Pop the cork! We’re off to champagne!
Organized by our hostess Sharon Santoni our day trip to champagne proved to be both stunning and memorable.
As we left Paris, the fall sunlight gave the Seine and surrounding buildings a warm, elegant glow that only autumn light can achieve.
The hour-long drive to Champagne detoured from the motorway down little country lanes for a magnificent view of the countryside highlighting freshly picked vines just starting to turn to their seasonal colors.
Our destination was Domain Boizel. A small yet imposing champagne house founded in 1834. Today the sixth generation of Boizel’s run this jewel of a boutique cave, producing around 500,000 bottles a year which is some of the sought after bubby on the planet.
Past generators have toiled through drought, depression, and war to preserve the unique taste of their family’s vintage. Only a family member can make Boizel champagne. There is no magic formula rather each generation learning from the other develops a particular style of winemaking that is uniquely theirs.
Our tour including viewing both the modern winemaking machinery,
alongside the laying of the lees and riddling of the bottles that make the making of Champagne so challenging.
A little history, because I can’t resist. The Avenue Champagne in Epernay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lined with the great house with caves and cellars, dug out mostly by hand from the chalky limestone, underneath with long galleries linking them directly with the canal and subsequently the railway line.
Famous residents of the avenue include such great names as Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët, Boizel, and Pol Roger.
Historically this is the road to Germany an age-old route for goods transport and several notable invasions. War and invasion took a heavy toll on Champagne, yet some bottles of historic interest were saved. We even had a tiny peek at some of the wines from 1894, 1917, and 1941 that has somehow miraculously made it tough the first and second world wars.
As we were leaving the cellar walking up a long flight of stairs, I spied a door. “Where does that go?” I asked. “To our neighbor Pol Roger”
After our delightful tour, the tasting was presided over by Madam Boizel herself.
She is a force of nature, and you can read her story in Sharon’s lovely book, My Stylish French Girl Friends. As madam said, ” My neighbor Pol Roger could come here mix my grapes, but it would still not be a Boizel Campagne.”
They are friends and competitors who have lasted the test of time and violent history.
We can all pop a cork to that.
After fond farewells and purchasing a gorgeous scarf…. We were off to lunch. But that adventure will have to wait for another post.
xoxo Lydia
