Stories of the invention of champagne are many and contradictory. Some credit a French Benedictine monk, Dom Pierre Pérignon, with discovering the method of trapping carbon dioxide bubbles in wine, the méthode champenoise, around the end of the 17th century. Others say that while he developed a number of advances in champagne production, it was actually invented by the English. Having traveled the length of the UK with my brother one summer without finding a single decent glass of wine [although in all fairness, the establishments we frequented would not be called posh by any stretch of the imagination], I find this rather hard to swallow.

Dom Pérignon is also credited [apparently falsely so] with announcing his discovery by saying, “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!” [I think I’m going to go on believing he said it—it’s too good a story not to embrace it.]

Whoever invented sparkling wine, there is just something festive about it, an effervescence that elevates any moment into an event. No wonder it sees so much action during the holiday season. We drink it year ’round, with the flimsiest of excuses for an occasion. Continue reading “Champagne tastes on a cava budget: More bubbly bang for your buck” →