At a mere 160km due east of Paris the city of Reims is not only home to one of France's greatest and most important cathedrals but is also the main port-of-call for those intending to indulge in one of France's greatest discoveries - champagne! By TGV ("Train a grande Vitesse" - the French fast train) its a journey of just over 40mins at up to 320km/h!Firstly the pronunciation. A common mistake by most English speakers is to pronounce the city as "rhymes" as in nursery "rhymes" (or if your musical taste is such, as in - "LeAnn Rimes"!) No, no, no, no, no Madame et Monsieurs. Firstly, this is not how it is pronounced and secondly you should not be enjoying Ms Rimes' music! (well she has one or two okay songs!) I shall leave it up to any learned French speaking scholars to explain exactly why it is so that the locals pronounce it something closer to "hrance"! Yes, I agree,....???! Trust me it gets easier to say with every flute of their famous drop - up to a point!
Now, before we get to the bubbly we need to at least acknowledge the Unesco listed Cathedral. Even if you become all churched-out in Europe this is still one to put on the short list as it is pretty speccy! Just like THE most famous cathedral in France located in Paris, this one is also named Notre Dame (Our Lady). I guess when it came to naming things they weren't too creative or original back in the 1200's when its construction began. Basically a previous church burnt down and they replaced it with what is now the amazing Gothic (refer to "Gothic" in my Paris Notre Dame blog!) Cathedral that stands to this day (despite being partly damaged during shellfire in WW1 and repaired since - thanks Mr Rockefeller!). So being Gothic it has all the usual towers, impressive stained-glass-windows, gargoyles, statues, flying buttresses, ribbed vaulted ceilings and souvenir shop on the inside (which is NOT traditionally Gothic apart from the girl with black finger-nail polish who was serving that day!)
So why is there such a great Cathedral in a place like this that is home to just under 200,000 locals? Basically, it was here, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away........ sorry different story! It was here, to cut a long story short, that a fella named Clovis (not as bad a name as some of the modern day names being thrown around these days!) was baptised around the late 400's and he was later to become the head honcho of a tribe called the Franks (and yes you guessed correctly, the Franks are of course the ones who gave "France" its name!)Of all the tribe leaders, the big-"C" had the best computer games and DVD collection so all the rest of the tribes running around at the time decided to join him and crown him King - well thats my version and i'm sticking to it! So due to this Reims was to become the traditional place for the coronations of the future Kings of France. In the 800's they found in Clovis' grave an ampule of liquid which from thenceforth they would use to anoint the French Kings at their coronations. It's now considered a holy relic in Reims (almost as important as his vintage DVD collection and football cards from the day!) So the Cathedral of Reims is definitely worth a sticky-beak and remains an amazing piece of Gothic architecture!
Enough of that, now back to the bubbly! So Reims is where all the storing, ageing bottling, second stage fermenting, final ageing and distribution takes place at each of the Champagne Houses ("Maisons"). Some of the bigger names there are Veuve-Clicquot, Pommery, G.H.Mumm (used by the F1 winners), Louis Roederer (makers of Cristal) and Taittinger. It is here in each of the champagne house "cellars" that the wines are blended to create the specific taste and characteristic of their maker.
To cut a long process short here's very basically how you make champagne!1) pick grapes
2) crush grapes
3) juice fermentation in vats/barrels to become wine
4) blend different wines
5) bottle it
6) add yeast and sugar and cap the bottle
7) let the blended wine age and ferment in the bottle building up CO2
8) rotate each bottle daily ("riddling") in its rack 90-180 degrees
9) remove the yeast, sediment and extra pressure ("gorging")
10) top up the bottle with liquid and sugar11) age a little longer
12) distribute
13) Eh voila - drink!!Sante!
Contrary to popular belief it wasn't that red-nosed little Benedictine monk Dom Perignon who discovered how to make champagne although he was responsible for refining the overall process in the 1600's - Methode Champenoise! It is believed to have been developed waaaay down in the south west of France. Even such, Moet et Chandon name their premier cuvee champagnes after him in his honour. Champagne gained its popularity during the 1600's and 1700's during the coronations of the Kings of France in Reims as a special wine for a special occasion. So from that "histoire Regal" champagne is still seen as the drink to have during special celebrations!
sanitation, roads, medicine, education, wine, public baths, public order,water and public health,What have the Romans ever done for us....."- CHALK MINES!!
The Romans dug 100's of km's of tunnels to excavate the chalk which they used in building projects and in the 1700's when many of the champagne houses were being founded the houses bought tracts of land where they could utilise the tunnels as cellars. Perfect 8C-10C all year round and darkness, ideal for the champagnes to age!Most of the houses have between 10km to 25km of tunnels for their bottles! Any visit for a tasting at any of the champagne "maison's" most certainly should include a visit down into their cellars.
Of course due to naming laws only wine that is made in the Champagne region may be officially classified as "champagne". Hence champagne that is made in other regions or countries is known under different names such as sekt (Germany, Austria), sparkling wine (Australia, NZ,USA), cava (Spain), spumante(Italy). Even the Soviets got in on the act with their "Soviet Shampanskoye"!).
Which grapes? Three and ONLY three! Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier - let me break that down further and get really technical about them: a red grape, a white grape and another red grape but smaller! At the blending process each house blends the wines of each grape from different years and different grape-growers from the region in the percentage that they prefer. This is provided they meet the four billion or so laws (ok I'm exaggerating but not by much!) as prescribed in the Methode Champenoise. In some cases they can make a champagne solely from Pinot Noir or Chardonnay wine (Blanc des noir/Blanc des blancs).
The champagnes can either be dry ("Brut") to sweet ("Sec") or somewhere in between("Demi-sec"). This is determined by the amount of sugar added in the final "topping-up" process near the very end. Lastly there are "Vintage" and "Non-Vintage" champagnes. Basically a "Vintage" champagne is one in which the master champagne maker determines that all the wine from grapes from that year was exceptionally good and no blending with wines from previous years is required. This happens every 4-7 years they say and occasionally yet very rarely on successive years.
So we're almost up for the drinking part! How long can I keep champagne on my rack (and really it should be kept at a constant 10C-12C in a wine fridge!)? Well here's the great bit - unlike still wine, champagne does not change characteristics once finally bottled and non-vintage should even be drunk within 3-5 years or vintage champagne within 10-12 they say! So that means don't sit on that 1959 Dom Perignon or bottle of Cristal too long - drink it!
The other big town for champagne in the region is Epernay which is about 45mins drive south of Reims. Epernay is home to probably THE most famous of all champagne houses - Moet et Chandon as well as some smaller houses. More on them at another time!
A bientot et sante!!
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