The Bubbly: Champagne Trivia (for my next Brain Quiz?)

During our recent Champagne Tasting, Cool educated us about The Bubbly and shared with us some of the more notable quotes about this sparkling delight. Case in point:

     "Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends."
                   --Tom Waits quotes (American Singer and Song Writer, b. 1949)

     "A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands."

                   --Lord Byron quotes (English Romantic poet and satirist, 1788-1824)

     "After all, what is your host's purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself, if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi."

                    --P.J. O'Rourke quotes (American political commentator, Journalist, Writer and Humorist, b. 1947)

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Now, some of the Champagne facts, perhaps for an upcoming Brain Quiz:

Champagne is a sparkling, white colored wine that is produced by secondary fermentation.

Champagne is produced in a region in France by the same name and is called the wine region of France.

Champagne tastes best when it is ice-cold and complements various meals.

Champagne is made from grapes, where the juice is extracted and undergoes double fermentation, once in the barrels and the second time in the bottles it is stored in, to yield a 'glittering' wine.

Champagne's varieties are differentiated by the method in which they are produced.

Champagne is thought to have first been invented in France is the 17th century by Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Hautvillers.

Champagne is made from three different types of grapes (two black, one white), whereas wine is made out of only one type of grape.

Champagne, the name, is copyrighted, and the wine can be named champagne only if it is produced in Champagne (the northeastern region of France).

Champagne produced elsewhere but by the same methodology has to be labeled as 'method champenoise' so as to give credit to the procedure.

Champagne glasses come in two styles, flute and coupe, and the legend is that the broad-rimmed shallow goblet known as a coupe was made using molds in order to resemble Marie Antoinette's bosom.

Champagne bottles stored at 20 degrees C and measuring 750 ml contain approximately 49 million bubbles, a figure calculated by renowned scientist Bill Lembeck.

Champagne bottle pressure is three times higher than that in an automobile tire, measuring at 90 pounds per square inch.

Champagne is said to have been used for a bath for popular American actress Marilyn Monroe, and it took approximately 350 bottles of champagne to fill the tub.

Champagne glass height record (unveiled at a festival in Spotelo, a city in Italy): Seven feet, and it can hold up to 22 bottles of The Bubbly.

Champagne that was served on the Titanic: Heidsieck & Co. Monopole Blue Top Champagne.

Champagne cork velocity when leaving the bottle has been recorded at approximately 38-40 mph, and it pops out at as fast as 100 mph.

Champagne cork fly record: 177 feet, 9 inches, achieved by American Heinrich Medicus in New York in 1988.

Champagne goes very well with seafood, especially smoked salmon*, lobsters, crabs and oysters.

*Hence, the Bethel Valley Girls served Smoked Salmon Caesar at their Champagne Tasting.