A family Crémant de Bourgogne house founded in 1898, toured from a walkway above its cellars and workshops.
€60one way from Beaune with a private driver
Private driver from Beaune: 9 min by road (4 km), €60 one way for the whole car.
Or add it to our half-day wine tour, €290.
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Veuve Ambal is a family house that makes Crémant de Bourgogne, Burgundy's sparkling wine. Its production site lies at Montagny-lès-Beaune, a few minutes south-east of Beaune. A tour along a raised walkway shows the cellars and workshops, and ends with a tasting of three crémants.
The tour, with a guide or an audio guide, follows a walkway above the workshops. It starts with the basics of Burgundy, its vineyards, climats and appellations, then tells the story of the house and leads past the vats and into the ageing cellars, where 16 million bottles rest. Robots and machines carry out the traditional method, the one used in Champagne, and films on large screens explain each stage. The tour ends in the shop with three crémants, while children taste the house's alcohol-free drinks.
Marie Ambal was born Anne Marie Ninot in Rully in 1859 and married Antoine Emile Ambal, a Paris banker. After his death she returned to her native village, where her brother was a grower and wine merchant. Sparkling wine made by the champagne method was then new in Burgundy, and in 1898 she founded her own house to make it, in white and in red.
Her grandson Charles Roux-Ambal relaunched the house after the Second World War and enlarged its cellars in 1961. In 1975 the appellation Crémant de Bourgogne replaced the older Bourgogne Mousseux. The house later moved to modern premises at Montagny-lès-Beaune. It has stayed with the same family since its foundation, now the Piffaut family, and Aurélien Piffaut has joined his father Éric.
Veuve Ambal farms more than 220 hectares of vines in five areas of Burgundy: Molesme and the Auxerrois in the north, Bévy in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais.
Checked on on the official site.
Allow about an hour and a half. Tours leave from Monday to Saturday at 10:30, 14:30, 15:30 and 16:30, and on Sundays from April to October at 10:30, 14:30 and 15:30. You can come without booking if places remain, but booking by phone is advised, and required for groups of more than 10. The bottling lines do not run at weekends, though tours still go ahead. The tour costs €11 for adults and €6 for ages 12 to 17, and is free under 12; the shop and its tasting area are free to enter.
What to combine with Veuve Ambal on the same day, nearest first.
Veuve Ambal is about 9 min from Beaune by road (4 km). With a private driver, the trip from Beaune starts at €60 for the whole car, up to 4 guests.
Did you know? The house is named after its founder's widowhood: veuve means widow, and Marie Ambal began making sparkling wine after the death of her husband, a Paris banker.
Sources
€60 one way from Beaune · up to 4 guests
