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Champagne - Frerejean, Palmer, Philipponnat

Exterior of Champagne Palmer's environmentally designed new winery outside Reims

The final instalment of my report on a concentrated visit to Champagne in June. See this guide to the rest of my coverage

Frerejean Frères

This is one of the strangest champagne producers I have ever visited. Most champagne houses are super-smooth, obvious beneficiaries of major investment in gloss and trappings designed to impress the visitor. A typical champagne grower is closer to a farmer, with the added task of winemaking in the case of those I am likely to visit. In some ways the winemaking grower operations of Champagne resemble a Burgundian domaine, except that few of them...