Champagne Houses in Reims

We toured Mumm and were terribly disappointed. The tour group was fairly large, the lady giving the tour gave an overview with a lot of gaps. We knew she was leaving stuff out because we had visited Veuve Ambal in Beaune, which makes Crémant de Bourgogne (every bit as yummy as champagne!) and received a very complete story of how sparklings are made. The most disappointing part was the tasting. DH and I chose different options (2 tastes each) and it was all poured so quickly and glasses handed to us so fast that we had no idea what we were drinking. It was extremely rushed, there was no commentary on what we were tasting, and some of the champagne was barely close to room temperature. Given how expensive this was, the champagne left a bad taste in our mouths. In contrast, we went to Ave. de Champagne in Épernay and paid next to nothing for 5 commented tastings. The stuff was also better IMO. Our favorite was a small "house" that was actually run by high school students in a vo-tech type of school. Tour and tasting were free, we got to get up really close to the equipment, and the champagne was inexpensive (albeit not a superior quality). Unfortunately, the latter is in a rural area and as far as we know, tours are only conducted in French. My lesson learned is to skip the giant houses that are pushed by the TI.

We toured Taittinger and thought it was OK really would not know if it wasn't though. Then we went to Moet and had a great time.

We really liked Celliers Ruinart in Reims, but our favorite was Moet et Chandon in Epernay. The Moet tour was fantastic, as was the tasting afterward. The train ride from Reims to Epernay only takes about a half hour.