Winemaker Tony Rasselet with Jerome and Simone Blin.

The Loriot family, Joseph is opening the Jeraboam.

Joseph Loriot in the Loriot vineyard.

Day 6, Thursday June 3 . Thursday always promised to be a big day as we were in for a treat with a visit to Joseph Loriot-Pagel which included lunch in the winery. This would then be followed by a visit to H. Blin.

We arrived at Loriot's at around 10.00am and we immediately took the bus up into one of the Loriot's vineyards. They call this vineyard 'Moscow' because it is the coldest vineyard to work in during winter. Here Jean-Philippe and his father Joseph talked us through the intricacies of the champagne terroir, the soil, the aspect of the vineyard and the weather conditions.

This was followed by a tour of the winery. Theirs was the smallest winery we visited on the tour but also one of the most modern. Recently built within the past 10 years, great attention has been paid to design and layout. This reflects the Loriot family's careful approach to winemaking as the quality of the final product would suggest.

After the tour of the winery we sat down to lunch where we enjoyed an aperatif of 1997 Cuvee de Reserve from Jeraboam. The remaining wines from the Loriot range were served with lunch which consisited of a spectacular Salmon mousse, Fillet de Beouf and Gateaux de Biscuit de Reims. People were asking Odile for the Salmon Mousse recipe whilst enjoying the endless Loriot hospitality. Everyone was enjoying lunch so much that our departure time of 2.00pm became 2.30 and eventually 2.45 as there was a great reluctance to move.

Consequently we were 40 minutes late in arriving at H. Blin and they were very gracious and understanding. Here we were met by Thomas Dewez, head of promotional activities for Blin and he explained the origins of Co-operative wineries in Champagne and the role they play today.

This was followed by a very enjoyable tour of the cellars and the bottling and labelling plant.

Thomas' greatest challenge was offering everyone a glass of champagne after their long lunch but everyone rose to the challenge and before long they were enjoying the fruits of winemaker Tony Rasselet's labour.

After the tour it was back onto the bus for the return journey to our Hotel but there would be no rest as we enjoyed a tasting of Blanc de Blancs champagnes from the Cotes des Blancs region soon after our return. The rest came afterwards with a quiet night in.