Champers in Champagne 3

The big Champagne houses:


Let’s face it – when in Champagne, one does have to visit the big champagne houses and during my 4 trips I visited most of them once or twice. I’ve visited: Moët et Chandon, Mumm, Pommery, Piper Heidsieck, Mercier, Perrier Jouet, Veuve Cliquot, Taittinger and De Castellane. I like all of them but my favorites were:


Moët et Chandon: Yes – you do pronounce the “t” of Moët – it is a grammatical rule. Founded in 1743, the history of the place, currently owned by LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) is quite impressive. The tour is delightful and truly enjoyable – you learn a lot about the company and its champagnes and the underground tunnels are truly impressive. The top champagne at Moët et Chandon is Dom Perignon, named after the founder of champagne. (some say that is a myth – I’d like to believe it) I would recommend that you go all out and do the Grand Vintages tour, because you taste 2 vintage champagnes and it is so expensive to buy the bottles, that it is well worth the extra €5 to taste it. (Just some useless information – the word Imperial always appears on the Moët et Chandon champagne bottles – that was as a tribute to Napoleon who was friends with Jean-Remy Moët - son of the founder.)

Moet et Chandon

Piper Heidsieck: Probably my favorite tour – you get on this little train/car/thingy and it takes you through parts of the cellar. (Hey, I’m a sucker for a gimmick – if it works! – so what!) At the end of the tour you are on the red carpet and then you enter this over-the-top fabulous red bar (I want one) for the tasting. I highly highly highly recommend that you do the tour that ends with a 3 glass tasting. (You taste the Piper Heidsieck Brut, the Rose Sauvage and a vintage Brut – yumm) After the tour, we were escorted to our tasting table and we had 3 glasses waiting for us – a beautiful sight after a hard tour. All the other people (with their one glass of bubbly) were looking at us and had to then get up one by one, go to the bar and pay for more glasses. (They also make my husband’s favorite champagne: Charles Heidsieck - divine.)

Piper Heidsieck's Fabulous Red Bar

Piper Heidsieck 3-glass tasting



Pommery: I love the fact that it was run by a woman who took it from a small little brand to a hugely successful champagne house. (In 1858!!!!) The estate is very impressive and I love the tour and boutique – they had to drag me out of there because I didn’t know what to buy and what to leave. The chalk pits, art and quirkiness of the place is just refreshing. You can have private group lunches or weddings at Pommery - off course it is very expensive, but how flashy would that be?!?!

Pommery's cellar art

Perrier Jouet: Their boutique is fantastic – in my opinion the best out of all of them! Glasses, ice buckets, key rings…Love it! Oh yes, and the tour is pretty cool too.

Perrier Jouet

Veuve Cliquot: Remember to make an appointment to visit Veuve Cliquot, because they do not take walk-ins. Not only is the place, boutique, tour and tasting fabulous, but this company was also run and made successful by a widow – respect!



The only place that I didn’t enjoy was De Castellane – there is nothing wrong with the place, but the women who worked there were snotty and rude. They didn’t realize that I could understand French and they discussed us openly and their comments were not positive - to put it mildly. If anyone had a fantastic time on their visit to De Castellane, I would love to hear about it so that my opinion of the place can become more favorable too.



One of my favorite stories about the area of champagne is the comet story. In 1811, people in Champagne could clearly see a comet and it is believed that this comet brought good luck to that year’s vintage. Pommery and Veuve Cliquot both mention the comet. This continued after 1811, with some of the best champagne vintages coinciding with a comet appearance.

Hard core shopping in Champagne


I know I don’t really mention the champagne much in today’s blog, but that is because I have never tasted a single glass champagne that I didn’t love…what can I say…champagne is love/life/fun in a glass…and the place where it comes from is just magical.