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The oldest recorded sparkling wine was invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire in 1531. They achieved this by bottling the wine before the initial fermentation had ended (now referred to as méthode rurale). Over a century later, the English scientist Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar to a finished wine to create a second fermentation (now known as méthode champenoise).
Champagne did not use the méthode champenoise until the 19th century (about 200 years after Merret documented the process) resulting in exponential growth in Champagne production, going from a regional production of 300,000 bottles a year in 1800 to 20 million bottles in 1850.
In 2017 the Champagne region in France alone shipped just under 318 million bottles.
