The Humble Gourmand

If you become accustomed to the quality and character of good Champagne, there really is no other sparkling wine that will satisfy you.
—Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia

Warning: Cheap metaphors follow.

In Champagne country, I behaved a bit like both a child in a candy store and a bull in a china shop. I didn’t know where to start, I was overwhelmed the whole time I was there, I broke stuff (mostly my bank account) and came out a little dismayed.

My first piece of advice: don’t go to Champagne country if you’re planning to go on the cheap. Everything costs money (besides the kickass Notre-Dame de Reims), and lots of it. But without being a Debbie Downer, here’s how I did it, the lessons I learned, and how I would do it again.

Champagne is located in the central Northeast section of France, about 90 miles north east of Paris and Ile de France. Its proximity to Paris (and excellent train service courtesy of the high-speed TGV) makes it an ideal lodging hub — you can enjoy the idyllic wiles of Champagne but be close enough to Paris and Normandy for day trips.

Champagne has two major towns (where most of the Champagne houses keep their chalk cellars): Reims and Epernay. They’re about 20 miles apart, but you’ll want a car if you want to explore the more remote houses around the area.

That’s one thing to note: going to Champagne country isn’t like going wine tasting in Napa or Sonoma. Most of the vineyards don’t make their own wine for sale; they sell the grapes to the major Champagne houses for production. If you want to actually go wine tasting, you’ll want to stick to Reims and Epernay and visit one of the many houses lining their streets. The houses contain aging cellars, where thousands of bottles sit underground in chalk cellars (mined out by the Romans) for years before they ever see the light of day or the bottom of your glass.

I’ll save you the wonky details of the full explanation of the méthode champenoise (although apparently méthode traditionnelle is the politically correct term to use now – I’m so glad I don’t pay French taxes), but it is important to note that once the initial wine is made, a secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle when yeast is added (which eventually creates the effervescence that makes Champagne so famous). The wines are then aged for a minimum of a year and half, but can age for far longer, depending on the production house. After aging, the bottles are consistently rotated (often times by hand –still wondering why it’s so expensive?) to encourage any accumulated sediment to settle by the neck, which is removed when the bottle is corked.

All of this takes place in gigantic chalk cellars underneath the Champagne houses. Some of the major producers have literally several square kilometers underneath their houses. The chalk provides ideal aging conditions, maintaining a nearly perfect consistency in temperature and humidity.

One such house I visited was Taittinger, which has been one of my favorite Champagnes for a while. I had to descend several flights of stairs into the damp, dark cellar, where the tour guide led us through rows of thousands of bottles as she explained the méthode traditionnelle, to which I only half-listened because I was slipping in my drool.

It is impossible to do justice in writing to the mass of bottles living under these houses, the damp climate, and the smell of champagne and centuries of tradition and labor employed in making something still only enjoyed by a fraction of the world’s population. All I know is that I enjoyed my glass of Taittinger at the end of the tour far more than any I’d had before.

If you’re planning to make the trip, allow a few dozen Euro to tour these houses, but don’t bother going on more than one cellar tour. They often cost around €10 a pop. Some of the bigger houses, most particularly Veurve Clicquot and Moet et Chandon, are more tourist-friendly, but note that some of the smaller houses require a call ahead to make a reservation. You might also consider a guided tour of the country, such as those offered through French Wine Explorers.

I had a car and stayed in a bed and breakfast slightly outside of the hub of Champagne, in the miniscule village of Reuilly. The accommodations were charming, the hosts gracious and friendly, and the drive from Epernay to Reuilly brings one past some of the smaller Champange houses, which are well worth a stop. Additionally, Reuilly boasts a Michelin-rated restaurant.

Overall, I’d recommend spending a week in the area, taking the time to wander through both Reims and Epernay, visiting the smaller Champagne houses and villages just outside of the heart of the country, and taking side trips to Paris and Normandy.

Oh yeah, and drinking lots of Champagne. It does a body and mind some good. Like whoa.

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