EPERNAY , 26km south of Reims, is the
Champagne town to head for, beautifully situated below rolling,
vine-covered hills, with wealth-impregnated tree-lined streets. In
addition to some of the most famous maisons , there are also
several smaller houses to tour, and the town makes a good base for
exploring the surrounding villages and vineyards.
The Town
The loveliest of
Epernay's streets is avenue de Champagne
, running east from the central place de la République. It's worth a
stroll for its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mansions and
champagne maisons .
The largest, and probably the most famous maison of all, is Moët et Chandon , 18 av de Champagne (daily 9.30-11.30am & 2-4.30pm; mid-Nov to March Mon-Fri only; visits cost 40F/
€6.10 including dégustation of the brut Impérial, €9.91 for two dégustations , and €15.24 for three dégustations
), which owns Mercier, Ruinart and a variety of other concerns,
including Dior perfumes. By its own reckoning, a Moët champagne cork
pops somewhere in the world every two seconds. The cellars are adorned
with mementos of Napoléon, a good friend of the original M. Moët. True
to tradition, the bottles are still turned by hand, a process of remuage (riddling) explained in detail by the guide; by the time you reach the generous dégustation you appreciate why the stuff costs so much.
Of the other maison visits, one of the most rewarding is Mercier
, 70 av de Champagne (Mon-Fri 9.30-11.30am & 2-4.30pm, Sat &
Sun 9.30-11.30am & 2-5pm; Dec-Feb closed Tues & Wed; €4.57,
including dégustation ), whose glamour relic is a giant barrel
that held 200,000 bottles' worth when M. Mercier took it to the 1889
Paris Exposition, with the help of 24 oxen - only to be upstaged by the
Eiffel Tower. Visits round the cellars are by electric train and are
great fun, climaxing in dégustation .
Castellane , by the station at 57 rue de Verdun (April-Oct daily 10am-noon & 2-6pm; €5.34, including dégustation ), provides Epernay
with its chief landmark: a tower looking like a kind of Neoclassical
signal box. As well as the inevitable cellars, the visit takes in a
rather good museum displaying bottles and their labels, publicity
posters, old tools and tableaux of champagne-making and related
processes. Best of all, you get to climb to the top of the tower, which
allows unsurpassed views of the town and surrounding vineyards.
Epernay has many other grandes maisons that can be visited by appointment, but perhaps more worthwhile are the many smaller houses. Two which offer tours with dégustation are located on rue Chaude-Ruelle, west of av de Champagne, with views over the town: Janisson-Baradon , at no. 65 (tel 03.26.54.45.85; €3.81), and Leclerc-Briant , at no. 67 (tel 03.26.54.45.33; €3.05).
Esterlin
, at 25 av de Champagne (Mon-Fri 9am-12.30pm & 1.30-5pm, Sat &
Sun 10am-12.30pm & 1.30-5.30pm), don't offer guided tours of their
cellars, but if you want to see their ten-minute video on the
painstaking process of making champagne then you'll get a free dégustation to sip throughout.
Die-hard champagne lovers might wander into the Musée du Champagne at 13 av de Champagne.
The exhibits themselves are humdrum, but the building is worth a peek,
housed as it is in Château Perrier, an impressive example of a
nineteenth-century champagne mansion, with a Louis XIII exterior and a
flamboyant marble interior featuring a rather grand staircase.
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