Blur star told to 'stick to music' by French after claiming Brits invented champagne

Blur bass player turned farmer Alex James has sparked the ire of the French after claiming that both champagne and brie actually originated in the UK and Ireland

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Showbiz

Stian Alexander

20:44, 04 Nov 2023

[Damon said they're towards the "latter end of the book"]

Blur back in the 90s(Image: Photo by Brian Rasic/Getty Images)

Blur star Alex James has upset the French by claiming the Brits and Irish invented their most famous foods.

The bass player, 54 now a farmer says champagne is from the West Country and Brie was actually first created in Ireland.

He said: Its thought that champagne was probably invented in Britain because we had better glass that could withstand the fermentation process. The French claim they invented champagne and brie, but brie was probably invented in Ireland, and champagne was probably invented in Somerset.

Only sparking wines from the Champagne region of France - just over 300 villages in around 82,000 acres - are allowed to call the product champagne

Other producers have to call it sparkling wine under strict trademark rules.

Fizzy champagne dates back to the 16th Century, with many crediting English scientist Christopher Merret with adding sugar to wine to create sparkling wine.

[Former Blur bassist Alex James meets a model version of himself, along with a model of Shaun the Sheep and Gromit, at Churchill Heath Farm in Kingham, Chipping Norton. Picture date: Tuesday August 3, 2021.]

Blur star Alex James has wound up the French(Image: PA)

Merret, who lived in the West Country, created the fizz around six years before Dom Prignon.

Although Brie is unmistakably French - it was invented by monks at the Priory of Rueil en Brie in the Middle Ages - different varieties are also made in Somerset, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland.

Furious Frenchman Claude Pepin, 45, hit back. saying This man should stick to music he obviously knows nothing about food or drink.

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