South of France Blog

Bruno Bouché adds sparkle to my next book

24/4/2019

Historical research may not be the most exciting activity, but when you are trying to get to the bottom of the legends surrounding the world’s oldest sparkling wine, it bubbles along rather nicely!

Yesterday, Bruno Bouché explained why he moved from Champagne to Limoux, while I sampled his production.

As for the legend, sometime around 1531 the Dominicans of Saint-Hilaire accidentally invented the world’s first bubbly in this cave. A century later, the lucky monks welcomed one of their brothers from the north. Naturally they served him their sparkling wine, and the good Dominican Pierre Pérignon returned to his monastery in Champagne with the recipe hidden in his habit.

Did Bruno say any of this was true? I can’t remember!

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4 Comments

Tony

24/4/2019 13:53:06

Great story. Never knew that. We’ll have to visit together. I much prefer Blanquette to modern champagne, apart from Colin.
Dim Perignon never put a sparkle in his bubbly, as you would know if you had read my latest doorstop, Gifts from the Gods, out yesterday. His great contribution was to stop the second fermentation in the bottle. It was much later, and with a lot of sugar, that they put it back in.

Colin Duncan Taylor link

24/4/2019 14:30:10

Tony - I've explained what Dom Perignon really got up to in the draft text I wrote a few days ago for my next book, but I didn;t want to give everything away in a blog post!

Good luck with 'Gifts from the Gods':
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gifts-Gods-Good-Trade-Tax/dp/1797521500/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=gifts+from+the+gods+tony+milne&qid=1556108920&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

Kelly Olson link

9/4/2021 02:19:29

Great blog yyou have here

Colin Duncan Taylor link

12/4/2021 13:08:56

Glad you like it, Kelly! Have you read my book, 'Lauragais: Steeped in History, Soaked in Blood'? Details are on my website. Thanks again for the feedback.
Colin

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Bruno Bouché adds sparkle to my next book

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Colin Duncan Taylor