Off-roading in the 2024 Range Rover Velar through the vineyards of the Champagne region in France

“Do we need special permission to be here?” I asked Will, the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) expert drive instructor on this wet and chilly October morning.

The answer is, unequivocally, yes.

To be sure, it’s not every day that one gets to go on an extraordinary off-roading excursion through the vineyards of Champagne in France. But here we are, in Champillon in the capital city of Epernay, about to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime experience a day after driving some 150km from Paris.

These are the kinds of ultra exclusive experiences Range Rover owners have access to around the world, and we have the great fortune of such a phenomenal preview today.

Per Will’s directive, I select the ‘Off-roading’ function on the 11.4-inch curved touchscreen display and the Velar – the under loved middle child sandwiched between the more compact Evoque and the larger Range Rover Sport – readies itself for the mini adventure ahead.

The vehicle’s all-terrain technology and architecture kicks into gear and the Velar creeps slowly across the undulating terrain. Foot off the pedal but hands on the wheel, just to lightly guide the vehicle along the craggy topography.

Next, we attempt to climb an incline. And then engage the Hill Descent Control function to let the Velar do its thing in reverse.

One can’t help but contemplate the wonder of technology given the ease of which all this happens in this hulking SUV. The Velar does all the heavy lifting, leaving us free to take in the sights, and what a sight for sore eyes it all is.

Imagine parcel upon parcel of neatly lined rows of grapevines as far as the eye can see blanketing the rolling hills beyond the valley below. Quite stunning, really.Ordinarily, I would exit the vehicle to photograph such a spectacular vista, but my new white sneakers refused to rendezvous with the muddy grounds outside. Import said muck into this haven of luxury? Nope, not today.

Today we delight in being ensconced in absolute luxury, even as the elements threaten to rage against the machine. Our overcoddled bums warmed by heated seats just the way the fine folk at JLR intended. How about a massage while you’re navigating the increasingly challenging terrain? Yes, please – this is a Range Rover, after all.

Inside, it’s all tactile luxury. As posh as you would expect with a less-is-more aesthetic echoing the brand’s new-ish “reductive” design philosophy first seen on the revivified Range Rover flagship last year.

The uncluttered centre console – now strikingly free of primitive analogue knobs and buttons – alone would probably receive a stamp of approval from Mies van der Rohe himself, apart from the fact the illustrious architect known for his reductionistic ideals died in 1969. His legacy is conspicuous in the wildly minimalist interior.

But that’s exactly where build quality – and technology – differentiates and discriminates.

Instead of the finest leathers, new Range Rovers now come swathed in ultra-modern wool-and-polyurethane blend upholstery in a nod to the company’s ferocious focus on sustainability.

This mild hybrid Velar, powered by an 105kW electric motor plus Ingenium petrol engine, also offers up to 64km of pure electric driving, with the caveat of real-world range expected to be around 51km.

Where less isn’t more, however, is in the bounty of impressive tech that no doubt enhances the desirability of this and all modern-day Range Rovers.

Everything runs on JLR’s next-generation Pivi Pro system – a handsome and intuitive interface that in our opinion wins the market – and the carmaker says up to 80 per cent of all features and functions can be accessed within two or fewer taps of the screen.

You get Amazon Alexa for company on your drives, wireless charging (of course), a 23-speaker Meridian Signature Sound System, and a litany of sophisticated driver assistance features to keep you safer on the roads.

The Velar also boasts the quietest cabin in its class (see BMW X4, Audi Q5 and Porsche Macan) thanks to the Active Road Noise Cancellation technology, while cabin air purification technology manages carbon dioxide levels in the cabin and filters out harmful allergens, particulates and pathogens for better health and wellbeing, and even greater alertness at the wheel. How’s that for ‘invisible luxury’?

As we continued on the winding dirt tracks passing terroirs owned by the different champagne houses, we parlayed this amplified attentiveness to playing a little game of trying to spot any marques we recognised, and soon enough came upon the house of Moet & Chandon.

Overall a beautiful little escapade set in a soul-stirring landscape, but as far as off-roading adventures go, it was not nearly as dramatic a terrain as the deserts of Dubai where we went dune bashing in big brother Land Rover Defender 130 earlier this year, or the arid plains of Spain which we conquered in the Range Rover Sport the year prior. But full marks for novelty.

RANGE ROVER VELAR DYNAMIC HSE P400E

ENGINE: 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder petrol plug-in hybrid
TRANSMISSION: 8-speed Automatic
POWER: 404 PS
TORQUE: 640 Nm
0-100 KM/H: 5.4 seconds
TOP SPEED: 209 km/h
FUEL CONSUMPTION (combined): 1.6 - 1.9 l/100 km