Oenotourism in Champagne: a Wine Tour

Vineyards are natural wonders, no matter the season. Beyond their beautiful landscape lies an ancestral and regional cultural heritage. To understand wine, you have to return to its homeland, taste its harvested grapes and explore the estate’s cellar. This is known as wine tourism, a form of oenological travel that attracts visitors to Champagne and the most beautiful vineyards in the world.

Join L’Atelier du Vin, a French manufacturer of wine accessories since 1926, in the heart of Champagne, where our craftsmanship has been passed down from father to son. Meet winegrowersand cellar masters, and taste local fine wines to open and serve with the right wine tools.

What Is Wine Tourism?

Wine tourism is an authentic way of travelling. It involves visiting a winegrowing region and tasting its local wines and products at wineries, cellars, table d’hôtes and cultural sites.

Beyond the charm of the rural landscapes, wine tourism is about meeting and connecting with winegrowers, local producers and inhabitants, as well as oenologists, sommeliers and cellarmen keen to share the history of their regional wine heritage.

For local winegrowers involved in oenotourism, it is also about offering wine lovers a memorable experience all year round with tours, visits or tasting sessions, to showcase their wine, regional products and local heritage.

Wine Travel, a Growing Trend

Wine tourism attracts visitors from all over the world. Historically, vinotourism began to develop in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the United States. In France, wine tourism emerged in a structured form much later, in the 2000s.

Today, winegrowing regions offer a variety of activities for oenotoursits to enjoy, in addition to cellar wine tasting sessions. Vineyard tours, overnight stays in châteaux, introductions to oenology and sommellerie, meeting winemakers and cellarmasters, helping with the harvests, discovering the vinification process in vats, enjoying Dionysian dinners and drinks in the middle of the vines… Every day is a celebration, punctuated by the opening of fine bottles of wine in situ..

Champagne, a Popular Wine Tourism Destination in France

Champagne’s slopes, estates and wine cellars, classified as world heritage sites by UNESCO, are world renowned for their sparkling wines. Tourists come from all over to visit the region’s vineyards and discover their remarkable savoir-faire.

The Champagne AOC (Controlled Designation of Origin) and AOP (Protected Designation of Origin) vineyards are spread over several departments (Aisne, Aube, Haute-Marne, Marne and Seine-et-Marne), 35,000 hectares and more than 300 wineries. The Champagne terroir stands out from other wine regions for its chalky soil, but many local vineyards are cultivated on marly or clay-limestone soils.

Typical Champagne Grape Varieties

What grapes are used to produce Champagne’s famous wines? The most common grape varieties in the Champagne region are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, but you can also find Arbane, Petit Meslier and other Pinot varieties. What better than a tasting session in a Champagne estate to differentiate them, with an introduction to grape varieties and wine vocabulary?

The Champagne Tourist Route

Each winegrowing region has its own wine route! There are several wine tourism trails to explore, passing through Reims and Epernay, to discover everything the Champagne region has to offer in terms of oenology, food and culture:

Côte des Blancs
Côte des Bar
Vallée de la Marne
Massif de Saint-Thierry
Montagne de Reims

Along the way, you can stop and taste a Blanc de Blancs, discover the history of Dom Pérignon, sample a vintage Blanc de Noirs grand cru and explore the birthplace of the world’s most famous wines.

Loisium Wine & Spa Hotel, at the Heart of the Champagne Vineyards

The Hotel Loisium Champagne in Mutigny, located a few kilometres from Epernay and surrounded by forests and vineyards, is the perfect place to relax and enjoy good wine during an oenological trip.

The design and choice of materials used for the exterior and comfortable suites pay a modern tribute to Champagne winegrowing traditions. The tiny invigorating hot tub bubbles and heated pool overlooking the vineyard are the perfect extension of the region’s effervescent wines.

In the gourmet restaurant, you can enjoy delicious dishes cooked with local products, accompanied by still and sparkling wines from the region, including vintage champagnes which are carefully stored in the hotel’s wine cellar, designed by our team of experts at Architecture Intérieure du Vin.

L’Atelier du Vin Champagne Accessories

L’Atelier du Vin offers a range of champagne accessories to cool, open and preserve your bottles. As a French wine manufacturer since 1926, from father to son, we create authentic sommelier tools and oenology sets, designed to cultivate the art of living wine from one generation to the next. Discover our collection of champagne and sparkling wine accessories:

Wine Tourism in Champagne: an Oenological Journey