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Without Reims Cathedral, Champagne
would not have the image that it has today.
Before being recognised
as King of wines, Champagne was happy for a long time to be the
wine of Kings. It has flowed like water at coronations since the
crowning of Charles VI de Valois in 1374. It was a good beginning.
With this prestigious reference, it would be easy to achieve others.
Champagne could, from then on, leave its regional boundaries and
undertake an expansion, which has been continuing over the centuries.
Anticipating the
coming complicity between the Cathedral and our great wine, the
medieval artists paid a tribute based on the viticultural vocation
of our region. Vine branches decorated the capital and balconies
of this most famous of Gothic monuments, while the angel on the
left porch of the west side contemplates with tender expectation
the glass of wine, which it is just about to enjoy.
Since the Cathedral
gave Champagne its great image, we have acquired a recognition of
it that time cannot extinguish. So, it is only right and proper
that on many occasions Vine-growers and Houses added their stone
to the masterpiece constructed by these first builders.
Paul Valéry
wrote that the sea was "continually starting again".
In the same way, the renovation of the Cathedral is a permanent
task, which seeks our aid with every generation.
Not satisfied by
giving their blood to liberate us from the occupiers, our American
Allies have proved their generosity by financing its reconstruction.
Our gratitude is most particularly directed towards the Rockefeller
Foundation, to which the current Cathedral owes so much !
Vine-growers and
Champagne Houses will surely follow this wonderful example. By contributing
to the preservation of one of the most precious possessions of our
national heritage, they are enabling us to sing to the glory of
God, and why not "mezza voce", to that of Champagne
?
Claude TAITTINGER
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