Champagne village profile: Sainte-Gemme on the right bank of the Marne valley

Key facts

Located in: Vallée de la Marne: Vallée de la Marne Rive Droite
Vineyards and grape varieties: 64.5 hectares (159.4 acres), of which 92.4% Pinot Meunier, 4.6% Pinot Noir, and 3% Chardonnay.
Classification: “Autre cru” (84%)
Noted for: an often used source of Pinot Meunier for Krug.

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, orange is built-up areas, and green indicates forest. The dashed red line in the left-hand part of the map is the departmental border between Marne (where Saint-Gemme is located) and Aisne.

Google Maps view with the villages in the Vallée de la Marne Rive Droite highlighted.

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

Neighbouring villages

South: Passy-Grigny
Southwest: Champvoisy

The village

Sainte-Gemme is located on the right bank of the Marne river, which means north of the river, but not directly at the Marne. The A4 motorway between Paris and Reims runs through the northern part of the commune.

The Sainte-Gemme commune covers 725 hectares and has 144 inhabitants (as of 2014), referred to as Saint-Gemmois and Saint-Gemmoises.

Vineyards

The vineyards in Sainte-Gemme are located around the village and to its south, and are continuous with those in Passy-Grigny. The vineyards consist of mild slopes, including south-facing slopes, and are completely dominated by Pinot Meunier.

The current vineyard surface in the Sainte-Gemme commune is 64.5 hectares (159.4 acres). There are 59.6 ha Pinot Meunier (92.4%), 3 ha Pinot Noir (4.6%), and 1.9 ha Chardonnay (3%). Numbers from CIVC, as of 2013. In 1997, the vineyard surface was 50 ha. There are 29 vineyard owners (exploitants) in the commune.

Krug uses about 15%-25% Pinot Meunier in their non-vintage/multivintage Grande Cuvée, in Krug Rosé, as well as in Krug Vintage. This house often sources some of its Pinot Meunier from Sainte-Gemme, almost always together with Villevenard in the Val du Petit Morin, and sometimes from some other villages such as Courmas in the Vesle et Ardre and Leuvrigny on the left bank of Marne. The vineyards in Sainte-Gemme that are used by Krug are south-facing slopes on clay soils, that often do particularly well in hot vintages. Veuve Clicquot also frequently uses grapes from Saint-Gemme.

Champagne producers

Champagne growers

Producer status is indicated where known: RM = récoltant-manipulant, or grower-producers. RC = récoltant-coopérateur, growers that are cooperative members but sell Champagnes under their own name.

• Petit Père & Fils (RC), has about 4 ha of vineyards. The range includes a vintage Champagne composed of 50% Chardonnay, 38% Pinot Noir, and 12% Pinot Meunier (refers to 2008). The Champagnes are also sold under the name Alain Petit.
• Serge Porot (RM)
• Jérôme Robert (RC), has vineyards in Sainte-Gemme and Passy-Grigny. The range includes a vintage Champagne named Cuvée Coup de Foudre.

Comment: the list is probably not complete.

Cooperative

When bottles are sold directly by a cooperative the producer status is given as CM = coopérative de manipulation, as opposed to RC when sold by a cooperative member under their own name.

• Coopérative Vinicole l’Union is a cooperative in Sainte-Gemme. It is also called Coopérative Vinicole Vignon.

Links

• Wikipedia about this village in English, in French.
• (The Sainte-Gemme commune doesn’t have a website.)
• UMC’s village profile of Sainte-Gemme.
• The Swedish version of this post.

© Tomas Eriksson 2015-2017, last update 2017-07-22