159-161 Spring Street, Melbourne, VIC

Phone: 03 9654 6657

and for the blog a little story from the tasting

I had lined up 11 bottles of champagne for the City Wine Shop tasting in Melbourne.

Gabrielle Poy –the sommelier and the wine writer Ralph Kyte-Powell , Adam (one of the owners) and a  few others

(forgot their names unfortunately )

So we planned to have only one hour of tasting but it was almost impossible to

taste all of that so fast . So it took us 3 hours of pure joy and celebration .

It was such a lovely afternoon with very active discussion and plenty of fun and laughs.

I was so hungry and more then just tipsy after that .

The champagnes that we tasted are

Next morning back to Paris and went to Epernay for Terroirs & Talents du Champagne tasting.
5 minutes from Epernay station in an old hotel was this extraordinary event being held.
I was given a glass and off we go.
It was like the best party ever- champagne is everywhere , chatting and plenty of laughter.
You are supposed to taste still wine (vin clair ) before it turns into champagne.
3 still wines and 3 champagnes from each of the producers and there are 14 of them.

And I did that in the beginning. But after a while it become too much. So I have just drank the “the phase two’’ of the champagne.
I really took my job seriously . Going from one table to another at the beginning slowly become disoriented process.
What I found really fascinating was tasting the soils – literally the earth where where different champagnes come from.
And from there you can understand how some and why champagnes taste different.(one of the reasons)
So after 5-6 hours “evaluating” the quality I took a break.(had to sit down)

I do remember that I liked very much Philippe Gonet , Penet Chardonnet and Serge Mathieu champagnes.
I was expecting much more from de Sousa house – but today a little bit disappointing.

Next morning , Amaury Beaufort from Ambonnay came and picked me and my friend Sara from London
for an early tasting. We had the owners of Henry George wines from UK as well.

Amaury showed us the vineyard first – his vineyard is free of any plastic bits and rubbish that at some point came from Paris.
But his neighbour has all of that and then we went back to all the ducks and chickens on the farm.
Has tasting room was cold but soon become quite warm after Amaury started opening a bottle after a bottle.
Unforgettable experience !
On my insistence at the end of all this (about 20 bottles and 2 hours later ) he brought out a bottle of grape brandy- I had to taste that as well!
At some point we went down the metal staircase of his massive cellar – a real smell of wine and wooden barrels and at the bottom floor in the semi dark room were his father Andre and his mother disgorging the bottles of champagne.
What a beautiful scene !

So that had to end at some point and we went to Ay for a final tasting. We were really hungry and having got our glasses we saw this big table full of chesses , salamis , french breads , cured meats … What a fantastic sight!
Well , after a long lunch I was ready to start the whole thing again.
This was a grand finale!
Francoise Bedel , Franck Pascal ,Pascal Doquet …
Unfortunately I was not able to seriously scrutinise all the champagnes (my brain neurones at this stage were largely malfunctioning ) so I decided to come back again next year. I had a “ clear vision’’ what to do.

I really could not do another day of tasting that was booked for next day in Reims..

Champagne Vignerons
Terroirs & Talents de Champagne

Sunday 15 April 2012, Epernay

Champagne Aspasie (Brouillet)
Champagne Coessens (Fouchères)
Champagne de Sousa (Avize)
Champagne Fallet-Dart (Drachy)
Champagne Philippe Gonet (le-Mesnil-sur-Oger)
Champagne Jacques Copinet (Montgenost)
Champagne Janisson Baradon et Fils (epernay)
Champagne Maurice Vesselle (Bouzy)
Champagne Maxime Blin (Trigny)
Champagne Michel Loriot (Festigny)
Champagne Penet Chardonnet (Verzy)
Champagne Sélèque (Pierry)
Champagne Serge Mathieu (avirey Lingey)
Champagne Vazart Coquart (Chouilly)

www.terroirs-et-talents-de-champagne.fr

Terres et vins de champagne

Location: Hotel Castel Jeanson, 24 rue Jeanson 51160 Ay
Monday 16 th of april

Champagne and Son Agrapart (Avize)
- Champagne Françoise Bedel (Crouttes sur Marne)
- Champagne and Son Bereche (Ludes)
- Francis Boulard Champagne and Girl (Cauroy lès Hermonville)
- Champagne-Chartogne Taillet (Merfy)
- Champagne Vincent layer (Buxeuil)
- Champagne Doquet (Virtues)
- Champagne Geoffroy (Ay)
- Champagne Goutorbe (Ay)
- Champagne Olivier Horiot (The Riceys)
- Champagne Jeaunaux (Slope St. Price)
- Benoit Lahaye Champagne (Bouzy)
- Champagne Laherte Brothers (Chavot-Courcourt)
- David Champagne Léclapart (Trépail)
- Champagne Franck Pascal (Baslieux Under Chatillon)
- Champagne Hubert Paulet (Rilly La Montagne)
- Pouillon et Fils Champagne (Mareuil sur Ay)
- Champagne Tarlant (Oeuilly)

http://www.terresetvinsdechampagne.com/

Les artisans du champagne
Tuesday 17 th of April –Reims

Nicolas Maillart
Marc Hebrart
Gilles Lancelot
François Huré
Antoine Paillard
Jérôme Dehours
Christophe Constant
Nicolas Jaeger
Laurent Champs
Frédéric Savart
Arnaud Margaine
Julie et Xavier Gonet Medeville
Pascal Gerbais
Yannick Doyard

http://www.lesartisansduchampagne.com/english/

And another new, less publicized event (unfortunately scheduled the same day as Terres et Vins) assembled by a small super star group called Trait d’Union. The small group is: Egly Ouriet, Jérôme Prévost’s Domaine La Closerie, Larmandier-Bernier, Jacquesson, Roger Coulon, and Jacques Selosse.

This young man is only 30 years of age and comes from Villers-aux-Noeuds village south of the city of Reims. He farms 2.5 hectares of vines, all located in a single parcel .The parcel is planted with all three major varieties , and the oldest vines date from 1962,

In 2008 he began the process of organic conversion, certified by Ecocert. While he doesn’t believe that organic viticulture will always necessarily result in better wine, he does it out of respect for the land.