Saturday Dec 5th Pour Richard’s in Franklin MA holds Bubbles and Bark fundraiser for Forever Home Dog Rescue . Bring your pup, enjoy some Champagne and Hot Dogs!! Ann Williams loves Champagne and dogs. Devotedly. And in her signature style she celebrates this love on Saturday by holding a fundraiser at her beautiful wine and spirits shop Pour Richard’s. Here’s the link to the event: https://pourrichardswine.com/content/bubbles-bark You will see there that there will be many fun things to try, see and do, including tasting Champagnes from Wine Traditions. Recently some of our Champagne producers visited Massachusetts and tasted with Ann, you can read her reactions below. Rock-Solid Day ‘Like a rock…. Lean and solid everywhere.’ -Bob Seger The rock above was once at the bottom of a sea. If you look closely, you can see fossils of tiny sea creatures embedded in what was once sand and clay. Now it’s Kimmeridgian limestone, the ‘soil’ common to Chablis, Sancerre, and parts of Champagne. Bernard Dumont , of Champagne Robert Dumont & Fils, was pouring his lovely wines (and handing out rocks) at a tasting last week. David Bourdaire, of Bourdaire-Gallois, was also pouring at this event, a selection of importer Wine Traditions’ grower Champagnes. I stole away from the store for a couple hours to taste and talk with these two passionate and talented winemakers. Champagne is rife with paradox. It’s wine (plus bubbles, but wine), but Americans almost never drink it at meals, as we would with still wines. Moreover, we stand the ‘rules’ of quality wines on their head when evaluating Champagne. Throughout the wine world, geography rules: the smaller the piece of land from which a wine is sourced, the more prestigious the wine. But in Champagne, we are supposed to believe that a wine consisting of fruit from hundreds of growers across a large region is the ‘best’, because it has a famous name and is aggressively marketed by a company which also sells scarves and handbags. Hmmm. At Pour Richard’s, we favor grower Champagnes, wines from small, specific family plots. David’s Champagnes, largely Pinot Meunier from sandy soil in the Massif Saint Thierry, are extravagantly scented. They are so delicate and delicious, I find myself wishing I could inhale the glass. Bernard’s wines, grown on Kimmeridgean limestone in the southern Aube, are sumptuous and rich, more ‘luscious’ than their neighbors to the north. Both growers’ wines are clean, lean, and focused- classic Champagne, but also specific to an individual place. Chatting with David and Bernard was almost as fun as tasting their exquisite wines, whether hearing David’s views on why some Champagnes should be decanted, or listening to Bernard explain his use of a solera system and extending aging on the lees. For the fortunate few who absolutely love our work, there is nothing so satisfying as someone else who also loves what you do. Bernard and David were clearly enjoying introducing their passion to an appreciative audience; as a member of that audience, I had a great day, too. If you’d like to have a great day, stop by for Bubbles & Bark on December 5. You can taste Champagnes from David and Bernard, as well as other growers, and aid an animal rescue group, too. I may even let you pet my rock.