The Holy Land of the Champagne
One of the most famous exports of France is undeniably Champagne,
the sparkling wine. In the months of September and October, only the best
quality grapes are harvested by hand in the Champagne region to make this world-renowned
drink. Being in France at this beautiful time means that we can go to the
numerous vineyards in Champagne to immerse ourselves in the fragrance of Pinot
Noir and Chardonnay.
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| Pinot Noir |
The Champagne region lies to the east of Paris and is easily
doable as a day trip by train or by car. However, to have an easier access to
the vineyards, it would definitely be easier if you drive. Our day started with
a vineyard tour to Champagne
M. Brugnon. It was our first visit to any vineyard and the decision to
visit M. Brugnon was based entirely on online reviews (book your visits with instant
confirmation here!!) We were so glad to visit this
family-owned vineyard as our very first visit!
The vineyard is located at Ecueil, a short 20 minutes drive away
from Reims (the main town of Champagne region). The current owner, Alain,
personally walked us through his vineyard and cellars and gave an excellent
introduction on the production process of Champagne. There were 8 of us on the
tour, and since some of us don't understand French, he kindly gave us the tour
in both French and English!
One of the most memorable part of the trip was when he took a
single grape and demonstrated to us how the juice is extracted. First, a gentle
squeeze is applied to the Pinot Noir (a type of black/purple grapes) to extract
the clear sweet juice. The grape is then further squeezed to extract the juice
from the skin and flesh. The juice from the skin and flesh is the one that has
the dark purplish color. It is crucial to extract the two types of juices
separately as they have a different taste (sweetness, bitterness and fragrance)
and ferment at different times. It is difficult to understand this unless you
see it for yourself! I did hope that he will let us try squeezing a grape too,
but i guess his grapes are too precious to be ruined on our hands! :P
At the cellar,
Alain shared with us how the "bubbles" are formed by adding yeast again after the wine fermentation. Later, the bottles of wine are gradually flipped upside down and froze at the mouth. When the bottle is finally opened, all the pent-up newly formed gas will expel the frozen yeast from the rest of the wine. This last process finally gives birth to the beautiful bottles of champagne.
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| Fermentation chamber |
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| Dark gloomy cellars |
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| Finally!! |
After going through the entire champagne making process, Alain invited us to a tasting of 5 of his precious wines: Brut, Brut Selection, Blanc de Blanc 2010, Brut Millesime 2009 and Brut Rose. He took time to show us his book on the wine production, and drew graphs and tables to help us understand the maturation process and how the different grapes under different soil and climate produces different tastes. The business (vineyard and production) is overseen by less than 5 people so it was really tough work to produce, market and manage the sales. (Of course, they had to hire extra help during harvesting as one of the criteria of champagne making is that the grapes have to be harvested only by hand!) Even though he must be very busy, Alain spent at least 2 hours with us throughout the tour on a precious Sunday. And I have to highlight that the tour/ wine tasting that Alain hosted for us is free!!! What??!!
Yes, that is absolutely true. I cannot imagine how passionate Alain must be with his work and family-business that he is willing to spend so much time showing strangers around week after week. His champagnes are actually very affordable, starting at about €16 for a bottle. Who says champagne is only for the rich??
We bought 5 bottles and he helped us pack them into the boot of our car, ensuring that his wines are properly placed to endure the journey. It felt like he was saying good bye to his precious babies... Aw...
Later, we took a quick drive to Reims city center to visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral and have lunch. The Notre-Dame Cathedral of Reims was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage way back in 1991, and was where the kings of France were crowned. It is also famous for its beautiful gothic art stained glass windows, and during certain periods, there is a spectacular sound and light show on the facade of the cathedral. Accordingly, this event will be on from 18 Nov 2016 to 8 Jan 2017 (Reims Tourism).
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| (C) Reims Tourism |
The upcoming sound and light show must be the reason why the cathedral is under maintenance when we visited it late October. It's quite a pity, but the cathedral was majestic and beautiful even so.
Interestingly, modern artists were invited to produce some of the stained glass for the windows, so there is actually a blend of the old and new designs in the very same cathedral. In particular, I love the contrast of the modern-style stained glass with the miniature of the cathedral.
Since we've decided to try to make it for the Taittinger champange tour at 3:45pm, we had a quick lunch at Au Bureau Reims Cathedral (yes, it's right in front of the cathedral). Its location made us feel that it may be a tourist trap, but as it looked rather popular, we decided to give it a try.
I rather liked the atmosphere, though I have to say that the food is rather average. We each had a main course and then I had a coffee snack. It came up to only about €38, which i would totally pay for (taking into consideration the atmosphere, quality of food, and location).
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| My menu-of-the-day, some pork meat and croquettes |
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| And a medium sized block of steak for the man. |
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| I rather liked the coffee set, just to try a little of everything and of course have the much-needed coffee! |
To burn off the lunch, we walked about 20 minutes to Maison de Champagne Taittinger, the third oldest champagne house in the world. We had checked with the tourism office right in front of the cathedral who told us that we could just request to join the tour directly. Unlike the earlier trip to Champagne M. Brugnon, being in the city center, Taittinger naturally doesn't have plots of vineyards to produce their grapes. Hence, the tour is only to its cellars where their wine is matured. However, a huge highlight of their cellars (which are actually chalk caves) is that it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, being part of a 4th century Roman stone quarry.
The basic tour option for an adult is €17 for the guided tour and a tasting of their Brut Reserve (It is not possible to join the tour without doing the tasting), which is rather steep considering that i can buy a whole bottle of champagne from the champagne house in the morning! The main reason that we decided to visit Taittinger was so that we could experience for ourselves whether there is any significant difference in the tours for big brand names or small businesses.
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| The tour started with a professional video on the history of Champagne region and Taittinger of course. |
According to the video, one of they key grapes in the production of Champagne, the Chardonnay, is introduced to the region by Thibaud IV of Champagne. This came as a huge surprise to us since he was also the same person who brought back the famous Damascus Rose (which was subsequently cross-bred to produce the many species of French and European roses) in Provins, which we visited just not so long ago!!
The clay vaults have a really different feeling from the usual wine cellars. You would have noticed from the very first step in, that the air is much colder than the outside. Even the clay walls are cold! According to our guide, the temperature in the caves remain at a constant all year round. That is why it is such a perfect place to store and mature these expensive wines.
At where the Taittinger building now sits, there used to be a cathedral, the Saint Nicaise Abbey. There are almost no traces left of the cathedral, save for some stairways and gates in the underground vaults.
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| One of the staircases that used to lead up to the Abbey |
In World War I, Reims was heavily bombed and the soldiers used the caves as their hiding place. It must have been a really horrid and gloomy time then, living in these caves with no daylight. There are still several carvings that the soldiers left behind indicative of those days...
Champagne isn't only produced in the typically wine bottle sizes we are familiar with. There are in fact 8 different sizes which Taittinger sells (or used to sell) their champagne in. Of course, due to the odd sizes, not all of them can be handled by the machines and substantial manpower is needed to manually handle the larger bottles throughout its maturation.
As we have learnt from the earlier visit, the yeast that were added at the end to produce the sparkling effect had to be removed from the wine.
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| The unsavory yeast sediments |
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| Note how the bottles are gradually tilted till it is almost vertical. This to allow all the sediments to gather at the mouth of the bottle. |
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| More than just a cellar, the Taittinger's clay cave is full of history |
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| Bottles after bottles of expensive champagnes!!! |
The guide told us that one of the main reasons of stacking the bottles tightly in opposite directions is to help the bottles endure the internal pressure building up from the fermentation of the yeast. Since the bottles are capped, all the air created from the fermentation has no release (and that is also how the bubbles get infused into the wine itself) and can occasionally cause these strong glass bottles to explode. Since each bottle is so expensive, they couldn't afford a chain explosion. By stacking it as such, any explosion of a bottle will not jeopardize its neighboring bottle. What a smart and space saving method!!
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| Endless rows of champagne.. *slurps!* |
Finally for the champagne tasting...
I really loved the visit to Taittinger simply because of its amazing historic clay caves. Of course, the guide was kind and knowledgeable, but I can't say that he is as passionate about champagne as the grapes grower himself. At Champagne M. Brugnon, from planting to harvesting of grapes, from production to sale, the entire process is handled by the family. It is easy to see that he really values his grapes and wine, and that passion and love is undeniably contagious.
Having visited 2 drastically different champagne houses in a day, I've certainly gained a new appreciation for champagne. As a really amateur drinker and to be really honest, I can't tell much difference between the branded and the local. For me, i'll be more than happy to buy several bottles of the local champagne (which is equally good) to share with my friends at any time than to only be able to afford one single branded bottle to save for that special occasion. After all, it's the company that matters more than the drink, right?
Cheers!!
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