I officially moved into my apartment in Reims this past week, and since I just moved to the Champagne region I thought it was necessary to do a tour of one of the big Champagne producers here. Thibaut came to visit on Wednesday, and it just so happened that on that day there was a special offer for a day pass for the whole region by train, for only 1 euro! We decided to go to a nearby town called Epernay for a few hours, and to do the Moet and Chandon tour. Moet and Chandon was one of the most expensive tours, but I thought it'd be much cooler to do a tour of one of the biggest producers instead of seeing something no one's heard of just to save a few bucks!
The place that we toured is THE actual real place where all of the Moet and Chandon champagne comes from for every country in the world. They have about 18 miles of caves underground, and when we asked about how many bottles of champagne were on the property she replied "I can't tell you the real number, but it's more than the population of France." The population of France is 65 million! There are bottles of champagne in there from 1 year old to hundreds of years old. They're all stored underground in the caves, which were constructed hundreds of years ago, and made to always maintain the same exact temperature all year round with no heating or cooling necessary. The temperature is always around 50º F or 10ºC. It was so damp and moldy down in those caves it was kind of gross! However, the upstairs boutique and waiting area were the complete opposite. It looked like a 5 star hotel when you walk into the place. Very "posh" as the English would say.
We started out the visit doing a tour in English (Thibaut's request, NOT mine!) and of course our tour guide ended up being from Thailand. Very authentic English. After 5 minutes with her, I couldn't stand her accent anymore, so when everyone else sat down to watch a film we ran into the caves and found the nearest French tour! Thankfully we did, because our guide ended up being very interesting and we learned so much from her! I felt bad leaving the asian lady, but honestly I cannot figure out how she even got that job.
Well once we were with our Frenchie, we learned all about what kind of grapes are picked for the wine, and specifically where all the vineyards are in the region, the different kinds of champagnes that they make, how long they're stored, how it's made during each process, etc. I can't even go into it all because it's way too complicated! The interesting part to me was how LONG they keep the bottles there before they send them out! It can take anywhere from 7 to 40 years to complete a bottle of champagne. Also, every grape is hand picked, never picked by machines, and a small group of people choose specifically which grapes will be used for their champagne. The main two grapes they use are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
The best part of course, was at the end, the TASTING! It was soooooo delicious. We only got one flute though, unfortunately!
The sign means there are 23,709 bottles in this cave alone! This is where they hold them during the aging process.
These are the same bottles that they will sell the champagne in when it's ready. A little dusty...
mmm and the tasting.
1 comment:
FANCY on your degrees signs on the blog! I've been looking at my keyboard and just can't figure it out. Oh, and nice bubbly.
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