History of Champagne, the noblest of all sparkling wines
In the Champagne wine has been cultivated since the 4th century. At that time, however, no one had any idea of the exclusive drink that would one day shape the image of this region. Due to its privileged location in the heart of Europe, Champagne quickly developed into a vibrant trading centre in the early Middle Ages. As a result, the region's high-quality wines gained a reputation beyond France's borders. The wine enjoyed great popularity among the noble houses of Europe, and Louis XIV made it his house wine, thus starting a trend. But until about 1650, the wines were always still wines. It was the English who forced the moussing of the wine. It developed into a custom to make the wine lively and sparkling by means of cinnamon, cloves, sugar and molasses). The inhabitants of Champagne would never have thought of adding such strange ingredients to their wines.
Bendictine monks like Dom Pérignon and Frère Jean Oudart would eventually refine the methods of champagne production decisively. Originally, Dom Pérignon's ambition was above all to give the wine from the Champagne region a unique quality by skilfully blending grapes. At the same time, Dom Pérignon and his contemporaries were certainly not interested in giving the wine sparkling bubbles. Rather, he was irritated by the slight bubbling that he observed in some wines in his function as cellar master and considered it a flaw.