Historical grape varieties

The forgotten grape varieties of Champagne. Many people are unaware of the fact that in Champagne and for the production of Champagne seven grape varieties are authorised. These are two black grape varieties and five white grape varieties. For decades now, only the three grape varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier have been cultivated and used for the production of champagne in Champagne. The background to this is the optimisation of yields. Currently, 99.7% of the vineyards in Champagne are planted with these three grape varieties.

A few winegrowers have committed themselves to continuing to cultivate historic Champagne grape varieties and preserve them for posterity. The four almost exclusively historical grape varieties are all white wine grape varieties. They are Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc (Pinot Blanc) and Pinot Gris. The area planted with the four grape varieties is less than 0.3% of the total area under cultivation in Champagne.

Nevertheless, the four white wine grape varieties definitely have their right to exist. The wonderful champagnes that can be created from these almost forgotten grape varieties can be seen in the example of the single-varietal Pinot Blanc champagnes from the Fleury family of winegrowers, with the Fleury Notes Blanches Brut Nature, and from the winegrower Noel Leblond-Lenoir, with the Cuvée Perle de Dizet. Champagne Noel Leblond-Lenoir also produces a single-varietal Arbane champagne, the Cuvée Arbane. As these variants are single-varietal and generally single-vineyard champagnes, it goes without saying that these champagnes are only produced in very good years.

As the grape variety is only grown on a small vineyard, production is limited to a maximum of 600 bottles per year.

Historical grape varieties

The grape variety Arbane is an indigenous grape variety that grows exclusively in Champagne, and here only in the Côte des Bar. Only three winegrowers (as of 2019) produce single-varietal Arbane champagne. But beware, anyone who has had the pleasure of tasting one of these champagnes could fall for it.

 

 

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