On a glorious winter morning on the first of January I went for a walk on the pier near IJmuiden in the company of a dear friend. Both of us had in the preceding months joined the legion of ‘Sad singles’ and after a despondent autumn, decided to embrace "Carpe Diem" as our new philosophy. Only on New Year’s Eve I used to drink Champagne and as a matter of fact I knew nothing at all about ‘booze’. Nevertheless it seemed a good idea to stuff a bottle of Champagne and a few glasses in my pockets so that at the end of the pier, near the sea and at the start of a new year we could consume a few glasses of the divine juice.

It was a remarkable moment and ever since, we regularly opened a bottle of Champagne during our nightly binges in dark Amsterdam. Under the influence of the ‘nectar’ we came to develop the profoundest of perceptions and while yelling our battle-cry "Carpe Diem" we got ourselves into the weirdest of situations. The Champagne, made life unbelievably cheerful and funnily enough all of a sudden we found all kinds of bon-vivants in every nook and corner.

One night, at my favourite watering hole I met this gracious lady who harboured only one desire. One day she wanted to uncork a bottle of champers on the Eiffel tower dressed in an evening gown. True to my motto "Carpe Diem" I could do no other thing than ask her: ‘Do you having any plans for this weekend’. So there we were, in springtime at a temperature of 6 degrees Celsius on the Eiffel tower, she in a bare backed evening gown and I in a dinner jacket, armed with a bottle of Champagne and two flutes..

Up till now this was one of the finest moments in my life. Smitten as I was I sent her a Champagne cooler filled with 6 dozen Champagne coloured roses and a Champagne poem I wrote myself. The relationship with aforementioned lady was fiery but short-lived alas. But now I was really hooked. The first trip with my next girlfriend to the Champagne soon followed and was such an enjoyable experience that I went back many times. In the company of friends I spent lots of weekends, larded with ‘brilliant conversations’, romantic dinners and Champagne galore in the Champagne.

Gradually I became really interested in Champagne as such. At the time however there were hardly any books or internet-sites on the subject in the Dutch language. In the Netherlands Champagne was not really an item. So I bought a number of English and French books in Reims, which I subsequently devoured. Moreover the producers in the Champagne region are genuine Champagne buffs themselves and are more than willing to tell you everything about their product and the manufacturing of it.

I enjoy Champagne tremendously and I would like to share my experiences with everyone. In 1997 I concocted a website about Champagne, ‘The Dutch Champagne Pages’. A lot of the text in this document dates from that time. In the meantime I have extensively researched the Champagne market in the Netherlands and have published my findings on the website.

Thanks to the thousands of tasting notes made available by Richard Juhlin and Tom Stevenson and nights of searching for links/information of the Champagne producers, this website has grown into what it is today: the most complete Champagne-website in the Dutch language. I noticed a lot of English-speaking-persons still visited my original website that contained a number of English pages. To accommodate these Champagne lovers as well I had the Dutch pages translated and added an English interface to the Champagne Database with thousands of Champagne details.

I tried to write a ’sparkling’ story. Some of my critics think I went over the top every now and then. So be it. Others think that by my manner of writing the load of information on Champagne becomes rather amusing reading matter. Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy reading my narrative but what is more important I hope you’ll enjoy Champagne.

Carpe Diem!!

Jeroen van Craaikamp

Btw: I quite appreciate (positive or negative) feedback. Also, if you can't find what you are looking for on this site, you can always contact me.