A great wine like that of 1874 will go on improving for ten years, providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. These are, first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of which should be as low as from 50° to 55° Fahr., or even lower if this is practicable. The cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light, scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be continuously pure. It is requisite that the bottles should rest on their sides to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. For laying down champagne or any kind of sparkling wine an iron wine-bin is by far the best. I much prefer the patent “slider” bins made by Messrs. W. and J. Burrow, of Malvern, they being better adapted to the purpose than any other I am acquainted with. In these the bottles rest on horizontal parallel bars of wrought-iron, securely riveted into strong wrought-iron uprights, both at the back and in front. The bins can be obtained of any size—that is, to hold as few as two or as many as forty dozen—and they

can be had furnished with lattice doors, secured by a lock. One great advantage is that with them there is no waste of space, for individual compartments can be at once refilled with fresh bottles after the other bottles have been removed. These “slider” bins are especially adapted for laying down champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and equable.

WINE-CELLAR FITTED WITH BURROW’S PATENT SLIDER BINS.

When binning the wine the bottles are held by their necks and slid into their places with such ease and safety that a child might be entrusted with the work. The bottles can be withdrawn from the bin with equal or even greater facility. Breakage is avoided from each bottle having an independent bearing, which prevents the upper bottles from either falling

or weighing down upon those below, and thereby crashing together. The larger engraving shows a wine-cellar fitted up entirely with. Burrow’s patent “slider” wine-bins, while the smaller represents a bin adapted to laying down twenty dozens of champagne, and the dimensions of which are merely 5 feet 8 inches by 3 feet.

From the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption

of champagne has almost trebled since the year 1844-5, a period of little more than thirty years. Another curious fact to note is the immense increase in the exports of the wine during the three years following the Franco-German war, when naturally both the exports and home consumption of champagne fell off very considerably. No reliable information is available as to the actual quantity of champagne consumed yearly in England, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four millions of bottles. The consumption of the wine in the United States varies from rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million bottles annually.

[Official Return by the Chamber of Commerce at Reims of The Trade inChampagne Wines From April, 1844, To April, 1878.]
Years, from April to April.Manufacturers’ Stocks.Number of Bottles Exported.Number of Bottles sold in France.Total number of Bottles Sold.
1844-4523,285,2184,380,2142,255,4386,635,652
1845-4622,847,9714,505,3082,510,6057,015,913
1846-4718,815,3674,711,9152,355,3667,067,281
1847-4823,122,9944,859,6252,092,5716,952,196
1848-4921,290,1855,686,4841,473,9667,160,450
1849-5020,499,1925,001,0441,705,7356,706,779
1850-5120,444,9155,866,9712,122,5697,989,540
1851-5221,905,4795,957,5522,162,8808,120,432
1852-5319,376,9676,355,5742,385,2178,740,790
1853-5417,757,7697,878,3202,528,71910,407,039
1854-5520,922,9596,895,7732,452,7439,348,516
1855-5615,957,1417,137,0012,562,0399,699,040
1856-5715,228,2948,490,1982,468,81810,959,016
1857-5821,628,7787,368,3102,421,4549,789,764
1858-5928,328,2517,666,6332,805,41610,472,049
1859-6035,648,1248,265,3953,039,62111,305,016
1860-6130,235,2608,488,2232,697,50811,185,731
1861-6230,254,2916,904,9152,592,8759,497,790
1862-6328,013,1897,937,8362,767,37110,705,207
1863-6428,466,9759,851,1382,934,99612,786,134
1864-6533,298,6729,101,4412,801,62611,903,067
1865-6634,175,42910,413,4552,782,77713,196,132
1866-6737,608,71610,283,8863,218,34313,502,229
1867-6837,969,21910,876,5852,924,26813,800,853
1868-6932,490,88112,810,1943,104,49615,914,690
1869-7039,272,56213,858,8393,628,46117,487,300
1870-7139,984,0037,544,3231,633,9419,178,264
1871-7240,099,24317,001,1243,367,53720,368,661
1872-7345,329,49018,917,7793,464,05922,381,838
1873-7446,573,97418,106,3102,491,75920,598,069
1874-7552,733,67415,318,3453,517,18218,835,527
1875-7664,658,76716,705,7192,439,76219,145,481
1876-7771,398,72615,882,9643,127,99119,010,955
1877-7870,183,86315,711,6512,450,98318,162,634

Distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment when champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. Dyspeptic Mr. Walker, of “The Original,” laid it down that champagne ought to be introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the viands it may chance to accompany. “Give champagne,” he says, “at the beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the guests, after which they will seldom flag. No other wine produces an equal effect in increasing the success of a party—it invariably turns the balance to the favourable side. When champagne goes rightly nothing can well go wrong.” These precepts are sound enough, still all dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not invariably mutes. Before champagne can be properly introduced at a formal dinner the conventional glass of sherry or madeira should supplement the soup, a white French or a Rhine wine accompany the fish, and a single glass of bordeaux prepare the way with the first entrée for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two, should be served, briskly and liberally. A wine introduced thus early at the repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate, moderately so.