Wine Tours in Champagne and Burgundy

Two years ago I requested and received great recommendations for private tours in Bordeaux (Henri Challeau and Dewey Markham). Those were much appreciated. My wife and I and another couple are planning to visit Champagne and Burgundy in September 2022 and once again I would greatly appreciate any recommendations from our group members for a private wine tour guide in each of these regions. Also, any recommendations you may have for hotels and restaurants in these areas. Thanks so much.

In Champagne we decided to stay in an AirBnB in Epernay so we could be right on the Avenue de Champagne without breaking the bank. Great place that met all our needs. If you didn’t care about staying in a real city (Reims - worth a day at least) then I would recommend it. Very convenient if you’re going touring in the Cote de Blancs.

Our driver for two days was Jean-Marc Ceccon (The Bubble Shuttle). While he wasn’t quite the full-immersion tour guide that Henri is - that’s setting the bar really high - he was an excellent driver and we were glad we went with him. We scheduled all of our tasting appointments on our own so we didn’t need a whole lot else.

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Thank you, Andrew. I appreciate tour information. Cheers!

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Bill Nanson (who post on here) organizes and leads Burgundy tours.

Thank you, Marcus. Much appreciated.

When we go to Burgundy, we often stay at an Ibis Styles Restaurant that is a pretty basic hotel that is perfectly located right on the ring road and have parking below the hotel. We like to stay in Beaune because there are so many excellent restaurant choices where we do not have to drive back to our place after spending the night drinking. And, Beaune is pretty centrally located to go either north all the way up to Gevrey-Chambertin or south to Chassagne Montrachet.

There are tons of great restaurants in Beaune. Some of my favorites from my last trip are Ma Cuisine, Relais de Saulx and Maison du Colombier.

We have only been to Champagne once and only for a day. Took the train from Paris to Reims and went to Ruinart and Taittinger. Fun day, great visits, but did not like Reims as a town to visit as much as Beaune or Bordeaux. Still, the caves at Ruinart and Taittinger are tremendously impressive and the whole experiences at these two wineries were fabulous. Highly recommend for a day or part thereof.

see PM for some info

We stayed at Hotel Les Avises a couple years ago in Avize. Good place to stay, very hospitable staff, and the restaurant on site was nice to come back to after each day out. It’s also co-located with Domaine Jacques Selosse, so you could try to work in a visit there. If not, the restaurant has plenty of Selosse champagnes on offer.

For a guide, we went with The Champagne Tour company. Larry did a good job to accommodate our requests, building around the few specific appointments we knew we wanted to make, and adding others to fill out our schedule over two days, including restaurants. All was carried out very well.
https://www.champagne-tour.com/index.html

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Thanks for the hat-tip Marcus!

Try Tasty Side of Life Tours. My friend Sydney Krueger runs it and is very good and knowledgeable.

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for the information. I will certainly check it all out.

Cheers,

Jack

Blake,

I may be going to France next year and spending a few days in wine regions - likely mostly Burgundy but possibly a day or two in Champagne. Could you pm to me the same info. Thanks.