Kaaren Palmer
is a multi-award winning author and educator
on the subject of her passion – Champagne.
Dame-Chevalier
Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne
Gourmand International
Food and Wine Book Awards
Winner Best French Wine Book 2016
Winner Best of the Best
Gourmand International
World Cookbook Awards 25 Years
To read Kaaren Palmer’s full biography
please click here
web site last updated May 15 2024
GREETINGS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET!
Yours truly has been in Helsinki attending Grand Champagne Helsinki. What an event! Masterclasses where you actually learn something new – insights into the product, and perspectives on cultivation, production and distribution. And so many champagne producers offering marvellous tastes of rare and old vintages! You have to pay for them of course, but it’s the availability; nowhere else is it all within one function centre, in this case the historic Old Student House in central Helsinki….click here to read Kaaren Palmers May – June 2024 newsletter
MAY 15 2024
FROM THE 23RD OF APRIL UNTIL THE END OF JUNE 2024
Kaaren Palmer will be travelling extensively in Europe and of course spending time in Champagne.
Kaaren is attending some exclusive tastings and is joining some Champagne friends for an especially curated private Champagne tour.
The best way to enjoy Kaaren’s activities while she is travelling is to follow her on Facebook…click here
MARCH 31 2024
CHAMPAGNE NEWS FEBRUARY-MARCH 2024
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 22 2024 KAAREN PALMER
CHAMPAGNE NEWS DECEMBER 2023
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 5 2023 KAAREN PALMER
CHAMPAGNE NEWS SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2023
PUBLISHED JULY 26 2023 KAAREN PALMER
CHAMPAGNE NEWS JULY – AUGUST 2023
Always a lot happening in the world of Champagne…click here to read Kaaren Palmer’s July – August newsletter. The world’s most favourite Champagne houses and this month’s best buys.
PUBLISHED JULY 26 2023 KAAREN PALMER
CHAMPAGNE STUDIES
PUBLISHED JUNE 26 2023 KAAREN PALMER
THREE DAYS IN REIMS
A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE FABULOUS REGION OF CHAMPAGNE AND REIMS
If you’ve been thoroughly bitten by the champagne bug, you’ll enjoy three or more days in Reims with a list of ‘musts’ from a city where many sites are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Make sure that you book – even at wine bars read on
PUBLISHED JUNE 14 2023 KAAREN PALMER
ONLY A DAY IN CHAMPAGNE?
It’s possible – if you prune the suggestions. Tasting champagne at Champagne Houses along the rightly famed Avenue de Champagne, at bars run by individual growers or groups, and building up a thirst at the Museum of Champagne and Regional Archaeology, are among the highlights……read on.
REVISED AND REVISITED MAY 7 2023…KAAREN PALMER
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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where houses showed their still wines and finished champagnes.
Worksheets
Worksheets, so very important for structuring your own tastings are available here or from the CHAMPAGNE drop down on the main navigation.