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How Champagne became the drink of kings

Once upon a time, the universal symbol of elegance and good times was dull, still, and red


Champagne can pop up at almost any celebration. But how and when did this sparkling wine become shorthand for, and shortcut to, celebration in a glass? The story’s a twisty one, and centuries old. It starts with the Romans.

Wine-making was introduced to the bucolic region we now call Champagne by Italian invaders, who designated Reims (then known as Durocorturum, or ’round fortress’) their imperial anchor city in the area, and an important outpost. When imperial rule started to crumble and insurgents began to chip away at its farther reaches, the Gallic peninsula endured repeated invasions. The most significant of these came from Clovis, king of the Franks.

Clovis captured Reims, then immediately thumbed his nose at the empire by having himself crowned king of the new territory right there, in Rome’s prized outpost. The boldness of the gesture captured the nascent French national imagination, establishing a fifteen-century-long tradition by which every French king until the Revolution followed Clovis and got crowned in Reims. “This brought a regal aura to the area,” explains Philippe-Alexandre Bernatchez of Ayala, one of the original 26 Grand Marques houses in the region. “Once Clovis was here, that’s pretty much why the later kings of France decided to get crowned here.”

No monarch was fonder of the area than Henri IV, better known as “Good King Henry,” who ruled for forty years in the 16th and 17th centuries. “He loved every single wine in France,” says Bernatchez, laughing. “But he was known to have said, ‘Had I not been the King of France, I would have liked to have been the sire of Aÿ.'” That particular Champenoise village and Avernay (from Avant-Aÿ, or ‘Before Aÿ’).

Coronations, of course, brought heads of state from across the continent for parties that could last weeks, during which they’d hunt, play cards, and, crucially, drink together—and naturally the wine they’d drink was made locally. It wasn’t the fizzy white we’ve come to love, though, that these VIPs were drinking in those days; rather, it would’ve been a cloudy, still red known as “grey wine.” As the weather grew warmer, some of this wine underwent accidental second fermentation, creating a fizz in the liquid. It was a local Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon, who first finessed a technique for what’s now known as champagne. (It’s a myth that he invented the process, nor does he have any connection with the well-known contemporary brand beyond its name.)

Whether the product was still and red or white and fizzy, Champagne’s reputation was burnished by another crucial factor: Unlike other famed winemaking regions like Bordeaux or Cognac, it has only one smallish river, the Marne, connecting it to the outside world. This meant that transporting the local wine was cost-prohibitive and inconvenient, which in turn meant that, for centuries, the royally endorsed tipple from Reims could only be sampled in situ, further cementing its association with good timing.

Then came two different revolutions, the French and the Industrial, both of which helped create the high life, high profile of champagne, according to champagne expert Caroline Brun, who works with the likes of Bollinger. “After the French Revolution,” she says, “the nobles fled France and cheered the fact that they were still alive everywhere in Europe by drinking champagne.” The resulting influx of blue-blood refugees to Britain, in fact, helped make the U.K. champagne’s largest export market, which it remains to this day. “Then came the Industrial Revolution, which brought both the railways and much stronger glass bottles, so shipping wasn’t just possible—it was quite easy.”

And that twisty, two-millennia-old story is how a wine favored by the kings of France—a pricey, fizzy treat served only when the occasion deserved it—is now a staple of parties across the world.


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