Champagne village profile: Bezannes, a premier cru village in the outskirts of Reims

Key facts

Located in: Montagne & Val de Reims: Vesle et Ardre
Vineyards and grape varieties: 7.0 hectares (17.3 acres), of which 100% Chardonnay.
Classification: Premier cru (90%)

Maps

The map is linked from Wikimedia Commons, and the geographical information originates from OpenStreetMap. The dotted white area corresponds to the vineyards, light yellow is other open terrain, and green indicates forest.

Google Maps view with the villages in the Vesle et Ardre highlighted. The premier cru villages are in yellow and the autre cru villages are in orange. The La Petite Montagne de Reims part is shown within red borders and the Vallée de la Vesle part within green borders.

Clicking on a village opens a field to the left with a link to the village profile.

Neighbouring villages

Northwest: Ormes (across a narrow strip of Les Mesneux and Tinqueux)
West: Les Mesneux (premier cru)
Southwest: Sacy (premier cru)
Southsoutheast: Villers-aux-Nœuds (premier cru)
Northeast: Reims

The TGV station in Bezannes – probably what the commune is most noted for nowadays. Picture linked from Wikimedia Commons (photo Smiley.toerist, 2011).

The village

Bezannes is a suburb on the south side of Reims, located about 5 km southsouthwest from the city centre, and it has more-or-less grown together with the built-up area of Reims. In the commune we find the railroad station of the TGV high-speed train service for the Reims area, the Gare de Champagne-Ardenne TGV. Also the beltway south of Reims runs through the commune.

The Bezannes commune covers 801 hectares and has 1494 inhabitants (as of 2013) referred to as Bezannais and Bezannaises.

The commune also includes some agricultural land located outside the beltway, and that is located just below the northwestern part of the Montagne de Reims slope. The vineyards in the Bezannes commune can therefore be considered part of the ”Petite Montagne de Reims”.

Vineyards

The vineyards in Bezannes are located in the southeastern part of the commune, south of the motorway, on the border to Villers-aux-Nœuds.

On the now defunct échelle des crus, Bezannes was rated 90%, which has made it a premier cru village.

The current vineyard surface in the Bezannes commune is 7.0 hectares (17.3 acres), solely planted to Chardonnay (100%). Numbers from CIVC, as of 2013. There are no vineyard owners (exploitants) in the commune, so the owners of these 7 ha are located in some other commune. In 1997, the vineyard surface was 11 ha. This means that Bezannes is one of very few Champagne communes where the vineyard surface has decreased in recent years. This could possibly be related to the construction of motorways and railroads in recent years.

Champagne producers

Today, there doesn’t seem to be any Champagne producers in Bezannes.

• Chanoir-Fresne, today located in Ville-Dommange, used to have an address in Bezannes.

Links

• Wikipedia about this village in English, in French.
• Website of the Bezannes commune.
• UMC’s new village profile of Bezannes.
• UMC’s village profile of Bezannes. (dead link)
• Vineyard map of Bezannes at weinlagen-info.de.
• The Swedish version of this post.

© Tomas Eriksson 2014-2016, last update 2016-08-06