I think people should drink bubbly even before their victory. The reason? Celebrating shows they have good faith in their eventual win.

Sparkling winemakers – and especially their marketers — no doubt appreciate my line of thinking.

Right now we can celebrate the upcoming harvest, which always begins with picking grapes groomed for sparkling wine. While winemakers and vineyard managers calculate their picking strategy with an influx of computerized weather data, we can drink in the season by uncorking sparkling wine.

With the focus on Mother Nature during harvest, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of her part in creating bubbly in the first place.

Champagne began as a frothy “mistake,” a petulant bubble. While surprising to some, the sparkle was originally considered a problem when champagne was first developed in the late seventeenth century. In fact, those instrumental in champagnes’ beginnings, were not amused by the fizz and did everything they could to tame it.

The unassailable sparkle was a result of Champagne’s cool temperatures which would halt fermentation in the fall and unleash it again in the spring when the wines warmed up.

When the winemakers couldn’t win their war with the bubble, they decided to make peace with it, and ultimately celebrate it.

So when you uncork your sparkling wine, toast perspective. It can make the peculiar worth celebrating.