We scored every vine-bearing plot in Champagne on what it stands on and how it sits: chalk, slope, sun, frost. No cru rating, no house name, no price. The map that comes back does not follow the village boundaries.
Each plot carries one score out of 7 for the place itself; the year adds up to 3 more when you name a vintage. Nothing you can buy moves a score: not a cru rating, not a house, not a price.
The échelle des crus rates 17 villages Grand Cru, and the middle Grand Cru plot scores 5.47. Of the 62 unclassified villages with at least 20 vine plots, 9 average above that: Vert-Toulon (5.86), Landreville (5.72), Fontaine-Denis-Nuisy (5.63). Cramant, a Grand Cru, averages 4.94, below 9 of them.
The rating was set for grape prices a century ago. The chalk was set long before that, and it did not read the list.
Cramant runs from 1.84 to 6.43; Chouilly from 3.15 to 6.75. Every plot in a Grand Cru village carries the same 100% rating. The ground under them does not agree.
That is why a bottle gets scored on its plot when we can place it there, and only falls back to the village when we cannot.
Plots standing on Belemnite chalk average 5.59; on the Kimmeridgian marl of the Aube, 5.28; on the later sands and clays that cover the chalk in places, 3.65. The five côtes tell the same story from the other side: the Montgueux and Côte des Bar lead, and the Vallée de la Marne trails.
This is the map the house names sit on top of.
Place is seven-tenths of a wine's score; the year is the last three, because Champagne sits at the cold edge and the year decides. The twelve most recent vintages, 2024 back to 2013.
The score, the ground it stands on, the year, and what else on the shelf stands on better ground for less. Free, no account. Merchants: put it on your list and every guest gets the same answer.
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