Dom Perignon's Champagne on This Day in History

This Day In History: Today is the traditional date of Dom Perignon's (a Benedictine monk) invention of Champagne in 1693. Champagne is a French sparkling wine. Many people use the term Champagne as a generic term for sparkling wine, but in the EU and some countries, it is illegal to label any product Champagne unless it came from the Champagne wine region of France and is produced under the rules of that region [appellation]. Monks for centuries have been at the forefront of beer, wine and brandy inventions. They had vast tracts of land for planting grapes or barley, and at the time it was safer to drink beer than water for sanitary reasons. "The process of making beer purified all the ingredients." [Fabrice Bordon] Arnold of Soissons [the patron saint of hop-pickers and Belgian brewers] during an epidemic, deterred people from drinking water and had them consume his brews. Because of this, many people in his church survived the plague.

See also: The Alcoholic & Narcotic History of the World - 60 Books on CDrom
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/09/alcoholic-narcotic-history-of-world-60.html