The Emperor Napoleon, the Empress Josephine, the King of Westphalia, and the other members of the Bonaparte dynasty, who from time to time visited Epernay and partook of the hospitality of Jean Remi Moët, showed a healthy appreciation of its vintage. Indeed King Jerome, in giving an order for six thousand bottles premier cru, remarked with a strange foresight that he would have taken more, only he was afraid that it would be the Russians after all who would come and drink it. Sure enough the eventful year 1814 witnessed the arrival at Epernay of a host of self-invited guests, all equally appreciative of the merits of Champagne, and gifted with an almost unlimited power of consumption, but entertaining insuperable objections to pay for what they consumed. The Prussians and Russians who came hither in February and March misconducted themselves in a very sad manner, burning and pillaging houses, insulting and maltreating the inhabitants, requisitioning all the wine they could lay hands on, and drinking in a manner recalling the Bacchic exploits of Gargantua and Pantagruel. The mayor, Jean Remi Moët, moved by the state of affairs, offered the invaders the free run of his cellars rather than that they should pillage those of others, doubtless under the idea that the reputation his house would thus acquire abroad would soon enable him to retrieve the temporary loss—a proviso happily and amply realised. Beyond the facts that Epernay has profited, and continues to profit, by the ever-increasing development of the taste for sparkling wine; that Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III. have successively favoured it with their presence, and accepted the vin d’honneur offered on such occasions; and that during the war of 1870–1 the town, in common with the rest of the province of Champagne, was occupied by the German invading army, there is nothing more to be said respecting its history.
THE RUE DU COMMERCE (FAUBOURG DE LA FOLIE), EPERNAY.
THE PACKING-HALL AT MESSRS. MOËT AND CHANDON’S, EPERNAY.
X.
THE CHAMPAGNE ESTABLISHMENTS OF EPERNAY AND PIERRY.
Early records of the Moët family at Reims and Epernay—Jean Remi Moët, the founder of the commerce in Champagne wines—Extracts from old account-books of the Moëts—Jean Remi Moët receives the Emperor Napoleon, the Empress Josephine, and the King of Westphalia—The firm of Moët & Chandon constituted—Their establishment in the Rue du Commerce—The delivery and washing of new bottles—The numerous vineyards and vendangeoirs of the firm—Their cuvée made in vats of 12,000 gallons—The bottling of the wine—A subterranean city, with miles of streets, cross-roads, open spaces, tramways, and stations—The ancient entrance to these vaults—Tablet commemorative of the visit of Napoleon I.—The original vaults known as Siberia—Scene in the packing-hall—Messrs. Moët & Chandon’s large and complete staff—The famous ‘Star’ brand of the firm—Perrier-Jouët’s château, offices, and cellars—Classification of the wine of the house—The establishment of Messrs. Pol Roger & Co.—Their large stock of the fine 1874 vintage—The preparations for the tirage—Their vast fireproof cellier and its temperature—Their lofty and capacious cellars—Pierry becomes a wine-growing district consequent upon Dom Perignon’s discovery—Esteem in which the growths of the Clos St. Pierre were held—Cazotte, author of Le Diable Amoureux, and guillotined for planning the escape of Louis XVI. from France, a resident at Pierry—His contest with the Abbot of Hautvillers with reference to the abbey tithes of wine—The Château of Pierry—Its owner demands to have it searched to prove that he is not a forestaller of corn—The vineyards and Champagne establishment of Gé-Dufaut & Co.—The reserves of old wines in the cellars of this firm—Honours secured by them at Vienna and Paris.