Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup

Staying with the champagne theme for the New Year, I picked up a book that my husband recently purchased and read it during the holidays. Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup, subtitled How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times, was published in 2005 by HarperCollins. This book is written and researched much like the Kladstrup's book Wine and War published in 2001.
Champagne is a book that deconvolutes the conundrum that is le champagne (the drink), with it's celebratory connotations from la Champagne (the region), the site of untold strife and bloodshed. In the opening pages of this book, the Kladstrups go to the site of one of the bloodiest battles in history, the invasion of Attila the Hun which was fought in la Champagne, then known as Belgica in 451 A.D. More than 200,000 men were slaughtered in one day. Interwoven in the chronology of wars that took place in la Champagne, the Kladstrups tell the story of the evolution of the wine from the pale red drink to what we now know today as the bubbly le champagne.
The Romans planted vines and started making wine in Champagne around 57 B.C. But for many millennia, the region was known more for their wool than their wine. In 1668, a young, Benetictine monk, Dom Pierre Pérignon was appointed to be the business manager for the Abbey of Hautvillers. One of the persistent myths that is debunked by the Kladstrups is the one that clings to Dom Pérignon as the inventor of bubbly champagne. Nothing is further from the truth as Pérignon strove to eliminate bubbles from still wine to make it acceptable for the sacrament. What Pérignon did which is just as important was to lay down the golden rules of making quality wine, rules that are still in practice today!:

• Use only the best grapes and discard those that are broken
• Prune vines hard in the early spring to prevent overproduction
• Harvest in the cool of the morning
• Press grapes gently
• Keep the juice from each pressing separate

The book chronicles the impact of the Napoleonic Wars, the phylloxera devastation, the U.S. Prohibition, and the devastation incurred by Champagne during World War I. For me it was a sobering read and underscored the resilience and optimism of the Champenois. Give a toast to them the next time you take a sip of le champagne.