Day 1 - Champagne
Champagne Arrival in Epernay at about 9pm – straight into dinner and several bottles of Champagne: Guy la Mondiere NV, Jacques Selosses NV & Jacqueson 1997 Avize Grand Cru. Very nice dinner.
Visit to Champagne Le Mesnil in the village of Mesnil-Sur-Oger in the Cotes Blancs. A cooperative of 540 growers (many of whom have other jobs) formed in 1937 who own 297 hectares between them producing 120,000hl per year. The vineyards around the village are all classified Grand Cru on the ‘Echelles des Crus’; the Champagne rating, and are planted solely to Chardonnay. Chardonnay thrives here due to the excellent soil; calcareous top-soils on the top of the slope with clay further down and a deep subsoil of chalk, up to 300 metres deep in places.
The village was made famous by Krug’s single vineyard prestige cuvée Clos Mesnil which comes from a high-walled vineyard right in the middle of the village, and Champagne Salon; another prestige cuvée created by a Parisien banker to be his ideal Champagne, and only made in the best vintages. Because of the quality of the fruit and the fact that the big producers do not own most of their vineyards, the majority of Mesnil’s product is sold to the big brands like Moet to go into famous names including Dom Perignon.
70% of all Champagne sold is labelled as the big brands such as Moet but they only own 30% of the vineyards, hence they are reliant on other growers, such as those that belong to Le Mesnil. Only ten percent of Mesnil’s fruit is kept for their own products and turned into Champagne Le Mesnil. The fruit is picked by hand to get whole berries, only the pulp is pressed – no harsh skin pressings, the first juice being discarded as being too dilute with rain water. Fermentation is done in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks; the still wine is then kept in cement tanks containing 18,000 bottles for later blending. We tried three vintages of the still wine from tank and found them to be very interesting – it is obvious why the Champenois chose to put bubbles into their product as although the young still wines have lots of pretty flavours they are very tart and acidic. Lovely floral aromas dominated with flavours of cream, sherbert, and citrus fruit. After the tank samples we tried what will become the non vintage cuvée in 2010; a blend of 5% from the 2004 vintage, 10% 2005 and 85% 2006, it will be aged in bottle for a further three years and disgorged and bottled in 2010 ready for sale. The length of time their Champagnes are aged for is the key to why they taste so good; the legal minimum for non-vintage is 18 months, Mesnil gets twice that during which it develops a wonderful biscuity, toasty character through a process called yeast autolysis. Next came the Vintage 2000 which we are selling at present, I was looking forward to this as both Doug and I have preferred the non-vintage up to now so I was keen to see how it was progressing. It had a far richer, smokier nose with a touch of yeast. The palate was far richer and more complex than previously with lots of lovely fruit, including crisp cooking apples, nectarines and lemons and a lovely toasty length. Opinion changed we are now recommending the Vintage 2000 highly. We finished with two vintages of Mesnil’s top Champagne – Cuvée Sublime which comes from 40 year old vines, solely from the best south-facing slopes and with no malolactic ferment which makes it very crisp and floral. The 2000 was very fine indeed; floral and subtle on the nose at present but with a rich palate of tropical grapefruit and pineapple. Very dry, crisp and zesty. The 2006 was even better; loads of fine bubbles, excellent nose, rich and yeasty with a subtle mushroom and chocolate character. We finished with a magnum of the 1994 vintage that I found to be relatively closed by comparison but with an interesting hint of smoke on the nose.
From Mesnil-Sur-Oger we travelled 150 kilometers south to the lesser-known Champagne area of the Aube east of Troyes. The Champagne producing area is split into two between Bar-sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube, 100k long by 10-20k wide and is mainly hard chalk. The area is planted to all 3 of the Champagne grapes, but predominantly Pinot Noir; approx. 80%. In the Aube producers are only allowed to be classified as village level vineyards, as a result are paid 80% of the price producers in the better known areas to the north get paid. We visited Champagne Rene Joly, run by the enthusiastic and passionate champion of the Aube, Eric Joly. Eric's wines are very well made (one of the last remaining properties to disgorge by hand), very clean and clearly better quality than mere village level Champagne. We tried Eric's house cuvée which is made up of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay; subtle, pretty nose, floral and fresh with a touch of apple, pear and a lovely freshness on the palate. An Extra Brut Chardonnay, which had no dosage and showed a highly floral nose with a soft light mousse, very dry with a lovely sherberty finish. Eric's Blanc de Blanc was similar to the Extra Brut but with the added richness of the dosage. Blanc de Noir made from 100% Pinot Noir which was full of red fruit with a hint of marmite on the nose, a creamy mid palate and full length. And finally a lovely rich dark fruit scented Rosé de Assemblage non vintage which was my favourite.
After leaving Champagne we drove south to Burgundy to the famous wine town of Beaune in the centre of the Cote D'Or surrounded by some of the most sought-after vineyards in France.