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 accounts for only 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 (185 miles) southeast of the United Kingdom. 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 raisins consists 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.
Although rarely seen today, Gouais Blanc is the parent or direct ancestor of more than 80 different European grape varieties through natural or spontaneous crossing, including Chardonnay (with Pinot Noir) and Petit Meslier (with Savagnin Blanc), making it part of Champagne’s DNA. Gouais is also a cousin of all the Pinot varieties, but most surviving examples are restricted to the Haut-Valais, in Switzerland (where it is known as Gwäss), and Piedmont, in Italy (under the name Preveiral or Liseiret). Despite its often-illustrious offspring, Gouais itself typically makes ordinary wine.
The Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC) began its clonal research program in the 1960s. The intent was to develop a clone of Pinot Noir that could resist the frosts in the Marne Valley and, as the more noble variety, be used in the replanting of the district’s predominantly Meunier vineyards. By the 1980s, a more pragmatic view of Meunier acknowledged that this grape was not just an asset to Champagne but essential to its reputation, and researchers were tasked with setting up a true clonal program for Meunier as well.
When grading Champagne clones, top Burgundian clones are seldom recommended, as the characteristics required are almost the opposite of those for still wines. This applies to Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir, although the margins of difference for the latter are much greater. All sparkling wine clones require significantly higher acids and lower potential alcohol than clones used for still wines, but, in the case of Pinot Noir, a sparkling wine clone must also have the lowest possible phenolics and minimal color. Even a Pinot Noir clone used to color a rosé Champagne through blending would not rate highly as a red wine clone, because, although the color for both styles of wine should be deep, any noticeable tannins should be avoided in the latter.
The law of July 27, 1927, authorized only “les diverses variétés de pinot, l’arbanne, le petit meslier” for the production of Champagne, with no reference to Chardonnay, yet with Arbanne and Petit Meslier singled out. This was still the case when the law of January 17, 1978, became the first Champagne legislation to mention Chardonnay, slipping it into rules that modified the methods of pruning. Chardonnay was not listed as an authorized variety until 2010, when every AOC had to submit a new cahier des charges. So why was Chardonnay missing in the first place?
Although Chardonnay was known to be a distinct variety as long ago as 1868, it was commonly referred to in Champagne as Pinot Chardonnay as recently as the 1980s. In 1927, “diverses variétés de pinot” would have been understood to include Chardonnay. Interestingly, in 1999, the parentage of Chardonnay was established as Gouais Blanc and Pinot Noir, making it a Pinot variety. In 2018, Chardonnay was determined to have 49% DNA from Pinot Noir and 17% DNA from the Gouais grape.
There is no such thing as the perfect clone for any style of wine. The best clone found on one site will always behave differently on other sites, because a vine’s performance is modified by factors such as soil, climate, rootstock, and viticultural practices. However supposedly superior any individual clone might be, it would be irresponsible to plant any vineyard block with a single clone. Its lack of genetic variation would render the entire block susceptible to disease and provide no insurance against any natural fluctuations in yield or fruit quality.
10,414 hectares (30.3%)
Chardonnay was historically misleadingly referred to as Pinot Chardonnay or Pineau Chardonnet, which is why the morphologically similar (but genetically and genealogically different) Pinot Blanc became known as Pinot Blanc Vrai or Pineau Blanc Vrai (True Pinot Blanc).
Chardonnay has the earliest bud burst of all Champagne grape varieties and is easily recognized in the vineyards at this stage by its fluffy buds, which are white with a gold edging. The classic area for Chardonnay is the Côte des Blancs, where the style ranges from floral in Cramant to intensely mineral in Le Mesnil. Running a close second is the eastern Montagne de Reims, where the villages of Trépail and Villers-Marmery can rival the greatest of the Côte des Blancs. Montagne Chardonnay has an emphatic minerality but is less chalky, with fruit that has more body and structure without any appreciable gain in weight. Chardonnay from the Côte de Sézanne is more overt but, with careful selection, can be very fine, while that from the Monts de Berru, north of the Montagne de Reims, is light and delicate, and that of Vitryat shares both lightness and minerality. Chardonnay maintains freshness in the bottle, is typically the last to exert itself in a blend, and has a natural tendency to show toasty aromas. Typically the longest lived of Champagne’s grape varieties, Chardonnay in classic examples has a linear structure with a very long, tapering, creamy finish.
There are 31 Chardonnay clones allowed in Champagne.
13,163 hectares (38.3%)
Known in Champagne as Plant Doré, Morillon, Noirien, and Auvernat long before the emergence of Pinot or Pineau, the Pinot Noir of Burgundy fame has a slight oxidative tendency in the production of sparkling wine. In purely relative terms, Pinot Noir does not age quite as well or maintain as much freshness in bottle as Chardonnay, but, arguably, it provides a more complex, highly mineral-driven wine. Because it is more difficult to ripen than Chardonnay, growers will refer to a Pinot Noir vintage only in the greatest years, while every year may be described as a Chardonnay vintage.
Blanc de noirs are rare compared with blanc de blancs, and not all blanc de noirs are pure Pinot Noir. Most are a blend of Pinot Noir and Meunier. There are almost 800 clones of Pinot Noir cataloged in France, all of which are conserved in collections in Alsace, Burgundy, and Champagne.
In Champagne, 43 Pinot Noir clones are allowed.
10,688 hectares (31.1%)
Meunier, like Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, is a mutation of Pinot Noir. It dates to at least the 16th century. By the mid-19th century, it accounted for three-quarters of all the vineyards in the Aisne. Meunier is easily recognized in the vineyard by its leaves, the undersides of which are white as if dusted with flour, hence its name (meunier is French for “miller,” as in a miller of flour). It grows easily and is significantly hardier than Pinot Noir, with slightly larger yet still quite small berries that form looser clusters, making it more resistant, though not immune, to rot. Generally, the wines from Meunier lack the depth, elegance, and persistence of Pinot Noir, yet they typically produce fruity wines that are attractive and easy to drink. Because the Meunier component of a blend usually peaks earlier and recedes relatively quickly, many producers prefer to use Meunier for nonvintage cuvées. But when grown at reasonably modest yields in villages such as Sainte-Gemme, Leuvrigny, and Hautvillers, in the central Marne Valley, Meunier can be outstanding in both its immediate appeal and potential longevity. Few blanc de noirs are pure Meunier.
There are 14 Meunier clones allowed in Champagne.
For four varieties that in total represent a tiny proportion of all the vines growing in Champagne today, Arbanne, Fromenteau, Petit Meslier, and Pinot Blanc receive a disproportionate amount of attention. Together, these grapes account for 103 planted hectares, or just 0.3% of the Champagne vineyard.
The earliest references to Arbanne date to the 14th century in Les Riceys, and by 1801 it was sufficiently well regarded to be mentioned by Jean-Antoine Chaptal, who singled out the Aubois vineyards of Morveaux, in Baroville. Two people are responsible for the revival of Arbanne: Lucien Moutard, who replanted it in 1952, and his grandfather Henry Maréchaux, who had maintained the variety in his nursery since 1900. According to 19th-century accounts, Arbanne has such a distinctive aroma that even in a blend, local growers would immediately exclaim, “Ah, Arbanne!” when entering a cuverie. The variety crops at very low yields.
Where It Is Grown: Bligny, Buxeuil, Chamery, Charly-sur-Marne, Chavot-Courcourt, Jouy-lès-Reims, Les Riceys, Oeuilly, Urville, Venteuil Who Grows It: Aubry, Château de Bligny, Drappier, Jean-François Launay, Laherte Frères, Léguillette-Romelot, Moutard, Olivier Horiot, Perseval-Farge, Tarlant, Thomas Perseval Pure Arbanne Cuvées: Arbane Pure (Olivier Horiot), Cépage Arbane (Moutard)
Fromenteau (Pinot Gris) is a direct mutation of Pinot Noir. The wines of Sillery became famous in the 17th century thanks to Fromenteau, under the care of Nicolas Brûlart. From there the variety spread, becoming one of the most prolific in Champagne until the 19th century. By the 20th century, what was left of Fromenteau, mostly in the Aube, was usually mixed in with other grapes at the press house.
Where It Is Grown: Chamery, Chavot-Courcourt, Crouttes-sur-Marne, Jouy-lès-Reims, Les Riceys, Urville, Verzy Who Grows It: Aubry, Dérot-Delugny, Drappier, Laherte Frères, Mouzon-Leroux, Olivier Horiot, Perseval-Farge Pure Fromenteau Cuvées: Cuvée des Fondateurs (Dérot-Delugny), Trop M’en Faut (Drappier)
Another ancient white Champagne variety, Petit Meslier is a spontaneous cross of Gouais Blanc and Savagnin Blanc. Its traditional home is the Aube, where it once accounted for 4.5% of the vineyards (10 times the amount of Arbanne). It was also found in the Marne department, where the Petit Meslier of Venteuil enjoyed some repute. Plantings had dwindled to almost nothing by 1959, when it was revived—not in the Aube or Venteuil but in the lieu-dit of Corne Bautray, in Dizy, by the Chiquet family, who would later come to own Jacquesson. Because the variety struggles to ripen in Champagne’s climate, its contribution to any cuvée was initially to increase the acidity and reduce the alcohol. Its berries are very small, round, and dark yellow in color. In climates where it ripens well, it can show a resinous flavor.
Where It Is Grown: Bligny, Buxeuil, Chamery, Charly-sur-Marne, Chavot-Courcourt, Gyé-sur-Seine, Jouy-lès-Reims, Les Riceys, Oeuilly, Urville, Venteuil Who Grows It: Aubry, Château de Bligny, Drappier, Duval-Leroy, Jacquesson, Jean-François Launay, Laherte Frères, Léguillette-Romelot, Mignon-Boulard, Moutard, Olivier Horiot, Perseval-Farge, Robert Barbichon, Tarlant, Thomas Perseval Pure Petit Meslier Cuvées: Duval-Leroy Petit Meslier (formerly Authentis), Laherte Frères Petit Meslier
Pinot Blanc’s cultivation was historically concentrated in the Côte des Blancs. There, Le Mesnil and Chouilly built their reputations on this grape—not on Chardonnay. Producers have struggled to work successfully with Pinot Blanc, as it can easily be overwhelmed by oak and bâtonnage, but that is perhaps a reflection less of the quality of the variety than of the skill of the winemaking.
Where It Is Grown: Bligny, Buxeuil, Celles-sur-Ource, Charly-sur-Marne, Chavot-Courcourt, Landreville, Les Riceys, Oeuilly, Polisot, Urville Who Grows It: Cédric Bouchard, Château de Bligny, Drappier, François Gautherot, Laherte Frères, Léguillette-Romelot, Moutard, Olivier Horiot, Piollot, Tarlant, Thomas Perseval Pure Pinot Blanc Cuvées: Colas Robin (Piollot), Cuvée des Lys (Philippe Fontaine), Cuvée Heritage (Emmanuel Tassin), Le Champ du Clos (Charles Dufour), L’Originale (Pierre Gerbais), Pinot Blanc Extra Brut (Chassenay d’Arce), Roses de Jeanne La Bolorée (Cédric Bouchard)
Champagne AOC in 1927: 46,000 hectares (407 villages) Champagne AOC in 1951: 34,000 hectares (302 villages) Champagne AOC in 2019: 34,267 hectares (319 villages)
While there are various ways to delimit the regions of Champagne, this guide will consider eight districts, each with its own aspect, dominant grape variety, and different expression of chalk and limestone. In the heart of the region, the Montagne de Reims, Côte des Blancs, and Marne Valley are home to Champagne’s larger negociants and most famous growers. Farther south, the Côte des Bar is a classic but less-famous region of production that has been gaining more steam each vintage as young growers push the quality of the region higher. Outside of these four major producing areas are four other districts: the Coteaux du Morin, Côte de Sézanne, Vitryat, and Montgueux.
Some of the districts are subdivided (as indicated below) into officially designated, albeit informally delimited, component parts for reference purposes and data analysis.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 7,989 hectares (94 villages) Subdistricts: Grande Montagne; Massif de Saint-Thierry; Monts de Berru; Ardre Valley, Vesle Valley, and City of Reims
The Montagne de Reims is usually taken to be synonymous with the Grande Montagne: the hilly, vine-clad outcrop with a densely forested top that rises to about 270 meters (885 feet) above the surrounding plains between Reims (in the north) and Épernay (in the south). By its broadest definition, however, the Montagne de Reims is S-shaped, the top loop curling around the northern edge of Reims itself, from the Monts de Berru (east of the city), to the Massif de Saint-Thierry, into the Vesle and Ardre valleys, an area formerly referred to as the Petite Montagne. The bottom loop forms a broad curve between Reims and Épernay to the south, ending with the vineyards of Bouzy, northeast of Aÿ.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 4,055 hectares (21 villages)
Restricted to the bottom curve of the Montagne de Reims, the Grande Montagne is Champagne’s preeminent area for Pinot Noir, containing 10 grand cru villages (Ambonnay, Beaumont-sur-Vesle, Bouzy, Louvois, Mailly-Champagne, Puisieulx, Sillery, Tours-sur-Marne, Verzenay, and Verzy) and 12 premiers crus (Billy-le-Grand, Chigny-les-Roses, Ludes, Montbré, Rilly-la-Montagne, Taissy, Tauxières-Mutry, Trépail, Trois Puits, Vaudemanges, Villers-Allerand, and Villers-Marmery). The Grande Montagne comprises three distinct microzones: the Northern Montagne, the Eastern Montagne, and the Southern Montagne.
At first glance, it seems counterintuitive that the Northern Montagne, which extends from Villers-Allerand to Verzenay, should be regarded as one of the most sought-after areas of any classic wine region. Yet the vines thrive on the region’s north-facing slopes thanks to the protection offered by the Montagne’s famed thermal blanket. Because the Grande Montagne is a freestanding formation, the chilled night air slips away, down the slopes onto the plain. As it does so, it draws warmer air from a thermal zone that builds up above the forested Montagne during the day. The effect of this is plainly demonstrated, especially when autumnal frost strikes. As the cold air moves down the slopes each night, it collects in dips on the lower slopes. These pools of dense cold air and fog slow the ripening process, shut down the vine, and advance the autumnal browning of the leaves. With this change of color, it is easy to spot the dips in the landscape that would otherwise be covered by the panoramic sweep of vines on the Grande Montagne. The resulting grapes are less sweet than those of surrounding vines that are still vivid green. When frost strikes, these cold pockets of vines are hit first and hardest, whereas the vines on the free-draining slopes are hit last and lightest, as they are protected by the convection of warm air.
The Eastern Montagne starts at Verzy, although the village has diverse soils and a combination of opposing aspects that make it more of a transitional area than a true Eastern Montagne village. The vineyards of neighboring Trépail (91% Chardonnay) and Villers-Marmery (98% Chardonnay), however, are definitive expressions of this microzone. Viewed from the D26 road of the Northern Montagne during the early months of the year, the leafless vines look like columns of gnarled old men in perfect formation, bent almost double. This is the cordon de Royat, the preferred vine-training system for Pinot Noir. But southward, viewed from the D26 of the Eastern Montagne, the vines suddenly change to the more bush-like Chablis system, announcing that this is Chardonnay country. The villages of Billy-le-Grand (66% Chardonnay) and Vaudemanges (83% Chardonnay) are less intensively cultivated and are physically disconnected at the foot of the Montagne.
The Chardonnay of the Eastern Montagne differs from that of the Côte des Blancs. Some might say it is less classic, but it is arguably a different sort of classic—and just as ageworthy, as anyone who has tasted mature vintages of Palmer blanc de blancs will testify.
The Southern Montagne is dominated by impressive swaths of vines on beautiful, sun-drenched, south-facing slopes centering on Bouzy and Ambonnay. There are also a few scattered vineyards that are less well regarded. Generally the fruit from the Southern Montagne is more complex than that of the Northern Montagne, which is more linear, with greater minerality, despite the Southern Montagne's higher chalk content (93% compared with 59% in Verzenay). Tours-sur-Marne’s vineyards are continuous with those of the Southern Montagne; even though the village touches the Marne River, the grand cru is considered part of the Montagne de Reims by the Union des maisons de Champagne (UMC).
The topsoil of the Grande Montagne consists primarily of a loess drift that has been derived from sandy and clayey lignite (a soft, dark brown, sedimentary rock), chalk rubble, and clayey colluvium. Topsoil on the upper slopes can be sparse, but elsewhere it can be deep and heavy, particularly on the middle slopes where boulder clay dominates. On the lower slopes, it is crumblier and composed mostly of chalk rubble. The subsoil is essentially chalk. In the Northern Montagne, micraster chalk sometimes encroaches on the customary realm of belemnite chalk. Occasionally, there are areas of sand, sandy limestone, and sandstone, both as outcrops and as strata within the chalk subsoil itself. The Moulin de Verzenay, for example, stands not on chalk but on a vast outcrop of sandy limestone. Marlstone can be found on some of the highest slopes, where there are also isolated strata of fine calcareous sand up to 15 meters (50 feet) thick. Important lignite deposits are common, as the Montagne is littered with cendrières (lignite mines).
Champagne AOC in 2018: 1,002 hectares (17 villages)
Often considered part of the Petite Montagne, the Massif de Saint-Thierry is a completely different geological formation, with significant variation in soil types, aspect, and elevation. It is not a continuation of the series of hills that define the Petite Montagne to the south but, rather, a detached cuesta, with beds of fine yellowish and greenish-white calcareous sand, up to 15 meters (50 feet) deep and interbedded in strata of Lutetian limestone—not chalk. Locals say that the fame of Saint-Thierry dates to at least the early 19th century, but this reputation was built on a single, walled vineyard called Clos de Saint-Thierry, not on the entire village, and the wine that achieved this renown was not a Champagne but a vin rouge.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 373 hectares (5 villages)
Monts de Berru is an isolated outcrop of vines a few kilometers east of Reims. The vines grow in three villages perched on the corners of a pure chalk triangular elevation. The southeast-facing slopes at Nogent-l’Abbesse have the best aspect and, quite extraordinarily for vineyards north of the Northern Montagne, are planted almost entirely with Chardonnay. It was from Mont Berru that the German artillery rained down on Reims in World War II.
An even smaller and more isolated outcrop of vines to the east of Monts de Berru is an area known as Moronvilliers, where the vines are confined to the villages of Selles and Pontfaverger-Moronvilliers, which for bureaucratic purposes have been added to the Monts de Berru subdistrict. Pontfaverger-Moronvilliers is planted exclusively to Chardonnay, whereas Selles is planted almost entirely with Meunier. Moët & Chandon, the solitary owner of all the vineyards in both villages, has a small trial plot of Chardonnay in Selles.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 2,558 hectares (51 villages)
While there has been very little historical mention of vineyards in the city of Reims, the Vesle and Ardre valleys are well established and should be regarded as separate subdistricts.
Ardre Valley
The vineyards of the Ardre valley run diagonally from Saint-Gilles, just south of Fismes, to Courtagnon and Nanteuil-la-Forêt. This is Meunier country, although many of the vineyards are broken up into small plots scattered on either side of the valley. The best sites are all south facing to some degree. There is, for example, a cluster of southwest-facing vineyards between Serzy-et-Prin and Faverolles, on the right bank of the Ardre. A little farther south, two hillsides of excellent exposure face each other between the villages of Brouillet and Lagery. To the east, the vines of Saint-Euphraise-et-Clairizet have full south exposure, but the finest of all Ardre valley sites is the southwest-facing slope of Courmas, just over the hill from Villedommange, in the Petite Montagne.
The most important vineyards of this composite subdistrict are collectively known as the Petite Montagne. It is hard to define where the Petite Montagne starts and stops, but its core forms an unbroken stretch of vineyards from Vrigny to Sermiers. Here, there is a significant divergence from Meunier to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—although the center of the Petite Montagne has historically been as much Meunier country as its outlying areas. There, vast swaths of Meunier remain in villages such as Sermiers and Villedommange.
Vesle Valley
Even more so than the Ardre, the Vesle valley is a disparate collection of growths, and it has always been difficult to unstitch these vineyards from those of the southern section of the Massif de Saint-Thierry.
City of Reims
The city of Reims should be considered separately from the region of Reims, which might consist of villages on the periphery of Reims but with vineyards in the Vesle valley, Massif de Saint-Thierry, and lower slopes of the Montagne de Reims itself. Within the city limits there are no fewer than 54 hectares, just over 22 hectares of which belong to Pommery: the famous Clos Pompadour. Just under 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) west of Clos Pompadour is Clos Lanson. Both of these properties are true clos in true city locations, thus doubly protected by their walls and the surrounding buildings.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 12,131 hectares (104 villages) Subdistricts: Grande Vallée, Région d’Épernay, Terroir de Condé, Western Marne Valley, Right Bank, Left Bank
The Marne River enters Champagne AOC at Vitryat, in the east of the region, flowing northward to Châlons-en-Champagne, then west through the heart of the Champagne region before exiting at Saâcy-sur-Marne, just 36 kilometers (22 miles) from the outskirts of Paris. The Marne Valley is generally considered to be the home of Meunier, which, compared with Pinot Noir, has hardier attributes and a greater propensity for heavier soils. The vineyards directly facing the Marne have a southern aspect on the right bank and northern on the left.
The topsoil here is a colluvial mix of marl, lignite, sandy loam, and clay and tends to be thick and heavy. No vines are planted on the alluvial soils close to the river, but there are vines on nearby higher ground where belemnite chalk can be seen as the major subsoil. West of Vauciennes (on the south bank) and Damery (on the north bank), the chalk outcrop narrows to an ever-thinner strip, eventually fading away just before Troissy and Châtillon-sur-Marne, while the topsoil becomes deeper and heavier.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 1,945 hectares (12 villages)
The Grande Vallée starts at Bisseuil and stretches as far west as Cumières. The right bank vineyards contain the Aÿ-Champagne grand cru. The Grand Vallée also boasts eight premiers crus, all of which deserve the distinction, particularly Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, which earned 99 points in the échelle des crus and many believe is of grand cru quality. Mareuil-sur-Aÿ was also the source of the first-ever single-vineyard Champagne, Philipponnat Clos de Goisses.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 1,269 hectares (11 villages)
The most famous property in the Région d’Épernay is Taittinger’s Château de la Marquetterie, at Pierry. La Marquetterie (“marquetry”) is named for the alternating plots of black and white grapes cultivated in response to the differences in soil composition. This has led to the notion that the entire Région d’Épernay displays an equally complex geology, but La Marquetterie is an anomaly. The soils found in the rest of this subdistrict are similar to those of the Côte des Blancs but with sand and clay mixed in.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 732 hectares (4 villages)
Terroir de Condé may be the most confusing of all subdistricts. Even local growers do not understand why some villages are included while others are not. The Terroir de Condé consists of Barzy-sur-Marne, Passy-sur-Marne, Trélou-sur-Marne, and Baulne-en-Brie, yet only the last of these is legitimately part of the canton of Condé-en-Brie (the former name of this subdistrict). The first three villages are not only kilometers apart, but they are located on the right bank of the Marne River, whereas Baulne-en-Brie is on the left bank.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 2,682 hectares (38 villages)
The Western Marne Valley comprises all the vines of the Aisne (Champagne Axonais). It also encompasses vines in the Seine-et-Marne, the most westerly of all Champagne vineyards.
This is Meunier country. Although Chardonnay and Pinot Noir plantings are increasing, there are very few instances where they are more successful than Meunier, which has the strongest affinity for the soil here, composed almost entirely of equal amounts of calcareous clay and sand.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 3,063 hectares (24 villages)
The right bank is widely considered the second-best area of the Marne Valley (after the Grande Vallée), and some would claim that specific villages, such as Sainte-Gemme, produce the best Meunier. The region is composed of just 8% chalk, with sand, marl, and clay predominating.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 2,440 hectares (15 villages)
The left bank of the Marne stretches as far southward as the upper reaches of the Surmelin. The vineyards on the much-extended left bank have twice the chalk content of those on the sunnier, south-facing right bank and are far stonier, with less marl (21% compared with 30%). Leuvrigny has a strong reputation for Meunier. The Surmelin River is a tributary of the Marne that flows on a northwesterly course through the Marne department, then the Aisne, before flowing into the Marne River at Mézy-Moulins. The Surmelin valley is one of the most important Meunier zones. Among its key villages are Celles-lés-Condé, Connigis, and Le Breuil.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 3,187 hectares (10 villages)
Côte des Blancs refers both to the world-famous district discussed below and an overarching area that comprises five different and widespread regions: Côte des Blancs, Montgueux, Côte de Sézanne, Coteaux du Morin, and Vitryat.
The name of the Côte des Blancs district is derived from the almost exclusive cultivation of Chardonnay grapes here. More than in any other area of Champagne, it is noticeable that the tops of hills and spurs are cultivated with vines, whereas elsewhere these areas are usually left with forest or scrub to prevent erosion. But it is the vines on the midslopes that always produce the finest wines, followed by the top and lower slopes, then the brow, and finally the plains below, particularly those vineyards that have crept onto the “wrong side” of the D9.
Geographically rather than topographically, the vines growing between and including Cramant and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger produce the cream of Côte des Blancs Chardonnay, and within this area there are distinct style differences. At the northern end, the wines of Cramant and Avize are aromatically the most floral of all Côte des Blancs, with intrinsically citrus fruit, whereas those of the middle section, at Oger and, particularly, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, have the greatest minerality and potential longevity.
Although it is the best single district for Chardonnay in Champagne, the Côte des Blancs is also notorious for its spectacularly high—and even illegal—yields. Chardonnay grown in this district has a greater sugar content and level of acidity than most Pinot Noir of the same harvest in Champagne, despite the high yields.
The Côte des Blancs contains 6 of Champagne’s 17 grands crus (Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, and Oiry) and 4 of its 42 premiers crus (Bergères-lès-Vertus, Cuis, Grauves, and Vertus).
Champagne AOC in 2018: 1,418 hectares (12 villages)
All the villages of the Côte de Sézanne are located within the Marne department except for Villenauxe-la-Grande, which is in the Aube. Unlike the Côte des Blancs, small amounts of Meunier are planted everywhere in the Côte de Sézanne, while Pinot Noir represents a significant minority in all but one village (Chantemerle). This district has been a largely unknown corner of Champagne, even with the rise in production of blanc de blancs and its more opulent style. Sézannais Chardonnay is extremely aromatic, with lush tropical fruit that can be almost musky, yet still shows great typicity.
The topsoil in this area consists of marl, clay, and sand. East and northeast of Sézanne, the subsoil is substantially chalk, both belemnite and micraster. This is the eroded edge of the Île-de-France (part of the Franco-British basin), where the thickness of chalk diminishes and the clays have little or no lignite, making them more plastic and heavier. There are, however, seams of lignite, as it is quarried at Sans-Souci, just two kilometers (1.25 miles) north of Sézanne. South and southwest of Sézanne, there is chalk subsoil in fairly large pockets, occasionally broken up by marl, clay, sandstone, sandy clay, and sand. Yellow and red sand north of Sézanne indicates ferrous sandstone (good for combating chlorosis), which increases farther south. Overall, the Sézannais is more clays and argillaceous alluvium than chalk.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 1,030 hectares (20 villages)
The Coteaux du Morin is not a truly specialist Chardonnay district. Indeed, many more of these vineyards were planted with Meunier as recently as the 1990s. Formerly known as the Région de Congy, or Région de Congy-Villevenard, the Coteaux du Morin comprises 20 villages between the Côte des Blancs and the Côte de Sézanne. It includes two premier cru growths east of Vertus (Voipreux and Villeneuve-Renneville-Chevigny), the vines of which are contiguous with the Côte des Blancs. Coligny (Val-des-Marais) and Étréchy are also classified as premiers crus. Apart from Voipreux and Villeneuve-Renneville-Chevigny, clays and argillaceous alluvium dominate the Coteaux du Morin, and there are relatively few outcrops of chalk.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 457 hectares (15 villages)
Located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Vertus, Vitryat is situated where the Marne-Rhine Canal joins the Marne River. Yet its remoteness on the eastern periphery of the Champagne region, pure chalk soil, and production of almost exclusively Chardonnay grapes are all good reasons not to classify it as part of the Meunier-dominated, clay-soil Marne Valley.
First a popular region in the late 18th century, Vitryat is now a rapidly expanding district. Having shrunk to just 3 hectares by 1970, the vineyards grew to 170 hectares by the 1990s and now exceed 457 hectares. The wines produced here are increasingly highly regarded by the region’s biggest blenders, although Vitryat has yet to produce singular Champagnes of truly exceptional quality.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 209 hectares (1 village)
A stone’s throw west of Troyes, the ancient capital of Champagne, is the small hill of Montgueux. On the south-facing slope, there is a substantial area planted to Chardonnay vines. The Lassaigne family led the charge to plant this elevated Turonian-era chalk outcropping in the 1960s.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 7,900 hectares (64 villages)
Subdistricts: Bar-sur-Aube (Barsuraubois), Bar-sur-Seine (Barséquanais)
The Côte des Bar is the primary area of viticulture in the Aube department. In addition to the Bar-sur-Seine and most of the Bar-sur-Aube, the Aube department also includes the most southerly village of the Côte de Sézanne (Villenauxe-la-Grande) and the entire Montgueux subdistrict.
Generally, the climate of the Aube is warmer and sunnier than that of the rest of Champagne, shown in the plump fruit character of the wines, and these conditions can be beneficial in cooler vintages but disadvantageous in years like 2003. Despite its more southerly location, the Aube is still farther north than Chablis and in a relatively northern zone of France, where crisp whites are the norm and reds can be difficult to produce.
Most Aubois vineyards are scattered among various other agricultural crops on a series of wooded hills that run between and around the towns of Bar-sur-Aube and Bar-sur-Seine, where the best sites face southeast on steep slopes, at a height of between 200 and 300 meters (660 and 980 feet).
Although planted primarily with Pinot Noir, this district is more suited to Chardonnay. It used to be extensively planted with Gamay, until a law was passed requiring that variety to be pulled up. Local growers opted to replant the district with Pinot Noir, a logical black-grape upgrade, but the area’s geology is Kimmeridgian, just like that of nearby Chablis.
The topsoils of the Côte des Bar are essentially a gravelly limestone scree, either weathered or oolitic. Subsoils consist of gray and beige limestone strata, usually fossil rich and sometimes with a high active lime content. Gray marl or gray marly limestone beds are also found. The subsoil can be interlayered, although there are pure limestone or marl slopes. Whether limestone, marl, or marly limestone, the soils are nearly all Kimmeridgian and, like those of Chablis, mostly Upper Kimmeridgian, although Upper Oxfordian and Portlandian slopes can be found. A few tiny, scattered outcrops of chalk exist, even more rare in the Bar-sur-Aube than in the Bar-sur-Seine.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 2,422 hectares (31 villages)
The Bar-sur-Aube is the smaller of the Côte des Bar’s two subdistricts, and the vineyards here are more scattered than they are in the Bar-sur-Seine. The northeastern corner of the subdistrict is located in the Haut-Marne department. The Urville region is the heart of winemaking, driven by the forward-thinking negociant Drappier.
Champagne AOC in 2018: 5,479 hectares (33 villages)
The larger of the Côte des Bar’s two subdistricts, the Bar-sur-Seine has 50% more vineyards than the Bar-sur-Aube. It also has a greater concentration of more contiguous vineyards and houses the Union des coopératives auboises de vin de Champagne (UCAVIC), the massive but dynamic co-operative that is better known by its primary brand, Devaux. Trailblazing producers Cédric Bouchard, Vouette et Sorbée, and Marie Courtin are also located here. The vines are generally more protected here than they are in the Bar-sur-Aube, with slightly cooler summers and milder winters. The subdistrict also encompasses a third and separate AOC, Rosé des Riceys, for a dark-colored still rosé made exclusively from Pinot Noir.
The échelle des crus was the de facto classification of Champagne for almost 100 years. The system was created in the 18th century to formalize the price of grapes for negociants. Grapes from grand cru sites earned 100% of the price that was set by the houses and negociants. Grapes from premier cru sites earned 90% to 99% of that amount, and those from any of the other communes earned between 80% and 89%. The Champenois put an end to the fixed prices in 1990, and negociants began working directly with growers to set pricing. Over time, it became clear that the original system was obsolete, so in 2010 the échelle des crus was officially abolished. The designations of grand cru and premier cru can still appear on labels to show the historic classification of villages.
Since the INAO reform of 2010, which abolished the échelle des crus ratings, grand and premier cru designations have been equalized. Prior to 2010, Chouilly, for example, held grand cru status for white grapes only, whereas Tours-sur-Marne was grand cru for black grapes only. Such discriminations are no longer permissible, thus both villages are classified as grand cru, regardless of which permitted variety is cultivated. There are 17 villages with grand cru status (increased from 11 in 1985), and all are located within the Marne department.
There were 44 premier cru villages when the last échelle des crus was published, in 2003, but there are just 42 premier cru villages today. This, too, is because of the INAO reform of 2007. It removed the premier cru status for black grapes in Chouilly and white grapes in Tours-sur-Marne, authorizing all varieties growing in grands crus to have full grand cru status and all varieties growing in premiers crus to have full premier cru status. This departs from the original 1911 échelle, whose authors meticulously researched the potential of each grape variety growing in every village, setting the lowest rated growth at a realistic 22.55%, and with the difference between the ranking of some villages as negligible as 0.02%
Champagne can be categorized by pressure, chronology, prestige, origin, style, and sweetness.
The term grand mousseux (fully sparkling) rarely appears on a bottle because almost all Champagne is grand mousseux, but it is widely used conversationally in Champagne, where it is defined as having five to six atmospheres of pressure. The term grand mousseux has been in use since 1736. That was just 12 years after the first documented mention of any sparkling Champagne in the French language, in the 1724 edition of Dictionnaire Universel, referring to the strongest fizz of its day, at just three atmospheres. A grand mousseux Champagne did not approach the strength it is associated with today until the end of the 19th century.
Crémant disappeared from Champagne labels in the early 1990s by voluntary agreement after the term was adopted for various French sparkling wine appellations, such as Crémant d’Alsace and Crémant de Bourgogne, following the EU ban on using the term méthode champenoise for any wine other than Champagne. Since only a small number of Champagne producers were using the term crémant at the time, dropping all rights to it was of little commercial consequence to the industry. The few Champagne crémants that did exist are still made in the same style and have been renamed. The most famous, Mumm’s Crémant de Cramant, for example, is now sold as Mumm de Cramant.
The old Champagne regulations defined a crémant as having a pressure of 3.6 atmospheres, giving the wine a softer mousse. The word crémant means “creaming,” inferring a mousse that unfolds slowly, leaving a soft, creamy texture in the mouth. Many examples, however, were and still are fully sparkling.
Nonvintage brut accounts for 80% of all Champagne sold. Nonvintage is not usually the finest cuvée in any Champagne producer’s range, and it is technically easier to produce great nonvintage Champagne than it is to produce a great vintage Champagne, as the former has the advantage of including reserve wines.
No Champagne may be bottled before January 1 following harvest, and no nonvintage Champagne can be sold until 15 months after the date of bottling for tirage, with at least 12 months on yeast.
The term multivintage has slowly crept into widespread use throughout Champagne. If applied correctly, it is a very precise and clever term that distinguishes between a regular nonvintage cuvée and a genuine prestige blend of vintage years, but it is so abused that currently it has no validity. The most modest nonvintage Champagnes are routinely described as multivintage blends because, producers claim, the non in nonvintage has a negative connotation. Multivintage is not currently regulated by the AOC’s rules. Ideally, it would be defined as a blend of two or more years that have been (or are scheduled to be) released as a vintage by the producer in question. Some argue that the use of the term is deliberately misleading.
There is a law that prohibits producers from making or selling more than 80% of any year’s harvest as vintage Champagne. This is to ensure that at least 20% is conserved for the future blending of nonvintage cuvées, the foundation of the entire industry. In truth, there is no danger of any producer selling more than a tiny fraction of 80% as vintage Champagne, as this category represents less than 2% of Champagne sales year on year. Few Champagne houses stick rigidly to the old practice of declaring a vintage only in the greatest years, which is why vintage Champagnes from almost every year can be found. At one time, a true vintage would occur perhaps 3 years out of 10, but now it occurs 5 or 6 years out of 10. This has caused a decline in sales of vintage Champagne, while the market has focused increasingly on nonvintage (as always) and prestige cuvées (a relatively recent phenomenon).
Even in the greatest years, however, vintage Champagne has always been more the result of careful selection of wines than a reflection of the year in question, contributing to what makes vintage Champagne such an exceptional value. This selection process also eliminates, or almost eliminates, the need for chaptalization in vintage Champagne, which is richer than a nonvintage cuvée of the same age. Because vintage Champagnes are made solely from base wines from the designated vintage, and because base wines contain more protein than reserve wines (protein drops out as reserve wines age), the autolytic process is enhanced in vintage Champagne. No vintage Champagne may be sold until at least 36 months after the date of bottling for tirage, and this longer aging as compared with nonvintage cuvées, along with the absence of myriad reserve wine components aging at different rates, results in a significantly slower evolution for vintage cuvées.
Although Louis Roederer’s Cristal was first produced as early as 1876, it was initially made as a private bottling exclusively for Czar Alexander II and was not sold to the public until 1945. Dom Pérignon, launched in 1936, was the very first commercially available prestige cuvée.
The prestige cuvée concept was conceived by Laurence Venn, an English journalist and the UK marketing consultant to the Syndicat de grandes marques de Champagne. The Great Depression hit Champagne sales in 1929. Houses went broke or sold off vineyards in a desperate bid to retain their businesses, and some blamed their London agents, as the UK had been Champagne’s largest and most lucrative market since the mid-19th century. At a meeting of the syndicate in 1932, Venn was asked how Champagne houses could revitalize sales in the UK, and he proposed the unthinkable: the production of a new, ultraexpensive luxury cuvée. He said it must be of exceptional quality and sold in a replica of an original 18th-century Champagne bottle, and it should cost more than twice the price of the most expensive vintage Champagne ever sold. Venn suggested targeting the British aristocracy, one of the few sectors of the market that could afford such extravagances during hard times. This advice was soundly rejected by the syndicate, but Robert-Jean de Vogüé, who worked at Moët & Chandon, was intrigued by the idea.
Less than three years later, replica 18th-century bottles of 1926 Champagne were on their way to 150 of Simon Brothers’s best customers. The bottle and label were almost identical to those of Dom Pérignon today; the difference was that, instead of that name, “Champagne specially shipped for Simon Brothers & Co’s Centenary 1835–1935” was stated. A few rich Americans who had friends among Britain’s aristocracy and were living in or visiting England tasted the wine, and word quickly filtered through the upper echelons of American society. This generated requests from across the Atlantic, and, a year later, 100 cases of the very first Dom Pérignon cuvée, bearing the older and greater 1921 vintage, were shipped to New York.
Dom Pérignon and Cristal stand out in the world of prestige (or deluxe) cuvée Champagnes, as do releases from Krug, Perrier-Jouët’s Belle Époque (the production of which was boosted when regular vintage production ceased after the 1998 vintage), and Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne. As with regular vintage Champagne, selection is the key factor that defines the quality of a prestige cuvée, and the selection process for a prestige cuvée is even more rigorous than that for a vintage cuvée. As a result, most prestige cuvées are produced in relatively tiny quantities, with their rarity in part determining the high price. The more selection involved, the more likely that the Champagne will be made from the producer’s own vineyards (over which the producer has total control of pruning and yield). Greater selection also usually results in a higher proportion of grand cru grapes, although select sites within some premier cru villages are often vital for balance. Selection for selection’s sake, however, can lead to cuvées that are so rich they can be cumbersome and lacking in finesse, freshness, and linearity. A great prestige cuvée also requires a great winemaker and a valid reason for the selection process.
The Club Trésors de Champagne (originally Club de Viticulteurs Champenois) was established in 1971 as a collection of growers marketing their wines together to compete with the larger negociants. The initial group included just 12 producers, 3 of them remaining today: Pierre Gimonnet, Gaston Chiquet, and Paul Bara. The Club Trésors now includes 25 members, who have joined via an invitation-only process. Wines bottled as Special Club can be made from any site or variety but must pass a notoriously stringent panel, which tastes the wine twice, first as a vin clair and again after three years of aging. Special Club wines are packaged in a uniquely shaped bottle from the 1700s. Previously, all wines shared the same label, but today growers can use their own labels on the iconic bottle.
The first single vineyard to be commercialized was Clos de la Chapitre, in the 1860s, when it was sold by Amédée Tarin as both Clos du Chapitre and Clos du Mesnil in two different styles, a blanc de blancs and a rosé. This property, however, was not well known until well after it was purchased by Krug in 1972. After the acquisition, Krug immediately replanted the vineyard and, in 1986, launched the 1979 blanc de blancs as its first vintage. Philipponnat had been producing its now famous Clos des Goisses since 1935, Pierre Péters began bottling Cuvée Spéciale from Les Chetillons in 1971, and Drappier’s Grande Sendrée was launched with the 1975 vintage. But the market had been slow to grasp what a single-vineyard Champagne was; most consumers did not even realize that Grande Sendrée was a single vineyard. It took the fame and price of a great producer such as Krug to promote the concept. This was followed by Leclerc-Briant’s announcement of its trio of wines under the collection Les Authentiques, in 1994, and the fanfare of Moët’s ill-fated Trilogie des Grands Crus, in 2001, which helped put single-vineyard Champagnes on the map. Taittinger quietly vinified Les Folies de la Marquetterie in 2002, and Billecart-Salmon launched the 1995 vintage of Clos Saint-Hilaire in 2003. Pommery harvested its first Clos Pompadour in 2002, although it would not be launched until 2011.
The houses had woken up to the concept of single-vineyard cuvées by the turn of the millennium, yet the growers, who were ideally placed to exploit Champagne’s fragmented terroir, had not. Today, however, the growers have caught on. By 2019, they had marketed well over 250 single-vineyard Champagnes, and the number is climbing.
It is possible to produce any of the above categories in blanc de blancs, blanc de noirs, and rosé styles.
Literally “white of whites,” blanc de blancs is typically produced from Chardonnay grapes. Producers are legally allowed to feature Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris as well. A blanc de blancs may be made in any district, but most of the best come from a small part of the Côte des Blancs between Cramant and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, with those in Le Mesnil itself having the greatest linearity, minerality, and longevity, while closer to Cramant, the wines exhibit more elegance and floral finesse. The eastern Montagne de Reims villages of Trépail and Villers-Marmery can also produce first-class blanc de blancs. If consumed too early, a classic blanc de blancs might be austere and seem to lack fruit and generosity, yet with a long, slow evolution, it becomes the most succulent of Champagnes.
Literally “white of blacks,” blanc de noirs can be produced only from black grapes in Champagne, and the whiter the wine, the more impressive it is perceived to be. A blanc de noirs can be made from Pinot Noir, Meunier, or both. The most famous blanc de noirs is Bollinger’s Vieilles Vignes Françaises, which for years was the only Champagne with blanc de noirs on the label, and, until Krug launched Clos d’Ambonnay in 2007 with the 1995 vintage, it was by far the most expensive.
Blanc de noirs was historically produced in a minuscule volume from overripe grapes that were sold at a very high price, leading to a misconception of the style. Only recently, in the past 10 to 15 years, has blanc de noirs become the focus of quality-minded houses, growers, and co-operatives. More producers are using grapes from their best plots, aiming to produce examples of blanc de noirs that are intensely expressive.
The first known rosé Champagne was Ruinart’s Oeil de Perdrix Mousseux, produced by macerating the juice on the grape skins, and shipped on March 14, 1764. This was three years before Veuve Clicquot produced the first rosé to be colored by the addition of red wine, which became the preferred method in Champagne. Later, sparkling rosé became an anomaly in EU wine law as one of the only pink examples that may be made by blending. Until the late 1990s, rosé Champagne was highly cyclical, with short bursts of popularity between decades of minimal interest. Under such circumstances, there was no motivation to fine-tune the production of red wines best suited to color a rosé, and most rosé Champagne relied on Coteaux Champenois purchased on the internal market. But demand for the rosé style has been consistent since 1997, enabling the Champenois to select the most appropriate plots and perfect techniques to craft deeply colored red wines suited to sparkling rosé production.
According to the numbers, most of the best rosé Champagnes are made by blending, but by which variety the base should be dominated is a matter of taste. For example, Louis Roederer’s Cristal is consistently the palest rosé, yet it contains on average 70% Pinot Noir, while Ruinart’s Dom Ruinart rosé, which has a pronounced color and one of the most distinctive Pinot aromas, is pure Dom Ruinart blanc de blancs to which some red wine has been added. Another aspect of blending that is disputed among chefs de caves is whether it is better to add more of a lighter-colored red wine (a practice that is as old as the method itself) or less of a deeper-colored red wine.
Most of the rest of the rosé produced in Champagne undergoes maceration, where the grapes are crushed before steeping in their own juice (for any other style of Champagne, the grapes are whole-bunch pressed). This either takes place, chilled, before fermentation or extends into the beginning of the fermentation phase.
Another method is saignée (the French verb saigner means “to bleed”). True saignée, as the name suggests, is the colored, free-run juice that naturally bleeds from black grapes before they are pressed—no maceration is involved, other than that passively caused by bunches weighing down on one another in the press. Yet plenty of Champagnes made with some amount of maceration are also labeled rosé de saignée.
One unique method is responsible for arguably the greatest rosé Champagne of all, Cristal rosé. Louis Roederer uses a hybrid maceration process: Pinot Noir grapes are cold-soaked in Chardonnay juice for one week, with no crushing of the black berries and no fermentation. Colored Chardonnay juice is drained off, the Pinot Noir grapes are pressed, and the juice from the two grapes is combined. Then, depending on the depth of color, 20% to 50% acidic Chardonnay juice is added, because the Pinot Noir has been picked for ripeness and needs the acidity for balance, and the Chardonnay juice helps stabilize the color. The temperature is gently increased to encourage the first fermentation, with approximately 20% fermented in 9,000-liter used French oak foudres.
For all these methods, the wine must be bottled at a color that is deeper than that required in the finished product, because color pigments (anthocyanins) form long chains and drop out as sediment during the second fermentation and while the wine ages on yeast (shown by the distinctly colored deposit in a rosé Champagne). This loss can be mitigated by the addition of gum arabic in the liqueur d’expédition.
The sweetness of a Champagne can be indicated by its residual sugar level, measured in grams per liter. It is possible to produce any of the above categories at all of the following sweetness levels. It is worth noting that the regulations in Champagne allow for three grams of variation between the stated and actual RS. This is because of the margin of error in different types of analysis. Further, producers indicating dosage rather than RS are not identifying the one to two grams of RS typically left after the second fermentation.
The brut nature style, with less than three grams of residual sugar, with no margin of error, has been commercially labeled as brut zero, brut sauvage, ultra brut, and sans sucre. The non-dosé style is very difficult to achieve with finesse, but, when it works in Champagne, it can be mesmerizing in an instant-drinking style. It is best drunk as young and fresh as possible, as the aging potential of a brut nature differs from that of other Champagnes (without residual sugar, or only a very small amount, it cannot benefit from the potentially complex aromas created by the Maillard reactions that generally take place between amino acids created during autolysis and fructose from dosage). A brut nature may also be legally labeled as brut.
The best Champagnes in this category can be wonderfully bracing, with up to six grams of residual sugar. The top end of the extra brut scale (four to six grams of residual sugar) represents a good dosage for late-released mature vintages. Extra brut may also be legally labeled as brut.
Almost 95% of all Champagne is sold as brut, making it the classic style. But the popularity of brut is a relatively recent phenomenon. According to data compiled by André Simon, just 25% of Champagne was sold as brut as recently as 1960. A brut style may contain up to 12 grams of residual sugar (up to 15 grams including the 3-gram margin of error), thus the category technically comprises brut nature and extra brut as well.
Extra sec (“extra dry”) is rarely encountered, and with 12 to 17 grams of residual sugar per liter (up to 20 grams with the margin of error), the term can be misleading to consumers. Serious-quality cuvées can be very useful to accompany savory dishes with a distinct hint of sweetness, or those with any fruit content or garnish.
Few Champagne houses specialize in the sec style, but with a residual sugar level greater than 17 but less than 32 grams per liter, high-quality cuvées can be, like extra sec, very useful in matching dishes with a certain sweetness. The best examples are marketed as upscale gastronomic Champagnes like Selosse's Exquise.
Under the old Champagne laws, the term riche was used strictly as an official alternative designation for demi-sec, but it currently has no legal definition and is used for wines between sec and doux.
Although the demi-sec style can have between 32 and 50 grams of residual sugar per liter, most examples today are closer to the minimum. As such, they are too sweet for conventional use yet not sweet enough to compete with true dessert-style wines. Demi-sec cuvées have traditionally been used to dispose of poor-quality Champagnes, as it is easy to hide flawed wines beneath a veneer of sugar. But high-quality demi-sec does exist. A vintage wine at this sweetness level should be seen as an overt signal that its producer is serious about its quality—although serious-quality nonvintage demi-sec also exists (examples include Pol Roger Rich and Roederer Carte Blanche). The best demi-sec can be kept for 10 or more years after purchase, and such wines will often become sumptuously rich and complex, particularly at the table with soft, blue-veined cheeses.
According to André Simon, doux represented as much as 60% of all Champagne shipments until 1960, and half of that had 100 grams of residual sugar. But then brut caught on, and, within 20 years, sweet Champagnes had disappeared. Only in recent years have doux bottlings, with 50 or more grams per liter of residual sugar, started to make something of a comeback. Thus far, the results have been largely disappointing. Among the best so far are Veuve Clicquot’s Rich and Rich Rosé, both of which contain 60 grams of residual sugar. These are designed for mixology—for adding ice, orange peel, or other garnishes or extras. Yet the effervescence of a doux wine can also bring a refreshing lift to the end of a meal if served by the glass.
Champagne offers more potential than most wines from correct storage, but it also suffers more than most from incorrect storage. Under ideal storage conditions, some Champagnes will retain their sparkle, light color, and fruit, without any notes of oxidation, for approximately a century.
According to a study by researchers at Reims University, Champagne stored for one year at room temperature will contain 70 times more foul-smelling mercaptans than the same Champagne stored for one year at cellar temperature. For medium-term storage, a constant temperature between 12 and 15 degrees Celsius (54 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit) should suffice. If a constant temperature cannot be guaranteed, either naturally or by an environmentally controlled room or wine cabinet, it is best to buy for fairly immediate consumption. Very long-term storage should be attempted only at a constant temperature between 9 and 11 degrees Celsius (48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit). Storage in darkness is vital, as Champagne is particularly prone to the damaging effects of light.
Unlike still wines, there is no reason why Champagne should be stored horizontally. The CO2 in the bottle’s neck keeps the cork moist and swollen even when upright—though upright storage is neither efficient nor practical.
When Champagne of any style (vintage or otherwise) is released, it should be ready to drink, but an additional three to six months of aging is advisable, as very few producers provide optimal aging between disgorgement and shipping. This applies particularly to bottles from less expensive brands, which are inevitably younger and for which a few months of aging can make a significant difference. When buying a mature Champagne, experienced consumers should appreciate that there will be a CO2 loss that gives the wine a silkier mousse.
The most common glassware used for serving Champagne is the flute or the all-purpose glass. To choose proper glassware for Champagne, wine professionals must balance aesthetics and sensory evaluation. The flute’s elongated shape and tight bowl keep the bubbles of the wine on full display for guests to enjoy. But this comes at the expense of interaction with the wine, as there is not enough room in the glass for the consumer to fully appreciate the wine’s volatile aromatic compounds. The all-purpose glass, on the other hand, keeps bubbles in solution while offering enough volume and space for the impact compounds of the wine to shine. As Champagne becomes more mainstream, the all-purpose glass is outpacing the flute as the beverage industry’s glass of choice. On the extreme ends of the spectrum, for aesthetic purposes there is the coupe, and for complete dissection of the wine, the Burgundy glass.
Most CO2 loss that occurs when serving Champagne is through the mechanical action of pouring. While this has a negative effect on the extremely rare bottles of mature Champagnes with low pressure, it enhances the mouthfeel of younger Champagnes, making their mousse softer and silkier without detracting from their fully sparkling style. It is generally advised to pour Champagne from above, not holding the glass at all, aiming to break the fall of the wine by hitting the side of the glass about two-thirds of the way down (exactly where will depend on the shape of the glass). This minimizes the initial release of foam and allows the head to collapse slightly, before pouring continues.
After the wine has been poured, loss of CO2 continues in the glass but on a much smaller scale. At this stage, more CO2 is lost through the interface between the wine’s surface and the air than by the release of bubbles through nucleation, even when the glasses have been etched to produce nonclassic heterogeneous nucleation. Recent studies have shown that, at the interface between the wine’s surface and the air, there is a progressive CO2 evaporation that, although invisible to the naked eye, releases significantly more gas (about 80%) than through the streams of rising bubbles that can clearly be seen (20%). Even when combined, however, this CO2 loss is a fraction of that experienced when pouring, the mechanical action of which removes between 25% and 35% of all dissolved CO2, depending on factors such as temperature, glass shape, angle, and height of pour.
Bosc, L. A. G. In Nouveau cours complet d’agriculture théorique et pratique. Paris: Deterville, 1809.
Chaptal, Jean-Antoine. Traité théorique et pratique sur la culture de la vigne. Paris: Delalain, 1801. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5701391v.texteImage.
Gerhard Maier, Hans. “Volatile Flavoring Substances in Foodstuffs.” Angewandte Chemie 9, no. 12 (December 1970): 917–988.
Jullien, André. Topographie de tous les vignobles connus. Paris: 1816. https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b21504660.
Lenoir, B. A. Traité de la culture de la vigne et de la vinification. Paris: Rousselon, 1828. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k30595118.texteImage.
Serigne, N. C. Flore des jardins et des grandes cultures. Paris: 1849.
Tessier, H. A., A. Thouin, and L. A. G. Bosc d’Antic. Encyclopédie Méthodique. Paris: Veuve Agasse, 1821.
Roach, M. J., D. L. Johnson, J. Bohlmann, H. J. J. van Vuuren, S. J. M. Jones, I. S. Pretorius, et al. “Population sequencing reveals clonal diversity and ancestral inbreeding in the grapevine cultivar Chardonnay.” PLoS Genetics 14, no. 11 (November 2018): e1007807. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007807.
Vizetelly, Henry. A History of Champagne. London: Vizetelly, 1882.
Read the Champagne Part II: Viticulture and Winemaking expert guide.
Read the Champagne Part III: History expert guide.
Some material in this guide was previously published in The World of Fine Wine.
Compiled by Tom Stevenson (2022)
Edited by Stacy Ladenburger and Sandra Ban
Hey, Kyle! Per the guide, "The system was created in the 18th century to formalize the price of grapes for negociants." The system and idea were created back then, then a slew of classifications were used in the 19th century, yet it was not fully formalized until the 20th century. Feel free to learn more about those older classifications here.
In the section describing the échelle des crus, the guide says it was established in the early 18th Century, but it seems like it was created in the 20th Century after the riots of 1910 and 1911 riots and existed for about 100 years. I think that needs to be corrected? Thanks
Hey, Emanuele! Great Question! The difference here is the level of detail. The compendium reflects the subdivision of the region within the legal document of the original échelle de crus, which, when created, only saw Champagne as a three-subzone region. In this guide, we dive into the region with a more modern perspective and intense focus. Those 9 premier crus in the original échelle are split as 4 in the Côte des Blancs, 4 in the Côteaux du Morin, and 1 in the Côteaux Sud d’Épernay.
“The Côte des Blancs contains 6 of Champagne’s 17 grands crus(Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, and Oiry) and 4 of its 42 premiers crus (Bergères-lès-Vertus, Cuis, Grauves, and Vertus)”. The compendium is listing 9 premier crus for the Cote des Blancs
Hey, Jienna! I've only seen sec as well and the 24 g/l number. The guide is updated! Thanks!
Is Selosse Exquise (misspelled in body of text) released as both Sec and Demi Sec depending? I have only seen Sec, and have seen it typically around 24 g/l dosage. Thank You!
Hey, Phumiphat! In the 1860's Clos de la Chapitre was the first wine produced purposefully from a single site. Yet, Philipponnat's Clos de Goisses was the first Champagne to be bottled and marketed as a single vineyard wine.
Which one is the first single vineyard champagne because I just found that it have two paragraph that conflict each otherfirst is "The first single vineyard to be commercialized was Clos de la Chapitre, in the 1860s, when it was sold by Amédée Tarin as both Clos du Chapitre and Clos du Mesnil in two different styles" and "Mareuil-sur-Aÿ was also the source of the first-ever single-vineyard Champagne, Philipponnat Clos de Goisses."
Hey Christian! Producers are welcome to plant whatever they would like in their vineyards. To qualify as Champagne AOP, they must use the allowable varieties, farm to the requirements, and vinify per the stipulations of the appellation. For example: If I made Champagne in Ambonnay, with a site planted to Pinot Noir, and then transitioned the site to Pinot Blanc, that would still be Champagne AOP.
Is it allowed to replant pinot blanc, arbane, petit meslier and pinot gris even though there is no history of these varieties in the local vineyard? How is this regulated? My French is not that good so it is hard to read the original wine law.