A tour of the Taittinger Cellars in Champagne France is a must when in Reims. This was a phenomenal tour and tasting which delved into the history of the champagne house as well as the house style. Taittinger is one of the few family owned and operated champagne houses in the region. The house owns 752 acres including Grand Cru in the Montagne de Reims and the Cotes des Blancs.

Reims the capital city of Champagne should be on any wine lover’s travel list.

The tour begins with a short introductory video sharing the history of the maison. Highlights include royalty, cousins in love, the Comtes de Champagne and the correlation to Taittinger. Originally the house was founded in 1734 by Forest-Fourneaux, one of the first houses created in Champagne. In 1915 Pierre Taittinger an officer in WWI was stationed at the Château de la Marquetterie and fell in love with the grounds saying that he would come back to buy the land after the war. In September of 1930 he bought the grounds and the surrounding vineyards. His vision was to rebrand the champagne house by creating fresh and natural wines. The house style of Taittinger focuses on Chardonnay as the primary grape in the blends.

After the video, we headed down 30m below ground to one of the five champagne crayeres in the Champagne region. The Crayeres are the Roman chalk quarries that the Romans created to build the city of Reims including some of the current stone structures that you can see throughout the city. The caves are absolutely magnificent and there are reminders of the wars that plagued the region including the multiple chapels that were used by the Champenois to take refuge in. There are hundreds of thousands of champagne bottles in the chalk caves that are at a consistent temperature of of 10 degrees C / 50 degrees F.

The caves are very extensive and it is very cool to see the A shaped pupitres which are still used for riddling the Comtes de Champagne the tête de cuvée that comes in both a Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay) and Rosé style. After the cellar and cave tour, we came back up and did an exceptional tasting of three of the Taittinger styles: the Brut, Rosé and the current vintage release (2013). The tasting was absolutley wonderful and the tasting room was a private room where we could truly enjoy such a fabulous tasting. I can not wait to return again!

P.S. I learned that Taittinger has a limited Art Release collection that pairs a different artist with a different vintage year. It was very cool to see all the artistic designs over the years! Such a great collectors champagne!

To book a visit at Taittinger, click here.