Tour of Moet on June 14th

First of all, I want to thank those of you on this forum who suggested that I go the Champagne area as a day trip from Paris – it was perfect. We got to ride the really wonderful trains and see the countryside.
A local wine merchant, through a distributor, was kind enough to set up a private tour of the Moet & Chandon champagne cellars in Epernay for my family and me. The tour was on June 14th. We were greeted by Helen who, after a brief oral history of Moet, showed us a film about Moet and the champagne industry. She then graciously led us down several staircases to the cool cellars, carved out of the chalky earth. We were at least 30 feet underground, more in some places.
The dimly lit cellars are made up of row after row of very long “streets” each with an uncountable number of arched caverns branching off. The caverns were filled to the ceiling with bottles and were so deep that we could not see the back wall. Helen explained that each cavern had a wooden sign on it encoded with information only the cellar master understood but which included number of bottles, champagne type and bottling date. We spent considerable time wandering the underground “streets”. While in the cellars we had a bottle riddling demonstration.
The conclusion of the tour was an outstanding champagne tasting. Helen took us to a beautifully decorated sitting room where she introduced us to our own personal sommelier. He had two bottles of Moet, one of which was a Rosé. He described the wine making process for both and proceeded to fill our glasses. We compared and contrasted both wines. I was surprised to learn that they generally make wine intended for the US a little sweeter than the same wine destined for other countries. We had a lot of fun with him as he seemed more at ease than Helen; perhaps it was the champagne. After 20 or 30 minutes, he left us with both bottles to walk around the gardens. I’m not ashamed to say that the five of us finished both bottles. My 17 year old daughter got a real kick out of being served champagne in such a great setting.
The wines both had a nice earthy mineral/chalky nose; berries and red fruit and cherries. I was not overwhelmed with yeasty flavors as I often have been. The flavors were rich and complex with depth and a long finish. The five of us agreed that if tasted blind, we may not have been able to pick the Rosé; this did not surprise our sommelier.
My only disappointment was that we did not see anything more than the cellars. I would have loved to see the initial fermentation room, the disgorgement process, the dosage process and even the bottle labeling operation.
Both before and after the tour we walked the streets of Epernay bracketing the tour between lunch and a late dinner before heading back to Paris. It was a wonderful day!

That sounds like a wonderful day! Maybe someday.....

Sounds like all you guys had fun---which is the most important thing.

Moet does a good tour, but they do tend to strongly emphasize the historical/romantic aspects of Champagne and keep the nitty-gritty stuff and the production details behind a discreet screen. So it's focus on the tunnels and the pupitres, but don't show the gyropallettes that actually do the work now.

I think a Champagne day trip is one of the most pleasant side-trips from Paris imaginable, Jon. Epernay is a cool little town--and definitely focused on the industry of the bubble. Reims is fascinating too, with the Cathedral, the historical town centre, the "ring" of Champagne houses and the significantly deeper caves they have, based on the old Roman chalk quarries. Pretty area too.

Reims is fascinating too, with the Cathedral, the historical town centre, the "ring" of Champagne houses and the significantly deeper caves they have, based on the old Roman chalk quarries. Pretty area too.

Liz and I have promised ourselves that we will go back, I not even going to exchange our leftover Euros. Reims is on for the next trip, whenever that may be.

I'll be there soo too a few weeks more.....