Sub-region · France
Côte des Bar
Champagne’s southern outpost, closer to Chablis than to Reims, and long treated as the region’s poor relation.
Riper, rounder, more overtly fruity Champagne than the Marne — red apple and stone fruit over a softer acid structure.
About Côte des Bar
The Côte des Bar sits in the Aube, 100 km south-east of Épernay and only 40 km from Chablis. It is geologically part of the same Kimmeridgian formation as Chablis rather than of the Champagne chalk, which is why its inclusion in the appellation was contested.
Growers here rioted in 1911 when the Aube was excluded from the delimited Champagne region, and again when the decision was reversed. The dispute took until 1927 to settle.
It is now the source of roughly a quarter of Champagne’s fruit, overwhelmingly Pinot Noir, and much of it goes into the large houses’ blends. A generation of grower-producers here has been among the most interesting in Champagne over the last twenty years.
Warmer and riper than the north, it has been a clear beneficiary of a changing climate, and its wines have moved from useful blending material to sought-after in their own right.
No authority delimits this name or attaches rules to it. A named division within a wine region that carries no geographical indication of its own. That does not make it less real or less useful — it means nothing legal follows from it, and you will not generally find it on a label as a controlled designation.
Grapes
Wines from here
Soil and geology
- Underlying geology
- Kimmeridgian marl — the same formation as Chablis, not the Champagne chalk
- Soils
- Clay-limestone marl on steep slopes
- Drainage
- Moderate
- Water holding
- Moderate
What it does to the vine. Kimmeridgian marl rather than chalk, and warmer than the Marne by a degree or so. Fruit ripens more fully, which gives riper base wines and a rounder finished Champagne.
WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Côte des Blancs — A single east-facing chalk slope south of Épernay, planted almost entirely to Chardonnay, and the source of Champagne’s longest-lived wines.
- Chablis — Chardonnay grown far enough north, and usually without oak, to taste like nothing else the variety does anywhere.
Approximate centroid: 48.10°, 4.50°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) — INAO, France
- Comité Champagne — Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne