Tag: Champagne

Grower Champagne tasting week falls short of becoming the region’s Grands Jours

Six years ago, a group of seventeen Champenois vignerons created a new tasting concept focusing on terroir and wine and called it Terres et Vins de Champagne. The aim was to show that Champagne can also be terroir wine rather than just a standarized bubbly beverage. To explain the finer details of the terroir the

St Vincent 2014 in Hautvillers

It was unusually cold on the 22 January, the day St Vincent is celebrated in Hautvillers. ‘La St Vincent’ gathers the whole village together to give thanks to their patron saint for the harvest that was and to pray for another great viticultural year. Hautvillers is one of the few villages in Champagne who celebrate

French Police: Friend or Foe?

On Friday it was the fourth International Champagne Day, and the group of Terres et Vins de Champagne Vignerons had organized a small event in the Glue Pot in Reims to let people discover their wines for a small fee. It was a magical evening, with lots of laughs and great wines and I cherished

#ChampagneHarvest 13: Champagne Goutorbe, Philippe Gonet and UPR in Le Mesnil

The Goutorbe family is an institution in Ay. Not long after the first world war Emile Goutorbe, winemaker at that time for Perrier Jouet, decides to open a grape nursery. Over the next decades he will slowly expand his business by investing in vineyards in and around the village. Almost a century later, Etienne and

Grands jours de Champagne?

Whilst there are plenty of international wine fairs, a lot of winemakers prefer to show off their wines on home territory. It gives them the opportunity to really woe the diverse audience of national and international press, importers, distributors and major buyers who have flocked to the region. Many a wine critic, buyer or writer