Everybody heard about the legendary French monk who is said to be the one who invented the champagne - Dom Perignon. His name is also usually associated with one of the finest champagnes in the world from the famous house of Moet et Chandon. Most of you probably know that Dom Perignon wasn’t the first one to fabricate champagne and this is just a myth, but what other myths about him are out there, what is truth and what’s just monks’ bragging?

Dom Petrus Perignon was a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of Hautvilliers, near Reims. He served there as the cellar master since the age of 29 until his death in 1715. Although he did not invented the champagne, méthode champenoise was developed by him and during his stewardship the Abbey of Hautvilliers flourished and doubled the size of its vineyards.

Back then the in-bottle fermentation process used for champagne fabrication wasn’t defined yet and winemakers faced problems during production: when not all the sugar content from grapes managed to be converted into alcohol during autumn, later in the spring when the dormant yeast began to generate carbon dioxide the stored bottles could simply explode, thus creating chain reactions and entire stocks could be simply lost. What Dom Perignon did is that he tried to research and develop a technique that will avoid the second fermentation inside the bottles. Dom Perignon established a set of rules for champagne production which was later published by the priest Godinot in 1718, three years after Dom’s death. He stated that the sparkling wine should be made only from Pinot Noir grapes, notice not the white grapes used today, he considered white grapes to be more resuscitating towards re-fermentation process and preferred red grapes. Harvesting should be done in the morning only or damp conditions and when cut, grapes should be handled with care so they don’t break or bruise. Selecting just the healthy good-looking grapes he ensured the high quality and was aiming to avoid the re-fermentation process later, even the over-sized grapes were thrown away and the vineyards were especially handled to produce smaller crops. Perignon did not crush or tread the grapes, instead he used multiple presses rather soak or steep the grapes.

It is believed that Dom Perignon brought the corks from Spain and started using for champagne fabrication, there is a disambiguation on that topic, but most probably it wasn’t him. Some say he was blind and could tell you the provenience of the grapes just by tasting one. That is of course not true, but most probably originated due to the fact that he would personally taste every new party brought before knowing where it came from so he would not know the source vineyard and avoid influencing his perceptions. Many also believe that Dom Perignon is the one who introduced blending to champagne wines but what he did is just blend the grapes before the press. Many of these misconceptions were probably started by the successor monks and locals from Hautvillers, some believe it was Dom Groussard the one who stated first time in 1821 that Dom Perignon invented champagne. His famous statement “I see stars” that he uttered upon his first taste of champagne happens to be also not true. It is just a simple slogan from a print advertisement in the late 1800s.

The locals from Hautvillers used the “Dom Perignon” brand to label their champagne wines for a long time, but it was brevetted and registered as a trade mark by Moet et Chandon and the first vintage from 1921 was released fifteen years later, in 1936. The 7 years period is used our days though. Dom Perignon is a vintage champagne, which means that it is produced only in the good years, and all the grapes used to make the wine are harvested in the same year.