Champagne is THE famous wine region 2 hours east of Paris producing sparkling wine, where at times the term Champagne is used to describe all sparkling wine but in fact only sparkling wine produced in this region can be called Champagne; even sparkling wines that are produced in France outside the Champagne region cannot be called Champagne as is called Crémant. There is an amount of prestige accounted into cost of Champagne, however the history know-how and the labour intensive steps and tasks to produce Champagne using the “traditional method” also accounts to the fame and price demanded for Champagne.
- Climate: Cool Continental Climate
- Grapes: The three main grape varieties are Chardonnay for the white grape, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier for the red grape.
- Wine Style: Champagne is a type of sparkling wine, using the traditional method the style is usually more acidic (due to the cool climate of grape growing) and full body due to wine making style (such as using malolactic fermentation (MLF) and aging on-lees (“sur lie”) through autolysis).
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Winery
As with most old world wine regions, you will need to book in advance for a tasting as there are usually no cellar door that you can “walk in” as ask for a tasting. A recommendation will be to look up the Champagne makers that are located on the famous Avenue de Champagne is Épernay 
and try to book a wine tasting, here you will find all the who’s who of Champagne houses, you should be able to book multiple wine tastings if you book early enough!
- Champagne Diebolt-Vallois (map) Cramant - Was lucky enough to be invited to join a private tour by the wine maker and owner for her Champagne house
- Trésors de Champagne (map) Reims - A wine bar which has wine tastings for a number of the smaller Champagne producers, well worth the visit when you are in Reims.
Accommodation
There are different areas in and around Champagne you can stay, here are some places that I have stayed whilst visiting Champagne, each time with a different experience
Reims is the major city near Champagne, it is a large city with hotels, restaurants, shopping, bars etc. If it is your first time to the Champagne region I will suggest to stay here as you will have more choices and things to do at night; even as a frequent visitor to Champagne, for my future trips I will based myself out of Reims even through it is a 40min to 60min drive to the winery area. There are many accommodation choices here so you can use your favourite accommodation website to search.
Épernay is the major town in Champagne about 40mins outside of Reims, this is where the famous Avenue de Champagne is located; this avenue is where most of the major Champagne houses are based, such as Moët & Chandon. Definitely worth a walk up and down the avenue, and at night it is quite nice; there are many bed and breakfast accommodation in the Épernay, you will need to do some research.
- Hôtel Kyriad Epernay (map) Épernay - A small hotel just off the Avenue de Champagne, walkable back to the Épernay town centre where there are restaurants; a simple hotel nothing fancy, was staying here as friends had booked a bed and breakfast nearby (on the Avenue de Champagne)
Avize is one of the wine villages within Champagne, and arguably the most famous as it produces top quality Champagne. It is a 15min drive or so from the town of Épernay
- Les Avisés (map) Avize - Owned by the legendary Champagne maker Jacques Selosse, this boutique hotel is in the middle of Champagne country, it is quiet and secluded, surrounded by vineyards. There is a fantastic restaurant onsite (recommended to try even if you are not staying on the property), and if you are lucky you will get to see the legend himself Jacques Selosse and if you are even more lucky you can get buy and take away some of his Champagne.
Restaurant
There are many great restaurants in the Champagne area, the following are some I have tried, some of which I have tried more than once and will try again when I go back to the Champagne region. Do not be intimidated by Michelin Star restaurants, in general they are very affordable with set lunches sometimes starting under €30 per person (without alcohol), go and try and “collect stars”, on one trip I “collected” 18 stars… Michelin Starred restaurants for lunch and dinner!
- Le Foch (map) Reims - This has been around a long time, food is great and the cheese cart at the end is huge!
- Le Millénaire (map) Reims - Amazing restaurant, the first time I had duck tartare; I had it once and survived, not sure if I will have it again (not because I don’t trust the restaurant, but just a risk having raw duck meat)
- Racine (map) Reims -
Was relatively newly open when I went, food was amazing (Japanese inspired as the chef is Japanese), now they have 2 Michelin Stars! - Le Grand Café (map) Reims - Something more casual, I had a bucket of mussels here for “afternoon tea”, amazing!
- Le Grand Cerf (map) Montchenot - This is a 1 Michelin Star restaurant which is very reasonably priced (when I was first there in 2015), it is between Reims and Épernay and well worth the drive!
- Les Avisés (map) Avize - The restaurant within Jacques Selosse is very good, not because they don’t have much competition in the area, can hold up to even in comparison to restaurants in the city of Reims.
Additional Information
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