The next morning we started the day at Champagne Tarlant in the village of Œuilly, around 120 km north of Troyes.
After a quick walk through the vineyards, we headed down to the cellar. On the way we passed through a series of small limestone cellars that felt like a labyrinth before reaching the larger cellar. I absolutely loved these little caves. There is just something magical about them. The cool limestone, thousands of bottles quietly ageing and the history that surrounds them. We don’t really have anything like this in South Africa.
Once we reached the tasting room, Jean-Mary joined us and we worked our way through the Zero Brut Nature, Zero Rosé Brut Nature, BAM!, La Vigne d’Antan and the Cuvée Louis Tarlant. Thank you very much for taking the time to host us. It was a wonderful visit.
From Tarlant we drove through to Aÿ, near Épernay, where we met Laurent Parizot and Thierry for lunch. The meeting had kindly been arranged by our mutual friend, Paul Gerber from Colmant in South Africa.
It was great getting to know Laurent and Thierry. Both have visited South Africa several times, so a good part of the conversation revolved around South African wine, vineyards and the people they had met during their visits. Thank you once again for a wonderful lunch and for your generous hospitality.
After lunch we headed to Nicolas Feuillatte. After spending the previous two days visiting mostly smaller family producers, the scale of the operation was something else. Nicolas Feuillatte is the largest Champagne producer by volume, if my memory serves me right, bringing together around 5,000 growers through more than 80 cooperatives across the Champagne region. It was fascinating to see how such a large cooperative operates and just how much Champagne passes through their facilities every year.
By late afternoon we climbed back into the cars and headed north to Reims, where we would spend the last day and a half of the trip.
