Cellar tours and Tastings
Discover the beautiful Champagne cellars, learn secrets from the winemakers, and take part in exclusive Champagne tastings.
Cellar tours
“May all your joys be pure joys and all your pain Champagne”
The cities of Reims and Epernay are the two main hubs of the Champagne industry and host most of the Grandes Maisons de Champagne – i.e. the major Champagne Houses.
As the Champagne ageing process requires a lot of space to store the bottles, these famous brands have either bought existing underground galleries or dug their own below the cities so that their wines could rest in the best conditions.
Reims is famous for its Gallo-Roman underground chalk pits, which a very few Champagne Houses had the chance to buy and turn into cellars during the 18th century. You will love visiting these amazing caves called “Crayères” at Champagne Veuve Clicquot, Champagne Ruinart, Champagne Taittinger or Champagne Pommery.
In Epernay, the most prestigious Champagne Houses have all settled on the same street, which was consequently renamed the “Avenue de Champagne”.
On each side of the Avenue, the beautiful mansions and villas of brands like Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët or Pol Roger could almost make us forget that the real wealth of Epernay resides underground. Indeed, Champagne Moët & Chandon only itself owns 18 miles of cellars right below the city-center of Epernay, where millions of bottles age patiently.
Prestige Champagne tastings
“I only drink Champagne on two occasions, when I am in love and when I am not” – Coco Chanel
The Champagne-making process is long and complex. From the vineyard to the cellar, the Champagne producers are to make decisions, which will impact the taste of their wines. Champagnes can be blends of different grape varietals, of different vineyards and even blends of different years of harvest… Champagnes can also be single-plot, single-varietal, vintage wines…
Champagne is way more diverse than we imagine and tasting is the best way to understand it. We can take you to the most famous Champagne Houses – Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon, Ruinart, etc. – for some unique tasting experiences. We are also eager to make you discover the hidden gems of Champagne – our favorite boutique Champagne Houses – whose wines are at least as good as the big labels.
Vertical Champagne tastings including old vintages, prestige Champagne tastings including rare cuvees, Blanc de Blancs Champagnes, Rosé Champagnes, Extra-brut Champagnes… we will organize the best tasting experience for you!
Vineyards discovery
The Champagne region is a limited area, where only certain types of grapes can be grown in keeping with strict standards, in order to produce the best sparkling wines in the world. In the country-side, near Reims and Epernay, every hillside is covered with vineyards, creating a sea of vines…
Your guide will be glad to make you discover these landscapes. He will tell you about the Champagne “terroir”, about the characteristics of this land, which make it one of the best areas for wine-making. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier… You will be taught the differences between these varietals by the Champagne-makers themselves and you will understand the hard work it takes to produce a bottle of the precious bubbles.
Champagne Workshops and connoisseur experiences
For a more in-depth comprehension of Champagne wines, we offer you to take part into different workshops. For instance, we would love you to explore the process of Champagne-making during a commented tasting of some base wines – the still wines that compose the Champagne blends. If you are a Cheese-lover, we can also organize a Cheese & Champagne pairing workshop for you.
During the harvest, we give you the opportunity to go to the vineyards, to pick a few grapes and to follow the pressing process. Finally, we offer to Champagne connoisseurs the opportunity to design their own Champagne cuvee with an expert cellar-master…
Let us Make it happen for you!
Please let us know you expectations and we will get back to you about availability and pricing within one business day.