Thanks to Instagram and Facebook, most of my acquaintances and friends know I took a trip to the U.K. and France in January. I thought this would be appropriate material for this bits & bobs piece today.
Yes, there are places in Reims you probably shouldn’t randomly drive into. On our way to a tour of Taittinger, we simply plugged Taittinger into the GPS. It lead us, not to the Champagne house. It took us to Rue de Taittinger, a working class neighborhood that did not seem like the place to jump out and ask directions…Just saying. Fortunately, Susie found a map with the correct address and off we went. I’m sure the folks in the neighborhood were fine, I probably was just being an insecure tourist.
Speaking of Taittinger, I have to say that for my first tour of a Champagne house, Sophi did an excellent job and I walked away in awe. In one cave alone (and there were several of these) 67,000 bottles of Champagne were stored for aging. The cool part…They were all stacked on top of each other, not in boxes, but naked bottles stacked on their sides getting ready to be shipped off to wherever in the world they would land.
We stopped at Epernay on our way to the Chateau in Etoges an out-of-the-way spot with an amazing hotel and restaurant (I have to give Susie credit for finding this place). Epernay is a very cute little town with very friendly folks. We ate at a nice little spot and went off to our Chateau. Beautiful country that I have to go back to soon.
We spent a couple of nights in Paris and did all the tourist stuff and ate really good food as you do. I introduced Susie to Condrieu from Guigal. She became an immediate fan. We had it at a very cool restaurant called La Capole which looked like it was straight out of the fifties. I guess it was a spot that Ernest Hemingway frequented in his day. Amazing staff and the seafood was fantastic.
Back in England I was enjoying the great prices on Champagne and we consumed a fair amount, in particular Nicolas Feuillatte which I was picking up for the equivalent of around $25. a bottle. Not bad when you can pay on average $39. on our side of the pond. I want to give a quick shout-out to Susie’s friend Meg who is a fantastic and gracious hostess. She let us use her house as a base from which we explored Susie’s old stomping grounds in London and surrounding areas. I had a great time hanging with Meg, Susie and her other friends.
Of course, Susie had to show me a place she worked in London many years ago…Harrods. For those of you that don’t know, this is one of THE most famous department/grocery stores in London. Place is huge, crowded with tourists and quite expensive. I got a couple of things there and got out! It was nice to experience it, but I have no desire to go back.
One of our trips south of London took us to Surrey, specifically Peaslake to meet a couple of Susie’s friends who live there. They took us to a nice winery with the most planted vineyards in the U.K. Denbies Wine Estate produces some excellent sparklers at some amazing prices and of course I had to make a couple of purchases. While we were tasting, they told us that many of the estates in Champagne are looking to buy up land in the area, because the soils are mostly chalk based and perfect for growing grapes for sparkling wine. By the taste of the product coming from that dirt, I would have to agree.
Susie and I had a great time and plan on returning in the future. By the way, I am bummed that Atlanta could not maintain their strong lead in the Super Bowl and allowed the pesky Patriots to come back in a thriller that ended in over-time with another Pats victory. I really hate the Patriots (going back to the Grogan era), and now have to stop watching Sports Center for at least three months. You know all they’re going to talk about is how great Brady (Deflate Gate), Belichick (Spy Gate) and the Patriots are. NO THANKS!
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
