Sillery

Location

Sillery lies in the Marne département in the Grand Est region, south-east of Reims. The commune belongs to the city's surrounding area and, since 2013, to the Reims Métropole conurbation. Before that it was a member of the Vesle et Coteaux de la Montagne de Reims community of communes, and that is exactly where it sits in winegrowing terms: on the north-eastern edge of the Montagne de Reims. The A4 motorway and the old RN 44 enclose the village, and Prunay airfield lies on the commune boundary. Sillery railway station, on the Châlons–Reims line, belongs to it too.

Viticulture and climate

Sillery is classified Grand Cru. The Montagne de Reims is traditionally Pinot Noir country, and this area produces champagnes with structure, depth and drive. The vineyard area is modest, though: according to Corine Land Cover from 2018, only 9.5 per cent of the commune's surface is under permanent crops, while 53.3 per cent is arable land. Météo-France describes the climate as modified oceanic. For the nearby station at Mailly-Champagne, the 1991 to 2020 figures give a mean annual temperature of 11.2 °C and annual rainfall of around 755 millimetres. The extremes recorded there were 39.8 °C in July 2019 and minus 20 °C in January 1985.

“The commune belongs to the city's surrounding area and, since 2013, to the Reims Métropole conurbation.

One curiosity is a theory about the name of the English dessert syllabub: it may derive from the wine of Sillery. That is not documented, however.

History

For centuries the Archbishops of Reims were the lords of Sillery's inhabitants. After them the Brûlart family left its mark on the village. Nicolas Brûlart became Marquis de Sillery and in 1598 signed the Treaty of Vervins on behalf of Henri IV. The keep of the old château fell victim to bombardment in the First World War. The village name has been recorded in various spellings since the early 12th century, the oldest being Seleriacum.

Flaschengärung

Water and economy

The Vesle flows through the commune and is crossed by the canal between the Aisne and the Marne on a pont-canal. This canal has linked Reims with the Marne since 1866 and forms part of a waterway running from Strasbourg to Lille. Today Sillery has a river port where a white-water team trains. There is also a sugar factory, which processes many of the beets grown on the surrounding plain.

• Classification: Grand Cru
• Proximity to Reims: reached by bus, train or car
• Twin towns: Sillery in Canada and Adenau in Germany

For wine lovers, Sillery is mainly worth visiting as part of a route through the Grand Cru villages of the Montagne de Reims, for example with a stop in Mailly-Champagne, which is only a few kilometres away.