Saturday This morning we drove from Dijon to Epernay in Champagne. We drove the scenic, winding road, through rolling hills and farmlands with crops from wheat, corn to bright yellow sunflowers. We passed through many tiny sleepy little villages to reach Epernay in the Champagne area. Fields of corn and wheat were soon replaced with rows and rows of vines. Arriving in the town on Epernay you approach along the Avenue de Champagne where Moet & Chandon and Pol Roger champagne houses are located, amongst elegant mansions.

We did a tour of Moet & Chandon. You begin the tour with a short film and then you are taken down to the caves (cellars) where there are 28 kilometres of caves housing millions of bottles, just of Moet & Chandon. There are 3 levels of caves at a constant temperature of 12 degrees.

20,000 hectares of vineyards surround Epernay and along the avenue 200 million bottles of champagne are ageing in 120 kilometres of caves carved out of the chalk soil.

We learnt that champagne is first wine and is bottled with sugar and yeast to ferment in the bottle. The longer it is left, the better and more expensive it is. When it is ready to drink it is tipped neck down and twisted every day for 5 weeks to collect the sediment. The neck of the bottle is then frozen and the cork removed and the ice containing the sediment blown out. It is then resealed with more sugar and more champagne. It does not age any further and must be consumed within 2 years.

Dom Perignon and Moet and Chandon are produced at the same place, but Dom is much more expensive. DomPerignon invented champagne.