Champagne

Mar 22, 2014

I know the post is a bit late, sorry about that!

API took us on a day trip to Champagne, a region west/north-west of Paris known for producing champagne - what a surprise! Bet you couldn't have guessed that, huh?

It took about 2 hours to get there by bus so it wasn't too bad. Our first stop was in the city of Reims at les caves Mumm, a large producer of champagne that owns a lot of vineyards. We were given a tour of the facilities and we got to see how they store the wine for aging and they explained how the process for making champapgne is different from regular wine. With champagne there's a double fermentation process that causes bubbles which mix into the drink during aging. The tour was pretty interesting, but the best part was la degustation (the tasting) at the end. We were able to choose between having a glass of brut which is unsweetened with very little sugar (usually used as a wine with dinner) or demi-sec, a sweetened wine with a lot of sugar usually poured with desert. For me, more sugar is always better (haha) so I chose the demi-sec. It was really good and probably the best wine I've had since arriving in Paris.

After our tour of cave Mumm, we were given a couple hour break for lunch so we all split off into small groups to eat. After lunch we had about 30 minutes to take a tour of the inside of the giant Cathedrale in the city. The stained glass on the inside was gorgeous.

Next we boarded the bus for about an hour commute to Eparnay where we were going on a second tour of a major Champagne producer, Mercier. Unlike the tour at cave Mumm where we walked through tunnels and caves under the facility, the tour at cave Mercier was automated and through a really slow roller-coaster. I prefered cave Mumm because it was much easier to explore and appreciate the process on foot. The tour was so-so but at least we got another degustation at the end. This time I tried the brut though. Just as I thought, more sugar is better haha. The brute was okay but I definitely prefer the demi-sec. I think I was definitely in the minority though - almost everyone I talked to who had tried both prefered the brut.

Once the tour was over we boared the bus and headed back to Paris. Because traffic was heavier it took us close to 3 hours to get back.

I didn't take pictures of cave Mercier because it was similar to cave Mumm and because the tour made for not so great ones, but here are some pictures of cave Mumm and the Cathedrale in Reims