Epernay, Champagne ...Celebrating 50 years as Mr & Mrs

We were in a bit of a daze having made a fairly last-minute decision to celebrate our 50th anniversary in Champagne & Paris. After 2 days of tasting in Champagne, we were in more of a daze... (We're not sure why… Maybe there was a correlation to the visits to the tasting rooms and wine bars?). But wait, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

We wanted a suitable place to celebrate our 50 years of wedded bliss.... And thinking about it we realized that Champagne & Paris just called to us.  We did the research to assure ourselves that, despite the August vacation period in France, sufficient fine restaurants would be open. Then we went into a flurry of booking flights, arranging a hotel in Epernay, finding an apartment in Paris, and browsing the web to get a better sense of how we might spend our days.

The team at Air France was delighted to help us celebrate and provided us free lounge passes, complete with a celebratory carrot cake and all the champagne we wanted.  The treatment continued to our “double” seats...fairly spacious so Bill could have his preferred aisle seat while Pat had her preferred window seat with no one in the middle! Not bad. Maybe we should have sprung to use miles and fly Business Class, but we preferred to take a non-stop flight from Mexico City to Paris. That was only available on Air France.

Upon our arrival at Paris CDG airport, we truly walked more than a mile (thanks to our Apple watches for checking that) to get through immigration, baggage claim and then out to our awaiting taxi for the drive to Epernay. Following the 1.5 hour drive, we checked into the lovely Hotel Jean Moet, got some Euro's and went to Orange cellular to get local SIM cards/phone service. We chose the tourist package 40 euros which includes a SIM card, ample phone minutes (Europe-wide) and 40 GB! of data. It’s only good for 2 weeks but that is precisely what we needed.  Yes, we are now definitely addicted to on-line access while we travel.  It facilitates accessing any of our roughly planned itineraries while also facilitating spontaneity.

We decided to have dinner at Le Banque, in a lovely old bank building. To accompany our meal we enjoyed four different Blanc de Blancs (white champagne made from white grapes...Chardonnay) and two Brut Roses (pink wine made from red grapes...Pinot Noir) with crispy cod with pistachio pesto, roasted vegetables and fries for Bill and roasted scallops with risotto and shiitake mushrooms for Pat. Both meals turned out to be a good start for our trip.

Scallops with risotto & shiitakes (above). 

Crispy cod with pistachio pesto (below).

After dinner we took a stroll around our neighborhood. It was nearly 9pm yet there was plenty of light for photos. We love the northern climes in summer with the long daylight hours. 

A couple evening views

Before continuing, here's your crib-sheet on champagne. This may help Champagne novices wondering about the details when we mention specific Champagnes we tasted. Others will likely just want to skip this section entirely.

• To be officially labeled ‘Champagne' a sparkling wine must be made from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France and they must have had a secondary fermentation in the bottle.
• Champagne is almost always produced using one (or more) of three grape varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
• Extra Brut or Brut Zero is the driest sparkling wine — It has 0-6 grams per liter residual sugar  with no dosage or added sugar. 
• Brut tastes dry with no perception of sweetness. It is the most common style of sparkling wine  and contains no more than 12 grams/liter residual sugar.
• Blanc de Blanc (French for white from white) is made entirely from Chardonnay grapes.
• Blanc de Noir (French for white from black, ie red grapes) is a white wine made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or a blend of the two.
• Brut Rose is a blush colored Brut made from red grapes. The color either comes from the juice spending more time on the red skins or from a small amount of red wine being added along with the sugar in the “dosage”.
• A vintage (Millésimé in French) champagne is made from grapes from a single year.
• Villages in Champagne are rated by a Cru system as a basis for setting the grape prices. Roughly 9% of Champagne vineyards are rated 100 percent or Grand Cru and warrant the highest price. A Premier Cru village is rated 90-99 percent. The lowest rated villages are rated at 80%. 
• A cuvée is a blend of grape varieties or of wine from specially selected barrels or vats. It is also used to imply prestige or quality, but the term is not officially regulated.

First we wandered along Avenue de Champagne enjoying the ambience of the massive, ornate Champagne Houses. Then off to Charles Mignon, a smaller, somewhat out of the way “House”. There we sampled a flight of 6 wines (2-Blanc de Blancs, a Brut, an Extra Brut (the driest--see notes above), a Blanc de Noir and a Brut Rose. 

Enroute to our second tasting we passed a small park created around the ruins of an arch. 

The second tasting came with a light snack (foie gras and warm bread) at the George Cartier tasting room and wine bar.We chose to sample the "Prestige Collection", with champagnes from 5 different houses. Specifically: Grand Reserve Grand Cru Chardonnay, Cuvée Origine 100% Meunier, Millésimé 2006 Premier Cru (60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay), Millésimé 2009, and Rosé Cuvée Boheme.   

At George Cartier Wine Bar

We wandered along Avenue de Champagne. Along the way we got some good advice...

Then on to Boizel where we tasted their "Jewels", the term they use for their reserve wines, aged for 8 to 15 years before being released.  We sampled the Joyau de France 2000 (a white from a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), Joyau de France Rose 2007 (another Pinot Noir / Chardonnay blend) and Joyau de France Chardonnay 2007. There we got into conversation with two young ladies from Holland (one a psychiatrist, the other a lawyer) and a couple retiree expats from California trying their hand at life in Normandy.  We enjoyed our conversation with them enough that we decided to order another glass of champagne and linger longer.

We decided to take a walk across the river Marne to the little town of Magenta. Along the way we caught a good view of the tower at the Castellane Champagne house. Magenta is a working town and had little to offer, although we understand there is one quite nice restaurant.

Back in Epernay we decided to go Italian for dinner. We arrived early and got a nice outside table at Sardaignia. We started with carpaccio with tomatoes, pesto, pine nuts and parmigiano. Pat had the prawns and veggies. Bill had cannelloni. All went well with our Premier Cru Brut Rose.

Stats Day 1: Three tastings. Two champagne houses. One wine bar. 15 glasses "sampled". One bottle for dinner. 

Next morning we are off to taste more Champagne. At Castellane we started with a cellar tour followed by a nice glass of brut. We’ve been on MANY cellar tours and usually pass them up. But we were in the mood to see some of the extensive cave system under the city.  Champagne cellar tours always include a demonstration of riddling. They usually show how in the old days they used a rack riddled with slanted holes where the necks of the bottles are inserted. The bottles start our fairly horizontal but each day they get a combination of a quarter turn and a slight shift toward the vertical. Over the course of weeks, this process causes the sediments to end up in the neck ready for disgorging. These days the process is automated with racks of several hundred bottles are turned a once. But here, we learned what preceded the riddling rack. Bottles were inserted upside down in sand.

On the way back to Avenue de Champagne, we stopped to enjoy the garden at the entrance to town.

We continued on to Venoge where we tasted their Princes (reserve) series, a Rosé, a Blanc de Blanc, a Blanc de Noir, and an Extra Brut accompanied by some nice little bites (Jamon ibérico, cheese, dried fruit and a piece of toasted bread). We bought the Blanc de Blanc. The best of our visit to Epernay! Robert Parker agreed with us. He gave it a 93.

After the tastings we rested for a bit before heading out to explore the countryside with Vintage Tour Company.  There were two couples, us celebrating 50 years and the other from Belgium on their honeymoon.  We enjoyed the views over the vineyards and the small villages along with some more champagne.

Back to La Banque for dinner. Since the wind had subsided we chose to sit in the garden. Our selections of lamb with risotto & crispy vegetables for Bill and duck with pommes frites for Pat. We also enjoyed the delightful melon gazpacho amuse bouche. All went well with the Brut Rose Premier Cru. To wrap it up, we chose a "coupe" (ice cream sundae) for dessert.

Stats Day 2: Three tastings. Two champagne houses. One tour. 7 glasses "sampled". One bottle for dinner. 

Thursday, it's bye bye Champagne Region. After a short walk to the train station we departed Epernay for the 1.5 hrs ride to Paris.