Champagne is the northernmost wine-growing region in France, located in the Paris Basin around 140 kilometres east of Paris. It gave the most famous sparkling wine in the world the protected name Champagne. It is not the same as the Champagne-Ardenne region or the historic Champagne region. The heart of the region is Reims, where almost all French rulers were crowned in Notre-Dame Cathedral, while Epernay and Chalons-sur-Marne are important towns. The name Champagne was initially not well received, as the term Champagne (Latin campania = field, open landscape) refers to an infertile soil that only serves as pasture for sheep.
Champagne belongs to the Grand Est region and borders the Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France regions to the west and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to the south. Champagne's main rivers have their source in the mountainous regions on its eastern edge and flow through the region roughly parallel to each other in a wide arc, first more northwards and then more westwards. From north to south, these are the Aisne, Marne, Aube and Seine.
Région délimitée de la Champagne viticole
The "Région délimitée de la Champagne viticole" was first defined in 1908, the boundaries were then changed in 1911 and finally finalised in 1927. It consists of 20 areas, each with a fairly homogeneous soil type or terroir. These are divided into six regions: Côte de Champagne, Côte des Blancs, Côte des Bar, Montagne de Reims, Petit Morin et Grand Morin and Vallée de la Marne.
Champagne Treaty
Articles 274 and 275 of the 1919 Peace Treaty of Versailles were known as the "Champagne Treaty". These prohibited German products from bearing foreign designations of origin, which had been customary until then. This particularly affected champagne and cognac from German production, which from a French perspective were misleadingly named after French regions. Since then, these products have been labelled as sparkling wine and brandy. At the time, this did not apply outside the area covered by the peace treaty, such as Shampanskoye for Crimean sparkling wine.
Vineyards & grape...
