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

This is part of a two-part series on the history of Champagne, which tells the story of how Champagne became Champagne!

Photo: Champagne vineyards before mechanization. Source: Union des Maisons de Champagne

I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole when I discovered an entire encyclopedia of the history of Champagne on the Union des Maisons de Champagne site. It was the equivalent of 200 pages of information on Champagne from its origins up until the 1980s and was detailed and fascinating.

I tried to cull it down, but the information was just too vast and too interesting not to share! So this will be a two-parter. In this show I cover:

• The origins of the Champagne vineyard with the Romans in the late 400s through the Middle Ages
• The 13th Century when Champagne was used in the coronation of the French kings and began its life as a wine for royalty
• The changes from feudalism to sharecropping through the 1500s, with all the ups and downs in the fortunes of the region
• The grapes of the time and the first major innovation for Champagne – Vin gris – making white(ish) wine from red grapes
• The contributions of Dom Perignon to Champagne

Photo: Statue of Dom Perignon Source: Victor Grigas, CC BY-SA 4.0

• The role of the English in making a market for sparkling wine, and making the necessary accoutrements to hold a sparkling wine, as well
• The effects of the French Revolution on Champagne that still exist today
• The grapes and how they evolved over the centuries in Champagne

I take you up to the 1800s, when the real Champagne innovations start to happen. That will be in Part 2, along with details on how Champagne took over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries!

Enjoy and Part 2 will be here before you know it!

Source of all this fascinating info is...

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