Champagne Wine is the produce of vineyards in the above-mentioned province of Champagne. There are white and red champagnes; the white is either sparkling or still. Sparkling or effervescent (mousseux) champagne is the result of a peculiar treatment during fermentation. In December the wine is racked off, and fined with isinglass, and in March it is bottled and tightly corked. To clear the wine of sediment, the bottles are placed in a sloping position with the necks downward, so that the sediment may be deposited in the necks of the bottles. When this sediment has been poured off, some portion of a liquor (a solution of sugar-candy in cognac with flavouring essences) is added to the wine, and every bottle is filled up with bright clarified wine, and securely re-corked. The fermentation being incomplete when the wine is bottled, the carbonic acid gas generated in a confined space exerts pressure on itself, and it thus remains as a liquid in the wine. When this pressure is removed it expands into gas, and thus communicates the sparkling property to champagne. The effervescence of the wine thus prepared bursts many bottles, in some cases 10 per cent.; and in seasons of early and sudden heat, as many as 20 and 25 per cent. have been burst. Still or non-effervescent champagne is first racked off in the March after the vintage. Creaming or slightly effervescent champagne (demi-mousseux) has more alcohol, but less carbonic acid gas than sparkling champagne.
The best varieties of this wine are produced at Rheims and Epernay, and generally on a chalky soil. Among white champagnes of the first class, the best are those of Sillery, which are of a fine amber hue, dry, spirituous, and possessing a superior bouquet; those of Ay and Mareuil are less spirituous, but are sparkling, with a pleasant bouquet. Other white wines of first class are those of Hautvilliers, Dizey, and Pierry.
The cellars in which the vintages are stored are cut out of the calcareous rock. The fact that the sale of champagne is very extensive and lucrative, has naturally given rise to adulterations. Spurious champagne is readily manufactured by simply charging other light wines with carbonic acid gas. The popular notions about gooseberry champagne have but small foundation, if any. Gooseberry-juice is far more costly than grape-juice, wherever the grape flourishes, and in this country there are no such great gooseberry plantations as would be required for a flourishing champagne industry, which would demand a few hundred tons of fruit per annum. Recently, the German purveyors have succeeded in preparing light wines—such as Rhenish, Main, Neckar, Meissner, and Naumburg —very like genuine champagne. And much champagne is made on French methods in California. Altogether it is estimated that the French district produces about 25,000,000 bottles, of which nearly 20,000,000 are exported (the export being five times as great as in 1844). See Vizetelly's monograph on the subject (1882).