Champagne have been made for special occasions and people, the most notable example perhaps being the 20 fluid ounce / 60 cL. bottle (Imperial pint) made especially for Sir Winston Churchill by Pol Roger. In 2009, a bottle of 1825 Champagne was opened at a ceremony attended by 12 of the world's top wine tasters. This bottle was officially recognised by "Guinness World Records" as the oldest bottle of Champagne in the world. The contents were found to be drinkable, with notes of truffles and caramel in the taste. There are now only two other bottles from the 1825 vintage extant.
Madame Clicquot Ponsardin the house focused entirely on champagne, and thrived using funds supplied by her father-in-law. Under her management and her skill with wine, the company developed early champagne using a novel technique called riddling. Prior to this invention the second fermentation of wine to create champagne resulted in a very sweet wine with large bubbles and sediment from the remains of the yeast used in the fermentation in the bottle (which creates the bubbles in the wine) resulting in a cloudy wine. She still used the original English technique of adding sugar, but after this second fermentation was complete the bottles