Ep 609: A History of Champagne (How Champagne Became Champagne) - Part 1

Champagne didn't start as the celebratory, effervescent wine we know today—it was a struggling, pale red wine from a cold, war-torn region. Elizabeth Schneider traces its unlikely rise from Roman vineyards in the 5th century to the 1700s, revealing that the very qualities we now love—bubbles, flutes, and prestige—were accidental, improvised, and often dangerous. The breakthrough came not from a single inventor, but from a series of desperate innovations: winemakers in the 1600s began pressing black grapes like Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier to make white wine (Vangri), a technique so meticulous it required calm donkeys to carry grapes to avoid crushing them. By the 1660s, Dom Pérignon systematized blending, laying the foundation for modern assemblage. Yet the real spark—literally—came from the English, who accidentally discovered sparkling wine when cold cellars halted fermentation, only to restart it in spring. They embraced it, even patenting thick, long-necked bottles to survive the pressure. But the wine remained unpredictable—sometimes exploding in the cellar, sometimes cloudy, always risky. By the 1700s, it became a symbol of elite status, served at Versailles and drunk by royalty, with flutes first made in England. Yet the French Revolution nearly destroyed it, and the 1700s ended in decline as trade treaties favored Port and Sherry.