Champagne Wine Tour: Self-Guided GPS Audio Guide from Reims

Drive Champagne yourself, with a GPS audio guide that plays automatically as you go. Your booking unlocks the whole region in the free Wine Trails app: pick your date and starting point, Reims, Épernay or Aÿ, choose the houses and growers you want from the 68 mapped across the Montagne de Reims, the Marne and the Côte des Blancs, and the app builds your personal route with turn-by-turn narration. Narrated stories cover the people behind the bottles: you'll hear how Pierre Gosset pressed still wine in Aÿ in 1584 before champagne learned to sparkle, how Jean-Rémy Moët's friendship with Napoleon carried Épernay across Europe, and why Eugène Mercier hauled a 200,000-bottle barrel to the 1889 World's Fair. No group, no schedule, no guide; pause for a long lunch, replay anything, and the audio keeps working when the signal drops, because everything downloads offline. You'll need a car and a designated driver; cellar visits are booked and paid directly with the houses.

1. 1

   Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Reims

   30 min

   The coronation cathedral of the French kings and the natural starting point for the drive; the crayeres of the great houses lie a short way south of it.

2. 2

   Champagne Taittinger

   1 hour

   Reims house whose cellars occupy Gallo-Roman chalk pits beneath the site of the former Saint-Nicaise abbey; visits by reservation.

3. 3

   Veuve Clicquot

   1 hour

   Reims house founded in 1772 and made famous by Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, the widow who ran it from 1805; visits by reservation.

4. 4

   Maison Ruinart

   1 hour

   Founded in Reims in 1729, the oldest champagne house, with UNESCO-listed chalk crayeres beneath it; visits by reservation.

5. 5

   Vranken Pommery

   45 min

   Reims domaine of Madame Pommery, built above kilometres of Gallo-Roman chalk cellars; visits by reservation.

6. 6

   Le Phare de Vezernay

   30 min

   A 1909 lighthouse raised above the Grand Cru vines of Verzenay as an advertisement, now a wine museum with views across the Montagne de Reims.

7. 7

   Mailly-Champagne

   45 min

   One of the seventeen Grand Cru villages, on the northern face of the Montagne de Reims, home to the Mailly Grand Cru growers cooperative.

8. 8

   Hautvillers

   30 min

   Hilltop village above the Marne where Dom Perignon was cellarer of the Benedictine abbey; his tomb is in the abbey church.

9. 9

   Champagne AYALA

   1 hour

   Founded in 1860 by Edmond de Ayala, son of a Colombian diplomat, after his marriage brought him the Chateau d'Ay; a pioneer of drier champagne from 1865.

10. 10

    Champagne Henri Giraud

    45 min

    Ay grower whose Hemart ancestors first appear in the parish register in 1625, still farming the same Grand Cru slope.

11. 11

    Avenue de Champagne

    30 min

    The grand address of the houses, UNESCO-listed since 2015: Moet & Chandon, Mercier, de Venoge at number 33, Boizel and Comtesse Lafond along one street.

12. 12

    Mercier

    1 hour

    Eugene Mercier founded the house in 1858 at twenty and sent a 200,000-bottle barrel to the 1889 Paris World's Fair; a train tours the cellars.

13. 13

    De Venoge

    45 min

    Epernay house founded in 1837 by Henri-Marc de Venoge from the Swiss canton of Vaud; the blue Cordon Bleu ribbon on the neck dates from 1851.

14. 14

    Champagne Comtesse Lafond

    45 min

    Chateau at the top of the Avenue de Champagne named for the countess in its salon portrait by Winterhalter; the de Ladoucette family of Pouilly-Fume behind it.

15. 15

    Champagne Boizel - Atelier 1834

    45 min

    Founded in 1834 by two pastry chefs, Auguste Boizel and Julie Martin; six generations on, the Roques-Boizel family still runs it.

16. 16

    Nicolas Feuillatte

    1 hour

    Chouilly cooperative on the Cote des Blancs; coffee importer Nicolas Feuillatte launched the brand in 1976 and sold it to the growers' cooperative in 1986.

• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Service animals allowed
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• By giving your phone number you agree to receive up to 2 texts from Wine Trails about this booking (your tour link and a tour-day reminder)
• Msg & data rates may apply. Msg frequency: max 2 texts per booking. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help
• Before you travel: download the free Wine Trails app (iOS or Android) and create your account while you are on wifi

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.