One day back in the Spring an email appears from Graham Holter of Wine Merchant magazine with a simple but curious one liner question, “Hi Chris, you’re into cycling aren’t you?” A simple question required a simple answer, “errr yes!!!”
Place de la Concorde
Huge thanks to Graham for waving the flag for me and allowing me the unique opportunity to join some of the Champagne Castelnau team and our hosts for the trip. A few weeks later and the Tour de France kicked off in Denmark and at this point the countdown began properly for my trip to Paris and final stage of Le Tour on the Champs-Elysees. The penultimate stage of the race was complete and it was time to get an early night before the first flight out of Edinburgh on the Sunday morning. I negotiated my way through the Paris metro system to our hotel without a glitch (not quite smooth for the Castelnau team…) only to find that we were in the same hotel as Team Ineos, Team Jumbo Visma and Team DSM. The place was buzzing and the atmosphere was electric. Finally the others arrived and we were on our way to the Place de La Concorde to watch the famous seven laps of the Champs. You can’t imagine the excitement I was feeling, I’m such a cycling nerd and I was thrilled that one of the guests for the trip Marcus Treacy (from The Killarney Park hotel in County Kerry) was equally nerdy so as soon as we got there we necked a beer and a glass or two of Castelnau Champagne and then found our position on the barriers.
A couple of hours of absolute joy watching the worlds elite cyclists battle out the final and most prestigious stage of any grand tour.
The next objective was to get back to near our hotel for our dinner reservation at 9pm. This turned out to be a logistical nightmare but we were all too blissed out to care and we eventually made it to our bistro at about 9.45 for beer, wine, great food and chat till midnight.
The next morning started with getting a lift down to breakfast with Sep Kuss, one of the Jumbo Visma riders and one of the most talented climbing domestiques in the world. I didn’t lose it but instead just played it cool in congratulating him on his team winning the yellow jersey.
Then we were wizzing our way over to Reims and a 10.30am appointment at Champagne Castelnau. Not a Champagne I knew all that well but a thrilling tasting of four of their Cuvées quickly converted me to their style. Their Brut Reserve was sensational.
Lunch at the Bistro Des Anges in the centre of Reims was magnificent. Snails to start followed but fillet of Beef, all washed down with numerous glasses of Castelnau Brut Reserve rounded off the perfect couple of days. It was nearly as good as being on the place de La Concorde 24 hrs earlier…. Nothing could quite beat that.
Although I did hear stories about a previous Castelnau trip where customers were taken to the L’Alp duez stage of the Tour and taken up in a VIP helicopter during the stage and then back in time to watch the finale on top of the iconic alpine climb. I’m up for that if you’re looking for another volunteer…
