Chapter 23

[156]Decretum medica apud insulam Coon facultatis super poetica lite Campanum inter et Burgundum vinum ortâ post editum a poeta Burgundo libellum supplicem.By several writers this poem has been ascribed to Grenan; but M. Philibert Milsaud, in hisProcés poétique touchant les Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne(Paris, 1866), clearly shows that, although in favour of Burgundy, the judgment is an ironical one, and that the signature C. C. R. stands for Carolus Coffin Remensis.[157]Ode à Messieurs Coffin et Grenan, Professeurs de Belles Lettres, sur leurs Combats poétiques au sujet des Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne, in Bellechaume’sRecueil.[158]‘Pour connaître la différenceDu nectar de Beaune et de Reims,Il faut mettre votre scienceA bien goûter de ces deux vins.’[159]In an anonymous letter addressed to Grenan on February 1712, and published in theRecueil.[160]‘Un franc Bourguignon se fait gloireD’être avec un Remois à boire;Ils sont tous deux bons connaisseurs,Et ne sont pas moins bons buveurs.’[161]Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne.Epernay, 1880. Maucroix died in his ninetieth year in 1708.[162]Henderson’sHistory of Ancient and Modern Wines.[163]In theJournal des Savants.[164]‘Vieux Bourguignon, jeune ChampagneFont l’agrément de nos festins.’FromLa Critique, an opera of Panard’s, produced in 1742.[165]‘With what vivacity,’ he exclaims, with a strange blending of poetry and science, ‘does this divine liquid burst forth in sparkling foam-bells! And what an agreeable impression it produces upon the olfactory organs! What a delicious sensation it creates upon the delicate fibres of the palate! ... It is fixed air which, by its impetuous motion, forms and raises up that foam, the whiteness of which, rivalling that of milk, soon offers to our astonished eye the lustre of the most transparent crystal. It is this same air that, by its expansion and the effervescence it produces, develops the action of the vinous spirit of which it is the vehicle, in order that thepapillæof the nerves may more promptly receive the delicious impression.... Vainly calumny spreads the report on all sides that the sparkle of our wines is injurious; vainly it asserts that they have only a hurtful fire and a worthless flavour. Incapable of hiding under an insidious appearance a perfidious venom, they will always present a faithful image of the ingenuousness of their native province.’[166]Max Sutaine’sEssai sur le Vin de Champagne.[167]Henderson’sHistory of Ancient and Modern Wines. Pluche, in hisSpectacle de la Nature, notices the controversy regarding the respective merits of the wines of the Marne and the Côte d’Or in the following terms:‘Count: If we will be determined by the finest palates, the Champaign wine is much preferable to Burgundy.Prior: It is a sufficient honour for Champaign to be admitted to the same degree of estimation with Burgundy; and it may very well dispense with the priority. I always thought Burgundy had some similitude with a solid understanding, which affects us with lasting impressions, and that Champaign resembles a lively wit, which glitters more upon the imagination, but which is not always serviceable to its possessor.Count: If you had made the froth of some Champaign wines and the sallies of a sprightly wit your parallel, I should have thought it unexceptionable; and several pleasant remarks might be made on this sprightliness without solidity. But such a Champaign wine as that of Sillery unites all the vigour of Burgundy, with an agreeable flavour peculiar to itself.Prior: I prefer useful qualities to those that are merely agreeable. Burgundy seems to be a more salutary wine than Champaign, and will always be triumphant for that reason. Its colour alone declares it to be a wine of a good body, and I must confess I am apt to be diffident of all dazzling appearances.Count: People believe that this deep colour, so esteemed in Burgundy wines, is an indication of their wholesomeness; but it is observable in the grossest wines, and results from an intermixture of the husky parts of the grape. Wine, in proportion to the quantity of these particles blended with it, will be less qualified for digestion. The gout, therefore, and the stone, with which the inhabitants of wine-countries are so frequently afflicted, are distempers hardly known either at Reims or on the banks of the Marne, where the wines are very moderately coloured.... Wines may be made almost as white in Burgundy as they are in Champaign, though not so good; and, on the other hand, the Champenois press a wine as red as the Burgundy growth, and the merchants sell it either as the best species of Burgundy to the wine-conners, who are the first people that are deceived in it, or as red Champaign to the connoisseurs, who prefer it to any other wine. If we may judge of the merit of wines by the price, we shall certainly assign the preference to Champaign, since the finest species of this wine is sold in the vaults of Sillery and Epernai for six, seven, or eight hundred livres, when the same quality of the best Burgundy may be purchased for three hundred.Countess: Let me entreat you, gentlemen, to leave this controversy undecided. The equal pretensions that are formed by these two great provinces promote an emulation which is advantageous to us. The partisans for Burgundy and Champaign form two factions in the State; but their contests are very entertaining, and their encounters not at all dangerous. It is very usual to see the zealots of one party maintaining a correspondence with those of the other; they frequently associate together without any reserve, and those who were advocates for Burgundy at the beginning of the entertainment are generally reconciled to Champaign before the appearance of the dessert.’[168]Letters, &c.Hamburg and Paris, 1788. The translator adds, as a note, ‘People do not any longer get drunk on Champagne.’[169]Mémoires du Duc de St. Simon.[170]Journal de Barbier.[171]A curious proof of the popularity of sparkling Champagne, and of the singular system of provincial government into which France was broken up during the reign of Louis XV., is found in a decree of the Council of State, dated May 25, 1728. The decree in question begins by setting forth that, by theOrdonnance des aides de Normandie, wine was forbidden to be brought into Rouen or its suburbs in bottles, jugs, or any less vessels than hogsheads and barrels—with the exception ofvin de liqueurpacked in boxes—under pain of confiscation and one hundred livres’ fine, and that carriers were prohibited from conveying wine in bottles in the province without leave from thefermier des aides. Nevertheless, petitions had been presented by themaireandéchevinsof Reims, stating ‘that the trade in the gray wines of Champagne had considerably increased for some years past, through the precautions taken at the place of production to bottle them during the first moon of the month of March following the vintage, in order to render themmousseux; that those who make use of the gray wine of Champagne prefer that which ismousseuxto that which is not; and that this gray wine cannot be transported in casks into the interior of the kingdom or to foreign countries without totally losing its qualities,’—a statement probably intentionally overdrawn, since Bertin du Rocheret used to export it in casks to England. Yet thefermiers des aides de Normandieclaimed to prohibit the transport of wines in bottle; and if their pretension held good, the trade in the gray wine of Champagne would be destroyed. ‘Shifting the cause, as a lawyer knows how,’ the decree recapitulates the plea of thefermiersthat the transport of wine in bottles offered facilities for defrauding the revenue, since a carrier with a load could easily leave some of iten routewith innkeepers, and these in turn could hide bottles holding apinte de Parisfrom the officers in chests, cupboards, &c., and sell them subsequently, to the detriment of thedroits de détail.The foregoing duly rehearsed, there follows the decree permitting ‘to be sent in bottles into the province of Normandy, for the consumption of the said province, gray wine of Champagne in baskets, which must not hold less than one hundred bottles,’ but prohibiting the introduction in bottles of any other growth or quality, under the penalty of confiscation and one hundred livres’ fine. Permission is also given to pass gray and red wine of Champagne, or of any othercruor quality, in baskets of fifty or one hundred bottles for conveyance into other provinces, or for shipment to foreign parts by the ports of Rouen, Caen, Dieppe, and Havre. The wagoners, however, in all cases are to have certificates signed and countersigned by all manner of authorities, and are only to enter the province by certain specified routes. All wine, too, is to pay thedroit de détail, except in the case of people not continuously residing in the province, who may be going to their estates, or those bound for the eaux de Forges, a celebrated watering-place, both of whom may take a certain quantity in bottle with them for their own consumption free of duty.[172]‘To be drunk asnouveauor bottled,’ says M. Louis Perrier in hisMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.[173]D’Argenson’sMémoires.[174]Bois-Jourdain’sMélanges Historiques. The editor of theJournal de Barbierobserves in a note to a passage referring to the King’s suppers at La Muette with Madame de Mailly, under the date of November 1737: ‘These suppers were drinking bouts. It was there that the King acquired a taste for Champagne.’[175]Clauteau’sRelation de ce qui s’est passé au Passage du Roi. Reims, 1744.[176]Ibid.[177]Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.[178]Louis Paris’Histoire de l’Abbaye d’Avenay.[179]Amongst these may be cited the Abbé Bignon, who, in a letter to Bertin du Rocheret dated January 1734, says: ‘The less the wine ismousseuxand glittering, and the more, on the contrary, it shows at the outset of what you styleliqueur, and I, in chemical terms, should rather call balsamic parts, the better I shall think of it.’[180]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.[181]‘Chloris, Eglé me versent de leur mainD’un vin d’Ay dont la mousse pressée,De la bouteille avec force élancée,Comme un éclair fait voler son bouchon.Il part, on rit; il frappe le plafond:De ce vin frais l’écume pétillanteDe nos Français est l’image brillante.’[182]‘De ce vin blanc délicieuxQui mousse et brille dans le verre,Dont les mortels ne boivent guères;Et qu’on ne sert jamais qu’à la table des dieuxOu des grands, pour en parler mieux,Qui sont les seuls dieux de la terre.’[183]Desaulx, a canon of Reims Cathedral, rendered Lebatteux’s ode as follows:‘Ce n’est point sur les monts de Rhodope et de ThraceQue j’irai t’invoquer; ces monts couverts de glace,Sont-ils propres à tes faveurs?Non, Reims te voit régner bien plus sur ses collines;Là je t’offre mes vœux; de nos côtes voisinesEmbrases moi de tes ardeurs.Soit que d’un lait mousseux l’écume pétillante,Soit qu’un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante,T’annonce à mes regards surpris,Viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatienteVeut devoir en ce jour les accords qu’elle enfanteA la force de tes esprits.’[184]‘Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’amour de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.Leur palais corrompu, gâté,Ne veut que du vin frelaté,De ce poison vert, apprêté,Pour des cervelles frénétiques.Si, tenons-nous pour hérétiquesCeux qui rejettent la bontéDe cescorpusculs balsamiquesQue jadis Horace a chantés.Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’honneur de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.De ce vin blanc délicieux,Qui désarme la plus sévère;Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.Buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux,Je vous livre une douce guerre;Buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux,De ce nectar délicieux,Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.’The above was set to music by M. Dormel, organist of St. Geneviève.[185]Marmontel’sMémoires d’un Père pour l’instruction de ses Enfants. M. Louis Paris, in hisHistoire de l’Abbaye d’Avenay, identifies this spot as one known indifferently as Le Fay or Feuilly. He furnishes some interesting details respecting Mademoiselle de Navarre, who, after being the mistress of Marshal Saxe, married the Chevalier de Mirabeau, brother to theAmi des Hommesand uncle of the celebrated orator, and then goes on to say: ‘In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the wines of Avenay shared with those of Hautvillers the glory of rivalling the best of Ay. “Avenay, les bons raisins,” was the popular saying inscribed on the banner of itschevaliers de l’Arquebuse(a corps of local sharpshooters). La Bruyère, St. Evremond, Boileau himself, Coulanges, L’Atteignant, and many others had celebrated the tender and delicate wines of our vineyards; and that of Madame l’Abbesse especially had acquired such a reputation, that several great families, strangers to the locality, thought it the right thing to have avendangeoirat Avenay, and to pass part of the autumn in the renowned Val d’Or.’[186]‘Vois ce nectar charmantSauter sous ces beaux doigts;Et partir à l’instant;Je crois bien que l’amour en ferait tout autant.Et quoi sous ces beaux doigtsBouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois?Croyez-vous que l’amourLeur fit un pareil tour?’[187]‘Le jus que verse GanimèdeA Jupiter dans ses repasA ce vin de Champagne cède,Et nous sommes mieux ici bas.’From the edition of hisPoesiespublished in 1757.[188]‘Et quand je décoiffe un flaconLe liège qui petteMe fait entendre un plus beau sonQue tambour et trompette.’Panard’sŒuvres, Paris, 1763.[189]‘Diaphorus au marchand de vinVend bien cher un extrait de rivière;Le marchand vend au médecinDu Champagne arrivé de Nanterre,Ce qui prouve encor ce refrain-ciA trompeur, trompeur et demi.’[190]‘Pour jouir d’un destin plus tranquille et plus douxDe ce bruyant séjour, amis, éloignons nous,Allons, dans mon cellier, du Champagne et du BeauneGoûter les doux appas.Les plaisirs n’y sont pas troublés par l’embarras,Et le funeste ennui qui monte jusqu’au trôneDans les caveaux ne descend pas.’[191]‘C’est alors qu’un joyeux convive,Saississant un flacon scellé,Qui de Reims ou d’Ai tient la liqueur captive,Fait sauter jusqu’à la soliveLe liège deficellé;Tout le cercle attentif porte un regard avideSur cet objet qui les ravit;Ils présentent leur verre vide,Le nectar pétillant aussitôt les remplit.On boit, on goûte, on applaudit,On redouble et par l’assembléeLa mousse Champenoise à plein verre est sablée.De là naissent les ris, les transports éclatans,La sève et tout son feu, jusqu’au cerveau montants,Font naître des débats, des querelles poliesQui réveillent l’esprit de tous les assistants.’[192]An allusion to thevin grisof the Champagne.[193]‘Grâce à la liqueurQui lave mon cœur,Nul souci ne me consume.De ce vin grisQue je chérisL’écume,Lorsque j’en boiQuel feu chez moiS’allume!Nectar enchanteur,Tu fais mon bonheur;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!Champagne divin,Du plus noir chagrinTu dissipes l’amertume.Tu sais mûrir,Tu sais guérirLe rhume.Quel goût flatteurTa douce odeurParfume!Pour tant de bienfaitsEt pour tant d’attraits;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!’[194]Max Sutaine’sEssai sur le Vin de Champagne.[195]M. Sutaine observes that in 1780 a merchant of Epernay bottled 6000 bottles, and that the importance of thistiragewas noted as something remarkable; and this statement has been repeated by every other writer on Champagne. Yet here is atirageof 6000 bottles taking place thirty-four years previously. The extent of the bottled-wine trade is confirmed by Arthur Young, who in 1787 visited Ay, where M. Lasnier had 60,000 bottles in his cellar, and M. Dorsé from 30,000 to 40,000. Marmontel in 1716 mentions Henin de Navarre’s cellars at Avenay as containing 50,000 bottles of Champagne.[196]E. J. Maumené’sTraité du Travail des Vins, 1874.[197]Ibid. Thecasseof 1776 has never been forgotten at Epernay; and M. Perrier, in a letter of August 1801, mentions a recent one at Avize amounting to 85 per cent. That of 1842 flooded the cellars throughout the Champagne. Even in 1850 M. Maumené mentions acassein a Reims cellar which had reached 98 per cent at his visit, and was still continuing.[198]Max Sutaine’sEssai sur le Vin de Champagne. The Abbé Bignon confirms this in a letter of December 20, 1736, to Bertin du Rocheret, respecting wine received from him. ‘The wine sealed with a cipher in red wax,’ he observes, ‘seemed to me very delicate, but having as yet someliqueurwhich time may get rid of, though after that I am afraid there will not remain much strength. Another, also sealed with red wax, but with a coat-of-arms, seems to have more quality and vinosity, though also very delicate and very light, bothsablantperfectly, though they cannot be calledmousseux. As to that which is sealed with black, the people who esteem foam would bestow the most magnificent eulogies upon it. It would be difficult to find any that carries this beautiful perfection further. Three spoonfuls at the bottom of the glass is surmounted with the strongest foam to the very brim; on the other hand, I found in it a furiousvert, and not much vinosity.’[199]In 1734 he speaks of hismousseux sablant, and forwards to the Marquis de Polignac bothmousseuxandpetillant. In 1736 he offers M. Véron de Bussy his choice ofdemi-mousseux,bon mousseux, andsaute bouchon; and the following year distinguishes his Aymousseuxfrom hissaute bouchon.[200]Respecting the price of sparkling Champagne during the first half of the eighteenth century, a few instances from the correspondence of Bertin du Rocheret may here he quoted. In 1716 he offers Marshal d’Artagnan 1500 bottles at 35 sols, cash down, and taken at Epernay. In 1725 he offersflacons blancs mousseux liqueurat from 30 to 50 sols, andambrés non mousseux, sablant, at 25 sols. Ten years latersaute bouchonis quoted by him at 40 and 45 sols, and in 1736 at 3 livres,demi-mousseuxranging from 36 to 40 sols, andbon mousseuxfrom 45 to 50 sols. The following yearsaute bouchonfetched 3 livres 6 sols, andmousseux42 sols. In 1736 he insisted upon hisflaconsholding apinte; and a royal decree of March 8, 1755, which regulated the weight and capacity of sparkling-wine bottles, required these to weigh 25 ounces, and to hold apinte de Paris, or about 1.64 imperial pint. They were, moreover, to be tied crosswise on the top of the cork, with a string of three strands well twisted. Their cost was 15 livres per hundred in 1734 and 1738, and from 17 to 19 livres in 1754.[201]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.[202]It would appear from Bidet that the wines of the Mountain had not been transformed intovin mousseuxas late as 1752, as, in his book on wine published during that year, he only includes in the list of places producing sparkling wine Ay, Avenay, Mareuil, Dizy, Hautvillers, Epernay, Pierry, Cramant, Avize, and Le Mesnil.[203]‘Votre palais, usé, perclusPar liqueur inflammable,Préfère de mousseux verjusAu nectar véritable.’[204]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne. In the thesis in favour of Champagne, written by Dr. Xavier of Reims in 1777, the acidulous character of the wine is confirmed by the author, who naïvely remarks that it is as efficacious in preventing putrefaction as are other acids. He also compares it to acidulated waters.[205]Legrand d’Aussy’sVie privée des Français, 1782.[206]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne. The pretended secret of Dom Perignon, quoted from theMémoireof 1718, and mentioning the addition of sugar to the wine of Hautvillers, is flatly contradicted by Dom Grossart’s letter to M. Dherbès (see page41ante). But it is probable that the suggestion thus made public was acted upon, though at first only timidly.[207]Chaptal’sArt de faire du Vin. As Minister of the Interior, he forwarded the results of his experiments to thepréfets, with the recommendation to spread them throughout their departments.[208]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.[209]Letter of M. Nicolas Perrier to M. Cadet-Devaux, dated August 1801.[210]Asbourru,tocane, anden nouveau.[211]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.[212]The letter in which he mentions this is extant, but the secret which was enclosed in it is missing.[213]Dom Grossart, who had retired to Montier-en-Der in 1790, was unacquainted with this plan when he wrote to M. Dherbès in 1821, although it had been practised for twenty years past.[214]In aMS.quoted in Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.[215]The gifts presented by the municipality on this occasion included flowers, pears, and gingerbread, Reims being as famed for the latter as for its wines. The guild of gingerbread-makers at Reims was established in the sixteenth century, and from that time forward was engaged in continual squabbles with the bakers and pastrycooks of the city, who could not be brought to understand that they had not the right to make gingerbread. Countless reams of paper were scribbled over by the lawyers of the two contending interests; but though the Bailli of Reims on several occasions pronounced a formal verdict, to the effect that no one but a sworn and accepted gingerbread-maker should have act or part in the making of the indigestible delicacy, the contumacious bakers continued to treat his edicts as naught. Eventually a royal edict of 1776, which suppressed the privileges of the majority of the guilds in France, deprived the Reims gingerbread-makers for ever of the right of figuring with swords by their sides and three-cornered hats on their heads at all local ceremonies, civil or religious, and threw their trade open to all.It was at the close of Louis XIV.’s reign that thepain d’épiceof Reims reached the summit of its renown. At the coronation of his successor, theéchevinsof Reims presented the monarch with several baskets of it; and when Maria Leczinska passed through Reims in January 1725, the notables offered her twelve wicker baskets, covered with damask and ornamented with ribbons, containing fresh and dried pears, conserves, preserved lemons, almond-cakes, and a new kind of gingerbread, which received the name ofnonnette à la Reine.[216]This escutcheon shows the arms of Reims, which at first consisted ofrinçeauxor branches; subsequently a cross and a crozier, placed saltire-wise, and a sainte Ampoule, were added. When the government of the city passed from the archbishop, the entwined olive-branches and chief strewn with fleurs de lis were adopted, the old motto, ‘Dieu en soit garde,’ being retained. The iron gates of the Porte de Paris were removed to their present position in 1843, to allow of the passage of the canal.[217]From the days of Charles VIII. to those of Louis XIV., it was customary on these occasions for the keys to be presented by a young girl styled the Pucelle de Reims; and J. M. C. Leber, in his workDes Cérémonies du Sacre, is of opinion that this custom arose in some way from the visit of Joan of Arc. Louis XV. was the first who received them from the lieutenant.[218]Baron Taylor’sReims, la Ville de Sacres.[219]N. Menin’sTraité du Sacre et Couronnement des Rois.[220]P. Tarbé’sReims, ses Rues et ses Monuments.[221]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.[222]Ibid.[223]Arthur Young’sTravels in France in 1787–9.[224]Ibid. Another grievance alleged against the monasteries was the presence of the innumerable fishponds belonging to them scattered throughout the country. TheCahier des Plaintes, Doléances, et Remontrances du Tiers Etat du Baillage de Reims, on the Assembly of the States General under Louis XVI., ask that ‘all fishponds situate outside woods and, above all, those which lie close to vineyards, may be suppressed, as hurtful to agriculture.’[225]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.[226]Instructions of localdirecteurs des aides, quoted from theArchives Nationalesby Taine.[227]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.

[157]Ode à Messieurs Coffin et Grenan, Professeurs de Belles Lettres, sur leurs Combats poétiques au sujet des Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne, in Bellechaume’sRecueil.

[158]‘Pour connaître la différenceDu nectar de Beaune et de Reims,Il faut mettre votre scienceA bien goûter de ces deux vins.’

[158]

‘Pour connaître la différenceDu nectar de Beaune et de Reims,Il faut mettre votre scienceA bien goûter de ces deux vins.’

‘Pour connaître la différence

Du nectar de Beaune et de Reims,

Il faut mettre votre science

A bien goûter de ces deux vins.’

[159]In an anonymous letter addressed to Grenan on February 1712, and published in theRecueil.

[160]‘Un franc Bourguignon se fait gloireD’être avec un Remois à boire;Ils sont tous deux bons connaisseurs,Et ne sont pas moins bons buveurs.’

[160]

‘Un franc Bourguignon se fait gloireD’être avec un Remois à boire;Ils sont tous deux bons connaisseurs,Et ne sont pas moins bons buveurs.’

‘Un franc Bourguignon se fait gloire

D’être avec un Remois à boire;

Ils sont tous deux bons connaisseurs,

Et ne sont pas moins bons buveurs.’

[161]Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne.Epernay, 1880. Maucroix died in his ninetieth year in 1708.

[162]Henderson’sHistory of Ancient and Modern Wines.

[163]In theJournal des Savants.

[164]‘Vieux Bourguignon, jeune ChampagneFont l’agrément de nos festins.’FromLa Critique, an opera of Panard’s, produced in 1742.

[164]

‘Vieux Bourguignon, jeune ChampagneFont l’agrément de nos festins.’

‘Vieux Bourguignon, jeune Champagne

Font l’agrément de nos festins.’

FromLa Critique, an opera of Panard’s, produced in 1742.

[165]‘With what vivacity,’ he exclaims, with a strange blending of poetry and science, ‘does this divine liquid burst forth in sparkling foam-bells! And what an agreeable impression it produces upon the olfactory organs! What a delicious sensation it creates upon the delicate fibres of the palate! ... It is fixed air which, by its impetuous motion, forms and raises up that foam, the whiteness of which, rivalling that of milk, soon offers to our astonished eye the lustre of the most transparent crystal. It is this same air that, by its expansion and the effervescence it produces, develops the action of the vinous spirit of which it is the vehicle, in order that thepapillæof the nerves may more promptly receive the delicious impression.... Vainly calumny spreads the report on all sides that the sparkle of our wines is injurious; vainly it asserts that they have only a hurtful fire and a worthless flavour. Incapable of hiding under an insidious appearance a perfidious venom, they will always present a faithful image of the ingenuousness of their native province.’

[166]Max Sutaine’sEssai sur le Vin de Champagne.

[167]Henderson’sHistory of Ancient and Modern Wines. Pluche, in hisSpectacle de la Nature, notices the controversy regarding the respective merits of the wines of the Marne and the Côte d’Or in the following terms:‘Count: If we will be determined by the finest palates, the Champaign wine is much preferable to Burgundy.Prior: It is a sufficient honour for Champaign to be admitted to the same degree of estimation with Burgundy; and it may very well dispense with the priority. I always thought Burgundy had some similitude with a solid understanding, which affects us with lasting impressions, and that Champaign resembles a lively wit, which glitters more upon the imagination, but which is not always serviceable to its possessor.Count: If you had made the froth of some Champaign wines and the sallies of a sprightly wit your parallel, I should have thought it unexceptionable; and several pleasant remarks might be made on this sprightliness without solidity. But such a Champaign wine as that of Sillery unites all the vigour of Burgundy, with an agreeable flavour peculiar to itself.Prior: I prefer useful qualities to those that are merely agreeable. Burgundy seems to be a more salutary wine than Champaign, and will always be triumphant for that reason. Its colour alone declares it to be a wine of a good body, and I must confess I am apt to be diffident of all dazzling appearances.Count: People believe that this deep colour, so esteemed in Burgundy wines, is an indication of their wholesomeness; but it is observable in the grossest wines, and results from an intermixture of the husky parts of the grape. Wine, in proportion to the quantity of these particles blended with it, will be less qualified for digestion. The gout, therefore, and the stone, with which the inhabitants of wine-countries are so frequently afflicted, are distempers hardly known either at Reims or on the banks of the Marne, where the wines are very moderately coloured.... Wines may be made almost as white in Burgundy as they are in Champaign, though not so good; and, on the other hand, the Champenois press a wine as red as the Burgundy growth, and the merchants sell it either as the best species of Burgundy to the wine-conners, who are the first people that are deceived in it, or as red Champaign to the connoisseurs, who prefer it to any other wine. If we may judge of the merit of wines by the price, we shall certainly assign the preference to Champaign, since the finest species of this wine is sold in the vaults of Sillery and Epernai for six, seven, or eight hundred livres, when the same quality of the best Burgundy may be purchased for three hundred.Countess: Let me entreat you, gentlemen, to leave this controversy undecided. The equal pretensions that are formed by these two great provinces promote an emulation which is advantageous to us. The partisans for Burgundy and Champaign form two factions in the State; but their contests are very entertaining, and their encounters not at all dangerous. It is very usual to see the zealots of one party maintaining a correspondence with those of the other; they frequently associate together without any reserve, and those who were advocates for Burgundy at the beginning of the entertainment are generally reconciled to Champaign before the appearance of the dessert.’

‘Count: If we will be determined by the finest palates, the Champaign wine is much preferable to Burgundy.

Prior: It is a sufficient honour for Champaign to be admitted to the same degree of estimation with Burgundy; and it may very well dispense with the priority. I always thought Burgundy had some similitude with a solid understanding, which affects us with lasting impressions, and that Champaign resembles a lively wit, which glitters more upon the imagination, but which is not always serviceable to its possessor.

Count: If you had made the froth of some Champaign wines and the sallies of a sprightly wit your parallel, I should have thought it unexceptionable; and several pleasant remarks might be made on this sprightliness without solidity. But such a Champaign wine as that of Sillery unites all the vigour of Burgundy, with an agreeable flavour peculiar to itself.

Prior: I prefer useful qualities to those that are merely agreeable. Burgundy seems to be a more salutary wine than Champaign, and will always be triumphant for that reason. Its colour alone declares it to be a wine of a good body, and I must confess I am apt to be diffident of all dazzling appearances.

Count: People believe that this deep colour, so esteemed in Burgundy wines, is an indication of their wholesomeness; but it is observable in the grossest wines, and results from an intermixture of the husky parts of the grape. Wine, in proportion to the quantity of these particles blended with it, will be less qualified for digestion. The gout, therefore, and the stone, with which the inhabitants of wine-countries are so frequently afflicted, are distempers hardly known either at Reims or on the banks of the Marne, where the wines are very moderately coloured.... Wines may be made almost as white in Burgundy as they are in Champaign, though not so good; and, on the other hand, the Champenois press a wine as red as the Burgundy growth, and the merchants sell it either as the best species of Burgundy to the wine-conners, who are the first people that are deceived in it, or as red Champaign to the connoisseurs, who prefer it to any other wine. If we may judge of the merit of wines by the price, we shall certainly assign the preference to Champaign, since the finest species of this wine is sold in the vaults of Sillery and Epernai for six, seven, or eight hundred livres, when the same quality of the best Burgundy may be purchased for three hundred.

Countess: Let me entreat you, gentlemen, to leave this controversy undecided. The equal pretensions that are formed by these two great provinces promote an emulation which is advantageous to us. The partisans for Burgundy and Champaign form two factions in the State; but their contests are very entertaining, and their encounters not at all dangerous. It is very usual to see the zealots of one party maintaining a correspondence with those of the other; they frequently associate together without any reserve, and those who were advocates for Burgundy at the beginning of the entertainment are generally reconciled to Champaign before the appearance of the dessert.’

[168]Letters, &c.Hamburg and Paris, 1788. The translator adds, as a note, ‘People do not any longer get drunk on Champagne.’

[169]Mémoires du Duc de St. Simon.

[170]Journal de Barbier.

[171]A curious proof of the popularity of sparkling Champagne, and of the singular system of provincial government into which France was broken up during the reign of Louis XV., is found in a decree of the Council of State, dated May 25, 1728. The decree in question begins by setting forth that, by theOrdonnance des aides de Normandie, wine was forbidden to be brought into Rouen or its suburbs in bottles, jugs, or any less vessels than hogsheads and barrels—with the exception ofvin de liqueurpacked in boxes—under pain of confiscation and one hundred livres’ fine, and that carriers were prohibited from conveying wine in bottles in the province without leave from thefermier des aides. Nevertheless, petitions had been presented by themaireandéchevinsof Reims, stating ‘that the trade in the gray wines of Champagne had considerably increased for some years past, through the precautions taken at the place of production to bottle them during the first moon of the month of March following the vintage, in order to render themmousseux; that those who make use of the gray wine of Champagne prefer that which ismousseuxto that which is not; and that this gray wine cannot be transported in casks into the interior of the kingdom or to foreign countries without totally losing its qualities,’—a statement probably intentionally overdrawn, since Bertin du Rocheret used to export it in casks to England. Yet thefermiers des aides de Normandieclaimed to prohibit the transport of wines in bottle; and if their pretension held good, the trade in the gray wine of Champagne would be destroyed. ‘Shifting the cause, as a lawyer knows how,’ the decree recapitulates the plea of thefermiersthat the transport of wine in bottles offered facilities for defrauding the revenue, since a carrier with a load could easily leave some of iten routewith innkeepers, and these in turn could hide bottles holding apinte de Parisfrom the officers in chests, cupboards, &c., and sell them subsequently, to the detriment of thedroits de détail.The foregoing duly rehearsed, there follows the decree permitting ‘to be sent in bottles into the province of Normandy, for the consumption of the said province, gray wine of Champagne in baskets, which must not hold less than one hundred bottles,’ but prohibiting the introduction in bottles of any other growth or quality, under the penalty of confiscation and one hundred livres’ fine. Permission is also given to pass gray and red wine of Champagne, or of any othercruor quality, in baskets of fifty or one hundred bottles for conveyance into other provinces, or for shipment to foreign parts by the ports of Rouen, Caen, Dieppe, and Havre. The wagoners, however, in all cases are to have certificates signed and countersigned by all manner of authorities, and are only to enter the province by certain specified routes. All wine, too, is to pay thedroit de détail, except in the case of people not continuously residing in the province, who may be going to their estates, or those bound for the eaux de Forges, a celebrated watering-place, both of whom may take a certain quantity in bottle with them for their own consumption free of duty.

The foregoing duly rehearsed, there follows the decree permitting ‘to be sent in bottles into the province of Normandy, for the consumption of the said province, gray wine of Champagne in baskets, which must not hold less than one hundred bottles,’ but prohibiting the introduction in bottles of any other growth or quality, under the penalty of confiscation and one hundred livres’ fine. Permission is also given to pass gray and red wine of Champagne, or of any othercruor quality, in baskets of fifty or one hundred bottles for conveyance into other provinces, or for shipment to foreign parts by the ports of Rouen, Caen, Dieppe, and Havre. The wagoners, however, in all cases are to have certificates signed and countersigned by all manner of authorities, and are only to enter the province by certain specified routes. All wine, too, is to pay thedroit de détail, except in the case of people not continuously residing in the province, who may be going to their estates, or those bound for the eaux de Forges, a celebrated watering-place, both of whom may take a certain quantity in bottle with them for their own consumption free of duty.

[172]‘To be drunk asnouveauor bottled,’ says M. Louis Perrier in hisMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.

[173]D’Argenson’sMémoires.

[174]Bois-Jourdain’sMélanges Historiques. The editor of theJournal de Barbierobserves in a note to a passage referring to the King’s suppers at La Muette with Madame de Mailly, under the date of November 1737: ‘These suppers were drinking bouts. It was there that the King acquired a taste for Champagne.’

[175]Clauteau’sRelation de ce qui s’est passé au Passage du Roi. Reims, 1744.

[176]Ibid.

[177]Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.

[178]Louis Paris’Histoire de l’Abbaye d’Avenay.

[179]Amongst these may be cited the Abbé Bignon, who, in a letter to Bertin du Rocheret dated January 1734, says: ‘The less the wine ismousseuxand glittering, and the more, on the contrary, it shows at the outset of what you styleliqueur, and I, in chemical terms, should rather call balsamic parts, the better I shall think of it.’

[180]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.

[181]‘Chloris, Eglé me versent de leur mainD’un vin d’Ay dont la mousse pressée,De la bouteille avec force élancée,Comme un éclair fait voler son bouchon.Il part, on rit; il frappe le plafond:De ce vin frais l’écume pétillanteDe nos Français est l’image brillante.’

[181]

‘Chloris, Eglé me versent de leur mainD’un vin d’Ay dont la mousse pressée,De la bouteille avec force élancée,Comme un éclair fait voler son bouchon.Il part, on rit; il frappe le plafond:De ce vin frais l’écume pétillanteDe nos Français est l’image brillante.’

‘Chloris, Eglé me versent de leur main

D’un vin d’Ay dont la mousse pressée,

De la bouteille avec force élancée,

Comme un éclair fait voler son bouchon.

Il part, on rit; il frappe le plafond:

De ce vin frais l’écume pétillante

De nos Français est l’image brillante.’

[182]‘De ce vin blanc délicieuxQui mousse et brille dans le verre,Dont les mortels ne boivent guères;Et qu’on ne sert jamais qu’à la table des dieuxOu des grands, pour en parler mieux,Qui sont les seuls dieux de la terre.’

[182]

‘De ce vin blanc délicieuxQui mousse et brille dans le verre,Dont les mortels ne boivent guères;Et qu’on ne sert jamais qu’à la table des dieuxOu des grands, pour en parler mieux,Qui sont les seuls dieux de la terre.’

‘De ce vin blanc délicieux

Qui mousse et brille dans le verre,

Dont les mortels ne boivent guères;

Et qu’on ne sert jamais qu’à la table des dieux

Ou des grands, pour en parler mieux,

Qui sont les seuls dieux de la terre.’

[183]Desaulx, a canon of Reims Cathedral, rendered Lebatteux’s ode as follows:‘Ce n’est point sur les monts de Rhodope et de ThraceQue j’irai t’invoquer; ces monts couverts de glace,Sont-ils propres à tes faveurs?Non, Reims te voit régner bien plus sur ses collines;Là je t’offre mes vœux; de nos côtes voisinesEmbrases moi de tes ardeurs.Soit que d’un lait mousseux l’écume pétillante,Soit qu’un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante,T’annonce à mes regards surpris,Viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatienteVeut devoir en ce jour les accords qu’elle enfanteA la force de tes esprits.’

[183]Desaulx, a canon of Reims Cathedral, rendered Lebatteux’s ode as follows:

‘Ce n’est point sur les monts de Rhodope et de ThraceQue j’irai t’invoquer; ces monts couverts de glace,Sont-ils propres à tes faveurs?Non, Reims te voit régner bien plus sur ses collines;Là je t’offre mes vœux; de nos côtes voisinesEmbrases moi de tes ardeurs.Soit que d’un lait mousseux l’écume pétillante,Soit qu’un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante,T’annonce à mes regards surpris,Viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatienteVeut devoir en ce jour les accords qu’elle enfanteA la force de tes esprits.’

‘Ce n’est point sur les monts de Rhodope et de Thrace

Que j’irai t’invoquer; ces monts couverts de glace,

Sont-ils propres à tes faveurs?

Non, Reims te voit régner bien plus sur ses collines;

Là je t’offre mes vœux; de nos côtes voisines

Embrases moi de tes ardeurs.

Soit que d’un lait mousseux l’écume pétillante,Soit qu’un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante,T’annonce à mes regards surpris,Viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatienteVeut devoir en ce jour les accords qu’elle enfanteA la force de tes esprits.’

Soit que d’un lait mousseux l’écume pétillante,

Soit qu’un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante,

T’annonce à mes regards surpris,

Viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatiente

Veut devoir en ce jour les accords qu’elle enfante

A la force de tes esprits.’

[184]‘Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’amour de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.Leur palais corrompu, gâté,Ne veut que du vin frelaté,De ce poison vert, apprêté,Pour des cervelles frénétiques.Si, tenons-nous pour hérétiquesCeux qui rejettent la bontéDe cescorpusculs balsamiquesQue jadis Horace a chantés.Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’honneur de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.De ce vin blanc délicieux,Qui désarme la plus sévère;Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.Buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux,Je vous livre une douce guerre;Buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux,De ce nectar délicieux,Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.’The above was set to music by M. Dormel, organist of St. Geneviève.

[184]

‘Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’amour de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.Leur palais corrompu, gâté,Ne veut que du vin frelaté,De ce poison vert, apprêté,Pour des cervelles frénétiques.Si, tenons-nous pour hérétiquesCeux qui rejettent la bontéDe cescorpusculs balsamiquesQue jadis Horace a chantés.Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’honneur de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.De ce vin blanc délicieux,Qui désarme la plus sévère;Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.Buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux,Je vous livre une douce guerre;Buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux,De ce nectar délicieux,Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.’

‘Non, telles gens ne boivent pas

De cette sève délectable,

L’âme et l’amour de nos repas,

Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.

Leur palais corrompu, gâté,

Ne veut que du vin frelaté,

De ce poison vert, apprêté,

Pour des cervelles frénétiques.

Si, tenons-nous pour hérétiques

Ceux qui rejettent la bonté

De cescorpusculs balsamiques

Que jadis Horace a chantés.

Non, telles gens ne boivent pasDe cette sève délectable,L’âme et l’honneur de nos repas,Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.De ce vin blanc délicieux,Qui désarme la plus sévère;Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.Buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux,Je vous livre une douce guerre;Buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux,De ce nectar délicieux,Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeuxMieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.’

Non, telles gens ne boivent pas

De cette sève délectable,

L’âme et l’honneur de nos repas,

Aussi bienfaisante qu’aimable.

De ce vin blanc délicieux,

Qui désarme la plus sévère;

Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux

Mieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.

Buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux,

Je vous livre une douce guerre;

Buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux,

De ce nectar délicieux,

Qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux

Mieux qu’il ne brille dans mon verre.’

The above was set to music by M. Dormel, organist of St. Geneviève.

[185]Marmontel’sMémoires d’un Père pour l’instruction de ses Enfants. M. Louis Paris, in hisHistoire de l’Abbaye d’Avenay, identifies this spot as one known indifferently as Le Fay or Feuilly. He furnishes some interesting details respecting Mademoiselle de Navarre, who, after being the mistress of Marshal Saxe, married the Chevalier de Mirabeau, brother to theAmi des Hommesand uncle of the celebrated orator, and then goes on to say: ‘In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the wines of Avenay shared with those of Hautvillers the glory of rivalling the best of Ay. “Avenay, les bons raisins,” was the popular saying inscribed on the banner of itschevaliers de l’Arquebuse(a corps of local sharpshooters). La Bruyère, St. Evremond, Boileau himself, Coulanges, L’Atteignant, and many others had celebrated the tender and delicate wines of our vineyards; and that of Madame l’Abbesse especially had acquired such a reputation, that several great families, strangers to the locality, thought it the right thing to have avendangeoirat Avenay, and to pass part of the autumn in the renowned Val d’Or.’

[186]‘Vois ce nectar charmantSauter sous ces beaux doigts;Et partir à l’instant;Je crois bien que l’amour en ferait tout autant.Et quoi sous ces beaux doigtsBouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois?Croyez-vous que l’amourLeur fit un pareil tour?’

[186]

‘Vois ce nectar charmantSauter sous ces beaux doigts;Et partir à l’instant;Je crois bien que l’amour en ferait tout autant.Et quoi sous ces beaux doigtsBouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois?Croyez-vous que l’amourLeur fit un pareil tour?’

‘Vois ce nectar charmantSauter sous ces beaux doigts;Et partir à l’instant;Je crois bien que l’amour en ferait tout autant.

‘Vois ce nectar charmant

Sauter sous ces beaux doigts;

Et partir à l’instant;

Je crois bien que l’amour en ferait tout autant.

Et quoi sous ces beaux doigtsBouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois?Croyez-vous que l’amourLeur fit un pareil tour?’

Et quoi sous ces beaux doigts

Bouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois?

Croyez-vous que l’amour

Leur fit un pareil tour?’

[187]‘Le jus que verse GanimèdeA Jupiter dans ses repasA ce vin de Champagne cède,Et nous sommes mieux ici bas.’From the edition of hisPoesiespublished in 1757.

[187]

‘Le jus que verse GanimèdeA Jupiter dans ses repasA ce vin de Champagne cède,Et nous sommes mieux ici bas.’

‘Le jus que verse Ganimède

A Jupiter dans ses repas

A ce vin de Champagne cède,

Et nous sommes mieux ici bas.’

From the edition of hisPoesiespublished in 1757.

[188]‘Et quand je décoiffe un flaconLe liège qui petteMe fait entendre un plus beau sonQue tambour et trompette.’Panard’sŒuvres, Paris, 1763.

[188]

‘Et quand je décoiffe un flaconLe liège qui petteMe fait entendre un plus beau sonQue tambour et trompette.’

‘Et quand je décoiffe un flacon

Le liège qui pette

Me fait entendre un plus beau son

Que tambour et trompette.’

Panard’sŒuvres, Paris, 1763.

[189]‘Diaphorus au marchand de vinVend bien cher un extrait de rivière;Le marchand vend au médecinDu Champagne arrivé de Nanterre,Ce qui prouve encor ce refrain-ciA trompeur, trompeur et demi.’

[189]

‘Diaphorus au marchand de vinVend bien cher un extrait de rivière;Le marchand vend au médecinDu Champagne arrivé de Nanterre,Ce qui prouve encor ce refrain-ciA trompeur, trompeur et demi.’

‘Diaphorus au marchand de vin

Vend bien cher un extrait de rivière;

Le marchand vend au médecin

Du Champagne arrivé de Nanterre,

Ce qui prouve encor ce refrain-ci

A trompeur, trompeur et demi.’

[190]‘Pour jouir d’un destin plus tranquille et plus douxDe ce bruyant séjour, amis, éloignons nous,Allons, dans mon cellier, du Champagne et du BeauneGoûter les doux appas.Les plaisirs n’y sont pas troublés par l’embarras,Et le funeste ennui qui monte jusqu’au trôneDans les caveaux ne descend pas.’

[190]

‘Pour jouir d’un destin plus tranquille et plus douxDe ce bruyant séjour, amis, éloignons nous,Allons, dans mon cellier, du Champagne et du BeauneGoûter les doux appas.Les plaisirs n’y sont pas troublés par l’embarras,Et le funeste ennui qui monte jusqu’au trôneDans les caveaux ne descend pas.’

‘Pour jouir d’un destin plus tranquille et plus doux

De ce bruyant séjour, amis, éloignons nous,

Allons, dans mon cellier, du Champagne et du Beaune

Goûter les doux appas.

Les plaisirs n’y sont pas troublés par l’embarras,

Et le funeste ennui qui monte jusqu’au trône

Dans les caveaux ne descend pas.’

[191]‘C’est alors qu’un joyeux convive,Saississant un flacon scellé,Qui de Reims ou d’Ai tient la liqueur captive,Fait sauter jusqu’à la soliveLe liège deficellé;Tout le cercle attentif porte un regard avideSur cet objet qui les ravit;Ils présentent leur verre vide,Le nectar pétillant aussitôt les remplit.On boit, on goûte, on applaudit,On redouble et par l’assembléeLa mousse Champenoise à plein verre est sablée.De là naissent les ris, les transports éclatans,La sève et tout son feu, jusqu’au cerveau montants,Font naître des débats, des querelles poliesQui réveillent l’esprit de tous les assistants.’

[191]

‘C’est alors qu’un joyeux convive,Saississant un flacon scellé,Qui de Reims ou d’Ai tient la liqueur captive,Fait sauter jusqu’à la soliveLe liège deficellé;Tout le cercle attentif porte un regard avideSur cet objet qui les ravit;Ils présentent leur verre vide,Le nectar pétillant aussitôt les remplit.On boit, on goûte, on applaudit,On redouble et par l’assembléeLa mousse Champenoise à plein verre est sablée.De là naissent les ris, les transports éclatans,La sève et tout son feu, jusqu’au cerveau montants,Font naître des débats, des querelles poliesQui réveillent l’esprit de tous les assistants.’

‘C’est alors qu’un joyeux convive,

Saississant un flacon scellé,

Qui de Reims ou d’Ai tient la liqueur captive,

Fait sauter jusqu’à la solive

Le liège deficellé;

Tout le cercle attentif porte un regard avide

Sur cet objet qui les ravit;

Ils présentent leur verre vide,

Le nectar pétillant aussitôt les remplit.

On boit, on goûte, on applaudit,

On redouble et par l’assemblée

La mousse Champenoise à plein verre est sablée.

De là naissent les ris, les transports éclatans,

La sève et tout son feu, jusqu’au cerveau montants,

Font naître des débats, des querelles polies

Qui réveillent l’esprit de tous les assistants.’

[192]An allusion to thevin grisof the Champagne.

[193]‘Grâce à la liqueurQui lave mon cœur,Nul souci ne me consume.De ce vin grisQue je chérisL’écume,Lorsque j’en boiQuel feu chez moiS’allume!Nectar enchanteur,Tu fais mon bonheur;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!Champagne divin,Du plus noir chagrinTu dissipes l’amertume.Tu sais mûrir,Tu sais guérirLe rhume.Quel goût flatteurTa douce odeurParfume!Pour tant de bienfaitsEt pour tant d’attraits;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!’

[193]

‘Grâce à la liqueurQui lave mon cœur,Nul souci ne me consume.De ce vin grisQue je chérisL’écume,Lorsque j’en boiQuel feu chez moiS’allume!Nectar enchanteur,Tu fais mon bonheur;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!Champagne divin,Du plus noir chagrinTu dissipes l’amertume.Tu sais mûrir,Tu sais guérirLe rhume.Quel goût flatteurTa douce odeurParfume!Pour tant de bienfaitsEt pour tant d’attraits;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!’

‘Grâce à la liqueur

Qui lave mon cœur,

Nul souci ne me consume.

De ce vin gris

Que je chéris

L’écume,

Lorsque j’en boi

Quel feu chez moi

S’allume!

Nectar enchanteur,

Tu fais mon bonheur;

Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!

Champagne divin,Du plus noir chagrinTu dissipes l’amertume.Tu sais mûrir,Tu sais guérirLe rhume.Quel goût flatteurTa douce odeurParfume!Pour tant de bienfaitsEt pour tant d’attraits;Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!’

Champagne divin,

Du plus noir chagrin

Tu dissipes l’amertume.

Tu sais mûrir,

Tu sais guérir

Le rhume.

Quel goût flatteur

Ta douce odeur

Parfume!

Pour tant de bienfaits

Et pour tant d’attraits;

Viens, mon cher ami! Que j’t’hume!’

[194]Max Sutaine’sEssai sur le Vin de Champagne.

[195]M. Sutaine observes that in 1780 a merchant of Epernay bottled 6000 bottles, and that the importance of thistiragewas noted as something remarkable; and this statement has been repeated by every other writer on Champagne. Yet here is atirageof 6000 bottles taking place thirty-four years previously. The extent of the bottled-wine trade is confirmed by Arthur Young, who in 1787 visited Ay, where M. Lasnier had 60,000 bottles in his cellar, and M. Dorsé from 30,000 to 40,000. Marmontel in 1716 mentions Henin de Navarre’s cellars at Avenay as containing 50,000 bottles of Champagne.

[196]E. J. Maumené’sTraité du Travail des Vins, 1874.

[197]Ibid. Thecasseof 1776 has never been forgotten at Epernay; and M. Perrier, in a letter of August 1801, mentions a recent one at Avize amounting to 85 per cent. That of 1842 flooded the cellars throughout the Champagne. Even in 1850 M. Maumené mentions acassein a Reims cellar which had reached 98 per cent at his visit, and was still continuing.

[198]Max Sutaine’sEssai sur le Vin de Champagne. The Abbé Bignon confirms this in a letter of December 20, 1736, to Bertin du Rocheret, respecting wine received from him. ‘The wine sealed with a cipher in red wax,’ he observes, ‘seemed to me very delicate, but having as yet someliqueurwhich time may get rid of, though after that I am afraid there will not remain much strength. Another, also sealed with red wax, but with a coat-of-arms, seems to have more quality and vinosity, though also very delicate and very light, bothsablantperfectly, though they cannot be calledmousseux. As to that which is sealed with black, the people who esteem foam would bestow the most magnificent eulogies upon it. It would be difficult to find any that carries this beautiful perfection further. Three spoonfuls at the bottom of the glass is surmounted with the strongest foam to the very brim; on the other hand, I found in it a furiousvert, and not much vinosity.’

[199]In 1734 he speaks of hismousseux sablant, and forwards to the Marquis de Polignac bothmousseuxandpetillant. In 1736 he offers M. Véron de Bussy his choice ofdemi-mousseux,bon mousseux, andsaute bouchon; and the following year distinguishes his Aymousseuxfrom hissaute bouchon.

[200]Respecting the price of sparkling Champagne during the first half of the eighteenth century, a few instances from the correspondence of Bertin du Rocheret may here he quoted. In 1716 he offers Marshal d’Artagnan 1500 bottles at 35 sols, cash down, and taken at Epernay. In 1725 he offersflacons blancs mousseux liqueurat from 30 to 50 sols, andambrés non mousseux, sablant, at 25 sols. Ten years latersaute bouchonis quoted by him at 40 and 45 sols, and in 1736 at 3 livres,demi-mousseuxranging from 36 to 40 sols, andbon mousseuxfrom 45 to 50 sols. The following yearsaute bouchonfetched 3 livres 6 sols, andmousseux42 sols. In 1736 he insisted upon hisflaconsholding apinte; and a royal decree of March 8, 1755, which regulated the weight and capacity of sparkling-wine bottles, required these to weigh 25 ounces, and to hold apinte de Paris, or about 1.64 imperial pint. They were, moreover, to be tied crosswise on the top of the cork, with a string of three strands well twisted. Their cost was 15 livres per hundred in 1734 and 1738, and from 17 to 19 livres in 1754.

[201]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.

[202]It would appear from Bidet that the wines of the Mountain had not been transformed intovin mousseuxas late as 1752, as, in his book on wine published during that year, he only includes in the list of places producing sparkling wine Ay, Avenay, Mareuil, Dizy, Hautvillers, Epernay, Pierry, Cramant, Avize, and Le Mesnil.

[203]‘Votre palais, usé, perclusPar liqueur inflammable,Préfère de mousseux verjusAu nectar véritable.’

[203]

‘Votre palais, usé, perclusPar liqueur inflammable,Préfère de mousseux verjusAu nectar véritable.’

‘Votre palais, usé, perclus

Par liqueur inflammable,

Préfère de mousseux verjus

Au nectar véritable.’

[204]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne. In the thesis in favour of Champagne, written by Dr. Xavier of Reims in 1777, the acidulous character of the wine is confirmed by the author, who naïvely remarks that it is as efficacious in preventing putrefaction as are other acids. He also compares it to acidulated waters.

[205]Legrand d’Aussy’sVie privée des Français, 1782.

[206]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne. The pretended secret of Dom Perignon, quoted from theMémoireof 1718, and mentioning the addition of sugar to the wine of Hautvillers, is flatly contradicted by Dom Grossart’s letter to M. Dherbès (see page41ante). But it is probable that the suggestion thus made public was acted upon, though at first only timidly.

[207]Chaptal’sArt de faire du Vin. As Minister of the Interior, he forwarded the results of his experiments to thepréfets, with the recommendation to spread them throughout their departments.

[208]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.

[209]Letter of M. Nicolas Perrier to M. Cadet-Devaux, dated August 1801.

[210]Asbourru,tocane, anden nouveau.

[211]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.

[212]The letter in which he mentions this is extant, but the secret which was enclosed in it is missing.

[213]Dom Grossart, who had retired to Montier-en-Der in 1790, was unacquainted with this plan when he wrote to M. Dherbès in 1821, although it had been practised for twenty years past.

[214]In aMS.quoted in Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.

[215]The gifts presented by the municipality on this occasion included flowers, pears, and gingerbread, Reims being as famed for the latter as for its wines. The guild of gingerbread-makers at Reims was established in the sixteenth century, and from that time forward was engaged in continual squabbles with the bakers and pastrycooks of the city, who could not be brought to understand that they had not the right to make gingerbread. Countless reams of paper were scribbled over by the lawyers of the two contending interests; but though the Bailli of Reims on several occasions pronounced a formal verdict, to the effect that no one but a sworn and accepted gingerbread-maker should have act or part in the making of the indigestible delicacy, the contumacious bakers continued to treat his edicts as naught. Eventually a royal edict of 1776, which suppressed the privileges of the majority of the guilds in France, deprived the Reims gingerbread-makers for ever of the right of figuring with swords by their sides and three-cornered hats on their heads at all local ceremonies, civil or religious, and threw their trade open to all.It was at the close of Louis XIV.’s reign that thepain d’épiceof Reims reached the summit of its renown. At the coronation of his successor, theéchevinsof Reims presented the monarch with several baskets of it; and when Maria Leczinska passed through Reims in January 1725, the notables offered her twelve wicker baskets, covered with damask and ornamented with ribbons, containing fresh and dried pears, conserves, preserved lemons, almond-cakes, and a new kind of gingerbread, which received the name ofnonnette à la Reine.

It was at the close of Louis XIV.’s reign that thepain d’épiceof Reims reached the summit of its renown. At the coronation of his successor, theéchevinsof Reims presented the monarch with several baskets of it; and when Maria Leczinska passed through Reims in January 1725, the notables offered her twelve wicker baskets, covered with damask and ornamented with ribbons, containing fresh and dried pears, conserves, preserved lemons, almond-cakes, and a new kind of gingerbread, which received the name ofnonnette à la Reine.

[216]This escutcheon shows the arms of Reims, which at first consisted ofrinçeauxor branches; subsequently a cross and a crozier, placed saltire-wise, and a sainte Ampoule, were added. When the government of the city passed from the archbishop, the entwined olive-branches and chief strewn with fleurs de lis were adopted, the old motto, ‘Dieu en soit garde,’ being retained. The iron gates of the Porte de Paris were removed to their present position in 1843, to allow of the passage of the canal.

[217]From the days of Charles VIII. to those of Louis XIV., it was customary on these occasions for the keys to be presented by a young girl styled the Pucelle de Reims; and J. M. C. Leber, in his workDes Cérémonies du Sacre, is of opinion that this custom arose in some way from the visit of Joan of Arc. Louis XV. was the first who received them from the lieutenant.

[218]Baron Taylor’sReims, la Ville de Sacres.

[219]N. Menin’sTraité du Sacre et Couronnement des Rois.

[220]P. Tarbé’sReims, ses Rues et ses Monuments.

[221]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.

[222]Ibid.

[223]Arthur Young’sTravels in France in 1787–9.

[224]Ibid. Another grievance alleged against the monasteries was the presence of the innumerable fishponds belonging to them scattered throughout the country. TheCahier des Plaintes, Doléances, et Remontrances du Tiers Etat du Baillage de Reims, on the Assembly of the States General under Louis XVI., ask that ‘all fishponds situate outside woods and, above all, those which lie close to vineyards, may be suppressed, as hurtful to agriculture.’

[225]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.

[226]Instructions of localdirecteurs des aides, quoted from theArchives Nationalesby Taine.

[227]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.

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