Champagne Tour day! Awoken and ready early in the morning for a bus ride to Champagne, France. First stop was at Mercier Champagne where we took a train tour of the Mercier cellar,  also known as the Galerie de Pékin. The tour explained how Mr. Mercier was a daring entrepreneur who had futuristic ideas because he built an authentic underground town in which to store the wine so it can age and also a place to visit and learn. We marveled at the many sculptures and listened to the recordings handed out to us at the beginning of the tour. The tour ended with a tasting of the champagne, in particular the brut. There we were dismissed and free to purchase champagnes and enjoy lunch. Several of the girls, including me decided to buy food from Paul’s and eat at the City Hall Park at Epernay. The class regrouped back on the bus and traveled to Rene Geoffrey to participate in another tour. Rene Geoffrey is a family owned winery and vineyard where they grow all of the grapes used in their champagne. They press and package and age all in one place. They use traditional Coquard presses and also organize their wine by plot of origin because of the diversity in taste. The tour ended with tasting and purchasing of the expression brut, rose de saignee and empreinte brut. Fun fact, the rose de saignee is served at the North American and French restaurant called Per Se, located in New York City. After the tour we rode the bus back to the apart-hotel and I slept early at 9 PM because we have to  be ready and downstairs in the lobby at 3:45 AM.

left to right : Tour guy from Rene Geoffroy, I, Professor Lorenzini

left to right : Rene Geoffroy’s champagne empreinte brut, expression brut, and rose de saignee

setup of the tasting at Rene Geoffroy

City Hall at Epernay

Sculpture seen during the underground Mercier tour