A Toast to English Champagne

That’s right. A toast to English champagne.

Why not? After all, it was invented in England. And besides, the Brits drink more of it than anyone in the world: more than 30 million bottles in 2006. That’s one-third of the total production!

You ask: but what about the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon? He surely had a hand in all this?

Yes, he did. Pérignon, who was born in 1638 and died in 1715, spent most of his time trying to remove bubbles from champagne. His real claim to fame was for adding wire to the cork so it wouldn’t fly off the bottle.

Royal Society records show that the méthode champenoise was first written down in England in 1662. The English were importing flat wine from France, adding sugar to ferment it and…voila! Champagne. It took the French another 214 years to get their version right, when in 1876 they perfected the brut or dry style of champagne.

In order to give sales a boost –something which was apparently unnecessary, since the English were buying up all production– the French used the image of Dom Pérignon. His remark “come quickly, I am drinking the stars” was most likely dreamt up by some French marketing guy in the late 19th century.

By then, Pérignon had been dead for some 150 years.

A few years later, in 1891, the Madrid Agreement on international trademark registration gave France legal protection over the word champagne, stating that only the region of Champagne could use the name. Unsurprising to most, some American wine producers didn’t -and still don’t- respect the agreement.

By using loopholes, they claim they can call their sparkling wines “champagne.”

To have a hand in. Tomar parte en
To have a claim to fame for (something). Ser famoso por (algo)
Flat. Sin burbujas o gas
Loophole. Laguna legal
Sparkling wine. Vino espumoso

Published by: Drew Crosby