Three days in Champagne

Day one. Reims and the great houses.

Morning. Start underground. The chalk cellars of Reims hold millions of bottles in cathedral silence; Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot both run excellent booked tours, and one is enough. Afternoon. Reims cathedral, where French kings were crowned, then a slow walk to a champagne bar for a by-the-glass session across styles: blanc de blancs, rosé, vintage. Evening. Dinner in Reims. Champagne with the whole meal, not just the start. The locals are right about this.

Day two. Épernay and the Avenue.

Morning. The Avenue de Champagne in Épernay, the most valuable street in wine, with millions of bottles below the pavement. Moët's tour is the spectacle; smaller houses on the avenue pour with more conversation. Afternoon. Drive twenty minutes to Hautvillers, the hilltop village where Dom Pérignon worked. The abbey, the view over the Marne, and a grower tasting in the village. Evening. Back in Épernay, dinner somewhere small. Order the grower champagne you have never heard of.

Day three. The growers of the Côte des Blancs.

Morning. South through Cramant, Avize and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Chardonnay's chalk heartland. Book one grower visit here; this is where house versus grower stops being theory and becomes two different philosophies in two different glasses. Afternoon. Lunch in a village along the côte, then one last tasting. Evening. Train back. You will never read a champagne label the same way again, which was the point.

Know before you go

When to go. May, June and September. Harvest in September is electric but houses restrict visits; the cellars are a constant cool year round.

Getting there. 45 minutes from Paris by TGV to Reims. Épernay 30 minutes more by local train. A car only matters for the villages.

How many days. Two works, three breathes. Reims, Épernay, then the growers.

The houses and growers. Big houses run scheduled tours, book a few days ahead, 25 to 50 euros with tasting. Growers are by appointment and often free or nearly; buy bottles, they are half the retail price you know.

The mistake first timers make. Only visiting the famous houses. The growers are where the region's future is being argued, and the tastings are better value by an order of magnitude.

Drink it before you go

A non-vintage brut from a great house. The house style, the benchmark, the reference point.

A grower champagne with RM on the label. One family's vineyard in one glass. Compare it with the house brut and you have done the homework.

A blanc de blancs. Pure Chardonnay from the chalk, the Côte des Blancs in advance.

Champagne is one of twelve places in The Grape Atlas. Learn it in five minutes, free.