Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Summer red wine recommendation

It's interesting, going back a few hundred years, that the French regarded "fizzy" wine as a failure, and sold a lot of it to England where it was enjoyed.
But, somewhere along the line that attitude changed and champagne, in particular, became rather pricey!

I agree Alistair that Domaine Carneros is excellent, but the local Mumm Napa product many experts rate higher than the French Mumm and Domaine Chandon is also highly rated.

English Nyetimber has done extremely well in a blind tasting in Paris, has this got shades of the Judgement of Paris in 1976? Certainly as I advised previously, Taittinger is not the only champagne house to have bought land in the south-east of England so we can expect more such initiatives in the future.

I've been quite impressed with Nyetimber on the occasions that I have tasted it. The issue I have with it is one of pricing; it's more expensive than Taittinger (which is one of my references when it comes to shampoo). I buy excellent champagne from lesser known Champagne houses such as Pannier and Haton, getting even their superior cuvées or vintage champers or for far less money.

On our recent trip around Europe we made our first and last stop in the Champagne region to celebrate finally doing the trip and having done the trip we promised ourselves for so long.

The range of champagnes in both locations was fantastic and left me lost for choosing something. The sommelier knew so much about them that I let him choose and it was great.

The Nyetimber we have tried has been quite variable, some great but quite a few poor ones. As you say it is rather expensive as well.

We have a couple of regular stops in Champagne that we can recommend for future stays Alistair, firstly Chateau d'Etoges is very good value and an excellent kitchen. It's popular with several motor clubs, including continental ones - there were Porsche's from Belgium last time we stopped.

If we want to push the boat out a bit more, then Domaine Les Crayeres is really well worth the experience. The 2-star Michelin restaurant is excellent, but expensive. The very upmarket Brasserie in the grounds is also good and the service and the rooms in the hotel are spectacular.

The house was built by Louise Pommery, a remarkable woman in Champagne and it also said the inventor of the Brut style, as her personal residence and Champagne Pommery is well worth a visit as the cellars are interesting with long carved reliefs of Bacchus celebrating wine on the walls. Unfortunately the Champagne house now suffers from a lack of investment as it is part of Vranken Pommery Monopole and Paul Vranken favours his own name Champagne.

Our own favourite of the Grande Marques is Bollinger, who own Ayala also based in Aÿ, and we also have a commercial relationship with the group which is convenient.

How funny !

Chateau d'Etoges was the very place we stopped on the way down. I could not agree more re the quality. They saved a spot under the awning for the Morgan. Stunning setting.

On the return it was L'Assiette Champenoise near to Reims which I have to say was stunning. The service in the restaurant was old world perfect. The hotel was modern French and spotless.

Thank you for the recommendation of Domaine Les Crayeres I will make certain we look into that for the next trip. Ayala is stocked by our local vintner so I will look into that one.

How wonderful is this forum !

That's quite a coincidence Alistair! Glad to hear that you liked the hotel and that they looked after your Aero! I don't know L'Assiette Champenoise, but looking at the website it looks interesting and very nice, so we'll try it when we travel on our own through Champagne, especially as it's a Relais & Chateau.

Did you go to the Circuit de Reims-Gueux as it's very close to Tinqueux and photos of Morgan's against the old pit buildings do look super.

Lastly, the Ayala Champagnes are very nice, it does have a recognisable family taste profile but is not as biscuity as Bollinger. One of their strengths is in Zero or Low Dosage Champagne, and the mainly Chardonnay based Rose is the polar opposite of Laurent Perrier Rose. Well worth trying...

Very, very, very, very belated Thank You. You can tell by my answer that it's been a while since I came into this forum for the last time...