By writing this article, I had no other intensions than to invite you to have an exciting journey in the world of champagne, enlarge your scope of knowledge or to raise self-appraisal of those who know everything about champagne. If it were up to me I would discuss all the issues concerning champagne starting from the chemical aspects of fermentation moving through the financial conditions of champagne market and finishing with the social aspects of champagne consumption let’s say in Taiwan. But to cover all these topics the whole book won’t be enough, so, I will provide you, of course, not in a precise way Google or Wikipedia can, with some interesting insights and observations predominantly from cultural area.
Champagne, as it is clear from its name, is produced in Champagne region in the Northeastern part of France. I’m prompting to inform you that not any type of sparkling wine even from the heart of Champagne can be called champagne. There is have specific Champagne wine region (not to be confused with an administrative entity, wine region is much smaller) between the cities of Reims and Epernay.
The region was famous for its high quality white wine, albeit not sparkling yet, from the Middle Ages. I can assume that such popularity is due to the history of Reims, where traditionally French Kings were crowned. Modern champagne producers such as Moet & Chandon or Bollinger should be thankful to Clovis, legendary King, who baptized French people in Reims. That is about Champagne wine, now let me bring your attention to Champagne bubbles that go slightly separately alongside the history of Champagne as a whole. French Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Pérignon (one of the most famous champagne brand today has his name, by the way), is considered to be the founder of the sparkling champagne wine. Factually, he wasn’t, moreover, by his grape investigations he tried to do nothing but to get rid of bubbles, as they were thought to be characteristic of low quality wine. Bubbles were rescued by the British, who developed the taste for that strange sparkling wine. Starting from that point, champagne and bubbles never went apart. 
Champagne has become a prominent part of the contemporary culture; just remember champagne baths or Formula 1 celebrations with racers spraying precious drink over each other and over the audience. Look at the smiling Michael Schumacher’s face on the photo. What such a wasting of quite expensive drink (more than 50 Euro for bottle) could be if not the symbol of the universal luxury performance, if I may say so. Champagne and luxury have become interchangeable terms indeed-when you mention one, you certainly think about the other. However, let me bring your attention from “luxury” as I don’t intend to speculate on this dubious category to another interesting yet not commonly known aspect of champagne world. As you might know, the standard champagne bottle is 0,75l. But look at the Schumacher’s photo once again. He is holding 1,5l bottle and that is not by chance. Formula 1 racers use only 1,5l bottles for their rituals. Frankly, 0,75l is good for drinking, but for spraying, with all its symbolism, only 1,5l bottles can make sense. These bottles are called Magnum that means “Great” in Latin. Moving further, champagne producers use the names of Biblical kings and heroes for various bottle sizes above 1,5l. So, among champagne professionals, Jeroboam is a name for 3l bottle, Methuselah is for 6l and Melchizedek is for gigantic 30l bottle. Thereby, if you are to become a real connoisseur, you should exclude any mention of litters from your lexicon and address champagne bottles by their difficult but still fascinating names. 
Actually, there is a long list of ladies and gentlemen who contributed to the popularity of champagne Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon to Michael Schumacher and Marilyn Monroe. I would like to bring your attention to a fictional British agent better known under his code name - I’m speaking about James Bond, thanks to whom champagne became an attribute of tough guy alongside with stunning girlfriend, expensive car and special agent’s gadgets. Speaking about brands, the official champagne of James Bond is Bollinger, but in several series brave special agent was seen while drinking Dom Perignon, the product of rival company. These two brands together with several others, such as Moёt & Chandon, Mumm, Laurent Perrier and Louis Roederer are usually referred as Grandes Marques and cover more than 90% of the whole champagne market.Alex Minbaev
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