Hello, this is Carl Raymond, host of the Gilded Gentleman History Podcast.

For so many revelers, partygoers, and those just looking forward to a new year,

it's just not New Year's Eve without a glass or two of champagne.

In this reprise of a classic and listener-favorite episode from the Gilded Gentleman,

Don Spiro joins me for a journey into the bubbling

world of perhaps the world's most famous drink.

It fizzes. It pops. Just the word signals a celebration. And it was the favorite drink

of the elite in the Gilded Age and the Bell Epoch.

The exuberant, vivacious music of Offenbach and Johann Strauss and the waltzes of Franz Lehar all seemed to be fueled by its popping corks and frothing bubbles.

And even today, opening a bottle of it just means something special and announces important gatherings,

no matter how large or small.

It is, of course, champagne, the world's most elegant drink.

But there's a lot more to champagne in its history that lies below its surface effervescence.

Today, my return guest, Don Sparrow and I will take a look at the history of champagne,

and as we did with Absinthe, analyze some of the misconceptions, and set the record straight.

For this show, I recommend you skip our usual cup of tea and find your best champagne glasses

and join us in this truly sparkling story.

Music I'm Carl Raymond, host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast where we take a look beneath the glitter and the gold of America's Gilded Age, Francis Bellepac, and England's late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

The night they invented champagne, it's plain as it can be, they thought of you and me,

the night they invented champagne

They absolutely knew

That all we'd want to do is fly to the sky on champagne

...