Dom Pérignon

Its life

Its life holds in some lines. It is born in December 1638 or January 1639, with Holy-Menehould, under the name of Pierre Pérignon. If its birth date remains vague, its baptismal certificate is dated January 5th 1639. It grows with Holy-Menehould before becoming child of chorus to the Benedictine abbey of Moiremont. Admitted at thirteen years with the college of the Jesuit S of Châlons, it enters in 1656 to the monastery Bénédictin of Verdun where, faithful to the rule of Benoît saint, it alternates manual work, reading and prayer, acquiring with the passage of solids philosophical and theological knowledge. In 1668, then thirty years old, it joined the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d' Hautvillers. Until its death in 1715, it holds the load of cellérier-intendant to with it. A load of the more high importance at one time when the Monastère S have vast domains from where they draw all kinds of intended products to the sale. And which, especially, gives him the upper hand on the vines and the presses of the abbey. It is buried in front of the chorus of the abbey church of Hautvillers.

Its work

In this last third of the 17th century, the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d' Hautvillers hardly enjoys a great prestige. Depopulated, the establishment then counts nothing any more but one handle of monks who, year in year out, try to benefit from the fields of the Abbaye, or little not exploited. As for the storerooms, the cellars and the presses, they are with half in ruin! With patience and obstinacy, the young cellérier sticks to all to give in state. Its goal: to give again with the abbey the means which are lacking so much to him and, with the passage, to restore the gloss of the small religious community. In this country of old wine tradition, the exploitation of the vines depending on the monastery and the trade of the Vin constitute undoubtedly the best means to reach that point. Attested as of 1668, the first innovation of dom Pérignon consists in systematically matching, before even pressing them, the grapes of various origins. To get the invaluable bunches hardly raises difficulties with the young monk: the doesn't Dîme make obligation with the local vine growers to deliver to the monastery a share of their harvest? Dom Pérignon thus has at its disposal a choice of grapes come from very diverse soils whose it makes the mixture itself in order to harmonize qualities of them and to make some forget the defects. “It is the knowledge of the good effect which produce the grapes of three or four vines of various qualities which carried to perfection the famous wines of Sillery, Ay and Hautvillers. The father Pérignon, religious Benedictine of Hautvillers, is the first which endeavoured successfully to thus match the grapes of the various vines” writes in 1763 the abbot Christmas-Antoine Pluche, thus recognizing the contribution of the young cellérier in making of a champagne of quality.

Oenologist before the hour, dom Pérignon takes a care particular to the Vendange S and the choice of the grapes, leaving with nobody other the permission taste them. “The Pérignon father did not taste the grapes with the vines though it there went the every day to the approach of maturity”, testifies the Pierre brother, raises and successor of the “father” of champagne. “But it was made bring grapes of the vines that it intended to compose the first vintage. It made tasting of it only the following day with jeun, after their having made spend the night to the air on its window, judging taste according to the years. Not only it composed the vintages according to this taste, but still according to the provision, the years early, late, cold, rainy, and according to the well or poorly provided vines sheets. All these events were used to him as rules for the composition of its vintages if distinguished. ” With dom Pérignon, the assembly of vintages and type of vines reach the row of a true science.

With the practice of the assembly, the champagne thus acquires a quality which it did not have up to now and which will make much for its reputation. The history also wants that dom Pérignon has, the first, discovered the means of making foam the wine from champagne out of bottle. True or distorts, the history is worth the sorrow to be told. At the time, the bottles were stopped with pegs furnished with packing soaked with oil. In the search of a cleaner process and more esthetics, dom Pérignon had the idea to run Cire of Abeille in the neck of the bottles, thus ensuring a perfect tightness to them. At the end of a few weeks, the majority of the bottles exploded, plunging the monk in greatest perplexity. It hardly took him time to understand that the sugar contained in beeswax had caused, while falling into the wine, the one second fermentation, involving a sudden effervescence. Incompetents to resist the pressure, the bottles had flown in glares. A fortunate coincidence had made it possible dom Pérignon to discover fermentation out of bottle. The “Champagne method” or, more simply, the champagne had just been born. In the tread, and although nothing makes it possible to affirm it, the cellérier of the abbey of Hautvillers would have invented the cork stopper to replace antiquated the wood broquelet maintained with the neck by a string of hemp, then the flute with champagne.

That dom Pérignon is or not at the origin of champagne imports at the bottom rather little. No doubt the development process of the wine was a collective and long-term uvre. And in this process, the monk set on enology played undoubtedly an important role. At the beginning of the 18th century, the champagne such as we know it today made in any case the happiness of the aristocratic and royal tables, the only ones with being able to offer the invaluable beverage.

See too

Wine from champagne

External bonds

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