Miles in Champagne / Film 01
The mistake.
One minute with Miles.
A whole day worth planning.
Miles in Champagne · The Mistake · 1 minute
Captions are included in the film. Transcript below.
Read the film transcript
Once upon a time, the people of Champagne made wine in a place almost too cold to make it.
Every winter, the cold put the wine to sleep. Half finished.
And every spring it woke up. Inside the bottle.
Bubbles, with nowhere to go. Some cellars lost most of their bottles.
They called it a fault. Then somebody asked a better question. What if the fault was the point?
Stronger glass. Borrowed from the English, but we don’t talk about that.
A young widow called Clicquot worked out how to turn each bottle until the wine ran clear.
Then they did the hardest thing of all. They waited. Fifteen months at least, down in the chalk.
So that sound is a mistake nobody threw away.
Meet your travelling companion
A little wine.
A little perspective.
Miles’s first film tells a short, animated version of Champagne’s story: a cold cellar, a few broken bottles and a rather useful change of mind. “What if the fault was the point?”
Start in Reims. Visit the cathedral, leave time for lunch, then head below ground for one reserved chalk-cellar visit. Bring a warm layer and plan the return journey.
Plan your Champagne day Prefer a guided trip? ↗Travel comes first.
Our guides connect the wine with the place around it: streets, food, people and the journey between stops. Miles is a fictional character, not an operator or a firsthand reviewer.
Read how we research the guidesA little context behind the story
Where next?
The suitcase has room for 24 regions. Fifteen have detailed day plans, named venues, maps and booking notes.
Explore the regions ↗