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France, Hiking

The Other Champagne

 

Far from Reims and Epernay, there is another Champagne. Not one of grand houses, and wealthy luxury firms. This district is a quiet, country-based one, and very much in touch with its roots. This is the Department of the Aube, close to Champagne’s border with Burgundy, with which it shares a passion for terroir. It was the terroir and the family run champagne houses here that I came to visit.

The Cote des Bars wine district lies between the small towns of Bar-sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube. The vineyards lie mostly on south-facing slopes. It is a very tranquil area, ideal for easy, relaxing hiking adventures. The trail I hiked was in a small village just south of Bar-sur-Seine. Celles-sur-Ource, like Bar-sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube, follows along a river, the Ource. This tiny river is a natural watershed for the area, and the trail took advantage by crossing it a couple of times, which provided nice opportunities to walk along the gently flowing waters.

Celles-sur-Ource: Little Village, Lots of Champagne Houses

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Champagne Cotes des Bars

 

What I Learned

Champagne, the sparkling wine, can only come from Champagne, the region, about 90 miles northeast of Paris. Although grapes were cultivated in this northern region of France as early as Roman times, the often cold, foggy climate worked to ensure that grape ripening was not consistent from year to year. Hence ripe grapes in Champagne were sought high and low to add to the big houses’ champagne blends.

But what constitutes the champagne producing area of Champagne? That was a contentious question at the turn of the 20th century. In 1911, such a question provoked massive riots. At issue was the right of the wine-makers in southern Champagne to use the champagne appellation for their sparkling wines made from their grapes.

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France, Hiking, Nutshell

Chemin du Vigneron: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name:  Chemin du Vigneron (Wine-maker’s Trail)

Trail Type: Mid-distance circuit; well-maintained with hard (paved or packed earth) surfaces; marking for this itinerary is fairly consistent throughout, (but was missing in a couple of places in 2019).

Length:

Total – 11 kilometers/6.8 miles

Convenient to: Troyes, and Bar-sur-Seine, France

Marking: Yellow bands and white bands, as well as informative concrete posts in vineyards marking named vineyard areas

Sample Directional Marking for the Trail
Sample Informational Markers on the Trail

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Germany, Hiking

Remembering Ahrtal

 

I remember the Ahrtal and its wines.  As evident below the photograph, the trail I hiked in May 2018 passed through an area filled with quiet charm and natural beauty, known for full-bodied red wine. Unfortunately, the area is now known for the epic July 2021 floods. Raging waters devastated town after town along the trail. Lives were tragically lost. The vintners lost not only this year’s harvest, old vines, and the work of decades, many also lost even the wines in their cellars. The human cost in suffering and loss of lives has been enormous. As a reminder of life, loss, and love of the area, I republish this series of posts with best wishes for recovery, in all its senses.

Wiki: Altenahr Flood, by Martin Seifert

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Ahrtal

 

What I Learned

Germany’s Ahr Wine Region, almost 50 kilometers north of the Moselle at Koblenz, is the Rhineland-Palatinate’s northern-most wine region, though it is not Germany’s northern most wine region. (That honor goes to the Saale-Umstrut region in Saxony.)  But it is the furthest north red wine region in Germany. Until seen, it would be hard to credit that red varietals could ripen well enough this far north. But the vines grow on steep, mostly south-facing slopes of dark volcanic rock, along a very narrow valley that runs (in a very serpentine fashion) from west to east. Nature and geologic activity have combined to create some ideal conditions for red varietals here, with volcanic stone soils in the western end of the valley, and loess soils in the eastern end of the valley, as it approaches the Rhine.

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Germany, Hiking, Nutshell

Rotweinwanderweg: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: Rotweinwanderweg (Red Wine Hiking Trail)

Trail Type: Long distance; surface footing is all hard, be it on tarmac or hardpacked earth or stair-steps; very well maintained, and extremely well-marked.

Length:

Total: 35.5 kilometers / 22 miles

My segment: Altenahr to Marienthal (@15 kilometers / 9 miles)

Convenient to: Bonn, Germany

Marking: Red grapes on a white background

Rotweinwanderweg Signage

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Austria, Hiking

Rosé at the Spa

 

Bad Gams is an Austrian spa town, quaint, quiet, thoroughly devoted to relaxation. What better way to relax than an early morning hike, (provisioned with mineral waters), some time at a spa, followed by a sampling of the local, but widely known, Rosé: Schilcher?

A Schilcher Wine Label

 

In fact, the trail I followed early one June morning was entitled the Schilcherkellerweg. A mouthful for so early in the morning, but broken down it translates as Schilcher Cellar Trail. It was an easy-going (figuratively and literally speaking) hike that took in the best of what this area has to offer: vineyards and spa waters.

Weststeiermark Vines and Roses

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Austria, Wines

Wine Notes: Schilcher Wine

 

What I Learned

There are three districts of Austria’s Steiermark wine region, but only the Weststeiermark vintners produce Schilcher wine. This unique wine is a delicious rosé with unique characteristics. The name Schilcher stems from an old Germanic word meaning to shimmer (as in: with color).

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