II.
THE CHAMPAGNE VINELANDS—THE VINEYARDS OF THE MOUNTAIN.
TOWER AND GATEWAY OF
THE CHÂTEAU DE SILLERY.
The wine of Sillery—Origin of its renown—The Maréchale d’Estrées a successful Marchande de Vin—The Marquis de Sillery the greatest wine-farmer in the Champagne—Cossack appreciation of the Sillery produce—The route from Reims to Sillery—Henri Quatre and the Taissy wines—Failure of the Jacquesson system of vine cultivation—Château of Sillery—Wine-making at M. Fortel’s—Sillery sec—The vintage at Verzenay and the vendangeoirs—Renown of the Verzenay wine—The Verzy vineyards—Edward III. at the Abbey of St. Basle—Excursion from Reims to Bouzy—The herring procession at St. Remi—Rilly, Chigny, and Ludes—The Knights Templars’ ‘pot’ of wine—Mailly and the view over the Champagne plains—Wine-making at Mailly—The village in the wood—Château and park of Louvois, Louis le Grand’s War Minister—The vineyards of Bouzy—Its church-steeple, and the lottery of the great gold ingot—Pressing grapes at the Werlé vendangeoir—Still red Bouzy—Ambonnay—A pattern peasant vine-proprietor—The Ambonnay vintage—The vineyards of Ville-Dommange and Sacy, Hermonville and St. Thierry—The still red wine of the latter.
THE vineyards of the Mountain of Reims may be divided into two zones, one of which, known as the Basse Montagne, is situate north-west of Reims, and comprises the vineyards of St. Thierry, Marsilly, Hermonville, and others; whilst the more important zone lies to the south of the old cathedral city, and includes the better-known crus of Sillery, Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly, Ludes, Chigny, and Rilly. The vinelands of Bouzy and Ambonnay are also reckoned within it, though situate somewhat apart on a southern slope of the Mountain some few miles from the Marne.
The smallest of the Champagne vineyards are those of Sillery, and yet no wine of the Marne enjoys a greater renown, due originally to the intelligence and energy of the family of the Brularts, Marquises of Sillery and Puisieux, to whom the estate originally belonged, and who seem to have devoted great attention to viticulture from certainly the middle of the seventeenth century. The reputation of the still wine of Sillery, ‘the highest manifestation of the divinity of Bacchus in all France,’ was firmly established at this epoch. ‘As to M. de Puyzieux,’ writes St. Evremond to his friend Lord Galloway in August 1701, ‘he acts wisely to fall in with the bad taste now in fashion concerning Champagne in order to sell his own the better;’ but at the same time he counsels his correspondent to get the marquis to make him ‘a little barrel after the fashion in which it was made forty years before, prior to the existing depravation of taste.’[398] The marquis here referred to was Roger Brulart, Governor of Epernay, who was himself a joyous bon vivant, and died from over-indulgence in the good things provided at a dinner given by the Chartreux in 1719.[399] He was succeeded by his nephew, Louis Philogène Brulart, Marquis de Sillery et de Puisieux, to whom, in 1727, on the occasion of his marriage with Mademoiselle de Souvré, granddaughter of Louvois, the Sieurs Quatresous and Chertemps presented at his château of Sillery, on behalf of the town of Epernay, a basket of one hundred flasks of wine.[400] He died in 1771, leaving an only daughter, Adelaïde Félicité Brulart de Sillery, married, in 1744, to Louis César le Tellier, Maréchal Duc d’Estrées.
The wine attained its apogee under the fostering care of the Maréchale d’Estrées, to whom not only this cru, but those of Mailly, Verzy, and Verzenay belonged, and who concentrated their joint produce in the capacious cellars of her château, afterwards sending it forth with her own guarantee, under the general name of Sillery, which, like Aaron’s serpent, thus swallowed up the others. The Maréchale’s social position enabled her to secure for her wines the recognition they really merited, being made with the utmost care and a rare intelligence, shown by the removal of every unripe, rotten, or imperfect grape from the bunches before pressing, so that the Vin de la Maréchale, as it was styled, became famous throughout Europe.[401] This lady is not to be confounded with that other Maréchale d’Estrées mentioned by St. Simon, noted for her exquisite and magnificent although rare entertainments, and so sordid that when her daughter, who was covered with jewels, fell down at a ball, her first cry was, not like Shylock’s, ‘My daughter!’ but ‘My diamonds!’ as, rushing forward, she strove to pick up, not the fallen dancer, but her scattered gems.
