No other wine has developed a mythology around it in the
same way as Champagne. It is a drink that is inextricably linked in our minds
with celebration, marking important events, drunk by royalty and the aristocracy.
High prices account for some of the cachet – but how would
you feel about Lewis Hamilton celebrating an F1 win by glugging from a magnum
of Château Lafite on the podium, having first doused the runners up with some
of it? All wrong; a bit loutish and binge drinky. But if it’s a jeroboam of
Mumm (soon to be replaced by Moët & Chandon apparently) that’s perfectly
normal.
Champagne has worked hard over the years to build up its
myths – and foremost among them is the story of Dom Perignon.
Dom Perignon was a Benedictine monk who became cellar master
of the Abbey of Hautvillers in Champagne in the late 17th century
and he is credited with making the first sparkling Champagne. Up until this
point, wine from Champagne was still, and either light red or “vin gris”, a
pale onion-skin rosé.
The story goes that the blind Dom Perignon, having uncorked
his first bottle of sparkling Champagne, summoned his fellow monks, saying
“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars.” There is a statue depicting this very moment
outside the headquarters of Moët & Chandon today.
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| A glass of the fizzy sort of Champagne |
But if, as seems likely, Dom Perignon did produce sparkling
Champagne, it was almost certainly unintentional and very probably viewed as a winemaking
fault at the time.
Wines from the region sometimes failed to ferment all their
sugar before the onset of cold winter weather, which caused the yeasts to shut
down. This had been happening, albeit haphazardly, for many years. With the
arrival of warmer weather in spring, the yeasts would start up again, fermentation
would re-start and carbon dioxide was produced as a result. If the wine was
still in cask, the gas would be able to dissipate before bottling, resulting in
a normal still wine.
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| Wine destined to become Champagne from every British drinker's favourite village - Bouzy |
However, during the later 1600s, technological advances
such as stronger glass from England and the use of corks to seal bottles meant
that some wines would have been in bottle with some yeast and sugar in
suspended animation. Come spring, the renewed fermentation would lead to the
carbon dioxide produced being forced into the wine, making it effervescent.
So the process of making sparkling wine in Champagne was neither
controlled nor understood, and was largely unwelcome - and Dom Perignon
certainly didn’t “invent” it. In fact he may have been actively trying to
prevent it. Ironic, then, that this is what he is honoured for now.
However, he did contribute many beneficial advances in
wine-making. Amongst other things, he is credited with important innovations
such as making a completely white wine from the region’s red grapes, rather
than the pale “vin gris” by, for example, inventing the shallow basket press
and treating the grapes with care, pressing them quickly but gently to avoid
any skin colour tainting the juice. All things which are still important in
Champagne making today.
But all that “tasting the stars” stuff? It’s a bit of
Champagne spin.
Oh – and he wasn’t blind either.
