Hautvillers

What it is

Hautvillers is a village in the Vallée de la Marne, about 22 kilometres from Reims on the northern hillside above Épernay. Premier Cru in the échelle des crus (93 percent), 284 hectares of vineyard distributed across 140 growers. Grape split: 44.9 percent Pinot Noir, 32.8 percent Pinot Meunier, 22.2 percent Chardonnay.

Most tourists know it as “the birthplace of Champagne”, a marketing label from Moët & Chandon. The reality is more interesting and more nuanced.

The abbey of Saint-Pierre

Around 650, Saint Nivard, bishop of Reims, founded a Benedictine abbey here. According to legend he chose the spot after a vision of a white dove. The abbey remained active for eleven centuries and flourished particularly as a cultural centre: the Carolingian Ebbo Gospels and possibly the Utrecht Psalter were produced here.

In 841 relics of Saint Helena (mother of Constantine the Great) were brought from Rome to Hautvillers. The village became a pilgrimage stop on a branch of the Compostela route until 1819.

Dom Pérignon

Pierre Pérignon (1638-1715) became procurator of the abbey in 1668. For forty-five years he managed the vineyards and cellars. What he didn’t do: invent the bubbles in Champagne. What he did do:

• Systematic assemblage: blending grapes across plots for balance
• Insight into which grape suits which soil (advocate for Pinot Noir in this northern climate)
• Blending across vintages for consistency
• Refining glass quality and cork use to limit explosions

Ironically he was trying to avoid the bubbles. For him and his contemporaries they were a production fault that made bottles explode. The myth that he called out “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars” is a nineteenth-century invention by Moët.

Pérignon is buried in the abbey church, under a plain black flagstone to the left of the altar. The visit is free.

Moët & Chandon

In 1823 Pierre Gabriel Chandon (son-in-law of Jean-Rémy Moët) bought the abbey and land after the revolutionary confiscation. The prestige cuvée Dom Pérignon was launched by Moët in 1936; the man himself had been dead for over two hundred years by then. Today Moët & Chandon still owns a large share of the Hautvillers vineyards and operates the abbey as a tourist centre.

Other producers

• J.M. Gobillard & Fils: mid-sized grower-producer
• G. Tribaut: family, ~12 hectares
• Champagne Fernand Lemaire: four-generation family, organic
• Leclerc Briant: biodynamic pioneer since the late 1950s, today Demeter-certified
• Coopérative Les Vignerons d’Hautvillers (since 1931): 168 members

For visitors

The village itself is small and picturesque, with wrought-iron signs on nearly every door showing the resident’s trade (often grape clusters, flutes, bubbles). The tourist office is at Place de la République.