We prolonged our stay in Reims with an extra day due to bad weather in the desired direction of flying, and decided to spend that day going on a champagne tasting tour. Vagn found a guided afternoon tour that was suitable and affordable for us, and together with 4 other tourists and a guide we headed for the champagne villages.
Champagne is a province in the north-eastern France, and it was founded in 1605. Today, there are more than 5,000 champagne brands coming from this small region. The land of the champagne fields is quite expensive; we’ve heard 1 ha of a Premium vineyards costs 1 million euro, 1 ha of a Grand Cru – something like 50 million euro.
The first stop was the house of Michael Fagot, from a Premium village, where the 6th generation of the founder was continuing his great work. This is how a modern champagne-maker office looks like:
We saw some traditional tools for making champagne:
Visited the precious cellars. On the photo below is the illustration of how the bottles are stored during the production process. All bottles need to be turned twice a day, and in a special way, invented by Veuve Clicquot.
Today, there are many special machines helping to do the champagne-making job:
An exhibition explaining colours of the champagne produced by Michel Fagot:
And – finally – tasting in the garden:
We drove through the villages of Champagne region to our next stop. The streets were completely empty. Our guide explained, people were working hard on their fields till 5 p.m.
We had a stop by the Saint-Sindulphe church – a very special one in the region.
One could notice that the church was very rich, and that it was rebuild during centuries.
Both the church and the adjacent Abbey (more below) had a troubled history. Destroyed by the Normans in 882, reconstructed and then burnt down by the British in 1449. Erected once more and washed away by the Huguenots in 1564. Eventually, the third reconstruction happened, and was made out of the gracious donation of Catherine de Medici (who loved champagne).
Two tombstones (photo above) are marking the resting places of Dom PĂ©rignon (1638-1715) and Dom Royer (the last regular monk of the monastery). Dom PĂ©rignon was a monk who made significant contributions to the production and quality of champagne wine in an era when the region’s wines were predominantly still red. The quote attributed to Dom PĂ©rignon – “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”- is supposedly what he said when tasting the first sparkling champagne. Popular myths frequently, but erroneously, credit him with the invention of sparkling champagne, which didn’t become the dominant style of Champagne until the mid 19th century.
To the right, there was a massive door – an entrance to the Abbey of St. Peter, Hautvillers. The Abbey was founded in 650 and remained active till 1789 (the French Revolution). Please note the step – even stones can bend during centuries…
To get access to the Abbey, one has to be an A-level customer of MoĂ«t& Chandon, or a close friend of someone from the LVMH’ board, our guide told us.
The church has relics of some saints (photo below). It also housed the relics of Saint Helena, Empress and mother of Constantine The Great, between 841 and 1819. In 841 a priest from Reims stole the relic of the body of Saint Helena from Rome and the reliquary was transferred to the abbey. The relics attracted pilgrims and the revenues allowed the abbey to purchase lands and vineyards in the vicinity (40 hectares!).
The monastery was destroyed during the French Revolution, but it was possible to hide the relics in the cellar until they could be safely transported to Paris. Today, the relics of Saint Helena are installed in a different church.
We continued to our next stop – to the Guy Mea house of Grand Cru champagnes.
There we also first had a guided tour, and visited the cellars that went 4 stores down!
One of the walls had a record of all harvests etc. since 1994:
It was quite colourful, and with drawings:
And what does this mean? A little girl killed for a bottle of a Grand Cru champagne? 🙂
I was surprised to learn how much sugar is added to champagne! I will think twice before having a glass from now on…
Tasting again… and again, and again:
We asked our guide why – if the vineyards were so precious – there still were fields used for something else? He explained, that all soil has been tested by the scientists. And only the best soil is used for the champagne vineyards.
The greatest impression from the tour for me wasn’t the champagne itself. In fact, I didn’t like any of the ones we tasted, besides the last one – Grand Cru rosĂ©. The interesting part was to hear about the history of the region, and especially visiting that famous Église Saint-Sindulphe. It was fun to taste different champagnes though.
We finished the day having dinner in the terrace of brasserie Excelsior in Reims. When Vagn saw what I ordered – the Royal seafood plateau – he got up to take a photo:
That was the first time he did it! 🙂 Normally I have to ask him several times in order to convince him to take a photo of me, especially when in a restaurant!
The food was great, and so were the wines. Monday 15th July in Champagne turned out to be a gourmet day for us.