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Published: June 20th 2010
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After a rocky start I awoke the following day refreshed and ready to begin our time in Champagne. Mum on the other hand, had a bad headache and could think of nothing but staying in bed. So I left her to rest and took myself to our Moet Chandon appointment which meant bubbles at 11am! The days that would follow still did not reveal to me just who did begin the champagne facination but I did learn the Moet was and still is the royal supplier to the Queen. Established by Épernay wine trader Claude Moët in 1743,he began shipping his wine from Champagne to Paris. The reign of King Louis XV coincided with increased demand for sparkling wine. Soon after its foundation, and after son Claude-Louis joined Moët et Cie, the winery's clientele included nobles and aristocrats. The tour took us down into the chalk caves that were considerably cooler. We got a quick glimpse of the private collection cellar and millions of bottles in all shapes and sizes full of the good stuff. The tour ended with tastings and a look at the original Moet house.
I collected mum and we left Epernay to make our way to Reims.
It is a much larger city and on the day we arrived it was a public holiday. Again it was a ghost town. It was a great chance to spend some time looking at the Reims Cathedral. Notre-Dame de Reims (Our Lady of Rheims) is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. The cathedral was completed by the end of the 13th century and took 200 years to build. It's building was funded by the community and poor commoners volunatrily gave of their skills and time to contribute to it's creation knowing that in their lifetime, they would not see it's completion.
We stayed in the best Bed and Breakfast just outside Reims in an area called Lavannes. Having a car gave us the luxury of staying a bit out of town and payong cheaper rates for better accomodation. Sandrine has converted the old farm barn into a very gorgeous living area and called it the La Closerie des Sacres. The rooms a huge and tastefully decorated and the bathroom makes you want to take a really long soak. I tried but kind of ran into trouble with jets for the spa bath
lol. Sounded like i was about to be swallowed hole and I emerged at the end looking like a drown rat and the bathroom looking like a tidal wave had swept through. lol
Our first tasting in Reims was at Pommery. I chose this place becuase they apparently have the longest and largest caves in the area. But what I soon discovered was that every Champagne house claims to have the longest and largest caves! However, the history goes that this house was founded as Pommery & Greno in 1858 by Alexandre Louis Pommery and Narcisse Greno with the primary business being wool trading. Under the guidance of Alexandre's widow, Louise Pommery, the firm was dedicated to Champagne production and soon became one of the region's largest Champagne brands. This women was amazing for her time, she purchased 120 limestone and chalk pits, also known as crayères, carved underneath 12 miles of the Reims area. These unique cellars allowed her to store and age hundreds of thousands of bottles in a temperature-controlled environment. They say that many other Champagne houses later followed suit. On the whole this was my most dissapointing tour. We were rushed through and there were dozens
of unexplained art pieces lining the tunnels. They appeared to have no significane to anything and at the end we were served their cheap and difficult to drink brand. The whole experience can only be explained as Sterile. Luckily we had another tasting in the afternoon and plenty of time to get there.
After spending some time in the town we got to the afternoon tasting at Veuve Clicquot in plenty of time only to discover we were at the head office............. the tastings took place on the other side or Reims ARGH! What felt like 1 hour but was really only 15 minutes we got to the venue but had missed the beginning of the tour. This was in contrast to the morning an amazing tour with amazingly good champagne to go with it. Almost identical to Madame Pommery , Madame Clicqout decided to take up the reins of her late husbands estate. Her strength of character and business sense transformed her family-in-law's trade into a great Champagne House.
While her representatives travelled throughout Europe and her champagne was shipped across the seas the world over, Madame Clicquot personally took charge of the cellars, choosing her motto as only
one quality, the finest. It is believed that she invented the riddling table in order to obtain champagne wines that were as clear, distinct and limpid as possible. She gradually acquired land in vineyards with the best crus, which are now part of Veuve Clicquot's exceptional wine heritage. What made this tour distinct from the rest was the guide who took us around. Her knowledge and mannerisms were very good and at the end of the tour she took mum and myself back to the start and told us the bits that we missed. This was by far my favourite tour.
Suprisingly I can not say that I had any fine dining experiences while in the Champagne Region. Mum and I found it really hard to adapt to the french food time table. Bread for breakfast, lunch at 12 then a very late dinner. At 7pm restaurants still hesitantly served beverages. As this was the beginning of our trip, we just could not wait that long and settled for a miserable Mc Donalds meal- the first in all my travels!
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Heather
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My boyfriend and I have been enjoying your posts, and I loved your photos from the wine/champagne tasting. Looks like so much fun! We're hoping to go there one day soon. Enjoy! Heather dirty-hippies.blogspot.com