Terroir & appellation

The Champagne production zone (AOC vineyard area) is defined and delimited by a law passed in 1927, encompassing roughly 34,000 hectares of vineyards.

Geographical location

It lies some 150 kilometres to the east of Paris, spreading across 320 villages (‘crus’) in five departments:

• the Marne (66% of plantings),
• Aube (23%),
• Aisne (10%)
• Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne.

Regional distribution of vineyards

There are four main growing areas:

• The Montagne de Reims,
• The Vallée de la Marne,
• The Côte des Blancs
• et The Côte des Bar.

Together these encompass nearly 278,000 plots of vines, each measuring roughly 18 ares (100 square metres). Seventeen villages have a traditional entitlement to Grand Cru ranking and 42 to Premier Cru ranking.

Map of Champagne vineyard area