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After leaving Paris on day seven, Vivian and I were staying in the heart of the Champagne region. Reims is major city center of the area, and there’s lots of great wine to be had there. We spent day seven exploring the town and tasting champagne from some of the biggest producers: Veuve Cliquot and Pommery. Of course we had a marvelous time, but these cookie-cutter tours and tastings couldn’t even come close to the experience we had on day eight.

 

We left Reims early in the morning on a day trip to Epernay. That’s where the real magic happens, and we had an appointment for a tour and tasting at one of the many boutique champagne producers in the city. Champagne Charles Ellner is off Epernay’s beaten path, and they only offer tours by appointment. But, if you find yourself on your way to Epernay, I hope that you’ll make an effort to spend some time there. 

 

With just about 900,000 bottles produced per year, Charles Ellner can’t even touch the big boys when it comes to quantity. But, where quality and character are concerned, the wines we sampled at Charles Ellner surpassed every other sparkler that we tried. They’re in the midst of expanding their facilities (they tell me that’s to increase their precision, not their production; I like the sound of that!) so their headquarters were in a little bit of disarray. With only 18 people on staff to make all that wine, there was still somebody there to show Vivian and me around, and to guide us in a tasting of some fantastic wines. 

 

We sat and chatted with Christine, the public relations liaison, for about an hour. She probably answered a hundred questions relating to the company’s origins, products, and aspirations for the future. In a nutshell, Champagne Charles Ellner was founded in 1919 by Charles Ellner (duh), became a negotiant in 1973, and is currently run by two of Ellner’s grandchildren (one handles blending, the other handles the vineyards). Most of its business comes from private wine lovers across Europe, as opposed to big distributors or restaurants. A few bottles find their way to the States, where you can purchase them for only about twice what they cost in Europe. Curse you, depleted value of the dollar!

 

And then we tasted the wine. Oh my, did we ever taste that wine! The first that we sampled was their latest product, and it wasn’t even available on the market when we tried it. How exclusive! The demands for Champagne are for a drier and drier bubbly, and so the new trend is to create a totally dry wine by adding no dosage. That’s just the super sweet wine that they add at the very end of the bottling process; the sweetness of the dosage determines the sweetness of the final product. So, Charles Ellner’s newest offering is called Brut Integral, and it’s one of those extra, crazy, ridiculously dry wines. It was really exciting to be some of the first to try it, and it certainly was different from any Champagne I’d had before. The pearlage (bubbles shooting up inside wine) was incredibly intense, and the nose was surprising floral and quite musky. Of course, it was extremely dry and crisp. A very sophisticated wine. 

 

Next, we sampled Charles Ellner’s number one seller (number one for any Champagne house, for that matter). Brut is by far the most popular kind of Champagne on the market, and for good reason. It’s versatile and full-bodied enough to be enjoyed with food, but crisp enough to be served as an aperitif. The Charles Ellner Cuvée de Reserve Brut seemed to me like the perfect Champagne to drink with food. It was very full-bodied, and again had fantastic, fine pearlage. With plenty of mushrooms and oak on the nose and very slightly sweet pear on the palette, this would be the exact bottle of wine that I would want to have with a crazy sixteen course tasting menu at a ritzy restaurant. I should really work on making that happen sometime soon. 

 

Following the Brut, we tried the Brut Prestige 1999. Vintages can only be declared in extraordinary years, and this really was an extraordinary wine. Aged exclusively in steel, the 1999 had a considerably lighter mouth-feel than the non-vintage Brut. It had terrific acidity, but was still soft, supple, and fairly floral on the palette. Maybe there was even a little honeysuckle action in there. I believe that this one was my favorite of all that we tasted. 

 

Finally, we tasted the Brut Prestige 1998. It was so different from the 1999, and it wasn’t just that one year that made the difference. As opposed to being aged entirely in steel, the 1998 had been aged entirely in oak. What a wonderful contrast! It was full and round and packed with tons of vanilla and musky flavors. 

 

I can’t believe how long we just sat and talked and tasted Champagne.  It was such a fun and educational time. Christine showed us the vintification facilities, including the presses, vats, and cave after cave of dusty old bottles. We even saw the little bottling and labeling machines. 

 

Compared to the tours we had taken at Veuve Cliquot and Pommery (and the tour at Mercier we would take later in Epernay), the Charles Ellner experience couldn’t possibly be matched. Obviously, a personal tour at a relatively small facility is always going to feel more special than a cookie-cutter tour, even if it is at the premier luxury Champagne house. If you can’t make it over to Epernay to visit Champagne Charles Ellner, seek out Champagnes (and all wines, for that matter) that are produced by one or two dozen people who really care more about precision than production. You will definitely be able to taste the difference.