How to buy champagne at the right price

To find the best champagne at the right price, weneed to look at the elements that make up the cost of champagne: origin, requirements, know-how and winemaking choices.

The value of Champagne vineyards stands out from other French vineyards. Indeed, the price of 1 hectare of vines in Champagne is 10 to 20 times higher than in the Loire, for example. This is due to the quality of the terroir, the complexity of working the vines in France's most northerly wine-growing region, and the very low volume of transactions.

The price of Champagne also takes into account the specific features of the appellation's specifications.Harvesting is exclusively manual. Yields are capped.

Thereare many requirements in terms of viticulture and vinification.
Add to this the know-how and choices made:

- prolonged ageing to develop aromas,
- barrel ageing for complexity, or amphora ageing for finesse and neutrality,
- selection of an outstanding plot,
- vintage from a year of excellence,
- choice of a more or less restrictive environmental approach,
- low dosage with the addition of champagne.

While all these factors play a part in the price, they are also a guarantee of quality, as long as communication and distribution costs are kept under control.

It may therefore be wise to opt for short-distance products, whose marketing and promotion costs are not a burden on the champagne-lover's budget.

Price per hectare

The average price of a hectare of vines in Champagne in 2021 is expected to exceed one million euros (*), with wide regional disparities. Prices in the Côte des Blancs vineyards continue to rise. They reach nearly 1.7 million Euros per hectare, compared with 900,000 Euros on the Côte des Bar.

As an indication, the average price per hectare of vines in the French wine-growing regions A.O.P. is 150,000 Euros in 2021.