At the height of the Parisian fashion for ‘physiologies’, the journalist and playwright Louis Lurine, together with an unknown co-author, published the volume “Physiology of Champagne” in 1841, deliberately following on from Brillat-Savarins’ “Physiologie du goût” of 1826. As the genre dictates, it is a sparkling portrait of manners set in the era of the ‘Citizen King’ Louis Philippe. In a subjective and associative style, the author blends aphorisms, feuilletons and short novellas, in which biting satire, sentimental memoir and political analysis coalesce into a multifaceted medley. All this is held together by the book’s actual subject: champagne, the fashionable Parisian drink of the time. The author defends it against the Justemilieu of the July Monarchy as a catalyst for democratic freedom and as the cradle of creative inspiration. From a wine-historical perspective, this is the first cultural-historical monograph on this then still young drink and its epoch-defining impact.
Here are a few extracts from the text and the afterword. They are published here in English in the hope that this will draw the attention of the English-speaking public to the book.
The Physiology of Champagne
Aphorisms
The only thing on earth that is to be taken seriously is viticulture.
Voltaire, Correspondence with d’Alembert
Tell me what you drink, and I shall tell you who you are.
Brillat-Savarin, Correspondence
Cattle are watered, men drink, but only the witty know how to tipple.
Before you invite a man to drink, test him.
Champagne is the flint in the gastronomic musket.
Trapped beneath the cork, sparkling champagne is a fallen nectar that remembers the heavens!
At a meal, one should count bottles of champagne only in pairs.
Mlle Virginie D.
A dinner without champagne is like a magic lantern without candles.
Florian
Champagne is to a good dinner what words are to a man of wit.
Champagne is to a country’s civilisation what the thermometer is to its temperature.
Iphigenia in Champagne
Mademoiselle Laguerre had the charming habit of preparing for the performance of ‘Iphigenia in Tauris’ with several sips of champagne; Iphigenia was the longest and most demanding role in her repertoire, and the famous artist usually drew from a pleasant tipsiness the strength and talent to perform it well.
One evening, after showering her with applause, a foreign nobleman asked whether she was playing Iphigenia in Aulis or in Tauris. ‘No,’ replied a witty spectator, ‘she is playing Iphigenia in Champagne!’
That was Mademoiselle Laguerre’s finest creation, by God!
Recommendations and Preferences
In his unforgettable work “Physiology of Taste”, Brillat-Savarin recommended to the public gastronomic establishments and first-class suppliers which, according to the discerning taste of his palate, deserved the favour of true gourmets.
It would not become us to follow the famous physiologist’s example with regard to renowned champagne producers; a recommendation or praise would certainly put us in an awkward position: the merchants we recommend in this little book would take it upon themselves to send us considerable quantities of their delicious wares, and unfortunately our supplies are secured for many years to come:
At present, there is not room for a single bottle on the vast shelves of our cellars.
But even in principle, a recommendation or expression of preference seems difficult in such a case, and we are tempted to exclaim with Mr Scribe:
We love all women,
and we drink all wines …
from Champagne!
Excerpt from the editor’s afterword
The development of champagne in the first half of the 19th century
Where exactly does champagne stand in the year 1841, when Lurine devoted himself to it? After all, its physiology is arguably the first monograph from a cultural perspective to deal exclusively with champagne. In fact, following the dramatic years of the Revolution and the violent upheavals of the crumbling Empire, during which foreign troops had swept through and occupied the Marne department, champagne production had resumed its rise from the mid-18th century. At that time, champagne was still a relatively young drink. Maison Ruinart, the very first champagne house, dates back only to 1729.
The numerous expropriations of church and noble estates in the wake of the Revolution and their subsequent auctioning off, mostly to bourgeois owners, had led to a new dynamic in Champagne. In 1820, the Maison Irroy was founded, from which Taittinger would emerge; Joseph Perrier followed in 1825. The following year, the House of Louis Roederer was given its present name. Champagne Bollinger was founded in 1829, and Deutz & Geldermann in 1838.
It was the Congress of Vienna, which took place from October 1814 to June 1815, that truly made champagne a European drink. For the Congress did not march, but danced, as a bon mot by the Prince de Ligne put it – and the ‘spirit bubbled like champagne’, as the Count of Lagarde-Chambonas recalled in his memoirs. Few events in history have contributed as much to the spread of champagne as the Congress of Vienna, at which the course was set for the rest of the 19th century.
Champagne conquers Paris
At the same time, champagne was conquering the city of Paris in the coffee houses and a new type of dining establishment, the ‘restaurants’, where the former personal chefs of the French aristocracy found new opportunities to earn a living. Champagne historian Eric Glatre writes of the period between 1815 and 1830:
Gourmet dinners and suppers were on the rise, mostly among men. Sparkling wine from Champagne is a must in these restaurants, which make up the glory of Paris, as well as in their provincial counterparts. These establishments also welcome high society and the demi-monde to these feasts, where ‘young girls and champagne are popped’ and which can take place in the ‘private salons’ that are coming into fashion and where the king of wines is at home.
For these ‘refined celebrations’, Glatre quotes Horace Raisson from his ‘Code gourmand’ of 1829: ‘Unless expressly requested, you should serve no wine other than champagne at the table! It is the wine of ladies and, above all, of lovers. It lends greater vigour to merriment, greater liveliness to the spirit; it even awakens tenderness”.
Yet at that time, champagne was still a wine in its infancy. It was during the first decades of the 19th century that significant technical innovations in champagne production took place: the invention of the riddling rack to remove the dead yeast in a single process, the introduction of the dosage, and the production of the first vintage champagnes. As late as 1832, the Reims Chamber of Commerce estimated the volume of mediocre red wines from the Marne, unworthy of transport, at 300,000 hectolitres, that of quality red wines at 120,000 hl, and that of white wines at 60,000 hl, of which at least half was processed into sparkling wines. The majority of wines from Champagne were still not ‘proper’ Champagne.
A wine in the making
The decisive breakthrough came in 1837 with Jean-Baptiste François’s ‘Traité sur le travail des vins blancs mousseaux’, the ‘Treatise on the Production of White Sparkling Wines’. François explained the connection between the addition of sugar (the so-called “liqueur de tirage”) to the base wines prior to bottle fermentation and the subsequent formation of bubbles. Previously, there had been many spectacular cases of bottle breakage due to overdosing, often resulting in human “collateral damage” as well. His method, known as the “François reduction”, reduced the rate of bottle breakage to between 3 and 8 per cent: even though it was imprecise (and was naturally superseded later by more accurate methods), it did prevent major errors – a crucial prerequisite for the large-scale trade and export of bottled champagne. The “Physiology” then mentions, in 1841, 4 million bottles of champagne produced for France and the world. By 2022, this figure was set to reach an all-time high of 326 million bottles. […]
Bibliographic details
[Louis Lurine and Bouvier:] Physiology of Champagne
Edited from the French and with an afterword by Stefan Pegatzky
© 2026 German edition: Stefan Pegatzky / Sur-la-pointe
Publisher: BoD · Books on Demand GmbH
ISBN: 978-3-6963-8036-6
128 pages, numerous illustrations, paperback
14.99 euros [available directly from the publisher or Amazon]
Image rights
Title pages of ‘Physiologie du vin de Champagne’ and ‘Traité sur le travail des vins blancs mousseaux’: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France
All others: Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
