Reims and Champagne Tours

20 years ago I visited Piper-Heidsieck and remember riding through the caves on a "car" (for lack of a better term). It was a slick tour back then, some would say very commercial, but since I love champagne, I was in heaven. Friends and I took the train from Paris. I remember it was a Monday so there were many shops and restaurants closed, which limited ourselves on where to eat for lunch. We still had a wonderful time. I did a quick search on this forum and found some very good information about wine tours that should help you decide: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/archives/winery.htm

In 2010 my mom and I did Mumm which was great and was within walking distance from the train station, it was a lovely classical tour, with a walk through the cellars followed by a tasting etc. The English group tours were large, but I liked that they offered different tastings from just a glass of the Cordon Rouge to tastings of their rarer vintages. We also did a tour of Charles de Cazanove, which is right by the train station and really enjoyed it. It was more of a factory tour, but was a nice differentiation form the classic cave tours, we went during harvest time when they were pumping in the juice - the entire places smelled like grapes! The tour group there was much smaller, and at the tasting it felt more like we were at a bar having a drink, very relaxes and we got to chat with the others on tour. The price was also really reasonable, I believe around 9 euros for 3 glasses.