Bubbles

Tattinger. Moet & Chandon. Veuve Cliquot. Yup - big names when it comes to Champagne. But when it comes to touring the facilities, you would be herded along with all of the other visitors (some of which would be tourists referring to $3 Andre as champagne...) and have a half glass of something thrown at you towards the end.

O & I decided to take a different approach when we decided to road trip through Champagne on our way to Paris with his visiting sister and her boyfriend. Armed with Craigie on Main's wine list, we called/e-mailed about 6 different champagneries (not a word, I know, whatever). Unfortunately, being that it was the off-season as well as the week directly following Christmas/New Year's, it was tough to find a place that was open. But we found two such places, and now that it's over, we're glad we didn't book any more given our time restraint. Both champagne houses welcomed us with open arms and gave us private tours of their facilities. They were extremely different from one another and very awesome in their own ways.

My personal favorite out of the two: Gaston Chiquet, a small, privately owned estate located in Dizy, just about a 30-minute drive south of Rheims. Nicolas and Antoine Chiquet own and operate the family business, and we got a personal tour from Antoine himself.

The house of Gaston Chiquet. Antoine's great-great (maybe another great or two) grandfather planted the first Chardonnay grape in their region in 1746.

Inside the house, a display of the champagnes we were lucky enough to taste. I think there might have been a couple we tried that aren't shown here (special bottles, ooh!).

Antoine describes the different tanks and their purposes: how long the juice stays in tanks, when and how yeast is added, etc.

Showing us around the caves.

Describing the process of turning the bottle in order to collect/harden the sediment for easy removal. Also, how the color corresponds to the type of grape in the champagne - yellowish/green means it's mostly or all Chardonnay... a gold color indicates the addition of Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier.

He even set up a whole demonstration to show how the champagne is bottled and corked. They now use a special cork "Mystik Diamant" that does not emit any of the cork into the bottle.

The backyard - vines! No pesticides or yucky chemically things are used. It's a relatively small plot of land , but certainly gets the job done.

Mr. Chiquet was one of the most welcoming hosts we've met in France. His philosophy on wine related to his philosophy about life - relating to us and the restaurant O has in mind. We certainly hope that however many years from now that O's dream becomes a reality, we'll be able to call up Antoine and not only get his wine into our restaurant, but invite him to the opening!

Next, we headed to Ay, just outside of Dizy, to the new home of Gosset. They recently (last September) moved to a bigger and badass-er location. They still have their other property, so it was more like an expansion rather than a move.
Our guide, Phillip, is essentially a rep for Gosset. Unlike Gaston-Chiquet, Gosset is a "negotiant," meaning they buy the juice/must from the grapes from various vineyards in the region. Here, Phillip points out the various places they buy their stuff from, allowing them to mix and match for the best possible combinations.

The caves underneath the grounds were absolutely GINORMOUS, slightly younger than those at G-C (roughly 150yrs old), stretching for what seemed to be miles. They also go down much deeper than the ones at G-C, so much so that the walls are completely made up of chalk. Here, we check out the various "graffiti" on the walls - we even saw some scratches from a solider from Connecticut in the 1940s!

Each tour took over 2 hours to complete, hence our relief that we only scheduled two. Though after these experiences, I am definitely tempted to schedule a couple more perhaps when the weather warms up... the private tours were so fantastic and we learned so much!

We drove into Rheims for a quick dinner that night not worthy of a photograph. However, the Notre Dame in Rheims certainly was... even though we're pretty sure we were illegally driving up too close to the cathedral (hence the "from the car" photograph):

Thus concludes our lovely day surrounded by the bubbly. Next up will be a blog full-o-Paris! Which might end up needing two posts, as I will be gaining twice as many pictures from Galen and Matt once they are able to send them my way. Salut!