Champagne touring in Epernay

Just outside of Reims is a little town called Epernay that lives for champagne. Home to growers, houses, cellars and co-operatives, Epernay and the surrounding area produces some of the worlds best champagne. (Even Dom Perignon!)

We selected 2 tours, the first was Canard-Duchene, a non-vintage champagne house founded in 1868; the second was Mercier, a vintage and non-vintage champagne house founded in 1858.

Canard-Duchene is a smaller, less touristy house located in the heart of champagne country. They sell around 4 million bottles a year and according to some there is a bottle of Canard-Duchene opened in France every 15 minutes! We elected to open a few bottles but not until we took the tour. I know, why wait but it was 10:30 in the morning so we needed to kill a little time before hitting the nectar.

Leonie Duchene and Victor Canard Founders (Victor is on the right)

The tour was of their cellars located directly below the house. 30 meters below with over 300 stairs so we worked off a little of that breakfast. Nice tour, lots of art work and displays and millions of bottles of champagne. Our guide talked through how champagne is processed and the roles of specific people within the process, such as the riddler (nothing to do with Batman) or remueur, the bottle turner. The tour took about 1.5hrs so it was time to drink!

We tried a variety of champagnes and found that I am partial to the “dry” Blanc-Blanc Extra Brut, while Collette preferred the Brut. Both of us appreciated the Charles VII Grand Cuvee, yummy!

Our second tour was at Champagne Mercier also located in Epernay. This was a big change from our first tour / tasting. From the moment we picked up our “English” translators to the Disney styled ride on the train, this tour was all about marketing. The elevator ride down to the cellar floor, again 30 meters, took about 10 minutes while a movie of harvest to bottling was played on the back wall. The really impressive sight here was the 200,000 bottle barrel located in the lobby.

We tasted two champagnes, a brut and a rose both of which were less impressive than Canard-Duchene and somewhat reminiscent of Corbel or Moet. Not top of our list but acceptable. Biggest disappointment was with all the hype and marketing, the champagne should have been a better quality, not something you want to mix with orange juice.

Enough, back to Reims and more food and drink.