Our Spring Champagne Weekend for 2010 is 20 - 22 March
Champagne is fun to drink and a fascinating wine to see being made and being easy to get to makes for a great weekend. 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 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 spectrum 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 two Michelin double rossette restaurants (early booking essential!) 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! (and of course any other clients staying at the hotel wish they had chosen to travel with A&C!)
Visit Champagne Taittinger
Our first visit this morning is to the beautiful cellars of Champagne Taittinger, which is one of the few great houses remaining entirely in family hands. The quality of their non-vintage champagne has remained constantly high, and in addition to their range of artist designed vintage Champagnes, which make great collectors items, in recent years they have brought out some superb non-vintage cuvees Prelude (a Grand Cru wine) and Les Folies de la Marqueterie (a part barrell fermented wine from a single vineyard). These are both rich, complex champagnes with the hallmark Taittinger elegance, and are very much enjoyed by Lynette Arblaster & Tim Clarke at A&C!
Taittinger's beautiful cellars in Reims, weave for kilometres under the city of Reims. They were carved out of the chalk by the Romans and now house the prestige Cuvée of Taittinger, the wonderful blanc de blancs (so made entirely from Chardonnay) Vintage "Comtes de Champagne" in perfect temperarture and humidity. As we walk around the cellars we will hear about the Methode Champenoise, then be treated to a tasting of the classic Non-vintage and one other cuvvee in their elegant prestige tasting room.
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 afternoon 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 dinner 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 18 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 after another Champagne breakfast we leave Reims for another wine tasting, this time at a Champagne house where you will see an interesting way to open a Champagne bottle:
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.
Lunch at Champagne Petit-le Brun & Fils
Petit-Le-Brun is a small high quality estate in Avize on the Côte des Blancs. One of the members of the Petit family will show us their cellars and introduce their Blanc de Blancs pure Chardonnay Champagnes and Rosé. They use traditional cellar techniques such as "remuage" and "dégorgement à la volée",- blasting sediments out of the bottle. The NV is 50% reserve wines, half of which have been a year in oak. The superb vintage is from 60 year old vines. The wines from Petit-Le Brun seem to get just better and better every year. This is a great place to stock up at if you like lighter, Chardonnay based champagnes. You will need to pay for any purchases here in cash - so do come prepared. Prices start at just 15/16 euros for the non-vintage, 17 euros for the Rose and 22 euros for the Vintage.
Our visit here includes a buffet lunch, with the full range of the house champagnes to enjoy with your meal. This is not a restaurant but a private invitation to lunch as guests of the Petit family.
After the visit we continue our journey directly back to Calais on on to Dover and London arriving late evening.
Tour Itinerary:
Day 1, Saturday: Join the tour in the morning at Petersfield, London, Dover. Departure from London is generally 7.30am. We arrive in Reims about 4 pm where we stay at a good central 3 star hotel. In the early evening, the Wine Guide introduces a lively informative Champagne tasting, perhaps covering the major houses, explaining how the “house styles” are achieved.
Day 2, Sunday: Today starts with Champagne breakfast, then a visit to a good house or grower. In the evening, we taste more cuvées in another comparative tasting, perhaps covering individual villages or vintages.
Day 3, Monday: Again, Champagne breakfast before visiting another top house, followed by buffet lunch at a small cellar. We'll arrive back at around 8.30pm in Dover or Folkestone and 10.30pm in London.
Joining in Reims - these breaks can be combined with an extension in Paris as the connection between the Champagne region and Paris is very good. For example, Reims is just 45 minutes from Paris by train (TGV).
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Price Includes:
- Taste at least 25 Champagnes over a Spring weekend holiday!
- Travel: Ferry Crossing
- Sole Occupancy: £75.00
- Deposit: £100.00
- Room Upgrade: £85
This tour is not suitable for children.
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