Put Some Fizz In Your Weekend Break

4 March 2010

Champagne

A weekend sipping champagne could be just what the doctor ordered. In fact, according to recent reports, drinking a glass of bubbly is actually good for your heart – so with that in mind I couldn’t wait to jump on the Eurostar for a weekend exploring the cellars and learning more about my favourite tipple.

Getting to Rheims, the beautiful heritage city at the heart of the Champagne region and our base for a weekend’s wine-tasting with Grape Escapes, was easy with a quick change at Paris Est. After an afternoon sightseeing visiting the city’s four UNESCO world heritage sites including the Notre- Dame Cathedral, we opted for an early night before the decadent day to follow.

At 9am the next morning, we met Jean Yves Charpentier the Grape Escapes’ guide. During our half-hour journey, he explained the background to champagne, its history, which dates as far back as the Romans who brought the first vines to the area and how the first bottle of champagne is believed to have been produced around 1660, thanks to a technique devised by Dom PÈrignon.

Astonishingly, we learnt that a bottle of champagne is opened somewhere in the world every two seconds - proof of its on-going worldwide popularity. And although sales may have lost some of their fizz in the recession, demand is expected to reach 400 million bottles a year over the next 20 years.

The first stop on our tour was to the most iconic of all champagne brands, MoÎt et Chandon. Senior sommelier Marc Servan presided over our private tasting of the delicious drink, well deserved refreshment following the tour of the miles of cellars carved into the chalk under the house’s historic headquarters in Epernay.

A surprising discovery for me was that champagne is produced from three different varieties of grape, Chardonnay, Pinor Noir and Meunier, the latter two having red fruit. Some champagnes use just one variety, other a mixture of two or all three.
Although 10.30 would usually be a little early for me to start drinking, I was happy to make an exception to taste four champagnes here, all subtly different and proving a real challenge to pick a favourite.

Throughout our travels around the region, we were constantly delighted by the wonderful scenery and quaint traditional villages dotted around. Cramant is one of them and home to Champagne Bonaire. Producing 200,000 bottles a year, it bills itself as a “big small” house and there we were given an insight into production, including today’s automated turning and tilting of the bottles during the second fermentation process which gives champagne its fizz.

Then the neck of the upside-down bottle is frozen to remove the yeast deposit and the familiar cork inserted, before the wine is left to further mature. This year, incidentally, is widely-predicted to be one of the best vintages of the century.

Lunch – with champagne, of course – was at the wonderfully traditional La Cave a Champagne in Epernay, where they excel in local cuisine.

Our final visit was to Champagne Larnaudie-Hirault at Trois Puits, a few kilometres south of Rheims.  Michel Larnudie-Hirault is now the fourth generation of this family to head champagne production at one of the region’s smaller houses. Still tired from the recently-completed harvest, Michel nonetheless enthused as he took us through the vineyard to explain cultivation techniques and the pruning that would start later in the year.

By then we were, naturally, ready for another glass of champagne and four further tastings followed – again all subtly different and made all the more enjoyable by Michel’s expert explanation of their structure.

Like the prestigious wine it showcases, Grape Escapes’ tours are a perfect blend. In just one bubble-filled day, we visited three Champagne houses, contrasting in size and style, meeting families and producers and getting a genuinely personal introduction to the cultivation, production, bottling and sampling of this 330 million bottles a year business.

The day-long tour is ideal as the basis for a weekend break or can be booked separately to build into your own holiday in France. We opted to travel by train but the cross-Channel ferry and the easy 2.5-hour drive straight to Rheims is another option – and perfect for loading up your car with drinkable souvenirs.

The temptation to buy was irresistible. With some of Larnaudie-Hirault champagnes at just €13 a bottle, it was impossible to resist - and a future opportunity to share on a special occasion a bottle of champagne that cannot readily be found in your average supermarket back home.

Do not for a moment think this is a trip exclusive for wine buffs. Grape Escapes tours are structured to suit all levels of interest in wine from the curious beginning to the more experienced connoisseur. Me? Well, I don’t know much about wine but am happy to keep practising!