Wine Magazine - Tour de Rheims — 23/08/2007

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"We're running a four day harvest tour to Champagne, fancy coming along for the ride" said the travel company. After mulling the matter over carefully for a millisecond, SAMANTHA STOKES said "Oh all right then" and left her desk behind for a languorous weekend of fizz, food and frolics.

Half an hour into my Arblaster & Clarke coach trip to Champagne for the harvest realised I was a virgin. Two-thirds of the group had done it with A&C before. Which says something for the company, founded in 1986 by husband and wife team Lynette Arblaster and Tim Clarke. Five people had even done this exact trip before, including one couple who have been harvesting in Champagne the A&C way for over ten years. With happy customers galore, many of the trips are tough to get on, but being a press invitee, I counted myself lucky.

Or did I? A&C had been very professional about my invitation and had pre-informed warned all members of the party that there was a hack onboard. So for the first few hours, it was guess the journalist, until my cover was blown when a fellow traveller asked me whether I had guessed the journalist. I promptly disgraced my profession by telling the truth. The game was up.

Although I was a member of the Third Column, however, I was soon accepted amongst the group, and despite the amalgamation of virgins and old timers on one luxury coach, we proved to be a good general cross section of Champagne enthusiasts.

Ages ranged from late 20s up to somewhere around 70, with the average being around 50. There was an even mix between couples and lone travellers, and careers ranged from the legal profession to a hardware store manager; three computer crazies; a conference organiser; an airline scheduler; a retired Hollywood journalist and an angelic couple who foster children and are pioneering a laser clinic for people who want to give up smoking. Geographically we had representatives from Buntingford via Woodgreen, Kent, London, Dublin and... Texas. Yes sirree! Four friends who met at a wine tasting some years ago found A&C's website and booked through the net. (Warning: they will be back for the A&C Hospices de Beaune tour in November 2001.)

But what about Champagne knowledge? I had been apprehensive before the trip after receiving the list of fellow travellers, which included: Amelia, Daire, Ivan, Janita, Myrna, Phillida, Theodora and Kermit. What with a tour manager named Pandora, I was a little worried about the calibre of possible wine gurus attending. Would I be the only Champagne novice? Would the whole tour be over my head? Would I look a fool when I didn't recognise a Blanc de Blancs from a Blanc de Noirs?

Thankfully Tim Clarke would not let that happen. Introducing the friendly witty wine guide who united the group and who not one of us would have replaced for all the Oz Clarkes or Jilly Gouldens in the world. A Jeremy Clarkson of wine, Tim is clearly a very clever man, especially when it comes to wine and history. But more importantly he knows how to share his information without sounding like a teacher or a know it all. Taking the coach microphone as we travelled between vineyards, he stayed out of sight and did none of that, to your left we can see... Tim was more, "if you think the village we just passed through is an ugly dreary depressing kind of town, you'd be absolutely right, it is!"

Being good friends with many of the makers in Rheims and the local area, he was able to fill us in on the Champagne industry gossip (all strictly off the record I'm afraid), with a who's who and what's what in layman's terms. His bubbly enthusiasm resounded throughout the coach, infecting us all, despite rain on the first day (which in harvest time is more miserable than usual), while Pandora was left to herd us on and off the coach, to arrange meeting points and to do what she did best - pour Champagne.

Most people had come on the tour because they not only wanted to learn more about Champagne, but also wanted to buy up a few cases. And by the end of the tour, the coach's large baggage holdall was jammed full of bargain buys direct from the small producers. Generally people were not snooty connoisseurs and, considering the short space of time we were together; we all got along very well, (I even heard the Texans say the group had "truly bonded" in between swigs of "shampayan").

So what did we get up to in the bubble capital of the world? Let's take it day by day...

Saturday 16 September

Although Champagne is one of the closest wine tours available to Brits, travelling by luxury coach from Victoria Bus Station in London took most of the day. The pace was leisurely and included a stop at a supermarket for those keen to take advantage of low French duty rates to stock up on wine.

Having settled into the three star hotel in the centre of Rheims, we regrouped' (which we would be doing a lot of) for the first tasting hosted by Tim in the hotel. This was the beginning of four days of gloriously decadent and continuous Champagne quaffing. Starting with three Blanc de Blancs and moving on to different blends of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, this tasting was a good introduction to the blending of Champagne's three grape varieties. We tasted Le Mesnil sur Oger 1990 Blanc de Blancs, Diebolt-Vallois (Cramant) 1995 Blanc de Blancs, Henri Goutorbe NV (Aÿ) Blanc de Blancs, René Geoffrey (Cumières) NV, J Lassalle NV, Henri Goutorbe (Aÿ) 1994 and Camille Saves (Bouzy) 1994. - Not a spittoon in sight.

Sunday 17 September

At 8.15 am Pandora served Champagne with breakfast and not a soul refused. By 9.30 am we were on the coach headed for Champagne Corbon for "Escapades Genologiques en Champagne".

The wine maker's son, Jerome Corbon, gave us the most original yet obvious back to basics tasting lesson any of us had known. Seated in groups of six, like a kindergarten class, we went through the senses involved with Champagne appreciation, from the eyes and nose to the tongue and stomach. We then settled down to some serious sniffing exercises, lurking inside little terracotta pots around the table, from honey, cheese, thyme and cloves to peach, coffee and spearmint.

Next we had four glasses in front of us to sip from. One was a control, with water inside. The others were water with salt (yuk), bitter (double yuk), sugar and finally lemon. These interesting tests (at which everybody thought they would be far better than they were, including myself) were followed by a tasting designed to teach us the differences between Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pi not Meunier, picking up on what Tim had introduced the night before. We tasted each. The two Pinots were similar in appearance, a barley water, amber tone with a touch of salmon pink, while the Chardonnay was pale gold. On the nose, the Pinot Meunier had an earthy aroma of almonds and unripe pears, with hints of bread, while the Noir was more aggressive with vibrant red fruit. The Chardonnay in comparison was all honey and lemon. This game broke the ice between the group - as did the flow of Champagne, which got us in the mood for a little dégorgement and blending, done the old fashioned way, by hand. Each of us stood in line to knock the top off a frozen bottle of fizz with a spanner-like implement. We could then add the liquer de tirage and cork the bottle in a little machine, before sticking a label and foil capsule on the finished product.

Lunch was an eclectic platter of melon, ham, cheese, bread, paté and soon, for us to try with three Champagnes for a little food matching. We then whizzed off to Champagne Vilmart in Rilly-la-Montagne for an afternoon talk on the importance of barrel making by wine maker Laurent Champs, who also invited us to a thorough tasting, (making the most of sales opportunities with this now tipsy bunch). Then the ever lovely Pandora gathered us together and we were rushed on to Champagne Ployez-Jacquemart, a high quality producer of around 100,000 bottles a year.

Here we sauntered and stumbled around the vineyard with wine maker Laurence Ployez and embarked on a journey down a hundred or a thousand steps into the dark dank cellars to discuss remuage and gaze at over 6,000 bottles all balanced precariously in tiers along corridors and inside arches, coated in dust and all very quietly waiting to be drunk. Dinner was cooked by Laurence in the cellar dining room and was accompanied by NV, rosé and vintages from 1991 onwards. By now spittoons were a thing of the past.

Monday 18 September: Harvest!

8.3O am on the first day of harvest: the sun was out and Pandora was serving Champagne, again. By now people were relaxing in each other's company, which gave the Texans a licence to get rowdy and instigate plenty of shared group laughs.

On arrival at Roger Brun, a family domaine in the grand cru village of Ay, which is also the vineyard operation of Charles and Piper Heidsieck, we were lucky enough to see the very first grapes come in for the pressing. We huddled to one side as the workers spread 4,000 kilos of grapes into the antique-looking basket press, which has been modernised by having a computer fitted to it. At 8OO grammes of pressure per square centimetre, the press was lowered onto the first fresh grapes of Brun's 2000 vintage. It was a rare and exciting sight for a tourist and A&C must have sighed a breath of relief- what with the unpredictability of weather in general and the recent rain in Rheims, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the right date for this harvest tour, so we were indeed lucky.

After a glass of delicious free run juice, we were off to the Bisette vineyard where, armed with secateurs and a bucket, we were unleashed into the rows of Pinot Noir, refreshed with bubbly at the end of each row (more like each spur in reality). Although hail had ravaged many of Champagne's vineyards in June and the weather had been generally wet, the sugar levels didn't look too bad for Brun, though the grapes were a sorry sight. I didn't blame them for keeping the tourists well away from their best plantations, however. Regardless we picked on, but soon bundled back for a traditional picker's lunch, weary and grape stained (actually not that grape stained and more merry than weary).

Exhausted and ready for bed, there proved to be no rest for the new workers, as it was back to the hotel to smarten up to a quick visit to Krug, where we were taken around the cellars and invited to a glass of the exquisite Grand Cuvée by a charming and eloquent member of Krug staff. All our tastings had primed us for this prestigious Champagne and we all thoroughly appreciated the wonder of Krug - though the event seemed austere after our family welcomes at the previous houses.

As if we needed more Champagne, we were swept back to the hotel by Tim for a comparative tasting of no less than seven Champagnes before being released for the evening, when I think all were pleased to quench their craving for something red and still with dinner.

Tuesday 19 September

before we left for Canard-Duchene in Ludes. Francois Vitrac, the export manager, presented a talk on the house's marketing strategy, which was accompanied by an extensive tasting and an insight into the traditional way of opening bottles here - a machismo palaver which involved slicing the top of the bottle clean off with a sabre.

This proved a decadent end to a thoroughly informative and hugely enjoyable weekend away. We all filed back onto the coach for the last time, happy and, if it's possible, Champagned-out. Until we all "regrouped" at the club class ferry lounge for a final glass for the road, that is.