Part 3 (2/2)
M Louis Roederer refused our request for permission to visit his establishments, so that it is only of their external appearance that we are able to speak One of the, and which has a carved head of Bacchus sur the _porte-cochere_--is situated in the Boulevard du Tee of buildings of considerable extent, is in the neighbouring Rue de la Justice
The old-established firm of Heidsieck and Co, which has secured a reputation in both hemispheres for its famous Monopole and Dry Monopole brands, has its cellars scattered about Reims, the central ones, where the wine is prepared and packed, being situated in the narroinding Rue Sedan, at no great distance froinal fir with those financial difficulties that a few years later cul which kept Europe in a state of tur the archives of the firnature of the Minister of the Prussian Royal Household, appointing Heidsieck and Co purveyors of cha Hohenzollern _par excellence_, however, was the son and successor of the preceding, who, fro beverage during the last few years of his reign, acquired the _sobriquet_ of King Clicquot
On passing through the large _porte-cochere_ giving entrance to Messrs
Heidsieck's principal establishment, one finds oneself in a sroith ivy and venerable vines On the left is a dwelling-house enriched with elaborate s and cornices, and at the farther end of the court is the entrance to the cellars, sur the date 1829
The latter, however, is no criterion of the age of the buildings themselves, as these were occupied by the firm at its foundation, towards the close of the last century We are first conducted into an antiquated-looking low cellier, the roof of which is sustained with rude ti labelled and packed, although this is but a -roo directly with the public road At the tis and inscriptions, the day before having been the fete of St Jean, when the firm entertain the people in their employ with a banquet and a ball, at which the choicest wine of the house liberally flows Fro-room we descend into the cellars, which, like all the ular plan Here we thread our way between piles after piles of bottles, er are awaiting their customary adornment The lower tier of cellars is mostly stored with _vin sur pointe_, and bottles with their necks doards are encountered in endless alleries The only variation in our lengthened proed in hishis 30,000 or 40,000 bottles per die at Messrs Heidsieck's takes place, in accordance with the good old rule, in the cellars underground, where we noticed large stocks of wine three and five years old, the fore of _sur-pointe_, and the latter awaiting shi+pment It is a speciality of the house to shi+p only her character than the ordinary youthful growths, for a few years have a wonderful influence in developing the finer qualities of cha of 1877, when the English lutted with the crude, full-bodied wine of 1874, Messrs
Heidsieck were continuing to shi+p wines of 1870 and 1872, beautifully rounded by keeping and of fine flavour and great delicacy of perfume, and of which the firm estimated they had fully a year's consumption still on hand
Messrs Heidsieck and Co have a handsome modern establishment in the Rue Coquebert--a cone establishments are the rule--the courtyard of which, alive orkmen at the time of our visit, is broad and spacious, while the surrounding buildings are light and airy, and the cellars lofty, regular, and well ventilated In a large cellier here, where the tuns are ranged side by side between the rows of iron colu the roof, the fir of their wine takes place, and considerable stocks of high-class reserve wines and rowths are stored ready for removal when required by the central establishment The bulk of Messrs Heidsieck's reserve wines, however, repose in the outskirts of Reims, near the Porte Dieu-Lumiere, in one of the numerous abandoned chalk quarries, which of late years the cha transfor a rich and a dry variety of the Monopole brand, of which they are sole proprietors, Messrs Heidsieck export to this country a rich and a dry Grand Vin Royal It is, however, to their famous Monopole wine, and especially to the dry variety, which rowths, that the firm owe their principal celebrity
[Illustration: STATUE OF LOUIS XIII ON THE REIMS HoTEL DE VILLE]
VII--THE REIMS ESTABLISHMENTS (_continued_)
The Fire shi+pments to the United States-- Their Establishments in the Rue Andrieux and the Rue Coquebert-- Bottle-Washi+ng with Glass Beads-- The Cuvee and the Tirage-- G H Mueoirs at Verzenay-- Their Various Wines-- The Gate of Mars-- The Establishment of M Gustave Gibert on the Site of the Chateau des Archeveques-- His Cellars in the Vaults of St Peter's Abbey and beneath the old Hotel des Fermes in the Place Royale-- Louis XV and Jean Baptiste Colbert-- M Gibert's Wines-- Jules Mumm and Co, and Ruinart pere et fils-- House of the Musicians-- The Counts de la Marck-- The Brotherhood of Minstrels of Reims-- Establishment of Perinet et fils-- Their Cellars of Three Stories in Solid Masonry-- Their Soft, Light, and Delicate Wines-- A Rare Still Verzenay-- M Duchatel-Ohaus's Establishment and Renaissance House-- His Cellars in the Cour St
Jacques and Outside the Porte Dieu-Lumiere
Messrs G H Mumm and Co have their chief establishment in the Rue Andrieux, in an open quarter of the city, facing the garden attached to the prerand triumphal arch known as the Gate of Mars, by far the ne can boast The head of the firrandson of the well-known P A Mue shi+pper of hocks and ne house of Mumm and Co, established at Reims in 1825, and joined by Mr G H Mumm so far back as the year 1838 The firland, but head the list of shi+ph repute, with nearly half amore than twice the quantity shi+pped by M Louis Roederer--who comes third on the list in question--and a fourth of the entire shi+pne to the United States
The establishment of Messrs G H Mumm and Co, in the Rue Andrieux, is of coe _porte-cochere_ conducts to a spacious courtyard, bordered with sheds, beneath which huge stacks of new bottles are piled and having a pleasant garden lying beyond On the left is a large vaulted cellier, where the operations of disgorging, liqueuring, and corking the wine are perfor departained to the cellars beneath, containing a es of development This for another three millions of bottles stored in the cellars of their establishreat animation presented itself at the tied in washi+ng bottles for the _tirage_, which, although it was early in May, had already co a certain quantity of glass beads in lieu of the customary shot, which frequently leave minute particles of lead--deleterious alike to health and the flavour of the wine--adhering to the inside surface of the glass, are placed horizontally in a frame, and by means of four turns of a handle are made to perform sixty-four rapid revolutions The beads are then transferred to other bottles, which are subjected in their turn to the sa process
The _cuvee_, commonly composed of from two to three thousand casks of wine froh-class vintages, isis effected bytwelve hogsheads of wine each Pipes from these tuns communicate with a couple of small reservoirs, each of the syphon taps, by means of which a like number of bottles are simultaneously filled Only one set of these taps are set running at a ti drawn off fro refilled fro the _cuvee_ by means of a pump and leathern hose, which eangs of eight rafes_ fro the day The labour is perforularly eed for the purpose, ork, however, under the constant inspection of overseers appointed by the firne destined for shi+ped in a kind of varnish, with the object of protecting the and wire fro mouldy for several years In da time to dry, after the bottles have been placed in a rack with their heads doards to allow of any superfluous varnish draining from the corks, the latter are subjected to a moderate heat in a machine pierced with sufficient holes to contain 500 bottles, and provided with a war apparatus in the centre Here the bottles remain for about twenty minutes
[Illustration: THE TIRAGE OR BOTTLING OF CHAMPAGNE AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MESSRS G H MUMM & CO (p 76)]
[Illustration: MESSRS G H MUMM & CO'S VENDANGEOIR AT VERZENAY (p 77)]
Messrs G H Mueoir at Verzenay, near the entrance to the village when approaching it fro contains four presses, three of which are worked with large fly-wheels requiring several men to turn them, while the fourth acts with a screw applied by rarapes are put under each press, a quantity sufficient to yield eight to ten hogsheads of wine of forty-four gallons each, suitable for sparkling wine, besides three or four hogsheads of inferior wine given to the work coht; yet the firrapes in the baskets under a cool shed for a period of two days This cannot, however, be done when they are very ripe, as the colouring ive a dark and objectionable tint to the wine
Messrs G H Mune--Carte Blanche, a pale, delicate, fragrant wine of great softness and refined flavour; a perfectly dry variety of the foregoing, known as their Extra Dry; also an Extra Quality and a First Quality--both high-class wines, though so
Within a fewGate of Mars, in the ravel-walks, where coquettish nursees stroll, accompanied by the proverbial _piou-piou_--is the principal establishment of M Gustave Gibert, whose house claims to-day half a century of existence On this spot formerly stood the feudal castle of the Archbishops of Reihold was erected is somewhat uncertain The local chronicles state that a chateau was built at Reims by Suelf, son of Hincmar, in 922, and restored by Archbishop Henri de France two and a half centuries later War or other causes, however, see of this castle necessary, as a new Chateau des Archeveques appears to have been erected at Reims by Henri de Braine between 1228 and 1230 The circu dukes and peers as well as prine accounts for their preference for a fortified place of residence at this turbulent epoch
On the investiture of a new archbishop it was the custoreat poe aruard and a splendid retinue of ecclesiastical, civil, andhi been thus gratified, the ”prelate” had to humble himself, and on the morroalked barefooted froious wars the chateau was surrendered to Henri IV, and in 1595 the Remois, anxious to be rid of so for or archbishop, was calculated to enforce a state of passive obedience galling to their pride, purchased froe to demolish it for the sum of 8,000 crowns
Tradition asserts that the Rele day, but this is exceedingly improbable Its ruins certainly were not cleared away until the close of the century
When the old fortress was razed to the ground its extensive vaults were not interfered with, butyears afterwards were transforne Above them are two stories of capacious celliers where the wine is blended, bottled, and packed, the vaults the two tiers of cellars which contain wine both in cask and bottle M Gibert's re stocks are stored in the ancient vaults of the abbey of St Peter, in the heart of the city, and in the roomy cellars which underlie the old Hotel des Ferieneral of the province used to receive its revenues On the pediment of this edifice is a bas-relief with Mercury, the God of coed with the vintage and with bales of wool, and evidently intended to syne A bronze statue rises in the centre of the Place which froht be taken for some hero of antiquity did not the inscription on the pedestal apprise us that it is intended for the ”wise, virtuous, and nanimous Louis XV,” a misuse of terms which has caused a transatlantic Republican to characterise theout of the Place Royale is the Rue de Ceres, in which there is ato be the birthplace of Jean Baptiste Colbert, son of a Reims wool-merchant, and the famous minister who did so much to consolidate the finances which the royal voluptuary, arb, afterwards made such dreadful havoc of