Champagne part 2

Driving in a camper full of stickers has its advantages. France should not only be visited, but should also be tasted. So today, we visited one of the oldest and most famous champagne cellars in the world. Moët & Chandon is situated in the little village of Eparney. After explaining the purpose of our journey, we were offered a free and private tour of the house and cellars of Moët & Chandon by the manager. A privilege to say the least! After a short intro video in a private room we received an introduction from Stefan, in the production process of the bubbling gold! With more then 800 acres of vineyards Moët & Chandon is the largest most prestigious house of the champagne area with very high standards and dates back to 1743.

The tour brought us to the cellars underneath the house where thousands and thousands of bottles are aging before being sold on the market. The aging process is minimal three years to six years. There are bottles in the museum dating back to the 1800’s but they are not for sale. The dark tunnels, twenty kilometers! in total have a steady humidity of 80 procent. Together we tried, as good as we could, to put everything on film which was harder then we expected but more fun then we ever thought.

At the end of the tour we were asked to take a seat in the room where Napoleon on occasion had his share of the famous drinks. On show are one of his hats and several pictures of other famous visitors. We felt honored to be there and have a taste of the bubbly drink ourselves. Two glasses of Champagne and lots of information richer we left the birthplace of this delightful drink with a smile on our face. Fortunately we had already found a spot on a campsite nearby!