Champagne is one of those beverages that I will always say yes to, no matter the time or day. It’s also a convenient answer when people inevitably ask me what my favorite wine is. Of course that doesn’t begin to explain what my favorite style of champagne is, and I can never choose a specific producer, because there are just too many. But most of the time if I settle for answering with a broad region (and I’m not being pressed for further details by another wine-lover!) this seems to satisfy the question.
A lot of people save their champagne for celebrations like birthdays or New Year’s Eve (which is just around the corner!). But what some people may not realize is that this automatic association of popping a champagne cork in celebration didn’t just happen coincidentally. In fact, this connection between champagne and special occasions is the result of consistent and well-planned marketing efforts that started back in the late 1700s.
To get the full story, we first need to head back in time to understand some of the historical context of Champagne. One of the things that fascinates me about the wines and wine regions that are most well-known today, is that there is almost always a link to some significant event in history, along with some genius marketing, that made them so famous. Champagne is no exception.
One commonly told, yet false, tale credits the invention of Champagne with the famous Monk, Dom Pérignon, in the 1600s. Though he was crucial in developing the blending part of the process, it was in fact, the Monks of St. Hilaire (located in a relatively unknown region called Limoux in the Languedoc, in southern France) who were the first creators of wines with effervescence. There is evidence that they were producing sparkling wines as early as the 1500s! That being said, up until the 1700s the creation of wine with bubbles was not well understood and only happened accidently.
At that time, the winemakers were trying to compete with the wines of Burgundy, and much to their dismay were baffled when they opened their wines to discover they had bubbles in them! We now understand how this happened: the winemaker would ferment their wine, the temperature would drop in the fall and would cause the yeast to fall asleep, stopping the fermentation. The winemaker, thinking the fermentation was complete, would bottle it and prepare it for storage. When the temperature would rise again in the spring, the yeast would reawaken and continue the fermentation. Since the wine was already bottled, the CO2 (given off during fermentation) had nowhere to escape, thus trapping bubbles in the bottle. On top of their dismay over unexpected (and at that time unwanted) bubbles, glass used for wine bottles in those days was not as strong as we have today, so those “flawed” bottles of sparkling wine would often spontaneously explode due to the pressure.
Simultaneous to this accidental discovery of exploding sparkling wine, the City of Reims was becoming politically important for France. Over a period of 600 years, 27 French Kings were crowned at the Cathedral Reims, and the local celebrations would have included the wines of Champagne. Besides wine, the region was known for its textile industry and had wealthy merchants traveling through consistently. These merchants would take the wines of Champagne back to their homes and helped spread word of these intriguing sparkling wines throughout France. There is also evidence of Champagne being shipped to Philadelphia and New York in the 1780s, and that even George Washington enjoyed imbibing it.
Champagne had started to gain a cultural momentum that not even the tumult of the French Revolution managed to stop, and demand continued to skyrocket. It was also in this era that the English aristocracy, Russian Czars, and the Kings of Belgium and Greece were becoming enamored with drinking it. Though the wines had been served at French coronations for centuries, it was during this time that the marketing campaigns came into full force. Provocative and tantalizing advertisements linked Champagne to luxury, and also to women, sports, and celebrations of all kinds. Champagne’s story doesn’t end there, of course, but the image of sparkling wine had been sealed during the Golden Age of the 1700-1800s. There is absolutely nothing wrong with popping a bottle of bubbly on your favorite holiday, but in 2020, I think everyone is in need of some extra cheer, so don’t be afraid to open a bottle on say, a Tuesday or any day you like! I promise you won’t regret it!
Not sure about what style of Champagne you like? Stay tuned as my next article will help guide you through Champagne’s broad spectrum of styles.
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Sources used: French Wine Scholar text – editorial staff Julian Camus and Lisa M. Airey, Champagne: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region – Peter Liem