Every visit to Veuve Clicquot takes you down into its crayères, the old chalk quarries on the edge of Reims where its bottles age. You choose the visit by its length and by what you taste at the end. If you are pricing Veuve Clicquot tickets, the table below is the house's own list, before any tour fare.
A crayère is a chalk pit, dug as a quarry and later reused as a cellar. Veuve Clicquot settled into 482 of them in 1909, on the outskirts of Reims. Its production site and its visit centre stand there today, so you walk down from the reception into the chalk.
The chalk keeps the wine at a constant 10 to 12 °C, away from light and vibration. That steady cold is what lets a bottle rest for years on its yeast. You feel it the moment you reach the bottom of the stairs, whatever the month outside.
Each visit is a guided cellar tour with a tasting, led by a house guide. They differ in length, in price and in what the tasting is built around. The prices are the house's own, in euros, per person, as it publishes them.
| The house's cellar tour | Length | Per person | Built around | Private? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brut Yellow Label, the birth of a style | 1 hour | EUR 36 | The house's signature blend | No |
| The art of blended rosé champagne | 1 hour | EUR 60 | The rosé method of 1818 | No |
| One Quality, The Finest | 1 hour 30 | EUR 80 | The house's motto | Can be privatised |
| The art of aging | 2 hours | EUR 160 | Time on the lees | Can be privatised |
| La Grande Dame, the Maison's showcase of excellence | 4 hours | EUR 260 | The prestige cuvée | Can be privatised |
For a first visit, the one-hour Yellow Label tour shows you the chalk and the house style. If you already know the wine, the two-hour visit spends longer on ageing, and the four-hour one is built around La Grande Dame. You book a time slot on the house's website, and opening days change through the year, as the visitor guide sets out.
The shared days from Reims station carry the house ticket, a family grower and lunch in one fare, with a guide all day.
The cellar tour shows you the last and slowest stages. The house describes the whole cycle on its own vine-to-wine page, and it helps to know it before you go down.
Whole bunches go into 29 presses across six centres. The house keeps mostly the first juice, the cuvée.
The must settles for 15 hours, then ferments for eight to ten days at 18 °C into a still wine.
A committee of eight oenologists tastes more than 1,000 wines from November to March.
Bottled with yeast, the wine turns sparkling, then ages on its lees in the chalk.
Turns of a quarter, an eighth or a sixteenth bring the sediment into the neck.
After riddling, the neck is chilled to minus 26 °C and the frozen plug of yeast is forced out. That step is disgorging. A small dose of sugar follows: 9 grams a litre for the Brut Yellow Label. The cork is held by a wire muzzle and a metal cap that carries an image of Madame Clicquot. Look for it on the bottle you taste.
The time in the chalk is where most of the house's patience goes. Every non-vintage wine rests at least 30 months, which the house calls twice the standard. Its vintage wines rest at least five years, and La Grande Dame at least seven.
Most of the blend is not even from the same year. The Brut Yellow Label draws on about fifty crus, and 25 to 50% of it is reserve wine. The house keeps 400 reserve wines from 17 different years for that. So the bottle you taste in the tasting room carries several harvests at once.
In 1816 Madame Clicquot devised the first riddling table, the ancestor of the rack, to get clear wine. Every champagne house later took it up. Riddling slowly tips each bottle neck down, with small daily turns, so the dead yeast gathers against the cork.
Today the house riddles most bottles semi-automatically. Only La Grande Dame and the large formats are still turned by hand. The house treats the riddler's skill as heritage it wants to pass on, so you may see the racks on your way through the galleries.
A cellar tour means stairs and cool air. Plan for both, and you will enjoy the chalk far more.
Among the day tours, a few listings say they suit wheelchair users, one of them a private day from Reims station. If you need step-free help, ask the operator what the vehicle and the second stop allow before you book.
The three longer visits, from EUR 80 up, can be privatised for your party. You arrange that through the house's private-tours desk, on +33 (0)3 26 89 42 64, rather than the public booking page.
For a group, the house also hosts private events. At the Saint-Pétersbourg visit centre it takes 25 to 130 people, from EUR 210 per person. At the Manoir de Verzy, its house in the vineyards, it takes 5 to 30, from EUR 420.
A private day tour is a different thing. It buys you your own car, a chauffeur or a guide, and a second stop. The cellar tour itself is still led by a house guide. So if you want the cellars alone, you ask the house; if you want the day alone, you book a private tour.
The private days collect you in Reims or at a Paris hotel, with the cellar ticket in the fare and the choice of a second house or a grower.
Most of the day tours carry the house ticket inside the fare. A few do not promise Veuve Clicquot at all. Here is how to tell them apart before you book.
A couple of fares that do name the house still say the visit depends on availability on your date. Their cards say "if available", so you know before you pay. Compare the starts on Veuve Clicquot tours from Reims and Veuve Clicquot tours from Paris.
The lowest private fare from Paris that names the house: a chauffeur from your door, the house's English-guided cellar tour and time in Reims. Meals are yours.
From $521 per person
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Collected at 7:30 am in Paris: you pick your cellar tour at the house, up to the magnum and La Grande Dame tasting, and you are back by about 4 pm.
From $563 per person
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Your own guide from Reims station: the house's tickets, the cathedral, a walk through the city and a boutique producer at Rilly-la-Montagne. Marked wheelchair accessible.
From $520 per person
Check AvailabilityThe cellar tours, prices, access rules and production figures come from the house's own visit and vine-to-wine pages. The UNESCO dates come from UNESCO and champagne.fr, and the tour fares from each listing.
Next: read the house’s story, see the vineyards, or compare every tour on Veuve Clicquot Tours.