Champagne vs Port

After not having been able to holiday together for a couple of years, the husband and I were very fortunate to have been able to make trips in the past 6 months to France, Portugal and Japan. While in France, we visited Reims - the Champagne capital, and in Portugal, we were in Porto - the Port capital, and did tours of both champagne and port houses. A disclaimer here - this post isn't meant to give an entirely accurate description of how champagne and port are made (please check up wikipedia for that), but it's more a narrative of how I enjoyed both tours.

We booked a champagne tour over the internet at Mumm, which is the main sponsor for the Formula One races - what a waste of all that bubbly whenever someone wins! Mumm was located within walking distance of the main train station, which was why we chose Mumm over all the other champagne houses, and all the internet forums advised booking a tour in advance particularly for non-French speakers.
The tour came with assorted tastings, and the price depended on the type of champagne we wanted to taste. The husband and I, being kiam kanna-maximise value Singaporeans, decided to get different vintages so that we could try 2 different types of champagnes.

Reception area at Mumm. It's all about Mumm. They only use 3 grapes to make champagne - pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier.

Modern champagne vats where the grapes ferment. The champagne caves were all underground.

Bottles according to vintage and region. The champagne houses buy grapes from all over the Champagne area, and if the vintage from a certain year is no good, they just use the harvest from previous years. Apparently a master blender with an amazing nose has the responsibility of blending all the different grapes from different years together. He probably has insured his nose and tongue for millions and billions of dollars.

How to turn bottles by hand to make sure it ferments and eventually bubbles properly - apparently there is a proper job called Bottle Turner, and these guys work for like 14 hours a day turning 2 bottles every 1.5 seconds at an exact precise angle. Go figure how many bottles they turn in a day.

All of Mumms historic vintages, some dating from the 1800s. We didn't get to verify if the bottles were full or empty.

Miles and miles of storage area - all underground.
Explaining the different types of champagne produced by Mumm and the difference between the different vintages.

Finally getting to the point of the whole tour - the tasting! I really enjoyed the Rosé, which was slightly sweetish and made with the addition of a bit of red wine. The husband had the Prestige Cuvee, which his cultured tastebuds told him were better than the el cheapo Rosé.

While we enjoyed the tour, as well as the tasting, we were rather sad at having to spend on average 10 Euros each for a tour. So imagine our delight when we went to Porto and got a free tasting and tour. All the port houses are located near the waterfront in downtown Porto along the River Duoro, while the grapes are mostly grown upstream about 2 to 3 hours drive away. They used to be floated down the river by boat to the houses, and fermented there since the climate in Porto is better for that. Now they use trucks, with the boats just for show.

The Zorro-like shadow of Sandeman is the first symbol you see when landing at Porto airport. We thought it was really commercialised, so walked into another Port house (can't recall the name now) but they charged 10 Euros per person for a tour and tasting, and the person on standby wasn't too keen for business. So we walked on and walked past.

And went to Taylors! It's a privately owned family-run business, named after the original British founder.
Getting there was slightly challenging, but doable. Walk past Sandeman on the waterfront, and turn left. And walk up this slope.

Walk past Offley, another port house.

And walk some more...clearly, we had a map!
Taylors is set back from the waterfront but has great views of the city.

Tour and 2 tastings of a normal and a more special vintage are free. Yay! Best for the kiam kanna Singaporeans. For the rest, they charge on a per glass basis.

They had a French tour going, and an English tour an hour later. So we hung around the drinking area and had a look at the museum.

Together with the other tourists.

Finally it was time for our tour. One of these barrels had like 500 litres of port. Port is fortified by adding a spirit to the wine to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine giving it its sweetness.

There were so many of these barrels - making barrel-aged port, as opposed to bottle-aged port. There are many different types of port - Tawny, Reserve, Vintage - but the best has to be the Late Bottled Vintage, which can be opened and left for a long time.
Grapes growing on the premises...just for show.