May 31, 2016 – Adieu, Belle France and Hallo, Deutschland

Hi, folks, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s blog about wine, food, culture, people, and history.  Today we moved from Bouzy to Trier, a medieval city in Germany on the Mosel River, so we said our annual farewell to France.  I have procrastinated about taking a photo of Bouzy for the blog and the weather has been rainy.  My last chance was today before departing so I drove up into the grand cru vineyards above Bouzy as far as the pavement goes to make this photo.  It is misty and drizzly, but I hope you get an idea of how the village looks.

Mathilde Weber, our host, and her husband, Jean-Luc, are themselves Champagne producers.  She invited us to visit her to see their cellar and taste their wine before we went on our way. 

Champagne Alfred Tritant was founded by Jean-Luc’s grandfather in 1930.  They live in this house, which was built in the 1800s but acquired by Alfred Tritant later.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the gite where we stayed is the converted attic of the house.

Mathilde took us down to the cellar, which occupies two levels, reaching about 8 meters below the surface.

They have created a nice tasting and reception area on the first level.

Farther below is where they store most of their wine.

Here you can see an inscription from 1891 when part of the cellar was dug by the original owner.

They have wine in just about every available space.  This wall is occupied by their Champagne rosé.

Jean-Luc does use manually operated riddling machines, but for their premium cuvée he does the riddling by hand.

The chalk on the riddling rack is his way of marking progress in the riddling process.  Champagne Alfred Tritant is a small, family operation and the family does everything.  They grow the grapes, they pick the grapes with the assistance of seasonal workers, they make the wine, they do the cellar work, they sell the wine.  Like any farming operation, it is hard work to produce a good product, dependent on Mother Nature for cooperative weather and the passion of the family.  Although we think of wine and especially Champagne as a glamorous luxury item, much of the work behind it is hard, manual farm labor.  I should also say that the prices for these terrific wines are surprisingly low when they sell them direct.

These bottles have not yet been disgorged, the process of expelling the sediment and dead yeast cells from the neck of the bottle before the final addition of liqueur, called dosage (pronounced doe-SAHGE) and corking.  At this step, the bottles are capped with metal caps, like old Coke bottles.

Mathilde presented their portfolio of Champage, progressing from their entry-level Brut, through their prestige cuvée, their 2008 and 2011 vintage Brut, ultimately finishing with their rosé.

Below is a brief video and conversation between Mary and me about her love of Champagne.  We recorded it during our visit with Mathilde.

We struck out from Bouzy on the backroads to really see the countryside and villages.  Even so, I declare, some of these roads are essentially farm lanes, tall grass growing right up to the edge of the pavement, barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass.  Those doing this for the first time could be forgiven for thinking they’re lost, which we did in our first couple of years here.  Then, around a bend is the next village or town.

Saint Menehould is a pretty good sized town.  We decided to stop there for lunch at Le Cheval Rouge, the red horse.

It is a hotel, restaurant, and brasserie.  We opted for the more casual fare of the brasserie, which is still great.  Although I didn’t partake, the specialty of the area is pied de cochon … pig’s feet.

Consistent with the region, several bottles of Champagne were in an ice water bath on the bar, ready to pour by the glass.

Here’s the town hall, which you can see is dated 1730.

And this is the bank.  The architectural style is beautiful.

The war memorial monument is especially prominent in Saint Menehould.  This area is next to the Ardenne forest where there was a lot of fighting in World War I.

Like the church in Chouarce and in many other ways, exploring historical old ground with new eyes at a relaxed pace off the big highway can be very educational and interesting.  We were driving along when I passed a hillside with crosses and noticed this sign.

This is a German military cemetery.  Across the road is a vast open field.  Mary did some online research and learned that during the battles near Verdun, there was a field hospital just adjacent to the battlefield.  The soldiers who died were buried there next to the field hospital, practically where they fell.  According to the signage in German, there are 4,750 graves here.  The trees on the hillside were planted by the German government in 1918.

The vault behind the large cross marks a mass grave.

This part of France was a killing ground during World War I with thousands upon thousands of dead on both sides.  I mentioned in an earlier post that the loss to both France and Germany was practically a generation of young men.

Sure enough, about another 15 minutes along, we came upon this, a French national military cemetery at Pierrepont.  It was a cloudy, somewhat gloomy day, raining off and on, which seemed to add to the gravity of what occurred here.  There are also many American military cemeteries in Europe, of course.

Welcome to Luxembourg, which is the size of what we in the U.S. think of as a county.  We followed the river for perhaps a half-hour, which on the Luxembourg and Belgium side is called the Moselle (pronounced moe-SELLE) but on the German side as the Mosel (MOE-zul).

You can see the river is quite high because of all the rain, threatening the walking paths and parking areas.

We stopped for coffee, mainly because I wanted to say I have been in Luxembourg at least long enough for a cup of coffee.

There are vineyards on the banks of the river on the Luxembourg side.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about that but I’ve never seen or heard of wine from Luxembourg.  I don’t think they have much of a presence in the wine world.

And just like that, we were in Deutschland.  Mary made this picture through the car window as we entered Trier.  We discovered that we were lost, but I stopped at a big hardware store that smells exactly like a Home Depot and asked for directions.  I speak zeee-roe German, but I managed to figure out he said turn right at McDonald’s.  The golden arches saved the day.  For once, I was glad to see the American corporate presence in Europe.

We finally found our apartment, met Vera, our host, and later her husband, Werner, both extremely nice people.  It is probably worth mentioning here that in German, W has a V sound, V has a W sound, and J has a Y sound.  So Werner is pronounced Verner.  Anyway, we went to the historic city center for dinner at a restaurant that serves German regional food.  Can you believe it?  We forgot the camera!  But we had pork and potatoes, a predictor of things to come that I will describe in more detail in the next post.

That’s our blog for today.  Thanks for reading us at Cépage et Cuisine.  Like always, we hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting.  Knowing someone is reading it and likes it helps us stay motivated to post.  Thanks so much for your comments.  We’ll be here in Trier for a couple of days, then move up the road a little piece to Bernkastel.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian