Every Sunday, with an educational edge, I explore specific appellations or sub-regions, taking you along for the ride. If it’s old news, then brush up on some fading facts; if it’s uncharted territory, why not learn something new? If you know something I haven’t mentioned, then feel free to comment and share your experiences. Check out past Sunday posts here.

I’ve been absorbing knowledge on the Champagne region as preparation for impending WSET essays. Champagne is an area that everyone knows exists, but many shy away from getting into the sometimes gritty details. I’ll share a few facts I found worth knowing.

Gadoux mulching reenactment.

-What is this gadoux, you ask? Using some questionable rationale, household garbage from Paris was ground up and spread over the country’s most expensive vineyards between the early 1960s and 1998. The average waste-bin from the 60s obviously contained much more compostable material, but you’d have to wonder what they were thinking decades later while grinding up plastic bags, syringes, and other synthetic material still visible in the vineyards today. A few growers resisted the gadoux, one being the Egly family whose rubbish free vineyards produce one of the most esteemed grower Champagnes – Egly-Ouriet.

- The most planted grape varietal in Champagne is…….. Pinot Meunier at approximately 40%. Pinot Noir makes up 1/3rd and Chardonnay a mere 25%. Not sure I would have guessed correctly.

Hand drawn map from Paul Marcus Wines.

-France’s most northerly vineyard region can be crudely separated into 5 sub regions: Montagne de Reims, south of the city of Reims and just north of the Marne River, is the area most endowed with grand cru villages; Vallée de la Marne follows the Marne River as it runs an east to west stretch – it’s mostly planted to Pinot Meunier and is the area most likely to get hit with frost; Côte des Blancs is the hill across the Marne River from Montagne de Reims where its chalky north and northeastern facing vineyards are almost entirely planted to Chardonnay; the smallest of the 5 is Côte de Sézanne, an extension of the Côte des Blancs to the south, which has thinner soils with more sand interrupting the prized chalk on its less majestic slopes; finally the Côte des Bars (Aube) is quite a bit further southeast and doesn’t really belong to the same geological area, but rather a section of the Kimmeridgian soiled chain linking Sancerre and Chablis. The Côte des Bars is mostly planted to Pinot Noir, but Chardonnay would probably be a better fit.

- There are 17 grand cru villages in the Champagne region making up less than 9% of its production. Owning a vineyard in a grand cru village means that your grapes fetch the highest value (100%) when sold to Coops or Champagne Houses (Négociants). The price is set annually by negotiations and a system called Échelle des Crus (ladder of growth) rates each village on a percent basis. This is what percentage of the set price your grapes are worth. Premier crus range from 90-99% and the remaining villages range from 80-89%. This system is incredibly flawed, as rating an entire village with varying soil and aspects as the same is bullshit.

- I’ve never had wine from Armand de Brignac, but I’m skeptical that I’d enjoy anything coming out of such a hideous bottle.

- “enherbement” is French for letting grass grow between your rows of vines. This does lots of things, but mainly stops the soil from eroding and returns nutrient to the soil when plowed.

Pierre Larmandier from Larmandier-Bernier. Great photo by Cathy Ho.

- Champagne is made up of 15,000 growers, yet the vast majority of them neither make nor sell their wine. Most of them are growing grapes at some of the highest yields in France and, because the majority of Champagne houses buy the grapes sight unseen, there is no incentive for anyone to focus on lower yields or higher quality fruit. When you’re rewarded financially purely based on the volume of grapes you supply, there is little reason for fruit sorting or ripening grapes over the minimum potential alcohol level of 8.5%. If great wine must come from great grapes, then why is Champagne the exception? Bubbles and autolysis?? I believe the increasing trend of small growers (Récoltant-Manipulant) producing their own wines is no fad. Great growers are beginning to realize that their vineyards can express specific terroir, producing an interesting wine with much more character than the non-vintage blend of a large Champagne house.

As always, please feel free to contribute any information, experience or tasting notes that you feel are relevant and check back next Sunday. See past Sunday posts here.