Champagne Vineyards of Ay

In the vineyards

Champagne Caves

Early Autumn Champagne

Champagne is fun to drink and a fascinating wine to see being made and being easy to get to makes for a great weekend. Our base for the weekend is a comfortable 3* hotel in the centre of the lively attractive city of Reims.

Our aim is to taste a wide spectrum of Champagnes, to visit a good cross section of Houses, from those that forged Champagne’s reputation such as Taittinger, Pol Roger and Veuve Clicquot as well as to search out quality growers and rising stars in the villages.

You will taste at least 20 champagnes over the course of the weekend, starting at breakfast. You will receive a special welcome and generous tastings at houses that we have been visiting for many years.

Your Comparative Tastings

We want to show you as broad a spectrum of Champagnes over the weekend as possible. So, as always on Arblaster & Clarke Champagne weekends, your Wine Guide will show you a selection of Champagnes in order to introduce the various styles and different Houses or Growers in two tastings, one each evening. No two of our tastings are alike and no two Wine Guides have the same approach to presenting them. We like to choose some unusual Champagnes for you to taste not just the famous names. Most will be to your liking though perhaps some may not. You can normally learn more from these than those you liked, but hopefully you'll find one or two that you think are fabulous!

Evening Meals

Reims has a wealth of wonderful restaurants, brasseries and bistros from two Michelin double rossette restaurants (early booking essential!) to more reasonably priced gourmet restaurants and traditional style brasseries. We provide a list of all our tried and tested ones before the trip with phone numbers, so you can book ahead if you wish. However, we will make a reservation at two of our favourite (reasonably priced) brasseries and you are very welcome to join our wine guide or tour manager for dinner where they will select some interesting wines.

This again is one of the great advantages of an Arblaster & Clarke fully escorted tour, we give you the flexibility to dine alone if this is what your prefer, or the fun of being part of a lively party who generally all get on together really well, especially after the champagne tasting has broken the ice! This is especially appreciated by those clients who travel alone with us.

Champagne Breakfasts

Breakfast is served each morning at the hotel on the top floor, from where there is a superb view over the town and out towards the cathedral. The A&C tour manager is on hand to exclusively serve our clients with a glass of champagne to go with their buffet breakfast - morning's will never seem the same again!

Champagne Hatté

The small producer Champagne Hatté is to be found in the Montagne de Reims region in the Grand Cru village of Verzenay. The cellars look like no more than a garage and tucked below this is a small cellar housing old barrels - the family is traditionalist (like the great house of Krug) who still vinify their wines in oak. We will taste these forceful champagnes with Madame Hatté or her son.

Your Free Time for Lunch in Reims

Lunchtime is free in Reims. You will have time to explore Reims and choose a cafe table to sit at and people watch while you enjoy some local food and a glass of champagne, perhaps!

Our afternoon visit departs mid afternoon and of course if you decide you would rather linger over your lunch, explore Reims further, or simply rest, you can of course choose to miss the visit and meet up with again later for dinner if you prefer.

Petit-le Brun

Petit-Le-Brun is a small high quality estate in Avize on the Côte des Blancs. One of the members of the Petit family usually shows us the cellars and introduce their Blanc de Blancs pure Chardonnay Champagnes and Rosé. They use traditional cellar techniques such as "remuage" and "dégorgement à la volée",- blasting sediments out of the bottle. The NV is 50% reserve wines, half of which have been a year in oak. The vintage is from old 60 year vines.

Champagne Gosset-Brabant

Gosset-Brabant is another of the small, high quality grower-producers in Aÿ, who are next door neighbours of Bollinger. The house was founded four centuries ago and is now owned and managed by Christian and Michel Gosset. They make a range of of cuvées, including a standard non vintage, a reserve, a rosé and a special cuvée.

Lunch at Champagne André Jacquart & Fils

André Jacquart owns ten hectares in the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and a further eight in the Marne Valley and the Aube making them an important grower in Champagne. Their Chardonnay Champagne is incredibly rich and their non-vintage is well aged. They also own Château Cantegrive in Bordeaux so you will also get the opportunity to taste some of their Bordeaux wines.

Our visit here includes a buffet lunch, with the full range of the house champagnes to enjoy with your meal. This is not a restaurant but a private invitation to lunch as guests of the family.

After the visit we continue our journey directly back to Calais on on to Dover and London arriving late evening.