Champagne Decanter

Champagne Aube wine region

Champagne Taittinger caves

Looking at the sediment in the bottle!

Spring Champagne

17 - 19 March 2012

Champagne is fun to drink and a fascinating wine to see being made and being easy to get to makes for a great weekend break. Our base for the weekend is a comfortable 3* hotel in the centre of the lively, attractive city of Reims.

Our aim is to taste a wide spectrum of Champagnes, to visit a good cross section of Houses, from those that forged Champagne’s reputation such as Taittinger, Pol Roger and Veuve Clicquot (which, of course, we will taste during our comparative tastings even if we do not visit the House on this tour!) as well as to search out quality growers and rising stars in the villages. You will taste at least 20 champagnes over the course of the weekend, starting at breakfast. You will receive a special welcome and generous tastings at houses that we have been visiting for many years.

Evening Comparative Tasting

We want to show you as broad a selection of Champagnes over the weekend as possible. On the first evening of the tour we start with an introductory evening comparative tasting.

So, as always on Arblaster & Clarke Champagne weekends, your Wine Guide will show you a selection of Champagnes in order to introduce the various styles and different Houses or Growers in what will be a fun and illuminating evening. No two of our tastings are alike and no two Wine Guides have the same approach to presenting them. We like to choose some unusual Champagnes for you to taste and not just the famous names. Most will be to your liking though but perhaps some may not. You can normally learn more from these than those you liked, but hopefully you’ll find one or two that you think are fabulous!

Evening meals

Reims has a wealth of wonderful restaurants, brasseries and bistros from several with Michelin stars, to one double starred restaurant (advance booking highly recommended) to more reasonably priced gourmet restaurants and traditional style brasseries. We provide a list of all our tried and tested ones before the trip with phone numbers, so you can book ahead if you wish. However, we will make a reservation at two of our favourite (reasonably priced) brasseries and you are very welcome to join our Wine Guide or Tour Manager for dinner where they will select some interesting wines.

This again is one of the great advantages of an Arblaster & Clarke fully escorted tour, we give you the flexibility to dine alone if this is what your prefer, or the fun of being part of a lively party who generally all get on together really well, especially after the champagne tasting has broken the ice! This is especially appreciated by those clients who travel alone with us.

Champagne Breakfasts

Breakfast is served each morning at the hotel on the top floor, from where there is a superb view over the town and out towards the cathedral. The A&C Tour Manager is on hand to exclusively serve our clients with a glass of Champagne to go with their buffet breakfast – morning’s will never seem the same again!

Visit Champagne Canard-Duchêne

Champagne Canard-Duchêne was founded in the early 19th century and is currently owned by the privately-owned group Alain Thienot. In the late 1890’s it was supplied to the court of Tsar Nicholas II and the coat of arms bears the 2 headed eagle of the Russian court as well as the sabre, traditionally used to open Champagne bottles with. The Champagne is perhaps simple, but has a very accessible fruit-driven style. We will be given a guided tour of the cellars, which contain an interesting and unusual art exhibition. This will be followed by a spectacular demonstration of opening a champagne bottle (sabrage – its a great party trick once you know how to do it, and if you don’t mind losing the occasional bottle!), a tasting and the opportunity to visit their shop which is always very popular with our clients as a place to stock up on champagne related gifts.

Your free time

After our visit you will have time to explore Reims and choose a cafe table to sit at, and people watch while you enjoy some local food and a glass of champagne, perhaps!

Our next visit departs mid afternoon and of course if you decide you would rather linger over your lunch, explore Reims further, or simply rest, you can of course choose to miss the visit and meet up with again later for our second comparative tasting if you prefer.

Visit Champagne Hatté

Champagne Hatté is a small grower-producer in the Grand Cru Village of Verzenay with some 10 hectares of vineyard. Verzenay is in the Montagne de Reims region which are gentle hills, rather than mountains, to the south of Reims. This region is predominantely planted with Pinot Noir grapes, though Hatté have some Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier too. In contrast to the stunning cellars we have seen this morning, the cellars at Hatté look like no more than a garage and tucked below this is a small cellar housing vats, old barrels and a couple of hundred thousand bottles!

The family is traditionalist (like the great house of Krug and Roederer) so still vinify some of their wines using oak and use a lot of ‘reserve wine’‘ in their blends. The founder of the House, Louis Hatté was the chief winemaker at Roederer until 1952. We will taste with Madame Hatté or her son and this is always a ‘laid back’ experience, but the wines are powerful and extremely well made. The family belong to the Special Club of Vignerons, and each of the members produce a wine labelled as “Special Club” which is strictly vetted for quality and bottled in a traditional style bottle. Another top cuvée, Cuvée Benjamin, is named after the youngest grandson. This is an elegant but forceful wine, mostly Pinot Noir, a perfect example of a Verzenay Grand Cru wine; sadly the labelling is a little tacky – but don’t let this put you off! The wines are all incredibly good value – ranging from just 13 euros to just 20 euros for the top wines. Bring cash and stock up here if you like high quality, full flavoured wines – highly recommended!

We spend another evening in Reims and our Wine Guides hosts our second comparative tasting. After our Champagne breakfast the next day, we leave Reims for more Champagne visits:

Visit Champagne Cattier

The family firm of Cattier based in Chigny-Les-Roses make excellent Champagnes with a distinct Montagne de Reims character. The crown jewel is the single vineyard “Clos du Moulin”, a complex champagne with a fine balance of pinot noir & chardonnay. This is a firm definitely ‘on the move’, quailty is ever increasing and quantity too! They now produce the historic “Maximes” brand in conjunction with Maximes of Paris.

Lunch at Champagne Vilmart

One of the most interesting and stylish growers that we visit is Champagne Vilmart, in Rilly-La-Montagne. Established in the 1890s Vilmart is still a family run house, owned by the aptly named Champs family. They are one of the few remaining traditional producers who both ferment the wines and mature the champagnes in oak barrels and tonneaux. Vilmart also prides itself on being an organic producer, using no herbicides or chemicals on their vineyards. The Vilmart champagnes are full of richness, finesse and complexity. The family themselves are extremely talented and artistic and Monsieur Champs specialises in beautiful stained glass, which decorates the dining room where we will have our buffet lunch.

After the visit we continue our journey directly back to Calais on to Dover and London arriving late evening.