Classification of Champagne vineyards

Last updated August 12, 2021

The classification of Champagne vineyards developed in the mid-20th century as a means of setting the price of grapes grown through the villages of the Champagne wine region. Unlike the classification of Bordeaux wine estates or Burgundy Grand cru vineyards, the classification of Champagne is broken down based on what village the vineyards are located in.^[1] A percentile system known as the Échelle des Crus ("ladder of growth") acts as a pro-rata system for determining grape prices. Vineyards located in villages with high rates will receive higher prices for their grapes than vineyards located in villages with a lower rating. While the Échelle des Crus system was originally conceived as a 1-100 point scale, in practice, the lowest rated villages are rated at 80%. Premier crus villages are rated between 90 and 99 percent while the highest rated villages, with 100% ratings are Grand crus.^[2]

Origins

Prior to the development of the Échelle des Crus systems, the Champagne industry functioned on a business dynamic that heavily favored the Champagne houses over the vine growers. Since making sparkling wine is a costly and time-consuming endeavor, most vine growers did not have the means or finances to produce Champagne themselves. So instead they would sell their grapes to the Champagne houses who would produce the wines. In a means to generate greater profit, some Champagne houses would look outside the Champagne region for grapes. The development of the French national railroad system in the mid 19th century opened up easy access to cheaper grapes from the Loire Valley and the Languedoc. The Champenois vine growers were incensed at these practices, believing that using "foreign" grapes to make sparkling was not producing true Champagne. They petitioned the government for assistance and a law was passed requiring that at least 51% of the grapes used to make Champagne needed to come from the Champagne region itself.^[3]

With vineyard owners vastly outnumbering the producers, the Champagne houses used this dynamic of excess supply vs limited demand to their advantage. They hired agents, known as commissionaires , to negotiate prices with vine growers. These commissionaires were paid according to how low a price they could negotiate and many employed unsavory tactics to achieve their means-including violence and intimidation. Some commissionaires openly sought bribes from vine growers, often in the form of extra grapes which they would sell themselves for extra profit. The prices they were able to negotiate barely covered the cost of farming and harvesting which left many Champenois vine growers in poverty. With the constant threat of Champagne houses ignoring the law and using more "foreign" grapes, tensions were already high between vine growers and Champagne houses when the late 19th century and early 20th century brought with it the devastation of the phylloxera epidemic and a string of poor weather and poor vintages. The tensions culminated in the Champagne riots of 1910 and 1911.^[3] To avoid the type of situation which led to the riots, producers and growers of the Champagne region formed an agreement that developed the Échelle des Crus system where prices would be set by a joint committee of producers and growers, fairly applied and based on the presumed quality of a village's vineyards. In recent times there has been discussion of modifying the classification and going to a "Burgundy-like" system whereby vineyards, rather than villages, would be the basis of ratings. Critics charge that a system based on rating an entire village ignores terroir differences within the large area of a village.^[1]

Pricing structure

The Échelle des Crus was originally established as a fixed pricing structure. The price for a kilogram of grapes was set and vineyards owners would receive a fraction of that price depending on the village rating where they were located. Vineyards in Grand cru villages would receive 100% of the price while Premiers crus villages with a 95 rating would receive 95% of the price and so forth down the line. Today the business dynamic between Champagne houses and vineyards owners is not so strictly regulated but the classification system still serves as an aid in determining prices with Grand and Premier cru vineyards receiving considerably more for their grapes than vineyards in villages with ratings below 90%.^[4]

Grands crus

When the Échelle des Crus was first established, 12 villages received Grand cru status. In 1985 that number was expanded to 17 with the promotion of five villages (Chouilly, Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Oiry and Verzy).^[2] Less than 9% of all the planted vineyard land in Champagne have received a 100% Grand cru rating.^[5] The current Grands crus of Champagne include:^[2]

Usage in Champagne

Champagne is primarily a product of vast blending - of different grape varieties, different vintages and different vineyards - with a typical non-vintage blend being composed of grapes from up to 80 different vineyards. However, for their prestige cuvee (such as Moët et Chandon's Dom Pérignon or Louis Roederer's Cristal) Champagne producers will often limit the grape sources to only Grand cru (and sometimes Premier crus) vineyards. While single vineyard Champagnes are rare, they do exist, such as Krug's Clos du Mesnil coming from the Grand cru vineyard located near Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.^[6] Grower Champagnes, the product of a single producer and vineyard owner, located in Grand cru villages will often label their wines "100% Grand cru" if their wines qualify for the designation.^[5]

Related Research Articles

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Burgundy wine is made in the Burgundy region of eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here—those commonly referred to as "Burgundies"—are dry red wines made from pinot noir grapes and white wines made from chardonnay grapes.

The Côte de Nuits is a French wine region located in the northern part of the Côte d'Or, the limestone ridge that is at the heart of the Burgundy wine region. It extends from Dijon to just south of Nuits-Saint-Georges, which gives its name to the district and is the regional center. Though some white and rosé wines are produced in the region, the Côte de Nuits is most famous for reds made from pinot noir. The Côte de Nuits covers fourteen communes. Six produce grand cru wines, in the central district between Gevrey-Chambertin and Nuits-Saint-Georges, with four lesser villages either side. The Grand Crus of the Cote de Nuits are some of the smallest appellations in France, less than a hectare in the case of La Romanée.

Champagne Riots Early 20th c. riots in the Champagne area of France

The Champagne Riots of 1910 and 1911 resulted from a series of problems faced by grape growers in the Champagne area of France. These included four years of disastrous crop losses, the infestation of the phylloxera louse, low income and the belief that wine merchants were using grapes from outside the Champagne region. The precipitating event may have been the announcement in 1908 by the French government that it would delimit by decree the exact geographic area that would be granted economic advantage and protection by being awarded the Champagne appellation. This early development of Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée regulation benefitted the Marne and Aisne districts to the significant exclusion of the Aube district which included the town of Troyes—the historic capital of the Champagne region.

Krug Champagne is a Champagne house founded by Joseph Krug in 1843. It is based principally in Reims, the main city in France's Champagne region and is one of the famous Champagne houses that formed part of the Grandes marques. Today the house is majority owned by the multinational conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton S.E. whose portfolio includes other well known wine brands such as Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Château d'Yquem and Ruinart. Despite LVMH's majority ownership, the Krug family is still actively involved in all the key decisions of the house but does not manage the day-to-day operations.

Bollinger is a French Champagne house, a producer of sparkling wines from the Champagne region. They produce several labels of Champagne under the Bollinger name, including the vintage Vieilles Vignes Françaises, Grande Année and R.D. as well as the non-vintage Special Cuvée. Founded in 1829 in Aÿ by Hennequin de Villermont, Paul Renaudin and Jacques Bollinger the house continues to be run by members of the Bollinger family. In Britain Bollinger Champagnes are affectionately known as "Bolly".

The glossary of wine terms lists the definitions of many general terms used within the wine industry. For terms specific to viticulture, winemaking, grape varieties, and wine tasting, see the topic specific list in the "See also" section below.

Champagne Salon is a small producer of Champagne made in the blanc de blancs style. Salon, along with Delamotte, is part of the Laurent-Perrier group since 1989.

Champagne Delamotte is a small producer of Champagne. Along with its "sister" winery Champagne Salon, Delamotte is the historical House of the Laurent-Perrier group.

Le Mesnil-sur-Oger is a commune in the Marne department in the Grand Est region in north-eastern France.

Duval-Leroy is a Champagne producer based in Vertus, a village in the Côte des Blancs region of Champagne. The house, founded in 1859, produces both vintage and non-vintage cuvées as well as a line of organic wines. The house of Duval-Leroy is also known for its pioneering role in promoting a sustainable development model for its viticulture.

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Grower Champagnes are Champagnes produced by the estate that owns the vineyards where the grapes are grown. Récoltant-Manipulant is the term in French, and Grower Champagnes can be identified by "RM" on the wine label. While large Champagne houses such as Mumm, Moët et Chandon and Veuve Clicquot may use grapes from as many as 80 different vineyards in the Champagne region to create a consistent house style, Grower Champagnes tend to be more terroir-focused, sourced from a single vineyard or closely located vineyards around a village, and made with grapes which vary with each vintage. Today there are over 19,000 independent growers in the Champagne region, accounting for nearly 88% of vineyard land in the region; around 5,000 of these growers produce wine from their own grapes. Of the Champagne imported into the US in 2014, only 5% was Grower Champagne.

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The Quinta classification of Port vineyards in the Douro is a system that grades the terroir and quality potential of vineyards in the Douro wine region to produce grapes suitable for the production of Port wine. In Portuguese, a quinta is a wine producing estate, which can be a winery or a vineyard. While other wine classification systems may classify the winery, the Douro quinta classification is based upon the physical characteristics of the vineyard. The classification system is run by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) and shares some similarities to the classification of Champagne vineyards in that one of the purposes of the system is to ensuring that vineyards producing grapes with the highest quality potential receive a high price. A secondary function of the quinta classification is the establishment of permitted yields for production. Quintas with a higher classification are permitted to harvest more grapes than a vineyard that received a lower classification.

The Côte des Blancs is an area of Champagne vineyards. Located in the department of Marne, it lies south of Epernay, stretches for about 20 km, and had a vineyard area of 3,313 hectares in 2006. The Côte des Blancs is a mostly eastern-facing slope that owes its name to the color of the grape that is planted: 95% Chardonnay. Champagnes in this area include the term "blanc de blancs".

Boll & Cie is a Champagne house based in Reims, a producer of sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France, founded in 1853. With the exception of the Brut Rose, all Champagnes from Boll & Cie are blanc de blancs. Boll & Cie specializes in Brut Champagne, including a Grand Cru from the village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

Agrapart & Fils is a Grower Champagne producer which makes organic wines with a focus on terroir.

Larmandier-Bernier is a Grower Champagne producer.

References

1 2 J. Robinson (ed) "The Oxford Companion to Wine" Third Edition pg 152-153 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0-19-860990-6
1 2 3 T. Stevenson, ed. The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia (4th Edition) pg 172-174 Dorling Kindersley 2005 ISBN 0-7513-3740-4
1 2 D. and P. Kladstrup "Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times" (New York: William Morrow, 2005), p. 130-136 ISBN 0-06-073792-1.
↑ K. MacNeil The Wine Bible pg 175 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1-56305-434-5
1 2 S. Pitcher "Grower-made Champagnes are an elegant alternative to big-house bubblies" San Francisco Chronicle, December 16, 2004
↑ Oz Clarke "Oz Clarke's New Wine Atlas" pg 71-72 Harcourt Trade, 2002 ISBN 0-15-100913-9

External links

Entire ranking of Champagne villages

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[Oxford_pg_152-153-1] 1 2 J. Robinson (ed) "The Oxford Companion to Wine" Third Edition pg 152-153 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0-19-860990-6

[Stevenson_pg_172-174-2] 1 2 3 T. Stevenson, ed. The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia (4th Edition) pg 172-174 Dorling Kindersley 2005 ISBN 0-7513-3740-4

[Champagne_pg_130-136-3] 1 2 D. and P. Kladstrup "Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times" (New York: William Morrow, 2005), p. 130-136 ISBN 0-06-073792-1.

[MacNeil_pg_175-4] K. MacNeil The Wine Bible pg 175 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1-56305-434-5

[Pitcher-5] 1 2 S. Pitcher "Grower-made Champagnes are an elegant alternative to big-house bubblies" San Francisco Chronicle, December 16, 2004

[6] Oz Clarke "Oz Clarke's New Wine Atlas" pg 71-72 Harcourt Trade, 2002 ISBN 0-15-100913-9

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