Champagne Region in late January.

The Wine Tipster was in Champagne last week and for the moment everything is barren. By late September, or earlier, depending on the year, there will be hundreds of grape pickers in the background collecting, we hope, ripe bunches of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. Visit the towns of Reims and Epernay in this region if you have the chance.