Champagne

My alarm went off at 6:30 am and when I heard its annoying sound I wanted to smash it into a million pieces.  Quickly realizing what I was getting up so early for, I popped out of bed and got ready in a jif for I was going to the Champagne region of France!  I signed up for one of those cheesy bus tours where you are herded around like cattle and met my fellow baseball cap, fanny-pack-wearing Americans and Japanese  bus mates on Rue de Rivoli.  We packed into the double decker yellow Cityrama bus and I of course jumped at a window seat on the top.  We set off exactly at 8 am on our adventure to taste champagne and see the Cathedral in Reims.  The bus tour was given in English and Japanese, so after every long spiel of what we were passing or crossing over we had to hear it in Japanese.  I don't know what they were saying but it sounded like the same sounds and syllables over and over and over.  You should have an optional "if you want to hear please put on your headphones" option.  

The drive was 2 hours to Reims where we first stopped at G.H. Mumm Cellars and all piled off to meet our tour guide through the cellars.  

We first watched a video of the production of wine and all that jazz.  Our guide took us down 7 meters below ground, then 14 meters below ground, then 20 meters below (I was more concerned about the stairs we would have to climb to get back up to breathing level actually) but eventually we stopped.  We learned about Mumm's original champagne, Cordon Rouge, the types of grapes they use at this facility, how things are stored, fermented, and re-corked.  

Different sizes of bottles.

The contraption the "riddler" uses to turn the bottles and set them at different angles

Old wooden barrels.  Now all wineries are using stainless steel because it doesn't leave a taste.  

Wouldn't these be cool as home décor?

Never ask a man to take your photo.  I approached a middle-aged American couple hoping the woman would quickly grab the camera out of my hand.  The woman seemed nice enough and the man looked rather like a buck-toothed Jim Carrey rockin' a gold chain around his neck.  But of course, no, the man steps up and says, "Sure thing darlin'."  I showed him how to work my camera (Its a Canon dslr) and he said "Wow, haven't seen one of these in years.  Look honey (honey being his wife), you have to look through the viewfinder."  I had no idea what he was talking about until he pulled out his Kodak family memory maker shoebox of a camera.  "Ours is a new fancy digital device.  Let me show you how to work it."  Are you kidding me?  My mouth dropped open in disbelief.  Of course I know how to work your camera crazy...its the 21st century!!  Long story short, this was the only picture he got....there was a beautiful oak bar we were standing at, walls of champagne bottles behind us, and this is what he managed to get.  My face.  You can barely even see the champagne glass in my hand.....now why would I just want a photo of my face?!!?  Uggghhh......

After a short 10 minute ride to the city center, with our English tour guide, "On your left is, enh, the Marne river, enh, champagne, enh, we have arrived at..enh, oh my gosh I have no idea what that noise she was making between every 5 words was but it was annyoing.  54 'enh's' later, we got off at the back of the cathedral.  The Cathedral of Reims is a very famous cathedral in France where all the kings of France were crowned.  The original cathedral was destroyed by a fire in 1211 (like all good cathedrals) and what was rebuilt is what we see today.  It has been through much turmoil since then, and lots of restoration.  It is a constant process with such an old structure, and you can even notice when you step back and look at it...its 2 different colors.   The towers stand 267 feet high, but were originally planned to tower 394 feet high and both have bells weighing in at 11 tons.

The gargoyles have obviously been replaced...

View from the back of the cathedral

Check out this massive door!!!

A little reflection shot....

The inside wasn't so impressive...I mean, don't get me wrong it was beautiful, but once you've seen a few of those old gothic cathedrals, you feel like you've seen them all.  Thats when the outside begins to differentiate them all.  You notice of course the beautiful stained glass rose window in the back featuring "Chartres blue." (which I have seen as well...)  There are secret and hidden rooms with all sorts of royal things, but of course you can't go back there and see them.  There was also a peculiar "choir clock" that chimes on the hour, every hour with, appropriately, little figurines of choir members that come out to play.  I couldn't zoom in on my iPhone so sorry its so far away.  Its pretty boring so I won't be offended for those of you who want to skip right over it.  

After our guided tour of the cathedral with my tour guide calling the cathedral a "castle" the entire time, we were left on our own to discover the town for a couple of hours.  I had no idea what else was in Reims so I set off to the tourism office for a pretty pointless visit.  Instead of rushing around trying to find touristy things to do to fill my time, I grabbed a sandwich and went to a pastry shop to find some delicious dessert.  A bee landed on a delicious looking strawberry tart so I thought...if the tart is good enough for a bee, then its surely good enough for me!  Turns out it was a strawberry tart made with champagne cream and champagne gélée.  How perfectly fitting.  I sat down in this plaza in front of the cathedral to have lunch outside, under the sun with the most fabulous girl I know...me!   

Our next stop:  Épernay and the cellars of Moët and Chandon.  Moët I found to actually be pronounced "mwet" which is not what I expected.  The 50 minute drive to Épernay was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.  There were acres and acres and acres of vineyards just like this one.  

The Moët & Chandon cellar was a beautiful old building, an old home of the founders family.  Did you know that Dom Pérignon was a monk?  Its not just the name of Moët & Chandon's finest champagne, but Dom Pérignon is responsible for doubling and improving the vineyards and grapes under his time as cellar master at the Abbey.  It was because of his initial push and innovation that the cellar is what it is today, even though he can not be credited with inventing champagne.  Our guide came along shortly after we arrived and ushered us into this huge ball room with marble floors and detailed ceilings.  The television popped up from the floor and we watched a stunning video narrated by Scarlett Johannson that left us all thirsting for a glass of sparkling goodness.  We were finally taken down to the cellars where it was much colder than Mumm and much larger.  At Mumm we didn't really get to see the bottling process (more museums, stories, examples) where as here, we did.  We were in the official caves and there were workers driving around on fork lifts with palettes of wine in tow.  

HUGE bottles.  They looked like torpedos.  I'm pretty sure those bottles of Dom Pérignon cost more than some people's yearly salary.  

We learned all about the picking of the grapes, bottling of the wine, and then the production and distribution of their fine bottles all over the world.  That to be considered or labeled as 'champagne' the grapes must come from this region of France.  There are 76,000 acres of vineyards in the Champagne region with around 5,000 growers that make their own wine.  The other 13,500 growers supply grapes to bigger companies such as Moët & Chandon, Mumm, and Veuve Cliquot.  There are different hills and mountains for different grapes, the 3 required for champagne being pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay.  Yes, that is 2 red grapes and one variety of white.  Our guide was very informative and impressive, much better than the Mumm tour to say the least.  The most impressive part of the tour?  These cellars.  This, for example, is a storage cellar for their regular, Brut champagne.  The special sign on the front has a number on the top, middle, and bottom.  The top is a special code only deciphered by the riddler's and producers that state exactly where the grapes for this batch came from, what kind of grapes they are, and the status of the wine up to this point of the process.  The middle number is any particular group of bottles location in the cellar and the last number is exactly how many bottles are there.  So in this case it is in row P, cave 22 and there are 8,278 bottles here.  That's a lot of champagne.  

In this one, the cave filters 8 meters back, so that means in this particular cave there are 29,800 bottles of champagne.  She lighted her flashlight back and its true, I believe there are 29,800 bottles back there.  There are hundreds of caves just like this one down every hallway.  

One girl asked how come the cellars weren't touched or destroyed during the war?  Apparently, during the war they supplied free champagne to the Nazi's...in exchange of course for not laying a finger on the city or surrounding land of Épernay.  I love interesting facts....

Before our tasting.

Sorry the lighting was so bad...I look glowy and distorted.  Notice Scarlett on the poster in the background.

Our tasting was fun and relaxing...and the ones who stayed behind got to finish off the bottles already opened before getting back on the bus.  Aka, me and a few other Australian girls here on vacation.  I bought a bottle of Brut on my way out as well as a beautiful coffee table book with photos of the region of Champagne.  

We drove back to Paris along the Marne river enjoying the thousands of acres of vineyards almost ready to be harvested.  I am so glad I spent the money to go on this trip, it is something I've been wanting to do for awhile now!  Always a nice break from the city...and to such beautiful countryside, who could want anything more on a sunny day?!  Not I!!