A Taste of Champagne

By Mary Ellen Bradshaw

The Hostellerie du Chateau at Fere-en-Tardenois is an impressive looking stone edifice complete with towers. It is situated in a wooded park, surrounded by manicured lawns. Across the moat is the ruins of the Castle de Fere.

There is a large patio with lawn chairs and tables, where in the warm months one may sip coffee and view the ruins. There is also an attractive turquoise swimming pool.

As we enter the Chateau we are greeted by our host and led to our rooms. The Chateau has been restored to its earlier elegance. We walk down a long corridor where the walls are covered with padded brocaded silk. Peter and I have lucked out in that we have been given the tower suite. It is huge, with a wonderful sitting room, bathroom and large bedroom with a window seat and a 180° view of the countryside. We are told that each of the hotel’s twenty five rooms are individually decorated.

After a leisurely bath, we meet our friends Jay and Caroline in the small dining room for a drink. The Chateau’s paneled dining rooms are high-ceilinged, with large fireplaces, tall mirrors and glistening chandeliers. On each table there are fresh flowers As we sip our before-dinner drink, the maitre de gives us the menu and takes our order.

He tells us about the “Special” this evening, mentioning something about the tricolors of France and the fact that a dozen hens will be in mourning each time this dish is served. Since this repartee was entirely in French and Jay is the only one who is bilingual, he translates for us. Intrigued, he orders the interesting-sounding dish. None of us knows what exactly the meal consists of, but surmise it must be chicken, as weeping hens were mentioned.

When it is time to eat, we are led into the formal dining room. The table is set and in each place there is a tiny plate with what we are told is a “frivolity.” This is an extra dish for the guest to eat while waiting for dinner. Our frivolity is a tiny mound of fois Gras, set on a tiny piece of toast. This is followed by the fish course, a lemon sorbet in a champagne marc, to cleanse our palate. The main course, in my case, is a wonderful veal dish, followed by salad, dessert and cheese. Each course is served with suitable wines and champagne. The dessert was chosen from a dessert trolley like I have never seen before. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Madame de Pompadour is reputed to have said: "Champagne is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it."

Jay enjoyed his meal, but immersed in the sauce were 12 odd shaped “mushrooms.” He had never had anything like them, so when dinner was finished, he asked the maitre de about them. He was told that they were not mushrooms, but the red cock’s combs, which is the reason for the twelve weeping hens and the mention of tricolors of France. Another little food joke.

"There are only two occasions when I drink Champagne, and these are: when I have game for dinner and when I haven't," S.D. Churchill

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, as we set out for our appointment at Perrier-Jouet Winery. We arrive in Epernay a few minutes early so we take a stroll around the town. Epernay was named by a Roman named Spartacus in ancient times. It appears to be a quiet little town. Situated by the river Marne and surrounded by vineyards sloping down from mount Bernon. It is very picturesque.

Thousands of tourists invade the town each year to walk down the “Avenue de Champagne” and visit the many prestigious wineries. The buildings that house the wineries are built in neo-renaissance or classical style and are striking.

Winston Churchill once called the Avenue de Champagne “the most drinkable avenue in the world.”

We arrive at Perrier-Jouet around 11 o’clock and are met by the attache to the director of the winery. He ushers us into a large wedgewood blue and white living room, furnished with brocaded chesterfields, antique wooden end and coffee tables and lamps made from the Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoch wine bottles. These are a surprisingly effective addition to the decor. Our host tells us that the bottles were produced to celebrate the Belle Epoch period of France and honour the famous artists, writers, actors, intellectuals, who lived there during that time. It was also to introduce the Cuvee Belle Epoch Champagne.

There are different sizes of Champagne bottles, magnums (equivalent to two bottles), jeroboams (four bottles), or even balthazars (sixteen bottles), and the biggest mabuchodonosor (twenty bottles). Champagne is best in the single bottle or magnum. When sold in larger sizes, it is poured into the larger bottles. taken out of the regular bottles and magnums. This may affect the quality.

The flowers on the bottles were hand painted, a cottage industry in the area. As our host continues his talk, a large man with a huge white apron, arrives carrying a bottle of Champagne. He makes a ceremony of opening and pouring the wine.

As we taste, our host explains about “La Ney,” the nose of the winery. The nose is the person with a highly evolved sense of smell, and is the main taster of the wines as they are being blended. We are told he is the most important person in the production of wine. This job is often passed on from one generation to another in a family because of the inherited sense.

For the next hour or so we taste vintage champagnes and are told of the famous people who had partaken of this wine we were drinking. “The Queen of England has Perrier-Jouet in her cellars,” we are told. We are then taken to a small but elegant private dining room, where we are served a delicious, many-course meal, again with suitable champagnes as well as the still white wine of the region. After this and the meal of last night I feel I will never eat again.

The first time he tasted Champagne, Dom Perignon called out to his fellow monks, "Come quickly, I'm drinking stars!"

Harvest of grapes begins in mid to late September and is done entirely by hand. 50-60,000 extra workers are needed for the 10 days of each harvest. The grapes are carefully selected and then taken to one of the 2,000 pressing houses scattered throughout the region.

Due to variable harvests and climactic changes, quality and quantity of the wine may be affected. So to ensure wine of quality and taste every year, a portion of wine from a good year is put in reserve to blend with a wine of an inferior year. Diversity in taste can also be attributed to the different variety of grapes used in the blending process. Three varieties which do well in the champagne’s environment are Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and Black Pinot and a smaller number of Chardonnay.

The blending of these wines is a true art and each combination is unique. Each year the objective is to make a the wine to reflect the style of the house. This style can be recognized as the unique blend of the particular winery. Unless a vintage year is declared, champagnes may be made by an combination of up to 30-40 still wines, combining varieties and different vintages. If it is a vintage year, all wines must be made with the grapes of this year exclusively and 20% of the crop must be kept in reserve for still wines for future blendings.

Wines made in the fall just after harvest will ferment until the weather gets cold, then it stops. When it warms up in spring it starts fermenting again. This double fermentation is what makes Champagne. This started when they started bottling the wine instead of keeping it in barrels where the carbon monoxide escaped.

Beneath the wineries, there are over a hundred miles of tunnels, where millions of bottle of maturing Champagne rest in a temperature that does not change. We are taken down to the caves under Perrier-Jouet. The tunnels are lit with electric bulbs and are almost as wide as a regular road, with high ceilings cut into the limestone. Each of the roadways is named after a famous street name like Picadilly, Avenue of the Americas, Champs de l’elyssee etc. Many cars drive to and fro. It is like a mini rush hour. In an electric cart we drive the uderground highways of limestone.

Along the side of the roadway there are semi-dark alcoves, filled with racks of wine. We stop at one of the alcoves. The placing of the bottles in the wooden racks starts the process of remuage or riddling. Every day for five or six weeks the bottles are given a sharp twist (1/4 turn) by "remueurs," who handle up to 50,000 bottles a day. This breaks the sediment free. The bottle is also progressively tilted until it is almost standing on its end. A few pieces at a time, the sediment breaks away and slides down into the neck of the bottle.

The bottles are then taken to the bottling area and placed upside down in a vat of freezing brine. When the cork is removed, the frozen wine pops right out with it. this is called disgorgement. The space is topped up with liqueur that has been sweetened to achieve the right dosage, which will determine the champagne's sweetness - extra brut, brut, extra-dry, demi-sec, sec or doux. After disgorging the bottles are re-corked and secured with a wire cage. They are ready to be shipped. Champagne production is very time consuming and labour intensive. They say that is the reason it is so expensive.

After receiving a gift of a silk Belle Epoch scarf, we thank our host at Perrier-Jouet and head back to the Chateau. Needless to say after all that champagne we pass on dinner and go right to bed. It was a most fascinating day. A note and a candy on our pillow wishes us sweet dreams.

About the Author:

I  am the wife of Peter, mother of Julie, Christopher and Timothy Bradshaw. Formerly a registered nurse, I am an instructor of the martial art, T'ai Chi Chuan, Yang Style and a writer of fiction, non-fiction and children's books. I wrote and edited a company newspaper for 8 years. I have published a non-fiction book and have been published in an anthology of short stories, and in "The Noon Quilt", a group effort by Trace, a world wide writing group based in Norfolk, England. I have written newspaper articles and have won a couple of local literary awards for short fiction and creative non-fiction.

Article courtesy of Suite101.com.