A sparkling wine specifically made in the French region of the same name, using a traditional process that makes the wine effervescent due to the release of carbonic acid gas during a secondary fermentation in the bottle, a technique known as méthode champenoise. The bottles are placed neck first, sloping down, in special racks, and turned by hand in calculated degrees on a specific schedule known as rémuage, allowing sediment to collect at the cork. They're then opened, releasing the sediment in its carbonated spray, then topped up, recorked and sent to market. In the early 1970s, the Spanish winemaker Freixenet invented the gyropalette, sometimes called a girasol, Spanish for "sunflower", a spherical steel frame that mimics remuage, finally mechanizing the centuries-old costly and time-consuming practice. A gyropalette can hold about 500 bottles of sparkling wine, and the entire frame is tilted and rotated incrementally by computer. They're now widely used in Spain, California and France.
The first reference to any "wine of Champagne" dates back to 1493, when it was only a still wine and tawny in color, owing to the slow, manual pressing that kept the must in contact with the skin and seeds for a prolonged period of time. Champagne is made exclusively with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier grapes, and it's illegal in Europe to use the word Champagne for sparkling wines not made in its region using its method. Some U.S. wineries still appropriate the name for their sparkling wines, but to a lesser degree than before. Although it's impossible to credit Champagne's development with any one person, the 17th-century French Benedictine monk Dom Perignon is often credited with its creation.
