The Wine of the Enlightenment

The Wine of the Enlightenment

The birth of Europe's greatest wines (graпds crus) coincided with the age of the En1ightenrnent and reflected its historica1 logic. The improved qua1ity of wine ran in para11e1 with the demand for qua1ity in а11 other spheres of 1ife. The French eth­nologist and sociologist Marce1 Mauss argues that, 'The rise of civi1isations is not driven bу industry - its main engine is 1uxury.' According to the phi­losopher Gaston Bache1ard, 'tan is а product of p1easure, not of need'. Western Europe' s typicallocal graпds crus date back to the late seventeenth and eighteenth centu­ries.

Аn Italian dictionary of commerce from 1762 lists the majority of today's better known арреllа­tions, rating most high1y the wines from Cham­pagne and Burgundy, followed bу Chablis, Рот­mard, Chambertin, Clos de Vougeot, La Romanee and others. Royal courts and the rich bourgeoisie played а crucial role in this process bу setting fashionable trends that were dutifully followed bу the aristoc­racy. For example, in the age of the House of Valois, the most fashionable wines in France were those from Burgundy. Following the ascent of the Bour­bons, interest gradually shifted towards the Loire vаllеу.

 Under Louis XIII, red Burgundies саmе back into fashion. Later оп, under Louis ХIV, wines from Champagne entered the leadership contest but, according to Gilbert Garrier (О. Garrier, 'Nais­sance des grands crus', in L'Histoire, No. 213, 1997), а medical and trade lobby centered around the king's personal physician Оur Fagon succeed­ed in tipping the scales back in favour of Burgun­dy.

То keep расе with changing fashion, winemak­ers had to improve techniques and, consequently,Тhe wines from Champagne, mentioned earlier, were not yet the later famous sparkling wines but ordinary sti11 wines. The Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon, whom legend credits with the invention of champagne even though similar bubbly wines are known to have existed in Brit­ain much earlier, actually devoted аll his wine­making efforts to the production of а wine сара­ble of competing with Bordeaux and Burgundy for the royal table.

Between 1668 and 1715, Dom Pierre Perignon was treasurer of the Hautvillers Аbbеу near the town of Epernay in Champagne, and his duties included those of cellar master. This was how he discovered that, in springtime, some bott1ed young wines developed high carbon dioxide lеvels and changed in taste. Nowadays, it is quite easy to explain what caused this process.

The сооl climate in that northern region did not allow grapes to ripen quickly, so the harvest was соr­paratively late in the year. The winter frosts set in before the wine had fermented fullу. The arrival of spring triggered secondary fermentation and the carbon dioxide trapped inside the bottles sat­urated the wine with lively bubbles. Dom Pierre Perignon desperately tried to get rid of them. This 'flaw' gradually сате to Ье regarded as an ad­vantage, but it was not until а century later that champagne turned into а standard of good taste and social prestige. Like the mediaeval alchemists before him, in his quest for the perfect white wine, Perignon chanced upon some practices that would lеауе а lasting imprint оn winemaking over the next centuries. Не was the first to start blending wines from different varieties, regions and vintages in an effort to improve quality. His other monumental contribution was the introduc­tion of the cork stopper.

Up until then, cork stop­pers had bееп virtually unknown in France, еуепthough they had bееn used in antiquity, as evi­dent from the wine-merchant's house excavated in Роmреу, as well as from an ode bу Horace that describes Greek amphorae plugged with re­sinated corks. During the 1730s the [ате of champagne grad­ grew, after Louis ХV allowed the transporta­tion of and trading in bottled wine, but it bесаmе truly  fashionable across Еurоре оnlу оn the еуе of the French Revolution.

Еven before it had соnquered France completely, this rare and expensive wine caused а furore at the royal courts of Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia, whilst the third presi­dent of the USA, Thomas Jefferson, introduced it to America. In the nineteenth century it was de­sired and valued across the world as а symbol of festive chic and aristocratic prestige, and the cham­pagne lаbеl bесаmе more popular than Bordeaux and Bourgogne.

Thus, the dream of the Benedic­tine monk саmе true, еven though not at the Sun King's table. In 1815 Talleyrand opened the Congress of Vienna with champagne. The role of champagne as а specifically European cultural icon is par­ticularly notable in Russia. In the early nine­teenth century, the Russian gentry perceived champagne as symbol of modernity and European identity.