Champagne: The Facts
Nowhere else in France, let alone the rest of the world, are you allowed to make champagne . You can blend wines from chalk-soil vineyards, double-ferment them, turn and tilt the bottles little by little to clear the sediment, add some vintage liqueur, store the result for years at the requisite constant temperature and high humidity in sweating underground caves carved from chalk soil, and finally produce a bubbling golden liquid; but you cannot call it champagne. It's perhaps an outrageous monopoly in order to keep the region's sparkling wines in the luxury class, although the locals will tell you the difference comes from the squid fossils in the chalk, the lie of the land and its critical climate, the evolution of the grapes, the regulated pruning methods, the legally enforced quantity of juice pressed. Three authorized grape varieties are used in champagne: Chardonnay, the only white grape, growing best on the Cote des Blancs and contributing a light and elegant element; Pinot Noir, grown mainly on the Montagne de Reims slopes, giving body and long life; and Pinot Meunier, cultivated primarily in the Marne valley, adding flowery aromas. The vineyards are owned either by maisons , who produce the grande marque champagne, or by small cultivators called vignerons , who sell the grapes to the maisons . The vignerons also make their own champagne and will happily offer you a glass and sell you a bottle at half the price of a grande marque (ask at any tourist office in the Champagne region for a list of addresses). The difference between the two comes down to capital. The maisons can afford to blend grapes from anything up to sixty different vineyards and to tie up their investment while their champagne matures for several years longer than the legal minimum (one year for non-vintage, three years vintage). So the wine they produce is undoubtedly superior - and not a lot cheaper here than in a good discount off-licence in Britain or the US. If you could visit the head offices of Cartier or Dior, the atmosphere would probably be similar to that in the champagne maisons whose palaces are divided between Epernay and Reims. Visits to the handful of maisons that organize regular guided tours are no longer free, and some require appointments, but don't be put off - they all speak English and a generous degustation is nearly always thrown in. Their audiovisuals and (cold) cellar tours are on the whole very informative, and do more than merely plug brand names. Local tourist offices can provide full lists of addresses and times of visits. If you want to work on the harvest , contact either the maisons direct; the Agence Nationale pour l'Emploi, Cour de la Gare, Epernay (tel 03.26.54.88.29), or 40 rue de Talleyrand, Reims (tel 03.26.89.52.60); or try the hostel in Verzy, at 16 rue du Bassin (tel 03.26.97.90.10), where casual workers are often recruited and work is advertised.
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