The steep slope of Clos des Goisses, Champagne Philipponnat

Remuage by hand at Taittinger's Comtes de Champagne Cellars

Barrels in Champagne

Champagne Extra Spring Weekend

24 - 26 March 2012

Our ‘Extra’ Champagne tours are luxury wine tours that are designed for those who are passionate about Champagne and require a higher standard of comfort and exclusivity. These tours feature some of the highest quality houses, a prestige cuvée tasting on the first evening, and lunch and dinner at a Champagne House. Numbers are restricted to just 24, so that you have plenty of space to spread out on the coach and extra space to bring back Champagne and being a smaller party than our “normal” champagnes you have perhaps more opportunity to speak personally to the Wine Guide. Two fabulous gourmet meals are included too, at Champagne Houses, one prepared very kindly by the owner of the Champagne House especially for our party and both of which include generous servings of top quality Champagnes.

If you are looking for a Champagne weekend in 2012, please see our Champagne Weekends – you can upgrade at the hotel and join our guide for dinner, please let us know if it is to celebrate a special occasion.

For a truly magnificent Champagne experience, join our Ultimate Champagne tour that cannot be matched for the top quality Champagne tastings, high standard of accommodation and overall “wow” factor!

Champagne, the wine, comes from the north east region of France of the same name. It is the most northerly of the great wine regions and has a marginal climate, potentially leaving it exposed to spring frosts, cold summers and wet autumns. The resulting grapes are low in sugar, fine in flavour and high in acidity, the ideal material for making sparkling wine. It is also a scenario of massive variations between years and to try to overcome this, producers blend wines from different years to create a non-vintage wine. These wines form the basis of the individual ‘house style’ and leaves Vintage wines, the norm elsewhere, to be produced in great years only.

Prestige Comparative Tasting

On the first evening, your Wine Guide will choose a selection of prestige Champagnes in order to illustrate what fabulous Champagnes are like in what will be a fun and illuminating evening. Clients find this part of our tour (which is unique to A&C) one of the most enjoyable parts as it is not often that you have the chance to taste a range of champagnes in this way, in comfort, with an informative guide and with no “sales agenda” – we are not trying to promote these wines, just to give you the opportunity to enjoy some outperforming prestige Champagnes, which would sell on the UK high street at over £65 a bottle (and more!)

Evening meals

Reims has a wealth of wonderful restaurants, brasseries and bistros from two Michelin star 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! Those clients who travel alone with us especially appreciate this.

Outline Itinerary

Champagne Camille Savès

Champagne Camille Savès is a small “grower-producer” in the Grand Cru Village of Bouzy whose wines we have been enjoying for many many years. We taste Champagnes which show well the characteristic power of Bouzy Grand Cru wines. They have great weight and richness of flavour with a powerful, bready Pinot bouquet and high alcohol content. Savès also produce the famous Bouzy Rouge red wine, which we will also be able to taste. They are one of the best grower-producers in the village. We first discovered Camille Savès 20 years ago and have always been huge fans of these powerful Champagnes – and now Robert Parker has finally discovered them and awarded their Rosé, 97 Parker points!

Champagne Ployez-Jacquemart

Champagne Ployez-Jacquemart, in Ludes, is where we are kindly invited to dinner, in the cellar dining room beneath the family home. Situated in the village of Ludes in the Montagne de Reims, this House has a small, high quality production of about 100,000 bottles. Laurence Ployez, the charming daughter is now the wine maker. She is also an accomplished cook and prepares a delicious gourmet dinner for us. Every dish will be accompanied by a Champagne from her range, including her excellent non-vintage, rosé and a vintage.

Champagne Philipponnat

To finish the weekend in fine style, we begin today with a fantastic tasting at Champagne Philipponnat. Their ‘Clos des Goisses’ is one of only a handful of great single vineyard Champagnes. This is one of Champagne’s greatest wines, and is an intense, complex wine with strong, ripe fruit, capable of long ageing. Champagne Philipponnat in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ is a relatively modern house, founded only in 1912 and now owned by Bruno Paillard. This has always been an underrated house offering good quality and excellent value. The house style is generally elegant and fresh, with plenty of easy-going fruit and a soft, smooth mousse.

Champagne Pol Roger

This Epernay house remains family owned and, until 1955, possessed no vineyards whatsover. It currently owns 85 hectares. The non-vintage, White Foil, is an excellent example of the desired balance between the powerful Pinot Noir grape and the fresh, floral notes of Pinot Meunier. Their rosé is exquisitely perfumed with strawberry, peach and raspberry, and is simply delicious. The house’s prestige cuvée is the Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill which shows both elegance and complexity.

We enjoy a rare privilege of lunch at Champagne Pol Roger, before travelling back to the UK.