Dom Pérignon – monk and cellar master

Dom Pérignon (1638-1715) entered the religious life at the age of 15. At the age of 20, he entered the hilltop Abbaye St-Pierre in the tiny village of Hautvillers, south of Reims, where it was his job to tend to the vines.

Dom Pérignon soon the improved the techniques that would forever revolutionize champagne making methods – finding just the right blend of wines; select only the finest grapes from the harvest; pressing red grapes in a way that prevented the skins from coloring the white juices; and using chalk cellars to preserve a constant temperature.

It was him who perfected the process of fermenting champagne in the bottle. He also renounces additives and unnatural processes.

Pérignon’s real legacy to change was in skillful blending of grape varieties from different vineyards and the use of a wire or hempen cage for the cork.

Perfected in 1670, monastery champagne was a forerunner of today’s popular celebratory and holiday drink. Legend has it that upon his first sip he cried out, ‘Come quickly, I am drinking the stars.’
Dom Pérignon – monk and cellar master