Champagne Grand Cru: the 17 villages, and what the label means

The short answer: “Grand Cru” on a bottle of Champagne means all the grapes came from one or more of 17 villages with the highest rating on Champagne's old village scale. “Premier Cru” means the grapes came from the 42 Premier Cru villages (or from Grand Cru villages, which may use either term). Champagne rates whole villages, not individual vineyards as Burgundy does.

Where the ranking came from

Champagne has 319 wine villages, called crus. For most of the 20th century each one had a percentage on a scale, the échelle des crus, first set in 1911 after talks between growers and houses. The rating set the price paid for its grapes: a village rated 95% received 95% of the basic price.

• 1952: a decree reserved Grand Cru for villages rated 100% and Premier Cru for villages rated 90% and above.
• 2010: the INAO, France's appellation authority, scrapped the scale. The villages kept their Grand Cru and Premier Cru names, and they are written into the Champagne rules today.

Older books still talk about percentages and about “autres crus” rated 80 to 89%. They are history now: what remains are the two lists below.

The 17 Grand Cru villages

The pattern to remember: the Grand Crus of the Montagne de Reims and Aÿ are Pinot Noir villages; the six of the Côte des Blancs are Chardonnay villages. All 17 are in the Marne département.

The 42 Premier Cru villages

Avenay-Val-d'Or, Bergères-lès-Vertus, Bezannes, Billy-le-Grand, Bisseuil, Chamery, Champillon, Chigny-lès-Roses, Coligny (Val-des-Marais), Cormontreuil, Coulommes-la-Montagne, Cuis, Cumières, Dizy, Écueil, Étréchy, Grauves, Hautvillers, Jouy-lès-Reims, Ludes, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Les Mesneux, Montbré, Mutigny, Pargny-lès-Reims, Pierry, Rilly-la-Montagne, Sacy, Sermiers, Taissy, Tauxières, Trépail, Trois-Puits, Vaudemanges, Vertus, Villedommange, Villeneuve-Renneville, Villers-Allerand, Villers-aux-Nœuds, Villers-Marmery, Voipreux and Vrigny.

Some famous wines come from Premier Cru villages. Hautvillers is where Dom Pérignon worked at the abbey, and Philipponnat's Clos des Goisses grows in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.

What Grand Cru means in the glass

• It tells you origin, not style. A Grand Cru Champagne can be brut or extra brut, white or rosé, vintage or not.
• It hints at the grape. A Grand Cru blanc de blancs is almost certainly from the Côte des Blancs: Chardonnay, citrus, chalky tension. A blanc de noirs from Aÿ, Bouzy or Ambonnay leans to Pinot Noir: red fruit, body, power.
• It is not a guarantee of greatness. Most great Champagne is a blend across many villages, and many famous blends don't say Grand Cru on the label at all, even when Grand Cru grapes are in them.
• It matters most for growers. A grower with vines in one Grand Cru village can bottle a true portrait of that place. That is where the term is most useful when you choose.

How to use it with a guest

Don't sell Grand Cru as a badge. Sell it as a place. “This is all Chardonnay from Le Mesnil, a village on chalk: expect lemon, white flowers and a long, salty finish.” That gives the guest something to taste, not just something to pay for. Sell the feeling, not the score.

Studying for an exam? The Court expects Grand Cru villages and locations at Advanced level and every Grand and Premier Cru at Master level: see learning Champagne at every level. And to read the rest of the label, see Champagne label codes.

Questions people ask