Champagne Story (1963)

Rheims, France. Pathe joins the traditional ceremony of Cochelet, which marks the last bucket of grapes leaving the vineyard each season. There are candles and trumpeters, and people in local traditional peasant dress. In the cellars, a man goes through the daily process of shaking each bottle in the huge banks of racks. In another area, the necks of the bottles are frozen and sediment is removed before they are placed on a device which feeds them to the corking machine. A boy demonstrates that the bottles are full of bubbles, shaking them upside down. The bottle tops are then foil covered and packed. We see the wine testers checking one of the huge vats by sniffing and drinking some cloudy looking brew. At the Cochelet, people arrive and sit to eat. They are served with champagne. Marie Antoinette arrives in a sedan chair carried by footmen. She has a bottle of champagne and one of the footmen has a large scroll. There are musicians with guitars and singers. A fashion show also takes place while the