CHAMPAGNE'S TRADITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2600, 13 January 1904, Page 65

CHAMPAGNE'S TRADITIONS.

THK STORY OF THE FAMOUS WINE INDUSTRY OF RHEIMS. By Fbaxcts Stofford. Champagne was a sign of luxury, of ostentation, of wantonness to me in London yesterday; but to-day, in this ancient city of Rheirns, the Westminster of France, champagne is the mark of enterprise, industry, and thrift. Here, where that miracle of architecture springs upward to heaven — the Cathedra! I church of Rheims, the crowning-rclace of the . kings of this fair land since the day when St. Remigius anointed the brow of Clovis with the oil of heaven, and placed a crown upon his head 1400 years age — the cultivation of the grape for the winepress to make glad the heart of man has ever been an honoured profession. Above one sculptured portal of the fane sits "le bon Dieu." The people have been gathered to the Judgment. Amid kings, priests, and warriors stands a vintner beside his cask. He stands upon the Right Hand, for his life's work has been accepted. It is good. Round the walls of the cathedral runs that marvellous graven scroll of grapes and vine leaves which has been copied in every civilised land.The famous champagne cellars of Rheims are vast caverns hewn in the living chalk. From chamber to chamber, now stocked with great stores of wine, you pass, and the walls taper upwards to the surface, j 100 ft or more above your head. Here they ■ are clothed in grey mossy lichen ; there ' they shimmer ghostly white in the gloom. What is their story? H is the history of Rheims. — Caesar's Arch. — When her citizens built for Julius Caesar the Triumphal Arch which still stands in almost perfect pi enervation, the wond:r of the twentieth century, the quarrymen were beginning the work. Many c> cholk slab mutt have been cariieJ to the city walls ere the Roman Consul, Jovinius, whose tomb is to-d'iv in the gulden of the Cardinal- Archbishop, forsook the temple of Jupiter for the Church of the Living God. Wider and deeper grew the caves during the seven decades when San Remi, or Rt. Remigius, ruled the peaceful eitv. He fell asleep in Christ A.n. 533, in the ninetysixth year oi his a^e. Bsis tomb within.

tLc superb Church of San Reini is close to the cases. Never a taciilcgious hand Vu!> raised agairst ,1 tsirou^hoit the wiLl turmoil of the Involution, although great churches close by were levelled to the ground. The wart between France and England ', kept the quarrymen of Rheims busier than j ever hewing out the futme cellars of cLam- ! pagne, for many a breach had to be re- j paired, and many a tow a- rebuilt. They ' built massively in those heroic times. Eel- ! ward's Tower, on the slope of the hollow hill just outride the old walls, is the same ' save in one respect as it must have been on the day of Edward of England's repulse, which its name still commemorates. On the roof where the banner of St. George \ fell in that hour of slaughter five centuries { ago there now uprises a telegraph-pole laden with many wires. — Famous Caverns. — The famous electric-lighted caverns in which Messrs Pommery and Greno store their million dozens of champagne I will ' describe later. They are one of the great ' sights. At noon I descended by a winding ! s-tair into the "antres vast.'' where Mr ' Charles Heidsieck has his cellars. The cellarmen were at dinner. Silence reigned in white chamber and murky corridor where multitudinous bottles rested in racks. It was a silence so absolute and so impressive that it seemed as if Time itselt foi a space had fallen into a deep sleep. Autumn has waved her golden wand over the vineyards on the slopes of the mountains of Rheims. The vintage is over, i The last bunch has been picked. The new wine is hissing in the barrels stored in the halls of the shippers. "Boiling" is the correct term for this process of fermentation. "The mountains of Rheims" rise to the west of the city some miles away. Hills they are, in truth, of gentle slope and gracious undulation, crowned with "forests"' of oak, chestnut, and beech, or woods, as we should call them, now crimson, yelloV, and russet brown. Forestry is a science in France, and forests are deemed a solid investment, yielding a safe 3 per cent. They harbour game, including roe deer and wild boar. Now and again a wild boar will take his wife and family for a picnic in a vineyard when the grapes are ripe. ! Fearful is the devastation. The vineyards are of all sizes, from a few roods to 60 acres. The latter is the largest continuous area of vines in the champagne district. It cost £40,000 to bring into bearing. The annual upkeep averages 34000; and £8000 is a fair average esti- 1 mate of its gross income. 1 The land tenure system in France which divides the soil among the children of each I generation gives to the fields the general 1 appearance of allotment grounds. It is curious to see a slip of yellow and crimson flecked vineyard flanked on one side by stubble and on the other by mangold wurzels. — Room for Extension. — There is plenty of room for the extension ' of viticulture in these districts if the de- 1 mand for sparkling wine should increase, j As it is, it is only the very best selected j produce which is made into" what we call champagne. The grapes are white and j black. The black grapes are pressed lightly, so that the skin, which contains the colouring matter, is not crushed. The rest of the grapes are made into the red and white still wine of the country. | The wine of the district has been famous for its purity and bouquet for centuries ; , but champagne, as w-e know it, practically , goes back only 160 years. At Messrs Moet and Chcindon's cellars at Kpernay, which ' were visited by Napoleon in 1807, one may see a bottle of sparkling wine of the year 1743. The bottles were then like the present Benedictine bottles. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great advance in the industry. Most j of the great firms date back to that period. 1 And their traditions have been closely pre- 1 served. j How this has been achieved is easily un- j derstood if one be privileged to have a 1 glimpse of the beautiful home life of these , world-famous wine-makers. Once or twice a week the family gathers round the table of its head. The head of the family may perhaps be a w idow lady of three score years and more. Here are her sons and their wives, her daughters anel their husbands, and grandchildren of all ages above seven: three geneiations — one lestlng from labour, the other toiling, the third looking eagerly forward to begin its work. The conversation turns on family affairs. It is bright and sensible, corn and chaff, shrewd sense and wiselom, mixed freely with laughter and jest. The children learn reveience and respect ; tbs business c-ires of the elders are drowned in the happy laughter of the children. The only rivalry exists in paying honotir to old age. j This custom in a country so often unfairly taunted with having no word for "home" j is almo^ a religious ceremony. Nec^s- j sarily it makes for an unbroken continuity ; of family tradition. j It is the proud claim of Rheims that, next | to sunshine and fresh air, her wine, her i laughing, golden wine, is the be-t medicine which heaven has bestowed upon man. Nor is one inclined to dispute the claim, beholding how, from the moment the grape is gaiheied until the last coik is n ired down, every process has for its object the elimination of impurity. Certain it is that, wandering down these coil corridor^, with all the traditions of the I industry fresh in mind, one's thoughts j travel to the sick-bed rather than to the ! banquet. One see-; in imaaination, not the feas>ts of victory, but sick and wounded men wooed back to life. Doctors a^ure you that in extreme weakness champne,ne is in very truth a life-saving draught. Nor I need you ask doctors, if you have lived \ \ and worked in malarious back-block^ of the j Empire. Out of your own circle of friends ' j ou can tell of men biouqht from the 1 rink of the giave by this s-paikLng liehoi J I cannot forget that dining the South Aiiican war. wii^u fenling was sjj luttav

agamst us o\ er beie, it was a citizen oi ilhuini 1 -, a warden 01 her cthedial and a. founder of a hospital here — Mr Charles Heicisieek — who docked many of our field hospital ships with his wine as a free gift. His, geiuiobity was not generally known in England, although it received the personal thanks oi the highest in the land. Maiij chaiilies and churches in Rheims have benefited under the benevolence of hex champagne shippers. The industry in itself is a great one- — 16,0U0 persons, I am told, are engaged in it. The Avages artgood, for the men must be clever, and often woik without supervision. According to an old custom, each man is given d-uly two bottles of the red win of the country. The hours are from 7 to 7, with two hours in the middle of the day for dinner, when all go home. There is also a quarter of an hour allowed for lunch in the morning mid a quarter of an hour foi tea in the evening. In every office there is a roll of honour, on which are inscribed the names of workmen who have won the Government medal for long service. A workman becomes entitled to this after 30 years' continuous service in the same firm. Throughout the champagne industry there runs a patriarchal tone. — London Daily Express.