Pass the Dom P

I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, and here it is. It is nearly the end of my stay in France, and we have a day trip planned to the Champagne region. Most of the champagne houses don’t open until later in March, but luckily I was able to set up a few visits. On the itinerary for today – Moet & Chandon, Alfred Gratien, and Pommery. The first stop is in Epernay, only about a 2 hour drive from Fonty. It is nice to see the different villages in France. We pass through long fields, vines, then villages. The fields almost look lime green; perhaps it is a sharp contrast to the dreary sky and barren trees. Moet & Chandon is located on Avenue de Champagne in Eperney, equivalent to the 5^th avenue for champagne houses. All of the houses have golden writings on the wall with their names and symbols. 

Moet has 80 miles of cellars underground; as we walk into one of them stretching 18km, it is a weird feeling to be in cold and humid setting. The walls are moist, yet the air is cold. They use 3 types of grapes, 1 with white skin, and 2 with dark skin and mix the 3 for a consistent taste. It is outlawed in this region to use machines to pick the grapes, thus it must be hand-picked. The basic process is to first make wine, and then add yeast and sugar in the bottle to follow for a second fermentation. The yeast is then freeze dried and removed after the bubbles are created. Even put back some of the wine from the original fermentation to get the right sweetness. Moet and Napoleon go way back, thus they named their traditional champagne the Imperial, in honor of Napoleon. Dom P himself founded the grapes, thus the bottle is named after him. This and the vintage champagnes are only made in years with the best grapes. Thus, if there aren’t any good grapes, then it won’t be made. We decide to splurge at split a bottle of Dom P at dinner among the 6 of us…as I thought –when in Champagne..

Alfred Gratien is a smaller house that produces about 250,000 bottles per year, a self-imposed production limit. They focus on handmade champagne through all the steps, picking each grape to turning each bottle during fermentation. They differ from the big houses as they do not grow their own grapes and use oak barrels to store the champagne (most houses now use steel cases).  The highlight of this tour was to see the champagne assembly line- watching workers uncork the bottles, add back wine, and record them. Many of the houses keep old bottles of champagne – when asked why (since bottles will usually lose their bubbles after an extended time), we were told that the lords used to enjoy saving and comparing their vintage collection.

The last stop of the day was Vraken Pommery, a house that was run by a woman, Madame Pommery. She blended the art of champagne making with art itself, housing many art pieces within the quarries and cellars. There is even one piece that plays the sounds that you would hear if you were inside a glass of champagne. It is said that Madame Pommery invented Brut champagne by adding less sugar; 95% of all champagne sold in the world is Brut. 

Lucky for us, all 3 visits were very different, Moet the behemoth and star of champagne, Alfred Gratien a smaller house, and Pommery known to infuse art and bubbly. We end the night at Bistrot du Broc, the best restaurant near Fonty with our bottle of Dom P. Seven glasses of bubbly for the day, I am one happy camper.