A rare excursion into the cellars at Moet & Chandon
1. Wide shot of Moet & Chandon's headquarters in Epernay
2. Mid shot of Moet & Chandon's headquarters in Epernay
3. Zoom out Moet guide, Sophie Piquet entering Moet & Chandon's caves
4. Mid shot of Sophie walking in front of bottles stock
5. Wide shot of Sophie walking into Moet & Chandon's Imperial gallery and pan on her walking
6.SOUNDBITE: (French) Sophie Piquet, Moet Guide:
We are here in the oldest gallery which was carved from the 1740s. And after this, there were 28 kilometers dug . Because of the various visits from Napoleon, this gallery is called Imperial. All of the 28 kilometers of caves were dug by hand.
7. Close shot on a champaign cask offered by napoleon to Jean-R�my Moet
8. SOUNDBITE: (French) Sophie Piquet, Moet Guide:
And it is because of the friendship between Napoleon and Jean-R�my Moet, that Moet & Chandon champagne get their name of Brut Imperial, Nectar Imperial, Rose Imperial, etc. It is a tribute to Napoleon.
9. Various gallery
10. Various cellarmen as they remove bottles from bottles lattice work into a trolley
11. Wide shot of Cellarmen leading their trolley to the area of pointage
12. Wide shot of cellarmen while doing pointage
13. Various cellarmen while doing pointage
14. SOUNDBITE: (French) R�gis Izard, Moet & Chandon Cellarman: (French): There are four stages to make champagne, the first one is hand made wine harvest, the second is assembling the non sparkling wines, the third is foam taking, the fourth is maturation which lasts about three years.
15. Wide Thierry Gall, Moet & Chandon's cellarman riffling (turning bottles)
16. Various Thierry Gall, Moet & Chandon's cellarman riffling
17. SOUNDBITE: (French) Thierry Gall, Moet & Chandon Cellarman:
At Moet &Chandon, we have tens of millions of bottles stocked. My job is to give a stir to the bottles while they are on racks. Some bottles are problematic or have a deposit which is hard to stir. So a man's hand is needed to work those bottles. The riffling consists of making the deposit fall down the bottle neck so the bottle can be cleared.
18. Close shot on bottle neck with yeast deposit
19. Wide shot of Benoit Gouez and Thierry Gall.
20. SOUNDBITE: (French) Benoit Gouez, Moet & Chandon Cellar Master:
Here on the cork, you can see the yeast, which as formed, following sparkle capture and maturation. The bottle has been riffled, all the deposit has gone down to the cork and the aim is to open the bottle while expelling the yeast.
21. Mid shot on Thierry Gall clearing bottle
22. Close shot on the bottle with sparkling wine and no trace of yeast.
21. Set up shot of Benoit
22. SOUNDBITE: (French) Benoit Gouez, Mo�t & Chandon Cellar Master:
There are great principles of balance, great principles for blending depending on the grapes origins, the types of wines, the vintage wines, but in fact each assemblage is adjusted each year so as to take into account the raw material we have at our disposal, as the latter varies each year. So there is a creative work process, whatever the vintage we create, and there is no secret formula, it is (rather) instinctive.
23. Mid shot on champagne service
24. SOUNDBITE: (French) Benoit Gouez, Mo�t & Chandon Cellar Master:
There are three key elements during champagne tasting - the eye, the nose and the mouth.
25. Close shot on Benoit Gouez, tasting a Moet & Chandon vintage
27. SOUNDBITE: (French) Benoit Gouez, Mo�t & Chandon Cellar Master:
28. Mid shot on Thierry Gall opening the gate to the cellar reserved for collectorsvintage Champagne
29. Close shot of Thierry Gall lighting candle and zoom in on 1923 vintage Champagne
30. Wide shot of the cellar reserved to old vintage Champagne
31. Mid shot of niches containing WWII-old vintage Champagne
LEAD IN
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive: