Dormans, Champagne
Dormans is a rather forgettable town on the Marne River, though with the wonderful Romanesque-style Église St. Hippolyte dating back to the 11th century. It lies midway between Épernay and Château-Thierry to the east of Paris.
Like much of the Champagne region, the Dorman area was a tragic battleground in World War 1. The Mémorial de la Bataille de la Marne chapel commemorates WWI. The Château de Dormans has landscaped gardens and an ecomuseum in a former mill, while the.
Geographers will be interested to learn that the Marne disappears into the Seine at Charenton just upstream from Paris.
For wine walkers, Dormans is important because it is smack in the middle of the Vallée de la Marne sub-region of the Champagne wine region.
The Vallée de la Marne contains only two Grands Crus villages: Ay and Tours-sur-Marne. Pinot Meunier is the main grape variety.
So a little walk over the bridge across to the north side of the Marne river, and up the slopes, and I was in the midst of lush vine-clad hill slopes. The vineyard landscape is spectacular all along the north side of the river — rather steep vineyard slopes climbing up to the sky.
The group of workers that I met were locals from the region. They were cutting the top leaves off the top of the vines, so that the grapes would be visible at the time of the vendanges. They work on these vines all year round, doing a variety of tasks according to the seasons. The grapes in their parcel were Pinot Noir.
Jacques, who I later met, is 60 years old, and has been working as a viticulteur all his life. He finds the work much harder now than when he was younger. His boss employs workers from Poland for the vendanges. They are better and more reliable workers than the French.
According to Jacques, the vendanges will take place in early September, and 2023 will be a very good year.