Part 11 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: A SPANISH VINTAGE SCENE.]
XVIII.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY, SPAIN, RUSSIA, &c.
Sparkling Voslauer-- The Sparkling Wine Manufactories of Graz-- Establishment of Kleinoscheg Brothers-- Vintaging and Treatment of Styrian Champagnes-- Sparkling Red, Rose, and White Wines of Hungary-- The Establishment of Hubert and Habermann at Pressburg-- Sparkling Wines of Croatia, Galicia, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, the Tyrol, Transylvania, and the Banat-- Neuchatel Champagne-- Sparkling Wine Factories at Vevay and Sion-- The Vevay Vineyards-- Establishment of De Riedmatten and De Quay-- Sparkling Muscatel, Malmsey, Brachetto, Castagnolo, and Lacryma Christi of Italy-- Sparkling Wines of Spain, Greece, Algeria, and Russia-- The Krimski and Donski Champagnes-- The Latter Chiefly Consumed at the Great Russian Fairs.
Sparkling wines are made in various parts of Austria and Hungary, and of late years their produce has been largely on the increase. At Voslau, in the vicinity of the picturesque and fas.h.i.+onable summer watering-place of Baden, about twenty miles south of Vienna, Herr R. Schlumberger, one of my colleagues on the wine jury at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of 1873 and '8, makes a white sparkling Voslauer--introduced into England some years since--from the blue portuguese, the burgundy (the pineau noir), the rulander (the pineau gris), and the riesling varieties of grape. It is, however, at Graz, the capital of Styria, picturesquely situated on the river Mur, and surrounded by lofty mountains, where sparkling wines are made upon the largest scale and with the most success. By far the princ.i.p.al manufactory is that of Kleinoscheg Brothers, founded in the year 1850, at an epoch when the larger Styrian wine-growers were directing their attention to the general improvement of their vineyards. The firm gained their knowledge of sparkling wines by practical experience acquired in the Champagne itself, and to-day they unquestionably produce some of the best sparkling wines that are made out of France. They possess extensive vineyards of their own, and are also large purchasers of wines from the best districts, including Pettau, Radkersburg, the Picherergebirge, and Luttenberg, the latter yielding the finest wine which Styria produces, vintaged from the mosler or furmint--that is, the Tokay variety of grape.
White wine from the clevener grape, understood to be identical with the pineau noir of Burgundy and the Champagne, and vintaged early in October, forms the basis of the sparkling wines manufactured by Kleinoscheg Brothers. The produce of several other grapes, however, enters in a limited degree into the blend, including the riesling, the rulander or pineau gris, and the portuguese, the gathering of which is usually delayed several weeks later, and is sometimes even deferred until the end of November. The first and second pressings of the black grapes yield a white must as in the Champagne, while the third and fourth give a pink wine of which the firm make a speciality.
The wines, which are treated precisely after the system pursued in the Champagne, are bottled during the months of July and August, and are made either sweet or dry according to the country they are destined for.
Considerable s.h.i.+pments of the dry pale Styrian champagne take place to England, where the firm also send a delicate sparkling muscatel and a sparkling red burgundy, which will favourably compare with the best sparkling wines of the Cote d'Or. They have also a large market for their wines in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, and export to British North America, the East Indies, China, j.a.pan, and Australia.
From the year 1855 up to the present time the firm of Kleinoscheg Brothers have been awarded no less than sixteen medals for their sparkling wines at various important home and foreign exhibitions.
At Marburg on the river Drave, in the vicinity of the Bacher Mountains, which stretch far into Carinthia, and have their lower slopes covered with vines, Herr F. Auchmann has established a successful sparkling wine manufactory. The raw wine comes from the vineyards around Marburg and from Pettau, some ten or twelve miles lower down the Drave. The vintage commonly lasts from the middle of October until the middle of November.
Black grapes of the clevener and portuguese varieties are pressed as in the Champagne, so as to yield a white must, with which a certain portion of white wine from the mosler or furmint grape is subsequently mingled.
The bottling takes place as early as April or May. The wines are princ.i.p.ally consumed in Austria, but are also exported to Russia, Italy, Egypt, the Danubian Princ.i.p.alities, Australia, &c.
Sparkling wines seem to be made in various parts of Hungary, judging from the samples sent to the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions from Pesth, Pressburg, Oedenburg, Pecs, Velencze, and Kolozsvar. Rose-colour wines are evidently much in favour with the respective manufacturers, several of whom make sparkling red wines as well, but with none of the success of their Styrian neighbours. The best Hungarian sparkling wines we have met with are those of Hubert and Habermann, made at Pressburg, the former capital of Hungary, where its kings, after being crowned, used to ride up the Konigsberg brandis.h.i.+ng the sword of St. Stephen towards the four points of the compa.s.s in token of their determination to defend the kingdom against all enemies. The white sparkling wines are made exclusively from white grapes grown in the neighbouring vineyards of Bosing, Gennau, and St. Georgen, but the firm make red sparkling wines as well from the produce of the Ratzersdorf and Wainor vineyards. The vintage takes place some time in October, and the wines are bottled both in the spring and autumn, but never until they are fully twelve months old. With these variations the system pursued with regard to the wines is the same as is followed in the Champagne. There are several other sparkling wine manufacturers at Pressburg, and the princ.i.p.al market for these wines is Austro-Hungary, but s.h.i.+pments of them are made to England, the United States, India, Roumania, and Servia. The production of sparkling wine in Hungary is now estimated to amount to one million bottles annually.
In Croatia Prince Lippe-Schaumburg has established a sparkling wine manufactory at Slatina, where he produces a so-called Riesling-Champagner, and it would appear from the collection of Austro-Hungarian sparkling wines exhibited at Vienna by Herr Bogdan Hoff of Cracow, that these wines are also made at Melnik, in Bohemia, at Bisenz in Moravia, at Sebenicodi Maraschino in Dalmatia, at Botzen in the Tyrol, at Tasnad in Transylvania, and at Weiss-Kirchen in the Banat.
All these wines had been submitted to examination at the Imperial no-chemical laboratory at Klosterneuberg, and one was not surprised to find that the majority were p.r.o.nounced to be of too robust a character for transformation into sparkling wines.
Switzerland long since turned its attention to the manufacture of sparkling wines, not, however, to meet the requirements of its own population, but those of the many tourists with well-lined purses who annually explore its valleys, lakes, and mountains. Neuchatel champagne has met with a certain amount of success, and at the present time there are a couple of establishments devoted to its production, the best known being that of Bouvier freres. There are, moreover, sparkling wine manufactories at Vevay in the Vaud Canton, and at Sion in the Valais. In the Canton of Neuchatel the best Swiss red wines are produced--notably Cortaillod and Faverge of a ruby hue and Burgundy-like flavour--and the sparkling wine manufacturers of the district wisely blend a considerable proportion of wine from black grapes with that from white when making their _cuvees_. Vaud, on the other hand, being noted for white wines bearing some resemblance to certain Rhine growths, it is of these that sparkling wines are exclusively made at Vevay.
The Vevay vineyards occupy the heights which skirt the Lake of Geneva on its northern side. The innumerable terraces, steep and difficult of access to the toiling vine-dresser, on which the vines are planted, are the result of centuries of patient labour. Here the vine seems to flourish at an alt.i.tude of more than 1,800 feet above the sea level.
To compensate for the deficiency of suns.h.i.+ne the leaves are largely stripped from the vines so as to expose the fruit, and thereby a.s.sist its ripening.
The sparkling wine factory at Sion, bordering the river Rhone, in the Canton of the Valais, was established in 1872 by MM. de Riedmatten and De Quay, who derive their raw wine from vineyards in the immediate neighbourhood, almost all of which have a southern exposure, and occupy gentle slopes. The soil chiefly consists of a decomposed limestone schist, locally termed ”brise.” In these vineyards, and more especially the district known as the Clavaux, some of the best and most alcoholic wines in Switzerland are produced.
The firm originally experimented with the choicer and more powerful growths, and, as may be imagined, soon discovered they were not well adapted for conversion into sparkling wines. To-day they limit themselves to wines produced from what is known as the ”fendant” variety of grape, said by some to be identical with the German riesling, and by others to be of the same type as the French cha.s.selas. The vintage in the Valais is the earliest in Switzerland, taking place in favourable years at the close of September, but ordinarily in the course of October. Some fine white candy syrup is added to the wine at the epoch of bottling, in order to provoke the requisite effervescence, which it does so effectually that the tirage is obliged to take place some time between November and May, as at any other period the temperature would be too high and the bottles would burst. MM. Riedmatten and De Quay have two varieties of sparkling wine--their Carte Blanche, which goes under the name of Mont Blanc, and is rather sweet, and their Carte Verte known as Glacier de Rhone, a drier variety and finding a readier sale.
Of late years, since many improvements have been effected in Italy both in the cultivation of the vineyards and the vintaging of the wine, numerous attempts have been made, although on the whole with but indifferent success, to produce a good sparkling wine. The princ.i.p.al seat of the manufacture is Asti, where the Societa Unione Enofila make considerable quant.i.ties of a common strong sweet sparkling wine, as well as a sparkling muscatel. Alessandria, Ancona, Bologna, Castagnolo, Genoa, Modena, Naples, Palermo, and Treviso also profess to make sparkling wines, but only in insignificant quant.i.ties. Alessandria produces sparkling malmsey and red sparkling brachetto; and on the Marquis Della Stufa's estate of Castagnolo a sparkling wine is manufactured from the currajola variety of grape, one of the best in the Tuscan vineyards. The vines at Castagnolo are cultivated in accordance with the French system, and at the vintage all unripe and unsound grapes are thrown aside. There is an evident flavour of the muscat grape in the Castagnolo sparkling wine, which has the merit of lightness and of being well made. The alcoholic strength is equivalent to rather more than 20 of proof spirit, and the highest quality wine is remarkable for its excessive dryness in comparison with all other samples of Italian sparkling wines that we have met with. Naples appears to confine itself to producing sparkling white lacryma christi, for which, as a curiosity, there exists a certain demand.
Spain of late years has shown itself equally ambitious with Italy to achieve distinction in the production of sparkling wines, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1878 there were samples from the majority of the wine centres skirting the Mediterranean coast, including Gerona, Barcelona, Tarragona, and Valencia. Other samples come from Logrono, in the north of Spain; and years ago sparkling wine used to be made at Villaviciosa, on the Bay of Biscay. To Paris there were also sent samples of sparkling orange wine, an agreeable beverage, and unquestionably preferable to the majority of Spanish sparkling wines composed of the juice of the grape.
Greek sparkling wines, said to be of very fair quality, are made at Athens, Corinth, and Tripoliza, and are exported in moderate quant.i.ties to Russia. Algeria, too, is turning its attention to the production of sparkling wines, but solely for home consumption, and at the Paris Exhibition there was a sparkling wine from Uruguay, but of execrable quality.
The sparkling wines of the Crimea and the Don, known in Russia respectively as Krimski and Donski champagnes, are described as being superior to much of the wine which pa.s.ses in England under the name of champagne. In Russia it is the fas.h.i.+on to speak contemptuously of them, just as rhubarb and gooseberry champagne is spoken of in England, still these Crimean and Don products are genuine wines, and, though somewhat sweet, may be drunk with satisfaction and in moderate quant.i.ties with impunity. One of the best Donski brands is that of Abrahamof, and as much as six roubles per bottle is demanded for the finer qualities at Novoi Tscherkash. About a million bottles of the Donski champagne are exported annually, but the wine finds its princ.i.p.al market at the great Russian fairs, where almost every important bargain is ”wetted” with sparkling Donski.
[Ill.u.s.tration: VINTAGE SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES.]
XIX.--THE SPARKLING WINES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Earliest Efforts at Wine-Making in America-- Failures to Acclimatise European Vines-- Wines Made by the Swiss Settlers and the Mission Fathers-- The Yield of the Mission Vineyards-- The Monster Vine of the Montecito Valley-- The Catawba Vine and its General Cultivation-- Mr. Longworth one of the Founders of American Viticulture-- Fresh Attempts to make Sparkling Wine at Cincinnati-- Existing Sparkling Wine Manufactures there-- Longfellow's Song in Praise of Catawba-- The Kelley Island Wine Company-- Vintaging and Treatment of their Sparkling Wines-- Decrease of Consumption-- The Vineyards of Hammondsport-- Varieties of Grapes used for Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage-- After-Treatment of the Wines-- The Pleasant Valley and Urbana Wine Companies and their Various Brands-- Californian Sparkling Wines-- The Buena Vista Vinicultural Society of San Francisco-- Its Early Failures and Eventual Success in Manufacturing Sparkling Wines-- The Vintage in California-- Chinese Vintagers-- How the Wine is Made-- American Spurious Sparkling Wines.