Dom Pierre Perignon might have invented champagne on this day in 1693. He definitely had a major role in standardizing the work process behind creating sparkling wine, but saying he created champagne might be overstating his role; in reality, we don’t really know who did. We can say, however, that without the ol’ Dom you wouldn’t be sipping fizzy wine at New Year’s or your cousin’s wedding.
Before his work, sparkling wine relied on fermentation processes, and that required hot weather. If the fall cooled off too quickly, fermentation would stop early. Then, when the seasons turned again and the temperature climbed, the yeast generated so much carbon dioxide that the bottle would sometimes literally explode (talk about poppin’ bottles!).
Perignon outlined several rules to both refine the flavor of sparkling wine and prevent it from going to waste. The main fix he suggested was to create fizzy wine from pinot noir only, as white grapes tended to create that aggressive bubbling. He was also one of the first to suggest producing wine without any additives. One other practice he shunned was stomping on grapes, proposing that winemakers use far-less-grody mechanical presses.
