Champagne was a ‘happy accident’

By Dave Anning

Champagne plays a part in most Christmas festivities, so I thought I’d relate the history of this famous wine, which almost certainly began with a happy accident! 

The Romans began organising viticulture in Champagne in the 3rd Century. Because it’s only just warm enough to ripen the grapes the wines tended to be acidic, so Champagne was still and acidic for centuries.

Legend suggests that Dom Pierre Perignon, a French Benedictine Monk, ‘invented’ the drink at the abbey of Hautvilliers in 1697. He apparently discovered a bottle of still wine that had fermented again in the bottle, trapping carbon dioxide and creating bubbles. ‘Come quickly; I am tasting the stars!’ he apparently called to his fellow monks, before deciding this was too good not to repeat! 

It’s a lovely story and may even be true, but in fact sparkling wine was first properly recorded in 1531 — though once again monks were responsible! Benedictines at the Abbey of St Hilaire produced Blanquette de Limoux at that time, by the simple expedient of bottling the wine before fermentation ended.

Champagne was quite sweet for many years. It wasn’t until 1846 when Perrier-Jouet decided not to sweeten his wine when exporting to England that drier wines became fashionable — he even coined a new term — Brut. The latest trend is for NOT adding any sugar to the wine during second fermentation. This results in a very dry, even austere, style of wine with between 0 and 3 grams of sugar (Brut is 6-12 grams) so be wary as they’re not to everyone’s taste. Champagnes and other sparklers are normally labeled ‘Brut Nature’ or ‘Brut Zero’.

Curiously, the term ‘Methode Traditionelle’ (the practice of fermenting a wine in a barrel or tank and then fermenting it a second time in a sealed bottle) was coined by an English Physicist called Christopher Merrett several years before Dom Perignon even arrived at his Abbey. This was the time when glass-blowing in England produced bottles capable of withstanding the pressure contained in a fermenting bottle of wine. The French couldn’t produce such bottles and some historians even believe the English may be the real inventors of sparkling wine (just don’t tell anyone French!).

Global warming has caused significant problems in Champagne. Temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees in 30 years. To put this in perspective the harvest has moved forward 2 weeks, and the balance of acid and sugar in the grapes is becoming harder to achieve. Those of you who have been watching the rise of English Sparkling wine may be aware that the south coast of England is now arguably the best place to grow grapes for Champagne - is that a silver lining or not?!