Day 26 – More Champagne!

This morning I drove across to Épernay to visit two of the big name Champagne houses, situated on the Avenue de Champagne, aptly enough!



My first stop of the day was at Mercier, founded by Eugène Mercier in 1858. I was under no illusions that these visits this morning would be very polished, but were these famous houses underpinned by a love of champagne?


Well, M. Mercier’s philosophy was that Champagne should be available to the common people and he set up his house from nothing to facilitate that. Not only was he very forward thinking in that respect, but he was an incredible innovator.

Carved in the walls of the cellar!

His 30km of cellars were built at double height to allow better working conditions for his employees; he built his house on a site on the main Paris to Strasbourg trainline, so it still has its own station!

For the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, he decorated a huge barrel to be drawn by horses all the way from Épernay. He even bought buildings on the way, so he could demolish them to allow this huge convoy to pass....... It only won 2nd prize...... The Eiffel Tower came 1st!


At the 1900 World Exhibition, he came up with the idea of offering visitors a hot air balloon ride with a glass of champagne over the roofs of Paris...


So while the 30m descent by glass lift into the cellars today was a bit of a spectacle, I felt it was very in keeping with the spirit of the founder of the house.

Manual riddling

The tour itself was interesting and informative.... and at the end, a taste of 3 champagnes was offered:


1. Cuvée Eugène Mercier (Brut) – Every year a certain quantity of wine is reserved after the 1st fermentation and kept by all houses. 30% of this champagne is made up of the reserve wines which give it extra maturity. This blend is 55/35/10 Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier/Chardonnay. The nose was toastie and strawberry in aroma, and the taste was again toast, strawberry and a bit of butter.


2. Vendange 2005 – A vintage champagne with a 30/40/40 blend of Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier/Chardonnay. This was much more citrus on the nose with hints of toast and on the palate – yellow grapefruit, a little toast and a little strawberry.


3. Brut Rosé – The pink champagnes are made in 1 of 2 ways: ‘Saignée’ – this is where a little more pressure is applied to the Pinot grapes so that the skins ‘bleed’ a little red colour into the wine – this is the method used by M. Charbaut. However, Mercier opt for a mixing of red and white wines, so a red wine is produced from Pinot Noir and for this particular champagne, this makes up 18% of the volume of the wine blend, the rest is white. The nose of this champagne was all strawberries and the taste was strawberry, butter and a hint of blackberry.

So, immediately I wandered along the avenue to Moёt & Chandon, who sell more champagne than any of the other houses and are one of the oldest houses.

Moёt & Chandon gardens 

They, like Mercier, now belong to the LVMH brand, but seem to have embraced the brand little more – it appeared to be more high fashion than viticultural excellence. But, it obviously works..... I had to wait almost an hour for the next available timeslot, so I used my time to wander along the avenue and explore the centre of Épernay.

Dom Perignon - also produced by Moёt & Chandon

At high noon, we were greeted by our English-speaking guide (in the loosest possible terms – a Japanese lady, who was delighted very few questions were asked, though I fear this was because no-one really believed she would understand them, or even if she did, would be in a position to provide an intelligible answer!) That may sound harsh, but at €27 a pop, I would expect a decent English-speaking guide...... Heck, I could have done a better job at explaining the process. (I should add that the English speaking guide in Mercier was excellent – obviously French, but terrific at her job.)

After a rather glossy film which very tenuously linked the blending of champagne to the mixing of colours on an artist’s palette...... good analogy, poorly executed, we walked down to the cellars where we learned that the label ‘Brut Impérial’ on most M&C bottles is in homage to the Emperor Napoléon...... A lot was made of the friendship between him and M. Jean-Remy Moёt...... and a lot was made of famous visitors........

Manual riddling in low ceilinged cellars

Gift from Napoleon

You can tell I was really getting turned off by the shallowness of this place...... And such a shame, because for many, many years now, (at least 20), I’ve wanted to come to Moёt & Chandon in Épernay to taste the champagne...... Why? Very sadly because they have dots over the ‘e’ like in Zoё, so I felt a kind of affinity with them....... That has now disappeared. The illusion is destroyed. They say never meet your heroes.... and this seems to fall into the same category. Ooh, on the subject of heroes..... And before I return to the point..... cracking advert on French TV for L’Orèal Men’s deodorant starring the immaculate M. Eric Cantona – wonderful..... Now he really is worth it!

Jeroboams of Dom Perignon

Anyway, at the end of the tour, I tasted two vintage champagnes:


1. Grand Vintage 2003 Brut – this 43% Pinot Meunier vs Chardonnay blend champagne had subtle aromas of butter, toast, citrus and strawberry, with a taste of apples, butter and slight strawberry. The bubbles were quite prickly on the tongue.


2. Grand Vintage 2003 Brut Rosé – this 48% Pinot Noir vs Chardonnay blend, made by mixing red and white wines had a subtle red fruit nose and a red fruit taste.

What can I say? I haven’t tasted M&C in a very long time and quite frankly, I won’t be doing so again of my own volition...... Maybe their success is due to the inoffensive subtlety of the flavours....... but I very much prefer the distinctive flavours that express the blends, the methods and inherently the skill of the champagne producer.


A spot of lunch and off southwards to explore the Côte des Blancs...... Just outside Épernay, I stopped off at the Château de Pierry.

There are very few châteaux and other beautiful buildings in Champagne, as in the main, they were destroyed during the two World Wars, so I took the opportunity to view this example. The tour started with a film on Champagne..... obviously made in the 80s, filled with the beautiful people, but not unpleasant; it was almost a spoof, like Ashes to Ashes or something like that. The tour of the château itself was quite interesting, the décor, the beautiful gardens...

and the wine cellar and press – it wasn’t so big as to become monotonous...

I’m not one for big houses unless they have a particular interest to them, but this was a pleasant start to the afternoon.

I then drove all the way to Mont Aimé, the southern end of the Côte des Blancs, from which the views were wonderful..... before I meandered my way back.

View from Mont Aimé

I’m not one for stopping at places of interest, unless they actually interest me.... and I, like everyone, have my own unique take on what is interesting, but my interest was piqued by a wedding museum, set in the tiny village of Oger in the middle of Champagne..... I had to stop and investigate. When I arrived, there was another couple there to see the museum, and the owner let the 3 of us in..... I have to say, I’m so very glad they were there, for had I gone in on my own, (and by the way, we were locked in), I would have been quite scared.

It started with a collection of glass bell jars with flowers given to brides – but they had died, so they were just dead flowers, some with cuts of human hair (a tradition in France) in a bowl??? And there were at least 100 of them..... It was like being locked in Miss Haversham’s room.... Very creepy...... Then there were mannequins in old-fashioned wedding dress...... again, add a bit of creepy music and I definitely would have been ready for some sort of horror movie massacre.... eugh!

However, the next room redeemed itself with the special champagne bottle labels made for marriages and other special events..... One for Broad Street in London! And some glasses from the ceremonies.

After that, the owner returned and invited us to view his cellar...... Were we safe????...... before a tasting.

It has to be said that the owner was quite the jolly fellow, not at all scary and he explained that his mother had put together a small collection of marriage memorabilia many years ago after finding some things of her mother’s and then people heard of it and brought her more and more things. He then offered us his champagnes, all ‘Blanc de Blancs’ (100% Chardonnay), so I wasn’t sure how I’d like them.


1. Grand Cru Carte Noire – 2004 and 2006 blend, aged 3 years – On the nose – lemon and sweet apple and to taste, elegant flavours of grapefruit and sweet apples, with deliciously delicate bubbles.


2. Grand Cru Sélection – Blend of 2000, 2001 and 2002; aged 5 years. On the nose, lemon and blossom and to taste, a subtler riper lemon flavour with a little yeast.


3. Grand Cru Amoureux – Blend of 1999 and 2006; aged 3 years. On both the nose and palette, this reminded me of pink grapefruit, with brown sugar sprinkled on top and then grilled – the smell was the same and the taste was the marriage of the sweet cooked top layer balanced by the more acidic bottom fruit that hasn’t been cooked, with a little yeast – it was a lovely marriage (get it) of the fruit from the ’99 vintage with the acidity of the ’06.


4. Grand Cru Louis Millésimé – This vintage 2002 champagne has been aged 8 years to give a nose of sweet confit lemons and a taste of sweet pink grapefruit with sweet bread and almonds. And again delicate bubbles.


Well, you can probably tell from the commentary that I have had my mind changed on the Blanc de Blancs front...... By speaking with Pascal Henry the owner, I think I have been tasting the Blanc de Blancs too young, when they are too acidic and the acidity and yeast flavours haven’t fully integrated – these were a little more mature and just beautifully balanced...... He has won a real convert.

Back to Mareuil-sur-Aÿ for the Champagne dinner...... cancelled again, which was a real shame as I was really looking forward to it, but these things happen!