Olivier de Serres, the French Tusser, praises this divine liquor.[475] The anonymous author of the Hercule Guepin, a poem penned at the commencement of the seventeenth century in honour of the wine of Orleans, is forced to acknowledge the merits of that of Ay;[476] and that indefatigable commentator, the Abbé de Marolles, in a note to his edition of Martial, classes the growths of Ay, Avenay, and Epernay amongst the best that France produced. ‘Vive le bon vin d’Ay!’ exclaims Guy Patin enthusiastically; and that strange compound of the wit and the philosopher, St. Evremond, has extolled its qualities in prose and verse.[477] ‘If you ask me which wine of all others I prefer,’ he writes from London to the Count d’Olonne, about 1671, ‘without yielding to tastes introduced by people of sham daintiness, I will answer that good wine of Ay is the most natural of all wines, the most healthy, the best purified from all earth smack; of a most exquisite charm, through the peach flavour which is peculiar to it; and is, in my opinion, the finest of all flavours.’[478]
It is improbable that the wine of Ay of Francis I., or of Henri Quatre, was mousseux, for had it been so history would have mentioned it. In good years the still wine of Ay has a bouquet and perfume sufficient to account for its ancient reputation. Neither was the wine St. Evremond preferred sparkling, though his reference to the taste introduced by sham gourmets points probably to the custom of drinking the wine before its fermentation was completed, or else to the practice of icing it. When once, however, the introduction of vin mousseux added a new charm to the pleasures of the table, the poets who sang the praises of the foaming nectar seem one and all to have celebrated it as the ‘pétillant Ay,’ and to have chosen, perhaps for euphonistic reasons, that spot as its birthplace.[479] The material results were equally satisfactory; for Arthur Young mentions that when, on July 8, 1787, he visited ‘Ay, a village not far out on the road to Reims very famous for its wines,’ he was provided with a letter for M. Lasnier, who had 60,000 bottles in his cellar, whilst M. Dorsé had from 30,000 to 40,000.[480]
A century ago the foregoing were no doubt considered large stocks, but to-day the very smallest of the Ay firms would think itself poorly provided if its cellars contained under quadruple this quantity. The largest Champagne establishment at Ay is that of Messrs. Deutz & Geldermann, whose extra dry ‘Gold Lack’ and ‘Cabinet’ Champagnes have long been favourably known in England, through the energetic exertions of their agents, Messrs. J. R. Parkington & Co., of Crutched Friars. The Ay firm have their offices in a massive-looking corner-house at the further extremity of the town, in the direction of the steep hills sheltering it on the north. This forms their central establishment, and here are spacious celliers for disgorging and finishing off the wine, a large packing-hall, and rooms where bales of corks and other accessories of the trade are stored, the operations of making the cuvées and bottling being accomplished in an establishment some little distance off.
On proceeding thither, we find an elegant château with a charming terraced garden, lying at the very foot of the vine-clad slopes, and on the opposite side of the road some large celliers where wine in wood is stored, and where the cuvées of the firm, consisting usually of upwards of 50,000 gallons each, are made in a vat of gigantic proportions, furnished with a raised platform at one end for the accommodation of the workman who agitates the customary paddles. When the wine is completely blended it is drawn off into casks disposed for the purpose in the cellar below, as shown in the accompanying engraving, and after being fined it rests for about a month to clear itself. To each of these casks of newly-blended wine a portion of old wine is added separately, and at the moment of bottling the whole is newly amalgamated.
DRAWING OFF THE CUVÉE AT DEUTZ AND GELDERMANN’S, AY.
Adjoining M. Deutz’s château is the principal entrance to the extensive cellars of the firm, to which, at our visit in 1877, considerable additions were being made. In excavating these cellars in the chalk a uniform system is pursued. The workmen commence by rounding off the roof of the gallery, and then proceed to work gradually downwards, extracting the chalk, whenever practicable, in blocks suitable for building purposes, which, being worth from three to four shillings the square yard, help to reduce the cost of the excavation. When any serious flaws present themselves in the sides or roof of the galleries, they are invariably made good with masonry.
This splendid range of cellars now comprises eight long and lofty galleries no less than seventeen feet wide, and the same number of feet in height, and of the aggregate length of 2200 yards. These spacious vaults, which run parallel with each other, and communicate by means of cross passages, underlie the street, the château, the garden, and the vineyard slopes beyond, and possess the great advantage of being always dry. They are capable, we were informed, of containing several million bottles of Champagne, in addition to a large quantity of wine in cask.