BECAUSE OF CHAMPAGNE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10584, 5 October 1912, Page 1

BECAUSE OF CHAMPAGNE.

Industries Depend on tho IWaMagr of W^ae,

The champagne districts of France support a number of important industries directly dependent on the wine making itself. Chief among these is the manufacture ox champagne, bottles, whose production is fraught with many difficulties.

The champagne bottle has to he constructed in all its part* of an almost mathematical ' . . .

KVEN AND HEAVY THICKNESS J its glass must be perfectly smooth aivJ unaffected by the acids contained m tho wine; its' neck must be exact in every particular to ensure perfect corking, and with no groin or projecting points on the inside." So much progress has been' made within tho last ten fifteen years that where - formerly .«< breakage of 5 per cent was considered very small, at the present • time the average breakage does not exceed 1 per cent.

Despite the perfection reached in tho production of champagne bottles the strain upon them caused by the pressure, they sustain and the- repeated handling • they undergo weakens _ them to such ah extent that it is considered unsafe to use the bottles a second time. < With the exception of smaller houses "making the cheaper brands, champagne n,nd Trado Reports," place their wine in no'n© but •

• , JJXTIBELT H!W BOTTLES. . Four glass, blowing establishments in .Rhfiims, of. which one is among largest "ib' France;, and several' 1 others in the northern part of •;the district make almost exclusively bottles -.for champagne wine. They work night and day in three shifts of eight hours each and turn out about 40,000,000 dottms ■annually. While machinery is now applied in the manufacture of bottles for still wine, liquors, medicine, etc., no machine has as yet been invented which could supersede manual labour in the manufacture of champagne bottles. The men performing this difficult work are well paid. Another important industry entirely dependent on tho wine trade is the manufacture of corks for champagne bottles. The material for these corks is principally imported from Spain. The work of dressing and testing the bark and completing the cork is in the hands of very skilled workmen, nio9t of whom arc well paid Spaniards. \

• Since it is very difficult to procure a bark' thick enough to make a good cork out of on© piece, a number of the corks made nowadays are composed of two pieces of thin bark pasted'together lengthwise. This process of pasting the pieces is patented; and, since- the corks thus made seem to answer in every respect the demands made upon them, a number of cork manufacturers aro now working under this patent, apparently with rery good suocess. There aro about twenty cork manufacturers in llheims turiuing out annually

OXE HUNDRED MILLION' COHKS, of a value between £270,000 and £300,000. Local woodworking establishments supply the champagne.houses with the boxes in which the wine is shipped to foreign countries. These aro made in a mechanical way: and, while they are very substantial, they are of a superior finish, and givo remunerative occupation to many workmen. Several largo willow-working manufacturers furnish champagne houses with the baskets in which the wiuo is shipped to places in Franco and in near countries.

Several firms make a speciality of the straw covers in which the bottles are encased before being packed in boxes or baskets. The straw used for these covers'is cut and sewn by machinery. This industry encourages the cultivation of rye iii the immediate neighbourhood, the straw being used for the manufacture of the covers and the rye sold to other countries, mostly to Germany. .

Two firms In Rheims and four at Epernay construct special machinery for the MAJs'IITLATIOX OF CITAJirAGXE WINK, such as automatic bottling machines, machines for cleaning, for corking and uncorking, for wiring bottles, etc. Presses for extracting the juice from the grapes are made by several important concerns in the same locality. Some hydraulic presses have recently been brought from the United States. One large concern makes a speciality. of manufacturing metallic capsules and tinfoil for champagne bottles, and numerous lithographic establishments are engaged in producing artisticaJly de-co-rated labels. It is safe to say that these industries give, employment to more than 5000 skilled workmen. For their future prosperity much depends upon abundant harvests of grapes, the crops during the last five years having proved to be so insufficient that only several good yields will prevent the champagne trade and its auxiliaries from suffering a very severe setback.