In France the
first sparkling Champagne was created accidentally; the pressure in the bottle
led it to be called "the devil's wine" (le vin du diable), as bottles exploded or corks popped. In
1844 Adolphe Jaquesson invented the muselet (a wire frame) to prevent the corks
from blowing out. Initial versions were difficult to apply and inconvenient to
remove. Even when it was deliberately produced as a sparkling wine, Champagne
was for a very long time made by the méthode rurale, where the wine was bottled before the only fermentation
had finished. Champagne did not use the méthode champenoise until the 19th century about 200 years
after Christopher Merret documented the process. The 19th century saw an
explosive growth in Champagne production, going from a regional production of
300,000 bottles a year in 1800 to 20 million bottles in 1850.
