March 19, 2026 - 1 comments
🥂 England vs France: Who Really Invented Sparkling Wine?
You may have heard sparkling wine was invented in England… or perhaps by Dom Pérignon in Champagne. But the real story is far richer, a tale of monks, scientists and glassmakers...
🍇 Limoux: The First Sparkling Wine? (1496)
Long before Champagne, Limoux in southern France played a key role in sparkling wine history. The name blanquette first appears in a 1496 record, referring to a local white wine, the ancestor of today’s Blanquette de Limoux.
Around 1531, legend has it that Benedictine monks at the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire noticed a wine developing bubbles in the bottle.
Because Blanquette de Limoux is sparkling today, it’s often described as the world’s oldest documented sparkling wine.
But there’s a catch:
we can’t be sure the wine mentioned in 1496 actually fizzed.
Historians assume it might have, since it shares the name with the sparkling wine we know today, but there’s no solid proof the sparkling process was understood or mastered back then.
🇬🇧 England’s Role: Science and Strong Glass (1662)
In 1662, Dr. Christopher Merrett presented a paper to the Royal Society describing how adding sugar before bottling triggers secondary fermentation, the core of modern sparkling wine.
Merrett’s insight coincided with English glassmakers’ advances: coal-fired furnaces produced stronger bottles, while cork stoppers, rediscovered after centuries, sealed them reliably. This combination of sugar, cork, and sturdy glass made consistent effervescence possible.
This doesn’t mean England invented sparkling wine per se, but Merrett’s work is the first surviving written description of a deliberate method to make wine sparkle using a second fermentation, effectively a scientific blueprint for what later became the méthode traditionnelle.
🍾 Champagne: Refinement and Reputation
In the Champagne region of northern France, effervescence wasn’t always welcomed. Cold winters often slowed or stopped fermentation, which could restart in spring after bottling, sometimes causing bottles to explode in the cellars. Early Champagne winemakers saw these bubbles as a fault, not a feature. In fact, Dom Pérignon and his peers tried to prevent effervescence because weak glass and uncontrolled fermentation often caused bottles to burst, injure workers, and destroy inventory.
Dom Pérignon’s real legacy was not inventing fizz, but improving wine quality. He refined blending, advanced cork closures, and elevated winemaking standards. As bottles strengthened and tastes shifted (bubbles became fashionable, especially in England), Champagne embraced effervescence. By the 17th–18th centuries, sparkling production was deliberate and sophisticated, cementing Champagne’s global prestige.
The true origin of sparkling wine remains a mystery. Limoux offers the earliest hints, England revealed the science, and Champagne helped perfect the art.
On the Raisin app we do have over 3600 natural sparkling wines from around the world.
What’s the oldest sparkling wine you’ve tried?
