top of page

Answer: ③ Dr Christopher Merrett

Dr. Christopher Merrett (1614-1695) was an English physician and scientist.

Actually, it is not accurate to say that he "invented" sparkling wine, but he was the first person in the world who to document the process to create sparkling wine. With the discovery of this literature it is now believed that the origin of sparkling wine is from England.

Merrett.jpg
DP1.jpeg

It is widely believed that sparkling wine was invented by the famous Dom Perignon, who was a French Benedictine Monk and cellar master. In 1697 he made his first sparkling wine in the abbey of Hautvillers in the Champagne region. It is believed that he devoted all his energy to produce non sparkling wines as unwanted bubbles in still wines often caused explosion and damaged glass bottles. The result of which meant losing the entire cellar. It was during his experimentation that he found the mechanism to make sparkling wine.

More than 30 years before Dom Perignon began production, on December 17, 1662, Dr. Merrett presented the Royal Society with documents describing how English wine merchants were adding extra sugar to make them sparkle. This showed that sparkling wines had been already made on commercial basis and sold in England, well before Dom Perignon had established his method of making them.

But it does not mean that Dom Perignon's achievement was insignificant at all.  He was undoubtedly the "inventor of champagne" and found many techniques in viticulture and vinification to improve the quality of the wines. Those techniques and procedures are still used in winemaking today.

​

Also, the answer number  ② Nicolas Ruinart, is the person who founded the world's first champagne house (maison) in 1729. (Note: The Champagne House, Gosset,  is arguably the oldest in the world since it was founded in 1584. However, it originally opened as a maison that handled still wines instead of champagne and became a champagne house later.)

ruinart.png
bottom of page