search in

Day 18 of The Falstaff wine advent calendar.

Day 18 of The Falstaff wine advent calendar.
© Shutterstock
Home News Wine The Falstaff wine advent calendar: Day 18

The Falstaff wine advent calendar: Day 18

Wine Inspiration

It was an Englishman who created the first sparkling wine bottle.

Gabriel Stone,
18.12.2022

Discovering the sparkling effect of secondary fermentation in bottle is one thing; making a bottle capable of reliably withstanding this extra pressure is quite another. That title goes not to the French, but to entrepreneurial English aristocrat Sir Kenelm Digby.

In the 1630s, Digby created a glass bottle far stronger than the delicate examples then found in France. In 1662 – six years before Dom Pérignon reached Champagne – his Royal Society colleague Christopher Merret presented a paper showing that sparkling wine and cider were already widely embraced in England.

Gabriel Stone
Gabriel Stone
Author
More by Gabriel Stone
Find out more
Wine Inspiration
Famous wines: Best of Wachau
Falstaff reveals nine DAC wines from the Wachau that you shouldn't miss out on.
By Falstaff Editorial Team, Peter Moser
Wine Inspiration
3 wines for your Easter feast
With the privations of Lent coming to an end, it’s time to dial up the festivities with some...
By Ben Colvill

The best

The Best Sweet Wines from Burgenland, Austria - Vintage 1999 The Best Rosé Wines from Austria – Vintage 2012 The Best Sweet Wines from Austria – Vintage 2005 The Best Rieslings from Germany – Vintage 2012 The Best White Wines from Burgenland, Austria - Vintage 2014
Grauburgunder: the best wines from Italy Sauvignon Blanc: the best wines from Canton of Sankt Gallen in Switzerland €€ : the best wines from Emilia-Romagna, Italy Cabernet Franc: the best wines of 2020 from Burgenland White Wine: the best wines of the vintage 1995
Barrier-free – restaurants in Lisboa The best restaurants in Lower Saxony in the Mid-Range Price Category Sunday Opening – restaurants in Saxony The best restaurants in Leogang in the Mid-Range Price Category The best restaurants in Carinthia in the Mid-Range Price Category
Pinot Blanc: the best wines from Veneto in Italy Grenache Blanc / Garnatxa Blanca: the best wines from Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur in France Grauburgunder: the best wines of the vintage 2013 Red Wine 2021: the best wines from Vienna, Austria Grauburgunder: the best wines of 2018 from Lower Austria