We arrive in Champagne in the middle of the morning, we settle in at the Château Les Crayères and have lunch quickly. Then we visit the Gothic cathedral of Reims which hosted the coronation of twenty-five kings of France.
Then the day is a succession of cellars dug in limestone quarries, tunnels lit by candlelight and filled with old bottles, red-brick castles, and champagne flutes. I try to memorize the flavours of the biggest houses—Dom Perignon, Madame Pommery, Veuve Clicquot—but I finally give up, attributing my negligence to the increase in the level of alcohol in my blood.
When James asks me what was my most memorable tasting, I admit that it was the nameless champagne in which I was invited to dip my Rose Biscuit—a delicious specialty from Reims which I immediately stocked up on f
