Our last day of the tour was action packed – two visits, lunch and dinner and it was a beautiful sunny day.
Our first stop was to the family owned domaine of Boutillez Guer. As many of you know, I have sold their wines for over twenty years and prior to these tours last visited in 2001. We were greeted by Manon, the daughter who now runs the winery and makes the wine – she was just 7 years old back in 2001. Father Marc was in the background, pouring Champagne and looking proud! Before we tasted though we took a walk in the vineyard, admired the Montagne de Reims and compared the sustainable vineyards of Manon and Marc with the more chemically dependent neighbour.
Into the tasting room and we tasted through four wines of varying dosage and grape mix. They produce 15,000 bottles per year and it feels like relatively little has changed since 2001 – this is Champagne making at its most real. There are hundreds if not thousands of small producers all over the region making a living, selling fruit or selling small quantities of individual wines. It was a far cry from the big brands that dominate the industry and many of us felt we would think hard about which champagne we buy in the future.
From Boutillez Guer it was back to Bouzy and the wonderful Le Bec Fin restaurant. A super lunch of asparagus, seabass and fruit tart unfolded with four different Champagnes including a demi-sec rosé to round off dessert. We also had the pleasure of bumping into Jean-Francois Clouet who was dining with some colleagues.
Then it was a short walk to Champagne Delavenne, also in Bouzy, where we met their export manager Susan Adda. Susan is originally from Los Angeles and via a number of other walks of life ended up in Bouzy! Susan was a great host, illuminating the family history with a walk in the hand dug cellar and telling us what differentiates Delavenne from so many others. First of all, they operate on a two consecutive vintage blend – so no reserve wines.
Secondly, they use Lithotherapy in their vineyards. There will be a resonance for those familiar with Biodynamics, but essentially, Lithotherapy is about harnessing the power with various stones and rocks to create an elixir that is misted onto the vines. Inevitably, it is a practice open to scientific probing, but just like Biodynamics the philosophy requires the vineyard manager to pay close attention to every detail of the vineyard and that can only be a good approach.
The proof of course was in the tasting and having enjoyed one of their wines with lunch, we tasted a further four which were all exceptional.
A great last visit and once again showed us yet another nuance in the world of Champagne.
The day was not yet over. Our final night dinner was at the wonderful Brasserie du Jardin at Les Crayeres in Reims.
A fabulous dinner of asparagus, haddock, cheese and rhubarb tart was all washed down with magnums of Alfred Gratien, Coteaux Champenois Chardonnay and Veuve Clicquot Demi-Sec.
A perfect finish to the tour.
