I've narrowed down which Champagne Tour to take to Moet or Pommery.
I'm aware that both tours are in different cities. What is the main difference between the tours?
How close is Pommery to the train station in Riems, is there public transport to/from Pommery to the station?
How close is Moet to the train station in Epernay, is there public transport to/from Moet to the station?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks..
The only house I visited (10 years ago) was Moët & Chandon, some 200m walking from the station. Interesting is the history with Napoleon and they produce Dom Pérignon and sell it at eyebrow raising prices if I express it well. The outside of the building looks more than an office instead of a house, but the visitor centre is nice.
I'm going to Paris in September and a friend raved about Moet so I looked it up for a day trip and saw it is closed for tours until October 1st just in case you are going before that. Otherwise, Moet is a 5 minute walk from Epernay train station down beautiful tree-lined streets. Pommery is an impressive building but needs a taxi from Reims' station as it is on the other side of town and Reims is much more of a "city". She said between the two she'd definitely pick Moet. -Stephanie
We just came back from Paris Saturday. We toured Martell. 30 minute walk from the town center. It was lovely - not large or swanky; but Emmanuel, the tour guide, was fantastic, informative and we enjoyed a nice tasting for 13E. Not a bad deal at all. Their champagnes are not exported to the US, so we brought back a nice treat we wouldn't be able to enjoy otherwise.
My sister has done tours at Moet, Pommery and Mumm and has said the tours themselves are fairly similar with the difference being the taste of the champagne. However, the towns of Epernay and Reims are very different with respect to the producers. In Reims the vineyards are on the edges of the city, with production, aging, tours and tastings all taking place on the estate.
In Epernay, there is an Avenue de Champagne, where many of the producers have a house for tastings. In the case of some of the major champagne houses (Moët, de Castellane, Mercier), this “house” is massive, with production, bottling, aging and tastings/tours located on site, even though their vineyards may be spread throughout the countryside. Here you might be able to do several different tastings/tours. They rented a car so I don't know anything about transportation.
I spent a night in Reims. I took 2 tours there, Martel and Tattinger. Tattinger's tour was more informative but the tasting was rather stingy. Martel was most liberal with the pouring. They are about a 5 minute walk from each other, not far from the Cathedral and just a couple blocks from the Basilica (which I liked as much as the Cathedral). Take the tram from the train station to the Cathedral area.
In Epernay, I took the Mercier tour which is fun. I'm not a fan of Chardonnay, so I liked their bubbly best - they use only a small amount of Chardonnay. It was a long, but interesting, walk from the train station.
We visited both Moet and Chandon and Mercier. The former was a low tech tour, walking through the caves with a guide. The latter was a more high tech tour, riding a tram with a guide. Both tours were great, very informative, and I was glad to get two different perspectives. Granted this was 20 years ago, so things might be different, but my point is that you should visit cellars with different tour styles. I felt the Moet and Chandon tour was the better, more realistic experience.
We enjoyed our tours of both Martel and Taittinger very much in July. We went to the 10:20 English tour and tasting at Taittinger first and had just enough time to walk over to Martel for an 11:30 tasting. We had called ahead for the appointment at Martel, and we were the only people scheduled. (No reservations possible for individuals at Taittinger, but we did get there early. When the tour fills up, it fills up.) Our private tour at Martel was delightful and we tasted three champagnes. The Taittinger tour was very "slick," and the extensive caves were fascinating; I was glad we went to both. Taitinger has a very nice parking lot; we just left our car there and walked to Martel. That didn't seem to be a problem.
You can take the train from Paris to Reims, walk from the Reims train station to Mumms champagne cave, have your tour, and be back in Paris for dinner. In fact, if that's all you do, you can be back in Paris by early afternoon, if you get a morning cave tour.
