Early sparkling wine was called the devil’s wine because bottles burst in the cellars, sometimes destroying 20 to 90 percent of the stock. This episode tells the real story of champagne. The cold northern climate left grapes acidic and stopped fermentation early, so it restarted in the bottle. Dom Pérignon was actually asked to get rid of the bubbles, and English physician Christopher Merret described adding sugar for a second fermentation in 1662.

We walk through the méthode traditionnelle: secondary fermentation, at least 15 months of aging, riddling, and disgorging a frozen plug of yeast under about 90 psi of pressure. We explain why bubbles form on tiny cellulose fibers and laser-etched glass, and what 1800s champagne from a 2010 Baltic shipwreck revealed about how sweet it once was. We finish with the marketing and the legal fight over the name, including Russia’s 2021 labeling law.

• Why stronger English glass from coal-fired ovens was needed for sparkling wine
• How chalk soil and high acidity make good base wine for champagne
• Riddling, disgorgement, the dosage, and the 1844 wire cage
• Russian-style champagne with 200 to 300 grams of sugar per liter
• How champagne houses used royalty, gender and politics in their labels and ads