Champagne, France

This past weekend Dan and I visited the Champagne wine region of France with a group of friends. We got up bright and early Saturday morning and drove four hours to Épernay, the principal entrepôt (or trading post) for Champagne wines. After getting slightly lost in the vineyards and along the narrow roads of the old town, we visited a small Champagne house called Gobillard. Gobillard has a very charming little tasting room where we sampled four of their best Champagnes. Dan and I are not big fans of Champagne but we could definitely tell that this was top quality bubbly.We then had lunch at a French restaurant nearby where we all ordered fancy (and delicious) three course meals. Our next stop was a much larger Champagne house, Mercier. Mercier has the world’s biggest Champagne cask on display (it holds the equivalent of 200,000 bottles!), was founded in 1858, and is the number one selling brand of Champagne in France. We took a train ride 30 meters underground through the Mercier cellars while our tour guide told us all about the history of the company and the making of Champagne. That was followed by another tasting!We really enjoyed seeing where Champagne is made and learning a little more about this sparkling wine. I was shocked to learn that two of the three grapes that Champange is made from are red!