This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Slideshow
10 Champagne facts to impress your friends with
It has been scientifically proven by Professor Barry Smith of the University of London that Champagne bubbles have a distinctive sound.
The first ‘collective’ of Champagne producers exhibited their wares at the Franco-British exhibition of sciences, arts and industry, held between 14 May and 31 October in London’s White City district in 1908, which celebrated the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 and attracted 8 million visitors.
Brits are credited for persuading the Champenois to increase brut production after World War One due to their preference for a dryer style of fizz.
Early in on the trend was Perrier-Jouët, which launched its lightly dosed ‘Cuvée K’ in 1846 specifically to appeal to British palates. Breaking with tradition at a time when Champagnes regularly contained up to 40% sugar, Cuvée K was dosed at a sugar level of less than 5%.
Rosé Champagne was first created by accident in the early 18th century when red grapes had a bumpy ride on their way to the press, resulting in a pale pink sparkler rather than the white style Louis XIV and his court had become accustomed to.
The style was affectionately dubbed ‘oeil de perdrix’ (eye of the partridge) as its colour mirrored the reddish ring around the eyes of the game birds.
There are currently 1.3 billion bottles of Champagne ageing in the region’s cellars – the equivalent of four years of sales.
A single flute of Champagne contains one million bubbles, according to effervescence expert Gérard Liger-Belair of the University of Reims.
The pressure inside a 75cl bottle of Champagne is typically 5-6 atmospheres – more than that of a standard car tire.
During WWI, Reims went through 1,051 days of bombing and was 90% destroyed, though 14 million bottles of Champagne continued to be produced each year. At the time Epernay printed its own emergency banknotes.
Only women, children and the elderly were left to tend the vines in Champagne during WW1, creating three memorable vintages: 1914, ’15 & ’17.
During the war, schools and hospitals in the region we re-located in Champagne cellars, creating a subterranean city. At the same time, many cellars were blocked up to hide Champagne stocks resulting in fewer bottles being looted.
During World War One soldiers were offered two bottles per man, per day to defend Reims. On 21 October 1914, Vigneron Champenois magazine revealed that Champagne was included in the British Army’s medical supplies – hear hear.