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23-520: The Serie B was first carried out in 1898. In the year before, Genevan newspaper La Suisse Sportive organized the first unofficial Swiss Championship, where the Coupe Ruinart was awarded to Grasshopper Club Zürich . The first Serie B was competed for this same cup. The final game was held between Cantonal Lausanne , FC Bern , and Vereinigte St. Gallen , with Cantonal Lausanne beating first FC Bern 2-0 and then Vereinigte St. Gallen 3-2 to win

46-584: A role in numerous international events including ARCO, the Foire de Bale, the Carre Rive Gauche, London Design, and Miami Art Basel. India Mahdavi created the "Champagne Spoon" bottle stopper in 2006, Christian Biecher, created the "Flower" bottle stopper in 2007, Patricia Urqiola, designed the "Fil d'Or" bottle stopper in 2010 and Maarten Baas, named "Designer of the Year" at Art Basel Miami 2009, created

69-575: A round-robin group with eight teams, with the top four promoted/remaining in the NLA and NLB, respectively. Bottom four would be relegated/remain in the NLB or First League, respectively. At the beginning of the 20th century, further format changes to the top Swiss leagues were suggested. Starting with the 2003-04 season , the league was renamed to Challenge League . Unlike the top league, the Super League ,

92-598: Is inspired by the first champagne bottles of the 18th century. 2003-04 Swiss Challenge League The 2003–04 Swiss Challenge League was the first season of the Swiss Challenge League , and the 72nd season of the second tier of the Swiss football league pyramid. It began on 18 July 2003 and ended on 22 May 2004. The champions of this season, FC Schaffhausen , earned promotion to the 2004–05 Super League . SR Delémont finished last and were relegated to

115-466: Is the oldest established Champagne house , exclusively producing champagne since 1729. Founded by Nicolas Ruinart in the Champagne region in the city of Reims , it is currently owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA . An entrepreneur, Nicolas Ruinart realized the ambitions of his uncle, Dom Thierry Ruinart : to make Ruinart an authentic Champagne house. In the period immediately following

138-574: The "Bouquet de Champagne" in 2008 and the "Melting" ice bucket in 2010. Of the prestige cuvées , Dom Ruinart is a blanc de blancs , i.e. made entirely of Chardonnay , and was first released with the 1959 vintage. The Dom Ruinart Rosé, first released in 1962, resembles the Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs with the addition of 16% vinified red Pinot noir . Ruinart Blanc de Blancs is the flagship of Maison Ruinart. The cuvées named R de Ruinart include both Brut non-vintage and vintage wines, with

161-548: The 1728 edict of Louis XV, which authorized the transport of wine in bottles, the house was established. Prior to this edict, wine could only be transported in barrels, which made it impossible to send Champagne to distant markets, and confined consumption primarily to its area of production. Nicolas Ruinart founded the House of Ruinart on 1 September 1729. The first delivery of “wine with bubbles” went out in January 1730. At first

184-1418: The 2003–04 season resulted in an extra team being promoted. The league statistics of the Challenge League era: Vaduz 2:1 Neuchâtel Xamax Neuchâtel Xamax won 3:2 on aggregate Vaduz 0:1 Schaffhausen Schaffhausen won 2:1 on aggregate Neuchâtel Xamax 0:3 Sion Sion won 3:0 on aggregate Aarau 3:1 Bellinzona Aarau won 5:2 on aggregate St. Gallen 0:2 Bellinzona Bellinzona won 5:2 on aggregate Luzern 5:0 Lugano Luzern won 5:1 on aggregate Lugano 0:0 Bellinzona Bellinzona won 2:1 on aggregate Servette 3:1 Bellinzona Servette won 3:2 on aggregate Aarau 1:0 Sion Sion won 3:1 on aggregate Aarau 0:4 (4:5 p ) Neuchâtel Xamax Xamax won after 4:4 on aggregate and 5:4 in penalty shootout. Thun 4:3 Vaduz Vaduz won 5:4 on aggregate. Sion 2:3 Thun Sion won 6:4 on aggregate. Luzern 2-0 Schaffhausen Luzern won 4:2 on aggregate. Lausanne Ouchy 4–2 Sion Lausanne Ouchy wins 6–2 on aggregate Relegation play-off: Rapperswil-Jona 1–3 Xamax Xamax wins 6–1 on aggregate Grasshopper wins 3–2 on aggregate. Ruinart (Champagne) 49°14′41″N 4°03′08″E  /  49.2447932°N 4.0522903°E  / 49.2447932; 4.0522903 Ruinart ( pronounced [ʁɥinaːʁ] )

207-489: The Challenge League did not have a title sponsor at first, until the 2008-09 season which was named the Dosenbach Challenge League . The league would again be without a title sponsor for the following four season. Between 2013 and 2021, it was named brack.ch Challenge League and since the 2021–22 season it is called the dieci Challenge League . The number of participants has fluctuated since

230-548: The NLA. For relegation, the bottom six teams of either group were shuffled into two groups, where the bottom two of both groups are relegated to the First League . The number of teams in the NLB was reduced to 20 in 1993 and further reduced to 16 in 1994. Starting with the 1995–96 season, the NLB was once again reunited and slimmed down to twelve teams. The promotion/relegation and relegation playoffs would also no longer be split into two groups. Both playoffs would be played in

253-529: The National League). These name changes came as a push to create the aforementioned National League, which no longer would be split into regional groups. This reorganization was finally realized for the 1933–34 season, however the First League maintained regional groups. The league was split into a western and eastern group, except in the 1939/40 season where five regional groups were created due to

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276-528: The World War. Starting with the 1944–45 season, the National League B (NLB) was created. Fourteen teams, the top seven teams of both groups in the 1943–44 season, minus champions AC Bellinzona , plus the relegated FC Luzern , would participate in the inaugural season. Initially, the top two of the league were promoted, while the bottom two were relegated. In the 1976–77 season, the number of teams

299-475: The championship. In the 1900-01 season, Serie B winner Fortuna Basel were the first team to be promoted to the Serie A. In the following two seasons, the second teams of Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Zürich won the Serie B and thus no teams were promoted. The Serie B was held under this name until 1922. However, records of these times are spotty at best. In 1922, the league was renamed to Serie Promotion and

322-475: The following seasons, regional Serie B champions played relegation/promotion playoffs against the last placed of the regional leagues in the Serie A. This format would persist until the 1929–30 season. Starting in 1930, both Serie A and B were renamed to First and Second League , respectively, and in the season after the Second League become the First League (as the previous First League became known as

345-423: The former First League (later Promotion League) had also fluctuated. With the new Promotion League, it has been a simple 1-up 1-down promotion/relegation format between Challenge League and Promotion League. Promotion to the Super League had also been restructured along with the name changes. The old promotion/relegation playoffs were scrapped and replaced with the simpler 1-up 1-down format. Between 2003 and 2012,

368-415: The non-vintage minimum 40% Chardonnay, and 60% Pinot noir, with 25% reserve wines, while proportions vary in the vintage wine. Also produced are non-vintage Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, 100% Chardonnay, and Ruinart Brut Rosé, typically 45% Chardonnay and 55% Pinot noir. Ruinart's cellars, acquired in 1768, are amongst the largest in the region, and are Gallo-Roman in origin. Like most Champagne cellars, they are

391-413: The product of ancient chalk mining, and extend 38 metres below the ground and are 8 km long. The chalk helps to keep the cellars at a constant 11 degrees Celsius. The chalk pits were classified as a historic monument in 1931. The Ruinart taste is greatly dependent on the aging in chalk pits: three to four years for non-vintages, and nine to 10 years on average for a vintage Ruinart. The Ruinart bottle

414-481: The renaming of the league. Initially, the Challenge League had 17 participants, but in the following season it was increased to 18. To make the league more attractive to viewers, it was reduced again to 16 participants in 2008 and then further down to ten in 2012 . This last reduction came as a result of the creation of the Promotion League . Similarly, the number of teams relegated and promoted to and from

437-432: The same time the NLB was increased to 24 teams, split once again into two regional groups. Furthermore, the seasons were also split into two stages: a qualifying stage and promotion/relegation stage. During the promotion/relegation stage, the bottom four teams of the NLA would be joined by the top six of both groups. These sixteen teams were once again split into two groups and the top two of both groups would gain promotion to

460-466: The second placed team of the Challenge League would also play a two-legged promotion/relegation playoff against the second-to-last team of the Super League. This playoff was dropped in 2012 and later reintroduced for the 2018–19 season . FC Lugano and FC Lausanne-Sport went bankrupt which meant that no team was relegated due to their league position. FC Sion were not awarded a license for

483-562: The sparkling wine was a business gift for cloth purchasers, as Dom Ruinart’s brother was a cloth merchant, but six years later Maison Ruinart terminated its cloth selling activities due to success in the Champagne business. Ruinart has had a long-standing relationship with the Arts. In 1895, Andre Ruinart asked Czech artist Alphonse Mucha to illustrate a poster of Ruinart. Today the brand is still closely involved with contemporary art and plays

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506-474: Was increased to sixteen. After the number of teams was reverted in 1979, the number of teams was increased again in 1981. This increase was also mirrored by the National League A. For the 1986–87 season, playoffs between the top four of the NLB and the bottom four of the NLA were played, with only two of them getting promoted, as the NLA would reduce the number of teams to twelve for the next season. At

529-399: Was split into three regions East, West, and Central with each region further subdivided into two groups. The respective regional group winners played a final game and the three regional champions qualified for the final round. While SC Veltheim  [ de ; es ; fr ; it ; uk ] won the first Serie Promotion, all three participants of the final round were promoted to the Serie A. In

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