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Dom Pérignon
Ingenious, eager worker and exceptional businessman, he will play an essential role in the development of this wine...
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new region of France every month!
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Effervescence
The famous monk will transform this defect into a quality...
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Champagne Wine in a Bottle...
Once bottled, there is another essential phase in the maturation and the conservation of the Champagne wine...
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How to Appreciate Champagne?
The flute was soon the preferred beverage recipient...
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An Uncontested Success
The fame of the Hautvillers abbey and of Dom Pérignon was recognized throughout almost the entire kingdom of France...
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onjour. To celebrate the end of year holidays, we “lift our glasses” to an important region, situated 150 Km east
of Paris, which for centuries was the site of coronation of French Kings; but is known first and foremost for
its delicate, subtle and bubbly wine of the same name, which has delighted the world for celebrations of all
types: Champagne.
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| Champagne! |
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A preeminent Region
Throughout France, the Champagne region was held in the highest esteem. Reims, Capital of the second Gaul, was the
city of coronation of French kings from Clovis in 496 until Charles the Tenth in 1825. The Champagne region is
also the oldest region of French wines. With a limestone earth, good exposure to the sun and winegrowers devoted
to their craft since the beginning of time; one would expect the finest wines of all. At the beginning, the bubbly
quality of the wine was considered a flaw to be overcome. Apparently, the 45th parallel (from the regions of
Bordeaux to the Rhone valley) was the ideal latitude to produce wines of high quality. Champagne was too far
north, situated at the 49th parallel. Louis Pasteur took this “liability” and made it into a science: A first
fermentation of the grape juice occurred after the grape pressing, then during the cold winter, the fermentation
paused, then resumed in the spring. This process, because of the specific latitude of the region, gives this
delicate wine, called Champagne, its well known effervescence.
The Abbey of Hautvillers
Legend has it that, Saint-Nivard, bishop of Reims, in search of the ideal place to establish a monastery, looked to
the heavens for a sign from God. At that moment he saw a dove place itself on the tallest beech tree at the highest
point of Hautvillers. Thus the site, situated on the edge of the Marne River, was chosen. As early as its foundation
was laid, the abbey was a big success. The monks there practiced the rules of Saint-Benoit. Their prayers and the
steady work of the vine which, until the middle ages was often done by religious orders, regulated their days
rhythmically. Unfortunately, to prosperity followed dramatic periods of invasions and wars, leaving pillage,
destruction and desolation. Throughout time, the abbey of Hautvillers (north of Epernay), often served as a
refuge to the inhabitants of the countryside in distress. Despite these hazards and difficult periods, the abbey
did not cease to grow, thanks to the gifts of the believers and the land purchased by the monks. After his allocation
in 1668, it was the abbot Dom Pérignon who, thanks to his courage, his tenacity, and his intelligence, was able to
bring the abbey to its eminence and with it bring its prosperity and honor.
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| Recipe
for November 2003 |
French Duck Breasts
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Cooking SOS !
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Dom Pérignon
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Father Pérignon returned the monastery from ashes to its original state.
Understanding very quickly that the vine could be a source of wealth, he interested himself in its yield. An
ingenious and eager worker, as well as an exceptional businessman, he played an essential role in the development
of this wine. His first flash of genius was to assemble only black grapes of a certain quality, but from different
soils, to produce the white wine. No white grape is ever used in the composition of a real Champagne wine, for it
would bring a yellowish, shabby color. The black grape, on the contrary, gives the wine its crystalline color.
Dom Pérignon tasted the grapes to be certain of their quality and of their maturity, then each year determined and
published the "drum roll” of the grape-harvests, or the precise day when the harvest could begin. He introduced the
vine police to insure that the date was respected, and that only the best clusters were gathered and delicately put
in the baskets in order not to damage the grapes. To this day, no machine intervenes in the picking of the grapes
for Champagne.
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Effervescence
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Before the arrival of Dom Pérignon, the Champagne region produced wines that were difficult to preserve. The tendency of
this wine to become naturally foaming was, indeed, a true problem. The famous monk transformed this defect into a quality.
He introduced a specific process: After a quick pressurization of the black grapes, the juice, which was white as crystal,
was preserved in barrels. A first fermentation was produced when the sugar transformed itself into alcohol. The excessive
cold of the winter stopped this phenomenon that would then resume in the spring. Dom Pérignon introduced the idea of
bottling the wine at this point, after the first fermentation and before a second, thus allowing the second more slow
fermentation to occur in the bottle. Many say his real "secret" was the specific date chosen for this bottling: the first
moon of the month of March. Another improvement attributed to Dom Pérignon, is that the bottles were no longer closed
with a wood cover and hemp, but by a cork maintained with a link that withstood the pressure. It is interesting that a
man who practically did not drink wine, and who nourished himself primarily on milk products and fruit, would be able to
give birth to such an extraordinary wine!
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Champagne Wine in a Bottle
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Once bottled, there is another essential phase in the maturation of the Champagne wine. In the bottle, a light deposit
forms itself naturally at the time of the fermentation, and it is necessary for the winemaker to bring it to the neck
of the bottle. To achieve this, the bottles must be delicately stirred and turned every day for several weeks. Over
the years, this phase of the work proved to be very dangerous. A third, and sometimes half of the bottles exploded
under the effect of the fermentation. Now, in the era of Dom Pérignon, if glass bottles had replaced the pitcher to
serve the wine at the table, it had never been used to preserve a wine in the cellar, and especially not a wine that
“was working”. The master glassmakers were accused of producing low quality glass bottles. They tried to improve on
the product by imagining bottles in shapes of apples, which were wider and thicker. As these not well adapted for
storage and transportation, they were very quickly replaced by bottles in the shape of a pear, a form still used today.
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How to Appreciate Champagne?
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Well before the problem of the solidity of the glass was completely determined, and the opaque bottle in the shape of a
pear had definitively been chosen to preserve this precious wine, the amateurs already knew the best manner to serve it
and to taste it. The height of its refinement consisted, in fact, of pouring it from very high above to allow it to foam.
If the goblet (which, according to the legend, was molded on Madame de Pompadour’s breast, a favorite of king Louis the
fifteenth) had been used for a long time, it was soon realized that it presented two defects in the tasting of Champagne:
the quick loss of bubbles owing to its too big opening, and the almost total absence of a bouquet. Therefore, the flute
was soon the preferred beverage recipient. Today the connoisseurs still give preference to the flute, which they recommend
to fill only at 60% in order to allow a space and thus preserve all the aromas. A true connoisseur knows also that to
maintain its freshness, 8 to 10 degrees Celsius, and to enjoy the spectacle of the bubbles that climb back up to the
surface as if by magic with a delicate murmur, the flute must be held only by the stem.
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An Uncontested Success
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Champagne, which was not originally called that but rather "gray wine of Champagne", became an immediate success almost
throughout France. Easily transported to the Parisian region thanks to the Marne River, the fame of the Hautvillers abbey
and of Dom Pérignon was immediately recognized. And in Versailles, all were crazy about this precious, delicate and
subtle nectar. Did Madame de Pompadour not say: "Champagne makes woman more beautiful and... gives spirit to the men!"
The people of Bordeaux, however, would have to wait for the arrival of the railway to discover the effervescent treat.
And the wide commercial success of Champagne did not materialize until after the First World War. “While all must be
rebuilt, one resumes hope, one wants to live.” Champagne, then reserved for a certain social class, crossed socio-economic
barriers and became a symbol of celebration for all.
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Served as an aperitif, accompanying a delicate dish or a succulent dessert, or simply present to celebrate a happy event,
Champagne is for all occasions. Whether it is contained in a Mathusalem, a Salmanazar, a Réhoboam, a Nabuchodonosor,
a Jéroboam, a Balthazar or a Magnum... it will forever be the symbol of a good party. A bottle of Champagne is opened,
somewhere in the world, every second, and millions of corks will pop at the ringing in of the year 2004. We wish you
all an excellent year with promises of peace and happiness!
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