Part 6 (1/2)
Some idea of the complex character of so vast an establishathered from a mere enumeration of their staff, which, in addition to twenty clerks and 350 cellarrafe-hts and saddlers, carpenters, masons, slaters and tilers, tinmen, firemen, needlewomen, &c, while the inventory of objects used by this formidable array of workpeople comprises no fewer than 1,500 distinct heads A ratuitous advice to all those es andfrom illness the men receive half-pay, but should they be laid up by an accident met with in the course of their work full salary is invariably awarded to them As may be supposed, so vast an establishment as this is not without a provision for those past work, and all the old hands receive liberal pensions fro Every year Messrs Moet and Chandon give a banquet or a ball to the people in their e of the wine is completed--when the hall in which the entertainment takes place is handsomely decorated and illuminated with myriads of coloured lamps
It is needless to particularise Messrs Moet and Chandon's wines, which are fane Their faures equally at clubs and arden parties and picnics, dinners and _soirees_, and has its place in hotel _cartes_ all over the world One of the best proofs of the wine's universal popularity is found in the circumstance that as many as 1,000 visitors from all parts of the world come annually to Epernay and make the tour of Messrs Moet and Chandon's spacious cellars
A little beyond Messrs Moet and Chandon's, in the broad Rue du Co chateau, the residence of M Perrier-Jouet, which presents a striking contrast to the al premises opposite, where the business of the firrandson of the Sieur Perrier Fissier, a little Epernay grocer, who soo used to supply corks, candles, and string to the fir frorocer's sleeves and apron and blossone trade Perrier-Jouet and Co's offices are situated on the left-hand side of a courtyard surrounded by low buildings, which serve as celliers, store-houses, packing-rooms, and the like From an inner courtyard where piles of bottles are stacked under open sheds, the cellars the into these we passed through the various buildings, in one of which a party ofwine for shi+pment In another we noticed one of those heavy beaent ard as obsolete, while in a third was the _cuvee_ vat, holding notheir _cuvee_ the firm commonly mix one part of old wine to three parts of new An indifferent vintage, however, necessitates the adrowth
The cellars, like all theand irregular, still they are remarkably cool, and on the lower floor remarkably dae, as the breakage in them is calculated never to exceed 2 per cent
The firne, and at one of the recent chaed had no ot classed below a cheaper wine of their neighbours Messrs Pol Roger and Co, and very considerably below the Extra Sec of Messrs Perinet et fils, and inferior even to a wine of De Venoge's, the great Epernay nes
[Illustration: COURTYARD OF MESSRS POL ROGER'S ESTABLISHMENT AT EPERNAY (p 115)]
Chane establishments, combined with the handsome residences of theRue du Commerce at Epernay On the left hand is a succession of fine chateaux, coardens overlook the valley of the Marne, and cohts of cumieres, Hautvillers, Ay, and Mareuil, and the more distant slopes of Ambonnay and Bouzy, while on the other side of the fahfare we encounter beyond the establishments of Messrs Moet and Chandon and Perrier-Jouet the ornate monumental facade which the firm of Piper and Co--of whom Messrs Kunkelmann and Co are to-day the successors--raised some years since above their extensive cellars
A little in the rear of the Rue du Commerce is the well-ordered establishment of Messrs Roussillon and Co, the extension of whose business of late has necessitated their removal to these capacious preland, France, and Russia, and have secured favourable recognition at the Paris, Philadelphia, and other Exhibitions Their stock includes considerable quantities of the older vintages, it being a rule of the house never to shi+p crude young wines It is on their dry varieties that Messrs Roussillon and Co especially pride themselves, and some of the fine wine of 1874 that was here shown to us was as rerance
In a side street at the farther end of the Rue du Co on the one side an extensive pleasure-garden, and on the other a spacious courtyard, bounded by celliers, stables, and bottle-sheds, all of modern construction and on a most extensive scale These forer and Co, settled for ne for their large purchases at the epoch of the vintage Froe they possess of the best crus, and their relations with the leading vineyard proprietors, they are enabled whenever the wine is good to acquire large stocks of it Having bottled a considerable quantity of the fine wine of 1874, they resolved to profit by the exceptional quality of this vintage to coents, Messrs Reuss, Lauteren, and Co, have successfully introduced the new brand
Passing through a large open gatee enter the vast courtyard of the establish carts--the first loaded ine in cask or with new bottles, and the others with cases of chane--presents rather an ani froht hand a tribe of ”Sparnaciennes”--as the feminine inhabitants of Epernay are ter bottles in readiness for the cos, most substantially constructed, are not destitute of architectural pretensions
The extensive cellier, the area of which is 23,589 square feet, is understood to be the largest single construction of the kind in the Chane district Built entirely of iron, stone and brick, its fra of rows of brick arches, is covered above with a layer of Portland ceainst the winter cold, two most desirable objects in connection with the ne Here an endless chain of a new pattern enables wine in bottle to be lowered and raised with great rapidity to or from the cellars beneath--lofty and capacious excavations of two stories, the lowest of which is reached by a flight of no less than 170 steps
Epernay, unlike Reier Frequently besieged and pillaged during the Middle Ages, and burnt to the ground by the dauphin, son of Francois I, the town, although of some note as far back as the tireat antiquity The thoroughfare termed the Rempart de la Tour Biron recalls a e of the town by Henri IV While the king was reconnoitring the defences a cannon-ball ai white plume took off the head of the Marechal Biron at thefa himself escaped unhurt
[Illustration: VIEW OF AY FROM THE BANKS OF THE MARNE Canal (p 117)]
[Illustration: THE VENDANGEOIR OF HENRI QUATRE]
XI--CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS AT AY AND MAREUIL
The Establish off the Cuvee-- Mode of Excavating Cellars in the Chaeoir-- The old Chateau of Ay and its Terraced Garden-- The Gae-Dorcay, a former Owner of the Chateau-- The Picturesque Situation and Aspect of Messrs Ayala's Establishh their Cellars-- M Duminy's Cellars and Wines-- His new Model Construction-- The House Founded in 1814-- Messrs Bollinger's Establishress-- The Fine Cellars of the First's freres and Co's Cellars-- Their Dry Chanes of 1868, '70, '72, and '74-- The Old Church of Ay and its Decorations of Grapes and Vineleaves-- The Vendangeoir of Henri Quatre-- The Montebello Establishment at Mareuil-- The Chateau formerly the Property of the Dukes of Orleans-- A titled Chane Firm-- The Brilliant Career of Marshal Lannes-- A Proh the Montebello Establish-Room, the Offices, and the Cellars-- Portraits and Relics at the Chateau-- The Establishantic Cuvee Tun-- The Cellars and their Lofty Shafts-- The Wines of the Firade_ of Ay is within a short walk of the station on the line of railway connecting Epernay with Rei the Marne canal, the tall trees fringing which hide for a tiht of the tapering steeple of the antique church rising sharply against the green vine-covered slopes and the fleecy-clouded summer sky We soon reach the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, and continuing onward in the direction of the steep hills which shelter the town on the north, co corner house in front of the broad _porte-cochere_ of which so
Passing through the gatee find ourselves in an open court, with a dwelling-house to the right and a range of buildings in front where the offices of Messrs Deutz and Geldermann are installed This is the central establishment of the firnes have long been favourably known in England Here are spacious celliers for disgorging and finishi+ng off the wine, a large packing-hall, and rooms where bales of corks and other accessories of the trade are stored, the operations ofaccomplished in an establishment some little distance off
[Illustration: DRAWING OFF THE CUVeE AT DEUTZ & GELDERMANN'S, AY (p 118)]
[Illustration: EXCAVATING DEUTZ & GELDERMANN'S NEW CELLARS, AY (p 119)]
Proceeding thither, we find an elegant chateau with a char at the very foot of the vine-clad slopes, and on the opposite side of the road soe celliers where wine in wood is stored, and where the _cuvees_ of the firallons each, are antic proportions, furnished with a raised platforitates the customary paddles When the wine is completely blended it is drawn off into casks disposed for the purpose in the cellar below, as shown in the acco fined it rests for about a month to clear itself To each of these casks of newly-blended wine a portion of old wine is added separately, and at the a M Deutz's chateau is the principal entrance to the extensive cellars of the firm, to which, at the tioff the roof, and then proceed to work gradually doards, extracting the chalk, whenever practicable, in blocks suitable for building purposes, which being worth fros the square yard help to reduce the cost of the excavation When any serious flaws present thealleries, they are invariably e of cellars now coalleries no less than 17 feet wide, and the sath of 2,200 yards These spacious vaults, which run parallel with each other, and coes, underlie the street, the chateau, the garden, and the vineyard slopes beyond, and possess the great advantage of being always dry They are capable, ere inforne in addition to a large quantity of wine in cask
Messrs Deutz and Geldereoir at Verzenay, where in good years they usually press 500 pieces of wine They, rapes at Bouzy, Cramant, Le Mesnil, Pierry, &c, and invariably have these pressed under their own superintendence Beyond large shi+pland, Messrs
Deutz and Geldermann transact a considerable business with other countries, and more especially with Germany, where their brand has been for years one of the imental messes and the principal hotels
The old chateau of Ay, which dates fros to-day to the Count de Mareuil, aestablishments of the famous Marne-side cru Perched half-way up the slope, covered with ”golden plants,” which rises in the rear of the village, the chateau, with its long facade of s, commands the valley of the Marne for miles, and from the stately terraced walk, planted with ancient lieometrically clipped in the fashi+on of the last century, a splendid view of the distant vineyards of Avize, Cramant, Epernay, and Chouilly is obtained The chateau fornorial residences which at the coed to Balthazar Constance Dange-Dorcay, whose ancestors had been lords of Chouilly under the _ancien regime_ Dorcay had inherited from an aunt the chateaux of Ay, Mareuil, Boursault, and Chouilly, together with a large patriht him to utter ruin, and he dispossessed himself of money, lands, and chateaux in succession, and was reduced, in his old age, to earn a re pittance as a violin-player at the Paris Opera House The old chateau of Boursault, which still exists contiguous to the stately edifice raised by Mme Clicquot on the sua pecuniary difficulties co chateaux one by one That of Ay was purchased by M Froc de la Boulaye, and by hiranddaughter became the wife of one of the Messrs Ayala, and whose son is to-day their partner
[Illustration: MESSRS AYALA & CO'S ESTABLISHMENT AT AY (p 121)]