Our wine tour to Hautvillers Champagne

The village of Hautvillers is the birthplace of the world’s favourite bubbly and in our opinion one of the best places to visit in Champagne!

The famous statue of Dom Pérignon in Hautvillers - source: Winekeller

Exploring Champagne has to be one of the best wine tours in the world - without a doubt - and certainly a must for any wine enthusiast, being one of the top and most famous wine regions. Most people head directly to the city of Reims, the capital of Champagne and also to Epernay, located at the heart of Champagne country and home to the top Champagne houses, but we urge you not to miss out on the treasure of Champagne - the small village of Hautvillers - the ‘birthplace of Champagne’.

We travelled there recently and enjoyed a superb ‘deep dive’ guided tour of Hautvillers, conducted by the wonderful Maxime from Tourisme Hauvillers - and we decided to stay at the renowned Loisium Hotel Champagne in Mutigny - somewhere we have been wanting to experience for a while and said to be one of the best hotels in Champagne.

Read on to see what we discovered!

The Champagne vineyards around Mutigny - source: Winekeller

Hautvillers Champagne

If you’re looking for ideas about where to visit in Champagne and you’re also looking for the best Champagne houses to visit, then absolutely, head to Reims and to Epernay, sitting either side of the magnificent Montage de Reims Natural Park. However, located just a 10 minutes drive north of Épernay is the beautiful, historic village of Hautvillers - known as the ‘birthplace of champagne’ and famously for being the home and resting place of a certain monk Dom Pérignon, who is said to have discovered the champagne wine-making process in the 18th century. 

What is the story behind Dom Pérignon?

In 1668 the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Pierre of Hautvillers welcomed a young monk by the name of Dom Pierre Pérignon, who became cellar master here and remained until his death in 1715. 

It was here in the Abbey at Hautvillers, that according to popular history, Dom Pierre Pérignon “invented” the key champagne process of creating a second fermentation in the bottle. The reality is that this process had been recorded some years before, but Dom Pérignon was certainly responsible for several other key innovations in the development of the champagne method of producing sparkling wine. 

Today, ‘Dom Pérignon’ is not a Champagne house, it’s a prestige, Champagne cuvée.

The name ‘Dom Pérignon’ was first registered by Eugène Mercier, who later sold the brand rights to Moët & Chandon. The first vintage was produced in 1921 and released in 1936, launching the name Dom Pérignon as the House’s prestige cuvée - an enduring symbol of luxury and refinement.

Dom Pérignon is a vintage champagne and is only produced in certain years. It was originally produced from vintage Moët & Chandon Champagne and simply transferred into special bottles after being aged, but from the 1940s, Dom Pérignon has been produced separately.

Where is the grave of Dom Pérignon?

Dom Pérignon is buried in the Abbey church - Église Saint-Sindulphe de l’Abbaye Saint Pierre. You can visit the church, but you cannot visit the Abbey as it is now the private property of Champagne house, Moët & Chandon.

The Abbey and church are the key must-see sites in Hautvillers.

Our guided tour of Hautvillers

Hautvillers is a small but charming village located on the slopes of the Montage de Reims Natural Park, offering superb views over the Marne Valley and vineyards below. You can stroll around the village, with its quaint streets and there are lots of places to stop for a bite to eat or of course to taste some champagnes - again more on that later! 

Views over the Marne Valley from Hautvillers

The Hautvillers Tourist Office

We would allow at least half a day here to get the most from your visit and we can highly recommend a guided tour. The Hautvillers Tourist Office, which is located at the centre of the village, offers a range of different public and private tours.

If you are driving by car you can park in the excellent (and free!) car park just at the entrance to the village. A short walk up the hill takes you straight to the centre of the village where you will see the tourist office on your right and ‘Le Café d’Hautvillers’ in front of you.

It was here that we met our guide Maxime, who proceeded to take us on a fascinating walk around the village, taking us to the Abbey and the church, to see the famous Dom Pérignon statue and the beautiful passage way called ‘Ruelle du Col de Lampe/Passage des Bénédictins’ - an alley used by the monks when they went to pray.

The distinctive wrought-iron signs of Hautvillers

Walking around this beautiful village you soon notice that a common feature on the façade of most of its traditional houses is an iron sign depicting something about the owner - perhaps their profession or their origin. These traditional iron signs are beautifully designed and maintained and are an important feature of this historic Champagne village. Maxime pointed out many of the signs to us and explained their meaning and origins, which we found fascinating!

After our guided tour, which we thoroughly enjoyed, we walked the ‘Panoramic Tour’ around Hautvillers and the Abbey grounds to reach the ‘Belvédère Dom Pérignon’ - a magnificent view point across the valley and vineyards, set in a lovely park, a popular meeting place and picnic venue!

Hiking tours around Hautvillers

For those who prefer something a bit more taxing than a stroll, there are several hiking circuits around the village - see here for details.

Hautvillers lunch - where to eat 

Hautvillers is a popular lunch destination and after our guided tour and walk we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the Café d’Hautvillers. Its central location and range of traditional dishes gives it a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Other excellent options include ‘Le Beau Lieu’ bistrot, ‘Clotaire’ and for small regional dishes, tapas style, Au 36

Hautvillers champagne tasting

Hautvillers may not be home to the large, famous Champagne Houses, but it is home to some excellent champagne producers who will welcome you in for a champagne tasting. You can see a list of the local champagne producers here. We can personally recommend Champagne Pierre Fedyk and Champagne G Tribaut.

We also highly recommend Au 36 where in addition to some regional dishes you can enjoy a tasting of champagnes from different producers, including Dom Pérignon.  

See here the top things to see and do in Hautvillers.

Where to stay in Champagne

There are lots of different and excellent options for where to stay in Champagne, but this time we decided on trying out the Loisium Champagne Hotel - described as ‘a perfect getaway for Champagne lovers’!

The Loisium Wine & Spa Hotel Champagne is part of the group of 3 Loisium Hotels, with the other 2 properties in Austria. The Loisium is a brand defined by ‘modern architecture, an authentic attitude to life, inspiring wine experiences, creative cuisine and relaxed idleness’.

The Loisium Champagne is located on the wooded slopes of the southern Montagne de Reims, in the hilltop village of Mutigny, in the heart of the Champagne vineyards in between Épernay and Äy - the perfect location for exploring the Champagne region and visiting the Champagne houses.

The hotel really blends into the Champagne landscape with lots of wood and huge windows giving you uninterrupted views of the vineyards and the Marne Valley. It is tastefully decorated and furnished - comfortable and modern yet rustic and homely at the same time and there are lots of spaces from which to enjoy those amazing views! 

There are 101 rooms and suites in the hotel and we were delighted with ours. The rooms are a little on the compact side, but they have everything you need and more, for a comfortable, luxury stay.

There is a luxury spa with outdoor pool, sauna, steam room and treatment rooms, which were very popular come late afternoon when everyone returned from Champagne tours (there is also a bar area in the spa).

The Loisium Champagne is naturally a showcase for local Champagne producers and the hotel restaurant offers an excellent French menu featuring locally sourced ingredients. 

We enjoyed eating in the restaurant on both nights and the standard of cuisine is high, but we would suggest perhaps a broader menu is required for people staying for several nights in the hotel as there is no dining alternative in the immediate area.

We had our bikes with us and enjoyed cycling in the vineyards from the hotel and around Mutigny, with its distinctive church - you can also walk the ‘Sentier du Vigneron’ around Mutigny - a signposted circular 90 minute trail.

 

If you’re inspired to visit Champagne and Hautvillers or yourself, then contact us to let us help you plan your tour!

Conclusion and personal highlights

We loved discovering Hautvillers and our guided tour was really informative and fun! We also loved our 2 night stay at the Loisium Champagne and can highly recommend it - the ambience here is really relaxing, helped of course by the setting, the hotel comfort and the spa facilities. The location is perfect for exploring the Champagne region and it certainly is the perfect getaway for Champagne lovers!

Inspired? Pin it!

Next
Next

Discover Graubünden in German speaking Switzerland