noel sans toi
双语时尚生活26：香槟是怎样”炼”成的
双语时尚生活
宋丹丹出轨之每天读一点英文之那些光影飞华的魅惑
26 Conjuring with Grapes 香槟是怎样“炼”成的
It is a tribute to the stimulating qualities of really good champagne that by 2:30 we were not only awake, but clearheaded enough to look forward to the afternoon and our studies of the grape’s progress, from bunches to bottles.
真正的好香槟具有提神醒脑的功效。这是香槟酒上乘品质的最好证明。你看，直到下午两点半，我们不仅人是醒着的，而且头脑还相当清醒，正好可以迎接下午的功课，去研究葡萄由一串串变成一瓶瓶的演进过程。
We began in the white-grape country of the Cotes des Blancs.The vines, which for long periods of the year are empty except for those few slow-moving and patient figures who ch
替我幸福
eck to see how nature is getting on, were bristling with people, the narrow green corridors crowded with their autumn population of pickers.It was fine weather for the vendange, mild and dry, and the frosts of late spring had caused less havoc than predicted.This would be a good, plentiful year.
我们从白丘的白葡萄园开始。这片葡萄园一年中有很长一段时期，都是杳无人烟，只有寥寥数个移动缓慢、吃苦耐劳的人影，在田间查看葡萄的生长情况。但现在是农忙时节，园中狭长的绿走廊，挤满了秋收的采摘者。这时正是采收葡萄的好天气，暖和又干爽。而晚春的霜降带来的损害也比预期要少。今年将是个很好的丰收年。
The baskets of grapes were passed up to collection points at the end of the vines and ferried by truck or tractor to the village of Cramant, and the waiting pressoirs.
人们把一篮又一篮的葡萄送到了田尾的收集点，再用卡车或拖拉机运到克拉蒙村的玛姆酒庄。那里的榨酒机早已恭候多时了。
These presses, vast round wooden instruments of torture with slatted sides, are big enou
gh to take tons of grapes at a single gulp.From above, very, very slowly, a giant wooden grill descends on them, bursts them, and crushes them.The glorious juice runs off into subterranean vats.
这些用来折磨葡萄的榨汁机是一种木制的、巨大的圆形设备，侧边都是百叶板。这巨无霸一口足以吞下几吨葡萄。然后，一块巨大的木制压板自上而下，以非常非常慢的速度落下，压在葡萄上，将它们压破，挤榨出汁，之后源源流入地下的大桶里。
Three times the grapes are subjected to this remorseless squeeze.Once, to extract the best of the juice, the tête de cuvee； a second time, for juice that can be used for blending； and finally, for the remains that will be distilled to make the local eau de vie, the marc de Champagne which they say grows hairs on your chest.
葡萄遭受这样无情的压榨，前后共需三次。第一次榨出的是最上等的葡萄汁，叫作“葡萄酒酒头”；第二次榨的汁，则用在混成酒上；最后一次压榨的残汁，蒸馏以后用来酿成当地人喝的“白兰地”，也就是他们说的、会促使你胸部长毛的“渣酿香槟”。
Not a drop is wasted, and it is extraordinary to think that a single batch of grapes can be turned into two such different drinks, one delicate and light, the other—well, I happen to like marc, but you could never accuse it of being delicate.
一滴也不浪费，太不可思议了。同一批葡萄居然能变出两种差别这么大的酒。一种雅致、清淡；另一种呢——嗯，我刚好喜欢渣酿酒，但你恐怕永远不会用“雅致”一词来形容它。
北京爱情故事dj插曲We followed the route of the juice back to the fermentation casks in Epernay, and here I should offer a word of warning.If anyone should ever suggest that you inhale the bouquet of champagne in its formative period, decline politely if you value your sinuses.I made the mistake of leaning over an open cask to take a connoisseur’s sniff, and very nearly fell backward off the platform to the floor ten feet below.It felt like a noseful of needles.
我们沿着葡萄汁走过的路线来到了发酵桶这边。此时，我要提醒大家的是，万一有人建议你吸一口发酵期的香槟气味，请你婉言谢绝。我就犯了这个错误，倾身靠向一只敞开的酒桶，想以鉴赏家的派头嗅上一嗅，结果我差点从离地十英尺高的平台上跌下来。
像天使一样With head swimming and eyes watering, I asked to be led away to a less volatile part of the production line, and we left the casks for an expedition into the bowels of the earth.
当时我只觉得鼻子像是针扎一样难受。我感到一阵子头晕目眩，恳请挪到生产线上气味不那么厚重的地方休养生息。接着，我们便弃此酒桶，转往地球内部探险去也。
Beneath the two famous towns of Reims and Epernay are literally miles of cellars and passageways, some of them three or four stories deep, all of them filled with champagne.In these cool, dim caverns the temperature never varies, and the bottles can doze in perfect conditions, mountain after dark green mountain of them, a champagne lover’s foretaste of paradise.
在莱姆斯和艾柏内这两座名城的地底下，其实有长达数英里的地窖和通道，有的深达三四层楼。里面全都塞满了香槟。地窖凉爽、幽暗，温度始终保持恒定。所以，一瓶瓶的葡萄酒便能在这完美的储存条件下大睡其觉。它们仿佛墨绿的山峦，重重叠叠，果真是香槟爱好者的极乐世界。
We were in the Perrier-Jouet caves, not enormous by Champagne standards, but sufficiently big to lose yourself in quite easily.
我们来到佩利耶·珠玉的地窖。按照香槟区的标准，这地窖算不上大，但也大到足以让你一不留神就会迷失在里面。
(And very enjoyably, as you would be lost in the middle of twelve million bottles.) The oldest caves, those immediately under the Perrier-Jouet offices, had been hacked out of the chalky earth by hand, and you can see the scars, made by picks and now blackened with age, in the rough arches that lead from one cave to the next.Onward and downward we went, until we came to the angular ranks of tent-shaped wooden racks, each of them sprouting dozens of bottles.
（迷失在1200万瓶窖藏葡萄酒里，也未尝不是一件令人愉快的事情。）其中最古老的地窖，就在佩利耶·珠玉的办事处的正下方，是由人工从白垩土质地面向下开凿出来的，你现在还能看得见挖凿的痕迹，留存在连接一间间地窖的、粗糙的拱门上，并因岁月积淀而变得发黑。随后，我们一路走下来，行至深处，来到一排排像帐篷一样、呈锐角排列的木制
搁物架前。只见每个架子里都是酒瓶林立。
梦的怒放歌词