Pouring a sample at our 21st Anniversary Festival

Decanting Champagne

Champagne Philipponnat Clos de Goisses vineyards

Arblaster & Clarke's 25th Anniversary Champagne Festival

23 - 25 November 2012

Join us for our weekend party in Champagne to celebrate 25 years of Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours here. This period has coincided with the modern renaissance in Champagne’s fortunes and A&C’s tours heralded the arrival of Champagne as a premier wine tourism destination.

Our tasting celebration will be held in the perfect setting, of the historic Demeure des Comtes de Champagne, which was the medieval meeting house of the Counts of Champagne, the founders of the ‘Champagne Fairs’ that made the region wealthy. The building is owned by Champagne Taittinger and we are very grateful to them for letting us use it to mark this anniversary and celebrate with our Champagne-loving clients and our Champagne producer friends. We have taken over this historic venue for a whole day of celebrations.

Demeure des Comtes de Champagne

Situated in the heart of Reims, the Demeure des Comtes de Champagne is one of the rare remaining examples of medieval architecture in the city. This beautiful building is steeped in Champagne history. Originally, the building served as a reception hall for the Counts of Champagne during the royal coronations that would took place in Reims Cathedral, thus making it the perfect location for our anniversary celebrations. The Demeure is simply decorated allowing the history of the building to create the atmosphere. Large arch windows flood the room with natural light for the festival during the day and elegant chandeliers and candlelight will light our gala dinner.

On the first evening, we will, as always hold our signature comparative Champagne tastings for each party separately. Next day, our festival takes place late morning and over lunch-time in the Demeure des Comtes de Champagne. We are overjoyed to report that the following array of ten superb Champagne Houses will be joining us to present their Champagnes:
Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger, Brice, Cattier, Goutorbe, Hatte, Philipponnat, Ployez-Jacquemart, Taittinger and Vilmart. (See Monsieur Brice’s kind comments on the right hand column of this page!)

We are also inviting some friends up from Burgundy, so as well as many superb Champagnes, there will be fine wines to taste.

If you would like to take any of these superb Champagnes home with you (and we are sure that you will not want to miss this unique opportunity to stock up for your Christmas celebrations, you will be able to order Champagnes directly from the producers present for delivery to your hotel. For Burgundy, pre-ordering will be necessary (as you can appreciate that they have a long way to travel and will not be able to judge which wines to bring with them in advance). While you are tasting, canapés will be circulated. For those who would like lunch afterwards, cafés nearby will be open.

This evening, festivities continue with a gourmet dinner back at the Demeure. (This is included on the ‘Grand Cru’ choice).

Next day, after a relaxed start, we head out to Vilmart, where we’ll enjoy lunch in their cellars with their widely acclaimed Champagnes; the finale to our silver celebrations.