Champagne - Les Maisons Grandes

Hubby and I last visited Epernay six years ago and it was a real pleasure to return with friends to discover more about this amazing region and its bottles of bubbles. We started in Epernay which is the heart of the Champagne Region, sitting in the centre of the three main grape growing areas - Pinot Noir to the north east, Chardonnay to the south and Pinot Meunier to the west in the Marne Valley. 

The three grapes of Champagne

Over the five days of our stay we visited four large Champagne houses and two smaller houses, as well as enjoying some unexpected tastings. Champagne is such a vast region, vast industry with vast differences that if I blogged it altogether the page too would be vast - so this post is dedicated to the four Maisons Grandes.

Our first visit was to Mercier; a Champagne House located at the top of the Avenue de Champagne, the most expensive road in the world and you'll soon see why. Mercier's history presented itself as soon as we stepped inside, a huge wooden barrel had pride of place in the foyer .... and rightly so. 

Founded in 1858 Eugéne Mercier had the vision of champgne being enjoyed by everyone. He held many publicity events to promote his idea including a hot air balloon but Eugéne's biggest event was to take part in the Paris Exhibition of 1889. He had a barrel made to hold 1,600 hectolitres of his finest champagne and with a team of 24 oxon pulled it all the way from Epernay to Paris. Many houses had to be pulled down to make way for such a huge convoy. He won second prize at the exhibition, first prize going to the Eiffel Tower, and gained many new customers, all wanting his champagne!

Eugéne Mercier's huge barrel and model of his 24 oxon

Mercier's caves were started in 1871 and all told 18km of tunnels were dug out. In these tunnels lie thousand and thousands of bottles of champagne. Mercier is not the only Champagne House on the Avenue de Champagne to have such tunnels - hence the reason it is the most expensive street, just think what lies beneath your feet as you stroll along admiring the beautiful buildings!

Champagne Mercier's cave

Our trip in the cave was by train, a self guided electric train passing tunnel after tunnel opening. It was amazing to see how far they went, how they crossed each other and how many bottles each tunnel held. 

All the tunnels had avenue names, in much the way roads above ground do. They were linked to Eugéne's family or people prominent in the development of Mercier champagne. One of the longer tunnels had tableaus depicting the luxury of wine, these were to make life in the tunnels a little more enjoyable for the workers.  

Mercier tastings

All tours end with a tasting, or two; our Mercier champagnes were Brut Reserve with its fine bubbles and flavours of crisp apples and cirtus, and Blanc de Noir made with only Pinot Noir.

This was a new tasting for me and of the two my favourite, fine bubbles as expected but I didn't expect the blackberry, bramble fruitness, a flavour I have not tasted in a champagne before. 

Mercier Champagne is not a brand we usually buy here at home but I will be looking out for their Blanc de Noir.

Still at the top end of the Avenue de Champagne our second tour was at Castellane. This is also not a brand we see here in the UK, I was quite surprised to discover why. Castellane is the same company as Laurent-Perrier. Two houses, both making great bubbles but not in competiton with each other as Laurent Perrier is sold mainly overseas and Castellane sold mainly in France!

The Castellane tower does just that, it towers over the town publicising this superb Champagne House. As part of the tour you can climb to the top and enjoy a 360 degree view of Epernay and it's vines .... but I didn't.

Castellane's striking tower

Entering through a huge barrel door this tour was not just of Castellane's caves but of the actual production areas. Being August everywhere was quiet as it is holiday time but our guide explained how champagne is made including the amazing 300 year history of discovering the best way to remove the sediment from the second fermenation .... our modern techniques are a far cry from the monks putting bottles in the sand but without their initial idea the process would not have even begun.

Castellane's barrel entrance

Because it is a working enviroment no photographs were allowed on the actual tour but of course there was a tasting. De Castellane Brut is 35% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 30% Pinot Meunier and was a balanced rounded champagne, very refreshing after our tour underground.

Slightly out of Epernay at Chouilly is my favourite champagne house. I was so excited when we visited six years ago and I was still excited this time, even more so when I discovered their new boutique foyer area with it's spectacular entrance

Nicolas Feuillatte's stunning new entrance

Nicolas Feuillatte is very modern factory, very different to the old maisons in Epernay. It was founded in 1986 and unlike many champagne houses does not own any vineyards. Nicolas Feuillatte is a co-operative and buys all it's grape juice, known as must, from local growers. Neither are there any wine presses at the factory so after being picked by hand the grapes are pressed at source and Nicolas Feuillatte's fleet of tankers collect the must.

Nicolas Feuillatte's 'must' tankers

The three different grapes, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are kept separate during the first fermentation. This first fermentation takes place in Nicolas Feuillatte's stainless steel vats which just take your breathe away when you see then. They are so majestic, standing on a first level platform they still tower overhead. Rows and rows stand like cathedral organ pipes in this breathe taking room.

Nicolas Feuillatte's stainless steel vats 

It is only when bottled and yeast added for the second fermentation that the wine is blended together depending on the style of champagne being produced. This fermentation varies too depending on the champagne being produced. Their Selection Brut is laid for 2 to 3 years, their Grande Reserve for up to 6 years, and their Vintage Brut over 8 years.

Once fermentation is complete the bottles are riddled, previously by hand but now by gyropalette. This process slowly turns the bottles to a vertical position with its neck down, each day the turn is a quarter to the left left or right and an eighth of a turn to vertical. With each turn the sediment from the yeast moves into the neck of the bottle until once vertical there is a clean bottle of champagne with a small plug of sediment in the neck, albeit the bottles are upside down.

Examples of the sediment after riddling

Nicolas Feuillatte's modern concrete caves were breathtaking, not because of their structure but the sheer quanity of champagne bottles resting as second fermentation occurred. I could spend many a happy hour here, just gazing in awe at the quantity bottles all containing champagne.

This one 'cave' holds nearly 100,00 bottles

Once fermentation is complete the bottles are taken along a conveyor belt through many machines, handled only by robots. During this voyage the neck of the bottle is frozen in glycol, the bottles turned upright and the frozen yeast plug expelled, a top up liquid added, the cork, caplet and wire added, all the labeling completed and finally boxed. If you buy an individual boxed bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte you will be the first person to ever touch that bottle as it is only handled by the robots though this final process.  

This was for me the best tour, not only because Nicolas Feuillatte is my favourite champagne but the information shared, explained and demonstrated, it's a remarkable process to make those bubbles!

And so to the tasting, as we each had two tastings we all chose a different champagne so we actually tasted them all. I love the yeasty brioche flavour in Nicolas Feuillatte champagne, my favourite tasting was 2008 Vintage Collection Blanc de Blanc.

2008 Vintage Brut - equal amounts of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier

2008 Vintage Blanc de Blanc - 100% Chardonnay

Reserve Exclusive Rosé - 10% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, 45% Pinot Meunier

Reserve Exclusive Brut - 20% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier

2008 Grand Cru Blanc de Noir - 100% Pinot Noir

The final Grande Maison visited was in Reims; Taittinger is another champagne that we don't normally buy but one I have tasted at a few wine events. It was another tour full of surprises, after entering ironwork gates the Taittinger building was a square concrete style building, not the grande maison I had expected. 

The film at the beginning of our tour explained why, the site was an ancient abbey destroyed in the French Revolution. The Benedictine monks centuries earlier had extended the underground caves dug out by the Romans in the chalk ground. These caves are beneath Tattinger's modern building offer the ideal location for storing champagne; venturing down the spiral staircase it was amazing to be in the monk's caves. 

Peter the Great visiting the monks in their wine caves

Ancient carving on the cave walls

One of the beautiful ornate ancient doors in the caves

Taittinger's champagne bottles underground 

 A tasting of Tattinger's Brut greeted us upon returning to ground level, a lively glass of bubbly but not quite a full flavoured as some the other Grande Maison tastings.

Taittinger Champagne

Touring and tasting champagne in these four great champagne houses could not have been more different - publicity focused Mercier, modern setting with historic caves at Castellane, ultra modern factory at Nicolas Feuillatte and ancient caves at Taittinger. There was so much to see, so much to learn and of course so many tastings to enjoy.

The diversity of these tours emphasises the huge differences in the taste and flavour of champagne, not one coupe of bubbles tasted the same, all so different, all suitable for different occasions - however there was more to learn in the smaller houses .... but that's another story!

At all our tastings I took a selfie of us all - Nick, myself, Dave and Agnes - not always an easy achievement as the tastings progressed but a super souvenir of our 'bubbly' time !

Our Grande Maison selfies !