testThe 350-Year History Of Champagne

​Cracked on the bows of ships, sprayed after Formula One victories and sipped in honor of new years and new unions, Champagne has become synonymous with celebration. On July 4, the United Nations gave the Champagne region of France world heritage status, confirming what fans have maintained all along: Champagne is unique.

Once considered a winemaker's misfortune, bubbles weren't welcome at first. And, after Champagne became popular, its development was fraught: A single unstable bottle could trigger a chain reaction, destroying entire cellars.

New inventions – the wire that holds the cork on, for example – smoothed the process. But it was the savvy of the Champagne industry that made its effervescence a global success.

December 17, 1662 

A Brit Figures Out The Secret To Sparkling

London

Oxford-educated scientist Christopher Merrett gave a paper to the Royal Society outlining the process of making sparkling wines by putting sugar in bottles of finished wine to trigger a second fermentation. The result was a "brisk and sparkling" tipple, he wrote.

The discovery of his paper upended the notion that the French were the first to use the technique, later known as méthode champenoise.

The English also made strong glass that could withstand in-bottle fermentation, enabling the process. French glass was too brittle. Even when stronger glass was used in France, explosions were common. After the industry took off in the 19th century, Champagne makers wore metal masks to protect their faces from glass shards.

DECEMBER 1668

Dom Perignon At The Abbey

Hautvillers, France

Dom Pierre Perignon arrived at a Benedictine abbey in the heart of Champagne, a region that had been producing wine for centuries and was already known for its quality red vintages. Perignon became the abbey's cellar master, charged with expanding the abbey's winemaking, its principal source of income.

He made several key discoveries that would aid the drink's development, including separating red grapes from their skins to make white wine. Although he's considered the "father" of Champagne, Perignon was actually tasked with figuring out how to remove the bubbles, which were considered a flaw that caused bottles to explode. His name later was adopted by Moët et Chandon for the company's premier Champagne.

1729

First Champagne House Created

Reims, France

A draper by trade, Nicolas Ruinart began making Champagne as a gift to his top customers, launching what's considered the first Champagne "house." Ruinart's bottles were so popular he abandoned textiles to focus on Champagne full time.

Over the next several decades, more Champagne houses popped up throughout the region, including some of today's big names in bubbly. Taittinger, Moët et Chandon and Veuve Clicquot were among the earliest.

Champagne houses rely on the region's three prominent varietals — chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier — for their signature blends. Even today most houses buy from growers in the region, rather than cultivate their own grapes.

1910

Champagne Growers Rise Up

Epernay, France

Grape growers staged revolts throughout region to protest the Champagne houses, which had colluded to lower grape prices. Because the process of making Champagne is so laborious and so many bottles were lost from mass explosions, grape growers couldn't handle the investments and potential losses. So they sold their grapes to the houses, which became their sole customers.

But after a series of crop losses, the houses turned to other regions. Impoverished and angry, Champagne's growers hit the streets, smashing bottles and dumping non-Champagne grapes. The government eventually responded by defining specific borders for the Champagne region and declaring that only its grapes could produce real Champagne.

1941

Champagne Gets Organized

Epernay, France

During the German occupation of France in World War II, makers decided to band together to protect the Champagne trade. They formed the Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, the industry's primary trade group, in part to drum into the world's consciousness that Champagne only comes from Champagne — any other sparkling wine is just sparkling.

The CIVC continued a tradition of brand protection and marketing savvy that went back decades. The Champagne industry has long been credited with clever, compelling ads, including now-collectible Champagne posters and memorable slogans. Among them, "Come quickly, I'm tasting stars!" which was wrongly attributed to Dom Perignon.

To be Champagne, a wine must do more than sparkle. It must come from the Champagne region of France.

2003

British Study Shows Champagne Boosts Buzzes

Guildford, UK

In an apparent confirmation of a long-held suspicion, a team of British researchers published a paper saying that Champagne gets people more drunk than regular wine.

The bubbles, or so it's thought, make Champagne go "straight to your head" — and the study showed there's some truth to that, by comparing 12 people who drank Champagne and still wines.

After the study was published, critics noted the low number of participants, and some attempted to debunk it. Later studies found the the carbon dioxide in sparkling wine helps the alcohol enter the bloodstream faster, speeding the booze into your system — and causing especially bad hangovers.

JULY 2015

UNESCO Declares Champagne A World Heritage Site

Paris

After an aggressive lobbying effort, the United Nations granted Champagne world heritage status, giving the region's vineyards and houses special recognition, a possible boost to tourism and funding for preservation. UNESCO, the UN's cultural arm, also gave parts of Burgundy — once Champagne's major winemaking rival before it switched to sparkling — the same status.

In its statement, UNESCO declared that Champagne's vineyards, sections of the village of Epernay and the region's Champagne houses deserved the declaration.

Want more?

For a deep dive into the history of wine, including Champagne, check out the World Atlas of Wine.

Learn how UNESCO makes its world heritage picks.

The industry's own take on its history.

This post originally appeared on Timeline.