Gaillac and Castel de Brames have several surprises for the world.
Only the Champagne department, is allowed by law to call its wines Champagne.
However, at Castel de Brames, Alain Boullenger makes fine a sparking wine using the ancient method from which Champagne originated.
In his gift box given to me, Alain has included 2 bottles for lucky me 😀!
The origins of Champagne…
Long ago there was a monk who worked with the Gaillac wines at the Abbaye Saint Michele ….
After 11 years, so the yarn is spun, the church transferred him to another district called Champagne.
Placed in charge of the wines there he used the Gaillac methods for making sparkling wine with the rather ordinary whites of Champagne.
Voila !!! today Champagne is world famous 😀!!!
Today, the relatively unknown ‘Perle’ [semi sparkling] and sparking wines of Gaillac are still made by a few specialists, Alian Boullenger being one.
I’ve not yet tried Alain’s version however for what it’s worth, and admittedly I’ve not sampled many champagne’s, although i’m willing to, I think the version from chateau de Lacroix better than the best Champagne I’ve ever downed.
