Virtuoso Life - November/December 2007 - (Page 58) TASTING NOTES Champagne Wishes Vintage bubbly sipped at the source? A sparkling idea. Here’s a tour of the top houses in the famed French wine region. BY ANTHONY DIAS BLUE PHOTOGRAPHY BY RUSTY HILL STYLING BY JONAS PARK he finest experiences in life are worth traveling for: fresh powder skiing in Aspen, a ferrari test drive in Maranello, a wildlife safari in namibia. And then there’s champagne. You don’t actually have to go to reims or epernay to enjoy champagne, but to become a true connoisseur of french bubbly, a pilgrimage is pretty much de rigueur. it’s especially convenient now that the new tGV est, traveling at a very Gallic 200 miles per hour, whisks you from charles de Gaulle international Airport to the heart of champagne countryside in just over 30 minutes. Depart paris after a leisurely morning croissant and café au lait, and you’ll have plenty of time to visit at least one of these famed champagne houses before lunch. the champenois countryside is some of the most delightful in france. rows of pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay vines – Grape escape: Taittinger tops the list of must-visit champagne houses on a pilgrimage to the region. T 58 V I RT U O S O L I F E MATCH PEWTER CHAMPAGNE FLUTE, $65 AT FORTY FIVE TEN
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