Day of Wine and Roses

Epernay, Dizy, Chouilly- the names go on and on.  And the synonym for each of them is Champagne.


Today we visited the celebrated champagne areas of France.  The names say it all.  Epernay is the epicentre of the champagne world. We walked the Rue Des Champagnes this morning & found that we were able to do a tour of Moet & Chandon with the added benefit of a wine tasting (degustation) at the end.  Bill very generously decided on the tour that included not one,but two glasses of vintage Moet- what a guy!  The wine is kept underground in caves which cover 28 kms! While we were waiting for the tour to start, we read that the champagne area sells over 5.5 million bottles of champagne each year around the world.


We learnt that the winery is named after the son of Moet who started the dynasty and also his son-in-law, whose surname was- yes, you've guessed it- Chandon.  We were also very interested to learn that Moet is pronounced "MoyET" with the accent on the second syllable. And here was I, always calling it "Mowey!"

30 000  Yes- 30 000 bottles of Moet!

One of the galleries of wine

Bill communing with Dom Perignon

Dom Perignon was associated with Moet & Chandon & although he was a monk, it was through his work and influence that champagne first started.  Moet bought Dom Perignon's vineyard.

We drove through many little towns and villages on the champagne trail.  They were small and cute but not very atmospheric as most of them were reasonably new- result of either being bombed out of existence during the world wars or being purpose built to service the wine regions.

Those of you who know me well, understand, or at least indulge my fascination with all things historical, including cemeteries and that was the source of our roses today- we found a lovely little, peaceful cemetery on the outskirts of a small village & spent time wandering its pathways & learning about the dynasties buried there. Every country does its cemeteries differently and we always learn so much- not just of the history but of the customs of the area.


Tomorrow we are off to explore Reims.