How Champagne is made, and when to go

How the day runs

The tour takes about 11 hours in total, with a live guide in English. A minibus makes the drive from central Paris, roughly 1.5 hours each way. The stops are Reims Cathedral, lunch in Épernay, the Nicolas Feuillatte house, a family-run winery and the abbey village of Hautvillers, though itineraries can change. Lunch is a stop of its own in Épernay and is not included. The meeting point is a café in Paris, and you should arrive at least 15 minutes early. The booking calendar and your confirmation show the departure time for your date, so plan your evening around a late return.

• About 11 hours in total
• Roughly 1.5 hours of driving each way
• Meeting point: a café in Paris, 15 minutes early

From grape to juice

Champagne grapes are picked by hand. The Comité Champagne says no machinery is used, and it is one of the specific features of the designation. Whole clusters go to a pressing centre as promptly as possible and are pressed gently. Most Champagne is white even though two of the three main grapes, Pinot Noir and Meunier, are black-skinned, because the juice is stopped from macerating on the skins. The third grape is Chardonnay. The first juice from the press, the cuvée, is kept apart from the later taille, because the two give the wine different characters.

The three grapes, and rosé

Three grapes make nearly all Champagne. Pinot Noir covers 38 per cent of the vineyard area and gives body and structure. Chardonnay covers 31 per cent, brings freshness, ages well and is the star of the Côte des Blancs. Meunier covers 31 per cent, buds later and so suffers less from frost, and adds roundness and fruit. A blanc de blancs is made only from white grapes, almost always Chardonnay. A blanc de noirs is made only from black grapes. Rosé comes either from leaving the juice briefly on the skins or from blending in a still red Champagne wine before the second fermentation.

Fermenting, blending and the bubbles

The juice first ferments into a still wine, mostly in temperature-controlled steel vats, though some producers use oak. Cellar masters then blend wines from different grapes, places and often years into the house style. Bottling cannot happen before 1 January after the harvest. Each bottle gets yeast and sugar, and a second fermentation traps the carbon dioxide, which is where the bubbles come from. Under the rules, non-vintage Champagne must age at least 15 months from bottling and vintage Champagne at least three years. Many producers keep it longer.

Riddling, disgorgement and dosage

Dead yeast, the lees, has to leave the bottle. In riddling, or remuage, bottles are turned and tilted so the sediment slides into the neck, by hand on wooden pupitres or by machine. For disgorgement the neck is frozen and the cap removed, and the pressure inside pushes out a plug of ice holding the sediment. Dosage then tops the bottle up with wine and sugar, and the amount of sugar sets the style. Corking, shaking and a final inspection follow. Nicolas Feuillatte describes its own cellar tour as covering the stages from winemaking to packaging.

Reading a bottle label

Two things on a label help when you buy a bottle at the end of the day. The sweetness word comes first. Brut, the most common style today, has under 12 grams of sugar per litre, and Brut Nature or Zero has no added sugar. Then look for a small code with a number. RM is a grower who made the wine from their own vineyards' grapes. NM is a company that buys grapes. CM is a cooperative. The code tells you who made the bottle, which is often not the name in large letters.

The vineyard year: when to go

The tour runs all year, so choose a month by what you want to see in the vines. Bud break comes at the end of March or in early April, and a late frost in May can still threaten the crop. Summer vines are in thick leaf. Harvest generally begins in September, though in recent years it has often started in mid-August. In autumn the hillsides turn yellow, orange and red, and pruning starts in November. From mid-December to mid-January the vines are bare and pruning pauses. The cellars themselves stay around 12°C in every month.

• Spring: bud break, then the risk of a late frost
• Summer: thick leaf on the vines
• Autumn: harvest, then yellow, orange and red hillsides
• Winter: bare vines, pruning paused mid-December to mid-January

What to wear and carry

Nicolas Feuillatte gives its cellar temperature as around 12 degrees and suggests warm clothing, and the Comité Champagne says cellars stay near 12°C as well. So bring a layer even in summer. Wear shoes you can walk in, because the day includes a cathedral, an abbey village and a house tour. Lunch is not included, so eat properly: six glasses are poured across the day. Carry water, and a bag you can close if you buy a bottle.

• A warm layer for cellars around 12°C
• Comfortable walking shoes
• Water, and a small bag

Language, access and children

The guide speaks English, and groups are capped at eight. On access, Nicolas Feuillatte lists escalator and lift access for reduced mobility on its own cellar tours. This day also takes in an abbey village, a cathedral and a family winery whose access is not described, so ask the provider if mobility matters to you. No child policy is stated for this tour. French law prohibits selling or giving alcohol to anyone under 18 in public places, so tastings are for adults.

Hautvillers and Dom Pérignon

The abbey at Hautvillers was home to Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk whose work helped develop Champagne. Contrary to legend, he did not invent sparkling wine: an English scientist documented adding sugar for a second fermentation in 1662, six years before Pérignon arrived at the abbey. He is buried at Hautvillers. UNESCO's World Heritage listing, inscribed in 2015, names the historic vineyards of Hautvillers, Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Saint-Nicaise Hill in Reims and the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay as its three components.

Read next: The Chalk Cellars of Champagne: Crayères and UNESCO

Who this isn't for

If you want a slow day, this is not it: one day covers a cathedral, lunch, a house, a winery and an abbey village. If you need a fixed late start, wait for the confirmation before planning anything else, because the day is long. If you want to learn winemaking in depth, a direct cellar tour at one house gives you more time at one place. And if you do not drink alcohol, most of the day is built around tastings.