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Wine region

Champagne

The most northerly of France's great appellations, Champagne turns chalk soils and a cool climate into piercingly acidic grapes that a second fermentation in bottle turns into sparkling wine. Three varieties dominate: Chardonnay on the Côte des Blancs, Pinot Noir on the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Bar, and Meunier in the Vallée de la Marne.

AOC geographical area (by commune; not a vineyard plot delimitation): INAO, geographical areas of quality and origin labels (October 2026 edition) · Open Licence

Commune boundaries (not the cru's delimited area): IGN, ADMIN EXPRESS COG (2026 edition) · Open Licence

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Grands crus

  • Ambonnay

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Avize

    A grand cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Aÿ

    A grand cru commune of the Vallée de la Marne. Since 2016 Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Bisseuil have formed the commune of Aÿ-Champagne; only Aÿ's land qualifies for “grand cru”, while the other two remain premier cru.

  • Beaumont-sur-Vesle

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Bouzy

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Bouzy also makes a still red wine, sold under the Coteaux Champenois AOC.

  • Chouilly

    A grand cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. It is one of the five communes promoted to grand cru in 1985, which took their number from twelve to seventeen.

  • Cramant

    A grand cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Le Mesnil-sur-Oger

    A grand cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. It is one of the five communes promoted to grand cru in 1985, which took their number from twelve to seventeen.

  • Louvois

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Mailly-Champagne

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Oger

    A grand cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. It is one of the five communes promoted to grand cru in 1985, which took their number from twelve to seventeen.

  • Oiry

    A grand cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. It is one of the five communes promoted to grand cru in 1985, which took their number from twelve to seventeen.

  • Puisieulx

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Sillery

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Tours-sur-Marne

    A grand cru commune counted in the Vallée de la Marne sub-region. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Verzenay

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “grand cru” mention.

  • Verzy

    A grand cru commune of the Montagne de Reims, the sub-region where Pinot Noir dominates. It is one of the five communes promoted to grand cru in 1985, which took their number from twelve to seventeen.

Premiers crus

  • Avenay-Val-d'Or

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Bergères-lès-Vertus

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Bezannes

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Billy-le-Grand

    A premier cru commune at the eastern tip of the Montagne de Reims. With Trépail, Villers-Marmery and Vaudemange, it forms a small area where Chardonnay dominates, while Pinot Noir dominates the rest of the Montagne.

  • Bisseuil

    A premier cru commune of Champagne, part of Aÿ-Champagne since 2016 with Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. Its vineyard remains premier cru, while Aÿ's is grand cru.

  • Chamery

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Champillon

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Chigny-les-Roses

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Coligny

    A premier cru commune, now part of Val-des-Marais; the specification names it “Coligny (Val-des-Marais)”. Its grapes qualify for the “premier cru” mention.

  • Cormontreuil

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Coulommes-la-Montagne

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Cuis

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Cumières

    A premier cru commune of the Vallée de la Marne where Pinot Noir dominates. Like Bouzy, it also makes a still red wine, sold under the Coteaux Champenois AOC.

  • Dizy

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Écueil

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Étréchy

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Grauves

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Hautvillers

    A premier cru commune between the Vallée de la Marne and the Montagne de Reims. Dom Pierre Pérignon was cellarer of its Benedictine abbey from 1668 until his death in 1715; he is buried in the abbey church.

  • Jouy-lès-Reims

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Les Mesneux

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Ludes

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Mareuil-sur-Aÿ

    A premier cru commune of the Vallée de la Marne. Since 2016 it has formed the commune of Aÿ-Champagne with Aÿ and Bisseuil, but its vineyard remains premier cru, while Aÿ's is grand cru.

  • Montbré

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Mutigny

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Pargny-lès-Reims

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Pierry

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Rilly-la-Montagne

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Sacy

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Sermiers

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Taissy

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Tauxières

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Trépail

    A premier cru commune at the eastern tip of the Montagne de Reims. With Billy-le-Grand, Villers-Marmery and Vaudemange, it forms a small area where Chardonnay dominates, while Pinot Noir dominates the rest of the Montagne.

  • Trois-Puits

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Vaudemange

    A premier cru commune at the eastern tip of the Montagne de Reims. With Billy-le-Grand, Trépail and Villers-Marmery, it forms a small area where Chardonnay dominates, while Pinot Noir dominates the rest of the Montagne.

  • Vertus

    A premier cru commune of the Côte des Blancs, the sub-region where Chardonnay dominates. Its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention.

  • Ville-Dommange

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Villeneuve-Renneville

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Villers-Allerand

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Villers-aux-Nœuds

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Villers-Marmery

    A premier cru commune at the eastern tip of the Montagne de Reims. With Billy-le-Grand, Trépail and Vaudemange, it forms a small area where Chardonnay dominates, while Pinot Noir dominates the rest of the Montagne.

  • Voipreux

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

  • Vrigny

    A premier cru commune of Champagne: its grapes qualify for the AOC Champagne's “premier cru” mention. It is one of the 42 premier cru communes in the current specification.

Regional

  • Champagne

    The AOC Champagne covers 319 communes across five départements, 212 of them in the Marne alone, and makes only sparkling white or rosé wines produced by a second fermentation in bottle. Three grape varieties carry it — Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier — most often blended across several years to reproduce a consistent house style rather than a single vintage's character.

The region

Champagne sits at the northern edge of serious French viticulture, and that edge is the key to everything else about it. Reims lies at 49°5 north and Épernay at 49° — past the 50th parallel, quality winegrowing is generally considered an uphill fight, and Champagne makes its stand right on that line. The climate is a genuine hybrid of oceanic and continental influences, with an average annual temperature of just 11°C; winters can dip below -10°C, a real frost hazard for the vines, while summers stay mild rather than hot. Far from a handicap, that coolness is exactly what keeps grape acidity bright through to harvest — the raw material a wine needs before it can survive a second fermentation inside its own bottle.

The subsoil does the rest of the explaining. Ninety million years ago a Cretaceous sea laid down, over some 200 metres of depth, the marine sediment that became chalk, which today makes up 75% of the region's bedrock alongside marl and true limestone. That chalk is remarkably porous, storing 300 to 400 litres of water per cubic metre and releasing it back to the vine roots by capillary action — draining away surface excess while keeping a steady reserve underneath. The result is a mild, constant water stress, never severe, that balances sugar, acidity and aromatic precursors in the ripening grape in a way no deep, fertile soil ever could.

The relief completes the picture. Champagne's slopes formed as the centre of the Paris Basin sank under the weight of accumulating sediment over tens of millions of years, pushing its northern and eastern edges upward; erosion then carved the rolling landscape seen today. The average gradient runs to 12%, with some pitches as steep as 59%, and the great majority of plots face south, southeast or east to catch maximum sunlight while shedding rainwater efficiently. This landscape of hillsides, houses and cellars has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2015.

The AOC Champagne covers 319 communes across five départements, 212 of them in the Marne alone — a boundary drawn with real precision from the early twentieth century onward, a direct response to the fraud that had triggered the growers' revolt of 1911.

The vineyard

Three varieties carry almost the entire crop. Pinot Noir, at 38% of plantings, dominates the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Bar, contributing body, power and structure along with red-fruit and floral notes such as rose and violet. Chardonnay, at 31%, rules the Côte des Blancs, where it finds ideal conditions in outcropping chalk; it brings incisive freshness, floral and citrus notes, sometimes a mineral edge, and real ageing potential. Meunier, also at 31%, prefers the heavier clay soils of the Vallée de la Marne and the region's harsher microclimates, since its late budbreak shields it better from frost; it lends roundness to supple, fruity wines with yellow-fruit character. The rules list five more principal varieties — Arbane, Petit Meslier, Chardonnay Rose, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris — yet together they account for just 0.3% of plantings: more a curiosity than a working reality in the vineyard.

Champagne also carries a village hierarchy that no longer sets grape prices but still shapes both reputation and labels. Known as the échelle des crus, the system was set up in 1911 to defuse tension between merchants and growers over grape prices: every commune was given a percentage, 100% for the best, which fixed the price paid per kilo. A decree of 1 July 1952 formalised the terms that followed — "grand cru" for communes rated 100%, "premier cru" for those rated 90 to 99%. Twelve villages were classed grand cru at the outset; five more — Chouilly, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Oiry and Verzy — joined them in 1985, bringing the total to seventeen, all in the Marne, spread across the Montagne de Reims, the Vallée de la Marne and the Côte des Blancs. Roughly forty further communes carry the premier cru mention. The scale's pricing role faded out in stages from the 1990s, and sources date its end differently. A decree of 22 November 2010 kept the grand cru and premier cru mentions for a list of communes, now with no link at all to grape prices.

House style, more than vintage, is the lens to read Champagne through. The bulk of production is non-vintage, a blend of several years, several varieties and several vineyard sites, engineered to reproduce a recognisable house signature year after year — an exercise that can draw on dozens of reserve wines held back from earlier harvests. That blending decision, more than terroir alone, is what tells one house apart from its neighbour.

The styles

Champagne is white or rosé, always sparkling, made by the traditional method: a second fermentation in bottle, the prise de mousse, lees ageing, riddling, disgorgement and dosage. The specification requires a minimum of fifteen months' ageing after tirage for a non-vintage wine, rising to thirty-six months for a vintage-dated one. A vintage Champagne is made from that year's grapes alone: reserve wines play no part in its blend (the only exceptions are the tirage and dosage liqueurs and authorised winemaking practices). The specification does not restrict it to the best years, but it caps each producer's vintage-dated volume at 80% of that year's wine, so that enough is kept back to build reserve wines.

Two mentions describe the blend by grape colour. Blanc de blancs is made only from white grapes — in practice almost always Chardonnay, which may be joined by Pinot Blanc, Arbane or Petit Meslier — giving taut, lemony wines built to age. Blanc de noirs runs the other way, made entirely from black grapes, Pinot Noir and/or Meunier, pressed off their skins as if for a white wine; the results are fuller-bodied and more structured. Between these two, most cuvées are blends, in proportions that are precisely what makes each house's signature.

Reading a label

Dosage, added at disgorgement as the liqueur d'expédition, fixes the wine's final style in grams of sugar per litre: brut nature (also pas dosé or dosage zéro) under 3 g/L, with no sugar added after the second fermentation; extra brut from 0 to 6 g/L, brut — by far the best-selling category — under 12 g/L, extra dry from 12 to 17 g/L, sec from 17 to 32 g/L, demi-sec from 32 to 50 g/L, and doux above 50 g/L. A vintage-dated wine carries its harvest year on the label; no year at all usually signals a blend of several harvests. Where grand cru or premier cru appears, it points back to the old échelle des crus and guarantees that every grape came from a village carrying that rating.

Sources

  1. Official sourceCahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée « Champagne »— Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO)
  2. Other sourceClassification of Champagne vineyards— Wikipédia (édition anglaise)
  3. Trade bodyChampagne and its soil— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  4. Trade bodyLe dosage — catégories de Champagne— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  5. Reference bookThe Oxford Companion to Wine— Oxford University Press
  6. Trade bodyL'élaboration du Champagne — étape par étape— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  7. Trade bodyChampagne.fr — le site officiel du Champagne— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  8. Trade bodyChampagne and its climate— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  9. Trade bodyChampagne and its topography— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  10. Trade bodyLes cépages en Champagne— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)
  11. Trade bodyChampagne Frequently Asked Questions— Comité Champagne (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, CIVC)