Until the nineteenth century Champagne with bubbles was not only unintentional but positively dangerous

Champagne without the bubbles would be unthinkable, but until the nineteenth century Champagne with the bubbles was not only unintentional but positively dangerous. The pressure of naturally effervescent young wine in such a cool climate frequently led to fragile glass bottles exploding, as the second fermentation took place during spring. Only in the nineteenth century, when stronger bottles were developed, did the technique now known as the méthode champenoise come into its own.

But long before the hazard of exploding bottles was averted, Champagne, often referred to as saute-bouchon or “cork popping” wine, became fashionable at the eighteenth-century French court, as well as among the English elite, who imported it in vast quantities. Notoriously, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Regent of France, served sparkling Champagne at his infamous petits soupers at the Palais Royal, of which, in Hugh Johnson’s account, the Duc de Richelieu observed: “The orgies never started until everyone was in that state of joy that Champagne brings.”

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