London Society Volume 32

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 Excerpt: ...that the cork was out. Occasionally a bottle bursts in the degorgmr's hand, and his face is sometimes scarred from such explosions. The sediment removed, he slips a temporary cork into the bottle, and the wine is ready for the important operation of the dosage, upon the nature and amount of which the character of the perfected wine, whether it be dry or sweet, light or strong, very much depends. Different manufacturers have different recipes, more or less complex in character, and varying with the quality of the wine and the country for which it is intended; but the genuine liqueur consists of nothing but old wine of the best quality, to which a certain amount of sugar-candy and perhaps a dash of the finest cognac has been added. The saccharine addition varies according to the market for which the wine is destined--thus the highclass English buyer demands a dry champagne, the Russian a wine sweet and strong as 'ladies' grog,' and the Frenchman and German a sweet light wine. The dose is in some establishments administered with a tin can or ladle; but at Messrs. Moet & Chandon's this all-important operation is effected by the aid of a machine which regulates it to the utmost nicety. The dosage accomplished, the bottle passes to another workman known as the egaliseur, who fills it up with pure wine. He in turn hands it to the corker, who places it under a machine furnished with a pair of claws, which compress the cork to a size sufficiently small to allow it to enter the neck of the bottle, and a suspended weight, which in falling drives it home. These corks, which are principally obtained from Catalonia and Andalucia, are reckoned to cost more than twopence each. They are delivered in huge sacks resembling hoppockets, and a large room in the establishment...