25Drive a hire car
through well-
coiffured vineyards
Champagne, France
Champagne is synonymous with the romance
of the sparkling wine it produces. It is, of course,
Dom Pérignon of Moët & Chandon fame whom
we have to thank for the discovery of the
second fermentation process which creates
champagne. But it was another Benedictine
monk, Dom Ruinart, who persuaded his nephew
to start producing champagne on a commercial
scale in 1729, thus establishing Ruinart as
the world’s oldest commercially active
champagne house.
Rather than treading the well-worn path to
Moët & Chandon’s 14km of underground caves
in Epernay, I urge you to visit Ruinart, in Reims,
where, a stone’s throw from a boisterous town
centre perfect for an overnight stay, something
rather special awaits…
At the heart of a huge tunnel complex lie Ruinart’s
oldest cellars, the unique, breathtaking crayères. The
local stone, craie (from which we derive the word
‘crayon’), is a soft, porous limestone which, via
surface apertures no larger than a desert oasis
wellhead, was extensively quarried to provide the
building blocks of medieval Reims.Ruinart’s
crayères provide Today, astonished subterranean visitors fi nd
ideal conditions themselves standing at the base of vast, hollow
cones, the walls still scarred with the marks of
the mason’s chisel.
Boasting a constant temperature and near-Stygian
darkness, the crayères provide ideal conditions for
the maturation of champagne – and, indeed, the
healthy proliferation of penicillin mould. The largest
Ruinart crayère is expansive enough to have hosted
innumerable banquets. But, since crumbling nuggets
of limestone tumbling from the fragile, overhanging
walls add little to the fl avour of Ruinart’s classic
Blanc de Blancs vintage, the practice has recently
been reconsidered. ■
European Breakdown: RAC Members save
10% with a further 10% if you buy online. P45
WWW.RAC.CO.UK
22-25 Wine V3 RAC8.indd 25 25/2/09 12:55:35
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52