We will visit some world famous champagne houses and some small high-quality family producers. And we will enjoy the Champenoise gastronomy at our dinners (in a one-star restaurant!) and at the lunches, some of which will be with, and as guests of, champagne producers. Is drinking champagne all through a meal a good idea? Decide for yourself!

When the autumn is turning darker and darker put a little sparkle in it by joining us on this trip to indulge in champagne for three days, including some of the gastronomic specialities of the region.

This is your occasion to go into details in understanding champagne. Why is champagne different from other sparkling wines? Where is it grown? On what kind of soil? And how is it made? What about dégorgement, dosage and pupitres? You will go home with the understanding that, well, it might be expensive, but it’s well worth the money, considering how it is born. And it’s very good practice for the upcoming New Year.

On this trip French gastronomy will be particularly featured. We will stay two night in the auberge/hotel “Aux Armes de Champagne” where we will also have dinner in their Michelin-starred restaurant.

Aux Armes de Champagne is a cosy but refined auberge in the small town l’Epine a little bit to the east of Epernay. It only has some 600 inhabitants but they can boast a splendid basilica that can rival the cathedral in Reims! It is on the UNESCO world heritage list.

We will have a mix of visits to the great (and big) champagne “houses” and smaller family run growers. Some of the lunches will be at wine growers’ where we will have the opportunity to see how you can combine a full meal with drinking “just” champagne.

We begin the first day by meeting in Reims (pronounced rather like “rans”, like in “it rains” but without the “i” if you understand what I mean – not that it will be raining when we’re there) where we will spend the first night in a centrally located hotel. Reims is an hour and a half’s drive straight east of Paris (traffic permitting) or two hours from Calais. This is where you find some of the famous champagne houses with magnificent installations, such as Pommery (with it’s Tudor style winery), Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, Mumm…

The cathedral in Reims is one of the most beautiful in all of France and it has had its fair share of ordeal over the years. It survived heavy bombing during the first world war but many of the stained glass windows survived (e.g. the famous Rosette). An interesting detail is one latter time stained glass window designed by Marc Chagall.

On Saturday night, the last day together, we will return to Reims for a final evening in Champagne.

Read more about this wine tour to Champagne. Detailed program available here.

Do take a look at the wine tour videos from our visits to vineyards and wineries in Champagne on our YouTube channel!

BKWine is a leading wine tour organizer. In 2008 we will organize some 30 wine tours to many different wine regions: Portugal (Douro, Alentejo), Spain (Catalonia, Priorato, Penedes), France (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Languedoc, Rhône,…), Italy (Tuscany, Veneto), Germany (Rheingau, Palatinate)… We also do custom designed tours if you are looking for something special. Oh, and by the way, we just wrote a wine book about French wines from the Languedoc.

”BKWine – The Wine Experts”