Aug. 4, 1693: Dom Pérignon 'Drinks the Stars'

Tony Long

1693: Champagne is said to have been invented on this day by Dom Pierre Pérignon, a French monk. It almost certainly isn't true.

Because Dom Pérignon lived at the Benedictine abbey in Hautvillers at the time of his "invention," the village in France's Champagne region, not far from Èpernay, is generally regarded as the birthplace of the bubbly.

But like many historical claims, the night they invented champagne appears more fanciful than fact. Sparkling wine certainly existed before Dom Pérignon arrived on the scene, although it would be unrecognizable today as champagne. But whether he invented the champagne method single-handedly is doubtful.

This much is true, though: He made an enormous contribution by developing the technique that finally produced a successful white wine from red wine grapes, something vintners had been trying to accomplish for years. That was a major step toward the development of modern champagne, probably the major step.

Even his famous quote, "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars," appears to be apocryphal. The evocative declaration is plastered on a champagne ad dating from the 1880s, but is hard to trace back any further, certainly not to the 17th century.

In any case, Dom Pérignon spent a lot of time trying to get the bubbles out of his sparkling wine, primarily to mitigate the effects of refermentation, a major problem for winemakers of the time. Generations of bon vivants, from Madame Pompadour and Napoleon to Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward, were no doubt grateful that he failed.

What is fair to say is that Dom Pérignon established the principles of modern champagne making that are still in use today.

Vineyards have existed in the Champagne region since Roman times. The name, in fact, comes from the Latin campania, which refers to the province's physical resemblance to Campania, south of Rome.

By the time Dom Pérignon arrived at the abbey in 1668 to serve as cellar master, Champagne was already a major wine-producing region. In fact, it was locked in a bitter rivalry for viticultural primacy with its southern neighbor, Burgundy.

Champagne aside, Dom Pérignon proved a very able cellar master. Under his stewardship, the abbey more than doubled the size of its vineyards, earning him a burial, following his death in 1715, in a section of the abbey church usually reserved for abbots.

Source: Various

*Image: Portrait of Dom Pérignon/Bettman Corbis*

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