Sancerre, Chablis and Champagne - Oh My!
We are finishing this crazy five month trip with a bang (or a slosh) visiting some of the most well know wine destinations in this part of the world. Our journey took us from Burgundy west to Sancerre, then north to Chablis, before arriving at the Grand Dame of them all, Champagne. Take a deep breath and hike up your drinking drawers, because it’s about to get real.
After the drive from Burgundy to Sancerre we got stuck in straight away with our first tasting, which turned out to be our favourite. We met with winemaker and all round inspirational guy, Clément Pinard, from Domaine Vincent Pinard, in the little village of Bué. The family Pinard has been making wine here since the 16th Century, and over that time the family acquired land in some of the most prestigious areas of Sancerre. But as you know by now, location is only part of the story. Although there’s a trend these days towards more natural wines, the Pinards have been farming this way for hundreds of years. They’ve always fiddled with the land and the vines as little as possible but Clément and his brother Florent have are taking that even further. Instead of producing as much wine as possible, they instead drastically limit yields, harvest only by hand to select only the very best grapes, use nothing artificial, ferment grapes from each parcel of land separately and do not filter the wine.
I’m going to pause for a moment for all you folks reading this who have tried and disliked organic wine. Right now you’re conjuring up an image of cloudy, unfiltered wine that tastes like armpit, and you’re probably already thinking these wines are not for you. And you’d be very wrong indeed. Most of the best organic wine producers don’t put even put organic on their labels because of the bad reputation (thanks armpit guys!) and the excessive paperwork and cost involved. So you may already be drinking organic wine without knowing it. But organic is just part of the story of Clément’s wines. Every single thing they do in the vineyard and in the winery is designed for minimal interference so you can taste the wine as it’s truly meant to be. The experts say this makes their wines “rich and elegant” and “expressive and aromatic” or if you’re looking for specifics “A white flower and citrus oil nose followed by a fantastically clear palate of lime pith, rock salt, nectarine and apple blossom.” Good heavens man, sit down and take a breath. Where do they find these wine critics? If you’re looking for the layperson’s opinion then take it from me, every one of the wines we tried was absolutely bloody delicious.
Clément was also kind enough to open up his private cellar and bring out a Cuvée Flores from 1997, which sent us all into a moment of silent ecstasy. Because there’s so little manipulation or interference with the wines, they age beautifully and even one that’s decades old is still fresh, bright and delicious. If I drink enough of it maybe it’ll have the same effect on me as I age? Mr T seemed unsure but I’ll give it a shot anyway. All in the name of science you understand.
The Sancerre region has a lot of really lovely villages and towns to explore, as well as some spectacular views from the hilltops around. The town of Sancerre itself is perched high above the rolling vineyards and dominates the skyline. It’s ridiculously pretty which is why I couldn’t stop snapping pictures as you can see below. I went into full tourist mode making poor Mr T anchor up and swerve across the road at a moments notice, which did wonders for his nerves as you can imagine. Sorry Sancerre, we were officially “those tourists” for a moment. We spent a few hours wandering around the narrow streets and plazas of Sancerre, as well as the villages of Chavignol and Verdigny but there’s much more to see if only we’d had the time.
Aside from the excellent wine, this area is also known for it’s outstanding goat’s cheese, Crottin de Chavignol, which you really must try. We were lucky enough to be staying in the village of Chavignol which, despite only having 200 inhabitants, is the home of the best cheese in the Loire. Head to Fromagerie Dubois- Boulay for a pretty epic cheese experience, you can eat it warm or cold with some great wines there at the shop or get a bag to take away. Or both if you fancy, no judgement here, just admiration.
So, full of cheese and great wine, off we went to our next destination. Like Sancerre, Chablis is known for great whites but instead of Sauvignon Blanc, the grapes are mostly Chardonnay. If you’re one of the millions of people who sidle up to the bar and say “give me a white wine, anything but Chardonnay,” get yourself to Chablis and start drinking, my friend. You’ll find that actually you do like Chardonnay, you just don’t like crap Chardonnay. And fair enough too.
I’d suggest the best way to start your Chablis experience is a visit to Domaine Savary in the village of Maligny. Olivier Savary and his wife, Francine, have been growing grapes here since the 80s and finally started bottling their own wine in 1990 after years of selling their grapes to other people. They have a reputation for not only fantastic wines but for being some of the hardest working vignerons around. All that hard work has paid off and now they are incredibly well respected winemakers. Olivier’s son Mathieu showed us around the winery, he and his brother make up the rest of the family team, and talked us through their line up of four whites and one red. You know what I’m going to say don’t you? Yes I did love them all but don’t take my word for it. Famed wine guru Kermit Lynch raved about Olivier’s “brilliance” and says Domaine Savary is highly regarded in these parts. See, I told you. Listen to me kid, you’ll go far.
The wonderful Mathieu Savary
Other great Chablis tipples to look out for include the wines from Domaine Louis Michel & Fils, which is right there in town and have a lovely tasing room which is also dog friendly if you have a furry friend in tow. Also you would do well to try some wines from legendary Chablis producers Domaine Raveneau, such as the Chablis Grand Cru Valmur 2011 or Domaine Dauvissat Premier Cru La Forest 2016. Not only are they epic wines, buying them in Chablis rather than other places around the world will likely save you a fortune.
Be still my beating heart!
Somewhat blurry eyed, we dragged our wine soaked bodies to Champagne for the grand wine finale. If like me you’ve looked forward to visiting a certain destination for years and imagined what it must be like, there’s always a chance it’s won’t live up to expectation. No such worry in Champagne though, I’d venture to guess it will be as tremendous as you think. It certainly was for us.
The only challenge in Champagne is being able to visit the smaller producers the way we have on the rest of the trip, so everything that isn’t Moët, Veuve, Tattinger and the like is tough. It seemed to be a lot harder than other regions, I assume because the demand for tastings is so high and many of these producers sell all their wine every year without ever having to host a tasting. But not to worry because we had a man on the inside. Our cosy and beautifully decorated Airbnb was actually inside a working winery, right in the centre of the famous Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. And the winery, Domaine Paul Launois, is run by the inspirational Julien Launois, a man who is doing things a little differently to anyone else in Champagne.
In a region known for doing the same thing the same way for decade after decade, Julien is one of the few people to approach champagne with real entrepreneurial spirit. The combination of living in Germany for a few years, then starting up his own bar and restaurant in Mexico, then living on a Norwegian cruise ship for a few more years has given Julien quite a different perspective to most of his peers in Champagne (and put him in the running to challenge the Dos Equis guy for Most Interesting Man in the World!) He’s also one of those guys who as soon as you shake his hand, you genuinely feel like you’re old friends.
Julien has created a completely different way of making and marketing champagne which allows you to get involved with the wine making process, and I’m not talking about squashing grapes with your feet. The approach is focused on single barrels of champagne, one client per barrel. Julien does the hard yards - he picks, presses, ferments and makes the wine each year. Then you go and taste what they call the “base” wine, so champagne without the bubbles, and decide on the type of fermentation you would like (there are two types). Then you choose a type of barrel toast, there are six to choose from light to heavy. All this may sound complicated, but all you have to do is try the different variations and pick the one you like the most - a sort of 'choose your own adventure' champagne but with guaranteed terrific wine at the end of it. I'll drink to that!
Now this isn’t for everyone of course because you buy the whole barrel (so that’s 260 bottles worth) and you have to wait a long time for it to age. But for many people this is an incredibly exciting option, a way to put your own personal stamp on champagne and something that has never really been done before, as far as I can tell. And Julien is selling out every year so he’s definitely on to something.
But none of this has been easy. To create this type of single barrel approach, Julien first had to purchase a larger winery, which he did from Billecart-Salmon five years ago. He also needed to leave the Champagne Co-operative in town and strike out on his own, which, on a social, political and business level, is an incredibly brave thing to do (I’m imagining the reaction from the co-operative to be like ‘Mean Girls’ meets ‘The Godfather’ but that’s just my assessment). But that shows you something about the internal fortitude of this young man. Quietly spoken and quick with a laugh he may be, but underestimate him at your peril.
Now of course if you want to buy bottles of Julien’s wine rather than a whole barrel, you can do that too, of course. And you absolutely should, we tried four and they were all fantastic. Julien is slowly ramping up international sales, the UK may be a little slim pickings for now, but demand in Napa is growing fast so you can find bottles in California for sure. Or you could come and stay with Julien when you visit Champagne and I promise you’ll walk out of there inspired.
Good fortune struck a second time when we found out we were in town for the annual Champagne En Fete, where eight villages get together and host tasting bars and different activities, with a bus service between each one. We managed just two, Cramant and then back to our own village, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. I’m no expert but I think the champagne from our particular village is some of the best in Champagne, we liked every one we tasted, so although it’s a mouthful of a name, definitely remember that one.
As an added bonus, at our village fete, the soft drinks were being sold by the Shadows Biker Group, which the WonderDog thought was the best thing ever. When I managed to tell their President in my very poor French that our dog’s name was Shadow, they made such a fuss of her that she was ready to hop on the back of a Harley and ride off into the sunset. She’s been begging for a “Ride or Die” T-shirt and a bandana ever since. Ain’t happening kiddo.
There’s one other place that you must visit in Champagne and that’s Larmandier-Bernier in Vertus. This has been one of my favourite champagnes for a few years now and after our visit, they’ve become even more of a love of mine. I didn’t realize before our visit, but all of their vineyards are biodynamic and have been for some time, which is quite rare in Champagne. When you taste the champagne, you can’t help but taste the difference and I’m quite certain you’ll be an admirer just like we are. Even though they are not a huge winery and still family run, they have great importer relationships around the world (because those guys know a good thing when they taste it) so you will definitely find their bottles in the US, UK and other markets. Again it’s a mouthful of a name but say it fast enough and no one will notice when you cock it up. Their Longitude is lovely but for real champagne heaven, try their Terra de Vertus, the single vintage one, it’s our absolute favourite.
And with that, our wine and champagne soaked adventure is at an end. I’m not going to say we’re wined out, but we’re switching to beer for the next part as we head up to Bruges, Belgium for the final stop on this crazy adventure. I can’t believe it’s almost over but I’m trying to be brave. See you in the land of great beer and amazing chocolate, where I’m fully expecting the waistband of my trousers to finally give in. Let’s hope I’m not in public when it does!
