How did Champagne Become a Mandatory Accessory for Celebration?

Champagne has always been a special treat to the senses. Its fine bubbles can’t be reproduced by any means – no artificially added bubbles give your tongue quite the sensation of the traditionally manufactured Champagne. Sparkling wine varieties are to be found in many countries, ranging from Italy’s ‘Frizzante’, Spain’s ‘Cava’, Germany’s ‘Sekt’, and many others, but none have quite the charm and prestige, not to mention the price of the traditionally made sparkling variety manufactured in the French region of Champagne.

Champagne is a mandatory accessory to celebrations big and small and a sign of welfare and opulence in many Western cultures. So much so, that it has left its footprint on all aspects of our lives, from the silver screen to the simplest levels of casual entertainment, like the slot machines at Wild Jack Casino. Many Wild Jack slots and games – especially those that focus on the riches people may win while playing them – feature Champagne in one way or another. Usually, it’s either as a symbol on the reels of a Wild Jack slot or as an animation denoting a big win, suggesting the life of richest that follows. Not to mention the fact that most Wild Jack players are probably running to the store to buy one of the most expensive bottles of sparkling wine once they win big – Champagne is part of the celebration no matter if it’s a Wild Jack jackpot, a lottery win, a wedding, a christening or any other happy event that’s being celebrated.

Actually, it’s a Champagne manufacturer that’s most likely to be to blame for the proliferation of Champagne as part of celebrating anything. As a way to celebrate the end of the Prohibition in the US on December 5th, 1933, French luxury winery Moët & Chandon decided to release a special cuvée for the occasion. It was a prestige cuveée, high quality and designed to commemorate to the return of alcohol to the ‘legal’ status in the US. Later, Fred Chandon – who might have been a sports fan or might have seen an opportunity in them, we’ll never really know – started offering large bottles of Champagne to winners of the French Formula 1 Grand Prix winners held on the famous Reims circuit, which is in the heart of the Champagne region. Soon, the presence of big Champagne bottles on the podiums has become a tradition – and later the spraying of its contents on the opponents and the audience was added to the show.

Anecdotal evidence of Champagne being used for a variety of celebrations predates the above – the British have been known to use wine to launch ships since the 17th century but nobody knows when they switched to bottles of Champagne. Besides, back in the day, when Champagne was traditionally a dessert variety, it was often served with the wedding cake, which surely contributed to its current status of a mandatory accessory when celebrating… anything.