Think of Champagne and what comes to mind? The Great Gatsby? New Year’s Eve? Formula 1? What about cider?
Cider and Champagne may seem far cries from one another, but there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the relationship between the two. In fact a lot of what works to bring Champagne’s vivacious fizz to life was used on Cider first, to the point where Champagne may not be the drink it is today without the existence of Cider.
Don’t believe me? Well, let’s go on a little history lesson, shall we?
Before there was Champagne there was Méthode Ancestrale, the name given to pétillant-naturel style sparkling drinks. Ancestral because it’s a method of carbonating drinks that predates traditional methods and, unlike most methods of carbonating cider today, involves only one fermentation.
This simplified form of sparkling wine is often traced back to 1531 Limoux, France. The monks who were cultivating vineyards at the time supposedly discovered that by bottling their wine ever so slightly earlier than usual the last of the carbon dioxide would become trapped in the bottle, causing a soft, foamy fizz.
Now you’d be right to point out that this was a method used in winemaking, not cider making. But there is no such thing as original thought, and it’s important to know which sparkling methods were already in use during the sixteenth century before we go onto some rather exciting sparkling cider history.
“Cider replaced wine on most tables throughout the land and was drunk in similar ways too, out of glass bottles and from glass flutes.”
Rachel Hendry
Rachel Hendry
Rachel Hendry
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