[111] ] Louis Perrier’s Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.
[112] ] Mémoire of 1718.
[113] ] Ibid. Pluche, in his Spectacle de la Nature, 1732, also says: ‘If the wine be drawn off towards the end of March, when the sap begins to rise in the vine, it will froth to such a degree as to whiten like milk, to the very bottom of the glass, the moment it is poured out. Wine will sometimes acquire this quality if it be drawn off during the ascent of the sap in August, which makes it evident that the froth is occasioned by the operation of the air and sap, which then act with vigour in the wood of the vine, and likewise in the liquor it produced. This violent ebulition, which is so agreeable to some persons, is thought by connoisseurs to be inconsistent with the goodness of the wine, since the greenest may be made to whiten into a froth, and the most perfect wines seldom discover this quality.’ In an article in the Journal de Verdun of November 1726, the following passage occurs: ‘A wine merchant of Anjou having written some time back to a celebrated magistrate in Champagne, Bertin du Rocheret, begging him to forward the secret of making vin mousseux during the vintage, the magistrate answered, “That vin mousseux was not made during the vintage; that there was no special soil for it; that the Anjou wines were suitable, since poor wine froths as well as the most excellent, frothing being a property of thin poor wine. That to make wine froth, it was necessary to draw it off as clear as could be done from the lees, if it had not been already racked; to bottle it on a fine clear day in January or February, or in March at the latest; three or four months afterwards the wine will be found effervescent, especially if it has some tartness and a little strength. When the wine works (like the vine) your wine will effervesce more than usual; a taste of vintage and of fermentation will be found in it.” The excellent wines of Ay and our good Champagne wines do not froth, or very slightly; they content themselves with sparkling in the glass.’
[114] ] St. Simon’s Mémoires.
[115] ] Ibid.
[116] ] Mémoire of 1718.
[117] ] Ibid.
[118] ] Antony Réal’s Ce qu’il y a dans une Bouteille de Vin.
[119] ] Legrand d’Aussy’s Vie Privée des Français.