2geonomads

Tuesday 27th October 2015.

The weather forecast for the day is fine once the early morning mist has cleared so we drive back into Epernay for our 11.30 tour of Moet & Chandon.

We arrive in town somewhat ahead of schedule so this gives us an opportunity to explore some parts of the Old Town not visited on the previous day.

Carole, our French guide at Moet speaks English very fluently and is a very personable young lady whose presentation allays any fears that the tour would be too ‘corporate’. The tour of some of the 30 kms of cellars is this time on foot and as we have chosen the Grand Vintage Tour we get to taste white and rose from 2006. An amusing moment when a lady who comes from Haifa in Israel tries to take off with my wine although she has paid less than half my price for the more standard Imperial Vintage.

During the tour Carole does underline how rigidly controlled is the right to use the ‘Champagne’ word in product description and to our surprise we learn that not all towns in the region can call their wines champagne. For anyone who is interested the three grapes used in this area for champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier.

Lunch at a small restaurant gets a “could do better” report. The food is fine but the waitress is a disaster and Gail’s ravioli morphs into a risotto.

Set off for small town of Ay which is northeast of Epernay and apparently has a good wine museum. Closed and it’s not even Monday!

Drive on to Hautvillers where Dom Perignon started making wine at the Benedictine Abbey  where he was the cellar master in the mid- 17th Century. Now of course it is produced by Moet & Chandon.

The rest of the afternoon is spend taking a leisurely drive through the many picturesque villages and enjoying the undulating terrain and the magnificent panoramas of this region which continues to surprise us.

On a balmy evening of 21 degrees devour a gourmet dinner of crusty bread and jam, topped off by a bar of chocolate. Nothing but the best for the Irelands!

Cheers

The Obese Ferret