Bubbles - Lots of Them!

While I had been to Epernay quite a few years ago, this trip involved my first visit to Reims.  While it is very famous for its cathedral, of course, it is also famous for the champagne houses that are here including some of the big names:  Vranken Pommery, Taittinger, Veuve Cliquot, Mumm's, Lanson, and Krug to name a few.  With only one full day here, we were clearly only going to be able to visit one or two.  The evening we arrived, we wandered into the pedestrian area of the old town, saw a lovely fountain, stopped for a Kir Royale (for me as I had to have some champagne to celebrate being here) and then we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant called L'Apostrophe.

The following morning, after breakfast, we walked to the Franken Pommery Cellars which took about 40 minutes.  We had booked a one hour tour for 11:30.  It cost 25 Euros but, because we booked it through our hotel, we received a 5 Euro discount.  

It started with a walk down 116 steps (and what goes down has to come back up).  I was surprised that there was no handicap access for this cellar; however, because it is in an old building, they probably cannot retrofit it with an elevator.  The cellars were interesting, much like the Mercier ones in Epernay although this was on foot whereas at Mercier we were taken on a little train through a lot  more tunnels.  At Pommery, the tunnels stored several million bottles including many of the multi-litre ones. 

  

The 116 stairs

A artistically lit tunnel

One of the "art installations"

We learned how, as Pommery, expanded its markets around the world, some of the tunnels were named after places where the champagne was being sold.  Some examples below:

The guide was okay but not great – and she didn’t seem to know as much about champagne making as she maybe should have.  When I asked her if the riddling time for the 4 litre bottles takes longer than the normal .75l bottles, she said "that is a good question and I don't know".  Hmmm!  The cellars, in addition to storing all the Pommery champagne, also have some art exhibits.  Much of the tour was focussed on talking about some of the old sculptures in the tunnels and commenting about the art installations rather than on the champagne.  At least, after we climbed the 116 stairs back up, there was a glass of champagne waiting for us.

After the tour, we set off walking back into the town centre (about 1/2 hour) to visit the cathedral.  It is known by the names Reims Cathedral and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Reims.  Reims was the site of 25 coronations of the kings of France, from Louis VIII in 1223 to Charles X in 1825, including the crowning of Charles VII in 1429 in the presence of Joan of Arc. The cathedral, which was begun in 1211 under the auspices of Archbishop Aubry de Humbert and designer Jean d’Orbais, was modeled on Chartres Cathedral (begun about 1194) and was intended to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. The main construction was overseen by four different architects and lasted some 80 years; expansions and decorative work continued on the church for centuries.

The cathedral’s historic site, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991, includes the former Abbey of Saint-Rémi and the archiepiscopal Tau Palace (reconstructed in the 17th century).  Restoration was undertaken in the 20th century after the cathedral was seriously damaged by shelling during World War I.

One famous feature of the cathedral is The Smiling Angel, also known as The Smile of Reims. It is a stone sculpture which was carved between 1236 and 1245. This figure is in the north portal of the west facade of the cathedral.  It looked to me that she was a bit of a sassy angel and sort of giving the finger to someone - who knows?

Following the visit to the cathedral and a very light lunch that, admittedly for me, included a glass of bubbly, we walked back to where the part of town where the champagne houses are.  We got a bit lost and, because of the kindness of a stranger, we managed to get to our tour at Taittinger on time.  More about the stranger in another blog.

Our tour here was cheaper if you only wanted to sample one glass (21 Euros).  However, I wanted to sample two so I paid 33 Euros.  Taittinger is one of Champagne's most famous houses. It is known for its Chardonnay-dominant cuvées, the pinnacle of which is the blanc de blancs prestige cuvée, Comtes de Champagne. Its flagship is considered as one of the most consistent blanc de blancs from the region.  The business is still run by the Taittingers and is very much a family-based business.  It is housed in a rather non-descript building but what is fascinating is that the cellars are actually from an abbey that was destroyed during the French Revolution.   And, further down, below the cellars of the abbey is a chapel dating from the 4th century.  

 

During the wars, residents of Reims hid in the tunnels from the Germans.  There are places where you can see drawings on the walls that were carved by them.

 The following two carvings date back much further to at least medieval times if not before.

During the tour, we found out that the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars have been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  From the UNESCO website:  the property encompasses sites where the method of producing sparkling wines was developed on the principle of secondary fermentation in the bottle since the early 17th century to its early industrialization in the 19th century. The property is made up of three distinct ensembles: the historic vineyards of Hautvillers, Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Saint-Nicaise Hill in Reims, and the Avenue de Champagne and Fort Chabrol in Epernay. These three components – the supply basin formed by the historic hillsides, the production sites (with their underground cellars) and the sales and distribution centres (the Champagne Houses) - illustrate the entire champagne production process. The property bears clear testimony to the development of a very specialized artisan activity that has become an agro-industrial enterprise.

So, with that, our visit to Champagne was done.  Next up, we were heading to the Mosel River valley where we would finish our journey.