Champagne Pinot Noir Villages Trail

Champagne Pinot Noir Villages Trail - 5 stops

A Wine Memories curated trail · winememories.fi

5 experiences 🇫🇷 France Effort: moderate 1 week

Map

1. Ambonnay: From a 1582 Cross to a Chalk Cellar 1 2. Aÿ: Where Champagne Was Born 2 3. Bouzy Rouge: France's Northernmost Red Wine 3 4. Coteaux Champenois: The Still Wine Revolution 4 5. Verzenay: The Lighthouse of Champagne 5 5 km 1. Ambonnay: From a 1582 Cross to a Chalk Cellar 1 2. Aÿ: Where Champagne Was Born 2 3. Bouzy Rouge: France's Northernmost Red Wine 3 4. Coteaux Champenois: The Still Wine Revolution 4 5. Verzenay: The Lighthouse of Champagne 5 10 km

Stops

Curated by Wine Memories

  1. 1

    Ambonnay: From a 1582 Cross to a Chalk Cellar

    In 1578, the village says, King Henri III let Ambonnay ring itself with ditches and ramparts and trade in wine once a year, on St Luke's day; its cross of 1582 still stands on the old market place. Today four vines in five here are Pinot Noir, and it is one of Champagne's 17 Grand Cru villages. You can find the evangelists on that cross, read a church of the 12th and 13th centuries from outside, count the marks the village says a champagne bottle left on a jet's tailfin in 1969, taste for free at a family grower, climb to a viewpoint in the vines, and go down into a cellar its owners say was dug into the chalk in the 17th century.

    Tour Price: low
  2. 2

    Aÿ: Where Champagne Was Born

    Before Champagne sparkled, it was still wine from Aÿ. This Grand Cru village was so renowned in the 16th century that Francis I called himself 'Lord of Aÿ.' Today it's home to Bollinger, whose Vieilles Vignes Françaises is made from ungrafted pre-phylloxera Pinot Noir vines - among the oldest in the world.

    Tour Price: high
  3. 3

    Bouzy Rouge: France's Northernmost Red Wine

    Bouzy is 87% Pinot Noir - the highest in Champagne. But the real secret? About 10% of the vineyard produces still red wine called Bouzy Rouge, sold as Coteaux Champenois. It's France's northernmost red wine, and production is so small that collectors pay premium prices. The village even has its own brotherhood dedicated to Bouzy Rouge.

    Tasting Price: moderate
  4. 4

    Coteaux Champenois: The Still Wine Revolution

    Climate change is transforming Champagne. In 2023, still wine production (Coteaux Champenois) doubled to 4,000 hectoliters - grapes are now ripe enough for serious red wine. At annual tastings in Reims, 30+ estates pour nearly 100 still wines. Wine enthusiasts seeking alternatives to Burgundy's astronomical prices are discovering Champagne's chalk soils yield Pinot with remarkable finesse.

    Tasting Price: moderate
  5. 5

    Verzenay: The Lighthouse of Champagne

    Verzenay's lighthouse - a bizarre 1909 promotional stunt by a négociant - now houses the Musée de la Vigne. But the village itself is pure Grand Cru Pinot Noir territory. Climb the lighthouse for panoramic views of the vineyards that produce some of Champagne's most powerful base wines.

    Tour Price: low