Visiting Veuve Clicquot
When we knew we were going to Paris, visiting a Champagne house was at the top of my bucket list! I began researching options and quickly became overwhelmed. There were so many to choose from, and all of them sounded lovely! I ended up deciding to take a tour of Veuve Clicquot because I spoke with a France native, and he recommended going with a more well-known brand. Although any experience would have been great, he said the larger brand’s infrastructure for tours are typically better since they generally get more visitors.
Our entire experience at Veuve Clicquot was wonderful! The second you walk in the gate you feel like you have entered into another realm. I’m not sure if they have colorful flowers most of the year, but we were there in spring and they had beautiful flowers outside that matched their yellow logo. We were instantly greeted as we walked up and were led inside to check in which was as nice and impressive as the outside.
The tour began by descending a large and long staircase deep into the cellars. Our guide gave us an excellent overview of the history of the Madame Clicquot Ponsardin and the empire she built.
Looking back after descending into the creyères.
We chose to do the “Only One Quality, The Finest” tour, because we weren’t visiting any other Champagne houses that day and wanted to spend more quality time in one location. This particular tour is an hour and a half and includes a tasting of four different wines (which is more than several of their other tours).
The tour itself was very interesting and informative, and the tasting was fun. We look forward to returning in the future!