I.

/Sparkling Saumur and Sparkling Sauternes./

The sparkling wines of the Loire often palmed off as Champagne--The finer qualities improve with age--Anjou the cradle of the Plantagenet kings--Saumur and its dominating feudal Château and antique Hôtel de Ville--Its sinister Rue des Payens and steep tortuous Grande Rue--The vineyards of the Coteau of Saumur--Abandoned stone-quarries converted into dwellings--The vintage in progress--Old-fashioned pressoirs--The making of the wine--Touraine the favourite residence of the earlier French monarchs--After a night's carouse at the epoch of the Renaissance--The Vouvray vineyards--Balzac's picture of La Vallée Coquette--The village of Vouvray and the Château of Moncontour--Vernou, with its reminiscences of Sully and Pépin-le-Bref--The vineyards around Saumur--Remarkable ancient Dolmens--Ackerman-Laurance's establishment at Saint-Florent--Their extensive cellars, ancient and modern--Treatment of the newly-vintaged wine--The cuvée--Proportions of wine from black and white grapes--The bottling and disgorging of the wine and finishing operations--The Château of Varrains and the establishment of M. Louis Duvau aîné--His cellars a succession of gloomy galleries--The disgorging of the wine accomplished in a melodramatic-looking cave--M. Duvau's vineyard--His sparkling Saumur of various ages--Marked superiority of the more matured samples--M. E. Normandin's sparkling Sauternes manufactory at Châteauneuf--Angoulême and its ancient fortifications--Vin de Colombar--M. Normandin's sparkling Sauternes cuvée--His cellars near Châteauneuf--Recognition accorded to the wine at the Concours Régional d'Angoulême 241