Wine Tour to Champagne
Wednesday 23rd-Sunday 27th April 2025 – a few places available
Tuesday 20th-Saturday 24th May 2025 – fully booked
Wednesday 18th-Sunday 22nd June 2025 – good availability
Wednesday 1st-Sunday 5th October 2025 – fully booked
5 days/4 nights based in Reims, £1,499pp, £125 single supplement
Price excludes travel to/from our Meeting/Departure Points/Early booking discount available
- In my 25th year of running my own wine tours I am returning to our original destination!
- We will visit top Champagne houses and growers, tasting a wide range of styles.
- Our visits will cover all the key grape growing regions of Champagne: Montagne de Reims, Côtes de Blancs, Vallée de la Marne, Côte de Bar.
- Staying in Reims, where the kings of France were crowned and home to many famous Champagne names.
- We will gain a deep understanding of Champagne, its history and how it is evolving.
- At least six visits over three days.
- Comprehensive tastings at every visit, and four fabulous tasting lunches or dinners
Tour dates 2025
Wednesday 23rd-Sunday 27th April – a few places available
Tuesday 20th-Saturday 24th May – fully booked
Wednesday 18th-Sunday 22nd June – good availability
Wednesday 1st-Sunday 5th October – fully booked
Outline Itinerary
Day 1
Our tour commences at 6.30pm in the bar of our hotel in Reims. We will meet for a glass of Champagne and stroll out to a local restaurant where we will enjoy a first night dinner that celebrates the gastronomy and wines (sparkling and still) of the region.
Day 2
Boarding our coach after breakfast we will spend the day in and near Reims, visiting a Champagne house to learn about the role of these famous marques in the region, and a grower producer in the Montagne de Reims region. We will take lunch at a local restaurant.
Evening at leisure.
Day 3
Our coach takes us south, to the Côte de Bar, in the Aube, famed for the quality of its Pinot Noir grapes. Our visits and lunch will enable us to learn about this lesser known (but very beautiful) sub region of Champagne, and I have no doubt we will leave it with our views transformed.
Evening at leisure.
Day 4
Our final day takes us to the Côtes de Blanc and Vallée de la Marne, visiting grower producers who celebrate the unique growing conditions of each region. Our lunch will be light, as in the evening we will complete our exploration of the region with a gastronomic event – a five course tasting dinner, each course matched perfectly with a wonderful Champagne.
Day 5
Our tour ends after breakfast.
Note: the Itinerary may be changed at Tim Syrad Wine Tours discretion so as to facilitate the smooth running of the tour and to accommodate great opportunities for visits or tastings that may become available.
Key Tour Information
* The Key Tour Information specifies what you should expect from the tour, no matter how far ahead you book.
As additional information is published on the website, it will be advised to clients who have reserved a place. The daily itinerary will be finalised in the weeks leading up to the Start Date.
Pricing
- £1,499 per person based on 2 people sharing a double/twin room.
- £125 supplement for single occupancy of a double room,
- £100 discount for bookings made before 1st January 2025, and paid for 12 weeks before departure.
Price includes
- 5 days (including arrival and departure days)/4 nights bed and breakfast in good quality 4 star hotel in central Reims.
- Coach for all activities in the itinerary.
- Three full days of visits and tastings.
- Six visits/tastings, including Champagne houses and grower producers, covering the range of Champagne styles and top regions.
- Four lunches/dinners with local wines.
- All local taxes and service charges.
- The services of Tim Syrad as your Wine Tour Manager and Wine Guide.
It is a condition of my accepting a booking that you will take out appropriate travel insurance – please see our Terms and Conditions Section 8.
Terms and Conditions are available here or on request.
Please note travel to destination is not included in the price. Many of my clients prefer to extend their holiday before or after my tours, so I let people make their own travel arrangements.
* End of Key Tour Information
Travel to/from the Tour
Our Meeting Point/Departure Point is our hotel in central Reims.
Those who wish to include the tour as part of a bigger holiday, or who want to take full advantage of the duty free allowance on their return, may prefer to drive themselves. Reims is less than three hours drive from the Le Shuttle at Coquelles near Calais.
A Eurostar arriving at Paris Gare du Nord around noon will allow for a transfer to Gare de l’Est, to catch a TGV to Reims arriving 1700.
There are several train services (some requiring a change) between Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and the Champagne-Ardennes TGV station in Reims, a short train or taxi ride from the centre.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss travel options, for example flying to Paris and taking the train or driving. I cannot arrange travel for you, but I can advise on what might work best.
How to Book this Tour
Please contact me by phone or email, or use the enquiry form on the Contact page on the website to check availability. When I confirm a place is available, please complete the booking form to reserve your place.
Once I have confirmed a tour is proceeding I advise clients to arrange travel and confirm arrangements to me. Please do not arrange travel before I have confirmed your place and that the tour is proceeding.
Full payment must be made 12 weeks before the tour starts, invoices will be sent out 14 weeks before the tour starts. Two weeks before the tour starts you will need to provide your insurance details (name of insurer, policy number, 24 hour emergency telephone numbers), outbound/inbound travel arrangements and any dietary requirements.
More about my Wine Tour to Champagne
In 2025 I will have been running my own wine tours for 25 years. To celebrate this milestone I am returning to Champagne, my very first destination back in 2001. Much has changed in a quarter of a century, and we can look forward to a magnificent tour, enabling us to understand why this region is so celebrated, and to discover there is a wonderful range of styles that reflect both the differing terroirs and different winemaking. Plus a chance to explore Champagne as a gastronomic wine, with wonderful range and versatility, able to match any course of a meal.
A comprehensive tour will of course include a major Champagne house. While we will be familiar with the flagship ‘marque’ this will be an opportunity to explore the history and philosophy that makes its style so special, and to enjoy a tasting that goes beyond what might normally be expected.
Champagne growers are increasingly becoming Champagne makers. Those with vineyards in the top Premier and Grand Cru villages are keen to express their specific terroir, and our visits will allow us to understand the complexity of the region, that is sometimes disguised by the blending to a house style by bigger producers.
Our Visits
Our visits will enable us to meet people involved in the making of the wines, whether growing the grapes, vinifying the wines or assembling the blend, maturing and ultimately ‘disgorging’ it. There is so much change happening in Champagne that this will be a great opportunity to learn more about what makes the region so unique and how it responding to change.
Vine Growing and Wine Making
The major grape varieties of Champagne are of course Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. However other varieties are permitted and it is possible to find wines made from Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and even Arbane and Petit Meslier, though these varieties are usually very small parts of the final blend, contributing their own special flavours. As is the case in many wine regions, the Champenois are having to adapt to climate change and we will learn about their response both in the vineyard and the winery.
Champagne styles we will encounter.
Our visits will explore the importance of ‘house style’, the basis of Grande Marque brands that have made Champagne famous. Uniquely talented winemakers work with a palate of ‘reserve wines’ (which can run into dozens from different grape varieties, vineyards and vintages), that they blend with the current vintage to ensure that every release has the Marque’s characteristic flavour profile. These NV (non vintage wines) dominate the Champagne market but some houses are beginning to allow more expression of individual years in their major release – such as Louis Roederer’s most recent releases 243 and 244.
There is so much more to Champagne than the ‘big volume’ releases. We will explore wines made from white grapes (Blanc de Blancs), white wines made from black grapes (Blanc de Noirs), rosés and wines made from single grape varieties, single villages and even single plots! As grapes’ ripeness has become more consistent (with the warming climate) many Champagnes are being made with little or no ‘dosage’ and we will encounter some wonderful super dry wines that are full of rich complex flavours.
Gastronomy
Champagne is associated with drinking by itself as an aperitif at the beginning of the meal, or a toast at the end. Our tour will celebrate how gastronomic Champagne can be. Chardonnay based wines are fabulous with seafood, while Blancs de Noirs can be superb accompaniments to many main course dishes. Of particular note are the cheeses of the region, such as Langres, Chaource and Cendre de Champagne, each of which can be matched with a specific style of Champagne. And of course sweeter Champagnes are wonderful accompaniments to both desserts and savoury dishes.
More about Tim Syrad Wine Tours
Since 1997 I have escorted over 140 groups of people on wine tours, visiting more than 40 wine regions in Europe and the New World. My clients keep coming back year after year because in addition to tastings and visits we really do meet the people who make the wine and tend the vines.
I pride myself in offering tours that are informative, imaginative and enjoyable. I keep group sizes manageable so that we spend our time appreciating our visits, not getting on and off the bus or queuing for the loos! I personally escort all of my tours, and I ensure as much as possible of the money my clients pay is spent on great food and wine, and good hotels. I believe you can combine appreciating fabulous wine with relaxation and laughter, which is why so many of my clients come on tour with me every year. More than 100 people have come on at least 10 of my tours.
There is a friendly and welcoming atmosphere on every tour from the start, and I am proud that many friendships have been made between the people who come on tour with me.
Check out the FAQ page for more specific information about my tours, or contact me directly if you would like to discuss any aspect of my tours.
For more information about me, my next tours, and previous tours I have run, and to find out what my clients say (some of whom have been coming on tour with me since 2001) please explore the website.
Get in touch
For more information, or to book a place, please contact me
By phone (020 7060 4529)
Or email (tim@timsyradwinetours.com)
Or use the online enquiry form on the Contact page