Olivier Poels 5:40 p.m., June 17, 2022
Forget everything you've heard about the birth of Champagne... According to legend, it's the famous monk Dom Pérignon who invented this world-renowned product.
Nay!
This legend does not resist a little thorough historical study.
It would have been built in the 1820s, by another procurator of the Hautvilliers abbey: Dom Jean-Baptiste Grossard, who wrote that “Dom Pérignon found the secret to making sparkling white wine”.
We now know that Champagne produced sparkling wines long before that time.
But then, who invented champagne?
It's a combination of circumstances: the white wines of champagne bottled or in barrels started fermenting again in the spring following the harvest, when the cellars warmed up.
This then created foam.
This "wine that stings the tongue", as it was called, had a certain success.
Historically, before the arrival of sparkling wine, Champagne was renowned for its red wines, the fashion for consuming white only arrived in the 17th century.
But what could Dom Pérignon have done?
It was he who defined the rules of blending to produce a consistent cuvée.
He also improved the pressing processes to obtain clearer wines.