Côte des Blancs

Geography

The Côte des Blancs is a 20-km east-facing escarpment running south from Épernay through the Marne department. It sits directly on the Campanian chalk that gives Champagne its name ("Blancs" refers to the white grape, Chardonnay — and, by echo, to the white chalk itself).

Terroir

Almost the entire vineyard area is planted to Chardonnay. The combination of pure chalk subsoil, cool microclimate and east-facing exposure yields wines of high acidity, marked mineral tension and notable ageing potential. Grand cru status applies to six villages: Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Chouilly and Oiry.

Houses and growers

The Côte des Blancs supplies the Chardonnay backbone of many northern house cuvées — Krug, Taittinger (whose Comtes de Champagne is 100% Côte des Blancs chardonnay) and Louis Roederer among them — and is the heartland of the grower-producer movement. Specialist growers based here include Salon (Le Mesnil-sur-Oger), Pierre Péters, Agrapart, De Sousa and Pascal Doquet.

What to expect

Blanc de blancs from the Côte des Blancs tends to be taut and linear in youth, with green-apple and citrus aromatics; it develops pastry, brioche and honeyed notes with extended lees ageing. Prestige cuvées such as Salon, Taittinger Comtes de Champagne and Louis Roederer Cristal all draw materially on parcels here.