About 280 million bottles of bubbly can be produced here in a good year. If ever there were a candidate for a nuclear-free zone, this would be it. As in California, the wine producers are becoming increasingly tourism-savvy, with some houses drawing 40,000 to 100,000 visitors annually. To make touring easier, the industry trade group CIVC has developed seven well-marked driving routes. This is the flip-side of Mercier, and just as essential.
Visitors then board a train that winds through the cellars, arriving at a tasting area.
One of the most visited houses, Mumm offers a mainstream, hour-long program featuring a film and tour of the cellars. Antique equipment and demonstrations of production techniques are presented underground. Carts whisk visitors through the caves, then drop them off in Tinseltown, where a Casablanca set, a Hollywood Walk of Fame and bottles signed by Marilyn Monroe, Federico Fellini, Sharon Stone and others await. At the end is an Art Deco tasting room done up in red velvet and black. More than 60,000 visitors a year flock to this castlelike 1870 estate overlooking the city.