A sweeter style of Champagne being 'opened up' using a decanter

Champagne Philipponnat

Bollinger

Demeure des Comtes de Champagne

Champagne Wine Tasting Festival for A&C 25th Anniversary - Premier Cru

23 - 25 November 2012

Join us for our Champagne Wine Tasting Festival to celebrate 25 years of Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours!

Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours invites you to our weekend party in Champagne for our 25th anniversary celebrations. We are proud to be holding this special celebration in Champagne where our first weekend wine tour took place. Since 1987 A&C have returned for wine tasting weekends with our Champagne-loving clients several times a year, making this the perfect destination for our festival. This period has included some great vintages and the modern renaissance in Champagne’s fortunes, and A&C’s tours heralded the arrival of Champagne as a premier wine tourism destination.

There are three options for joining our celebrations, which are categorised by Cru. These include: Cru, joining on location; Premier Cru, with lunch at Champagne Vilmart included; Grand Cru, with lunch at Champagne Vilmart and a gourmet dinner at Demeure des Comtes de Champagne.

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 our 25th 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.

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.

Outline Itinerary for the Festival

As with all of our Champagne tours, on the first evening we will 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 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. While you are tasting, canapés will be circulated. For those who would like lunch afterwards, cafés nearby will be open.

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).

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.