Tour France's 'La Champagne' - the region. Enjoy 'le champagne' - the wine.

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Vines have been planted in La Champagne – the region, since the first century AD. For hundreds of years the kings of France were crowned in Reims cathedral, and the wines of the region were always popular at Court. However it was not until the 17th Century that le champagne, the sparkling wine was first created. For this bounty, legend tells us, we should be eternally grateful to two Benedictine monks; Dom Pierre Pérignon, who is often incorrectly credited with inventing the process, and Dom Thierry Ruinart, who helped found the first champagne house.
 
 
Dom Pérignon was, amongst other things, cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers, above Epernay. In the spring following the harvest he, and other monks, noticed bubbles appearing the wines and they studied this phenomenon. What Dom Pérignon did create was the art of the Cuvée, the blending of different grapes from separate vineyards to achieve well-balanced, harmonious wines.

A statue of
Dom Pérignon

Dom Ruinart

Le champagne only became possible because Portuguese merchants began selling new cork stoppers, that held down by string, would hold the pressure of the wine in the bottle. At the same glass makers in the north of England were forbidden, by royal decree, from cutting down trees for fuelling their furnaces. The wood was needed to build ships and in its place they were instructed to burn coal. This made the furnace even hotter and so produced very much stronger glass bottles, capable of containing the enormous pressure built up inside by the bubbles. Now the fun bit....

The vines in
early morning