G.H. Mumm Champagne is "only the best!"

 "Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn't everyone?"
 

Noel Coward

Every day should start with a glass (or two) of champagne.

How do I know this?  Because this is how we started our last day in Reims and it was awesome.

(I'm American so I'm allowed to use that word.  Often.)

We had tried to visit the the House of G.H. Mumm when we arrived on Saturday evening,

but they were all booked up.  So we made reservations for Monday morning at 9:30.

Now with the time difference it was 8:30am back in the UK and 

it was the weekend that the clocks changed, so our body clocks were set at 7:30am.

I've mentioned that the four of us are champagne troopers (well, except Matt as he was the DD for the weekend) so the early call was clearly not a problem.

It was the perfect way to start the day and added a giggly, golden tint to our last day.

G.H. Mumm was founded in 1827 by a family of German winemakers from the Rhine Valley and is now owned by Pernod Ricard.  This champagne is used to celebrate momentous sporting events all over the world including Formula 1 Racing. The motto of the house has always been "only the best."

By this time the caves were familiar and we'd heard all about the process of making champagne.  But, I'm glad we visited.  It was a smaller group (good morning) and our English Speaking tour guide did a great job.  We learned a little more about the various grapes that are used. And they also have many examples of tools and techniques that were used in the past. I think the tour was about €24 and included two glasses of champagne. 

And then to our favorite part of the tours... the tasting!!!

  

Mumm was my favorite champagne of the four houses that we toured,

with Moet & Chandon a very close second.  

It was light and smooth and bubbly and nummy!

(How do you like the use of my descriptive words there? I should write for a wine magazine, yes?) 

We bought a bottle of Brut that is sitting in my fridge calling out to me.
We must find some excuse to break it out.  I think "It's Wednesday" is good enough, don't you?

"One holds a bottle of red wine by the neck, a woman by the waist,

and a bottle of Champagne by the derriere." 

And that's the end of our tour of the Champagne district of France.

It was such a fantastic weekend!  I would highly recommend it.

Quick tips:

Do your research.   This one needs to be preplanned.

Visit both the larger and the smaller houses.

Pre-book your champagne house visits.  It's rare to just be able to walk in and get a tour.

Each tour is about two hours so leave yourself plenty of time.

Three a day is a good number, morning, afternoon & early evening.

The houses are all spread out, so you will need a car unless you book a bus tour.

Drink responsibly and have a designated driver.

Lastly, take some wonderful friends along with you!

It will make all the difference in the world!

One last thing, before we're done.

Be sure to ask your bartender at the hotel bar to saber a champagne bottle for you.

Best party trick ever!

(I would show you the video but all you can hear is my tipsy giggle the lighting is bad.)

And he didn't even need a fancy saber and gloves like in the photo above.

He just used the rim of a metal cocktail shaker.

Here's how to do it if you're interested. 

Now all of you should go celebrate Wednesday with a bottle of champagne!

 Cheers, my friends.

The rest of the Champagne District posts:

Champagne Wishes

Moët & Chandon

Castellane

Taittinger

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Taittinger Champagne House in Reims

We're back from Portugal and it was fabulous!

I'm editing the photos and hope to post about our trip next week. 

(And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Spain and Morocco, I'm just getting geared up.

There is so much to write about so that will be an upcoming project.) 

Thank you so much for the supportive comments on my Friday post.

I think a few days in the sun was just what I needed.

I had a good cry one night.  (Mother's Day away from your

mother AND daughter just really, really, really sucks!)

I did have one more crazy, angry dream where I beat up a coworker and had to go to jail! 

(Seriously? What kind of wackadoodle dream is that?)

But last night I dreamed about yummy, fluffy cupcakes.

(They were being withheld from me,

which made me angry but I didn't scream or harm anyone.)

So all in all, I think things are getting better.

I'm sure a dream interpreter would have me committed a field day.

But for now let's forget about my crazy dreams and talk some more about the bubbly stuff.

As we were planning our weekend in the champagne district, we found it a bit challenging to discern the who, what, when and where of all of the houses.  Each one has very different opening times, rates and reservation requirements.  We had contacted about five ahead of time and were able to schedule visits with two of them on Sunday morning in Epernay.   

After Castellane, we were left to wing it for the rest of our visit.  I'd read that visiting two houses in a day is a good goal.  But after finishing up with #2, we realized we definitely had a third visit in us (champagne troopers, we are).  We quickly got on the phone to see if we had any more options.   We called Taittinger and had just enough time to get back to Reims for their last tour of the day. 

The only catch was that the tour was in French.  Three of the four of us do very well with French (I'll let you guess who is the odd one out), and we'd already heard about the process a few times so it really wasn't too much of a problem.  The tour group was much bigger but the caves are fantastic and well worth a visit.

The 4th century Roman chalk quarry, later became the cellars of the Saint Nicaise Abbey.  The abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, but the vaults and caves below are now the champagne caves of Taittinger.  Be on the lookout out for faces watching you from the walls.  If only they could talk, I'm sure they would tell quite a story.  

In the photo above, you can see just one of the vaults and how deep it is.  This vault holds 100,000 bottles of champagne that have each carefully placed by hand.  In the photo below you see the racks that are used to turn and tilt the bottles each day, again by hand, to gently coax the sediment into the necks of the bottles for disgorgement.   This process takes several months.    Did you watch the video about the process?  Pretty interesting, huh?   

After climbing up from the vaults, it was again time for a tasting.
Great incentive for climbing this spiral staircase, don't you agree?

The price was about €16 and included one glass of champagne. 
Taittinger is one of the very few houses that doesn't require pre-booking. 

I hope you are enjoying this little tour through the Champagne district. 

We have one more stop and then we're done.

"Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right"
 

Mark Twain

Have you had a glass of Champagne lately?

What was the occasion? 

The rest of the Champagne District posts:

Champagne Wishes

Moët & Chandon

Castellane

G.H. Mumm

 

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p.s.  Have you found me on Bloglovin yet? 

The Moët & Chandon Champagne Cellars

In the northeast corner of France, sits a magical little region were the world's very best sparkling white wine is produced.  The bubbly stuff is called Champagne and only the wine produced in this area can be called by that name.  Since the Middle Ages, the area's climate and geography has made possible the production of "the drink of kings."  

The first champagne house that we visited, Moët & Chandon is the largest and most prestigious and is in the town of Epernay.  It was established in 1743 and once provided champagne to King Louis XV and Napoleon.  It is also the home of the premiere vintage Dom Pérignon. Take a quick look at this video from Moët & Chandon.  It gives you a real feel for the house and the champagne. 

  

We made reservations before our trip for Sunday morning and arrived right on time for our English speaking tour.  As one of the largest, this was a fabulous introduction to the champagne houses and cellars of Epernay.  Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and how can you resist a beautiful French accent telling you about the history and art of champagne.  

Our guide described the intricate and detailed process from selection of the grapes, to blending and fermentation, to packaging and distribution.  There is so much care and attention to detail.  It's an art form that has been perfected over hundreds of years.  I'll tell you more about the process of making champagne in my next post.

Today I want to tell you about the cellars of the region. We visited off-season so we didn't see any of the harvest or production, but we did experience the amazing cellars.  No trip to this area is complete without a visit to the underground crayéres of the champagne houses.  And the cellars at Moët & Chandon are the most extensive with a maze of 17 miles of caves.

 

After an explanation of the region and the history of the house, our guide wrapped herself in a blanket and led us down into the cool, quiet chalk caves where the wine is stored until it's aged to perfection.  

The chalk limestone was used by the ancient Romans to build their cities and many of the cellars were once quarries.  The area is vast and the perfect place for millions of bottles of champagne to bubble away quietly for years.  The temperature and humidity is constant.  One of our guides told us in that delicious accent "We can only monitor the ambiance.  We cannot control it."  Which I thought was a great quote for life sometimes.  

  
It's like a beehive.  The nectar of the grapes is gathered, blended and packed away in the honeycomb caves to be turned into liquid gold.  The bottles are carefully packed by hand in the arched coves.  The rooms are very deep and can hold 100,000 bottles.  The walkways are marked and numbered so the workers can find their way around.  Each batch is given a special number that can only be decoded by the cellar master.  

The miles and miles of caves in the area are all likely interconnected with each house carving out their own section.  During World War I the cellars were used as a place of refuge as the area was under siege by the Germans.   During World War II, Winston Churchill once famously said  "Remember, gentlemen, it's not just France we are fighting for, it's Champagne!"  I've added the book Wine and War to my reading list to learn more about the how the French worked to protect one of their most precious commodities.

 

And then is was time for a tasting.  (I might have done the happy dance as we entered the tasting room).  I selected the "Grand Vintage" visit (€29.50) and tasted a white and a rose.  I like champagne, but it's not something that I have often.  There is just something about sipping champagne that has been poured and presented so proudly in a cave in France that definitely adds to the experience.

It was wonderful!

I wanted to respond like Dom Pérignon,

"come quickly, I am tasting the stars!"

 

I have three more champagne houses to share with you.

I think I'll have a glass of the bubbly stuff this evening.  

How about you?  Do you like champagne? 

 The rest of the Champagne District posts:
Champagne Wishes
Castellane
Taittinger
G.H. Mumm

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