Looking for advice in advance of a trip this summer and especially for non-Burgundy advice (of which there is a great deal on this board already!). I know for most well-known producers without a dedicated tasting room that it’s usually necessary to reserve any kind of visit well in advance via email. But what about smaller producers?
For instance, looking along the Vallee de la Marne and in the small villages outside Reims and Epernay there seem to be dozens of small Champagne producers who list open hours on their websites and social media. Does that mean that one can generally just walk in and ask for a dégustation during those times? Would it be better to call in advance if possible or is it fine to just knock? I recall contacting a few smaller family wineries in Alsace a few years ago and they basically said “no need for an appointment, come during any opening hours.” So I take it for those the best practice is just to show up during their listed hours, but it seems to vary a decent bit by region and producer.
Also curious about the current expectations and etiquette for such visit such as how much one is expected to buy (I would assume at least one or two bottles a person) and how long such visits might take (if it’s rude if, for instance, you can only spend 45 minutes at a place due to being subject to train/bus schedules). And although I rarely see these listed outside of very famous places and it doesn’t appear to be common, I’m curious if it would be good to inquire if there’s a tasting fee upfront. The language aspect is not at all a dealbreaker (I’ve been able to make it through a few all-in-French tastings before with my B1-level French and have been working to improve it in advance of this visit), but I am curious if it comes off as presumptuous to inquire politely if English is possible for the others in my party as well.
Right now I am particularly interested in small places in Vouvray, the Middle Loire more broadly, and Champagne, but this topic might be of broader interest. Any other scheduling or etiquette tips more than welcome.
I’ve scheduled visits for an upcoming trip (to Champagne, Burgundy, and N. Rhone). I reached out by email in French (I used Google translate) to be courteous. I started reaching out about 3 months in advance because some are slow to respond (some will respond the next business day). A few (e.g., Chartogne-Talliet, Roger Coulon, and Selosse [who I think only does tastings for guests of his hotel]) asked if I could check back in about a month before my visit. No one was upset that I reached out early.
I tried to avoid calling since I can’t speak French and due to the large time difference, but I gathered the courage to do so in an attempt to schedule some tastings only a couple of weeks in advance. I asked, in French, if they spoke English and they were always able to find someone who did and they either told me about their availability over the phone or gave me a good email address to contact.
While a small amount of producers didn’t answer my emails (and one didn’t answer my calls), most responded and all who did (even they very prestigious domaines where I knew I had almost no shot) were polite, professional, and/or friendly.
I’d be very surprised if someone charged me for a tasting without letting me know what it would cost when booking the visit. Most estates in Champagne I contacted have what I consider a reasonable tasting fee. Some didn’t tell me there was a fee, so I’m guessing it’s free but I should (and hope to) buy some bottles.
Some will just tell you how long the visit will last, but others won’t tell you unless you ask. Georges Vernay let me know the visit will only last about 30 minutes (I’m not sure if this is standard or if that’s all the time they have that morning), but others told me to expect anywhere from 1 to 2 hours.
Just going to respond here (larger post recapping the trip with winery visits to come in a separate thread) for future reference for anyone interested in scheduling smaller winery tastings in France, especially the Loire.
Overall, I had a very similar set of experiences to what @J_Rock mentioned (thanks for the useful tips!).
Email at least a few weeks beforehand just to let them know that you’re interested in visiting and doing a tasting, ideally with some kind of brief context for why you want to visit, e.g. you had a wine from their domaine once and liked it or you want to learn more about the local AOC. If they offer a specific date and time to taste, then you can use that as a reference, but many just said they would be around that day/morning/afternoon and to come in anytime on that day.
For some very in-demand places (name-brand ones), you might need to email several months or so in advance, but we got in everywhere in the Loire that we emailed in advance (2 months for most of the places) just fine. Nobody seemed to think it odd to email so early, though some did ask to reconfirm a week beforehand.
I used ChatGPT to ensure that the emails were polite and proper–that worked very well overall, especially if you’re trying to convey anything complicated. Google Translate seemed, from what I could tell, to not necessarily “get” what one might be going for and would do overly literal translations while ChatGPT seemed to flow a bit better, even if it was sometimes overly formal.
For more spontaneous visits, I tried calling and it worked generally well so long as we called at least the day before. We had very little luck calling on the day-of and less luck knocking on the doors of small domaines, even if they had an “ouvert” sign up and/or a phone number to call posted. That said, it seemed like spontaneous day-of visits might be possible for some places; we saw some people just drive up at several places without a reservation, but that seemed like a high-variance proposition.
Do not trust Google Maps’ “Open Hours.” The websites of the various vignerons/domaines were usually more reliable than Google in terms of opening times, but unless they explicitly say you do not need a reservation, I would send an email or do a phone call. Many of the small grower Champagne producers explicitly ask for you to schedule any visits, though that text can sometimes be hard to find that on their websites (this ended up being why we didn’t do many visits in Champagne).
Tasting times varied a lot and it was hard to tell in advance how “commercial” the tasting room might be (more commercial usually = shorter). Some were as short as 30 minutes, others 1.5+ hours. This made it a bit hard to schedule, so a mix of confirmed specific appointments and “stop by and say hello whenever” options might be the best way to maximize one’s available time.
One of the unexpected challenges was actually finding where to do a tasting once we arrived at a domaine. There was usually some kind of tasting room somewhere on the property, but it was not always obvious where and the vignerons might be out back doing work. Be ready to ask!
Nobody in the Loire that we visited charged for a tasting. Some of the more commercial places would charge for a tour, but not a tasting. But all were appreciative if you bought at least one bottle. I usually tried to buy the most-expensive bottle available (in many places, just 20 euros or so).
One surprise was that some places had very deep back catalogs of wine that were not necessarily advertised on their website. This is probably the best way to get aged bottles, but it was a bit random which places would have that. I might ask about that in advance too next time to prioritize some visits.
We found public transit to be a surprisingly workable way to get around, even in somewhat rural areas. Buses and trains arrived promptly, people at the regional transportation hubs at the railroad stations were very helpful (and most spoke English), and it was great not to have to worry about a rental car or driving on most days. This isn’t possible everywhere, but for Vouvray and Val du Layon it actually worked fine (Champagne was a different story, but I believe it should still be possible in some areas).
It really helped to have conversational French to schedule tastings on the phone and especially a knowledge of wine terms in French when at the tastings (studying those beforehand was time well-spent). It wasn’t a problem to ask though if English was available and nobody seemed offended.
Overall, every tasting was better than spending $50 per person in Napa for 4 desultory pours and a wine club hard sell. Going to be hard to go back…
Appreciate the tips. We generally visit smaller producers and email about a month ahead to start the process, As you note, some respond within 24 hours, some a week or two later, perhaps after a follow up email, and some not at all. One challenge we had for an upcoming trip is that several of the producers we would like to visit do not have Web sites, so it was difficult to find contact information or whether they host visits The following workarounds have been moderately successful:
reaching out via Instagram Message.
reaching out to their U.S. or local Distributor requesting contact information. This has worked well for us, and in two cases the Distributor volunteered to make the initial contact on our behalf.
We also keep an eye out for smaller events/wine fairs in the region we are visiting. We will be attending two during an upcoming trip to France. Each has about 10 producers, including one we hadn’t been able to reach for a visit, and several others who were on our ‘maybe’ list to contact if we had time. It is not quite the same as a visit, but at least we will be able to meet the producers, taste the wines, and perhaps establish a rapport for a future visit. Over the years we have visited a number of winemakers that we first met at tasting events.