Dom Perignon

The Bendictine monk Dom Perignon (Pierre Pérignon, 1638 - 1715) made a decisive contribution to the refinement of winemaking methods in Champagne. As cellar master and procurator of the abbey Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers between 1668 and 1715, not only the high-quality vineyards of the abbey were subject to his supervision, but also other, surrounding vineyards as well as fishing rights and windmills. Already known for fine wine, Hautvillers Abbey also enjoyed tax advantages and received regular tributes or dîme in the form of money, grapes and/or wine. The author Emile Roche notes that of the total wine stock of the abbey before the French Revolution (sufficient for 280 thousand bottles), only one eighth of this wine came from its own vineyards and the rest was attributable to the dîme of the time. The famous wines, which ultimately bore the name of Hautvillers Abbey, thus came not only from the abbey's own vineyards, but also from several other areas, such as Pierry, Avize and Mesnil sur Oger. Just this natural diversity of the delivered vines and wines, caused by different grape varieties, locations and qualities, combined with the desire to reliably create exquisite wine every year despite unpredictable, climatic conditions, must have represented an extremely complex challenge for Dom Perignon. ImageEr thus devoted himself intensively to the study of the peculiarities of the various wines, the climate, the soil conditions and successfully concluded qualified blends, which year after year guaranteed an approximately constant, high quality of the wine. The concept of the cuvée, which still today is the basis of the always reliable quality of the champagnes, was born.

Dom Perignon also succeeded in reliably producing white wine from dark grapes. Moreover, he also promoted the change of bottle closures in the Champagne region from inferior wood and hemp stoppers to oak corks (as has been common in England for a long time now). Dom Perignon thus contributed significantly to the foundation of the creation of high quality Champagne, although his efforts were primarily directed toward the creation of exquisite still wines, rather than sparkling wines. Even though the perfection of sparkling champagnes was not achieved until many decades after Dom Perignon, slightly effervescent wines from the Champagne region had already been known for a long time anyway and were partly already highly popular abroad (see also Saint Evremond). Dom Perignon is said to have called out: "Brothers. Come quickly. I drink stars!" It is debatable whether this represented an exclamation of his enthusiasm or disappointment at the time. ImageIt is also worth noting that Dom Perignon shared this crucially important period in the development of champagne with other extremely talented people who were also apparently in touch with each other, such as. Frère Oudart, cellar master of the abbey Saint-Pierre aux Monts de Châlons, Dom Thierry Ruinart, who was a Benedictine monk in Hautvillers at the same time as Dom Perignon and the famous winegrower Claude Moët, whose enormous savoir faire or know-how in the proper preparation of exquisite wines was already well known at that time.

ImageIn 1823, shortly after the French Revolution (1789 - 1799), the house Moët & Chandon, currently under the direction of Jean-Remy Moët (1758 - 1841, grandson of the legendary Claude Moët), bought the abandoned Hautvillers Abbey and associated vineyards. In 1930, the house Moët & Chandon acquired the still unused brandDom Pérignon from the house Mercier and produced the fantastic prestige cuvéeDom Pérignon in 1936. Today, this excellent champagne is so famous all over the world that in the USA, for instance, it is quite sufficient to mention only 'Dom' in connection with champagne and almost everybody immediately thinks of 'Dom Perignon'.