Côte des Bar

The Côte des Bar lies roughly 130 kilometres southeast of Épernay, in the département of the Aube, and geologically it has more in common with Burgundy than with the rest of Champagne. The bedrock here is Kimmeridgian limestone, the same calcareous marl that underpins the Chablis vineyards just to the south, and the climate is warmer and drier than the Marne, with a longer growing season and earlier ripening. Pinot Noir overwhelmingly dominates the plantings, and on these soils and at this latitude it produces ripe, fleshy wines with a different temperament from the leaner, high-acid Pinot of the Montagne de Reims. For decades the Aube fought for the right to call its wines Champagne. When the appellation borders were drawn in 1908 the area was excluded, and the resulting protests, sometimes called the Aube revolts, ran for years before the appellation was extended to include it in 1927. The wound never quite healed, and the Côte des Bar remained in the commercial shadow of the Marne for most of the 20th century. The current generation has changed that, with a wave of grower estates building reputations for single-vineyard, often biodynamic wines that have made the area one of the most closely watched in Champagne.