I’ll be in Paris around New Years and am considering a day trip to Épernay.
I’ve heard the Moët & Chandon tour is a worthwhile experience, so I’ll likely schedule that, but I’m failing to find other producers in the town that produce Champagne I actually drink. Most of the producers along L’Avenue de Champagne are luxury houses I’m not particularly interested in.
Anyone on this board visited Épernay and can recommend any houses for tours or tasting? I’m not expecting a serious wine experience; just looking to get out of Paris for the day.
We’ll be taking the train in, so houses walkable from the station and L’Avenue de Champagne are appreciated.
I recommend a tour of Champagne Mercier. They were in the World’s Fair in 1900 in Paris and they don’t seem to export out of France. I thought it was a cool tour and the Champagne was good (it was a few years back so my palette may have changed, but I remember it being good).
What Champagne do you drink? In general, most of the houses on the main strip are big producers (out of necessity - think of real estate costs + they’ve been there for years). You won’t find many growers actually in the town of Epernay itself. I’d go to Pol Roger if I were there. Also, you can go to a wine bar and sample a bunch of Champagne with lunch or something. La Banque wasn’t bad.
Definitely Ruinart. Taittinger is in Reims but all in that same area. If you can get into Krug, it’s worth the trip as well. So many. Really cant go wrong with any of the places listed above. Really depends on what you drink.
Depends on what you’re looking for. We did it a couple years ago, just to say we’d been in a large house and got to see some massive caves. Once is enough. It’s a decent tour, through miles of caves, and an impressive number of bottles. Then you’ll taste in a nicely appointed underground tasting room, pay extra if you want to taste the vintage wine (we did, because, well, how often do you do this kind of thing). Then out through a huge, very commercial gift shop/retail wine shop, with everything you could possible imagine branded with “Moet”. Probably condoms if you look around enough.
If it’s all you can manage (because it’s designed to be easy to make appointments and get in), then go for it; but if you can find anything less commercial, I’d do that instead.
Explore the Côte des Blancs and check out some of the smaller growers. We certainly enjoyed our time at Ruinart, Krug and Taittinger but the best was tasting at Pierre Gimonnet and others. Dinner at Selosse’s joint was a blast as well.
Read the first post, people. Ruinart, Krug and Taittinger are all in Reims. Gimonnet, Selosse and Salon are all a ways outside of Epernay (OP needs to walk from train station - no car).
Actually, Epernay has a small selection of growers that you can visit with. Collard-Picard has a very nice satellite spot on the Ave. de Champagne. Jannison-Baridon has a site right off of the Ave.
There is also the wine bar/shop C. Comme, the shop 520 (best Champagne shop in the world), & Salvatori’s shop right in the general area.
Moet is there and it is a nice visit, but I think Mercier is a more ‘fun’ tour and atmosphere unless you have a good connection for something more private at Moet.
Pol Roger and Perrier-Jouet are right there too, but no public visits and you will most likely need a connection of some kind (talk to a local shop/distributor/importer).
A couple of years ago I was like you, in Paris for the day and wanting to visit Champagne houses using public transport (trains). I had appointments at two of my favourite houses, Billecart Salmon and Pol Roger, and had worked out train timetables to do that and have a nice lunch in between. (Sadly, train strikes on the day made it impossible).
I’d suggest Billecart Salmon for an Epernay visit. They’re actually in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, less than 10 kms from Epernay (I planned to get a taxi). You can book a tour on their website. Alternatively, if you’re interested, I know Billecart’s Asia Pacific rep and if you PM me I can send you his email.
I’d arranged my visit to Pol through the NZ importer, so as noted, you’d need a connection.
Also, I recall, that looking at train timetables Epernay and a quick visit to Rheims was doable from Paris by train within a day. But I wouldn’t want to do that much.
Please post your impressions of what you do end up doing!
There is also Gosset in Épernay but one needs to have a connection. I am kind of half-surprised reading Brad’s comment about Le 520 being the best Champagne shop in the world. Yes the selection is truly wonderful and I have really enjoyed discussing wines with Pierre-Yves (his story about the new Umami Champagne by de Sousa was hilarious) but prices for some of his wines are significantly lower in other shops in the area. But then again I guess you can’t have it all.
No problem! Ya, Mercier was a cool tour, reminded me of Indiana Jones going through the chalk tunnels. Like others said, Pol Roger is there, but it’s not open to the public. The Moet tour was interesting, but I thought the Mercier was better. Oh and De Castellane has a tour available also. I wasn’t able to do it since I missed the last one of the day so I bought a split and drank it in the park instead. It was pretty good champagne also and pretty cheap. Check it out if you have time.
Ditto. Fabulous selection, great service. They have been very helpful a couple of times with stuff I couldn’t find elsewhere or simply didn’t have the time to track down, which I am very grateful for. But, with very few exceptions, their mark-ups are remarkably ambitious across the board, to say the least.
As for Epernay-based producers, a lot has been mentioned already, but I would definitely add Leclerc Briant to the list. I think they make fabulous wines: rich, complex and pure.
Regarding 520, where else can you find that selection all in one place? I don’t think you can. That is the main base for my comment on it being the best Champagne shop in the world. It also has great service and Pierre-Yves Cainjo (proprietor) has an incredible pulse for what is going on in Champagne. The reason he has such a great selection is that he has a long relationship with just about every producer in Champagne.
Yes, you can find some of the wines at 520 for less in other shops in Champagne, probably at some spots around Europe, and at producer’s cellars, but where else can you find all of them in one place. Overall, I don’t think the pricing is high. He could charge a lot more for some of the wines if he wanted to.
We have been in Reims for a couple days. Just took the Mumm tour. Ten minute walk from the train station. The train ride from Paris is 45 minutes or so on the TGV. We took a tour of the countryside with a visit to a small grower (Rene’ Fresne) in Sermiers yesterday. You can book tours at the Tourist Info offices at the station or by the Cathedral.
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