I feel compelled to write this as lately, it has been difficult to find some quiet time reflecting…
It was nearing the end of summer in Europe. And as I was contemplating on the real weather there, I can't help but wonder whether mid- October is a good time to visit the Champagne region. My reservation was influenced by Swiss Aunt who had been saying that the summer was rather warm and nice but ended too quickly. Early October had reported a little snow fall, Swiss Aunt was surprised and was in disbelief of the oh-so-noticeable changes in the earth's climate.
My journey starts from Paris in a van or mini-bus that could fit 8 passengers. Joining a guided tour is the path I would rather not take for the past few years, as I would rather explore the places all by myself whenever I am overseas. Since Champagne is quite a last-minute decision, I decided that a guided tour is the best way and would guarantee the access to the champagne houses.
My pick-up was early at 7:15am at the hotel. I woke up early as I always love to have the café croissant breakfast at the hotel’s bar. To my surprise, I was offered a complimentary Americano and unlimited croissants from a basket. I had only two although I wish I could have another one as the croissant was so fluffy and buttery to my liking. I thanked the barman and the host for such a treat before leaving behind a tip of a few euro.
My guide “Marjit” came, and I was escorted to the co-driver’s seat of the van. Behind me was a mom-and-daughter team whom claimed to be wine experts from Las Vegas. Also there was another couple of Chinese Canadians from Toronto, named Mr and Mrs Tze. We exchanged our hellos and briefly introduced ourselves before picking up the final couple named Bob and Eileen from Virginia. They were all lovely and pleasant people, all well surpassed or on par with my parent’s age except the daughter, Crystal.
The journey to Champagne along the highway was not a quiet one. At the rear of the van, the friendly people were chatting among themselves and at the front, I was chatting with the guide who’s of course, a French. I could sense that he was not too keen on his job and like many French, always love a vacation (apologies for stereotyping!). However, I must say that, he is knowledgeable about champagne and pronounced “champagne” in the proudest and most typical French way.
Finally, we had arrived at Reims (pronounced as “rance”) and we saw the massive cultivation of vine. Then, we continued driving to Hautvillers that marked the Tourist Route of Champagne ( Route Touristique Du Champagne). Along the way, we saw many smaller champagne houses. And many have German sounded names as we were told that, the Germans were the ones who started the champagne industry in Champagne. The Germans were good in trade whereas the French were good in wine-making as I was told, hence, the success of the champagne industry even back in 18 to 19th century.
We were given a brief introduction of the history of Champagne as a place and as a type of wine. Champagne, the sparkling wine was founded by a Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon in the 17th century by popular belief. He blended the 3 grape varietals namely Pinot Noir, Pinot Muenier and Chardonnay and voila, a great drink was created (of course, after 2 fermentations) as told by our guide. Well, the actual champagne production is definitely much more complex than his explanation! Understandably, simplification and exaggeration were used sometimes to make things more interesting and dramatic in capturing our attention and imagination.
Our first champagne house visited was Nicolas Feuillatte, a rather young champagne winemaker using a more “state of the art” method of production and marketed as a hip and trendy Champagne brand. We were given a tour of the facility and we saw the various stages of transforming the grapes into the bubbly liquid in a distinguished-shape bottle. Most of the stages of production was automated and I wonder to myself, how sad it is that the romance of wine-making by human is being over taken by emotionless, uncompassionate machinery. Why would human create a machine to detach himself/herself from using their very own senses, their very own hands? Of course, simply, it's business rather than art!
At the end of the tour, we were given a glass of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne to sample, a non-vintage of course, as a vintage one will be too expensive to dispense to us. According to the guide at Nicolas Feuillatte, 2009 will be a vintage year as the harvest has been of a very good quality one!
We then were told that, we would be taking a break for lunch in Reims, which was already included in our tour. On our way to the restaurant, we drove past the Reims Cathedral, famous for the many coronations of France’s kings. Joan of Arc was once at the coronation of King Charles VII in the majestic cathedral.
A table of seven was set ready for us. We were then given a brief introduction of the menu of the day. Our starter was a fish dish, a mousse-textured curd that tasted very fishy but surprisingly paired very well with the white wine served. Then, entered the main course of braised chicken leg in red wine sauce served with the side of tagliatelle and chive cream sauce. The chicken leg was heavenly with the very light-bodied red and I supposed the choice of wine served was due to the heavy and flavourful sauce. Suddenly, I felt happy with the great company, conversations and thankful for the great French gourmet experience. The finale was a champagne-infused grape and cherry served with vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream.
Our second champagne house visited was none other than the famous Mumm. I secretly wanted to visit Moet et Chandon instead. Nonetheless, Mumm has many great legacies and it is more “old school” or traditional as compared to the trendy Nicolas Feuillatte. The cellar was deep in underground. It reminded me of a wartime bomb shelter or bunker and also a medieval castle. I was most impressed with the wine library that housed its oldest champagne dated 1893. And Mumm definitely managed to keep automation hidden in maintaining its image as a "serious" champagne house.
Any great learning encounter will come to an end. What is left behind is a sense of fulfilment that you have enriched yourself with a little more knowledge than before. With that, I hope that many more learning encounters are in waiting and certainly, something to do with wine would be very encouraging for me.
