[104] ] Ibid.
[105] ] Louis Perrier’s Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.
[106] ] Letter of M. le Pescheur, 1706.
[107] ] Pluche’s Spectacle de la Nature.
[108] ] In Brossette’s notes to his edition of Boileau’s Works of 1716.
[109] ] The inscription above given is an exact transcript from the black-marble slab, and any errors in orthography are due either to the original author or to the mason who incised it.
[110] ] The following account of Dom Perignon and his discoveries is contained in a letter dated 25th October 1821, and addressed from Montier-en-Der, Haute Marne, to M. Dherbès of Ay, by Dom Grossart, the last procureur of the Abbey of Hautvillers. Dom Grossart, who had fled from France during the troublous times of the Revolution, was at the date of the letter in his seventy-fourth year.
‘You know, sir, that it was the famous Dom Perignon, who was procureur of Hautvillers for forty-seven years, and who died in 1715, who discovered the secret of making sparkling and non-sparkling white wine, and the means of clearing it without being obliged to dépoter the bottles, as is done by our great wine-merchants rather twice than once, and by us never. Before his time one only knew how to make straw-coloured or gray wine. In bottling wine, instead of corks of cork-wood, only tow was made use of, and this species of stopper was saturated with oil. It was in the marriage of our wines that their goodness consisted; and this Dom Perignon towards the end of his days became blind. He had instructed in his secret of fining the wines (de coller les vins) a certain Brother Philip, who was for fifty years at the head of the wines of Hautvillers, and who was held in such consideration by M. Le Tellier, Archbishop of Reims, that when this brother went to Reims he made him come and sit at table with him. When the vintage drew near, he (Dom Perignon) said to this brother, “Go and bring me some grapes from the Prières, the Côtes-à-bras, the Barillets, the Quartiers, the Clos Sainte Hélène,” &c. Without being told from which vineyard these grapes came, he mentioned it, and added, “the wine of such a vineyard must be married with that of such another,” and never made a mistake. To this Brother Philip succeeded a Brother André Lemaire, who was for nearly forty years at the head of the cellars of Hautvillers, that is to say, until the Revolution.... This brother being very ill, and believing himself on the point of death, confided to me the secret of clarifying the wines, for neither prior nor procureur nor monk ever knew it. I declare to you, sir, that we never did put sugar in our wines; you can attest this when you find yourself in company where it is spoken of.
Monsieur Moët, who has become one of the gros bonnets of Champagne since 1794, when I used to sell him plenty of little baskets, will not tell you that I put sugar in our wines. I make use of it at present upon some white wines which are vintaged in certain crûs of our wine district. This may have led to the error.
‘As it costs much to dépoter, I am greatly surprised that no wine-merchant has as yet taken steps to learn the secret of clearing the wine without having to dépoter the bottles when once the wine has been put into them.’