Champagne village profile: Mancy in the Côteaux Sud d’Épernay

Key facts

Located in: Vallée de la Marne: Côteaux Sud d’Épernay
Vineyards and grape varieties: 188.6 hectares (466.0 acres), of which 52% Chardonnay, 42% Pinot Meunier, and 6% Pinot Noir.
Classification: “Autre cru” (88%)

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.

Google Maps view with all the villages in the Côteaux Sud d’Épernay area highlighted. The premier cru village of the area, Pierry, is in yellow and the other villages, including Mancy, are shown in orange.

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

Neighbouring villages

North: Monthelon
Northeast: Cuis, premier cru (part of Côte des Blancs)
Southeast: Grauves, premier cru (part of Côte des Blancs)
Southsouthwest: Moslins
West: Morangis

The church in Mancy. Picture linked from Wikimedia Commons (photo François Collard, 2009).

The village

Mancy is located south of Épernay in a forked valley formed by the two streams Le Darcy and Le Mancy. The actual village is located on the left bank of Le Mancy. The two streams combine in the northern part of the commune where Le Mancy empties into Le Darcy, after arriving there from the Grauves direction.

The Mancy commune covers 357 hectares and has 268 inhabitants (as of 2013), referred to as Mancéens and Mancéennes.

Vineyards

The vineyards in Mancy are spread over the commune, on both banks of Le Darcy and Le Mancy. The vineyards in the western part of the commune are located on slopes on the left bank of Le Mancy, and are continuous with those in Monthelon, Morangis, and Moslins. The vineyards in the central and eastern parts of the commune, between Le Mancy and Le Darcy, as well as a smaller vineyard surface on the right bank of Le Darcy, are continuous with those in Grauves. Due to its location in a forked valley, the direction of the slopes vary, but are mostly southeast in the western part of the commune. Chardonnay is the most common grape variety, but the proportion of Pinot Meunier is only slightly less.

The current vineyard surface in the Mancy commune is 188.6 hectares (466.0 acres). There are 98.2 ha Chardonnay (52.1%), 79.2 ha Pinot Meunier (42%), and 11.2 ha Pinot Noir (5.9%). Numbers from CIVC, as of 2013 In 1997, the vineyard surface was 186 ha. There are 48 vineyard owners (exploitants) in the commune.

Single vineyard sites

Single vineyards in Mancy include Les Hautes Norgeailles and Les Bas Putroux that are used by Laherte Frères in Chavot-Courcourt for their Champagne Les Vignes d’Autrefois.

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. Smaller producers are placed under this heading when no information regarding producer status is available.

• D’Oliveira-Fransoret
• Domi-Moreau et Fils
• Dumez-Bourboin (RC)
• Roger Fransoret, a producer that was early in practicing organic viticulture.
• B. Girardin (RM), formerly Bernard Girardin, a member of Vignerons Indépendants with vineyards in the areas Côteaux Sud d’Épernay and Vitryat with 65% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Pinot Noir. Sandrine Girardin has named the cuvées after musical terms, with Vibrato, a blanc de blancs, at the top.
• Pernet-Lebrun (RM), with the vintage Champagne Cuvée Authentick Millésimé.

Comment: the list may be incomplete.

Cooperatives

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 de Mancy is a cooperative founded in early 1948 in Mancy. The background was that the 1947 vintage (which turned out to be excellent) ripened so early that many growers still were unsure that they would be able to sell their grapes when the time came to start harvesting. Three growers who wished to avoid such uncertainty in the future therefore took the initiative to this cooperative. Since 1994, its headquarters is located on the Avenue de Champagne inside Épernay, but vinification takes place in Mancy and their press houses are in three places (Chapelle-Monthodon, Mancy, and Sézanne). The cooperative has 190 members with a total of 113 hectares, and a high proportion of Chardonnay. The cooperative itself also owns 7.5 ha of vineyards in Saint-Agnan (in the Terroir de Condé area, further to the west in the Vallée de la Marne). The annual production is about 1.2 million bottles. The Champagnes are sold under the brands:
  • Esterlin, representing an annual production of about 400 000 bottles. The top cuvée is called Cuvée Cléo and is produced from 100% Chardonnay, while the Cuvée Cléo rosée “de saignée” is produced from 100% Pinot Meunier.
  • Victor Lejeune
  • And at least earlier D’Alencourt.

Links

• Wikipedia about this village in English, in French.
• (The Mancy commune doesn’t have a website.)
• UMC’s village profile of Mancy.
• Blog post at Champagne09-2012 with pictures from Mancy.
• The Swedish version of this post.

© Tomas Eriksson 2015, last update 2016-03-26