Champagne

Champagne is both a place and the world's benchmark for sparkling wine — a cool, chalk-soiled region about 90 minutes east of Paris, centered on the towns of Reims and Épernay. Only sparkling wine made here, by the traditional method, can legally be called Champagne. Three grapes do the work: Pinot Noir and Meunier, both black, and Chardonnay, grown across five main areas — the Montagne de Reims, the Vallée de la Marne, the Côte des Blancs, the Côte de Sézanne and the Aube.

The region splits between the grandes maisons — the famous houses like Krug, Bollinger and Pol Roger that blend across villages and vintages — and the grower-producers (récoltant-manipulant), small estates making Champagne from their own vines and increasingly sought out for their sense of place. Most houses in Reims and Épernay offer cellar tours through the crayères, the chalk tunnels dug beneath the towns, usually ending in a tasting. Épernay's Avenue de Champagne, lined with maison headquarters, is the obvious base; Reims adds a Gothic cathedral and faster trains from Paris. Harvest runs September into October, but the houses pour year-round.