Turning from fancy to fact, we find Sir Edward Barry furnishing some particulars respecting the Champagne wines consumed in England during the latter half of the last century.[347] He informs us at the outset that
‘the wines of Champaign and Burgundy are made with more care than any other French wines; and the vaults in which the former are preserved are better than any other in France. These wines, from their finer texture and peculiar flavour, cannot be adulterated without the fraud being easily discovered, and are therefore generally imported pure, or by proper care may be certainly procured in that state.’
His remarks evidently refer to the still wines, as he proceeds to explain that ‘the Champaign River Wines are more delicate and pale than those which are distinguished from them by the name of Mountain gray Wines,’ the latter being more durable and better suited for exportation, whilst the former, if allowed to remain too long in the cask, acquire a taste from the wood, although keeping in flasks from four to six years without harm. Referring to the taste of the day, he explains that
‘among the River Wines the Auvillers and Epernay are most esteemed, and among the Mountain Wines the Selery and St. Thyery, and in general such as are of the colour of a partridge’s eye. These are likewise distinguished for their peculiar grateful pungency and balsamic softness, which is owing to the refined saline principle which prevails more in them than in the Burgundy Wines, on which account they are less apt to affect the head, communicate a milder heat, and more freely pervade and pass through the vessels of the body.... To drink Champaign Wines in the greatest perfection, the flask should be taken from the vault a quarter of an hour before it is drunk, and immersed in ice-water, with the cork so loose in it as is sufficient to give a free passage to the air, and yet prevent too great an evaporation of its spirituous parts.’
HIGH LIVING AT BATH
(After Rowlandson, in the New Bath Guide).
The foregoing practice still obtains with Sillery, classed by Barry as the first of the Mountain growths, and in the highest favour in England throughout the remainder of the century. Regarding sparkling wine, of which he was evidently no admirer, he adds:
‘For some years the French and English have been particularly fond of the sparkling frothy Champaigns. The former have almost entirely quitted that depraved taste, nor does it now so much prevail here. They used to mix some ingredients to give them that quality; but this is unnecessary, as they are too apt spontaneously to run into that state; but whoever chooses to have such Wines may be assured that they will acquire it by bottling them any time after the vintage before the month of the next May; and the most sure rule to prevent that disposition is not to bottle them before the November following. This rule has been confirmed by repeated experiments.’
On the signature of the Treaty of Peace with France in 1783, it had been stipulated that a Treaty of Commerce should likewise be concluded; and in 1786, under the auspices of Pitt, a treaty of this character was made, the first article providing that ‘The wines of France imported directly from France into Great Britain shall in no case pay any higher duties than those which the wines of Portugal now pay.’ Pitt, spite of his well known penchant for Port, had yet a sneaking liking for Champagne, arising no doubt from his early familiarity with the wine when he went to Reims to study, after leaving the University of Cambridge. It was with Champagne that he was primed on the memorable occasion when he, Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and Mr. Secretary Dundas galloped after dusk through an open turnpike-gate without paying toll, and only just missed receiving the contents of a loaded blunderbuss, which the turnpike man, fancying they were highwaymen, fired after them. The party had been dining with the President of the Board of Trade at Addiscombe, and a rhymester of the epoch commemorated the incident in the following lines: