Champagne: Geography and climate

The region permitted to call its wines ‘champagne’ was strictly defined by law in 1927. It sprawls from Charly-sur-Marne a mere 50 km/30 miles east of Paris along the Vallée de la Marne subregion to the Montagne de Reims subregion and south from Épernay along the Côte des Blancs and its southern extension, the Côte de Sézanne. A separate subregion is the Côte des Bar in the Aube, 112 km south east of Épernay. Over the years, the acreage actually planted has varied widely, dropping to 11,000 ha/27,000 acres during the 1930s. In 2013, the appellation comprised 34,282 ha/84,676 acres of vines—up from the 1993 total of 27,500 ha: 66% in the Marne; 10% in the Aisne; and 23% in the Aube. Only a tenth of the vines are owned by merchants, who can now add to their holdings only under very strict conditions. The remainder is owned by about 15,000 growers (far fewer than there used to be), many of whom own less than a hectare of vines.