Champagne Taittinger | Visites des caves de champagne Reims — Restaurant in Reims

Have you heard about the Taittinger champagne family? Their story hit me differently with me from all the cellars we visited not only because Mael the lady doing the tour was super passionate and we had an interesting conversation but because their story is about what we realize only after we've let something go. In 2005, this family who'd built this beautiful champagne legacy together decided to sell everything. Not because they wanted to, but because life got complicated, 38 family members with different visions, mounting pressures, taxes, difficult conversations, choices that never quite resolved anything. So they sold their name, their heritage, their shared story to an American real estate investors for over a billion dollars.

Money in the bank, problem solved. Until it wasn't. Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, who'd fought against the sale, described that hollow feeling afterward realizing they were only interested in their hotels not in the legacy and the champagne. The family name was now just an asset on someone else's spreadsheet. The Americans were already talking about flipping the champagne business, they didn't care about the generations of history in each bottle, the legacy , employees, the vineyards tended by the same families for decades, the traditions passed down...

Their story made me realize sometimes we walk away from things thinking we're making the reasonable choice. The logical one, the right one. Only to discover later what logic can't measure. Less than a year passed before Pierre-Emmanuel couldn't bear it anymore. He gathered everything he had, found partners, banks...who believed in his vision, and bought back just the champagne house, he left the rest of their legacy to the American group paying more for that piece than what they he had received for the entire empire.

I keep thinking about that visit, how sometimes we need to lose something to understand its true value. How what seems broken might actually be worth fighting for. How the courage to say "I made a mistake" can lead to something deeper and more authentic than what existed before and how sometimes trying something new and realizing it didn't work also takes strength, we often focus on the issues never on the fact that there were lessons at every step. What struck me was how after the sale, they gained perspective. The family realized that their shared history had a value beyond any amount of money. How they found ways to gather the money to keep the family legacy.

Pierre-Emmanuel ended up buying back just the champagne portion fair enough but not to restore what was lost, but to honor what it taught him. I have ve been reflecting on my own journey lately. Like the Taittingers, I have come to appreciate how past chapters shape us even when they're complete.

Their champagne house is now one of the few still family owned, different but stronger for having gone through that transformation and taste amazingly nice + a UNESCO heritage.

Anyway, just thought it was a cool story about how endings and accepting that we can make wrong choices sometimes lead to unexpected growth. Some bonds, like good champagne, get better with time. Next time you have a glass of their champagne remember the story behind it 🙏❤️

And if you get to do the tour with Mael do say hi from Shake who found her knowledge and passion...

Definitely recommended place by me. 90 pts / from 100.

•Annual production about 5 milion bottles (2013). •The 3th oldest Châmpagne House founded by Jacques Fourneaux (1734). •The 2nd largest domaine vineyard owner in the region. • You should see three 2000 years old barrels presented by Taittinger on the finished of the tour.

My favourite from this house: Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Vintage. 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay from Côte des Blancs. Aged between 8 and 10 year's. Brut Vintage. Blend of Grand Cru Chardonnay and P.N. 2.Folies de la Marquetterie NV. Prélude Grands Crus NV and Nocturne Rosé Sec NV.

The best value for money from 10 top Châmpagne's producers.

Thank you again for a well spent time, with one of the best marketers team from Champagne Region. I learned a few selling techniques watching and leasing you guys. Merci mille fois.

The only one product which I really don't recommend from this house - its a Brut Prestige Rosé NV!!! Horrible, over body and luck of elegance...

Thursday 6th...

I can't recommend this tour enough! Our guide Justine was wonderful and she provided so much information about the history of champagne, the Tattinger brand, and was so conscious and she to allow people time to look around and ask questions. The video was really good too just a nice introduction to what the brand is and some discussion of the champagne region and explanation of the importance of Chardonnay to the brand. And what followed was a wonderful tour of the cellars including some which were over 2000 years old, former limestone mines built by the Romans. I had taken a tour at Verve Cliquot Billy earlier in the day and this tour was much more sophisticated and so much more informative the contrast could not be greater. The tasting rooms were wonderful and very sophisticated, beautiful designed tasting room and the experience could not have been better. 10 out of 10 or five out of 5 to use the...