Tag: Champagne

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Pommery Champagne House

Pommery Champagne House

Not only does Pommery produce an amazing dry Champagne, the history surrounding Madame Pommery is truly an interesting aspect of this house.

She was one of the great Champagne widows of the 19th century. She is the one you can credit with bring the sweeter sparkling wines to a dryer Champagne. Pommery was born in 1819 and married into a prominent wool family in Reims, France. Once her two sons were born, her husband left the wool industry and dived into the wine business. Two years later, he died. She was only 38 years old.

At that point she decided to carry on with his wine business, changing the business plan fairly quickly from red wines to sparkling wines. She had the uncanny ability to see that the English market would take a liking to delicate, fine, dry Champagne. And, it did.

Ahead of her time, she created Pommery Nature in 1874, the first brut Champagne that had major commercial success. In 1868 she decided to relocate to a different place and launched the “construction site of the century” in Reims. She used the crayeres chalkpits as wine cellars. French and Belgian miners had dug into the earth an interconnected set of tunnels.

Today, the variety of grapes used, the quality of the harvest, the selection of vintages for blends, and the time spent ageing in the cellar all add to the special flavors of Pommery Champagne.

So many processes and procedures go into making this Champagne, with oenologists and the Cellar Master testing the entire way. This ensures Pommery’s distinctive aroma, flavor, and quality will be there in every bottle.

Take a tour, taste the Champagne, and do not miss the lower level of galleries. The staircase alone is amazing if not monumental. With 116 steps down is the only connection to the lower level of caves from the main level.

Art, sculptures, and rotating exhibits are tastefully arranged throughout the lower level. The Pommery Champagne house is not only a feast for your mouth…it’s a feast for your eyes as well.

Cheers!

If You Go: Pollery is located at 5 Place du General Gouraud, Reims, France

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Cossy Champagne…Definitely a Favorite

Cossy Champagne

The Cossy estate is based in the 1er Cru village of Jouy-lès-Reims – just a few minutes outside of the center of Reims, and dates to 1764. They started bottling under their own label in the 1950s, in addition to managing the Cooperative winemaking facility for their village and the neighboring hamlet of Pargny-lèsReims.

Sophie’s wines all clearly have a graceful, feminine touch. They are all from her estate vineyards within a kilometer or two of the winery, so they’re all from essentially the same terroir.

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Ruinart Champagne

The House of Ruinart is unlike any other. It was the first established House of Champagne in 1729 and inspired by the intuition of a monk well ahead of his time.

Chardonnay is the very soul of Ruinart. The grape, mainly harvested from the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims terroirs, is at the heart of all our cuvées.

A unique part of our visit included a tour of the crayères, or chalk galleries, classified as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2015. It’s hard to describe the feeling when you know you are 125 feet down into the earth with the silent chalk surrounding you.

Vaulted ceilings and large galleries, the crayères almost remind you of being in a cathedral where you really should be quiet. The only other souls we saw were rows upon rows of bottles. Probably millions. Not a bad sight.

The cool, dark crayeres are lit by spot lights in a few places. Other times, light comes in from a hole far above you.

Centuries of graffiti are carved into the walls, bearing names, doodles, and even tiny altars with crosses.

The blend for Blanc de Blancs

The blend is 100% Chardonnay from various years (20 to 25% of which are reserve wines from the 2 previous years).

A large majority of Premiers Crus from the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims vineyards for aromatic refinement, supplemented by Sézannais wines known to provide maturity. Finally, several wines from the north of the Vesle valley give a light, fresh touch.

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Epernay, France

Home to the great wine production and trading houses, and listed as a Remarkable Site of Taste, the majestic Avenue de Champagne has 110 kilometres of cellars.

The first Champagne House opened in Epernay in 1729, founded by Nicolas Ruinart, a draper at the time, who wanted to try his hand at producing sparkling wine.

Other establishments would also set up on Avenue de Champagne (in particular Moët & Chandon, in 1743). The Avenue de Champagne, previously known as Rue du Commerce, became an important economic hub in the 19th century and other Champagne Houses followed: Perrier Jouët, de Venoge, Mercier, etc.

In February 1925, the Rue du Commerce became the Avenue de Champagne.

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Troyes and its Many Cathedrals

Troyes is a renaissance city in the south part of the Champagne region with many cathedrals. Several things grabbed our attention as we first read about the city and then as we wandered along the streets.

The half-timbered houses are not the typical white with brown timbers. These are multi-colored houses. There was a fire in 1524, which destroyed almost the entire city. When the houses were rebuilt, colors were used on the houses and buildings. It makes for a pretty historic center.

Then there are the cathedrals. Troyes has eleven cathedrals. That’s right…11 cathedrals in one city. We had time to visit five. Each of the Troyes cathedrals is special. Each one has its own special windows and features. I have never seen so much stained glass. I have never seen such a variety of stained-glass windows.

The first Troyes Cathedral was started in the 13th century and completed over 400 years later. You might think this would make for a jumbled mess of design. It doesn’t. It is entirely Gothic throughout. This is considered one of the most beautiful churches in all of Europe.

Walking into the spacious nave, we could only stand and stare. Light engulfed us as it streamed in through more than 1,500 square meters of stained glass. That is over 16,000 square feet. That’s a lot of stained glass.

Some of these windows date back to the 1200s.

There are three huge rose windows, each over 30 feet across. We often see one impressive one. But, three? They were all designed by Martin Chambiges, a renaissance architect. So many colors and light. As I kept looking at one of the windows, I felt like I could be in a kaleidoscope. The colors changed, the shapes jumped out at me, and the light continued to radiate.

Eglise Sainte-Madeleine is probably the oldest church in Troyes. Some say it is the most beautiful.

Construction dates from 1120, being rebuilt around 1200 in a Gothic style. The apse and choir were renovated around 1500 in a more flamboyant Gothic style. The square Renaissance looking tower was added in 1525.

One of the most impressive parts is its famous rood screen. A rood screen is an elevated stone gallery between the nave and the choir. It has room for a choral group or officiating priests. This was originally wooden. Replaced with a stone one, it has the look of lace. And, it did look like lace. It was hard to believe it was stone. Only about a dozen religious buildings in France still have a rood screen.

In addition, the apse’s stained-glass windows are colorful story-telling examples. The Tree of Jesse, The Genesis, and The Pearls of Saint Eloi are some of the best we have seen. Unlike others, the stories presented are easy to follow.

Don’t let the outside fool you into thinking the inside will be plain. Not the case.

The Basilica of Saint Urbain was commissioned by the 13th century Pope Urbain IV, who was born in Troyes. He had it built on the site where his shoemaker father had his workshop.

This one includes stained glass windows from the 13th century and a large amount of historic art.

There are more…you will just have to see them for yourself.

If You Go: Troyes is located about two hours southeast of Paris. Check out other amazing parts of Troyes in Travels and Escapes

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Champagne…More Than Just a Celebration Drink

The first documentation of using the Champagne method to make sparkling wine appeared in the 1600s, and many of today’s most well-known Champagne houses, including Taittinger, Moët & Chandon, and Ruinart, were founded in the 1700s.

The Champagne appellation was formally created in 1936. Major houses launched marketing campaigns in the United States that portrayed Champagne as the ultimate luxury beverage for celebrations and aperitif-style sipping. Today, many Americans use the word Champagne to mean any and all sparkling wines.

Because of a combination of place, soils, grapes, and the Champagne process, Champagne is one of the most unique beverages in the world. Vintages vary dramatically due to the region’s marginal climate. For example, the differences between Champagne’s 61 Grand and Premier Cru villages are vast. Specific vineyards within those villages have unique terroirs, some of which are small, even tiny, parcels with completely different soils and aspects than those just next door.

Champagne has just three key grape varieties, with seven permitted in total. In addition, decisions about viticulture, aging, and blending create a huge variety of finished wines to study and dissect. Think of blanc de blanc, blanc de noir, rose, cuvee…

This diversity is one of the reasons why a Champagne-only pairing menu can emphasize the wine’s overall food-friendliness. With a combination of refreshing acidity and palate-cleansing bubbles, Champagne pairs with foods ranging from raw oysters to fried chicken, and everything in between. Those bubbles are not only lively to look at and refreshing to drink, but they offer you a drink relatively low in alcohol and fairly high in acidity.