Tiny bubbles...

Champagne Brut captures the delicate scent of this bubbly white wine, with a hint of fruit, and maybe a bit more sweetness that Dom Perignon would have approved of.

Champagne, France, is home to the bottle beverage enjoyed by many on New Year's Eve. Champagne was first made by a monk, Dom Perignon, in 1688. He was appointed treasurer at the Abby of Hautcillers to develop the areas wine industry and part of his duties included managing the wine making and cellars.

Perignon made a beverage with bubbles that would explode in storage. The bubbles in the champagne and sparkling wine develop during the fermentation process. This was not the outcome Perignon had wanted to achieve. He wanted to prevent the bubbles and make a wine more pleasing to the courts. However, after people tasted the fizzy beverage, they started to demand it and the drink became the rage in Europe. You'll notice the champagne is bottled in thicker glass than wine, for instance, and that the corks are thicker, too. Perignon used thicker bottles and cork stoppers to prevent the bottles from exploding during the fermentation process.

Perignon mastered the art of blending grapes to create different tastes. Brut refers to the extremely dry quality of the wine, which means that the wine lacks residual sugar, or sweetness.