Subscriber Early Access
Summary
We’re in early-1600s Britain: wine is primitive, often adulterated, never sparkling.
Glassmaking is rudimentary, religion is a hot potato – but business is brisk if you’re a swashbuckling type with the ear of the king.
The scene is set for a technological revolution comparable to that of the smartphone at the dawn of the 21st century…the result of which will be the invention of champagne as we know it today.
We’re midway through the story of The Knight Who Invented Champagne – as told by the book’s author, Stephen Skelton MW, a viticultural consultant (and former sheep farmer) who recently helped Champagne Taittinger set up their English wine operation, Domaine Evremond.
In this second and concluding instalment, we meet Skelton’s mysterious titular hero – Sir Kenelm Digby – as well as the likes of King James I, Admiral Sir Robert Mansell, and one Dr Christopher Merret, who (in a key piece of evidence from 1662) reveals that sugar is being added to wine to make it, ‘drink brisk and sparkling.’
This all adds up to a seminal moment in not just wine but also British history (you could argue that the wider events here, including the advent of coal power, foreshadow the Industrial Revolution, for example).
Yet this story is not as well known as it deserves to be. Something we’re putting right here. As well as touching on issues as wide-ranging as collops of bacon, spasmodic rheumatic pains, The Oyster Lunch painting (see above), an intense love affair, cider, Westminster Abbey, a small bomb, the origin of branding, punts and rams’ scrotums.
Starring
Subscribe
Sign up to Wine Blast PLUS for first-class subscriber-only content, to access our full archive, support the show and get every episode before it goes on free release.
You’ll also get subscriber-only discounts with the likes of Coravin, Jancis Robinson glassware and Academie du Vin Library.
Just visit WineBlast.co.uk to sign up – it’s very easy, and we will HUGELY appreciate your support.
It takes a monumental amount of work to make Wine Blast happen. Your support will enable the show to continue and grow – and we have lots of fantastic ideas of things we’d like to develop as part of Wine Blast to maximise the wine fun. The more people who sign up, the more we’ll be able to do.
Links
- To find or buy Stephen’s book, click on this link: The Knight Who Invented Champagne
- There are more details about this story in the Christie’s World Encyclopaedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine by Tom Stevenson and Essi Avellan MW
- Stephen mentions the English wine brand named after the hero of his story, who make some terrific wines, so here’s the link to Digby Fine English
Get in Touch!
We LOVE to hear from you.
You can send us an email. Or find us on social media (links below).
Or, better still, leave us a voice message via the magic of SpeakPipe:
Transcript
Coming soon