Epernay
After acquiring croissants with chocolate in them from a kiosk we took a train to Epernay. At Epernay, we expected to meet a guide for a tour of some local wineries.
But the guide didn't show, so we set out on foot ourselves. First we went to Moet et Chandon, which has a huge presence above ground and apparently a bigger one below, in the caves. In the courtyard outside there is a statue of Dom Perignon, the monk who figured out how to put the bubbly in champagne.
We took a tour of the caves. The caves have seriously better air conditioning than any I've experienced in Europe (beating the office hands-down) - they're pretty deep and have walls of limestone, and stay nice and cool and humid even when it's really hot outside.
The caves reminded me a little of the ones I saw at Schramsburg (in Napa), except that the ones in Schramsburg seemed to have been built as expediently as possible and the ones at Moet seem... designed, somehow. There are even some sections of the caves that are two stories tall, to optimize storage space. Only the main path of the tour was well-lit, but you can see tunnels full of wine racks extending off in all directions as far as the light trickles.
The tour guide explained the process of making champagne: they pick all their grapes by hand, do the first fermentation, mix stuff together, put it in the bottles and let them ferment again, then put them neck-down in the racks for riddling to filter the sediment into the neck of the bottle, then freeze the neck and remove the sediment, add some reserve wine to fill the bottle back up, and ship it. During the fermentation phase, you can really see the sediment gathering in the bottles. They still have humans doing most of the riddling (turning the bottles occasionally to help the sediment gather in the neck) but have some machines to automate the labor. The funny thing is that the machine are only about four times faster than their best humans.
The years in the caves introduce some wear and tear on the bottles, though - they get pretty dusty and have to be cleaned off before sale. I learned why champagne bottles have concave bottoms - the shape helps the bottles withstand the pressure of the contents.
There was even a great big barrel on display that was brought back by Napoleon from a conquest, full of port, and given to his good friend Remy Moet.
In the tasting room we got to sample a bunch of their champagnes.
After tasting the champagne, we decided to go to lunch at Le Theatre. It was noon on Saturday, but the restaurant was completely empty except for us. I don't speak any French at all, but recognized the words "beef" and "chocolate" (and "prix fixe") and figured it was likely to be tasty. Sure enough, it was an excellent lunch, but I still couldn't tell you exactly what I ate. 
But I do know there were figs in the salad, and I had never actually eaten figs before (except in Fig Newton form, which probably doesn't count), and now I know I like figs. Andrew's lunch involved very tasty duck that was sort of the opposite of the duck you get at dim sum - all the really fatty bits were removed, leaving just the little bit of really good tender meat. 
His third course was a cheese plate. Now, I had always thought of a cheese plate as something where they bring you a little plate with a few pieces of cheese on it. But here, the cheese plate is a guy with this gigantic wheel with a dozen cheeses on it, and you point to the ones you want and he cuts off pieces of them for you to eat with flaky crusty bread.
Andrew says I should say more about the bread. OK, the bread was good too. Plus the dessert chocolate was one of those light fluffy hunks of something between fudge and cake.. mmm. I need to figure out how to make that.
After stuffing ourselves with lunch, we went to a few more places for champagne tasting. Lots of these places seem not to be open for tasting on weekends - I guess it fits in well with stuff generally not being open in Europe then. Finally, after discovering that absolutely no one has air conditioning, we went to the park where there was a little art festival, and napped in the shade in the park until the sun became less threatening. Then we caught a train back to Paris.
But the guide didn't show, so we set out on foot ourselves. First we went to Moet et Chandon, which has a huge presence above ground and apparently a bigger one below, in the caves. In the courtyard outside there is a statue of Dom Perignon, the monk who figured out how to put the bubbly in champagne.We took a tour of the caves. The caves have seriously better air conditioning than any I've experienced in Europe (beating the office hands-down) - they're pretty deep and have walls of limestone, and stay nice and cool and humid even when it's really hot outside.
The caves reminded me a little of the ones I saw at Schramsburg (in Napa), except that the ones in Schramsburg seemed to have been built as expediently as possible and the ones at Moet seem... designed, somehow. There are even some sections of the caves that are two stories tall, to optimize storage space. Only the main path of the tour was well-lit, but you can see tunnels full of wine racks extending off in all directions as far as the light trickles.
The tour guide explained the process of making champagne: they pick all their grapes by hand, do the first fermentation, mix stuff together, put it in the bottles and let them ferment again, then put them neck-down in the racks for riddling to filter the sediment into the neck of the bottle, then freeze the neck and remove the sediment, add some reserve wine to fill the bottle back up, and ship it. During the fermentation phase, you can really see the sediment gathering in the bottles. They still have humans doing most of the riddling (turning the bottles occasionally to help the sediment gather in the neck) but have some machines to automate the labor. The funny thing is that the machine are only about four times faster than their best humans.
The years in the caves introduce some wear and tear on the bottles, though - they get pretty dusty and have to be cleaned off before sale. I learned why champagne bottles have concave bottoms - the shape helps the bottles withstand the pressure of the contents.There was even a great big barrel on display that was brought back by Napoleon from a conquest, full of port, and given to his good friend Remy Moet.
In the tasting room we got to sample a bunch of their champagnes.
After tasting the champagne, we decided to go to lunch at Le Theatre. It was noon on Saturday, but the restaurant was completely empty except for us. I don't speak any French at all, but recognized the words "beef" and "chocolate" (and "prix fixe") and figured it was likely to be tasty. Sure enough, it was an excellent lunch, but I still couldn't tell you exactly what I ate. 
But I do know there were figs in the salad, and I had never actually eaten figs before (except in Fig Newton form, which probably doesn't count), and now I know I like figs. Andrew's lunch involved very tasty duck that was sort of the opposite of the duck you get at dim sum - all the really fatty bits were removed, leaving just the little bit of really good tender meat. 
His third course was a cheese plate. Now, I had always thought of a cheese plate as something where they bring you a little plate with a few pieces of cheese on it. But here, the cheese plate is a guy with this gigantic wheel with a dozen cheeses on it, and you point to the ones you want and he cuts off pieces of them for you to eat with flaky crusty bread.Andrew says I should say more about the bread. OK, the bread was good too. Plus the dessert chocolate was one of those light fluffy hunks of something between fudge and cake.. mmm. I need to figure out how to make that.
After stuffing ourselves with lunch, we went to a few more places for champagne tasting. Lots of these places seem not to be open for tasting on weekends - I guess it fits in well with stuff generally not being open in Europe then. Finally, after discovering that absolutely no one has air conditioning, we went to the park where there was a little art festival, and napped in the shade in the park until the sun became less threatening. Then we caught a train back to Paris.
posted by Lexi Baugher at 6:56 PM
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