A sweet Champagne may be made of any wine, but a dry Champagne must be a good wine, as, if it is not sound, its acidity is detected at once; but this defect would be hidden by the liqueur necessary to make it sweet.
At Epernay, the bulk of the wine is not so good as that coming from Reims, and sells at a lower price; but there are firms there of world-wide note, such as Moet & Chandon, Perrier, Joüet & Co., Meunier Frères, Wachter & Co., etc.
Bordeaux or Claret.
In England we generally call the wines coming from Bordeaux, Clarets, the derivation of which cognomen is somewhat obscure; but it seems almost universally accepted that it comes from the French word Clairet, which is used even at the present time as a generic term for the vins ordinaires of a light and thin quality, grown in the south of France, and was in use from a very early date. The old French poet, Olivier Basselin (who died 1418 or 1419), sings:—
“Beau nez, dont les rubis ont coûté mainte pipe
De vin blanc et clairet ...”
There was, however, another Claret, a compounded wine, resembling hypocras, which Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived in the twelfth century, classes thus: “Claretum, mustum, et medonem” (Claret, must, and mead). And the venerable Franciscan, Bartholomew Glanville,[24] says: “Claretum, ex vino et melle et speciebus aromaticis est confectum” (Claret is made from wine, honey, and aromatic spices). It makes a marked feature in a curious tenure.[25] “John de Roches holds the Manor of Winterslew, in the county of Wilts, by the Service, that when our Lord the King should abide at Clarendon, he should come to the Palace of the King there, and go into the Butlery, and draw out of any vessel he should find in the said Butlery at his choice, as much Wine as should be needful for making (pro factura) a Pitcher of Claret (unius Picheri Claretti), which he should make at the King’s charge, and that he should serve the King with a Cup, and should have the vessel from whence he took the Wine, with all the Remainder of the Wine left in the Vessel, together with the Cup from whence the King should drink that Claret.” This refers to a roll of 50 Ed. III., or 1376.
FROM THE “COMPOST ET KALENDRIER DES BERGERES,” 1499.