2022 was a record year for Champagne, as sales continued to rebound following pandemic-era dips in sales. While shipments to the U.S. declined slightly in terms of volume, value surged 19 percent to $998 million, according to the Comité Champagne. For the first time in history, worldwide shipments of France’s native sparkler exceeded 6 billion pounds ($6.4 billion), with over 27 million 9-liter cases dispatched, the second highest-volume shipment following 1999’s and its end-of-millennium Y2K festivities. The U.S. is globally the most important market for Champagne, with export volume exceedi ..read more

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In 2006, three celebrities stepped out for a night of clubbing and unknowingly made pop culture history. Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears comprised what the New York Post dubbed “Bimbo Summit” marking a bygone era of glamorous booze-fueled debauchery. At the center of this wave sat the VIP section where celebrities, athletes, and their entourages gathered around luxury tables stocked with ice buckets of seemingly infinite supplies of Champagne and spirits. Now, after nearly two decades, economic recessions, changes in technology, and a global pandemic, the sparklers have dimmed ..read more

When Nicolas Ruinart established Maison Ruinart in 1729, the Ruinart family was known for their role in society as wealthy cloth merchants. But that all changed with Nicolas’s uncle, Dom Thierry Ruinart, a Benedictine monk and close contemporary of Dom Pérignon. In 1680 at age 23, Dom Ruinart left his home in Champagne to study at the prestigious Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, located on the outskirts of Paris. While there, he was exposed to a more aristocratic lifestyle and observed, for the first time, people drinking “wine with bubbles.” Upon his return to the Champagne region, the monk ..read more

Throughout our Champagne series, we’ve cataloged the wine’s history from Pangea to the 20th century. In many ways, we’ve gone the distance, but today we’re zooming out to tackle a bit of geography and break down Champagne’s various subregions. Unlike Bordeaux and Burgundy, which both encompass numerous AOCs, Champagne is one massive AOC comprising five subregions. Between the five, there are 80,000 acres under vine, 42 premier cru villages, and 17 grand cru villages. Although these subregions all exist under the Champagne umbrella, there are several viticultural and geographical differences t ..read more

If you drink wine on a regular basis, chances are you have a go-to glass or grape you gravitate to on menus or your local shop. But if you’re in the mood to shake up your standard order in favor of something a bit unexpected, then you’ve come to the right place. Seeking expert advice, we asked sommeliers for the overlooked and underappreciated bottles, grapes, and wine styles they are currently coveting. As it turns out, there’s much value to be found outside the tried-and-true. From a salty, refreshing, Loire Valley white that’ll be your new favorite oyster pairing to a juicy, Chilean red th ..read more

Following the Champagne Riots, Champagne’s popularity continued to soar, and with it, numerous cooperatives sprung up, looking to diversify their grape sourcing. As the number of co-ops grew, it was clear that more regimented standards for Champagne production would be necessary. As such, the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) was established in 1941 to govern Champagne-making practices from vine to bottle and the Champagne code system was introduced. Ever since, each bottle of France’s sparkling wine is labeled with a series of numbers preceded by two letters. But what exac ..read more

Throughout our Champagne series, we’ve seen the style evolve from a still wine with a pinkish hue into a clear, celebratory, aristocrat-friendly sparkling wine. By the late 1800s, the export markets were booming and the price of Champagne was soaring, but so were tensions between grape growers and Champagne houses. Nowadays, there’s grower Champagne — bubbly produced by growers for their own enjoyment and profit. There are also Champagne houses that have their own vineyards, so several are not necessarily looking to buy grapes from external suppliers. But in the 19th century, Champagne houses ..read more

In the late 1630s, Pierre Pérignon was born, and he went on to become a monk, earning the title Dom Pérignon. At the age of 18, he was assigned to manage the cellars at St. Peter Abbey in the Hautvillers commune in France, where he remained until his death in 1715. These days, Dom Pérignon is a household name, but it’s not because of the man. How exactly did that happen? There’s a lot of hearsay around Mr. Pérignon, mainly due to the fact that his work was later sensationalized for promotional marketing purposes. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t blind, he didn’t invent sparkling wine, no ..read more