Philipponnat: The Bottle in the Canal

What to do there

6 things to do

1. 1

   Climb the House's Path to Notre-Dame du Gruguet

   history Free

   The statue a village vowed in 1944, and the valley at its feet

   In August 1944, after Aÿ was bombed on 11 August (58 dead), the parish of Mareuil made a vow. The village was liberated with no one killed or wounded on the Allied or the French side and no house hit, and when its prisoners and forced labourers came home, the statue's first stone was laid on 15 August 1945. The house says the way to the Clos des Goisses takes this steep path to the viewpoint by the statue.

   WHERE: Notre-Dame du Gruguet, on the Chemin de la Justice, about 280 m east-north-east of the house's door; a Panoramic Tour stop with a 360° view.

   WHAT: find three things the Panoramic Tour's text for this viewpoint points out: the Marne and its lateral canal; Mareuil squeezed between canal and slope, because vine land is too precious to build on; and Mutigny, the hilltop village at 240 m. The historic vineyards of Hautvillers, Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ are one of the three parts of the World Heritage listing of 2015.

   HOW: free, on foot, any day.

   Log Memory
2. 2

   Find the Bottle in the Canal

   adventure Free

   The slope the house says Pierre Philipponnat walked past, and its reflection

   An old postcard in the Marne archives, captioned "La bouteille. Les Goisses", promises that the slope's shape and its reflection on the canal give the illusion of a champagne bottle, "garanti sans aucun truquage"; the champagne houses' own chronology calls it the illusion of an immense bottle lying on its side. The house says Pierre Philipponnat passed the foot of this slope every day while it lay almost abandoned after the phylloxera crisis, the First World War and the Depression; in 1935 he began buying it from several growers, to put it back together as one holding.

   WHERE: the V 52 greenway on the canal's south bank, just west of lock no. 13 (Écluse n°13 de Mareuil), about 700 m east-south-east of the house.

   WHAT: look north across the canal and the D 111 road. The house says the Clos des Goisses is the south-facing slope ringed by low walls and small stairways, and that a wall has protected it since 1887. If the water is still, find the bottle its reflection draws, and photograph it. Then check the rows: they run straight down the slope, not across it in terraces.

   HOW: free, any day; the path is for walkers and cyclists. The vines are private: stay on the path.

   Log Memory
3. 3

   Measure the Slope: Degrees or Per Cent?

   adventure Price: very high

   Two published figures, one phone, one slope

   The house gives the slope of the Clos des Goisses as 35 to 45 degrees; World of Fine Wine gives a gradient of 45% as the vines fall from 130 m to 85 m towards the canal. Degrees and per cent are not the same measure.

   WHERE: the vineyard walk of Les Origines (€125) or of the Clos des Goisses visit (€210), 2 hours each, which leave from the house at 13 rue du Pont; the house's route runs by narrow stairs and the terraces of the neighbouring vineyard.

   WHAT: where your guide stops by the clos, lay your phone along the slope with a level app, read the angle in degrees and in per cent, and decide which published figure your reading backs.

   HOW: book through the house's request form, for a morning or an afternoon. The house says access to the clos depends on the visit and the conditions on the day: if the walk stops short, measure the steepest stretch you climbed.

   Log Memory
4. 4

   Crack the Rule of Thirds in the Chalk Cellars

   wine Price: high

   The blend the house says it has renewed every year since 1946

   The house says its cellars are a labyrinth dug into the chalk in the 18th century; the World Heritage body adds a 19th-century part south-west of the house. The house says it has blended each harvest with part of the previous year's blend since 1946, and that it applies the rule of thirds: each new blend is two thirds new harvest and one third reserve wine, a third of every new blend goes back into reserve, and both reserves, the Réserve Perpétuelle and the slower Réserve Essentielle, age in wood.

   WHERE: the cellars at 13 rue du Pont, on Les Mystères de la Champagne (1h30, €90) and every longer visit.

   WHAT: before your guide explains, guess how many years it takes for one harvest to fall below one per cent of the blend. Then ask, and ask which galleries are 18th-century and which 19th. The house's own answer: five years in the Réserve Perpétuelle, twelve in the Réserve Essentielle.

   HOW: book any visit through the house's request form.

   Log Memory
5. 5

   Find the Family Arms on Your Bottle

   history Price: high

   The house's Swiss captain, the story of a pope's plot, and a checkerboard

   The house dates the family's arrival to 1522 and calls the date symbolic: that year the will of Dom Jean Royer, the last regular abbot of Hautvillers, names Apvril Le Philipponnat, a captain of Swiss soldiers from Fribourg, as an owner at Aÿ. The family registered its coat of arms at the end of the 17th century, and the house says the arms appear on every bottle.

   WHERE: the tasting at 13 rue du Pont, at the end of any visit.

   WHAT: find the arms on a bottle: a red-and-gold checkerboard. Then find 1522 among the cuvées: the house says it is built on the Pinot Noir of Le Léon in Aÿ, where Apvril already owned vines, with Grand Cru wines, generally from Mailly and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The story goes that Le Léon took its name from a former owner, Pope Leo X.

   HOW: part of every visit, from €90; the house sells bottles after the visit.

   Log Memory
6. 6

   Judge the 1935 Argument: One Slope or a Blend?

   wine Price: very high

   The tasting, a vote, and a toast to the slope

   In 1935, the house says, Pierre Philipponnat ignored his fellow merchants' friendly advice to stick to blending and made what it calls Champagne's first single-vineyard champagne. Mareuil-sur-Aÿ is a Premier Cru village; 1522, the house says, is a blend of Grand Cru villages.

   WHERE: the tasting at 13 rue du Pont, the last stop of the visit.

   WHAT: choose your side before you book. On Les Origines (€125) the headline glass is 1522; on the Clos des Goisses visit (€210) it is the clos itself, which the house says is always a vintage, aged nine to eleven years. Ask whether one of your other glasses is a Réserve Perpétuelle, the blend of many harvests; taste it beside the headline wine and vote: Pierre or his colleagues? Then raise your glass to the slope you saw in the canal.

   HOW: tastings are for adults only.

   BACKUP: if the house has no slot for your day, Pressoria in Aÿ, 3.3 km away, opens every day except Thursday (closed in the second half of January), with two champagnes or two grape juices for €18.

   Log Memory

Insider Tips

• Book with the house's request form and pick a morning or an afternoon: visits run all year, but at weekends only on Saturdays from May to September, never the first Saturday of the month.

• The reception, with the offices, is in the building at the back of the west courtyard.

• For the view, stand on the canal's south bank: the V 52 greenway follows the towpath there and is closed to general motor traffic.

• Every 15 August a torchlit procession climbs to Notre-Dame du Gruguet in memory of 1944.