Saumur Wines

Part 5 returns after the holiday rush, making now an ideal time to revisit my Champagne trip from last May. If you’re planning a summer getaway, I recommend this trip — check out my earlier blogs to get an idea of various other houses I visited as well as some general tips on Reims and Epernay. Continuing the tour, this was to be our very first day where we only visited one Champagne house (terrible I know), before having a bit more free time to explore the region around Epernay. However, it was…

Welcome to part 4, which is a little overdue. We now take the tour from the mighty city of Reims to the smaller commune of Epernay, the principal trading post for Champagne in the region and home to many of the oldest, most prestigious houses. The drive between the two iconic Champagne locations is a joy in itself. Straight through the middle of the national park, I think there was only a 10-minute stretch in a wooded area that you couldn’t see sweeping vineyards and various other recognisable…

Domaines Paul Jaboulet Aîné was founded in The Rhone Valley in 1834 in the town of Tain L'Hermitage by Antoine Jaboulet and his sons, Paul and Henry. In 1919 they acquired the very famous Saint-Christophe chapel at the top of the renowned Hermitage vineyard. You'll have likely seen this crop up in pictures of Rhone vineyards without realising it! With the death of Gerard Jaboulet in 1997, the house saw its fortunes fall as the family business fell into disarray and the wine went downhill. It was…