The weight of the tools in Champagne
The financial weight of the tools is very important in Champagne. The two
main financial components of the Champagne business are:
- The wine growing area (The vineyards)
- The volume of wine stocked
The vineyards:
|
There are today 31 000 hectares planted in the Champagne appellation
area. From the beginning of this century to the 60s, this surface
was constant around 10 to 12 000 hectares.
In 1962, the commercial development of Champagne provide good ground
for plantation of new vineyards. |
| Year |
Number if hectares
in production |
| 1962 |
12 463 hectares |
| 1970 |
17 828 hectares |
| 1980 |
24 057 hectares |
| 1990 |
27 542 hectares |
| 1996 |
30 711 hectares |
The Champagne wine growing area is the 5 largest in France:
| Vineyard |
Size |
| Bordeaux |
113 000 hectares |
| Cognac |
80 800 hectares |
| Rhone valley |
76 000 hectares |
| Languedoc Rousillon |
60 500 hectares |
| Champagne |
30 700 hectares |
| South-West |
28 000 hectares |
| Burgundy |
27 000 hectares |
| Provence |
25 900 hectares |
| Soft Natural Wines |
24 500 hectares |
| Loire valley |
24 500 hectares |
| Beaujolais |
21 000 hectares |
| Nantes Land |
16 000 hectares |
| Alsace |
14 300 hectares |
| Armagnac |
9 000 hectares |
| Jura and Savoie |
2 300 hectares |
In France, the vineyards area has a tendency to decrease for the last
10 years. It is noticed that the trend is inverted for the Champagne area.
It is the same for other countries where planted surfaces increase without
limits thanks to consumer demand. The decrease of French Wine planted
surface is mainly due to lower quality wines. The "Appellation d'Origine
Contrôlée (AOC)" have increased by 20 % (from 388 500 to 463 800 hectares).
The price for an hectare in Champagne can triple (900,000 FF. to 3,200,000
FF. in 1996). The total value of the vineyards in Champagne based on the
average price per hectare of 1,500,000 F is 46.1 billion French Francs.
The volume of wine stocked:
There are stocked volumes in the cellars. In cellars there are at least
1 billion bottles which thanks to the proper storage will be on everybody's
table for the celebrations of the new millennium.
These cellars are indeed very good to the formation of the bubbles and
the wine maturation. These very long cellars of Champagne (some of them
can be many miles long) are digged in the limestone, which has a regulating
effect on the temperature. The temperature is constant between 8 and 12
Celsius degrees. A large part of these cellars were originally digged
to get building material for the cities of the area (Gallo-roman period).
The "cuveries", which all have been rebuild to meet hygiene conditions
and modernity have grown from 0.3 billion litres to 0.5 billion litres
today (667 millions bottles). These volumes are stored in estates, wine
grower groups and by the wine trade as shown below:
| In the cellars of:
|
100's million litres
(millions of bottles) |
| Estates |
1 (133) |
| Winegrowers groups |
1.5 (200) |
| Wine trade |
2.5 (333) |
|
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