Can there ever have been a more cheering unintended consequence than the accidental invention of champagne? The world’s preferred wine of celebration came about through a seventeenth-century Benedictine monk’s failed efforts to improve local wine by – wait for it  - removing the bubbles. We can only be grateful that Dom Pérignon not only failed, but made a virtue of his failure by developing the technique which, in all essentials, is still used in all sparkling wine production. Due to the cool climate in the Champagne region and the unavoidably short growing season, which means that the grapes are picked early, the region’s wine is naturally if gently sparkling. But winter stops the fermentation process before yeasts on the grape skins convert the sugar