Facts about champagne and other sparkling wines : collected during numerous visits to the Champagne and other vinicultural districts of France, and the principal wine-producing countries of Europe / by Henry Vizetelly.

  • Vizetelly, Henry, 1820-1894.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts about champagne and other sparkling wines : collected during numerous visits to the Champagne and other vinicultural districts of France, and the principal wine-producing countries of Europe / by Henry Vizetelly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    manure, and in course of time take root and form new vines, which bear during their second year. This operation is performed in the spring, and is annually repeated until the vine is five years old, the plants thus being in a state of continual progression, a system which accounts for the juvenescent aspect of the Cham- pagne vineyards, where none of the wood of the vines showing aboveground is more than three years old. When the vine has attained its fifth year it is allowed to rest for a couple of years, and then the pruning is resumed, the shoots being dispersed in any direction throughout the vineyard. The plants remain in this condition henceforward, merely requiring to be renewed from time to time by judicious provining. The vines are supported by stakes, when of oak costing sixty francs the thousand; and as in the Champagne a close system of plantation is followed, no less than 24,000 stakes are required on every acre of land, making the cost per acre of propping up the vines upwards of d£5 7, or double what it is in the Medoc and quadruple what it is in Burgundy. These stakes are set up in the spring of the year by men or women, the former of whom force them into the ground by pressing against them with their chest, which is protected with a shield of stout leather. The women use a mallet, or have recourse to a special appliance, in working which the foot plays the principal part. The latter method is the least fatiguing, and in some localities