From Champagne to Bordeaux, through Burgundy and Alsace, to the Languedoc and beyond. France has so many wonderful regions and delicious wines – so where to start.
We have chosen 3 key regions to focus on in the coming year
Champagne:
Oscar Wilde famously stated “Only the unimaginative can fail to find a reason for drinking Champagne” Madame de Pompadour said, “Champagne is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it.”
John Maynard Keynes, “My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne,”
And as we say often here at GWO “the worst Champagne I ever drank was wonderful”
So Champagne is a good place to start. Reims (often spelt Rheims in English) is the capital of the champagne wine industry and many of the famous ‘champagne houses’ – or ‘les grandes marques’ and ‘grandes maisons de Champagne’ are located here. In fact there are around 200 kilometres of chalk tunnels under and around Reims, that house millions of bottles of champagne!
Reims offers lots for the lovers of art, culture and history too! And not to mention Epernay…
Domaine Pommery is one of the oldest and most prominent Champagne houses, with its huge 50 hectare estate located close to the famous Reims Cathedral and just a 30 minute’s walk from the train station. As well as the main Pommery house, built in an impressive Elizabethan, neo-gothic style, there are 18 km of underground cellars and 60 Gallo-Roman chalk pits, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In front of the Pommery House, is the magnificent mansion, ‘Villa Demoiselle’, an ‘Art Deco’ and ‘Art Nouveau’ treasure trove, lovingly restored by owners Nathalie and Paul-Francois Vranken.
We will be adding new regions over the next few months
Bordeaux
Loire
Alsace
Not quite ready and want to know more?