Champagne Day Three

Our driver/guide, a young local woman, Suzanne, took us for a marvellous day out in the region. First of all we visited a small family run champagne house, Larnauderie-Hirault, which was good, because we learned such a lot about the process, starting at the actual vines. Four wines were sampled.

From there we drove to Hautvillers, a small village with many champagne houses. The Abbaye Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers is where Dom Perignon is buried. We had a tasting and snack lunch at AU 36, which was pretty special. Three wines were sampled, and a ratafia, which was like grappa, only worse. (I have a rather amusing video of JR tasting it…) Then H & J fancied a rosé wine to finish off. The village was full of cute little tin signs. (Extra)

Back to base for a look around the magnificent cathedral then a quick turn around and out for a tasting at Tresors de Champagne. It was a half hour walk, (using my phone GPS) and it was nice to see other parts of the city. We had two hours with a charming young man called Joris, who explained everything to do with champagne (again). With all this repetition you’d think I’d be learning lots, but I’m afraid I’m still quite vague... Though the others seem more clued up, especially Hazel, who takes notes all the time.

We had a pizza on the way home. It was good, because we saw a bit more of Rheims. And we’ve learned how we’re supposed to say it properly, but can’t.

Crawled into bed extremely knackered tired. What a great day! 

Btw, our driver/guide is an extremely knowledgable and charming young local woman, who has got us to the right place at the right time, and filled us in on lots of other info. If she didn’t know the answer, she’d be googling it when we were otherwise occupied. She’s a wee treasure.

Note: I’ve got the days mixed up and I’m too tired to fix them… this should be the 24th…