Back to Rilly-la-Montagne
When we came back to France some three years ago, I had a vague souvenir of the Montagne de Reims. So I did a number of exploratory walks and ultimately found Rilly-la-Montagne.
Now Rilly may not be the most amazing French village. But it is nice and authentic. And the walk from Rilly, to Chigny-les-Roses, and then to Ludes is a lovely track through beautiful vineyards.
I have walked it several times, through different seasons. Today, being the beginning of spring, the vines had just a few weeks of growth, with gentle little leaves.
My favourite walk was in November 2022, autumn time, when all the leaves were coloured yellow and red. On that walk, I was accompanied by my good friends, Michael, Brigita and Oskar (see old photo).
So as I sat down to take my morning coffee in Chigny-les-Roses (the spot where we ate lunch in 2022), I telephoned Michael. We chatted and reminisced about the good old days.
As I then wandered along, I bumped into a group of French hikers (mostly women, French women are inveterate hikers, see photo). We had a nice chat and I amused them with my mastery of colloquial French.
Further along, I met two gentlemen who were cleaning old buds off their vines. By removing them, just a few weeks after the leaves appear facilitates growth of new buds and leaves.
This work must be done manually, they assured me. Indeed, all work on the vines (including the harvest) in Champagne must be done by hand.
According to the wine textbooks, the pinot noir grape predominates on the Montagne de Reims. Talking to people, however, it seems that all three champagne grapes — pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay – are planted in this region.
One of the effects of global warming is that there are increased plantings of chardonnay, which are taking the place of pinot meunier. Another effect of climate change is that the harvest (vendanges) now takes place at least a month earlier — now September and sometimes late August.
The lady I spoke to is the fifth generation winemaker in her family. She was also tending her vines. In the photo, she is standing near a little machine, which deters diseases attacking her vines.
When I asked about the likely quality of this year’s vintage, the answer was a clear “don’t know”. The vines can be vulnerable to diseases, rain and hail, and all sorts of things. It is only when the wine is in the barrels that can be a little sure.
So how did I do today? 15,000 steps and 15 kms. That’s almost a record for me.
Overall, my day walking at Rilly reminded me of one of my life philosophies. If you do something once, it is an event. If you do it several times, it can become a meditation. After walking Rilly 4-5 times, it has become one of my meditations.