Champagne- The Basics: Part Two

Where & How did it all start?

Champagne, as a wine producing region, has steadily evolved over the past 325 years to become a global powerhouse in the world of sparkling wines. This may only be a relatively short chapter in wine’s 8,000-odd year history, but it’s certainly one of the most illustrious.

The foundation of the industry’s success was built on a three-way interrelationship between the vignerons (grape growers), the engineers (who invented the tools and machinery to assist the grower/producers) and the French banks (who financed them both). This ‘sacred trinity’ is no less relevant today than it was when Dom Pérignon first discovered bubbles in his batch of still wines in 1697, giving birth to this legendary tipple.

The Champagne Houses & Grande Marques

A Champagne house is a business that buys the majority of its grapes from vignerons under long-term contracts, topping up with their own-grown fruit and then vinifying them into champagne under their own brands (marques).

Out of a total of 320 houses across the region, the largest of these, some 76, are united together in a powerful group known as the UMC (Union des Maisons de Champagne). Collectively they represent around two-thirds of the total region’s sales and over 90% of exports to around 200 countries.

The UMC is further whittled down to the 24 largest and most prestigious marques known simply as Les Grandes Marques and includes all the famous brand names that you can probably guess…Bollinger, Krug, Moët & Chandon, Louis Roederer and so on.

The houses collectively help to uphold Champagne’s global popularity through their consistent quality and strong brand identity.

The Vignerons

In basic terms, these are the grape farmers. There are around 16,000 of them in total, collectively owning around 90% of Champagne’s vineyards. Many of them supply the houses, some supply their local co-operatives and around 3,200 make their own small-scale range of grower champagnes. A small but growing proportion of these are more interested in sustainability and expressing individual terroir in their wines rather than focusing on blending in the traditional manner.

You can see how fundamental these guys are to the industry as a whole, essentially without them the houses wouldn’t have become as large and as successful as they are. So, after the major phylloxera scare of the late 19^th century, which almost ruined the livelihoods of all the growers, the houses supported the formation of a syndicate to help to protect them and offer business advice and support.

In response to the evolving trend of some growers wanting to make their own Champagnes, the syndicate, or SGV (Syndicat Général des Vignerons de la Champagne), launched an umbrella brand in 2001 called simply ‘Champagnes de Vignerons’, which has been proudly shown on their labels ever since, to help consumers to identify them.

Decoding the abbreviations on Champagne labels

In order to help us figure out exactly what we’re buying, the regional governing body (Comité Champagne or CIVC as it’s also known) created categories according to the type of business or individuals who made the wine. This is where the two-letter abbreviation followed by a series of numbers in small print comes in. Ignore the numbers as these are for the authorities and producers only.

Normally found at the bottom of the front or back label of any bottle of Champagne, the abbreviations are…

CM Coopérative-Manipulant – these are co-operative bottled Champagnes as supplied by any number of grape growers.

MA Marque d’Acheteur – an own-label brand owned by the purchaser like a supermarket, wine merchant or even a restaurant chain.

ND Négociant Distributeur – a company that markets and sells Champagne made by a separate business.

NM Négociant-Manipulant – all of the large famous houses sit in this category. This represents everyone who buys in grapes from many individual growers and makes Champagne under their own brand.

RC Récoltant-Coopérateur – this is a grower who uses a Coopérative-Manipulant to make the wine for their own label, without having any involvement in the specific winemaking.

RM Récoltant-Manipulant – these are the small grower champagnes. Essentially, they grow their own grapes to make their own champagnes in their own winery.

SR Sociéte des Récoltants – indicates a group of growers that use one common winery but make their own individual wines using their own fruit under their own labels.

So the next time you serve a bottle of champagne in your bar or restaurant, feel free to impress your customers with some of your new-found knowledge or just tell them their bottle has around 49 million bubbles in it and watch their eyes glaze over!