Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche

Key facts

Located in: Vallée de la Marne
Vineyards and grape varieties: 2570.9 hectares (6352.8 acres), of which 77.2% Pinot Meunier, 11.4% Pinot Noir, and 11.3% Chardonnay. (Refers to the old borders with 16 villages.)
Villages and classification: 15 villages, all of them “autre cru”.
Noted for: Pinot Meunier, mostly from north-facing slopes.

Villages in the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche

• Boursault: 253.1 ha (11% Ch / 69% PM / 20% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Courthiézy: 37.2 ha (3% Ch / 80% PM / 17% PN), autre cru (83%) – now counted as part of the area
• Dormans: 346.5 ha (4% Ch / 89% PM / 7% PN), autre cru (83%)
• Festigny: 191.3 ha (7% Ch / 87% PM / 6% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Igny-Comblizy: 16.8 ha (5% Ch / 86% PM / 9% PN), autre cru (83%)
• La Ville-sous-Orbais: 0.4 ha (0% Ch / 100% PM / 0% PN), autre cru (82?%)
• Le Breuil: 140.5 ha (7% Ch / 82% PM / 10% PN), autre cru (83%)
• Leuvrigny: 136.8 ha (9% Ch / 87% PM / 5% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Mardeuil: 194.2 ha (29% Ch / 53% PM / 18% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Mareuil-le-Port: 395.9 ha (14% Ch / 77% PM / 9% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Nesle-le-Repons: 83.9 ha (13% Ch / 78% PM / 9% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Œuilly: 138.9 ha (23% Ch / 50% PM / 27% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Orbais-l’Abbaye: 44.0 ha (2% Ch / 96% PM / 2% PN), autre cru (82%)
• Troissy: 348.6 ha (7% Ch / 85% PM / 9% PN), autre cru (84%)
• Vauciennes: 108.9 ha (23% Ch / 58% PM / 19% PN), autre cru (84%)

Villages formerly part of the area

• Baulne-en-Brie: 101.0 ha (10% Ch / 79% PM / 11% PN), autre cru (80%)
• La Chapelle-Monthodon: 70.1 ha (4% Ch / 89% PM / 7% PN), autre cru (80%)

Maps

Google Maps view with the villages in the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche highlighted. The map is based on the old borders with 16 villages, see below.

Clicking on a village opens a field to the left with a link to the village profile, if there is one.

A neat sketch of the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche where the topography can also be seen. The orange-coloured areas represent the vineyards. The eastern part of the area, closest to Épernay, is not included in this map, but can be seen below. The picture belongs to the Union de Maisons de Champagne, and is linked form their webpage describing the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche.

Map of the area Vallée de la Marne Rive Droite, where also a large part of the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche is included in the lower part of the picture. This is the part that is located south of the Marne river and has its villages indicated in small print. (Some villages located further up tributaries are not included in this map.) This map includes the eastern part that is missing from the map above, the where the villages Boursault, Vauciennes, and Mardeuil are located. The picture belongs to the Union des Maisons de Champagne and is linked from their webpage describing the Vallée de la Marne Rive Droite.

Neighbouring areas

North (opposite side of the Marne): Vallée de la Marne Rive Droite
Northeast (opposite side of the): Grande Vallée de la Marne
East (same side of the Marne): Côteaux Sûd d’Épernay
West (both sides of the Marne): Terroir de Condé and Vallée de la Marne Ouest

Description

Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche (sometimes written “RG”) is one of the 17 areas (“terroirs”) that the Champagne wine region is divided into, at least in the scheme used by the Union de Maisons de Champagne (UMC). These 17 areas are then grouped into four subregions, of which the Vallée de la Marne is one.

Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche is located on the left bank (rive gauche) of the Marne river, and covers the stretch from Dormans in the west to Mardeuil in the east. Since the river flows to the west, Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche is located on the south side of the river, and therefore mostly consist of north-facing slopes. Also villages that are located along short tributaries and side valleys are part of the area. These can be divided into two groups: those that are located around Le Flagot, that empties into Marne at Mareuil-le-Port, and those that are located around Le Surmelin, that empties into Marne at Mézy-Moulins after having passed through several villages in the area Terroir de Condé. The latter group are the more southern villages of the area.

In the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche, there are no grand cru or premier cru villages, so all villages in this area are “autres crus”.

Some time ago (about 2017), but after I started to post the village profiles, the UMC adjusted the borders of Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche to make its western border coincide with the departmental border between Marne och Aisne. The new borders mean there are 15 villages in the area, all in the Marne department. The old borders included 16 villages including La Chapelle-Monthodonand Baulne-en-Brie in the Aisne department, but didn’t include Courthiézy.

Along all of the Vallée de la Marne (with the exception of the Pinot Noir-dominated area Grande Vallée de la Marne), Pinot Meunier dominates clearly. In the villages of the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche, the proportion of Pinot Meunier varies between 50% and 100%.

Vineyards

The current vineyard surface in the Vallée de la Marne Rive Droite (as of 2013 according to CIVC, using the old borders) is 2570.9 ha (6352.8 acres), distributed over 1037 vineyard owners (exploitants) in the 16 villages. There are 1985.2 ha Pinot Meunier (77.2%), 294 ha Pinot Noir (11.4%), and 290.7 ha Chardonnay (11.3%).

Links

• UMC’s new profile of the Vallée de la Marne Rive Gauche.

© Tomas Eriksson 2015-2018, last update 2018-09-09