Hautvillers has grown a number of cooperative cellars that suit the independent grower. Many of the families who farm the vineyards here own only a few hectares, too little to run a press house and a cellar of their own, so they join forces, pressing their grapes together and sharing the equipment. Cooperatives like this have kept village winemaking alive in Champagne, alongside the big houses, and their bottles are often good value.
Dizy, about two kilometres away, is the nearest village, with fewer than 2,000 people, and Épernay, four kilometres off, is the place for petrol and a proper meal. The area is part of the UNESCO listing for the hillsides, houses and cellars of Champagne, and the landscape of vines is its own monument. Nothing here is grand or showy. The buildings are plain, and the interest is in the working life of the vineyard.
September is the time to see it. The harvest brings pickers from all over France and beyond, who work in lines along the vines, filling baskets and crates by hand, as the law requires for Champagne. Trucks and tractors crowd the lanes, and the smell of pressed grapes drifts over the villages. If you ride through, take it slowly and give the vehicles space, since drivers are tired and the roads are narrow. At other times of year the vineyards are quiet, and the pruning of the vines in winter has its own stark beauty.
The roads that climb to Hautvillers are tight and steep, with hairpins through the vines, and the views at the top reach across the Marne to the hills opposite. In spring the grass between the rows is bright green, and in autumn the leaves turn red and gold. It is a comfortable place to end a ride, with a glass of something local, and a sense that the wine you are drinking was made by the family in the next house.