Champagne trip

[Krusty]

Hi all,

Time to start posting after quite a while as a lurker.

The depth of knowledge on display in these forums is awesome and I was hoping to plug into that with a question.

I am shortly embarking on a trip that will take in a few days in Paris and I thought a quick TGV over to Reims for the day may be in order. I have a champagne loving wife with me but we will also have our 7 year old in tow.

Any suggestions on champagne specific things to do for a day trip ( we will be covering the cathedral and all the cultural sites, am thinking more wine specific), perhaps even just a good place to purchase some champagne. We were thinking of buying a mixed case of grower champagnes to work through on the rest of our trip south through France and then into Spain.

Cheers,
Krusty

[simon1980]

Welcome! I'm sure Mike will be able to give you the best tips for Champagne...but a few ideas from me:

Being in Reims will limit your options considerably...as most of the growers are in the villages. The "big" Champagne houses are mostly located in Reims or Epernay. In Reims, we have been to:

Charles Heidsieck...good reception, and not too touristy.
Pommery...bus loads of people, but interesting cellars.
Taittinger...book ahead...quite posh! Good tour.
Veuve Cliquot...like Disneyland for Champagne. But the cellars are amazing. My wife spent a lot of $ in the shop.

However, my favourite, by a very long way in Reims, was Ruinart. This is a "book in advance" job, but (despite the fact it was a public holiday in France) they were ready for us, and I don't think there was any charge. The cellars are wonderful (dug out by the Romans), and we had a great tour, just us, with a lovely lady. She opened a Dom Ruinart too. And it's the oldest Champagne house. I'd send them an e-mail to see if they can help...

Oh, and there are many great growers...one we have bought from several times is Henri Chauvet (Rilly).

Have a good trip!

simon1980

[Mike Hawkins]

Krusty,

Simon's recommendations are good. Taittinger, Ruinart and Pommery would be my choices if you want to do a tour of the bigger houses / caves. They're all in reasonable walking distance from the town centre, whereas VC, from memory. is a bit further out.

There are several excellent wine (champagne) stores in Reims. IMO, the best one is right near the front entrance to the cathedral (I forget the name but its 2 or 3 stores from the cathedral). They have a raft of grower champagnes that cost about 10-20% more than you'd be able to buy them at the maisons (ie: pretty good prices) and the staff are very knowledgeable and helpful, and every one I've met speaks fluent English.

Notwithstanding the above, my advice would be to rent a car and drive from Paris - its really easy, especially if you request GPS. It will probably cost less, and give you greater flexibility, including the ability to get to a few growers in the quaint villages.

Cheers

Mike

[Krusty]

Thank you both for your replies and suggestions.

Unfortunately a car is just not an option on this trip so the villages will have to wait another time. It also means we will have to go back !!

I think a tour would be good and may even have a bit of interest to the young bloke, caves tunnels and all that, will drop Ruinart an email on your recommendations.

Cheers

Krusty

[coh]

Hi krusty, me and the wife visited epernay about 10 yrs ago and had one of the most amazing days ever! We did something similar to you, and caught the train there from Paris just for the day.
We walked straight to the Moët and Chandon cellar door and got the English tour. We were not long out of uni and strapped for cash so did the cheap tour option which only gave us the standard non vintage glass at the end.
Unfortunately we had a group of 4 loud Americans who splashed out the big bucks for the vintage and rose drops, who felt they knew more about the champagne than the tour lady.
It was an amazing tour, but the best part was the yanks cut and run early after not being impressed with it, and me the and wife got invited to drink all their vintage stuff they paid for.
As it was over 10 yrs ago, not quite sure of the years etc, but it was pretty special.

We then walked through the town into random cellar doors and were welcome with open arms everywhere we went.

Needless to say, we're big fans of epernay.

Have a great trip and let us know how you get on

Cohen

[odyssey]

Veuve Cliquot...like Disneyland for Champagne. But the cellars are amazing. My wife spent a lot of $ in the shop.

If you think they are the Disneyland for Champagne you should see Mercier. Think Duff Beer land, where you go into a lift and, I kid you not, little puppets sing before you get onto an automated train ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVPpz_X-QU0

I would love to get a couple of hours of my life back from that.

Anyway back to the point, if you are stuck in the city then Veuve has an excellent cellar tour including a taste of La Grande Dame, probably the best of the LVMH megacorp 'big houses', without the Duff.

[Krusty]

Thanks guys, Mercier sounds um, interesting, lol."Duff" tours I am not looking for !

Tried Ruinart, cellars closed until Xmas unfortunately, will try for one of the others.

Next question is top suggestions for grower champagnes to buy while we are there. As noted above, we aim on buying a case or so of various grower wines to drink through the rest of the trip, but ultimately the goal is to to identify a few we may want to buy long term once we are back in Oz.

Any suggestions more than welcome.

Cheers,
Krusty

[simon1980]

Sorry, I have not tried many growers recently. Vilmart is the most famous grower...but I bet it is still not cheap. Please note that 2008 is getting good reviews as a vintage. Other than that, enjoy the ride of some random selections!

simon1980

[Hacker]

I would be hunting out Grower experiences that you can't easily experience at home, and one that springs to mind is Jacques Selosse. Not cheap, and relatively rare, but my favourite champagne by a country mile. Check out wine-searcher for places in Paris that sell his 'Initial' NV blend. So worth it.

[Mike Hawkins]

The store I mentioned above will have Hebrart Special Club, margaine special Club, diebolt Vallois Millesime, among others. All of them should be approx EUR 30. You cant go wrong pucking the brain of the two young French guys that work there - they'll be quite helpful.

[toofastdriving]

Hi all - resurrecting the old thread instead of starting a new one. Am lucky enough to be heading to Reims in a couple of weeks. Am only there for a day trip from Paris and am booked into Tattinger, Verve & Ruinart. It's going to be a busy day, but let me know any suggestions for more local producers or other suggestions for what's in market at the moment I might be able to grab while there. Thanks!

[Mike Hawkins]

The wine stores, including Club Tresors are worth checking out. Good prices and some interesting stuff

[toofastdriving]

The wine stores, including Club Tresors are worth checking out. Good prices and some interesting stuff

Thanks - will do!!