Perseverance and the spirit of invention finally perfected the techniques involved in the production of champagne and it was only when this had been achieved that a huge growth in its sales became possible. As William Younger very justly said, up until the middle of the century champagne has been a difficult wine, young and unstable, sometimes sparkling in the natural sense of the term, sometimes simply "cremant".
Scientific research and the improvement of techniques has enabled it to become a consistent and trustworthy wine, that is of better quality and less expensive [ 1 ]. Vine growers and merchants also played a part in the development of techniques, offering both ideas and financial support, and began to systematically reap the benefits of the possibilities that became available towards the end of the century.
Couanon and Convert noted in that the practice of carrying out quick chemical tests of musts and wines has become widespread amongst vineyard owners and merchants [ 2 ]. They are clarified with extreme care and bottled only when they are perfectly clear. The vinification equipment was maintained in excellent condition, this included the innumerable barrels each marked with letters and numbers that identified where the wine came from, the particular marc, grapes and pressing , the drawing off tanks, and the large funnels which were still made of copper in order to avoid any risk of ferric casse.
There were no notable differences in terms of wine-making technique between Champagne and the other wine regions of France. The advice of Chaptal was universally followed. The usual objective was to reach an alcohol content of between Some wine makers in order to obtain the same result would, add a few litres of well-flavoured spirit of cognac, after the wine had fermented.
Parmentier, for his part, advised grape syrup, or concentrated grape juice, which he said sweetened the wines of Champagne more advantageously than sugar candy. Before the barrels were filled with the sweetened must, they would be disinfected by burning a wick or sheet of sulphur suspended inside them from an iron hook. Below is a rough outline of the process of transformation from must to wine as it was conducted at the end of the nineteenth century:.
