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A round of applause please, for our esteemed friend and Champagne Warehouse colleague, Helen.  Helen reached the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) Wine Academy Student of the Year Finals – which were held at Hotel du Vin in York. (Picture above shows – left to right- Karen Hardwick from The Wine Academy, Helen and Rosie Rogers from WSET)

Helen was competing with other students who had done their courses with The Wine Academy. Helen has completed the Intermediate level and will be starting the Advanced this February.

This achievement is no mean feat.  To reach that sort of level you have to be passionate about the industry, possess a wide and deep knowledge of world-wide wines, spirits, viniculture, viticulture and more; the tasting component is minimal in comparison to the theory imparted. Helen proved her worth, missing out on first place by just one point.

We are all very proud of her at Champagne Warehouse – congratulations Helen.

PS – what are your views on New World Chardonnay vs Old World?!

Cheers Rebecca! (It needs to be said that you also did very well, narrowly missing out on getting to the Finals yourself!!!)

I couldn’t have achieved what I did without the support of my lovely colleagues at Champagne Warehouse (thanks very much!) and my great tutor Karen Hardwick. Karen has lots to celebrate in her own right too- having just been named WSET Educator of the Year 2011. This is a huge achievement as it’s an international award and Karen is The Wine Academy!

Check out The Wine Academy website if you fancy doing your WSET qualifications and for a great range of ‘just for fun tasting events’ in Yorkshire

Helen

We spotted these signs to designate the different car park aisles at Le Clerc in Pierry near Epernay- I thought they were great – if you can remember your grapes!

Le Clerc is one of our favourite places to pop into when we visit the Champagne region- there is a huge one just off the motorway near Reims- the cheese aisle, the fish aisle, cake aisle and wine department are particular favourites!

When you emerge from food and wine heaven there are great views of the vines to feast your eyes upon…

Not your average view from a supermarket car park!

Thought we’d share with you where we stay on our travels to Champagne, it’s a converted military building- despite a lengthy search of the internet it wasn’t possible to find any images of the buiding as a military establishment or any history about it. (In case you were interested!)

Comfort Suites in Pierry

From a practical point of view it’s well placed for exploration of villages in the Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne. The rooms have a very basic kitchen -you sometimes have to request a kettle but the staff are friendly and helpful and we think it’s good value!

View from the hotel, vines in the distance

Cheers from Helen and Tony – hard at work below – albeit with slightly unconventional tasting vessels!

We experienced a day of wild weather on our travels round the Champagne region today. I love the way the light has intensified the emerald of the green field and of course the rainbow is an added bonus. This was taken above the village of Mareuil sur Ay.

Here are some more pics.

The sun lighting the road back to Epernay

Menacing clouds over the village of Ludes

Storm brewing

Dizy in the dark at lunchtime

Another shot in Epernay

An improving scene

And finally we were treated to some blue skies… fingers crossed for more tomorrow!

Tony decided to mark the New Year by ringing the changes on the travel front. Our usual trek to Champagne involves a long journey to Dover and then a quick hop over the Channel. This time he opted for the Hull to Zeebrugge crossing- a short drive to Hull, slumber in your cabin and then on the other side the drive to Champagne is a similar distance as it is from Calais.

All this seems perfectly reasonable and indeed makes a pleasant change… however the picture above goes only a very small way to illustrate the weather conditions we faced as we battled our way through gale force winds to Hull.

5pm- checked in and joined the queue.

5pm-6.30pm watched initially with puzzlement, then rising frustration and finally full blown annoyance as a young girl dressed head to foot in fluorescent orange appeared, waved one car on board then disappeared again for long periods…apparently the captain was going to great lengths to ensure the ship was balanced with freight… and we later discovered why.

6.30pm- 9pm Found cabin – very pleased with it -cosy, warm and clean, settled in – very pleased with ourselves. Indulged in pre dinner drinks +++ then attacked the ‘all you could eat’ buffet with gusto – best line our stomachs we reasoned!

8pm-9pm ‘enjoyed’ the resident band playing classics such as ‘Blowing in the wind’, ‘Rock around the clock’ (or should that be dock) and less reassuringly the theme tune from Titanic…

9pm-10pm Spiritedly, joined in the game of Bingo (noting that several people were already at the stage of  “eyes down, look in” but sadly not at their Bingo cards). Despite the lack of competition we still  failed to win the £55 cash prize.

10pm -3am Slept intermittently but remained in agreement that the swaying was quite comforting and indeed almost soothing.

3.05 am Ship lurched alarmingly

3.10-4.10am Helen visited bathroom on several occasions.

4.15am Helen went for an early morning stagger to find fresh air, doors all locked. Located a Pepsi machine instead.

4.25am returned to cabin and search began on hands and knees for enough loose change to purchase said fizzy drink.

4.30-5.30am more staggering round green, red and blue decks.

6.30am finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.

7am The morning announcement bellows through the decks that the ‘all you can eat breakfast’ is now being served.

9am finally reach terra firma

9pm still feels like I’m on the boat

Zeebrugge this morning

Really looking forward to return crossing…

We had a great ten days running the ‘Fizz Bar’ at York Food Festival. It was a family affair from the start- the picture above shows Helen’s Mum Evelyn, Helen, Helen’s Dad Ron and Rebecca ready for action.

It was certainly an eventful 10 days! The first evening the marquee flooded during an absolutely torrential downpour and we had to move all our stock to higher ground!

This picture doesn't show the full capacity of the monsoon that swept through York!

We met visitors from America, Japan, Sweden and Norway. Teresa even had the chance to put her language skills into action with some visitors from France.

Teresa and some French visitors (who tried the Cava!)

We ran tasting sessions – a whistlestop tour around the differences between Champagne, Cava and Prosecco.

Tony mid tasting session

During the ten days we sold about 600 bottles of fizz, used around 4,000 glasses and carried over 1000kg of champagne, we also shed a few pounds between us (always a bonus!)

We talked to lots of lovely people about our champagnes and sparkling wines and glowed every time someone commented on how lovely our wines were!

Our best selling champagne was Triolet Brut with Champagne Ellner Réserve and G.Tribaut Rosé getting a really strong following. Amorino Rosé was the clear winner amongst the sparkling wines with almost everyone who tasted it  gasping: “That’s nice” and smiling broadly and generally coming back for a 2nd glass!

We made lots of new friends and our sincere thanks goes to Michael Hjort and Debbie Waite of York Food Festival who agreed to let us run the bar.

Thanks to everyone who visited us at the Fizz Bar, hope to see you next year….

The magic comes from the wine, rather than the spells cast by big brand marketeers.

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They nurture their wines from grape to glass, drawing on a wealth of experience passed down through the generations.