The place

Champagne

France's northernmost major region, where grapes ripen on a knife-edge over deep beds of pure chalk. The bubbles come from a second fermentation in the bottle, then long ageing in cold chalk cellars. Beyond the big houses, a wave of grower-producers (récoltant-manipulant) now makes site-specific, often organic Champagne — exactly the kind of story worth telling. ~34,000 ha; ~300 million bottles a year.

Grapes Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Meunier