Champagne

Champagne can only be made in the Champagne region of France. Cava is the sparkling wine of Spain; Prosecco of Italy. The growers in California call their products sparling wine, and methode champenoise. Even Shramsberg has now given up calling their bubbly champagne.

As is always the case, once you go to the effort to put up a page of useful information, you know how to find others. Here is Celebrating Champagne et en Français.

Sabrage is opening a bottle of Champagne with a Sabre!

In the 1990s, my favorites were: Domaine Chandon (brut), Moet for extravagance and Cordon Negro (economy), and any of the California cousins of the name brands, Mumm, Red Star, and DP. 30 years later Pierre Peters is at the top of the list. New Entery! Racine!

Great book: Champagne: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region and The science of effervescence.

The Fairs of Champagne, the hot bed of fomenting capitalism. As important to today's economy as the development of paper money by the trading citystates of Italy. More on the central historical significance later. It was also a big part of Gail's and my courtship.
 
 
Sizes of Bottles of Champagne, according to Kim Smith of Bristol,Vermont 
The Jeroboam is the largest bottle in which the fermentation happens the bottle. The larger bottles are filled with bubbly from smaller bottles.
??? tiny bottle ???
split half bottle 375 ml.
bottle 1 bottle 750 ml.
Magnum 2 bottles 1.5 litres
Jeroboam 4 bottles 3 litres
Rehoboam 6 bottles 4.5 litres
Methuselah 8 bottles 6 litres
Salmanazar 12 bottles 9 litres
Bathazar 16 bottles 12 litres
Nebuchadnezzar 20 bottles 15 litres
Midas 40 bottles 30 litres

2022-12-31 added link the Sabrage page
2021-12-31 added Pierre Peters
2011.06.18 Bruins drink 30-liter bottle of Ace of Spades "Midas" champagne

If you have any additions, or corrections, especially spelling, please let me know. 22-OCT-2000, with Bruins update 2011