Champagne - A Great Accident

Do you realize how many great discoveries, like champagne, were made by accident?

CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE

In the past, many of the best vineyards in France were controlled by the Catholic Church and run by monasteries. Some of the best vineyards in Champagne were in the hands of the Church by the 17th century.

Wines from the Champagne region of France were already famous with monarchs throughout Europe for their crisp, light taste by this time. However, the wines of the time were still, not sparking.

The Champagne region of France was in constant competition with the Burgundy region for the favors of the monarchy in France, in Europe, and from the Catholic Church. In order to meet these ongoing challenges, vintners in Champagne tried to develop new wines to appeal to the tastes of royalty rather than go into direct competition with the wines that were produced in Burgundy.

CHAMPAGNE ORIGINS

No one really knows who “invented” champagne. What is known is that the bubbles in champagne were initially considered a real problem for the Champagne region.

Changes in climate starting during the 1490s caused temperatures to drop and created a shorter growing season. The effect on fermentation was disastrous. The yeast that converted sugars to alcohol in grape juice would stop working too early and lay dormant until the following spring. When the weather warmed up again, the yeast would start a second fermentation, producing carbon dioxide in the juice.

This secondary fermentation in bottles caused stoppers to push out, ruining the wine. In some cases, bottles would literally explode, sometimes in a domino-like fashion. This not only put the wines that were experiencing refermentation in danger, it put both workers and new production in possible harm’s way as well.

CHAMPAGNE – DOM PERIGNON

Contrary to popular belief, the Benedictine monk, Dom Pierre Perignon (1638-1715), did not create champagne.* In fact, initially, his job was to try to find a way to stop the secondary fermentation. The Catholic Church sent Dom Perignon to the Champagne region during the mid-1600s to try and protect their investments in the Church's vineyards because the French royalty did not like the new wines that were being produced there. Champagne region wine sales were dropping to the Burgundy region.

As Dom Perignon was trying to stop second fermentation of Champagne wines, changes in taste were occurring in England. Much of the Champagne wines were shipped to England in casks and then bottled. Some of these wines still had bubbles. English royalty became entranced with this new wine. And, fortunately for the vineyards of the Champagne region, some influential French started to also be taken with champagne. The Catholic Church ultimately instructed Dom Perignon to stop trying to prevent refermentations and concentrate on making the process better.

CHAMPAGNE – DOM PERIGNON AND FRERE JEAN OUDART

The abbeys of Saint-Pierre aux Monts de Chalons and Saint-Peire d’Hautvillers can be considered the birthplaces of today’s champagnes. Frere Jean Oudart (1654-1742), working at Monts de Chalons, and Dom Perignon, working at d’Hautvillers, most likely consulted with each other, as their abbeys were only a couple of miles away from each other, to “successfully” bottle champagne.

The basis of champagne as they established it was to combine grapes from different vineyards to produce the best wine possible and to use corks instead of wooden stoppers wrapped in hemp. They also developed a clarification process for the wine’s sediment involving turning the bottles on a scheduled basis. After using thicker glass bottles developed in England, the number of bottles lost diminished, but the overall problem of exploding champagne bottles persisted for many years.

CHAMPAGNE AND YOU

Whenever you pick up a glass of the bubbly, preferably Dom Perignon, think of these early champagne bottles blasting away and smile to yourself.** We are truly lucky to still have this wonderful drink that delights the senses.

*Many think that Dom Perignon was blind. This was not the case. He used blind tests on grapes for making champagne, but was not blind himself.

**Dom Perignon is produced by Moet & Chandon, a company that began by shipping wine from Champagne to Paris in 1743. Dom Perignon is not produced yearly, as it is a vintage champagne and is only made from grapes picked during the same harvest year. If Moet & Chandon does think that the grapes from a given harvest year are superb, the company will not make Dom Perignon. The most recent Dom Perignon release as of 2006 is the 1998 vintage.

~Laura Evans Staff Editor

Laura Evans is a freelance writer living in Southern California.