My good friend, Emily, is visiting-Yay!!! She was here last weekend, gone to Germany for a few days, then back to Belgium today:) The day after she arrived we went on a road trip to the Champagne region of France for a private wine tasting tour. I had no idea just how beautiful the drive would be and the weather was perfect!
The tour started at 11 am and didn’t end until around 7 pm. The guide took us to 3 different independent champagne houses where we toured the caves and learned about the delicate process of making champagne from the hand-picked grapes to the use of air pressure for pressing the grapes. We also walked through 3 vineyards (pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay) located in grand cru and premier cru villages (the highest ratings) and tasted grapes off the vine. The scenery and the views over the valley were breath taking.
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| Mailly-Champagne, France |
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| Pinot noir vinyard (yes, champagne comes from 2 different red grapes as well as chardonay grapes) |
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| Emily |
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| Chardonay grapes |
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| Private tasting of champagne as well as fig and plum jelly from fruit on the property |
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| One of the champagne caves |
After the first champagne house we stopped at a Michelin starred restaurant for a four course lunch. We were greeted by a very friendly host who showed us to our table in the elegant dining room. We sat next to a window but I couldn’t tell you what the view was of as I was so absorbed in taking in the room around me and the food flying by me, everything smelled amazing! The service was outstanding too, the wait staff (there seemed to be a team of 3) came a shook our hands at their first visit to our table and were always smiling.
Our prix fix lunch started with savory cheese pate choux and a glass of champagne of course.
Next we were served a trio of tomato appetizers: Tomato gazpacho with mustard ice cream (essentially frozen mustard crème fraiche) and croutons, tomato jelly with parmesan crème fraiche and a parmesan crisp, two blanched, peeled cherry tomatoes in a balsamic glaze. Each dish was bursting with flavor.
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| Tomato gazpacho with mustard ice cream and croutons |
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| poached tomatoes in a balsamic glaze |
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| Tomato jelly with parmesan creme fraiche and a parm crisp |
We were then served the best salad I’ve ever had, it had so many different ingredients that I would never dream of putting together: poached chicken so thinly sliced like only the French can do, tomato, foie gras, grape fruit, crisped prosciutto, parsley, and lettuce-AMAZING!
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| Thinly sliced chicken salad with foie gras, grapefruit, crisped prociutto, beans, tomatoes, and parsley |
The main course was beef (I’m guessing Chateau Briand by how tender it was) served rare to med-rare(ish) paired with a glass of red wine. Each of the vegetables look nice but I didn’t expect much for flavor but somehow the beans, which looked like they were just steamed, popped with flavor as did the carrot, leek, onion, and potato puree. There was absolutely nothing left on any of our plates.
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| Beef, probaby chateau briand, beans, leak, carrot, potato puree, and onion |
Dessert was a chocolate lava cake prepared so well that with one stab of the fork the chocolate center oozed out all over the plate.
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| Choclate lava cake with vanilla bean ice cream |
And, as if that wasn’t enough another plate of pastries was served with our espresso at the end of the meal.
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| Chocolate cake, pineapple tarte, nugget, raspberry madeleine, and choclate |
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| Espresso |
AMAZING!!!!!!!
Next we were served a trio of tomato appetizers: Tomato gazpacho with mustard ice cream (essentially frozen mustard crème fraiche) and croutons, tomato jelly with parmesan crème fraiche and a parmesan crisp, two blanched, peeled cherry tomatoes in a balsamic glaze. Each dish was bursting with flavor. 
