Let us agree that champagne is vital to the festive season — a retreat from charades, stodge and stuffing to the sunlit uplands of elegance. Or sanity, at least. After a couple of yuletide days, it is all that stops me shortening my extended family.

But where to get hold of the stuff? Not at the supermarket, surely. Thatdefeats the point, like buying a wifeonline. Specialist wine shops are better, if a bit up themselves. Best bet, frankly, is a trot over to the Champagne region. I

t’s not that far. It’s surprisingly comely. And it’s full of small family producers — 5,000 of them — who use their own grapes to make their own champagnes, of which you have never heard because few produce enough wine to export.

They are found in villages dotted about a landscape that is agreeable to tour. They lend a (generally smiling) face and a story to the bubbly you buy. This will allow you to stun friendswith your intimate knowledge of the world of champagne.

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And, for equivalent quality, they are cheaper than the famous houses. Savings made may therefore part-fund the trip. It’s a win-win situation. We’ll be based in Epernay, because it’s smaller and more manageable than its rival “Champagne capital”, Rheims.

- Prices quoted are per 75cl bottle

Day 1

Today, the Marne Valley, startingwith Hautvillers — the most famousof Champagne villages. It’s whereDom Pérignon invented the stuff. Or, then again, not. Depends whom you listen to. Whatever the truth, payyour respects in the church, wherethe old boy’s buried. Then stroll a tight-knit spot that has, like all Champagne villages, been rooted in bubbly forgenerations. It wears an air of well-aged, well-earned wellbeing and lots of wrought-iron signs.

Ambling done, pop in for a first tasting — it’s 10am, just right — at Champagne Tribaut (88 Rue d’Eguisheim; 00 33-3 26 59 40 57, champagne.g.tribaut.com). Here, as elsewhere among the 5,000, champagne emerges from afarming background of dads and mums, brothers and sisters, wellies, tractors and tenacious attention to detail.

Take a glass of the Cuvée de Réserve (£12.75) onto the terrace. Vines unravel down to the River Marne, up to theforest on top. There’s no more pleasingly cultivated countryside. Compare and contrast with the views in thewine department at Waitrose before nipping along to Damery, on the banks of the Marne.

Down by the river, Champagne Romain Guistel (1 Rue-du-Rempart-de-l’Ouest; 03 26 58 40 40, champagne-romain-guistel.fr) is now run by the son, Richard, a chunky chap whose enthusiasm barely leaves him time to chain-smoke. His Brut Tradition (£12.80), made entirely from pinot meunier grapes (see Bubbly Facts below), is a belter.

From there, it’s a terrific little drive, threading through vinefields on the shallow valley sides, to Montigny-sous-Châtillon. The village is announced by a monstrous statue of Pope Urban II on the hilltop. Ignore it for Champagne Charlier (4 Rue des Pervenches; 03 26 58 35 18, champagne-charlier.com), where the wines have the fruity immediacy ofpinot meunier. Carte Blanche (£11.25)is good, but Carte Noire (£11.85) is worth the extra.

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