There are some evenings in Champagne when everything seems to come together - the place, the people, the wines and that wonderful sense that, for a few hours at least, there is nowhere else you would rather be. This was one of them.
I had asked my friend Lucie Pereyre de Nonancourt, family member and Global Ambassador for Laurent-Perrier, whether I could bring a small group of my guests to Château de Louvois. More specifically, I wanted them to experience its recently restored Orangery.
Sitting alongside the château, the Orangery dates to the 18th century and was originally created to protect precious citrus trees through the cold Champagne winters. According to the history of the estate, it was commissioned by Queen Anne to shelter her orange trees and later became a setting for royal occasions. Today, beautifully restored by Laurent-Perrier, it has once again become a place for entertaining.
We arrived in the late afternoon, everyone beautifully dressed for the occasion, and began with an apéritif on the terrace. As the sun dropped, the light changed across the gardens and against the pale façade of the Orangery. It was one of those moments when nobody seemed particularly interested in rushing inside. When we eventually did, the mood shifted.
The Orangery has a wonderful combination of formality and rusticity. Low-hanging wooden chandeliers sit overhead, while candlelight and florals softened the room. The table had been set formally with beautiful crockery, glassware and cutlery, and dinner unfolded through a sequence of dishes and champagnes. At the centre of it all was Grand Siècle.
Grand Siècle was the creation of Lucie's grandfather, Bernard de Nonancourt. His idea challenged one of Champagne's most entrenched conventions: that a prestige cuvée should necessarily represent the character of one exceptional vintage.
Bernard believed that even a great vintage could not deliver everything. Instead, he imagined a champagne assembled from complementary exceptional years, selecting the qualities of each to create something greater than any one vintage could achieve alone. It became Grand Siècle.
That evening we were able to follow the story through a parade of different iterations. These are champagnes I find particularly exciting to drink. There is structure and the capacity to age, certainly, but also finesse, tension and a composure that becomes increasingly fascinating as the wines develop.
Yet my strongest memory of the evening isn't one particular glass. It is looking around that table.
Everyone had settled completely into the occasion. The formality of the setting hadn't made it stiff; quite the opposite. People were talking, tasting, lingering over the food and taking in where they were. There was a real sense of engagement with the moment. And, for me, that is what our Signature Journeys are ultimately about.
Champagne wines are always at their heart, but I don't want the experience of the region to begin and end with what is in the glass. It is also the atmosphere around it, the people you meet, the stories you hear and the places in which those wines suddenly take on another dimension.
Sometimes, if everything aligns, you get a moment in time that simply couldn't be recreated in quite the same way again. That evening at the Orangery was one of them.
Champagne is easy to visit, but experiencing it from the inside is something else entirely. Experience Champagne, my way.
Sara Underdown
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