The words 'Champagne' and 'celebration' are synonymous, and never more so than on New Year's Eve. In fact, of all the wines in creation, champagne is unique in its universal connection with joy and festivity. It launches ships, toasts births, brides and grooms, and adds lustre to special occasions including engagements, anniversaries, promotions, and more. As much as we enjoy it, however, few of us know of its history or evolution. Lifestyle's Nancy Acton finds out.

Champagne is a province in northeastern France, and the sparkling wine which takes its name is made from grapes grown in the region. Only wines from Champagne are allowed to carry the name.

Before the 1600s, there was no Champagne as we know it today. For centuries, there were only still wines which were highly regarded by European nobility, but the region's cool climate, and its effect on the wine making process, played an important role in changing things.

With the French kings' assistance, wine production in the monasteries of Champagne was a serious venture until the French revolution in 1789.

Contrary to popular belief, it was not Dom Pérignon who invented Champagne, but the Benedictine monk, Pierre Pérignon, who became treasurer of the Abbey of Hautvilliers, near Epernay, in 1688.

However, Dom Pérignon's duties included management of the cellars and wine-making.

For him and his contemporaries, sparkling wine was regarded as a sign of poor wine making, so he spent a great deal of time trying to prevent the bubbles, the instability of what he called "this mad wine", and the creation of a white wine which the French court would prefer to red Burgundy.

Although Dom Pérignon failed to prevent bubbles, he did develop the art of blending.

Not only did he manage to blend different grapes, but also the juice from the same grape grown in different vineyards.

In addition, he developed a way to get white juice from pressed black grapes, and also improved clarification techniques as a result of which he produced a wine brighter than all others.

He ended the problem of exploding bottles by replacing them with stronger ones invented by the English, and sealed them with Spanish corks rather than the wood and oil-soaked hemp stoppers in common use.

Thus it was that, during his 47 years as cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers, and before his death in 1715, Dom Pérignon established the basic principles which are still used in Champagne making today.

And just what causes those unavoidable bubbles which give Champagne its sparkle? Basically, it is the region's cold climate and short growing season.

The grapes must be picked late in the year, which does not leave enough time for the yeast on the grape skins to convert into alcohol the sugar in the pressed juice before the cold winter temperatures temporarily halt fermentation.

With the arrival of warmer temperatures in Spring, refermentation begins anew — this time in the bottles — as a result of which carbon dioxide becomes trapped in them, thus creating the famous sparkle.

The complexity and capital intensity of making Champagne ultimately led to merchants replacing monastic and aristocratic growers, and with them the perfection of fermentation, aging, distribution, marketing and exporting.

In 1818, Antoine Muller, master of widow Clicquot's cellar, eliminated the time-consuming process of decanting bottles of Champagne individually, through a process of 'riddling', whereby the sediment of dead yeast cells rose to the neck of the bottle for easy removal, while preserving the carbon dioxide.

Corking machines and wine muzzles came into use in the 1820s and 1830s, and in 1836 a Châlons-sur-Marne pharmacist, M. Françon, invented an instrument to measure the amount of sugar in wine, so that the precise amount of sugar needed to stimulate fermentation could be calculated.

This reduced the burst-bottle syndrome to a mere five percent, making visiting the cellars much safer.

By 1853, total sales of sparkling champagne reached 20 million, and in the 1920s the houses of Bollinger, Irroy, Mumm and Joseph Perrier were established.

After the First World War, the Champagne market dried up due to the Bolshevik revolution, prohibition in the US, and then the Great Depression. Champagne houses stopped buying grapes, so growers formed the first Champagne cooperatives.

The industry began to turn around in 1934, and the influential head of Moët & Chandon, Robert-Jean de Vougë, played a major role in securing its future.

He proposed that the purchase price of champagne grapes be set at a level to ensure a decent living for growers, and in 1941, during the German occupation of France, was also instrumental in persuading the Germans to establish the very successful Comité Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne.

Champagnes are classified as vintage or non-vintage. The former is made from high-quality grapes from the same year, and the wines must be aged three years before they are released. Non-vintage Champagnes are made from a blend of grapes from different years, and aged in the bottle for 18 months.

The labels of authentic Champagnes will say 'Champagne' or 'méthode champenoise'. The smaller the bubbles, the finer the Champagne. There are an estimated 45 million bubbles in each bottle at the moment of opening.

In addition to these classifications, six other classifications are also used to refer to the Champagne's sweetness.

They are: Brut — dry, less than 1.5 percent sugar; Extra Sec — extra dry, 1.2 to 2 percent sugar; Sec — medium sweet, 1.7 to 3.5 percent sugar; Demi-Sec — sweet. 3.3 to 5 percent sugar; and Doux — very sweet, over 5 percent. The latter two are dessert Champagnes.

Chardonnay and pinot noir grapes are the main varieties used in other forms of sparkling wine, which are made by the same process elsewhere in the world except the Champagne region of France. Producers may put the words 'mé thode traditionnelle' on the labels, and these wines are somewhat less expensive.

How champagne is made

The production method devised by the famous 19th century famous houses to make Champagne are still used today. The first fermentation produces a still, acidic wine.

Before it is bottled, a small measure of wine, sugar and yeast is added. This is known as the 'liqueur de tirage'.

The bottle is then sealed and the liqueur sets off a second fermentation, with the resultant carbon dioxide bubbles trapped inside.

The bottle is set upside down and turned at regular intervals to shake the yeasty deposits down into the neck.

This process is known as 'remuage'. At its end the bottle neck is frozen and the bottle is opened to allow the plug of icy sediment, known as lees, to shoot out.

The bottle is then topped off with a small amount of still wine and sugar solution, known as 'liqueur d'expédition' and resealed.

The amount of sugar used at this juncture determines whether the Champagne is Brut (very dry), Sec (less dry), or Demi-Sec (semi-sweet).