The birthday of champagne is celebrated on the day of its first tasting – 4 August.
The parent of sparkling wine is considered to be the French monk Pierre Perignon, a monk from the Abbey of Hauteville. The latter was located in the city of Champagne. The man ran a grocery store and a cellar. In his spare time, Pierre experimented with guilt. The monk offered a sparkling drink to his brethren in 1668, surprising the tasters.
Then the modest monk did not even suspect that champagne would become a symbol of romance and a drink for lovers. These facts will tell you about the interesting and little-known life of bubbly wine.
- The name itself – champagne – can be given not to every sparkling wine, but only to the one that is produced in the French region of Champagne.
- In 1919, the French authorities issued a law that clearly states that the name “champagne” is given to wines made from certain grape varieties – Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
- The most expensive champagne in the world is Shipwrecked 1907 Heidsieck. This drink is over a hundred years old. In 1997, bottles of wine were found on a sunken ship transporting wine for the royal family to Russia.
- One bottle of champagne contains about 49 million bubbles.
- Opening champagne loudly is considered bad manners, there is etiquette of opening a bottle – it should be done just carefully and as less noisy.
- Bubbles in the glass form around irregularities on the walls, so the wine glasses are rubbed with a cotton towel before serving, creating these irregularities.
- Originally, bubbles in champagne were considered a side effect of fermentation and were “shy”. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, the appearance of bubbles became a distinctive feature and pride.
- A cork from a champagne bottle can fly out at a speed of 40 to 100 km / h. The cork can shoot up to 12 meters in height.
- The foil on the neck of a bottle of champagne appeared in the XNUMXth century to scare away rats in the wine cellars. Over time, they learned to get rid of rodents, and the foil remained part of the bottle.
- Champagne bottles are available in volumes from 200 ml to 30 liters.
- The pressure in a champagne bottle is approximately 6,3 kg per square centimeter and is equal to the pressure in a London bus tire.
- Champagne should be poured with the glass tilted slightly so that the stream flows down the side of the dish. Professional sommeliers pour champagne by tilting the bottle 90 degrees into a straight glass, without touching the edges of the neck.
- The largest champagne bottle has a volume of 30 liters and is called Midas. This champagne is made by the house “Armand de Brignac”.
- Women are forbidden to drink champagne with painted lips, as lipstick contains substances that neutralize the taste of the drink.
- In 1965, the world’s tallest bottle of champagne, 1m 82cm, was produced. The bottle was created by Piper-Heidsieck to award actor Rex Harrison an Oscar for his role in My Fair Lady.
- Since Winston Churchill liked to drink a pint of champagne for breakfast, a 0,6 liter bottle was specially made for him. The producer of this champagne is the Pol Roger company.
- The wire bridle holding the plug is called the muzlet and is 52 cm long.
- In order to preserve the taste of champagne and not overdo it with production volumes, in Champagne, the maximum allowable harvest per hectare is set – 13 tons.