Good wine can always be measured the day after and we all awoke fresh and keen for Pol Roger, where we were met by James Simpson MW and then just after the cellar visit by Christian de Billy (long since retired and representing the family).

If Gratien, visited the day before, is about tradition and small scale, Pol is about modernity and an annual production in excess of 1.5m bottles. No barrels here, instead gleaming stainless steel and with half the grapes coming from Pol’s own vineyards. The quality factor in Champagne depends on a quite complex succession of stages and one little something can make a huge difference. At Pol Roger one crucial element in the process is the depth of the cellars which is just a few feet deeper than at Gratien and just a fraction cooler. It means that the wines need more time, at least four years for the non-vintage Brut Reserve.

I have to admit to a penchant for chardonnay-only Champagne, an aberration for some, but for me an expression in finesse that is rarely captured in any other wine and Pol Roger make one of the loveliest. It is not made every year but we were treated to a glass of the newly released 2000 vintage. ‘Absolutely sublime’ was my note.

Pol Roger is of course also about Churchill, their best known customer who as of this month has a street name after him in Epernay. Indeed Pol Roger is situated at 1 rue Sir Winston Churchill. A coincidence? His memory also survives in an outstanding cuvée named Sir Winston Churchill and made in a style the great man would have approved and we were served a glass of the very full-bodied, pinot dominated 1999 vintage.

Bollinger

What better contrast could follow Pol and Churchill than Bollinger and Bond (and Ab Fab!)?

Here we were back with tradition: barrels, even more than the 1,000-odd we saw at Gratien. Bollinger goes one better and has its own cooper who maintains and restores the collection of barrels (bought second hand from Burgundy). Bollinger’s fortune is to be almost self sufficient: the only grapes they have to buy are the pinot meunier from the Marne Valley which is an ingredient in the non-vintage. The vineyards even include a patch of pre-phylloxera vines just by the Château.

What is unique about Bollinger? Unquestionably its holdings of pinot noir in Aÿ, which delivers big powerful wines that are at the core of the Bollinger style. So too is its treatment of reserve wine, essential for maintaining the consistency of the non-vintage Brut. At both Gratien and Pol this is kept in tank, a blend of one or two vintages. At Bollinger, the reserve wine is kept amazingly enough in magnum, under slight pressure and stoppered with a natural cork. This represents an amazing collection of wine going back many vintages and used judiciously in the make up of the Non-Vintage Brut.

Inevitably, the Bollinger visit finished with a dinner and a chance to savour over food the very fine 2002 Grande Année.

Louis Roederer

The following morning we had to leave the Marne Valley and drive over the “mountain” to Reims, there to sample a wine of the Tsars at Louis Roederer. There is a very fine bust of Alexander II which I can’t help but admire. It was he after all who emancipated the serfs in 1861.

Just as Pol Roger found success in the United Kingdom, so Louis Roederer found favour in Russia, supplying the Imperial court with what was then a sweet Champagne poured from a unique bottle made of clear glass and no punt which could not hide any device that might injure His Imperial Majesty. Such was the birth of the first luxury cuvée: Cristal.

This final visit was intended to encompass everything we had seen before. Of the four Houses visited, this is the largest – almost the size of Pol and Bollinger combined. Like Bollinger, it is largely self sufficient and owns well over 200ha of vineyard, more often than not in the best locations. Like Pol, wines are mostly vinified in stainless steel but reserve wines are kept in large oak vats, as are the wines used for the liqueur de tirage.

During the days of the Tsars, the style was undoubtedly sweet. Tastes have changed and today Champagne tends to be a dry wine. Yet the opulence and richness remains at Roederer and the wine, exemplified perfectly by the Brut Premier has a wonderful creamy quality.

But of course this members’ visit was a red carpet affair and we were treated to a delicious buffet. Cristal 2002 was served en magnum and our jaws collectively dropped but for me, the sublime moment was the rosé. Chez Roederer, it is always a vintage and always made using a blend of white and rosé wine rather than the usual red. It means that the colour is much paler, but what fragrance, what finesse.

All good things come to an end. This has been a wonderful experience for all of us and we are left with wonderful memories and a wonderful taste in the month. But after Roederer and the Tsars it was time to get back across the Channel.

Marcel Orford-Williams
Champagne Buyer