On August 4, after having reached the Vesle at several points east of Fismes, French troops engaged a vigorous battle between Muizon and Champigny, and some of them succeeded in crossing the river the same day.
Wine-growing has always been a favourite industry in this part of France. The vineyards extend over the Rheims hills and along the valley of the Marne. In the hilly country around Rheims there are two distinct growths of wine: the _Montagne_ proper, with its famous _Verzy_, _Verzenay_, _Mailly_, _Ludes_, _Rilly_ and _Villers_ "crus," and the _Petite Montagne_ with its secondary "crus" of the _Tardenois Valley_, _Hermonville Hills_, _St. Thierry_, _Nogent l'Abbesse_ and _Cernay-les-Reims_. The _Montagne_ produces more especially black grapes for white wines.
Champagne wines were famous as far back as the 16th and 17th centuries. Henri IV. had a marked preference for the wines of _Ay_. The magnitude of the cellars still to be seen in the 16th and 17th century houses testifies to the importance of a trade, whose main outlets were Paris, Flanders, Belgium and Germany.
The Champagne wines of that period were red, and rivals of the famous Burgundy wines.
The vogue of Champagne wines as understood to-day dates back to the end of the 17th century. It was Dom Pérignon, cellarer of the Abbey of Hautevillers, near Epernay, who, if not actually the inventor of sparkling wines, first undertook to perfect them by blending the "crus" and preparing them with greater care.
In the last years of the reign of Louis XIV., and still more so under the Regency, the use of Champagne at Court gained ground, especially at the tables of the _Duc de Vendôme_ and the _Marquis de Sillery_.
At that time Champagne was merely a "creamy" wine, _i.e._ semi-sparkling. The low breaking strain of the glass of those days would not have allowed of the higher pressure (six atmospheres) of the present-day wine. The discovery of the chemist François, who in 1836 at Châlons invented a special "densimeter," made it possible to calculate the amount of carbonic acid gas contained in the must, and to proportion the expansive force of the wine to the strength of the bottles, thus reducing losses by breakage, which for long had been very serious.