Côte des Bar

The Côte des Bar lies right to the south of the Champagne AOC area, south-east of Troyes, and lots of little green valleys are interwoven between the patchwork of vines. The Côte des Bar wine trail begins about 2 hours from Reims and runs from Troyes to Clairvaux Abbey. The vineyard surrounds two large villages, Bar-sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube, hence the name Côte des Bar. Aube is the name of the département, and Côte des Bar is the Champagne wine district within it, some 130km south and slightly east of central Champagne. Decanter's Tim Hall gives the district some 7,900ha of vines, 23% of the Champagne vineyard, while Decanter's Tom Hewson gives 8,000ha, almost a quarter of the Champagne Viticole. The Aube département accounts for 23% of the Champagne area under vine, and 63 of the 319 communes of the grape-growing area lie in the Aube. The main valleys are those of the rivers Seine and Aube, and these river systems split the Aube into the Bar-Sequannais in the west and the smaller Bar-sur-Aubois in the east. Vineyard slopes are often narrower and steeper than the gentler chalky escarpments of the Marne to the north. The Aube belongs to the Jurassic period, formed between 145 million and 200 million years ago, and its soils are mostly Jurassic, or Kimmeridgian, a clay-chalk marl like in Chablis and Sancerre, with the debris of younger and harder Portlandian rocks in some areas. The Kimmeridgian and Portlandian bedrocks go back roughly 70 million years before the Cretaceous chalks of the Marne were laid down. The steeper slopes create a steeper angle of incidence of the sun on the vines, making the Côte des Bar 1˚C warmer than central Champagne, and the Aube is slightly warmer than the Marne, with over 100 more hours of annual sunshine. La Côte des Bar and La Butte de Montgueux are separate regions among the fourteen of the Champagne vineyard. Montgueux, a chalky hill west of Troyes, has Turonian chalk soils, different from those of the Côte des Bar, and is almost exclusively Chardonnay.

• Right to the south of the Champagne AOC area, south-east of Troyes; some 130km south and slightly east of central Champagne
• Some 7,900ha, 23% of the Champagne vineyard, in Tim Hall's Decanter count; 8,000ha, almost a quarter of the Champagne Viticole, in Tom Hewson's
• Mostly Jurassic, or Kimmeridgian, clay-chalk marl like in Chablis and Sancerre, with some Portlandian debris
• Split by river systems into the Bar-Sequannais in the west and the smaller Bar-sur-Aubois in the east; 1˚C warmer than central Champagne

Pinot Noir accounts for 38% of the area under vine in Champagne and is the dominant grape in Montagne de Reims and Côte des Bar, where it makes up 83% of the vines, with a small percentage of Chardonnay and Meunier. The steep valleys can threaten new buds with late spring frost, and this is one reason the Aube is planted to Pinot Noir, which is later budding than Chardonnay. Pinot Noir endows Champagne wines with body, punch and structure, and wines made with it have distinctive aromas of red fruits and flowers (rose, violet). Decanter's Tim Hall writes that producers major on ripe, juicy, red-fruited Pinot Noir and that the clay-limestone (marl) soil blend tends to make rounder, fuller styles of Champagne than the stricter north; Decanter's Tom Hewson finds the wines often rounder and fruitier than those of the north, though they can be surprisingly delicate. Small proportions of the minority varieties Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc (Blanc Vrai) and Pinot Gris (Fromenteau) are grown, and the Côte des Bar has a surprisingly high quota of Pinot Blanc, centred on frost-prone villages in and around Celles-sur-Ource. The bulk of the Aube's Pinot Noir grapes are bought by the big Champagne houses of Reims and Épernay, and the Côte des Bar provides 23% of Champagne's grapes but over half its Pinot Noir. JancisRobinson.com calls Blanc de Noirs, made exclusively from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes, a speciality of the Aube.

• Pinot Noir makes up 83% of the vines, with a small percentage of Chardonnay and Meunier
• Pinot Noir endows Champagne wines with body, punch and structure, with aromas of red fruits and flowers; for Decanter's Tim Hall, the marl soil blend tends to make rounder, fuller styles than the stricter north
• Minority varieties: Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc (Blanc Vrai), Pinot Gris (Fromenteau); Pinot Blanc centred on frost-prone villages in and around Celles-sur-Ource
• 23% of Champagne's grapes but over half its Pinot Noir, the bulk of the Aube's Pinot Noir bought by the big houses of Reims and Épernay

Writing in Decanter in April 2025, Tom Hewson found the Côte des Bar exploding with récoltant-manipulant domaines despite the economic dominance of Champagne's large houses, and wrote that independent and grower domaines dominate in this region. Partial isolation from Reims and Épernay has encouraged growers to make at least sustainable, if not organic and biodynamic, Champagnes. As of 2022, Roses de Jeanne (Cédric Bouchard) at Landreville worked 3ha, nearly all Pinot Noir, with very low yields, no oak and all zero dosage; Vouette & Sorbée (Bertrand Gautherot) at Buxières-sur-Arce was certified biodynamic on 5.5ha, with no dosage; and at Marie Courtin in Polisot, Dominique Moreau was producing certified biodynamic Champagnes from a single lieu-dit, Tremble, with no dosage, no filtration and natural yeasts. In 2022 Drappier, at Urville in the Bar-sur-Aubois area, was the biggest Côte des Bar house, farming 64ha, organic and carbon-neutral, with Champagnes including the deluxe Grande Sendrée lieu-dit. Other producers in 2022 included Olivier Horiot in Les Riceys, with organic and biodynamic certification, and Pierre Gerbais in Celles-sur-Ource, run by Aurélien Gerbais on 18ha that included 4ha of Pinot Blanc. Devaux, in Bar-sur-Seine, is the label of the Union Auboise cooperative, which farmed over 800ha of vines in 2022. Taittinger bought 80ha of vineyards in Loches-sur-Ource.

• Independent and grower domaines dominate, in Tom Hewson's April 2025 Decanter account; partial isolation from Reims and Épernay has encouraged at least sustainable, if not organic and biodynamic, Champagnes
• Roses de Jeanne (Cédric Bouchard), Landreville: 3ha worked in 2022, nearly all Pinot Noir, all zero dosage
• Vouette & Sorbée (Bertrand Gautherot), Buxières-sur-Arce: certified biodynamic on 5.5ha in 2022; Marie Courtin, Polisot: Dominique Moreau, certified biodynamic, single lieu-dit Tremble
• Drappier, Urville: the biggest Côte des Bar house in 2022, farming 64ha, organic, with the Grande Sendrée lieu-dit

An arrêté of 30 July 2024 set the production conditions for the 2023 harvest of the Rosé des Riceys, Coteaux champenois and Champagne appellations. The Rosé des Riceys vineyard lies on the single commune of Les Riceys, and this still wine is made from Pinot Noir grapes from steep, well-exposed slopes, only in sunny years. The wines have been recognised as an appellation of origin since 1947. The appellation yields only about 50,000 bottles a year, against more than 300 million bottles of champagne, and its colours range from light salmon to garance red. Decanter's Tom Hewson calls Rosé des Riceys the deep, still, dry Pinot Noir rosé from the unique group of three villages south of Bar-sur-Seine. Les Riceys is the village with the largest wine-growing surface area anywhere in Champagne, with 866 hectares of vines. Most of the Champagne region's still wines are included in the Coteaux Champenois appellation, which may be white or, in very ripe vintages, lightish red. Champagne's first attempts to demarcate its vineyard area, in 1908, excluded the Côte des Bar entirely, at a time when it was three-quarters planted with Gamay. The Champagne riots came in 1911, and a 1911 ruling restored the Aube's Champagne membership, but only as a second-class (deuxième zone) sub-region. The vignerons of the Côte des Bar fought hard for a revision until its eventual inclusion in the Champagne appellation in 1927: it took a law in 1927 to make the Côte des Bar properly Champagne. The law of 22 July 1927 defined the Champagne viticole, which takes in communes of the former comté de Bar-sur-Seine where the Champagne name had been claimed in one or more harvest declarations from 1919 to 1924. In the 1950s, over 80% of the Aube was planted to Gamay, but by the 1980s this had changed.

Primary sources (Comité Champagne and INAO): https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/a-great-blended-wine/the-champagne-region, https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/a-great-blended-wine/champagne-and-its-grape-varieties, https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/the-champagne-terroir/champagne-and-its-soil, https://www.champagne.fr/en/visit-champagne/the-champagne-region/champagne-wine-trails/cote-des-bar, https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/champagne-and-its-history, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/produit/champagne-21054, https://www.champagne.fr/en/champagne-frequently-asked-questions?nid=608, https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/the-champagne-terroir/champagne-and-its-climate, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/produit/rose-des-riceys-21050, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/produit/coteaux-champenois-blanc-21051. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/premium/regional-profile-champagnes-cote-des-bar-489173/, https://www.decanter.com/premium/cote-des-bar-a-pocket-of-champagne-brimming-with-character-553873/, https://www.jancisrobinson.com/learn/wine-regions/france/champagne. Last verified 2026-10-05