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A special wine for celebration
Holy wine, from the beginning
A holy wine, from the beginning. In early times, it was the monks who tended the vines to produce the sacred wine drunk during Mass. A fortuitous combination of events ensured Champagne’s place in history. Saint Rémi, bishop of Rheims, lived in a villa surrounded by vines, near where the town of Epernay now stands. He converted Clovis, King of the Franks, to Christianity. At the king’s baptism at Christmas in 496, he was anointed with Champagne wine, in the Champagne region.
Stepped in history
Between 898 and 1825 the kings of France were crowned in Rheims, in the heart of the Champagne region. At the accompanying festivities, Champagne flowed freely. The wines were appreciated for their flavour and superior taste, and were offered in homage to any visiting monarchs to the area. Both Francis I and Mary Stuart (later Mary Queen of Scots) received casks of Champagne on their travels through Rheims, while Louis XIV was offered several hundred pints for his coronation.
From the 12th century onwards, Champagne became increasingly well known and appreciated around the world. The choice of the rich and important, it was accepted as the wine for celebrations.
Even the revolutionaries on Bastille Day, 14 July 1789, considered Champagne the appropriate wine to celebrate with on the Champ de Mars. Then a few years later, the statesmen and princes attending the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic wars, spoke of the omnipresence of Champagne. The attendees all had a marvellous time: ‘their spirits sparkled like the wines of Champagne’ and it helped formed a bond between the participants.
Champagne wine has been featured at the signing of many important treaties, including Maastricht. Queen Pomare of Tahiti ordered several cases of Champagne to mark the dedication of a pagan temple on her island. Down the centuries Champagne wines have always featured prominently on the wine lists at Royal marriages. At the Paris Exhibition of 1900, it made a spectacular appearance – by balloon. Today, more than ever, people always call for Champagne when celebrating significant events.
Emotional times
Champagne is the wine of choice for launching ships – it has blessed the hulls of countless vessels, and it doesn’t matter if the ship was the Great Britain launched in 1843, the Titanic in 1911, the QEII in 1969 or someone’s sailing dinghy, called ‘My Dream’, launched just last week, it has to be Champagne. It was there, of course, for the maiden flight of Concorde and the meeting of the French and English sections of the Channel Tunnel.
It was definitely served ice-cold on Annapurna when Maurice Herzog cracked open a bottle in triumph at climbing the peak. In 1978, Pierre Mazeaud also drank Champagne on the summit of a mountain, this time it was Everest. And following in the tradition of the early aviators, Jean-Loup Chrétien called for a glass of Champagne when he landed after his trip to the Soviet space station.
... and for good byes
Philip of Orléans was waiting in the Conciergerie to appear before the Revolutionary Tribunal in 1793, and knowing what his fate would be, calmly drank the ‘wine of kings’ – he could think of no better way to spend his last moments on earth.
After Napoléon had defeated the army of the Tsar at Smolensk, the local gentry consoled themselves with Champagne – ‘delicious even though French’.
Great occasions
Whatever the occasion, we have adopted the habit of celebrating with Champagne. Take sports, for-example. Winning teams toast their success in Champagne and who can forget the image of Grand Prix drivers on the winners’rostrum after the race celebrating their prowess with bottles of Champagne.