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Pop Goes the Bubbly

Story by Marlene Montanez  /  Photographed by Steve Regan

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE SEEM TO SPARKLE (DIAMONDS, NEW CARS, EVEN ROMANCE), AND CHAMPAGNE IS NO EXCEPTION. LET AFM SHOW  YOU WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE AGE-OLD BEVERAGE. 

Is is true of many groundbreaking discoveries, conflicting rumors of Champagne’s origins have circulated the globe for centuries. But what remains consistent among the stories is that the invention of Champagne was a serendipitous accident. Many believe it was the French monk Dom Pérignon who first discovered the sparkling wine in medieval times. (A quick Google search returns dozens of hits supporting that story.) But Kolleen Guy, author of “When Champagne Became French” and associate professor of history at the University of Texas San Antonio, begs to differ. “Dom Pérignon perfect[ed] these techniques,” Guy says, “but the people who discovered sparkling wine were actually not producers, they were consumers; and the consumers were the British aristocracies.”