Oui. Une coupe de champagne, s'il vous plaît
“Only the unimaginative can fail to find a reason for drinking Champagne”
There are many loves that change with age, place, time, and mood, but there is love that stays, and that love is – Champagne. Champagne as a region, with its bountiful cities of Reims and Epernay. And champagne as a drink.
It was in 2006 when my husband and I first traveled to Champagne as newly-weds. At the final stop on our honeymoon tour after Cognac, Saint-Émilion, Sarlat, and Bordeaux, we stayed in a small house in Reims, just a 10-minute walk from the city center. Slowly, we enjoyed walking about town, tasting champagne, and feeling rather high in our spirits and most probably champagne too. Of course – we had just gotten married! Maybe because of that. Or, maybe, since it was also the first time we lost our “virginity” to champagne actually being in Champagne.
At the time, I didn’t believe that champagne would become drink number one in our house, as every time before that trip, champagne was a New Year celebration and a very special occasion drink. Otherwise, the overall tone of my husband and the public in general implied: “You girls drink your champagne. I’ll have some for show on New Year’s Eve, but nothing is better than red wine in winter and white in summer.” And it is fair to say that, at the time, nothing was more valued than a glass of overpowering and rich wine from Chile and Argentina, completing the list with a simple and soulless glass of Bordeaux wine.
Only with the passing of time and years came knowledge by working with wine, attending tastings, and desiring to learn more. Many more trips to Champagne and things began to change. Slowly, the pendulum swung from the heavy New World to the elegant Old World and, to my delight, to Champagne. Today, things have progressed, and champagne has a place much more often than just a few times a year.
The reason behind this? A reasonable amount consumed mixed with an understanding of champagne as a drink that is NOT JUST bubbles (they are, undoubtedly, the foundation of the charm of champagne) but rather a wine that comes from a unique soil found only in Champagne. A wine, that relies on weather conditions that give the grapes their unique flavour and aroma. A wine that comes from the traditions and the history of this region, and the wine maker’s ability to blend a champagne from many wines to guarantee the champagne that you want from a non-vintage wine. And it comes from nature’s decisions on whether an exquisite vintage champagne will be made in any given season.
Truth to be told, champagne is difficult to work with. It is quite capricious, just like those who enjoy it. It makes oenologists and vintners nervous when hail pummels the harvest, or when the spring rains won’t stop, and the temperature won’t rise, or when there is not enough sun, and so on. That is the world of champagne, which might be quite interesting to live in, but for people with delicate nerves, like me, it would be nerve-racking. Nature is unpredictable, but you have to learn to live with it, especially in the northern regions of Champagne, where weather conditions are more changeable than in the south.
Yet, the region is not just about the champagne. It is about cities, villages, landscapes, and history. Reims, the capital of Champagne, is home to the Notre Dame Cathedral, where the kings of France were coronated. Under its streets are kilometer-long caves that hold millions of bottles of champagne, which are later poured deftly into delicate glasses in so many cafés from houses for which we don’t know the names because there are apparently around 5000 (!) champagne houses in the region. In addition to Reims, there is the small, charming town of Epernay, which, with its Avenue de Champagne, rises grandly among the region’s hills and vineyards – some of which encroach on the borders of the town. Champagne is a drive along the small roads and town where it seems that life revolves around the local boulangerie and café. In September, the vineyards are dotted with the colourful heads of pickers that bob up and down – the pickers travel here from around the world to earn money for their families by participating in this hard, yet ultimately romantic activity.
It has been around 18 years since champagne has become something so much more to me than just a beverage to drink because your friends do it. It is a drink that puts a spell on you through the many years and hard work and taste and knowledge of the vintner. It is the moment when you hear that magical pop! and the bottle opens, until that moment when you pour out the last drop. It is a holiday, even if it’s not. It’s an award you treat yourself with – like bringing Champagne to you, with all the hands, minds, and history (and not all of it was easy) that created it.
I believe that much of the love I feel for various things will come and go, but champagne is different. It can’t disappear because why would anyone want to take something away that is so wonderful?