Part 10 (1/2)

At Coblenz, the capital of Rhenish Prussia, and one of the strongest fortresses in the world, the so-called blue Moselle mingles its waters with those of the Rhine, and hence the original Roman name of Confluentia. With so favourable a situation it is not surprising that the city should be the abode of several important firms trading in the wines of the two rivers. At the head of these is the well-known house of Deinhard and Co., dealing extensively both in the magnificent still vintages of the Rheingau and the Moselle, and the higher-cla.s.s sparkling wines of these districts. In the resident partner, Herr Julius Wegeler, I was pleased to meet again my courteous colleague of the Wine Jury of the Vienna Exhibition, and accompanied by him I went over their establishment on the Clemens Platz--one of the most perfect and admirably appointed in Germany. The firm was founded in 1798 by Herr F. Deinhard, who in 1806, when Coblenz was in the hands of the French, secured a ninety-nine years' lease of some cellars under an old convent at the low rental of 30 francs per annum, and to-day this curious doc.u.ment exists amongst the archives of the firm. Rents of wine-cellars were low enough in those days of uncertainty and peril, when commerce was at a standstill and Europe gazed panic-stricken on the course of warlike events; nevertheless, for such a trifle as 30 francs a year of course no very extensive entrepot could have been rented. To-day Messrs.

Deinhard's new cellars on the Clemens Platz alone cover an area of nearly 43,000 square feet, besides which they have several other vaults stored with wine in various quarters of the city, the whole giving employment to upwards of eighty workmen and a score of coopers. Their Clemens Platz establishment was only completed in the autumn of 1875, when it was formally inaugurated in presence of the Empress Augusta, who left behind her the following graceful memento of her visit:--

”In grateful attachment to Coblenz, in full appreciation of a work which does honour to the town and to the firm, I wish continued prosperity to both.

AUGUSTA,

”German Empress and Queen of Prussia.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: MESSRS. DEINHARD & CO.'S NEW ESTABLISHMENT AT COBLENZ. (p. 178)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MESSRS. DEINHARD & CO.'S NEW CELLARS AT COBLENZ. (p. 179.)]

The proximity of the establishment to the Rhine did not allow of the cellars being excavated to a greater depth than 30 feet below the surface--a mere trifle when compared with the depth of many vaults in the Champagne. Any lower excavation, however, would have been attended with danger, and as it is, when the Rhine rose to an unusual height in March, 1876, the water percolated through the soil and inundated the lower cellars to a height of 5 feet. Above these vaults is a corresponding range of buildings of picturesque design and substantial construction, divided like the cellars into three aisles, each 210 feet in length and 23 feet broad. One of the arches of the facade looking on to the courtyard is decorated with a graceful and characteristic bas-relief, an engraving of which is subjoined.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The cellars, containing 1,400 stucks, as they are termed, of still wines--the stuck being equal to 1,500 bottles--present a striking appearance with their long vistas of vaulted arcades, admirably built of brick, and illuminated by innumerable gas jets, aided by powerful reflectors at the extremities of the three aisles. The capacious elliptical-headed casks, ranged side by side in uninterrupted sequence, contain the choicest German vintages, including the grand wines of the Rheingau--Johannisberger, Steinberger, Rudesheimer, Rauenthaler, and the like; the red growths of a.s.smannshausen and Walporzheim; Deidesheimers, with rare bouquets and of tender tonical flavour; Liebfrauenmilch, of flowery perfume; the finest Moselles from Josefshof and Scharzhofberg, Brauneberg and Berncastel, with other growths too numerous to mention, of grand years, and from the best situations.

The sparkling wines stored in separate vaults form to-day an important item in Messrs. Deinhard's business. In 1843 the firm made their first cuvee, consisting of less than 10,000 bottles. Four years later their cuvee amounted to over 50,000 bottles. A falling off was shown during the revolutionary epoch, and business only recovered its normal condition in 1851, since which time it has gradually increased as the wines have grown in favour, until in 1875 the tirage of 1874 vintage wines exceeded half a million bottles.

Messrs. Deinhard draw their supplies of wine from white grapes, for conversion into sparkling wines, from the Rhine, the Main, the Moselle, and the Palatinate, giving preference to the produce of the riesling grape, as to this the wine is indebted for its natural bouquet. The proportion of wine from black grapes, mingled with the other wines, is vintaged by themselves in the Ahr valley and at Ingelheim on the Rhine.

The Ahr, in summer a rippling streamlet and in winter a rus.h.i.+ng torrent, falls into the Rhine about twenty miles below Coblenz. The soil of the neighbouring hills seems peculiarly adapted for the growth of black grapes, one of the best of German red wines being produced in the vineyards adjacent to the village of Walporzheim. In order that the wine may be as pale as possible, the black grapes are pressed as soon after gathering as they can be, and only the juice resulting from the first pressure is reserved, the subsequently extracted must being sold to the small growers of the neighbourhood. The newly-made wine is brought in casks to Coblenz, and rests for eight weeks while completing its fermentation. It is then racked into stucks and double stucks, and is blended in casks of the latter capacity during the early part of the following year, great care being taken to preserve the bouquet of the white grapes, with which view, contrary to the practice followed in the Champagne, only a moderate proportion of wine from black grapes enters into the blend.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VINEYARDS IN THE AHR VALLEY.]

Next comes the fining, and four weeks afterwards the wine is newly racked. The bottling takes place during May or June, when any deficiency of natural saccharine in the wine is supplied by the addition of pure sugar-candy. At Messrs. Deinhard's the wine is bottled at a temperature of 72 Fahr., and the bottles remain resting on large stone tables until the fermentation is completed, and the saccharine is converted into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. This result is commonly obtained in ordinary hot weather in eight days' time, most of the breakage taking place during this interval. If on being tested with a manometer the wine should indicate too high a pressure, it is at once removed to a cool cellar, consequently the average total breakage rarely exceeds 2 per cent. The wine is now left quiet for at least a year, and if possible for two years, after which the bottles are placed on stands in the customary inverted position, and shaken daily for a period of six weeks, in order to dislodge the sediment and force it against the cork. German workmen are far less expert at this operation than their fellows in the Champagne, as few of the former can manage more than their four-and-twenty thousand bottles per diem. The disgorgement and liqueuring of the wine is accomplished at Messrs. Deinhard's and other German establishments in precisely the same fas.h.i.+on as is followed in the Champagne.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ON THE BRIDGE AT RECH, AHR VALLEY.]

The dry sparkling hocks we tasted here had the real riesling flavour and the fine natural perfume common to this grape. In preparing them no attempt had been made to imitate champagne; but, on the other hand, every care had been taken to preserve the true hock character with its distinguis.h.i.+ng freshness of taste combined with a lightness which wines containing liqueur in excess could never have exhibited. The sparkling moselles, too, depended not on any imparted muscatel flavour and perfume, but on their own natural bouquet and the flavour they derive from the schistous soil in which these wines are grown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LIEBENSTEIN AND STERRENBERG.]

XVII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF GERMANY (_continued_).

From Coblenz to Rudesheim-- Ewald and Co.'s Establishment and its Pleasant Situation-- Their Fine Vaulted Cellars and Convenient Accessories-- Their Supplies of Wine drawn from the most favoured Localities-- The Celebrated Vineyards of the Rheingau-- Eltville and the extensive Establishment of Matheus Muller-- His Vast Stocks of Still and Sparkling German Wines-- The Vineyards laid under contribution for the latter-- M. Muller's Sparkling Johannisberger, Champagne, and Red Sparkling a.s.smannshauser-- The Site of Gutenberg's Birthplace at Mayence occupied by the Offices and Wine-cellars of Lauteren Sohn-- The Sparkling Wine Establishment of the Firm, and their Fine Collection of Hocks and Moselles-- The Hochheim Sparkling Wine a.s.sociation-- Foundation of the Establishment-- Its Superior Sparkling Hocks and Moselles-- The Sparkling Wine Establishments of Stock and Sons at Creuznach in the Nahe Valley, of Kessler and Co. at Esslingen, on the Neckar, and of M. Oppmann at Wurzburg-- The Historic Cellars of the King of Bavaria beneath the Residenz-- The Establishment of F. A. Siligmuller.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STOLZENFELS.]

Ascending the Rhine from Coblenz--past many an ancient ruined castle, past restored Stolzenfels, the historic Konigs-stuhl, the romantic Liebenstein and Sterrenberg, the legendary Lurlei, the tribute-exacting Pfalz, and the old town of Bacharach, famous in the Middle Ages for its wine mart--we eventually come to Lorch, where the Wisper brook flows into the Rhine, and the grand wine-producing district known as the Rheingau begins. A few miles higher up are the vineyards of a.s.smannshausen, dominated by the Niederwald, and yielding the finest red wine in all Germany. Then pa.s.sing by Bishop Hatto's legendary tower we emerge from the gorge of the Rhine and soon reach Rudesheim, crouched at the foot of lofty terraced vineyards, which, according to doubtful tradition, were planted with Burgundy and Orleans vines by Charlemagne.

Rudesheim, like other antiquated little Rhine-side towns, boasts its ancient castle with its own poetical legend, while many modern houses have sprung up there of late years, and signs of further development are apparent on all sides. In the outskirts of the town there are a couple of sparkling wine establishments, the one nigh the railway station on the western side belonging to Messrs. Dietrich and Co., while eastwards on a picturesque slope overlooking the Rhine, and in the midst of extensive pleasure-grounds, is the establishment of Messrs. Ewald and Co., who date from the year 1858, and rank to-day amongst the leading s.h.i.+ppers of sparkling hocks and moselles to England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MESSRS. EWALD & CO.'S ESTABLISHMENT AT RuDESHEIM. (p. 185)]

Here are handsome and capacious buildings aboveground, and two floors of cellars comprising five vaults, each 160 feet in length and 30 feet broad. The lower vaults, 40 feet from the surface, are arched over and walled with stone, while the upper ones are faced with brick, both being floored with concrete and slanting towards the centre to allow of the wine from bottles that have burst running off. Each range of cellars is separately ventilated by shafts, generally kept open in winter and closed in the summer so as to maintain a temperature not exceeding 47 Fahr. in the lower cellars and under 52 in those above. Moreover, with the view of conducing to this result the cellars have an ice well communicating with them.

Late in the spring, when the newly-bottled wine indicates a sufficient number of atmospheres to insure a satisfactory effervescence, it is deposited in the lower vaults, the upper ones being devoted to reserve wines in wood and wines awaiting the process of disgorgement, or undergoing their daily shaking in order to force the deposit against the cork. Aboveground there are rooms for storing the liqueur, the corks, and the packing-cases, and in a s.p.a.cious apartment, provided with three lifts for communicating with the cellars beneath, the wine is blended and bottled, and in due time disgorged and packed. In very warm weather, however, it is found preferable for the disgorging and its attendant operations to be performed in the cooler temperature of the cellars.

Messrs. Ewald formerly tested the strength of their bottles with a manometer before using them, but for some time past they have given up the practice, feeling convinced that it was productive of more harm than good. Gla.s.s is an amorphous and unelastic substance which, although it will stand a high pressure once, often succ.u.mbs when put to a second test by the action of the fermenting wine. The firm calculate their annual breakage at from 2 to 3 per cent.