The language of champagne in nineteenth-century Britain

Abstract

Sparkling champagne has a uniquely multivocal register. In the nineteenth century it was a ‘new’ wine distinguished not just by the pop of the cork and the fizz of the bubbles but by the marketing language that evolved around it and by its metonymic link with Victorian social life. Building on Karrebæk, Riley and Cavanaugh’s 2018 assertion that food and language are ‘mutually constitutive’, I develop their four-way heuristic of language through, about, around and as food to stress the uniquely agentic quality of champagne. Using contemporary sources, the article shows how the ‘language’ of champagne penetrated all levels of British society–from the songs of the music-hall to the corridors of power. Uniquely among wines, champagne acquired popular nicknames. It was very widely advertised using language that focused on its associations with celebrity, power and status. Unlike other wines, champagne did not develop a connoisseurial language. To use Michael Silverstein’s term, it did not attract ‘oinoglossia’. Unlike other foodstuffs, champagne also had agency. Contemporary accounts of public dinners, domestic supper parties, romantic encounters and even marriage negotiations accord champagne a significant role. The sound and ‘language’ of champagne conveyed meaning and cued action as other alcoholic beverages did not.