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GREETINGS FROM REIMS

Snow on the Montagne de Reims last Thursday, cold and windy, wearing all my warm clothes – even the Remois are saying that temperatures haven’t been this cold for some years, perhaps since childhood. Certainly, it’s never been as chilly in all the many times that I’ve been here in April.

Printemps Des Champagnes, the annual grower event, is back with all the old attendees from the global champagne industry and a very healthy batch of younger new ones. There are now 27 groups exhibiting still wines and finished champagnes over the four days. It is physically impossible to manage to visit everybody in that time, let alone taste a few still wines and a further few champagnes from each. The Terres et Vins group was inconveniently situated in Épernay, in a cold, poorly lit cellar under the excellent new museum of champagne wine and archaeology in Chateau Perrier, on the Ave de Champagne. Add the logistics of travelling Reims–Épernay–Reims on the busiest day of Printemps, and you’ll understand the hard work it requires. But one feels compelled to make the effort to ’take the temperature’ of some of the very best growers in the inaugural group of 2009. 

The best events were those with a limit on the number of attendees in comfortable well-lit rooms such as in the beautiful Town Hall in Reims, the restaurant area of Les Crayères, and the function room of the smart new hotel, La Caserne de Chanzy near the cathedral. The Cercle Colbert is also a good location for a smaller number of exhibitors, likewise the circus of Le Manège.

It was quite blissful during Printemps to sit down at a table for a couple of the excellent masterclasses, and following Printemps, to be (almost) alone visiting a couple of the small maisons.

There will be a full report in my next newsletter.

Kaaren Palmer
26 April 2023

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