The Trip to Reims

One day we took a side trip to champagne country to the town of Reims (pronounced Rrrhem). We left on an early train for which I was glad as we had walked many miles the day before. Unfortunately we got lost as usual and walked a few extra miles in town anyway. But before long we found ourselves at the G. Mumm Winery just in time for a tour.

I may have some of the facts wrong but I think I am close. The winery has about 25 miles of caves cut into the ground beneath the town. The ground is not just dirt, but a layer of chalk. Throughout these caves there are wooden racks called pipettes. In each pipette there are about 60 bottles of champagne! They start the process by making wine in large kegs. Then it is bottled and a little extra yeast and sugar are added. This addition creates the bubbles champagne is famous for.

As the champagne ferments workers must turn the bottles ¼ turn every day. There are five guys who turn about 3 million bottles of champagne every day, and they take off 2 hours for lunch! Man, these guys are fast!! As they turn the bottles the tip them upside down a little at a time until the sediment from the yeast is in the neck of the bottle. Then comes the mysterious and secrete "expulsion process". Try as we might they would not let us see or even understand how the sediment was removed from the bottle without loosing the champagne.

Oh well they made it up to us with samples of their delicious product. We then had a delicious lunch accompanied by more of that which made Reims famous. All in all a wonderful day!

Gus