Back vintages of Champagne Goutorbe. Nicholas Billecart

Day 5, Wednesday June 2. Wednesday morning and it was time to move camp to Ay so we were up early and packed in time to catch the bus at 9.00am. Rather than taking the quick route we instead took the more scenic route through the Montagne de Reims via the villages of Verzenay, Verzy and Louvois before arriving at Billecart-Salmon in the village of Marieul sur Ay.

Here we were met by Nicholas Billecart who took us on a most instructive visit of the vineyard and winery before conducting a tasting of Billecart-Salmon champagnes. We tasted their new Extra Brut for the first time. This is a wine which has no sugar added to it at disgorgement so it is a very fresh crisp style of wine, particularly well suited to a seafood entree. This was followed by the Brut Rose and the Vintage 1998. All sensational champagnes. The quality of the champagne led to a buying frenzy in the boutique after the tour and then it was back on the bus to travel to Ay.

We arrived in Ay 10 minutes later and checked into our rooms at Castel Jeanson. This excellent Hotel is owned by the Goutorbe family and is only 100 metres from their winery. We soon made our way up to the winery where the Goutorbes were waiting with an excellent smorgasbord lunch accompanied by a half bottle of Goutorbe Prestige Cuvee. After lunch Rene Goutorbe opened a large selection of stunning back vintages ranging from 1982. This was a wonderful surprise and a great privelige to taste these older champagnes. This I am sure was a new experience for many members on the tour. The overwhelming impression was the freshness these wines retained and a wonderful indication of how well champagnes evolves if kept in good cellaring conditions. After lunch we were taken on an excellent tour of the cellars by Etienne Goutorbe.

Later that evening after we had almost recovered from our lunch, we went on to have a tasting of champagnes from the Montagne de Reims and Vallee de la Marne regions of champagne.