{"id":1577,"date":"2020-06-29T17:40:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T17:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2020-06-29T18:10:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T18:10:58","slug":"champagne-de-venoge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1577","title":{"rendered":"Champagne de Venoge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Champagne region of France has two principal cities: Reims and \u00c9pernay.\u00a0 The former is of greater interest to tourists, with its grand cathedral and quite a few top-quality Champagne houses.\u00a0 But \u00c9pernay is a wonderland for wine tasters.\u00a0 There are so many producers, great names and small, all over the town.\u00a0 And the center of it all is the Avenue de Champagne<\/a>, a mile of mansions and industrial buildings dedicated to the production, sale and consumption of the world\u2019s best bubbly, made from grapes grown in the chalky soil of Champagne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can walk along the Avenue de Champagne, stopping here and there for a d<\/em>\u00e9<\/em>gustation<\/em> (tasting).\u00a0 These aren\u2019t the sips we Americans are used to when we go wine tasting.\u00a0 Oh no, you get a whole flute of Champagne, usually for around ten euros or so.\u00a0 When you do take that walk, we recommend that you stop at the Venoge Mansion (www.champagnedevenoge.com\/en<\/a>).\u00a0 This elegant building is representative of both the grandeur and the pretentiousness of Champagne.<\/p>\n

The grandeur is easy to see\u2026it\u2019s all around you in \u00c9pernay.\u00a0 You\u2019re supposed to be impressed by the ancient lineages of these winemaking establishments, but most only go back to the entrepreneurs of the 19th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 De Venoge was founded by a Swiss immigrant who started his company in 1837.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty ancient for Americans but its Johnny-come-lately for the French.\u00a0 And although the \u201cde\u201d in the name sounds like nobility, it isn\u2019t in this case.\u00a0 The mansion was built in 1900, but de Venoge only acquired it in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

None of this history matters to you as a wine-tasting visitor.\u00a0 You want elegance, both in your surroundings and in your glass.\u00a0 And this is where de Venoge lives up to your hopes and expectations.\u00a0 The setting is a mansion inside high wrought iron fences.\u00a0 The building is in a park, most of which is behind it.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a courtyard in front with a bit of lawn and on the grass there are comfortable lawn chairs and umbrellas.\u00a0 In one of the outbuildings, there\u2019s a bar where you order the Champagne you want to drink and a server brings it to you as you stretch out on your lounger.\u00a0 Turn your back on the street and you\u2019re out in the country, sipping Champagne at a ch\u00e2teau on a sunny afternoon.\u00a0 This is why you became a wine taster and this is why you went to \u00c9pernay to taste wine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The wines themselves are quite enjoyable.\u00a0 We found we preferred the blanc de noirs in de Venoge\u2019s better tier of wines, which they call Princes.\u00a0 (They also have a top of the line they call Louis XV, but we didn\u2019t taste those wines.)<\/p>\n

For the overall experience of wine tasting, de Venoge offers one of the best opportunities we have encountered in Champagne.\u00a0 The wines are good but no better than many others available nearby.\u00a0 Of course, that\u2019s the genius of wine tasting in Champagne. They\u2019re all good; some are just better.\u00a0 But you feel like you\u2019re luxuriating at de Venoge and that\u2019s worth a lot when you\u2019re in this famous corner of Wine Country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Champagne region of France has two principal cities: Reims and \u00c9pernay.\u00a0 The former is of greater interest to tourists, with its grand cathedral and quite a few top-quality Champagne houses.\u00a0 But \u00c9pernay is a wonderland for wine tasters.\u00a0 There are so many producers, great names and small, all over the town.\u00a0 And the center … Continue reading Champagne de Venoge<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions\/1593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}