Dulwich Wine Society in Champagne and Chablis

The Dulwich Wine Society goes on a foreign vineyard tour each year. This year was to the Aube and the Yonne. DOV contributor Greville Havenhand was one of the organisers.

Ten years ago two or three of the Dulwich Wine Society’s members decided it would be a good idea to organise a foreign tour. Champagne was the nearest area, they knew a simple hotel and worked out an itinerary. Eight members thought that they would try. Friends and family brought up the numbers to sixteen. The idea caught on and now there have been eleven tours – ten in France and one in Spain.

This year the group decided to go to Southern Champagne (the Aube or Cotes-de -Bar) and to Chablis in the Department of the Yonne. Recession meant that the numbers were down from about thirty to a mere twenty-one.

On the Tuesday after Easter we arrived at the hotel Le Val-Moret  in Magnant. Cars had come via ferry and tunnel. Two let the train take the strain – one of those after flying from Seattle . We have a loyal far-flung membership. The earlier arrival settled down for a drink on the terrace – all except for on who went on an eighteen kilometre run. The sun shone, everything looked fine and then – bang – the start of a spectacular storm with torrential rain and hail that settled to a depth of at least two inches.

The problem was that the rooms were dotted around the hotel grounds and it was almost too wet to get into the main building, so a dozen or so huddled damply under a tiny verandah and waited. Things, as they say, could only get better.

A champagne reception and a regional meal revived spirits ready for the first visit of the trip. This was to a small champagne producer “Louise Brison”.  Hugh Johnson’s ‘Pocket Wine Book’ rates it an “Ace Aube producer – champagne to watch for 2009.” It is not wrong. Winemaker Delphine Brulez and her proprietor father say that their champagnes are food wines, so, even though it was only 10 o’clock, the tasting was accompanied by a variety of superb small titbits. They only make a relatively small amount of wine but if you can find it, buy it.

The afternoon saw two contrasts. First there was a tasting of very different champagne at Domaine Marcel Vézien which also makes the rare  Rosé de Riceys – a pink still wine made from Pinot Noir around the villages of Ricey. An interesting oddity! Rarer still was the Champagne de Six Cépages at Champagne Moutard. It is commonly thought that Champagne can only be made from three grapes – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. There are older varieties permitted but hardly ever used: Pinot Meslier, Pinot Blanc and Arbane. In the hands of Monsieur Moutard they combine to make an elegant, complex wine, f ull of fruit and flower flavours. It is not cheap but it is delicious.

If it is Thursday it must be Chablis -but not only Chablis. The first stop was at Les Temps Perdus, the home and winery of the individualistic winemaker Clotilde Davenne. For many years she was the winemaker for one of the larger Chablis producers but now she works for herself. Not only does she make the full range of  Chablis but also superb Sauvignon de St. Bris. Irancy, Bourgogne Rouge and Blanc. (Chablis is, in case you had forgotten, Burgundy.)

As well as presenting about a dozen of her wines Clotilde Davenne gave an explanation of a year in the vineyard.

This was among the vines outside her house. She had turned a derelict piece of land into a flourishing vineyard but because of the vagaries of the French Appellation system the wine from it can only be called “Bourgogne Blanc” and not Chablis.

After lunch in Chablis there was a visit to Pascal Bouchard, a much larger Chablis producer with a large modern winery on the edge of the town, all stainless steel and new oak. (Clotilde Davenne spurns the use of oak) . Here there were a great array of Chablis, including some from the private domain of our dashing guide Romain Bouchard.

Just to satisfy those who craved red wine we went to L’Abbé de Petit Quincy in Epineuil to taste the eponymous wine; the most northerly in Burgundy.

Only one visit on Friday, to Champagne Drappier, considered to be the “Grande Marque” of the Aube  and proud to have been the supplier to Charles de Gaulle. With cellars dating from the twelfth century and an elegant main building it was a fitting setting for a final visit and great Champagne.

The highlight, or perhaps lowlight of this visit was that with the whole group in a large lift a member of the party tried to open the door. The emergency button did not work, there was no mobile phone signal. It was probably only a few minutes that we were in there but it was long enough for many a dramatic anecdote back home.

You might think that vast quantities of wine are consumed on these occasions but most people follow the taster’s principle -”swirl, sniff, sip, spit.”  The drinking is left until the evening.

Dinner on the last night

If you are interested in DWS have a look at www.dulwich-wine-society.co.uk.