CHAMPAGNE, PERHAPS more than wine from any other region, is bound up with its association of celebration. As an aperitif, it lifts the spirit; served at a drinks gathering, it brightens the mood; and for many the popping of a champagne cork is in itself a signal to start the party.

And yet I find a visit to the Champagne region is often one of the most profound and sober experiences. I first visited Reims as an undergraduate, where, in between appointments at various champagne houses, I took time out to visit the Monument aux Morts, a tribute to those fallen in the battles that have enveloped the city. A short walk away is the spot where General Eisenhower set up his headquarters and on May 7, 1945, signed the surrender of Nazi Germany with Alfred Jodl, commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht.

But it was a few years later, walking through the vineyards just north of Epernay in the Marne Valley, that I became aware of the historicalsignificance of a landscape that saw the destruction of thousands of young men in World War I. Describing the Battle of Champagne in his 1916 book 'Vive la France,' American war correspondent Edward Alexander Powell wrote: 'Hell holds no horrors for one who has seen that battlefield. Could Dante have walked beside me across that dreadful place, which had been transformed by human agency from a peacefulcountryside to a garbage heap, a cesspool, and a charnel-house combined, he would never have written his 'Inferno,' because the hell of his imagination would have seemed colourless and tame. The difficulty in writing about it is that people will not believe me. I shall be accused of imagination and exaggeration, whereas the truth is that no one could imagine, much less exaggerate, the horrors that I saw upon those rolling, chalky plains.'

Today those chalky plains are planted with vines that produce more than 200 million bottles of sparkling wine a year. The chalky plains also play a key role in giving champagne wines their distinctive depth of flavor. The soil consists of a chalk subsoil, topped by a covering of rubble that is made up of sand, lignite, marl, loam and clay. This provides the vine with plenty of drainage, which is an important factor in a wet, northern climate influenced by the Atlantic Ocean.

One house whose style of wines reflects the terroir is Bollinger, which makes champagne of a mouth-filling, yeasty, firm character with tremendous depth. The house can trace its origins back to 1829, when Jacques Bollinger, the youngest son of a noblewoman from Wurttemberg in Germany, went into business with Paul Renaudin and the Comte de Villermont to form the champagne house Renaudin, Bollinger & Cie. At the time, Germany was an important market for champagne, and many Germans, including Johann-Josef Krug, were coming to Reims to set up business. The young Bollinger was very much the driving force behind the business, expanding both the domaine and the area planted under vineyard. He married the Comte's daughter, Charlotte de Villermont, and they had two sons, Georges and Joseph. In 1884, the house received the Royal Warrant as purveyors of champagne to Queen Victoria. Control eventually passed to Georges's son, Jacques Bollinger, and he married Elizabeth Law, who became the now-legendary Lily Bollinger.

Aunt Lily, as she was affectionally known, took over the day-to-day running of the vineyards when her husband Jacques died in 1941. It was a time of war, and her remarkable drive led her to oversee the domaine often by foot or on her bicycle. In addition to helping out with the harvest and wine-making process, she also had a keen eye for publicity. In 1961, she gave perhaps the single most famous quote ever to be uttered on champagne, when she said of drinking Bollinger: 'I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty.'

One wine worth trying is the R.D., which stands for recently disgorged, a conceptunique to the house. The wine itself is Grande Annee, Bollinger's vintage champagne, which is left to mature for more than a decade, giving it a more complex, nuanced flavor. The 1996 is one of the house's most exceptional examples and one of the finest I have had the good fortune to taste.

Will Lyons

• monument [´mɔnjumənt] n.纪念碑；古迹 (初中英语单词)
• tribute [´tribju:t] n.贡物；献礼；颂词 (初中英语单词)
• headquarters [´hed,kwɔ:təz] n.总部(署)，司令部 (初中英语单词)
• surrender [sə´rendə] vt.&n.交出；引渡；放弃 (初中英语单词)
• valley [´væli] n.谷；河谷；流域 (初中英语单词)
• destruction [di´strʌkʃən] n.破坏，毁灭 (初中英语单词)
• correspondent [,kɔri´spɔndənt] n.记者 a.符合的 (初中英语单词)
• dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
• agency [´eidʒənsi] n.代理商；机构；代理 (初中英语单词)
• peaceful [´pi:sfəl] a.和平的；平静的 (初中英语单词)
• imagination [i,mædʒi´neiʃən] n.想象(力) (初中英语单词)
• writing [´raitiŋ] n.书写；写作；书法 (初中英语单词)
• whereas [weər´æz] conj.鉴于；因此；而 (初中英语单词)
• flavor [´fleivə] n.滋味 vt.给....调味 (初中英语单词)
• factor [´fæktə] n.因素；原动力；要素 (初中英语单词)
• climate [´klaimit] n.气候；特殊气候地带 (初中英语单词)
• character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
• tremendous [tri´mendəs] a.可怕的；巨大的 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• remarkable [ri´mɑ:kəbl] a.值得注意的；显著的 (初中英语单词)
• addition [ə´diʃən] n.加；加法；附加物 (初中英语单词)
• harvest [´hɑ:vist] n.&v.收获；收割 (初中英语单词)
• trifle [´traifəl] n.琐事，小事；少量 (初中英语单词)
• otherwise [´ʌðəwaiz] ad.另外 conj.否则 (初中英语单词)
• concept [´kɔnsept] n.概念；观念；思想 (初中英语单词)
• complex [´kɔmpleks] a.复杂的 n.综合企业 (初中英语单词)
• celebration [,seli´breiʃən] n.庆祝(会)；庆典 (高中英语单词)
• profound [prə´faund] a.深奥的；渊博的 (高中英语单词)
• historical [his´tɔrikəl] a.历史(上)的 (高中英语单词)
• significance [sig´nifikəns] n.意义；重要性 (高中英语单词)
• landscape [´lændskeip] n.风景；景色；风景画 (高中英语单词)
• exaggerate [ig´zædʒəreit] v.夸张，言过其实 (高中英语单词)
• bicycle [´baisik(ə)l] n.自行车 (高中英语单词)
• unique [ju:´ni:k] a.唯一的 n.独一无二 (高中英语单词)
• mature [mə´tjuə] a.成熟的 v.(使)成熟 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• gathering [´gæðəriŋ] n.集会，聚集 (英语四级单词)
• countryside [´kʌntrisaid] n.乡下，农村 (英语四级单词)
• distinctive [di´stiŋktiv] a.有区别的；有特色的 (英语四级单词)
• drainage [´dreinidʒ] n.排水(设备)；排水法 (英语四级单词)
• vineyard [´vinjəd] n.葡萄园 (英语四级单词)
• warrant [´wɔrənt] n.根据；委任书；权利 (英语四级单词)
• eventually [i´ventʃuəli] ad.最后，终于 (英语四级单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
• exceptional [ik´sepʃənəl] a.异常的，特别的 (英语四级单词)
• champagne [ʃæm´pein] n.香槟酒；微黄色 (英语六级单词)
• battlefield [´bætlfi:ld] n.战场 (英语六级单词)
• garbage [´gɑ:bidʒ] n.垃圾，废物 (英语六级单词)
• colourless [´kʌləlis] a.无色的；不生动的 (英语六级单词)
• exaggeration [ig,zædʒə´reiʃən] n.夸张，夸大 (英语六级单词)
• charlotte [´ʃɑ:lət] n.水果奶油布丁 (英语六级单词)