Robert Alwin Schlumberger, Edler von Goldeck (12 September 1814 - 13 July 1879) was an entrepreneur and the first producer of

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

(german: link=no, Sekt) in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Life

Schlumberger was born in Stuttgart in the German

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which existe ...

. Upon the early death of his father, he began a commercial apprenticeship. As director of Ruinart, one of the leading champagne houses in Reims, France, he was experienced with the ''

méthode champenoise Sparkling wine production is the method of winemaking used to produce sparkling wine. The oldest known production of sparkling wine took place in 1531 with the ''ancestral method''. Pressure and terminology In popular parlance and also in the ...

''. In 1841, he was on a boat trip when met his future wife Sophie Kirchner from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, the daughter of a wealthy factory owner. He had the idea to produce champagne-like wine (''Schaumwein'') in Austria using the French method but Austrian grapes. In 1842, Schlumberger founded his company renting several vineyards in Vöslau, a small

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

n town south of Vienna situated in the present-day '' Thermenregion'' wine-growing area of the eastern

Vienna Woods The Vienna Woods (german: Wienerwald) are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The and range of hills is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area ...

. His alliance which Sophie Kirchner, whom he married in the following year, helped him finance his business venture. Schlumberger presented his first sparkling wine in 1846 under the name ''Vöslauer weißer Schaumwein'' (White sparkling wine of Vöslau), from 1859 under ''Vöslauer Goldeck'', the first protected wine trademark in Austria. It was produced from red Blauer Portugieser grapes growing in the Goldeck vineyards in Vöslau, which Schlumberger bought in 1843, and the sparkling wine was an immediate success.Wein-Plus Glossar: Schlumberger
accessed on January 23, 2013 Schlumberger wines were on board of the SMS Novara on its around-the-world mission 1857-1859. The company opened branch stores in Berlin and after the

1862 International Exhibition The International Exhibition of 1862, or Great London Exposition, was a world's fair. It was held from 1 May to 1 November 1862, beside the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, London, England, on a site that now houses ...

also in London, where the wine was sold under the brand name "Vöslauer Sparkling". Robert Schlumberger also served as Vöslau mayor from 1864 to 1870. In 1878, one year before his death, he was ennobled by Emperor

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

as "

Edler Edler () was until 1919 the lowest rank of nobility in Austria-Hungary and Germany, just beneath a ''Ritter'' (hereditary knight), but above untitled nobles, who used only the nobiliary particle ''von'' before their surname. It was mostly given to ...

von Goldeck". He died in Vöslau, aged 64. Schlumberger Sparkling Brut 001

Schlumberger Sekt company

Schlumberger's son and heir Otto received the title of a '' K.u.k. Hoflieferant'' in 1895. The company survived the dissolution of the

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

in 1918 and up to today, Schlumberger Wein- und Sektkellerei GmbH with its seat at Vienna-

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria (german: 19. Bezirk, Döbling, Doebling). It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populate ...

is one of the leading producers of sparkling wine in

. In 1973, it was taken over by the German

Underberg Underberg is a digestif bitter produced at Rheinberg in Germany by Underberg AG. It is made from aromatic herbs from 43 countries that undergo inspections and are formulated based on a secret recipe of the Underberg family, whose members are ...

company. * Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon (Red), Merlot (Red), Cabernet Franc (Red) * Specific Vineyards: Goldeck, Hupfenberg, Oberkirchen

Quotes

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguishe ...

(1832–1910) in a letter to his daughter Bergliot from

Schwaz Schwaz () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative center of the Schwaz district. Schwaz is located in the lower Inn valley. Location Schwaz lies in the middle of the Lower Inn Valley at the foot of the Kellerjoch a ...

in Tyrol, 29 May 1894: Vöslauer wine is also mentioned by John Galsworthy (1867–1933) in his 1926 play ''Escape'' as well as in the 1957 volume of novellas ''Fin de siècle'' by

Paul Morand Paul Morand (13 March 1888 – 24 July 1976) was a French author whose short stories and novellas were lauded for their style, wit and descriptive power. His most productive literary period was the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. He was mu ...

(1888–1976).

References

External links

* http://www.schlumberger.at/
Austria Wine Lecture 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlumberger, Robert 19th-century Austrian people Austrian businesspeople Purveyors to the Imperial and Royal Court Edlers of Austria Austrian people of German descent Businesspeople from Stuttgart 1814 births 1879 deaths