Champagne Ployez-Jacquemart, Ludes, Montagne de Reims, France

Wine: I love these wines--there is just so much going on in them! The style in general is rich and more concentrated yet incredibly fresh. Laurence Ployez is the 3rd generation vigneron in this family domaine. She uses only the 1st pressing for all of their champagnes and doses around 3-4 grams. There is a network of amazing tunnels beneath the domaine where the bottles sit for lees aging for a minimum of 3 years and up to 10+ years for the vintage wines. One level of tunnels sits 25 meters below ground and underneath another set of tunnels. Walking through the tunnels feels like walking back in time as you come across each stack of bottles and see the signs indicating the harvest year or cuvée number. 

Tasting of 4 wines: 1. Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs NV--but mostly 2006 harvest (citrus, brioche, fresh-baked bread, melon, apple). 2. Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs 2005 (hard cheese, salty, brulée, orange brioche, citrus). 3. Extra Brut 2005 1/3 chardonnay/1/3 pinot noir/1/3 meunier (wild strawberry, caramel, brioche, white mushrooms, round). 4. d'Harbonville 1998 Brut 100% chardonnay (fermented in oak, Chassagne-Montrachet with bubbles, mind-bogglingly good - tasted the 1999 too and it was even better). 

My take: Champagne is magic and this place proves it. Their caves are full of history and atmosphere. The wine making is impeccable. The tour is an excellent primer on the champagne method and is really fun too (the tunnels!).  A must in Champagne! More on Ployez-Jacquemart. 

Quinta do Vallado, Douro Valley (Porto), Portugal

Wine: Delicious wines by a highly respected winery owned by the same family since the 1700s. Put on the map and fostered by Doña Antonia Adelaide Ferreira, a woman, running a winery in the 1800s. An entrepreneur, an advocate for keeping vineyards under local ownership and an early adopter of technology to protect against phylloxera, she helped establish Port and the Douro as the superior, renowned region it is today. Ferreirinha was a total badass. 

The basic wine tasting includes 5 wines: 1. Vallado White (rabigato, códega, viosinho, gouveio & arinto), 2. Vallado Red (touriga franca (25%), touriga nacional (25%), tinta roriz (25%), sousão (5%) and mixed old vines (field blend! 20%), 3. Touriga Nacional 100%, 4. Reserva Field Blend (vines more than 100 years old, 45 grape varieties--how cool is that--predominately tinta roriz, tinta amarela, touriga franca & tinta barroca), 5. 10 Year Tawny Port (Mix of old vines).

Food: There is a restaurant on the Quinta Do Vallado property in the boutique hotel. It's a fixed price menu and includes 4 scrumptious courses plus wine and port. Hell of a value especially for the quality! (This sums up eating and drinking in Portugal in general!)

My take: This is a top-notch experience. The hotel is wonderful. The restaurant great. And the winery tour was fabulous; it's one of the best I've ever had. It took more than 2 hours including the tasting. I am fascinated by their embrace of modern techniques while also maintaining traditional ones and running these processes side-by-side. More on Quinta do Vallado