Champagne
Présentation
There is a particular kind of happiness that belongs only to Champagne. It arrives with the first pop of a cork in a candlelit cellar, sixty metres beneath the chalk of the Marne valley. It settles over a terrace at golden hour, a glass of blanc de blancs catching the last light above a landscape of vineyards that rolls, unhurried and voluptuous, to the horizon. It lingers over a long lunch at a table where the sommelier knows every producer by name, and the bread is still warm from the oven.
Champagne is the world's most celebrated wine — and the region that gave it its name is one of France's most quietly magnificent. Reims, its great city, wears centuries of royal history with easy grace, its cathedral — where the kings of France were crowned for a thousand years — rising above the rooftops in a statement of Gothic ambition that still stops the breath. Épernay, smaller and more intimate, presides over the most famous street in the wine world: the Avenue de Champagne, where the great houses — Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët, Pol Roger — stand side by side above cellars holding hundreds of millions of bottles of liquid gold.
And beyond the grands crus and the famous labels, a quieter Champagne awaits: the independent vignerons of the Côte des Blancs, the misty mornings of the Montagne de Reims, the harvest villages where families have been tending the same vines for generations, and where the most memorable glass you will ever drink comes from a producer whose name appears on no export list.
At Safrans de France, we know both Champagnes — the celebrated and the secret. We are here to share them with you.
Itineraries
Three ways to experience the very best of the region — each one crafted to reveal a different facet of this extraordinary destination.
A Weekend in Champagne
The perfect romantic escape from Paris. Friday evening in Reims — dinner at a Michelin-starred table, a suite in a grand château hotel, the cathedral floodlit outside your window. Saturday along the Avenue de Champagne, with a private tour of one of the great houses and a tasting in the cellars. Sunday morning in the vineyards of the Montagne de Reims before the train home.
The Champagne Connoisseur
For those who wish to understand Champagne as deeply as they love it. Private tastings at two of the great Maisons. An afternoon with an independent vigneron on the Côte des Blancs, in a cellar that holds perhaps ten thousand bottles and produces wine of extraordinary character. A gastronomic dinner with wine pairings curated by a sommelier who has devoted his career to the region. And a morning harvest — for those visiting in September — pulling grapes from vines whose fruit will become something extraordinary. The real Champagne, from the inside.
Grand Champagne
A full week devoted to the most pleasurable region in France. The grandeur of Reims and its UNESCO-listed cathedral. The elegance of Épernay and the Avenue de Champagne. Private visits to both celebrated Maisons and artisan producers. Exceptional gastronomy — from three-Michelin-starred celebrations to intimate winemaker lunches in village kitchens. Long afternoons in UNESCO-listed vineyard landscapes. And throughout, the particular happiness that comes from spending a week in a region where every meal, every view, and every glass is a small act of perfection.
Things to See & Do
Champagne rewards those who arrive slowly and stay curious. Here are the experiences we consider essential — and a few that only insiders know.
Reims Cathedral — One of the supreme achievements of Gothic architecture, and the site of the coronation of French kings from Clovis to Charles X. At dawn, when the great rose window catches the first light, and the square is still empty, it is among the most beautiful sights in France. A private guided visit, with an art historian who knows every carved figure and every stained-glass panel, transforms it entirely.
Épernay & The Avenue de Champagne — The most prestigious kilometre in the wine world. The great houses — Moët & Chandon, Pol Roger, Perrier-Jouët, Mercier — line both sides of the avenue above cellars of staggering depth and history. A private tour of one of the great houses, descending into chalk galleries where the bottles rest in their millions, is an experience of rare and lasting impression.
The Independent Vignerons — Champagne's best-kept secret. The small producers of the Côte des Blancs, the Vallée de la Marne, and the Montagne de Reims, working parcels of land that have been in their families for generations, producing champagnes of extraordinary individuality that rarely leave the region. We open their cellar doors for you.
The UNESCO Vineyard Landscapes — In 2015, the hillsides, houses, and cellars of the Champagne wine region were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. From the slopes of the Montagne de Reims to the chalk ridges of the Côte des Blancs, these landscapes are of a beauty that shifts with every season — and most spectacular of all during the harvest, when the vines turn gold, and the air carries the sweet, fermented fragrance of a year's work coming to fruition.
The Harvest — For those visiting in September, the Champagne harvest is one of the great annual rituals of French life. The villages wake early. The pickers arrive before dawn. The grapes — chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier — are cut by hand and carried to the press houses in wooden crates. We arrange private access to a harvest at a family estate, with lunch among the vines at the end of the morning's work.
Where to Stay
Champagne's finest hotels combine the grandeur of the region's history with the intimacy of its wine culture — places where the cellar is as important as the kitchen, and where waking up surrounded by vines is simply part of the experience.
Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa — Champillon (5 stars) Perched above the vineyards of the Montagne de Reims with panoramic views over the valley toward Épernay, the Royal Champagne is the finest hotel in the region — and one of the most beautiful in France. Forty-seven rooms and suites of exceptional elegance, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a spa of extraordinary refinement set against a backdrop of vine-covered hillsides. The terrace at sunset, a glass of local champagne in hand, is an image that stays with you long after you have returned home.
Domaine Les Crayères — Reims (5 stars, Relais & Châteaux) A magnificent Belle Époque château in the heart of Reims, set within a private park of extraordinary beauty, minutes from the cathedral. Twenty rooms and suites furnished with antiques and garden views, and the celebrated two-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Parc — one of the great gastronomic tables of northern France. For romantics who wish to experience Champagne from within the grandeur of its greatest city, there is no finer address.
L'Assiette Champenoise — Reims (5 stars, Relais & Châteaux) Home to Champagne's only three-Michelin-starred restaurant — Chef Arnaud Lallement's extraordinary expression of the region's terroir — L'Assiette Champenoise is a destination for the most serious lovers of French gastronomy. Thirty-three sumptuously decorated rooms in a serene garden setting on the outskirts of Reims. A place of pilgrimage for those who believe that dinner is among life's highest pleasures.
Guy's Champagne Pick
My most enduring memory of Champagne has nothing to do with a famous label. It takes place in a small village on the Côte des Blancs, in the cellar of a vigneron whose family has been making champagne on the same three hectares for four generations. He opened a bottle he had been keeping aside — a blanc de blancs from a particularly fine year — poured it without ceremony into plain glasses, and said nothing. The wine said everything.
That is the experience I want every Safrans de France client to have in Champagne. A champagne that belongs to one place, one family, one vision — and that you would find nowhere else in the world. It will change the way you drink champagne forever.
— Guy
The Safrans de France Experience
Our Champagne journeys are designed for those who love the wine — and wish to understand it completely.
A private tasting in the chalk cellars of one of the great Maisons, guided by the cellar master himself. An afternoon with an independent vigneron on the Côte des Blancs, ending with a meal at his kitchen table and a bottle opened for guests alone. A harvest morning in September, pulling chardonnay grapes by hand in the early light, followed by a long, celebratory lunch among the vines.
And throughout, the particular happiness of Champagne — the pop of a cork at the end of a beautiful day, the rising bubbles, the golden light on the vineyards outside your window. A happiness that, once experienced here at its source, never quite tastes the same anywhere else.
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