Hi everyone! Anybody know if you have to make appointment to tour the wineries in the Champagne Region? Thanks!

Also, same for the Chianti region...appointments needed?

The answer is yes and no in both regions...there are places you can tour only with prearrangement and others that take visitors without previous appointment. Do you have specific wineries or Champagne houses you want to visit?

Not sure where we want to go really...it will be me and my husband (late honeymoon and we weren't wanting anything TOO expensive. We are the type of couple who have "cheap champagne night" every Thursday night

I am not sure what you mean when you say you do not want anything too expensive. Do you mean you do not want to visit wineries that sell expensive wines? Or that you don't want to pay a lot to visit a winery? Two the Champagne houses that I have visited, Pommery and Veuve-Clicuot, allow you to reserve by e-mail; Pommery charges from about 7 to 12 Euro per person, depending on the sampling of wines you are allowed to taste during the tour.

ttt

Thank you for the suggestions! I just meant that we didn't need anything TOO fancy Sounds perfect and we will email...And HI COCO!!!

Piper-Heidsieck had a great tour and it's in downtown Reims.

Moet in Epernay is a really nice one. Book online -- www.moet.com

Taittinger in Reims is the one we were told to be sure to do, but they were very apologetic that they couldn't take us as they were fully booked -- a large private group that day.

You didn't ask, but we did both Reims and Epernay in one day by train from Paris. Nice day.

Hi Kelley, I'm glad your found your posting as you're new here.
Didn't I tell you would find more answers here than on TA? ;-)

à bientôt
coco

Y'all are wonderful! Thank you!

We loved the small tour of the chalk pits at Ruinart...yes, you need a reservation.

The tour is 15E per person and ends in a really pretty lounge where you are served two generous glasses of their yummy champagne!! We went to Pommery afterwards and saw that it was really huge and touristy and the groups were enormous...so we passed. So I say Ruinart all the way...you will not be disappointed. I think if you book through the Reims tourist office you can get a nice discount.

Happy travels!

Thank you SO much!!!! I will look into Ruinart as well!

check the tourist office list of tours which should indicate on what tours you get samples of the bubbly included with the tours - some tours may end in a dry surprise!

ttt

Stay at the Royal Champagne (pricey but nice), and they will arrange tours for you. The private tour we had at Ruinart (no charge when booked through the Royal Champagne) was one of the highlights of our trip to the region.