About Champagne - The Vines in Champagne

Root-stocks

Taking into account the grounds limestones, the root-stocks must be resistant to chlorosis. The 41B remains the understock more generalized out of Champagne with 80 % of planted surfaces whereas the SO4 and the 3309C respectively account for 11 and 5 % of the vineyard.

Planting rules

Vines are planted densely with the maximum distance between rows fixed at 1.50 m and the distance between vines in the same row at between 0.90 m and 1.50m. The sum of the two must not exceed 2.50 m. In practice the number of vines per hectare is generally between 7,500 and 9,000. Given the closeness of the rows a high clearance or "straddle" tractor is essential.

Vine to wine

In Champagne, as a rule of thumb, the entire yield of one vine is required to make just one bottle. Or in other words it takes one sixth of a the entire yield of a vine to produce one Champagne flute of wine! Think of that next time you raise a glass of this magnificent elixir...