SPURIOUS CHAMPAGNE.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 7, 23 November 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

SPURIOUS CHAMPAGNE.

A rather curious trial, interesting to"; consumers of champagne,, has just come offi before .he Tribunal of Correctional Police * at Rheims. Tvyo wine merchants and a j cooper were accused of having counter- j feited the mark of the house of Veuve Clicquot, Ponsardin, and placed it on wine j of their own, which they sold as from the Cliequotcellerage The fraud seems to have ' been practised with a minuteness which will have • nothing surprising For those persons who aro aware to what perfection those aits of simulation and deception have long beeu carried in numerous continental cellars, of manufacturer, merchant, and hotel, where corks and case 0 } brands and labels, indicating the produce of the best vineyards in Europe, are used for liquor of the basest description-, and some of. which are not even the growth of the countries whence they ciaim to' proceed. These unlucky natives of [Rheims — Roudeau, Cazin, and Boucmont — -the head and front of whose offending seems to have been the applying to wines which j were, aftgr all, the produce of the Champagne, the marks of one ; of tlie most renowned • dealers. The wine may have been tolerable tipple, but it wanted the " guinea stamp" to give it rank. The which stamp, in the form of the magic words, " Veuve Gltcquot Pm~ sardin fVefle'' burnt on the cork, and of a "V.C.P." and an anchor interlaced painted on tbe cases, the said Cazin & Cp. unscrupulously applied to a quantity of wine sent lo London, and which, it appears, has ■ been seized in the Victoria Doclis in consequence of legal proceedings taken hy, the house of Clicquot. [The : Rheims .tribunal Ims sentenced'the tliree offenders to pay £1200 damages ; also to replace, by unmarked corks,7tiiose in the bottles now in the docks, to bear all the charges the complaintscan prove they have incurred in the prosecution, and finally, to advertise the sentence in the Tithes, the Moniteur,'the Gazette des Tribunaiix, and four other French papers. ' Moreover, for fraud, under the penal code, two of the offenders are sentenced to fines and toeighteen months' imprisonment, and the third to four months' of prison; and the wines hearing the false maiks ore ordered to be confiscated— a'-'pil ing up of penalties which it may be hoped will operate as a wholesome warning to adventurous Champagne dealers disposed to foist a. spurious article on the British public, the wines in the docks being declared by the tribunal to be of inferior qualities and 2>urchased very cheap. 7 '