Dom Pérignon (monk)

Dom Pierre Pérignon (December 1638 – 14 September 1715) was a French Benedictine monk whose work significantly improved the production and quality of champagne wine at a time when the region mostly produced still red wines. Contrary to popular stories, he did not invent sparkling champagne; that style did not become the norm until the mid-1800s. The prestige cuvée of Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, is named after him, and the remains of the monastery where he lived as an adult now belong to that winery.

Pérignon was born in December 1638 in Sainte-Menehould, in the ancient Province of Champagne, Kingdom of France. He was baptized on 5 January 1639, the youngest of seven children. His mother died the following summer. His father’s family owned several vineyards in the area. As a child, he joined the boys’ choir school at the Benedictine Abbey of Moiremont, studying there until 1651, when he went to the Jesuit college in Châlons-sur-Marne. At age 17, he entered the Benedictine Order at the Abbey of Saint-Vanne near Verdun, a leading monastery of the Congregation of St. Vanne, which emphasized a reform of monastic life based on prayer, study, and manual labor as outlined in the Rule of Saint Benedict. In 1668, he was transferred to the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers, where he served as cellarer for the rest of his life. Under his management, the abbey thrived and doubled its vineyard holdings, while he worked to improve the wine with help from Dom Thierry Ruinart, a noted scholar at the abbey.

When Pérignon died in 1715, he was buried in a section of the abbey cemetery traditionally reserved for abbots, as a sign of honor. That cemetery now belongs to the local commune. The most photographed statue of Dom Pérignon stands at the entrance to Moët & Chandon’s headquarters in Épernay. In summer 2022, a more artistic bronze statue was unveiled in Hautvillers, which incorporates a large glass champagne bottle into the figure’s lower portion and a grapevine trunk motif at its base. Two cellar keys hanging from his belt sash represent the coat of arms of the same village.

In Pérignon’s time, in-bottle refermentation—now used to create sparkling wine—was a serious problem for winemakers. When autumn weather cooled, fermentation sometimes stopped before all sugars had turned to alcohol. Bottling such wine created a hazard: in spring, dormant yeast would restart fermentation, producing carbon dioxide that could push out corks or, worse, cause bottles to explode, setting off a chain reaction that endangered workers and the vintage. Dom Pérignon therefore tried to avoid refermentation. However, he did introduce practices that are now hallmarks of Champagne, especially extensive blending of grapes from multiple vineyards.

In 1718, Canon Godinot published a set of winemaking rules attributed to Dom Pérignon. These rules stated that fine wine should be made only from Pinot noir, as Pérignon disliked white grapes for their tendency to referment. Other rules included aggressive pruning to keep vines no higher than three feet and produce smaller crops; harvesting in cool, damp conditions (such as early morning) to avoid bruising grapes; discarding rotten and overly large grapes; forbidding grape treading; and using multiple presses to minimize contact between juice and skins. Pérignon was also an early advocate of winemaking using only natural processes, without adding foreign substances.

The famous quote attributed to Pérignon—“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”—supposedly came from his first taste of sparkling champagne, but it first appeared in a late-19th-century print advertisement. Stories that he was the first to use corks or could name a specific vineyard by tasting a single grape likely originated from Dom Groussard’s account of him. Before blending, he would taste grapes without knowing their source vineyard to avoid bias. References to his “blind tasting of wine” have led to the common misconception that Dom Pérignon was blind. Contrary to popular belief, he did not introduce blending to Champagne wines but rather the method of blending grapes before they were pressed.