Champagne

I like to consider myself a fairly advanced travel planner, but sometimes you just need to tip your cap to serendipity. A week or two after booking my flight to Vancouver for a short winter vacation in February, I came to learn I’d be in the city at the same time as an international wine festival. Quickly scanning the festival schedule, I bought a ticket for a wine tasting event downtown. Three hours, a world’s worth of wines, and now, me.

Before the wine tasting kicked off and after polishing off a very large early dinner to fortify me, I went through the tasting program to find the wines I was most interested in trying. In that process I realized I was going to be taking a trip down taste memory lane from many of my past travels. Wine moreso than food or other drinks can bring my mind right back to a specific place and time.

Like a lot of other attendees, I circled one wine in particular – the Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle Champagne. Since coming back from France last spring and a magnificent trip to Reims, I have been more opportunistic in trying champagnes. Pushing close to $200 a bottle, there was a lineup for this wine most of the night. Anytime there was a break in the crowd I popped in for a sample. It was delicious on the first, second, third, fourth and I won’t say how many more tastings.

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When my wife and I visited France back in 2009, we stuck close to Paris with the exception of a very memorable, and emotional, day trip to Normandy to see Juno Beach. On this return trip to one of our favourite countries we decided that our day tripping should be all about wine. Having already had an exceptional day touring Burgundy, our second wine-related day took us to the city of Reims in the heart of the Champagne region.

After an early morning high speed train ride from Paris, a quick bus ride and walk took us right to the front gates of our first Champagne house tour at Pommery.

One of the unexpected features of Pommery that made this a great stop was the art both inside and outside their facilities. From an oversized fruit tree on their dramatic front lawn, to a Daniel Firman work depicting an elephant balancing on its trunk inside the chateau, we were engaged and entertained even before our tour began.