Champagne Chalk Cellar Tour

How to Complete

5 steps curated by Wine Memories

1. 📜 1

   Descend into a Roman Slave Quarry at Taittinger

   history $$

   📍 WHERE: Champagne Taittinger, 9 Place Saint-Nicaise, Reims (GPS: 49.2517, 4.0518). The entrance is through a courtyard — walk past the abbey foundations toward the cellar doors.

   💡 WHAT: The shaft you're about to walk into was cut by Roman slaves in the 4th century AD. They weren't making wine — they were quarrying chalk blocks for the construction of Roman Reims (Durocortorum). When the quarry was exhausted, 13th-century Benedictine monks inherited these shafts and converted them to wine cellars. Taittinger's deepest galleries sit at 30 metres underground and have been aging champagne non-stop since 1734. Book the 'L'Instant Premier' tour (€40) or step up to the Comtes de Champagne vintage tasting (€90) to try the wine that comes from these exact cellars. On the chalky walls, you can still see the hand-cut tool marks — slave labour from 1,600 years ago.

   🎯 HOW: Book online at taittinger.com at least 2–3 weeks ahead (May–October is high season). Ask your guide specifically to show you where the 4th-century Roman quarry marks are visible — they won't always point them out unprompted. Bring a layer — the cellars hold a constant 11°C even on a 35°C August afternoon.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Taittinger is fully booked, Ruinart (4 Rue des Crayères, Reims) is a 10-minute walk — also UNESCO-listed, also on Saint-Nicaise Hill.

   🍷 Log Memory
2. ⛰️ 2

   Walk Pommery's 116-Step Staircase into an Underground Cathedral

   adventure $

   📍 WHERE: Domaine Pommery, 5 Place du Général Gouraud, Reims (GPS: 49.2440, 4.0498). From Taittinger, it's a 15-minute walk along Saint-Nicaise Hill.

   💡 WHAT: In 1868, a newly widowed Madame Louise Pommery stood on this hill above 60 disconnected Roman chalk pits and made a decision: connect them all. She hired Belgian miners to drill 18km of interconnected vaulted galleries linking every crayère — a project so extreme it took years. The result is the most theatrical cellar in Champagne. A single monumental staircase — 116 steps, steep as a cathedral nave — is the only way in and out of this 30-metre-deep world. At the bottom, Gustave Navlet spent 1882–1884 carving Bacchanalian scenes directly into the chalk walls: some bas-reliefs run 15 metres long and 6 metres high. This same Madame Pommery also invented Brut champagne — when everyone else was making sweet champagne for Russian tsars, she decided the world wanted dry. She was right.

   🎯 HOW: Pommery offers the only self-guided tour in Reims — walk in during opening hours, no booking required, from €27. At the bottom of the staircase, turn left toward the ancient crayère wells to find the Navlet bas-reliefs. Let your eyes adjust to the scale. The contemporary art installations (300+ artists since 2003) are integrated throughout.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Pommery is closed, Veuve Clicquot is the fourth UNESCO-listed crayère house on Saint-Nicaise Hill — book via veuveclicquot.com.

   🍷 Log Memory
3. 📜 3

   Find the Tomb of the Man Who Didn't Invent Champagne

   history Free

   📍 WHERE: Église Saint-Sindulphe, Hautvillers, 5km from Épernay (GPS: 49.082, 3.941). The church is open year-round, free of charge.

   💡 WHAT: Here lies Dom Pierre Pérignon, Benedictine cellar master from 1668 to 1715. His gravestone reads, simply, 'Here lies Dom Pierre Pérignon.' Now here's what the champagne brands won't tell you: he didn't invent champagne. He was desperately trying to eliminate the bubbles. The effervescence was an accident he considered a flaw. The famous quote — 'Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!' — was invented in late 19th-century French marketing materials, nearly 180 years after his death. What Dom Pérignon actually pioneered was blending: tasting grapes without knowing the vineyard, then blending varieties before pressing to achieve consistency. That method is the foundation of every non-vintage Brut you've ever drunk. The real legacy is in every glass. The myth is better for selling bottles.

   🎯 HOW: Hautvillers is 5km from Épernay — rent a bike from the Épernay tourist office or take a 10-minute taxi. The church is in the village center. Dom Pérignon's tomb is in the chancel, front left. Read the epitaph. Then find a table in the village square overlooking the Marne Valley vineyards and order a glass.

   🔄 BACKUP: The church is always accessible. The Abbey building (adjoining, owned by Moët Hennessy) is closed to visitors — but the church where he's buried is always open.

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4. ⛰️ 4

   Walk the World's Most Drinkable Street Above 200M Bottles

   adventure Free

   📍 WHERE: Avenue de Champagne, Épernay (GPS: 49.0440, 3.9580). Walk the entire 1.8km from west to east — 20 minutes.

   💡 WHAT: This looks like a pleasant, tree-lined French boulevard. It isn't. Under your feet run 110km of chalk pits housing more than 200 million bottles of champagne from 20+ houses simultaneously. Churchill named it 'the most drinkable address in the world.' At current prices, the wine beneath this street represents several billion euros. At the far end: Moët & Chandon (no. 20), largest cellar operation of all — 28km of galleries holding champagne that will age for years before it sees daylight. The avenue is the physical manifestation of what UNESCO inscribed in 2015: not just the wine, but the complete system — hillside vineyards, chalk quarries, production houses — as a single unified cultural landscape.

   🎯 HOW: Walk end-to-end before entering any house. Look at the 19th-century mansions — built on champagne money when these houses exported to every royal court in Europe. Moët & Chandon is 5 minutes from Épernay train station (Paris Gare de l'Est: 80 min). Tours from €48 for the Imperial Moment (cellar + 2 glasses). Private Grand Vintage tastings up to €235/person.

   🔄 BACKUP: Even without a cellar booking, the walk is free. Most of the 20 houses accept walk-in visitors for at least a basic tasting at the bar.

   🍷 Log Memory
5. 🍷 5

   Taste Ruinart's Blanc de Blancs in the Deepest Crayère in Reims

   Optional

   wine $$$

   📍 WHERE: Maison Ruinart, 4 Rue des Crayères, Reims (GPS: 49.2448, 4.0523).

   💡 WHAT: Nicolas Ruinart founded this house on 1 September 1729, drawing on advice from his uncle Dom Thierry Ruinart — a Benedictine monk who was Dom Pérignon's lifelong friend. The family connection to the man-who-didn't-invent-champagne is direct and personal. Their cellars spread over two levels, 8km total, 40 metres underground — the deepest in Reims. The lowest level is where the prestige cuvées sleep. The tour ends with Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs: 100% Chardonnay, aged at the bottom of 4th-century Roman quarries, in the oldest continuously-used chalk cellar in the world. Entry-level tour: €90 (from January 2026).

   🎯 HOW: Book via visitesruinart@ruinart.com or +33 (0)3 26 77 51 52. Small groups, weeks ahead. On the second level, ask about the acoustic quality in the lower crayères — the conical chalk chambers create near-perfect resonance. Have someone speak at normal volume from 10 metres away. Ask to start with 'R de Ruinart' Blanc de Blancs as your baseline — it demonstrates what 100% Chardonnay from chalk achieves before moving to Dom Ruinart.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Ruinart is sold out, Taittinger offers a Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs at a comparable level (€90) also on Saint-Nicaise Hill.

   🍷 Log Memory