That’s the famous quote from the French Benedictine Monk, Dom Perignon, which was supposedly uttered for the first time 330 years ago this evening, on August 4, 1693, when–after considerable effort and quite a few missteps—-he and a small group of his fellows are thought to have to have perfected the recipe and the technique for sparkling champagne. Although a wine with the same name as the region in which it was produced had been made for quite some time, Perignon had trained himself to become a master blender of vintages, and developed a process for separating the dark grape skins at just the right moment so as not to darken the color of the end product.
A perfectionist through and through, Perignon is also credited with being the first to regularly use cork to stopper the bottles, making an airtight seal vastly superior to the previous, wooden, plugs. He also experimented with different bottle shapes, and different glass thicknesses, only satisfied when he could replicate his results with consistent batch quality and exceptional flavor.
So I’m raising a toast to Dom Perignon:
Here’s to “The Night They Invented Champagne!”
Nice little movie from 1958, that Gigi, based on the 1944 novel of the same name by the French author Colette. One which has worn better than quite a few of its contemporaries, although not so well as several others.
But one song from the Lerner and Loewe score stands out to me as especially poignant, getting ever more so the older I get, and the more I reflect on life.
Sheer perfection from Maurice and Hermione, reminiscing about an a bygone love–over a pot of tea, no less:
Sweet.
