CHAMPAGNE G.H. MARTEL & CIE
Discover an ancestral expertis
While preserving its intimate, family atmosphere, the House is now opening its beautiful medieval chalk cellars, hollowed out between the 4th and 15th Centuries, its Champagne Eco-museum and 18th Century buildings to the public.
After the showing of a presentation film, “Champagne”, which consists of an introduction to the wine estate and its production techniques, you will find, in the cool cellars hollowed out by man, a unique collection of machines and tools from the Champagne region that were used for planting and maintaining the slopes right up to harvesting: silent witnesses of an ancestral expertise.
You’ll then see the vinification tools and equipment that will be used in making our wines.
As you follow this discovery circuit, you can admire our Gallo-Roman “crayères”, chalk cellars that go down to a depth of up to 22 metres.
After your tour
Following the guided tour you’ll have an opportunity to try three of our wines, along with tasting comments.
Practical information.
Average length of the tour : 1hr.
Individual tours : 10.00 am to 5.45 pm.
Group tours : bookings only.
Tour language(s) : French / English.
Histoiry
A champagne and its history ...
La Maison G.H. Martel & Cie was founded in 1869 by a harvesting owner from Avenay Val d’Or, a small town a few miles from Epernay. The brand of the same name developed by the Tabourin family paved the way to success.
In the late 19th Century, Léopold Tabourin, who originated from the Jura, was sent by his employer Auguste Devaux, a sparkling wine merchant in Lons-le-Saunier, on an oenology and information course in Champagne. In 1894, on the death of Auguste Devaux, H.L. Tabourin founded a Champagne house in Dizy in association with Mr. Devaux’ widow, using her name and title as a trademark.
Champagne Veuve A. Devaux reached the height of its success in the Belle Epoque. In 1910, H.L. Tabourin filled a million bottles, while shipments exceeded 200,000 bottles. When Madame Veuve Devaux’ children reached the age of majority, H.L. Tabourin left the House that he had co-founded and worked with his son to develop the G.H. Martel & Cie trademark, which he had bought in the early 1920’s.
Four years before his death, his grandson Guy – Gérard Tabourin, born in 1929, joined the family House, which was shipping only 75,000 bottles. Under his impetus, shipments began to grow once again to reach approximately 200,000 bottles, more than half of which (56%) were for the export markets.
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