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Recommendations for Reims and Epernay

Posted by on

My wife and I will be staying in a small countryside B&B near Reims (15-20 mins south) for 4 nights in mid-March. I'd like to consider one "can't miss" Champagne tasting/touring experience in each city. For Reims, I'm targeting Veuve Cliquot and thinking about Moet & Chandon in Epernay.

Our B&B hosts have provided "locals" recommendations for smaller producers as well. We don't want to do tons of tastings and tours but I thought it would be fun to narrow down our list to one iconic experience in each city.

Also plan to check out the Ballon D'Epernay (it flies on Wednesdays this time of year which happens to be my birthday while we'll be in the area so hoping the weather's good and we can check it out)! Would love for some good restaurant reservations in Epernay to pair up with the Balloon experience and a bday dinner :-)

Posted by
79 posts

I just exited Reims 20 Feb 23 after R Steves Best of Paris----I could not get into Mumm or Martel in the 2 days I spent there. But I did secure--quite easily online--a visit to Pommery Caves. This proved to be a marvelous site with a huge intro auditorium/tasting site and fascinatingly decorated caves.

By that I mean the vast cave system contained not only a great length of limestone caves most lined with Champagne bottles, but also an unexpected and wonderful array of art installations using forms, color, light, etc. My self guided tour, accompanied by a numbered explanatory guiding form took about an hour and cost about 30 Euros.

After my tour the 2 Champagnes tasting offering included 2 Pommery wines--Brut Royal (very tasty, Brut dry) and, as I recall, a nice Grand Royal Brut.

Access online Champagnepommery.com. ab

Posted by
8056 posts

We did Taittinger in Reims which was the only. tour we found for our dates that was available. The number of glasses of Champagne you get is built into the price of the ticket. We were very happy with the cellar tour:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/reims-cathedral-st-remy-and-taittinger/
There was no 'tasting' -- you got a nice glass of Champagne at the end of the tour -- if you bought a more expensive ticket you got two -- which is more than I want to drink at mid day. The nearby St. Remy Basilica was also very worth a visit.

Posted by
1975 posts

Long ago I have visited Moët & Chandon and even looking from the outside a bit industrial it was surprisingly the opposite once inside. I found their history interesting, you can see the room where Napoleon was welcomed and they own the Dom Perignon brand, there is a tour in the caves underneath the buildings and at the end tasting a glass was included too. All in all a wortwhile visit to my opinion.

Posted by
1321 posts

We loved the Taittinger tour but our favorite place just to taste was Veve Clicquot in Reims. In Epernay Moet & Chandon was fun and our favorite place to taste was Boizel

Posted by
11156 posts

We stayed outside of Epernay in Ay but returned to Epernay and toured Mort e Chandon. It was a wonderful tour and when we were down in the cellars there was a sign stating that Napoleon had been there. The tour was followed by a tasting. This tour exceeded our expectations!

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