Day 9              Sunday 10 June, 2012: Mystery Tour.

We had an early start to the day as everyone had to be on the bus by 8 o'clock to head off on our mystery tour. This year we headed off to Luxembourg city for the day. Remarkably everyone was wide awake and in good health as we traversed the beautiful country side of north eastern France before crossing into Luxembourg.

On arriving in Luxembourg we immediately caught a hop on hop off bus for a tour of the city.
After the bus tour everyone headed off in different directions to discover the city by foot.

We rendez voused at 4.00pm and headed back to Reims with a couple of traveller glasses of champagne to help the miles roll by.

Day 8              Saturday 9 June 2012: Reims.

Saturday was our first full day in Reims and and it was also a rest day so everyone had a leisurely start to the day before heading out to explore the city as well as visit the fabulous market which stretches on forever in the streets of Reims.

No doubt some shopping also took place and maybe even a glass of champagne was consumed during the day. You can never have too much champagne.

In the evening it was off to dine at the one star Michelin restuarant Le Grand Cerf. Our dinner at Le Grand Cerf is certainly one of the culinary high lights of the tour. It is a joy to see the look of admiration on everyones face as dish after dish is delivered to our table. We dined late into the night but we also had to be mindful of our early start the next morning for our mystery tour.

Day 7              Friday 8 June 2012 Aÿ: Billecart-Salmon

 

Friday was our last day in Ay and so we packed our bags and said good by to the Goutorbe family, our hosts for the past four days at Castrel Jeanson before heading of to the neighbouring village to visit Billecart-Salmon. The popularity of this visit is confirmed by the activity in the shop at the end of our tour.

 

During our visit to Billecart-Salmon we were taken on an excellent tour of their underground cellars which look like something out of a horror movie as the mould hangs down from the ceiling due to the high level of humidity.

 

Claudia, our guide placed special emphasis on the cold temperatures of the fermentation tanks and how important this was for quality and the Billecart style. We also saw the new wood aging facility before tasting the first release of a Billecart wood aged champagne called 'Sous Bois'

 

 



Day 6              Thursday 7 June 2012 Aÿ: Joseph Loriot-Pagel.  

We started the day with a bus drive along the beautiful Marne Valley to the idyllic village of Festigny where we were met by Joseph, Odile and Jean-Paul Loriot. The Loriot's took us to their vineyard to give us a close up look at the vines and the way that they are pruned as well as providing us with a spectacular panoramic view of the Valley in which they are situated.

 

Afterwards we took in a tour of the Loriot cellars before Joseph gave us demonstration of how champagne was disgorged by hand.

 

The hand disgorging was followed by lunch with the Loriots in their cellars where we ate our way through a truely gourmet lunch accompanied by the Joseph Loriot-Pagel Carte D'Or, Cuvee Reserve 2006, Blanc de Blancs 2005, Rose and a fabulous Jeraboam of 1997 Blanc de Blancs.

 

Lunch finished at 4.00pm and it was back onto the bus for the quiet drive back to our Hotel.

Day 5              Wednesday 6 June 2012: Aÿ, Deutz

We had a very leisurely start to Day 5 of the tour as we had a mere 50 metres to walk from our Hotel Castel Jeanson to the Deutz mansion for the start of our visit to Champagne Deutz. We were met by Jean-Marc Lallier Deutz who provided us with an extensive tour of the cellars including the disgorging and bottling lines. We also saw the recently built cellars before returning to the cellars for a tasting of the Deutz Brut Classic NV and Deutz 2006.

After the tasting we then retired to the Chairmans dinning room where we had a fabulous lunch matched with the Blanc de Blancs 2007, the Cuvee William Deutz 1999 and the Cuvee William Deutz Rose 2002. Simply a stunning line up of champagnes.





After lunch we had a free afternoon and so everyone headed into Epernay to take in the sights.