James Bowyer

3.50 United Kingdom - 07-Mar-23 -

I do not drink wine regularly and champagne even less so; I’m fairly sure I could count the occasions on my fingers. Therefore, I was not particularly looking forward to this site and tacked on a tour of the Taittinger wine cellars to a daytrip to Reims from Paris. The tour begins from the Champagne House 2.5 km southeast from the main station of Reims. If walking, the route has a very gentle incline up Saint-Nicaise Hill and goes right past the Cathédrale Notre-Dame and the Palais du Tau. It is easy to divert to Basilique Saint-Remi to complete the set for the Reims site on the way there or the way back. Unlike some of the other manufacturers, which resemble grand mock castles, the Taittinger buildings above ground were unremarkable. I was a little afraid I would be the only one on the tour and my lack of knowledge about wine would lead to an awkward experience but I was, for once, grateful to see a reasonably large group gather in the reception/waiting room before the tour began. Decorative champagne bottles adorned the walls with a model of the old abbey that once stood upon this hill in the centre of the room. The cheapest ticket (as of late 2022) was 27€ including a single glass of champagne at the end. More expensive packages were available with additional glasses for the connoisseur. There was an option for a tour without tasting for 13€ but the website said this was for six- to seventeen-year-old children and I wasn’t bold enough to try and book that as an adult.

The tour began with a ten-minute video about the history of champagne with a heavy focus on Taittinger. I imagine tours from other producers are similarly slanted to claim their stuff is the best. We were then led on a guided tour of approximately one hour around the caves that act as wine cellars. As one might expect, it was notably cooler twenty or so metres underground than on the surface. There was no shortage of interesting information provided about the history of Reims and champagne manufacture but the seemingly endless details about grape varieties and the intricacies of the process went right over my head. The scale of the industry is truly impressive, with stacks of up to 100,00 bottles containing up to six bars of pressure in every direction in a maze of chalk tunnels. The potential release of pressure between all those bottles down there must rival the explosive magazines at a small military base. These caves were used by the Romans first, with some carvings from that time faintly visible towards the end, then as the basement of the Abbey of Saint Nicaise. Original Medieval doors and arched ceilings are still present in some places as is a statue of John the Baptist (see pictured), the patron saint of winemakers apparently, although most of the complex was destroyed in the French Revolution. One last interesting tidbit was that the tunnels then served as a useful hiding place for the French Resistance in World War II.

We were offered the option of exiting the tunnels via a spiral staircase or the elevator but everybody chose the steps. It is a long way up and, after a week of going up and down the many steps of Paris, my legs could barely make it to the top before giving out. My reward was a single glass of Brut Reserve, which I now knew meant a limited amount of sugar had been added after the second fermentation step. However, my education in the history of champagne had done little to improve my palette and, to me, there was little difference between this and a supermarket prosecco. Other, more refined members of the tour group seemed to enjoy their quaffing and I was left to inspect a row of champagne bottles that had been decorated by some famous artists, a sculpture of Saint Nicaise himself, and a board showing the names of the many, many Taittinger distributors all around the world. It took a little while for me to realise the exit to the building was next to the staircase we had climbed up and, once I had seen it, I made a quick getaway back out into Reims. There was more to see of the champagne industry in Reims and much more beyond, including the vineyards of course, but my brief time on the tour was enough for a champagne philistine such as myself. People ask me why I base my travels around World Heritage Sites and this visit is a great example. There is no way I would have gone for a tour of a Champagne House and its cellars were they not inscribed but it nevertheless proved an interesting diversion in a holiday otherwise full of cathedrals, museums, and palaces. Whilst I may still not be a champagne fan, the significance of the site is obvious and, for some, will be as important a place of pilgrimage as the cathedral I had visited on the way there.

Jakob Frenzel

Germany - 28-May-19 -

August 2018 - it was my birthday and we entered Epernay at around 10 am. Champagne, thats not just sparkling wine, there is style, inventor spirit  and history behind it. We could not just drive through the wineyards and tick the site of. On the Avenue de Champagne we passed numerous luxus brands and couldnt realy decide.

We visited Castellane and Mercier. The promised train ride underground throught the champagne cellars, was just too promising for a birthday present. Since my wife was pregnant, I had to taste the champagnes on my own. Mercier exhibits the bighest Champagne cask, made for the Expo in Paris, Castellane has the most impressive headquarter. The underground cellars are impressive and massive. Just Mercier has kilometeres of shafts filled with bottles.  We learned about the Methode Champigneuse and the constutuition of grapes typical for that drink.At the end of the tour we hade some differnet sorts of Champagne. You can visist almost all of the Champagne porducers.

After our stay in Epernay, we drove to Hautvillers and visited another small Champgane producer. From here you have beautiful view on the vineyards. Finally we reached Reims. A fabulous town, but we concentrated on visiting the Cathedral and some modern architecture. But the whole town is filled with champagne merchandise.

Definitely the big drinks should have their own whs sites. Still hoping for breweries and destilieris on the list. An of course hops growing regions.

Nan

3.50 Germany - 14-Mar-19 -

Twenty or so years back my aunt and I had visited Reims. We had been to the cathedral and visited the city center. But we skipped on the hills where the Champagne houses are; it's not in walking distance from downtown and at the time it wasn't a tourist attraction.

This time we skipped past the city center and went directly up the hill. It's really impressive when you pull in. The Champagne houses are large estates, half factory, half palace.

It's interesting how the marketing influenced the architecture and the presentation. When you visit the Pommery cellars for instance, you will see plenty of art on exhibition. While this may seem like a fancy tick, this is part of the original marketing conceived by Ms Pommery back in the 19th century.

In Reims we managed to see the Pommery Cellar and the St Nicaise hill. We passed by Taittinger and Martel but both houses were closed on Sundays. In Epernay we visited Fort Chabrol and the stellar Avenue de Champagne.

If I had to pick between Reims and Epernay I would probably opt for Epernay as you are closer to the vineyards. In Reims I was really wondering if there is wine at all in the Champagne. Overall, this is a pretty great site for a wine site. The 19th century architecture really sets it apart from other vineyards.

Getting There

There are TGV trains to Champagne Ardeche on the outskirts of Reims connecting you to Paris, Strasbourg, Nancy and Brussels. To get to Epernay you are better served taking the direct local train from Paris.

Getting In

I wanted to see one of the champagne cellars. Most cellars are only open during the week. The safest bet seems to be Pommery where they run frequent tours even on Sundays. The tours costs 23€ and includes a glass of Champagne. I did not reserve and this was not necessary in March. In Epernay there was only one smaller House open. I am not sure if they offered tours.

While You Are There

Reims is itself a WHS. From the hills where the Champagne cellars are you have a great view of the cathedral. The WHS also has a location within walking distance: the Abbey of St Remy. It is just next door to the Caves Martel. I have to admit that I really enjoyed my visit to the Abbey and would encourage you to stop by.

In Chalons-en-Champage there are two components of the French Camino. The whole area of Northern France is dotted with World War I Memorials (T).

Alexander Barabanov

4.00 Russia - 15-Nov-18 -

Visited Pommery champagne house in August 2018. It should be pre-booked in advance through the official web site. The guide told fascinating story of the house, Madam Pommery and champagne making process. One of the cellar rooms contains the most prominent bottles, including a bottle of the first original brut created in 1874 (only one of two perfect vintage years, when no additional sugar is needed). There is also artwork inside the cellars – large sculptures completed in 1884 by Gustave Navlet.  Currently the cellars a part of large Vranken Pommery Monopole Group with sales of 300 million euro and 800 employees. Champagne testing followed the tour and it is amazing. In overall, good experience and interesting truly unique region.

Tsunami

Japan / USA / Europe - 05-Feb-17 -

In the morning before the flight from Paris back to Berlin I decided to visit the Taittinger Cellar of the Champagne WHS so that I can finish off this part of France.

After some scuffle with the French police at the Gare de Paris-Est (while I was using a toilet on TGV, 2 men stole my wheeled bag from the luggage rack only to be arrested once they got off the train with my bag, all before the departure), I arrived at the Cellar in Reims in time for my English tour.

The tour was fine, and the glass of Champagne to cap the tour was even finer. I believe the color of their product, shown in the photo, seconds the OUV of this WHS.

But I regretted that this trip to Reims was so hastily organized that I didn't manage my time in Reims well and couldn't even view the phantasmagorical Pommery Champagne house. I did manage, however, to squeeze in a visit to the St. Remi Abbey, another WHS, near the Taittinger Cellar.

Read more from Tsunami here.

Hubert

2.50 Austria - 12-Feb-16 -

The Champagne WHS consists of three elements: the vineyards around Hautvillers and Ay, the architecture of the Champagne houses in Epernay and on the Saint-Nicaise Hill in Reims, and the network of chalk cellars in the subsoil of these sites.

We started exploring this WHS in Epernay. We left our car in a large parking lot in the town centre near the western end of the Avenue de Champagne. The Avenue de Champagne is about 1.5 kilometres long, the Champagne Houses are lined up next to each other on both sides of the street. Well, "Houses" is clearly an understatement, the terms chateaux or mansions are more applicable. Most of them were built in the 19th century. The Moet & Chandon company has the largest building and it is also the best known brand, most of the other names I had never heard before. Several of the Champagne Houses offer guided tours to the cellars, Le Castellane (easy to find because of the striking water tower) can be visited without pre-booking.

Next, we headed to the villages and vineyards north of Epernay. Hautvillers is the most picturesque village and is regarded as the birthplace of Champagner. The Benedictine monk Dom Perignon was in the 17th century the cellarer of the Abbey of St Peter. He significantly contributed to the development of the Méthode champenoise, the second fermentation in bottles, and the blending of different grape varieties. And a legend says that he also introduced the bottle size of 0.7 liters, because it's the average consumption of male adults at dinner! Today a statue honours the famous monk and his grave slab can be seen in the church of the former abbey.

In Ay, we went for a short hike in the hills. The vineyards were marked with white boundary stones, Moet & Chandon was the most frequent label. It was a nice hike in the lush green vineyards, the grapes were almost ripe in September. However, vineyards look more or less the same everywhere, nothing special even in the Champagne.

The highlights of our visit were the cellar tours at Pommery and Taittinger in Reims. The Saint-Nicaise Hill is located at the outskirts of Reims, the area is different from Epernay, the residences and production facilities are surrounded by vineyards and parks. Pommery has a really representative headquarters. I'm still unsure whether it is fine neo-gothic architecture, or rather a corny Disney-like fairy tale castle (upper photo shows a part). In any case, it is an imposing complex and is highly representative of the product: luxurious and high quality, but also a bit overdone. The tour starts with seemingly endless stairs, more than hundred steps lead directly down to the chalk cellars. The oldest galleries originate from former quarries from the Gallo-Roman period and have been extended to a total length of 18 kilometres, only at Pommery. The galleries even have street signs and were named after big cities. The tour also leads to some of the huge "crayères", funnel-shaped caves up to 60 metres high. It was very interesting and entertaining, the history of the company and the production process were explained in detail. We saw endless rows of Champagne bottles on old wooden racks or stacked to high walls of glass, all thickly coated in dust. We also saw the treasury: selected bottles from the best vintages. Everything very traditional. Unfortunately, the modern production facilities were not part of the guided tour, that would have been very interesting as well. We paid 24 euro per person for the tour with two tastings (18 euro for one tasting).

The next day we visited the Taittinger caves because they are said to be the most beautiful. However, there were no significant differences between the two, neither in content and quality of the guided tour, nor in the price. Maybe the caves (crayères) are not as high as those at Pommery, but you can see the remains of the abbey, a few steps and doors. So, one cave visit would be enough if you have no special interest in the tasting. The advantage with Taittinger is that you can visit without prior reservation. But one cave tour is a must to properly visit this WHS.

The Champagne WHS is a combination of an agricultural landscape, a traditional production procedure that is used until today, and typical architecture. Thus, I would say that the inscription in 2015 was justified, although vineyards were already well represented. And even though I prefer non-sparkling wine.

Frederik Dawson

3.00 Netherlands - 05-Jul-15 -

The inscription of Champagne did remind me the first time when I visited the city of Reims in 2006. The main reason to visit was to see the famous Cathedral. When I reached the youth hostel, I saw a brochure of champagne cellar tour and really captured my interest. I immediately decided to walk to the champagne house area; on the way I stopped to see the World Heritage Site of former abbey of Saint Remi. After some direction confusing and old record shops browsing, I finally arrived at the front gate of the champagne house of Pommery. In 2006 the name of the house was still just Pommery and opened to public tour with no need of reservation. My first impression on the place was “is this really a champagne house!” since I saw a complex of many types of architecture from medieval castle-liked building, Gothic building with fake turrets and conical roof towers next to very neo classical building. Not only that there was a modern contemporary statue guarding the door. I was not sure that I could consider the place to be bizarre or tasteless or inspiring.

Anyway, I entered into this champagne house and found the sign of ticket booth. There were three types of ticket to choose, cellar tour with one tasting, cellar tour with Grand Cuvee tasting, and just cellar tour. I could not remember the price, but I remembered I chose the cellar tour with one tasting, the Grand Cuvee was a bit too expensive for me in that time. At the lobby there was a very big wooden barrel sculpture depicting another strange art! I followed the guide who only spoke French to the underground cellars which they named them, Caves Pommery. Inside the chalk caves was full of champagne and many arts displaying. I almost forgot all of the guide explanation, but still remember that there was a relief of Bacchus, the god of drinking, and each cave named after European cities like Madrid or the name of the first owner Madam Pommery. The last place before ending the tour was a lock small cave that kept very old and very expensive champagne from many legendary years of production. Then the time of champagne tasting, I was not sure that I liked the taste or not but at the end I bought a pack of four bottles of their new product champagne pop, and quickly back to the city center to buy Biscuit rose de Reims which cellar tour guide recommended to eat with the champagne. So, looking back I really had a good time with champagne and Pommery!

My later experiences with champagne were all happened in Epernay, and I noticed that other champagne houses are also built in grand architecture and full with art objects, so maybe it was a common characteristic of champagne house to have image of luxury or art patron, that sometime too much and tend to be too bizarre, but again no place can compete of bizarreness of Pommery House, in my opinion. For World Heritage Site inscription, I really agreed with ICOMOS, and considered that Champagne nomination is truly justified to be on the listed for its unique characteristic of wine culture and its way to attract customers with image of high-end symbol. Not sure that the inscription may make some customers choose champagne instead of sparkling wine or not since after listed every time drinking champagne, we are drinking World Heritage drink!! Another level of appreciation! Cheers!

Els Slots

2.50 The Netherlands - 27-May-15 -

Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars is another candidate for inclusion this year. And it's another serial nomination: it comprises 14 locations in the Champagne-Ardenne region in the North East of France. On my way to the WHS of Vézélay and the Abbey of Fontenay, I spent Ascension Thursday in Reims to check out a couple of these Champagne sites.

I rarely drink alcohol, so all these wine-related (T)WHS are a particular chore for me to tick off. Fortunately, this nomination focuses more on the industrial and commercial process of champagne production than on endless hillside vineyards. With this cleverly chosen angle of argumentation, I believe the Champagne sites also distinguish themselves enough to warrant WH status. The sites are presented as a continuing evolved cultural landscape too, which for sure must please some of the jurors. And to top it off, these sites (or at least their products) are globally known: "The outstanding nature of Champagne also lies in its symbolic aspect, shared across the world".

Among the special features of this WHS are the Cellars: underground chalk chambers that hold the bottles of champagne until the contents are ready to be consumed. You can visit the cellars on a tour of one of the Champagne Houses. They all seem to do tours, as a form of publicity or a way to earn something extra. I choose to visit Taittinger in the champagne quarter of Reims. This is the only one of the major houses that offers tours without pre-booking. I arrived around 11 a.m., and was able to directly join a tour in English. There were about 25 other participants from all over the globe, so these tours seem to be quite popular. The cost was 16.5 EUR including one glass of champagne.

The Taittinger cellars are located on the site of the basement of the old Saint-Nicaise abbey and in former chalk quarries. The tour both shows the remains of the abbey and the champagne production process. Endless rows of champagne bottles line the 4km long hallways: they stay there for up to 8 years until the delicate process is finished. There are two fermentation stages, and the characteristic cork is only added at the end. The temperature in the chalk chambers is a constant 12 degrees Celsius.

Another subsite in Reims that is part of the nomination is Saint-Nicaise Hill. This is an area with large public spaces and parks, dotted with industrial buildings that belong to the champagne production process. There even is a 'Champagne Park' - a vast public park where locals go for a picnic or a run. It was created as an area for employees of the Pommery Champagne House to practice sports. The buildings, according to the nomination dossier, "also play a representative role, helping to win over clients". Also, "a number of patrician residences occupied by the heads of the Champagne Houses" can be found here. The most striking of the former is the seat of Vranken Pommery, a complex that oozes luxury and quirkiness. You can walk the grounds freely, and amaze yourself at for example the flashy blue pine trees in the front garden.

The popularity of the drink owes a lot to the marketing strategy of the Champagne Houses, which since the late 19th century promoted the wine's image as something worthy for royals and as such to be aspired by the middle classes. It seems that the marketing has worked magic again on the ICOMOS and UNESCO committee members.

Clyde

2.50 Malta - 16-Nov-14 -

I visited this TWHS in June 2013 unknowingly but in November 2014 I made up for it by staying at a small champagne-maker. I visited a number of chalk cellars (Veuve Cliquot, Marcier, Taittinger, etc.) with guided tours varying from 30 mins to 2hrs. My favourite cellar was Pommery's together with the Art Nouveau Villa Demouseille. I explored the famous Avenue de Champagne in Epernay and enjoyed visiting the Comtesse Lafond Castle. Finally I visited several small towns nestled in the Champagne vineyard hills such as Dizi and Hautvillers. In Hautvillers I visited the tomb of Dom Perignon and then walked through the vineyards of Moet & Chandon to a panoramic viewpoint. Hautvillers is a very quaint village, famous for its wrought iron signs. Most probably this site will be inscribed in 2015.