Day 4              Tuesday June 5, H. Blin and Henri Goutorbe.

We had another full day in front of us on Day 4 as we set off for H. Blin winery at 9.30 am. H. Blin is a mid sized co-operative in the Marne Valley which produces excellent champagne and a leading example of this is their 2004 vintage. On arrival we were met by the ebulient Jerome Blin who took us on an entertaining tour of the H. Blin cellars whilst explaining the process of Champagne production. After the tour Jerome started to pop the corks and we then tasted the Blin Non Vintage, Blanc de Blancs, Rose and vintage 2004 before climbing back on the bus at midday.

 

right, Jerome Blin

 

The bus then took us back to our Hotel and from there we walked the 100 metres to the Goutorbe winery where the Goutorbe family had prepared a fabulous and seemingly endless lunch matched with a wonderful selection of their champagnes. We tasted the Goutorbe Cuvee Prestige and non vintage champagnes as well as the 2004 and Special Club 2004. Rene Goutorbe continued to bring out older vintages of the Special Club stretching back to the early 90's during our lunch and we also tasted a Coteaux Champagne dry red Pinot Noir made by Ettiene Goutorbe. After lunch Etteinne showed us their recently restored Citroen from the 1930's before set out on a tour of the cellars.

 

Pre lunch drinks at Goutorbe Winery.

The beautiful old Citroen.

 

That evening we had our first champagne master class where we looked at a range of Blanc de Blancs champagnes including Taittenger Comtes de Champagne 2000, Pierre Peters 2004 and Pol Roger 2000.