Moulin du Landion

After our stay in Epernay, we trolled down south to Dolancourt.   We drove there along parts of the Route du Champagne, a tourist route that takes you through pretty scenery and via lots of the smaller Champagne producers.  It's well signposted, and worth the detour if you're in a mood for exploring. As we moved south, it was clear that less and less land was devoted to Champagne grape culture, more towards vegetables and cattle feed.  The valleys sides are less steep and the expanse of clay at the bottom is wider.

We stayed in the Moulin du Landion.  The water wheel wasn't turning, due to a lack of water, and it can't be used for anything useful, but it was interesting to see the mechanism.

It was in the restaurant there that we had a bottle of Champagne from the René Jolly producer.  We had chosen quite disparate dishes, and the wine list identified the René Jolly blanc de noirs as "suitable for accompanying any dish", so we selected that one.  It has a hint of sweetness despite being described as brut, with enough of a fruit flavour to give it some force.  It did, indeed, go reasonably well with everything we chose.  It was more of a stretch for Anita's steak than my fish, but good none the less.  We resolved to visit the producer.