The first vineyards in Champagne appeared with the Roman invasion. The Champagne producing area was then maintained thanks to the clergy and the monks of Rheims and Chalons.

In the middle age, wines coming from the Champagne hills, were known as “vins de France”, produced at this time in the entire region of Paris.The only good thing about the wines coming from Rheims and Epernay was that it didn’t hurt people who drunk them!

These wines are named “Vins de Champagne” only since the reign of the king Henry IV at the end of the 16th century. This term was first used in Paris. In Reims, “Champagne “ was still the name of a region where nothing grows.

Throughout the 17th century, these wines became more and more famous, especially at the royal court of France and England. This success is due to a great Parisian family who owned a lot of vineyards. These amateur are also responsible for the evolution of the “Vins de Champagne” in “vins gris”, slightly coloured.

The vine growers realised very quickly that these “Vins gris” aged badly in barrels. They had then the idea of bottling them quickly, before the end of the first fermentation, in order to preserve the flavours. We believe that the first bottling took place in 1660.

People from Champagne discovered that the wines became semi-sparkling, especially if they were slightly coloured, with a low content of alcohol and bottled at the spring equinox.

The Champagne story was not over yet: We still had to find him a father. It was Dom Perignon, Monk in charge of the vineyards and the cellars at the abbey of Hautvillers between 1668 and 1715. Another monk of the same abbey confirmed, in 1827 that Dom Perignon had created a method of sparkling wines.
Nowadays, we believe instead that he was the one who invented the “assemblage” (blending). Anyway, we are sure that he was a great oenologist and that his wines were very demanded at his time.

At the 18th century, Champagne has a worldwide reputation thanks to famous globetrotters such as Claude Moet, Philippe Clicquot, Florenz-louis Heidsiek. At the 19th century, Pierre Nicolas Marie Perrier Jouet, Mumm and Bollinger took over.
Famous widows such as Pommery, Clicquot and Perrier took over the business of their husbands and completed the promotion of quality Champagne.

As anecdote, brut champagne was created in 1876 on request of the English who prefer dry wines.

The Champagne was definitively recognised as the wines of sacred kings on July, 7th 1654 with king Louis XIV.

At the end of the 19th century, the champagne area counted 60 000 hectares (148 263 acres) before the Phyloxera attack.