Dom Perignon

Our brief history of wine could never be complete without paying respects to a 17^th century French Benedictine monk: Dom Perignon. Born in 1640 he became a monk at the age of 19 and about ten years later was appointed cellarer at the Abbey of Hautvillers near Epernay where he remained until his death in 1715. Bubbles in the wine, caused because the cold winter temperatures stopped the fermentation process which restarted (and created carbon-dioxide) when the weather warmed up, were at first seen as a sign of poor wine making. It is likely that Dom Perignon spent a lot of time and effort to try and eradicate the sparkle although when he did taste the product he is said to have cried out “Come quickly brother, I am drinking stars”. Dom Perignon’s contribution to wine was probably more that he perfected the blending of different grapes, black and white, to make a sparkling white wine; he improved clarification techniques and the methods of combining cork stoppers with wire to contain the wine.