I’m often asked to identify my favorite wine. It is a puzzling choice. Certainly, I appreciate a variety of wines and am unable to fathom my world without Syrah but the premier position goes to sparkling wine from Champagne, France. The fine-textured bubbles, delicate color, crisp acid, and hints of limestone and brioche are but a sampling of its lauded characteristics. It also pairs well with virtually every food combination and category.
When sparkling wine is produced in and adheres to the regulations of the Champagne area, it may bear its area’s name, Champagne. With documented plantings as early as the 5th century, Champagne has a long history of striving for excellence in wine. Though for centuries still wine was their end goal, not sparkling. Even into the 1700s, the Champenois considered bubbles in wine to be a fault.
The cold temperatures of northern France were restrictive to viticulture and often left grapes with low sugar levels and sky-high acid. The grapes were then fermented, meaning yeast was left to feed on the sugar, which created alcohol and the byproduct carbon dioxide. The CO2 escaped the non-airtight fermentation containers and resulted in the intended still wine. The winter temperatures at times rendered the yeast dormant which prematurely stopped the process of fermentation. The vintners bottled and cellared the still wine, unaware that the fermentation process had halted rather than completed. If a warm spring followed, the yeast awakened and restarted fermentation in the closed bottles and effectively trapped the CO2, which resulted in undesirable bubbles and pressure inside the frail glass bottles of the time. Some bottles exploded from the pressure, which was dangerous, costly and messy. The bottles that survived revealed faulty bubbles when opened.
In the late 1660s, Pierre Pérignon, a Benedictine monk, was elevated to the status of ‘Dom’ and transferred to the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers, an Abbey in the Champagne area, where he became cellar master. Pale color and the absence of bubbles were valued qualities and he strove for improvements in those qualities. He recognized that red grapes were less susceptible than white to pesky bubbles, so he used the red grape Pinot Noir in his efforts, which eased the bubble problem, but resulted in the pink grape skins darkening the wine. During his decades at the Abbey, Pérignon did not entirely solve the bubble quandary. However, he perfected the process of ridding the wine of its pink color and produced truly white wine from red grapes.
Since Pérignon’s time, various factors have contributed to a shift in popular opinion, which subsequently influenced Champagne production, from still to sparkling. The English quite enjoyed the novelty of bubbly wine from their French neighbors and yearned to reproduce it. Glass bottles were improved in strength which increased their reliability and safety. Knowledge was furthered on the science of fermentation which increased the understanding of how bubbles appeared. Kings were crowned at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims in Champagne and the local wine was in attendance thus boosting its tie to the upper class. Successful marketing, which linked the product to lifestyle, luxury and celebration played its part as well. The current result is well-made and extraordinarily bubbly wine which sits firmly in the premier position on my list of favorites.
Pop the Champagne cork!
Cheers
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