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It's impossible to know exactly how many casks will be shipped to the "bons viveurs" in London, with sugars to trigger secondary fermentation and the appearance of bubbles. Amending wine is nothing new: port and sherry have always been fortified to withstand the rough waters of the Bay of Biscay. In The Story of Champagne (1989), Nicholas Faith explains that only Burgundy and Champagne wines arrived in the English capital in their natural state. There was no need to fortify them to cross the 30 kilometers from Calais to Dover, although in the case of Champagne, it was preferable to proceed without delay to bottling. In Champagne, winegrowers were soon in a better position to turn to sparkling wines if they so wished, thanks to the construction of the glass factory in the nearby Argonne forest, which produced stronger bottles.
At the same time, the use of corks (introduced by the Romans) made a comeback. In 1728, the law prohibiting the transport of bottles outside Champagne, except for a privileged few, was abolished. Seven years later, the quality and weight of bottles were fixed by royal decree, which also stipulated that corks had to be tied. At the same time, Nicolas Ruinart (1697-1769), a draper from Reims, founded the very first Maison de Champagne in Épernay, in 1729.
The balance of power in the trade changed. Reims, the hub for brokers, gave way to Épernay, whose merchants began to supply European markets directly. By the middle of the 18th century, demand was strongest in the Netherlands and the many German courts, which slavishly followed the fashions of Versailles. Other winemakers imitated Ruinart: Claude Moët, a vineyard owner who set up his family business in Épernay in 1743, and Florens-Louis Heidsieck, the region's first German négociant, whose compatriots would play a major role in the history of champagne in the 19th century.
However, most winemakers remained skeptical about what they considered a frivolous feature. Nicolas Bidet (1709-1782), an officer in the King's household and sommelier to Queen Marie-Antoinette, was convinced that sparkling wine was ruining the reputation of the region's quality still wines. His sarcasm is perceptible in the following excerpt: "The vivacity, the exuberance of Champagne wines, known in Paris only as vin pétillant, this foam, this creamy froth dear to the hearts of ladies... is responsible." There are several degrees ofeffervescence, from Champagne tisane, which hardly sparkles at all, to pétillant and demi-mousseux, reminiscent of crémant or Prosecco frizzante from Italy. The most effervescent is the saute-bouchon, which is still only half as powerful as today's champagnes.
Whether or not you agree with Bidet's disdain, the fact remains that the producers were not of the same opinion about the origin of the bubbles. The white grapes from the chalky soils ofthe Côte des Blancs, south of Épernay, now exclusively planted with Chardonnay, seemed more prone to it, as did the wines, which were greener and more acerbic. Some thought it had to do with cellar temperature; others pointed to the cycles of the moon; in any case, there was one practical reason that discouraged winemakers: the fragility of the bottle.
"At the beginning of the 18th century, the most frequent accidents and the main anomalies of sparkling wine were already known: grande Casse in one cuvée; and, in the same year, petite casse in a neighboring cuvée", writes Armand Maizière in L'Origine et le développement du commerce des vins de Champagne (1848),"(..) always recorkers, wines without foam; bottles broken with a high-pitched cry, those still full, explosive fractures, in recorker bottles; corks defective by the nature of the cork, others by too small a diameter; wines sick with cloudiness, fat, bitterness, acidity". Clearly, it was safer to stick to still wines, hoping that the bubbly craze would die out on its own.
Winemakers could lose a third or even half of their bottles every year, according to an 18th-century figure. He estimates that this wastage pushed the price of sparkling champagne up to eight times its real value. And the high price made it a product sought after by wealthy customers, a recurring feature in the history of champagne and the creation of luxury brands. Expensive and exclusive, champagne has the ideal pedigree to become a status symbol. The price remained high, not so much for production costs as for marketing.
However, the emergence of luxury brands was not immediate. As the Ancien Régime collapsed and the sans-culottes rushed to the Bastille, the winegrowers of Champagne complained of having nothing to eat but bread soaked in salt water. Although their daily lives improved after 1789, it was the merchants who benefited most from the market boom. While the former estates of monasteries and great families, such as that of Sillery, were divided into smaller parcels, the négociants gave their names to the first brands.
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