Classification of Champagne vineyards
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Classification of wine
The classification of wine can be done according to various methods including, but not limited to, place of origin or appellation, vinification methods and style, sweetness and vintage, or varietal used. Practices vary in different countries and regions of origin, and many practices have varied...
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. A percentile
Percentile
In statistics, a percentile is the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall. For example, the 20th percentile is the value below which 20 percent of the observations may be found...
system known as the Échelle des Crus ("ladder of growth") acts as a pro-rata
Pro-rata
Pro rata is an adverb or adjective, meaning in proportion. The term is used in many legal and economic contexts. It is sometimes spelled pro-rata, but this is technically a misspelling of the Latin phrase...
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.
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 wineSparkling wine production
There are four main methods of sparkling wine production. The first is simple injection of carbon dioxide , the process used in soft drinks, but this produces big bubbles that dissipate quickly in the glass. The second is the Metodo Italiano – Charmat process, in which the wine undergoes a...
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
History of rail transport in France
The history of rail transport in France dates from the first French railway in 1832 to present-day enterprises such as the AGV.-Beginnings:During the 19th century, railway construction began in France with short mineral lines...
in the mid 19th century opened up easy access to cheaper grapes from the Loire Valley
Loire Valley (wine)
The Loire Valley wine region includes the French wine regions situated along the Loire River from the Muscadet region near the city of Nantes on the Atlantic coast to the region of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé just southeast of the city of Orléans in north central France. In between are the regions of...
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 based requiring that at least 51% of the grapes used to make Champagne needed to come from the Champagne region itself.
With vineyard owners vastly outnumbering the producers, the Champagne houses used this dynamic of excess supply vs limited demand
Supply and demand
Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...
to their advantage. They hired agents, known as commissionaire
Commissionaire
In mainland Europe, a commissionaire is an attendant, messenger or subordinate employed in hotels, whose chief duty is to attend at railway stations, secure customers, take charge of their luggage, carry out the necessary formalities with respect to it and have it sent on to the hotel...
s, 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
Champagne Riots
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...
of 1910 and 1911. To avoid the type of situation which lead 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
Terroir
Terroir comes from the word terre "land". It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties...
differences within the large area of a village.
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 crus villages would receive 100% of the price while Premier crus village 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 aide in determining prices with Grand and Premier crus vineyards receiving considerably more for their grapes than vineyards in villages with ratings below 90%.Grand crus
Marne
Marne is a department in north-eastern France named after the river Marne which flows through the department. The prefecture of Marne is Châlons-en-Champagne...
department. The current Grand crus of Champagne include:
- AmbonnayAmbonnayAmbonnay is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification...
- AvizeAvizeAvize is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
- AyAy, MarneAy is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:...
- Beaumont-sur-VesleBeaumont-sur-VesleBeaumont-sur-Vesle is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification....
- BouzyBouzyBouzy is a commune of the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
- ChouillyChouillyChouilly is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
- CramantCramantCramant is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
- LouvoisLouvois, MarneLouvois is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification...
- Mailly Champagne
- Le Mesnil-sur-OgerLe Mesnil-sur-OgerLe Mesnil-sur-Oger is a commune in the Marne department in the Champagne-Ardenne region in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification. On wine labels its...
- OgerOger, MarneOger is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
- OiryOiryOiry is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
- PuisieulxPuisieulxPuisieulx is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification....
- SillerySillery, MarneSillery is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification...
- Tours-sur-MarneTours-sur-MarneTours-sur-Marne is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Vallée de la Marne subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification....
- VerzenayVerzenayVerzenay is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification....
- VerzyVerzyVerzy is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Champagne:The village's vineyards are located in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne, and are classified as Grand Cru in the Champagne vineyard classification.-See also:...
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 ChandonMoët et Chandon
Moët & Chandon , or Moët, is a French winery and co-owner of the luxury goods company Moët-Hennessy • Louis Vuitton. Moët et Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house. The company holds a Royal Warrant to supply champagne to Elizabeth II...
's Dom Perignon
Dom Pérignon (wine)
Dom Pérignon is a brand of vintage Champagne produced by the Champagne house Moët & Chandon and serves as that house's prestige champagne. It is named after Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover...
or Louis Roederer
Louis Roederer
Louis Roederer is a producer of champagne based in Reims, France. Founded in 1776, it was inherited and renamed by Louis Roederer in 1833, and is noted as the producer of the luxury champagne Cristal.-History:...
's Cristal
Cristal
Cristal is the brand name of a Champagne produced by Louis Roederer. Cristal has a flat-bottomed clear, "crystal" bottle, anti-UV cellophane wrapper, and gold label...
) 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
Champagne Krug
Champagne Krug—a "négociant-manipulateur" with offices in Reims, the main city in Champagne—was one of the famous Champagne houses who formed part of the membership of the Grande Marques. Krug Grande Cuvée is one of the crown jewels in the LVMH wine division, placed alongside the Moët et Chandon's...
's Clos du Mesnil coming from the Grand cru vineyard located near Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Grower Champagne
Grower Champagne
Grower Champagnes are sparkling wines made in the Champagne region of France that are produced by the same estate that owns the vineyards from which the grapes come...
s, 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.