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Situated 145 kilometers (90 miles) east of Paris is Champagne, a region spanning 35,208 hectares across chalk and limestone soils. Champagne produces over 300 million bottles of sparkling wine each year and brings in 20% of France’s wine revenue, though it only accounts for 4% of all French vineyard land. From the Massif de Saint-Thierry in the north to the upstart Aube in the south, there are over 36,000 landowners within the AOC, with 56% owning less than one hectare.
By numbers, prestige, and popularity, this is one of the world’s most important winemaking regions. This guide will dive into the grapes, places, and styles that make Champagne so special.
Champagne is the most northerly major wine region in France. It is located approximately 300 kilometers southeast of the United Kingdom and 145 kilometers east of Paris. This position determines Champagne’s climate, the most important factor of terroir when distinguishing Champagne from the rest of the sparkling wine world. Nowhere else can Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier grapes be grown on such a vast scale and achieve ripeness at a low ABV and a high level of acidity.
The low alcohol and high acid of Champagne’s base wines result in a lean structure ideal for bottle fermentation. Because of the fresh, crisp, undeveloped flavors of these wines, Champagne can seamlessly soak up the slowly evolving, yeast-complexed aromas of autolysis. Of all the factors contributing to Champagne’s terroir, climate and location are by far the most important. The height and slope of Champagne’s vineyards, and even its famous chalk soil, are secondary, as important as they may be in defining differences in relative quality.
Throughout history, Champagne’s boundaries have at times extended north into modern-day Belgium, south into Burgundy, west and southwest into the Loire Valley, and east into Lorraine. The boundaries of Champagne’s sparkling wine appellation itself have been fought over as recently as 1911 and were shrunk by the Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) in 1951. Today, Champagne is separated from Belgium by the forested hills of the Ardennes, and its vineyards are spread across five departments: Marne (66% of Champagne’s vineyards), Aube (23%), Aisne (10%), Haute-Marne (0.002%), and Seine-et-Marne (1%).
The Champagne appellation consists of three zones: the zone de l’élaboration, the zone de production, and the zone parcellaire de production de raisins. The zone de l’élaboration marks the outer limits of the region, the rough-hewn area one might visualize on a map of French wine regions. This is the only part of the region where it is legal to vinify Champagne, or to transport Champagne grapes, juice, and wine, in bulk and in bottle, that have not yet been commercialized. Most of this zone cannot be planted. It is composed of 637 communes.
The zone de production is the next largest, consisting of entire villages in which vines may be cultivated. It is composed of 319 communes covering approximately 300,000 hectares. The zone parcellaire de production de raisinsconsists of a lacework of delimited viticultural parcels, representing only 35,208 hectares (of which, in 2019, 34,267 hectares were planted and 33,828 hectares were in production), a fraction of the surface area of the zone de production. It is also composed of 319 communes.
Though Champagne has various soils, it is best known for its chalk. On the slopes, belemnite chalk subsoils, derived from the fossilized remains of cephalopods, are sometimes exposed at the surface, helping retain heat and provide good drainage for the vines. Micraster chalk, composed of fossil material from an extinct genus of sea urchin, is found to a lesser extent, generally in the flatter valley vineyards. A thin layer of clay and sand covers much of the chalk in Champagne. In the Aube, the dominant soil type is not chalk but clay.
Champagne’s climate makes for an entirely unique growing region, one that is, in many ways, unsuited to viticulture. Frost or hail destroys an average of 5% of Champagne’s vineyards every year, while Atlantic-driven rain can impact flowering, makes the control of fungal diseases difficult, and has ruined many promising harvests. Yet these conditions allow producers to make great sparkling wine in significant volumes most of the time. To navigate the challenge of producing the requisite volume or quality, or both, the Champenois historically developed their own economic strategy by storing wines in times of plenty and blending different years. No other region has been able to valorize nonvintage wines to the extent that Champagne has, and no other region comes close to producing the same proportions of its wines (85% to 90%) in this format.
Comparing Champagne’s climatic norms with the minimum levels required for commercial viticulture demonstrates that Champagne is not just a cool-climate region; it is very cool and, even with the threat of global warming, on the edge of practical viticulture.
The growing season daily mean temperature has risen from 14.3 degrees Celsius (57.7 degrees Fahrenheit; the average over 40 years from the 1950s to the 1980s) to 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) in the 1990s. There has been a much sharper rise, to 16.6 degrees Celsius (61.9 degrees Fahrenheit), in the new millennium. The number of sunshine hours has increased 9.3% since the late 1970s, when it averaged 1,537 hours, which was barely over the assumed minimum. This low sunshine was especially acute as the angle of sun at 49 degrees latitude is only 65 degrees at the height of summer and drops to 49 degrees in the winter.
Champagne’s climate is dictated by its northerly location, between the 48th and 49th parallels, and by the oceanic effect of the Atlantic and the continental effect of the European landmass. Here, the last vestiges of a continental climate counter the ocean’s wet and windy impact. The Atlantic Ocean is often said to have a moderating effect, but it could equally be said that the continental climate has a moderating effect on the amount of wind and rain generated by the Atlantic. Champagne is precariously positioned, existing in a slightly shifting climatic corridor that is not truly dominated by either oceanic or continental influences.
When a high-pressure system on the western edge of Europe is weak, or a low-pressure system heading in from the Atlantic is strong, Champagne will receive days of prolonged downpour. The most powerful low-pressure systems to hit western Europe are the remnants of Atlantic hurricanes, and the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is from mid-August to late October, which coincides with the harvest and its immediate lead-up in Champagne.
Diurnal shift—the difference between the highest daytime temperature and lowest nighttime temperature (most often induced by nightly downdrafts of chilly air)—is key in any sparkling wine region, as a significant diurnal shift ensures acid preservation. In Champagne, the diurnal difference is extremely dependent on the time of year, with a classic September or October harvest delivering a diurnal difference of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius (18 to 27 degrees Fahrenheit), whereas an August harvest will benefit from only 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit). Because this reduced diurnal difference is insufficient to halt the vine’s metabolism, ripening continues and acids plummet. The first August harvest in the history of Champagne was in 2003, and there have been no fewer than five August harvests since, which is clear evidence of the region’s warming climate. The reduced diurnal difference does not mean that August harvests cannot produce high-quality Champagne, but it does not make high quality easy.