Champagne millésimé Land of Legend

Before being this subtle and refined alcohol, the champagne has gone through many stages, each one of them materializing a little more the standard level that the man was looking to reach... until meeting excellence!

Champagne, a land of wine

The champagne. A crowned wine, devoted by the history. The wine tradition is firmly anchored on the Champagne grounds since the Romans had planted the first vines already there.

A divine know-how

In this famous province, the old tradition was then maintained thanks to the attention brought to it by the clergy, and in particular that of Reims and Chalons-en-Champagne. Until the late Middle Ages, it is indeed religious dealing with the vine. A multitude of historical documents attest to the growing vines at that time, producing white and red wines, known as quiet, ie noneffervescent.

Dom Perignon, father of champagne

Can be attributed to Dom Perignon (1638-1715), Benedictine of the Abbey of Hautvilliers, the origin of champagne as we know it today. He perfected the vinification of this white wine famous all over the world and made it the sparkling wine par excellence. It is being also at the origin of the cork stopper capping the bottle thanks to an impregnated string of oil hemp, which one will name muselet thereafter.

Dangerous fermentation

The fermentation, which makes the wine effervescent, gives a very appreciated and pleasant character to him, the bubbles coming to support the bouquet and the flavours of the wine. But this sparkling character causes at the time a lot of worries for winemakers. The pressure is such inside the bottles that they explode, and it is also frequent that the caps were violently evicted and projected on the winegrowers forced to wear masks to protect themselves from flying glass.

The English fans of bubbles

This "devil's wine" may not have known such a destiny if the English had stuck there, following the crowning of Louis XIV who made send champagne wine to Charles II, King of England . The English preferred, however, for reasons that can easily be imagined to be made deliver out of barrels and proceed themselves to bottling. It is also at Dom Perignon that must be the strengthening of the bottles in order to avoid the explosion through a thicker glass.

Controlled effervescence

But the most important discovery reducing significantly the rate of exploding bottles dates from 1837, when it is determined exactly how much sugar necessary to obtain a second fermentation was totally under control. It is estimated that the rate of explosion of bottles now stands at around 1%.

Champagne becomes a star

It is at the XVIIIe century that the champagne starts to acquire a world reputation. Since, its prestige does not cease growing. Uncontested king of the celebrations and the events of importance, great names such Moët, Clicquot or Heidsieck contribute to forge this fame, soon followed at the XIXe century by Bollinger, Perrier-Jouet and Mumm to quote only them.

In 2006, they are 320 million collars which will have been sold all over the world, of which about half in France !

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