Sarah-Kate Lynch

If you like a drop of champagne or two, there is obviously no finer place in the world to head on holiday than the Champagne region itself.

Just an hour and a half north east of Paris, this exclusive grape growing and wine making part of France does not have the sunny temperatures of the Riviera nor the quaintness and romanticism of Provence but it sure as sure as heck does have a lot of lovely bubbles. And any visitor to the area is more than welcome to sample a tipple or two at just about any of the world famous champagne houses and even more not-at-all famous ones.

There are two main centres in Champagne, you may recognise them from the bottle labels: Reims is the bigger city of the two and is home to Veuve Clicquot, Mumm, Pommery, Lanson and Krug, to name but a few. Epernay, on the other hand, is a bit further off the beaten track and houses Moet et Chandon, Perrier Jouet and Pol Roger – all in the same street conveniently named Avenue de Champagne!

There are two ways to tackle a visit to this part of the world: one is to head directly to your favourite champagne house, visit the cellars, taste the wine, shop at the boutique and then go home. The other way is to set aside two or three days, at least one in each city, and go to as many champagne houses as your liver will allow.

Most the houses accept visitors but with many you have to make an appointment, even if it is just to find out at what times the scheduled tours are in English. Both Reims and Epernay have easy-to-find tourist information offices that can provide you with a list of names and phone numbers but if you prefer to plan ahead, the big champagne houses all have websites where you can generally make contact ahead of time.

In Reims, Veuve Clicquot (www.veuve) is the biggest producer but only has visits by appointment, however, a couple of the other houses are every bit as spectacular and perhaps more accommodating to the tourist. I can thoroughly recommend Champagne Mumm (www.mumm.com). For $14NZ you get a 10-minute film explaining how champagne is made, a very polished tour of the magnificent underground chalk pits dug out thousands of years ago by the Gallo-Romans, which is where the champagne is cellared, and a glass of bubbly at the end. For $35, you get to sample three different examples of Mumm champagne, all of them prestige wines rather than the run-of-the-mill non-vintage which is usually on offer - and still extremely delicious might I add. But it is nice, if you are interested, to taste the difference between, say, a vintage champagne (after hearing all the fuss) and a non-vintage, or a brut (dry) champagne and a rose. How often, after all, are you likely to have three different bottles of champagne open in front of you? Not often enough, in my experience!

The Taittinger tour is similar to Mumm’s although perhaps not on such a grand scale. The nice thing about Taittinger though is that it is one of the only champagne houses still owned and run by one family and it certainly has that feel. On the afternoon we visited, we did not have an appointment but again $14 each bought us an hour-long tour with a guide who was exceptionally informative and we left with a warm fuzzy feeling in our tummies that wasn’t just to do with the glass of bubbly we’d so recently enjoyed.

I am a big fan of Lanson champagne, and not just because it is often the cheapest to buy in New Zealand! Lanson champagne does not undergo the malolactic transformation that nearly every other champagne does (don’t ask me to explain malolactic, I need a white board and a pointy stick and even then I don’t quite get it) which gives it more of a Granny Smith apple affect when you taste it. The French call it an “attack on the palate”. We arranged a private appointment with this house and loved every minute of it, although it was more industrial and not as romantic as Taittinger and Mumm.

Pommery is another big champagne house on magnificent grounds in Reims and if it’s the only visit you can manage, it will tell you everything you need to know but I found it disappointing in comparison. Pommery has long been a great supporter of the arts and so there are different art installations down in the cellars but our guide did not know a single thing about them. I would have thought it quite hard to ignore a 10-metre high pyramid of gold lurex but she managed it quite superbly.

Near Reims in the village of Verzenay is a fantastic champagne museum. You can’t miss it, it’s in a lighthouse (!) on a hill overlooking the vines. Children would find it deathly dull but for champagne nerds it’s hog heaven. There’s a film presentation to begin with (make sure to get the English translation handset at reception) then you wind your way around this amazing circular facility learning everything there is to know about the history of the area and the drink itself.

In Epernay most people head straight for Moet and Chandon, the biggest champagne house of them all producing 200 million bottles of bubbly every year. Part of the tour at their magnificent HQ focuses on Dom Perignon, the monk who really got the ball rolling with champagne. He didn’t invent it, the English had already done that, but he did refine and develop the process. In Dom Perignon’s day, working with champagne was quite a risky job, by the way, as the bubbles inside the bottles produced a lot of pressure but the glass wasn’t very strong. As my nephew Hugo would say: “EXPROSIONS!” Our guide at Lanson says winery workers used to wear fencing masks to protect their visages from flying glass!

Again, if you were going just to Epernay for a quick trip, then you will be informed, entertained and have your whistle wetted at Moet, plus they have a great shop, however, one of my favourite champagne houses is about 20 minutes out of Epernay. The Tarlant winery (www.tarlant.com) at Oeuilly (Oyeee) does not have the glitz and glamour of the big houses but this family has been making champagne since 1687. Benoit Tarlant, 29, from the youngest generation, works in the winery with his father, grandfather and great-father, while his mother, Micheline, shows visitors around this modest facility that produces sensational boutique champagne available in New Zealand, by the way, at Rumbles Wine Merchant (email: rumbleswine@​xtra.co.nz) in Wellington. Plus, if you are looking for a comfortable, clean, cheap bed for the night, you can stay in the rooms above the winery for about $70NZ a night and there is a fridge full of Tarlant at your disposal. Enjoy!


Tips for a visit to Champagne
1. Ring or email the Champagne Houses to confirm visiting hours
2. Take warm clothes for cellar visits: it’s 10 degrees in most caves
3. Go for a tasting that lets you compare different champagnes
4. Visit a small family House as well as a big fancy one
5. In Reims, visit the Cathedral: the Chagall stained glass is magnificent
6. Bring a special bottle home to remind you of your visit –it’s cheaper there!