Our final day was a busy one with two tastings, lunch and dinner. Fortunately, travel times were short as we headed out from Reims and south to Epernay.
Epernay is famed for its stunning Avenue de Champagne where many famous merchants established properties, the likes of Pol Roger, Perrier-Jouet and Moet et Chandon show off their magnificent edifices. Our first stop was Champagne Boizel, at the top end of the afore mentioned Avenue. Boizel have a top class reputation that stays under the radar. They have a very elegant building and courtyard and a kilometre of cellars underground.
The group was split into two and hosted two excellent representatives of Boizel – Thayanne and Marguerite. They were extremely knowledgeable hosts and delivered a deep insight into the domaine and its history without going over the standard Champagne production process which we were all familiar with. The visit concluded with two excellent Champagnes – the Brut Réserve and Millésimé 2015.
From Epernay, it was twenty minutes to Tours-sur-Marne and the excellent Table du 18 restaurant. César Petelot is the owner/chef and his fantastic team delivered the perfect lunch with loin of pork, a delicious cheese selection and pavlova for dessert. Washed down with an excellent Bouzy Rouge and two contrasting Champagnes I felt this was how lunch should always be.
A twenty five minute power nap in the bus took us to our final visit of the tour – Champagne Boutillez Guer. This was a wonderful trip down memory lane as I have sold Boutillez-Guer wines for a long time and we visited back in 2001, on my very first ‘Tim Syrad Wine Tours’ tour. Manon the daughter now runs the estate with father Marc in the background. We took a walk in the vineyard and contrasted their organic/biodynamic plot with the pesticide/herbicide strewn neighbour, talked about the Montagne de Reims and climate change before heading inside for the tasting.
Their Blanc de Blancs, Tradition and Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut were all delicious and Manon (an award-winning young winemaker) charmingly delivered her next generation insights which added further nuance to everything we had learned during the week.
Yet we still had one more task – dinner.
Once back in Reims we jumped into taxis and headed to Le Jardin Les Crayères – a wonderful restaurant in the grounds of the Crayères hotel. A superb four course dinner unfurled with a clever asparagus creation followed by John Dory, fromages and a seasonal rhubarb tart. Champagne in magnums, Coteaux Champenois Chardonnay and Veuve Clicquot Demi-sec rounded off the evening.
All in all a great start to our season of European tours.
