A Paris Sidetrip: Chablis & Champagne

We recently took a short roadtrip from Paris with our good friends John and Christine (of Christine Alice Interiors).

We spent the first night in Chablis, a small town in northern Burgundy about two hours from the city. The town of Chablis and its surrounding vineyards are responsible for all of the world’s Chablis wine. In the light of a full moon we walked up a large hill in the middle of the vineyards to walk off our rich dinner and survey the extent of these fields, which were surprisingly modest in proportion.

The next morning we entered one of the town’s many caves for a Chablis tasting. Adam and I are not wine experts, just indiscriminate fans, and we learned quite a bit from the knowledgeable sommelier who seemed surprised to see four eager faces at his door before 10am.

Here’s a bit of what we learned:

Chablis is a dry, unoaked white wine made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. The “flinty” or “steely” qualities to the taste can be attributed to the composition of the mineral rich soil of that region which contains limestone, clay and tiny fossilized oyster shells. Plus, the cooler climate of northern Burgundy helps maintain its high acidity.

Next we hopped back into the car for another two hour drive towards Champagne. This part of the trip was heavenly – fields in every shade of green and gold, speckled with red and purple wild flowers.

We arrived in the hilltop town of Hautvillers, affluent and charming, with a panoramic view of the fields and hillsides below. We checked into a perfect little b&b called La Chevalee which welcomed us with what would be the first of many glasses of bubbly.

La Chevalee garden which we had all to ourselves