The beautiful cellars of Champagne Taittinger

Champagne Vineyards

Champagne pouring

May Champagne Extra

1 - 3 May 2010

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 or Michelin rosette restaurant. Numbers are restricted to just 20, 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, one of which is prepared by a Michelin Star restaurant and both of which include generous servings of top quality champagnes.

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 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 Camille Savès

For our first we visit we hope to visit Camille Savès, a small “grower-producer” in the Grand Cru Village of Bouzy whose wines we have been enjoying for many many years. We will 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 alcoholic 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 Saves 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 have 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 of champagnes, including her excellent non-vintage, rosé and a vintage.

Champagne Jacquesson

We hope to spend the Monday morning tasting wine with Champagne Jacquesson, where the Chiquet brothers continue their good work. The house Champagne is no longer called ‘Perfection’ and it’s no longer a ‘non vintage’ that just strives to be regular. Perfection now, is a quest. This house was established in 1798 and in 1802 they opened ten kilometres of cellars. Today the cellars are in Dizy in the Montagne de Reims east of Epernay and are owned by the Chiquet family. The House style here is light, delicately balanced wines and their premium cuvée, the Vintage Signature Brut, is particularly fine being made entirely from the House’s own grapes and fermented in large wooden vats. Monsieur Chiquet, who has raised his Champagne to significant heights, hopes to be present to show us around and explain his philosophy before giving us a tasting.

Champagne Philipponnat

We finish in fine style at Philipponnat. Their ‘Clos des Goisses’ is one of only a handful of great single vineyard Champagnes. We taste this and other cuvées over lunch, usually prepared for us by a Michelin Star restaurant. 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. Philipponnat also boasts one of Champagne’s greatest wines, Clos des Goisses, an intense, complex wine with strong, ripe fruit, capable of long ageing.