Champagne

Champagne, as a sparkling wine, owes its elegance and undisputed class to its region of origin, Champagne. Over the centuries, this region has been the birthplace of the “Champenoise” production method—which involves secondary fermentation in the bottle—a method that has since spread throughout the world, using both different grape varieties and the very same grapes used in Champagne. However, the class, elegance, and personality of the wines produced in the region of origin remain unmatched to this day. The region known as Champagne is located about 150 kilometers northeast of Paris. It appears that grapevines were present in the area as early as the Tertiary period; however, the winemaking history of Champagne begins with the Roman Empire. It was not until the 17th century, thanks to a series of circumstances stemming from the area’s unique environmental and climatic conditions, that producers began to understand, harness, and control the various stages of production, eventually arriving by the mid-1800s at what we now call “Champagne.”

In practice, Champagne’s vineyards are classified using a system established in 1911 known as the Echelle des Crus (scale of crus), based on the quality of each individual cru and its distance from the commercial heart of Champagne—namely, Reims and Épernay. Essentially, the system classifies the various communes of Champagne according to the commercial value of the grapes grown in each commune, expressed as a percentage.

The three categories are: Grand Cru, Premier Cru, and Cru