The plan was to spend a quiet night in Paris.

Instead, I landed at Charles de Gaulle at 6:30am feeling a little worse for wear after the flight and headed straight to Champagne.

When you're this close to some of the world's best wine regions, it's hard to sit still for long.

By 10am we were already sitting down with our first producer.

The visit was with a small family estate working predominantly with Pinot Meunier, a grape that seems to be getting more and more attention in Champagne. The wines were lovely, but what stood out most was the family themselves.

They were humble, welcoming and completely focused on what was happening in the vineyard.
That's often what we're looking for when we visit producers. Great wine matters, of course, but so do the people behind it.

The rest of the day was fairly relaxed. After checking into Reims and getting our bearings, I spent some time wandering through the city, dropping into wine bars and chatting with locals about what they're drinking and who they're excited about.

One thing that struck me almost immediately was how much Champagne continues to evolve.
Everywhere I went there seemed to be new names being poured by the glass. Producers I'd never heard of. Small family domaines quietly building reputations alongside some of the region's bigger names.

A decade ago most conversations about Champagne centred around the large houses. Today there seems to be an endless stream of growers bottling their own wines and finding an audience.

For wine lovers, that's a pretty exciting thing.

Tomorrow we're heading into the Petite Montagne de Reims, a small pocket west of Reims that doesn't receive quite as much attention as some of Champagne's more famous villages.

I actually tried one of tomorrow's producers in a wine bar tonight and loved it, so I'm looking forward to seeing the vineyards and meeting the family behind the wines.
It's only day one, but already there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the next couple of weeks.

More tomorrow.

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