Champagne – grand houses and great little growers

In 2013 I was delighted to win the Champagne scholarship as part of my WSET Diploma studies. These pages are mainly based on the resulting visit in March 2013. This was a real education (a very pleasurable one) in itself, a crash course in the remarkable diversity of Champagne styles in this the most technical of wines.

• • Champagne scholarship 2013 – how an Italian sparkling wine led to a trip to Champagne

• • Avenue de Champagne, Épernay – the Champagne lover’s street of dreams!

• • Effervescence – the visual excitement of Champagne in the glass

• • Options in Champagne – the growers’ wines of Laherte and Bérêche

• • Alfred Gratien – traditionalist on the move

• • Blending at Beaumont des Crayères – what a small, special cooperative can achieve

• • Ruinart – the art of good company – a grand house with remarkable cellars

• • Bollinger – quality in the long term – the factors which lead to consistently great wines

• • Aesthetic delights at the Restaurant Foch, Reims – gastronomy that looks as good as it tastes

• • Deconstructing sparkling wine – a master class on sparkling wine styles with Martin Hudson MW

• • Ayala and Bollinger for starters – preparing for the trip to Champagne

• • Top glasses – a brief stop-over at André Jacquart, Vertus

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March/April 2013