The wine you taste in the Reims cellars starts in vineyards across Champagne, and most day tours give you an hour or two among them. This page shows you where the grapes come from, what happens at the house's manor at Verzy, and which villages each veuve clicquot champagne tour drives you through.
The house does not make its signature wine from one slope. The Brut Yellow Label is blended from about fifty different crus, and 25 to 50% of it is reserve wine from earlier years. Each year the tasting committee tastes more than 1,000 still wines to build it.
The grapes go to six pressing centres and 29 presses. The house presses each grape variety, each cru and each fraction apart, so the character of each place survives until blending. It publishes no figure for its own vineyard area, so we give none.
The appellation is small enough to cross in a morning and varied enough to fill a day. These are the figures the Union des Maisons de Champagne publishes.
The ranks are old. A scale of crus was first set in 1911, and a decree of 1952 kept "grand cru" for villages rated 100%. The scale itself was scrapped in 2010, but the villages kept their titles. So a village's rank tells you its history, not the taste of your glass.
The Manoir de Verzy is where the house receives guests among its vineyards. It stands at 12 rue Ernest Graingault, 51380 Verzy, with free parking, about 25 minutes by car from the Champagne-Ardenne TGV station.
The house runs two dated events at the manor. Both are booked with the house, not through a tour, and both 2026 dates are now behind us.
| At the Manoir de Verzy | 2026 dates | Adult price | Places |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Picnic by Veuve Clicquot | 5 June to 31 August, Friday to Sunday, plus 4 and 5 September (season ended) | EUR 88 | 100 a date |
| Harvest luncheon | 12 and 19 September (both passed) | EUR 132 | 130 |
| Private event | On request | From EUR 420 | 5 to 30 people |
The picnic pours a glass of Brut Rosé and a half bottle of Brut Yellow Label for each guest. Young people aged 10 to 17 paid EUR 55, children under 10 EUR 32, and under-3s went free. It runs in French and English, and moves into a tent in bad weather.
The harvest luncheon charged EUR 72 for ages 3 to 17. If you want either next year, watch the house's pages in spring, because each date takes only 100 or 130 guests.
These are the villages the tour listings name, and what each tour does there. The cru ranks are the listings' own words.
France Intense's shared day from Reims station drives through the Montagne de Reims vineyards at Verzenay and Mailly. Its listing calls them grand cru villages.
France Intense and Uncork each stop at a family producer here for 1.5 hours, and Le Tour de Vigne's private day for 1 hour 45.
Le Tour de Vigne's private day from Paris walks you through the Ludes vineyards for 30 minutes, next to its Rilly winemaker.
The house's manor stands here. The tours pass through the Montagne de Reims, but the manor opens only for its own events.
The most-visited village on these routes. Clewel's days stop at its viewpoint and the Saint-Sindulphe church, and À La Française gives it an hour.
No tour stops here, but it belongs in the story. Madame Clicquot blended red wine from Bouzy into champagne for her first blended rosé in 1818.
The Reims days pair the house with a family grower in the Montagne de Reims, and most put lunch in the fare.
Hautvillers sits on a slope above the Marne, and its view is why tours stop. Its historic vineyards are one of the three parts of the UNESCO listing, with Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.
Dom Pierre Pérignon came to the Benedictine abbey here in 1668, aged 29, and ran its estate for 47 years until his death in 1715. His tomb is in the Saint-Sindulphe church, the one the Clewel days stop at.
He is often called the man who invented champagne. He did not: champagne.fr says plainly that champagne was not invented by anyone. The wine grew out of many hands and many cellars, Madame Clicquot's among them. So when a guide tells the story, enjoy it as a legend.
The picking date moves with the weather, and each year the Comité Champagne sets it village by village. In 2026 it set the first picking at Montgueux on 8 August, and most Marne villages between 12 and 17 August. So in 2026 the harvest was an August event.
Madame Clicquot's own famous year was a harvest: the 1811 Comet vintage, named for the comet that flew over the region. If you want to see pickers, come in August, and ask the operator whether the day's grower is picking.
Four glasses at the house, the cathedral, lunch, the vineyards of Verzenay and Mailly and a family estate, back at Reims station at 5:45 pm. Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.
From $375 per person
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A wine-certified guide from your Paris door: a family winemaker at Rilly-la-Montagne, the Ludes vineyards, a lunch table booked in Reims, then over two hours at the house.
From $996 per person
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Meet at the Reims station tourist office at 9:20 am, or Épernay's at 8:30 am, for the house's cellars, Hautvillers, lunch at a family winery and nine tastings in all. Eight people at most.
From $382 per person
Check AvailabilityThe blending and pressing figures come from the house's vine-to-wine page, and the Verzy events from its own event pages. The appellation figures come from the Union des Maisons de Champagne and champagne.fr, and Dom Pérignon's dates from the Hautvillers tourist office.
Next: go underground on the cellars page, check the months on the Reims weather page, or compare every tour on Veuve Clicquot Tours.