Champagne is one of the elegant extras in life

Saturday, Shelley and I headed to Reims about 45 minutes by train from Paris and located in Champagne. Our first stop was Notre-Dame de Reims which was built between 1211 and 1516. Starting with Louis I all of the French Kings were crowned here except for Louis VI and Henri VI. The Gothic style Cathedral's size and grandeur were exceptional. Sadly, part of the outside was under construction, but they had a small replica inside to see the exterior detail we missed. During WWI the Cathedral was heavily bombed destroying the exterior, stained glass windows and statues. Through major donations, notably by John D. Rockefeller, the Cathedral was repaired. Through these restorations you can see a mix of the original stained glass windows and newer more modern ones from Artists such as Marc Chagall and Bridgette Simon.

Notre-Dame de Reims

We then headed to lunch which finished just in time for our Veuve Cliquot Champagne Tour. Veuve Cliquot was founded in 1772 by Phillippe Cliquot Muiron who's goal was to have his champagne cross all borders. Phillippe's son, François, married Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Cliquot, but he tragically died a few short years later, leaving Barbe-Nicole a widow at 27. The family was unsure what to do with the business but Madame Cliquot decided she would take it over, becoming one of the first business women of modern times. During her tenure she changed the name of the brand to Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin or Veuve Cliquot as we know it, meaning "Widow" Cliquot. Madame Cliquot was instrumental in growing the business while ensuring that their ideas of innovation and quality stayed central to the business.

The main symbol of the brand is the anchor, the Christian Symbol for hope & rigor. When Veuve Cliquot started labels did not yet exist and the anchor was branded onto the bottom of the cork to differentiate between brands. The VCP on the anchor stands for Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin. The hexagonal shape surrounding the initials and anchor represents the comet of 1811 that is said to have predicted the excellent harvest that year. In the 1860s the house added a label its bottle and the "yellow" color was chosen. Over the years the yellow became darker as a way to distinguish the bottle in the dark cellars. Lastly, the muselet, the wire cage that fits over the cork, has the portrait of Madame Cliquot, in her 80s, as a testament to her hard work and dedication in growing the brand.

Veuve Cliquot Journal and one of the original labels

After the history of the house, we headed down into the crayéres, or the champagne caves, 25 meters underground. The Veuve Cliquot crayéres were built during the Middle Ages and have quite the history! Each shape of the crayere is different as they were excavated not for storage but for the chalk for building materials. Over 400 crayéres exist underground for Veuve Cliquot alone! After the Middle Ages, bandits, who didn't want to pay taxes on imported goods would attempt to cross the city borders underground. Then during the World Wars they were used as shelters, tunnels and mini cities. The writing on the walls still exists, such as numbers and even red crosses for the hospital! Today, the labyrinth of crayéres are perfect for champagne production. They are dark and cool, keeping the 10-11 degree Celsius temperature needed year-round for champagne production no matter the weather outside. The Chalk walls also act as a giant sponge absorbing the moisture and providing the necessary humidity.

In the crayéres

With our crayére tour completed we were able to enjoy a glass of Champagne. A bottle of the Veuve Cliquot Brut, takes up to 3 years to create, and definitely not that long to drink! Champagne consists of a blend of different wines in order to give it its complex blend. The Brut consists of a minimum of 50% but upwards of 60% Pinor Noir, 30-35% Chardonnay and up to 40% reserves. In order to keep the champagne consistent from year to year up to 40% of the Veuve Cliquot mixture is reserve wines from previous harvests.

Post Tour

* Title quote by Charles Dickens