Our last view of Chateau Hermonville near Reims- we decided to take the Champagne route as a detour on our way to Bruges!!
It must be amazing in the summer with rich, verdant vines in all directions! The panorama was still enchanting even when the vines resembled gnarled witches' claws!
The variety of colours was beautiful! My powers or navigation were up to their usual level of utter stupidity! I find maps so hard to fathom!
We stopped at the small abbey at Hautvillers, famous for being where Dom Pérignon is said to have discovered the secret of champagne making in the 17th century.
We saw his tomb!
The church was freezing but picturesque but all was strangely quiet in the village!!!
We drove on to Epernay, the town where all the champagne houses have their grand residences and cellars-as you went along the road, it felt like you were surrounded by the celebrities of the wine world- Veuve Cliquot, Moet et Chandon, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Perrier-Jouët, Mercier and more!
Not being champagne connoisseurs, we decided to stop and ask the tourist office about which was the best champagne house to visit the cellars of. We stopped at this super high-tech parking metre which said 15 mins only, and as soon as we'd parked, this scary timer started counting down from 15mins!!! We were instantly scared and wondered what happened when you exceeded your allotment!
Maybe a cage landed over your car? Perhaps a clamp rose from the ground?
The tourist office had moved,so by the time we had gained the information we needed, we were painfully aware that the 15minute deadline was imminent! Fear meant we ran down the road! As we arrived, the screen was flashing with big letters (we were 15 seconds over) saying, "YOU HAVE EXCEEDED YOUR TIME, THE POLICE HAVE BEEN CALLED!" in French!). If we weren't so panicked and wanting to escape, we'd have taken a photo, but being law-abiding citizens we were terrified!!! Luckily, no high-speed chases with the gendarmes ensued!
The tourist office recommended either Moet et Chandon or Mercier (or something beginning with A). We decided to go for Mercier since it had a TRAIN that took you through the cellars, but sadly it was closed!
Thus, we headed for Moet and Chandon, who were offering a Valetines deal to have the tour and taste a glass of Vintage rose champagne instead of the usual one for the cheaper price! The tour commenced at 3pm so we headed off into Epernay for a quick scout!
Impressive eh? Moet et Chandon headquarters!
We stopped in a brilliant Patisserie where I had a chocolate Religieusse, CBC had a coffee one (a choux pastry filled with chocolate cream). It's called that because it looks a bit like a nun! (excuse the silly shot, CBC had his camera on vivid colour mode!)
We arrived back to Moet and Chandon to join 8 others for the tour! We learnt a little about the Moet family, with Chandon who married into it! We watched a rather silly video with Scarlett Johanssen doing a voiceover first! She then taught us all about the process of Champagne-making, grading, maturing etc. Each champagne is different from another, even though they all are made using the same three varieties of grape: pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay.
Next, feeling rather like the Famous Five, we were led down into the cellars! They are all linked up, all the champagne cellars and continue for miles and miles and miles under the town- it's like a secret town under the town!
She taught us that grapes are graded in terms of Cru- linked to the village of Cru, where they are rated. The lowest rated villages are rated at 80%. There are Premier crus villages. These are rated between 90 and 99 percent. Finally, the best rated villages, with 100% ratings are Grand crus.
For the really expensive and special vintage champagnes, there is someone who's job it is, just to turn the bottles a little bit!
A sort of secret code listed the type, year and special blend of champagne. The bottles are packed back from the front so there are probably 200 bottles here alone.
When there is a vintage year, this is because the person in charge decides that it will be a vintage year, so the champagne is kept for much longer before it is released! The next one they will release is a 2004 vintage- apparently, it is going to be a real corker!!!
You can see the scale of the storage here!
It goes on...
And CHECK out the mould/dust!!!!! Totally grotty!
It's a good thing I didn't go wandering off with my sense of direction, you seriously could become lost as I said, there are at least 16km of Moet et Chandon cellars!
The Moet et Chandon family trees!
We went into the shop where they taught us about the bottle sizes! Magnums, Jeroboam, Methuselah,
Salmanazar Biblical, Balthazar etc! I had NO idea they did them so big!!!! Imagine being the poor fool who trips over with one of these babies whilst serving it!
Seriously, that last one is half my height!
Having visited Mr Perignon's tomb, I felt a sense of affection for him! Until I saw this bottle was 332 euros
or something like that?!
I loved this champagne flute chandelier!
We headed into the function room to be treated to a champagne and meal matching expert- Moet et Chandon's chef!
We had our vintage Rose, which was ok (I think the tour-guide caught me grimacing as I first tasted it!!!!)
It was wonderfully interesting, particularly as I would never have chosen to go to something like this before!!! I think the 'secret passage-like' nature of the tour appealed to me!
It was quite late when we left Epernay for the long drive to Bruges!
Finally, we arrived at Huis Kunig, our beautiful B&B in the centre of Bruges, at around 9.30pm!
It looked beautiful: glowing, warm, cosy yet large and our host seemed wonderful!
She gave us a whistle-stop guide and then pointed us in the direction of an exquisite restaurant!
CBC went for the 3 course menu and I went for a main dish of veal with cauliflower mash, parsnip shavings and something else I forget! The appetisers and bread were a meal in themselves!
CBC's trio of desserts!
As you can tell, I was exhausted after the day but it was wonderful!
More anon...
