Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Anglo-Ind.) champagne.

1827		Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register Dec. 773/2: And feasts and dinner parties were no more, / And simkin there was none.
1829		‘Sir Toby Rendrag’ Poems 42: There’s no bad joke in ham, or Stilton cheese, / Wash’d down with Simpkin, or fine sparkling perry.
1842		F.J. Bellew ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register xxxviii 53: The other day, however, old Dickdar, our brigadier, gave a burra khana (dinner); his loll (claret) was bang-up, and you may be sure we did not spare the simpkin (champagne).
1848		J.H. Stocqueler Oriental Interpreter 209: The new arrival in India will be surprised to hear gentlemen at a dinner-party pledge each other in ‘Simkin,’ and still more surprised to find the native attendant serve champagne immediately.
1853		W.D. Arnold Oakfield II 127: Old Middleton had a very good idea of making himself comfortable; —the dinner was good, and the iced simkin, Sir, delicious .
1857		Bombay Qly Rev. V 140: ‘I’ve told old Adder to have a slap-up khana all tyre for twenty at barabar satt buja; and if he hasn’t the simkin dooced well tunda karo’d, won’t he have his head put in a teilee with green chillies – that’s all.’.
1861		Hills & Plains I 169: ‘We must have a night of it [...] Simkin is the correct tipple’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1877		A. Allardyce ‘The Anglo-Indian Tongue’ in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Mag. May 546/1: A great many of the English names of viands and liquors have become Indianised. Champagne is still recognisable as ‘simpkin,’ sherry keeps its own name, claret has been literally translated into ‘lall shrab’ or red wine [etc].
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 60: A well iced bottle of [...] champagne [...] the Natives oddly call it ‘Simkin’.
1886		G.A. Sala in Illus. London News 24 July 90: There is a good deal of simpkin or champagne consumed in the three Presidencies [F&H].
1891		Kipling Departmental Ditties 123: [Gloss.] ‘Simpkin,’ a Hindustanti corruption of the word ‘champagne’.
1891		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 30 Dec. 5/4: Then they drink bahut bottli Shimpin!