Once upon a time, dear readers, there was a monk who loved making wine. The problem was, it kept going fizzy on him. He decided to start experimenting with blending juices from different years, and then forcing the blends into a second fermentation and voila – he had something that tasting good and was stable enough to sell. Folks- his name was Dom Perignon, and he worked for over 40 years on the “method champenoise” back in the late 1600’s/early 1700’s in a little village called Hautvillers. Now, this area is not the only area to make sparkling wines, or to follow Dom Perignon’s method, but it IS the only one who gets to call their products champagne. See, back in the 1980’s (or so), the locals got a bee in their bonnet about the upstart Americans and other wine producers for calling their own sparkling wines “champagne”, so there is now an actual law (or rule?) that says that ONLY wine produced in the region of Champagne can actually be called champagne. I’m sure there are differences in production techniques, but really- to take a little mystique away from the name – that’s the story. You can go and visit Dom’s grave in the church he was based out of in the village – it is adorable, and the church is actually cutely normal – not as fancy as you’d expect a church would be after earning revenue for 40 years from the sale of this revolutionary stuff. That’s partly because it wasn’t really popularized and mass-produced until the British figured out a glass bottle that was strong enough to hold in the bubbles later in the 1700’s. Still- it’s a cute spot and worth at least a drive through! If you want to taste Dom’s wines though, you have to go across the valley to Epernay & it’s new home: Moet & Chandon (more on that later).
Before I get much further though, I want to give you a little primer on some of the terms around champagne, and a quickie on how it’s made. (Remember though, I’m not an expert! This is a great expert explanation I found one time!) Basically, champagne is made from ONLY some combination of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes. If they decide to mix all three with juices from different years, that is known as a “Brut Traditionel”. This is the stuff that Dom Perignon “perfected”. If the wine is produced using only Chardonnay grapes, that’s a “Blanc de Blancs”. If it’s made using NO Chardonnay, that’s a “Blanc de Noirs”. Interestingly, if a champagne is pink (aka: “Rose”), that can be made in either of two ways – adding a teeny bit of actual red wine to the white during blending, or leaving skins on for a bit at the beginning to actually color the otherwise-clear juice (called “saignant”, but only a small % is made this way.) If it’s called a “Grand Cru”, “Premiere Cru”, or just “Cru”, that means that the grapes all come from locations with that designation. Sometimes grapes from one specific location can be made into a single wine, which is what Cristal from Roeder is, for one example (and why it’s considered extra fancy!). Now, if there is a year associated with the bottle, that means it is a “vintage”, which just means that the weather & growing conditions were so perfect from that particular year that the wine makers decided not to blend any juices from other years into the wine. One more descriptor you need to understand has to do with the “residual sugar” they add at the end of the process. So- once the juices have been blended and aged (at least 5 years!), and all the sediment has been disgorged from the bottle (a fascinating sounding process that I do not fully understand!), but before they seal the bottles up to “finish”, the producers add some sugar, aka “residual sugar”, in order to get the sweetness they feel is appropriate for that particular blend. The amount of sugar they decide to add gives you this other descriptor to the wine. “Brut” means that they only added a teensy amount, then there’s “Demi-sec” (aka: “half dry” where they added a bit more) and so on until you get to “Doux”, which means it is going to be really sweet. ALL of these different terms can really help you if you pay attention to what you drink. FOR example, I tried a number of different champagnes on my visit, and it turns out I like the Brut Traditionel stuff the best, more so than vintages, blanc de blancs, even a Grand Cru vintage I tried. That said- I didn’t get that many of the small producers and stuck mainly to the major houses, who are actually mass-market producers. Who knew!
So- speaking of those big major houses (and interestingly, in Champagne they are called “Maison” or “House of” rather than “Chateaux” like in Bordeaux), I was able to visit two on my quick spin through the area – one in each of the main towns to visit. First up is the biggie, and perhaps most famous of all champagne houses: Moet & Chandon. The tour takes place in what used to be the family mansion, but it was bombed in WWI and extensively remodeled, so really what you’re touring is underneath the house: the cellars. The tour is set up in a way so that you learn all about the process of making the champagne as you go, along with the history of the brand. It started out as family owned, but now it’s part of the mega luxury conglomerate LVMH, and also now owns the Dom Perignon brand. You learn about Napoleon’s visit (it was apparently his preferred brand), then you get a glass to taste. In my tour you only had the singular tasting of the standard Brut Imperial, so named for dear old Napoleon, though apparently additional glasses may be purchased. Finally you exit through the gift shop, of course, where you can drool over all the different options. Their maison sits at one end of what is known as the “Avenue of Champagne” in Epernay, which is worth a quick drive or stroll down. It’s basically just mansion after mansion housing other big champagne producers, small producers, a museum, a union – and alll underneath it are cellars storing & aging bottles. Pretty cool! Also- another note to knock this region off it’s pedestal a little: the big fancy tower at the other end of the Avenue from Moet is for Castellane, which is actually the producer of Costco’s brand of champagne, Kirkland. (NOTE: this may not be true- further research shows that Kirkland is made by a different producer, but definitely still in the official Champagne region…) Here are photos of Moet & the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay:
Next up for my tasting example was in Reims at Taittinger. Now, this house is particularly extra interesting because it sits on the location of a former abbey, which sadly was destroyed during the French Revolution. Before that though, those 14th century monks were smart and took the existing, even OLDER, chalk mine pits and used those to get down into the earth & create tunnels between them. PLUS, soldiers used the tunnels in WWI for… reasons that escape me, but they left cool little graffiti dug into the soft chalk walls. SO- these are WAY more interesting than your average wine caves. Besides the leftover 14th century staircases you come across, you enter huge cathedral-like rooms that let in tiny bits of daylight (the old chalk mines). I was actually able to taste two different champagnes here, but as I said above – I discovered that a) I’m more of a fan of traditional brut champagne apparently, and b) it is hard for me to down two full glasses of champagne in a sequence! Tastings here are not the little 2 oz pours you get at most wineries – it’s a full-on flute, so be ready!
Finally- I wanted to speak a little bit about Reims, because I think it gets a little bit of a bad name. I know I originally wanted to stay down in Epernay myself, since it has the reputation of being the “capital” of Champagne, and of being cuter & smaller and having that whole “Avenue de Champagne” and everything. That all might be true, but Reims was far from some giant industrial ugly town. It’s AWESOME! I really loved this town, and not just because it’s home to a BUNCH of big, famous, champagne producers. (Veuve Clicquot, Pommery, Taittinger, for example are down south of town, near the minor (!) Basilica of Saint-Remy; while Mumm, Roederer, and a few others are on the north end of town, fyi.) What made it more interesting, to me, is all the different layers of history. First of all, the giant, massive cathedral in the middle of town is where *most* of the kings of France were crowned, and is also where Joan of Arc brought Charles way back in the 100 years war. Sadly, lots of the old style buildings were destroyed in WWI (luckily the cathedral only sustained minor damage), but that just means that much of the architecture around town is from the 1920’s, giving the town a bit more of an art deco feel to it. I couldn’t get enough of the town hall, and had a lovely free tasting inside the great Office du Tourism right down the street from the cathedral. The highlight of my stay had to be the amazing light show they were having each night that summer. I filmed over half of it I loved it so much! Here are a few pics of town to help show you that it might be worth a few nights here, and you don’t need to go further out of your way to Epernay!
That was maybe more than a few photos – but hopefully you get the picture. While it is very easy to do a simple day trip from Paris (less than an hour on the TGV from Reims), I think the region deserves at least an overnight if you’ve got the time. Plan ahead with either individual bookings at different houses you’re interested in, or better yet- take a tour so you’re not driving yourself. I loved my last-minute booking with France Bubbles Tours, but for the real deal, hire a private driver-guide who will take care of it all for you!