Champagne cave visit + 2 week summary

Haven't written in awhile, so here's a basic run-down of the past couple of weeks' events:

• Group projects galore! The research is generally pretty interesting, it's just mind-numbing to think of all the projects I have to work on. For example, my group hasn't even started on our Logistics project (which will involve interviewing a supply chain manager at X company and finding out all kinds of detail about his company, then a person chosen at random by the professor will present our paper in 15 minutes) because we have so many other things to do and the professor told us to wait until we had better questions to ask.
• Had a visit with my social class to the local "Prud'hommes" court. Essentially, France has two types of courts. The prud'hommes, and everything else. The prud-hommes (judges) are nominated by unions, elected by any employee, and rule on cases involving employees vs. employers. Unfortunately for us, all of the cases were postponed (one of them for not having a properly prepared case. seriously?) until at least next month, so all we got to see was the court room and listen to the prud'hommes talk a bit. Still a cool experience, however.
• The good news about this whole experience is that I'm becoming more and more sure about what I want (or don't want) to do. I absolutely detest my marketing class, for example. It bores me to tears, and I just don't see the logic/point behind it. However, I think I'm one of the only people who enjoys my financial diagnostic class, and I am absolutely in love with "compatabilité de gestion" (managerial accounting). I finished two cases in the time everyone else did 1, and it was interesting. And amidst all the disorder and confusion that is my scholastic life right now, my inner control freak really likes putting the right numbers in the right boxes and getting an answer that is right or wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Enough about school. Today we accomplished something we've been wanting to do since we arrived: visit a champagne cave. Maggie and I had stumbled upon Pommery when trying to take a new way to Carrefour (the big supermarkety-expensive-Wal-mart store) and it has such a cool façade, so we decided to go back there. Our roommate, Kate, and our friend Casey came with us. Walked there, which was great because fall is really nice here and we ended up passing some historical landmarks: old tower sites that were points of defense for Reims back in the 12 or 1300s. There was also a statue sculpted by the same guy who did Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro (Paul Landowski) of the "First Architect."

Arrived at Pommery and were offered one of 3 tour options- 1 glass, a nicer 1 glass, or 2 glasses of our choice. The latter option was only 5 euro more than the first one (and a horrid glass of champagne at a café in Reims will run you about 9 euro) so we decided it was well worth it. I was glad Casey was along because we also could choose between the French and English version of the tour, and without his weight we might've had to do the English version. We had time to kill, so we wandered around the welcome area (a concert was supposed to take place there tonight, so there was some really cool set-up going on) and the store.

The tour itself was fantastic. Our guide, Sandra, I believe, was fantastic and, luckily for us, very articulate (which is the reason why I actually remember most of what she told us on the tour). The company which became Pommery was started in 1836, and then formed a partnership with the king of industry, Mr. Pommery in 1856. However, Mr. Pommery died shortly thereafter, leaving behind his 39 year old widow and their two children. Veuve (widow) Louise Pommery was savvy and bought 75 hectares of vineyard land plus the production/storage/distribution center where the tours now take place.

We went down 116 steps (she told us, I didn't actually count) into what I believe was called a crayère (chalk room hollowed out for storing champagne because it keeps it at a nice, chilly 12 degrees C) where we started seeing our first bottles of champagne. As we were walking through, we noticed that most of the little hollows in the wall had names of cities on them. Sandra explained that it was actually a pretty smart way of organizing distribution. Everytime Mme Pommery's marketing director opened up a new market, she placed the name of the city over the area where bottles destined for that city lay. Miami, for example, which is also a beach in Spain, so we don't really know whether it was Spanish or American Miami, Zurich, Brussels, and even Rüdesheim (the small town in Germany we visited a few weeks ago). Overhead tracks with baskets used to carry 6 bottles of champagne (or 4 magnums) at a time. Now, however, they use electric vehicles, not the old system.

We talked about the fermentation process of Champagne. It's first fermented in big vats like normal wine, but is left open, so the bubbles from the first fermentation pretty much disappear. Then it's fermented in bottles, and the dead yeast forms a kind of co-agulated (I'm lacking in the proper vocabulary word in French or English for it) mess in the bottle. Of course, they remove this unsightly mess. How? Well, they submerge the bottle upside-down in a vat of very cold water (-25 celcius) so that the dead yeast freezes into a kind of "cork" at the top of the bottle. This "cork" is then popped off and the bottle is properly closed.

We also learned that champagne used to have 125 g of sugar/750 ml bottle!!!! They drank it as an after dinner liqueur in these cone shaped glasses so that the yeast (they hadn't figured out the filtering process yet) and the extra sugar would fall to the bottom, and they only drank the top part. However, Madame Pommery had a brilliant idea and started adding only 10g/bottle so the champagne was lighter. And that's how we got "brut" champagne!

The whole winery was showing a contemporary art exhibit, so a lot of the rooms had random pieces of "art," i.e. a day-glo pink dress, a weird red race car, a giant "A" with a bird all made out of neon lights... Very interesting...

We looked at the stacks of wine bottles. one of them had something like 300,000 bottles and went back 10 meteres. Every stack had a code on it, a letter which meant the kind of champagne, and a number that referred to the year. A 50, however, didn't mean that the wine was produced in 1950 (champagne is only drinkable for about 3-5 years after maturing), but was a secret code! Oh my!

The champagne tasting was absolutely fantastic! Maggie and I were glad we'd gotten the 2 glass option. The "regular" champagne wasn't that delicious. She got the "blanc de noirs" (all pinot noir grapes) as her first glass and I got the rosé (a big step, since I don't do rosé usually), and then we both got the millesimé as our final glass. So, so, so good. Smooth, sparkly, and perfect scent. I looked up liquid regulations for the airline (b/c it would probably pop in hold) and it looks like if I want to bring some home for Christmas I'll have to hope they have it at the duty free shop. Not really the same, but possibly do-able.