The beverage from France that conquered the world Without doubt, the history of champagne and sparkling wine is tied to France, and its origins to the northern French region of Champagne. England, however, was producing bottles strong enough to contain carbonated wines as early as the 17th century. In the interest of preserving trees, the use of wood in the process of making glass had been prohibited, and the glass resulting from the use of coal rendered dark, thick-walled bottles which naturally withstood greater internal pressure. Yet the starting point remains France, where the wine was most likely brought from and Champagne, from where it was later purposely ordered. Records remain of English-French wine trade. According to one plausible theory, the high sugar-contact wine was sealed and stored, after a noisy fermentation, in strong wooden barrels. When several years later the cork was removed, a sparkling, pleasantly-fragranced beverage was discovered. There is another legend, according to which the discovery of sparkling wine is connected with the late harvesting of the grapes. In the region near Johannesburg, a church belonging to, but located approximately 150 km from the archbishopric, had to wait for the bishop’s permission before harvesting. Riding on horseback, the messenger arrived three weeks late with the permission, but in the meantime, the grapes had over-ripened. Contrary to custom, the grapes were harvested anyway, producing a wonderful, bubbly wine-consumed as a magic elixir. It is likely that France has been storing and fermenting wine in barrels or bottles since the 16th century. These were then sealed, and the carbon dioxide produced during the ongoing fermentation process thus remained in the wine. These carbonated wines were marred, however, by the sediment they contained. The classic story of the discovery of champagne production is credited to Dom Pérignon, the first to produce a carbonated alcoholic beverage in the Champagne wine region. Dom Pérignon was born in 1638 in St. Mnehoulde. He was 23 years old when he entered the Benedictine order in the town of Hautvilliers, living there for 57 years until his death in 1715. At age of 29, Dom Pérignon was named cellar master of the abbey, and his well-nurtured wines soon became known even in Paris. He was considered the master of wine blending. He was the first to blend wines along the principle that those should be better than the base wines used. The wines were kept in thick-walled English bottles sealed with cork. The actual discovery of champagne happened by accident. The new and only partially fermented wines were bottled and corked early one spring. Therefore, the fermentation of the sugar remaining in the wine took place in the bottle itself. This wine was meant as a surprise for his friends, and when opened, he marvelled at its bubbly, effervescent qualities. The effervescent champagne produced at the monastery soon became known and loved throughout France. At the Reims Cathedral, where at that time French kings were coronated, the champagne was named the “Coronation Wine”. At the beginning of the 18th century, sediment was removed from champagne by decanting. This method was extremely difficult, costly, and inconsistent. Shaking the sediment to the neck of the bottle and discharging it became common practice only in the first quarter of the 19th century; A. Julien proliferated the method through his work entitled “Manuel du Sommelier”, published in 1813. The secret to creating champagne was leaked from the abbey in the first half of the 18th century, and it was the wine merchants of Champagne who first became involved in the commercial production of the wine. In the 18th century, the biggest problem for champagne producers was the cracking and breaking of bottles. At that time, the pressure produced by the carbon dioxide inside the bottle was purely a matter of chance; the amount of sugar remaining in the wine could be neither measure nor controlled. The solution came with a procedure developed by a famous French chemist, Jean-Antoine Chaptal. Head of Faculty at the Montpellier Agricultural University, Chaptal showed that there was a relationship between the sugar content and the resulting quantities of alcohol and carbonation. His procedure made it possible for champagne producers to regulate the amount of carbonation by using measurable portions of sugar. Another French chemist, Parmentier (1737-1813) called attention to the fact that must (juice) and concentrated must should be used in sweetening the wine, because it mixes better and more quickly than sugar. These discoveries (among others) made possible the development of consistent quality and the elimination of bad vintages. Methods of preparing champagne began to crystallize during the 19th century. The “classic” method encompasses all the fundamental processes, from grape production to completed champagne. The period from 1889-1906 is known as the golden middle age of champagne production in Champagne. During this period, 30 million bottles were sold, 10 million of them as export. The champagne inventory of cellars exceeded 100 million bottles. Following World War I, the quantity of champagne on the market approached that of earlier levels. The new golden age occurred between 1947 and 1960, when, within a few years, the amount of champagne sold doubled. By the second half of the 19th century, every country with a winemaking tradition was producing sparkling wines. The secrets of Champagne and the most renowned champagne producers Since the birth of champagne, from Dom Pérignon onwards, a kind of secret has surrounded French champagne and sparkling wines in general. For many, champagne (or sparkling wine) is merely a kind of carbonated wine, while wine connoisseurs, used to finding all they need to know about a wine on the label, in the case of champagne and sparkling wine learn practically nothing in this manner. The secret is multi-layered. It’s not just that it fizzes; it is the art of blending wines that is the decisive factor – the combination of grape varieties, soils, and vintages. With this manipulation of variables and the subsequent second fermentation of the wine, the Champagne vintners succeeded not only in creating a wonderful-tasting wine, but also in cheating nature. If the Pinot noir grapes don’t want to ripen, they can rely on the Pinot meunier. If frosts destroy the grape crops of the Reims hills, the grape varieties of the Marne valley can be used. If the 1997 vintage base wine wasn’t very good because September was rainy, they can mix in 20% from the 1996 and 10% from the excellent 1995 vintages. The various producers have for a long time used only the first pressings in champagne production, and in doing so, abandoned the practice of receiving and re-labelling bottled champagne. It is also in the interest of quality that, from 300 kg of grapes, only 200 kg may be used in “Champagne”; the rest loses the right to carry the AOC mark. According to the law created in France on November 5, 1984, the champagne-making process of wines labelled “Champagne” may not begin until January 1 of the year following the harvesting of the base wine. The process of producing and ageing champagne is required to last at least one year; for vintage champagnes, three years. The differences in the style of French champagne are often quite subtle, but wine experts discover them quickly. There is a wide variety of French champagnes, making it difficult to uncover the true French style. One might think, for example, that the Pinot noir used in producing most of the base wines would result in a wine with a stronger bouquet and more body (depending on the variety), but this isn’t noticeably the case with champagne. The effects of ageing, and of the mature Réserve wines which are blended with the base wine, leave their mark on French champagne more so than the characteristic of the grapes used. Bollinger and Louis Roeder are brands which exemplify how Réserve base wines strengthen champagne’s distinctive characteristic. The Réserves are mixed with the base wine a few months after harvesting, before bottling for the second fermentation. This is a critical point in the winemaking process; at this time, the cellar masters taste dozens (even hundreds) of row, fresh, still wines in order to determine the composition of the champagne wine blend. In the Krug family, for instance, it is a centuries-old tradition that the Krug siblings and their children complete this task and make their decision on Christmas Day. Bollinger uses Réserve wines (in small quantities) which are aged in magnum bottles, and which are no less than 15 years old. These have a mature quality which lends to Bollinger champagnes their smoky or nutty bouquet. The cellar master at Roederer, Michel Pansu, stresses the importance of using Réserve wines aged in new oak barrels. The producers of Champagne hold that Réserve wines derived from the more mature grapes of sunny regions assist in creating a harmonious balance in thinner, e.g. freshly-harvested, base wines. It is characteristic of French champagne producers that they do not put the entire stock of any particular vintage on the market, as is the custom with wines. Their products are produced in waves, and then spend another three to six months in the cellars prior to distribution. But who are the distributors? Nowadays, most champagne producers belong to consortia, preserving their own names and traditions. In brief, here are a few of the best-known. One of the giants is LVMH (Luis Vutton Moet Henessy). Members include Moёt & Chandon (since 1987), Mercier, Ruinart, Pommery, Cannard-Duchene, Veuve Clicquot, and Krug.