After about 2 weeks of seeing the north Netherlands, West Germany, Luxembourg, and the far SE of Belgium, I entered France NE of Reims on January 24, 2019.
CHAMPAGNE-ARDENNE
This is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the historic province of Champagne, the region is known for its sparkling white wine of the same name.
The administrative region was formed in 1956 and in 2016, it merged with the neighbouring regions of Alsace and Lorraine to form the new region Grand Est, thereby ceasing to exist as an independent entity.
Its rivers, most of which flow west, include the Seine, the Marne, and the Aisne. The Meuse flows north.
Economy. 61.4% of its land is dedicated to agriculture – 1st in France for the production of barley and alfalfa, 2nd in France for the production of beets, onions, and peas, 3rd in France for the production of tender wheat and rapeseed, 282.37 km² of vineyards – Champagne sales in 2001: 263 million bottles (4% increase from 2000) of which 37.6% were exported.
Fort de la Pompelle. In 1874, a chain of five large detached forts was constructed on the hills of Arnay to defend Reims – Reims was one of the chief defences of the northern approaches to Paris. The perimeter of the defences measures just under 22 miles, and the forts are at a mean distance of 6 miles (10 km) from the center of the city. Fort de la Pompelle (9 km SE of Reims) was heavily shelled by the Germans in WWI and the French took refuge in the tunnels, now reconstructed to hold a World War I museum featuring a rich collection of German uniforms and history. The Black Army of Reims has a major role in the defense of Reims in this fort.
REIMS (pop 183,000)
Also spelled Rheims, it is 129 km east-northeast of Paris. Its primary river, the Vesle, is a tributary of the Aisne. Reims, along with Épernay and Ay, functions as one of the centers of champagne production. Many of the largest champagne-producing houses, known as les grandes marques, have their headquarters in Reims, and most are open for tasting and tours. Champagne ages in the many caves and tunnels under Reims, which form a sort of maze below the city. Carved from chalk, some of these passages date back to Roman times.
Reims played a prominent ceremonial role in French monarchical history as the traditional site of the crowning of the kings of France. The Cathedral of Reims (damaged during the First World War but restored since) housed the Holy Ampulla (Sainte Ampoule) containing the Saint Chrême (chrism), allegedly brought by a white dove (the Holy Spirit) at the baptism of Clovis in 496. It was used for the anointing, the most important part of the coronation of French kings.
History. Before the Roman conquest of northern Gaul, Reims founded circa 80 BC as *Durocorteron (“round fortress”), served as the capital of the tribe of the Remi — whose name the town would subsequently echo. In the course of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC), the Remi allied themselves with the Romans, and by their fidelity throughout the various Gallic insurrections secured the special favor of the imperial power. At its height, in Roman times the city had a population in the range of 30,000 – 50,000 or perhaps up to 100,000.
Christianity had become established in the city by 260, at which period Saint Sixtus of Reims founded the bishopric of Reims. The consul Jovinus, an influential supporter of the new faith, repelled the Alamanni who invaded Champagne in 336; but the Vandals captured the city in 406 and slew Bishop Nicasius; and in 451 Attila the Hun put Reims to fire and sword.
In 496 – ten years after Clovis, King of the Salian Franks, won his victory at Soissons (486) — Remigius, the bishop of Reims, baptized him using the oil of the sacred phial – purportedly brought from heaven by a dove for the baptism of Clovis and subsequently preserved in the Abbey of Saint-Remi. For centuries the events at the crowning of Clovis I became a symbol used by the monarchy to claim the divine right to rule.
By the 10th century, Reims had become a center of intellectual culture. The archbishops held the important prerogative of the consecration of the kings of France – a privilege which they exercised (except in a few cases) from the time of Philippe II Augustus (anointed 1179, reigned 1180–1223) to that of Charles X (anointed 1825).
Hostilities in World War I greatly damaged the city. German bombardment and a subsequent fire in 1914 did severe damage to the cathedral. The ruined cathedral became one of the central images of anti-German propaganda produced in France during the war, which presented it, along with the ruins of the Cloth Hall at Ypres and the University Library in Louvain, as evidence that German aggression targeted cultural landmarks of European civilization.
From the end of World War I to the present day an international effort to restore the cathedral from the ruins has continued. The Palace of Tau, St Jacques Church, and the Abbey of St Remi also were protected and restored. The collection of preserved buildings and Roman ruins remains monumentally impressive.
During World War II the city suffered additional damage. But in Reims, at 2:41 on the morning of 7 May 1945, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht. General Alfred Jodl, German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as the representative for German President Karl Dönitz.
The principal squares of Reims include the Place Royale, with a statue of Louis XV, and the Place Cardinal-Luçon, with an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc. The Rue de Vesle, the main commercial street (continued under other names), traverses the city from southwest to northeast, passing through the Place Royale. Restaurants and bars are concentrated around Place Drouet d’Erlon in the city center.
Gallo-Roman antiquities. The oldest monument in Reims, the Porte de Mars (“Mars Gate”, so-called from a temple to Mars in the neighbourhood), a triumphal arch 108 feet in length by 43 in height, consists of three archways flanked by columns. The Mars Gate was one of 4 Roman gates to the city walls, which were restored at the time of the Norman Invasion of northern France in the 9th century. In its vicinity, a curious mosaic, measuring 36 feet by 26, with thirty-five medallions representing animals and gladiators, was discovered in 1860.
Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims. Many people know Reims for its cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, formerly the place of coronation of the kings of France – in all, 34 kings are buried here. The cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, along with the former Abbey of Saint-Remi and the Palace of Tau.
Begun in 1211, the outside is adorned with many statues and sculptures. It was restored after both WWI and II. Some of the highlights are the rose windows, stained glass windows by Marc Chagall and the Knobel Company of Germany, and the brass chandeliers in the shape of cathedrals.
Palace of Tau. The archiepiscopal palace, built between 1498 and 1509, and in part rebuilt in 1675, served as the residence of the kings of France on the occasion of their coronations. The salon (salle du Tau), where the royal banquet took place, has an immense stone chimney that dates from the 15th century. The chapel of the archiepiscopal palace consists of two stories, of which the upper still serves as a place of worship. Both the chapel and the salle du Tau have decorative tapestries of the 17th century, known as the Perpersack tapestries, after the Flemish weaver who executed them. The palace opened to the public in 1972 as a museum containing such exhibits as statues formerly displayed by the cathedral, treasures of the cathedral from past centuries, and royal attire from coronations of French kings. €6
Planetarium of Reims. Created in 1979, it was the second planetarium in France and was rebuilt and modernized on a new site in 2013. The projection system allows to observe the movements of the Moon, planets, and stars, and to learn to recognize the constellations. The new dome measures 8 meters in diameter 48 very comfortable seats. It is equipped with a Zeiss ZKP4 astronomical projector with a scenographic area of almost 200 m².
The astronomical clock of Jean Legros (1903-1978) is the highlight of the display. €6
Musée-Hôtel Le Vergeur. This preserved manor house belonged to Hugues Krafft (1853-1935), who after inheriting great wealth became a world traveller, photographer, and major collector. He combined 3 houses, one dating back to the Middle Ages, and suffering major damage during WWI, then restored and furnished them.
The house can only be seen by a one-hour guided tour. I had every painting, photograph, piece of furniture, china, and room intricately described by the conscientious guide. €3 reduced.
Musée de la Reddition. in Reims, at 2:41 on the morning of 7 May 1945, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht. General Alfred Jodl, German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as the representative for German President Karl Dönitz.
This museum relates all the events leading up to and after the end of WWII on May 7, 1945. It shows archives, uniforms, artifacts, and profiles of General Dwight Eisenhower. Visit the signature room beginning the process of reconciliation. €6
PICARDIE (Amiens)
I was here to see Amiens in March 2018 on my first trip through this part of France and returned to see the east part of the department on my way to Paris.
AMIENS (pop 137,000). This former capital of Picardy is where Jules Verne lived for 34 years. The mostly pedestrianized city center was tastefully rebuilt after WWII with green spaces along the Somme River. It is a university town with 28,000 students.
Cathédrale Notre Dame. A Unesco site, this is the largest cathedral in France at 145m long. Begun in 1220 to house the skull of St John the Baptist (framed in gold and jewels, it is in the Treasury, closed when I was there), its soaring Gothic arches are 42.3m high over the transept. Plaques and flags honour American, Australian, British, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Canadian soldiers who perished in WWI. It is possible to climb the 137 steps to the north tower.
I admired the wonderful polychrome frescoes of St John the Baptist, St Fermin and St Jaques (James, Santiago depending on language), which were protected by sandbags and shrapnel barriers in WWII. The highlight for locals is the 17th-century statue of the Crying Angel over the over-the-top Baroque high altar.
Nightly, from mid-June to September, and over Christmas, a 45-minute light show bathes the cathedral’s façade with medieval colours.
On my way from Reims to Paris, I travelled through the eastern part of Picardie on January 27, 2019. The 100km drive to Compiegne took almost 2 hours with all the small towns, speed limits, and changing highways.
COMPIEGNE (pop 99,000). Compiègne is located downstream from the confluence of the rivers Oise and Aisne, northwest of the Compiègne National Forest and on the borders of the three geographical and cultural areas of Picardy, Champagne, and Île-de-France. It is very attractive on both sides of the river. I could find no reference to the two museums listed in Nomad Mania.
Château de Pierrefonds is a castle in Pierrefonds northeast of Paris, between Villers-Cotterêts and Compiègne. It has most of the characteristics of defensive military architecture from the Middle Ages, though it underwent a major restoration in the 19th century. Originally built between 1393 and 1407, it was besieged in 1617 and partly demolished – the exterior works were razed, the roofs destroyed and holes made in the towers and curtain walls. The castle remained a ruin for more than two centuries. Napoleon I bought it in 1810 for less than 3,000 francs and Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III of France) visited the castle in 1850 and created an imperial residence and rebuilt it for 5 million francs showing excellent knowledge of the military architecture of the 14th century.
Called a chateau (manor house to my way of thinking), this is one incredible castle – one of the best examples of a fortified castle from the Middle Ages.
Moulin de Coyolles. In the village of Largny-sur-Automne, this was an impossible windmill to find. I found Coyolles and the Rue de Moulin but no windmill and in the process almost got permanently stuck, drove into a lake, and had to drive down 3kms of the one-way road the wrong way. This is what Wikipedia says about the mill.
It could be either the wheat mill (mill of Wallu), near National Highway 2 on the local road 6 was built in 1645 on the site of a mill of 1515, it was destroyed during the First World War, it was almost totally rebuilt in 1970. The Mill of Largney is in the valley of the Autumn, near Villers-Cotterêts.
Senlis Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral in Senlis. The cathedral was built between 1153 and 1191; its 256-foot-tall (78 m) south tower dates from the 13th century; about 1240, the southern tower was extended by a remarkable two-story spire, a magnificent jewel of the cathedral, and the interior perspective was interrupted by a piercing transept which left the nave shorter than the choir. In 1504, a fire, caused by lightning, destroyed the framework and caused the vaults to collapse, with the exception of that of the first bay, and its transepts were rebuilt between 1530 and 1556.
This small town is about 50 km NW of Paris.
Musée du Cheval (Museum of the Horse). This museum and equestrian showroom are located in the large stables of Chantilly Castle. Originally built between 1719 and 1740 and home to 240 horses and 500 dogs in different packs for the daily hunts that took place throughout the year
It was opened in 1982 to house the Living Museum of the Horse which was completely renovated in 2013. This museum shows the importance of the relationship between man and horse since the beginning of civilizations the history of the domestication of the horse, the different races of horses in the world, and the evolution of the forms of harnessing through the centuries. A room is thus dedicated to the tools invented by the man to control his mount. and offers “live” equestrian animations, educational presentations, and shows. About forty horses, donkeys, and ponies demonstrate dressage in the quarry outside the museum as well as shows that take place under the 28-meter dome transformed into an equestrian venue.
Château de Chantilly is made of two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency, and the Grand Château, which was destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s. The château houses the Musée Condé, one of the finest art galleries in France, and is open to the public.
ILE-de-FRANCE (Paris)
Basilica/Cathedral of St Denis and the Tombs of the Kings of France. This large medieval abbey church in the city of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of unique importance historically and architecturally as its choir, completed in 1144, shows the first use of all of the elements of Gothic architecture.
In 636, the relics of Saint-Denis, a patron saint of France, were reinterred in the basilica. The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of the French Kings with nearly every king from the 10th to the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from previous centuries. (It was not used for the coronations of kings, that function being reserved for the Cathedral of Reims)
In the 12th century, Abbot Suger rebuilt portions of the abbey church using innovative structural and decorative features. In doing so, he is said to have created the first truly Gothic building. The basilica’s 13th-century nave is the prototype for the Rayonnant Gothic style and provided an architectural model for many medieval cathedrals and abbeys of northern France, Germany, England, and a great many other countries. The abbey church became a cathedral in 1966. €9 to visit the tombs of the kings.
Paris Flea Market Cignancourt. The main streets on the circumference are thronged with clothes, the interior the most amazing antique and furniture stores.
The following places are all in La Defense, a major business district, three kilometres west of the city limits of Paris. La Défense is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district with 560 hectares (1,400 acres) of area, 72 glass and steel buildings (of which 19 are completed skyscrapers), 180,000 daily workers, and 3,500,000 square meters (38,000,000 sq ft) of office space. It contains many of the Paris urban area’s tallest high-rises. Les Quatre Temps, a large shopping mall in La Défense, has 220 stores, 48 restaurants and 24 movie theatres. Primarily a business district it has 25,000 permanent residents and 45,000 students, is also visited by 8,000,000 tourists each year and houses an open-air museum.
Tour Majunga. It reached a height of 193.05 meters (633.4 ft) (top of its spire) in January 2014 and became the fourth tallest skyscraper in France, after First (231 m), Montparnasse (210 m), and Incity (200 m).
Tour Total is an office skyscraper located in La Défense and now serves as headquarters for Total S.A., one of the six “Supermajor” oil companies in the world.
Completed and opened in 1985, it is the third-tallest skyscraper in La Défense and the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the Paris area, after the Tour First and the Tour Montparnasse. Tour Total is 190 m (623 ft) tall. It is much more efficient in terms of energy consumption than previous La Défense skyscrapers. Tour Total consists of five bodies of different heights superimposed on each other. The tallest of those bodies has 48 floors, while the next two have 44 and 37 floors respectively.
The Giant Thumb. The giant thumb statue in Paris is called “Le Pouce de Cesar” and is 12 meters high and 4 meters wide. You can find it in the area of Paris called La Defense near the Grande Arche. And what a thumb it is!
The Great Arch of Defence is a monument and building in the business district of La Défense. A 110-meter-high cube, La Grande Arche is part of the perspective from the Louvre to Arc de Triomphe. The distance from La Grande Arche to Arc de Triomphe is 4 km.
This is a nightmare to drive to and see with many obscure cloverleaves and one-ways and all parking is underground.
FONTAINEBLEAU is 55.5 kilometres SSE of the center of Paris with 40,000 inhabitants. The name originates as a medieval composite of two words: Fontaine– meaning spring, or fountainhead, followed by a person’s Germanic name Blizwald.
This hamlet was endowed with a royal hunting lodge and a chapel by Louis VII in the middle of the twelfth century. A century later, Louis IX had a country house and a hospital constructed there. In all, thirty-four sovereigns, from Louis VI, the Fat, (1081–1137) to Napoleon III (1808–1873), spent time at Fontainebleau.
CHATEAU de FONTAINEBLEAU. The connection between the town of Fontainebleau and the French monarchy was reinforced with the transformation of the royal country house into a true royal palace, the Palace of Fontainebleau. This was accomplished by the great builder-king, Francis I (1494–1547), who, in the largest of his many construction projects, reconstructed, expanded, and transformed the royal château at Fontainebleau into a residence that became his favourite. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, every monarch, from Francis I to Louis XV, made important renovations at the Palace of Fontainebleau, including demolitions, reconstructions, additions, and embellishments of various descriptions, all of which endowed it with a character that is a bit heterogeneous, but harmonious nonetheless.
Napolean I Museum. Furniture, art, and portraits that once belonged to him.
Inner Apartment of Napoleon is a suite refurbished in 1804 for the Emperor’s use. It was here that he abdicated in 1814. Includes the Small Apartments of the Emperor and Empresses Josephine and Marie-Louise. The Turkish Boudoir is the private space used by Marie-Antoinette and then became Empress Josephine’s private bedroom.
The Popes Apartment. Visited by Pope Pius VII twice, these apartments are reserved for distinguished guests.
The Great Apartments. These include several rooms with the astounding decorations of frescoes and stucco work.
Trinity Chapel
The park contains the Diana Garden, the English Garden, and the Grand Parterre.
Fontainebleau is a popular tourist destination; each year, 300,000 people visit the palace and more than 13 million people visit the forest.
Fontainebleau forest. Surrounding the town and dozens of nearby villages, it is a French national park. It is a former royal hunting park often visited by hikers and horse riders. The forest is also well regarded for bouldering and is particularly popular among climbers, as the biggest developed area of that kind in the world.
The Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, located near Maincy, 50km SE of Paris, is a chateau built from 1658 – 1661 for the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV, Nicolas Fouquet. He appealed to the best artists of the time to build it who had already built wings at the Castle of Vincennes in 1651-1653 and then to build the Palace of Versailles with Vaux-le-Vicomte then serving as a model.
A masterpiece of classical architecture from the middle of the 17th century, it is now the largest privately owned castle in France since its purchase in 1875 by Alfred Mattress who worked there as a patron, pursued by his descendants. It is now an annual budget of 8 million euros, employs 75 full-time employees and sends each year to more than 300 000 visitors. Many outbuildings, gardens, parks. Great gate and chain.
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CHAMPAGNE is sparkling wine or, in the EU countries, legally only that sparkling wine which comes from the Champagne region of France. Where EU law applies, this alcoholic drink is produced from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France following rules that demand, among other things, secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to create carbonation, specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from specific parcels in the Champagne appellation and specific pressing regimes unique to the region. Many people use the term Champagne as a generic term for sparkling wine but in some countries, it is illegal to label any product Champagne unless it both comes from the Champagne region and is produced under the rules of the appellation.
Primarily, the grapes Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay are used in the production of almost all Champagne, but a tiny amount of pinot blanc, pinot gris, arbane, and petit meslier are vinified as well. Champagne appellation law allows only grapes grown according to appellation rules in specifically designated plots within the appellation to be used in the production of Champagne.
Champagne became associated with royalty in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The leading manufacturers made efforts to associate their Champagnes with nobility and royalty through advertising and packaging, which led to popularity among the emerging middle class.
Origin. Still wines from the Champagne region were known before medieval times. The Romans were the first to plant vineyards in this area of northeast France, with the region being tentatively cultivated by the 5th century. Cultivation was initially slow due to the unpopular edict by Emperor Domitian that all colonial vines must be uprooted. When Emperor Probus, the son of a gardener, rescinded the edict, a temple to Bacchus was erected, and the region started to produce a red, light, and fruity wine that contrasted with heavier Italian brews often fortified with resin and herbs. Later, churches owned vineyards and monks produced wine for use in the sacrament of Eucharist. French kings were traditionally anointed in Reims, and Champagne was served as part of coronation festivities. The Champenois were envious of the reputation of the wines made by their Burgundian neighbours to the south and sought to produce wines of equal acclaim. However, the northerly climate of the region gave the Champenois a unique set of challenges in making red wine. At the far extremes of sustainable viticulture, the grapes would struggle to ripen fully and often would have bracing levels of acidity and low sugar levels. The wines would be lighter-bodied and thinner than the Burgundy wines they were seeking to outdo.
The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, which was apparently invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassonne in 1531. They achieved this by bottling the wine before the initial fermentation had ended. Over a century later in 1662, the English scientist and physician Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar to a finished wine to create a second fermentation, six years before Dom Pérignon set foot in the Abbey of Hautvillers. Merret’s discoveries coincided also with English glass-maker’s technical developments that allowed bottles to be produced that could withstand the required internal pressures during secondary fermentation. French glass-makers at this time could not produce bottles of the required quality or strength.
In France the first sparkling Champagne was created accidentally; the pressure in the bottle led it to be called “the devil’s wine” (le vin du diable), as bottles exploded or corks popped. At the time, bubbles were considered a fault. In 1844 Adolphe Jaquesson invented the muselet to prevent the corks from blowing out. Initial versions were difficult to apply and inconvenient to remove. Champagne did not use the méthode champenoise until the 19th century, about 200 years after Merret documented the process. The 19th century saw exponential growth in Champagne production, going from a regional production of 300,000 bottles a year in 1800 to 20 million bottles in 1850. In 2007, Champagne sales hit a record of 338.7 million bottles.
In the 19th century, Champagne was noticeably sweeter than the Champagnes of today. The trend towards drier Champagne began when Perrier-Jouët decided not to sweeten his 1846 vintage before exporting it to London. The designation Brut Champagne was created for the British in 1876.
Right to the name Champagne. The Champagne winemaking community has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wines produced in the region to protect its economic interests. They include codification of the most suitable growing places; the most suitable grape types and a lengthy set of requirements specifying most aspects of viticulture. This includes pruning, vineyard yield, the degree of pressing, and the time that wine must remain on its lees before bottling. It can also limit the release of Champagne to the market to maintain prices. Only when a wine meets these requirements may it be labelled Champagne.
In 2007 the INAO, the government organization that controls wine appellations in France, was preparing to make the largest revision of the region’s legal boundaries since 1927, in response to economic pressures. With soaring demand and limited production of grapes, Champagne houses say the rising price could produce a consumer backlash that would harm the industry for years into the future. That, along with political pressure from villages that wanted to be included in the expanded boundaries, led to the move. Changes are subject to significant scientific review and are said to not impact Champagne-produced grapes until 2020.
Sparkling wines are produced worldwide, but many legal structures reserve the word Champagne exclusively for sparkling wines from the Champagne region. In the European Union and many other countries, the name Champagne is legally protected by the Madrid system under an 1891 treaty and this was reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Similar legal protection has been adopted by over 70 countries. Most recently Australia, Chile, Brazil, Canada, and China passed laws or signed agreements with Europe that limit the use of the term “Champagne” to only those products produced in the Champagne region. The United States bans the use of all new U.S.-produced wines. Only those that had the approval to use the term on labels before 2006 may continue to use it and only when it is accompanied by the wine’s actual origin (e.g., “California”). The majority of US-produced sparkling wines do not use the term Champagne on their labels, and some states, such as Oregon, ban producers in their states from using the term.
Even the terms méthode champenoise and Champagne method were forbidden by an EU court decision in 1994. As of 2005 the description most often used for sparkling wines using the second fermentation in the bottling process, but not from the Champagne region, is méthode traditionnelle. Sparkling wines are produced worldwide, and many producers use special terms to define them: Spain uses Cava, Italy designates it spumante, and South Africa uses cap classique. An Italian sparkling wine made from the Muscat grape uses the DOCG Asti and from the Glera grape the DOCG Prosecco. In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine. Other French wine regions cannot use the name Champagne: e.g., Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant. In 2008, more than 3,000 bottles of sparkling wine produced in California labelled with the term “Champagne” were destroyed by Belgian government authorities.
Production: Méthode Champenoise is the traditional method by which Champagne is produced. After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding several grams of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and rock sugar to the bottle – although each brand has its own secret recipe. A minimum of 1.5 years is required to completely develop all the flavours. For years where the harvest is exceptional, a millésime is declared and some Champagne will be made from and labelled as the products of a single vintage rather than a blend of multiple years’ harvests. This means that the Champagne will be very good and has to mature for at least 3 years. During this time the Champagne bottle is sealed with a crown cap similar to that used on beer bottles.
After aging, the bottle is manipulated, either manually or mechanically, in a process called remuage (or “riddling” in English), so that the lees settle in the neck of the bottle. After chilling the bottles, the neck is frozen, and the cap is removed. The pressure in the bottle forces out the ice containing the lees and the bottle is quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide in solution. Some wine from previous vintages as well as additional sugar (le dosage) is added to maintain the level within the bottle and, importantly, adjust the sweetness of the finished wine.
Bubbles. An initial burst of effervescence occurs when the Champagne contacts the dry glass on pouring. These bubbles form on imperfections in the glass that facilitate nucleation or, to a lesser extent, on cellulose fibres left over from the wiping/drying process as shown with a high-speed video camera. However, after the initial rush, these naturally occurring imperfections are typically too small to consistently act as nucleation points as the surface tension of the liquid smooths out these minute irregularities. The nucleation sites that act as a source for the ongoing effervescence are not natural imperfections in the glass but occur where the glass has been etched by the manufacturer or the customer. This etching is typically done with acid, a laser, or a glass etching tool from a craft shop to provide nucleation sites for continuous bubble formation (note that not all glasses are etched in this way)
Dom Pérignon was originally charged by his superiors at the Abbey of Hautvillers to get rid of the bubbles since the pressure in the bottles caused many of them to burst in the cellar. As sparkling wine production increased in the early 18th century, cellar workers had to wear a heavy iron mask to prevent injury from spontaneously bursting bottles. The disturbance caused by one bottle exploding could cause a chain reaction, with it being routine for cellars to lose 20–90% of their bottles this way. The mysterious circumstance surrounding the then-unknown process of fermentation and carbonic gas caused some critics to call the sparkling creations “The Devil’s Wine”.
Champagne producers. There are more than one hundred Champagne houses and 19,000 smaller vignerons (vine-growing producers) in Champagne. These companies manage some 32,000 hectares of vineyards in the region.
The large popularity of Champagne is attributed to the success of Champagne producers in marketing the wine’s image as a royal and aristocratic drink. Laurent-Perrier’s advertisements in late 1890 boasted their Champagne was the favourite of kings, nobles, knights, and military officers. Despite this royal prestige, Champagne houses also portrayed Champagne as a luxury enjoyable for anyone, for any occasion. This strategy worked, and, by the turn of the 20th century, the majority of Champagne drinkers were middle class.
In the 19th century, Champagne producers made a concentrated effort to market their wine to women. This is done by having the sweeter champagne associated with females, whereas the dry champagne with male and foreign markets. This was in stark contrast to the traditionally “male aura” that the wines of France had—particularly Burgundy and Bordeaux. Laurent-Perrier again took the lead in this area with advertisements touting their wine’s favour with famous women and labels designed with images of romantic love and marriage as well as other special occasions that were deemed important to women, such as the baptism of a child.
Champagne is typically drunk during celebrations. It is also used to launch ships when a bottle is smashed over the hull during the ship’s launch. If the bottle fails to break this is often thought to be bad luck.
Grape Varieties and styles. As a general rule, grapes used must be the white Chardonnay, or the dark-skinned “red wine grapes” Pinot noir or Pinot Meunier, which, due to the gentle pressing of the grapes and absence of skin contact during fermentation, usually also yield a white base wine. Most Champagnes, including Rosé wines, are made from a blend of all three grapes, although Blanc de blancs (“white from whites”) Champagnes are made from 100% Chardonnay and Blanc de noirs (“white from blacks”) Champagnes are made solely from Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier or a mix of the two.
Four other grape varieties are permitted, mostly for historical reasons, as they are rare in current usage. The 2010 version of the appellation regulations lists seven varieties as allowed, Arbane, Chardonnay, Petit Meslier, Pinot blanc, Pinot gris, Pinot Meunier, and Pinot noir.
The dark-skinned Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier give the wine its length and backbone. They are predominantly grown in two areas – the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne. The Montagne de Reims runs east-west to the south of Reims, in northern Champagne. They are notable for north-facing chalky slopes that derive heat from the warm winds rising from the valleys below. The River Marne runs west-east through Champagne, south of the Montagne de Reims. The Vallée de la Marne contains south-facing chalky slopes. Chardonnay gives the wine its acidity and biscuit flavor. Most Chardonnay is grown in a north–south-running strip to the south of Épernay, called the Côte des Blancs, including the villages of Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. These are east-facing vineyards. The various terroirs account for the differences in grape characteristics and explain the appropriateness of blending juice from different grape varieties and geographical areas within Champagne, to get the desired style for each Champagne house.
Types of Champagne. A cuvée de prestige is a proprietary blended wine (usually a Champagne) that is considered to be the top of a producer’s range. Famous examples include Louis Roederer’s Cristal, Laurent-Perrier‘s Grand Siècle, Moët & Chandon‘s Dom Pérignon, Duval-Leroy’s Cuvée Femme, Armand de Brignac Gold Brut, and Pol Roger’s Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Perhaps the first publicly available prestige cuvée was Moët & Chandon’s Dom Pérignon, launched in 1936 with the 1921 vintage. Until then, Champagne houses produced different cuvées of varying quality, but a top-of-the-range wine produced to the highest standards (and priced accordingly) was a new idea. In fact, Louis Roederer had been producing Cristal since 1876, but this was strictly for the private consumption of the Russian tsar. Cristal was made publicly available with the 1945 vintage. Then came Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne (first vintage 1952), and Laurent-Perrier‘s Grand Siècle ‘La Cuvée’ in 1960, a blend of three vintages (1952, 1953, and 1955) and Perrier Jouët‘s La Belle Époque. In the last three decades of the 20th century, most Champagne houses followed these with their own prestige cuvées, often named after notable people with a link to that producer and presented in non-standard bottle shapes (following Dom Pérignon’s lead with its 18th-century revival design).
Brut rose Champagnes came along in the 1990s, a version as dry as regular brut Champagne. They are produced either by leaving the clear juice of black grapes to macerate on its skins for a brief time (known as the saignée method) or, more commonly, by adding a small amount of still pinot noir red wine to the sparkling wine cuvée. Rosé Champagne is one of the few wines that allow the production of rosé by the addition of a small amount of red wine during blending. This ensures a predictable and reproducible color, allowing a constant rosé color from year to year. It is popular in many countries and in high-end restaurants due to its soft yet sensitive taste, which is advantageous in food and wine pairing.
Sweetness. The ripeness of the grapes and the amount of sugar added after the second fermentation—dosage—varies and will affect the amount of sugar remaining in the Champagne when bottled for sale, and hence the sweetness of the finished wine. Wines labeled Brut Zero, more common among smaller producers, have no added sugar and will usually be very dry, with less than 3 grams of residual sugar per liter in the finished wine. The following terms are used to describe the sweetness of the bottled wine:
Extra Brut (less than 6 grams of residual sugar per liter)
Brut (less than 12 grams)
Extra Dry (between 12 and 17 grams)
Sec (between 17 and 32 grams)
Demi-sec (between 32 and 50 grams)
Doux (50 grams)
The most common style today is Brut, although throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century Champagne was generally much sweeter than it is today, and drunk as dessert wines (after the meal), rather than as table wines (with the meal), except in Britain, where they were drunk with the meal.
Champagne bottles. Magnum (1.5 litres), full (0.75 litre), half (0.375 litre), quarter (0.1875 litre). Balthazar (12 litres), Salmanazar (9 litres), Methuselah (6 litres), Jeroboam (3 litres).
Champagne is mostly fermented in two sizes of bottles, standard bottles (750 millilitres) and magnums (1.5 litres). In general, magnums are thought to be of higher quality, as there is less oxygen in the bottle, and the volume-to-surface area ratio favours the creation of appropriately sized bubbles. However, there is no hard evidence for this view. Sizes larger than Jeroboam (3 L) are rare.
In 2009, a bottle of 1825 Perrier-Jouët Champagne was opened at a ceremony attended by 12 of the world’s top wine tasters. This bottle was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest bottle of Champagne in the world. The contents were found to be drinkable, with notes of truffles and caramel in the taste. There are now only two other bottles from the 1825 vintage extant.
In July 2010, 168 bottles were found onboard a shipwreck near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea by Finnish diver Christian Ekström. Initial analyses indicated there were at least two types of bottles from two different houses: Veuve Clicquot in Reims and the long-defunct Champagne house Juglar (absorbed into Jacquesson in 1829.) The shipwreck is dated between 1800 and 1830, and the bottles discovered may well predate the 1825 Perrier-Jouët referenced above. When experts were replacing the old corks with new ones, they discovered there were also bottles from a third house, Heidsieck. The wreck, then, contained 95 bottles of Juglar, 46 bottles of Veuve Clicquot, and four bottles of Heidsieck, in addition to 23 bottles whose manufacture is still to be identified. Champagne experts described the bottles’ contents as being in very good condition. It is planned that the majority of the bottles will be sold at auction, the price of each estimated to be in the region of £40,000–70,000. Although the chemical composition of the 170-year-old Champagne was very similar to the composition of modern-day Champagne, there was much more sugar in this Champagne than in modern-day Champagne, and it was also less alcoholic than modern-day Champagne. The high sugar level was characteristic of people’s tastes at the time, and it was common for people in the 19th century, such as Russians, to add sugar to their wine at dinner. It also contained higher concentrations of minerals such as iron, copper, and table salt than modern-day Champagne does.
Champagne corks. Champagne corks are mostly built from three sections and are referred to as agglomerated corks. The mushroom shape that occurs in the transition is a result of the bottom section’s being composed of two stacked discs of pristine cork cemented to the upper portion, which is a conglomerate of ground cork and glue. The bottom section is in contact with the wine. Before insertion, a sparkling wine cork is almost 50% larger than the opening of the bottle. Originally, the cork starts as a cylinder and is compressed before insertion into the bottle. Over time, their compressed shape becomes more permanent and the distinctive “mushroom” shape becomes more apparent.
The aging of the Champagne post-disgorgement can to some degree be told by the cork, as, the longer it has been in the bottle, the less it returns to its original cylinder shape.
Champagne Etiquette. Champagne is usually served in a Champagne flute, whose characteristics include a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl, thin sides and an etched bottom. The intended purpose of the shape of the flute is to reduce surface area, therefore preserving carbonation, as well as maximizing nucleation (the visible bubbles and lines of bubbles). Champagne is always served cold; its ideal drinking temperature is 7 to 9 °C (45 to 48 °F). Often the bottle is chilled in a bucket of ice and water, half an hour before opening, which also ensures the Champagne is less gassy and can be opened without spillage. Champagne buckets are made specifically for this purpose and often have a larger volume than standard wine-cooling buckets to accommodate the larger bottle, and more water and ice.
Opening Champagne bottles. To reduce the risk of spilling or spraying any Champagne, open the Champagne bottle by holding the cork and rotating the bottle at an angle to ease out the stopper. This method, as opposed to pulling the cork out, prevents the cork from flying out of the bottle at speed. Also, holding the bottle at an angle allows air in and helps prevent the champagne from geysering out of the bottle.
A sabre can be used to open a Champagne bottle with great ceremony. This technique is called sabrage (the term is also used for simply breaking the head of the bottle).
Pouring Champagne. Pouring sparkling wine while tilting the glass at an angle and gently sliding in the liquid along the side will preserve the most bubbles, as opposed to pouring directly down to create a head of “mousse”. Colder bottle temperatures also result in reduced loss of gas. Additionally, the industry is developing Champagne glasses designed specifically to reduce the amount of gas lost.
Spraying Champagne. Champagne has been an integral part of sports celebrations since Moët & Chandon started offering their Champagne to the winners of Formula 1 Grand Prix events. At the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, winner Dan Gurney started the tradition of drivers spraying the crowd and each other. The Muslim-majority nation Bahrain banned Champagne celebrations on F1 podiums in 2004, using a nonalcoholic pomegranate and rosewater drink instead.
In 2015, some Australian sports competitors began to celebrate by drinking champagne from their shoes, a practice known as shoey.
Champagne Price. There are several general factors influencing the price of Champagne: the limited land of the region, the prestige that Champagne has developed worldwide, and the high cost of the production process, among others.
