CLOSE-UP ON CHAMPAGNE

The grape-growing area of the Champagne appellation encompasses some 34,000 hectares, accounting for 3.4% of France’s total vineyard area.
 
The vines are mainly concentrated around the city of Reims and the town of Epernay in the Marne valley, but also extend into the departments of the Aube and beyond into the Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne.

This is the production area as defined and delimited by French law. Only wines exclusively originating and produced within that area, on premises dedicated to Champagne wines, are legally entitled to use the name Champagne.
 
Working side-by-side within the Champagne appellation are some 15,000 growers, 150 cooperatives and more than 300 Champagne Houses.

Growers typically own some two hectares of land, grow only vines and usually sell a large proportion of their grape crop at harvest time.
 
The Champagne Houses buy in grapes to make Champagne under their own labels, handling every stage of the winemaking process from start to finish: pressing, fermentation, blending and bottle-aging.
 
While there is some overlap between growers and Champagne Houses, neither one could exist without the other. Growers who make and sell their own Champagne (whether as independent producers or members of a cooperative) export a third of their total production. The Champagne Houses meanwhile own just 10% of the vineyards but account for two thirds of annual Champagne sales and the larger part of exports.

Champagne production is a costly business, ever at the mercy of the weather. Everything ultimately depends on making the wine sparkle, because the market for the region’s still wines, sold under the Coteaux Champenois AOC, is simply too small to offer an economically viable alternative.
 
Growers and Champagne Houses complement each other and share a common interest in caring for their heritage.