Champagne Chalk Cellar Tour
Roman slaves quarried these chalk shafts in the 4th century AD. Benedictine monks turned them into wine cellars in the 13th century. Today, Taittinger, Ruinart, Pommery, and Veuve Clicquot age champagne in the same holes — 30 to 40 metres underground, 11°C year-round, UNESCO-listed since 2015. Walk Winston Churchill's "most drinkable address in the world" with 200 million bottles beneath your feet. Then find the tomb of Dom Pérignon, the monk who spent his life trying to eliminate bubbles from wine, and let the irony sink in.
A Wine Memories experience · winememories.fi
How to Complete
5 steps curated by Wine Memories
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: Champagne Taittinger, 9 Place Saint-Nicaise, Reims (GPS: 49.2517, 4.0518). The entrance is through a courtyard — walk past the abbey foundations toward the cellar doors.
💡 WHAT: The shaft you're about to walk into was cut by Roman slaves in the 4th century AD. They weren't making wine — they were quarrying chalk blocks for the construction of Roman Reims (Durocortorum). When the quarry was exhausted, 13th-century Benedictine monks inherited these shafts and converted them to wine cellars. Taittinger's deepest galleries sit at 30 metres underground and have been aging champagne non-stop since 1734. Book the 'L'Instant Premier' tour (€40) or step up to the Comtes de Champagne vintage tasting (€90) to try the wine that comes from these exact cellars. On the chalky walls, you can still see the hand-cut tool marks — slave labour from 1,600 years ago.
🎯 HOW: Book online at taittinger.com at least 2–3 weeks ahead (May–October is high season). Ask your guide specifically to show you where the 4th-century Roman quarry marks are visible — they won't always point them out unprompted. Bring a layer — the cellars hold a constant 11°C even on a 35°C August afternoon.
🔄 BACKUP: If Taittinger is fully booked, Ruinart (4 Rue des Crayères, Reims) is a 10-minute walk — also UNESCO-listed, also on Saint-Nicaise Hill.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: Domaine Pommery, 5 Place du Général Gouraud, Reims (GPS: 49.2440, 4.0498). From Taittinger, it's a 15-minute walk along Saint-Nicaise Hill.
💡 WHAT: In 1868, a newly widowed Madame Louise Pommery stood on this hill above 60 disconnected Roman chalk pits and made a decision: connect them all. She hired Belgian miners to drill 18km of interconnected vaulted galleries linking every crayère — a project so extreme it took years. The result is the most theatrical cellar in Champagne. A single monumental staircase — 116 steps, steep as a cathedral nave — is the only way in and out of this 30-metre-deep world. At the bottom, Gustave Navlet spent 1882–1884 carving Bacchanalian scenes directly into the chalk walls: some bas-reliefs run 15 metres long and 6 metres high. This same Madame Pommery also invented Brut champagne — when everyone else was making sweet champagne for Russian tsars, she decided the world wanted dry. She was right.
🎯 HOW: Pommery offers the only self-guided tour in Reims — walk in during opening hours, no booking required, from €27. At the bottom of the staircase, turn left toward the ancient crayère wells to find the Navlet bas-reliefs. Let your eyes adjust to the scale. The contemporary art installations (300+ artists since 2003) are integrated throughout.
🔄 BACKUP: If Pommery is closed, Veuve Clicquot is the fourth UNESCO-listed crayère house on Saint-Nicaise Hill — book via veuveclicquot.com.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: Église Saint-Sindulphe, Hautvillers, 5km from Épernay (GPS: 49.082, 3.941). The church is open year-round, free of charge.
💡 WHAT: Here lies Dom Pierre Pérignon, Benedictine cellar master from 1668 to 1715. His gravestone reads, simply, 'Here lies Dom Pierre Pérignon.' Now here's what the champagne brands won't tell you: he didn't invent champagne. He was desperately trying to eliminate the bubbles. The effervescence was an accident he considered a flaw. The famous quote — 'Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!' — was invented in late 19th-century French marketing materials, nearly 180 years after his death. What Dom Pérignon actually pioneered was blending: tasting grapes without knowing the vineyard, then blending varieties before pressing to achieve consistency. That method is the foundation of every non-vintage Brut you've ever drunk. The real legacy is in every glass. The myth is better for selling bottles.
🎯 HOW: Hautvillers is 5km from Épernay — rent a bike from the Épernay tourist office or take a 10-minute taxi. The church is in the village center. Dom Pérignon's tomb is in the chancel, front left. Read the epitaph. Then find a table in the village square overlooking the Marne Valley vineyards and order a glass.
🔄 BACKUP: The church is always accessible. The Abbey building (adjoining, owned by Moët Hennessy) is closed to visitors — but the church where he's buried is always open.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: Avenue de Champagne, Épernay (GPS: 49.0440, 3.9580). Walk the entire 1.8km from west to east — 20 minutes.
💡 WHAT: This looks like a pleasant, tree-lined French boulevard. It isn't. Under your feet run 110km of chalk pits housing more than 200 million bottles of champagne from 20+ houses simultaneously. Churchill named it 'the most drinkable address in the world.' At current prices, the wine beneath this street represents several billion euros. At the far end: Moët & Chandon (no. 20), largest cellar operation of all — 28km of galleries holding champagne that will age for years before it sees daylight. The avenue is the physical manifestation of what UNESCO inscribed in 2015: not just the wine, but the complete system — hillside vineyards, chalk quarries, production houses — as a single unified cultural landscape.
🎯 HOW: Walk end-to-end before entering any house. Look at the 19th-century mansions — built on champagne money when these houses exported to every royal court in Europe. Moët & Chandon is 5 minutes from Épernay train station (Paris Gare de l'Est: 80 min). Tours from €48 for the Imperial Moment (cellar + 2 glasses). Private Grand Vintage tastings up to €235/person.
🔄 BACKUP: Even without a cellar booking, the walk is free. Most of the 20 houses accept walk-in visitors for at least a basic tasting at the bar.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: Maison Ruinart, 4 Rue des Crayères, Reims (GPS: 49.2448, 4.0523).
💡 WHAT: Nicolas Ruinart founded this house on 1 September 1729, drawing on advice from his uncle Dom Thierry Ruinart — a Benedictine monk who was Dom Pérignon's lifelong friend. The family connection to the man-who-didn't-invent-champagne is direct and personal. Their cellars spread over two levels, 8km total, 40 metres underground — the deepest in Reims. The lowest level is where the prestige cuvées sleep. The tour ends with Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs: 100% Chardonnay, aged at the bottom of 4th-century Roman quarries, in the oldest continuously-used chalk cellar in the world. Entry-level tour: €90 (from January 2026).
🎯 HOW: Book via visitesruinart@ruinart.com or +33 (0)3 26 77 51 52. Small groups, weeks ahead. On the second level, ask about the acoustic quality in the lower crayères — the conical chalk chambers create near-perfect resonance. Have someone speak at normal volume from 10 metres away. Ask to start with 'R de Ruinart' Blanc de Blancs as your baseline — it demonstrates what 100% Chardonnay from chalk achieves before moving to Dom Ruinart.
🔄 BACKUP: If Ruinart is sold out, Taittinger offers a Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs at a comparable level (€90) also on Saint-Nicaise Hill.