Hi! My name is Jean-Hubert Fabre. I’m visiting from France where my family owns several properties in Bordeaux and I’m interning for the next few months at Total Wine & More’s headquarters in Potomac, Maryland. I thought it would be fun to write about the Tour de France from a wine perspective, I hope you enjoy my posts!

The 99th Tour de France started on Saturday June 30th and is made up of 20 stages, which represent almost 2,200 miles. The runners will cover this distance in 23 days and the final stage will be, as all years, on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

I want to use this event to allow you to discover French wine areas. You will be able to discover beautiful places like Champagne, Alsace and Burgundy. At each stop, we will tell you about their wine history, winemakers who work with Total Wine and with which recipe you can drink these wines.

This stage starts in Epernay, the most famous town with Reims in Champagne. It is a small town with 25,000 inhabitants. Originally planted by the Romans, the Champagne vineyards cover today 85,000 acres. It is important to note that it was not until the 17th century that Champagne produced sparkling wines. In Champagne, just three varieties are allowed : Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and the famous Chardonnay.

Champagne is also known for its food products. Biscuit de Reims are sweet, fine biscuits and are known under their French name Biscuits Roses. The ingredients are very basic: only sugar, eggs and flour and vanilla-flavor. Fossier’s Confectioners who first made it in the late 18th century keeps still secretly its original recipe.

With these pink biscuits, we can suggest you to drink Mailly Brut Reserve Grand Cru. Champagne Mailly practices sustainable methods of cultivation and they produce elegant wine with a complex nose of pears, and necatarines and citrus.