Woke up, got a quick breakfast and coffee from the hotel. At 9:30am, the van arrived and we took a 20min drive up to Ruinart, stopping along the way for photos. Toured Ruinart, where they explained that each year they have one artist that they champion. This year it’s Tadashi Kawamata who does stuff like build bird nests out of 2x4s. We toured their production line and caves, then tasted four of their champagnes, their standard, a 2026, a 2016, and a 2009 rose.
[photo of the store with the bottles in a string of pearls configuration]
This was actually a staircase leading down to some of their older bottles, including one from 1929.
Post Ruinart, we grabbed lunch, then went to two much smaller producers. The first, P. Lancelot-Royer, produces only 25k bottles a year. None of us particularly cared for his wine (though we did find that despite being a fairly small producer, we can get it through K&L), but found it extremely cool that he and his father hand-dung an extension of his cellar using a pick and chainsaw.
The next place, ***-Gomet, the wine was much nicer. The wines were better, more interesting.
We recollected ourselves at the hotel, then got food from Le Sardaigne. Nothing remarkable, but after 11 “tastes”, a brie and ham pizza was pretty tasty. After that, we all went to bed.