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4 CHAMPAGNE
Marc Chauvet Cuvée
Duo
We started the day on board with Champagne, as we taxied away
from the Adelaide terminal, and ended it 30 hours later in Champagne.
We were tired but the restorative effervescence of the great beverage’s
bubbles gave us the stamina to plough on.
After checking into the charming Château de Rilly, Zealand’ and ‘only so that he could understand what
we freshened up, grabbed our great mate Colin and they were saying’.
headed up the hill to Clotilde Chauvet and Digger’s
place for a leisurely tasting and meal. Digger, For entrée, Clotilde’s parents had foraged around the
Clotilde’s husband, is a Kiwi (and a bloody good chap area for some local snails. They had purged these little
for one who was handicapped by growing up in the slimy, snot textured slugs so that the escargots now
land of the long white cloud). He does have a real carried no unwanted cargo and Clotilde could drown
name but I have no idea what it is. He is just Digger to them in butter and garlic and serve them at scalding
us. temperature to her Aussie mates. She politely asked
if we ate snails. Colin impolitely responded with ‘No,
Clotilde took us through a tasting of her latest but I’ll eat them’. He inhaled a half dozen in record
offerings. The most recently disgorged Marc Chauvet time and looked satisfied. A bottle of 2013 Catherine
Brut NV is based on the 2012 vintage. It sees no malo et Pascal Rollet Pouilly-Fuissé Domaine de la Chapelle
and has plenty of reserve wine. It is fresh and bready Vieilles Vignes was just the thing to wash these garden
with delicious fruit and a crunchy finish. The Marc pests down with. It was loaded with all fruits yellow:
Chauvet Brut Selection is from the 2011 vintage and pineapple, mango, lemon and several other jaune-
has such a pure and fresh aroma of green apple and tinged things I can’t think of right now. It was rich and
chalk. It is fine, compact and very long. You can smell textured with saline minerality cleaning up the finish.
the extra Pinot Noir fruit on the 2011 Marc Chauvet
Vintage Brut. It is a veritable basket of summer berries. With a main course of beef carpaccio with nuts and
There are whiffs of bread and for now it is tight and capers, a Pommard that was right in the drinking zone,
compact. The team at Chauvet have decided that was called upon. The 2007 Domaine Joseph Voillot
their tête de cuvée will now be branded as ‘Initiales’ Pommard 1er Cru 'Les Rugiens' is just about ready.
and the 2008 is a beauty. It is rich and full with wheat It has some smoke and fresh berry notes along with a
biscuit notes and sappy white peach fruit. It is so fine meatiness not dissimilar to thinly sliced beef. Perhaps
with an overtly creamy mousse and detail is terrific. that was the remnants of carpaccio in my mouth? It
The 2010 Marc Chauvet Cuvée Duo Blanc de Blancs was silky and sweet with round tannins and sneaky
is fresh and crisp with green melon and apple crunch. persistence.
It has plenty of chalk and is built like a fine elegant
white Burgundy. A couple of snacks of pickled white We were about to bid our farewells and roll back down
anchovies and dried sunflower seeds with soy sauce the hill but cheese was mentioned. A splendid wedge of
were sympathetic to the Champagnes. Chaource was just the trick and Digger felt the need to
blind us on a cheeky 2002 Médoc for good measure. The
Digger amped up some tunes from the internet radio Hotel in Rilly was rilly good and we slept like dormant
and there was a good selection of Oz Rock and Kiwi vines until our body clocks kicked in a couple of hours
classics being played. Heidi asked whether the station later letting us know it was the middle of the day back
was Australian or New Zealand, and Digger said ‘New in Oz.
