Champagne Tour?

[Michael-P]

Champagne: I plan to be in Paris for fun 28 Nov-3 Dec and although not really a Champagne guy, I thought it might be interesting to visit for a day. I hear you can take a train and walk the street tasting from door to door? Any suggestions much appreciated.

Paris: Any restauarnt suggestions also much appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael-P

[Houndsong]

A couple of years ago we took the train from Gare du Nord I think to Reims, nice countryside/vineyards along the way, and we had a walk-in tour of the Taittinger caves. It was pretty interesting and you get a glass of their NV afterwards. We went in October and I think a lot of the tours may be seasonal, so as for going door-to-door I'm not sure. It seemed to me too that while there are a lot of houses in town a number of them are spread out at the fringes. Not like it's sprawling but we took a short local bus up to Taittinger. Prices in the local wine shops were very reasonable. Also it seemed that the famous/big houses are spread equally between Epernay and Reims. Anyway we were not conducting a census and we had a nice afternoon.

[sdr]

Hi, Micheal,

You can walk from Pommery to Taittinger, but that's about it as far as I know. The big houses are in either Reims or Epernay as noted, but not side by side.

The standard tour of both the above was interesting since you get to see the incredible subterranean caverns. There are many tours each day and easy to reserve.

From Paris there is (or was) an all day bus trip which includes both Reims and Epernay and spends some time at the great cathedral of Reims. Very kitchy, but you do hit the highlights.

As for restaurants, if time and finances permit, it's hard to beat Boyer (Reims), but it's very formal, as in coat and tie.

The really personalized in depth visits are with the small growers out in the countryside.

~stuart

[dstgolf]

Michael,

After a day touring Niagara wine country and three cases later thinking about our time in Champagne brings back great memories. We only saw Epernay and Ay with the latter having many small producers that grow grapes for the big houses keeping the best for themselves.

Epernay is very doable with the majority of the big houses side by each on either side of the road "Avenue de Champagnes".We had no problem just walking into Nicolas Feuillette?,Perrier Jouet,Moet and Pol Roger that is a block off the main drag. All of the cellars are interconnected via the vast chalk caves underground. We also stopped in to the office de tourisme right on th corner of the main street where a large and small champagne house rep were doing a tasting. The smaller one(Richard Fliniaux) invited us back to their vineyard at the end of the day for a tour and tasting in Ay.Fabulous champagne that we can't get in Canada. The non vintage Dedicace was great.The hospitality with the entire family participating giving us a private tour of the vineyard,cellar etc was outstanding and finished off with a tasting put on by the Grandmother who served up some appetizers she put together while we were touring. An unbelievable heart felt experience and the chmpagnes were also great. They dropped us off in the dowtown Epernay family restaurant and gave us a bottle of champgne to have with dinner.

Won't say that you'll have that kind of luck but we chose Epernay over Reims because of its smaller size initially and its ease of access. We rented a car in Paris and drove which I wouldn't hesitate to do again to offer the freedom rather than travelling by train/bus.

Hope this helps,

Danny

Try this site http://www.libation-unlimited.com/dr-..

[tim]

Michael, will you have any time for a social call? I should be in town then (unless travel takes me to another continent) and would love to share some wine!

Cheers,

Tim

[stefan]

I recommend Epernay if you go to only one town. As Danny mentioned, there you have some big name houses close together.

Remind me to to tell you some time about the weekend Lucie and I spent in Christian Pol Roger's house.

stefan

[Michael-P]

Tim: Sure. I am just working on the schedule, but should be able to do something. I might even have some low production CalCab with me if you're interested.

Stefan: Sounds like I need to do the tour with you!

So rental car or bus seems the answer. I'll look into both.....

Thanks!