from £850* per person	3 Days	March
Comfort accommodations		Exertion level: 3
Operator: Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours		24 people max

Our ‘Extra’ Champagne tours are luxury wine tours that are designed for those who are passionate about Champagne and require a higher standard of comfort and exclusivity on their wine holiday. These tours feature some of the highest quality houses, a prestige cuvée tasting on the first evening, and lunch and dinner at a Champagne House.

Numbers are restricted to just 24, so that you have plenty of space to spread out on the coach and extra room to bring back Champagne. Being a smaller party than our “normal” champagnes you have perhaps more opportunity to speak personally to the Wine Guide. Two fabulous gourmet meals are included too, at Champagne Houses, one prepared very kindly by the owner of the Champagne House especially for our party and both of which include generous servings of top quality Champagnes.

If you are looking for a Champagne weekend in 2012, please see our Champagne Weekends – you can upgrade at the hotel and join our guide for dinner, please let us know if it is to celebrate a special occasion. For a truly magnificent Champagne experience, join our Ultimate Champagne tour that cannot be matched for the top quality Champagne tastings, high standard of accommodation and overall “wow” factor!

Champagne, the wine, comes from the north east region of France of the same name. It is the most northerly of the great wine regions and has a marginal climate, potentially leaving it exposed to spring frosts, cold summers and wet autumns. The resulting grapes are low in sugar, fine in flavour and high in acidity, the ideal material for making sparkling wine. It is also a scenario of massive variations between years and to try to overcome this, producers blend wines from different years to create a non-vintage wine. These wines form the basis of the individual ‘house style’ and leaves Vintage wines, the norm elsewhere, to be produced in great years only.