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History of the Wine
History of the Wine
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THE STORY OF CHAMPAGNE AS A WINE FALLS FIRMLY INTO THE CATEGORY OF TALES STRANGER THAN FICTION.
WORDS KEN GARGETT
LIKE A NUMBER OF THE GREAT WINE regions, the monks played a crucial role, the Benedictines in this case. Vineyards were largely the preserve of the monasteries and the wine from them consecrated. There was much more to it, of course.
As they say in the world of property – location, location, location. In 496 AD, Clovis was crowned as the first King of France. It took place in the Cathedral at Reims, as did so many subsequent coronations. The bishop anointing Clovis lived near Epernay, amidst the vines. Consequently, the wines used for the Consecration were from Champagne. A tradition commenced and a region was born. The link was strengthened, several centuries later, when the Countess of Champagne married the then King of France. Champagne, again, was used for the consecration, served at the celebrations and given to Royal visitors. Its reputation grew and it began to be enjoyed far beyond its boundaries. It remains the wine of celebration for the world, no matter the event – weddings, christenings, coming of age, sporting victories, international treaties, launching ships and so much more. It is claimed that in the last moments of his life as he awaited execution in the Concièrgerie prison, Philippe d’Orléan’s last request was for Champagne – truly the wine of kings.
Of course, in its earliest form, Champagne was not the sparkling, crystal clear gem we enjoy today. It was a weak, pinkish wine, devoid of any fizz, and the vignerons of the day fought hard to keep it that way, though they did want more colour. One devastating description of the wine was “grey”. There are even tales of winemakers in Champagne adding elderberries to improve the colour of their wines. Champagne’s location, north of Burgundy, always meant that the wines would be lighter, more acidic and with less body than the wines emerging from their southern neighbour. There was a fierce and enduring rivalry between the two regions, with Burgundy holding an advantage as it was able to get far better colour in its wines. Champagne however, returned serve with its location, especially as the trade route from Paris to Burgundy went directly through Champagne, enabling the locals to offer cheaper alternatives to the wines of Burgundy. Over time, many local winemakers moved to making the less popular white wines, but they found the best examples of white wine came from red grapes, such as Pinot Noir.
Pressure within the bottle was also causing a problem; if the cold weather in winter had stopped the fermentation, as often happened, there was the danger that as spring brought warmer days, fermentation would kick off again in the bottle. This would leave unsightly dead yeast cells in the bottle and cause unwanted fizz through the carbon dioxide created from this fermentation – the bubbles were considered a fault in those days (contrary to popular myth, the monk, Dom Perignon, worked hard to prevent his wines from having any bubbles – hardly what one would expect from someone alleged to have “invented” Champagne, though his contribution to the development of Champagne was extensive) – and most dangerously of all, greatly increase the risk of exploding bottles. The problem was exacerbated in Champagne cellars as if one bottle exploded, it was not uncommon for it to set off a chain reaction. A House could lose a significant percentage of its production in the blink of an eye.
Inevitably, where barrels or bottles of these wines were transported long distances, there was an increased possibility of these problems, to French dismay. In one market, however, this was not an issue. The British were developing quite a taste for bubbles in their wines. It was a taste especially enjoyed by royalty and, after the death of Louis XIV, adopted in France. Louis XV lifted the restrictions on transporting wine in bottles, which had held back sales until then. Now, the aim of the vignerons was to create wines with sparkle. Unfortunately, most had no clue how to do this and even if they did, there was still the problem of exploding bottles – not a big positive for sales!
Britain has been crucial in both the development of Champagne as a style and its popularity around the globe. This dates back centuries; the earliest record of wine from Champagne landing in England is a shipment of wine from Aÿ, received in 1518 by Henry VIII’s chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
The British preference for bubbles is traced back to the exile of the popular Marquis de Saint-Évremond, a well-respected epicurean, to London. He was a devotee of Champagne, and tireless promoter, though his preference was typically French at the time – for the still version. As local nobility adopted his passion for the wines of Champagne, orders increased and large quantities of wooden barrels of Champagne were soon crossing the Channel. Local merchants bottled the wine in London but they still faced the same issue of weak bottles exploding where fermentation had kicked off again in warmer temperatures. But what was successfully bottled often had that inimitable sparkle.
It was this time that some of the major problems facing these wines were overcome, most notably exploding bottles (it still happens in the Champagne cellars today, though it is much, much rarer and consumers need have no fear that it will happen to any Champagne they buy). English glass makers were using coal-fired
ovens, while the French persisted with woodfired ovens. The difference was that the English could produce stronger glass bottles, just what was needed to prevent unplanned explosions. The English also revived and improved the use of cork as stoppers. It meant that when Londoners opened their Champagne, it sparkled. They loved it. The English scientist, Christopher Merret, conducted various tests and prepared a report on this phenomenon, as far back as 1662. It is believed that British merchants were adding sugar to the wine, before bottling, in order to create ‘sparkling Champagne’, even before the French had cottoned on. References to foaming Champagne appear reasonably regularly in writings – poems and plays – of the day.
Back in France, after Louis XIV passed and Philippe II became the Regent of France, sparkling Champagne enjoyed a huge boost to its popularity as Parisians followed the Duke’s lead. Even with this, it is estimated that by the end of the 18th century, at least 90 per cent of the region’s production was still, slightly pink and fairly unexciting wine.
It was now that we began to see the emergence of some of the Champagne Houses we know today. 1729 saw Ruinart open its doors. Gosset had been making still wine since 1584 and they also moved to sparkling. In 1743, Claude Moët established what was to become the most famous House of all. Other household names with long histories include Taittinger in 1734, Veuve Clicquot in 1772, Louis Roederer in 1776 (though it did not take its current name until 1833), Heidsieck (in its initial incarnation) in 1785, Perrier-Jouët in 1811, Mumm in 1827, Bollinger in 1829, Krug in 1843 and Pommery in 1858.
The major advance, and without it Champagne would likely be little more than a curiosity today, was riddling/remuage, which solved the issue of removing dead yeast from the bottles. This happened in 1818, at the hand of Madame Clicquot and her kitchen table, or more likely her cellar master, Antoine Muller, depending which account one wishes to believe. In 1836, the invention of a device to measure the level of sugar in wine allowed winemakers to add the amount of sugar necessary to create the fizz, but not so much as to induce the bottle to explode. This was crucial, although it took some fifty years before these calculations became commonplace. Then came the legendary Louis Pasteur and his discovery of the role yeasts played in fermentation. In 1854, the national railway system finally connected Reims with the rest of the country, most importantly the ports. Champagne was now linked to the world and production reached the dizzy heights of 20 million bottles annually during this decade, up from a mere 300,000 bottles in 1800.
It was the beginning of a golden age for Champagne, but the region has certainly had its ups and downs since then. Some of the more difficult events include two World Wars, phylloxera, the economic devastation caused by events such as the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression (and the GFC) and Prohibition, and the riots in 1911.
The railways were to have an unforeseen impact, as large quantities of much cheaper grapes from other regions could now be shipped in, made in the region and passed off as Champagne. With tough economic times upon them and the scourge of phylloxera, many Champagne growers were in deep financial trouble. The 1910 vintage, beset by hail and floods, saw the loss of 96 per cent of the crop. The riots of January 1911, were inevitable.
They led to the government passing legislation which defined where Champagne must come from, but they excluded the Aube region, ensuring further future turmoil, not least from the growers in the Marne who were dismayed that the Aube was eventually included as part of Champagne. Then came the utter devastation of WWI, where the region lost half its population, not to mention the damage caused to wineries and vineyards. In 1919, the government passed legislation to bring about the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system, often referred to as the AOC – which enshrined boundaries and also established and regulated winemaking practices. Through the unbeatable combination of sheer quality and brilliant marketing, Champagne has become a household name and the immediate choice for celebration. There are many great sparkling wines around the globe, but none which can match Champagne in all its glory. In 2014, 308 million bottles were sold, at a value of 4.5 billion Euros. ❧
