Champagne
Having never heard a mermaid’ s sigh, I simply find pleasure in the celebratory `whoosh’ that signals the end of driving for that day. Supposedly James Bond, another arbiter of taste, would only drink Bollinger. At the release of Skyfall, Bollinger even created a cuvée in honour of 007, presented in a gun-silencer-shaped casket. Even more recently, 50 years of the Bond franchise were again celebrated in bubbly Bolly at this year’ s Oscars.
If this sparkling trail has whetted your appetite, consider an enlightening weekend with Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours. A serious Champagne education requires a tasting of twenty-five top vintages in a weekend, beginning at breakfast. That’ s in addition to visiting the great Champagne houses, such as Taittinger, Pol Roger and Veuve Cliquot, and also trying tiny, niche producers to choose the keenly-priced tipples for your own cellars.
On the( very winding) way home, we stop in Reims for a Champagne-fuelled tour of Taittinger, one of the most venerable Champagne houses, conveniently close to the grandiose cathedral. Royal Reims has also witnessed the crowning of French kings. The cellar tour is equally majestic, an entrée into a secret world straight out The Da Vinci Code. The beguiling cellars lie on the site of Gallo-Roman chalk mines and summon up mad monks, apparitions only dispelled by copious tastings of Taittinger. But, even here, in the royal capital, Champagne is a serious affair – beyond mere bubbles and balance sheets. Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger peruses de Gaulle’ s Memoirs for moral lessons and, mindful of the Champagne dynasty’ s duty to the region, has provided new stained glass for Reims Cathedral. Sparkling yet serious, Champagne is no bubbly blonde. ■
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