Rather than kick this one off with a glass of champagne I thought I'd bring you a barrel of the stuff, a bloody great huge one! :). Welcome to the La Maison Mercier. As I said in my previous posts (you'll find them here & here) we did a little planning before we left the UK and knew we wanted to visit the Mercier champagne house without a doubt. Situated towards the end of the Avenue de Champagne, it's easily accessible with lots of space to park too.
The first thing you see as you walk in is the huge exquisitely carved barrel. It can hold the equivalent of 200,000 bottles of champagne and has a fascinating story to tell. The reception is bright, modern and refreshingly cool, a welcome relief from the heat outside.
Their champagne treasures are hidden 30 metres down and for part of the tour you travel on a laser guided train around the cellars which was the reason for us wanting to visit this particular house rather than any of the others.
The cellars are extremely theatrical and are rich with century old history. I won't go into detail about the tour as it would spoil it if you should ever get the chance to visit (and you so should) but it's totally fascinating, oh, and a little bit cool down there so take something to throw over your shoulders. I totally forgot as it was a scorching day out and could have kicked myself as I DO NOT like to be cold, mind you, you're not down there for very long anyway so it's bearable.
You're given a little mobile-like device to listen to the audio guide. Personally I would have preferred headphones so you have two hands free to take photos and video, although it's bit dark down there anyway, hence the yellow tone in the pics!
The tour takes you back to 1858 and on a journey with Eugène Mercier, into a labyrinth of dusty bottles, rows and rows of them, some over a 100 years old. You'll learn about the caves, the fermentation process and bottling and after visiting the lighthouse in Verzenay the day before, this educational day followed on quite nicely.
They also hold functions in the Bacchus cellar. A former disgorgement room, with ceilings 11 metres high and decorated with bas-relief monuments sculpted by Gustave Navlet. Can you imagine having your wedding breakfast or office Christmas party in that spectacular place?
After the cellar tour you're taken back upstairs to the best bit. THE TASTING! The cheapest option on the tour is 16 euros and that includes 1 glass of champagne. The next one up is 21 euros and that includes 2 glasses, which is the one we went for as we wanted to try the rosé as well. Hey, when in Champagne and all that!!!!!
Going in September we walked in and got straight on the tour but it can be very busy in the height of summer so you'd be best to book online beforehand. I think you can pre-book most of the house tours in Épernay and also Reims on line if you'd rather (don't quote me on that though), a good idea for those that like to plan ahead or you can just rock up and pay as you go. Veuve Clicquot however, you HAVE to pre book if you want to do this tour which we didn't realise. We were gutted as we'd heard this was a good one to do. We did go into the shop and buy a bottle of vintage rosé though :)
Tour and tasting complete we took a slow stroll down the Avenue de Champagne to see the other houses and maybe try a little more. There are a couple of the big houses here but also some of the lesser known ones too. You can go into the shops of the champagne houses and buy to your hearts content but the tours you have to pay for.
The smaller houses had the prettiest little courtyards for you to sit and sip and easily loose and hour or so. It was just heavenly to lap up the sunshine, chat about the holiday that we already knew was one of the best we'd had in a long time and sip on my most favourite drink in the world.
For a glass of champagne at the smaller houses you can expect to pay around 5/6 euros which is fabulous.
As you'd imagine Dom Perignon and Moët were very impressive houses indeed!
After strolling up and down the Avenue de Champagne we had a little wander around Épernay town. It's small but has lots to offer. There's plenty of restaurants and bars (as if you need any more to drink) a museum and lots of quaint little shops. The tourist board are on hand (located on Avenue de Champagne) to help with anything you need.
I was knocking on the door of this BIG house in the hope they were selling VERY BIG glasses of bubbles!
Until next time, which may or may not, be the final instalment of our bloody brilliant trip and don't forget you can catch part 1 here and part 2 here.
It seems so long ago that you were in France now! Bet writing this bought it all back though :) I'm not a huge fan of Champagne but this place looks amazing!!
ReplyDeleteIt actually doesn't seem that long ago, but yeah I am so behind with these posts (still more to come), it's such a fabulous place to explore xx
Delete