Champagne is a sparkling wine that has long help connotations of luxury and class and is traditionally seen as a celebratory drink. The main thing that makes a bottle of sparkling wine champagne is its place of origin. The Champagne area in Northern France is the only place where real champagne comes from. It’s not just the region which decides whether it becomes a champagne, the The Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne have other regulations on how it’s made too. The term champagne is legally protected and is recognised within the European Union as well as several other large wine producers around the world. America is one of the only large distributors of wine to still use the term champagne on a select number of its sparkling wines.
Like all wine related drinks, the different tastes have different names and vary from being sweet to dry. The sweetest champagne is Demi Sec and has the most amount of sugar added whereas Brut has the least. Although wine glasses are more common, the champagne flute is specifically designed for this prestigious drink. The The Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne often stipulates champagne should be made from three different grapes. The pinot noir and the pinot meunier are made from the darker grapes and chardonnay is made from the white grape.
There are several myths that surround both the production and the actual champagne glasses. It is commonly assumed the Dom Perignon first ‘invented’ champagne after accidently introducing the bubbles. There are several different stories as to how champagne came about. Its most widely agreed that the first sparkling wine was created by Benedictine Monks in the beginning of the 17th century. Perignon’s did have a lot to do with champagnes development. Perignon made great improvements to the fermentation process. Another quaint myth associated with the consumption of champagne is the shape of the traditional champagne coupe which is a more bowel shaped champagne flute. The champagne coupe is said to be modelled on the breast of Marie Antoinette (among other French nobility). These rumours cannot be true as champagne and its consumption were already invented over one hundred years before she was born, but they add to the air of the drink being for the privileged and wealthy.
