature-- Their Lofty and Capacious Cellars of Two Stories.
Those magnates of the champagne trade, Messrs. Moet and Chandon, whose famous "star" brand is familiar in every part of the civilised globe, and whose half-score miles of cellars contain as many million bottles of champagne as there are millions of inhabitants in most of the secondary European states, have their head-quarters at Epernay in a s.p.a.cious chateau--in that street of chateaux named the Rue du Commerce, but commonly known as the Faubourg de la Folie--which is approached through handsome iron gates, and has beautiful gardens in the rear extending in the direction of the River Marne. The existing firm dates from the year 1833, but the family of Moet--conjectured to have originally come from the Low Countries--had already been a.s.sociated with the champagne wine trade for well-nigh a century previously. If the Moets came from Holland they must have established themselves in the Champagne at a very early date, for the annals of Reims record that in the fifteenth century Jean and Nicolas Moet were _echevins_ of the city. A Moet was present in that capacity at the coronation of Charles VII. in 1429, when Joan of Arc stood erect by the princ.i.p.al altar of the cathedral with her sacred banner in her hand, and for having contributed to repulse an attempt on the part of the English to prevent the entrance of the Royal party into the city, the Moets were subsequently enn.o.bled by the same monarch.
A mural tablet in the church of St. Remi records the death of D. G.
Moet, Grand Prior, in 1554, and nine years later we find Nicol Moet claiming exemption at Epernay from the payment of _tailles_ on the ground of his being a n.o.ble. An old commercial book preserved in the family archives shows that in the year 1743--at the epoch when the rashness of the Duc de Grammont saved the English army under George II.
from being cut to pieces at Dettingen--a descendant of the foregoing, one Claude Louis Nicolas Moet, who owned considerable vineyard property in the vicinity of Epernay, decided upon embarking in the wine trade.
It is his son, however, Jean Remi Moet, born in 1758, who may be looked upon as the veritable founder of the present commerce in Champagne wines, which, thanks to his efforts, received a wonderful impulse, so that instead of the consumption of the vintages of the Marne being limited as heretofore to the privileged few, it spread all over the civilised world.
At Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s we had the opportunity of inspecting some of the old account-books of the firm, and more particularly those recording the transactions of Jean Remi Moet and his father. The first sales of sparkling wine, on May 23rd, 1743, comprised 301 bottles of the vintage of 1741 to Pierre Joly, wine-merchant, _bon des douze chez le Roi_, whatever that may mean, at Paris; 120 bottles to Pierre Gabriel Baudoin, also _bon des douze_, at Paris; and a similar quant.i.ty to the Sieur Compoin, keeping the "hotellerie ditte la pest.i.tte Escurie," Rue du Port Maillart, at Nantes in Brittany. The entry specifies that the wine for Nantes is to be left at Choisy-le-Roi, and taken by land to Orleans by the carters of that town, who are to be found at the Ecu d"Orleans, Porte St. Michel, Paris, the carriage as far as Choisy being 4 livres 10 deniers (about 4 francs) for the two half-baskets, and to Paris 3 livres 15 deniers the basket.
Between 1750 and "60, parcels of wine were despatched to Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, Konigsberg, Dantzig, Stettin, Brussels, and Amsterdam; but one found no mention of any sales to England till the year 1788, when the customers of the firm included "Milord" Farnham, of London, and Messrs.
Felix Calvert and Sylvin, who had a couple of sample bottles sent to them, for which they were charged five shillings. In the same year Messrs. Carbonnell, Moody, and Walker (predecessors of the well-known existing firm of Carbonnell and Co.) wrote in French for two baskets, of ten dozens each, of _vin de champagne_ "of good body, not too charged with liqueur, but of excellent taste, and _not at all sparkling_!" while the Chevalier Colebrook, writing from Bath, requests that 72 bottles of champagne may be sent to his friend the Hon. John Butler, Molesworth Street, Dublin, "who if contented with the wine will become a good customer, he being rich, keeping a good house, and receiving many amateurs of _vin de champagne_." Shortly afterwards the chevalier himself receives 50 bottles of still wine, vintage 1783. In 1789 120 bottles of champagne, vintage 1788, are supplied to "Milord" Findlater, of London--an ancestor, no doubt, of the wine-merchants of the same name carrying on business to-day, and whom the Moets in their simplicity dubbed a "Milord"--and in 1790 the customers of the house include Power and Michel, of 44, Lamb Street, London, and Manning, of the St. Alban Tavern, the latter of whom is supplied on March 30th with 130 bottles of champagne at three livres, or two "schillings," per bottle; while a month later Mr. Lockart, banker, of 36, Pall Mall, is debited with 360 bottles, vintage 1788, at three shillings.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WASHING BOTTLES AT MESSRS. MOeT & CHANDON"S, EPERNAY. (p. 105)]
In this same year M. Moet despatches a traveller to England named Jeanson, and his letters, some two hundred in number, are all preserved in the archives of the house. On the 17th May, 1790, he writes from London as follows:--"As yet I have only gone on preparatory and often useless errands. I have distributed samples of which I have no news.
Patience is necessary, and I endeavour to provide myself with it. How the taste of this country has changed since ten years ago! Almost everywhere they ask for dry wine, but at the same time require it so vinous and so strong that there is scarcely any other than the wine of Sillery which can satisfy them.... To-morrow I dine five miles from here, at M. Macnamara"s. We shall uncork four bottles of our wine, which will probably be all right." In May, 1792, Jean Remi Moet is married, and thenceforward a.s.sumes the full management of the house. On December 20 of the year following, when the Reign of Terror was fairly inaugurated, we find the accounts in the ledger opened to this or the other "citoyen." The orthodox Republican formula, however, did not long continue, and "sieur" and "monsieur" resumed their accustomed places, showing that Jean Remi Moet had no sympathy with the Jacobin faction of the day. In 1805 he became Mayor of Epernay, and between this time and the fall of the Empire received Napoleon several times at his residence, as well as the Empress Josephine and the King of Westphalia. The Emperor, after recapturing Reims from the Allies, came on to Epernay, on which occasion he presented M. Moet with the cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1830 the latter was arbitrarily dismissed from his mayoralty by Charles X., but was speedily reinstated by Louis Philippe, though he did not retain his office for long, his advanced age compelling him to retire from active life in the course of 1833. At this epoch the firm, which, since 1807 had been known as Moet and Co., was remodelled under the style of Moet and Chandon, the two partners being M. Victor Moet, son of the outgoing partner, and M. P. G. Chandon, the descendant of an old enn.o.bled family of the Maconnais, who had married M. Jean Remi Moet"s eldest daughter. The descendants of these gentlemen are to-day at the head of the business, the partners being on the one hand M. Victor Moet-Romont and M. C. J. V. Auban Moet-Romont; and on the other, MM.
Paul and Raoul Chandon de Briailles.
Facing Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s offices at Epernay is a range of comparatively new buildings, with its white facade ornamented with the well-known monogram M. and C., surmounted by the familiar star. It is here that the business of blending and bottling the wine is carried on.
Pa.s.sing through the arched gateway access is obtained to a s.p.a.cious courtyard, where carts laden with bottles are being expeditiously lightened of their fragile contents by the busy hands of numerous workmen. Another gateway on the left leads into the s.p.a.cious bottle-washing room, which from the middle of May until the middle of July presents a scene of extraordinary animation. Bottle-washing apparatus, supplied by a steam-engine with 20,000 gallons of water per diem, are ranged in fifteen rows down the entire length of this hall, and nearly 200 women strive to excel each other in diligence and celerity in their management, a practised hand washing from 900 to 1,000 bottles in the course of the day. To the right of this _salle de rincage_, as it is styled, bottles are stacked in their tens of thousands, and lads furnished with barrows, known as _diables_, hurry to and fro, conveying these to the washers, or removing the clean bottles to the adjacent courtyard, where they are allowed to drain, prior to being taken to the _salle de tirage_ or bottling room.
Before, however, the washing of bottles on this gigantic scale commences, the "marrying" or blending of the wine is accomplished in a vast apartment, 250 feet in length and 100 feet broad, during the early spring. The casks of newly-vintaged wine which have been stowed away during the winter months, in the extensive range of cellars hewn out of the chalk underlying Epernay, where they have slowly fermented, are mixed together in due proportions in huge vats, each holding upwards of 12,000 gallons. Some of this wine is the growth of Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s own vineyards, of which they possess as many as 900 acres (giving constant employment to 800 labourers and vinedressers) at Ay, Avenay, Bouzy, Cramant, Champillon, Chouilly, Dizy, Epernay, Grauves, Hautvillers, Le Mesnil, Moussy, Pierry, Saran, St. Martin, Verzy, and Verzenay, and the average annual cost of cultivating which is about 40 per acre. At Ay the firm own 210 acres of vineyards; at Cramant and Chouilly, nearly 180 acres; at Verzy and Verzenay, 120 acres; at Pierry and Grauves, upwards of 100 acres; at Hautvillers, 90 acres; at Le Mesnil, 80 acres; at Epernay, nearly 60 acres; and at Bouzy, 55 acres.
Messrs. Moet and Chandon, moreover, possess vendangeoirs, or pressing-houses, at Ay, Bouzy, Cramant, Epernay, Hautvillers, Le Mesnil, Pierry, Saran, and Verzenay, in which the large number of 40 presses are installed. At these vendangeoirs no less than 5,450 pieces of fine white wine, sufficient for 1,360,000 bottles of champagne, are annually made--that is, 1,200 pieces at Ay, 1,100 at Cramant and Saran, 800 at Verzy and Verzenay, and smaller quant.i.ties at the remaining establishments. All these establishments have their celliers and their cellars, together with cottages for the accommodation of the numerous vinedressers in the employment of the firm.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MESSRS. MOeT & CHANDON"S VENDANGEOIR AT BOUZY. (p. 106)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOTTLING CHAMPAGNE AT MESSRS. MOeT & CHANDON"S, EPERNAY. (p. 107)]
Extensive as are the vineyards owned by Messrs. Moet and Chandon, the yield from them is utterly inadequate to the enormous demand which the great Epernay firm are annually called upon to supply, and large purchases have to be made by their agents from the growers throughout the Champagne. The wine thus secured, as well as that grown by the firm, is duly mixed together in such proportions as will ensure lightness with the requisite vinosity, and fragrance combined with effervescence, a thorough amalgamation being effected by stirring up the wine with long poles provided with fan-shaped ends. If the vintage be indifferent in quality the firm have scores of huge tuns filled with the yield of more favoured seasons to fall back upon to ensure any deficiencies of character and flavour being supplied.
The casks of wine to be blended are raised from the cellars, half a dozen at a time, by means of a lift provided with an endless chain, and worked by the steam-engine of which we have already spoken. They are emptied, through traps in the floor of the room above, into the huge vats which, standing upon a raised platform, reach almost to the ceiling. From these vats the fluid is allowed to flow through hose into rows of casks stationed below. Before being bottled the wine reposes for a certain time, is next duly racked and again blended, and is eventually conveyed through silver-plated pipes into oblong reservoirs, each fitted with a dozen syphon-taps, so arranged that directly the bottle slipped on to one of them becomes full the wine ceases to flow.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Upwards of 200 workpeople are employed in the _salle de tirage_ at Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s, which, while the operation of bottling is going on, presents a scene of bewildering activity. Men and lads are gathered round the syphon-taps briskly removing the bottles as they become filled, and supplanting them by empty ones. Other lads hasten to transport the filled bottles on trucks to the corkers, whose so-called "guillotine" machines send the corks home with a sudden thud. The corks being secured with _agrafes_ the bottles are placed in large flat baskets called _manettes_, and wheeled away on tracks, the quarts being deposited in the cellars by means of lifts, while the pints slide down an inclined plane by the aid of an endless chain, which raises the trucks with the empty baskets at the same time the full ones make their descent into the cellars. What with the incessant thud of the corking machines, the continual rolling of iron-wheeled trucks over the concrete floor, the rattling and creaking of the machinery working the lifts, the occasional sharp report of a bursting bottle, and the loudly-shouted orders of the foremen, who display the national partiality for making a noise to perfection, the din becomes at times all but unbearable. The number of bottles filled in the course of the day naturally varies, still Messrs. Moet and Chandon reckon that during the month of June a daily average of 100,000 are taken in the morning from the stacks in the _salle de rincage_, washed, dried, filled, corked, wired, lowered into the cellars and carefully arranged in symmetrical order. This represents a total of two and a half million bottles during that month alone.
The bottles on being lowered into the cellars, either by means of the incline or the lifts, are placed in a horizontal position, and with their uppermost side daubed with white chalk, are stacked in layers from two to half-a-dozen bottles deep with narrow oak laths between. The stacks are usually about six or seven feet high and 100 feet and upwards in length. Whilst the wine is thus reposing in a temperature of about 55 Fahrenheit, fermentation sets in, and the ensuing month is one of much anxiety. Thanks, however, to the care bestowed, Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s annual loss from bottles bursting rarely exceeds three per cent., though fifteen was once regarded as a respectable and satisfactory average. The broken gla.s.s is a perquisite of the workmen, the money arising from its sale, which at the last distribution amounted to no less than 20,000 francs, being divided amongst them every couple of years.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The usual entrance to Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s Epernay cellars--which, burrowed out in all directions, are of the aggregate length of nearly seven miles, and have usually between 11,000,000 and 12,000,000 bottles and 25,000 casks of wine stored therein--is through a wide and imposing portal, and down a long and broad flight of steps. It is, however, by the ancient and less imposing entrance, through which more than one crowned head has condescended to pa.s.s, that we set forth on our lengthened tour through these intricate underground galleries--this subterranean city with its miles of streets, crossroads, open s.p.a.ces, tramways, and stations devoted solely to champagne. A gilt inscription on a black marble tablet testifies that "on the 26th July, 1807, Napoleon the Great, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, honoured commerce by visiting the cellars of Jean Remi Moet, Mayor of Epernay, President of the Canton, and Member of the General Council of the Department," within three weeks of the signature of the treaty of Tilsit. Pa.s.sing down the flight of steep slippery steps traversed by the victor of Eylau and Jena, access is gained to the upper range of vaults, brilliantly illuminated by the glare of gas, or dimly lighted by the flickering flame of tallow-candles, upwards of 60,000lbs. of which are annually consumed.
Here group after group of the small army of 350 workmen employed in these subterranean galleries are encountered engaged in the process of transforming the _vin brut_ into champagne. At Messrs. Moet and Chandon"s the all-important operation of liqueuring the wine is effected by aid of machines of the latest construction, which regulate the quant.i.ty administered to the utmost nicety. The corks are branded by being pressed against steel dies heated by gas, by women who can turn out 3,000 per day apiece, the quant.i.ty of string used to secure them amounting to nearly ten tons in the course of the year.
There is another and a lower depth of cellars to be explored to which access is gained by trapholes in the floor--through which the barrels and baskets of wine are raised and lowered--and by flights of steps.
From the foot of the latter there extends an endless vista of lofty and s.p.a.cious pa.s.sages hewn out of the chalk, the walls of which, smooth as finished masonry, are lined with thousands of casks of raw wine, varied at intervals by gigantic vats. Miles of long, dark-brown, dampish-looking galleries stretch away to the right and left, and though devoid of the picturesque festoons of fungi which decorate the London Dock vaults, exhibit a sufficient degree of mouldiness to give them an air of respectable antiquity. These mult.i.tudinous galleries, lit up by petroleum-lamps, are mostly lined with wine in bottles stacked in compact ma.s.ses to a height of six or seven feet, only room enough for a single person to pa.s.s being left. Millions of bottles are thus arranged, the majority on their sides, in huge piles, with tablets hung up against each stack to note its age and quality; and the rest, which are undergoing daily evolutions at the hands of the twister, at various angles of inclination. In these cellars there are nearly 11,000 racks in which the bottles of _vin brut_ rest _sur pointe_, as many as 600,000 bottles being commonly twisted daily.
The way runs on between regiments of bottles of the same size and shape, save where at intervals pints take the place of quarts; and the visitor, gazing into the black depths of the transverse pa.s.sages to the right and left, becomes conscious of a feeling that if his guide were suddenly to desert him he would feel as hopelessly lost as in the catacombs of Rome.
There are two galleries, each 650 feet in length, containing about 650,000 bottles, and connected by 32 transverse galleries, with an aggregate length of 4,000 feet, in which nearly 1,500,000 bottles are stored. There are, further, eight galleries, each 500 feet in length, and proportionably stocked; also the extensive new vaults, excavated some five or six years back, in the rear of the then-existing cellarage, and a considerable number of smaller vaults. The different depths and varying degrees of moisture afford a choice of temperature of which the experienced owners know how to take advantage. The original vaults, wherein more than a century ago the first bottles of champagne made by the infant firm were stowed away, bear the name of Siberia, on account of their exceeding coldness. This section consists of several roughly-excavated low winding galleries, resembling natural caverns, and affording a striking contrast to the broad, lofty, and regular-shaped corridors of more recent date.
When the proper period arrives for the bottles to emerge once more into the upper air they are conveyed to the packing-room, a s.p.a.cious hall 180 feet long and 60 feet broad. In front of its three large double doors waggons are drawn up ready to receive their loads. The seventy men and women employed here easily foil, label, wrap, and pack up some 10,000 bottles a day. Cases and baskets are stacked in different parts of this vast hall, at one end of which numerous trusses of straw used in the packing are piled. Seated at tables ranged along one side of the apartment women are busily occupied in pasting on labels or encasing the necks of bottles in gold or silver foil, whilst elsewhere men, seated on three-legged stools in front of smoking caldrons of molten sealing-wax of a deep green hue, are coating the necks of other bottles by plunging them into the boiling fluid. When labelled and decorated with either wax or foil the bottles pa.s.s on to other women, who swathe them in pink tissue-paper and set them aside for the packers, by whom, after being deftly wrapped round with straw, they are consigned to baskets or cases, to secure which last no less than 10,000lbs. of nails are annually used.
England and Russia are partial to gold foil, pink paper, and wooden cases holding a dozen or a couple of dozen bottles of the exhilarating fluid, whereas other nations prefer waxed necks, disdain pink paper, and insist on being supplied in wicker baskets containing fifty bottles each.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PACKING HALL AT MESSRS. MOeT AND CHANDON"S, EPERNAY. (p. 112)]