Champagne: more than Bubbly and Battlefields
Champagne is synonymous with Gallic stylishness, as can be appreciated by visiting the cellars in either Rheims of Epernay. In fact, if you have time to spare in the autumn, you could even be part of this sparkling industry.
The making of still wine in north-eastern France began with the Romans, and continued in monasteries, but the fizz we know today stems largely from judicious blending and bottling.
It is related that Count Theobald IV brought back a vital shoot from the Holy Land in 1240, and Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine, improved quality with different grapes and immediate pressing four centuries later.
Yet there was unexpected effervescence, and as many as four bottles out of ten were still bursting or popping their corks after the boom began in 1820. Eventually, finer fermenting, coal-fired glass and wire muzzles allowed the sparkling wine we know to be promoted worldwide. Last year, besides 171 million bottles sold inside France, 32 million were shipped to Britain as part of 138 million exported to 190 countries, a total worth 4.4 billion euros. Bordeaux gets only the same turnover from four times the growing area — slightly larger than South Africa’s.
Champagne’s viticulture has expanded so far to 34,000 hectares around 321 villages, of which 17 are called grand and 44 premier. The district is so fragmented that even a major house has separated vineyards. The grape-growing is done in 280,000 plots with an average size of two hectares by 15,000 wine-growers, and 136 co-operatives. An international army of 100,000 casual labourers descends on the triangle formed by Rheims, Bar and Charly-sur-Marne for grape-gathering in September.
More than a hundred requirements and regulations are involved in Champagne, from pruning the vines to pressing the grapes and from corking the bottles to ageing the must, not to mention serving correctly. The industry remains at the mercy of nature – a bug destroyed the whole crop in 1890, one-tenth was ruined by hail in 2000 and three years later, frost killed half the grapes.
It all starts with Pinot, Meunier and Chardonnay growing at the limit of favourable latitude on sloping ground, and the only simple thing is a single generic name confined by law in 1891 and 1927 to the namesake region: Champagne. The trade association, whose initials are CIVC, has lawyers in 70 countries to combat infringement and counterfeiting.
Unlike other areas of France with a myriad of châteaux and appelations, any bulbous bottle from Rheims or Epernay highlights the word CHAMPAGNE rather than the bottlers that include 5,000 of the growers and 46 of the co-operatives. Two-thirds of all sales and 90% of exports, however, come from 30 big names among 100 in the Union of Champagne Houses, yet only one-tenth of the growing area is their own.
Largest of all is Moet & Chandon (Dom Pérignon) at Epernay, while nine houses in Rheims also do guided visits that are best booked in advance due to varying opening times. The oldest is Ruinart (1729), but Cazenove and Mumm are nearest to Rheims station, while the most popular cellars, under what was once an abbey, have belonged since 1932 to Taittinger, half of whose production comes from its own vineyards.
It took two men one week to stack 72,212 bottles in one vault, some of the 1,200 million in the district that work out at four years’ reserve. The length of Epernay’s cellars is 110 kilometres, and there are 200 kilometres of tunnelling under Rheims where the Romans once quarried chalk. Cellars were requisitioned as shelters, including a military hospital, during the First World War.
The centenary of its outbreak is an added reason to visit this part of France for various commemorations. As the only city on the front line, Rheims saw not only the destruction of four out of every five buildings, but enormous damage to the cathedral once used for French coronations — that of 1429 being in the presence of Joan of Arc.
On what was also the Western Front, 166 kilometres by road to the north-west, are the South African war-graves of Longueval complete with a magnificent memorial to the brigade that had been recruited at Potchestroom. Besides suffering the Union’s biggest loss, it was also one of the heaviest for British Empire troops, but also among the most heroic. That was in July 1916 when only 775 men survived from the 3,153 who captured Delville Wood nearby. More than 12,000 of South African’s 229,000 servicemen died during World War I, but the site’s museum commemorates all fallen up to 1953.
Longueval is six kilometres from Albert, and the rail-trip from Rheims via Amiens takes two hours, but half that time from Lille. So if you want to do it all in a round trip from London, the best way is by Eurostar to Paris, then express (TGV) to Rheims in 45 minutes (Rail Europe’s return fare is £89), but make your way to Lille for Eurostar back to London.
Five minutes’ walk from Rheims station is Best Western, incorporating the city’s famous Café de la Paix. Clustered around are various hotels with rates less than half its £101 per night.
Tickets: raileurope.com
Hotels: reims-tourisme.com
Wine: champagne.com
Memorial: delvillewood.com
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