Dom Perignon - The Person and the Champagne

"Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!"making white wine from black grapes. Another
These, according to some, were the wordsimaginative technique he was able to come up
uttered by Dom Perignon when he tasted thewith, which then made him even more popular,
first sparkling champagne he ever made. It waswas blending grape juices from the same grape
later found out that this quote made its firstfrom different vineyards. This was no easy feat
appearance in a print advertisement in late 1800.and takes great amount of patient and knowledge
Born in a wealthy French family, Dom Pierreabout grapes. To this day, most of the practices
Perignon served as the cellar master in Abbey ofhe developed were still being used by Champagne
Hautvillers since his teens until the time of hismakers, particularly the extensive blending of
death. Back then, in-bottle refermentationgrapes from different vineyards.
presented tremendous problems for winemakers,In 1936, the Champagne Dom Perignon was first
thus he veered away from using this procedure.produced by Moet et Chandon who bought
It was said that he established a set of wineAbbey of Hautvillers. Globally celebrated as the
making rules which included choosing only thefinest sparkling wine, Champagne Dom Perignon
very best harvests of Pinot Noir and Chardonnayraises the French flag in making it as one of the
grapes to be followed by a long slow aging.best wine producing countries in the world today.
In the wine making world he was best known andA bottle a bottle of Perignon indeed signifies class
considered a "miracle" by fellow wine makers forand excellence.