Champagne and History
It was once the champagne ...
The beginnings of a great wine
The first vines of the Champagne region dates back to Roman times. The region
has produced first normal wine.
At the time of Henry IV, the wines were produced in the Champagne region in
Epernay and took the name "champagne".
Like all wines, champagne was then stored in barrels.
Thank you to the English
An influential family in Paris made its promotion to the 17th century to
the royal courts of France and England. The many waterways of the Champagne
region will facilitate the transport of wine barrels to cities and other regions
of France.
The wine was gradually changed to a white wine (a wine of very light color
from red grapes). The region's climate is often cold, the grapes were harvested
before full maturity, limiting its fermentation.
But he badly preserved in barrels.
The winemakers had the idea to put it in bottles in the 1660s. The wine had
a natural tendency to become sparkling which particulary pleased the English
people.
But the barrels were struggling to resist the pressure of the wine, continuing
its fermentation in barrels, ended by the blow.
The bottles were blocked by a plug of wood covered with resin, thereby blocking
any possibility of exit gas, but altered the taste of the drink.
A monk named Dom Perignon
A
Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Hauvilliers, Dom Perignon,
very good winemaker, imported from Limoux in 1668 a new method for assembling
the different grapes used in the composition of champagne.
In charge of the cellar of the abbey, he made the assembly of raw and true
science of grape, who contributed greatly to the growing reputation of the
champagne.
At that time, the champagne bottles were plugged with a wooden plug covered
with wax, which prevented the gas pressure to leave and gave them tend to
explode under the pressure of sparkling wine.
Dom Perignon was the idea of creating cork firmly tied to the neck of the
bottle.
The
wine of Kings became the king of wines
In the 17th century, champagne was called the wine of the coronation
at the time ot the coming coronation of King Louis XIV.
In the 18th century, champagne was exported by travelers such as Philippe
Clicquot or Moet Claude, who made the famous Champagne Veuve Cliquot
® and Champagne Moët et Chandon ®.
Today, more than 250 champagne houses are manufacturing and selling champagne
around the world.
These companies are buying wine for winemakers such as Champagne Vigreux-Frere
and often perform their assembly into cooperatives and later recovered for
the bottling and labeling.